I woke up at the crack of dawn as usual. Pops had made a setup with mirrors on the top of the house that made the light of the sun beco a natural alarm clock. Or at least that’s what he called it. I had only seen alarm clocks in movies or shows. They were too noisy to be used in the village; more specifically, they were too artificial to be used.
At so point during the war, the Eaters learned to differentiate between natural sounds, like a waterfall or a tree falling, from the ones made by human-made machines. And, of course, they started chasing after the artificial sounds, knowing that it would lead them to a source of energy or a group of people.
Because of that, we were very careful with anything that could make what we called ‘unnatural noise.’ Then again, this was just what we believed. It’s not like we actually could tell what the Eaters were thinking. If they even were capable of sothing like that. After all, monsters don’t think.
I got out of bed and saw a note written with letter-shaped magnets on the wall.
‘Helping things for N8 C u at party L U P’
I smiled, for so reason, Pops still insisted on signing his ssages. As if anyone else would be writing them. I got up and got dressed, rembering the ti he went to a nearby city and found those magnets.
He was so excited and kept saying it was a way to write without paper or carving bark. Only to realize that writing things down with this took way too long, and he still had to go for sothing else if he wanted to rember what he wrote. In the end, aside from using these magnets for math, we only used them to leave ssages to each other like this one. And we had to worry about not running out of letters.
After getting dressed in my workout gear and grabbing my yoga mat, I replied to the ssage before leaving.
‘C U L8R Love You C’
Sohow, I didn’t want to write our regular sign-off. Using just L and U to express the sa thing he did in his ssage. It was an internal ‘joke’ if it could be called that, but there were tis when both of us felt it wasn’t enough. Just as I was about to leave, I saw the ssage shift.
H reg 7 int Sp In twRk
I stared at that for a mont, but when I blinked, it went back to the ssage I had left Pops. Without even acknowledging what happened, I left our ho. Walking towards the center of the village, familiar faces appeared going in the sa direction. Around two years ago, Katalena found a book about yoga, and ever since she’s been practicing it almost daily.
So of the people in the village also joined in, mostly won, but now, even so n were part of this group. They joined after seeing how nimble and flexible I was during one of the elk hunts, when I ntioned that this was the only thing I was doing differently.
Yoga was sothing I grew to enjoy. It was a mont I could focus only on my body and nothing else. All the constant fear and worry washed away, and it also was a surprisingly good warm-up before the rest of my morning routine.
“Hey Cass. Lovely day, isn’t it?” Francisco smiled as we both placed our mats made out of fur on the ground.
I looked up, seeing the thick, heavy clouds that threatened rain, “I don’t know if I would call this lovely.”
“Oh… I an… Like it’s a good day no matter what. Even if it rains, it won’t be bad, right?”
I chuckled. Francisco seed to have developed a thing for ever since I saved him from a coyote a few weeks back. He always tried to be nice and cheer up, even when I didn’t need it. He wasn’t an ugly man, but he also wasn’t my type. Too scrawny and weak-minded. Not to ntion, he had just turned 18.
That seed to be sothing that only bothered . Other people didn’t care much about an age gap as long as both parties were adults. Just finding soone to be with was already hard enough in a world where your village had less than 50 people. Still, Francisco was just a kid. I rember when he was a bratty 15-year-old complaining about having to work after school.
“I don’t really care. In a way, rain might be nice. We could talk without having to worry so much about the sound of our voice,” this was one of the things I really hated about the world.
It didn’t take an Eater to recognize a voice in the middle of a forest. Because of that, we learned to speak softly all the ti. So adapted, but ? That didn’t seem to be in my DNA. I had to constantly watch myself not to be too loud or risk getting people hurt.
“That’s true. Nothing can bother you today, right birthday girl? I guess you are in a good mood,” Francisco opened a large smile.
I reached out to the necklace under my top, “You can say I am. Why? Were you waiting for to be in a good mood to ask sothing?” I tried to push it. See if he finally decided to say he ‘Fancied ’, as Christine would say.
In all honesty, I wanted to skip these gas of pretending not to know he had a crush on and just reject the boy. That way, he could move on and find soone else. But Pops said that would hurt the kid even more. It was botherso to keep pretending, but I didn’t want to be an for no reason.
“Oh… I… Hum…” Francisco’s face got red, and he quickly shook his head, “No. No, nothing. Oh, there is Simon,” he rushed out like he had just seen a bear.
With a sigh, I just sat cross-legged on the ground, waiting for Katalena to start. The Yoga session lasted for around one hour, and then I did so cardio by running around the city together with the hunters and continued training with them. We worked on our muscles and then practiced so fighting.
William was the leader of the hunters, and he created a mixed martial art for hunting animals or the weaker monsters. Not the Eaters, but the wolves, bison, and coyote that mutated and beca more aggressive. Humanity might have lost its place as the apex predator of the world, but we still were not at the bottom of the food chain. Even if getting there seed just a matter of ti.
With my training out of the way, I went ho before going to the river for a quick wash. It wasn’t far from the village, just a ten-minute walk. Also, I brought along my spear, just in case. Most people would co in groups, but the hunters, or at least the good ones, felt confident enough to co here alone.
I was part of the latter.
The only things that could actually kill here were the bears or an Eater. I could handle everything else, or they would just leave be as long as I didn’t try anything stupid. Bears were also not a real problem. This wasn’t their territory and Eaters… well, if one showed up this close to ho, it was hard to tell what would happen.
Pops said he had created a… barrier around the village. Using copper wire and so magnets, he made a large circle that made us invisible to the Eaters. The thing is, no Eater ever ca close to this region. This wasn’t a place where they would co to. Not when there was a city, a proper city, at least to our standard, about a week’s travel away.
To us, that might seem far, but to an Eater, a monster that doesn’t stop to drink, to rest, to sleep. They can get there in just a couple of days. And having more than a thousand people to feast upon was much better than the ager 46 there were here.
Oh no, 47. Pietra is pregnant. Her belly is starting to show, so that should be, what… two months? Maybe three. I can’t understand why people insist on bringing more people into this world. It doesn’t seem fair to the newborn. Pushing those thoughts aside, I dunked my head into the cold water before finishing my bath and heading back to the village.
After changing my clothes and putting the ones I was wearing to wash, I headed to the main building, where I was going to teach the kids about the world. Pops’ voice rang in my ears, ‘Try not to be pessimistic around the children. I share your feelings, but let them reach that conclusion by themselves. Or not.’ I could see so of the kids getting close to the building and their families dropping them off. Maybe I could give them a heads-up about today’s topic. Just to avoid any problems after class.
There was still a good 30 ters between and the main building when I heard a single ring of a loud tallic bell. A sound that made the entire village freeze for a second. That was an alarm, a very specific one only to be rung if an Eater appeared. Since it was an artificial sound, it would attract the monster to an area outside the periter Pops made and give us a chance to hide.
A second later, a different bell started ringing. The second bell was a decoy, sothing made to give us even more ti to react. Everyone turned to the watchtower, which was built outside the village and now had a red flag hanging from the side. This was another signal, one that made sure everyone understood that they had seen an Eater. But it was the first ti it was a red flag.
Usually, it would be green, letting everyone know that it was safe and there was nothing close by. Yellow was just a warning, telling us that there was sothing nearby and we should be quiet. And if possible head inside to hide. Red ant there was an Eater close by. Very close by. And that we should rush to one of the places that might be safe in case of an attack.
Everyone did their best to stay as quiet as possible and started moving toward the houses or any place they could hide, as it was the procedure when sothing like that happened. Even if this ti, everyone was more panicked. Most people who were already outside rushed to the main building, more specifically to the side door that would lead to the underground shelter.
That was another place that Pops isolated in hopes of hiding people from the Eaters. Again, I doubted this would actually work. Those were monsters from nightmares, creatures made to kill you, to kill all of us. Still, it was at least a chance to make people feel safer, and it was better than just trying to outrun them.
People rushed to that side door, and I ushered them in, helping people walk inside and keep the kids quiet. I could feel the cold sweat dripping from my back, and the distant mories of what made lose my parents started to flood my mind. I was just a kid, and in all honesty, that was my earliest mory.
The only thing I rember from my parents were their screams and the sound of their bones being crushed by an Eater. Their faces contorted in pain as they were devoured alive. The sll of blood and ripped flash, and the screams of… so many people. All that ca back flooding my mind, and all I wanted was to hide, to get away from this living nightmare.
I didn’t want to see one of those monsters, not again. Not when I saw them almost every ti I closed my eyes. To my dismay, those who first entered the shelter corridor had no clue how to open the reinforced door at the end. I could hear them struggling, and they were making way too much noise.
Suddenly, while realizing that the decoy bell had stopped ringing, I heard sothing from my right. The sound of large pieces of wood bending without breaking. I glanced in that direction and saw sothing moving in the trees. With a gulp, I tried to push myself inside the corridor, but the place was tiny and already full. If I pushed more, people would start complaining and panicking. And the children could start crying.
I felt a tear running down my face, and trying my best to keep so semblance of composure, I touched Cindy’s back to move her enough to the side so I could close the door. She looked back at , confused for a mont, but after seeing what I was doing, realization dawned on her. As I slowly closed the door to the corridor, she didn’t break eye contact, a silent tear going down her face in a mirror of my own. A small comfort that we both knew could be my last.
With a soft click, I closed the passage, seeing an odd ssage in the door.
[Warning: User’s body in the process of breaking down. Cannot continue with system integration in such conditions.]
Break down, yeah, that sounded about right. The sound of wood grew louder, and I knew what was getting closer. Part of wanted to just close my eyes and wait for everything to end. But another part of , the petty, angry part of , refused that idea.
If I was going to die, I would look the monster in the eye. I would go down fighting, even if I had no chance to win. I wouldn’t give up the life my parents gave . The life Pops helped shape. If a nightmare wanted dead, I was going to make it work for it.
Finally turning towards the sound, I started seeing it. First, it was a sickly gray tentacle wrapped around a tree trunk. It undulated from side to side without moving from its spot. Then, a large and thick spider leg appeared from the tree. Another three tentacles followed, reaching for the vegetation nearby and pulling the rest of the body forward. More spider legs appeared, all of them almost as thick as the trunks of the forest, and it continued moving until its full body ca into view.
There was no face, no head, no arms, only the legs connected in a circle. And at their intersection, a mass of several tentacles that didn’t stop moving for even a second. They were light gray at the tips, turning into a tar-like shade of black when reaching the base, vanishing in that unnatural aggloration of shapes.
Each of those appendages had a different size. So seed smaller, while others were much longer and thicker. There was a single long tentacle that was just resting on top of the entire body, and when it shifted, I saw a vertical maw filled with shiny black teeth. When the mouth opened, a pale light glowed from inside the creature.
One would think that this would allow to see the shape of the tentacles, but that wasn’t the case. The glow only served to show how pitch black the tentacles beca, how even under the light of the sun or the light created by itself, it was impossible to discern the shape its appendages had.
I watched the monster moving closer to the village. Each of its 9 legs moved in perfect synchrony, the type that could only be replicated by a machine. Yet, the tentacles were everything but organized. They flailed around wildly, like the arms of a blind monster, grabbing anything they could find before gripping, squeezing, and breaking whatever they could and bringing to its mouth.
Wood, bark, and leaves were constantly dropped inside the maw of the creature, but they would just fall from underneath the central part of its legs a mont later. Those plants were now ripped to shreds as if soone had chewed them, only to spit it out. The Eater continued moving, and it was about to cross the periter that Rakeen created.
My heart pounded almost loud enough for the creature to hear it, even from 100 ters away. I had no weapons on , not that it would make any difference. My goal was first to run and take it away from the village. If I was going to die, I might as well give so chance for the others to survive.
ntally, I said my last words. I wanted to say sothing brave or noble. Yet, I could only think of small things. Cindy, your at pie is awful. You use too much salt. PJ, You are my favorite student, but you have to stop interrupting others.
Pops… I love you, thanks for everything.
Yet my thoughts were aningless as my death didn’t co.
The Eater stopped right in front of that periter. It halted completely and didn’t even reach out towards it. Instead, continued moving as if it was going around a mountain or sothing. The line made out of copper wire and magnets worked. The monster continued moving without ever touching the village area.
I spent the next 40 minutes completely still as I watched that creature move from side to side before going back and getting farther and farther away, heading towards the direction of the bell and then beyond it. My best assumption was that it had given up and was now going back ho. If it even had a ho.
Only when I saw the green flag on top of the watchtower did I let my legs finally fail as I collapsed to the ground in tears. I survived. I was alive. One of the monsters from my nightmares ca and went, and I was still here, just like waking up from a dream.
But this was reality, and I did the worst possible thing. I deluded myself into thinking that this was the last I would see of that particular Eater.
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