Sample

 

Quiet.

 

 

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Chapter 1.1: They’re listening.

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So please…

Shhh.

You really think we haven’t tried that? Screaming for help?

No one’s coming.

But if you keep screaming, they will.

There were others like you at first.

Loud and curious.

Ignorant.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was grateful when the screaming stopped. I could feel my humanity slipping away with each shrill whimper I forced myself to ignore.

But I think it was when those cries for help devolved into pitiable pleas and the quiet took hold that something within me cracked.

Silence is a horrible thing.

You know what I'm talking about, don't you? 

That terrible stillness, the pause when someone has given up. 

That grim reality that, even if rescue came, it would no longer matter.

The hollow, bittersweet acceptance that settles in when it's too late for a miracle.

Better to just shut your eyes. Or pray, if you’re one of those.

Don't misunderstand; He’s not gonna answer.

He doesn’t exist.

But they will.

There's no use in hiding. They'll find you.
If you run, they'll catch you.
But if you close your eyes real tight, and stay very quiet, you might, might, hold on to some sliver of sanity before you go.

Sorry if that sounds grim. I ran out of hope a long time ago.

But it’s funny, isn't it?
Here I am, worrying about your sanity when mine was lost so long ago.

You're lucky. Or maybe not, considering how much you still have left to lose.

And yet, you’re still screaming, even though you sit here with me in the ash, while these shadows move through the haze around us.

You still haven’t seen them, have you?

Are you sure you want to? There’ll be no coming back once you do.

Fine.

Take a peek.

Right there, by the streetlamp.

Looks wrong, doesn’t it? And there, just below it?

Those are the others, like you, who wouldn’t listen.

Pieces of them anyway.

So when I tell you to keep quiet—shut the fuck up.

Haven’t you felt the air? Tasted it?

Ash and salt.

It cakes the tongue and settles beneath your eyelids until opening them feels like peeling a scab.

When I finally opened my own, I found myself in this very parking lot, head throbbing and matted with blood. The area was covered with a thick, smoky haze, accompanied by a putrid, hot wind.

The restaurant I’d been in earlier, dining with my family?

Gone.

Were you one of the patrons? Waiter perhaps?

Doesn’t matter anymore; we’re all in this shit together—some more literally than others—their bodies fastened lifelessly to the twisted rafters scattered amongst the burning brimstone.

They reminded me of the rotisserie chickens once proudly displayed at the entrance.

Outside, a wasteland lay before me; carnage strewn across the wreckage that was once a vibrant city square.

The luckiest were dead, the less fortunate on their way.

Others toed the line, clinging to life, wandering the barren with grievous wounds.

A man hobbled on a single leg, the other he dragged behind him at an odd angle. A dazed woman tried to wipe her tears, but found it difficult, for her hands lay detached on the ground before her.

Most anyone still walking were in similar broken states, sifting through the rubble to recover nonexistent limbs or loved ones.

There was no sign of my family, but given that just about every person I shambled past was either on fire or mumbling incoherently, that might have been a blessing. At the very least, they weren’t among the sizzle of flesh and mangled bone that surrounded me. 

My dad always bragged about his days as a war pilot, but his stories always skipped the bombs.

He wouldn’t talk about them, but I always noticed his shaking hands.

I now understood why.

My throat was so dry from the heat that each breath felt like thorns scraping my throat. I reached out to steady myself, pausing after spotting something in the distance.

It sauntered low, breaching the dusty fog with a snout tracing the ground.

I thought it was a dog at first, looking for its owner in the rubble.

But it had this unnatural, shuffling gait that caused me to shiver.

It wobbled back and forth on its spindly legs, as if it wasn’t used to using them.

I instinctively held my breath, keeping low to the ground as it approached.

Perhaps my eyes were playing tricks, but I swore it had a tail that wriggled like an eel across the ground.

A soft, cautious “Help” came from the woman nearby who’d lost her hands.

I paused for a brief moment, but because she was nearby and somewhat in my way, I crept in her direction.

She was lying against a concrete pillar, severed hands spread on the ground.

There was far too much blood, but maybe I could bandage the wounds or something—

“Help,” I heard her call again.

I blinked.

Something was wrong; her head was tilted to the side, blood streaming from her mouth where a tongue should be.

Still, “Help,” she cried again.

Impossible.

The light shifted behind the pillar, where a long, black, tentacle of sorts snaked out, coiling around the woman’s severed hand and pulling it back into the darkness.

“Help,” sounded from the darkness once more, but now in a different tone, as a shadowed, grotesque face peeked from the gloom.

The creature gave an eerily human “hee-hee” sort of cackle and stared directly at me.

“Help. Help. Helllll…”

Those eyes were awful, black things that didn’t belong here, and I should have fled, but my legs weren’t working.

Wanted to scream, but I’d forgotten how.

More creatures entered the horrific square. Some resembled the hell beast; others lurched awkwardly through the cloudy ash on two legs. My conscience urged me desperately to move, to reach out and help those around me.

Injured but capable, I could fight—maybe help that family of four nearby who were about to expire.

I really did try, even rose to my feet, but then a sudden, unnatural silence froze me mid-step.

The sky went hopelessly dark. To my surprise, I looked up and found the sun had gone black.

Like an eclipse, but not a natural act; more like something had covered it up.

Intentionally.

And that is the first time I saw Her.

I call it She, but it was really just a single, enormous golden eye that appeared before the sun.

Along with the unnatural dark, Her arrival brought tepid rain that soaked the ash-covered plaza.

The monsters paused, staring upward.

I followed their gaze, but lurched away almost immediately.

The rain stung and bore a familiar taste.

Those who’d escaped the destruction and the monsters turned their hands and their hopes toward the spherical visitor who had halted the onslaught. They begged it to save them. Pleaded with it to spare their families from…whatever was happening around us.

They reminded me of something I read about an officer who’d been a war prisoner—a paradox about foolish people clinging to unrealistic hope.

Hadn’t really grasped its meaning until now.

We wouldn't escape this scenario.

These were the fools.

The monsters were simply the harbingers, but She brought the end.

The nearby family turned away from me, the mother screaming something about her children.

The eye looked down at her, and the monsters set upon them. Each head was held firmly as dark tendrils forced their eyes open, making them stare skyward while the relentless rain dripped and splashed into their faces.

I watched in horror as their skin slowly peeled away, starting at the eye and descending to their feet, until only a glistening, crystalline skeleton remained.

 

The morning was bleak and shadowed, the ground beneath the eye strewn with glittering crystal skeletons that crunched underfoot as wild, cackling monsters celebrated the arrival of their deity.

I’d been in frozen observation for a while, nestled underneath an awning of the ruined restaurant. But a splash from a nearby puddle burned my hand and sent a sudden jolt to my brain.

Looking up, the rain was spreading.

I needed to get away.

I shook myself free of the stupor and turned to flee when I spotted a familiar hand protruding from the rubble nearby.

My heart rose and sank at the same time.

Asha.

I could see her now, body partly obscured by a broken table.

She gave a pained groan, her eyes unfocused slits.

I took a desperate step toward her, but then stopped as a black tendril snaked its way from behind the table.

There, peering at me from beneath the rubble…a demon.

My heart stopped for a beat, then a second beat when I saw Asha’s eyes focus momentarily on me.

She struggled, straining to give me that soft smile she always did.

In my horror, I looked down.

I’d taken a step back.

Can you believe I nearly turned away?

The fiend saw my reluctance, sensed my fear, and opened its grisly maw of teeth.

It croaked, laughing, while Asha smiled, and I stood still.

Then a section of roof shifted, and a gentle shower of rain littered the area.

Move.

If you're looking for bravery, hoping for a hero, you may want a different story; it doesn’t get better from here.

MOVE!

Yet, despite my reluctance, I found myself clutching a solid, broken branch.

Though I couldn’t ignore the cowardice, I used the frustration brought on by those moments of self-loathing to propel me toward the taunting hound.

It gave a dry cackle, then clawed at my chest, sending blood splurting across the rubble.

I ignored the searing pain, allowing the dog to close in before driving the wood through one of its large, oval eyes.

With a shriek that sounded more like a wounded man than a beast, it recoiled, clearing a path.

I quickly took Asha in my arms, limp and unresponsive. Her face was wet, and a smooth white layer of crystals covered part of her body. Her chest rose, just barely, and I clutched her to me as tightly as I could.

The rain was spreading, so I threw her on my back and took off down the avenue where insanity was mounting.

The screaming intensified as I passed a street blackened by intense fighting.

I looked away at the countless husks of soldiers, police, and rescue personnel.

There’d been a lot of heroes in the early hours.

Less of them now.

But before I could react, a long, slender black tail whipped through the air and struck, sending us crashing into the crumbling remains of a little bakery I used to frequent as a kid.

The owners were a kind Syrian couple who always gave us free treats whenever we visited.

Such fond memories caused my heart to break a little when I found myself tossed upon their crumbled remains.

 

My hands shook, and panic overtook me when a hand settled on my shoulder.

I jumped with a yelp, grabbing the owner.

But it was just an old man, holding a finger to his lips and a hand over my mouth.

He tilted his head toward a group of survivors nearby.

A sound. A cackle.

A giant hand burst through the roof, crushing the old man’s skull.

My eyes looked on blankly as a woman screamed.

The group scattered as I stood in the middle of the carnage, wiping a smear of the old man’s blood from my cheek.

The terrorized citizens ran for the exits, only to be torn by monsters or stripped by rain.

I coughed, feeling the change myself, coursing through my body.

My skin tingled.

Wouldn’t be long now, till I joined the bones.

In that moment, with the weight of my fear pressing down, I understood I would die a coward, and, staring at Asha, a failure.

That realization brought fury, and I would like to think it was my screams that, for the briefest of moments, caused Her gaze to falter and, for the first time, acknowledge my existence.

There was something in that vast cosmic eye. Where I expected malice, there was only wonder.

Curiosity, like a storm pausing to examine a single grain of sand. There was something else alongside curiosity that I couldn’t quite place.

Grief?

Her gaze drifted past us to a colossal fracture splitting the earth, lingering there for a moment before resuming its course toward the world below.

Whether it was a sign or not, I chose to throw my faith in it.

After a few shaky breaths, I hoisted Asha over my shoulder and bolted toward the fracture.

We're approaching the finale now, and the city had already begun to surrender to the spreading wave of madness.

People poured from apartment buildings, screaming as they fled down stairwells and fire escapes. Some risked the jump, hurling themselves from windows in a desperate attempt to put distance between themselves and the horrors behind them.

There was no escape.

The monsters fell upon them in sickening sprays of blood and gore.

Countless lives converged in a frantic race toward an unseen finish line as I plunged through the crimson haze, using the slick, salt-and-blood-soaked streets to slide downhill toward the breach as the screams were snuffed out one after another.

I pushed forward, avoiding the rain as best I could, skin on fire until we finally reached the divide.

But it wasn’t some divine gateway.

Not a portal.

Only a sewage entrance.

Using the last of my strength, I shoved Asha through the shattered concrete and crawled in after her, forcing myself to ignore the cries echoing behind us.

Darkness swallowed us whole.

A heavy sulfurous stench, like a tomb sealed for centuries, filled my lungs as I staggered deeper into the cavern. With Asha's limp body draped across my shoulders, I began wading through the thick, clinging filth.

Behind us, the creatures had re-engaged, splashing through the muck, their teeth on my heels and their claws raking through my skin.

I roared, lunging forward with a desperate kick, inching ahead, jaw clenched, with bloody tears blurring my vision.  I stumbled, and we plunged into a desperate shuffle across the murky black lagoon.

Death loomed, either by tearing claws or suffocating muck, as my strength ebbed and my skin tore away.

But a spark of light, a crackle of electricity, and their snarling stopped.

A sudden shift in gravity sent us spiraling upward for what felt like an eternity, drifting somewhere between dream and nightmare.

Darkness wrapped itself around me like a cloak, as if to soothe my mind, frayed at the edges. Terror and pain caused reality to blur moments before everything became one long, shapeless tunnel.

Finally, the sounds disappeared, and all was quiet.

The suffocating, smothering dark would eventually give way to new light, marking the end of my world and the beginning of the new.

 

Chapter 2: “Slave To A Dead Man”