After circumventing the giant's bones as well as piles of collapsed wall, the two travelers entered the city proper. The setting sun cast shadows across the ruins of stores, office buildings, and supermarkets, as well as the disintegrating remains of the Chaktaw residents who once called this place home.
Inside the wall, the road sprouted branches weaving through the metropolis.
Here, the Chaktaw favored more traditional buildings including a few tall ones, although they appeared less obsessed with skyscrapers than humanity; the tallest structure Trevor saw reached ten floors.
Building materials resembled what he knew from home. The preferred color pattern appeared to be white stone or metal with a coat of glossy enamel and blue glass for windows. Some buildings stood on stilts allowing for sidewalks and parking areas underneath.
The valley surrounded the city providing a sense of cover and security, like all of the Chaktaw places he encountered to date. He suspected that these people evolved in a harsher environment, either fighting each other like mankind did on Trevor's pre-Armageddon Earth, or perhaps confronted with more dangerous predators.
"We need to find somewhere to hold up for the night," he said.
"Looks like we’ve got a lot to choose from, you know?"
Trevor stopped walking, looked to her, and then glanced around at the 'empty' buildings. As if in response, they heard a soft crack of glass, a scraping noise like a sharp edge drawn across metal, and then what sounded like a moan.
"I think we need to find somewhere. Real quick like."
Ahead of Trevor and Nina the main road split at a ‘Y’ intersection. To the right and left stood buildings of various sizes in various states of decay as well as side streets and alleyways. Facing them from the middle of that 'Y' was a pillar-like building lined with triangular windows, topped with bent transmission towers, and at its base a gaping black hole framed by the remains of smashed front doors.
From that hole came a gang of ghastly-white creatures with sunken eyes and skull-like faces shambling forward like primates, the creatures Trevor had long ago nicknamed "Ghouls."
Major Forest raised her assault rifle but Trevor pushed the barrel down.
"If you shoot it'll wake up everything else in this city. Run!"
He directed their escape along a small path between two round buildings featuring gigantic but smashed video boards.
With heavy packs and bulky bedrolls on their backs, it only took a few seconds for their sprint to deteriorate into a jog. Their half-empty canteens sloshed, utility belts jingled, and their heavy boots thumped with each step making it difficult to hide their movement. Behind them-closing fast-the pursuing Ghouls hooted and grunted.
The road ended at a tall stone wall but Trevor spotted an open door in one of the surrounding buildings. He could not guess what denizen nested inside, but with the Ghouls nearly upon them, they had no choice but to take a chance.
With bayonets fixed, Trevor and Nina charged into the darkness. Based on the echo of their footsteps, it felt like a very big but pitch black room with a low ceiling and filled with both a chill and a musty stink.
Nina lit a flare and tossed it ahead while Trevor searched for and found the exterior door. He swung it shut and, in the red glare of the flare, spotted a forked steel rod-perhaps a tool of some kind-and propped it against the door, jamming it shut at least temporarily. Claws and teeth gnashed the other side, attempting to scrape and bite through.
"We need to keep moving," Trevor spoke the obvious but the sparkling glow of the flare lit only more darkness, giving no clue to their surroundings.
Nina answered with a second flare, this time holding it aloft, creating an umbrella of light. He moved to her side and together they advanced, hoping to find another exit while the door held. When Trevor kicked something, he saw the floor littered with debris including scraps of paper, metal shards, and bone fragments.
Behind them across the black void, the Ghouls pushed against the door. Their thumps, thuds, and scratches reverberated all around yet…yet Trevor heard another sound, one with them in the dark. Something like…the sound of…breathing?
The sparkling red flare lit a bundle of junk in their path; a mound of branches, planks, piping, and shrubs. Mixed in with the junk, a carcass of some small animal.
Trevor barely had time to mutter, "Oh shit," before the master of the den roared out of the darkness into the intruders' balloon of light, stumbling toward them on two big legs standing seven feet. In a flash, a big furry paw sent Nina sprawling to the floor. Her flare rolled across the ground sending strobes of red light through the chamber.
The monster turned to Trevor, dropping to all fours yet still of intimidating size. It rammed him with a snapping snout, teeth tearing away his thigh rig, knocking him down, and sending his assault rifle to the floor beside him.
As the creature paused to roar, the rolling flare shined perfectly on the beast, illuminating white-tipped brown fur, a muscular body nearly a thousand pounds in weight, and massive paws.
Trevor yelled, "It’s a damn Grizzly Bear!"
At that same instant across the black chamber came the sound of the door crashing open, the metal tool clanging on the hard floor, and the shuffle of Ghouls' feet.
He had no time to consider the irony. As the animal lunged at him again, Trevor stretched for his bullpup rifle and wielded the gun like a club, momentarily warding off his attacker as the edge of the bayonet cut across its snout.
Trevor thought, an invading monster from Nina’s home world. A world where the animals are like what I know on my Earth. Yet here, they’re the monsters.
"Come on!" Nina helped him to his feet with one hand and threw the flare with the other. It landed in front of the ghastly mob, attracting the bear's attention.
As she led him away, Trevor dared a glance behind. The flare created a flickering sphere of illumination shining upon a battle between creatures from different worlds. One Ghoul flew through the air, possibly missing a limb. Others surrounded and clawed the Grizzly.
A rush of fresh air turned his attention forward again as they came to and opened an exit door, escaping to the outside with the Ghouls and the Grizzly too occupied to follow.
– The building could easily have been an office complex from Trevor’s Earth, filled with a variety of chambers of various sizes devoid of furniture and most windows smashed or at least cracked. After a quick search of the six story complex, the fugitives decided the place seemed safe. Of course, in the post-Apocalyptic world — pick a world- ‘safe’ was a relative term.
In any case, Trevor and Nina found two windowless, adjoining offices on the fourth floor, perfect for hiding the glow of their chemical lantern, a small container that generated hours of both light and heat when the liquids inside mixed.
Dinner came first; dry crackers coated with a powdery vegetable spread and accompanied by a metal tin of packed fish that might have been mackerel. As he washed the rough meal down with a swig from his canteen, Trevor decided the time had come for questions.
"Tell me about your home, Nina."
The glow from the churning chemicals inside the lantern flickered like a watery candle and danced across her soft yet strong features as she leaned against a wall and told her story. She spoke in a voice that suggested a distant sadness, perhaps homesickness.
"I'm not sure where to start."
"At the beginning. If you're not from Earth, where are you from?"
"In this universe-actually, in all the universes-man comes from Sirius."
Some memory or another caused him to mumble, "The dog star."
"When I was over on your Earth, we listened to your Empire’s radio broadcasts and the house we stayed in had some history books. To be honest, my home is a lot like your world was before the invasion. I mean, we lived in City-States, pretty much like what you would think of as countries, just more of them and not as big. I think our technology level was pretty much on track with yours. Like, we have skyscrapers and big oceans and beach front condos. Different continents and such, plus two moons. But overall, same type of land and stuff but it’s arranged kind of different, you know? I mean, I’m guessing your Earth is exactly like this one, right?"
Trevor said, "I've been thinking about that. I studied your maps. The geography here is the same as on my Earth but here it's home to the Chaktaw and the monsters-animals, I guess-from their environment. You'd think things like the trees and rivers and all that would be different, but I was fooled, I really thought this world belonged to mankind, like mine does."
"Trevor, I didn't even know about the parallel universes until after our Trevor died. To us, this planet could have been anywhere, nothing special about it from our point of view."
"So wait, though, you found out about those parallel universes. In each of them, an Earth like this one. Except on mine, humanity lives there. Here, it's the Chaktaw. What about the others? Probably Duass on one, Hivvans on another, and so on. All identical to a certain point, the same trees, the same insects, the same weather. But not the same dominant species," he thought of the alien monsters on his world; the grizzly bear here. "And not the same animals."
She told him, "From what I can tell, Trevor, your universe is the only place where man started on Earth. Everywhere else, humanity evolved on Sirius."
He glanced to the cracked, drooping ceiling. "Maybe on my universe man did start on Sirius but got transplanted to Earth. Maybe before we were even people, back when we were just microbes in the primordial soup."
She guessed, "And in this universe, the Chaktaw taken from wherever they are really meant to live and put here."
"Sure, why not?" He nearly laughed as they huddled together and tried to figure out the madness Armageddon had opened them to. "Us and the Chaktaw, we're not all that different, at least not biologically. Now the Duass, they're pretty goofy looking but I'm guessing they aren't so far from us, either. Same with all the other organized aliens I've come across. This environment- Earth — would suit any of us. Damn, this is just plain nuts."
Trevor figured that somewhere the Old Man laughed his ass off.
Nina scratched her blond hair and asked, "Okay, I get that, but back on Sirius-my home-we have grizzly bears, we have wolves, and we have horses. On your Earth, you have the same; grizzly bears, wolves, and horses. But here, on this Earth, the Chaktaw have Huskers and Giant Lizards and stuff like that. Why don't they have horses and grizzly bears?"
Trevor remembered the many reports he received from Anita Nehru and the research teams at Red Rock.
"Because the seed is the same. Look, you plant an apple tree seed and you get a certain type of tree with apples. Plant a cherry tree and it’s a different tree with a different fruit. Both need water, air, and sunlight to grow but they are different. Both humans and Chaktaw need air and water, the type of stuff you'll find on Sirius or here on Earth. I'll bet Chaktaw and human DNA isn't too far off. But still, we start from different seeds so no matter where we grow, we get horses and the Chaktaw get Huskers. The people and animals change, but we can survive on the same type of stage."
"Stage?"
"Look at it, Nina. Everything is basically the same. It’s like whoever is controlling all this wanted each species to have the same starting point, so that no one would have any type of environmental advantages. Just the higher life forms all on their own."
"But why only higher life forms? Why not insects and stuff?"
He held his hands in the air and worked his fingers as if trying to grab something.
"There must be a line between those things that are just part of the environment and those things that impact that environment. Maybe it has something to do with a level of sentience. Hey, Disney taught me that it’s all a circle of life. Maybe there are a few breaks in that circle."
"Disney?"
"You come from a horrible, forsaken world." His smile, however, showed that he joked. "Tell me about Sirius. What else is different?"
Nina wrung her hands. After a moment, she reluctantly told him, "Okay, well, you’d have to get used to the extra moons and the other two suns you can see in our sky."
"Two more suns? You have three?"
"One is a white dwarf, the other a brown. They’re both pretty dim but every fifty years the white one gets close and we get magnetic storms like you wouldn’t believe."
He asked, "Who decided to send your people to this planet? Who said you had to fight?"
"You have to understand…" her voice trailed off. He let her collect her thoughts. After a deep inhale she went on, "Things got bad at home. I told you there were City-States. Well, there was a big war. Some called it a war of unification, others a conquest. Still, seemed like a good idea to me. Point is, as the war went on the cities either joined or got rolled over. Very nasty."
"What about you? What side, I guess, what side were you on?"
"I joined on to help unify. Thought it'd be good to pull our resources. Besides, the guy leading the whole thing had a way of winning you over; making you believe in the cause."
Trevor swallowed hard and started to ask, "Was that…um…"
"No. Not you. You came later. I never heard of Trevor Stone until one of the City-States put up a fight. Heard he was a nobody who just took up a gun to defend his city. In the end, he didn't have a chance, but his reputation grew. That made it easy to follow him here."
"Eventually, you unified?"
"Yes," she went on. "The corporations fell in line, the City-States joined together, and we had what you would call a country. Not long after that, the rumors started. Aliens. Then the chance came for people to come to this world and carve out a new life."
"Another war?"
"I think it all depended on how you looked at it. Some people saw it as exploring a new land. Maybe they didn't have much back home, maybe they lost everything in the war. I'd say the bulk of the people who came over were pretty much desperate. Of course, they were promised all types of riches and the start of a brand new life."
"And you?"
"I've always been a soldier, Trevor. I guess I fell for the idea that we'd come over here and carve out a kingdom for ourselves. That's what you-I mean, our Trevor-promised. He had a way of making your blood boil; to make you want to follow him anywhere."
Yes, Trevor remembered Five Armies and a hundred battles since. That's why the Old Man likes me so much.
She continued, "It was billed back home that the Chaktaw here were a threat to mankind, and if we didn't wipe them out they would someday wipe us out. I guess I don't believe it any more but that hasn't mattered in a long time. It's been survive or die for years now."
She stopped, perhaps overcome with guilt or regret or just exhaustion.
Trevor said, "So whatever is going on, someone has used each of these universes to give these different civilizations a chance to fight for their lives. A laboratory experiment? An arena?"
"I don't know, Trevor. I'm sorry I ever came here. I'm sorry I brought you here."
"Me too," he said but the aches, pains, and fatigue in his bones kept the shot from carrying too harsh a tone; he did not have the energy for shouting anymore today.
Trevor rose to his feet, grabbed his tightly wound bed roll, and moved to the other office, saying, "We need to get some sleep."
"The motion sensors are in place," she referred to the small boxes placed in the hallway earlier. "If anything heads toward these rooms the sensors will wake us up."
"Okay. Good. We move out at first light."
They slept in separate rooms.
– With howls, shrieks, and various moans drifting across the city, Trevor struggled to fall asleep. Worse, only minutes after falling asleep, he found himself pulled awake, his mind conscious of a soft sound coming from nearby.
His eyes blinked open and he lay still, listening. What was that sound? Was some strange snake slithering toward his sleeping bag?
Wait, no, could it be…did Nina snore?
No…not a snake…not a snore.
Trevor slipped from his bed roll and moved as stealthily as if he sneaked in on a Devilbat nest. He came to the open door separating their rooms and peered into hers. The light of a Chem Lantern cast the office in a soft glow. He saw Nina lying in her sleeping bag facing a wall.
The sound that had caught his ear came from her. The sound of her crying, despite struggling to keep the noise to herself.
He stood and watched this woman who had, at first, enthralled him, then seduced him, then enraged him. Among the mysteries of this parallel Earth, Major Nina Forest seemed the biggest enigma. Very much like the woman he knew back home but different. In those differences he had also discovered secrets about himself, ones he wished remained buried.
"Yes, I'm human. Just like you in every way."
"I don’t want to be all alone. Not again. I couldn’t stand that again. I’ll do whatever you want, just please don’t leave me alone."
Another sob. Another muffled heave.
He remembered her after the failed assault on the Duass city. The way she had cringed in the face of his anger. The way she had cowered.
Of course.
He walked across the chamber to her sleeping bag. Her breath halted as she heard his approach but she did not turn.
Trevor lay down and then rolled in behind her. The two wore their battle suits although both had removed some of the padded armor so as to make sleeping more comfortable.
He felt her shiver as his body warmth mixed with hers, yet she did not say a word. He slipped his arm over her shoulders and squeezed gently. She wiggled closer and sighed.
"I…I didn’t mean to wake you," a sniff punctuated her whisper.
"You didn’t love the Trevor of your world. You never did."
She protested weakly, "Yes I — sniff — yes I did."
He spoke in an almost fatherly voice with a tone he had not used in a long time. A tone of compassion. "Don’t lie, Nina. Don’t lie to yourself. You and I both know the truth. I can see it now. I can see it clearly. For your sake, it’s time you see the truth, too."
"I don’t…I just…I’m afraid. That’s all, I’m afraid."
"You grew up shy and lonely, an outcast," he told her in much the same manner he had once told the same story to his Nina in the midst of a raging thunderstorm. "You didn’t know why, but you felt different from everyone else."
"How…how do you know that? How..?"
"Because the woman I loved…my Nina…she had the same beginning. She grew up the same way. You two are the same in many ways but now I realize why you are also different."
"Different?"
"Yes. Do you want to know? Do you want to see? Are you brave enough to see?"
He gave her a nice hug to help her find that bravery and continued, "The more I became like the Trevor you knew, the more you feared me. I could see it. At Erie Coast…"
"I deserved to be yelled at."
"No, no," he stroked her hair. "That’s wrong. I screwed up, Nina. My plan was a long shot. The type of long shots I always take. You were a ruse to draw their main forces away from the center of town. When they withdrew to the fortress, there was nothing you could do. If I had been of my right mind I would have known that. Instead, I refused to take responsibility for my mistakes. So I blamed you. I lashed out at you. I’m sorry."
"Don’t be sorry, you wouldn’t have been acting that way if I didn’t trick you into it."
"There you go again, apologizing for me. I’ll bet you apologized for your Trevor all the time. But he still bullied you. He probably hit you once in a while, didn’t he? But more than that, he messed with your mind, Nina. Knocked you down and kept you there."
"He was a great man. Great men are different than the rest of us. Look at everything you’ve accomplished. Sometimes great men just do things different. They’re allowed."
"No. Your Trevor was not a great man, Nina. He was a brute. A vile man. I say that because there’s a big part of him in my belly and it don’t sit too well with me."
"You’re different. You…I couldn’t change you. In the end, you didn’t become him. Just like me and your Nina. We look the same, but we’re completely different."
"That’s where you’re wrong. You are the same. The same genes, the same body, the same mind. I’ll bet you had the same childhood: good parents who tried to help you get over the feeling of being an outcast. But with each year you felt yourself different from the other kids. Even then, you were thinking like a warrior. Getting ready for the coming fight."
"How do you know all that?"
"Because that’s what my Nina was like. But then, at some point, things changed and the two of you ended up different."
She swallowed hard and wanted to know, "What happened?"
He found it ironic that he was telling her the truths of her life. Perhaps sometimes it takes an outsider to see the larger picture. The way Lori Brewer or Dante or even Knox or Jon kept his life in perspective back home. A perspective he lacked on this parallel Earth.
"You gave in. You decided it was more important not to be alone than it was to be true to yourself. Let me tell you, if I had ever raised a hand to my Nina she would have tied me in a knot. She was faster and stronger than me, the same way I know you're faster and stronger. Yet you let him beat you down because you were afraid to be alone."
She did not say a word. He went on.
"The things you did with your Trevor, you did them to keep him. You did them because you thought that’s what it took. You let him use you like an object; you let him…let him degrade you. To cheapen you. Because you were afraid to walk away."
He felt her flinch. A sigh from her lips became a sob.
"You let him define who you are. Then you did everything he wanted, no matter how it made you feel. You let him use you, and why? Because you were afraid to be alone."
She shivered, as if a chill had worked its way beneath her armor. Then it came out. She muffled each burst as best she could but she could not hide from him. Not any more. The tears flowed and her chest heaved. The woman he knew to be so strong and brave fell to pieces as she confronted the only nightmare that had ever managed to scare her. The nightmare of loneliness.
"I…I have hated every second…ever…every day…of my life," she spoke between breaths. "Every…day. I never knew how to…how to…"
Trevor answered for her, "How to fit in?"
She wiped a hand beneath her eyes.
"So you let him use you like a toy, just so he wouldn’t chase you away."
"I thought…he wanted to do things. I did them. I thought he’d love me for it."
Stone ran his hands along her shoulders and arms in a comforting caress.
"Me and my Nina," his eyes glazed over with wonderful memories. "We had all sorts of fun together. But through it all, we had respect. I always respected her. To be with her, together, I mean-wow-we had fun. But we sometimes just sat and talked, for hours over a bottle of wine. We played racquetball together and went horseback riding. I’d give anything for just one moment with her again. If only…if only to talk to her."
This time Trevor fought to stave tears. He concentrated on her, on holding her tight, on forgetting for the moment how she had deceived him. After weeks of nothing but anger, violence, and lust, he found his soul cleansed by offering compassion; something he rarely had the opportunity to do. The kindness he showed her, despite all she had done, provided a counter balance to the evil he had wrought since coming here. In a way, he found it healing.
"You really loved her, didn’t you?"
"Yes. I loved her, very much. But you know what else? I liked her. I liked just being with her. And I respected who she was. I didn’t want to change her; I wanted her to share with me the person she was. And she did. It took a lot for her to do it, but she did."
"I’m nothing like her," she did not ask, she stated a fact.
He corrected, "That’s not true. You’re very nearly the same person, you just made a different choice. Our memories and our experiences make us who we are. You made a decision my Nina avoided. So yes, you’re different but I know you have the same strength that she has."
"The same…strength?"
"Yes," he insisted. "The strength to be who you are. Don’t let someone else define you. Don’t let someone else cheapen you."
"Strength…" she turned the word around in her mouth.
"You have it. You showed it once, didn't you?"
She turned around in her sleeping blanket to face him. The glow of the lantern flickered in her blue eyes and sparkled off streams of drying tears.
"Come on now," he said to her. "Go ahead, tell me. You need to. Don't worry, I figured it out a while ago."
She nibbled at her lower lip, cast her eyes down, then back to him. And then Major Nina Forest admitted, "I killed him."
He touched her cheek and encouraged her to, "Go on."
"One day, after a battle, we were alone. He said I was…he called me a worthless…"
"Shhh," he kept her from finishing whatever cold insult the Trevor Stone of this world had berated her with.
She said, "I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was the heat of the battle. I had just finished killing…killing things. I felt invincible for a moment, like I sometimes do when I’m fighting. I felt… comfortable."
"You’re a natural soldier, just like my girl. That’s who you are."
"He laughed at me. Real mean, like. And I don’t know… I hit him. I knocked him right down to the ground. He looked at me…he was, like…shocked or something. For a few seconds…like…he was afraid. Afraid of me. Then he got up and he was pissed. He told me he was going to cut me for that. So he came at me with his blade and then, and then I realized I had a knife in my hand and he swung at me with his knife and the next thing I know I stuck my knife in him and his mouth just fell open and he had this look in his eyes and the blood came and then he was on the ground and he was dead and I didn’t know what-"
"Good for you," he interrupted the long string of words that came from her mouth in an ever increasing panic. "You protected yourself."
"No," she shook her head but not too vigorously. "I killed him. And you know what? I was glad. For a while, I was glad to be free of him."
Trevor figured the rest, "But with time things started to fall apart and every one said it was because of Trevor. And you were alone. Without him no one cared about you; you were a nobody. So after a while, and when you found out about the dimensions and all, you decided maybe you should try and bring Trevor back. Maybe it’d be good for your people. Maybe you wouldn’t be alone any more."
She did not need to nod or answer in any way because they both knew how right he was.
"Nina," he spoke softly. "On behalf of all the other Trevors of existence, I forgive you."
She chuckled, sort of.
"What he did to you all those years, what he put your people through and what he did to this planet…well, I don’t blame you one bit. I don’t think any one could."
They paused and listened to the sound of their own breathing for several seconds. The Major managed her emotions but her curiosity got the better of her.
"So, you and Nina, you were, like, friends and lovers, huh?"
"That’s right, yeah."
"I’m jealous. It sounds like you two were happy. I mean, really happy."
"Yeah."
"Tell me some more. Tell me about the Nina you were in love with. I want to know her."
He smiled and much like showing compassion, sharing the stories of the months he had spent in love with Nina Forest helped return some calm to his heart. She had always had that affect on him.
So they laid there together in the glow of the Chem Lamp while the howls and screeches of monsters played in the distant background of the Hellish city. He kept his arms wrapped around her and they closed their eyes and he told stories of the woman with whom the Major had much in common, yet so much more that was not.
Eventually, slowly, exhaustion overpowered the tales and the two fell asleep.
Their clothes never came off, not even a kiss, only his arm draped over her in half a hug. Yet she had never felt so close to another person in all her life.
They fell asleep together, two human beings on an alien planet yet they were not alone.
– With their bags packed, the two travelers prepared to leave, hoping to reach the rendezvous point before dark. However, Trevor first needed to tend to one task.
He left her and walked into a small room with one window and toilet facilities that offered a smell even more unpleasant than the other smells of the decaying city. Once positioned above a basin that must have been a urinal, he opened a strategically-placed zipper on his battle suit and relieved himself while Nina waited several rooms away.
He looked out the window, one of the few intact panes of glass in the entire city. It offered a view of the downtown area. He saw crisscrossed roads lined with the remains of eaten, burned, and other wise destroyed trees.
Stone felt a tremble. He had been feeling those trembles all morning, yet not seen anything. He worried it might possibly be a Goat-Walker on the prowl.
In any case, at least brilliant rays of sun bathed downtown making for a glorious clear morning. Perhaps they could make good time today. Perhaps The glow of the morning sun went black, his view out the window obstructed.
By an eye.
A big black and white eye surrounded by gray, tough skin, staring in directly at him through a quarter-inch of fragile glass.
Then the eye withdrew, replaced by some sort of huge arm or fist or ball of claws or something. Whatever it was, it cocked then rushed toward the window.
"Oh…shit."
Trevor zipped and ran.
"We’ve GOT A PROBLEM!"
The window smashed in as a colossal appendage the size of the entire room crashed into the wall, obliterated the office, and pushed all the way through to an inner hall.
Trevor barely escaped the strike. Crossbeams and dusty powder-the Chaktaw’s version of drywall-billowed around him but he did not stop even as the vibration tried to knock him from his feet.
Nina met him and together they raced further inside the office complex as another heavy strike rattled the building to its very foundation.
"What was it? What was it?"
"I have no idea! Just run 'cause whatever it is it’s as big as this building!"
They ran along a tight, dark hallway. A porcupine-like thing saw them and disappeared into a side room. They paid it no mind as they navigated by the light of their flashlights and the occasional ray of sun beaming in from splintered windows.
Those beams, however, flickered between light and dark as the massive creature circled the building, searching for them by punching through walls.
"Stairs! We nee to find the stairs and get out of here," Nina shouted the obvious.
An entire section of the corridor collapsed. A gust of fresh air blew inside with dust riding along; dust from a new hole stretching several yards from the outer wall, through what looked like an old conference room, and into the inner hall.
Trevor and Nina ran along the fourth floor. The thing that had punched the hole had to stoop to peer in at them.
With a quick glimpse, Trevor’s mind categorized it as a rhinoceros, except it stood on its rear two legs. Its arms were thick and ended in massive claws. One big horn grew from the center of its forehead and two more adorned the side of its skull. The black and white eyes of the creature looked dazed, almost hypnotized.
As the dust cleared, the monster spied its quarry. A humungous arm cocked back.
Trevor and Nina raced for a door at the end of the hall.
A locomotive-sized arm speared the building once again, obliterating walls-including a support pillar-and passing through the corridor three yards behind the fleeing humans.
Chunks of the sixth and fifth floors collapsed down onto the fourth, partially and temporarily capturing the giant’s arm. The creature let out an annoyed grunt in response. The bright morning sun shown in from above with only a handful of crossbeams and roof panels to obstruct its brilliant glare.
A chain reaction rippled across the fourth floor as it started to collapse, the floor buckling like an ocean wave, spitting wood and metal beams in a series of pressure-driven explosions.
Nina reached the door first and held it open for him. The collapse nipped at his heels while the weight of his back pack and gear slowed him enough that he might…not…make…
Trevor jumped through the open door into the stairwell. Nina timed her own pivot perfectly and avoided the disintegrating floor in less time than it takes to blink an eye.
While large shards of the building collapsed, the stairwell and its protective walls stood tall like a chimney surrounded by the burned ruins of a wooden home.
With the door shut behind them, the stairs went dark but the loud sound of smashing and crashing dominated the hollow acoustics of the chamber.
Nina pulled her flashlight and surveyed their surroundings through a cloud of dust.
"Down, huh?"
He nodded his head as he caught his breath.
The top of the enclosed staircase exploded away and light from the sky burst in. Pieces of the building materials-both large and small-fell like rain. Fortunately, the larger pieces missed the refugees.
Apparently, the Rhino creature had batted away the roof above the stairs as well several flights.
"What is this friggin’ thing?" He allowed the slightest hint of panic to creep into his voice, primarily because he realized they would need an attack helicopter to scratch it.
"Run! Down!" Came her answer.
The remains of the destroyed upper floor chased them down the stairs.
"They’re indigenous to this Earth! But they’re not aggressive! They’re herbivores!"
Another tremendous, thunderous explosion of brick and dust and metal erupted above. The rhino had swung again, taking out another ten feet of stairwell and sending more debris falling. The thing was ripping the staircase shaft apart floor by floor with each swing of its arm.
As they jumped to the bottom floor, the entire shaft collapsed, the stairs falling together like a collapsing accordion…just as Trevor and Nina knocked open the exit door at the foot of the towering giant.
It searched the ground with its big, glazed-over eyes. Trevor saw a massive, heavy, thick animal with a body that appeared nearly armor-plated. He was no longer so sure that even an attack helicopter could do the job.
Realizing that the thing could easily step on them with one of its humongous, round feet, he ran out onto the street with the aim of finding another building in which to hide, but he quickly found himself in the wide open with the closest cover dozens of yards away.
At that moment, he realized the Major was not with him. She had waited behind at the giant's feet, just outside the now-blocked stairway door. He saw the massive hostile looming above her. Its eyes looked down at the puny being standing between its feet.
"Nina!" He screamed, expecting to see her squashed.
On the contrary, the creature turned away from her and locked its eyes on Trevor. It ignored the easy kill and took a giant step in his direction. The ground rumbled.
"Oh…oh…Christ."
Another big giant step.
As Trevor turned to run he absently took note of Nina raising her rifle and aiming it toward the back of the monster. If not for the shadow threatening to step on him, he would have laughed at the sight. He did not expect this monster to feel the impact of a rifle round.
Bang.
The Rhino stopped in its tracks and hovered. Its glazed eyes blinked, looked about, and blinked again. Then the creature dropped to all fours. Not a collapse, but into what appeared to be its natural walking position. Yes, very much like a rhinoceros.
As it did, something fell from its hide. More specifically, something big and black dropped to the ground like a lifeless sack. Trevor could not see anything more.
The rhino creature stumbled side to side, actually shook its head as if it had just awoken, and then adopted a very docile attitude. Indeed, the thing looked at a loss.
Much to Trevor’s amazement, it calmly walked away without giving him a second glance. Its heavy feet thumped with every step, but suddenly seemed no more threatening than a kitten. Albeit a gigantic kitten.
Trevor wiped the sweat from his brow and joined Nina who casually slung her rifle and examined the black sack-like mass that had fallen from the rhino-creature, apparently after she had shot it.
That black mass was insect-like with six legs or arms or whatever as well as several antenna-like strands. It was slimy, gross, and nearly as large as a Volkswagen.
"What the Hell is that?"
She did not take her eyes off of the dead creature as she explained, "It’s a type of parasite. Sort of latches on to something and takes over, like driving a car."
"Oh."
There was more. She hesitated to tell him. Not due to fear of him; last night had chased that away. No, she hesitated for another reason. Indeed, she looked worried.
"What? What is it?"
"These things…Trevor, I think they come from wherever it is Voggoth comes from."
She let that sink in. He saw the picture painted by what had just happened.
"It was sent to stop us. Maybe Snowe filled in Voggoth that we were on the run."
She corrected, "It was after you. Like, I’m of no consequence. Voggoth must have a pretty good idea where you’re headed, and he sure doesn’t want you getting there, you know?"
Even in the bright sun of a fresh new morning the abandoned Chaktaw city took on a new feel of danger. If Voggoth had targeted him…personally targeted him…
"We’d better get going," he said.
They spent the next hour moving carefully across the metropolis passing sagging buildings, decayed parks, and empty homes. Along the way, they shot two ghouls and avoided a swarm of Land Jellyfish but otherwise made it to the far side unscathed.
Eventually, they left the city, stepping over bones and messy biological piles as they walked northeast with the river to their right. They still had a long way to go before they reached their destination, but the city had been a turning point in their understanding, a turning point in their humanity. Truth had a way of doing that.
Trevor Stone and Major Nina Forest continued their journey across the ruined landscape of an alien Earth, and left behind the ghosts of the haunted city.