Optional Music to Accompany the Chapter:
Symphonia
https://youtu.be/5yBehS0tKyY
Chapter 23: Disorientation
Mid Afternoon - Early Summer : Year 0 | Month 1 : Fredericksburg, Virginia | East Coast United States
World: Earth | Rank: 6 | Population: ~1,893,120,000
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(Minutes Prior)
- Diana Hale ~
"Hooh..." Sinking into a chair in that crowded guild hall, looking up at the ceiling of deactivated skyglass, I clutched the helmet in my lap with shaky hands, merely trying to breathe as if it was the first time I had a chance to in eons.
It had only been a few hours since I was woken up by the roar of old sirens at that point, but that terribly short span felt like an unending eternity. As though I were swimming in the ocean and got held down by the wash of a wave—where thirty seconds can feel like countless minutes—I felt like I was drowning. I honestly couldn't think straight...
Even then, several minutes after takeoff, I was completely lost in a daze.. having subconsciously tuned out the cries of panic from the evacuees around me to try and sort my own scrambled thoughts.
But my mind had been completely exhausted from the fear that had been carved into my brain, and my body wasn't far behind.
Since making my emergency landing in Richmond, the upper command of the military relayed orders to me through the air traffic control's radio that I was to visit a facility near the outskirts of the city and retrieve recorded data from a number of mana sensors and other instruments scattered throughout the city.
Though they didn't elaborate, I was almost certain it was to try and get a lock on where the monster was, where its headed, and try to gauge exactly what type of monster it was among other things. However, to my absolute terror, rather than the sensors being complex enough to keep me ignorant, their readings were simple, and despite not knowing which ones I was even looking at, the immediately recognizable, shifting warp told me all I needed to know...
The monster was still beyond the city's walls.. but it was growing closer.. and closer.. with every passing second.
Feeling horror climb up my spine, I fell into panic. Unplugging my helmet the moment the download finished, I made a break for the garage with haste, jumping back into the airport-branded tow truck and hauling back to the airport like my life depended on it.
'I needed to leave before that monster reached the walls...' Was my thought...
But fate had other plans.
*Hmmmmm* Before another thought could pass, the Earth shook, and I watched as the tip of the railgun towering over the horizon began dropping.. and the flickering figure of a human darted past out of the corner of my eye...
He was an apostle.. one I remembered reading a news flash about visiting the US a few days prior.. but my brain hardly had time to process even that. *FLASH* Before another breath could leave my mouth, the railgun split the sky with a beam of plasma, not firing at a being in deep space.. but at something beneath the horizon.
As if to brace for what was to come, my mind simply shut itself down.
But it wasn't enough... Not that anything else could have been... *Crackle-KRAKOOOOM* The shockwave that followed shattered the windows on the car with ease, nearly ripping it off the magnetic rails beneath the road, and deafening me with an unbearable ring.
But silence hardly brought ease...
Seeing another streak of light zip beyond the cracks in the glass, this time passing into the city, I felt like air had been snatched from my lungs.
The apostle.. a being known to be among the strongest of humanity's fighters.. died without contest.. being reduced to a lifeless husk as he hurtled from horizon to horizon in a ball of fire.
Out of raw, primal fear, I looked back.. perhaps wishing to catch a glimpse of my grim reaper before his scythe could sever my throat...
But all I could see was the molten section of the city's wall, and a glimmer of white and gold.
From that moment, I was simply frozen—completely incapable of processing what I had seen, and devolving all thought into prayer so deep it'd make a bishop jealous.
But despite feeling Death's scythe curl around my throat, the blade never cut skin.. and I returned to the airship as a barely functioning husk of flesh.
Although I hadn't done anything physical besides running the final hundred meters across the tarmac to board the airship just before lift off, my entire body burned as if it were devoid of oxygen, and the world was practically spinning around me.
The stress from that chaotic mix of fear and focus simply consumed everything.
But.. as seconds turned into minutes.. we made it out of the city... -Maybe I can.. finally breathe...-
...
Or so I thought... *fw-cru-cRa-CRACKLE* In a blur, another glimmer of white and gold shot through the guild hall, and before anything more than a neuron of recognition could fire.. the ship keeled, power cut, and space tore. *CREEEEEAK-RRMM—KRAKOOOOOM*
With a burst of light so searing it burned the back of my head, my pupils dilated, and I jumped up to watch as the blinding flash faded to reveal open sky through a molten column.
In a blink, the pressure dropped, doors cavitated, and ears popped so fast they ruptured...
No one had a chance to react... Like me.. everyone was frozen...
Or at least I had thought.
"CO... TH..SE... PE..PLE..." Though nearly inaudible through the deafening ring clouding my mind like static, some people began yelling orders over the rest, the air rushing out of the ship eased with the raising of an invisible barrier, and well-geared people began corralling the citizens.
But the ship's keel never stopped.
"UwwAAHHH!" Tumbling with my disoriented balance, I slammed my face into the ground, barely managing to keep a grip on my helmet before my mind finally broke from its freeze.
The ship wasn't just keeling from the damage... -T..the pilots..!-
Finally mustering the strength to stand with a burst of adrenaline, I turned for the ruptured doors, stutter-stepping over other collapsed passengers before my senses began forcefully steadying themselves... -The pilots are going to crash!-
Running and tumbling through the door, I turned down a hall.. forcing my way down stairs, slipping and tumbling with every jarring rock of the ship before finally forcing my way through the open metal door to the cockpit.
But while my eyes scanned the instruments of the red-lit cockpit in a surge of concentrated thought.. a wall of sparkles pulled my eyes up into the wall of glass.. and moved my focus beyond it -H..huh..?-
It wasn't a sea of white and blue.. nor was it a wash of green...
Beyond the window of the cockpit was a sea of glass and metal towers that pierced the sky.. and the lives of millions.
It was the heart of Arlington.. and we were heading straight for it...
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- Bella ~
The moment I came to my senses, nothing but the screams of separated consciousnesses and the feeling of something from my chest trying to move into my throat could enter my mind.
Before I could react, I was thrown into the sky, flailing in panic as different parts of my mind screamed different commands. "ACKK-!"
It was splitting... -It.. hurts..!-
They were fighting.. screaming louder and louder with every clash—each side trying to triumph over the other. -SHUT.. UP!-
But I couldn't silence them.
Left to tumble through the air as my senses scattered, I spun.. my vision blurred.. my hearing muffled.. and what little touch I could feel numbed in its entirety...
Until finally.. after what felt like an eternity.. I 'landed'. *CRACKLE*
Clipping the inner edge of something towering, the sound of scattering rock pierced my mind, and with it came a surge of memory.. and a shift of control.
Mirroring the images of recollection that had layered themselves over my eyes, I flipped my body against the pull of gravity, trying to catch myself as I seemingly had before.
But just the same as then, my body couldn't handle the impact. *SMASH-CRRRAACKKK* Smashing into hard rock, cracks and gashes ripped through my body, and I bounced.. tumbling again before bouncing and sliding to an inevitable halt.
My legs were broken—my mind more-so... Memory had blended with reality, and as I laid there on that open city street, I saw myself in a vast gorge, looking around as predators who called it home turned and stared... -I'm...- The memory was sharpening... -Going to die...-
Fear gripped everything in an instant...
Watching one of the gorge's predators grow close, my body.. too broken to move.. screamed... -I can't.. give up..! I have to.. STAND!-
But nothing happened until.. as that reptilian creature's maw opened to grab my neck.. the primal drive for survival eclipsed conscious effort.
*snap-SPLURT* My maw, closing around its neck, sank my teeth into its flesh instantly.. the metallic flavor of blood returning to clarity in a vivid rush before hunger surged in response. My pupils thinned to needles—strength surging within my torn and worn muscles as I forced myself to my feet and snapped my eyes across the monsters surrounding me.. some bearing claws.. others bearing fangs.
*flicker* "ACK-!" With a brief flash of resistance, my mind split once more. -N..no..!- With the image of a woman armored in white and gold, my consciousness returned, the reptilian monster in my maw momentarily flickering with that of a dead human.. the walls of the gorge flashing with the appearance of buildings. -It's.. an illusion..! I need.. TO STOP!-
But a mind freshly conceived in the silence of someone else's touch could hardly overpower that of one weathered by millennia, and gripped by hunger...
Finally crushing my futile resistance, the walls of buildings were replaced by the dark cliffs of the gorge, glimmering with the reflection of eyes from within the caves littering its side. -I need.. to fight... I need.. TO SURVIVE!-
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