04-25-2018, 10:50 PM
Kate couldn't run any faster. Her entire lower body was on autopilot, propelling her through the forest on instinct. She couldn't have slowed down if she tried. Her boots absorbed most of the impact as she sprinted through the forest, slapping over dirt and leaves, but that did little to prevent the pain in her heels and shins. Her lungs burned and her thighs ached with exhaustion. A glance back at the four men behind her, the fear on their faces, and the crashing bushes behind them told her she was far from safe.
Bursting out from the thick underbrush of the forest, a shape moving too fast to define tackled the man in the middle. He screamed, but the shout was instantly cut short as he disappeared into the bushes. Kate felt her heart panic, both with grief and fear. They were here. They had taken Garfield. She was next.
Her footsteps were joined by two new, heavy sets. Flickers of silver and obsidian danced along the edges of her vision and it took all of Kate's strength not to look. She needed to focus. Keep running. Just keep running. Her right hand started to burn more intensely than before, her brain only noticing what had dulled into a distant throbbing now that the monsters were so close. Then she heard another scream, and it sounded exactly like Garfield but… wrong.
Tears welled up in Kate's eyes. She could hear him begging, like listening to him die through a tin can. She knew he was already gone, torn limb from limb by the twisted creatures that hunted her. Still the beasts tortured her, whispering her name with his voice.
Kate. Kate please. Kate save me. HELP ME KATE!
PLEASE GOD HELP ME!
Kate screamed and threw herself to the side to escape the bloodcurdling cries, tumbling into a rough dip in the landscape. The dirt inclined downwards, following the harsh angle of the hill, into a deep ditch. She instantly regretted her rash decision, the uneven ground slamming into her body. Her ribs absorbed as much as they could, pressing into her lungs and knocking the air out of her body. She grunted in pain, the last sound she would be likely to make until she had the chance to inhale again. She rolled down, covering her body with her arms and tucking into a ball. A sharp rock cut her forehead, eliciting a breathless scream that choked out into a gasp as her descent stopped short courtesy of a dead tree. The rough bark tore through her jacket and shirt, shredding her stomach. Everything felt broken, the world distant and lost in a haze of sepia tones and dulled sounds.
The muffled cracks of gunfire sounded off behind her at the top of the incline. Metallic screeches and twisted bellows followed by more screaming accompanied the rapid fire. Kate tried to lift her head to the ridge above. One of the men, Faraday, leaped onto the incline, sliding on his backside all the way down to her. His dingy olive shirt and checkered neckerchief were splattered with dirt and dried blood and his face was a frozen mask of empty fear. Before her made it even halfway down, a blur galloped across Kate’s hazy vision and dragged the man into the darkness, leaving a messy streak of blood and a useless Liberator rifle on the leafy earth. More gunshots from the top of the hill, rapid and panicked, accompanied by Menendez screaming dragged her partially from her stupor. The gunshots cut short, the screaming carrying on for a few more seconds before Gabriel burst over the top of the incline and slid downwards like a surfer. The silence from above signaled Menendez's demise. Focused, Gabe came to a stop beside Kate. He grabbed her arm, yanked the girl to her unsteady feet, and dragged her away from the incline.
"Come on, Kate, we gotta move!" Gabriel pulled her quickly, the girl struggling to find her footing.
Scraping and synthesized snarls reminded Kate that they were not alone in this forest. Her head finally clear enough to somewhat focus, she glanced back to see two creatures at the top of the ridge, staring down with dead expressions on their blank, ebony faces. The third leaped down onto the flat ground level with Kate and Gabriel, slowly bringing its own face around to watch them limp away. She could almost hear it laughing at her. Gabriel yanked Kate around behind a tree, turning her by the shoulders to look at him.
"Katie, you have to go."
"W-what?"
"You have to go. Just keep running, I'll lead them away."
"No... No! Gabe, they'll kill you!"
"They'll have to catch me first." He smirked, the dirt and blood caked over his sun-tanned face cracking. "Now run."
"No! Nononono, I can't!" She fought against his grip, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
"Katie, yes you can. The people out there need you. Go."
His sincerity silenced her. She stared into his deep, brown eyes, a stalwart hope in them. That was the same hope everyone who died for her had, the hope that they would die saving a hero. She wasn't a hero. They were all dying for nothing. She couldn't let Gabriel go, but his face was so sure. He hefted his rifle, making the decision for her, and turned back around the tree. The beast stalked slowly across the leaves in a mocking replication of respect for the pair's last moments together. Kate opened her mouth to beg Gabriel to come with her but he spoke first.
"Run, Katie." He fired off a few shots, the bullets trailing sparks as they deflected off of the obsidian hide of the creature's shoulders.
It screeched, the other two at the top of the ridge jumping down and galloping forward to join their comrade. Gabriel fired again, small bursts to conserve his ammunition, and shuffled to the side to draw its attention. "Come on you son of a bitch!"
Kate took a few steps back, finally realizing that Gabe had no intention of coming with her. The beast roared and refocused on Gabriel. Its mangled voice replicated his like a broken radio. "Son of a BITCH!"
Gabe glanced at Kate, frozen where she stood. He screamed, forcing her to run. She turned and bolted halfway through his shout, more gunshots and alien bellows permeating the air.
"RUN, KATIE! RUN!"
She did, tears flooding her eyes. It shouldn’t have been this way. They shouldn’t have had to die. She should have been the one to die. She didn’t deserve to outlive such loyal people, honest people, good people.
“RUN, KATIE!” The lines repeated, this time tearing her heart in two as the voice buzzed in her head from the blank face of a monster. There was almost a smile in the upturn of the second verse. “RUN!”
Kate ran, and she didn’t look back.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suddenly she was painfully awake. Her brain no longer stuttered over the slightest stimuli, her palm no longer felt like it was dipped in lava, and her lungs no longer burned with exhaustion. The world around Kate was blank and empty. It was a true void, pitch black and directionless. Ahead of her was a single form, almost childlike, and grinning. It glowed alabaster in the emptiness, bringing a feeling of dread with it. Then it spoke, its voice in Kate’s head.
“My name is Omni. This is not the world you know. This is the Omniverse. You interest me, so I have made you part of it. The Omniverse is a place that reflects the wishes of those who are part of it. But! There are rules. I will explain them only once, so listen carefully.”
Kate found it hard to listen through her tears and pounding heart. She could still hear the screams, echoing in her mind, and the figure before her did nothing to ease her primal terror. ‘Omni’s’ hand extended, a rippling orb of most every color imaginable in his hand.
“This is Omnillium. It’s what ties the Omniverse together. Without it, you are nothing. With it, anything you desire can be yours. But you will need more than this. If you desire it enough, you will find it. You will find that it comes naturally. Just think of what you desire most.” His terrifying grin didn’t falter. “You will not be alone in this Omniverse. There are others. Of course, they too desire Omnillium. Do not fear death. For as long as you interest me, you will be reborn.”
Kate tried to speak, but choked on her own emotion. The being did not respond to her pain, instead ending its tirade.
“That’s all you need to know right now. You’ll figure out the rest soon enough. I’ll be watching…” She could have sworn it smiled wider. “And waiting.”
Then it was gone, the grin lingering as it was seared in Kate’s mind. As the blackness faded to an endless sea of white, she felt the familiar crunch of leaves. Dirt pushed up into the creases of her boot soles, the scent of mud wafting into her nose. Kate pushed back her unkempt brown hair, palm scraping away tears, and took it all in.
She was in a cemetery, with archways and ivy and headstones. She glanced around, confused. The dirt, the smell, the breeze; it all made her think of the forests outside the Bellingham camp. Her eyes drifted to the headstones lined up ahead of her.
Garfield MacDonald.
Adam Faraday.
Julio Menendez.
Gabriel Jimenez.
She felt her body react piece by piece. Her throat closed up, her ears burned, and her eyes kickstarted their production of tears. Her heart felt shattered, each piece falling down an infinite pit in her stomach. Pure agony ripped through her soul, ravaging her resolve and weakening her knees. With a whimper, she dropped to a kneeling position, her already filthy jeans soaking in mud and grime. Tears streamed down her grubby cheeks as she sobbed silently.
Dead. Gone. Forever. Because of her. Now this, this Omni was torturing her. He was just like the machines: sadistic and hateful. Monsters. Kate fell forward, digging her fingers into the mud and grabbing handfuls of the cold, wet dirt. Shoulders shivering, she screamed. Her eyes squeezed shut and her stomach clenched from the force of her pain. Her scream bounced off of the tombstones, echoing around her like a chorus of punishment.
Her fault.
Her fault.
Her fault.
It took all of Kate’s will not to just drop and accept death, to curl up in front of the graves of the only people she could still call family and join them in whatever Heaven awaited life after this Hell. With what strength she could muster, Kate pushed up off the dirt and stood up. Her legs were still putty and she found it hard to steady herself. Eventually, still sobbing, she turned away. She had to move. That was her training. Stay mobile, the monsters couldn’t find you that way. They can’t kill you if they can’t catch you. You can’t suffer if you run… right?
So she ran, just like Gabriel had told her to. She ran through the archways, past the headstones with names she remembered too well. She broke out of the ivy and pain, covered in dirt and moss and pain. Blood speckled her jacket, saliva and tears stained her shirt, grime and mud stuck to her body and face like glue.
Kate picked a random direction and kept moving. The empty white expanse lay uncharted before her, something to be lost in. As she ran she lost the energy to cry, her tears drying into salty furrows in the grime on her cheeks. Her vision cleared and caught sight of three dark shapes. They seemed as confused as she was, or at the very least directionless. Her training kicked in, the voices of drill sergeants and watch commanders screaming at her to find cover and gather information. She didn’t listen, much like when she had heard all that for the first time. She tried to ignore the fact that Gabriel’s voice was among them, the only voice telling her to trust her instincts.
The girl couldn’t care less how hellish she looked. Her face was plastered with mud, her hair an absolute mess, her jacket and shirt torn, and dozens of scrapes and bruises adding color to her otherwise monotonous wardrobe. She slowed her sprint into a jog and her jog into a walk. Kate focused on breathing, calming her fears, and approached the group. She tried to speak, but her voice caught in her throat. Thankfully they didn't hear her break, and Kate was able to gather herself for a second attempt.
She managed a deceptively strong and confident tone. “Hey! Anyone mind telling me where we are and what the hell is going on?”
The taller one turned first, a golden mask covering his expression. Kate blanched internally, but she kept her outer facade strong.
“Yeah, I’m talking to you!”
She rolled her shoulders, feeling the weight of a rifle on her back. Kate remembered dropping hers, when the Reavers had first attacked, but she wasn’t complaining as some semblance of confidence filled her chest. Then the other two turned, both girls. One look about Kate’s age, wearing an alabaster hoodie and a determined expression. The other wore a sad expression behind her glasses, seemingly caught just as she had found something to cry about. Kate instantly regretted her forward approach. Her voice softened.
“I just… I don’t know what’s happening…” Her tears had worn out back by the cemetery, but her voice still broke with sorrow. “Please... Help me.”
Bursting out from the thick underbrush of the forest, a shape moving too fast to define tackled the man in the middle. He screamed, but the shout was instantly cut short as he disappeared into the bushes. Kate felt her heart panic, both with grief and fear. They were here. They had taken Garfield. She was next.
Her footsteps were joined by two new, heavy sets. Flickers of silver and obsidian danced along the edges of her vision and it took all of Kate's strength not to look. She needed to focus. Keep running. Just keep running. Her right hand started to burn more intensely than before, her brain only noticing what had dulled into a distant throbbing now that the monsters were so close. Then she heard another scream, and it sounded exactly like Garfield but… wrong.
Tears welled up in Kate's eyes. She could hear him begging, like listening to him die through a tin can. She knew he was already gone, torn limb from limb by the twisted creatures that hunted her. Still the beasts tortured her, whispering her name with his voice.
Kate. Kate please. Kate save me. HELP ME KATE!
PLEASE GOD HELP ME!
Kate screamed and threw herself to the side to escape the bloodcurdling cries, tumbling into a rough dip in the landscape. The dirt inclined downwards, following the harsh angle of the hill, into a deep ditch. She instantly regretted her rash decision, the uneven ground slamming into her body. Her ribs absorbed as much as they could, pressing into her lungs and knocking the air out of her body. She grunted in pain, the last sound she would be likely to make until she had the chance to inhale again. She rolled down, covering her body with her arms and tucking into a ball. A sharp rock cut her forehead, eliciting a breathless scream that choked out into a gasp as her descent stopped short courtesy of a dead tree. The rough bark tore through her jacket and shirt, shredding her stomach. Everything felt broken, the world distant and lost in a haze of sepia tones and dulled sounds.
The muffled cracks of gunfire sounded off behind her at the top of the incline. Metallic screeches and twisted bellows followed by more screaming accompanied the rapid fire. Kate tried to lift her head to the ridge above. One of the men, Faraday, leaped onto the incline, sliding on his backside all the way down to her. His dingy olive shirt and checkered neckerchief were splattered with dirt and dried blood and his face was a frozen mask of empty fear. Before her made it even halfway down, a blur galloped across Kate’s hazy vision and dragged the man into the darkness, leaving a messy streak of blood and a useless Liberator rifle on the leafy earth. More gunshots from the top of the hill, rapid and panicked, accompanied by Menendez screaming dragged her partially from her stupor. The gunshots cut short, the screaming carrying on for a few more seconds before Gabriel burst over the top of the incline and slid downwards like a surfer. The silence from above signaled Menendez's demise. Focused, Gabe came to a stop beside Kate. He grabbed her arm, yanked the girl to her unsteady feet, and dragged her away from the incline.
"Come on, Kate, we gotta move!" Gabriel pulled her quickly, the girl struggling to find her footing.
Scraping and synthesized snarls reminded Kate that they were not alone in this forest. Her head finally clear enough to somewhat focus, she glanced back to see two creatures at the top of the ridge, staring down with dead expressions on their blank, ebony faces. The third leaped down onto the flat ground level with Kate and Gabriel, slowly bringing its own face around to watch them limp away. She could almost hear it laughing at her. Gabriel yanked Kate around behind a tree, turning her by the shoulders to look at him.
"Katie, you have to go."
"W-what?"
"You have to go. Just keep running, I'll lead them away."
"No... No! Gabe, they'll kill you!"
"They'll have to catch me first." He smirked, the dirt and blood caked over his sun-tanned face cracking. "Now run."
"No! Nononono, I can't!" She fought against his grip, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
"Katie, yes you can. The people out there need you. Go."
His sincerity silenced her. She stared into his deep, brown eyes, a stalwart hope in them. That was the same hope everyone who died for her had, the hope that they would die saving a hero. She wasn't a hero. They were all dying for nothing. She couldn't let Gabriel go, but his face was so sure. He hefted his rifle, making the decision for her, and turned back around the tree. The beast stalked slowly across the leaves in a mocking replication of respect for the pair's last moments together. Kate opened her mouth to beg Gabriel to come with her but he spoke first.
"Run, Katie." He fired off a few shots, the bullets trailing sparks as they deflected off of the obsidian hide of the creature's shoulders.
It screeched, the other two at the top of the ridge jumping down and galloping forward to join their comrade. Gabriel fired again, small bursts to conserve his ammunition, and shuffled to the side to draw its attention. "Come on you son of a bitch!"
Kate took a few steps back, finally realizing that Gabe had no intention of coming with her. The beast roared and refocused on Gabriel. Its mangled voice replicated his like a broken radio. "Son of a BITCH!"
Gabe glanced at Kate, frozen where she stood. He screamed, forcing her to run. She turned and bolted halfway through his shout, more gunshots and alien bellows permeating the air.
"RUN, KATIE! RUN!"
She did, tears flooding her eyes. It shouldn’t have been this way. They shouldn’t have had to die. She should have been the one to die. She didn’t deserve to outlive such loyal people, honest people, good people.
“RUN, KATIE!” The lines repeated, this time tearing her heart in two as the voice buzzed in her head from the blank face of a monster. There was almost a smile in the upturn of the second verse. “RUN!”
Kate ran, and she didn’t look back.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suddenly she was painfully awake. Her brain no longer stuttered over the slightest stimuli, her palm no longer felt like it was dipped in lava, and her lungs no longer burned with exhaustion. The world around Kate was blank and empty. It was a true void, pitch black and directionless. Ahead of her was a single form, almost childlike, and grinning. It glowed alabaster in the emptiness, bringing a feeling of dread with it. Then it spoke, its voice in Kate’s head.
“My name is Omni. This is not the world you know. This is the Omniverse. You interest me, so I have made you part of it. The Omniverse is a place that reflects the wishes of those who are part of it. But! There are rules. I will explain them only once, so listen carefully.”
Kate found it hard to listen through her tears and pounding heart. She could still hear the screams, echoing in her mind, and the figure before her did nothing to ease her primal terror. ‘Omni’s’ hand extended, a rippling orb of most every color imaginable in his hand.
“This is Omnillium. It’s what ties the Omniverse together. Without it, you are nothing. With it, anything you desire can be yours. But you will need more than this. If you desire it enough, you will find it. You will find that it comes naturally. Just think of what you desire most.” His terrifying grin didn’t falter. “You will not be alone in this Omniverse. There are others. Of course, they too desire Omnillium. Do not fear death. For as long as you interest me, you will be reborn.”
Kate tried to speak, but choked on her own emotion. The being did not respond to her pain, instead ending its tirade.
“That’s all you need to know right now. You’ll figure out the rest soon enough. I’ll be watching…” She could have sworn it smiled wider. “And waiting.”
Then it was gone, the grin lingering as it was seared in Kate’s mind. As the blackness faded to an endless sea of white, she felt the familiar crunch of leaves. Dirt pushed up into the creases of her boot soles, the scent of mud wafting into her nose. Kate pushed back her unkempt brown hair, palm scraping away tears, and took it all in.
She was in a cemetery, with archways and ivy and headstones. She glanced around, confused. The dirt, the smell, the breeze; it all made her think of the forests outside the Bellingham camp. Her eyes drifted to the headstones lined up ahead of her.
Garfield MacDonald.
Adam Faraday.
Julio Menendez.
Gabriel Jimenez.
She felt her body react piece by piece. Her throat closed up, her ears burned, and her eyes kickstarted their production of tears. Her heart felt shattered, each piece falling down an infinite pit in her stomach. Pure agony ripped through her soul, ravaging her resolve and weakening her knees. With a whimper, she dropped to a kneeling position, her already filthy jeans soaking in mud and grime. Tears streamed down her grubby cheeks as she sobbed silently.
Dead. Gone. Forever. Because of her. Now this, this Omni was torturing her. He was just like the machines: sadistic and hateful. Monsters. Kate fell forward, digging her fingers into the mud and grabbing handfuls of the cold, wet dirt. Shoulders shivering, she screamed. Her eyes squeezed shut and her stomach clenched from the force of her pain. Her scream bounced off of the tombstones, echoing around her like a chorus of punishment.
Her fault.
Her fault.
Her fault.
It took all of Kate’s will not to just drop and accept death, to curl up in front of the graves of the only people she could still call family and join them in whatever Heaven awaited life after this Hell. With what strength she could muster, Kate pushed up off the dirt and stood up. Her legs were still putty and she found it hard to steady herself. Eventually, still sobbing, she turned away. She had to move. That was her training. Stay mobile, the monsters couldn’t find you that way. They can’t kill you if they can’t catch you. You can’t suffer if you run… right?
So she ran, just like Gabriel had told her to. She ran through the archways, past the headstones with names she remembered too well. She broke out of the ivy and pain, covered in dirt and moss and pain. Blood speckled her jacket, saliva and tears stained her shirt, grime and mud stuck to her body and face like glue.
Kate picked a random direction and kept moving. The empty white expanse lay uncharted before her, something to be lost in. As she ran she lost the energy to cry, her tears drying into salty furrows in the grime on her cheeks. Her vision cleared and caught sight of three dark shapes. They seemed as confused as she was, or at the very least directionless. Her training kicked in, the voices of drill sergeants and watch commanders screaming at her to find cover and gather information. She didn’t listen, much like when she had heard all that for the first time. She tried to ignore the fact that Gabriel’s voice was among them, the only voice telling her to trust her instincts.
The girl couldn’t care less how hellish she looked. Her face was plastered with mud, her hair an absolute mess, her jacket and shirt torn, and dozens of scrapes and bruises adding color to her otherwise monotonous wardrobe. She slowed her sprint into a jog and her jog into a walk. Kate focused on breathing, calming her fears, and approached the group. She tried to speak, but her voice caught in her throat. Thankfully they didn't hear her break, and Kate was able to gather herself for a second attempt.
She managed a deceptively strong and confident tone. “Hey! Anyone mind telling me where we are and what the hell is going on?”
The taller one turned first, a golden mask covering his expression. Kate blanched internally, but she kept her outer facade strong.
“Yeah, I’m talking to you!”
She rolled her shoulders, feeling the weight of a rifle on her back. Kate remembered dropping hers, when the Reavers had first attacked, but she wasn’t complaining as some semblance of confidence filled her chest. Then the other two turned, both girls. One look about Kate’s age, wearing an alabaster hoodie and a determined expression. The other wore a sad expression behind her glasses, seemingly caught just as she had found something to cry about. Kate instantly regretted her forward approach. Her voice softened.
“I just… I don’t know what’s happening…” Her tears had worn out back by the cemetery, but her voice still broke with sorrow. “Please... Help me.”