"Five, four, three, two… come on Backster, put some effort into it"
Heavy breathing followed by an indifferent sigh "I am sir" – 'does this bastard seriously expect me to lift two-hundred kilograms' buzz-buzz 'I guess that should be my queue'
"Coach, is it not much easier to show me my form, I might have improved but both you and I know that I am not at a sufficient level yet"
'I don't know exactly why it is, but this big oaph declared himself my personal trainer…'
Coach sounded elated to announce my inferiority, so seeing him lift a hundred made me want to spite his lack of bite behind his barks, sadly he proceeded to lift a hundred with each hand, the relative ease of which he did it was remarkable especially considering that we are in the stasis town.
"You do look weaker than you were a week ago, even I'm not sure why, anything you might want to tell?"
'Dang it, he's onto me' despite Backster's lack of enthusiasm he could probably still lift a hundred and fifty, but today he can't afford to exert himself.
"I think it's because I haven't rested since we started even on that on Saturday, last week- who knew rest was so important?"
With a bit of scepticisms he shrugged "Go, I know your girlfriend has better things than to wait for a scoundrel such as yourself…"
After a long pause he sighed looked back and added "Despite what might happen, just remember that I have taught you what I… you needed… need to make it"
'I wonder what that's all about' – "Thanks coach, but like I said last week, I do not have a girlfriend…" murmuring the last words "they all run when they see me coming anyway…"
"What's that?"
"Nothing much, see you later coach!"
Autumn is a pretty busy time of the year at least it used to be, now that it no longer happens as intended people chose to remain inside until dawn from dusk, with but a couple of hours remaining in the safety of day, the streets were already empty, but Backster seems to have it in his head that today of all days, he is going to stay up. Why this madman is risking his life is beyond reason really, who in their right mind wants to see…
With a couple of sighs after a long sprint he finally made it to his destination albeit the time he had left was mediocre at best, he steeled himself and rose to his feet, the garage door slowly rose as well, letting the sun in. The timer at the end of the dark room, red digits for time, told him he had about an hour left before the first one shows up, he had to hurry and get ready, lest he wait until tomorrow, 'knowing coach I doubt that he'll let me off so easy twice in a row, and I can't risk going without preparations,' wearing the heavy amour he crafted, wait what heavy armour? what the heck is this numskull thinking? Even fully equipped heavy artillery gave up the night and this fool plans to go out with hand crafted armour, admittedly it was remarkable, carbon fibre, hints of tungsten, silver, titanium and gold accents. It probably cost him a fortune or not, he is resourceful, considering the junk lying next to his home furnace- the "Crimson chamber" is what he named it. After a solid 5 year of failure, he could have finished a year ago if that coach didn't suddenly appear, 2-3 years ago, slowing down his progress. This seriously outlandish piece of armament is only possible through the amalgamation of modern science and medieval research that he accumulated, with strange carvings adorning it. This masterpiece is what coach calls his girlfriend.
'I wonder where that weird guy even came from and why insisted on training me, must just be another old man growing senile, well enough about him, I have about thirty minutes left'
With that said he went outside, bizarre as it might be, and even more strange of a view, (at least if anyone was crazy enough to be outside now to see him) is seeing someone lock their shelter from the outside- he installed the strange locks earlier this year. Secured and ready, a bit nervous, he stared at the ushers of the night, the stars. Shades of orange slowly faded and soon replaced by deep darkness of the night. As you might have surmised, what would be the need to waste energy lighting the night, knowing full well that no one dares tread these streets, not even the slightest hint of illumination finds its way outside. The buildings themselves either do not shine light at all or they use no windows, only God knows what happens if anyone lets any of it spill outside, even the moon, which is no more, dared not impose its brilliance only the distant stars tried- oblivious as they are. Backster knew this too, but today he could not wait. He did not throw caution out the window though, he chose to avoid the areas with shelter and now was in a vast field miles away from the nearest safety point in every direction, in fact nothing was visible from every direction, nothing but wide horizons. His thirty minutes had long run out the only difference was that although night had fallen, everything did not immediately hurdle into disaster. Now, after a couple of hours he was starting to get bored, 'are they even coming' maybe it was him who ventured too far.
His anticipation was slowly waning. With a sudden scream, things changed, pale, as his boredom was instantly forgotten and replaced with dread. '… I had a good life at least'
However, just as sudden as the noise came it vanished without a trace. Which filled him with an even deeper feeling of… of joy. He looked through the visor in his helmet and started walking to where he heard the scream. What he saw terrified him, not because of fear, but worry. In front of him lay a young girl, with her hands covering her face,
'She must be just as scared as I am'
"Hey there, what are you doing outside?"
She answered with tears and a muffled voice which didn't help with his suspicions: "My… my mom s-she said if I get lost, I should keep moving straight"
'she might just be a lost little girl, her mother was right the problem is the girl forgot the direction her mother pointed, because everyone has a general rule that if children, even if not yours are seen around alone, then it is everyone's responsibility to shelter her, at least until dawn-damn it, that's probably why her mother isn't looking for her, before my growth spurt, even I spent my nights in multiple shelters being the scoundrel that I am'
"What's your name?"
"… Lerva"
'Goodness! Wait why did she scream, the veil of darkness came ages ago- and her name, I could be wrong, but it almost sounds like she's saying Larva, or Leva, doesn't matter'
"Mine is Knight, stay with me"
'I know what you might be thinking, but with my outfit and me being out here, her telling the others about me could spell problems for me later'
Backster knows no one knows he's outside because that would require them to look outside, and even if they did, he was clad in armour, better to be cautious instead.
'Looks like it's not going to be next time, what am I even talking about this far out there's no way I can get her back, and no one will open anyway, I can't even open my door because then I'll have to take off my gauntlets, the only chance at survival is to hold off until morning, but… but… that's pure madness- unfortunately for this kid it just went from I'm gonna die to we're gonna die'
"Stupid question but…" he stares at her intently, "… do you wanna live Kid?"
"…" fear consumed her and then instantly the impenetrable darkness shifted, and our Knight felt it too.
Kling Klang as he landed on the flour with a yelp, he lifted himself up, as is the heavy armour weighed nothing and tossed a glance upward as his sword split the darkness in two, two masses of disturbing flesh landed, one writhing in agony, a grotesque mix of intestines, about a couple of meters when stretched, now churning in a bundle that is barely a meter long, ligaments connecting the adjacent ends of the worm like matter, almost like the folds in a brain, with a transparent film around it- mucus acting like skin to cover it nerves spilling everywhere, no humane features visible, and hard calcareous claws, with green ilk covering it – poison, where exactly these are connected is a wonder.
Then was the unmoving part, an amalgamation of human features lifeless and dull, eyes, hair, toes, and teeth (not aligned or near each other). This was almost a collage of human parts, multiple pancreases and kidneys hanging out, some gorged out, others almost intact, all squashed into paste, and shaped into a disturbing visage of a centipede, and the wriggling half acting as the main body and the dull part for locomotion, and adorned with … with its trophies- the mangled up flesh of its victims.
'Hell, did I just kill one'
After a glance at his sword, he realised how foolish he really was, the part that sliced the abomination was green, and it was spreading, meaning that the real creature is the vile substance, because after wiping it on the grass the top half of the started moving as the green liquid started seeping into it, it slowly attached to the bottom half, but then his attention was elsewhere by then, of course he couldn't see any of all this including the little girl, he was merely relying on the faint glow of his armour, because for him everything looked like it was him being submerged in a pool of black paint, blinded, he had to move towards things to notice them, and for Backster his senses were sharp, all in preparation of today, so he did not see the movements of the liquid but he surmised as much from its smell slowly disappearing and the slight tremors of flesh moving, but as mentioned earlier that was the least of his concerns, because he could hear the rustle of grass under the movement of something foreign, all probably versions of the creature he sliced that is coming back together to his horror.
'One, two three, four, … nine, ten!' luckily the rest were still ignoring him. The ten that seem fascinated with him and his companion seem to be the ones that picked up on the faint glow, it is extremely faint though.
Three lunged at him scraping the armour, which creaked but held.
The reason he asked if she wanted to live was simple, Backster himself did not come this far to die, but he did not once think that he would make it out alive. Now he had a change of plans.
'Do tell what this change in plans might be cause we both know that me and her are the same as those walking atrocities – "not yet dead!"'
His plans were in shambles, what were his plans?
'Slaughter as many of these horrifying creatines as I can before I succumb to the horde, as they will rush him as soon as the others notice the others movements, cause for all of me, I do not know how these things maneuverer especially considering their lack of live sensory organs and the fact that only the green sludge in them actually resembles living. Now that I must protect… wait the scream, don't tell me the liquid touched her bare skin…'
Slowly turning his head to face the girl even amidst all this peril, due to the rancid scent of the liquid, he smelled sprawled across her legs.
'That means its slow'
Not knowing weather, they could hear him he asked her once more "Do you want to live"
A whole tense second passed as she softly said, "…please, I want to see mommy, help me, I want to live"
Filled with grim resolve, he put his gauntlet over her mouth, almost unbearably so, he quickly raised his sword and ruthlessly scaped her skin off, the parts tainted, her muffled scream did not reach far, he could smell tears flowing over her skin, and the he pulled spare porous carbon fibre alloy that almost appeared as leather, he used as his internal suit, and was good enough to function as a bandage. He then continued to tie her on his back and just like that all his cloth vanished, 'I guess no strangling them, it's not like they have necks anyway- I hope not, they are already disturbing as they are.'
"Crap"