Chapter Three

Part Two: Disaster 

 With everyone rushing on the dirt roads of the Enclosure, all the kicked up dust created a horizontal blur. Several Abyssus Units stood outside shouting. Some were attempting to evacuate every person, within the barracks, into a warehouse. While others units prepared giant cannons to aim at the targeted living quarters. Maze trudged through the Enclosure while covering his eyes, from all of the dust. He walked up to Dahlis Aerodos, as he stood, silently observing. 

“Intrinsic Sir,” Maze stood at attention and saluted. “The Rift Site is 95 percent complete with 3 minutes remaining. I have also issued an evacuation.” Informed Maze to his superior.

The Intrinsic adjusted his hat upon his golden hair. And glanced at Maze. “ I see that…I don’t recall giving you the order to issue an evacuation.” Dahlis casually reached into his pocket, and pulled out a plasma pistol. Without hesitation he shot Maze in the left leg.

“NGHAAAA!!” Cried out Maze as he collapsed onto the dirt ground. Maze almost blackout for the burning pain. He gripped his leg as his flesh melted off of the bone. 

Dahlis looked down at the Abyssus Unit with a face of absolute disdain and spat on him, as he winced in pain. 

“Evacuation? Sounds like a waste of time to me, 392-I. No one gives a damn if these pigs die or not as long as the Abyssiti is subdued.” 

  Maze, now crippled, stayed on the ground and suffered in silence. He looked down to see his now exposed bone and smoldering flesh. No matter if he did what he was told, or followed his heart, he felt as if the results would have been the same. He found himself stuck. Dahlis was about to say something else, but he was interrupted by a sudden temperature change. The time was up.

 The area around the rift site began to heat up as if they all found themselves in a furnace. A rip in space and time began to form within the housing building, loud crackling filled the air as it tore through the living quarters. The rift turned the steel it touched into vapor in an instant. A blast of energy flew from the rip launching countless people nearby into the air or into adjacent buildings, killing them. Others didn’t have anything to catch their fall, on their way down, and fell to their deaths. Dart, Quill and Fives were quite a distance away from the Site, but they could still hear and see the utter chaos behind them. 

The Abyssus units readied their weapons and hopped into their cannons to aim them at the rift. No one knew when the monstrosity would come through, but just the rift alone has caused countless lives to be lost already. It fell silent. So silent it was eerie, with the only noise being the radiating hum from the portal. Then without warning they all heard the loudest screech any of them have ever heard. It sounded as if someone was dragging a plane across a sea of blades. It echoed from the other side of the rift. It broke the spirits of everyone who heard. The Abyssiti were coming. 

Not a moment later, from the rift , an apparition made from glitchy shifting matter came into view. It’s body seemed as if it was phasing in and out of reality itself. It used its long arms to crawl out of its portal. It appeared to be hunched over, and had a neck that was slightly elongated forward. From a distance all Dart could see was a towering black blur standing against the horizon, but she couldn’t look away from it. Everyone who could see this being, was frozen in fear. 

“IT'S AN A-CLASS ABYSSITI. FIRE ALL WEAPONS! AT ONCE!” shouted one of the Abyssus units finally, and with that command the Abyssus squad fired everything they had at the entity.

  However they were no match. The single Abyssiti began reaching towards the Cannons firing at it at breakneck speeds. Within a blink of an eye it was ripping people out of their cannons and crushing them like grapes. The blood and guts of the fallen rained down on the site.  Somehow the creature was able to remove the people without damaging the machinery they were piloting. The Abyssus Units were going down fast. Soon the dirt roads were lathered in red. The Abyssiti began walking, crushing anyone under foot as the soldiers attempted to fire their guns at it. 

Maze, still on the ground, listened to the carnage around him. The screams of agony of his teammates in the background was unbearable. Each miserable cry out he heard, he could tell who it was. He almost felt like his heart was going to pound out of his chest at any moment. 

“No! Ngh, shit- shit!” He panted as he attempted to get up. A sharp pain shot up his leg dropping him back down into the dirt. “Gah! I...Tch what the hell. M-My squad.” 

Then all of the sudden he felt the air around him get heavy, as if the atmosphere around him turned into a murky liquid. He gathered all the courage in his body to turn his head, to see the Abyssiti was coming his way. Two members of his squad, armed with the Hook weapons, leaped off the top of a nearby building to confront the creature. It seemed to pay them no mind as it persisted forward. 

“Back away from our Captain!” Growled one of them while preparing for a strike. 

But just like before, within a blink of an eye the Abyssiti crushed the two like insects, their entrails splattered on the surroundings. As their mangled bodies hit the ground, Maze could hear a blood curdling scream, then he realized it was him. His eyes were going blurry with tears. The Abyssiti smeared his lifeless allies as it approached him. Completely mortified, Maze tried his damnedest to crawl away to safety, dragging his injured left leg and clawing away at the dirt. To no avail. 

  The Rift Site in the Enclosure was a bloodbath. Majority of the Abyssus units were reduced to nothing but a smear on the ground. More screeches of the Abyssiti filled the air. A pair of Abyssiti exited the rift. It wasn’t ending with just one. One of the entities was bipedal like the first one, however the other one floated. Almost unaffected by gravity. It was an abomination that looked like clustered tentacles, they began to shred and tear any human that was within reach as they moved in the direction of those who were fleeing. Which was towards the warehouse, where evacuation was underway. 

  Dart turned to her team. Other units were running past them kicking up huge dust clouds. Quill was almost completely zoned out. Dart had no intention of dying today.

“Guys! We need to make a break for it now!” She declared with a shaky voice. She was having difficulty swallowing.

Fives was speechless.” I- I thought they could- they we’re supposed to-“ He stared with wide eyes. He was absolutely petrified. 

Dart grabbed him by his shoulders and tried to shake him back into reality. “FIVES! Get it together! Hurry and run to the warehouse! Those things are headed this way!” 

Fives looked into Dart’s eyes. The usual daggers in her gaze had faded. He’s very rarely seen that expression on her face. It was a look of desperation and distress. He collected himself. “R-Right.. Right!” 

Fives made a run for the Warehouse, down the path. He ran without looking back. Dart briefly watched him leave and sighed a sigh of relief. She then turned to grab Quill, but was instead treated with a grim sight. 

Quill was staring directly at one of the Abyssiti looming over her and Dart. The Semi-solid, shadowy, humanoid creature crackled in the deafening silence. Dart could feel as if her heart dropped into her stomach. As though someone took a knife and was twisting it inside of her, she began to feel light headed. Quill looked vacantly into death. Her turquoise eyes seemed devoid of color, like she was in a trance. 

“QUILLLLLLL!” She Shouted, straining her voice as she flashed to grab her hand. Everything from this point seemed to go by in a blur.

Before Dart knew it she could feel something slamming into her at full force, like she had been hit by a truck. She shut her eyes out of instinct. She didn’t want to see her own blood, and not a fiber in her being wanted to witness her friend die. However, Dart didn’t feel like she was dying despite her initial thought. She opened one of her eyes cautiously, and to her surprise she found herself in the arms of a guy. Dart couldn’t get a good look at him but all she could see was his dark green hair. She looked over at his other arm to see Quill, intact as well.  

“That feeling of being hit, must've been someone leaping in and snatching us both from danger”, she thought to herself. 

After narrowly avoiding one of its swipes the guy landed out of the range of the Abyssiti. He dropped both of the girls upon landing and tumbled through the dirt. When Dart hit the ground her ears began to ring and everything started to fade and turn dark. 

“Hey...hey! Wake up!” Dart could ever so slightly hear someone’s voice snapping at her. But it was all muffled. “Hey! Come on.” It was a man’s voice. 

  The screeches of the Abyssiti still echoed in the background, followed by the screams of the damned.

With a sharp inhale Dart jolted upright. She didn’t know how long she was out, but her head was spinning. When she came to, Dart looked around. She saw Quill laying on the ground next to her in one piece, which made Dart feel a million times better. Then she looked over at the man who saved them. He had the outfit of Abyssus Units, with short, straight dark green hair styled with an undercut. He turned around and faced Dart when she awoke. He had a disinterested look on his face.

“There we go. Now you’re awake, get up. Take your unconscious friend here, and get her to that damn warehouse.” Ordered the guy as he glared at her. He had piercing eyes. It was Crest.

Dart paused, but it didn’t take her long to realize who it was. “ It’s...you. The last survivor.” She remembered seeing him pass by, Fives and Quill were pestering him. “Thank you for saving us-”

“Save it.” Crest scoffed, and began walking away, back towards the Abyssiti Rift, “I said get up. I didn’t save you just for you to stand around and wait to die again.” He ended as he leaped onto a rooftop and climbed over.

Dart sat in awe as he left, but not for long. She had to compose herself. She got up out of the dirt and picked up her unconscious friend. Dart placed Quill on her back to carry her to safety. She almost buckled under the weight, but she collected herself and took her first step.

Dart grunted and strained as she made her way to the warehouse. “Mgnh-I have...to make it… to Fives.”