The Tide

Chapter 1

I sip the hot bitter tea in my hands and give a slight nod at the man sitting in front of me. "It's pretty good, at least compared to the stuff that I've had to eat and drink lately." the old man chuckles a bit and leans forward in his chair.

"This'll be the last of it you'll taste Romi. This may be the only tea left" he chuckles sadly a bit and clears his throat. He wasn't an elderly man, but he certainly wasn't in his prime. His face was unshaven and his leg never seemed to stop shaking. If I looked closely I could actually see the ripples in his tea as his leg continued to shake. I couldn't tell if maybe he had a condition or if perhaps he was just stressed out. I wouldn't blame the man, especially considering the circumstances. It had been roughly 2 months since the creature rose from the sea, and it had been... quite the 2 months to say the least. An unspeakable creature of catastrophic size was ravaging the city, buildings had large silhouettes of where a clawed hand had swung and made contact, leaving sparking and flashing wires dancing around as if they were trying to squirm their way to an escape of some kind. Some places where still relatively safe, such as this mans home who was on the outskirts of town. There was a faint dripping sound behind me but other than that it was actually pretty silent in this humble abode. That was something I haven't gotten much of lately over the sounds of helicopters and apathetic gunfire filling the air, that and.. the cries the creature makes. I have never heard anything quite like it in my life, it has this unearthly quality to it that rattled my very soul, it feels like my chest is being pushed down as if to get a better grip upon my soul to snatch it out with grotesque wet claws to be fed to the monster and fulfill whatever twisted desires it may have, assuming the monster had any understandable human desires at all. I had found myself here after I had actually made my way out of the city. Now.. I say the monster had risen roughly 2 months ago but that's actually just an estimate, you see after it happened time just never had any.. meaning I suppose. The sun stopped moving and all the people of Seattle were left with was the moon. Along with that the weather never changes, just the same crisp 42 degrees as always. I've heard it's actually driving people mad, running and hiding without knowing how much time had passed. I surely hope the time it took for me to get out of the city wasn't actually 2 months.. but I wouldn't blame myself if I did. Seattle, after everything started, is by far the worst place I've ever been in. Gored corpses are strewn across the streets and there is just never a moment of true peace. These strange fish like gremlins stalk you from every corner and are just waiting to tear you apart limb from limb. I was one of the lucky ones, finding out  that if I just walk slowly they don't seem to take too much notice of me, just blinking their bizarrely built eyes at me as if it's waiting for something to happen. I'm sure the grizzled man in the chair front of me had dealt with them before, so I decided to make a cheeky little joke. 

"Do the little fish monsters have a taste for black tea?" I smirk a little bit and sip the tea again, and the man shakes his head mournfully. 

"Not exactly, some groups have taken a liking to stealing things from occupied homes." The man must have been referring to the various, I suppose the only way to put it, cults. "They've decided that tea is too human, and that having it wouldn't be part of the great overlords' way." the man puts a hand on his leg and begins to absentmindedly rub his thigh. "They broke into my home last night. Luckily they didn't kill me, they just wanted to ensure I didn't have too much from the old world." that would explain some of the broken windows, and why the door wasn't fully on it's hinge when I came in. "They told me that they had no intention of harming anybody, although I know that's a lie." the man swallowed and his leg began to shake more. "I've had people seek refuge here, stabbed and shaking, telling me they needed a place to hide. To me it felt obvious that it wasn't any monster who had done that. That was by the hands of another human. Although.. it could just be rioters or other survivors fighting one another for resources but..." the man pauses for a second. "sometimes you just know these things. Gut intuition." I understood what he meant. My intuition was what got me out of the city to begin with, although I can't say for certain if the same could be said for those cultists who had managed to start wandering through town without any consequences. 

"If people are stopping by here, are there more people living around this area? I can't imagine anybody from the city would be able to get out if they were wounded like that." for the first time I could see the mans eyes light up a bit. 

"Yes! Yes! People who have managed to make their way out of the city have been living around the area in tents, although they are quite far from my home." The fact that there were any survivors at all is a blessing. I could see why he was excited. 

"How much longer do you plan to stay.. here?" I gesture vaguely to the house around us. It wasn't exactly in the sturdiest condition, and it was obvious that it wasn't going to stay upright much longer. 

"Until I die I suppose.."  he sighed a bit and his words has a tone was melancholy. "I don't think I'd make it out there. In fact.. you probably don't want to stay here much longer." he stands up and begins to gesture me towards the door. I give a quick gulp to the rest of the tea I have, and I scramble towards the door. I felt the door slam behind me and I throw my hood on back over my head. It was a quick meeting and a quick goodbye, and suddenly I wondered if the man had shady business going on inside he didn't want me to see. After adjusting my bag a bit, I felt a strange tap on the back of my coat, at first I assumed it was the man, but when I reached for my back the spot that had been tapped was wet. The sensation happened again at the top of my head, then on my arm..

it was raining. 

I stand there in shock for a moment, unsure how to respond to the first change in weather after what felt like 2 months. It was raining..

Perhaps something had changed?