I ran as if the devil were after me. Paradoxically, that was almost what it seemed.
The monster, for some reason, had it in for me. Wielding its heavy sword, it tried to crush me, cut me, hurl me—whatever it could.
Behind me, I heard the rattle of the machine gun, which smoked from firing so furiously at the monster's thick calves. What I had considered a useless effort turned out to be more effective than even the skinwalker herself anticipated.
The metal plates went from emitting a bluish shine to turning red like achiote. There, although faint, some cracks burst open. The monster tried to protect the area with its shield, but the Machine Gunner's aim proved infallible. I thought that if we kept up this rhythm, we'd manage to knock those plates off and uncover whatever was underneath.
[WARNING: ONE MINUTE UNTIL "OILED ENGINE" RUNS OUT]
"Damn it!" I hissed.
A minute wasn't enough. Not with that much pressure ahead. I was sweating and my lungs were rattling, diminished by the effort and the yellow dust. At least that monster wasn't interested in running—I didn't know if out of laziness or some physical limitation. That gave me the chance to distract it longer.
"Watch out!"
The words traveled to my ears and echoed hollow, electrifying. I thought a bell was tolling inside my ear canal. My balance failed me. My new, unfamiliar robotic legs screeched as the ground cracked beneath my feet.
"What...?"
I staggered in the midst of that gloom. Memories of summer days in Disneyland and the feeling of an amusement park came back. This was a slightly darker version. Had I ever done something this reckless before? Dozens of cracks spread and drew a tree across the floor, one that threatened to swallow me whole.
Gro, my cat, was an expert at dodging obstacles. He had always been lazy, but that didn't stop him from showing off his feline skills from time to time. Imitating him was hard. I leaped from one island of concrete to another, avoiding the widening cracks.
The monster kept stomping the ground. It had decided to stop and cover with its shield the now concerning wounds visible on its calves.
[WARNING: 10 SECONDS UNTIL "OILED ENGINE" RUNS OUT]
Take it back to the room. A nice plan, flawless. I also stopped halfway, between a crack and a piece of concrete.
The floor trembled in a worrying way. The few scaffolds still holding up the structure weren't enough to withstand the weight of the material. Maybe they wouldn't last the ten seconds I had left.
I took a breath and jumped from one block to another. I could even identify with the protagonist of Temple Run.
"Shoot!" I exclaimed.
The tiger woman cast a reserved spell that expelled a bullet of compressed air. Chask! One of the plates flew off, and the monster lost its balance just before crushing me with its sword. I dodged its legs and rushed toward the door. Behind me, the green light of the outside world gleamed.
[WARNING: TIME HAS RUN OUT]
I lost all momentum just as the monster stood up, visibly angry and ready to destroy everything. It dragged its leg, but it was still faster than me.
I felt my body splitting into a thousand pieces. I had the horrid sensation of shattering. Obviously, by using the enhancer, I had exceeded the limit and needed immediate attention. Can a person describe the movement of a muscle with a life of its own? At that instant, I could. The cramps bit into me everywhere.
"Here!" someone shouted.
I turned around clumsily. I could barely process what was essential. I noticed there was a lot of smoke. I saw the yellow dust glowing. Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me.
Almost fainting, I struggled to free myself, but it was impossible.
"What are you doing?"
Brango dragged me to the corner and covered my mouth. A second later, the monster broke into the smoke. It swung its sword and thrashed about. Snorting, it plunged deeper into the fog. When it was far enough away, Brango gestured to the blonde.
"Heal him."
The woman pulled from her pockets an artifact shaped like a bandage. Carefully, she unfolded it and placed it on my chest.
[AUXILIARY ARTIFACT: BANDAGE OF THE ASTRAZ MUMMY]
Although not immediately, the cramps and pain began to subside.
I looked at their faces. The three of them didn't seem worried about my fate. In fact, not about theirs either. Their expressions still felt out of place, as if taken from another dimension. I took advantage of the moment to release my frustration. My fears. My cowardice.
"Why are you all so calm!?" I demanded. "Can't you see this is the Apocalypse?"
Brango looked at me as if I were some distant, shapeless object he couldn't identify. The green glow from outside reflected on his cheeks. He was a man of medium height, medium build, and, in general, medium configuration. An average individual, as they say.
"Look, Lope," he said. "Have you ever read The Metamorphosis?"
I didn't understand why he was asking that. I vaguely remembered having read the book in high school. Brango peeked his head out and tracked the maddened monster through the smoke.
"Well then, in The Metamorphosis, the protagonist discovers he's turned into a bug, an aberration, but instead of worrying about this new appearance, the first thing he thinks is that he's going to be late for work. His priorities lie elsewhere." Brango looked at the blonde, then at the other woman. "Lope, it's the same for the three of us. Today, I had a doctor's appointment at eight o'clock, for a liver tumor. Karin had to pick up her six-year-old son at noon, and Zara had to take her sick dog to the vet. Do you know what the first thing we thought about was when we found ourselves in this situation? That's right. The missed medical appointment. The whereabouts of the child. The illness of the dog."
Brango gave a signal to one of the employees. She pulled something from her menu.
"We don't have time to think about the Apocalypse," he said. "We're like the protagonist of The Metamorphosis. Our priorities have a different connotation. We'll explain later why we shrank. There'll be time for that. For now, what we have to do is get to work on time. Don't you feel the same?"
No. I had nothing in life worth arriving early for. Nothing to fight for. I looked at them with envy.
"But enough of vague talk. It's time to get out of here. Menu."
The hologram appeared.