At the center of the bridge, hunkered a huge beast.
I halted so quickly I almost tripped over my own feet, and a frigid chill iced through me from my skin down to my soul. Behind me, demons rampaged. Ahead of me, this creature blocked my only escape route. He must've stood over six feet tall, a mountain of muscles and wild black hair with a scruffy beard that hid most of his features except for the scar that slashed across his cheek. Every flash of the fireballs lit him up. His long, battered leather coat fluttered around his thighs. It was black, just like his shirt and his worn leather pants that stretched tight over his thighs. I glimpsed hints of tattoos revealed by his partially unbuttoned shirt.
The beast stood there, legs spread, as if he had no intention of allowing me to pass. His gaze landed on me, and his lips peeled back from his teeth, though not in a smile. He sneered at me, fisting his hands at his sides. Jabbing a finger toward me, he growled, "You."
That beast wanted to kill me. I sensed it, though I had no idea what I had done to enrage him. He must have come through the rupture, which made him an alien monster like the others. What could I do? Behind me lay carnage and death. Ahead of me, maybe I could still find a place to hide or a way to escape.
I whirled around, and before he had time to react, I ran back the way I'd come as fast as my battered body could go.
And the beast barreled after me.
~~~~~
That's how I wind up pelting across the viaduct yet again, dodging other creatures and getting stung by molten fragments of the fireballs that hurtle past overhead. Every explosive impact makes the earth shudder beneath my feet. I need to escape, that's all I know. The hoarse bellows of the beast pursuing me reverberate off the shattered carcasses of the buildings that once formed a city. Now it's a wasteland. Where can I hide? How can I get away from that monster? More creatures, just as terrifying, maraud through the city. Ican'tget away.
But I must try.
My legs tremble, and my ears ring. Any second, I'll pass out. I know this. I have no choice but to stop and rest, though I realize the beast will catch up to me if I do. There must be someplace I can hide, for just a few minutes, long enough to regain my strength and catch my breath. I race past a building I would probably recognize if it weren't reduced to rubble, but up ahead, I see a structure that seems mostly intact. It's a pharmacy. I'd never visited the place, but I drove past it every day on my way to work.
I risk glancing over my shoulder.
The beast is nowhere in sight.
Maybe I've caught a sliver of luck. Veering onto the cracked sidewalk, I leap through a broken window into the pharmacy building. Shelves lie broken and scattered while their contents have sprayed across the blood-spattered floor. I leap over the biggest pile of rubble and drop to my knees, breathing so hard that black spots speckle my vision. I take a long, slow breath. Then another. And another. The ringing in my ears has subsided, and those black spots no longer obscure my sight.
In the gloomy space, I notice a refrigerated case nearby, one that would've held beverages, though its glass front has been smashed. Crawling over the debris, I feel around inside the darkened refrigerator until my fingers close around a plastic bottle. Of what, I don't care. I need to drink something, anything.
When I pull out the bottle, I realize it's water.Thank heaven. I unscrew the cap and guzzle the still-cold liquid.
I allow myself a few minutes to finish my drink and rest. Then I know I need to get moving again. As I make my way over the rubble and out the window, I move cautiously so I can scan the vicinity. Just as I step out onto the sidewalk, a solitary fact at last sinks into my brain.
Though it's afternoon, the world is cloaked in twilight. Sure, I'd noticed the semi-darkness before. But the fact the sun had been vanquished didn't hit me until right now. No stars glitter above me, either. Fireballs keep hurtling out of the tear in the sky, seeming to emerge from a black, disk-shaped hole at the center of the rupture. A rim of silvery fire surrounds the disk.
Behind me, footfalls crunch on rubble.
I spin around and yelp as I slam into a manlike creature, stumbling backward.
The beast who had pursued me seizes my upper arms and drags me into his body. His impossibly broad shoulders encompass me. He hoists me off my feet. My boots dangle several inches above the ground. My face is so close to his that I feel his scruffy beard rasping over my chin.
"Everything that's happening"—He snarls his words while spittle peppers my face with every syllable he utters—"it's all your fault."
This brute speaks with a British accent. That's weird, considering where we are, but I have bigger issues to worry about now. It feels like a rock has gotten stuck in my throat, and swallowing hard does nothing to alleviate the constriction. Though I don't want to do it, I force myself to meet his unearthly gaze and not cringe at the brilliance of his golden brown irises. "What are you talking about?"
"This happened because of you."
"No."
He spins me around, my feet touching down on the cracked pavement, and cuffs my wrists behind my back with his much bigger, rougher hands. I try to kick him, but he lashes one leg around both of mine. "Stop fighting. It won't help."
His fingers wriggle as he ties something around my wrists. Rope? Not sure, and it hardly matters. I've been captured by a monster who blames me for the apocalypse unfolding around us.
"Kick me again," he snarls into my ear, "and I'll bind your feet too. Understand?"
I nod.
He shoves me forward while keeping hold of my bindings. "You're coming with me."
"Where?"