Chapter 2: |001| – Fight or Flight.

Something was approaching.

 

The sound of earth splitting under pressure, of the end drawing nearer. The echoes contained between those narrow streets are set free, reaching the kid's ears.

But Elgan won't let them. His arms bent together over his head, covering both eyes and ears, his knees stuck to his abdomen in a desperate attempt to appear small and inoffensive in front of danger. Inevitably, the headache grows stronger, Elgan could feel something warm escaping his nose, the unwelcome flavor of iron entered his mouth.

 

['It knows you are there. It is coming.']

 

'No. This can't be possible. This isn't happening.'

'I'm not here. This is a dream. A nightmare. I'll wake up soon. Will I? Leave this sick place? This prank. Yes, it must be a prank. There is no way the city has been destroyed. There is no way all this is happening. It is impossible, the military, the police, firefighters, someone must be coming right? They must be on their way, right?'

 

['No.']

 

Another sound. A different sound.

The beeping of a car sparked hope in Elgan's decaying heart, he lifts his face from the dirt and opened his eyes slightly.

 

...

'Am I saved?'

 

|BOOOM!!!|

 

The beeping was cut off by a flaming explosion. Burning bright just behind a line of dead trees covering the edge of the field. Whatever images filtered through the lifeless branches are enough to lock his muscles completely, Elgan's thought process entered a state of loop, stuck on that sweet frontier between rebuttal and fear.

'Can't move. Can't think.'

 

Apart from the impassive flames, nothing was heard. The rumbling had come to an absolute halt. Nothing moves anymore as Elgan simply stands frozen in place, the flames of engine gas dancing a few hundred yards away from him. Silence had always been supposed to be a synonym for internal peace, yet for Elgan, it was the polar opposite, a hurricane had formed inside his mind disrupting any attempt on achieving control of himself. Seconds dilated in length as time warps around his deliriums. What seems like ages pass without a move on either side, but the tension never disappears, it just laid dormant in his mind.

Once more, Elgan can feel the colossus... That thing. Moving on the periphery of his vision.

 

'Should I ignore it?'

 

['Error.']

 

| Tshh |

 

Clenching his teeth and embodying all his might, Elgan managed to turn his neck slowly. The mass of flesh that occupied the heart of the city remained in its position, dormant, its appendage-like claws penetrated entire buildings, roads of asphalt, and structures of hard concrete alike. Its eyelids seemed to curve as the two made eye contact, the meaning behind its expression is revealed as it opens a giant maw, splitting half of its titanic body open in the process. It was smiling, those two gigantic asymmetric eyes drawing a hint of mockery as it gazes despicably below.

 

"Why is it- smilin-?"

 

He managed to utter a few words before reflexively gulping down. He already had the answer.

 

'It can't- be.'

 

Elgan amassed the courage to turn his vision once more, this time he stares at the nearby road... The orange glow of dancing flames was no longer there, the thin fence that separated boy and nightmare is gone, the dead trees crumbled like fragile paper to the revelation. Its only eye and gaping mouth provided the exact same disgusting expression he had just witnessed a couple of seconds before. Gazing down at him, the giant meatball consumed his fear. Its five sharp legs sank in the dirt as it left the road. It advanced slowly, but its massive size more than made up for it.

 

Elgan didn't run to save his life though. He didn't budge, his body was still frozen in terror, his gaze set on the lifeless ground, waiting for the nightmare to end. The poor kid vehemently refused to face it.

 

"This is not- reality, this- is a nightmare, this is - nightmare, a nightm-re. Nothing- like this could ever- happ-."

 

He couldn't even mutter anymore, tears form in his eyes while he sank his face deeper into the dirt. Denial was the ultimate comfort zone, and its tender, warm arms had already made their way into Elgan's soul.

 

The stomps came to a halt as the shadow of the three-floor tall monster engulfed Elgan's body. Its devilish expression had only grown madder. Its giant legs were raised high in the sky, prepared to crush the petite human to oblivion and put an end to the miserable joke this was.

 

| HiHishHishShishsh Sweeet |

 

The bastard laughs as he enjoys the pitty sight. Unemotional like a guillotine, it rains down upon the kid's neck. The return of that complete and eternal silence at a hair's length from him.

Time slowed down. The bulging and grotesque end of its arm was about to reach Elgan's nape. He looks around him one last time, some part of him hoping to find hope... That hero who makes an unexpected appearance just before disaster, that warrior who will risk his life to save another human from the claws of death. To save the innocent from evil.

At that time, Elgan couldn't find any golden hero.

There was no star, no moon, no light. Just darkness, dead trees, dead silence, a dead world. And that smiling meatball towering in the sky, in Elgan's blue sky. Standing authoritatively, taller than any other building or mountain. Feasting on the joy of his last seconds of suffering.

Truth hurt. It hurt more than anything that happened to Elgan ever. An absolute truth.

 

['No one will save you.']

['You are your only hope.']

 

Darkness fills his vision, with one last impact. Death.

 

...

|Thud|

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That part of him who refused to die no matter what, wired by the most basic self-preservation instincts pushed him out of the way. Rolling on the floor, several times just before the impact took place. Elgan didn't even know it yet, but he was running away, streams coming from his eyes, his face covered in sweat, dirt, and blood, his heart beating faster than ever.

'Can't die this way.'

 

Running far, far away. Further and faster than ever before.

 

"Fuc-!!"

 

His throat resonated with a growling shout as he sprinted at full speed towards the road, just in the direction that thing had come from. His lungs contracted and expanded in rapid fire, exhausting his limited reserves of energy.

With a short burst of speed, Elgan wouldn't arrive very far, he knew that very well.

 

Not being able to hesitate, Elgan glanced back at the creature which remained in place, its monstrous size still towering over him. The grin over its face had been erased and replaced with a penetrating scowl, that of an entitled kid who has been reprimanded for the first time.

That thing was fervently angry.

 

'Faster. I need- to grow distance between us now- that I have the chance.'

 

Elgan's bloodshot eyes scanned the irregular terrain in a flash, falling meant losing distance, and consequential death. Hiding wasn't an option either, if the meatball mother had managed to spot Elgan from several miles away, no place near the city would be safe.

 

"Let's sh- stick to running for now- sh-."

 

As a teenager Elgan had been especially inactive, he had gone to the gym once or twice in the last year. The payoff was his ridiculously low stamina.

 

'My- only option is a car. If I can get- in a car, I can get out of- here.'

 

Signaled by the rumbling intensifying behind him, now adorned by wails and cries in agony. The timer had restarted its countdown. The creature had gone berserk.

 

Continue. Elgan continued his sprint, describing a straight line, the fence of the cemetery had been long broken and each meter of distance covered meant that creature drawing closer, a straight path was the only sane option.

With a small leap, the kid crossed the gaping hole in the fence. Three vehicles were stationed nearby. Three opportunities to test his luck with, only if time allowed. All of them seemed to have left abandoned in a rush, likely leaving the keys inside. At least that was what he liked to think. A white pickup, a grey Wenault, and a truck.

The truck was too slow, big, and unfamiliar, while the pickup was further away than he was confident in surviving.

 

"Wenault."

 

There was no time for opening doors.

Brazing for impact, Elgan closed his eyes, protected his head, and made himself into a ball, entering straight through the car's window, which was far more resistant than he expected it to be. The breaking of glass opened cuts along his head and skin, the hit made him dizzy and forced his energies to leak out rapidly. The urge to sleep, to close his eyes inserted into his brain, but Elgan resisted. He clenched his teeth and sat in the driver's seat. Fainting here wasn't an option.

 

| SHRiiekK!!! |

 

The sounds of hell became stronger, the ground shakes with its footsteps, that thing was already near the fence. Elgan had sub-estimated the monster's speed, he wouldn't have time to switch vehicles.

 

'SHI-T!'

 

Elgan's eyes take their time to look at the contact. Empty.

His racing heart skipped a beat, several beats. Still, Elgan refused to give up after running all the way here, not until the very last second. His eyes scanned the back seats and started pulling out compartments in a rush. His mind took no care of the headache that threatened to split open his skull, instead, it went into full overdrive, managing the possibilities like a stressed student the day before the finals.

 

'Should I keep looking? Where would the driver hide the keys? Did he run away with them? How much time do I have left 10, 8 seconds? Do I leave now and test my luck with the pickup?'

 

'It's no use, they aren't here.'

 

His hand was ready to open the door outside, to bargain with fate, to try something else. He supposed he could be able to run for a couple more minutes at most, maybe that was enough to find help, or a car, or hiding... Elgan glanced outside the window just as he was about to open it, the stench of death lingered on the other side. His instincts screamed at him not to give that step. So he didn't give it.

It was only then that the shaking of the car opened a compartment on the roof, a single pair of keys dropping from it.

 

"Yes!"

 

His hands moved nimbler and faster than ever, plugging them in the correspondent keyhole and starting the engine. The smooth movement of metal gears raged inside the belly of the car in a matter of seconds, Elgan's foot was already pressed against the throttle, forcing the vehicle into a frenzied acceleration away from the meatball's path. A few seconds later one of its legs crushed the pavement he had abandoned a few moments ago.

Elgan looked at the creature's expression and fed off its rage as it hunted after the ever-accelerating car in vain. Its cries intensified to the point the windows on the back broke off. It couldn't reach him anymore.

 

"Ha- sh- hahaha! HAHaha!"

 

The kid started laughing like a madman. The hurricane of emotions, pain, anguish, and the near-death experience had just survived swiped his remaining sanity clean. All sense of fear was lost, the only thing that mattered was that he survived.

That was all Elgan could think about as the vehicle sped further away. The towering, screaming monster merged with the horizon on that A-53 road.

The boy kept looking back at the rearview every once in a while though, a part of him expected it wasn't over yet, that the adrenaline would flood his brain once more. Yet, his feet refused to let go of the throttle. Admiring through that mirror the bright-orange horror that his come had become.

He ignored the ever-vigilant colossus and limited himself to watching the scene without thinking too much of it.

 

It was only when he was too far away from the city that the complete absence of lights transformed that window to the outside into a mirror. Looking at himself had always been a difficult task. Elgan didn't like the way he looked back, this time though, those feelings had vanished. Elgan didn't dislike [him], didn't hate [him], didn't love [him] either. The man that he saw, Elgan couldn't recognize...

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