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.

Starfall

Agent Flint and Dr. Miles found me in a pretty sorry state. I was curled up in the corner of my room, shaking and muttering about how “I couldn’t stop it.” Not the sort of condition I’d want to be seen in, but I wasn’t feeling too confident at the time.

“I’ve gotten news from the Management Committee.” Flint said. “Given the worsening situation with the Quiet, they have decided to give in to EAT’s demands.”

This was it. Time to fight my way out. I knew where the exit was this time, so I could warp there, take out the guards, and make it past the door….

“But I disagree with their decision, so we’re moving you to another facility before you can be taken by them.”

… or we could do that. That works too.

Normally I would have been happy about that kind of news, but I was still preoccupied with the issues of time. There were only three timelines by the time Agent Flint spoke to me. And one of them had almost entirely cracked apart.

Dr. Miles went ahead of us to the exit. “I’ve modified out files so they’ll say you’re still here. That will buy us some time before the Committee realizes we’ve moved you.” As he spoke, one timeline vanished, and the cracks spread to the second.

Miles and Flint input codes on a computer panel, and the huge steel exit slid open. We were in the warehouse district of some city I didn’t recognize. Though my lack of recognition may have just been from distraction. The cracks had almost entirely consumed the second timeline.

Flint must have noticed I was shaking, because he asked if I was okay. Shook my head. “No. It’s too late. It doesn’t matter if you move me or if we wait for the Committee. We’ve failed either way.”

As I said that, the second timeline was destroyed. In that moment, the cracks spread to the last timeline left in existence. And as they did, the sky above us was torn in half by a massive tear of emptiness. In seconds, smaller cracks spread from it, heading down to the city below.

They were moving too fast for us to do anything. Running would have been just as pointless as standing still. I closed my eye, and waited for the onrushing oblivion.

It never came. Instead of silence, I began to hear screams. I opened my eye, and saw a huge steel tower had appeared in the city. Wires and gears came out of the Tower, and clashed with the cracks. Where they met, the tears were stopped, creating a shattered pattern of wires and meeting across the sky. Power lines lashed down at the streets, grabbing the people below. They were torn apart, and their bones and flesh were used to make more wires. A canopy of bone and steel began to be created over the sky, blocking off the crack above us.

“Get to the cars! Flint shouted as the streets in front were torn apart as the steel pipes beneath them burst from the ground. Started to run, but the wires moved after us faster than we could move. They started to pick the guards off, plucking them from the ground and ripping them to pieces. One of the wires came for me, and instinctively I reached for time. But there were no timelines left to grab.

I couldn’t teleport anymore.

Fuck.

Time to stand and fight, then. I turned around, and my left arm shifted into a blade. I cut down the wire, and the ones which followed after it. By the time I’d sliced them all apart, Flint and Miles had gotten a car started and were shouting for me. I ran over and dived in the car door. One guard was left, but before he could make it to the car another wire grabbed him. With just the three of us left, Flint slammed on the accelerator and we sped out of the city.

I can’t stop this. I seriously can’t stop this.

I’ve tried everything I could do with time, but none of it’s slowing down this destruction. Every day, more timelines are gone. There used to be so many you couldn’t count them all. Now there’s less than a hundred. And nothing I’m doing is changing that.

Everyone here keeps looking at me like I’m going to save them all, but I’ve got no idea how. I need help, but there’s no one who has the ability to help me at all. I just have to keep trying, and get ready for when… when everything ends.

Wonder what it’ll be like to be inside a timeline when it falls apart. Will I notice it happening, or will I just cease to exist?

…..
What the fuck am I writing? Like hell am I just going to whine and mope while I give up. Timelines disappearing? Fuck them! I’m not going to let them disappear! I’ve gone through too much to just sit here and let the universe end!

Free

So the Eldritch Department’s finally let me free of those stupid sigil things. It only took them fucking forever. But I guess even the most stubborn will give in under bullet fire.

See, it seems not everyone in the Department shares Flint’s “No negotiations” attitude. And as things kept getting worse, they started to get more desperate. A group of spec ops soldiers from another of the Department’s facilities showed up this morning. Since they had the proper clearance, they were able to pass through the first few levels of security easily. Once they reached a checkpoint that wouldn’t let them through, they pulled out guns and started shooting.

The first I heard of any of this was when guards rushed into my room to “protect” me. Then Flint came on the speakers to tell me that everything was alright, which only confirmed to me that something had gone horribly wrong. Took a lot of shouting at him through the security cameras before he told me what was happening. After that, it was only a matter of me using my Superior Prowess at Debate in order to sway him to my side of things.

***

The sound of gunfire had become close enough to be audible, and the guards were growing nervous. I-330 showed no sign of reaction, only continuing to stare into the lens of the security camera above her.

“You know I could stop them.” She said. “You’ve seen me fight before.”

Silence.

“If you don’t remove these sigils, those people are going to get in here and I’m going to be absolutely powerless as they gun all of us down.”

Still no reply.

“Every moment you wait, more people are being killed. Let. Me. Out. Now.”

“… Turn off the sigils.”

The guards around I-330 edged away from her as they eyed the vicious smile that grew on her face. The sigils of light on the walls flicker off, and she let out a deep laugh that couldn’t have come from any human. The laugh boomed through the facility, and every light in the entire base went off simultaneously, leaving only the red glow of I-330’s eye.

***

Once the sigils were down, taking care of the attackers was easy. Even the best trained of soldiers aren’t prepared for someone who can suddenly appear with a gun aimed at the back of their heads. The whole situation was resolved in less than a minute once I was finally allowed to intervene.

Of course, once the restraints were off, no way in hell was I letting them back on. It was adorable when a guard came up to me and politely asked I put those restraining handcuffs on now that everything had been taken care of. “Sure, go right ahead. Put them one me.”

For some reason, no one wanted to be the one to put the handcuffs on the girl with the gun and the glowing eye.

I considered just ditching the place. Were it not for that whole deal with time crumbling away into emptiness, I might have. But I’ve still got a multiverse to save. Except now, I get to experiment with time manipulation to the full extent of my abilities. Hopefully that will provide the answer I’m looking for.