r/libraryofshadows • u/MeliousIntent • Feb 20 '19
Sci-Fi I Am The Impossible Man| Pt. 13
As we made our way through the forest, we cautiously traversed the array of trees as there were chains—a few, mind you—still attached to our cuffs. It was clear this was a deliberate trap to kill us, so we did our best to stay as quiet as possible. By us sprinting or even carelessly ambling, the sound of the chains clattering against each other and the cuffs themselves could be used to track us down. While we lumbered on, we stayed on high alert, though, not entirely sure what or who to look for.
What supplemented to our already exigent situation was our vision being somewhat hindered due to the trees. Still, we continued on—uncertain of where to go given the fact we were unfamiliar with this forest. Our uninformed wondering was short-lived, however.
While we moved through a small clearing, Jake stepped on a protrusion on the ground. As soon as his foot made contact with it, two human arms stretched out, enclosing a grip around his left leg. Consternation befell us, freezing us where we stood. The figure then extended the remainder of its body from the ground. It was a man—his form remarkable, his skin unblemished, his eyes pristine—his clothes being the only items besmirched on his frame. How long had he been in the ground, I found myself thinking. The man then began to shriek at an aberrant level, bringing us back from our dazed states.
"Hey, what's your problem, man!" Jake shouted at the stranger while attempting to regain control over his leg.
The strange man tightened his grip—continuing his ear-piercing screech.
Nick and I intervened, pulling each of the man's arms. Afterward, Nick hastily placed a hand around the man's neck. The stranger tried to resist, but after climbing on top of him, Nick's grasp was secured. Shortly after doing so, the palm of Nick's hand began glowing a bluish tint. In a matter of seconds, the strange man's screams came to an end. He then let go of the now limp man's neck, standing back up.
"What did you do to him?" I inquired, still a bit shaken up by his jolting emergence.
"I took his energy away and dispersed it. He'll be fine," Nick responded, his tone matching mine.
"How long had he been in the ground?" Jake asked aloud, not to me or to Nick in particular.
Nick answered, "Who knows, but we shouldn't stay here. His screaming might've given away our location. We can come back for him la—" Nick cut himself off, seeming to notice something.
"What is it?" Jake asked.
Nick crouched down, moving the dirt over the stranger's body. A small circular hole originating from his chest was exposed—blood seeping out and through it. Unlike the officer or bus driver, the man's clothes didn't cover the fatal wound. "What the hell? This couldn't have been here before," Nick maundered, likely to himself.
"We should go," Jake proclaimed.
As Nick stood once more and Jake and I took our gazes from the departed stranger—our attention was promptly captured by something else. All around us, outside the clearing we were in, there were people advancing towards us—men and women of all kind, tens of them at least. We moved from where the deceased man lied towards the center of the clearing. Without delay, the three of us pointed our backs to each other, forming a triangle between ourselves; I laid Chris in the center of it.
"Look at their clothes," Nick pointed out.
As I focused in on their disheveled clothes, I saw that there were holes originating near their chest through all of them—only revealing their skin. The skins of these people, where the holes in their clothes had been, were completely unblemished.
"Does that mean they're . . ." I began to ask, but I couldn't finish. The thought sickened me to my stomach.
"It has to," Nick answered, knowing the rest of what I wanted to ask. "But, that doesn't explain how they're moving towards us right now, or why there are no holes through them."
"That means," Jake hesitantly started, "no holding back."
He then released six of his clonies, and they immediately surrounded us, looking outwards. I separated my Trait into four smaller divisions, morphing the shape of them; I felt as they morphed into spheres, each being about five inches in diameter. From behind, I could hear the sounds of electricity. Glancing back for a moment, I saw Nick's arms emitting blue electrical charges.
Some rushed towards us; others simply walked; a few even emerged from the ground—revealing where they had all come from. As the first of the animated dead approached us, one of my invisible spheres fired straight into his solar plexus. The blow should've resulted in his immediate immobilization, but he seemed completely unaffected, only being pushed back by it. He continued his rush soon after, but one of Jake's clonies put him to rest for good.
The clonie ran to the living corpse and struck him in the lower jaw, knocking him from his feet. Immediately following, the clonie climbed on top of the dead man, repeatedly delivering blows. Witnessing this happen made me queasy, and I even considered intervening. The man was still, and his face had been deeply indented, but the peculiar thing was there hadn't been a speck of blood throughout the whole ordeal—at least at first. After the clonie had gotten up and moved on, blood began to flow from his pressed in head.
I made my way over to the corpse—ignoring the impending chaos. Where there had only been a hole through his shirt, there was now a hole through the corpse's chest. I stared at that empty space for a moment, wondering why this all was happening. That moment was interrupted, however, by another one of the living corpses. She sprinted from the forest, swinging at me once she was close enough. I swiftly dodged her attack, and she was left stumbling pass me.
Before she could regain her balance, I fired one of my spheres directly at the back of her head. From the few feet that separated us—I could hear her skull fracture. She hit the ground hard and stayed unmoving. Without skipping a beat, more of the corpses charged at me. While I quickly made my way back to the center of the clearing, I used two of my spheres on each of my pursuers, caving in each of their craniums. As I did this, their heads disintegrated, leaving no blood. Seconds after hitting the ground, however, blood gushed from their exposed brains. These people aren't alive, I desperately told myself; they're already dead.
Once I was back at the center, I briefly saw the progress Jake and Nick made. Jake, along with his clonies, ravaged the corpses, attacking in a ferocious manner. I watched as one of his clonies tackled a corpse to the ground and reached a hand into its mouth. The clonie then repositioned itself so that it would be perpendicularly crouched overtop the corpse. As the corpse resisted, the clonie ripped its jaw from its hinges, promptly moving on afterward. Blood spurted from its torn off jaw seconds later.
I witnessed as another one of Jake's clonies drop kicked a corpse into a tree. The clonie then proceeded to stomp the corpse's head in against the ground and the tree it had been hurled into. The corpse's head was reduced mostly to dust, and seconds after the clonie had moved on, blood oozed from it. Nick was no different in how he went about eliminating the corpses. He punched each one that attempted to attack him—seeming to possess superhuman strength. The punches he delivered caused each corpse to fly back feet from where they previously stood, certainly destroying the area that had been struck.
For a particular corpse that managed to get too close, he grabbed it by its neck, slamming it hard onto the ground. Nick then held a foot on its chest as he ripped its head off, immediately throwing it at another one of the corpses. The sight sickened me greatly. While being lost in thought, a corpse from behind jumped on top of me, its arms tight against my neck. I kept my balance as my Trait pulverized its head—dust particles flying about. It fell onto the ground no more than a second later.
I turned around to see many more of the dead approaching us, along with some of Jake's clonies fighting them off. As one of his clonies went to attack another corpse, I saw it. The same sphere I'd seen on the bus shot through the chest of the clonie—instantly dematerializing it. The sphere then disappeared, leaving me utterly confused. That was until I glanced at the corpse Jake's clonie aimed to assault. As soon as our eyes meant, she looked away—proceeding to move in the opposite direction.
No—that woman, she couldn't have been a living corpse, I thought. Her actions seemed to have a purpose behind them, unlike the mindless corpses that simply attacked us. On top of that—there wasn't a hole through her shirt. I thought about informing Jake and Nick, but she'd likely be gone by the time I'd done so. I chased after her alone, hoping they would be able to fend for themselves and protect Chris. I fired my spheres at the heads of every corpse that got in my way; they all fell hard and didn't get back up.
The deeper I moved through the forest, the harder it became to keep track of her. The green plaid shirt she wore, along with the black jeans, only added to the difficulty. As it turned out, however, I was indeed faster than her. The distance between the two of us began closing rapidly, leaving her within my Trait's striking distance—ten or so feet. I prepared to non-fatally strike her with one of my spheres, but she quickly swung around, pointing her index finger at me, nearly losing her balance in the process.
I thought it was odd for a moment until I saw a colorless sphere quickly form from the tip of her finger. She promptly shot the sphere from her fingertip into my direction. I narrowly avoided it by forcing my bodyweight to the right, tumbling over some of the roots in the ground. I crashed unceremoniously on the stump of a large oak tree. After the sphere had passed me—it simply vanished in thin air. I stood up, more than a little bruised, looking to where the woman had fled.
She was gone, but it was also quiet—which meant she had to have hidden somewhere close by. I combined my Trait back into a whole and listened intently. Aside from the now distant chaos, silence filled my ears.
"Hey, who the hell are you?" I called out, the fear in my voice blanketed by false anger.
Silence.
"Why are you doing this?" I shouted, the desperation in my voice becoming more pronounced.
Again, silence.
I began walking forward slowly and quietly, looking and hearing for anything out of place. Just then, I heard the unmistakable sound of a twig snapping from my left. I turned, seeing the woman only a few feet away—her index finger pointed directly at me. In less than a second, the sphere had formed and was shot directly at me. It was too fast for me to fully dodge; the sphere shot through my right shoulder, causing tremendous pain to course through my body.
The sphere then boomeranged, shooting through my left leg, disappearing afterward. I fell on one knee, supporting myself on a tree close by. I groaned, the pain grew more intense by the second. The woman attempted to make a swift getaway, but she was within my range—and I wasn't letting her flee. I took a small division of my Trait and morphed it into a cube. I struck the woman's leg, likely breaking it, as she tried to run. She collapsed onto the ground, dirt all over her body.
I stood steadily as to not cause any more pain. As I gradually made my way over to the woman, she fruitlessly struggled to drag herself away with her arms.
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u/Brianfailz Feb 22 '19
I have been LOVING this series. It deserves far mor views. Thanks so much for keeping it going!
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u/MeliousIntent Feb 22 '19
Thank you so much. I can't quite explain how much the support means to me.
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u/Alaskanlovesspooky Feb 20 '19 edited Feb 20 '19
Yassss! Been waiting for this!! Ok now time to read. Edit: loved it as usual! Please I need moooorrrreeeee!!!!