The Lost Chronicles Of Pangea: Apocalypse

Escape III

David rode for another thirty minutes, before he got to the slums of Victoria island. It was not really the slums per say, but this was the place with the least development, and the place where people who were underprivileged end up living. But as of this moment, every house here was completely submerged, only the taller buildings, like the apartment complexes where still visible, and even then most of them had half of their structures under water.

David could see bodies floating in the water, and not just one or two, there was a lot of them. Men, women, children, old people you name it. It was a rather horrible sight. David had only seen scenes this gory in war movies, reality was a whole lot different. Many of them were bloated and pale, some were already in a state of decay, others were in pieces. David fought the urge to vomit at such a scene, it would not help anyone if he emptied his stomach right now. David drove on, keeping a healthy distance from the water as he made his way to the mainland bridge.

“Help!!”

The scream of the her voice seemed to cause ripple in the air, David heard her before he saw her. She was standing on the roof of a building, the water had ready gotten to her feet.

“Help us please!” She begged again. David would have rather much preferred to go on without rendering any help, after all nothing was as it seemed in this world anymore, and David was sure any extra person would be a burden.

But she was not alone, a two year old kid was being held in her arms, and his innocent eyes was staring right at David. He muttered a curse of annoyance, just the woman alone he would have ignored, it was not right, but he was no saint either. At this point in time his life was a whole lot more important to him than anybody else’s. But with a kid involved, he had to be completely heartless to ignore her.

David drove his bike close enough to the edge and gestured for her to come over. She was dirty and covered in mud and grease. Most of the dirt had hardened on her body and was stuck in her hair. The only feature David noticed was her green eyes, but after that nothing.

She stretched out her hand with the boy hoping David could take him first. But before David could move a huge shadow flew out of the water and took the little boy and much of his mother’s right arm into its jaws. And just as quickly as it had came it went back into the water with its price firmly locked in its mouth.

David was frozen with shock, and it was the scream of the distraught mother that brought him out of his stupor. But before he could say or do anything the injured mother jumped into the water, intent on getting her child back. David was even more shocked by the boldness and craziness of her actions. Anyone could see it was suicide and that the kid was most probably already dead as well. But she loved her baby enough not to care about her own life. David reckoned she had gone crazy with grief. He raised the hover bike up a few feet and kept on looking down hoping she would come out of the water alive.

All of a sudden the water started boiling, it turned red hot in mere moments almost as if there were flames within the water. Then there was a blast of water as a shadow shot out from the water only to land with a splat on the almost submerged roof of the apartment building.

David had to take move back as the water was scalding hot in some places. More than a few splashes had ended up on him and it was not a good feeling. David looked at the shadow and almost had his jaw unhinged from his face. It was a shark, just a shark. But David was sure this shark was evolved, there was no difference between it and the great white sharks David of earth had seen numerous times on an animal documentary. It only had a striped red line from the tip of its nose all the way to the tip of its fin. But apart from that, it was just a shark as big as a small car. But there were certain features that had to be taken into consideration, it’s head was burnt to a crisp, but even the burnt head was not enough to hide the pale yellow reptilian eye on the left side of its face, or the unusual scales that surrounded that eye.

David felt his blood run cold as the realization that the death of that little boy might have been his fault. Somehow this shark had followed him, and under the command of that lizard. David felt fireworks go off in his brain, white hot terror and shame washed through his body. He felt miserable, he had wanted to leave that woman to her death in the first place, he only chose to stop because of the child with her. And in the end he ended up being the reason the boy died. Because of him a child died, he may not have been the one to have done the deed, but it was the same as saying he murdered a baby.

David swallowed a lump in his throat as his heart suddenly felt empty, he felt the water ripple as a completely naked and fair skinned figure climbed out of the water. It was the boys mother, but she looked a lot different than she did before going into the water. Her skin was red, as if her temperature was higher than normal, her long black hair was rapidly turning white. She was flawless and beautiful, but the missing right hand was a blemish on that beauty. With every step she too towards the body of the shark her wound bled harder, but she did not seem to care. As her blood fell and merged with the water beneath her feet David could hear her mumble to herself.

“My baby, my baby.” It was heartbreaking, the scene induced a feeling of self loathe within him. He could have solved the problem of the lizard a lot earlier, he had the tools, the weapons to have put an end to that creature, but he didn’t, he couldn’t. The fact of the matter was that he was scared, scared of its ability for control, scared of its size, of its eyes. And now that yellow eye would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life.

The lady got to the body of the shark and knelt beside it, her blood and her tears mixed together and fell into the water, drifting away in the silence of her grief her left hand sparkled under the sunlight, it had taken on the form of a diamond. The tip of her fingers got red and then she swiped her hand on the belly of the shark. It was spilt in two with such ease you would think she had used a laser. But this incredible display of abilities gave David an inkling of her identity. The innards of the shark came spilling out of its body, she dug her hand into its guts tearing and ripping all the while crying hysterically. And she continued to do that for a few more minutes before she was able to pull out a tiny and almost corroded body. The digestive acid in the shark’s belly was really potent and half of his body had already melted. She stroked what ever was left of his hair as she whispered and sang to him. The kid was gone, and with how much she was still bleeding it was only a matter of time before she joined her son in the afterlife.

David made to leave, it was better if he got away from this woman and this place, he had a monster hunting him and it was already too late to save her. But he hesitated, the scene with Ahmed kept playing in his mind over and over again. He was not sure he would have been able to save Ahmed, but in the end he should have tried, he should have at least made an attempt. This woman was dying in her grief and pain, pain that was caused by David incurring the wrath of a Lizard. It was his fault her son died, he put her in a bad situation and he had to take responsibility for it. The least he could do was to try and save her.

David made his way down and parked his hover bike right beside her, keeping his eyes peeled for anything strange he removed a bottle of Mana water from his bag. David knew how valuable and priceless that bottle of water was, but at this moment he didn’t really care.

He hurried to her side and tried to feed her the water. She was completely unresponsive to his actions. David had no choice but to force her jaw open and pour down the Mana water down her throat. Though quite a lot of it was wasted in the process of feeding it to her, he was able to at least get a quarter of it down her throat.

But even with the seriousness of the situation David had a tent in his trousers. Even if she was somewhat dead to the world and her surroundings, David was ashamed. She was beautiful and naked, but she was also injured and in pain. Getting aroused at this point in time was an incredibly shameful thing but David could not control his nineteen year old body, besides this was the closest he has ever gotten to a naked woman who was not behind the screen of his TV or computer.

David ignored the burning in his nether regions as he focused on trying to save her life. The Mana water was working, but not fast enough because her wound was still bleeding. David resolutely poured what was left of the Mana water on the wound and finally succeeded in eliciting a reaction from her. She hissed in pain and them turned her lifeless black eyes to his face and said to him.

“Let me die, please.”

“I……I……I’m sorry, I won’t. I have to try, this is all my fault and I have to try and make amends.” David spoke silently, his tone was almost a whisper, but he was sure she could hear him.

“It was after you?” She asked

David was surprised by her insight and totally creeped out by her intelligence, which just had to shine even in the midst of her grief. If she was who he suspected she was then it would be no surprised, she had once been known as one of the brightest stars of her generation, but she was also the one who had fell the hardest. Lilith Azazel Jones A.K.A The day Demon.

“Yes….that shark was sent after me.” David replied

“By whom?” She asked back with her voice having no trace of life.

“I’m sorry I can’t tell you that.” David was not stupid, he would not consider himself an expert at reading human expressions or intentions, but he was able to pick out meaning from every word spoken to him. He was sure she hated him, sure she would kill him for the death of her son, but not before she has completely ripped to shreds the mind behind the shark. But David wanted to save her life, his guilt would not let him allow her go hunting for that lizard in her condition. Take it as him just being selfish, but he was not willing to have another blood on his hands due to his connection with that lizard.

“What would it take for you to tell me?” she asked again, but this time she negotiated. David was not sure she knew his full reasons for not telling her who was or what was behind the shark, but she was smart enough to have an idea about it. But this scenario was a lot better for David and his guilt riddled heart. As long as he could keep her safe until she recovers, then he would have no worries if she goes off on her own.

“When you are fully recovered, which means we have to go to the city of iron to get your hand fixed, powerful as you are, you can’t fight that thing with just one arm, and it will have an army of its own. If you are not careful you could die and not achieve anything.”

“Do you know who I am?” She asked him, David nodded yes in reply.

“Then you know that once I’m recovered I’m going to kill you, whether or not you saved me, or whether or not my son dying was just an accident. You are involved which means you have to die. Do you understand?”

David sighed and answered “yes” completely distraught by her speech.

“You said it was a thing, not human. You addressed the one responsible as it, which leads me to believe its an evolved animal. Can you describe it to me?”

This time David coldly answered “no” she might have promised him death, but David was not all that willing to die. If he tells her what was responsible or at least partly responsible for her son’s death, then he would be dead in seconds. The best way for him to be alive was to keep her close by till he gets his father’s protection in the city of iron. Of course keeping the woman who wants to kill him close by sounded suicidal, but she won’t try anything until she has gotten every possible information about that lizard from him.

“You’re smarter than you look.” She said to David, and he in turn replied. “I know.”

With that said he went back to his hover bike to get her some clothes and at least find something to bandage her wound. By the time he got back to her side the body of her son was no longer there, all that was left of the kid was ashes that was slowly drifting away with the wind. David stood behind her silently as they both watched the ash float away towards the setting sun.

Then she turned and grabbed the clothes from David, and bandaged her wound by her self, with even more skill and finesse with one hand than David could have mustered with two. They left the roof together, driving out of the slums and heading straight for the bridge, the both of them bothered by their guilt.