The Fall of Olympus Part 1

-Him-

The entire world is dying.

Smoke consumes the night sky. Blazing fires feed on wood, metal, and flesh alike. All around there are screams that meld in with the scraping of metal of the breaking of glass. Bones crush to dust as entire buildings give way to the fires, and crumple to the ground. Explosions sound off like canons, shattering my eardrums into a million pieces.

And the heat.

Oh, the sweltering heat.

As if the entire world is an oven set to broil.

I can't breathe. I can't see. Yet I feel it all; every jolt of the ground beneath me as more and more explosions rock the surface. I try to stand. Maybe get my head above the smoke. I have to move. Get going. Get away from all this heat and smoke or else I'll die. My hands burn as I shove them into the ground and force myself to stand. It takes me only a moment to realize that there's no escaping the smoke. It's everywhere; it's everything.

I run. Or maybe I walk. Maybe I crawl. I have no idea how I'm moving but I am and that's the only thing in the world that matters at this moment. I keep my eyes open for moments at a time, closing them every time they start to burn, which is every time I open them. My lungs can't hold out for much longer. Any moment they'll burst and suffocate and that would be just about the worst way to go.

I'm hit by a brick wall.

Okay, not actually a brick wall, because brick walls don't move.

I'm knocked on my back, the not-a-brick-wall-thing landing on top of me.

Their forehead smashes into my nose. Shoulder blade crashes into my ribcage. Electricity courses through my entire body, lighting my nerves on fire. Stringy hair; laced with blood falls on my face; gets into my mouth. My ribs scream bloody murder as I shove them away from me.

And then we're both standing. And we're both looking at each other. I see the fear in her eyes, the absolute knowledge that she has no hope. That no matter where she runs, she'll always end up right back here, surrounded by fire, smoke and blood.

For a moment that last a million years, we're just looking at each other. The explosions sound off, but they seem far away. The heat from the fires isn't so intense. And the flowing of blood on the ground has slowed. We are in a vacuum, this girl and I. A cocoon, where hell breaks loose all around us.

Breathing. In…and out. Slow. Rhythmic. Calming; in a disturbing kind of way. Every sound travels to my ears as if we're under water.

In that moment of forever I create a life for this girl. She's young, I'm guessing around 14 or so. She wears a torn green shirt, green shorts, and a green shoe that's falling off of her foot. I think she must like the color green. She looks like an Amy…maybe a Molly. Yeah. Molly. She goes to school, has a fair amount of friends. Not too popular, but not necessarily disliked either. She tells her parents she wants to be a doctor, but secretly, she wants to fly ships one day.

I see the dark form coming from the smoke behind her. It comes closer and closer, until it's standing right behind her, looming over her small frame. The monster, the beast, the very thing she had been running from. I can see the realization strike like a lightning bolt. It breaths. The smoke dissipates.

And I see Death.

The blackened face of a demon. The thing that hides under our beds. The monster who stalks us from our closets. The skin and the eye on the left half of its face is completely gone, blown away from one of the explosions. The facial muscles remaining around the skull have been shredded, and reach out like little tendrils from the right side and from beneath the skull. Squirming, reaching, finding anything to grab a hold onto and suck the life out of.

The right side of the face is frozen horror. A man. or what was once a man. His half face showing the exact expression he had at the moment of death. Glazed over eye wide open and bulging from his face. Nostril flared. And mouth contorted in mid scream. It �" he �" breathes again, and slowing lowers his face until its right beside the girl, over her right shoulder.

No.

It inhales her scent.

No.

The tendrils lick at the tips of her ear. Entangle themselves in her blood soaked hair.

And she knows.

Oh my god, she knows.

Move.

Move.

Please, just..move.

But I can't. And she can't.

And the monster opens its mouth. Wide. Too wide. Way wider than humanly possible. And with the force of a thousand tons, it clamps down onto her right shoulder. She cries out in horror as he out own blood splatters onto her face. Her hand reaches up. Reaches out for me. She's begging me for something. For anything.

And I just stand there.

A coward.

The monster yanks back. And she's gone. The girl whose name might've been Molly. The girl who might've loved the color green. The girl who could've flown ships or been a doctor when she grew up, is gone. In an instant, she just doesn't exist anymore. Her screams follow her, disappearing into the smoke, mixing in with wails of the rest of the world.

I'm running.

I don't where.

But it doesn't matter.

Get away. Just get away.

My ribs are burning with pain. My nose, where that girl �"

That girl �"

Her face when she realized �"

When she felt �"

The teeth dug into her shoulder. And me…just standing there. Not doing anything, not a single thing.

A coward.

So my nose…it feels broken. Tears sting at my eyes. But I keep running, waving my hands out in front of me to clear the smoke and dust. It does nothing. Every step weighs me down. My shoes are soaked from the puddles of blood all over the ground.

I see them through the smoke; the shadows. They are all huge, at least eight feet tall. And they move…so fast. There might be twenty of them, there might be one. They're there, and then they're gone. I can hear the people screaming. And then I can't. The monster take one bite, and the screaming stops.

Then the explosion. It breaks apart a wall not ten feet from me, and throws me into the air. I land hard on my shoulder. I lay there, begging, pleading with the world to go black. It doesn't. Because the world just doesn't work like that. Everything doesn't go black. You don't just pass out, and the pains over. You die, that's when the pains finally over.

I see the eyes of the monster first. And they're on fire. Literally, on fire. It's walking towards me, taking it freaking time. Every steps shakes the ground beneath. I scoot away, but I'm way too slow. It must see me trying to get away, because one second, its yards away, and then next, its standing right above me.

"No," I plead. "Get away. Get away."

Monsters like this don't really care about pleading and begging.

So I prepare myself for it; for the excruciating pain. And then for the nothingness. I beg them to make it quick, as if it's actually listening to me.

Then there's a loud groan that shakes everything, and drowns out every other noise. The world starts to lean.

"Half of the engines are gone! We're going down!"

The man runs right between the two of us, screaming his head off.

"The ship's going down!"

There's a sudden crack, and I look up. Huge objects are falling from the sky. They hit the ground with a sickening thud, leaving craters three feet wide. The buildings are falling apart. The monster looks up, just in time to see the hundred pound piece of concrete coming straight at it. I look away as the concrete crushes the monster down to nothing.

There's a sinking feeling in my stomach as I feel everything start to drop. I stand, ignoring the pain all over my body, and start running. The entire ship is falling, dropping to the left, so I head to the right. I run passed crumbling buildings, dodging hundred pound blocks of concrete and piping. People keep on screaming out that the ship is falling, and more join in running in the same direction.

The entire time the ground keeps on tilting. Slowly. But surely. My legs start to burn as I have to push more and more to keep moving forward. Hundreds of people have joined in now. Before we all had the same goal; survive. Get away from the dark creatures that have gotten onto the ship. Now, we've all realized that there's only one way to actually achieve that goal. Run. Get to the right side of the ship. Run through the miniature city as boulders rain down from above. Hope not to get crushed, burned, etc.

Oh, and hope not to get eaten by the creatures.

We all break through the smoke at the same time, and inhale the fresh air. My hands literally reach out as I run and grab handfuls of air, trying to shove more of it into my mouth. We're at the outer skirts of the city, passed all of the buildings, and heading for the barriers at the city's edge.

Having conventional railings as the only barrier between the city and the thousand foot drop to the world below didn't quite sit well with the city's architects. Thousands of people were meant to come and visit the city's edge, and enjoy the jaw dropping view of the landscape below them. But with so many people, so many kids, you needed something to keep them from accidentally falling off.

So the forty foot tall indestructible glass walls were created, giving the people the perfect view of land below, while keeping them from falling to it. Through those walls you can't see the Earth stretched out below you anymore. Now they're almost pointing straight up, toward the stars in the night sky. I keep running.

"There's escape pods at the ship's edge."

A man appears running next to me.

"Where?" I breathe. "I only see the glass."

"Beneath!" he yells and takes off ahead of me.

Beneath? What the heck is he �"?

I see him reach the glass barriers. He kneels, reaches to the ground, and pulls up a small glass lid. Underneath is a handle that he yanks up. A foot away from him, a hole opens into the ground.

The monster comes from my left, appearing suddenly from the smoke. It dashes forward, heading straight for the open escape pod. And the man.

The man who's looking up.

The man who's watching death come straight at him.

The man who screaming and diving straight into the pod.

Too late.

The monster's there in the blink of an eye. It reaches out, snatches his leg right out of the air, and yanks him out of the escape pod. I turn, start running away from the monster, and see more of them shooting out of the smoke. They pounce on the poor people, ripping them apart before they can reach the latches and open the pods. There's a small part of me that wants them to catch me. It screams at myself, wondering why the heck I would keep running. Why I don't just stop, let the ground under me take control, and fall backwards with the rest of the ship. If I run towards the pods, I get caught, and ripped apart. If I run away from the pods, I get caught, and ripped apart. Suddenly the choices in this world seem very limited.

Die here.

Die there.

No matter what you're doing, running to safety, or giving up, you're still dying.

So why am I still running? Why? When I'm seeing dozens of people die right in front of me.

Suddenly, I'm there. I'm at the glass wall. I look down, searching frantically for the glass lid and the latch under it. The ship keeps tipping, not caring about the hopelessness of my current situation. I brace feet on the ground, bending my knees, and praying that my shoes have enough traction on them. Then, as if God himself heard my prayers and came down to give me a hand, I see the ground a few feet away from me opening up, and someone jumping into the pod. In the split second before the pod closes, I reach out, putting my hand in the hole; hoping that this opening doesn't close and decapitate my hand from my wrist.

The ship tilts just a little bit more, and my feet give out.

So, that's it, huh? Well, I guess it was a good li �" no, it really wasn't that good �" it sucked, really. And this is a sucky way to die.

Something stops me.

I look up, and I see a face looking out of the escape pod. She's holding me up, straining with her one arm to keep me from falling to my death as the ship goes almost completely vertical. Her auburn hair flies wild in the wind. Fresh tears fall from her eyes, and she's screaming something. I hang, my body completely limp, looking up at this girl saving my life.

What are you doing?

You idiot.

Why are you saving me?

Let me go.

Her hand is wrapped around my wrist tightly, but the grip falters. I look below me, seeing the far, far drop through the buildings below. That's when I see the creature come rushing from inside of the city, digging its hands into the ground and climbing it with ridiculous speed. Finally, I'm much more appreciative of the girl holding me up. I turn toward her.

"Help me u �"!"

Where did she get that gun?

"Watch out!" she yells.

BOOM!

The air splits apart. My eardrums explode. It's like a lightning bolt strikes right next to my face. I look down, expecting to see the monster falling, dead. Because who �" what �" could survive that?

But the world's just not that kind.

Great idea, bringing the huge handgun. But it doesn't do much help if you can't aim. And it doesn't really help your aiming when you're holding up some guy mid-air and a monsters rushing at you.

BOOM!

I literally see the bullet skid off the ground, and send sparks flying. It keeps coming. The only thing slowing it down is gravity itself.

BOOMBOOMBOOM!

Miss. Miss. Miss.

The pain; the excruciating pain of firing that gun with one hand…

BOOM!

And the monster falls, right into the smoke where three more emerge. Because that's just how the world is.

The girl drops the gun, her arm turned to Jell-O by now. I plant my feet against the ground �" now completely vertical �" and push out at an upward angle. She yanks backward as hard as she can and pulls me to the opening.

"Get in!" she yells. I scramble inside and fall onto the cold metal ground. There's only two buttons next to the opening; one red, one green. Simple enough. Green must mean go, and who gives a crap about the red. I slam my fist into the green button.

"Wait, we have to close the hatch �""

And we shoot off into the night sky, falling away from the sinking air- city, and into the water below.