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.