In just seconds it becomes immediately clear how much faster the monsters run than the humans, like a pack of wolves quickly gaining on them as in the distance other monsters crawl over the walls of houses on all fours. Chamey, who was hoping to find security in others, instead faces forward to dive straight into the wall of bushes along the lawn he runs across, concealing himself seconds before the head of the pack lunges at the first victim, grabbing a man's shoulders with both hands to tackle him to the ground, allowing it to easily unhinge its jaw to a freakish extent that the entire head seems to bend backwards, able to then close it in on the entire man's head in a single bite. Other monsters lunge with slashing motions, cutting the backs of women and other men who scream before falling to the ground, becoming easy prey to be tackled by more beasts. The remaining humans at the front rush for the house's door, which does in fact vaporize open, however it does allow a couple of adults to run out of the house screaming. They flail their arms to the surprise of the evacuating cluster, but that surprise turns quickly to horror as two monsters race out of the door as well, one of them lunging forward to tackle one of those escapees as the other continues to run.
The evacuating cluster is forced to switch directions, running away from the house, or at least the ones who survive as they're quickly slashed and chomped by the horde. They do leave the area, attracting the beasts with them, leaving the lawn empty with only Chamey left, peering through the bushes in horror, both hands on his mouth to silence his breathing.
He's quick to stand up, his body covered in small twigs and leaves, many of which fall off anyways as he turns around and sprints in the direction of his home.
While Chamey runs down the neighborhood, those roots didn't only grow in the residential area, but the towns beyond. For example, shopping complexes like the ones adjacent to the grocery store become overrun by monsters chasing crowds down the parking lot. The white caustics inside those roots sprung from the ground pulsate gently, from where all the sudden more of those monsters start to crawl out of, their arms first surfacing which grab the root to help pull the whole body out. Due to the roots standing upright, many of the monsters throw themselves off, crashing into the ground but crawling back up to their feet seconds later.
There seems to be no end for them, all while there's a dwindling remainder of survivors running down the parking lot, some of them reaching their pods which they jump into, and while some indeed manage to drive their pods up and away there are others who can't before monsters pounce on their vehicle and slash at it wildly, penetrating through the metal hull to form an opening they can crawl through. All those drivers can do is scream before getting cut out, but even the pods that do lift in the air miraculously can still be reached as some of the monsters leap incredibly so to cling onto the belly of the vehicles, allowing them to swing themselves on all fours before slashing at the bottom which causes the vehicle to begin depressing back. Sudden explosions terrify the crowd furthermore, with little idea of how to escape.
At the very least there are people outside with access to vehicles, as there's many others who are inside buildings like stores, including a shopping mall where crowds run down the upper bridges alongside storefronts similar to the mobs racing down on the floor below. The lack of open space results in many of those people knocking each other, some of whom lose their balance and fall behind, only to then get trampled callously. Their screams are deafened from the continuous kicks, the shoes of the runners passing them reddening from those brutalized civilians.
Yet those runners are not simply cruel, but rather they find themselves with no alternative, running away from another horde close behind but composed completely of those shadowy figures sprinting for them, the bright white mall lighting highlighting their absolute black skins. The distance between the two hordes closes as monsters spring onto civilians, slashing and chomping, dropping corpses quickly. Some of the monsters on their rampage even notice the trampled civilians, some of whom are on the edges of surviving albeit already mangled, easy pickings for monsters to drop down and chomp them. A few people on the bridges getting closely approached by the monsters in fact throw themselves over the holographic railings, dropping themselves down to the lower level in an attempt to escape, though a fall of that height alone is lethal, several of them even dropping on the surviving crowds before which causes more people to lose their balance and fall just to be trampled over. In a community already struggling to maintain themselves after their population being shaved off, they now find themselves needing to disregard the lives of their remaining fellows, though it's all ultimately in vain as they're picked off eventually as the monsters gradually work their way through the mall evacuees.
Left behind are fancy restaurants with white circular tables accompanied with two chairs, the walls a velvet red with gentle warm lighting grazing the wooden floor from where a giant black root is standing from like a pillar in the middle. While most of the chairs are empty, there are many that have mangled corpses left behind, their puddles dirtying those tables, some of them without heads as they were bitten clean off. Many of the bodies are not fully intact including those scattered around the floor, covered in deep slashes, guts spilled everywhere.
Stores like ones selling jewelry hovering inside glass cages have their clean white aesthetics dirtied in red, bead necklaces spilled over the floor among bracelets. A table in the center displaying diamond rings encased in glass has been shattered, a male body in a formal suit laying over it limply, the face completely deformed from deep markings. Behind the counter are other bodies slumped over, as well as one right by the exit doors, laying down on its stomach with its arm stretched out towards freedom.
Back in the neighborhood, all the branches have since ceased growing, the end result being a tangled network of roots covering the skies like webs, though thin enough that the ground can still be seen decently from high up in the sky where distant flickers of light appear in the twilight blue. The screaming by the ground has not stopped though, and even from high up there can be seen the movement of dots down in the neighborhood streets.
Turning around an intersection, Chamey continues to race along lawns, crowds of people still present in the streets being chased by beasts. Their cries echo in his head yet he can't pay attention to them, instead needing to focus on his path, panting heavily with his arms swinging back and forth. He stares down the road, focusing on an upcoming intersection where a white house with tall roofs sits at the corner, recalling this to be the intersection that turns to the court his house is situated on.
He raises the pace of his race upon the indication of him closing in on his destination, swinging his arms back and forth as monsters crawl over the houses all around him, pouncing down on innocent civilians crying in pain. Along the street he runs down are many pods littering both the streets and lawns, potentially failed evacuations now leaving totalled vehicles with heavy deformations including slash marks all over the bodies. He glances over at the street, watching small children crying over fallen corpses, helpless and defenseless, and on the other side of the street are people banging on closed house doors while begging to be let in, but the only attention they draw are monsters who charge at them.
Chamey doesn't slow his pace, as despite the horrifying sights around him, he understands he himself has little control over saving them therefore all he can do is keep running. That changes however when he hears a girl shout in his direction from behind, "HEY YOU, WAIT UP!"
Confused though still running albeit at a slight slowdown, he turns around to find that in the same lawn he runs down he's being chased, though it's not by a monster but instead a teenage girl about the same age as him, dressed in a denim jacket, wearing a beanie over head which itself has no exposed hairs. She's about twenty feet behind but reaches her hand out as she calls, "WAIT, YOU'RE IN CHEMISTRY WITH MISTER LACER RIGHT?? IT'S ANOLE, I THINK WE'VE TALKED BEFORE! WAIT FOR ME!"
Chamey begins to slow his running down to accommodate for the fellow classmate, though he doesn't immediately speak back as if unable to find words to string together through all the stress he bears. The girl smiles in relief as she tries to pick up her own running pace to reach his side, slowly getting closer to him. From the streets, another being begins running towards them too, but to his horror it's one of the monsters, sprinting straight for them, shrieking their way.
Immediately Anole glances back upon hearing the directed shriek, realizing they're being tailed. She turns forward in horror to find Chamey speeding up again, running even faster than before, quickly growing the distance between the two. Noticing that she's starting to get left behind, Anole desperately screams, 'WAIT UP, WAIT LET ME," yet Chamey completely ignores her, instead facing forward and turning slightly to run towards a crashed SUV pod on the lawn he's approaching, the driver's seat left open. He accelerates more, running for the opening which he dives into just as Anole cries once more, "PLEASE WAIT-," before the monster leaps at her, slashing straight through her neck which causes her to fall forwards.
Inside the SUV pod, Chamey just sits in a crawl position over the driver's seat, his eyes squeezing tightly after that last cry. He gulps before opening his eyes, frantically crawling through the vehicle around the seat to reach the back, groaning though trying to keep his voice down. He slumps down on the floor in front of the bench, crawling towards the bottom of the seats as there's just enough space between the seat and floor for him to squeeze through.
He freezes immediately upon hearing the metal of the door's edge crinkle, for a black hand grabs onto it, the hand of a monster who stands right by the door. Chamey moves not an inch, both of his hands quick to jump to his mouth as his eyes pop wide, for the monster just creepily idles by the door as if it had caught on to him. It growls in a deep gargling, gazing inside the pod through its mouth, glancing over the front seats that Chamey hides behind.
He squeezes his eyes shut, just waiting for the monster to pass so he can continue on and yet it doesn't, it just stands in place as if waiting for a first move, cornering its prey.
That's when all the sudden, the roar of a pod engine blasts from high above, however the way it enters the environment isn't as if a pod from the neighborhood had lifted off for the skies, but rather a pod from the skies has descended to the neighborhood. The roar is also unlike any caliber even an SUV or personal truck would carry, but it instead has the bravado of a beast in itself, rumbling the ground. Multiple other instances of this same roar follow from above, followed seconds after by a high pitched shriek, though not of a person or even the monsters, but rather the concentrated fuel of an energy cannon. Large bright orange bolts rain down from above, attracting the attention of the monster who turns and races off.
Left alone, Chamey's eyebrow raises in perplexion, and rather than continuing now to crawl below the seat, he instead turns the other way and mantles over the table tray between front seats, crawling back for the open door. He remains over the driver's seat, not choosing to drag himself entirely out of the pod as he still doesn't feel safe, but he gets himself in a position to easily gaze outside, able to face up at the direction of the roars.
What he finds high in the twilight sky beneath the black roots is a group of sleek black van pods a little larger than what's commercially normal as it's a bit larger than an ambulance, all of them bearing an insignia on the side near the back being a white shield crest. The vehicles share a functional resemblance in that there are two wide doors on the side that open, revealing passengers dressed in navy blue uniforms with white shield epaulets on their shoulders, and hovering over one of each's arms is a longboard-shaped silver device with a glassy black ballpoint at the tip, which they aim down below before the ballpoints release a barrage of orange energy bolts in continuous fire, aiming precisely on the black monsters ravaging the streets below.
No longer needing to worry about concealing his mouth since he's definitely no longer an attraction, for all the monsters have diverted focus to these pods, he instead covers his ears due to the sheer volume of the laser shots as they're nearly ear piercing, each one like a gunshot to him. He does also stay inside the pod for safety, as while the gunfire is clearly directed at the monsters, simply being near such intense fire worries him about being potential collateral. Still, his dreadfully horrified expression has shifted more in the favor of optimism, especially since the unstoppable slaughter has paused.
Perhaps Chamey doesn't have the best view since he stays hidden in his pod, but from the perspective of the officer standing in the hovering pods high in the air, they have decent views of the neighborhood from above, including the consequences of the mass slaughter as bodies and blood puddles litter the streets in the dozens, no, far more. However they're also able to get sights of the monsters who've now turned their attention to them, no longer in immediate pursuit of the civilians.
This alone is a good change, in fact upon being fired on, the monsters stumble backwards and shriek as if being affected by the shots. However it's observed that while they do react to the gunfire, none of them drop on the ground or even show signs of damage, still standing upright even if a bit shaken.
Despite the continuous stream of gunfire, they react about the same way one would react to a regular hose of water, irritated but not injured in the slightest.
Observing this lack of effect, one of the uniformed men onboard the pod shouts over his own firing, "THEY'RE NOT DYING, SHOULD WE SWITCH TO A-P MODE?? MAYBE THEY HAVE SOME KIND OF SHIELDING!!"
The man beside him, as there's two officers on each side of the vehicle, nods his head and responds, "TRY THAT, WE'LL RELAY IF IT WORKS," as the bolts firing from his rifle switch from orange to purple, as does the man who made the original proposition.
A mixture of orange and purple, these new shots rain down on those monsters below, who do similarly show irritated reactions and stagger back slightly more as if confused by the color change, yet other than that they don't show any injuries. In fact those dramatic staggers stop after the first few seconds of being shot, as though they themselves understood that they aren't being harmed any differently, as many of the monsters begin to dull their reactions to this same realization.
Catching on to this pattern, all of the men on the pods hear a command from a man from the vehicle itself as it seems to be tapped into a transmission network, allowing them to be told: "The threat level has been raised, you are permitted to fire at 75% capacity. We will likely be unable to raise this level any higher due to the civilian density, and for that reason we are not yet authorizing additional artillery. Prep all weapons systems in case of an update. Over."
After that command, the officers pause their firing for about a second, tensing up before resuming, leading to the orange bolts they fire from now on being noticeably brighter, the shots louder as the bolts themselves flicker as if not as stable.
This new rain of gunfire does have a noticeable impact on the ground, not only leaving burn marks but each contact leaves a short explosive burst that rips apart bits of the road, leaving pot holes. On the grass it also burns patches, and once again the monsters stumble back to this change, yet that stumble is short lived even less than the earlier color switch. Still they show no damage to the gunfire despite the observable increase in power, and in fact they start to roam on their own, returning their focus to the houses and scattered civilians they were targeting before.
Noticing that the problem isn't being immediately resolved, Chamey clenches his teeth in a moment of frantic contemplation, turning his head out the door both ways to see the monsters start to shift focus again. He then turns his head to the intersection with the white house, so close now, home not much further.
Grimacing under the scrutiny of this difficult choice, Chamey ultimately gulps, and he throws himself forward out of the pod. Rolling up to his feet, he sprints straight for the intersection, placing one hand over his head as if trying to shield himself from the gunfire despite knowing he wasn't protecting himself at all. He drops his arm under this understanding, only slowing himself down with that awkward pose, instead focusing fully on his speed, making his way down the street for the intersection. The more he runs, the further he gets from the gunfire, though now without ear protection it rings far more intensely in his ears especially as the shots themselves have raised in power.
Nonetheless Chamey eventually reaches the intersection, making a sharp turn and running up the street where other monsters still show fascination with the military vehicles, their focus split for just this brief window. Not knowing how long that window is, all Chamey can do is push himself as fast as possible, making the most of it, knowing that if any of the monsters focus on him he'll easily be reached. He can't do much to conceal himself though, and trying to put too much focus into trying will only slow himself down, so he just runs.
Further up the court, Chamey finally can get a glimpse of his house on the right, although still ahead. At least now seeing the house himself gives him an additional adrenaline rush, pushing himself ever more, huffing louder even though he knows it might put him in more danger. While he puts focus on the house, in the court the monsters standing over roofs and prowling around houses start to face him, taking notice perhaps due to the louder huffing. Some of them start to creep towards him, but one of them breaks into a sprint, charging straight at him from beside one of the houses on the left side of the street.
That is until a military pod soars right over the court, immediately breaking the monsters' focus as they stop to raise their heads, the runners even switching targets to instead chase after the pod like a cat seeing a laser dot. They leap onto houses and climb up them ferociously, eager to chase the pod that is likely many courts far, yet the monsters stay eager.
This diversion allows Chamey just the time to turn in on his driveway and run up it, reaching the garage door which vaporizes to allow him to run through, which one of the monsters on the other side of the street turns to in a quick notice as the door closes once again.
Ending the run, Chamey shifts to a slow, steady walk, opting to focus on staying quiet in preparation for the worst. He extends his arms beside him for balance as he creeps past the green SUV, approaching the door which vaporizes to let him enter the white room.
Passing through the white room, he steps into the living room and takes a turn, facing the door down to the corridor where the kitchen would be. He makes cautious, steady steps, every raise and placement of the food intentional to keep it as quiet as possible. He creeps down the living room, reaching the doorway into the corridor which he turns in on.
Inside the hallway, Chamey faces the kitchen which he slowly navigates towards, keeping his hands by his side, shuffling his feet and keeping a low posture. His eyes dart around to stay aware of his surroundings, as while the house itself hasn't been pierced by a root, he can't assume there to be nothing hostile in this very house.
At the end of the hallway is the kitchen, and upon entering he finds that neither of his parents are visible, though knowing that the SUV is still in the garage, they likely couldn't be far unless they left the house. That possibility does give Chamey a concerned grimace, but he pushes through it, knowing he has to hope for the better alternative as he'd likely have little power in the other case, as chasing them down outside would be highly dangerous.
He roams around, noting that while the pot is still on the stove, it's not steaming, signifying that the stove has been turned off. Beside the stove are still the chopped sticks of cilantro, also abandoned.
He huffs heavily, still recovering from the run, but as he looks around the kitchen unable to find his parents, he winces before raising his hand forward, summoning a holographic screen of a flat map as he whispers to himself, "Where did they go?"
From behind the island countertop right in front of him, someone pops up holding a large knife in their hand, to which Chamey immediately stumbles backwards and lifts both fists as the holographic screen vanishes and he exclaims, "WHO'S THERE?" simultaneously as his mother holding the knife exclaims, "CHAMEY??" She then glances over his shoulder and shouts desperately, "HONEY WAIT!"
Instinctively Chamey stumbles forward and turns around to find his father standing behind him, gripping the pan with one hand raised over his head as if intending to use it as a blunt weapon. He pauses of course, shocked to ask, "Chamey..?"
Before the boy can formulate a response, especially as he was just frightened from the accidental near assault, he hears the sound of metal hitting a surface right before he's tackled from behind, his eyes wide, turning around only to find himself embraced by his mother who greets, "You're back! We were so worried about you!!"
Relieved both by knowing who it was but furthermore relieved by the hug itself, Chamey lets out a sigh and smiles before responding, "I was too…I'm glad you're both safe," as the mother releases the hug to return to the knife.
Approaching the stove where he returns the pan, the father explains: "Your mother and I saw everything that was going on, and then we heard gunfire, it's like a war out there. What's happening??"
While the mother places the large knife on the countertop, Chamey steps towards his dad and explains brightly, "Oh, it's okay actually, that's the E.G.A! They're here to stop whatever those things are, they got here so fast and there's so many of them! If it weren't for them I don't know if I'd have gotten here!"
Despite the optimism in that delivery, the mother chuffs before muttering, "God dammit, the second they found a window they come in here full force with their whole army, I knew they were waiting for a day like this. They'll say they respect our freedom but they're just waiting to absorb us, I'm sure even after this is all said and done they'll try to stick around…."
Turning to his mother in surprise at the strange pessimism, Chamey shakes his head and assures, "Huh, mom this is good, without them we wouldn't have anything to protect us! I mean the police were nowhere to be seen, people were getting slaughtered left and right out there until they showed up."
The mother turns back to Chamey and opens her mouth to rebuttal, though the father is the one to respond, "Let's not do this right now, it's a miracle that we're all here together." He turns around and approaches both of them to propose, "We should get out of here as quickly as possible, it's definitely not safe here, military or not we don't know when this will all end. So let's try to get away from all of this first, okay?"
Chamey turns to his father to ask, "Wait, so where should we go?"
His father turns to him to answer bluntly, "I…don't know. I want to assume this isn't happening worldwide, so we'll just find where this ends and go somewhere safe first, maybe Aunt Gala, I'll need to call her but like I said we should first get out of here."
He begins to pace towards the corridor out of the kitchen, but Chamey asks another question, "Wait like, right now? Should I pack up? What do I pack, like my clothes or anything else-?"
"We don't have the time for that," answers the father as he walks down the corridor, adding: "Just leave everything behind, hopefully this isn't permanent and we'll just need to wait out whatever this is." He does stop though to turn around and correct himself, "Wait, we should bring some food just in case, help your mother with that and I'll start up the pod." He turns back again and walks deeper into the corridor, leaving Chamey to shift his focus to his mother who approaches a refrigerator box, asking: "Can you get that grocery crate actually? We'll load that into the pod."
Chamey nods his head and approaches the crate still left on the island counter, first looking inside to still find some of the groceries like the deer meat. He taps on the crate which triggers it to raise itself off the table and follow him to the fridge, hovering in front of him at waist level as if he's holding while the mother interfaces with a hologram projecting from said fridge, tapping on multiple items of the inventory grid which triggers a blue light to fire from the fridge onto the crate in order to summon items onto the box, all as she huffs anxiously.
Perceiving that huffing, Chamey sighs before trying to quell, "We'll be okay mom, I'm sure of it. And I'm sure we'll come back."
She taps on a few more items which summons more to the crate before hitting other buttons, resulting in the hologram vanishing. She determines in a tone trying to be confident albeit noticeably apprehensive, "That…should be everything we need. For now. We're good, we should go."
She then turns around to face Chamey before responding, "And I know, we'll be fine. Sorry I'm just…you know…."
"I know…," assures Chamey, and without wanting to pressure her any further, he spins and begins walking back into the corridor, leading both the crate of food and his mother who follows close behind. He enters the living room with a turn, walking down to the other end where the door stands, pacing pretty quickly. However he turns his head to find the mother pausing in the middle of the living room, just silently gazing at the room with a melancholic frown, seeming to be in a solemn reflection.
Towards the exit there can be heard the roaring awakening of a pod, prompting Chamey to remind, "Mom, let's go," which breaks her out of the hold as she blinks twice before nodding her head and following him. He returns his gaze ahead to lead her to the end of the room where they and the crate enter the white room.
Through the door still open, Chamey steps out into the garage to find the green SUV still in place, his mom stepping beside him while the crate lingers behind. He approaches the back of the SUV first, now only guiding the crate with him to have it stored as the mother notices the dematerialization of the garage door, allowing her to view the chaotic outdoors, huge black roots having risen from neighbor's homes. She winces at such an unsettling sight, the twilight sky now a darker shade, making its way towards night, blending the colors with the dark web looming among the sprawling roots.
As the back of the SUV shines a blue light onto the crate to absorb it, Chamey turns to face his mother before following her gaze outside, quick to understand her expression. He sighs softly, lowering his head as he recalls the massacre he just witnessed, for it's miraculous for a boy like him to even keep himself together after all he's experienced.
That reflection breaks upon a distant alien shriek that raises his head, his eyes widening in concern. The mother turns around to approach the pod casually, but Chamey takes another step towards the open door, his eyes sharpening to a keen peer.
Ahead of Chamey, past the driveway and the street it turns in on, atop the roof of the house across from him stands one of those shadowy beings, which stares directly back at him although not with its eyes for it has none.
Then, it leaps into a sprint.
Chamey instantly stumbles backwards before shouting, "IT'S RUNNING OUR WAY!"
The driver's door vaporizes to allow the father to poke his head out, turning to the mother and Chamey to ask, "What's the holdup?"
"DAD WE NEED TO GO BACK INSIDE!" Chamey cries desperately, turning and grabbing his mother's wrist, who contends, "WE'LL ESCAPE IT-," only for him to explain, "THAT WON'T WORK I'VE SEEN IT," before racing for the door he exited from, dragging her with him.
The father's eyes widen and he throws himself out of the pod the very second the monster lunges straight into the garage, clinging onto the back of the vehicle. Both Chamey and his mother reach the open door where they stop and turn around, waiting frantically for the father who sprints for them, though upon turning his head to see the monster stand on its feet, he turns back to his family before shouting, "SHUT THE DOOR!"
Chamey cries out, "WHAT DAD NO WAIT-," to be interrupted by his dad shouting, "CLOSE IT!" just as the monster lunges straight for him for a tackle, and the door frame secretes a cloud that solidifies the very moment contact is made.
Just as the door materializes, both Chamey and his mother can hear the sound of the bite that consumes the head: the shriek, the crunch of the skin, muscle, and bone all at once, as well as the burst of blood spurting from the wound. To that disturbing mix, Chamey stumbles backwards in horror, covering his mouth with his hand to silence his scream or prevent vomit.
Before he can let anything out, his other hand is grabbed by his mother who drags him out of the white room, pulling him away.
Back into the living room through the doorway that closes shut from a materialized barrier, the mother is the one now to lead Chamey up towards the corridor, her movements frantic as she struggles to pull his weight, needing to ask in a whisper, "Please, we need to hurry."
However all he can do is just stand, let himself get dragged but simply ask back in a whisper, "What…happened to dad…?"
His mother shakes his head and pleads, "Please just keep moving, we can't-," but stops after hearing sudden slashing sounds towards the white room connecting to the garage.
She jerks Chamey's arm once more but releases her hold, instead running towards the corridor herself as he follows her too, suddenly in compliance upon that warning. They reach the corridor, but instead of making a right turn as usual, they take a left turn and hurry in the opposite direction.
Not exactly in a run, but the two of them hurry down the corridor, their steps gentle as to stay quiet but they carry themselves with necessary haste. Chamey makes frequent backward glances just to ensure their safety but the mother focuses forward, leading the both of them to the end of the corridor which opens up into a wider lobby space where the front door stands past a circular carpet. While this door would present an alternate escape route, which she stares at for a few seconds in contemplation of using it, she ultimately turns away to instead focus on a slightly elevated platform beneath a cutout of the ceiling, leading to a higher floor.
She steps on the platform though leans to the side, allowing Chamey to also step on before the platform begins to ascend on its own gradually. She turns to face the door again as if still unsure if she's making the correct decision, for Chamey also can't help but linger on it. There is good reason to not take it, for they're aware of the grave dangers outside, and if just opening the garage door for a brief moment put them in mortal danger then trying to openly traverse their front lawn would be suicide. Yet by leaving the door, they also leave their direct escape, instead choosing to hole themselves deeper in this home that's become a dungeon for it's no longer safe either.
Passing through the cutout in the ceiling, the remaining family reaches the upper floor, the platform filling that cutout perfectly which in a way seals the opening. They find themselves at the end of a hallway with a wooden floor that the mother starts to walk down, moving cautiously though even then her very first step creaks the floor. She freezes still in fright, but beside her Chamey steps forward, gently pressing his feet on the ground upon each step, his calmer pace resulting in less creak.
The two face each other and Chamey firmly nods to her, helping to ease her before the two of them press forward slowly, the following steps quieter as she matches his technique. The two of them creep down the hallway, step by step, practically synchronized, every pair of steps quieter than the last.
At the other end of the hallway is a closed door which, upon being approached, vaporizes into a cloud to reveal a large bedroom inside which has carpeted floors which a king sized bed hovers over against the far wall, equipped with a headboard. To the right of the bed is a wall with a few cabinets as well as a large window screen providing a view to the hellish nightmare outside, military pods racing over and raining orange fire down, all beneath monolithic black roots that cover the darkening skies. To the left of the bed are the open doors to a bathroom given the white tiled floors, which the mother first ambles towards upon entering the room.
Chamey instead turns around, making sure the door closes behind them before stepping backwards, turning his head to gaze at the large mirror screen along the wall beside the door which has two subtle panels attached to it, each one emitting a blue dot light. He approaches the mirror screen, watching his own reflection do the same. He stops at the center of the screen and just silently stares at himself for a few moments, frowning somberly, slowly lowering his head as he now gets a moment of reflection. He takes a few steps back and drops on the edge of the bed, planting his feet on the floor and just staring straight at himself.
Footsteps break his reflection as they both turn towards the bathroom, finding his mother stepping back out of it, shaking her head. She glances over at the door before muttering quietly, "I should've taken the knife…there's nothing here."
Chamey frowns as he stares up at his mother, understanding that she's still very much paranoid despite putting on the brave face of pulling him away. For that he lowers his head before soberly apologizing, "I'm…sorry about what…happened."
His mother frowns back, but she shakes her head as she continues to approach him, redirecting: "Let's not think about it too much right now, we still need to get out of here. That's what matters right now…yeah…we should focus on that." She turns back to the door before appending, "However we get out of here…."
Chamey faces the door, contemplating for a few moments, his eyebrows curled as he's deep in examination. He mutters in thought, "I mean…maybe if we wait long enough…it'll just…leave? I'm sure it'll get attracted to something else, we just have to wait that out."
His mother stops beside him and plants herself on the bed too, staring directly at the mirror, watching her own reflection. She frowns, taking another glimpse at the door before considering, "Maybe, we could hole up here for the night and maybe it'll be gone by then. But even if we avoid that, I'm not sure what we're supposed to do about everything else. I guess we can try the pod again but…if it fails…I don't want ...."
Noticing the lingering of her words, Chamey turns away from the door, instead looking to the window. He stares through the screen, watching the battlefield right out of their home. His eyes sharpen upon a strange observation, as he notices that while there are still the same pods outside, there are many now simply patrolling the neighborhood, not shooting but just quietly roaming above the houses in the distance.
As he zones deeper into the window screen, he notices a pod rise up from seemingly the ground, as if some landed before. But when focusing closer on the pod, he can just barely examine that behind the open door between the two officers are two women, one an adult and another a younger teenager, neither of which are in uniform, the adult holding onto the teenager affectionately. They stand behind the officers who survey the ground below as the pod lifts off, and begins to drive off in the other direction, seemingly departing the whole area.
Watching the pod fly away, Chamey's eyebrow raises before he comments softly, "I think…they might be evacuating people actually."
Perplexed, his mother turns to him to doubt, "Are you sure about that? That doesn't sound like them."
Chamey shakes his head and notes, "But I saw them driving off with what looked like a kid and her mom, and they're patrolling the area, maybe they're trying to find survivors. Maybe if one of them comes around here, we can signal them through the window?"
His mother winces to that plan, instead turning away and contending, "I don't know about that…we don't know what they intend to do with us. It just all feels wrong, if we wait enough then I'm sure we'll be able to use our pod safely, then we can go wherever we want."
Lowering his head, Chamey grunts before turning to his mother and sternly explaining, "You don't get it mom, people did try to drive off, and they all crashed back down. Those things jump high, and we have no way of defending ourselves if they try to get us. If one clings onto our pod, we'll be in trouble. It's just…."
He stops with a frown, turning away and lowering his head after catching his rising tone. He sighs softly and appends, "I know you'd prefer to not involve them…I get it…and I'm sorry this is the only idea I have…but it's not worth risking doing it ourselves. We can figure everything out once we're out of here, it'll work out, we just need to get somewhere safe."
His mother contemplates a rebuttal for several moments, staying silent with a frown, her eyes sharp to indicate she did want to oppose that view especially after she's expressed irritation with adjacent ideas. Yet at this moment she can't find words she can justify using, and so she sighs in defeat before lowering her head and admitting, "You're right…I'm sorry…I know I'm stubborn about this sort of thing, it's just I don't want you to…I guess…."
Chamey keeps his head low, pondering to himself silently. He then grabs the front rim of his cap and gently pulls it off his bald head, placing it down beside him on his bed as he assures, "I won't. I promise," with no additional context, for none was needed between the two.
His mother turns to face him, her eyes widening just a bit upon realizing what he had done. She then turns to find the cap on the bed, staring at it for a few moments before turning her gaze to him, still silent. But through her dreary frown, she manages a subtle, sentimental smile, assured. She at last nods her head before gently determining, "Let's call them. I'll help you," and slips off the bed, cautious to not land too hard on her feet. She slowly approaches the window screen, and after watching her make her way for a few moments, Chamey smiles softly to himself before sliding off and following her.
At the window screen, the mother and son watch in silence, waiting. After a few moments, they notice a pod making a generic patrol, hovering about twice the height off the ground as the houses to stay safe from the monsters on the roofs, but low enough to the ground to have a detailed observation. The patrol hovers over their court, driving above the street at a steady crawl, the van pod's two doors open to allow the four officers to scan with their rifles over their arms. They steadily creep up the court, prompting the mother to raise her hand towards the wall the screen is projected on which causes it to project another panel with various small icons, but freezes before making contact so she can turn her head to Chamey. He faces back at her with a confidence that is imbued in his firm nod, which she reciprocates in the signal, finally turning forward and pressing one of the panel buttons before dropping her arm, triggering the panel to vanish. A second later, the entire window screen vanishes, revealing the wall behind which a chunk abruptly vaporizes into a cloud, functioning like a door as if it's a genuine window, allowing the cold breeze to enter the room, mixed with the hum of the approaching pod.
The mother slowly takes in a deep breath, filling her lungs, before releasing it all in a single yell: "HELP!!!!!"
Chamey glances at her before turning to the window, taking in a deep breath of his own, and shouting even louder: "OVER HERE!!!!!"
Onboard the vehicle, one of the officers surveying the ground below, his rifle equipped over his right arm, his head perks up from the strange shouts ahead. The officer beside him also takes notice with interest, for they both turn towards the vague direction of the sound, noticing it to be coming from the row of houses in the court they fly over. He sharpens his stare upon discerning that one of the many houses has a small aperture on the second story, a small square window where a teenage boy and woman stand behind.
The officer immediately turns his head towards the front of the vehicle before roaring, "WE HAVE CIVS TO THE RIGHT, REQUESTING CIVILIAN EVAC!" At the same time, the officer beside him lifts his arm, preparing his rifle with the understanding of what is likely to follow.
Practically immediately the patrolling pod slows down, and both of them can see that the officers facing in their direction perk their heads up, turning towards their general vicinity as they've picked up the call. While they seem to have heard it, albeit not instantly bolting straight for them, it seems they've also gathered additional attention as from behind distant houses in the court there creeps forward shadowy figures. Upon entering view, those monsters emit their alien shrieks before breaking into a charge for the house, countless of them crawling out of everywhere, running past neighbor's backyards after sensing prey.
Stumbling back upon the sight of the awakened horde, Chamey and his mother show fright in their eyes, but that further exacerbates when hearing another shriek from right below them, muffled only by the surface they stand on. Slashing and scratching sounds follow, the monster now alert and seeking them, their time cut from potential hours to maybe a minute.
The mother faces back at the door with a frown as Chamey faces forward to the window, watching the officers in the back of the patrol pod open fire on the horde charging from outside, each gunshot ringing his ears, flashing the darkening sky with bright oranges. The vehicle does begin to drift towards them though, not turning the body but changing directions to finally approach the house.
Gritting their teeth, the two officers facing the horde maintain heavy fire as one of them shouts, "THEY'RE NOT FALLING!"
His comrade beside him yells back, "IT'S SUPPRESSIVE FIRE, JUST HOLD THEM BACK!"
Both officers behind them glance back before shifting their focus ahead to the house they approach as the vehicle hovers over their lawn, the two trapped civilians eagerly waiting behind the window.
Down on the ground, monsters growl and gurgle as they sprint across the lawn, reaching the streets, battling against the bright orange gunfire that punctures the soft grass and hard road. They stagger backwards, however not a single one of them collapses, for they only at the most show irritation. Nevertheless they press on, unhinging their jaws, the spirals of teeth flashing.
Reactively widening his eyes from the realization that the deafening weapons are in truth failing to damage the beasts, doubt sows into Chamey's mind, but his attention jumps backwards from the horrifying sound of wood violently cracking behind the door, the ceiling smashed through, warranting his mother stumbling into him.
Gurgles emit from behind the door followed by a loud thud of a landing, the growling noticeable and growing louder. His mother clings onto Chamey's wrist as he turns towards the window before desperately shouting, "COME QUICK!!!"
As if on command, the pod finally reaches right by the window, decelerating swiftly to a total stop just about a foot from the house, leveling the platform with the house's second floor. The officer to originally spot the two lowers his right arm and extends his left, shouting over the pod's hum and heavy gunfire: "UP AND EASY, ONE AT A TIME!"
Chamey turns to his mother and determines, "You go first mom," only for her to turn to him but shake her head to request, "No wait you go first, help pull me up."
He opens his mouth to argue back, but the two move their attention instantly to the door from the sudden emergence of a black hand that breaks through it, which is pulled away before another slash hits the door, then another, rapid strikes that begin cutting the door down.
"Shit, mom go first!" Chamey pleads to his mother after being faced with the imminent danger, just before the entire door bursts open, revealing the monster who instantly charges in a full sprint, shrieking with both hands clawed, its mouth hung open.
"MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!!" The officer bellows desperately, both Chamey and his mother lunging for the window at the same time as all order had so swiftly collapsed. Chamey naturally reaches the window first, swinging one leg over the window and reaching his hand to the officer to grab it, but before he swings his other leg the monster has already dashed to the other end of the bedroom, roaring as its stretched hand reaches his shoulder, warranting popped eyes to glance backwards in horror.
His mother spins around, and without another thought, she draws both of her arms and shoves her son while simultaneously kicking the abdomen of the monster, managing to briefly form a barrier between the monster and her son, resulting in the force of the shove throwing her son out the window and inside the pod.
Chamey throws himself up to his feet and reaches his hand over the window immediately, screaming: "MOM TAKE MY HAND!" He faces straight at his mother who gazes back at him with a solemn smile as the monster behind her swings its arm straight for her neck. Just as the black nails graze her skin, Chamey's gaze is blocked by the palm of the officer's extended arm, and the pod abruptly drifts away from the wall. But even through the hum and gunfire right behind him, he can hear the sound of the neck being cut clean.
Mixed with the pod's hum raised to a roar along with the persistent gunshots at the shrieking monsters, there joins the sound of the teenager screaming at the top of his lungs, his face covered as the vehicle slides away from the house while ascending, taking to the skies like the others. The doors stay open, as while the motion was somewhat jerkish due to the abrupt jump in speed, nobody on board seems to struggle against the shifting forces, including the only member of the family lifted.
Both of the officers in the back halt fire, keeping their sharp eyes trained on the horde below but shifting to a rest. They all then receive a voice emitting from the pod although a different one less authoritative indicating, "I'm routing to command that we've acquired a civilian and are disengaging from the combat zone. Our designated drop zone has been compromised but we should be receiving a new one shortly. Remain on standby until pod doors close, we'll be exiting the atmosphere shortly, but keep attentive during the full trip."
On the other side, the officer drops his arm, no longer needing to shield the boy's eyes. He however stumbles backwards, grabbing his temples with both hands as he murmurs, "They're gone…they're both gone…what's happening what's going on???" All four of the officers frown from the depressing spiral, though one of them places his hands on the teenager's shoulders before assuring, "We're transporting you somewhere safe, you're going to be alright kid."
Turning his head and dropping his arms, the teenager just asks in gentle puzzlement, "Wh-...where are we going…?"
The counselor frowns to that question, diverting his gaze to the sky past the open doors as the pod navigates over the tall roots, gliding away from the titanic tree in avoidance of the far denser cluster of branches sprawling from it. Above that cluster, twilight has nearly reached absolute blackness, only a subtle shade of blue remaining which wouldn't last for long. He sighs before admitting, "I don't know…we'll just have to see for ourselves." He lets go of the teenager's shoulder, allowing the boy to amble towards the edge of the platform, drawing light concern from the two officers as they cast apprehensive glances at him though don't take action. Instead they watch as he just stands at the end, lowering his head to gaze at the neighborhood below.
It's one sight to behold, the suburban town now riddled with roots that tore up houses and streets, dots scattered around the streets and lawns being bodies among crashed pods attempting to escape. It was already a struggling town, but this would be the nail in its coffin, obliterating any attempt at recovery, like a cruel joke of a rebound. His orange eyes just gaze gloomily at that corpse, his family gone, his home gone, his life gone. He just watches that life shrink, drawing further away, gradually covered over by more of the web, like scribbles trying to hide a painting. His gaze just lingers on it for as long as he can until ultimately the black pod doors materialize, cutting off his connection.