I ignored the pain as I squeezed through the window.
The glass had shattered cleanly, and hacking away at the mesh earlier had cleared most of the shards—but not all.
Jagged splinters of the pretty crystal still bit into my palms and snagged in my hair as I dropped onto the metal fire escape outside.
It wasn't a moment too soon—right then, a tongue from one of those things punched through the bathroom door, the spearhead whipping past my head with an audible *crack*.
"Yeah, no thanks." I bolted down the stairs.
The fire escape opened into the night air, giving me a full view of the university campus. I slowed, breath catching at what I saw.
Oh. Well, isn't that just wonderful?
The world had turned into a living nightmare. The sky had now been fully steeped in a suffocating crimson. Where the sun should've been a massive black orb churned at the heart of a swirling riptide of black clouds.
It was a bizarrely beautiful scene. Gorgeous even, in an apocalyptic sense.
Then I noticed the orb weeping.
Heavy droplets of blood fell to earth, and—of course—it wasn't just blood. Each drop carried a swollen sac that burst open, spilling out more nightmares. Not just the ones from before. Different shapes. Different screams.
If they weren't all trying to kill me, I'd have loved to study them. Really, I would. It'd be a cute little bio project.
Just then another tongue hissed past my ear, and—nope, never mind, screw the fieldwork. It curved in an arc over my shoulder this time, floundering about, trying to reach me.
Jesus Christ, its tongue is prehensile. Of course it fucking is. Yeah, no, I've seen enough tentacle and tongue h*ntai… I have to say, I'm not so into that shit when I'm on the receiving end of it. Time to dip.
Fear slammed back into me like ice water and I tore down the stairs. The tongue punched holes clean through the steps, but thank God it missed the supports. The structure groaned but held.
My thoughts blurred. This is real. Was the video real too? Is this really the end of humanity? I shuddered as I slipped down the stairs. Though even if I made it to the ground… where the hell would I go?
More blood sacs crashed into the campus, bursting open in blooming flowery explosions of red and screeches of new monsters. Students screamed and scattered, only to be chased down in seconds.
Then I felt the apartment tower I was standing on tip. Looking around, massive ruptures in its structure oozed the same sky-blood that had weakened its foundation. My entire building was collapsing.
No time to think.
I vaulted the railing.
I was five stories up. My plan was reckless, but it was better than being crushed. Weightlessness swallowed me for a heartbeat, then I caught the railing of the floor below, my arms screaming from the impact.
Gritting my teeth, I repeated the drop-and-grab four more times, each one harder than the last, until the ground rose up to meet me.
I hit the ground running and just managed to escape being crushed. A chunk of the building crashed next to me as my previous home crumpled to the ground with a deafening roar.
Dust swallowed me, stinging my eyes and lungs. I stumbled forwards—then froze as a slow realization crept up to me.
The people still inside.
I'd left them.
Oh, god. God godgod godgodgod godgodgodgodgodgodgodgodgod…
"I—I'm sorry." The words slipped out before I could stop them. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm—"
My palms shook and my throat closed up as I began to run, belting it away from the building. I could hear them in my head—screaming, crying, dying—yet all I did was run.
They would've done the same. Right? Right? That makes it okay. Doesn't it? Plus, it wasn't like those cowards would have helped me anyways…
But the apologies kept falling out anyway, faster than I could catch them. "I'm sorry I couldn't help, I'm sorry I wasn't enough, I'm sorry—please forgive me—"
No one would forgive me. No one was left to hear.
I ran and ran and ran and ran from the chaos until I was winded, staggering into the ruined street. Not once did I look back.
I coughed, practically choking on the phlegm and dust that had been kicked up. I dragged myself into an empty building and rested for a while.
What a mess.
I had no idea what the fuck was going on, but… I still needed to get out of here.
Think. Please think, M. Where to next? How to stay out of sight? How to stay safe?
I clutched my head, my breathing erratic, a sharp acidic tang in my mouth.
Ah, right.
The city only a little distance away from the campus—Bulgeun Haneul. Normally half an hour by bus. No buses now. But if I walked? Maybe. The police, the army base—someone would know what to do. Someone better than me.
I tried to calm myself and kept to the sides of buildings, ducking between collapsing walls. There practically weren't any undamaged buildings left. However, the wreckage at least broke lines of sight, and gave me places to hide. It was a lot safer than running in the open.
Speaking of being safe, that was when I heard it.
The burdened wheezing.
I slid into the wreckage of a collapsed lecture hall, pressing myself beneath what was left of a desk.
A shadow loomed, tall as a streetlamp. Spines riddled its high, arched back. Fuck. My hand clamped over my mouth, nails digging into my lips to choke back the scream clawing up my throat. Don't, M. Don't you fucking dare. If you make a sound, you die, you die, you die, and it'll be your fault.
Hyeeeeeeek… I curled up, tucking my knees closer to my chest as it lumbered past. Cute little bubbly tears formed at the corners of my eyes.
The monster drifted away, thank God, but the sight of it clung to me. Something inside me curdled. A hot pulsating feeling rose in my throat.
I turned over to my side, and… prompt threw up.
Sunshine and rainbows poured out of me as yesterday's dinner ran out from my throat. After my stomach was done spewing out its contents, I dry heaved for what seemed like eternity. I was lucky that no monsters noticed me.
So, so, so lucky.
I crept from ruin to ruin like a rat, too scared to run, too scared to fight. I was pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. However, I was alive. My eyes stung with tears I couldn't blink away. I was too much of a coward to even die right.
Every time I saw or heard anything, I paused and hid.
It was like cat and mouse.
If I met the spider monsters, I would immediately need to hightail it out of there or break my scent trail. For the others that I could not name, I hid out of sight and remained perfectly still.
All the while, fear incessantly pounded my chest like a wild animal. Desperate tears were ever present in my eyes and half-refused my ability to see.
Somehow, somehow I managed to weave through the campus to reach the main road.
I collapsed inside a ruined café, my knees buckling against the floor. I wanted to curl up into a ball, sleep, and hopefully the nightmare would be over by the time I woke up.
Hehe…
How the fuck did this end up happening?
Why me?
I shuddered and shook with my back behind the barista's counter, pressing my hands together in an attempt to find any calm at all in my body.
How am I supposed to survive? I don't know, I don't know—I just want to go home, I just want someone to tell me what to do, I'm sorry, I'll be good, please just let me live…