Billows of smoke and fire arose as the blaze covered the skies. Shrieks and screams filled my ears, I looked beyond the covering of dust and fine ash and saw the horrid scenery lay bare before my eyes. The Skyscrapers and metal apartment complex engulfed by flames as Creatures with terrifying appearances rampaged the place that I used to call my home.
Light flashed by my eyes and then in a fraction of a second the D-32 trailer, carrying the remaining hornet-particle charge, exploded into metal fragments as my whole body was reduced to ashes… Yet my mind was still clear as day.
Drops of red fell on the ashes but then the drops multiplied into a pool of blood. Blood then formed my bones, my nervous system, then my organs, muscles and skin. A living horror rising up from the ashes, the ashes became once more 'me'.
With my whole body back to what it was, I looked back to where the flash of light came from, quite a distance away from me, only to see a wolf-like silhouette with two rings of red light connected to its tail. Its appearance was hidden underneath the shadow of the red moon but I could determine the rank and level of threat it imposed as I could see the mob of creatures flocking behind it.
I then looked towards the skies. The red moon began to move as swirls came out of its center. The red moon went close to the chaotic battlefield and blew an invisible wave from its center that swept the battlefield into nothingness.
Voooom!
I came back once more from the ashes but my trembling knees finally knelt. This was true despair. I gazed towards the red moon as it loomed near the complex behind me. It wasn't the moon, I thought as the unknown figure shrouded by darkness with its moon-like head advanced.
I raised my hand towards the red moon, believing that I could reach the insurmountable distance… but what if I could.
My left arm, raised towards the skies, began to crumble as pieces of metal and plasma capsules grew out of it. It then connected and integrated with each other to form a fine piece of machinery, a two layered cannon with the same width as my arm, I aimed towards the red moon which in turn stared at me like a huge eyeball.
I then screamed atop of my lungs, "We won't fall here! We will always bounce back, because that's what makes us truly human", as I finished my words, rays of luminous light emerged from the cannon and condensed into one huge beam of blue light. This punctured the red moon and gave a huge, ominous whole in the middle of it. I then smiled "not yet".
***
[If you were to finish the ■ levels and escape from this ■■ then you will see the truth beyond the ■■]
Nightmares...
I've always had these. A vague figure speaking incomprehensible words. A nightmare I feel so vividly.
[Father!… Father!!!..]
These clear and intelligible words is the stigma of having this nightmare over and over again.
"gasp... gasp... another nightmare" I muttered to myself as I gasped for air.
My eyes now wide awake, welcoming the veil of darkness above me. Surrounded by pillars and branches built upon each other resembling a hut.
My name? I don't know my name nor where I am, I don't have someone to ask since I have always been alone. All I know is that I had seen this entrancing darkness again and again for a very long time. Lulled by hopelessness and no sense of purpose. I had always thought of ending my life. Yet I could not.
For one thing kept me going. The whispers in the night, my nighmares, yet these so-called nightmares were itself a dream of hope. A hope that maybe there something more to my life than this never-ending aguish and sorrow.
"Escape... escape from what?"
Every time I had one I would wake up immediately drenched in sweat. Despite the every-night experience of mystery and maybe false sense of hope, I was simultaneously grateful towards it since it tells me that I was still 'human' in a world where there were only beasts. That I still had my 'self'.
"Why do you want to escape?" I said, seemingly wanting to talk to the persona of the dream.
I sat down from the rug I rested on and took a view of the scenery that lied before me behind a small lit fire. A view of forestry. Yet there was not a single thing that was blissful nor gracious about this forest.
I could never do anything unless I risk my life for it. This forest is just never-ending ferocity and mayhem.
I stared at the said forest. All its trees, covered with claw marks made by beasts, all its branches, broken into several pieces after being pounced on the ground. And lastly all the 'monsters' that lay deep within its abyss.
How much time has passed by as I have immersed myself in my thoughts? As I went back to my senses. The bright sunlight already stretched its fingers between each tree.
'Rrrwaaaaaaaa!', A cry that shook the ground accompanied the sunlight.
"looks like it's another day of living" As I said these words, my facial expression and attitude began to change, creating a facade, I was now emitting a lively aura....
I rose from the rug I was sitting on. I grabbed my primitive spear by my side and went outside. I climbed the nearest tree and searched for 'meat'.
In this forest, meat is the only food that I could rely on.
I widened my search and saw a jackrabbit quite a distance away from me.
"There!" I boosted myself with the trunk of the tree and grabbed the tree's sagging vines and swung, I jumped through branches and propelled myself between trees.
I soon went near the vicinity of the jackrabbit and then I played the waiting game.
The jackrabbit is a rabbit who is half my size with teeth large enough to tear my limb in one bite, but its strong suit is that it's extremely agile, that's why I needed to wait until it finds its prey since it stops moving and lowers its guard when it eats.
***
I always remember the first time I faced the jackrabbit… it was during my hunt for food, I found it moving so swiftly through the forest and before I knew it, it was right before me. I plopped down on the ground and gasped nervously with a terrified look on my face but it didn't do a thing. It was the first creature that I met that didn't attack on encounter.
It was the moment of salvation for finding an unhostile creature. Consequently, I thought of him as my companion, a best friend, a family. Yet, our friendship did not last long…
As time went by I could no longer suppress my hunger. I looked at my 'best friend' while drooling with saliva.
"I'm sorry", I cried
I chased the jackrabbit for 3 days, I even tried traps yet it all ended a failure. At the end of each day I would always end up with wounds, some of them were minor while some were fatal.
I had always remembered the feeling of being pierced through and the feeling of having most of my own 'meat' gone to the point where you can already see the bones. I felt like screaming yet I destroyed my throat to not let one out. And this is because of my great fear of getting eaten.
The hut made of darkwood branches is capable of repelling beasts because of the dark essence of darkwood but I know if I were to just let a single croak out, they would likely break through.
Well… I just had to endure since I miraculously heal overnight. At the break of the fourth day, I gave up and tried to reconcile with my best friend. Fortunate enough, he didn't hold a grudge or was I just too pathetic to be acknowledged as a predator. Well, either way, it helps.
Time went by and my best friend hunted a green-striped python. My eyes watered with jealousy as I saw my best friend having a 'slithery delicacy'. I unconsciously walked towards the python and before I knew it my hand was already at the back of my best friend.
I tried… I did… but the thoughts of betrayal seemed to have possessed me.
I took a branch with a sharp end and stabbed it behind my best friend. I thought I flew afterward but it was just the jackrabbit struggling, swaying me back and forth. I held on to the branch until the moment it stopped moving. I couldn't forgive myself for what I did but who could blame me… survival of the fittest has always been the law of the jungle especially in this kind of jungle.
I didn't burn its meat in fear of drawing uninvited guests. My feelings were mixed up when I ate my best friend. I felt blissful to the fact that I get to satiate my stomach and treacherous to the fact the I betrayed him.
Well, I got used to it since I graciously let him meet a family member when I got hungry.
***
The jackrabbit had seemed to find a prey. I silently followed it while ignoring my upset stomach.
...And now the time had come when I no longer had to wait.
The jackrabbit noticed a presence beneath its feet emerging, "squeak squeak", and as soon as it emerged, the jackrabbit's teeth pierced right through its body and dragged it away to a shade of a tree.
The poor creature who was at the bottom of the food chain was a tri-mole. A three-headed mole with a body 1/3 my size.
The jackrabbit immediately moved its sharp teeth, cutting the center head of the mole into two. At that point, the mole died and the jackrabbit hurriedly bit it.
It was time for my turn yet as soon as I tried to jump, a sound resembling the down-pouring of rain but its intensity increased tens of times, was nearing.
I knew what it was without looking. I didn't want to confirm it but I reflexively moved my head to where the sound was coming from and I regretted it... I clicked my tongue.
"Omandrills"