Quintessence Nightmare

Episode 9

Episode 9

Enear

"This way!" Ravio yelled, quickly carried Arcus and guided his wife to run. The other survivors followed him.

Most of the monsters directed their attention on the fireguns, ruthlessly pulling the policemen out of the truck and feasting their bodies mercilessly once outside. This provided them an opportunity to escape, as only a few monsters were chasing them along the highway.

"This is not happening!" the fat man yelled, running full of sweat behind the group. Then a monster caught his feet, he stumbled on the ground. "No!"

Dycron intended to turn back, but Enear grabbed his hand urging him to keep running. He wanted to protest, but fear also swept through his body, stifling any act of resistance against putting himself in danger for the sake of others.

The monsters clustered to the man, tearing his body apart with their teeth, grinding him alive. "HELP ME!!"

His blood splattered onto the blue tunic of the nurse, who was struggling to keep up because of the wheelchair she was pushing. Overwhelmed, she lost her grip to cover her ears, letting out a scream of panic as she sprinted away, her patient. "I'm sorry, Ma'am! I'm afraid to die like that!"

Dycron finally took courage to shake off his arms from Enear's grasp, sprinting back to lift the wheelchair. Enear had no choice but to match his pace.

"I'm already old enough to live, young man. I already enjoyed the colors of life. You can go without me."

Dycron pretended not to hear her.

"Please tell Frijelle that I understand her and she doesn't need to be worried about me. Once everything is okay, I'll let her receive my properties."

"Tell that by yourself!" Dycron shouted, pushing his limbs to the limit.

The granny shook his head in disappointment, groaning as if having a headache. "Today's generations are really disobedient. You even shouting at your elder. How rude."

A monster ascended on the building, scaling through the walls aggressively and leaped down to catch them, its claw almost reaching Dycron's nape. He felt his back being torn apart in anticipation, even though the hand didn't reach him.

Continuing to sprint, he released a forceful laugh to shake off his fear, as if he had just tricked the grim reaper. "If you want to catch me, you should've leaped in front of me!"

His perception zoomed out to reality, watching out for monsters breaking through the glass windows. Fragments shattered in the air, as the survivors instinctively blocked their arms to cover their heads. Some moving corpses leaping behind their backs but fell short in reaching. Others ambushed from side to side with failure in timing. Meanwhile, those who managed to get close had Enear decapitate their heads.

"ARGHH! THEY ARE KEEPING UP!" the nurse shrieked out.

"Just keep running as fast as you can!" Ravio taunted, "Don't look back! It will just slow you down!"

Suddenly, the ground shook, throwing off their balance, both the survivors and monsters, forcing everyone to halt for a moment. After the tremor, the buildings crumbled from above, descending like fragments of heavens scorched into a chaotic hell of distractions.

Like an ant, the survivors scattered to evade the falling debris, while the monsters persisted in their hunting, only to find themselves crushed by the descending metals and cements.

"Help me! My legs!" the nurse cried, trying to crawl out from the concrete pinning and crushing her feet. Dycron had just regained his footing and was about to rush to aid her when a piece of metal pierced her back. Her eyes widened, hands halted from hopeless crawling, as blood blossomed throughout his body.

"No!" Dycron shrieked out and Enear pulled him in clothes before the glasses fell on his head. The chaos was still raining, evading the skyfalls while fighting through monsters.

"Here! Over here!" Ravio shouted from the thoroughfare, where the buildings weren't likely to reach them. He, Reselda and other men circled around, fighting against the monsters with metal rods they had picked up from around to protect the other survivors.

The earthquake subsided.

"Enear! Dycron!" Hajia echoed, waving her hands to them.

The two were about to join them when Dycron halted to glance around and found the old lady in her wheelchair wheeling onto the alley through uneven ground formation, a monster was coming to her. Dycron rushed to her instead, shoved away the monster with his bag and grabbed the handle quickly. But before he could sprint back, a huge fragment of walls blocked their way. That was the last debris that fell when the shaking stopped.

"No!" Hajia shouted and was about to sprint to them when a monster leaped to her. Fortunately, Reselda was on her back, swinging her metal rod against the monster's jaw and head consequently. It dropped on the floor.

"Don't just rush to them, Hajia! Do you have a death wish?"

"But–"

"Meteor! Earthquake! Monsters! What else does this world want to give us to suffer!?" Tonato sobbed his frustration, in their center ducking in cowardly, unwilling to fight.

"I don't know if the earthquake was trying to save us or kill us more," said the one with a handkerchief on his head then swung his rod to the monster.

Most of the monsters were trapped by the debris, unable to move. Still, some managed to free themselves little by little.

"We need to go now," Ravio commanded.

"But where exactly are we going now?" Tonata asked.

"The police are heading this way," Ravio pointed to the north, following the highway.

"And?"

"Maybe if we head in the same way, we'll be close to where they are heading."

"Maybe?" Tonato violently complained, "You led us unsure where will we go!?"

His wife, holding her stomach, answered. "Then don't go f*cking go with us! No one is forcing you to!"

Tonato was offended, looking at her in tempting the urge to fight back. "If only you're not a woman and pregnant."

"If only I'm not pregnant what will you do?" she raised her voice more. "IF ONLY I'M NOT PREGNANT I CAN BREAK YOUR BONES RIGHT NOW!"

Ravio patted her shoulder. "Ariala, Hon. Calm down."

"We can't just leave them alone!" Hajia pointed to where he last saw the boys.

"It's no use, Hajia. They're already trapped inside," Reselda commented.

"The kid with green eyes. The monster should be scared of him," the man said as he fixed the cloth in his head.

Tonato added, "He was a killer! He was more threatening than these monsters!"

"Still calling him a killer?" Reselda butted in, spreading his hand to show the surroundings, "Look around! He's right!"

"We have no time! You need to decide quickly!" the man in the black tank top suggested. The number of monsters freeing out from debris increased with every second passing by.

"Let's go!"

Quintessence Nightmare | mvcabusas