RE: QUIETUS [S!5] [Round 3: Deluge]
07-28-2017, 01:40 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-02-2017, 01:54 AM by Hellfish.)
Arokht dreamt. The night sky overhead, with its alien stars in unfamiliar patterns, whirled above him like a field of bright dancers drunk on some celestial liquor. The motion made his head spin, made him feel like he was moving- but he was moving, slowly and without much care. He was being pulled, over stones and sticks and bottles. Every jolt made his body seize up with agony.
He dreamt that the canal beside him was filled with ghosts. Voices whispered to one another, pausing every few moments as though they knew he was listening.
So that's what we're working with. I expected more from a god of war.
The alien was here, flowing alongside him. The sleek slope of its head rose and fell as it kept easy pace, nosing through the water. Black tides lapped at the canal’s lip, shivering as though some unseen force was pounding far away.
“Sonora,” he said. He wasn’t sure (and he had once been so sure) what else to say.
“Smile for me, daddy,” the water bubbled, pulling itself free of the canal. It heaved onto the cobblestones like a bloated swimmer. “Hi, Arokht. You're so strong.”
It took all of his energy to form one word. “Anila.”
“Guilty, guilty, guilty.” The humans couldn’t see it. It drifted under the cart and hid there among the wheels, curled like an animal. A predator, circling wounded prey. Arokht had never been prey before.
He tried to take a breath, every gulp of air an explosion of pain. His lungs felt like wet paper. “You- were my ally. You… betrayed me. You…”
“Your cooperation is paramount. Your armor is deficient. It wants us to kill each other. You’re hurt. I do not take orders from aliens.”
His own voice, coming from the water, sounded hollow, false.
“Help me. He needs help, help, help, help.”
“I… do not… need… your help.”
Arokht’s servos whined and for a second he was prepared to rise, to fire again and again into Sonora’s black depths until the damn thing was dead, as dead as a monster could be, but his body wouldn’t let him. He could only twitch in the back of the cart, gently rocking it on its wheels.
“You want to break? You break alone. Get on your feet. There’s no surrender. I told you Sonora was dangerous. She’s the one who bade me, take me, take me. Carelessness will kill, kill, kill. Why did you run?”
He hated Sonora, hated himself for taking the alien’s mocking, hated his body for disobeying, hated the cart he lay in. He hated the city and the sky above him, and he hated Anila for dying.
“I will not fight. You will not fight. You should have just killed me.”
“Enough.”
“Arokht- he- they- were knocked out. Started killing them. I will make a display of overwhelming force. Did you kill her? Cooperate or I will break every bone in your- In the open I will kill it. Did you kill her? I would do so with pleasure. If you have killed- a force of destruction- overwhelming force. If you- if you- if you must- you will defer. Why did you run? Why did you take Mary? He’s simple. Why? Why?! Why?! I will not be its plaything. What are you? What are you? Did you kill her? What are you?”
“I am a soldier,” he answered himself.
"You're a monster," said Sonora, and it slipped away.
_
Cade had watched them take the- whatever it was from the basement of the ruined department store. They had needed four winches just to pull it out from the rubble and into the back of a rickety cart. He supposed that that was all that was left to carry it. It glowed, and sparked…. The radio had been right. “Crab” was the closest he could come to describing it. It wasn’t like anything the city had ever seen. Part of him wanted to believe that it was an elaborate prank, pulled by some desperate clown.
He lit up another cigarette and urged the hungover gears of his brain into motion as the cart departed, headed for HQ. The collapse. The mysterious thing found in the wreckage. Had it caused it? Cade somehow doubted that. Why would it bury itself? The rain was going to bury them all, soon enough. What did it mean?
He exhaled a puff of stale smoke that was instantly tamped down by the ever-present rain. Even huddled beneath the corner of a roof there was no escaping the storm. He’d heard only the high rises were free of water, these days. Lucky bastards.
Cade hunched down, crouching as best he could to avoid the fat drops of water falling from the roof. The rain followed him like a living thing, soaking into his clothes, his skin, his bones. Thunder rumbled impatiently beyond the city’s skyline. There was no way the crab-thing could have from the city, Cade figured. No one had that technology here. On the mainland, maybe. They’d left this city to drown with the bare minimum. Someone would have noticed something like that. Which meant that the thing had come from outside. Outside the city, where the raging tides had crushed all the ships that tried to leave.
Was it help? He doubted it. But it was a sign. And if something could enter the city, that meant that something could leave.
__
Birdsong whistled through the streets of the rain-choked city, accompanied by horses’ screams and frantic, maddened gibbering. They seemed to mimic the distant call of police sirens, howling endlessly into the night. Sonora was dreaming too, as she always was, of swollen rivers flooding their banks and the dryness of space, of wolves, of flowers, of summer sweat, of fresh meat and ammonia-tinted blood. It was preparing to hunt, to flood the city and regrow its wounded flesh. The scent of beating hearts and desperation drew it in, deeper and deeper into the city’s labyrinth. It saw without eyes the glint of windows, the glow of gaslamps, its friend the rain swelling it still with gentle care. It sang to the city, a chorus of thundering drums and dams breaking. It sang of tides and floods and rivers, coming to drag the dry land down.
Among all its voices, there was one that would not sing.
You killed her.
Sonora was hungry.
Did you know anything about her? She was nineteen.
It pulled its lips back from its teeth.
And you, you took her away.
A black tide came to a pause mid-wave, hovering over the canal’s shimmering surface, rolling cautiously. It rippled and bent backwards like an unwinding spring, combing through its length with its own teeth, searching for something undigested. It did not find it.
It craned its neck from side to side.
She’d have turned twenty in July.
It ground its teeth.
You killed her.
It reared up and smashed its head on the concrete, spraying the nearby tenements with thick black water. It rose up again and again, crashing its own body into the ground until the cobblestones shattered and broken pipes regurgitated grey water into the streets.
You murdered her.
Sonora whined, long and loud, rattling the few windows still secure in their frames. The sound was on the edge of human hearing. It clawed at its head with meter-long claws, ravaged itself with glittering teeth, threw itself against the architecture, but still that voice was speaking, even as its body crashed into building after building, starting a chorus of screams and alarms that echoed into the endless night.
Her name was Anila. And I remember, even if you don’t.
He dreamt that the canal beside him was filled with ghosts. Voices whispered to one another, pausing every few moments as though they knew he was listening.
So that's what we're working with. I expected more from a god of war.
The alien was here, flowing alongside him. The sleek slope of its head rose and fell as it kept easy pace, nosing through the water. Black tides lapped at the canal’s lip, shivering as though some unseen force was pounding far away.
“Sonora,” he said. He wasn’t sure (and he had once been so sure) what else to say.
“Smile for me, daddy,” the water bubbled, pulling itself free of the canal. It heaved onto the cobblestones like a bloated swimmer. “Hi, Arokht. You're so strong.”
It took all of his energy to form one word. “Anila.”
“Guilty, guilty, guilty.” The humans couldn’t see it. It drifted under the cart and hid there among the wheels, curled like an animal. A predator, circling wounded prey. Arokht had never been prey before.
He tried to take a breath, every gulp of air an explosion of pain. His lungs felt like wet paper. “You- were my ally. You… betrayed me. You…”
“Your cooperation is paramount. Your armor is deficient. It wants us to kill each other. You’re hurt. I do not take orders from aliens.”
His own voice, coming from the water, sounded hollow, false.
“Help me. He needs help, help, help, help.”
“I… do not… need… your help.”
Arokht’s servos whined and for a second he was prepared to rise, to fire again and again into Sonora’s black depths until the damn thing was dead, as dead as a monster could be, but his body wouldn’t let him. He could only twitch in the back of the cart, gently rocking it on its wheels.
“You want to break? You break alone. Get on your feet. There’s no surrender. I told you Sonora was dangerous. She’s the one who bade me, take me, take me. Carelessness will kill, kill, kill. Why did you run?”
He hated Sonora, hated himself for taking the alien’s mocking, hated his body for disobeying, hated the cart he lay in. He hated the city and the sky above him, and he hated Anila for dying.
“I will not fight. You will not fight. You should have just killed me.”
“Enough.”
“Arokht- he- they- were knocked out. Started killing them. I will make a display of overwhelming force. Did you kill her? Cooperate or I will break every bone in your- In the open I will kill it. Did you kill her? I would do so with pleasure. If you have killed- a force of destruction- overwhelming force. If you- if you- if you must- you will defer. Why did you run? Why did you take Mary? He’s simple. Why? Why?! Why?! I will not be its plaything. What are you? What are you? Did you kill her? What are you?”
“I am a soldier,” he answered himself.
"You're a monster," said Sonora, and it slipped away.
_
Cade had watched them take the- whatever it was from the basement of the ruined department store. They had needed four winches just to pull it out from the rubble and into the back of a rickety cart. He supposed that that was all that was left to carry it. It glowed, and sparked…. The radio had been right. “Crab” was the closest he could come to describing it. It wasn’t like anything the city had ever seen. Part of him wanted to believe that it was an elaborate prank, pulled by some desperate clown.
He lit up another cigarette and urged the hungover gears of his brain into motion as the cart departed, headed for HQ. The collapse. The mysterious thing found in the wreckage. Had it caused it? Cade somehow doubted that. Why would it bury itself? The rain was going to bury them all, soon enough. What did it mean?
He exhaled a puff of stale smoke that was instantly tamped down by the ever-present rain. Even huddled beneath the corner of a roof there was no escaping the storm. He’d heard only the high rises were free of water, these days. Lucky bastards.
Cade hunched down, crouching as best he could to avoid the fat drops of water falling from the roof. The rain followed him like a living thing, soaking into his clothes, his skin, his bones. Thunder rumbled impatiently beyond the city’s skyline. There was no way the crab-thing could have from the city, Cade figured. No one had that technology here. On the mainland, maybe. They’d left this city to drown with the bare minimum. Someone would have noticed something like that. Which meant that the thing had come from outside. Outside the city, where the raging tides had crushed all the ships that tried to leave.
Was it help? He doubted it. But it was a sign. And if something could enter the city, that meant that something could leave.
__
Birdsong whistled through the streets of the rain-choked city, accompanied by horses’ screams and frantic, maddened gibbering. They seemed to mimic the distant call of police sirens, howling endlessly into the night. Sonora was dreaming too, as she always was, of swollen rivers flooding their banks and the dryness of space, of wolves, of flowers, of summer sweat, of fresh meat and ammonia-tinted blood. It was preparing to hunt, to flood the city and regrow its wounded flesh. The scent of beating hearts and desperation drew it in, deeper and deeper into the city’s labyrinth. It saw without eyes the glint of windows, the glow of gaslamps, its friend the rain swelling it still with gentle care. It sang to the city, a chorus of thundering drums and dams breaking. It sang of tides and floods and rivers, coming to drag the dry land down.
Among all its voices, there was one that would not sing.
You killed her.
Sonora was hungry.
Did you know anything about her? She was nineteen.
It pulled its lips back from its teeth.
And you, you took her away.
A black tide came to a pause mid-wave, hovering over the canal’s shimmering surface, rolling cautiously. It rippled and bent backwards like an unwinding spring, combing through its length with its own teeth, searching for something undigested. It did not find it.
It craned its neck from side to side.
She’d have turned twenty in July.
It ground its teeth.
You killed her.
It reared up and smashed its head on the concrete, spraying the nearby tenements with thick black water. It rose up again and again, crashing its own body into the ground until the cobblestones shattered and broken pipes regurgitated grey water into the streets.
You murdered her.
Sonora whined, long and loud, rattling the few windows still secure in their frames. The sound was on the edge of human hearing. It clawed at its head with meter-long claws, ravaged itself with glittering teeth, threw itself against the architecture, but still that voice was speaking, even as its body crashed into building after building, starting a chorus of screams and alarms that echoed into the endless night.
Her name was Anila. And I remember, even if you don’t.