As the monster charged at me, I thought to myself, yeah I should just shoot it again right?,
That was a nice idea, except my hands were shaking so badly I couldn't even hold my weapon straight.
I forced my finger on the trigger but the weapon just vibrated weakly and died.
The Armageddon Bringer bellowed just a few yards ahead of me, the sound rolling through the street like thunder. The pavement cracked under its hooves as it charged.
Oh God.
The blue capsule in the gun blinked red. There was a blinking warning on a mini screen along the barrel that said:
NEED TO RECHARGE.
Recharging time: 30 MINUTES.
Amazing.
I was about to become roadkill in less than six seconds.
Five seconds now.
Four.
Sweat trickled down from underneath my helmet.
Three.
The ram bellowed angrily, putting his horns in front, ready for impact.
Two.
My knees quivered.
ONE
I dropped and rolled to the side at the last instant, barely missing the monster's hooves as it thundered past me, unable to stop its own momentum and ran straight through an apartment building.
The impact shook the whole building and cracks spread upwards on the concrete. Windows shattered.
Metal groaned as the entire building collapsed on the Armageddon Bringer like a tower of LEGO blocks, getting crushed underneath the weight of the building and sending out a massive dust cloud and blurring the whole place with gray.
That had to have killed it. No way it was surviving an entire building crashing down on it.
***
The rest of the Bravo Null team were gathering themselves back up, a few were already being patched up by an emergency medical squad that had been on standby. They had the acronym E.N.D inscribed on their uniforms too.
Carter limped over to me and clapped my back hard. Somehow he'd survived getting hit by a ram the size of a world war 2 armored tank. One of his eyes was swollen shut but he gave me a big bloody grin, "not bad, rookie."
I just nodded, still a little shook from almost being run over by that thing. From the carefree reactions of my colleagues, it seemed like this wasn't an uncommon experience among them.
The squad leader of Bravo Null, a fierce-looking small man barked orders to the few that could still stand, I couldn't hear him from where I stood but I got the gist.
He was rallying the ones that could still stand as reinforcement for Hylla.
So I ran up to him and requested to join them. He looked at me crazy for a sec but he nodded slightly, all the time still scowling.
Truth was, I actually just wanted to keep my eye on Meg rather than actually involve myself in another battle.
So I joined the reinforcement team already marching out.
When we arrived, just a street away, the creepy two headed monster was now covered in blue blood from dozens of gaping wounds.
To my greatest relief, Meg wasn't dead.
She was hidden behind an overturned car, occasionally firing at the monster with her rifle whenever there was an opening. But I noticed she was muttering a lot to herself there, her sharp gaze fixated on the monster's heads.
Meanwhile Hylla and Brolly were more upfront with the creature, fighting together like a well oiled machine, each strike they made was so powerful I could feel shockwaves from where I stood.
As I watched, Brody threw his chain, ensnaring the monster's oversized hand, and he pulled, yanking it off balance. Hylla was already primed to launch herself towards it at that moment but she suddenly stopped and muttered something I couldn't hear—just like Meg was doing.
Then it clicked it to me. Meg was reading the monster's attacks with her telepathy and communicating it with Hylla and Brody through their earpieces.
Sure enough, the two heads of the monster simultaneously blew fire from their mouths, torching the entire street.
Hylla would have been burnt toast if she had attacked when she wanted to.
I looked at Meg with a renewed respect, immensely proud of her usefulness in the team.
The squad that had come with me seemed just as stunned by how organised and smooth things were going here.
"Alright guys." One of the guys said, "fan out. We'll surround the monster and just start firing away. Shouldn't be too difficult to take down, since it's already weakened."
Another guy laughed, "And who put you in charge, Sam? You won't start crying like last time?"
The group chuckled.
"Shut up, Joshua." Sam complained, "That was like three months ago."
"Now is not the time guys!" a small brown haired girl beside me hissed, "we are literally on the battlefield. Literally."
"But Macy, he-" Sam's voice faltered. The ground started vibrating.
Everyone froze for half a second.
I heard people yelling from where we had just come from.
Oh no.
No way that overgrown beef tank was still alive after being crushed by an entire building!
We all turned as one and saw Grumpy Old Ram Head bounding at full speed towards us, covered in dust and cement but still very much alive and very angry.
"RUN!" Macy screamed.
We scattered in different directions but the beast was zeroed in on me.
Pure malice burned in its eyes. Who knew Armageddon Bringers took things personal like that?
There was no outrunning it. Not from such close distance.
It lowered its massive head, bellowed and slammed into me so hard, it felt like I got hit by a speeding truck. I felt something in my chest crack.
I flew across the road about twenty feet away, my body skidding on the pavement, scraping painfully before grinding to a stop.
I heard Meg calling my name but everything sounded like I was underwater.
My vision blurred and my insides burned. My left leg was twisted awkwardly to the side and looking at it almost made me throw up my breakfast.
I tried to sit up but it felt like the world suddenly flipped upside down and I spat a worrying amount of blood.
That was probably not good. Something had to have been broken inside.
My head was still blurred but I could make out some figures. I saw Brody now battling the giant Ram, somehow holding his own.
Sitting there in my twisted broken form, reality slowly dawned on me.
With my gas mask now broken when I got hit, I could smell all the thick ozone in the atmosphere.
This was no place for humans. These monsters were bringing literal hell to the surface of the earth and there was barely anything we could do about that because of the sheer difference in strength and power.
By the way, where was the other monster anyway? I remembered it was somewhere around.
The two headed creature…
It took a while for me to realize I was lying right at its feet.
My heart almost stopped when I saw the massive hollow eye sockets staring differently at me like it was in some kind of creepy trance.
I faintly heard Meg screaming at me to get up but I was frozen in sheer fright, also my leg was so…
The faces convulsed into a strange eerie expression, still intensely watching me.
And then as if controlled by one mind, they spat a purplish sticky liquid on my entire body.
***
It burned.
It was the worst feeling of pain I'd ever felt and this was after getting hit by that bull. Now that just felt like a friendly scuffle compared to this.
It was like a thousand lava-hot maggots were boring holes inside my body and setting everything inside on fire. As I watched, the liquid melted into my skin like acid, but strangely leaving no scars or marks as it sank inside my skin and started consuming me from the inside.
I was screaming and writhing in pure agony, my entire body convulsing in pain.
I was sure I was going to die.
My vision was blurring up again but with tears of pure pain this time around. I was vaguely aware of Meg running towards me as I tore at my own skin, trying to get rid of the poison now swimming in my blood.
However, when it got to the point where I thought I'll pass out, the pain slowly subsided, almost mercifully, from absolute torture to a dull pain in my chest…my breathing got slower and calmer steadily.
But even then something felt extremely off.
Like something else was settling inside my body. Something very foreign.
Meg was holding my face, eyes darting everywhere, unsure what to do, tears streaming down her face.
I made a mental sidenote to tease her for the ugly weeping later, if I was going to survive whatever was going on.
It looked like Hylla already killed the two headed monster. Even the bull situation seemed under control from what I could see from where I was laying in the middle of the road. But something told me it was like the calm before a very horrible storm.
"Meg." I said, finally finding my voice again, trying to warn her "something is seriously off…"
"Zeph?" Meg sighed, relieved. Her black and pink hair peeked from underneath her helmet. "Oh my God, you scared me…what the.."
Just then, an unknown overwhelming hatred filled my mind. Something inside my head screamed for blood and death. Something really dark. Something ancient and powerful.
Strength coursed through my entire body.
This was very wrong.
I wanted to kill humans
Humans? A portion of my brain asked.
I am…human, right?
No…
Meg must have felt it with her telepathy because she backed up a little, looking worried, "Zephan? Oh my God, your eyes…they are pitch black. What are you…"
I had no idea what she was talking about, but then Brody appeared, striding over, probably finished with his fight against the bull.
In that instant, the dark sensation surged inside me, flooding my mind with that strange, overwhelming hate again. Before Brody even knew what was going on, my body moving completely on its own, I struck—fast, vicious, and without warning.
My fist hit him square in the chest, sending him flying at a high speed, and he crashed hard into a Prius, flattening the hood and shattering the windshields.
What was I doing?
I would never hit Brody, and even if I wanted to, I bet he'd feel anything, that guy literally just stopped that giant bull single handedly.
The rest of the team who had no idea what was going on with me before, having been engaged with the battle, looked at me.
A rollercoaster of emotions went through their faces—shock, rage, confusion and worst, betrayal.
"Zephan!" Meg yelled, looking at me horrified. I wanted to attack her too. The bloodthirst in my head wasn't quenched yet.
My fist closed tightly. No way in hell was I going to let myself hurt Meg, no matter what was going on with me.
But I couldn't control my actions…it felt dreamlike and very wrong. Like I had taken a back seat in my own head and let a raging lunatic take over.
The rest of the Bravo Null squad surrounded me, their eyes filled with anger and some uncertainty, brandishing their weapons.
"What the heck was that just now?" Joshua asked, deadly calm.
He brandished a massive axe, the blade gleamed wickedly, "What are you? Nobody has the strength to toss Brody like some ragdoll, probably not even Hylla. Listen, just be a good boy and put your hands-"
"Wait!" Meg said, trying to hide me behind her, "guys, wait-"
An evil snicker escaped from my lips. So alien and unlike me.
Dark thoughts coiled around my mind like a snake, whispering, pressing…no, I thought, I'm not going to be your puppet.
I knew what was going to happen if I didn't stop this madness.
I needed to fight it!
But how?
My knees hit the ground and I clawed at my skin, hunching over, while vibrating violently, trying to contain what was inside me.
I managed to choke out one word, "Run."
"What are you-?" Sam started, unsure.
"RUUUNNN!" I roared for all I was worth, then I momentarily lost control of myself again. My arms moved on its own, uprooting a stop sign from the side of the road and threw it like a javelin at Sam.