(Viewpoint: Chetan)
The shock never came.
Not as I imagined.
Not brutal.
Not destructive.
Just…
A stop.
Silence.
Total.
I slowly open my eyes again.
The air is… calm.
I find myself lying on my back.
Something soft and prickly beneath me.
Long, strangely shaped green things.
I blink.
The sky is no longer red.
It is… blue, blue like in domes.
A pale blue, almost unreal.
Collapsed structures as far as the eye could see lay dormant in this strange soil.
– …what is…all this…
My voice is hoarse.
Weak.
I sit up abruptly.
– aaay~ haha…
The pain returns.
Everywhere.
My arms. My sides. My head.
But I'm alive?
My hands immediately went to rest on my head.
– I have nothing
I breathed a sigh of relief
– Eugene!
He's here.
– Phew…
He stayed against me.
I run a finger over his thumb…
Inert.
My heart aches.
– No… no…
I shake it slightly.
– Wake up.
Nothing.
Silence.
I started performing CPR on him
Then
A breath.
Weak.
But real.
- …THANKS…
I gently place it back on the ground.
Around us…
This is not the pit I know.
Not hell.
Not survival.
It is…
A forgotten world.
There is no sign of life
Light passes between these things.
Calm.
Almost… peaceful.
I get up slowly.
Look around.
– …unknown area…
Lower than anything we've seen.
I turn back to Eugene.
I crouch down.
He runs a hand over his forehead.
Now hot.
– You're not dead…
A breath.
A noise.
I freeze.
A noise.
One step
Part is
Light.
Behind me.
I turn around suddenly.
Weapon raised
Nothing.
Just the wind in the leaves.
I slightly lower my weapon.
I glance up at the sky.
Then to the ruins.
– They will come.
– They will definitely come looking for us.
Silence.
A distant rumble.
Very weak.
But present.
I turn my head, bend down and lift Eugene up.
He passes it over my shoulder.
The light.
Even the wind.
I look around me.
More carefully.
The ruins are not dead?
I feel my body tense up.
Instinct.
Even though.
– Let's move.
But the further we go…
The more this place becomes…
odd.
I stop dead in my tracks.
- …That…
I approach.
Run your hand over it.
This is not natural.
It's engraved.
Another thought grew in my head
What's the point of all this?
I don't have time to think about it before the noise gets closer again; I rush through the obstacles and hide at the bottom of a carpet of metallic debris.
I cover Eugene and remain on the verge of folding in on myself, praying that I have escaped this thing.
Tic
Tac
Tic
Tac
The only sound was from my interface; the silence was so profound that if I had paid attention, I could have heard my heartbeat.
A predator, I'm sure of it.
If even the concrete calms down when he arrives, then I don't want to know what he looks like.
A shadow?
TAP!
THANK YOU! thank you! thank you!
TACK!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!THANK YOU!
TACK!
TACK!
TACK!
– AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHJHJJ!