Fort Worth

Even after meeting back with the rest of our group and meeting more soldiers, I still couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious about the stories that Fort Worth was the safe haven we’d been told about, until we got close enough to see the refugee camps. Even with the visible proof, it was still hard to believe. For whatever reason, Fort Worth seemed to have been mostly untouched by both the Fears and the Quiet. With the rest of the world collapsing, the military stationed in the area had taken it upon themselves to maintain order and ensure the safety of those living there.

The city of Fort Worth was mostly intact, although with significantly fewer people around. Even without the mass destruction seen elsewhere, seems the place still had taken a lot of casualties. I was told that most of the survivors were living in and around the air force base, and as we approached I began to see what looked like hastily constructed defensive housing. Any standing building around the base had been fortified with any scrap or materials that could be carried over, and the walls of broken cars and other debris around the base itself made it seem like some kind of nuclear wasteland fortress.

Another Humvee drove alongside us, and an officer stepped out of it. “Agent Flint of the Eldritch Department?” He said. Flint nodded, a little cautiously, and the officer continued. “I’m Lieutenant Freeman, US Air Force. General Morgan wanted to speak with you and your two companions.”

“How does the general know about the Eldritch Department?” Flint asked.

“We managed to pick up a few survivors from it. They’ve been advising us on the situation. When they heard about your survival, they requested we bring you in to assist. I’ll have some of my men get the rest of your people housing while I take you over.”

Well that seemed nice of them. Only one question on my mind….

“Hey Lieutenant guy, I’m curious.” I said, waving my arm in the air. “Any reason in particular no one’s freaking out about the lady with the black demon arm?”

He chuckled at that. “We had to deal with a little kid made of ice killing people while singing rhymes a few weeks back. I think we’re all used to weird by now. So long as you’re not trying to kill us, I don’t think many people are going to bat an eye.”

Well… I suppose that was fair enough. Followed him onto the base as he explained the current situation further, mostly lack of supplies, occasional skirmishes with the Fears, etc. Miles stayed silent the entire time.

We were led inside one of the base’s buildings, and two guards came up to walk alongside us. Our destination was a pair of double doors. “The General’s in there.” Lieutenant Freeman said.

My hand was almost on the door handle when Miles said, “Wait.” He looked at Freeman, eyes narrowed in thought. “Why does everything look so orderly?”

Freeman seemed confused. “What do you mean?”

“The uniforms, the equipment, everything. It looks like it’s brand new, not equipment that’s gone through the apocalypse.”

“General Morgan believes in maintaining proper military appearance….”

“You told us about the supply situation. Everything’s on ration. If that’s the case, why would you waste resources and time on appearance?”

The Lieutenant and the guards suddenly stiffened, and in an instant I recognized the dead expression that came over their faces. The guards pushed us through the doors, into the conference room with three more men in it. One was dressed in a general’s uniform, and the other two might once have been members of the Eldritch Department. But now, all of them were possessed by EAT.

“What’s going o-” I started, only to be cut off by gunfire. Bits of brain and blood flew across my face as Flint and Miles fell to the ground. The possessed guards then turned their guns on me, but didn’t fire.

“What….” I said again, still reeling from what I’d just seen.

“This is it, Nyarlathotep.” All EAT’s bodies said in a cold tone. “Accept your end.”

The walls and roof of the building were lifted into the air, and scattered like twigs, leaving us in the open. I could see the rest of Fort Worth, its buildings crumbling away as the ground opened up beneath it. An immense black tree was coming from the ground, ripping apart anything that blocked its growth. It was the same tree as I’d seen in the Empty City, but somehow even larger than before. Its roots alone dwarfed the city’s towers, and the canopy had soon risen above the clouds.

Before the thought of fleeing could pass through my mind, strings wrapped around me arms and legs, lifting me slightly into the air. All the refugees in the city, including the ones from the caravan I’d traveled with, mechanically marched in front of me, the Wooden Girl at their lead. As they passed by, the Plague Doctor appeared above them. It spread out its cloak, and people started to collapse, vomiting and choking on blood until they were still. Those that didn’t die from the sickness were killed when the Wooden Girl’s strings started tearing them apart limb by limb.

My first reaction was rage. I roared at EAT, “Stop this!”

It stared back without blinking, and said, “No.”

I struggled against the strings, screaming to be let free. All pointless. My rage began to turn into confusion. “Why are you doing this?”

EAT’s reply was quick. “To illustrate the consequences of your actions. It is because of you that they die.”

“You’re the ones killing them!”

“We are the ones who kept them alive until now. The Quiet would have consumed them weeks ago, but we wanted you to see their deaths firsthand. See them where you couldn’t run away from the reality. Change the destruction of the multiverse from an abstract statistic into a hard reality. Your inability to control your impulses has led to countless deaths. This is just a fraction of what you have done to the world.”

When he was done speaking, everyone was dead. Their blood soaked the ground, with rivulets running underneath my feet. One of the Tree’s massive roots grew towards us, stopping above the bloodshed. The root shifted shape, crafting itself into a wooden throne, atop which sat the Slender Man. The Wooden Girl and the Plague Doctor moved to stand at its sides, and were joined by more Fears. The Black Dog. The Archangel. The Rake. The Cold Boy. And in the sky, the Eye appeared.

The Slender Man’s pale head looked toward me, and from that eyeless gaze I could feel such intense focus. All the power I’ve gained, all my strength, all my confidence… it felt like nothing against that gaze. I could feel the Slender Man’s presence like a hammer on my mind: this terrible creature, older than time, who had created the stars themselves…. And it was looking right at me, all that power focused just on me….

I looked down, unable to hold its stare. “Stop. I’m done.” I said.

Too quiet for anyone to hear, apparently. “What did you say?” EAT said.

“I’m done. I… I give up. Just… stop. Please.”

The Slender Man stood up, and took a step form its throne. The ground under its feet cracked, and it felt as if the whole world shook with every step it took. It walked toward me, its arms outstretched as if in preparation for an embrace.

A wall of fire burst forth in front of the Slender Man, and it halted its slow walk. More fire wrapped around EAT’s bodies, consuming them, and I felt the strings holding me disappear. The blood on the ground began to flow together. It rose from the ground, taking form: at first, it was something animalistic, almost wolf-life. Then it became more humanoid, as details and more colors began to emerge. It looked like a young girl with auburn hair, wearing a red cloak. Then the girl started to grow older, until it could no longer be called a girl. It began to shift form again, changing between dozens of different humans’ appearances. Finally, it settled on one: a man in an open red suit, with dark red hair. More blood came together in its hand to create a hat, which it flipped onto its head.

The Red Cap pointed at the Slender Man, and then moved its finger over the rest of the Fears. “The first of you who tries to even lay a finger on her dies.”

Out of the wall of fire stepped the Burning Bride, and from the smoke came the Brute. A roar of thunder came from above as the Convocation filled the sky. Lightning fell from their wings, and the Slender Man’s Fears scattered to avoid being hit. The Slender Man itself didn’t move, and only continued to stare at me through the wall of flame.

The Red Cap flowed over to me, changing appearances between more humans as it did. Before I knew what was happening, it took me by the hand. “Shall we make our exit, Mistress?” And then we were running, although to where I couldn’t tell. All around us were the roots of the Tree, and ruins of Fort Worth. But then, the space in front of us seemed to twist and distort, like a spiral collapsing in on itself. We ran through it, and suddenly we were falling, out of space, out of time, out of the universe itself.

Dallas

The moment Dallas came into view, everyone knew something was wrong. It’s one of the biggest cities in the U.S., but unlike every other major city we’d seen, there was no Tower growing in it, stripping it apart for material. Apart from the skeletons, abandoned cars, and black clouds blocking the sky, it looked the same as it had before the apocalypse happened. That sounds like it would be a good thing, since that’d be one less thing trying to kill us, but paranoia is our best survival strategy. If something looks weird, then stay the fuck away from it.

By unanimous decision, we chose to take as circuitous a route as we could in order to reach Fort Worth. That, at least, was the plan. When we tried enacting that plan, we found most of the roads we wanted to take were blocked by debris. At first we assumed it was from the general state of destruction the world was in, but after it kept happening, it started to feel like we were being herded toward downtown Dallas. By the time we were being forced through the Dallas urban sprawl, that feeling became strong enough to warrant action.

When we found the road again blocked by a collapsed skyscraper, Flint said, “When you tried to escape our facility, you nearly punched through several feet of solid steel? Think you could do that to a building as well?”

“Maybe. Never tried. Let’s find out.” How hard could it be, right?

Walked up and examined the debris for a while. How to go about this…. Should I just try to punch a hole through it? Maybe cut a hole in it? What if I caused too much damage, and it collapsed as we went through?

As I stood pondering, I wasn’t paying much mind to my surroundings. Which is why I wasn’t able to react very fast when a pale figure with huge claws pounced from the top of the debris onto me.

I did, however, react fast enough to prevent the Rake from tearing my throat out, so here’s to small miracles. With its opening attack a failure, the Rake sprung off me, landing on someone else in the group. They weren’t as lucky as me, and its claws tore right through their neck.

Everyone with a gun drew their weapon, but the Rake pounced into another building before anyone could fire. I suspect we would have all stood around gawking if Lucas hadn’t started yelling at people to get back into their cars and get the hell out of there.

If we’d been given a chance to calm down after the mad rush back to the cars, things might have remained more rational. But as the engines started up, the Rake pounced out from the debris again, landing on the hood of another car. Its claws tore through the window, shredding the occupants in the front seats. And again, before anyone could react, it had jumped away.

Like that, the escape quickly started devolving into a panic. The Rake continued to pounce out and pick off individuals as we tried driving away as fast as we could. Which really didn’t seem to accomplish much beyond getting people killed. So I decided to fix that problem by doing something crazy reckless: rolled down my window, got halfway out the car, and then when the Rake next jumped out, shot my arm forward in a tentacle at it.
Hit that monster right in the chest, knocking it away from the car. Gave a short cheer, which was cut off when the car hit a bump and I was promptly knocked out onto the street. Flint started to stop the car, but I waved for him to keep going. I’d gotten the Rake’s attention, and if I could keep that attention focused, it would help the others get away.

So, a cracked street in a ruined city with the Rake and I squaring off. It didn’t react as the cars drove away, instead just staring at me with its black eyes while clicking its claws together. Well, if it wanted to just stand there, then it was up to me to get this thing started. I drew my sword, and charged.

Right before I could swing, the Rake vanished. I stumbled a bit as my attack passed through air, but caught myself before falling. Heard a sound behind me, and just barely managed to turn and raise my arm to block the Rake’s attack. Its claws tore through my left arm, ripping it clean off. I didn’t feel any pain, and the shadows started to heal immediately, but while I was still down to one arm the Rake kept attacking. Managed to block a few slashes with the sword, but one got through enough to scrape across my collarbone, barely missing my neck.

Alright. This wasn’t working. Time to start running.

Bolted in the opposite direction of where the cars had gone. I quickly glanced over my shoulder to see if the Rake was following, but I didn’t see any sign of it. A few seconds later, I learned that was because it was above me. Jumped aside as it brought its claws down on where my head had been, and swung my sword at its face. The cut went straight through, but the moment the sword lefts its body, it healed. Back to running, then.

 The Rake continued to pursue me, and I barely kept ahead of its claws. So you might say things were getting a little tense there. Tripped over some debris, but quickly rolled over so I’d be able to face the Rake. It pounced at me, and I raised my sword to defend….

An explosion hit the Rake in the face, knocking it back to the ground. Heavy gunfire started up, tearing through the Rake. It was still healing too fast for those bullets to really do anything, but the sudden resistance seemed to make it reconsider fighting. The Rake vanished, and I looked over to see who had just saved me.

A military Humvee drove up to me, and several men in Army uniforms unloaded. One went over to check on me while the others kept looking around for the Rake.

“Are you I-330?” The one who’d gone to me said.

“Yeah….”

“We met your caravan near downtown. They told us you’d gone in this direction. We’re here to help escort you to Fort Worth.”

And that’s what they’re doing right now. We’ll be coming up to the place in a few minutes. From what these soldiers are saying, the radio broadcast was true: it is a safe zone. Somehow. Now to find out how that even happened....

So we might have kinda started a fire that burned down everything for several acres around us. But on the bright side, the Intrusion is no longer blocking the bridge across the Mississippi! What’s left of the bridge! The parts that weren’t damaged in the fire!

Hey, we managed to get all our cars across before the thing collapsed, so I’m still counting this as a win.

I’ve kept the sword from that guy with the hoodie. Honestly, my arm’s probably a better tool for fighting, but it feels good to have a tangible weapon to hold onto. Now I just need to find a motorcycle, and I’ll be the happiest girl in post-apocalytia.

Been explaining as much as we can about the Fears to Lucas and his group. We’re trying to stick with necessary survival information, but it’s hard to tell what’s going to be necessary. There’s no way to predict which Fear we’ll encounter next, or how they’ll attack us. So far we’ve been lucky, and haven’t had any major encounters since the Intrusion. The biggest issue has been with the cracks in space. Out in the countryside, far away from the big cities, there aren’t any Towers to stop their growth. More than once we’ve had to take long detours because everything for miles was gone.

Even so, at the rate we’re going, we’ll reach Fort Worth soon. And then… well, I don’t know what then. I just need to focus on keeping the people around me alive. If I can do that, maybe I’ll finally be able to start looking at my reflection again without feeling so disgusted.

Mississippi

We were going to cross the Mississippi River today. That ended up not working out, mostly because there isn’t a Mississippi River anymore.

We reached the riverbed a bit after noon. The ground was dry and cracked, like a desert that hadn’t seen rain in years. Given that it had only been a week since the apocalypse, definitely wasn’t a result of natural causes.

A small group of cars were parked by the river, with about twenty people standing amongst them. They were the first living people we’d seen since Tennessee, and given how that encounter turned out, we were understandably cautious about this group. That caution seemed unneeded, since all of them seemed intently focused on something in the riverbed. We drove a bit closer, and I could see a man in a black hoodie with a red x-ed out circle on the back slowly walking across the cracked ground. For some reason he had one of those Japanese sword things, I think they’re called katanas. He was holding it in front of him with both his hands, as if expecting something to jump out and attack him.

We drove closer to the cars, and Flint rolled his window down. “What’s going on here?” He said.

Someone in the group held up a hand for us to be quiet, and they continued to watch the man making the crossing. When he reached the other side, he waved back at them, and a collective sigh of relief spread amongst them.

“Alright, pack up and get ready to move.” A man in a camo jacket said to the others. “It looks like it’s clear.”

The moment he finished saying that, the ground began to shake, and a rumbling sound came from the north. Further up, I saw a wave of water rushing through the riverbed toward the man in the hoody. He tried to climb out, but the wave hit him before he could.

As the wave rushed by us, tendrils of water rose out and lashed at the cars. Flint got his window up as one hit the truck, nearly causing it to flip over. The people outside ran back into their cars; those who weren’t fast enough were grabbed by the tendrils and dragged into the water.

And suddenly, the water was gone. The wave passed on, leaving dry land and the bodies of those who had been dragged in. In the silence that followed, I got out of the truck to investigate. A few others got out of their cars, cautiously holding various improvised weapons. I saw the man in camo who had been giving orders, now holding a hunting rifle, and approached him.

“What was that all about?” I said.

He looked me over suspiciously before saying, “Most rivers are like that now. Whenever someone tries to cross them, that water monster thing gets them. And then….” He aimed his rifle at one of the bodies, which was starting to stand up. He fired a single shot through the head. “… turns them into these water zombies.”

Several of the others had started shooting the bodies before they could get up. “It’s called EAT.” I said, causing the man to raise an eyebrow. “The ‘water monster thing.’ Its name is the Epping AquaTarkus, or EAT.”

“Oh? And how would you know that?”

Tried to think of a way to answer that other than “My past self from a different universe was told it by a member of a secret FBI organization.”

I was saved from an awkward silence when the hoody guy suddenly ran out of the riverbed and charged us with his sword. The man I’d been talking to fired a shot from his rifle, but missed. I jumped between the two when I saw the sword slashing down, and moved my left arm to block it. The sword dug into my arm, but stopped. I heard the man behind me swear, and then swear again louder when part of my sleeve fell way and he saw the darkness underneath.

Pulled my arm back, and the shadow quickly healed the cut the sword had left. Another slash came at me, but I stepped aside and countered with a right hook to the head. With him dazed, I reached for him and snapped his wrist, then grabbed the sword as it fell from his grip. Swung it at him, cutting through the neck all the way to the bone. For a moment, he struggled on the end of the sword. Then he stopped moving and just stared at me until all the water had leaked out of his neck and his body slumped over.

Took a breath to calm myself, and turned around to see the guy I’d saved was now pointing a rifle at me. “What the fuck are you?” He shouted.

Oh, right, arm. It was starting to look like a writhing mass of shadows, and I had to will it back to being arm-shaped. That didn’t seem to calm him down much, and he shouted his question again.

Flint ran towards us and aimed his gun at the man. “Drop the weapon, now.” As if on cue, everyone in the group with a gun pointed theirs at Flint.

Well this was a wonderful mess. If I could just fucking time travel, then I’d have if fixed in seconds. Instead, all I could do was stand where I was and watch everyone’s trigger fingers getting itchier.

Miles stepped into the midst of this, his hands raised up in a conciliatory fashion. “I think we all should just calm down for a moment here.” He stepped between me and the man, so the rifle was pointed at him. “We’re not here to harm any of you. If we all just put down our guns, we can explain.”

The man stared down Miles, then slowly lowered his rifle; everyone else followed suit. He held out his hand and said, “Sorry about that. The name’s Lucas.”

Miles shook his hand. “I’m Dr. Miles. This is I-330, and that’s Agent Flint.”

“Agent?” Lucas’ eyes narrowed. “You with the government?”

“We were.” Flint said. “Doesn’t seem to be much government left these days.”

Lucas grunted in response. I took the chance to jump into the conversation. “We’re trying to make it to Fort Worth. There was a radio broadcast saying they were gathering survivors there.”

Lucas nodded. “We all heard it too. Can’t say I really trust it, but there’s nowhere else we could go. But we’re stuck at the river.”

“Isn’t there a bridge somewhere we can cross?”

“We already tried that. There were… bugs in the way.”

“Bugs?”

He nodded. So, the Intrusion. “We might be able to help you with that little bug problem.”

Still heading westward. Progress has been slow; most of the interstates are covered in abandoned wrecks of cars, so we’ve been forced to take a lot of back roads. We just made it through Tennessee, where we had a bit of an… interesting experience.

For the first time in days, we saw blue sky through the smog, only a few miles past the state line. Didn’t know what to make of it, until we got closer and saw a town beneath the sky. It seemed like an invisible wall surrounded the place: on one side, cracked, barren apocalyptic wasteland. On the other, spotlessly green yards, rows of identical houses, and people in the streets making small talk to each other.

Our busted pickup looked fucking weird juxtaposed with the suburban perfection around us. A couple waved at us driving by, and curiosity forced us to stop.

They approached us as we got out of the truck, with friendly smiles. The woman wore a conservative red dress, while the man had a brown sweater vest and a pipe. He held his hand out to me, and said, “Why hello there! I’m Danny, and this is my wife, Samantha. What brings you here?”

I just stared at the offered hand. Flint had his gun out, but kept it pointed at the ground for the time. “What the hell is going on here?” I said.

“What do you mean? Everything’s just fine and dandy! Isn’t that right dear?” She giggled and nodded.

“No. Seriously. What’s going on? The world just ended. Why does everything look so nice?”

“Well I don’t know about any little problems other places are having, but things are just swell here! Say Sam, why don’t you get our guests something to eat?”

She giggled again and ran inside one of the houses. “You’ll just love her apple pie!” Danny said. “They’re the best in the world!”

Soon after, Samantha came back out, carrying four plates with a slice of pie on each. The smell suddenly reminded me of how little we’d been eating. Most meals for us had been consisting of whatever canned foods we could scrounge up in the few intact convenience stores we found. The thought of fresh, home cooked food….

Still, this was too weird. I shared a glance with Flint and Miles, reaching an unspoken agreement not to touch the food. Ed, however, did not have our self-control. He wolfed down his slice in seconds. He certainly seemed to enjoy it. Then, as he swallowed, his eyes bulged. He grabbed at his throat, and started coughing blood out.

“Hahaha, looks like someone’s a bit greedy!” Danny cheerfully said. I looked down at the slice I had, and, as though they had just appeared there, I saw it was filled with razorblades.

Danny gave Ed a friendly slap on the back, causing him to cough out another mouthful of blood. Danny pulled back his hand for another slap, and suddenly he was holding a knife. He swung downward, stabbing Ed through the back. Flint had his gun up in a moment, and fired a single shot through Danny’s head.

As soon as Danny’s body hit the ground, every other person in the town turned their heads towards us, all with identical smiles on their faces. Each began to laugh cheerfully, and charged at us. Flint started shooting at them, but they kept coming. A woman ran at me with hedge clippers, so I swung my left fist at her, cracking her skull. Another man jumped at me, but I turned my fingers into claws and ripped open his chest. Then… I just let myself go. Focused only on fighting to stay alive. Blocked out the laughter which didn’t stop even as I ripped them apart. Blocked out the identical smiles that never wavered on their faces. Blocked out Flint gunning down a boy who was trying to hit me with a baseball bat. I think Miles had the right idea: he stayed in the truck with his eyes closed and his hands over his ears until the slaughter had ended.

The adrenaline pounding in my ears was so loud that it took a few moments before I realized the laughter had stopped. All around me were smiling bodies, viciously mutilated in my desperate attempts to kill them quickly. Flint was leaning against the truck, holding an injured arm and shaking slightly. I was completely covered in blood and… pieces of the people I’d fought. It still feels like I’ve got intestines stuck in my hair, no matter how much water I run through it.

Out of everyone in the town, only Samantha was left. Somehow she’d avoided getting any blood on her. When I looked at her smile then, I could see faint strings coming from her lips, holding the grin in place. She opened her mouth, and the Wooden Girl’s voice came out. “We’re coming for you, Nyarlathotep! We’re going to get youuuuu!” Then the words turned into a scream as strings tore her skin off, and ripped the exposed muscle off her bones.

When the stream faded away, the town was completely silent. We didn’t say anything to each other. Just got back into the truck and drove away as fast as possible.

In Japan, a massive wave hit the coast, then swept over the entire island. Tens of millions drowned in a single hour. As the wave receded, the corpses stood to their feet. With perfect synchronization, they organized into ranks, and marched into the sea with their expressionless faces locked ahead.

A blizzard hit Dubai, dropping the temperature until anyone outside was frozen in place. Ice completely covered the skyscrapers, and snow turned the ground white. The entire city was made silent, save for the laughter of a child echoing through its still streets.

A massive dog prowled the east coast of the United States, and a lidless eye appeared over the skies of Germany. Insects swarmed across Africa, and a monster with knife like fingers stalked the rooftops of Sidney.

By the end of the first day, billions were dead.

By the end of the week, humanity was all but extinct.

***

So this is it. The apocalypse.

I know I should feel something more about this, but everything is just… grey. I’ve been running on adrenaline and short terms goals ever since I arrived in this universe, but now those are wearing off and I feel empty. I had a dream. I was going to save Lisa, and we could live together in peace. But I failed, and since then I’ve just been drifting, letting whatever events come by guide my course. First I wanted to escape the Eldritch Department. Then I wanted to stop the Quiet. Now I’m trying to reach Fort Worth. I don’t really know why I’m doing any of this. It’s as if I’ve switched into a default “What would the hero of a story do” mode, and have been following that without any real thought into what I’m doing or what will happen afterward.

Flint’s taken charge of this road trip to Texas. Normally I’d try to take the lead, but I’m not feeling it this time. Given my string of failures, I don’t think I’m up to leading anything. And Flint does make a good leader. He’s clearly grieving, but he hasn’t let that get in the way of his judgment. The rest of us haven’t quite managed his degree of emotional stability. Miles has gotten really quite and doesn’t say much anymore. And our newest member, Ed, is a nervous wreck. Might be because he’s the only one of us who didn’t know about the Fears prior to this starting.

As for our trip itself…. The scenery’s been doing a pretty good job of mirroring my mood. The sky is covered in smog. Everything we pass is dead. All major cities have a Tower rising above them, creating an expanding canopy around the world. We haven’t seen a single other living person, but the dead are so numerous that the entire world smells like rotting bodies. It’s hard to understand the scope of it all. We’ve seen so many mountains of corpses that you start to feel like this can’t possibly be happening. That there’s no way so many people could be dead, but… they are. They’re all dead.

And it’s all my fault.

This is all my fault.

Starfall, pt. 2

Turns out that city I was in was Philadelphia. Not that I even got much of a chance to check while we were escaping. That part was pretty hectic. Turns out that when a gigantic tower appears and starts destroying the city, everyone hops into their cars and starts trying to drive away. And of course, being struck in traffic while the world is ending is never a good position. Flint tried turning on the car’s sirens, but no one seemed inclined to move out of the way for us. Aaaand then everything went even crazier when the Black Dog landed on the car in front of us, crushing it completely.

We just managed to jump out of the car before a huge paw tore the top off. Flint drew his gun and ineffectually opened fire, but the Dog was only interested in me. It roared, and leaped at me, fangs bared.

Bad move, you stupid mutt.

Drew back my left arm and swung forward, hitting it right between the eyes. That knocked it out of the air, and we took that chance to run for it. We went into the closest building, which ended up being a bar. Flint flashed his badge at the barkeeper. “Government business. Where’s your back exit?”

I just managed to tackle Flint to the ground before the barkeep nearly blew his head off with a shotgun. Changed my arm into a tentacle and cut through the barkeep’s neck. Only water came out of the stump as the lifeless body.

Flint had just gotten back to his feet when the Black Dog smashed through the door. It lunged for me, and I fell trying to dodge. Still not used to being unable to teleport. Miles grabbed me and pulled me up, then we ran for the back. Found and exit, and ran out it. The Dog tried following, but the door was too small. Before it could smash through that as well, my tentacle lashed out, smashing the building’s walls and supports, bringing the roof down on its head. That would slow it down long enough to give us a breather.

We kept running until we felt we were a safe distance away. “So now what the hell do we do?” I said.

“We should report back to our superiors in D.C.” Miles said. “If we make it to them, they can inform us how the government is responding to this situation.”

Flint waved a hand dismissively. “There’s no way we’ll make it to D.C. with the roads like that. I’ve got a house in Phoenixville, which isn’t that far from here. We’ll head there, and then figure out what to do next.”

Well that sounded like a plan. Flint led the way as we made our cross country trek through chaos. Without the Dog chasing us, things were less hectic, but there was still danger present. A lot of panicking people running in the streets. A lot of dead people once the Tower reached them. Most of the cracks had been sealed, but the Tower was still consuming more material to expand. Black smog poured from it, obscuring the parts of the sky not already blocked by its canopy.

As we continued to travel, I started seeing fewer people. We passed entire city blocks that had been picked clean by the Tower, leaving nothing left alive on them. Other places had been visited by… other things; one street we passed was completely covered in mutilated limbs and bodies.

It had only been a few hours since the Quiet had kicked this whole deal off, but already everything around us felt dead. How many had been killed in such a short time?

As we got closer to Phoenixville, I started to get a sinking feeling. There was a lot of smoke up ahead. That feeling became justified when we reached the edge of a massive crater. The blasted land stretched on farther than I could see, dotted with scattered fires. A pickup truck was parked by the edge, its owner standing outside and staring at the crater in awe. Flint stumbled past him, and then sank to his knees.

“Hey, it’s just a house.” I said to him.

“His husband was there.” Miles whispered.

Oh. Yeah. Flint was married.

Decided to talk to the other guy instead. “So what the fuck happened to this place?” I asked him, hoping he’d snap out of that dazed awe.

“God came down from heaven.” He said in a distant voice. “He descended with black wings and a mask made of bone, and he called fire and brimstone down on all the people.”

Oh, great, the Archangel too. Exactly what we needed. Shame it wasn’t there anymore, because I was in the mood to rip some eldritch heads off.

The pickup truck’s radio had been on this whole time, but only static had been coming through it. And then suddenly, a voice came through that static.

“This is the Emergency Alert Broadcast System. Announcements will follow shortly.” More static, and then another man’s voice came through. “This is General Morgan, United States military. This is a call to any survivors in the continental United States. We are currently attempting to establish a safe haven for survivors in the Fort Worth area. If you can hear this, then….” Static cut him off.

I faced the guy who owned the pickup truck again. “What’s your name?”

“Edward….”

“Right then Ed, wanna give us a ride to Texas?”

“Um….” He slowly seemed to be coming out of that daze. “Yeah. Sure.”

“Perfect.” Then I went to Flint, and put a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

He wiped his eyes, then stood up. “Yeah. Let’s get going.”

And now, since everything else is destroyed, we’re heading to Forth Worth to see if we can find any survivors there.