Vibrations.

  That was how they navigated the world.

  At the very tip of each of their legs was a nerve specially designed for detecting them, and they had long antennae that could detect vibrations in the air as well.

  At least, that was what I read in the newspapers.

  That was also how I, and everyone else still alive to care, knew that the source of our problems came from the reckless actions of one man. Having invented a way to harness the thermal energy that comes from magma, he wasn’t quite content with what his company could get from volcanoes. He decided to dig a little deeper, to get right to the source of where it all came from. The Earth’s core.

  There were many risks associated with such a venture. A number of Geologists raised concerns about how fissures in the earth could be closed or opened from the tunneling, causing volcanoes to open up in places where they had no business being. Others still warned of perturbing the biosphere that exists at such depths that could likely be crucial to a number of ecological processes we weren’t even aware of yet. The latter argument didn’t gain much traction, since it was hard to believe any life could be found at such temperatures. However, that was exactly the case.

  A bunch of biologists took their best guess as to how their bodies worked based on what we knew about where they came from. They were a species of centipedes, living deep underground a few thousand metres from the Earth’s core. Such conditions gave them a greater tolerance to heat, hard shells that could withstand the pressure of millions of tonnes of earth above them, forcipules that evolved into drills to efficiently dig tunnels and heat sensors to avoid accidentally digging too close to the magma filled chambers around the core.

  I had a few theories to add to that. The heat sensors were useless in juveniles, evidenced by their inability to detect my body heat even when I was closeby. The adults could sense the heat that came from large cities miles away even if they couldn’t feel the vibrations.

  However, all the juveniles had was their ability to detect vibrations, and even that wasn’t perfect. You could get by with a foam sandal as long as your footsteps were slow and light. Although the moment you started running your footfalls would be harder. The louder the vibration, the more likely they were to flock towards it.

  Like what happened the moment my bat made contact with the pole.

  KLANG!

  The sound echoed and bounced off the streets till it reached the juveniles. They stopped in their tracks, antennae twitching. The man briefly glanced over his shoulder when he heard the noise but he kept running, and based on how they were alternating their attention between me and him, it seemed they were indecisive as to what to follow.

  Klang klang klang klang klang klang…!

  “Stop running!” I shouted at the man as I continued banging on the pole. My voice came out a lot scratchier than I expected it to. I couldn’t remember the last time I had spoken above a whisper.

  The man glanced over again, his steps slowing down when he noticed the juveniles had stopped chasing him.

  “Don’t move till they’re completely out of sight!” I shouted again, a bit clearer this time, as I began to stomp my legs on the ground.

  All the juveniles turned their heads, slowly creeping in my direction before they picked up speed. I now had their full attention. It was moments like this that reminded me that these creatures were just simple insects at the end of the day. Albeit overgrown insects that were stupidly hard to kill.

  I started running away, making a turn at a nearby intersection. I really hoped they were actually following me—as insane as that sounded—so that the man and kid could get away. I kept looking back till I eventually saw them make the turn too.

  The chase was on.

  On a good day and in a better place I could probably outrun them.

  But the holes were a major problem.

  I looked back over my shoulder as all three juveniles went into separate holes.

  ‘Yikes!’

  I returned my attention to the front just as I almost ran into a hole. I jumped over it at the last moment, barely making it to the other side. I could subtly hear the rumbling of their movement. They were incredibly quick underground and they could come out of any other hole.

  I frantically started looking around, trying to figure out where. There were a couple of holes in front at a four way intersection I was steadily approaching. Three holes to the left, two straight ahead and one to the right.

  Those were the closest, meaning there was a high chance of them coming out from three of them. But which ones?

  With every stride I was getting closer. I had to make a choice fast! I looked at the holes, hoping any one of them would give me a sign that something was about to come out of it.

  ‘Come on, come on! Give me something to work with!’

  A few more metres. I stayed at the centre of the street, to be in the perfect spot for any decision I make.

  I got closer. And even closer.

  ‘Something! Anything!’

  When I was about ten metres away I saw it. In one of the holes straight ahead, a bit of loose sand fell from the rim. In the hole to the right, a slight puff of dust rose from it.

  No time to think.

  I swapped the baseball bat to my right hand and brought out my left. I grabbed the pole of a traffic light and used it as a pivot to make a sharp turn without slowing down or missing a beat.

  A few seconds later, two juveniles emerged from those holes and smashed down at the spot I was at mere moments ago with their drills, colliding against each other in the process.

  I gandered a brief look at them. They were slightly disoriented from the impact.

  ‘Maybe I can get some distance between us before they reco—’

  Wait, where did the third one go?!

  The thought had barely landed in my head before I heard the sound of a large crash coming from inside the building to my left.

  I slid down the floor just as the wall erupted, blasting me with glass and metal shrapnel as the body of the juvenile sailed through the air above, the pointy legs just a few inches from my face.

  I scrambled to my feet, dashing away once more. It was too close!

  I wasn’t anticipating there being a hole right inside a building. It was a major oversight. I couldn’t keep this chase going, not with there being too many variables to keep track of. As much as I didn’t want to, I had to go for plan B, and quickly!

  I kept running. The third juvenile was dazed from headbutting the wall instead of drilling through it. The other two were already back in commission and giving chase.

  I looked around, trying to find the most conducive space for the plan to work. An alley big enough to contain all three of them. I wasn’t keeping track of whether I was running deeper into town or otherwise. I was just desperately hoping I wouldn’t run into another juvenile along the way.

  Then all of a sudden I passed one. I wasn’t sure, but I took the risk and ran back and there it was! The perfect spot!

  I ran into the alley, a big wall blocking off the path. The brick fences of the buildings on either side formed a three-sided wall with only one way in.

  This was it.

  I walked all the way to the back wall, turning to face the street. I could hear their legs thundering on the asphalt as they got closer. I reached into my pocket and felt the cold of the piece of metal I had put in there earlier in the day.

  I closed my arm around it and pulled it out.

  A tuning fork.

  I held it with an outstretched arm, like a crucifix to ward off demons.

  I readied my baseball bat.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  My breathing was rough from the running, with sweat running down my forehead and eyes aching from how hard I was staring at the alley’s entrance.

  The sound kept getting closer and closer.

  I held my breath, tensing up my muscles, fighting back the urge to swing the moment one appeared.

  Then they arrived.

  The first dashed into the alley, quickly followed by the second. They were fast approaching me but I couldn’t swing yet. Not until the third one came in.

  It felt like an eternity as the juveniles closed in on me. I could see the gleaming tips of their drills as they came closer.

  I clenched the bat tighter, waiting for the third one. At some point I would have no choice but to swing.

  Then it came, entering the alley a few feet behind the other two. I immediately swung the bat just as the closest juvenile lunged at me.

  Ding!

  I felt the vibration of the tuning fork flow through my arm, as the sound reverberated off the walls of the alley, stopping the juveniles in place.

  They were frozen, save for the occasional twitch of their antennae and some of their legs. The juvenile that lunged was close enough for me to see my reflection in its black eyes.

  I kept my arm up, quickly making my way through them.

  I got out of the alley and immediately started running. They weren’t going to stay that way forever.

  ‘I only have a few seconds before—’

  SCREEEEEEECH!

  I heard piercing shrieks come out of the alley. It was so loud and powerful that the air seemed to vibrate from the force. I covered my ears as best as I could, grimacing as I tried to keep running despite the disorienting sound.

  I quickly looked back just as two of the juveniles raced out of the alley. One of them stopped in the middle of the road, swatting cars away before it started banging its head on the asphalt. The other dashed across the street and crashed into a storied building. Its rampage didn't stop there as it decimated the ground floor of the building and then made its way up the floors till it emerged from the roof. The structural integrity of the building was compromised and the massive tower of glass began to tilt at an angle before the length of it came crashing down.

  And it was falling in my direction!

  ‘Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!’ I repeated in my head as I started running, hoping to escape the width of the building before it made contact with the ground. The building hit the floor just as I cleared the impact zone. The sound of breaking glass and creaking metal followed, with the shrapnels from the debris getting blasted into my back with full force. My jacket and shirt kept a decent number from my skin, but I could still feel the sting of the small pieces that had lodged themselves in my back. I didn’t get a chance to ponder on the pain. The third juvenile bursted out of the alley and suddenly started racing in my direction at a terrifying speed, some of its paralysed legs skidding on the asphalt. Before I could get out of the way, it slightly changed its direction right before it reached me.

  Realising I wasn’t its goal, I slightly relaxed, only to see the remaining length of its segmented body swing in my direction, similar to the tail end of a car going into a drift.

  Its exoskeleton slammed into me with the force of a truck, and I felt pain flare up in my chest and ribs. In a moment, I found myself sailing through the air at high speed. I let go of the bat and quickly brought my hands to the back of my head right before I slammed into a brick wall. Hard.

  The wind was knocked out of my lungs and the impact from the wall still flowed through my hands and rocked my brain in my skull, giving me what I hoped was just a mild concussion. The glass and metal shrapnel had dug deeper into my back after I hit the wall. The pain was excruciating and I felt dizzy. I tried to breathe, but struggled. Each little breath I took seemed to stab at my lungs. I tried to bear the pain and get more air into them but I coughed out blood instead. My ribs had broken and punctured one of them, and blood was steadily filling it up.

  My front and back felt like they were on fire. Yet I couldn’t afford to stay here. My vision was gradually dimming, my already weakened mind struggling to process the pain. I tried to get up but had little success. My ears were still filled with the sound of the rampaging juveniles, smashing everything around them.

  This was why I hated plan B. Even if you managed to stop the juveniles for a moment, the resulting carnage hardly made it worth it. There was still the chance of getting killed as collateral damage. All the noise would eventually attract more juveniles to the area. The tuning fork became less of a crucifix to ward off demons but more of a beacon to show them where the party was.

  I struggled to get up again, my bruised knuckles bleeding as my hands tried to bear my weight. I got to my knees, then made one more herculean effort to stand. The moment I was upright, the world completely spun around me. I lost my balance and I quickly used my left hand to brace myself against the wall.

  It took a few seconds before I got my bearings back as the rush of blood into my head subsided. But the headache and pounding remained. I trudged along the sidewalk, half stumbling, half walking. I couldn’t even look up at where I was going, nor was I even sure of where to go. I had completely lost track of where I came from while running, taking any intersection that could throw the juveniles off my track and possibly lead me to areas with less holes.

  I could feel warm blood flowing down my back. Each cut in it was a tributary of blood, all of them coming together to form a small river at the base that trickled down the back of my legs and into my shoes. I was gasping for breath. All this air around me and yet I could barely take it in. I felt desperate.

  My vision kept getting blurry as my brain got starved of oxygen, till I could barely make out the shape of my feet. The sound of the rampaging juveniles also seemed to grow more and more distant. But I couldn’t tell whether they were getting further away or my hearing was failing me.

  I had reached the end of the wall, with a slight raise of my head letting me know I had arrived at a T-junction. I took a few steps to turn to the left and tripped on a stone that I couldn’t see.

  I fell to my knees, the impact sending a jolt of pain through my body. For a very brief period, I stayed upright. But much like the collapsed building from earlier, I too gradually began to tilt till my face smacked against the pavement.

  I thought I would feel a lot of pain from the side of my face and my ribs hitting the ground, but surprisingly I felt nothing. The sidewalk was quite comfortable actually. It was warm and soothing, probably because of the sun. I hadn’t realised just how cold I had felt until now. I couldn’t have lost that much blood, right?

  All my strength was gone, disappearing the very moment my knees hit the ground. The sounds of chaos were gradually fading away, along with my vision. Strangely enough, I could still vividly smell the dust and sand on the ground, mixed with the distinct smell of metal.

  ‘You have to move!’ my mind hounded me.

  Even if I got back home, would I still manage to survive?

  Broken ribs, a punctured lung, a bruised head, a shredded back. I didn’t need a doctor to tell me they were serious injuries. I couldn’t even begin to think of how I would treat myself. Getting home would simply grant me the unpleasant luxury of dying surrounded by crackers.

  ‘You could find help!’

  It was every man for himself in this world. There was no help to be found.

  ‘Are you really giving up?’

  It’s not all doom and gloom though. I did some good today. Two lives had been saved for the price of one. It was a net positive.

  ‘Do you really believe that?’

  Yeah that’s not so bad, right? People rushed supermarkets for those kinds of deals. It wasn’t a bad way to go. I would die a hero.

  ‘Do you really want to let go of your life?’

  Some things aren’t worth holding onto. If it didn’t end today, it would have ended some other time. I might choke on a cracker or something.

  ‘Is this what you want?’

  Look, I had a good run. There’s nothing to look forward to. Just let it be.

  ‘Is this what you want?’

  Of course not! But there’s nothing I can—

  ‘Is this what you want?’

  Why do you keep asking me that?

  ‘Is this what you want?’

  Could you stop?

  ‘Is this what you want?’

  Stop! Please.

  ‘Is this what you want?’

  Stop it!

  ‘IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT!’

  I SAID STOP!

  ‘...’

  …

  “I…”

  .

  .

  .

  “I don’t…”

  .

  .

  .

  “I don’t want to die…” It was all I had left to say.

  I laid on the ground with my face looking down the street I had turned to. It led downtown which meant the elevation of the area I was in was far higher. As a result, I was able to see further into the city and see the rooftop of its buildings. I blinked away a tear and for a brief moment my vision cleared.

  And that’s when I saw it.

  At what looked like the very centre of the city, surrounded by wrecked buildings and towers, was a massive, 150-storey skyscraper that dwarfed most of the ruins in its vicinity. It was once the pride and joy of this city. But now it was perhaps the most unsightly thing to look at in the world.

  Wrapped around the building was a black mass that coiled around the monument from its base right till the very top. Like a python constricting its prey, one could hardly even tell that there was a huge building underneath. The only reminder that it was still there was the reflection of the sun’s rays on bits of the glassy exterior that were exposed. What was on the skyscraper was not all there was to the behemoth. The rest of its body wound between different buildings and covered several streets and blocks.

  That black mass…

  The final stage of all juveniles…

  The creator of the Abyss…

  A creature that could cause earthquakes as it tunnelled beneath the earth.

  I gazed upon the very thing that had brought ruin to the city I had grown up in.

  At the thing that took away the people I loved.

  It was the last thing I saw before my world went dark.

  .

  .

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