Chapter 63 – Run

Agony spread up through my arm as the tendril quivered. The shots, although they didn’t do any damage, distracted it for a brief moment. I didn’t waste my chance when it came.

Since when was I ever afraid of a little injury? I pushed further onto the tendril so it slid even deeper through my shoulder. Bone grated against the metal in a squeal that made my already flattened ears throb. Despite that, I grabbed onto the tendril, and lifted myself into a full kick. It landed squarely on its mandibles, causing the creature to reel back.

Its legs went wild, and the one impaling me was ripped out of my shoulder. The lights abruptly cut out as it lost contact with the arcade game behind me. Purely based on the sound of it whistling through the air, I caught the bloodied limb before it could fully retreat. With a grunt, I pulled it over my shoulder with my full body weight thrown into the motion.

The monster unceremoniously whipped to the side. Its body slammed into a line of arcade cabinets. Lights exploded to life, and completed blinded me for a brief moment. My ears twitched uncomfortably thanks to disjointed tunes crackling out of the broken arcade games. Its limbs twisted into a chaotic mess, though it didn’t look like I managed to do any real damage outside of confusing it.

Right before I could turn to run into the darkness, one of its limbs whipped toward me. A power drill at its tip whirled to life with a horrific screech as it shot at my face. I ducked the blow, and slammed into it with my good shoulder. The power drill went to the side where it promptly got stuck in an arcade game thanks to the maintenance creature’s wild thrashing.

With it down for the moment, I broke into a full sprint down the aisle of arcade games. Blood profusely poured from my shoulder as I held it. How the hell was I supposed to fight this thing if I couldn’t even damage it? Any attempt to get close to its body would see me being ripped apart by power tools before I could even close the gap.

… heh, right. I wasn’t supposed to fight in the first place. That thought pissed me off more than anything. It could hurt me, but I couldn’t hurt it. I just needed to run and hope for the best. 

How was it even tracking me in the first place? I blew out its eyes with my pistol, so it should be blind. Unless it didn’t need eyes? Unless it had some kind of true dark vision, eyes would be pretty useless here. It must sense its surroundings some other way.

Maybe I could lose it—no, that wasn’t an option. I was still acting as the bait. I slowed down to allow the monster to catch up with me. If it stopped moving for me and went after the kids instead…

The lights behind me went off one by one. With the last of the fading light, I pulled out the Healing Salve and dumped the rest of it onto my arm. The pain instantly pulled back, and my flesh slowly started to stitch itself together. The combination of the anomaly and Regeneration kick-started the healing process.

The last of the light faded, and the heavy clomps of its metallic legs against the carpet came from behind me. Darkness submerged me entirely. Only the scent of my blood still marking it and the sound of its heavy limbs acted as my guide.

I lunged to the side of the aisle, and tossed the empty can of salve down the direction I was still running. The moment it left my hand, I pulled to a complete stop with my ears alertly perked up. 

The creature charged me—only to pass just next to me and continue chasing the can of salve. It passed close enough I could practically taste the scent of rust. Wind rushed past me. Despite passing within reaching distance of me, it zoomed after the salve instead.

I didn’t wait for it to realize its mistake, and instead sprinted blindly down an aisle. My tail trembled erratically behind me. Every step was taken with the feeling that I was about to run into something. That feeling only intensified with each passing moment. Still, I stubbornly forced my way forward while following the trail of blood I’d left behind. 

A distant shout made my ears perk up toward the distance. It was almost entirely lost, but I caught the tail end of it. “…nnNAAAA!”

Light bloomed way off in the distance. A glowing ball lifted into the air near the gargantuan pillar. From it, light diffused across the entire area despite the arcade’s best attempts to keep me blind. It rose higher and higher like a distant moon until enough light spilled out that I could finally see once more. The shadows pulled back into a washed out world of dull grays, blues, and yellows.

Quinn. I instantly recognized one of my Guardian’s favorite tactics. They must’ve made it. Otherwise, she wouldn’t risk drawing attention to the kids like this. Even from so far away, she was still trying to help me. It was a sign as much as it was much needed help. 

My breathing came out rough and ragged while my eyes locked onto that distant light. For the first time since the lights went out, I knew exactly where I was going. Seek’s connection tugged me in the same direction like a warm and familiar guide dog. 

They were safe. My tail gave one small wag before I blinked and refocused on running. This time, while I was actually able to see. In the darkness, I was prey to be hunted. In the light, I stood a chance. I wasn’t as helpless as I felt.

Wshhh!

The air split behind me, and I dropped into a slide. My knees dug into the carpet right as a tendril tipped in a machete whizzed over me in what would’ve been a brutal decapitating strike. It flashed in the dim light above my head.

Right as it crossed over my head, I whipped my hand up to meet it. Silver claws erupted out of my hand with a faint pulling sensation. Rend. I’d been avoiding the nanite strain, and at most used it as a harvesting tool. Claws were weapons at the end of the day, and I desperately needed a weapon. 

Intense pressure pushed down through the nanite claws and into my hand. Sparks flew from where the claws met the tendril—but they weren’t from me. The claws, hastily assembled from nanites, held true despite the force of the creature’s limb. They sliced a shallow wound into the limb. A foul smelling liquid, like a mixture of rotting blood and machine oil, spilled behind me.

The creature staggered, and it let out a keening wail. I retracted my claws, and popped back up to my feet to start sprinting with renewed strength. With Quinn and the kids safe, I no longer had to move slower and stall. The full strength of my agility showed as I sprinted down the aisle away from the monstrosity. 

With some more distance between us, I vaulted over the top of an arcade machine and directly hopped an aisle over. I didn’t stop there, and jumped clean past another one. I dropped down into a sports games filled row headed straight toward the pillar. 

I wasn’t nearly as agile moving over the machinery as the monster was. It latched up onto the roof, and bypassed all the mess to start catching up with me. The monster dropped down just in front of me with a heavy slam of its legs. The chittering noise from before broke out of it as it directly blocked my way forward.

I jumped into a flying kick, and totally destroyed the face plate of a basketball game. Basketballs shot out in every direction, temporarily throwing off the blinded monster’s abilities to track my movement. To add insult to injury, I chucked a basketball straight at its face. The chittering abruptly cut off as the basketball caught on its lower mandibles.

While it was momentarily distracted, I rolled under an air hockey table to its side so that I could directly bypass the monster. A tendril whipped down to catch me—only to get pinned as I slammed the game with my foot and tilted it onto its side. 

I spun back around, and once more sprinted down the aisle toward my goal. The light grew brighter and brighter with each step toward the pillar. I dodged several more of the creature’s attempts to catch up. 

Every time the abomination swung at me, it gave me a chance to put up space once more. When it shifted to chase after me, over half its weapons became legs once more. It clearly wasn’t used to chasing something that could actually run.

That gave me just enough leeway to keep ahead. ‘Course, it still got in several attacks. Small cuts and lacerations covered my body, and I was quickly losing blood. Even still, my Regeneration worked double-time to keep me up and mobile.

I turned down one last aisle framed with arcade cabinets. At the very end of the aisle, the arcade opened up into a small space surrounding the ticket shop. Dim light poured out of windows and a glass door. Quinn herself was pressed up against the door with her eyes constantly sweeping the arcade for me. 

I sprinted closer and closer to the ticket shop—close enough I could make out the details of Quinn’s halo. Every step carried me toward safety until—-

Clomp!

The distant windows vanished behind a second creature. It dropped down from the roof, entirely blocking the way forward. I didn’t bother stopping. Stopping would only let the one behind me catch up, and I had no illusions about what it’d do to me once it did.

I lowered my head and charged forward at the new monster. With it blocking most of Quinn’s view, I was free to act without fear of her seeing me. My claws whipped out once more to deflect a sledge hammer to the side. It didn’t get another chance to attack. I dropped into a slide directly underneath the abomination’s horrid amalgamation of a body.

Sparking wires passed within breathing space of my face, and the monster twirled around with its limbs chaotically swinging at me like a living cage. My attempt didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped it would. One of them snapped down onto me just before I could fully pass it. It speared down into my side, slicing through my blouse into the carpet below.

My momentum was stolen from me, and my ribs flared with white hot pain. Even with my survival instincts screaming against it, I pushed off on the ground and allowed the tendril to rip out of my side. A spray of hot fluid scattered across my arm, though I didn’t pay much attention to it beyond a passing glance.

“REYNA! STAY DOWN!” Quinn screamed, and pushed open the doors of the ticket shop. She flicked her hands forward to me. The light above abruptly cut out like a warning of what was to come.

FWOOOOOSH!

I flopped to the ground like a puppet with my strings cut. Just in time, too, as a torrent of water condensed out of the air and shot forward into a raging column. Blue light glowed brightly against the dark backdrop of the arcade while Quinn did her thing.

The monster on top of me was blasted off by the current of water, and sent flying into the other one. Both of them slammed into the arcade games in a mess of swinging metal.

Quinn darted out to me, and grabbed me by the arm. She unceremoniously hauled me to my feet and dragged me toward the open doors of the ticket shop. “Hurry!”

I staggered after her. My already injured arm sent shivers down my spine as she used it to drag me around. After a moment, she shifted and supported my side to help me finish the horrendous race.

The moment we slipped into the shop, the glass doors softly snapped shut behind us. Bells on the door dinged joyfully like the shop was happy to see us. The lights brightened, and a deceptively cheerful tune rang out like I hadn’t just survived everything the anomaly could throw at me.

The strength left my legs, and I unceremoniously collapsed into the wall of the ticket shop. I was finally safe. At least, from the monsters.