I could barely move.
I felt the sound of my slowing heart as it drummed against the cold, hard floor on which I lay.
As blood trickled from the gash on my severed arm, all I could think was, "What did I get myself into?"
My vision blurring, I noticed a body lying just a few feet from me.
I summoned all the strength I had left and slowly began to crawl toward the body.
With every inch I covered, I could feel the life drain from my body.
When I couldn't go any further, I reached out with my intact arm, but to no avail.
It felt so close, yet so far away.
As I tilted my head to get a better view of this person's face, the blood drained from my face.
"She's alive," I managed to mutter to myself before everything went dark.
**********************************
There is a legend, long before I was born, which revealed that the world today was not always as it is.
It spoke of a time when the human race were like gods, ruling the skies, exploring the deep ocean, exerting its supremacy over every other creature.
That, however, changed with the arrival of the cursed beasts. In the blink of an eye, humans went from being the apex predators to lingering at the edge of extinction.
My name is Mark Markonnen, and I, just like the human race, barely have a place in the world today....
"Hey, Mark!!!!! I bet he's daydreaming again!"
A voice yelled with a familiar mockery and jolted me back to reality.
I turned to find a disgruntled Faad, accompanied by two other village boys, walking towards me.
Getting up from the ground in the middle of the field where I had sat, I braced myself for the worst because, if I knew anything about Faad, it was that the insults had only just begun.
"I knew you would be out here, drooling away while everyone else worked their ass off to keep the village together. After all, what else is an 'Unable' like you good for?"
Because I had gotten used to them, his insults didn't move me a bit. He had also done me a favor by using up his insults in one long sentence.
After all, apart from insisting I was lazy, the only other insult that stuck was reminding me I was an Unable.
As the sun over the village began to set, I was once again reminded why everyone considered me a nobody—everyone except her.
The word "Unable" goes as far back as the beginning of the world as everyone now knows it.
It is said that when the cursed beasts first appeared, millions of people had lost their lives in a matter of days.
Despite my inability to fathom a group of people that large, I could easily imagine what a great disaster it must have been.
As the human population dwindled to a quarter of its original size in the years that followed the apocalypse, human beings began to develop abilities of all kinds, from superhuman strength to levitation.
The term Unable was used to describe the minority of humanity without any sort of ability whatsoever.
"Are you ignoring me again?" Faad yelled as my silence began to linger.
"Well, if that is all you came out here to say to me, then I guess it was a waste of time. But then again, isn't that what you are?"
I watched as Faad's expression tightened. At that point, I didn't know if I should celebrate my cheeky response or anticipate his reaction.
Half expecting him to charge at me, I was quite surprised when a mischievous smirk engulfed his face.
"You must think you are cheeky. Let's see where that mouth of yours gets you when you and your Unable girlfriend get fed to the beasts."
For the first time, I had no clever comeback to counter him with. I stood there, trying to make meaning of his bold utterance.
Fed to the beasts?
"I think that is enough," a familiar feminine voice called out from behind us. All heads soon turned to the lady standing just a few feet away.
Faad shot me one last glare before turning back in the direction of the village square, accompanied by his two buddies who followed him everywhere and never seemed to have anything to say.
The lady remained still as the discontented boys walked past her and didn't utter another word until they were a good distance away.
"You should be careful being alone with them like that, Mark," Sheila spoke as she began to approach me.
As she moved, her long blonde hair and short skirt danced in the gentle evening wind. I couldn't help but replay Faad's words in my mind.
Girlfriend? I mean, that wasn't so much of an insult....
"What the fuck is he talking about?" I asked, trying to rid my mind of the perverted thoughts.
Seeing the defeated look on her face hurt more than anything Faad had said. She took a deep sigh before finally speaking.
"The village head informed me our population has begun to hit its threshold. Any more, and we risk a beast attack."
"What does that have to do with us?" I asked before she finished her statement.
I had heard that a dense population of humans tended to attract the cursed beasts, as they served as some sort of beacon to them.
The result of oversaturation had always been hypothetical to me, so I never really considered what would be done if it ever happened.
What I couldn't understand was why she was telling me this, unless.....
"He told me a few of the villagers would be transferred to another village with a smaller population or better electromagnetic barriers... and we are amongst them."
"That still doesn't explain what Faad just said. I mean, what's so bad about relocating?"
She took a deep breath before responding to me.
"Mark... we are both Unables. There are very high chances that no other village would be willing to take us in."
Reality hit me like lightning. I could see the look of helplessness on her face. Things were only going to get worse for us from this point on.
As we walked back towards the village square without uttering a single word to each other, I couldn't help but reminisce about how we had met.
I lost my parents at the age of five, and my life had only taken a turn for the worse... up until I met Sheila. We have been inseparable ever since.
Boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The crash was coming from the village square. We quickly rushed in the direction of the noise.
What we saw next made my heart jump out of my chest. Right in the middle of the village square, standing on four limbs, was the vilest-looking creature I had ever seen.
At least four feet tall, the large, hound-like beast bared its fangs as it observed who its first prey would be among the surrounding villagers.
The strongest Enabled in the village had formed a small perimeter around the beast as they tried desperately to contain it. Not even the strongest among them dared to charge.
Murmurs could be heard amongst the rest of the villagers, who had gathered a considerable distance away to observe. Tension had begun to build.
"How did it get past the barrier? Are there others within the village?"
"Someone said he saw it fall from the sky. The barrier is said to be weaker there."
My gaze shifted to the clear evening sky. One thing that still amazed me was how invisible the barrier was once nothing came in contact with it.
"I knew this was going to happen eventually. We are dangerously close to our population threshold," a disgruntled villager announced.
"This is all because of those good-for-nothing Unables who take up all the space," another said as his cold stare fell on Sheila and me.
In the blink of an eye, the attention shifted from the vicious beast to the two helpless kids everyone disliked.
Sheila tapped me gently, urging me to remain silent. Antagonizing them further would do us no good.
The scrutiny was soon cut short by screams coming from the north wing of the barrier. Moments later, a villager arrived, panting.
"They... they've breached the north wall of the barrier. People... blood everywhere. We need to run!"
The crowd instantly descended into chaos and began to dissipate.
This distraction gave the beast the opening it needed. In a flash, it charged at one of the Enabled who was trying to contain it.
It ripped the villager apart as its victim's blood bathed the ground.
The other Enabled attacked with their respective abilities, from lightning to balls of flame. All this, however, proved utterly ineffective.
The beast, as vile as ever, soon became the least of everyone's problems. The village was now overrun with a lot of them, enough to rip even the strongest Enabled to shreds.
The village was now in turmoil as everyone tried to run to the safety of their village tents. It, however, soon became obvious that the tents were never built with a cursed beast attack in mind.
As I looked around me, too shocked to comprehend the chaos and act accordingly, I wondered how even the most powerful among us were nothing but rats to these creatures.
"Mark!! We need to head to the vault!" Sheila yanked me back to reality as she began to pull me in the direction of the frantic crowd.
Of course! The vault. It was the only other place I knew could withstand the beasts.
We were soon forced to retreat at the sight of another beast up ahead, guarding the vault like it could predict our actions.
In an attempt to flee the carnage, Sheila and I were torn apart by the stampede that ensued.
Before I knew it, I was backed into a corner, frozen with fear. All around me, I watched as bone and flesh were torn apart, as heads were ripped off, as blood splattered everywhere.
Unable to escape, I ran into a tent and crawled into a ball by the side, praying that the beasts wouldn't come after me.
The screams.
The smell of blood.
The sound of flesh being torn.
Covering my ears made it bearable.
Hours passed.
The morning sun began to emerge.
The screams died down.
The sound of the beasts retreating into the darkness of the woods of the outer world.
I slowly crawled out of my tent to find the village, which was once home to hundreds of people, reduced to a burial ground.
Sheila?
My heart immediately sank.
I ran as fast as I could, searching every corpse, every torn-up body.
As I ran, an injured villager soon drew my attention from afar.
"Sheila!!!!!!" I yelled as I ran over.
I got closer, only to see a male silhouette covered in blood, claw marks running deep on his chest.
It was Faad, almost out of breath.
I rushed over and lifted his head off the ground, trying to examine his wounds.
"They... they took... her," he said weakly as he grabbed my hand.
"Who?" I asked, confusion written all over my face.
"S... Sheila," he answered, his voice even weaker. "They took her along with them."