Chapter 4: Chapter 3: A Storm of Flesh and Bone

It killed them all.

There must’ve been over ten or fifteen of them, each one armed with rifles. And each of them would’ve had more than enough ammunition to kill me a thousand times over, just as they killed the people here, shot them down, like they were nothing more than cattle. And yet, the monstrous mass of flesh and bone, was undeterred by their guns as it lumbered in front of me. The bullets seemed to pierce its form, but none of those bullets came close to harming me. The monster was larger than a car and I was scrawny, even for my age, far smaller than my peers.

They screamed as the flesh tore into them with a ravenous frenzy, tearing them limb from limb. Those that tried to run were caught by its tendrils and dragged into its twisted maws of blood-soaked bones and crimson rivulets. One of them shot himself as the mass broke his bones and tore through his skin, a single bullet through the head with a handgun he’d pulled from his waist. The man died peacefully. But, the others did not share in his fate. Their screams stopped only when the last of them were devoured and assimilated into the flesh, their bodies shredded and ground.

I cared nothing for them. But the suffering they’d endured, before they died, was nothing short of monstrous. No one should have to go through that, not even them.

The monster pulsated and grew larger, before rolling back towards me and stopping just shy of a foot away from me. It didn’t move. It didn’t attack. It just lumbered there, a macabre wall of blended, crushed, and torn bodies, whose bones had formed chitinous plates and jaws and jagged teeth. And yet, it couldn’t and wouldn’t harm me.

Because it would’ve already killed me as well if it wanted to.

A sickening realization wormed its way into my head.

I stood there, frozen. It protected me. It killed them all. Why did it do that? Why would anyone or anything protect me?

I was nothing. I was no one.

Trash

Unwanted

Unloved

I was a street rat, who survived by stealing and looting.

Out there, you are no one. The crimson-eyed woman’s voice echoed in my head. For a moment, I saw her, standing in the healing room, surrounded by the four-armed things, whose faceless faces screamed terror and anguish. Her words tugged at my heart. And I fell to my knees, eyes wide. In here, however, you have a chance to become something more than what you are – something more than human. In here, you can become a god….

A god….

I breathed in and reached outwards, tuning away the distant screams, gunfire, and explosions.

The Academy offered me an escape from the life I have lived, a silver lining that no one else could’ve received. As much as I despised those people, those things, for forcing me to kill an innocent girl for some dumb test, I could not deny the immense opportunity they’d dangled before my eyes. By their own word, hundreds of children, some younger than me, died by their doing; I’d seen those very children with my own eyes, ridden and bloated with diseases and poxes. And yet, as monstrous as they were, I cared little for the lives that were not my own.

I had nothing – no money, no home, and no parents. I was no one and nothing to the world. If I died today, nobody would mourn my passing. Nobody would cry and weep in sorrow untold. I would have no gravestone, no coffin, no tomb; I’d be tossed into a mass grave and forgotten. Maybe, a few prayers would be uttered by some nameless priest, but it would not be for me. I’d just be another corpse, another body to add to the pile of bodies. No one would remember me and treasure the moments they shared with me. No one would look back into the past and dwell on what was. To everyone in the world, I was just another street urchin, destined to fade away and die, like a common animal.

I was nothing and no one.

My right hand touched the grimy, bloody surface of the monster and found it strangely soothing to the touch. It was cold and slimy, but also firm and hard, like moss-covered stones underneath a riverbed. The stench of it was nauseating, like a year-old pile of filth and much and excrement that’d remained damp the whole time and then suddenly brought out into the light. It was repulsive, but also the one thing in this place that probably wasn’t out to kill me, the one thing that’d actively protected me.

“You’re not really going to hurt me, are you?” I asked it; though I expected no real answer as the thing – whatever it was – had no mouth with which to speak. Instead of any verbal cue, its abominable form simply vibrated and pulsated, like a massive heart. And I felt its answer: no, it wouldn’t hurt me. It lived only to serve me and me alone.

I was nothing, but I could be so much more….

“Protect me at all costs,” I gave the simplest command I could think of. And it obeyed, writhing and gurgling as its form shifted. Bony, chitinous plates emerged from the roiling torrent of flesh and blood that made up most of its bulk, creating an armored wall of sorts. I didn’t understand what exactly it was trying to do, but any creature capable of shrugging of bullets and explosives should be more than enough to protect me. “I have to survive for the next two days.”

The flesh monster gurgled and thrummed in affirmation. It would protect me, until its very being was erased from existence.

A distant scream caught my attention. I glanced towards its source and was greeted by a leg that was flying upwards, spraying blood and gore as it spun through the air. “There was another one,” I recalled. It was bigger than this one, too, and was far more… aggressive when it attacked those soldiers. It was still in this place; I felt its presence as it rampaged and killed all in its path.

Somehow, I just knew where it was or, at least, its general location.

Was this the work of magic? There were many things I did not yet understand, things that made very little sense. Magic was just one of those things.

Could I control it as well? There was only one way to find out. A smile graced my lips unbidden. For the first time in my life, I had power; I felt it in my hands, the power to decide my own destiny. I breathed in and frowned, the smell of freedom was marred by smoke, ash, gunpowder, and decay. “Follow me; let’s look for your cousin.”

I decided to walk back the way I came. The fleshy monstrosity rolled with me, its form constantly shifting as it moved; the bony plates, in particular, it used as a sort of shield to cover the parts of me it couldn’t fully protect with its form, attaching them to the edges of tendrils, which it then constantly circled around me. It didn’t hamper my vision and neither did it limit my movements as the monster seemed capable of predicting how and when I’d move and adjust the circle of plates accordingly. The only real problem was the smell, but – really – it was something I could get used to if it meant safety.

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I followed the screams and the gunfire. Something was killing the soldiers and I figured it was probably the first monster. But, I was also not alone here – not the only freak, I knew. The giant, fiery bird thing that arose from a plume of rainbow fires from earlier was definitely magic and I definitely did not cause it. There were others here with me, after all, the other children who’d survived the first trial. One of them must’ve done it.

There were screams all around the city, followed by monstrous roars and other unnatural sounds that no manmade weapons could’ve produced.

Looking back, the first flesh monster thing had emerged when I’d lain underneath all those corpses and panicked. The second one appeared under similar circumstances. A stray thought came unbidden, forcing my eyes to narrow as I considered the implications of it. After all, it was magic, wasn’t it? The whole point of magic was that it didn’t make sense. But the very idea that I had a hand in it was… horrifying and exciting all at once.

Did I create these things?

How? Came the next question; if it was me, then I’d have to have done it unconsciously. The spark of warmth from my belly; I remembered it clearly, spreading and coursing through my body, before bursting outwards. It was still there, but it was weaker, like a flickering candle where it had once been a roaring fire.

I shook my head. I’d find the answer to that question when I found safety.

We continued onwards. Where the ruined ground had once been littered with corpses, it was now emptied, with only shattered bricks, mangled cars, ragged clothes, and weapons to greet us in our passage. A cold wind blew hard over me. I shuddered. The thin, hospital gown thing I had on only barely covered my body, never mind the fact that it was drenched in blood and gore when I hid underneath the bodies of the dead. I breathed in, focusing on the flickering warmth that lingered in my stomach. It was still there, burning and burning against the dread cold.

Finally, I reached the street I’d found myself in after Vaago’s speech.

The desolation seemed clearer, but lesser, with the lack of bodies around me, where they’d once been piled high to form a small, rotting mound of carcasses. It was as though an entire section of the city had simply been abandoned and left to rot. I took a step forward, the ringing of hollow metal things on the ground making my every footstep noisier than it should’ve been. The squelching, gurgling sounds emitted by the flesh monster beside me also did little to aid in my endeavor to remain quiet. The bullet holes on the walls hadn’t disappeared, and the screams of the soldiers as the first flesh monster tore through their ranks echoed in the depths of my mind.

The trail of destruction was easy to follow. Though the flesh monster left no footprints, it did leave a trail of dark blood in its wake, alongside chaotic furrows and ridges that’d been carved into the ground by its rampage. But, more than that, it was much easier to follow the distant screams that echoed through the dark and smoky streets and the constant explosions and gunfire that accompanied them. And then, a bloodcurdling roar echoed across the city; it was so powerful that it made the ground shake and caused several buildings around us to collapse. But then came an unearthly screech to match it, like the choral screams of a thousand weeping banshees, causing the air itself to thrum and vibrate.

What is going on?

I breathed in and rushed forward, the flesh monster easily matching my pace despite its great bulk.

Eventually, I reached a place that might’ve been the city center, after running through the desolate streets, devoid of life and death. I could only describe it as utter chaos as a massive, burning phoenix battled the gigantic form of the first flesh monster, whose bony tendrils and appendages seemed to burn ash each time it truck its opponent; all the while, any damage the phoenix seemed to do was brushed away. But that wasn’t all of it. Soldiers shouted and barked orders at each other, firing their rifles at the battling monsters, while constantly moving from one place to another. Explosives were hurled and massive guns were directed towards the two giants, peppering them with sustained bursts of gunfire so loud I could barely hear everything else that was going on.

My eyes widened.

And then, I turned and walked back the way I came. I’d survived the streets for as long as I did, because I actively avoided these sorts of things. Underground fighters and rebels often fought back against the Japanese, catching them in ambushes or getting caught in ambushes themselves. Rival gangs waged war against each other over territory. Whatever was happening down there did not concern me in the slightest. “Nope; I am not getting involved in this shit.”

Still, I glanced over my shoulder and eyed the flesh monster that’d grown far larger than it had once been and gave it a single command. “Win”

I turned to the much smaller flesh monster beside me. It stood there, my silent guardian. “I should find a way out of this place.”

The sooner I made my way out of this city, the sooner I could start finding out how I was supposed to survive the next two days. Food was going to be a problem, considering I’d already vomited the one meal I’d eaten; water was the bigger problem that needed to be addressed immediately. I’d gone through entire days before, without eating a single morsel, but living through an entire day without water was something I would not wish to relive. Alright, I’ll escape this damn city first and then try and look for water.

I moved several steps forward when a sudden rustling came from underneath a nearby rubble of wood and stone. My flesh monster guardian stirred, bubbling and gurgling as several bony tendrils and spikes emerged from its form. A massive piece of plywood was flipped from below and a child, who was probably about as old as I was, crawled out. It was a girl, wearing nothing but black rags. Her dark and hollow eyes glimmered with a soft, but unnatural yellow. She was shorter than I was and skinnier to boot, which said much. Her dirty blonde hair, which reached her shoulders, barely swayed in the cold breeze, coated in blood and gore as it was, and caked with dirt and grime, much like her skin.

She seemed so utterly tiny, but there was no denying the strange power that radiated around her. Still, she flinched as soon as I took a single step forward. She was scared, but the fear hardly showed in her eyes. She was like me, I realized, so used to fear and terror as to appear immune to it.

“I remember you,” She walked towards me. And I had to mentally restrain the flesh monster from lashing out at her. The girl raised her hand and pointed a finger towards me. Her voice was hoarse and dry. “You were in that place with me and the others… I remember you.”

I did not recognize her, but I could not deny that she did seem somewhat familiar. I’d definitely seen her from a passing glance, at least.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Olga Ulitskaya… I think,” She answered. She was definitely a European. “And you?”

“I’m Uriel Alvarez,” I told her, before sighing and shaking my head. A great explosion rocked our feet. I did not bother looking behind me. Instead, I focused on the girl. She was like me in more ways than one. She had magic in her as well. She didn’t even appear disturbed or shocked by the flesh monster with me. “Come with me; we’ll stand a better chance if we stick together.”

“Okay,” She spoke with a volume that amounted to just barely above a low whisper.

I nodded and grabbed her hand, before taking off into a sprint.

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