792. Obscurity, 4
(Temee)
Although nothing odd is appearing there, I still look carefully in the direction of the rising sun.
I can’t see anything abnormal. But Glasgow is trembling. She felt something, which she judges more threatening than all the men in arms a few minutes away on the other side.
That thing... The monster is approaching?
I make us leave as fast as I can. I don’t see anything, but I’ll listen to our instincts.
~
A little further away from the village being methodically searched, I discover another side of the landscape I couldn’t see. A little above this ridge, I find the sight opening further toward the path.
And I discover what I feared.
All these armed men didn’t appear out of nowhere before dawn. Not that far away from here in the landscape, a small town is settled. Its walls are high. Its frontiers are well guarded and on high alert.
It’s not just a group pursuing me. It’s an entire defence system that makes me fear the worst.
And the worst, now I begin to see it appearing on the eastern side and horizon.
It’s approaching. I can notice a shade out there now, heading straight toward us surely.
Something monstrous is rolling over the land toward us, and it might be big.
I can already hear it growling my name...
A heated conflict appears unavoidable. Neither of these two forces is very distant from me in between. It won’t take much time for either of us to find me.
I can’t run to the city to take shelter...
I’m caught between two fires, and I’m struggling to figure out my strategy. While I’m pondering about it, the humans are spreading in the village they search meticulously. And at the same time a biological abomination is very likely on its way, rushing and rolling along the slope leading to us.
I must confess I’m afraid... Because both these forces appear too big for me to face on my own.
I must flee... And let them meet each other behind me. To slow each other... To weaken one another while I slip through the net.
I don’t see another choice. I have to slip my way through the line of defence of the city.
So I begin to climb the rocks ahead of me. There’s no trail on this side. It’s not ideal, but hopefully less guarded.
Regularly, I check behind me and below how they all are acting.
I see the humans moving faster. I see the monster the size of an elephant maybe, rushing somewhere between them and me, and then hesitating.
I think that beast has seen me going away, and hesitated about something. The city is finding a monster suddenly in the middle of one of its open roads.
The humans opened fire on it on sight.
I take advantage of the fight starting out there below to climb the ridge and head into the heights, disappearing from their sight.
~
I found a path. On my left, the free land, not watched over. On my right, the road heading toward the city where I don’t have direct sight but from which I hear multiplying shots fired.
On my left, a collapsed road where people are beginning to gather to escape...
On my right, a bloody road opening to the city, where an unstoppable shadow has rushed to as if it was a buffet.
I have a feeling of horror that gets hold of me as I reach these paths. I see people fleeing everywhere around, and I realise quickly a city is currently falling. We hear explosions.
The road to escape toward the mountain pass is getting crowded in front of me and before I could reach it.
Meanwhile the noises coming from the city are not cries of celebration.
I can’t... resigning myself to that. It’s my fault again. I can’t escape that way. Not yet.
Not before giving them back all the time to escape I just robbed them unknowingly.
I can’t live with myself leaving everyone to die...
With terror in my tummy, I head onto the shady road toward the city now bleeding.
~
The bodies were shoved around, even on this indirect path. Some are just knocked out, others dead. Heavy shocks got them. I don’t see much blood along my steps, but I know it will come to be.
The monster is leaving the city behind and galloping toward me by the entrance.
I’m insane...
Glasgow is still on my back, I have no choice. Forgive me, I’ll shake you again.
The monster is already partially on fire as it rushes on me. It is enormous and I barely manage to evade its charge, but I do it.
My blade slashes a flesh that is very soft. I didn’t feel any bone through. It’s huge but it’s a mass that is more gelatinous that muscles or bones.
I can win. I believe so. So I will fight. Not just for us two.
I avoid the appendages larger than me, then get my legs tensed and hold tighter a sword held against the incoming flailing.
The huge lumps of it are shred in their momentum, flooding the street, and me, of smelly fluids.
I cough and wipe my hair, showered by what is closer to swamp water than animal blood. I rise my sword higher again.
A few more strange exchanges are done and the limbs of the beast collapse into other puddles that flow around the pebbles and dirt around me.
A strike poorly evaded sends me heavily to the ground, but I manage to stand and step back before the monster comes with its entire weight over me.
Some men who came out of the city with bottles of fuel and fire are acting. The thing is caught in fire on the surface, but it doesn’t bother it that much. It’s too big and too aqueous inside.
It contracts under the flames, and under my attacks that shred it bit by bit.
The monster retracts itself into a smaller volume even further, into a seemingly heavier mass. Its surface is contracting and solidifying.
That... I know what that is. I turn toward the few others who came to help to scream my warning to them.
That cocoon is enormous. And what will emerge from it...
My axe pierces the shell of it like an egg. The placenta inside is boiling hot as it drips out.
T - I cannot let you do this...
I perforate as I can the fleshes that are rushing to organise themselves inside.
I have to save some humans... At least a few, against things such as you... Otherwise, I will really become crazy... I can’t accept it.
I’m taking risks, again, to save humans.
All this for what?
Out of breath, I’m finding myself alone.
Everyone has left hearing my warning I think. Good.
The meats of the cocoon are rummaging around inside already. It’s so fast. Insane...
A limb with sharp claws is throwing itself toward me. My blade is struck with a hitting sound almost metallic. My hand feels the vibration as if I had struck a metallic pole myself.
- Temee...
That monster there... It’s not like the usual ones. It’s something else entirely.
A transformation impossible to realistically expect, at an unreal speed.
A monster just to kill me...
Fear takes over from guilt, at last.
I burn the emerging thing, and rush toward the city to take shelter in a building.
The last late people escaping, I exhort them while running to take refuge out of the streets.
Somewhere behind, the flames scatter and the shell cracks.
Fleshes far denser hit the ground. The beast that comes out and then rushes has an animal speed, almost symmetrical in its galloping.
Its armed hand crash into the hall where I ran into for refuge. Its body gets blocked into the heavy door frame.
For the moment it’s stuck, I’m playing my axe and amputate the limb far sturdier and hard than the previous gelatinous masses.
The hand rolls on the ground, and takes more time to lose its solidity. And this time, the fluids that scatter and drip are far darker and more sanguine, between blue and purple.
The beast growls, but it’s not over.
I realise that the evacuation of this city is far from over. There are crowds still there, too terrified to get out since the monster attacked. In the shades and from the staircases leading to that building hall where I am, dozens of terrified people are watching, petrified.
Outside, the monster roared and charged the entryway more heavily.
I barely had the time to take cover myself, lest to yell at the other to do the same.
The wall is broken down and the façade of the building collapsed in the street. The beast has gotten through.
As it recovers its balance, I stand up as well and attack, axe in hands.
The blade gets with all its length into the head appendage, but it doesn’t go entirely through.
I struggle to take out my weapon stuck in that rubbery skin and I get shoved away.
The thing coughs, gurgles and still appears wounded. So I go for another attempt in a leap.
I get my feet over the thing and use my leg strength to recover my axe already quite dulled by the fight.
I’m shoved violently again.
I avoid being lacerated by the remaining claws, and get away in a corridor almost crawling out of its reach. Each shock wakes waves of terror inside of me. I feel my doom. My head is numbed and with vertigo. I notice I’m bleeding.
The monster is stepping back. It’s going to charge again... I’m in a corridor.
I urge the others to flee. They spread out on the other side of the building.
The monster charges blindly. Everything collapses. I jumped out of the building barely in time. I come out covered with dust and bits, while a cloud spreads in the streets. I cough as these dusts stick to me and asphyxiate me.
Thankfully, the others aren’t waiting to witness the end of the fight to get away from here.
I continue to cough, cry and spit the dust. The cloud is dissipating, but the rubbles of the building are still twitching.
Of course it’s not dead.
But I begin to step away from there as well, trying to catch back my breath.
The last brave ones around come to throw combustibles and fire over the ruins.
As I see the fire picking up, I hope it will suffice, but I doubt it.
Colourful fumes fly in the air and by the streets around me and the others.
Boiling broth are being felt below the rubbles and the fire.
Me, I hear a heart beating loudly and deep.
And I feel a kind of hatred floating in the air, refusing to scatter.
Something here refuses to die, or to let go. It bleeds anger. It’s mad. I’m scared.
The last inhabitants are leaving. I ought to follow them.
But I still have a very bad feeling regarding this awful monster immobilised there.
At least this time, I’ve won my battle again.
And I helped some people.
I keep coughing some dust away and start leaving.
Behind this city, all the roads should be leading to the paths heading to the other side, just behind.
That should have been the last wall of civilisation before the end.
~
