Using the collar of my dress shirt, I fan myself, attempting to defend against the humidity that lingers even in Penn Station; a dirty, miserable mugginess. It was an early morning for me, albeit they all were. All of the dungeoneering offices interview the Magicless "E-10" applicants first thing in the morning because while not practical to hire E-10, it was mandatory. So they interviewed a minimum of one per morning to cross off a list. I tossed my coffee in the nearest bin and meandered through the crowd to wait at the platform for the 3 train to Brooklyn.
The sea of office workers around me are likely all E-10 like me. E-10 is a government protection—standing for Expendables, the lowest class, who are exempt from mandatory dungeoneering for the first four years of adulthood. I'm broke, I just graduated at twenty-two years old, and I'm applying for any dungeoneering corp that will loan me a cubicle.
I leaned against a wall near the platform and reached into my pants pocket, dodging loose change and old receipts to grab my phone. I looked at the time along the backdrop of the blank screen saver. It read 7:06 AM, Monday, May twentieth. I grimaced quietly. It still doesn't feel like 2030, I thought to myself. Ten years since—
I felt someone's gaze and raised my eyes and searched through the grey and navy and black, spotting an older woman looking at me, snapping her eyes away the moment they met mine. I looked back down on my phone and saw a text from Bonnie, my best friend, roommate, and a fellow Expendable; although she had magic abilities, she also had Cerebral Palsy. I opened the text and responded:
Bonnie
U forgot to lock the door again
Me
sry, was in a rush. got an interview in Brooklyn
Bonnie replied quickly telling me not to worry, and wished me good luck. I thanked her, and put my phone away. I pulled the collar of my shirt that stuck to my sweat and I crossed my arms and my legs, leaning against the surprisingly cool wall, waiting for the train. The morning crowd was pretty quiet today, so in between the relative silence I could hear many bland conversations about naggy bosses, naggy wives and the naggy humidity. I could subtly feel the subway rumble the ground and the wall I leaned on as it neared.
The PA informed the morning crowd of the 3-train arriving, and the platform floors hummed stronger as the train flew on its rails, hastily approaching. Uncrossing my arms and grabbing my briefcase by its leather handle, I leaned off the wall and inched my way between the morning commuters towards the front of the platform to get on the train. The air was still very warm, and a swarm of hot morning garbage flowed into Penn Station, accosting my nostrils. If I ever make enough money, I'm leaving this damn city, I said to myself, my nose scrunched.
The train rumbled through in front of the crowd and scraped smoothly across the metal rails to a halt, and I weaved through the suit-donning workers, ducked my head into the train car glancing around for a moment before spotting a decent seat about ten feet from the door, setting my briefcase down and taking a seat. It was unbelievably refreshing in the car, the AC running cold as ever, and I couldn't be more thankful. I set my briefcase down on the ground, and heard a small scuffle. The old woman that was looking at me earlier had just fallen down. A number of people just walked past her so I set my briefcase down on my seat, stood up and strode over to her, extending my hand to her. She glanced me up and down, took my offering of help, and I hoisted her up to her feet, carefully, and deliberately. Now, on her feet, she dusted off her black work pants and black blazer, and I asked if she was okay.
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you dear," she smiled. She had green eyes like mine, but her dyed blonde hair and white skin contrasted my black, loose curls and deep olive skin. She was not a particularly small woman, but was dwarfed next to my towering height and broad shoulders: what I believe to be one of my few redeeming features.
"Good,"I said, taking her arm softly and leading her to my seat. I picked up my briefcase and ushered her into the seat, "have my seat,"
"Oh, you don't need to do that honey," she said with a sweetness reminiscent of a grandmother.
"Ahh don't worry, it's just a few stops for me," I said, smiling. I found a hand strap to hold on to and waited for the train to get moving. I was listening to the continued conversations of people entering the train, relishing the cool air with my eyes closed when the humidity quickly trumped the AC and a rush of a horrible smell entered the subway car. This smell.
As I covered my nose with the collar of my shirt, the ground lurched horribly, sending me barreling quickly to the window and onto the person sitting in front of me, and as I recovered myself, beginning to panic, a child began crying, a mother attempting to hush them very exhaustedly. The ground continued rumbling consistently after the big lurk, the platform lights and the ones within the train sputtering. This felt very familiar, and I looked around and saw all of the people in the train put together the answer in their minds and began to panic.
"There was just one yesterday," said a man wearing a blue suit and red tie, carrying a small backpack.
"Yeah, my office handled that one," answered another suit.
Not this. Please, not this. My breathing suddenly tightened, the muscles in my legs locked them to the ground, and my hands and arms began to tremble as my upper body grew chills. My breathing was shallow and quick with panic, and I could not control my eyes as they began to water hotly.
The ground lurched again and sent me harshly to my hands and knees and my heart began racing, beating like a drum in my ears mixing with the loudly rumbling station floors. The rumbles grew in strength, the lights being knocked out, sending the civilians in the train and on the platform reeling in the darkness. People began screaming and panicking, and the air was thick with the hot smell of beasts.
The rumbling quieted for a moment, shaking only subtly, the lights flashing back on, blinding my eyes for a slow moment, and a cold, detached and robotic female voice screeched on to the PA, the sound now filling the station through the antiquated speakers in the platform.
"Attention citizens near Midtown, Manhattan. A Gate has appeared underground near Penn Station. Find cover or flee to a shelter. Do not panic. I repeat, do not panic."
Upon having suspicions confirmed, the mob grew into a frenzy. People yelled and fell over each other running out of the small subway doors, throwing curse words at each other in distress. My legs and arms were still weak on the shaking floor, sweat growing in my hair with the burning heat of Magicules snapping through the already humid air.
Sirens began blaring loudly onto the platform, shooting through my ears. The heat on my body, the horrid odor in my nose, this dirty taste in my mouth.
I saw blood the color of rust. I breathed harshly, shakily, quickly. My arms trembled. I felt her hand wipe my tears from my face with the rest of her energy. Chills resurfaced over my skin. Entrails, flesh, bone, crimson to maroon. My stomach dropped and my head spun with the flashes of memory circulating my mind's eye. Sweat dripped from my hair to the ground. I remembered the weight of a corpse as it died. I felt stuck on my hands and knees. I felt as stuck under my own Mothers' corpse as I did in that grimy Bronx alley on my first day of middle school.
"The Stars, Tato," my mothers voice told me, and I began tearing up, my breath now trembling into a sob. "You know I love you right," she told me between dying gasps.
My own weakness created the further weakness of my self-contempt. I'm such a weakling I repeated in my head.
"Get out of the way lady!" Said a man in the corner of my eye, and the woman I helped earlier fell to the ground again, and she grunted loudly.
Dammit Tato! Get up! Help her!
In the midst of the fleeing mob, I lifted my arm to the edge of a seat and pushed up with all my strength to steady my quivering body. I lifted my head into the running foot of an escaping passenger, my nose filling with warm blood and my eyes tearing again hotly
"Aw, shit!" I cried out, gripping my throbbing bleeding nose, glancing at my hand to see the blood that was flowing out, and I writhed on the floor for a few moments. I wanted to cry. Cry because of my mother, because I am weak, because I am powerless.
"HELP!" The old lady cried over the blaring sirens, snapping my attention. I turned my head to her and through blood and tears made a decision.
If I could help her, even at the cost of my life, perhaps I'm not so weak.
I inhaled the hot air through my nose as I wiped the blood from my face and tensed my entire body as I exhaled, praying for my limbs to work. I rose, one arm, one leg at a time and clenched my jaw as I walked to the lady lying on the floor clutching her leg, writhing in a quiet pain.
"Ma'am" I said timidly, my voice quivering. The subway was now void of the fleeing, and the platform was quickly thinning of panicked workers. The floors of the platform were soon to only rattle below the older lady and I. My self-contempt slowly faded as I realized a duty, albeit self-imposed.
My voice steadied, clear, and I exhaled confidently, over the sirens who filled the train and platform: "Ma'am"
"Please help me," she moaned, hardly audibly; still she lay writhing subtly on the ground.
"I will, I promise you." I said, lowering to one knee and grabbing her shoulder, encouraging her carefully with my hand for her to turn around onto her rear. "Turn around and I can help you up, ma'am, okay?"
Her breath tremored as her body did as she turned over, pushing off the ground with her old hands. The glimmer of silver and diamond shone from her left ring finger.
Her breath still shook as she faced me and said an exasperated thank you, brushing her blonde bob out of her face with both trembling hands and she took a deep breath. I glance at her eyes, they gaze back into me a strange liminal emotion.
Still on her level on my knees: "On three" I extend my hands for hers, hers disappearing into mine as I reach the third count and I stand up from my knees, carefully and slowly as to ensure she does not stand too hastily.
As she rose, I turned slowly into her trembling left arm so that I could be a crutch, waiting until her right was by her side and her feet flat on the rumbling train until I took the first step.
"I'll take you to the nearest exit, and hopefully we find a bunker near," I said as we took a slow step out of the subway car onto the platform, wherein the heat quickly formed additional beads of sweat that rolled from my short black hair to my forehead, entering my eyes. The sirens echoed louder in the hollow train station, spinning my head for a moment. She took the first careful step.
Hauling the weight of her shaking arm draped over my shoulder and holding onto her with my opposite, I dragged my feet deliberately along the newly dirtied rumbling marble towards the sign informing that the nearest exit was ahead and down a corridor where flickering lights challenged the visibility to the right.
She began to sweat a bit as well, but her shaking calmed with her heat exhaustion. The quaking ground forced our slow pace, but we walked carefully and steadily and consistently as the sirens still droned sharply and a new yet recognizable scent of blood shot through the hot air.
"Just another few steps, ma'am," I reassured her and subconsciously myself as we grew nearer the corridor, the failing bulbs growing apparent. The hot air weakened my stride quicker as I turned the corner, her arm growing more limp and the effort I exerted holding her up intensified.
"We're almost there ma-" I spoke, smiling slightly in relief, but was interjected by an obstinate arm around my shoulder growing hot and crackling with Magicules; even the skin felt tough with the unmoving stiffness of her arm.
"What is it, we need to kee—" I looked ahead at what held her in place and the locking of my lungs forced an end to my words. I began shaking in fear, my legs again locking up, and my breath stubbornly returning for need of air however shakily and quickly.
Lycans. Those mutts killed my mother! I thought after a very short glance, taking a more forceful approach on the immovable woman, leaning down, apologizing for my lack of grace, wrapping my arm around her legs and putting her on my shoulder and running to the stairs that led to the surface. I set her down on the stairs as carefully as I could, she was still shocked, feet stubbornly planted on the steps.
"GO!!!" I yelled, startling her, her stature changing to a state of hyper awareness and panic, eyes shifting back to an erratic focus, and snapping to mine
"B-but they'll chase us, though!" she yelled, despite already turning halfway up the stairs at my loud behest.
"JUST GO!!!"
"I—I'm sorry," she said with pitiful and sad eyes that shot into me a feeling of inevitability.I glanced at the down shortly and looked at her. I forced a sad looking smile in response and whipped my head around to the two Lycans, now a mere ten feet away, gripping the handrail turning my knuckles white as I heard the ladies footsteps disappear to the streets above ground. The lights flickering, the bulbs' sputter audible in the void of a station, blood now overwhelming my nose. I observed the Lycans, in terror, my quivering breath growing fast.
Blood stained their thick brown coats black and their teeth red, panting an almost palpably hot breath. Each step, the Magicules in their bodies snapped and crackled red on their fur as their muscles contracted with each ominously careful and slow stride. Their yellow eyes glowed as they fixated on me.
I was horrified, legs now locked in place before the steps, legs trembling greatly but unmoving, my fists balled as my arms and shoulders all lost their confidence and began a quick shake, chills spreading throughout my body. My breath was lost and quick; my eyes, wide and unblinking, watching the beasts in terror.
Muscle lying uselessly over bone.
Entrails left exposed, unappetizing, stinking.
Blood turns from warm to cold.
Light and lively to heavy and limp.
My prismatic world, dulled by a grey film.
That is what these beasts will do to me.