Survival

by Chris Wright

  Mariam floated still, weightless, in a beautiful galaxy of starlight. She turned herself round to face the house, or where she thought the house should be, and saw just a doorway pulsating in infinity. In the doorway she could she see where she had just come from, the blue vein beast slowly swirling itself backwards towards Mateo, and she looked at him tearfully. Oh no, Mateo, she needed to help him. She tried to float back to the house, but the doorway just got further and further away, accelerating at an incredible speed until it was light years away and no longer visible. She was stunned into silence, suspended in space. This couldn't be possible, yet here she was, frozen in an infinite universe, unable to find any direction she could travel. All of a sudden, without moving a muscle, she began to travel, accelerating away in an unknown direction. Stars sizzled past her at lightspeed, myriad galaxies appearing for one fleeting moment before the next one rushed by, the timeless span of order gradually breaking down, before disappearing completely and she was left alone. Alone in the darkness, aimless and powerless, before she also faded away into the infinite.

  Mateo

  Mateo watched with a mix of confusion, horror, intense grief, frustration and anger as Mariam floated in an abundant vacuum of stars and galaxies. None of this could be happening, his mind would not accept it. She turned back and they made eye contact, both of them knowing something was deeply wrong. Their eyes were locked together for what seemed like forever. Neither of them not wanted to look away, as looking away would be letting the other one go, a probable goodbye which neither could do. As if sensing their shared sentiments, the blue flashing web beast swirled around into a new pattern and turned its attention to Mateo. The doorway behind it started to fade, Mariam floating away. He tried to get to the doorway to join her, but as quick as his feet would move, the door would shrink a little more until it had vanished altogether into a tear in dimensional space.

  “Mariam!” He shouted so hard his body nearly crumbled with the effort.

  The beast seemed to roar back at him with a semi-natural grunt, the sound bouncing off the walls towards Mateo, hurtling the sound-waves at his chest. This knocked him back forcefully and he turned to run. The only other way out was the back door, so this was now his primary goal, the only one he thought could keep him alive. He scrambled through the lounge, never looking back, while the beast of blue veins burst itself apart into an uncountable array of particles that spread across the lounge towards Mateo. This was accompanied by more partly synthetic grunts and grinds that hit Mateo like a hurricane force wind, causing him to stagger a couple of feet and smash to the ground. The particles filled the air, flashing like fireflies in the night, filling the room with a pure blue. The flashes created thuds and thumps that engulfed the whole room before collapsing down on to Mateo, who screamed. The whole of the room pulsed faster and faster, the foundations of the house seeming to shake underneath Mateo. The jarring flashes and dissonant vibrations swirled around him, the foundations of reality now beginning to shake. With one last deafening and body trembling crash, Mateo was surrounded by silence.

  The beast had whisked itself away somewhere. Mateo looked around to see if he could see it before he made another attempt to escape, and realise, he was no longer in the lounge. He spun round and saw that he had slipped through the tear in his dimension, and felt his body and mind pulling itself apart. He tried to fight it, bring all of what made him back together, but this caused the pulling to intensify. His mind felt tormented, haunted and his body felt like it was being put through a blender, all the while Mateo trying to resist. Eventually the torture became too much and he let out a deep breath, stopped fighting, and let it be. Within an instant his mind and body were calmed, and an immersive light engulfed him, comforting him. His mind cleared a little and he was able to make out imagery which he'd never seen before. Strange hieroglyphics and symbols that made no sense, sensations and emotions he had never encountered. Colours he'd never glimpsed before danced around him, communicating with him in a language he didn't understand. The colours and imagery merged and convulsed, speaking to him in undecipherable tongues. They were trying to teach him something, but he couldn't grasp what, each unspoken word they sang telepathically at him just bounced off his understanding like water off a duck’s back. The new colours, symbols and hieroglyphics joined together, spewing forth images and language into alien creatures that wrapped themselves around Mateo. They danced him through the doorway to eternity to shake hands with the unspeakable, until finally Mateo understood.

  Brandon and Danny

  Brandon and Danny jumped into Brandon's gigantic 4 x 4, completely unnecessary for city living, but perfect for driving up mountains and wading through rivers. It rumbled to life, shaking Danny from side to side with its roaring engine. It was about twenty years old and Brandon refused to get rid of it, not while it continued to faithfully serve him, even if it did gyrate from side to side as you drove. Brandon told Danny that people paid good money modifying their cars to make them bounce and jump, yet his did it for free, so he was pleased with that. Even though it was as old as it was, it had no trouble scaling hills, dragging trailers and sometimes unwitting animals up with it.

  Their first stop was going to be Mariam and Mateo's house, they said they'd be getting ready to go out, so it made sense to drop by there first. On the journey Brandon told Danny that he could still see shadow figures, intermittently. They were always just around random corners as they drove past, tucked away out of plain sight, but still there nonetheless. They reached Mariam and Mateo's house, pulled over and got out of the shudder-machine. Danny wasn't as tall as Brandon, so had to jump down as if dismounting a horse. They couldn't put their finger on it, but something looked different. They shrugged it off and walked up the path, shortly after ringing the doorbell. They were expected so Mariam and Mateo should have been there, especially as it was only two thirty in the afternoon. They made a couple of attempts though, with no response.

  “They should be here” Danny said, turning to Brandon.

  Brandon sensed something wrong and banged on the door, which duly creaked open with the force from his knuckles. It was obviously unlocked and not shut properly, which was strange. Even though it was a decent neighbourhood, no one ever left doors unlocked and open any more. Danny called out their names as he lent his head through the door. Again, there was no response, which they both found a little unnerving in the light of what had been happening to them.

  “Do you think we should go in?” Danny asked, before yelling their names through the open door again.

  Brandon didn't hesitate for another moment and wandered in, shouting their names as well. Danny followed and they walked down the hall to the lounge, both still calling out Mateo and Mariam's names. There seemed to be no disturbance from what they could tell. There was a laptop on the couch and a mobile phone on the table, with nothing else out of the ordinary.

  “I'm going to try calling Mateo, maybe they nipped out for something and hadn't realised they left the door open” Brandon said as he reached into his pocket for his phone.

  Danny thought this was a little naïve of him, after everything that they'd talked about. Brandon had to be reminded of what happened on the previous days, but for Danny it was as fresh as today, so he cut him some slack. Danny was convinced in the back of his mind, that bit that was probably still slightly sane, that this wasn't a good sign. His mobile phone started to ring Mateo's and they heard something in the distance, Mateo's phone chirping back. They followed the sound into the study to find his mobile sitting on the desk next to his laptop, no sign of Mateo. They called their names again, as they checked every room in the house and the back garden, but there was no sign of them.

  “Why would they go out without either mobile with them? And leave their laptops on and the door open?” Brandon said concerned, but Danny knew why.

  “They've gone Brandon, whatever that creature is has been here, how else can we explain it?”

  Brandon shook his head. They
had talked in length about all this, but part of him still didn't believe it, it just couldn't be. He was angry with himself, and still in denial, muttering one thing to Danny and then the complete opposite the next.

  “Look man, there's nothing we could have done” Danny said putting his hand on Brandon's shoulder, his arm at full stretch just to reach that high.

  “I should have warned them on the phone” Brandon cried.

  “It wouldn't have made any difference, it would have happened. The only difference is they would have known beforehand that it was going to happen, that's if they believed us in the first place”

  It didn't help Brandon's guilt, and certainly didn't make his anger subside, which duly resulted in him punching the wall beside him, with all the might and frustration he had. Danny then gulped and swore under his breath. What about Gina? She could be in danger now, or they could be too late for her too. He yanked his phone out of his pocket frantically and dialled Gina. The phone rang, so he waited anxiously for her to answer. Eventually it rang off and went to her voicemail.

  “Dammit” He shouted, “We need to check on Gina”

  They dashed out to the 4 x 4, jumping in as quickly as they could, Danny having to have a second attempt after bouncing back off the vehicle on his first. They sped off with little time for Danny to close his door. They both had a very bad feeling about all this, Danny more so than Brandon, as he had witnessed the reality monster in all its ugly ferocity.

  It took less than ten minutes to get to Gina's, Brandon shouting at the shadow figures that kept appearing here and there, almost distracting him. They were certainly getting more frequent, with some appearing closer and closer to him. He knew that this wasn't good, but ploughed on, as their target was to reach Gina as quick as they could. When they reached her house, they leapt out the vehicle, barely having time to turn the engine off and ran up her path, banging furiously on her door.

  Again, there was no answer, so they continued louder and louder, refusing to give up. Eventually they did, Danny's knuckles were starting to burn, the skin red raw and he knew there was no chance she was likely to be in there. She was another casualty of the reality creature's game. He still had no idea what was really happening, and with each passing day things got worse, with no more answers. They were both sighing, leaning on Gina's front door, unable to speak as they didn't know what to say next. Brandon looked across to Danny and pulled himself back from the door. He clasped his hand into a fist, let out an angry grunt and flung it in the direction of Danny.

  Danny looked round and saw Brandon's fist launched in his direction, wondering what he was doing. He didn't have time to move or react in any way, as this was completely unexpected, which was quickly becoming the theme of his life. Brandon's fist missed Danny, instead shooting behind his back to some other assailant. Danny spun his head round to find the momentum carried Brandon with it, his whole body in motion, in attack mode against the empty space.

  “Fucker......” Brandon screamed as he stumbled slightly, as if expecting to hit some resistance, but passing through whatever was there. He turned back to Danny panting.

  “What are you doing?” Danny exclaimed, although he could probably guess if he thought about it properly.

  “I saw one of those shadow fuckers standing right next to you” He replied, “The little bastard rippled away again”

  Danny looked around himself nervously, he hadn't seen anything that time, but Brandon clearly had.

  “We should go” Danny said, although where to, he had no idea. Where could they go where these figures wouldn't be?

  They started walking towards the 4 x 4, Brandon still swearing at what he said were figures in the distance, shimmering in a taunting intangible way. They jumped back in the 4 x 4, not sure where to go. Brandon started up the engine and just drove, in no particular direction, just anywhere to try and clear their heads and make a decision on what they should do. After a couple of minutes, the whole landscape seemed to alter very slightly, as if someone was turning down the contrast. It was only three in the afternoon; the sun shouldn't be setting for hours yet. Brandon screeched the car to a halt outside a shopping mall and looked out his window for a better look. The sky all around them took on a much deeper tint than normal, what was this? They both got out of the 4 x 4 and looked around them, things were beginning to feel strange, the normal sounds of the city were muted, a blanket of silence thrown over the normal hustle and bustle. They glanced round, where were all the people? It was a Saturday afternoon and this district of the city was normally heaving with people, all out to enjoy their weekend. The sky seemed to fade a little darker again and Danny looked up to see if it was really happening or whether he was imagining it. The sky looked like it had a mesh across it, a web of fibres, very faint but noticeable.

  “I don't where everyone is Brandon” Danny said panicked, looking back down, “None of this feels right”.

  Brandon hummed in agreement and they both instinctively walked towards the mall entrance, hoping to find someone in there. They entered through the big glass doors and as they did so, Brandon was tugged back by something invisible. Danny grabbed his arm to pull him forward and they both stumbled into the mall. Whatever it was that grabbed Brandon had slipped away as quick as it had appeared. They were both much more nervous now than they had been before, they could both sense something was deeply deeply wrong with how things were going, both filled with a hopeless dread. There was a loud screech and it felt as if the mall was calling to them, like it was scratching away its glass facade into an audible howl. They thought this unearthly call came from behind them, so they ran further into the mall, when all of a sudden Danny saw people ahead and pointed them out to Brandon. They continued on in their direction, Brandon shouting that he saw more shadow figures. Danny glanced round too, he could now see the odd gleaming figure, there one minute, gone the next. They appeared to be all around them, all the time the light around them dimming little by little. Danny suddenly stopped in his tracks as he saw a familiar face, in the distance was Julie, the beautiful woman he had met a few days ago. She seemed to be running in the same direction as them.

  “Julie?” Danny shouted, to which she turned around.

  She noticed him straight away and waved them both in her direction. She had a terrified look in her eyes, and seemed to be looking behind them. Danny's head bobbed round to see what new horror was hunting them and saw that the glass facade had shattered into a living entity that was spiralling towards them. They all continued to run away from it, hoping there wasn't anything ahead of them too. They caught up with Julie and with a sudden flash, time seemed to slow. He looked at Julie as she was slowly being pulled up and away above them.

  “I tried” She shouted to them both, “But it was too late, keep running”

  What did that mean? She tried what? He cried her name and jumped up to reach her, an absurd thing to try and do, but he couldn't think of anything else. With a further flash, and an intense blue ripple around them, she faded away, taken from his view and thrown to a place he didn't understand.

  The glass-creature swirled closer, the whole passage of time slowing further. The web-like sky had started pulsing blue, and began oozing into the mall entrance, glimmering and flashing obsessively. Danny was now slightly ahead of Brandon, who was unusually lagging behind, as they both continued forward. They noticed that they were able to catch up with the other people much faster than they should, time seeming to be stretched. The glass-creature also began to flash, another web of blue veins slowly appearing all over it, and all around it, shadowy forms emitting a high-pitched metallic clang grew closer towards them. Brandon tried to keep up with Danny, who was a few feet in front, but he was being drawn back by some invisible force. He looked back and saw that a thin strand of blue thread had attached itself to him. The thread was growing and throbbing with a neon blue, the glass-creature it was attached to being propelled forward to him, quicker than Brandon could sprint.

  Danny loo
ked round, as he was aware that Brandon had dropped back further, and watched as the scene unfolded in slow motion. The blue veins multiplied around Brandon, the glass creature whined ethereal sounds that chinked the reality around them, causing a sea of visible vibrations. The shadow figures seemed to jump in and out of sight, gradually being swallowed by the glass-creature, the blue tentacles coiling themselves around more of reality bit by bit, gaining momentum and snapping at Brandon's body.

  The tentacles finally brought Brandon down, who slammed to the floor. To Danny this was all happening in slow motion. He watched as time slowed down even more, Brandon's pained face slowly contorting, his eyes dazed and terrified but still fixed ahead at Danny. Time ticked slower and slower. Could Danny run back and fight the creature while in this strange almost timeless state? He decided to try and turn back towards him. As he did, he found he couldn't get there, there was some kind of barrier that forced him back, that was impossible to penetrate. He tried and tried and tried, Brandon's slow ear-piercing shrieks whipping past Danny like bullets, as the neon tentacles engulfed him, turning him into a matrix of blue flashes. Danny knew there was nothing he could do, Brandon was slowly being devoured by the reality creature, and he had no way of reaching him. Danny turned back to run and the force that was holding him back pushed him forward. Behind him the slow agonising death continued unabated, what should have taken seconds turning into minutes. He prayed for Brandon, prayed that he wasn't experiencing everything as slowly as he was, as he ran further and further ahead. He couldn't look back any more, it was too hard, all he could think about was trying to reach safety, but he had no idea where that was and if it was even a possibility.