After the Sky Bled

Chapter 4

Where do you go when a strange red mist falls from the sky, turns people into comic book characters, and sends your whole world to chaos? Well the police of course. Wrong. They were in no better shape than the rest of us, and yet they were still being mauled by the mob. People wanted answers. And when people with tentacles, extra eyes, and a shit load of other seriously unnecessary extra limbs want answers, you should probably provide them, especially when half of them are making things spontaneously combust. And no one had them, despite the manic crowd. We realized that we were wasting our time here, and made our way back through the crowd, forget the police. We could handle this.

We were walking back in silence, I was hot in the hoodie Mira was forcing me to wear, on account of my appearance and whatnot.

"Lot of help they were." Sarah exclaimed almost like she wasn't surprised, "Then again, were they ever?".

"They have more on their hands then we do." Mira said, simple and to the point, like always. "We can figure this out on our own." We began talking, tried to figure out what to do, tried to figure out these changes, tried to figure out what the hell had happened.

When we were nearing the apartment complex, we heard a noise coming from a nearby alley, it sounded like someone in shear agony. So Sarah forced us to investigate. There was a man standing in the middle of a circle of bodies. Covered in what looked like porcupine spines, he turned to us, and a look of terror covered his face.

"Leave!" The man screamed nothing but terror in his screeching voice. "I can't control it!" As he made this last statement he flailed an arm in our direction, and a storm of needles sailed through the air at our faces.

With this new eyesight, I could see every needle, and could tell which ones I need to get out of the way of. I became aware of an unnatural surge of strength and speed, and was launched high into the air, an easy 10 feet. The strangest thing; my legs were where the surge had come from, they were what sent me up here.

From the air I could see the outcome of the surprise attack. Mira had stopped the incoming quills, with her mind. They were floating a few inches in front of her. Sarah hadn't been so lucky; she dove to the side, just a little too late, and took quills to the torso. When I saw the quills make contact, and the blood splatter from the wounds, something snapped. I felt adrenaline rush into my body, saw red as my eyes focused in on the porcupine bastard. He was going to die. Now.

I hit the ground running, running on all four limbs, with unimaginable speed. It felt like only a step before I was upon him. My body bunched up, coiled and ready to pounce. I launched myself at his helpless form, we both knew he didn't stand a chance as my newly sharp fingernails found the flesh of his neck, and dug in. I ripped through flesh, tearing into the most crucial vein in the body, and ripping my way to the other side. I landed with inhuman grace, just before his body fell, with considerably less. His head hung limply, with what was left of his neck clinging to itself. He would die very shortly, but for the brief time before he leaked out the last of his life, he would feel excruciating pain. Good. He deserved it.

I carried Sarah back in my arms. Every step was sending jolts of pain through her body. It made Mira and I wince every time. Finally, Mira took pity on her, and "convinced" her to take a nap.