The heavy metal gates of Blackwood Prison hung off their hinges, twisted like melted wax.
Zarek stepped through the gap onto the cracked asphalt of the main road and stopped, holding the blood-stained iron pipe loosely at his side. He looked over the ruins of Vesper.
The sky was a bruised, sickly purple. Blackwood Avenue was filled with crumpled cars and shattered glass, while thick black roots tore through the pavement. Three streets down, a high-rise office building burned, pouring black smoke into the night. Somewhere in the distance, broken air-raid sirens wailed.
A man in a torn business suit was dragging a woman across the street. Her leg was bent at an unnatural angle, and it left a thick red trail on the concrete.
"Come on! Get up! We have to keep moving!" the man screamed, his voice cracking.
"I can’t!" she sobbed, clawing at the dirt. "I can’t feel my leg! Just leave me, Marcus!"
"Shut the fuck up and pull!"
A teenager ran past them, sobbing, a phone pressed to his ear. "Mom? Mom, please answer! The trees are eating the cars! Mom!" He hit a patch of loose gravel and fell hard on his face. He scrambled back up without even looking at his bloody knees.
Farther down the block, a man was slamming his fists against the reinforced glass of a locked grocery store.
"OPEN THE DOOR!" His knuckles were bleeding. "MY KIDS ARE INSIDE! OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!"
Five people burst out of a side alley, running for their lives. Behind them, something heavy smashed through a brick wall, but no one turned around to look. A woman near the back tripped over an overturned motorcycle and hit the ground hard.
"Help me!" she shrieked, reaching out a hand. "Please! Don’t leave me!"
The four men ahead of her didn’t even flinch. They ran faster, stepping over debris and disappearing into the smoke.
Zarek watched all of it. He listened to the screams, the prayers, the breaking glass, the panic in every voice.
"Heh... so this is what the world has become."
Three years. Three years in a dark room where guards told him when to sleep, when to eat, when to sit down. Judges had spent hours talking to him about laws and morals and debts to society. And the moment he walked outside, the whole thing was burning to the ground.
He took a deep breath of burning rubber and fresh blood. Looking at the panic and destruction around him, Zarek felt good.
This isn’t an apocalypse, he thought. This is freedom.
A few yards away, two men were screaming at each other beside an SUV with its door hanging open.
"I found the key first! Get the fuck back!" one yelled, waving a tire iron.
The other pulled a kitchen knife from his belt, eyes bloodshot. "I have three family members in the back! Move or I’ll gut you!"
They lunged at each other, stabbing and swinging over a piece of metal.
Zarek watched with amusement. Take away the police for an hour and people started killing each other over a fucking car.
"AAAAAAGH!"
A scream ripped through the air, louder than the others.
The two men fighting over the car stopped. The crying teenager froze. Everyone in the street turned toward the shadows of a jackknifed semi-truck fifty feet away.
"RUN!" someone screamed from behind a dumpster. "RUN! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!"
The shadows shifted.
A creature stepped into the red light of the burning high-rise. It used to be a dog, maybe a pit bull, but mutation had turned it into something gross. It was the size of a calf, covered in thick, dull black scales instead of fur. Its flesh looked torn, and three milky, pupil-less eyes stared from its misshapen skull. When it opened its mouth, the jaw didn’t just drop. It split into four jagged sections, dripping thick yellow saliva onto the asphalt.
The civilians scattered.
"DON’T LET IT SEE YOU!"
"OH GOD, IT’S A MONSTER!"
The beast ignored the fleeing crowd. Its three milky eyes locked onto the only person in the street who wasn’t running.
Zarek stood his ground, watching the yellow spit drip from its four-part jaw.
"Well," he murmured. "You’re an ugly bastard."
The creature didn’t growl. It lunged.
It kicked off the pavement and crossed the distance in an instant, its split jaw opening for his throat. Zarek leaned his head aside. The creature rushed past him and slammed into the concrete pillar behind him hard enough to crack the stone.
He spun around.
"Oh?" he whispered.
That wasn’t the speed of a normal animal.
The beast landed, skidded on the gravel, and turned to face him again. Its claws scraped sparks off the road as it circled, its three eyes twitching. Zarek grabbed the pipe with both hands.
It sprang again. This time he didn’t dodge. He swung the pipe with everything he had, straight at its head.
The iron hit its forehead with a bang. It was like hitting a wall. The impact jolted his arms and almost knocked the pipe from his hands. He was driven back three steps, his bare feet dragging on the asphalt. The beast didn’t even flinch. Its four-part jaw snapped shut, barely missing his stomach as he stumbled.
Zarek caught his balance and let out a breathless laugh.
"Tough skin," he muttered.
In prison, fighting men had gotten boring. Humans were soft. Smash a throat or break a knee and it was over. This thing didn’t care about pain. It was faster, stronger, and completely wild.
The monster kept attacking.
Zarek dodged one strike, then another. He stepped back, but a sharp scale caught his ribs and tore through his jumpsuit.
Blood ran down his side.
He backed away and wiped his thumb across the cut. He looked at the blood, then at the beast.
"Again," he whispered.
The creature hissed, spraying yellow saliva, and charged, leading with its left shoulder before launching into a straight leap.
Zarek noticed.
It favors the left.
Every time it lunged, it put more weight on its left leg first.
He lowered the pipe and waited.
The creature shifted its weight to the left leg again.
It lunged. He waited until the last moment.
Now.
Zarek stepped aside. The beast shot past him. He swung the pipe into its ribs.
Now.
He stepped aside. The beast shot past him. Zarek swung the pipe into its ribs.
CRACK.
The creature shrieked as its momentum died, and it crashed sideways into the door of an abandoned sedan. Metal crumpled under it.
"How’s that feel?" He laughed, stepping forward.
The monster rolled over, black oily blood leaking from its side. It was still alive.
Before he could raise the pipe again, it threw itself at him.
The weight slammed Zarek onto his back. The pipe flew out of his grip and clattered across the pavement. The beast pinned his shoulders, its four-part jaw opening over his face. Yellow spit dripped onto his cheek and burned like acid. The split jaws snapped toward his throat.
He threw his right hand up and jammed his palm under the monster’s lower jaw. His arm shook violently as he held the teeth two inches from his neck. Its weight crushed his chest and made it hard to breathe, and its claws were tearing into his shoulders.
"Get... off me!"
His hand scraped across the pavement until his fingers hit cold iron. He grabbed the pipe, raised it, and jammed the end into the beast’s open mouth.
The monster thrashed harder, teeth grinding on the metal. Zarek held on and drove the pipe upward with everything he had.
CRUNCH.
The pipe punched through the roof of its mouth and drove deep into the skull. The beast froze. Its three cloudy eyes rolled back. Black, steaming blood erupted from its mouth, ran down the pipe, and splashed over his arms and chest. Then the body went limp and dropped its full weight on him.
The street was quiet.
Zarek shoved the corpse off his chest and sat up. He wiped the hot black blood from his forehead and took a breath.
His ribs hurt. His shoulders were bleeding. He smelled like the inside of a fucking slaughterhouse.
He looked at his hands.
"Hahaha! Ahahahahaha!"
It was better than any drug. The danger. The blood. The feeling of almost dying and still coming out on top.
He pushed himself up and stood over the dead creature. He kicked the corpse once in the ribs to be sure. The black blood pooling around it was steaming, evaporating into thin air as if it didn’t belong in this world. He raised the pipe and looked at the dark blood coating the metal.
The sounds of the burning city suddenly disappeared.
A sharp chime rang inside his head.
[Conditions met.]
[Investment System binding in progress...]
Zarek stopped. He lowered the pipe and looked at the words floating in front of him.
A translucent black screen appeared in front of him, filled with silver text.
[Binding complete.]
[Welcome, Host Zarek.]
He read the words again.
He had no idea what this thing was or where it came from.
Zarek wiped the sweat from his jaw and grinned.
"Now this is interesting."