I had to find a way up and over. Flashing the light from side to side, I discovered a section down the row was ripped to pieces. Metal shards jutted out in all directions, like a bomb had exploded.
I passed through the fence. The park was deader than I’d initially thought. A pathway that would loop and twist along the parkway was cracked and parts of the concrete were unearthed. As I walked along the path, I discovered it cut off suddenly and dropped down into a wide lakebed.
Water that would have splashed the edges of the concrete had dried up long ago. The soil was a mixture of soft dirt and sand. It felt strange to be walking where the water used to be. I walked a good ten feet down into the lakebed before it leveled off. Pushing forward, I followed my instincts, and turned slightly left, as if I knew where I was going. Soon the bank rose and I was right out of the lakebed once more.
I stood still and held the orb out, the flashlight ahead. A vast network of buildings loomed in front of me. Striding a few dozen feet forward, I walked straight into the fence that surrounded the park, finding the exit just a few more feet to the right.
Five or six very tall sky scrapers surrounded the little park, and all of them had a few windows glowing with lights, patches of bright spots amidst the darkness. Thunder reverberated overhead, while lightning flashed between clouds.
A pain suddenly appeared in my chest, a burning sensation so hot it made me think my sternum was melting. I lost my grip on the flashlight and it tumbled to the ground. The notion that I still gripped the sphere made it reasonable that something else was happening. I doubled over, my stomach twisted, and my airways began to tighten.
What the fuck! I screamed inside.
This pain, this was new pain. I hadn’t felt like this before, and didn’t know why it was coming now. I wondered if somehow this was the turning. But it was too soon, far too soon. My arm began to shake, threatening to drop the sphere still clutched in my now claw-like hand. If I dropped the device I wondered if it would double my pain? My shoulder started to burn where I’d fallen on it back in the tower with the timer, but that pain was amplified.
I staggered into the road. For some reason I needed to be away from the dead park. It was throwing off my equilibrium, that or being in a place far more lifeless than the rest was unkind to my body.
Choking down the vomit that boiled up inside me, I crashed against the glass exterior of one of the buildings. Finally, after a few seconds, whatever the pain was seem to filter out, leaving only a sense that something dreadfully worse was coming. I’d heard some of the people felt the turning coming before it happened. Though I didn’t exactly remember anyone feeling like this. Or at least, feeling like their skin was melting off.
A scream lingered in the vastness. A good distance off.
“Not Again…” I said out loud. It sounded just like them. My previous scene didn’t exactly grant me the notion that any of them were real. But living in this darkness, and being beyond the barrier, left me with the thought that nothing should be taken for granted. Whether it was a hallucination or not.
I leaned against the tower and raised the sphere, trying to peer inside. The lobby was partially lit and looked like another office structure, desks lining the front entrance and sofas and comfy chairs around the lobby.
Another scream emitted from far away. I tried to see what was yelling but nothing appeared. I knew I should get moving soon. Dream-like or not, I didn’t want these creatures to surround me again.
A creature flung itself against the glass inside, sending me flying backwards and landing on my ass. A screamed erupted from the lobby, and the creature continued to fling itself against the glass. The glass spider webbed with the impacts, growing slowly. The glass was breaking.
I got to my feet and flashed the orb around, trying to find an escape route. It was too damn dark to see a great distance, though the lamppost lit the way down the road. Sprinting in that direction, I followed the lampposts, trying to find something, anything.
Something lingered far behind me. It sounded like claws on top of pavement. A thousand pounding, disfigured feet came from behind, though I wouldn’t dare look back. Instead I remained focused forward, and hoped they were still far away. The creature that had smashed itself against the glass sounded like it was still trying to break through. It must have been alerting the others. If I moved far enough away, they might not know where I was.
The road dipped and twisted around, running straight into the center of what must have been a busy marketplace. Little stations and storefronts dotted the landscape. Goods still hung on hooks, watches and trinkets lying on the surface. Pushing past, something caught my attention up ahead. It flashed.
Thinking that maybe it was just a light blinking inside one of the buildings, I pressed on, until it blinked again. It was red.
Another scream erupted from somewhere down the highway, but it remained far enough way. Now, that red blinking drove me forward. It was colored like the timer. I pushed back into the road, trying to get a better view. It was probably a few blocks down, and up in the air.
What is it? I asked myself.
Then it blinked again.
And Again.
And Again.
Softly, off and on, as if matching the sphere pulsating in my hands.
It called out in the deepest darkness.
Something deep inside me clicked into place. I had seen this before. Back in my dream. Back when I was in the darkness, when I flew to the tower with the strange, blinking red light. This was it. This was my destiny. It was calling me, and it was so close. And the screams were getting closer too.
Chapter 23: The Blinking Light
I ran.
I cut my breathing short, eyes focused ahead. The blinking red light was coming up quickly, but the screams were closing as well. With every step closer to the light, my answers grew brighter. Everything was in reach, like my senses were becoming clear. Even though that timer clicked ever away, it wouldn’t matter if I got to that light.
A scream erupted from my right. One of those creatures raged as it matched my pace, chasing me. Gasps and moans escaped its throat. Blank eyes stared back, but it somehow listened to my footfalls. Its vocals reached back to the rest of the horde and screams returned in response.
A claw swiped outwards, but I ducked. The creature swung so hard it went spiraling to the ground, flopping on the asphalt and screaming in protest.
“Serves you right,” I whispered, wary of making too much sound even in triumph.
I ventured a look back to see it wiggling on the ground. That was a bad idea. There were so many of them now. Even in the dying of the light I could see dozens, possibly hundreds more behind them.
I spun my attention back around and followed the pulsating light. It was maybe a few hundred feet away.
My peripheral vision kicked in as several shapes appeared in the shadows off to the left and right. Howls erupted in the forever night, and joined the group already raging behind. Now I had to be only fifty feet from the source, and the dream became a startling reality.
An antenna stretched into the sky with a blinking light at the top. The transmitter itself pierced the clouds from its position on top of a concrete building only big enough for a small office. The building had a single bulb lit outside a curiously open door.
There had to be hundreds of creatures behind me. I didn’t have to look back to know that. Their claws thundered on the pavement like the clouds above. If I slowed down just a little I might be overwhelmed by the mass. A death like that would be incomparably horrible.