Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

"You made all that up to trick us," Sheva seethed through clenched teeth.

The thing laughed. "How can you be so sure?"

"I know what you are and what you are capable of," Sheva countered.

It folded its arms across its chest, its eyes shaping oval pools of blood. "You know nothing."

With weapons still aimed, they slowly side stepped toward the barricaded door.

"Don't you move," Sheva warned it.

After clawing at bags of sawdust the door was free. Jill smelt the outside world as they inched through it. Once Sheva cleared the frame they both darted toward a gap in a wooden fence. They crawled through it, careful to avoid two sharp nails in the process and scrambled onto a street hardly recognizable except for the long ribbon of road.

Jill collapsed into the booth as Sheva closed the door of the boutique behind them. It felt as though they had been running forever. Sheva sank to her knees next to her and waited to catch her breath before she spoke.

"So now what we should do," Sheva tapped her boot as she queried. "That thing, whatever it is, isn't going to give up."

Jill looked toward the ceiling. "Do you have any idea what it could be?"

Sheva exhaled sharply. "I think it is one of those things like in all the rumors."

Jill closed her eyes. This can't be happening, she thought.

Further away from the ruins of the city, streets were less cluttered and passable by car. Though things that they couldn't understand lurked everywhere they decided it might be best it simply leave.

Sheva quivered as shadow snakes swirled around the room. Their piercing red eyes glistened like rubies, but burnt tawny as they slipped beneath the cracks of the door. Sweat trickled down her temples as she looked at Jill. There had been a time when she might have considered a mercy kill, but then she figured there wasn't such a thing as mercy kills. She winced as the bellows drenched the air with their hollow agony. It wasn't enough to know their misery existed beyond this life.

Jill caressed the heel of her palm against her chin. She hadn't seen Sheva this shaken up since back at the shed. Whatever this new creature was, the true force behind The Asylum, she knew it must have been something far more powerful than anyone ever imagined. It was almost as if it were god-like. She again thought about Chris and what he had said. Perhaps they were… She shook her head. No that was silly. They couldn't be gods. Such a thing just wasn't impossible.

The rusted Iron Gate swung open. Sheva crawled toward it. She didn't seem to have been really up to this hideout, but what choice had they? The situation was insane. Outside spawned a new source of horror. Jill did not need Sheva to confirm this. The further they moved to the outskirts of the city, the more and more they encountered fiends of unimaginable portions. It had been fair to say that maybe they were products of a new experiment headed by The Asylum but these new things had the stamp of a new leader.

They squeezed through the gate. The slime covered steps weren't slippery. Jill thought they would be, but she kept a close eye on Sheva. As they neared the opening that led to the street their pace slowed. She raised her Magnum. These minor weapons served no damaged against the foreign mysteries now plaguing them. They might have slowed them down a bit, but never did much damage.

"The Asylum's creatures took ammo and dropped eventually, but these things just never die," Sheva whispered, her face a sheet of sweat and tears.

Jill didn't bother to look at her. It was much too painful to see the defeat in her eyes. She focused passed her. The dark mass in the sky tumbled and fleshed out, becoming grayer than gray and birthing lightning and thunder. It would have been a normal storm had it not been for the distortion of sound and color. It shimmered, blurred and rolled into shades dark and deep.

"How is that possible?" Jill whispered though she hadn't meant to say anything.

Sheva held her shotgun against her breasts, her glare shifting from her gun to the wide opening. "I don't know."

Jill chewed her cheek. There was more she wanted to say. She considered saying it for a moment, but bit her tongue. How could she possibly help the situation with more questions Sheva could not answer? Her throat burnt. Her cravings led her to envision a tall glass of iced tea or perhaps a soda drink. Or even a….

Just one sip was the phrase. That was what it had repeated to them again and again. She wondered where it was now and what form it now wore. It could be anyone and anything.

A laugh rung high overhead and carried the words, "The decor clearly favored a red shade with stringy threads of wet substance as it clung to quarters of flesh. As busy jaws chewed hungrily at its fabric's honey, eyes opened among the distant yet near foundation where its trunk writhed and sang a song of misery.

"Amethyst balanced her sharp wit, cast a fragrance of copper and iron from the depths of her gaping fissures, and waited as circles of cowardice forged across the structures known to house her enemies. Slowly their attack withdrew, their footprints a chaotic mess in the snow.

"Soon Sapphire would descend and with his mighty call for justice. But would anyone listen? The world had long since gone quiet. It now laid waste to bandits wearing tall hats and pin striped suits. Who could topple those might giants?"

"S**t," Sheva gasped and grabbed Jill as they sprinted through the opening.

The shades of early morning had peaked over the horizon. As they ran along it spiraled billowing gray clouds. It uncoiled two tornado tentacles from its body. In their path they upturned cement and earth. Jill was the first to spot the tunnel. Now instead of Sheva guiding her, it was the opposite. They dove into it, skidded on its wet surface and tumbled into one another. When they came to a rest Jill realized the tentacles chasing them had become a thick smoke screen at either end. They were trapped.