“The final stage of grief is acceptance.”
The obscure man was approaching me with a calm demeanor, which made him even more frightening.
“Can’t we just skip the other four? There’s only two outcomes for you here.”
I didn’t respond, causing him to sigh. It was less of an attempt at defiance and more to do with me being at a loss for words.
“Ok… how about I introduce myself. Get us acquainted. I’m Shen. You?”
“…Pete.” I told him.
“Okay Pete… believe me when I tell you that there will not be another chance like this for you. Right now, Trent’s in a good mood. But once he finishes converting the rest of school-children into cannon-fodder for his army, he’s gonna go on a fucking rampage. At that point, it’ll be too late for you. He’s not entirely there in the head, so you can't really try reasoning with him, you know? Besides, I’m trying to get on his good side by converting competent soldiers.”
“If you’re trying to recruit people, then why’d you kill Axwell?” I asked him, feeling a momentary hint of anger amongst my general shock.
He shook his head. “Who? Look, if I killed one of your cop-buddies, then boo-hoo. Like I'd even give a semblance of a fuck. I’m only after the strong anyway.”
I scoffed. “Well, I don’t know what the hell you want with me, then. You should’ve tried recruiting that guy you just killed. He seemed strong.”
Shen stood up, letting out a sigh. “Sure, that meathead had decent physical strength… but look where that got him. I chopped his head like a melon. And look at you, you’re still alive!”
“You could do the same to me,” I responded. “How am I different?”
“Listen, you dense fucker. It’s true that I could kill you right now. But I’m choosing not to. Fuck what you think being strong means. The stuff you've been fed by Hollywood and the media and shit. That's all nonsense. The strong are the ones that end up surviving. Self-preservation is the only thing that matters. If you can punch holes through buildings but end up getting taken out by a bigger fish right after, how are you anything but weak?”
He slammed his hand down on my shoulder in what I assume was supposed to be an encouraging pat. However, I could feel it dislocate from the impact.
“You’re still alive, huh? Have some confidence in yourself.”
I reeled from the pain, causing Shen to chuckle. “I can’t lie, though. You normal humans sure are fragile.” He put his hand back on my shoulder, softer this time, and I could feel my bones shifting back into place, with my pain being alleviated at the same time. I was stunned, hardly comprehending what had just happened.
“What the hell did you just do?” I asked him.
“Not only does my own body regenerate,” he responded. “I can heal others as well. I’m basically Jesus, aren’t I? Maybe I should be calling myself the Messiah instead. Is there a difference between the two? I dunno. But don’t get too excited. I stand by what I said earlier. There’s only two options for you. Either you willingly undergo the transformation right now, or I beat you down until you do.”
“What do you-“
Before I could finish my question, he stomped down, effortlessly crushing my kneecap. I always thought I had a decent enough pain tolerance, but I never could've been prepared for something like this.
“Enough? You wanna come with me now?”
But despite the excruciating, overwhelming pain… I didn’t concede. For whatever esoteric reason, my mind was stubborn, barring me from giving in. Maybe I really just hated the idea of turning into some demon-creature. Or maybe it was something else. Another driving force I couldn’t explicitly identify.
“Well, shit,” he chuckled. “One leg is usually all it takes. But don’t think I’m just gonna heal you up and let you go like that, eh?”
“Why are you doing this? Why are you following that guy?” I asked him through the pain, hoping to stall more than anything else. "You really think that guy's some savior?"
Shen chuckled. “I’m not a fucking idiot, so of course not. Trent’s just an overpowered lunatic. Unlike him, I’m not some clown-tier cartoon villain. I’m just rational. But right now, I stand zero chance if I were to take him on. If you can’t beat ‘em, then join them until you can beat them.”
“What’s his goal? What’s he even trying to do?” I asked. “Trent, I mean.”
“Hmmm…” Shen responded. “Well what happens when a really psychotic guy gains God-like powers through an arcane ritual with roots dating back to the inception of mankind? One that involved killing over 250 people, each in an extremely obscure manner, over the course of 15 years? As you can see… shit hits the fan, and the rest of us end up scrambling.”
He squatted down, getting eye-level with me. “I told you, didn’t I? When the storm hits, the strong always find a way to survive. It’s a simple rule. Do you understand?”
He smiled when I refused to respond. “Let’s see just how long this tenacity lasts.”
One of his arms abruptly transformed into a slimy, xenomorph-like mouth with rows upon rows of jagged teeth.
“Now this… is going to hurt. A lot. But all you need to say is a few words to make it all stop.”
I can only remember the following half-hour as a bloody blur. The pain was followed by moments of fleeting numbness, only to return with even more intensity. Shen must’ve dealt me 50 fatal blows, only to heal them up and repeat the process right after. He’d slice me in half at the torso, stomp on my ribs, crush my legs, etc. At a point, I lost consciousness after choking on my own blood, only to be awakened seconds later with my jaw dislocated.
“What’s the principle behind this persistence? You got a chip on your shoulder or something?” He asked me.
I could only wheeze in response. Despite getting dangerously close to my breaking point, I was operating under the logic that there was no point in giving in if I’d already been pushed so far.
“Live on your feet or just fucking die.”
My old man’s words popped into my head. He’d always been kind of an asshole, but at the moment, I clung onto the advice.
The whole situation was ridiculous. The torture was simply an attempt to get me to convert, and I couldn’t fathom why the guy seemed so hung up on it. But the further he went, the more my mind was beginning to adapt. The pain was nearly impossible to endure for the first few minutes. After 10 minutes, it was only somewhat excruciating. After 20, I was beginning to get used to it. After 30, I was laughing. It was as if a switch had flipped in my brain. Maybe he really had driven me to some transitory state of madness. My rationality had faded, with the torture session suddenly seeming utterly absurd as opposed to anything else. Even Shen seemed surprised at my reaction.
“Oh, come on,” he sighed. “This is getting frustrating. Did I mess your brain up? I made sure not to touch it,” he furrowed his brow. “Or is this just your inner willpower manifesting? Maybe you’ve got some shit going on that I’m not aware of.”
His arms reverted back to their normal form from the flesh-saws he’d been using to hack me up with. Despite him fully healing me up, the pain still lingered throughout my entire body.
“Either way… this isn’t gonna work,” he stretched his arms out, before fixing his blood-stained collar. My blood, mind you. “Guess I’ll just have to let you go.”
Those words were enough to snap me back into reality. In my excitement, I tried to stop myself from saying something stupid that might change his mind. But like I said, I’m an idiot.
“Yeah… good…” I stammered out.
He gave me a confused squint before explaining his decision. “The transformation likely wouldn't have worked on you regardless. You could say I was testing you out there. Those with strong enough wills end up resisting it. No point in trying to convert somebody who can't be converted. Can’t say you haven’t earned my respect, though. Guess I’ll leave it like this.”
He turned and began heading towards the door. “Shit’s still pretty crazy out there. Let’s see if you can survive this,” he grinned at me once more. “If you manage to make it out of here alive, I might just have to admit that you're stronger than me. Also, don’t tell Trent that I let you go. If you see him, of course."
And with that, he was gone, leaving me with a faint, stinging sensation throughout my body.
What a fucking weirdo, I thought to myself. But I was still alive, now more determined than ever to keep it that way. I stayed put until my senses had stabilized, only leaving when a veiny eye-stalk burst through the ground in front of me.
Shen was right. It was still as dangerous as ever. I traversed through the area, avoiding any potential conflicts, until I came across somebody familiar in one of the corridors. A large man wearing heavily damaged armor and a skull mask.
“Kaz?” I called out to him.
The bulky figure turned around. “Oh. It’s you. What happened? Your clothes are all torn up.”
“Yeah uh…” I began. “We need to get out of here.”
Kaz nodded, seemingly clutching his chest in pain. “Couldn’t agree more.”
“What happened to you?” I asked, approaching him. “Did you beat Trent?”
He shook his head. “Not even close. He ripped one of my hearts out a few seconds after you left.”
“Oh that sucks," and then I thought about what he'd said.."Wait, one of them?”
He nodded. “I had 4. 3 now. I just pretended to play dead.”
I nodded, not really needing or wanting a further explanation.
“I already called it in,” he continued “We can’t deal with this guy. Nobody in our division can, except for one. They’re sending in the big gun.”
“And who’s that?”
Kaz let out a big exhale.
”Judas”
The tone in his voice as he said it was rather alarming. Almost as if he were naming the devil himself.
“So this Judas guy… he’s gonna come and fix all this?”
“Well, he’ll probably be able to kill Trent. The problem is, he'll probably kill everybody else in the process. He’s like a somewhat sentient natural disaster. Any place he gets to assigned to usually ends up getting wiped off the face of the Earth. In fact, there's a good chance that every single person in this town will die if the fight lasts long enough. The cover-up process gets complicated afterwards. Glad I'm not a desk guy. But yeah, you could say that he’s quite the nuisance. And that’s why we gotta get the hell out of here before he shows up. I used to have 6 hearts, you know? But then I got caught up in the aftermath of one of his little 'outings'"
Kaz started walking and I followed. “Well if this guy’s so volatile, then why does the government let him out?”
“Obviously, for situations like these,” Kaz responded. “They’re willing to sacrifice a smaller town as opposed to nuking the whole place or something. And honestly, I’m willing to bet that Trent could survive a nuke. He'll probably eventually wipe out a good portion of the Earth if we don't kill him now. Let's call Judas a necessary disaster.”
“Jesus…” I muttered.
“Also,” he continued. “The Government has no way of controlling him regardless. At the moment, they’ve somewhat managed to brainwash him into embracing good old’ American ideals. But I reckon he could change his mind and snap at any moment. And then we’re all done for. Better to get on his good side while we can.”
“So what the hell is this guy then?” I asked,
“Who knows,” Kaz responded. “Nobody but the top echelon of officials with the highest clearance have any info about him. Kinda scary to think about.”
Now, I'd never been a conspiracy theory buff, but I did my fair share of “research” into the matter. But even then... I never could’ve imagined something like this
After about five minutes of walking, Kaz said he needed to rest for a bit, given his injures. We’ve taken refuge in another classroom ever since. There’s a rotting corpse in here, but every other room we’d come across had been “occupied” by something far worse.
Right now, we’re trying to figure something out. A plan, so to speak. Kaz estimates that we have between 40 minutes to 2 hours before Judas arrives. This isn’t even a matter of hiding until back-up arrives anymore. The situation has become immeasurably fucked, and we need to find a way out of here. That's the new objective. But given the circumstances... that may be tough.
UPDATE:
I began wondering how a body would already be rotting if Trent had invaded only some hours prior. And then the corpse stood up.
---
Credits
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