The Birth of the New World

Private Nathaniel Smith

“Can you believe that they went and confiscated my Playboy!? Uhh, I hope I will be able to get it back… That one had one of my favorite models as the centerfold. You don’t think that they are going to let that Imp girl have it, do you? Maybe I can ask her to give it back to me…” Johny asks.

I have to hold back another sigh as he continues his ranting complaints over getting caught and losing a damn magazine. If he had more self-control and left stuff like that at home, he wouldn’t risk losing it. Hell, if you care about something so much, then why the hell would you bring it into a monster filled city of all places!?

Of course, I had tried to explain this to him, but the dumbass just continues to complain. Besides, he shouldn’t be wandering away from fucking guard duty of all things just to go for a wank! He is lucky that the Lieutenant didn’t do more than just make him do some mountain climbers and burpees. He could have been looking at some serious write-ups.

“You know, they will probably just end up burning it or throwing it away…” I tell him, already feeling done with this whole thing.

“No! You know that they don’t make those anymore. Dirty mags are a treasure nowadays! You can’t just burn them!” He says this as if I had just tried proposing a plan to demolish a temple on sanctified grounds.

“Then why the hell did you bring it out here…?” I say, looking to him like he is an idiot.

“I get lonely sometimes…”

Oh, wait. He is an idiot…

“Bullshit, you get horny! And then you go and leave me alone on guard duty. You’re lucky that the both of us didn’t get into serious trouble because of this! If I get another write-up because of you, I swear I am going to kick your ass.”

He looks pretty cowed by this, and he looks to me with a sad laugh, scratching the back of his head, “Ahhh, sorry man… I’m always dragging you into this stuff, aren’t I? Sorry about that…”

“Ya, you should be. Next shift, you better stay focused on your job.”

“Ok, ya, you’re right, I will… But seriously though, do you think that she will give it back if I ask nicely?” He asks sheepishly.

Such a fucking idiot…

I grab at my face and let out a long-exhausted breath, “Oh my fucking god… What even makes you think that she has it? It was confiscated, it is probably in a bin in the Lieutenant’s office by now, or hell, in one of his drawers for later. Why would she keep it?”

“While I was doing the workouts, she was looking through it. Really seemed to like it… Plus, when they left, she was still holding it…”

“Why would she be interested in a Playboy…? Wait, no that’s right. I remember hearing that she has a girlfriend, I think... Something about dating a princess or whatever.”

“Ya, I heard that she is with some girl with blue hair and a dragon tail or something like that. I don’t have much business in the center of base, so I’ve never seen her. But I hear that she is quite beautiful if you can ignore the nonhuman parts.”

“Wait… So, the Imp girl is dating a dragon girl princess? Reminds me of one of those weird Japanese comic books that my sister used to love to read…”

“Still though, do you think that she will give it back?” He asks again, much to my annoyance.

I just huff and give him a tired look, “I don’t fucking know? Maybe? Hell, I try to stay out of her way as much as possible when I can. I’ve seen what she can do. She is fucking scary. I mean sure, if you ignore the grey skin and everything else, she is attractive. But I’ve seen her rip the legs off of a monster and then beat it to death with them after it pissed her off. The blood stains are still in the west hallway… I understand why a bunch of the others really like her, but personally, I am staying the hell away from her. You want to try and get your magazine back, you’re on your own.”

“Mmmm… I don’t know. I guess she seems nice enough and I can try…” He mumbles to himself.

As we are walking back to the barracks, our shifts having concluded a bit ago, Johny turns and points to the restroom, “Hey, I’m going to go take a piss. Be right back.”

“Be quick, I want to get back to my bunk and relax for a while.”

“Right, right. I’ll be quick.” He says as he goes walking into the men’s restroom.

Despite the fact that we don’t have working plumbing in the whole building, we do have a system set up so that a few of the toilets can be flushed. A much better alternative to having to dig holes to shit in. Leaning against the wall, I wait for him to hurry up and drain his bladder.

...

After a while, I start getting a bit impatient, it’s been five minutes, and he still hasn’t finished in there.

“Oi, Johny! What the hell is taking you so long?” I call to him.

I wait for a bit, but I don’t get a response. With a huff, I push away from the wall and head into the restroom.

“I swear, you better not be in here jacking off or something. I’m done putting up with your bullshit for today.”

I come to a stop as I find my friend in quite the situation... His lantern is laying on the counter, filling the shadowed room with a wash of orange light. Near the back, partially obstructed by the shadows, Johny is pushed against the wall and making out with a beautiful woman. Their arms are wrapped around each other in a tight embrace as she pushes heavily against him, their faces never moving to part as they kiss.

“Oh uh… Sorry. Didn’t mean to intrude… Hehe, Johny, I didn’t know you had a girlfriend. She’s beautiful, I… wait, do I know her?”

Wait… do I know her? I think I do. She looks familiar. How could I ever forget that hair.

I walk closer to them, my sense of familiarity compelling me to check who this woman is. I swear that I know her. I might even love her. But why is she making out with Johny. Why isn’t she with me. Didn’t we make a promise to each other?

“Hey Johny, why are kissing her? She's mine. Why would you do this Johny, I thought we were friends?”

I continue to walk forward, my lantern pushing aside the shadows in the restroom as I draw nearer, the two of them being drawn into the light. But still, they do not part. They just continue to kiss as she pushes him against the wall.

“Johny, hey Johny! Talk to me man! Why would you do this? You knew she was with me!”

Wait, did he know? I don’t remember telling him I was seeing her. Why wouldn’t I tell him that I was dating… What was her name again? It was Samantha, right? Or was it, Angelica? Ah! It doesn’t matter, I can ask her later what her name was. Still a bit embarrassing that I would forget her name... Oh well, I’m sure that she will forgive me. She always forgives me.

Halfway across the room, the two of them are now entirely in the light. I go to yell at my friend. Demand an explanation. But I stop as I find him no longer embracing her, but instead trying to push her away and slapping at the wall. I see him look to me with worry in his eyes, and a flash of relief goes through me. Maybe it wasn’t him kissing her, but the other way around. Maybe she forced herself onto him? Maybe he is trying to stop her because he heard me and just didn’t know?

I move forward to pull the two of them apart, but before I can reach them, Johny stops fighting and his arms fall to his side.

She pulls away and Johny slides down the wall, slumping to the floor before falling over.

She turns to me, a beautiful smile with lips like red blood beaming at me. My heart jumps in my chest as her eyes lock with mine. I want to ask her so many questions. Demand so many answers. She was kissing my best friend! But, oh how I love her. Just one look was enough to make me faulter.

So what if she was kissing Johny? She can have the both of us. I’m willing to share, just so long as I can have her. And besides, Johny is my friend. I’m sure he would be willing to… Johny?

My eyes fight to part from my love and move to my friend. My stupid friend that was just minutes ago complaining about losing a porno mag of all things.

…

…

He isn’t moving.

Was he always this pale?

Blood is dripping from his mouth.

His eyes look swollen, and his skin looks tight, his cheeks sunken and the bones of his face are showing clearly.

He doesn’t blink as he stares up at me lifelessly.

He is dead…

…

My friend is dead.

…

Why is he dead!? He was just kissing… He was kissing…. What is her name!? My heart beats heavily in my chest as adrenaline blasts through my body and I am covered in a cold sweat.

He was kissing my girlfriend, wasn’t he? But I don’t have a girlfriend! Who was he kissing!? He is dead! Why was she in the men’s room? I thought she loved me!? He’s my friend! Who is she!? Did she kill him!?

I can feel myself starting to hyperventilate as I rip my eyes away from the corpse of my friend, looking to woman that killed him. Woman? My eyes fall on her smiling face. Is she smiling? It feels as if my mind is being pulled in two. She takes a step forward and I back away. Raising an arm to me, she sweetly calls my name. Her voice is laced with honey and smells of blood. Her face is both beautiful and horrifying as her smile grows to inhuman lengths, the red of her lips slowly dripping down her face. I want to kiss her. I want to run! She opens her arms, so impossibly long, for me and I want to hug her. I need to run!

I want to move towards her, to be embraced by her loving arms, my whole body starves for her touch, but instead, I shakingly take a step back and trip over myself, falling to the ground. She moves forward, inhumanly fast for a woman so small and delicate. She’s huge!

Her arms reach me and push me to the floor, something inside of me finally breaking out from the confusion as I let out a scream, calling for help at the top of my lungs as my arms fight to keep her away from my face, to push her away with everything that I have. Kicking and screaming under the light of my fallen lantern. My eyes fall upon my dead friend, his lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling from where he lays slumped over. Looking back to her, my mind freezes and I almost stop fighting as I see nothing but a dark void above me, pushing towards my face. In its center sits a single needle dripping in blood and a black substance that falls onto my face. It smells of death and burns my skin where it falls.

A fresh scream rips its way out of my throat, and I fight back with a renewed vigor, the fear of death and being eaten alive shoving everything else in my mind aside in a desperate bid for survival.

A door behind me gets slammed open and someone calls out angrily.

The monster stops for a moment and looks up. My eyes are drawn to look down at the thing's body as it pins me to the floor. It is a tall and gangly thing of black and nasty yellows, looking as if it is a corpse of rotting flesh and aged dirty clay. Hanging from its chest are a pair of sagging breasts of wrinkled skin and further down is a swelling belly, heavy with a slurry of liquids that sloshes as the thing moves around. The entire beast reeks of death and decay and I want to gag as the smell assaults my mind.

The thing moves, pulling me by the shoulders as my fight for freedom was temporarily lost in distraction. It stands, pulling me back as someone behind me curses and a gust of wind hits me. I turn and find the head of a sledgehammer mere inches from my face. Past it, I can see the Imp girl as she pulls the hammer back towards her, having stopped just short of caving my skull in. She scowls and curses angerly at the thing holding me, moving her hammer about as she tries to find an angle to attack, but the thing simply moves me to always be in the way.

It's using me as a shield!

I turn back to the thing holding me, my feet no longer touching the floor as it holds my aloft. Behind me, I can hear as the girl is yelling, but her words hardly make their way through the adrenaline and fear coursing through my brain. Only a couple of words manage to register, my short bout of training and getting screamed at by drill sergeants engraving the command into muscle memory.

“Fight back soldier!!!” She screams.

I let out a yell and start to flail, punching and kicking where I can as the thing moves me around, presumably using me to block the one thing in the room that it actually fears.

My boot finds it’s swelling stomach and the thing lurches forward, black and red liquid getting thrown up out of its face hole and covering me. The smell assaults my nose and my eyes, the black liquid burning at my skin and face, I cough and sputter as some gets into my mouth, screaming as it covers and burns my left eye, but I continue to flail about and kick as it holds me. Reaching for the knife strapped to my chest, I draw it and sink it into the thing’s arm. It lets out a sickening gurgle of a scream and its grip on my shoulders finally slackens enough to release me. I fall to floor in a heap and try to backpedal away as fast as I can.

Above, a sledgehammer goes flying through the air and slams into its chest with a crunch. The thing is sent reeling backwards as the heavy hammer falls to the ground. It backs up to the far end of the restroom as the girl charges past me and throws herself at it in a fury of raking claws. She cuts it all over with her claws and tries to stab the thing, moving as if she wants to spear it with her hand, but the thing continues to move and dodge her more lethal blows while slowly getting covered in more and more cuts.

With a desperate gurgle of a scream, the thing moves forward and tries to grapple her. For a moment the girl freezes, her eyes locked into the void of that things face, a small smile growing on her face like she just ran into an old lover while out shopping.

One of the things hands touches the girl’s body and her smile falls away into an enraged scream. She moves as if in a blur and wraps her small body around the arm holding her before kicking the thing in the chest.

It goes flying back and hits the wall in a spray of black fluid as the Imp girl alights to the ground, holding the things arm in her hand.

“How the FUCKING dare you make me fall in love with you!!!!! I’ll rip you apart peace by fucking peace you rotten whore bag of worm flesh!” She screams as she tosses aside the things stolen limb.

She launches herself at the thing like a spring let loose. It barely manages to pull itself aside as her arm spears through the brick wall it was leaning against, piercing all the way to her shoulder and cracking violently as she slams into the wall. Stumbling away on long shaking legs, it runs away as the girl rips her arm out of the wall in a rain of broken brick and dusted mortar. She turns to the thing and pursues it as it reaches up to the ceiling and pulls itself up with one arm into the air vents, contorting its body as it wiggles itself into the small space that even a child would struggle to fit into with inhuman flexibility.

The Imp girl jumps at it and tries to grab it by the foot as it slips away, the only thing left of it is a trail of black slime.

“Fuck!” She screams.

She looks to the vent, like a ferret wanting to chase a rabbit into its hole, but she turns to me and curses again. Instead of pursuing the monster, she moves towards me and removes her pack.

“What are doing? Go after that thing! Kill it!” I scream, my voice harsh and torn. I break into a coughing fit and reel as I cough up something warm and thick.

“Shut up. Stop trying to talk.” She says with a simple dismissal. She starts to rip off my armor and clothes, tearing straps and ripping fabric, and I try to stop her, my arms shaking and only being able to put up so much of a fight as she strips my torso bare. “Stop moving, you’ll only make it worse.” She snaps.

She looks me over, “Medic! We need a medic in here now!” She yells, finally managing to rip my clothes off as she pushes me back to the ground. I try to push her away and get back up, but my arms aren’t working the way I want them to. They feel heavy and my vision is growing week.

“Don’t close your eyes damn it! I need them open. Keep your eyes open!” She yells at me, I am finding it harder and harder to move, the desire to sleep filling my body like a warm bath. For a while I swear that I can feel water flowing over my face and being forced into my mouth and down my throat.

There are more voices now, people talking and touching me. The feeling of being lifted and the rocking and swaying of being carried away on a floating bed. My last thoughts go to Johny before my mind drifts away with my consciousness.

Ah, that idiot. Always going and getting me in trouble… I’m going to punch him in the face when I wake up… such an idiot………

……