Panik rushed through me as I scrambled to return to base. 

Could they see it? Did they have preparation? Were the Kids still out!?

I nearly tripped on darkness, letting out a curse towards myself while continuing to speed up. I started to shout as loud as possible, hoping someone might hear warnings.

“Get inside! Inside! GO!” my words were drenched in desperation. I was terrified. 

I couldn’t see that light anymore, nor the bugs, but those only worsened things, If I wasn’t able to see anything then neither could they. I got about halfway when I saw people standing by the foot of the apartment building, funnelling into its small doorway. A cockroach ran past me, not even giving me a moment of thought. I also ignored it and continued rushing towards the grounds. Hundreds of monsters were now running from the city, many of which were through our camp. They ignored everyone in the camp, either dodging or simply flying over. I mostly saw cockroaches, but I did manage to see a centipede and even a Giant rat in the fray. 

Finally reaching the fence, I vaulted over it and started skimming the surroundings, but couldn’t see anyone hurt, but I did notice how passage through the door had become packed and slow.  

The wave of monsters seemed to just end after only a few seconds. 

Everyone else was just as confused as me and a loud talking replaced the screaming. 

“Everyone, Continue Into The Building, Now,” John’s firm yell rang out as he ran past me, towards the gate with his giant hammer slung over his shoulder. 

With John's command, It hit me, the ants, I hadn’t seen any ants. 

Ants.

I span around to face the gait on the city’s side in time to see a black outline. My heart, after my hesitant celebration, sank further than before. An ant smashed through the gate.

A wave, 10-  20-  30, there were countless of them rushing over. I caught a glimpse of Eric and Alexander engaging with them. We were outnumbered completely. I was about to run and support them, but one rushed towards me. I jumped to the right, narrowly dodging it. It stopped itself and scuttered its six legs to face me. 

I continued to focus on it, glaring just above its black, segmented eyes while doing so. It lept, and so did I, 

Managing to gain height over it, I managed to stand over it. I grabbed onto its antenna, which pulled its head up. But nothing broke, and that manoeuvre yanked my shoulders. Letting go of it, I landed on the ground in a messy roll, directly into another bug. I managed to notice in time to redirect myself, as it bit in my previous direction. 

There were 5 around me, I was screwed. 

Trying to think of everything I could, I looked around at the others' fights and noticed how the bugs had no teamwork, and their movements seemed nearly mechanical, they were just running into people trying to bite. They couldn’t think?  Thinking of something, I stood staring at one of them egging it to sprint towards me. I then jumped to the left, where another was, but it was planned, and I only jumped half the distance, overly exaggerating my movements. But it was enough to trick the bug as it lept towards where it assumed I’d be, but crashed into the backside of the first bug instead. I reacted late, and the 3rd bug slashed my waist from behind, close to a previous gash. In one motion, with my left hand, I pulled my knife from my belt and arched my arm over backwards, while turning my waist. The knife landed directly in and through its eye with a squelch before it slumped to the ground, dead. But I had no time to breathe, as the 2nd bug had targeted me again, rushing forwards. Managing to escape its charge just sent me in front of another one, who immediately caught my right arm. Trying to push the pain from my mind, I twisted around to stab this one in the eye as well. But got shoved by another bug, and rag-dolled to the ground underneath the bug, who still had my arm.

Gargling, I twisted my arm unnaturally, and stabbed the underside of its neck, forcing it to release my arm. As it flailed around, I rolled to the side and rushed back to my feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a man with a shirt with white-red stripes, blue jeans and brown hair, running from an ant, and it was catching up. 

I couldn’t reach him, though it was close, the monsters surrounding me wouldn’t give me a second. But I could still see it as I manoeuvred around them. The ant was getting closer, very slowly, but surely, and the darkness wasn’t helping. Jumping to the side, I looked around to see if someone could help him, but there was nothing. There was nothing I could do. 

It caught up, biting his ribs, before letting go, letting him slump to the ground. Even among the screaming, his cry could be heard easily. But the thing brought its head towards him. Then It cut off. 

I felt horrible, in every way. I watched someone die.

In front of me. 

A slight bit faster and he could have-.

The world around me started to drown out. My focus on everything started to collapse. All the thrill disappeared. ‘Someone died. Obviously someone died, so many already people have. Fuck, I’ve seen dead children, what made this different. Why is this so much more… real?’ 

The fight in me was falling, but a cry from someone jolted me out of it. What good would it do for anyone if I died like this?

My vision refocused, and my movements returned to being deliberate. 

How do we stop this?

Fighting for my life while multitasking was far harder than I thought it would be, and slashes were already starting to multiply on my body. At least they’re not permanent. 

 

1 bug dead,2, by the 4th, I was starting to fall behind. The fact that I could keep up at all was a feat that could only be attributed to their seeming lack of thought and my ability to not die from heavy blood loss. From what I could see, a lot of people had been evacuated into the building, and all of us were edging our way to the entrance while fending off as much as we could. I noticed someone who wasn’t making their way back though.

Eric was standing in front of a bug whose brains were blown out. But he wasn’t wearing his hood, so I saw his entire face. White skin, completely white, red eyes, and most noticeable, long pointed ears. Something that surprised me more, as a bug ran towards him he mouthed a battle cry not loud enough for me to hear. And 2 large fangs protruded from his mouth. 

“A vampire?”, I muttered in confusion. But quickly moved my concentration back to the threat at hand. 

Finally reaching the entrance, I could get the gist of their formation. Created a semicircle around the door made of around 8 people, with 4 people on the inside. The people inside would replace those outside when they got heavily injured or exhausted, and the empty spaces would be filled by someone inside.

I took the place of one of the outer people holding off any bugs that came. Injuries continued to accumulate, adrenalin being the only reason I was able to continue. A flame started to run around, someone had somehow managed to light a bug on fire. In a sick way, the sight of it nearly made me laugh. My clothes, now in taters, had gained a sticky redness, from both my blood and theirs. Thank god no arteries had been opened, I had no idea how long I could keep this up as it is.

Then something caught my eye. The flaming bug had run off, giving off the light to its surroundings, and just out of the fencing, I saw the silhouettes of a group of ants surrounding a spider. A gargantuan one, probably standing at my height or even larger. And it was thrashing them, one of them comedically got kicked into the air, off into the darkness. An idea, an insane one, but if it worked, might end this hell. Swapping out with someone, I rushed to Dave, I needed a second opinion.

“I have an idea,” I said hurriedly, not wanting to waste time. 

“What,” Dave snapped, agitated.  

“Theirs an enormous spider out there, and I have that taming skill,” cutting out everything unnecessary. 

He moved his mouth a little and swallowed before questioning my idea, “But you don’t know how to?”

“Hence why I’m lost, should I go, or would I help more here than a chance out there?”

“I, I don’t, I don’t- Fuck,” He suddenly shouted, a crash of glass coming from a room down the hall. “The window!”. They had managed to lift themselves up and through the windows. I had assumed, as everyone else had, that they were too mindless to do that. But perhaps out of dumb luck, managed to prove us wrong.

“Just decide yourself!” Dave yelled stressed as he ran to enforce that area. 

My mind went blank, but I knew already what I was going to do. I pushed through the crowd by the entrance, to the front lines, and the second I saw a gap, I got through. Ignoring any reactions I might have been getting, I dashed past as many ants as possible but practically reached nowhere. But with a mountain of corpses rising and the bugs as cramped as they were, another dumb idea came up. I jumped onto a bug, narrowly missing its snapping mouth and managed to stand on its back. Before it reacted properly, I lept to the next one, and to the next one after. The stitching hurt, but what was worse, the hoard got thinner the further away I got. And at some point, the strategy no longer worked. Jumping off the last one, I sprinted in the direction the spider had been, into the black, hoping that it was still there. Dodging the feint outline bug on the right, I continued to sprint towards a goal I couldn’t see. Regret started to build from inside me, and how much of a shot in the dark

started to sink in. How was I going to get close? It had come into my vision, and though simply a silhouette, I saw how perspective had played tricks on me.

It was practically double my height. 

Nearly 4 meters!

While running towards it, I could at least appreciate how few ants there were around. Probably avoiding the spider. 

‘Ha, even the thoughtless have enough thought to avoid that thing’ 

It was terrifying, the sheer size of it. One of its 8 legs stopped down, on the head of an ant running past, smashing it into the ground before piercing through it. 

Then after a second, it jumped away from me, moving all four of its stickish legs. Though seeing its full form was hard, its eyes were bright crimson. I was pretty sure they were literally glowing. A solid lump formed in my throat, and my arms started going stiff. It was more imposing than anything I had seen, and honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it was literally increasing the gravity around it. 

“I’m an idiot,” I muttered, slowing to a stop 15 meters away

How do I tackle this? What should I do to get close? Do I need to get close?

I was only drawing blanks. Even the questions stopped coming after a point. 

The arachnid was just standing there, or at least it looked like that.

I should go, I should.

Breathing out, I ignored my fears. In comparison to that thing, I couldn’t help much back there. And hell, could I even run away if I wanted to?

Adjusting my stance, I moved slightly back, then launched myself into a sprint. I had energy, so much of it. The pain was shoved out of my mind and replaced with a growing sense of anticipation, but somehow wasn’t as bad as with the centipede.

I had barely started when it moved. 

leaping. 

3 seconds.

That's all it took for it to reach me. One jump. 

It landed and flung its front leg towards me. My body moved, but I couldn’t teleport. The leg stabbed down and got my extended right leg behind me, slicing through skin fat and muscle. 

But It was right. I didn’t plan for it in the slightest, but this was good for me. 

A feeling came to my mind, like a probe in my brain. If I was to describe it, it was like a button in my head and gate full of something, and a door, a heavy door.

The skill, Though I hadn’t used it, I knew that's what it was. 

And I pressed the metaphorical button.