Into The Abyss
A flash fiction story about monsters and survival
(Check out the new audio version for those who want to listen)
The following flash fiction is based off of the short prompt: As she stopped to catch her breath, she looked back. The rest is an original story written by me.
As she stopped to catch her breath, she looked back. She thought she could feel the breathing down her neck, and knew it was only a matter of time before her legs would give way to exhaustion. Still, the survival instinct had kicked in fiercely and she was crushing through the parking lot toward...well she wasn't really sure. These beasts, she had never encountered anything like them—some demonic fusion of leviathan and dog running for the only purpose of annihilation.
The world had fallen into chaos, and many people had already fallen to this abysmal invasion, but she had held out as long as she could. There were plenty of survivors, sure, but no one really knew how to stop the masses of monsters. The idiot hikers who unleashed this horde from the mountains over a year ago didn't realize the curse they were bringing back into the world.
Many theories surrounded these beings, whether they were God's wrath on humanity or some wild test subjects. It didn't matter, they were ancient and no one had seen anything like them. Only books with imaginations that abounded had described anything similar. Even scriptures told of beasts like these.
That didn't help her much at the moment, even if she tried to search through her panic to find some peace in where she may end up when this is all done. No, she couldn't stop, she had to keep going. She could hear him screaming for her, but it was little more than a raindrop on a pond with the amount of ringing in her ears.
She could make out his shadow in the distance, he was standing tall like he always did. She darted toward him, and at last, she could see his face. It was covered in dirt, blood, and sweat. She dove past him as he unleashed the fury of weaponry he had collected. Her head felt like it would explode as the thunderous roar of guns erupted all around her. She covered her ears and let out a guttural scream.
She was glad it was his turn to guard the perimeter because she was tired of it. She let one hand collapse to the belt she wore and ran her fingers over the dozens of monsters' teeth plucked from their bodies. It was all about the score. Some weird fate tied the world into a frenzy of collecting bodies to claim a bounty from the government.
She stood up and slipped the covers over her ears and looked over at the display of violence beside her. Brad was laughing maniacally as he unloaded lead into the piling up bodies of what they had been calling harbingers.
“You really brought them in this time, Becky!” Brad shouted as he looked back at her.
“Keep your eyes on the prize, there’s good money there!” She yelled back.
“Maybe after this, we can afford to---” he started. His sentence was cut short as the gun jammed and the light around them faded. Becky tried to yell a warning but it was too late, in a flash Brad was grabbed up and disappeared into a mob of monsters. She turned around and rolled into the bunker, the hatch closing hard behind her just in time to hear the growls and dings of claws tearing into the metal above her.
She clamored down the ladder and into the weapons room and strapped a series of blades around her chest and back. She grabbed a strange makeshift sword that was crude and almost like a mid-length scythe. She smiled and slowly crawled back up the ladder.
“Let’s get to work,” she said as she turned the hatch lock and pushed the door open.