- Kasper -
What's happening to me...
Kasper was being pulled along in a mad dash.
His body moved for him.
Where am I going?
Another part of him whispered.
Softening his landing back in reality.
Then, in the splinter of a second, he was back.
His lungs burned, the frigid air clawing inside of them like sick dogs. Jarring thumps caught up his footfalls, and his ears rang with each pound of his own heart.
He was alive.
He was nothing more.
At least that he could remember.
The empty street stretched out ahead of him in a blur of downpour and unintelligible shapes. Nightmares nipped at his back, prodding him to push on. He couldn't stop. They would have him.
I can't keep going, I need to hide.
His wheezing tapered into a drawn rasp the further he ran.
Air...
Turning down the final block, he had reached it.
Air...
His guiding light.
The Tower.
Tearing into its shadow, he threw himself through the glass door.
The chittering of shards on cold ceramic bit into his one bare foot.
Clambering to a stand, he jumped over the remains of the welcome desk and slid beneath it. His back hit the filing cabinet at one end with a thump, the drawers left open clapping shut when he settled down.
Then he waited.
Holding his breath.
Looking down at himself.
Naked. I'm naked.
And doing everything to slow his riotous heart.
...Kasper...
Reaching blindly over the desk's edge, he ran his hands along the counter, trying to feel for anything to use in defense.
Nothing. There's nothing.
It was empty. He peeked over the peppered granite countertop.
I can take them.
There were three that he could see. Two larger, and one smaller that sat screeching wildly at the entrance. Soon there would be others. The clicking and chittering they made echoed around him.
...Kasper...
Go.
In a whirl, he threw himself out around the side of his hiding spot, and all that he was caught fire, igniting a surge of adrenaline that coursed through his veins like wildfire in a dead pine grove. Every joint burned for action.
Move, move, move.
His vision darkened, narrowing into a tunnel where only the immediate threat remained in focus.
Something folded over him.
He felt its anger, the force of it wrapped around him like a shroud.
Its rage pulsed in the air, and in that moment, he was made whole.
YOU ARE READING
The Eden Projects (Publishing edit)
Action"This story has no hero." Set in the distant future, where the government has been overthrown, and a new world power has risen, known only by the Moniker "ARK Corporation." We follow Kasper as he fights to survive in a nightmare where wrong is made...
