Apocalyptic Shorts (10 page)

“Because the desert covers several miles out, and I’m sure none of us can survive that stretch without food and water.” I say.

Everyone begins to voice their opinions and in seconds, it becomes a lousy mass debate. I remove myself from their mid and move close to the portal, standing right in front of it. It feels warm and smells like burning plastic, it’s beating with a low humming sound. I hold out my index finger and slowly drive it towards the portal. Suddenly, I hear something other than the chorusing voices, I look around warily, but I see nothing. What I heard, it sounded like a hiss, like the one I heard on the rock. I look around, my eyes wide open, but still, I don’t see anything. I turn back to the portal and then, I hear a scream. I look towards the others, they are being attacked by many of the bugs. Four people are on the ground, getting eaten by the centipede-like bugs. “
Shit!
”

I look around for Paige, she’s being chased by two bugs. Something hits me from behind, I hit the ground, air knocked out of me. I quickly turn on my back and see a bug is coming down on me, I roll away fast, and I get up and run. The bug is so fast that it catches up in no time and throws itself at me again. I hit the ground and roll immediately. The bug lands beside me and spins itself at me like a twisting missile. I punch it, but its body is hard. I pick a stone and hit it to its head. Like a cheese, the head breaks open, and jelly green blood slowly comes out of it. The bug makes a grumpy sound and stops, and I know it is dead. I lift the stone and go after Paige. One of the bugs has caught up on her. I run as fast as I can, I hit the stone at the second bug and then the one on Paige. I push them off her and help her up.

“Are you alright?” she nods. “They look metal, but they’re not.”

“There’s too many of them,” Paige says. “What do we do?”

Everyone is scattered, and most have been killed by the bugs. Adam is fighting off about four bugs, he won’t make it. I watch them cover him till I don’t see him anymore. I hear more hisses. I turn round and see more bugs coming towards us.

“The portal,” I yell and grab Paige’s hand, and we run for the portal. The bugs split to two groups, trying to double up on us before we get to the portal. The ones that attacked first are done with the corpses, and are now coming after us too, and they are closer.

“We’re not gonna make it,” Paige yells.

“We will,” I assure her.

We’re now much closer to the portal, but the bugs are a lot closer too. Paige is slowing down. I hold her hand tighter and pull her along. The leading bug jumps to my front, I immediately dash over it, sliding on its back, I land behind it, grab a stone and go after it as it covers Paige. I ram the stone to its head and without waiting for it to bleed, I yank Paige up and we run. The bugs are a lot closer now, and we’ve almost reached the portal.

“The portal,” Paige yells, “it’ll kill us.”

“They will too, we have to try.”

The bugs see that we’ll get to the portal before they can catch up to us, so they begin to missile themselves at us, exploding purple gas as they hit the ground. In seconds, there’s purple smoke everywhere, but the portal is so bright and we can still see it. We continue to dodge their missiles. I begin to find it hard to breath, Paige begins to cough. The purple gas is thick and heavy, and lethal, but we don’t stop. We get to the portal and dive into it, not knowing where it’ll take us, or if it’ll kill us or if the bugs will follow.

The inside of the portal is so bright I have to close my eyes. I feel myself spinning, but not too fast. After a while, the spinning stops and I hit the ground. I hear something else hit the ground not far from me. I open my eyes and blurrily see Paige trying to get up. My head feels really heavy, and I can taste my blood. I get on my knees and feel the asphalt beneath my palms. Everything is still very blurred and my head is ringing very loudly. I turn and see some men in white plastic protective suits running towards me. They put me on a stretcher. I manage to look and see Paige also on a stretcher, being carried away. She looks back at me and smiles, I smile back.

The ringing slowly fades, and I hear things a little clearer. I hear a voice saying that it’s been confirmed that Paige was on the plane, but I haven’t been identified yet.

We made it, we made it back. I didn’t think I would, but I did. The lights are truly entrances from our world to another. I’d say the say the portals are natural, but I don’t believe in coincidence. This new plane of existence that we have discovered, I know it’ll be our paradise, our new home, our great escape.

I close my eyes as my last strength leaves me. I know I may not survive this, and even if I do, I may never be whole again. But knowing that there is a way out of the annihilation ahead of humanity gives me peace beyond reason. I swallow deeply, my tongue feels stiffly cold, my feet too. I smile and slowly, everything turns to black.

The End.

Victor Darksaber
is a new author and is majorly into science fiction, fantasy and pump’d action - He can be contacted on his personal email: [email protected].