The Ship By wesley Massey
His awakening was sudden. Had it only been a moment before, when he was drunkenly wandering to who knows where, thinking who knows what? Or had that been weeks ago? Now, he was encased by a strange, green, liquid which somehow granted him the ability to breath in it. Now, he was lost. This can’t be real! This can’t be happening to me! He tried his best to push back against the low viscosity of the substance. It was dense, but not quite jelly-like. It was thick and only barely translucent, providing a murky window into the outside of his container. I need to get out! I need to! Though he didn’t know why. His prison sprouted tubes from the top and bottom, attaching themselves to his head, floating in limbo. Wallace tried to scream, to look around, to bang on the glass and rip the tubes from the back of his head, where they’d nested themselves, but his attempts were all in vain. Wallace Cotard was alone, trapped in an foreign container, surrounded by a strange substance flowing about him, powerless to prevent what might happen to him next.
Wallace had never been a religious man, despite his catholic upbringing. Yet, his first reaction was to plead with God. He was unable to shed a tear for some reason, unable to let himself embrace his fate and cry himself back to sleep. Please God. I’m so sorry God. However I may have offended you, I swear it was unintentional. If any god heard him, they gave no sign. Please, I’ll fix what I’ve done to wrong you, I’ll become a religious man, I will. I’ll serve you and never sin. I’ll be a man of God — watch me. Just please give me a second chance to prove myself.
After pleading for what must’ve been an hour, Wallace’s panic increased exponentially. His mind began to race to whatever options he had. He pressed his face against the glass of his container without a moment’s hesitation. The view was nothing he could place his finger on, only eyeing a darkened room, with walls that appeared bare, except for the occasional protruding wire poking out. A government lab. It has to be. Dear Lord, they’re going to experiments on me. Open me up and stuff their chemicals in my corpse to see what makes me tick. His gut reactions were often wrong of course, Wallace usually looked back on his knee jerk responses to certain situations as mindlessly idiotic. In the moment though, He could only assume the worst of this strange place. Only after looking for a few minutes, was he able to notice a corridor, farther down the room. A single light, brightened the hall, it appeared green though so did everything else through the liquid surrounding him.
A bone chilling scream, akin to nails on a chalkboard, pierced through the far hall and into Wallace’s ears. He shuddered and squirmed farther back into the pod, clenching his head. His legs and arms curled up, turning him back into a scared child afraid of the bump in the dark. The crashing thunder booming behind his eyes raged, as the scream passed through his ears. When the screeching slowly faded and died out, it took an obnoxious amount of willpower to remain awake. He halfheartedly peeked around to where the hall was and saw a shadow moving towards him. Immediately, he tried to swim back against the liquid, pushing his back to the far end of the container to try and hide from whatever was coming for him. But it was no use. He was a babe amidst the ocean waves and the current was pushing him forward.
The shadow had blocked out the only light source flickering faintly in the hall. It was a terrestrial body eclipsing his sun. No! Please! I didn’t ask for this! I never — I never meant to hurt anyone! I’m sorry. I’m — the monstrous form stomped into the room he was being held in. Wallace did the only thing he could think to do and played dead. His body went limp and he allowed the current of the liquid to carry him. He chose not to look at whatever was in the same room as him, deciding that what he couldn’t see couldn’t hurt him, like a child hiding from a ghost beneath their blankets. Only his ghost was now, very real.
This is just a dream, it has to be. That’s it. I’m just dreaming, if I open my eyes again I’ll be back in my apartment, away from this nightmare. But all Wallace saw was a ghastly figure strolling around the room. Whether or not it saw him, he couldn’t say. His eyes slammed shut and his head jerked back around, as he bit back a scream that wouldn’t have travelled far anyway. Wallace felt aware of every breath he took, every unnatural move he made and every twitch of his eye.
The shadow wasn’t making any sound, at least none that Wallace could hear. Maybe it left. It might’ve just stumbled into the wrong room. But at this point the prisoner dare not check for monsters under his bed. Instead, he floated, a lifeless husk amongst a sea of waste. The more he allowed himself to float motionlessly, the more he became aware of the tube stuck in his head. It didn’t hurt him, it simply wouldn’t have been noticeable if Wallace hadn’t been trashing about earlier and felt it pull slightly. They’re probably harvesting me, draining me of my blood. Or worse, pumping poison or some sort of mind control fluid into me. But who is they? It was easy to assume some shady government had abducted him, but what little glimpses Wallace had caught of his captor didn’t come across as a human.
The captor must’ve been at least six feet tall, but it had appeared to be incredibly large in a weight sense as well. There was no way a human could carry itself on as much weight as his captor appeared to have. I just need to get one more glimpse at it, just to check and make sure that it couldn’t possibly be human. Wallace’s eyes sprung open for a mere second to check, but found nothing but the dark room, before he slammed his eyes shut once more. Nothing. He grumbled in his head. Where did it—
In a matter of a second, he was unconscious.
What happened next, Wallace could only remember flashes of. He would fade in and out of consciousness and wake to large rusty tubing lined the halls, occasionally spewing out steam, lights flashing and flickering and a large figure bringing him down a hall on cold metallic board. His thoughts weren’t of conscious, just mindless babble and a series of random images flashing in and out of his mind. They’d very from a battleship to a printer. The only thing he was able to think to himself was why… why would.... No… why...would anybody….
Finally, his eyes pried themselves open and unsurprisingly, he found himself alone in another dark room, only this time he was laid upon a flat surface. I was tired of that green stuff anyway. A glance quick around the room, (despite the darkness) told him that there wasn’t anyone or anything with him. He was alone.
His first instinct was to sit up, but his limbs were limp and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move his body. It was as if a giant weight dispersed its force along Wallace’s body. He laid there, struggling for a while, panicking knowing that whatever brought him here, was going to come back. And it did. It took what only could’ve been ten minutes or less for the lumbering six foot tall beast to come back. Wallace played dead as he heard the footsteps growing ever louder. BOOM! BOOM! There was a distinct humming sound in the room which seemed to have always existed and planned to continue existing forever. The power of the footsteps completely overpowered the pathetic humming noise, pounding it into insignificance with every step. Soon, Wallace could tell it was in the room from how the footsteps echoed off the walls and he completely tensed every muscle in his body. Even in making his best effort to subside his petrified fear, Wallace couldn’t loosen up and he knew that if the creature noticed him, it would see him awake. He heard it mumbling or possibly grinding its teeth together (if it even had teeth) and Wallace felt ready to burst into tears out of sheer terror. A trickle of sweat rolled down his head, making he curse mentally. That was only the first, in a long line of sweat droplet and internal curse successors. He lost track of time rather quickly, but could hear the big thing screech and grumble and what sounded like it smashing some machinery. Nothing that big should ever be able to make that much sound at such a high pitch. He decided. His thoughts were clouded with the looming presence of the creature, as it would most likely be for all individuals.
Then, his hand began shaking and he cursed that as well. All it took was one tap against the board and Wallace heard the grumbles emanating from the creature begin the stifle. As the creature’s steps grew ever closer, Wallace began to silently weep, accepting his fate. BOOM! BOOM! He had lived a long life and now it was time for it to end. When he knew the creature was right beside him, his head subtly flinched back, as if preparing to be hit. The creature’s footsteps only started growing softer and softer and softer. And the crashing of its feet soon faded away and the hum returned. His eyes reluctantly drew open and as soon as the creature had walked over to him, it had departed down the closest corridor. That made a chuckle slip out as well as some tears.
Then, he eyed a strange small device placed by the creature directly by his head on the flat board. He must’ve not noticed him place it down in all his frantic thoughts. It couldn’t have been larger than his index finger, but Wallace wanted any possible defence he was able to get. It was a syringe shaped device, but with a pointy end that could hopefully act as a dagger. His teeth grabbed at it and his tongue pushed it over to reveal its other side. An inscription was cut into it, revealing some foreign language with symbols Wallace had never seen the likes of before. His mouth dropped it by his hand, which caught it limply, before it could fall to the floor. His hand, in an attempt to grasp the hilt, stabbed himself with the edge. He winced in pain as the syringe-like blade cut into his skin and automatically injected him with a foreign virus. No. Why? How could I-
He seized with pain. The virus was probably lacing his veins with poison, soon he’d be frothing from the mouth or bleeding from all pores. All of a sudden, he lurched off the flat board onto the floor, regaining his strength in his limbs. He rolled over his hand and flung the syringe out of it slamming it against the far side of a wall without thinking of the noise it would make.
Springing to his feet, he ran out of the room, into the hall, gasping for breath. His bare feet slammed against the cold harsh metal flooring of the halls. He stirred up all kinds of noise, but his main concern was ultimately to get out of wherever here was. He turned through so many hallways, he couldn’t tell you where he started. He glanced through a doorway here and there, to check if any more of those creatures would see him. Most of the rooms were dark, not appearing to contain anyone or anything, though Wallace would be amiss if he said he checked everyone. It never crossed his mind that there may be other containers strung about encasing other people until he stumbled onto them. This room was more well lit than the one he was kept in and contained multiple pods filled with people. They were mostly older men and women, with the occasional child thrown in there. However, they were all asleep, completely unaware to the environment that encompased them. He took the time to stare at them, wondering why anyone would need so many old people.
Then, a thunderous crash came from behind him overtaking the humming noise, causing him to whip around and see a large shadow looming in the corridor. Wallace hid behind a pod and curled up into a ball to hide from the aggressor. Luckily, he didn’t stick around long and continued his march away from pod room. Cotard rushed out as soon as the stomping was overshadowed by the humming. Gliding aimlessly along to where the corridor would take him.
Wherever he’d go, the humming would follow, along with the rusty tubes and metallic coat lining the walls and ceiling. The lighting was scarce, leaving Wallace’s imagination to fill in the blanks of what lied in certain halls and rooms. The halls would twist, turn, descend, ascend and loop back around to the point where Wallace thought he was running a maze. He was being played for a fool, a lowly puppet, only believing it was a free to dance on its own, but in actuality he wasn’t in charge.
He stopped at a small crevasse in the hall and leaned into it, trying his best to think of any architecture books he might’ve read. Maybe, there was some sort of common rule that architects needed to design their buildings after to let someone escape… or for the building not to collapse. But who was he kidding? Even if there he had read often, even if he had read architecture books and there was such a common escape plan designed into man made buildings, he wasn’t in a building made by man, at all. He grasped the sides of his head in an effort to think of anything he could do. Was he truly powerless and alone to the mercy of these creatures? I can’t be. I’ve been powerless too long. Too long to accomplish my own dreams, but what were his dreams? Why did he have to get out of this strange place? What other reason would he have to survive besides his base animal instincts? I’m more than an animal, I’m a person. It sounded less convincing than he wished. He’d been telling himself for a while that he needed to get out, to accomplish what he’s always wanted to do, but never had the chance. Could it be that he was lying to himself, to cling on to something, anything at all. It couldn’t be true. No. no. I can’t be useless. I have to be worth something. Anything at all. I’m more important than a cog in a machine, I’m not just another identical, part, serving someone else’s greater purpose! Deep within his mind, he scoured for a reason to prove to himself that he shouldn’t just die here… but nothing came to mind. As the thought came and refused to leave, it was dragged away by a purple glow that peeped up against the wall. There was another door, slightly open across from him, allowing for light to escape, if only a little. Runes and glyphs, carved along the edges, made for an entrancing view of the door. Without thinking, he stepped in.
The room was mostly like the others. Filled with rusty pipes, shooting out smoke and steam and of course it had a metal finish. Only, in the room’s center, blossomed a magnificent piece of machinery that was entirely alien to Wallace. Purple lights, glistened from cracks in the machine, providing touches of purple dotted throughout the room. He was drawn to it. Carrying himself towards the machine, like a leaf in the breeze. What is this...
A snarl suddenly snapped him back to reality. The claws of a smaller, thinner creature sunk into Wallace’s arm. He screamed and fell back towards the machine rooted in the room’s center. The thin creature lunged again at him and narrowly missed his stomach. Had he clawed it, parts of Wallace would’ve spilt onto the floor. Wallace stumbled backwards, grasping a bit of the machine where a crack protruded and purple seeped through, like sap leaking out of a tree. The beast reached for his arm to tear it off, with a long slender appendage. At the last moment, Wallace pulled back for the beast to slam with grip into the crack. Without thinking, Wallace punched it without even reeling back. It screeched at him and unhinged a jagged jaw to bite take a bite. He slashed his arm out of the way of its saliva, tusks sticking out of its nose and barbed teeth. He reeled back this time and punched him square in the nose between his tusks, before it was able to riggle free of the machine’s mits.
The creature tore out a chunk of the machine, freeing his limb and causing the device to wail and flung it at his head. It followed it up by jumping at Wallace, aiming its claws for his throat. Lucky for him, it had to settle for grabbing his shoulders as it knocked Wallace to the ground, with it on top. It brought back its claws to slice through his throat, but wound up with a mawfull of the bit of machine he through at Wallace’s head. It scrapped its head crudely, forcing the beast off him and onto the ground beside him. Wallace rolled away, got to his feet and stumbled back behind the machine as the beast screeched. He watched it fumble to its knees, stare directly at him, turn away and clench its head while the machine bellowed. He assumed it was the smash to the head that had gotten him at first, but after staring at the creature for a while he realized something about it that almost made him laugh.
It was lanky. A thin sheet of skin, crudely spread out across thin bones, strung together. It seems as if pulling one piece out of place would cause the whole thing to fall apart. That wasn’t all. It was blind too. He never saw its eyes and it would explain its sensitivity towards the machine’s noises echoing back and forth in the room, passing through his skull every time. That’s when Wallace noticed its holes on the sides of its head, surrounded by a conical ear canal that Wallace had smashed in with a chunk of metal. The creature was wallowing in misery, but Wallace Cotard had to suck in his laughter.
He jingled loose a piece of machinery with sharp edges and cautious crept over to the monster. It flailed its long limbs about in a fit of rage, slashing at the air with its horrifying talens the size of daggers. Wallace didn’t want to be at the receiving end of that. So he study its swipes and waited for the most opportune moment to slice its throat open. One swipe. Two swipes. Back to one swipe. He clenched the pointed tubing in his grasp, waiting as it wailed. One bite. Two swipes. Back to one swipe. He grinned, flipped his makeshift weapon in his hand and lurched for the scrawny neck.
Despite the booming of the machine masking his sound, the beast heard him coming. It slashed and snapped at him, but he swatted his head away with his weapon. The creature’s arms however, aimed for his legs and knocked him clean off his feet. Before he fell, he slashed at the monster’s throat, only cutting some loose skin hanging from an otherwise sunken chest. It didn’t seem to feel it. It dropped down on top of Wallace, presumably to repeat the last time, only now Wallace stabbed it directly through its claw. As it pulled back, he lost his weapon, embedded in the creature. Wallace pushed with all his force, onto the creature, elbow first. His skin was torn on the best’s tusks. He didn’t seem to feel it.
He ripped the weapon from its talon and pinned down the other talen with his knee. His limbs were long and could move fast, but they were thin and lacked muscle, so Wallace’s knee had no trouble breaking its bone. He would’ve stabbed his eye out if it weren’t for what remained of the beat’s other claw, which caught him across the face, sending him rolling. He felt the hot blood pooling down his face as both fighters scrambled to their feet. Cotard gasped for air and the creature grumbled. It was a different grumble from the creature that stomped loudly, but an aggravated grumble nonetheless.
They slashed at each other some more, Wallace with his sharp metal bit and the strange creature with its curled claws and mangled jaw and tusks. But as the slashes became more lazy from him, the creature began to pick up speed again. Often missing, but still dangerous. Wallace needed a plan and fast. He charged back to the machinery as loudly as possible to guide the monster towards him. It charged faster than he had anticipated, making a quick attempt at gutting him, but he wasn’t going to allow that, not after everything he’s been through.
Wallace leaned up against the bulb shaped machine in the center of the room, where the sound was the strongest. The beast tiredly took the bait and slashed his hand back into the machine and got it stuck, spilling purple light onto both of their faces. Without a moment's hesitation, Wallace brought the sharp end of his weapon down on the beast’s head, piercing it through the machinery and sending one last schriek out from the beast’s maw.
Wallace sat back, shaken. I did it. He laughed hysterically. Then, the machine began to rumble violently. The lights flashed from purple to orange to red and Wallace ran. He charged into the hallway before seeing waves of larger creatures stomping in from both ends. BOOM! BOOM! He raised his hands, as if to say he surrendered, before the machine exploded.
It sent a chain effect throughout the rest of building. Although, it wasn’t a building. It was only then, that Wallace saw that he was falling from the sky. Fitting, he thought. I’ve always wanted to fly. He was trapped in a spaceship, flying above the ground, only now it was exploding and only now was he falling towards the ground.
He began to laugh, not knowing why at first. But then he realized something. His back and head hadn’t been hurting him, this entire time.
Wallace had never been a religious man, despite his catholic upbringing. Yet, his first reaction was to plead with God. He was unable to shed a tear for some reason, unable to let himself embrace his fate and cry himself back to sleep. Please God. I’m so sorry God. However I may have offended you, I swear it was unintentional. If any god heard him, they gave no sign. Please, I’ll fix what I’ve done to wrong you, I’ll become a religious man, I will. I’ll serve you and never sin. I’ll be a man of God — watch me. Just please give me a second chance to prove myself.
After pleading for what must’ve been an hour, Wallace’s panic increased exponentially. His mind began to race to whatever options he had. He pressed his face against the glass of his container without a moment’s hesitation. The view was nothing he could place his finger on, only eyeing a darkened room, with walls that appeared bare, except for the occasional protruding wire poking out. A government lab. It has to be. Dear Lord, they’re going to experiments on me. Open me up and stuff their chemicals in my corpse to see what makes me tick. His gut reactions were often wrong of course, Wallace usually looked back on his knee jerk responses to certain situations as mindlessly idiotic. In the moment though, He could only assume the worst of this strange place. Only after looking for a few minutes, was he able to notice a corridor, farther down the room. A single light, brightened the hall, it appeared green though so did everything else through the liquid surrounding him.
A bone chilling scream, akin to nails on a chalkboard, pierced through the far hall and into Wallace’s ears. He shuddered and squirmed farther back into the pod, clenching his head. His legs and arms curled up, turning him back into a scared child afraid of the bump in the dark. The crashing thunder booming behind his eyes raged, as the scream passed through his ears. When the screeching slowly faded and died out, it took an obnoxious amount of willpower to remain awake. He halfheartedly peeked around to where the hall was and saw a shadow moving towards him. Immediately, he tried to swim back against the liquid, pushing his back to the far end of the container to try and hide from whatever was coming for him. But it was no use. He was a babe amidst the ocean waves and the current was pushing him forward.
The shadow had blocked out the only light source flickering faintly in the hall. It was a terrestrial body eclipsing his sun. No! Please! I didn’t ask for this! I never — I never meant to hurt anyone! I’m sorry. I’m — the monstrous form stomped into the room he was being held in. Wallace did the only thing he could think to do and played dead. His body went limp and he allowed the current of the liquid to carry him. He chose not to look at whatever was in the same room as him, deciding that what he couldn’t see couldn’t hurt him, like a child hiding from a ghost beneath their blankets. Only his ghost was now, very real.
This is just a dream, it has to be. That’s it. I’m just dreaming, if I open my eyes again I’ll be back in my apartment, away from this nightmare. But all Wallace saw was a ghastly figure strolling around the room. Whether or not it saw him, he couldn’t say. His eyes slammed shut and his head jerked back around, as he bit back a scream that wouldn’t have travelled far anyway. Wallace felt aware of every breath he took, every unnatural move he made and every twitch of his eye.
The shadow wasn’t making any sound, at least none that Wallace could hear. Maybe it left. It might’ve just stumbled into the wrong room. But at this point the prisoner dare not check for monsters under his bed. Instead, he floated, a lifeless husk amongst a sea of waste. The more he allowed himself to float motionlessly, the more he became aware of the tube stuck in his head. It didn’t hurt him, it simply wouldn’t have been noticeable if Wallace hadn’t been trashing about earlier and felt it pull slightly. They’re probably harvesting me, draining me of my blood. Or worse, pumping poison or some sort of mind control fluid into me. But who is they? It was easy to assume some shady government had abducted him, but what little glimpses Wallace had caught of his captor didn’t come across as a human.
The captor must’ve been at least six feet tall, but it had appeared to be incredibly large in a weight sense as well. There was no way a human could carry itself on as much weight as his captor appeared to have. I just need to get one more glimpse at it, just to check and make sure that it couldn’t possibly be human. Wallace’s eyes sprung open for a mere second to check, but found nothing but the dark room, before he slammed his eyes shut once more. Nothing. He grumbled in his head. Where did it—
In a matter of a second, he was unconscious.
What happened next, Wallace could only remember flashes of. He would fade in and out of consciousness and wake to large rusty tubing lined the halls, occasionally spewing out steam, lights flashing and flickering and a large figure bringing him down a hall on cold metallic board. His thoughts weren’t of conscious, just mindless babble and a series of random images flashing in and out of his mind. They’d very from a battleship to a printer. The only thing he was able to think to himself was why… why would.... No… why...would anybody….
Finally, his eyes pried themselves open and unsurprisingly, he found himself alone in another dark room, only this time he was laid upon a flat surface. I was tired of that green stuff anyway. A glance quick around the room, (despite the darkness) told him that there wasn’t anyone or anything with him. He was alone.
His first instinct was to sit up, but his limbs were limp and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move his body. It was as if a giant weight dispersed its force along Wallace’s body. He laid there, struggling for a while, panicking knowing that whatever brought him here, was going to come back. And it did. It took what only could’ve been ten minutes or less for the lumbering six foot tall beast to come back. Wallace played dead as he heard the footsteps growing ever louder. BOOM! BOOM! There was a distinct humming sound in the room which seemed to have always existed and planned to continue existing forever. The power of the footsteps completely overpowered the pathetic humming noise, pounding it into insignificance with every step. Soon, Wallace could tell it was in the room from how the footsteps echoed off the walls and he completely tensed every muscle in his body. Even in making his best effort to subside his petrified fear, Wallace couldn’t loosen up and he knew that if the creature noticed him, it would see him awake. He heard it mumbling or possibly grinding its teeth together (if it even had teeth) and Wallace felt ready to burst into tears out of sheer terror. A trickle of sweat rolled down his head, making he curse mentally. That was only the first, in a long line of sweat droplet and internal curse successors. He lost track of time rather quickly, but could hear the big thing screech and grumble and what sounded like it smashing some machinery. Nothing that big should ever be able to make that much sound at such a high pitch. He decided. His thoughts were clouded with the looming presence of the creature, as it would most likely be for all individuals.
Then, his hand began shaking and he cursed that as well. All it took was one tap against the board and Wallace heard the grumbles emanating from the creature begin the stifle. As the creature’s steps grew ever closer, Wallace began to silently weep, accepting his fate. BOOM! BOOM! He had lived a long life and now it was time for it to end. When he knew the creature was right beside him, his head subtly flinched back, as if preparing to be hit. The creature’s footsteps only started growing softer and softer and softer. And the crashing of its feet soon faded away and the hum returned. His eyes reluctantly drew open and as soon as the creature had walked over to him, it had departed down the closest corridor. That made a chuckle slip out as well as some tears.
Then, he eyed a strange small device placed by the creature directly by his head on the flat board. He must’ve not noticed him place it down in all his frantic thoughts. It couldn’t have been larger than his index finger, but Wallace wanted any possible defence he was able to get. It was a syringe shaped device, but with a pointy end that could hopefully act as a dagger. His teeth grabbed at it and his tongue pushed it over to reveal its other side. An inscription was cut into it, revealing some foreign language with symbols Wallace had never seen the likes of before. His mouth dropped it by his hand, which caught it limply, before it could fall to the floor. His hand, in an attempt to grasp the hilt, stabbed himself with the edge. He winced in pain as the syringe-like blade cut into his skin and automatically injected him with a foreign virus. No. Why? How could I-
He seized with pain. The virus was probably lacing his veins with poison, soon he’d be frothing from the mouth or bleeding from all pores. All of a sudden, he lurched off the flat board onto the floor, regaining his strength in his limbs. He rolled over his hand and flung the syringe out of it slamming it against the far side of a wall without thinking of the noise it would make.
Springing to his feet, he ran out of the room, into the hall, gasping for breath. His bare feet slammed against the cold harsh metal flooring of the halls. He stirred up all kinds of noise, but his main concern was ultimately to get out of wherever here was. He turned through so many hallways, he couldn’t tell you where he started. He glanced through a doorway here and there, to check if any more of those creatures would see him. Most of the rooms were dark, not appearing to contain anyone or anything, though Wallace would be amiss if he said he checked everyone. It never crossed his mind that there may be other containers strung about encasing other people until he stumbled onto them. This room was more well lit than the one he was kept in and contained multiple pods filled with people. They were mostly older men and women, with the occasional child thrown in there. However, they were all asleep, completely unaware to the environment that encompased them. He took the time to stare at them, wondering why anyone would need so many old people.
Then, a thunderous crash came from behind him overtaking the humming noise, causing him to whip around and see a large shadow looming in the corridor. Wallace hid behind a pod and curled up into a ball to hide from the aggressor. Luckily, he didn’t stick around long and continued his march away from pod room. Cotard rushed out as soon as the stomping was overshadowed by the humming. Gliding aimlessly along to where the corridor would take him.
Wherever he’d go, the humming would follow, along with the rusty tubes and metallic coat lining the walls and ceiling. The lighting was scarce, leaving Wallace’s imagination to fill in the blanks of what lied in certain halls and rooms. The halls would twist, turn, descend, ascend and loop back around to the point where Wallace thought he was running a maze. He was being played for a fool, a lowly puppet, only believing it was a free to dance on its own, but in actuality he wasn’t in charge.
He stopped at a small crevasse in the hall and leaned into it, trying his best to think of any architecture books he might’ve read. Maybe, there was some sort of common rule that architects needed to design their buildings after to let someone escape… or for the building not to collapse. But who was he kidding? Even if there he had read often, even if he had read architecture books and there was such a common escape plan designed into man made buildings, he wasn’t in a building made by man, at all. He grasped the sides of his head in an effort to think of anything he could do. Was he truly powerless and alone to the mercy of these creatures? I can’t be. I’ve been powerless too long. Too long to accomplish my own dreams, but what were his dreams? Why did he have to get out of this strange place? What other reason would he have to survive besides his base animal instincts? I’m more than an animal, I’m a person. It sounded less convincing than he wished. He’d been telling himself for a while that he needed to get out, to accomplish what he’s always wanted to do, but never had the chance. Could it be that he was lying to himself, to cling on to something, anything at all. It couldn’t be true. No. no. I can’t be useless. I have to be worth something. Anything at all. I’m more important than a cog in a machine, I’m not just another identical, part, serving someone else’s greater purpose! Deep within his mind, he scoured for a reason to prove to himself that he shouldn’t just die here… but nothing came to mind. As the thought came and refused to leave, it was dragged away by a purple glow that peeped up against the wall. There was another door, slightly open across from him, allowing for light to escape, if only a little. Runes and glyphs, carved along the edges, made for an entrancing view of the door. Without thinking, he stepped in.
The room was mostly like the others. Filled with rusty pipes, shooting out smoke and steam and of course it had a metal finish. Only, in the room’s center, blossomed a magnificent piece of machinery that was entirely alien to Wallace. Purple lights, glistened from cracks in the machine, providing touches of purple dotted throughout the room. He was drawn to it. Carrying himself towards the machine, like a leaf in the breeze. What is this...
A snarl suddenly snapped him back to reality. The claws of a smaller, thinner creature sunk into Wallace’s arm. He screamed and fell back towards the machine rooted in the room’s center. The thin creature lunged again at him and narrowly missed his stomach. Had he clawed it, parts of Wallace would’ve spilt onto the floor. Wallace stumbled backwards, grasping a bit of the machine where a crack protruded and purple seeped through, like sap leaking out of a tree. The beast reached for his arm to tear it off, with a long slender appendage. At the last moment, Wallace pulled back for the beast to slam with grip into the crack. Without thinking, Wallace punched it without even reeling back. It screeched at him and unhinged a jagged jaw to bite take a bite. He slashed his arm out of the way of its saliva, tusks sticking out of its nose and barbed teeth. He reeled back this time and punched him square in the nose between his tusks, before it was able to riggle free of the machine’s mits.
The creature tore out a chunk of the machine, freeing his limb and causing the device to wail and flung it at his head. It followed it up by jumping at Wallace, aiming its claws for his throat. Lucky for him, it had to settle for grabbing his shoulders as it knocked Wallace to the ground, with it on top. It brought back its claws to slice through his throat, but wound up with a mawfull of the bit of machine he through at Wallace’s head. It scrapped its head crudely, forcing the beast off him and onto the ground beside him. Wallace rolled away, got to his feet and stumbled back behind the machine as the beast screeched. He watched it fumble to its knees, stare directly at him, turn away and clench its head while the machine bellowed. He assumed it was the smash to the head that had gotten him at first, but after staring at the creature for a while he realized something about it that almost made him laugh.
It was lanky. A thin sheet of skin, crudely spread out across thin bones, strung together. It seems as if pulling one piece out of place would cause the whole thing to fall apart. That wasn’t all. It was blind too. He never saw its eyes and it would explain its sensitivity towards the machine’s noises echoing back and forth in the room, passing through his skull every time. That’s when Wallace noticed its holes on the sides of its head, surrounded by a conical ear canal that Wallace had smashed in with a chunk of metal. The creature was wallowing in misery, but Wallace Cotard had to suck in his laughter.
He jingled loose a piece of machinery with sharp edges and cautious crept over to the monster. It flailed its long limbs about in a fit of rage, slashing at the air with its horrifying talens the size of daggers. Wallace didn’t want to be at the receiving end of that. So he study its swipes and waited for the most opportune moment to slice its throat open. One swipe. Two swipes. Back to one swipe. He clenched the pointed tubing in his grasp, waiting as it wailed. One bite. Two swipes. Back to one swipe. He grinned, flipped his makeshift weapon in his hand and lurched for the scrawny neck.
Despite the booming of the machine masking his sound, the beast heard him coming. It slashed and snapped at him, but he swatted his head away with his weapon. The creature’s arms however, aimed for his legs and knocked him clean off his feet. Before he fell, he slashed at the monster’s throat, only cutting some loose skin hanging from an otherwise sunken chest. It didn’t seem to feel it. It dropped down on top of Wallace, presumably to repeat the last time, only now Wallace stabbed it directly through its claw. As it pulled back, he lost his weapon, embedded in the creature. Wallace pushed with all his force, onto the creature, elbow first. His skin was torn on the best’s tusks. He didn’t seem to feel it.
He ripped the weapon from its talon and pinned down the other talen with his knee. His limbs were long and could move fast, but they were thin and lacked muscle, so Wallace’s knee had no trouble breaking its bone. He would’ve stabbed his eye out if it weren’t for what remained of the beat’s other claw, which caught him across the face, sending him rolling. He felt the hot blood pooling down his face as both fighters scrambled to their feet. Cotard gasped for air and the creature grumbled. It was a different grumble from the creature that stomped loudly, but an aggravated grumble nonetheless.
They slashed at each other some more, Wallace with his sharp metal bit and the strange creature with its curled claws and mangled jaw and tusks. But as the slashes became more lazy from him, the creature began to pick up speed again. Often missing, but still dangerous. Wallace needed a plan and fast. He charged back to the machinery as loudly as possible to guide the monster towards him. It charged faster than he had anticipated, making a quick attempt at gutting him, but he wasn’t going to allow that, not after everything he’s been through.
Wallace leaned up against the bulb shaped machine in the center of the room, where the sound was the strongest. The beast tiredly took the bait and slashed his hand back into the machine and got it stuck, spilling purple light onto both of their faces. Without a moment's hesitation, Wallace brought the sharp end of his weapon down on the beast’s head, piercing it through the machinery and sending one last schriek out from the beast’s maw.
Wallace sat back, shaken. I did it. He laughed hysterically. Then, the machine began to rumble violently. The lights flashed from purple to orange to red and Wallace ran. He charged into the hallway before seeing waves of larger creatures stomping in from both ends. BOOM! BOOM! He raised his hands, as if to say he surrendered, before the machine exploded.
It sent a chain effect throughout the rest of building. Although, it wasn’t a building. It was only then, that Wallace saw that he was falling from the sky. Fitting, he thought. I’ve always wanted to fly. He was trapped in a spaceship, flying above the ground, only now it was exploding and only now was he falling towards the ground.
He began to laugh, not knowing why at first. But then he realized something. His back and head hadn’t been hurting him, this entire time.