Chapter 18 - The Death

Between screaming and shrieking about the Vesperil, Tula begged, "SIS! SIS! BLESSED KING! FLAX PLEASE FLAX FLAX! I'M SORRY PLEASE BE OKAY!"

I still wasn't used to the dim light so all I could see of the creature were antennas aimed forward like spears, a curved alien-like silhouette of a head with predatory jaws, and a sloping shape that should've stayed in nightmares. Two pairs of jagged wings draped around its back like a cape.

With how fast it struck Flax, my racing mind had to choose between fight or flight. Bending down, it gripped Flax's face and gnawed off her antennas. She quivered but mostly rocked like a lumpy, brown trash bag overflowing with spoiled milk. Tula vomited on my shoulder and whimpered.

Slowly, I started moving backward while still watching that monster, pressing Tula to move with me. She reached out plaintively for Flax, forcing me to press harder. Before I could decide whether to just leave her behind, it was like my ears popped.

A throbbing blast washed over us. It wasn't the noise of one helicopter, it was countless ones. One after another of those creatures dropped to the mud. And the screams. Behind me and all around I could hear them, voices like Flax's, voices like mother's and father's. We had to run.

Before I could tear Tula from the frantic hope she might be able to save her sister, a swooping mass sailed past us and drove a brutal leg into the face of the beast. A spray of clear liquid flew from the monster and decorated the wall like a wave against the shore. Before us stood Sana with her head down and a gaze sharper than diamonds.

"Get back home, now!" She screamed at us as the creatures converged on her. Dashing up the side of the wall, I watched in awe as she backflipped over the group and sliced one out of the air, using its squirming body as a dazed projectile. A mass of angry limbs fought to get upright as she crushed another jaw with a flurry of kicks.

Tula went as slack as an oversized teddy bear in my grip. She wasn't bleeding but it was like the last strings mentally holding her up had been cut. At least she didn't resist but she weighed a damn ton.

And Vesperil swarmed the passage behind us. I took a long breath through my body. A couple of weeks of life. At least they were good milk lights with mostly those I loved. Better than the last decade or so of my human life.

Right when I expected to watch my insides splatter like Flax's and my life slip away, I smelled something like fire. A wave of Vesperil blasted against the walls like a land mine had exploded. Charging through the opened path, with his head down and the intensity of flames in his eyes (to put Ghost Rider to shame), was my brother, Silt. Be afraid, monsters.

He coated the wall with shattered wings, like broken stained glass, and scooped us up. No words were exchanged between him and Sana, as she gnawed the face off one of those screaming beasts. Silt never attempted to race Anise and Lapis but his pace while carrying us would've left them spinning in the mud. He only slowed to trip and slice at an advancing Vesperil.

Eventually, Tula stopped being a dead weight and gripped me and Silt so hard I couldn't even squirm. The cave, our home, passed by as a blur as Silt sprinted for the food crease in the wall. Swiftly, dozens of legs worked to fill the opening with slimy, clinging suffocating mud. Mother desperately begged Ewan and Beryl to "hold your sounds as if the King depended on it". They still made frantic and confused mewling whimpers.

They were positioned at the front of the crease, pressed against each other. Citrine was right behind them, with Tula placed next, and me after her. Riva, shaking so hard, went in behind me at the end. Hysterically, mother wailed, "I can't find Anise and Lapis! Girls girls! Here, please now! PLEASE!"

Silt, heaving desperate breaths, assured her, "I'm sure they're safe. They can run." This didn't settle mother, as she stretched up and down and beat her antenna against the air. Silt and father finished covering us with dirt. For Ewan and Beryl, Silt resolutely declared, "You can do this." Father added, "Be strong, my boys."

They said much the same down the line until they got to me. Silt paused and touched me lightly on the cheek. "The few milk lights I've known you, precious little sister, have been the greatest of all my life." Father told me, "We will be back soon, little one. The Vesperil are weak in great numbers. Fear overwhelms them faster than any fear you feel right now. You are strong."

Silt echoed my words from Riva's last instar as he touched her, "You are stronger than me or any of us. You are amazing and caring. You can and will do this. We all know it. Be safe." Father just held her close and whispered soft words only for her. Then, they covered us up so tightly that the air only came as a trickle.

The whisper from Citrine was to treat this as an instar, with a muffled note of encouragement Silt soon covered up with extra mud. Our eyes just barely poked out of the dirt. Father checked from a distance and seemed confident that no one would notice us.

My vision was rooted in place, like a locked CCTV camera. Mother called us all her "precious little ones". With a waver of hope, she haltingly mused, "There's nothing to fear. The King holds all of us. The restful dusk will embrace us all together, as one, never lost, never searching or in pain."

King, God, whatever will listen. Why? I didn't feel as bad to see Flax gone as I would ever admit to anyone, but I never wished to see her suffer like that. Maybe even, if she could get over herself...it didn't matter. We were going to get through this together. An ominous rumble reached out from the nearby tunnel like a clawed hand. I worked towards holding my breath.

Sana tumbled into the room with a flick of white across the air. She staggered and pounded her legs into the nearest enemy. Silt jumped over her and a clear gusher with bits of wing splattered to the ground. Mother and father joined in. Hissing and screeching, mother beat her legs at anything coming her way. Father's nutmeg aroma connected to the next creature like a bare knuckle. He wasn't as fast or strong as Sana or Silt, but he landed every strike with unrelenting certainty.

All four of them fought hard but for every Vesperil they took down, two surged through the cave. Eventually, they were overwhelmed. I couldn't shut my eyes to hide...

"Hold."

The word echoed without being yelled, a clear and confident command. Each of the assaulting creatures paused in place. Instead of gnashing and tearing at my family, they used the combined force of their legs to hold them in place.

Into the room stepped a lanky creature of banded black and gold. My eyes, still adjusting and now struggling from mud and muck, could make out its form against the iridescent blur of all others. Its head cut an orderly, dark curve through the sea of creatures. Beside it stood another of the same coloration and shape but without the same presence.

As the two stepped through the army, one of the creatures flinched and gnashed at father with bloodlust in its biting jaws. With a flash of speed, the one who spoke rushed forward and snapped the head of its own Vesperil off with a single bite.

Wiping its mouth, the creature coldly repeated, "Hold." Not a single one of those horrific beasts made a single motion until the gold-and-black pair stopped at the center of the room.

"Bring them here."

Diligently, the blue-green monsters dragged over Sana, Silt, mother, and father. With the lesser golden one following in step behind, the one who spoke paced in front of my family.

It stopped before Sana, who struggled to stand, and tilted its head.

"You cost me several of my soldiers."

Sana spat at its feet and rasped, "Good."

Pressing legs together with a sound like a finger snap, the golden speaker gestured to Sana. One of the beasts came forward and, as I was forced to watch, jammed a stinger deep into Sana's head like a grotesque, horror-film hypodermic needle.

The others cried out, with Silt stretching against the swarm holding him down. Sana twitched violently for a moment before slumping her head. With a frail moan, Sana slurred, "mmaa....mmaaa....I jum...looka maa...ooo PEMBY NOOO PEMBY PEEZ DUN BIPE ME...mmaaa....pleeeeee..."

"Please! Don't torture my little one! Please, I beg of you!" Mother wailed and strained against the forces holding her down.

With slow, methodical steps, what I assumed was the leader bug loomed in front of mother. Mom. My real mom. What were you going to do to her?!

"Trust me when I say this isn't torture. I can torture. This is mercy. She won't feel a thing. Nor will any of you."

Snapping again, several stingers plunged into everyone else. Father tried to flail and fight while Silt seemed ready to heave the entire mass of bugs onto the leader. But, after several injections, the fight faded from their limbs and the light left their eyes. Silt dripped and murmured, "Prezzzous widdle sizz....widde siz...snuga time sweee seess sing meeh widdle sizzz..."

Mother just managed, "Widda wons widda wons....yur here...ah new...you jus waiting...wait fer maama...ehm here fer you....wait fer mama...." Beryl and Ewan did not handle that well. I could feel the wall vibrating with their distress but it wasn't enough to override their fear.

My mind couldn't even process several minutes ago when Flax sprayed open in front of me.

Father tensed and clenched to fight the injections but he too slumped on the ground, humming, "Inda rain loov inda rain tehther fer ver...love inda rain...ma love.."

With what strength he had left, he reached out a leg to mother. They held each other till the leader crunched their limbs with a violent strike. Though broken and oozing, they still held on to one another.

"Pathetic", the creature resolved. "Disgusting waste in a hole. But they should be serviceable hosts."

Turning them over, other beasts probed into their bodies and injected what I could only describe as xenomorph eggs into their abdomens. Their bodies swelled slightly and so did my throat with what I'd last eaten. Teams of those beasts dragged them away like complacent cattle. Everything inside me wanted to escape from this suffocating Hell, with my parents and my beloved elder siblings. It didn't matter the cost.

I was able to fight off that urge, but Beryl and Ewan couldn't. Tumbling end over end, the two of them pressed through their drying spot in the crease and fell to the ground with frantic screams for "Momma!"

Again, the leader kept the swarm of attackers at bay as it regarded the two of them. "Tricky little pests. Just when you think you've gotten all of them, more show up. Too small for hosts but these should do nicely on the Farm."

My poor brothers had their screams muffled with more injections. Citrine fussed and squirmed in place, desperately trying to draw over clumps of mud to cover the rest of us. But the jig was up, as the leader ordered, "Pull apart the walls."

I hadn't even thought about Riva at my side for all the terror and chaos I had to watch but her trembling had stilled. Through the gooey, grimy muck, her antenna touched me and a whisper reached through me, "...T-thank you, sister. For everything..."

Like a bullet from a gun, Riva launched not only her small, spinning body but a curtain of dirt in front of her.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" She screamed with a voice that echoed through the earth, as though with every sound she'd ever made in her little life, she saved a generous portion not for the King of Shashelm but for this one moment.

We all tumbled from the crease in the wall at her yell. Stones and pebbles above, made heavier with the recent rains, crumbled on top of the invaders. Some violently splattered and threw the whole, once-organized army into frantic chaos.

Riva's legs may have been small but she brought every single one of them across the leader's head. The subordinate golden one screeched, "MISTRESS BELLONA!" I hadn't been thinking but a startled gasp of air helped enough that I grabbed Citrine and Tula on each side and hurried through a momentary parting in the army.

Deadly boulders of mud crashed on all sides as the Vesperil swarmed. Through the chaos, somehow, I saw Riva sprinting so fast she was catching up to us. Whatever I had of a heart surged through me as I paused a step.

But, no longer high on its legs or trying to project a regal impression, the leader pursued her, bearing a wet slash across its face.

"RIVA! FASTER!"

Her little body frantically tried to catch up, straining and pushing. As she leaped, I did my best to catch her, even though she was so far away. I had to watch in horror as the leader buzzed its wings and clutched Riva in its grasp. With a violent, tearing grip of jaws and legs, it spread Riva across the walls. Her leg reached out to me for one desperate moment before her gaze relaxed and she mouthed, "I love you", for the last time.

There was nothing left behind for me, nothing left of my family, but those at my side. Fighting pain, sickness, and horror, I had to save what was left.

It was a sad truth that the others of Mudwell, each also fighting for their lives, provided the shield to get further from our pursuers. The colorless blood ran thick behind us. I had no idea if I was going the right way or what way was right. The lard-like smell of death filled everything.

Masses of Shashelm nearly bowled me over and I had trouble feeling my legs, but we kept running until the blinding glare of the hole scorched my eyes. It was daylight. What did it matter? Horrors behind us, horrors ahead. The Vesperil could be waiting with an even larger army of reinforcements at the crest. But we knew what was behind us. Scrambling over feet that didn't want to work anymore, I felt myself trip and tumble.

As I panted and fought to right myself, the leader landed across me, brandishing its stinger as it taunted, "Just another pathetic waste..."

To my right, I noticed I'd fallen by the green sweet I'd gotten when this all started. It was trampled but not torn. The leader adjusted itself, took a deep breath....and paused. It leaned back in surprise, as though noticing something it hadn't before. I had no clue what that was, but I didn't care. Stretching, I grabbed the leaf and used it like a shield to bash it and everything in my way. My sisters tripled the force and pushed the army down the slope.

Scrambling into the burning light, Citrine and Tula cowered beside me. Still not thinking through a plan, I knew just one thing: on the wind was death, so I set the wind at our backs and kept running.

The buzzing swelled to a crescendo seconds after we'd cleared the cave. Getting through the grasses felt impossible, especially with two sisters who'd only heard stories of the outside and my experience of mere minutes.

"Run run run right now gotta go fast flee faster now!" Lapis! Hopping through the tallest plants, I could just barely see her distressed features. Anise darted through the lower grasses nearby.

"Fleet feet fleet feet, just retreat!"

I desperately felt like I might have damaged or broken something, even if I didn't have bones to hold me together. My running couldn't stop though. It would endanger everyone else if I slowed down. Keep going.

Stony niches and little caves provided us a respite of darkness. Finally, silence. It wouldn’t last long. Tula urged out a harsh whisper beside me, "This is all your fault. You."

"Not now", I snapped in exasperation.

"Now! You doomed Flax. You hacked off my limbs...half of myself. We shared the same egg sleep! And now she's gone! Half of me is GONE!"

Quivering in the dark, Citrine moaned, "Riva....I saw Riva....did she make it?"

Tula spat and bumped me. "You killed Flax, you killed Riva, you killed mother and father, and Sana and Silt. YOU KILLED THEM ALL!"

Goddamn her! This was not the time and I told her as much. She didn't relent, "If you mean to kill us too, then now's the perfect time for this! Get out of here! GET OUT! You're our offering to the King because you didn't give one for that leaf!"

Citrine cowered in confusion about the leaf as Tula tried to shove me out the opening into the light. Anise breathlessly offered, "Stop and think, stop and think, I need a drink, we need a drink to think. Please!"

Tula refused, "I'm not staying here with her. The...precious little one who cursed us all. Curse-bringer! She went outside to get leaves and brought the Vesperil!"

Fighting against Tula's shoves, I staggered out into the open and braced myself. She wasn't done. Pushing me further away from the cave, she didn't relent until I was backed against a cliffside. Below, I could hear a roaring stream of water. On a human scale, it might've been a tiny creak but, as a Shashelm, it was terrifying. 

Her gaze as hard as the rocks around us, Tula stared me down. "Don't you dare come closer. You're not a Mudwell anymore. You're nothing. As the oldest left, so say I before the King and all."

The others only darted their heads out for an instant in the furious sunlight. I turned to try and take the path parallel to the river, but Tula freaked out that I was trying to approach her and shoved me again. An instant later, she realized the drop behind me, frantically crying out, "GRETE!"

Her desperate attempt to grab me was too late as I felt myself bash against the rocky hillside and tumble through the air. My head echoed with her pleas, "I'M SORRY!"

The waves and water crashed around me, swallowing me up. All words vanished; all sounds smothered. I sunk to the muddy deep. There, I could imagine that I'd finally had a dream, a feverish nightmare. I would wake to mother's attentive presence.

"Grete! My precious little one, whatever is the matter?" Her embrace and milky-motherly aroma enveloped my memory. Sana stood beside her, as cool and confident as strawberry horseradish. Silt barely-restrained embracing me to snuggle all the bad dreams away with flaming-hot cinnamon bubblegum. Father's smoldering nutmeg dashed away all dark thoughts and Riva's brilliant smile, wrapped in floral embraces of watermelon, assured me nothing would ever be wrong again.

Just stay here. Just let it all slip away. I'd done it before. It would be so easy again...

But my sorest leg caught on a stray branch in the current and nearly ripped off. Flailing, I crested the gurgling surface and dragged myself to the green, mossy shoreline. Silence, save for the roaring stream, filled my mind.

I was alone, completely alone.