In the eye of the Serpent

A giant serpent come down from the heavens and coiled itself around the earth, separating the world in two.

For the last four days, Peter stared intently at the Great Serpent. The monster’s scaly body stood like a wall with the top lost in the clouds. Peter sat in the old bunker out of sight, an old horse his only companion. The bunker was no place for an animal, but Peter had to make sure not to be discovered by what he feared most. Peter’s blood turned cold as he realised that the moment, he was waiting for came.

The parasites, which came to be named abaddons, become irritated and a swarm of them took off southeast. The side of the Serpent was clear of danger. Peter had a sudden urge to run towards it and do what he came for, but the rational part of his mind stopped him. He knew he wouldn’t have enough time, he had to wait. After all, he will only get one chance at this. Peter gathered his things and got ready to leave, trying not to think about the gunshots in the distance.

Soon enough abaddons returned to the side of the Serpent and Peter moved out. He hastily moved from the bunker towards some withered trees, to behind some hill while leading his horse from behind, if things went poorly his old partner may be his only chance. When Peter made sure he was out of sight he started running towards the southeast, the place of carnage.

 On his way, Peter noticed a few dead abaddons and was immediately impressed. The rifle he was carrying was almost useless against these parasites, the men who did this probably had some of those new weapons designed specifically to kill abaddons. The fact that they had enough money for them and even were here in the first place meant that they were doing one of the last profitable jobs you can get in Europe: harvesting food.

Harvesters worked in teams of four, two men and two horses. One-man rides and lures away all surrounding abaddons while the other extract’s as much meat from the Great Serpent as possible before new ones emerge, then hops on his horse and rides away as quickly as possible. 

Further down the road, Peter saw what was left of the horse and even further ahead he reached the place of harvesters' last stand.

An Asian man was leaning against a rock, breathing heavily. From the amount of blood around the place, Peter guessed he won’t be finding the other person. The Asian man had yet to notice Peter as he was murmuring something to himself between breaths. Peter got closer and realised he was speaking Chinese.

“Do you speak English?” asked Peter. “Maybe French or Russian?”

Asian man looked up with woozy eyes. It looked like he had trouble concentrating and when Peter moved in even closer, he saw the bites clearly. He knew he would find them, there was no other reason why abaddons would leave a person alive. They left him to suffer what was probably the worst death imaginable he could think of.

“English is fine.” Asian man answered after a few seconds.

“Good. My name is Peter can you tell me yours?”

Asian man looked around himself and saw all the blood that was not his, his eyes quickly filled itself with tears like he just remembered the situation he was in. 

“My name is Yuan,” he whimpered and slumped to the ground.

Peter stood in silence; he didn’t know what to say. What would you say to a man that is about to die?

“Abaddon jumped out from behind the rock and wounded Marc’s horse,” Yuan said. “In shock, I did not hold my horse’s leash tight enough and it ran away.” 

Can’t blame the horse, Peter thought, if some grotesque shrimp half the size of a horse and with claws like knows jumped in front of me, I would run away too. I did run in a similar situation.

“And that idiot Marc shot the damn parasite in panic,” Yuan continued. “And in a matter of minutes a whole swarm was upon us, it is like they feel when one of them is hurt”

Peter knew this all too well, make a noise some distance away and those monsters don’t care, shoot one of them and all of them in a kilometre radius will come crashing down on you. What made the phenomena even more baffling is that they never made any sound and yet abaddons knew instantly when one of them was in trouble.

“Do you know what will happen to you now?” Peter asked with a heavy voice.

That was a stupid question, there was no way Yuan didn’t know but Peter had to have this conversation.

Yuan’s eyes filled themselves with tears again. “I saw it happen once,” he said. “My old partner once got too greedy, stayed too long and got bitten. His body contorted and swelled, the growths that sprang from his skin, the inhuman scream and then silence. I looked him in the eyes before he ran off, they were no light there.”

He looked Peter in the eyes. “I don’t want to become a mindless zombie just waiting for when abbadons eggs hatch and eat me from inside.”

Yuan softened his voice and with a pained expression asked Peter. “I don’t have any bullets left can you end this for me, please?”

“We have time before you feel any pain,” Peter answered. “Could you talk with me until then?”

“I’m in no hurry,” Yuan smiled weakly, tears drying on his face. “What do you want to know?”

“Just some small talk, anything you like.” 

“What are you doing here Peter?”

“The same thing as you, I imagine” Peter answered as he sat down in front of Yuan. “I work as a harvester. Though as no more soil in Europe that can grow anything that might be ending.”

“No more soil? What about farms in the south?”

“I thought you might not have heard. The crops last year were so bad that it was decided to abandon Europe altogether. Most are moving to Africa, those who have more money are sailing to South America. Only scientists and some military personnel are staying, I’m not sure how much are they willing to buy from us.”

“I see, so I lost yet another homeland,” Yuan said with a sad smile.

“Did you come here during the Great War?” Peter asked.

“Yes, I was sent as a worker to help the British empire. From Britain, I was sent to the French and then further down the south. Then the Serpent came down from the heaven’s, coiled around the earth and I was stuck on this side of the world. For many years I and my comrades tried to get home but there is no passing the Great Serpent.”

“I know, you can’t climb it,” interjected Peter, “you can’t fly over it, even radio waves can’t get through.”

“Where is your home Peter,” Yuan asked carefully.

“I live on the shore of the Baltic sea, on the other side of this snake. If scientists are right with the approximation of the size of the Serpent it only crushed central Europe, my hometown should still be safe.”

“What are you doing on this side of Europe then? You were in the war too?”

Peter nodded, after a second and continued. “I was with the allies too. We were giving chase to the enemy when that damn snake came down. I wish I joined the first recruitment when the Germans came, maybe I could have taken my wife and kids here when they retreated from my town.”

Yuan said nothing. Peter realised that he killed the mood, he was surprised that it was even possible in this situation. “Do you have a family Yuan?” he asked, desperate to continue the conversation.

“I do not know, do I?” From a faraway look, it was clear that Yuan started reminiscing about the past. “15 years have passed, who knows how things on the other side are. The small part of Asia that is left on this side of the snake is already dead as all land near the serpent. There was always a shortage of food in my village, now that even land is decaying so horribly, I do not even know if I want to find out how things are over there anymore.”

“I want to go to the other side,” Peter said. “I have hope that my family is still waiting for me there.”

“How can you have hope after everything that happened?”

“I believe if God wills it, I will meet my family.”

“You still believe in God after everything you saw? Are you of those who scream that this is god’s punishment for our sins?”

“No,” Peter said with a light chuckle, “it was hard to keep my faith over the years but let me put it this way. For the last 15 years since the Serpent descended, I kept praying every evening to let me meet my family. If I manage to get on the other side and find that my family is well, I will know that the Lord has not abandoned me.”

“I see,” Yuan answered drily. “I kind of get your point. If you manage to get to the other side of the creature it would be nothing short of a miracle. Too bad it is not possible.”

Peter smiled. “Actually, I have a plan.”

“Plan?” Yuan asked clearly sceptical.

“I heard this from the pilots at the military base.” Peter started explaining. “When you go up about 200 meters near the snake you can sometimes notice an interesting phenomenon," the plane starts getting pulled towards the Serpent. Upon closer inspection, they noticed that small vents open throughout the creature’s body and start sucking up air. Since the Serpent is mostly black as is its flesh too it’s almost impossible to notice from the ground, hence why it was undetected for so long.”

“I’m sorry, maybe I’m a bit woozy in the head because of my… condition, but how should that help you get home?”

Peter noticed that Yuan was sweating a lot, his time was running out. “It’s simple really, I’m going to climb up to the vent get inside it and travel through the snake towards the other side.”

“Your plan is too crazy.” Yuan started making longer pauses between word and his breathing got heavier. “There is too much that can go wrong, I mean...”

“Don’t worry about me.” Peter interrupted. “I thought this trough.”

“I don’t think you’re thinking clearly, I know you want to go home but...”

“I don’t want to die far from my home without ever seeing my family,” Peter said more desperately than he intended to. “I have nothing to live for here. I thought about ending my misery for years, but I know that if I do that then surely, I will not see my family again.”

“I see,” Yuan answered a little shocked at this outburst of emotion.

“I have nothing to lose by going on this mission and if I die, maybe, I will meet my family in heaven.”

“This talk of ours was more for you than me was it not?” Asked Yuan.

Peter didn’t answer.

“Where is your partner Peter? I think you should talk to him.”

“My partner? I believe he is on his way to America,” he said calmly.

“Why are you alone?” Yuan asked but a second later realisation struck him. “You are going to climb right now?”

“You have run out of time, Yuan.”

Yuan felt fine thanks to the anaesthetic that came with the eggs of abbadons but when he looked down to his body his he was horrified. He was sweating and skin was turning purplish. Yuan looked Peter in the eyes which have turned distant.

“Thank you for keeping me company Peter but,” Yuan put on a forced smile. “Can you end this now.”

Peter stood up and loaded his old gun. He stood before Yuan who was looking worse by the second. Yuan let out his first painful groan and looked up to Peter with pleading eyes.

“It’s starting to hurt Peter,” he groans again, and his arms start to twitch uncontrollably. “I know it is hard but please end this.”

Peter was breathing heavily and his arm trembled. He talked many times with scientists in the bar near the military base, from the symptoms Peter knew that parasites were hatching and would soon take control.

“Please, Peter!” Shouted Yuan who was clearly in pain.

Peter focused, the tremble in his arm subsided and he quickly raised a gun. A shot resounded across empty hills and not a moment later screams filled them instead.

“You shot my knee!” Yuan exclaimed while gripping his new wound. “Aim at the head for f**k’s sake!”

Peter, without saying a word, reloaded his gun and shot his other leg.

“What are you doing you b*****d?” Yuan wailed out.

Peter reached into his bag and took out a rope which he started attaching to his horse “Spending a lot of time with people who studied the Serpent and its parasites since the beginning thought me a lot.” Peter took one end of the rope which was now tied to the horse and started walking towards Yuan.

Yuan was sweating profusely, his eyes wild as Peter began tying the other end of the rope to one of his legs. “Stop,” was all that Yuan managed to stammer out.

“Abbadons apparently feel when one of them is feeling pain,” Peter continued as if he didn’t hear Yuan. “That extends to the infected people too.” Peter finished tying Yuan’s leg and walked back to his horse.

“Why” Yuan cried out.

“I need a lot of time to climb high enough up the Serpent so that abbadon’s wouldn’t see me and start climbing after me,” Peter said calmly. “I’m going to see my family, Yuan.”

“Your family is dead, idiot,” Yuan said with hatred. “Even if your wife is not dead, there is no way she waited for you for 15 years.”

“Goodbye old friend,” Peter said to the horse and turned to Yuan. “I’m running out of time. I enjoyed talking with you and I’m sorry.”

As Peter said those words, he struck his horse’s behind and it started running away dragging Yuan behind. He was shouting something in Chinese and though Peter couldn’t understand it he knew that they were probably the worst insults and curses that Yuan managed to think of.

Peter took out a cloth covered in mud and feces, rolled himself up in it and laid down behind a rock. A few moments later he heard a horde of abandons running all around him after Yuan. Peter has learned that abbadons didn’t have great eyesight and if he didn’t move or smell like anything living, he should be left alone.

A minute later skittering sounds stopped. Peter carefully peeked out from under his cloth and after failing to notice anything moving, he got up and started running towards the Great Serpent.

Author's Note

Be harsh, I want to know what I did wrong.