Authors note: Thank you Ferric for correcting! Chapter 7: Fear
The sun was surrounded by a white sky. No clouds, no birds, no blue heaven, no air, atmosphere or the sun's rays. Only warmth and light.
A round, yellow and bright ball was shining straight ahead.
He could feel warmth, happiness and curiosity, he had to admit. He could hear nothing, neither taste nor smell anything. Only the ball caught his attention as he tried to approach it with sparkling and huge eyes, the pupils narrowed to slits.
The sun was getting bigger and bigger, the ball seemed to inflate in front of him.
Suddenly, halfway a black fog appeared and covered it, the ball and the environment, the big white Nothing disappeared into darkness shortly after.
It was freezing cold as the light faded completely, leaving him in blackness.
Emotions? Sadness, lack of heat and contact with other beings, discouragement, fear, anger, helplessness, horror...
The worst thing was the loneliness. Was it the main reason for such emotions? He couldn`t help but to lay down and curl himself up into a ball, avoiding the sparks of his own body while doing so.
What was he supposed to live? What should he do? Is he dead now and living in "hell"? Why couldn`t he feel his own heartbeat or warmth of his body? Humans goes to heaven, creatures, infected monsters like him, will go to hell?
What and who was he?
After what felt like an eternity different, deafening noises penetrated his ears. Bird songs were never supposed to make his head spin or feeling like his ears would explode. The rustling of leaves and grass wasn`t supposed to leave him stunned.
He opened his many eyes weakly and saw strange figures in front of him. His vision was still a blur as he turned his head to both directions. How many were they?...two...three...five...eight... Maybe eleven creatures. Would they eat him if they came closer?
He tried to stand up, only to realize that his muscles still burned from whatever was in his body. He could only move them slightly to the side while his tail was dragged by the main muscles in his hips closer to his body.
The creatures made noises which caused him to squint his eyes shut in pain. He could feel his heart throbbing painfully strong against his ribcage. He feared that it would cause his bones to break. Breathing was hard without water.
But he could still breathe, maybe from the puddle he inhaled. The water had tasted like crap. He tried to focus on his vision as he opened his eyes again and began to stare at one of those shapes, which was closer to him than the others.
The colors of green, yellow, brown, black, grey and violet seemed to go into their place, how else could he describe it? The shape condensed into the form of a human man, one of those who hurt him. He seemed to step closer to him, still aiming his weapon straight at him.
His eyes shot wide open as he forced his body to its feet, only to be overwhelmed by weakness again and collapsing on the wet ground again while panting heavily. The man began to grin, really, a grin, while the other men were starting to get different things ready.
Ropes, mechanical things and chains were what he could see. Some of those things seemed very familiar to him, telling him to run, run away as far as he could.
He could feel something grabbing his tail as he swung his head to its direction in panic, seeing the people starting to wrap him in chains. His pupils narrowed as he opened his wide mouth to let out a loud shrill scream.
He was cut off as a rope swung around his mouth to force it closed. He could feel some of his teeth cutting into the smooth flesh inside of his mouth as the men pulled on the rope, forcing his head to the ground as they started to secure him.
The panic rose even more inside of him as he struggled against the restraints. Those people almost killed him without mercy. He hadn't touched or hurt them, why? Because he didn't look like them?
He growled as some of the men started to climb on his body, their feet touching and pressing into the still bleeding wounds. The pain shot through his body, accompanied by fear. The claws of his feet and hands dug into the ground while emotions rushed through him.
What it was, the loud noises that caused him terrible headaches, the panic, the fear of dying or enduring the suffering alive, the strange men or the lack of oxygen, he didn`t know. But something was produced in his body after a series of chain reactions. He could feel fury, pure fury.
His eyes started to focus again as he looked at the ropes with some of his reptilian eyes, the pupils wide. He frowned and forced his body up, pulling against the chains and men's' weight as he moved his head back, causing the men whose were holding the rope of his mouth to fall to the ground.
The men started to yell at him in a language he couldn`t understand. He could feel a bullet breaking the skin of his thigh as he forced his mouth to open wide and rip the rope apart with a huge shrill growl.
It was a good move, the men dropped their guns to hold their heads, maybe covering their ears? Whatever, he stood up on his hind legs and let the tail swing around him to slap the people away from his body.
The noises of chains clanking against each other filled the area as bioelectricity started to arc on his skin, dancing along the blueish fins and scales. The men startled and stepped back, firing at him.
He moved his head towards the men and threw up the liquid inside of his stomach at them. After touching the clothes of the men, the yellow-greenish liquid started to eat its way to skin and flesh. The men began to scream while he continued to roar at them, filling his stomach up with the next spray of acid.
The electricity prevented the men from getting closer to him as the spikes of his neck started to stick up from his skin, forming a shield around his head which made him look like a giant angry king cobra.
After losing his strength to keep standing on two legs he let his upper body fall to the ground again so his front legs could help support his weight. The men still shooting at him backed off slowly.
He started to walk towards them while his long tail swept over the ground, hitting the men who came too close. He moved his head to the right, dodging some bullets as he ran at the group, his fangs shredding flesh and crushing bone.
He forced the burning sensation inside of his heart outside his body and produced lightning balls, which flew to the men, sending thousands of volts into their bodies to fry them.
Screams echoed through the air accompanied by the scent of burned meat, which wasn`t unwelcome to him.
It didn`t take long to kill each one of these men. After checking the area, looking around and flickering his tail wildly on the ground he calmed down.
The beating of his heart slowed and his breathing became calmer. He closed his mouth and turned his upper body as close as possible towards the rest of his body in order to escape the constricting chains. He grabbed one of them with his mouth and pulled on them, only to feel them wrap tighter against his fins.
He opened his mouth again, forcing his eyes closed as something inside of his throat started to tremble while clicking sounds found their way out if his mouth. He snorted angrily and tuned his head towards the horizon.
Tiny shadows appeared and approached his direction. He focused his main eyes and frowned when he saw more of those men. This time, a huge group with strange metal things with wheels.
He got to his feet and decided to flee, maybe the best decision he could make after killing eleven of them. He ran through the fields, panting and looking desperately for a place he could hide until they passed him.
He noticed after a while of running that his claws left huge scratches and footsteps on the ground while those strange things on wheels got closer to him. He sniffed the air and headed towards the direction in which he could smell water.
He forced his legs to move even faster, his muscles burning, his tail dragging behind him on the stony ground. The sound of the things got louder and louder while he fought the urge to cover his ears and hold his head.
The wind rushed against his already dry skin as he started to lose the feeling of his fins. The thought of the black sun appeared in front of his eyes after he looked up to the sky. It was fear that controlled his moves as the thing approached him and forced him to jump into the chaos of wild waves of a huge river.
The thing stopped immediately while the men yelled after him as his body sank down into the water and got dragged by the flow.
He didn't open his eyes as he dove even deeper and pushing his claws into the ground in order to hold him in place. The sandy ground was quickly washed away from his claws while the water pressure weakened his body.
Carried away by the current, he bumped his head, legs, tail and back against rocks. He could feel his bones creaking from the pressure. He moved his legs to the side and turned his body to swim with the flow.
His tail wriggled behind him and pushed his wounded body forwards, the fins directing him around the stones and rocks to avoid new injuries. He opened his eyes and dodged the rocks, not able to see very well in the troubled water.
He never felt the feeling of flying through the air like a bird before. He never even imagined it. Not before he found himself falling down a cliff along with the water. Down was up, up was down and was followed by a painful landing on the water.
It shocked his whole body as he dove down near the bottom of the river. Most of his eyes were closed but he looked through his half opened main eyes and watched where the river was carrying him.
Luckily, the horrific trip was over and he could let the river carry him to a huge lake inside a green forest. Breathing became easy with water rushing in and out his lungs, even though the water wasn`t salty. It was the hatred disgusting sweet water.
After days of lying down on the ground of the sea in order to let his body heal without being seen, he felt hunger rushing through his body, causing his stomach to ache.
He rolled his eyes. Why couldn`t he sleep all the time like a lazy salamander taking a sunbath on a rock? Oh! Sunbathing is warming and comforting. After a nice tasty fish, a sunbath would be great, he thought to himself.
He moved his aching legs and pushed against the ground while letting his tail move on its own, pushing him towards the surface. He looked around and lifted his ears. Maybe he could feel or hear some sound waves through the water. His ears seemed to have finished their development he thought.
And indeed, he could feel and hear something close to his body. He moved his legs and hands to the left, his tail pushing his body to the right as he swan towards the source of the soundwaves. His mouth began to open in a huge smile after seeing the big fish.
It seemed to notice him as well and quickly changed its direction, swimming away from him. No problem for him. He caught up very quick and opened his mouth behind it wide while his tail continued pushing him forwards.
Small plants were caught in his mouth as he swam after the fish and finally grabbed it by its tail. He shook the fish into the water, leaving it stunned and opening his mouth to spit out the disgusting plants he bit a huge piece of the fish, tearing its smooth flesh apart, nearly choking in the process.
Because the fish was bigger than the other fishes that he usually ate, maybe three meters long, he needed a strategy to eat it fast. For some reason he had the urge to eat fast, maybe because of the fear of losing it.
He bit into the side of the fish and started to roll his body around its axis. He could tear huge pieces from the fish and swallow them down without choking.
It didn`t take long to finish the fish. He looked down at his stomach and stroked it. Satisfied he moved his legs and arms close to his body while pushing him forwards with his tail. He swam towards the middle of the lake.
There was a small shore with beautiful yellow sand. He used his still hurting legs to crawl onto the sand. He crawled out of the water and lay down his body on the ground, feeling the warmth of the sun on his cold stinging skin.
He exhaled water out of his nostrils in a satisfied sigh and stopped moving, trying not to think anymore. He tried to lay there, relaxing like an animal. Without worrying about things, without thinking and getting scared of what could happen in the future.
He only wanted to live for the moment after all he had been through.