Hybrid Earth: Volume 1

Issue 2: Ty Wilson - After

Running footsteps pounded on pavement. There was a sense of panic to those sounds and if anyone heard them, there was no doubt they would feel that panic infect them too, like a virus. But no one was listening, and no one was even paying attention. The loud footsteps went unnoticed.

"Stop!" a voice yelled this. It was coming from the person running like a demon was chasing after him (and to some degree, this was actually true). "Just leave us alone!"

There were three others running with the man that was screaming that out. They were all very strange creatures. Mostly, they were human but there was something off about them. Something decidedly not human.

That's because they were all Hybrids. They had all been merged with some kind of machine, metal, or both.

The one that was yelling was mostly normal except that his head was attached not to a neck but to a flesh and silver colored, springy coil about three to four inches in diameter. The man's head bounced weirdly (and comically) as he ran. The others with him were a mixed-up mash of human and tech parts. There was one guy that trundled along on four spider-like metallic legs. Another one had a monitor taking up space on the back of her head. The screen was currently showing an animated gif of a little baby with his mouth opened in an "O" of surprise and running away. The gif played in a loop over and over again as she ran. The last person running with everyone else had what looked like metal lobster claws for hands.

A shadow was chasing them. It seemed to flow from one place to the next with liquid and fluid-like motions. Inside that mass of darkness glittered a pair of very human eyes. Eyes filled with hatred. Eyes filled with anger and rage. Those eyes never left the group of four Hybrids trying their best to run away.

With a final surge, the liquid-like mass of shadow darted forward at the fools running away. Next came the loud sounds of a blade slicing through flesh and machinery. It was grotesquely loud in that small space.

There were several screams of pain and fear. Something thudded to the dirty, alleyway ground and rolled. A few feet away, the rolling object came to a stop underneath a flickering streetlight. It was the head of the springed-neck Hybrid. The eyes were large and wide with abject horror. It was like the Hybrid could not understand how it came to be underneath that light and missing the rest of his body.

In the middle of his forehead was a tattoo. It was an eye symbol that was mostly black but the iris of it had been colored blue.

There were more sounds of struggle coming from the remaining Hybrids but those didn't last long at all. Less than two minutes. Three tops. When it was all said and done, the liquid shadow rippled and coalesced into the form of a teenage boy not much older than fifteen. He had jet black hair that was styled up in a spiky hairdo that looked strangely like an old anime cartoon. His eyes clearly spoke to his Korean heritage and he had on a plain white t-shirt, red suspenders, and a pair of faded jeans. There were silver circles on parts of his bare arms but other than that, he looked more or less "human."

As he glared at the bodies, he wore a grim frown. He surveyed his handiwork and looked to make sure they didn't have some sort of resurrection ability they'd gotten from the Merge. He remembered reading about someone with that ability out in Iowa or someplace like that in a listicle not too long ago.

Five minutes went by and nothing happened.

His frown deepened some more. Then he spit on the bodies.

"That was for JT and Manny," he whispered.

As soon as the last word was out of his mouth, a bolt of electricity shot into his back. His whole body locked up and he gritted his teeth hard. He dropped to the ground next to the bodies, convulsing.