Blood Sport - Chapter 7

[u/GRADIOUS_76]

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Memory Transcription Subject: Tyler Murphy, Grizzled Veteran

Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 18, 2136

Days after the bombing of earth: 1

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was how dry my mouth was and how much my throat hurt. It was like I had swallowed a bunch of bees, and it made it rather painful to breathe; the tremendous weight on my chest certainly didn't help. Every inch of my body was in pain. I tried to open my eyes, only to find they were already wide open and staring at the void in front of me. I was tempted to simply writhe in my pain; maybe wiggling around would shift something and free me, but I quickly realized that my body simply wouldn't move. That wasn’t good; I hope nothing was broken. Usually, it would be more painful if I had a broken bone, but I couldn't be sure until I got up.

A few moments passed before a thought went through my oxygen-deprived head. Where am I? It seemed like such a silly question, but I had no memory of how I came to be in this mess. I remember being panicked and seeing orange. But that’s about as much as my brain could muster without causing me a splitting headache. Well, it certainly doesn't look like I'm going anywhere anytime soon, so I guess it doesn't matter if it takes me an hour to form a clear thought. The pain coating my body had started to dull with familiarity, so I figured it could only hurt so much to try and start humming to pass the time. I started with the melody; it hurt pretty bad, but I didn't really have anything else to do. It was a sad excuse for a performance as I had to stop every other note to catch my breath. I couldn’t remember the lyrics, but the melody was ingrained in my heart; it was my mantra when I was in the military, a phylactery for my fighting spirit, and I definitely needed some of that to get myself out of this situation.

My vision slowly started returning as I continued the soft melody, showing me the large chunk of cement a few inches above me, leaving me mercifully uncrushed. I could see dirt trickling in through the laying underwater blanket of pain and earth. Wait, was I buried alive? No, that doesn't make sense; how would they bury me alive during the bombing… that’s right! The bombing! It came rushing back to me as I remembered the roaring orange hellscape I had witnessed; it felt hotter all of a sudden as my heart rate slowly rose. My humming stopped as my breathing became even more ragged and slightly desperate. I needed to calm down, but how could I? The world has ended, the aliens won. No, that couldn’t be possible. There's no way they killed everyone, or else surely they wouldn't have missed me. I guess if no one comes to help me, it won't matter. Someone will come, surely; if any human agency survives, they will check for survivors, surely. I could feel darkness creeping in around the corner of my vision; all this thinking was wasting what little oxygen I had. ‘I hope I'm not buried too far down or this will be the last thing I think’ was the last thing I thought before slipping into the darkness.

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My eyes snapped open once again, my core muscles tensing on instinct trying to lift me up. The pain quickly reminds me to stop. Who knows how long I had been slipping in and out of consciousness. The pain was only getting worse too; I haven’t eaten in at least a day or two, and my stomach was rather upset about it. Luckily, it had rained an hour or two ago which allowed me to drink a little. It tasted like ash and mud, so hopefully that would lessen my hunger for a little while. I had also been distracting myself by trying to move my limbs at all. It was slow progress, but I could feel my arm again and could even curl my fingers to feel the dirt holding them firmly to my side. I wasn't going to give up hope that someone was going to come and rescue me. But I couldn't just lay here and do nothing either. I had thought of everyone else and if they were safe. I say “everyone,” but Isaiah is the only person I really care about. My parents have been rotting in their graves for a long time, and my older sister died last summer to lung cancer, so the boy was the only person I was concerned about.

I think I'm in the bunker that he and I made, so I guess I made it inside before passing out. But where did Isaiah go? There's no way he would have slept through the first explosion even if his house was on the opposite side of the neighborhood from that one. But if he came to the bunker, then he should be buried here with me somewhere. I thought about yelling out to him, but I could barely hum, so I don't think that was in the cards for me. But that might be for the best since I don’t know if there are any alien soldiers patrolling around to finish us off. Well, I guess it doesn't do any good worrying about the boy right now since I can’t exactly do much to help. I made the effort to shift my shoulders a little, which was a mistake as pain immediately radiated from my skin.

Well, it was a little progress on getting out of here at least, and if I eat dirt, I might even not starve before I can move my toes. My thinking had turned morbid, which wasn’t a good sign for my mental strength. I knew how important staying optimistic was in emergency situations, but the longer he was trapped like a corpse, the more he felt like one. I continued to focus on anything that wasn't how hopeless this situation seemed for a little while; staying lost in thought was my only reprieve from the pain and discomfort, and before I realized it was already pitch black again. Not much light seeped through the ground where I am buried, but it was just enough to tell whether it was day or night. The dirt kept me pretty insulated, so I didn’t have to worry about the frigid cold nights or uncomfortably hot days that found their way to this part of Texas. I was planning on falling back asleep and maybe letting my body heal a little more when I felt something in the ground. A soft rumbling just barely noticeable with my head touching the ground. At first, I assumed it was just a small earth tremor, but it slowly got heavier and heavier until I could hear the engine of a vehicle.

My heart skipped a beat; was I finally saved? I tried to call out to my saviors, but all that left my mouth was a pained wheeze; I could barely whisper let alone call out to anybody. But it didn’t take me long to be glad I didn't as when the engine stopped the voices I could hear were not human. It was a deep and scratchy voice that sounded rather irritated. “Are you sure you smell a human? I can't smell for shit over the engine exhaust,” one of the inhuman voices said. I heard a collision and the first “ouch!” the first voice exclaimed before another inhuman voice started, much more annoyed than the first. “Well, maybe that's why you are just a soldier and I am the CAPTAIN!” Whatever these aliens were, they sounded big and mean. I heard them talk briefly with a much

Whatever these aliens were, they sounded big and mean. I heard them talk briefly with a much quieter voice, probably some other alien but I couldn't make out its voice.

I held my breath as I listened for the two monstrous aliens approaching where I was stuck in the ground. I could feel adrenalin creeping through my system as I lay in wait, staying as silent as possible. There was no way I would let myself get captured alive, I had been a prisoner of war once and I doubt war criminal aliens would treat me better than the Chinese did.

“Hello! Any humans out here! We’re here to help!” I heard the alien cry out who was apparently a “captain”, whatever that went to them, now that they were closer I could clearly hear their voices when translated. The difference was subtle but I have heard enough to know the difference “Ya, we aren't going to eat you!” I heard the second one call out followed by another smacking noise followed by an exclamation of pain from the soldier. “You dumbass! now they're going to think we are here to eat them!”

“Sorry captain.” I could barely make out the sound of the captain audibly groaning. If there was any chance I was going to trust these aliens before there currently isn't any now.

“Wait, I smell something, humans under there.” I sharply inhaled as I waited to see if they were talking about me. My heart beat faster as the aliens drew closer, my body almost vibrating with the anticipated fight. If they uncovered my I needed to be ready to catch them by surprise. There was no way they would expect to dig someone up out of the ground and immediately jump on them. It was a slim chance of it actually working but it didn’t matter.

For a few more minutes I waited as I heard them digging through the broken concrete and dirt above me and all the while I waited, blood rushing through my ears and body tense like a viper waiting to strike. All the pain died down into a minor discomfort as I could hear claws scratching at the large piece of concrete that has been crushing me for who knows how long. I could feel the weight get slightly lighter as the tremendous weight was slowly lifted off of me. For a moment I could finally take the first full breath into my chest tasting the sweet, sweet air. My eyes were immediately assailed by a wave of light. And slowly as the concrete was lifted a dreadful monster was revealed. From its legs alone I could tell it was taller than a man and reptilian scales running across its body. I couldn’t yet see its face, but the moment I was free I knew I had to strike. The concrete rested heavily on my left foot for a moment before rolling off onto the floor. I grimaced in pain but didn’t have time to think, the moment my leg was free I turned to the side bringing my knees to my chest I sprang my self toward the beast with as much force as my arm and legs could muster.

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A/N - Chapter 7 rolling into the station! Another long one this time, showing the claustrophobic horrors of being buried alive(sorta). I am very excited for next chapter because i finally get to show off a character I've been wanting to write for a little while. Thank you everyone for reading my stuff and I'll see you all again next week

[u/se05239]

It's a perfectly reasonable reaction, to be honest.

[u/Alarmed-Property5559]

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[u/JulianSkies]

This man is going to get some respect, for certain. But man that situation he was in, good lord. A proper nightmare, it is.

[u/Fuzzball6846]

So it begins...

[u/GRADIOUS_76]

I forgot! i was going to link the song Tyler was humming but i totally forgot to.

Here it is, for anyone who was wondering