I trail a few steps behind Danyard as I'm wary of what he might do again.
"Where are we going?" I shout, getting ready to dodge if he pulls his gun on me.
No answer.
He continues forward, taking steady steps as if he were taking a stroll in the park.
What's with this guy?
I shrug it off and look around me at my grotesque surroundings. The bizarre trees continue to squirm around me, and each step sinks partly into the ground, making a disgusting squelch.
It is dark, but enough light escapes through the fog to make out my immediate surroundings.
What the hell?
I duck as a sudden rustling pierces the silence from overhead. Like the flapping of a thousand wings.
A strong wind blows me backwards as I look around in panic.
Wait. That tree trunk looks a lot skinnier than before.
The spiral-like tree just out of my view felt a bit off. The trunk is clearly skinnier than all the trees around it.
A sudden barrage of gunfire resonates through the fog, and Danyard runs into the darkness without hesitation.
Why are we running towards danger?
I have no choice but to chase after the fool.
This guy is so damn fast.
The gun in my hands feels heavier and heavier as I pant heavily, trying to follow the sound of Danyard's footsteps.
The landscape looks the same everywhere. It is just trees on trees on trees. I need to make sure I don't get lost.
Oof.
I find myself on the ground again as I look back and get ready to curse at whatever tripped me.
It is another body, its hollow eyes staring straight into my soul. No blood.
This one looks familiar. One of the prisoners I came down with.
I gag a little as I turn away and continue to run towards the distant footsteps again.
At some point, the sounds stop, and I start to panic. If I lose Danyard here, I'm as good as dead.
I hear another barrage of gunshots and shouting, and I rush towards it, gun held high.
I see a bright light coming up ahead, and I slow down and get on the ground to look through the scope of my gun.
I freeze. What in the hell is that thing?
Danyard and an inmate are unloading their bullets on a gigantic, disgusting worm. I hesitate to fire. That is the most vile, disgusting thing I've ever seen.
The worm has scale-like flaps all over its body, constantly fluttering as it maneuvers through the air. Every single bullet seems to bounce right off of its scale-like wings.
Its mouth is like a gaping hole with rows of teeth lined along the walls of its body all the way into its stomach.
Inside its mouth are tentacles protruding around a massive bulb of light, acting like its tongue.
The worm flies around, trying to evade the bullets fired by its prey.
I still don't fire. Just watching the events unfold before my eyes.
They don't last long.
The worm circles them faster, picking up speed and sweeping the prisoner up with its tentacles latching around his face, pulling him into its maw.
Then it hovers mid-air, its devastating maw completely encloses around the prisoner's head.
Danyard opens fire, but the bullets bounce off its steel body.
Thud.
The worm drops its latest victim on the ground, and the head turns towards me. Its hollow eyes just like the other bodies, staring at me.
I look up towards the worm and see straight into its mouth.
Straight into the bulb of light dancing inside that horrifying maw.
Then it suddenly speeds towards me.
What the shit.
I immediately get up and start running the other way, leaving my gun behind like an idiot.
I hear the flapping getting louder and louder behind me, but I don't look back.
What do I do? What do I DO?
Without thinking too much, I just grab onto the nearest tree and start climbing its trunk. My hands latch onto the hard slits that sit on the coiled surface.
I start pulling myself up. But the flapping gets deafeningly loud.
I peek around the trunk and glance straight into the light of its maw again.
This time, only a few feet away, approaching at light speed. By instinct, I reach for the small knife fastened around my waist to find nothing.
No knife, no weapons, no nothing. I stare empty-handed as the worm jets right towards my face.
With both arms, I cover my eyes and brace for impact.
Ugh.
A massive force crashes into me as I am lifted into the air. Tentacles are squirming all around my head, wrapping around my arms, trying to pull them away.
Shit. SHIT. I'm dead.
I AM DEAD.
The light gets brighter and brighter, blinding me inside the maw of this insidious creature.
Screw it.
I am not going down without a fight.
I muster all my strength to push my arms forward, releasing the defences around my eyes and grab onto the bulb of light.
It is squishy and soft like a ball of flesh, and I just tug and pull and squeeze just trying to deal some sort of damage while the tentacles continue to squirm around my face.
I start screaming at the top of my lungs.
A final warcry.
I close my eyes tightly and continue the struggle.
With both hands, I firmly squeeze the bulb like I'm crumpling a piece of paper. It feels like an eternity trying to crush this ball of flesh in my hands.
Every second is a reminder that I'm still breathing.
Then suddenly,
I start falling.
Thud.
Rolling myself onto my back, I'm greeted again by the bizarre yet familiar scenery of coiled trees. The worm lies motionless next to me, all light gone from its terrifying maw.
Did I just kill this thing?
I stand up in shock and look down at my hands. There is no blood, but in my hand is a small, crushed-up ball of flesh, softly emanating light.
Footsteps resound behind me.
Danyard bursts into the clearing, and his eyes immediately lock onto the worm lying on the ground, pointing his gun at it, his eyes slowly drift towards me.
"Is it dead?"
Now it is my turn to stay silent.
My head is empty as I can't even process what just transpired.
Danyard slowly inches over to the worm, but a sudden noise makes him snap around and point his gun towards the trees.
I slowly turn my head towards the noise.
Three people are peeking around the tree trunks.
I recognize one of them, but the other two I've never seen before.
"Who's there?" Danyard growls.
The three people walk out into the open with their hands up. A man, a woman, and another inmate.
"Don't shoot." One of them says.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Simon." Simon nods towards the woman. "This is Clara. Can you help us?"
"How'd you get down here?" Danyard doesn't lower his gun.
"The sinkhole, we were caught in it."
I snap out of my daze.
What?
It's been months since the hole appeared. How are they alive? How did they survive the fall?
Shit, I just killed that worm, didn't I?
The inmate suddenly spoke.
"It's strange down here." He lowers his hands. "The fog, the trees, the monsters. Didn't you notice that you don't get thirsty?"
Now that he mentions it.
I haven't felt thirsty at all despite all the running.
So this must be hell. We are definitely all dead.
Danyard stares into the air. It looks like this is a lot to take in for the Major, too.
The unfamiliar woman broke the silence next. "Can you get us out of here?"
Danyard looks up at the woman. He hesitates for a moment before he speaks. "How are you alive?"
The woman thinks for a moment. "I don't know. All we remember from that day was everything disappearing around us and falling for a long time. But luckily, some debris broke our fall."
What? What debris is breaking a fall from this height?
"-when these monsters kept flying around, picking people off, we just hid under the trees. We thought we were going to die, but as the days went by, we realized we didn't feel the need to eat or drink. So we just sat and waited until help arrived. When we heard the gunshots above us, we rushed over, and that's when we found Jack... And now we are here."
My head hurts from all this. I just want to go back to prison.
I glance at the worm again. Still surprised I'm alive.
"Are there more survivors?" Danyard asks.
Of course, he asks that. So cliché.
"We don't know."
Wait. Something doesn't make sense.
"What happened to all the debris? There's nothing here except trees."
The woman looks at me.
"The ground, it must be alive or something. Everything slowly sinks into it and disappears completely. All the corpses, all the buildings, everything disappeared weeks ago.... Can you get us out of here?"
I look down in horror and start constantly lifting one foot at a time. Trying not to stay still for too long.
"Umm-"
A small voice pierces the air. A girl is standing awkwardly holding on to a tree trunk nearby. She is small. Probably no more than fourteen years old.
Her head turns toward us, but she's not really looking at us. She is looking past us.
Shit. I dart my head to where she's looking, but find nothing.
What? What's she looking at?
"Don't be afraid. I'm Danyard. What's your name?"
Why is he talking like that? The stoic bastard.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you."
The small girl slowly inches towards us.
Now that she's closer, I can see her clearly. Her eyes are unmoving and milky white.
She's blind.
"Thea... My name's Thea."
"Nice to meet you, Thea." Danyard gently grabs her hand and pulls her into a hug. "You are very brave, Thea."
Two-faced bastard.
I feel a sudden tug.
The bulb wrapped in my fist starts pulling my hand, trying to get out.
I let go, and it drops onto the ground lifelessly.
"What the hell was that? Did you guys see that?"
Everyone looks at me like I'm crazy.
Well, I'm used to that.
But I pick up the bulb again, and I feel the tug.
"It's pulling me." I say while my hand moves awkwardly, giving into the bulb's will.
Danyard walks over and snatches the bulb out of my hand.
"I'm okay, by the way." I look towards the worm. "No thanks to you." I add out of spite.
He does this entire song and dance for a random little girl, but doesn't even check up on me after what I've been through.
I will make sure to kill him when this is over.
"We'll see where this leads." He looks over at the two survivors and adds. "I don't have a way out."