Escape
“Lionel? You’re safe!! Oh thank the heavens!” Shortly after Riana had disembarked from Keith’s water disk -which quickly reverted to normal and splashed to the ground- she heard the voice of a woman, tinged with relief and exasperation. Making a soft landing on a small garden near the cottage, she turned to see a middle-aged woman bursting out from the cottage’s doors and running straight towards her group, with a large, burly man trailing behind her. From the situation, she could only guess the pair were Lionel’s parents, and from their expressions and voices alone, it was clear to anyone that they had been very worried about him. As the woman’s voice reached their group across the garden, Lionel, who had disembarked alongside Ezra, began to run up to the pair without a second thought, before diving into the woman’s open arms. It seemed his parents hadn't caught the sight of them getting off Keith’s water disks. Good news, since it meant she and her group wouldn’t have to deal with the barrage of questions and suspicions that would have undoubtedly accompanied it.
Putting that aside, she saw Lionel’s mother catch the boy within an embrace, not long before the trailing man, which Riana presumed was the boy’s father, caught up and joined in on the family hug. “We told you not to go out into the woods again! Not only that, you even dragged Abigail out with you!” The woman gave a short exasperated huff, before quickly stumbling as she seemingly realised something. “Wait…… where’s Abigail?! Lionel, where’s your sister?” The woman’s voice began to grow frantic upon seemingly coming to some sort of a realisation. Wait, before that, Lionel had brought a sister with him? That was……strange, they had found him alone, neither had the boy brought it up as they were leaving.
Hearing his mother’s words, Lionel’s face visibly paled, as he began visibly trembling, trying to mouth the right words. Yet as he was trying to piece together his next sentences, the woman cut him off, continuing distraughtly: “She disappeared along with you, so the two of you went out together right? There’s these weird… cracks appearing in the sky, please tell me you looked after her, where is she–” As the woman began trailing off, she was caught by her husband standing next to her embracing his son. “Dear, I know you’re worried and panicking, but I believe we have a few guests,” The man turned to face them. From his strained expression, Riana could tell he wasn’t handling the situation well, with the appearance of the blood-red Cracks in the sky and the absence of his daughter. Not to mention by now, the screams and other sounds of ruckus from the other end of the streets was beginning to become apparent, even from here. After taking a quick breath, it seemed even his wife had caught on that the situation wasn’t exactly dandy. “Wait, what’re those sounds, are they…sirens? Screams? Wait… you people,” It seemed as though the boy’s mother had finally acknowledged their presence. “Who are you people? These…cracks…my daughter……where’s my daughter?!” Before the panic-stricken woman could continue on, her husband raised his hand, clearly trying to calm his frenzied wife down. As he did so, he turned to face Riana and her two comrades. “I believe you owe us a good explanation for what’s happening around here. It seems there’s a ruckus of some sorts, and well… those things in the sky,” He looked up towards the blood-red Cracks hanging overhead, “ –aren’t exactly a usual sight.”
The man kept a wary gaze on her and her group as he spoke. Well, it couldn’t be helped, considering both their…unique combat attires (or lab coats, counting Ezra,) and all-too coincidental arrival alongside those blood-red Cracks. In addition, the man also seemed somewhat agitated, probably in part due to their missing daughter.
Riana gave a short, inaudible sigh. Well at least they didn’t seem like idiots, so it would be possible to reason with them to let them in on a ride as they got out of here. Plus, she and her group had helped lift their son out of danger, so that was a benefit. As she was getting ready to speak up, Keith cut in and took the initiative.
"I'll cut to the chase since it's an emergency right now. We're governmental agents working for a secret department investigating this 'Crack' phenomenon, as you can see before you." Letting that sink in to the trio of family members, he added on, "Whilst deployed on a field survey accompanying this researcher," He motioned towards Ezra, who was still in his white lab coat, before continuing, "Our vehicle and all our communication devices broke down and we were left stranded out in the woods. That was when these blood-red Cracks started going out of control for some reason, and we encountered your panicked son out in the woods, where he helped guide us to your town."
Damn, this man's got some ad-libbing skills. Whilst the part about them being governmental agents was a textbook coverup for agents like them, Riana couldn't help but be surprised that the man was able to incorporate their current circumstances so smoothly into the coverup, including Ezra's scientist-look thanks to the man's white lab coat. Still, the persuasiveness of both their vehicle and all their communication devices breaking down at the same time was somewhat debatable. Which was exemplified when she saw Lionel give them a mixed gaze, which was to be expected, considering how the boy saw them literally come out of a Crack right in front of his eyes. Naturally, their story would be much more unconvincing to the boy than his parents, though whether or not he actually believed in it or not was another matter.
Although Riana had her reservations about the boy’s reaction, thankfully though, he had kept his silence, simply observing them warily from his parent's side. He had suspected them of being monsters at the start, and Riana could bet that the kid had about a million questions for them right now, but time was running out, and the sounds of those abominations rampaging down the street were getting louder.
By this point, the couple in front of them too had probably realised the urgency of the situation. Still looking like he was trying to digest things, the man asked, "Alright then, what do you want from us? But first–" Riana could sense the hostility in his next few words.
" –Where is our daughter Abigail? You all– Why did you come across Lionel, but not her?" Hearing the father’s words, Riana was at a total loss for words. Looking past, she saw Keith in a similar conundrum, clearly picking the right words before he gave a response, one that was no doubt improvised on the spot. "We don't know. Like I said, we stumbled upon your son, Lionel, whilst out in the woods. We haven't come across her. In fact, we didn't even know Lionel had a sibling until you brought it up."
Now that elicited a response from them. She saw Lionel's mother turn her head from them to her son so fast as if her neck had snapped into place, whilst the father seemed more confused, if anything. Both clearly wanted answers. "Lionel? What's going on, dear? Why wasn't she with you when you found these people? Where is your sister?" Riana could hear the mother trying to question her son in a mostly soothing manner, but the strain in her voice clearly betrayed her attempts. Lionel's father gave his son a look that seemed half-appraising, half-concerned. Under the weight of their expectant stares, the boy seemed to stutter and stammer. He seemed panicked, and was desperately racking his head off to choose his next few words, stammering out a few “I–”’s or “That–”’s, before finally cracking under pressure from his parent’s gazes. Half-screaming, Lionel blurted out, "It–it took her! The monster, i–it, it took Abigail!!" The boy's words came out as more of an alarmed scream than anything, probably much louder and agitated than Lionel himself had expected. He seemed to finally snap back to the current situation when he saw everyone’s reactions.
“WHAT?! They took Abigail? Whe–where? Lionel, what do you mean? Is–is she okay? Is she aliv–” His mother’s voice cut off at the last word, as if the woman herself didn’t want to think of the possibility that their daughter may have been killed. The father wasn’t taking it so well either, since Riana noted him to be in shock or something, not that she was able to accurately observe him considering her own shock from the boy’s revelation. Those abominations… just took his sister? As in, kidnapped her? That was…… very odd, considering both the abominations they first encountered in the cave, as well as those that had emerged from the Crack just prior seemed more intent on killing rather than abducting. Was there something special about the monster, or was it his sister? What if—
Riana found her thoughts interrupted by a massive boom echoing across her surroundings, instantly jolting herself and all the others, and pulling their attention to the direction of the massive shock. Turning her head, she saw one of the massive, pale-green monsters wielding some sort of large battleaxe in the midst of smashing through some buildings across the street. Fuck, they were out of time.
As the monster turned its gaze away from the ruined structure of the building it had just demolished, its carnal eyes turned towards her and her group still standing out in the open garden of the cottage. As she made eye-contact for a brief second with that thing, Riana’s instincts kicked in, “EVERYBODY GET INSIDE THE JEEP!! Get that shit started and going! Me and Keith’s gonna keep that thing at bay!!” She didn’t have the leeway to check with Keith himself as she prepared for battle. Moving her hands by instinct, she materialised a massive, one-man bazooka on top of her shoulders, before aiming its port right towards the abomination’s direction. As she was aiming, the green-skinned abomination itself began charging right towards the cottage, at an insanely fast speed. Much faster than she expected. With little time to aim, she pulled the trigger on reflex, and with sheer luck, managed to nail an explosion right into the thing’s chest as it charged towards them, knocking it backwards. A deafening roar enveloped her surroundings, and a massive ball of fire and smoke filled the direction she had just aimed towards. Good, that bought them precious time. Briefly inclining her head, she saw Lionel and his parents still standing there rooted, staring at the scene in shock and disbelief. As she was about to yell at them to get moving, she heard Ezra scream, “MOVE YOU IDIOTS!! We die here, and there’s no chance of finding your daughter!” That seemed to bring the trio of family members back to their senses, and she saw them beginning to rush towards the parked jeep near their cottage, alongside Ezra who followed them as they ran.
RIana turned her head around as a rumbling sound permeated through the air from the direction of the abomination. She saw its form slowly standing up, clearly recovering from the sudden blast she had hit it with. As it made eye-contact with her a second time, it snarled, baring its fanged mouth towards her. She looked into its eyes, which almost felt like they were re-appraising her, like some predator studying and re-evaluating its prey. A rush of terror filled her heart, and she found herself, staring before an abomination, paralyzed for the second time after the cave. Fuck! Why was it so menacing? Move, damnit!
Thankfully Keith was there to cover for her blunder, sending a stream of water from one of his stored bottles straight towards the thing’s face. The water torrent glided across the air, and upon reaching the abomination, it expanded, engulfing the abomination’s head and completely trapping it in a bubble of water. Reacting to that, the abomination began to flail about as it tried to remove the liquid, sending nearby cars flying and crashing into the surrounding buildings as it thrashed around. It was clear what Keith was trying to do. He was clearly trying to drown it. It was a good tactic, and it was clear he was a natural team player seeing how smoothly he covered her own mistakes. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough.
“ROOAAAR!” Another roar caught their attention, and she quickly turned her head to see another one of those abominations, this one wielding a large mace, charging down the streets and towards the jeep, with Ezra and Lionel’s family on it, who were getting the vehicle started. Shit. Looking back towards Keith, the man himself seemed strained and focused on keeping up the water bubble around the thrashing abomination’s head, currently suffocating it. The thing was still thrashing around, and whilst it seemed to be in blind panic for now, it might try and attack Keith if it got ahold of itself. She needed to provide cover fire, make sure that didn’t happen, but now? Shit, if she went ahead to stop the second, it would leave Keith vulnerable to any potential counterattacks from the first one he was currently drowning. Fuck, they didn’t have enough manpower!
With no time for additional deliberation, she decided to take the risk and deal with the second. Turning sideways, she moved to face the oncoming abomination. She re-positioned her hands, intending on summoning the white pistol. But as she was about to do so, however, an unlikely ally came forward.
“Ezra?!” Out of the corner of her eye, Riana spotted a figure in a white lab-coat jump off from the jeep, and in a move Riana could only describe as suicidal, dashed straight towards the charging abomination. “Hey! Where are you going?!” She heard Lionel cry out towards Ezra. The family of three seemed just as flabbergasted as her by the man's incomprehensible actions. Riana took a second to calm herself. Wait, Ezra survived back then in the Crack too, didn’t he? She also recalled her own suspicions towards the man at the beginning. Come to think of it, it was strange how he had managed to survive largely unscathed. Did he have some sort of a–
Riana found her thoughts cut off halfway upon seeing the charging abomination swing its mace right down towards Ezra. She tried to call out his name, telling him to duck away. She knew it was impossible, but couldn’t help but call out at that moment. Suddenly, she found herself cut short by a massive, blinding flash of light.
Escape
“Lionel? You’re safe!! Oh thank the heavens!” Shortly after Riana had disembarked from Keith’s water disk -which quickly reverted to normal and splashed to the ground- she heard the voice of a woman, tinged with relief and exasperation. Making a soft landing on a small garden near the cottage, she turned to see a middle-aged woman bursting out from the cottage’s doors and running straight towards her group, with a large, burly man trailing behind her. From the situation, she could only guess the pair were Lionel’s parents, and from their expressions and voices alone, it was clear to anyone that they had been very worried about him. As the woman’s voice reached their group across the garden, Lionel, who had disembarked alongside Ezra, began to run up to the pair without a second thought, before diving into the woman’s open arms. It seemed his parents hadn't caught the sight of them getting off Keith’s water disks. Good news, since it meant she and her group wouldn’t have to deal with the barrage of questions and suspicions that would have undoubtedly accompanied it.
Putting that aside, she saw Lionel’s mother catch the boy within an embrace, not long before the trailing man, which Riana presumed was the boy’s father, caught up and joined in on the family hug. “We told you not to go out into the woods again! Not only that, you even dragged Abigail out with you!” The woman gave a short exasperated huff, before quickly stumbling as she seemingly realised something. “Wait…… where’s Abigail?! Lionel, where’s your sister?” The woman’s voice began to grow frantic upon seemingly coming to some sort of a realisation. Wait, before that, Lionel had brought a sister with him? That was……strange, they had found him alone, neither had the boy brought it up as they were leaving.
Hearing his mother’s words, Lionel’s face visibly paled, as he began visibly trembling, trying to mouth the right words. Yet as he was trying to piece together his next sentences, the woman cut him off, continuing distraughtly: “She disappeared along with you, so the two of you went out together right? There’s these weird… cracks appearing in the sky, please tell me you looked after her, where is she–” As the woman began trailing off, she was caught by her husband standing next to her embracing his son. “Dear, I know you’re worried and panicking, but I believe we have a few guests,” The man turned to face them. From his strained expression, Riana could tell he wasn’t handling the situation well, with the appearance of the blood-red Cracks in the sky and the absence of his daughter. Not to mention by now, the screams and other sounds of ruckus from the other end of the streets was beginning to become apparent, even from here. After taking a quick breath, it seemed even his wife had caught on that the situation wasn’t exactly dandy. “Wait, what’re those sounds, are they…sirens? Screams? Wait… you people,” It seemed as though the boy’s mother had finally acknowledged their presence. “Who are you people? These…cracks…my daughter……where’s my daughter?!” Before the panic-stricken woman could continue on, her husband raised his hand, clearly trying to calm his frenzied wife down. As he did so, he turned to face Riana and her two comrades. “I believe you owe us a good explanation for what’s happening around here. It seems there’s a ruckus of some sorts, and well… those things in the sky,” He looked up towards the blood-red Cracks hanging overhead, “ –aren’t exactly a usual sight.”
The man kept a wary gaze on her and her group as he spoke. Well, it couldn’t be helped, considering both their…unique combat attires (or lab coats, counting Ezra,) and all-too coincidental arrival alongside those blood-red Cracks. In addition, the man also seemed somewhat agitated, probably in part due to their missing daughter.
Riana gave a short, inaudible sigh. Well at least they didn’t seem like idiots, so it would be possible to reason with them to let them in on a ride as they got out of here. Plus, she and her group had helped lift their son out of danger, so that was a benefit. As she was getting ready to speak up, Keith cut in and took the initiative.
"I'll cut to the chase since it's an emergency right now. We're governmental agents working for a secret department investigating this 'Crack' phenomenon, as you can see before you." Letting that sink in to the trio of family members, he added on, "Whilst deployed on a field survey accompanying this researcher," He motioned towards Ezra, who was still in his white lab coat, before continuing, "Our vehicle and all our communication devices broke down and we were left stranded out in the woods. That was when these blood-red Cracks started going out of control for some reason, and we encountered your panicked son out in the woods, where he helped guide us to your town."
Damn, this man's got some ad-libbing skills. Whilst the part about them being governmental agents was a textbook coverup for agents like them, Riana couldn't help but be surprised that the man was able to incorporate their current circumstances so smoothly into the coverup, including Ezra's scientist-look thanks to the man's white lab coat. Still, the persuasiveness of both their vehicle and all their communication devices breaking down at the same time was somewhat debatable. Which was exemplified when she saw Lionel give them a mixed gaze, which was to be expected, considering how the boy saw them literally come out of a Crack right in front of his eyes. Naturally, their story would be much more unconvincing to the boy than his parents, though whether or not he actually believed in it or not was another matter.
Although Riana had her reservations about the boy’s reaction, thankfully though, he had kept his silence, simply observing them warily from his parent's side. He had suspected them of being monsters at the start, and Riana could bet that the kid had about a million questions for them right now, but time was running out, and the sounds of those abominations rampaging down the street were getting louder.
By this point, the couple in front of them too had probably realised the urgency of the situation. Still looking like he was trying to digest things, the man asked, "Alright then, what do you want from us? But first–" Riana could sense the hostility in his next few words.
" –Where is our daughter Abigail? You all– Why did you come across Lionel, but not her?" Hearing the father’s words, Riana was at a total loss for words. Looking past, she saw Keith in a similar conundrum, clearly picking the right words before he gave a response, one that was no doubt improvised on the spot. "We don't know. Like I said, we stumbled upon your son, Lionel, whilst out in the woods. We haven't come across her. In fact, we didn't even know Lionel had a sibling until you brought it up."
Now that elicited a response from them. She saw Lionel's mother turn her head from them to her son so fast as if her neck had snapped into place, whilst the father seemed more confused, if anything. Both clearly wanted answers. "Lionel? What's going on, dear? Why wasn't she with you when you found these people? Where is your sister?" Riana could hear the mother trying to question her son in a mostly soothing manner, but the strain in her voice clearly betrayed her attempts. Lionel's father gave his son a look that seemed half-appraising, half-concerned. Under the weight of their expectant stares, the boy seemed to stutter and stammer. He seemed panicked, and was desperately racking his head off to choose his next few words, stammering out a few “I–”’s or “That–”’s, before finally cracking under pressure from his parent’s gazes. Half-screaming, Lionel blurted out, "It–it took her! The monster, i–it, it took Abigail!!" The boy's words came out as more of an alarmed scream than anything, probably much louder and agitated than Lionel himself had expected. He seemed to finally snap back to the current situation when he saw everyone’s reactions.
“WHAT?! They took Abigail? Whe–where? Lionel, what do you mean? Is–is she okay? Is she aliv–” His mother’s voice cut off at the last word, as if the woman herself didn’t want to think of the possibility that their daughter may have been killed. The father wasn’t taking it so well either, since Riana noted him to be in shock or something, not that she was able to accurately observe him considering her own shock from the boy’s revelation. Those abominations… just took his sister? As in, kidnapped her? That was…… very odd, considering both the abominations they first encountered in the cave, as well as those that had emerged from the Crack just prior seemed more intent on killing rather than abducting. Was there something special about the monster, or was it his sister? What if—
Riana found her thoughts interrupted by a massive boom echoing across her surroundings, instantly jolting herself and all the others, and pulling their attention to the direction of the massive shock. Turning her head, she saw one of the massive, pale-green monsters wielding some sort of large battleaxe in the midst of smashing through some buildings across the street. Fuck, they were out of time.
As the monster turned its gaze away from the ruined structure of the building it had just demolished, its carnal eyes turned towards her and her group still standing out in the open garden of the cottage. As she made eye-contact for a brief second with that thing, Riana’s instincts kicked in, “EVERYBODY GET INSIDE THE JEEP!! Get that shit started and going! Me and Keith’s gonna keep that thing at bay!!” She didn’t have the leeway to check with Keith himself as she prepared for battle. Moving her hands by instinct, she materialised a massive, one-man bazooka on top of her shoulders, before aiming its port right towards the abomination’s direction. As she was aiming, the green-skinned abomination itself began charging right towards the cottage, at an insanely fast speed. Much faster than she expected. With little time to aim, she pulled the trigger on reflex, and with sheer luck, managed to nail an explosion right into the thing’s chest as it charged towards them, knocking it backwards. A deafening roar enveloped her surroundings, and a massive ball of fire and smoke filled the direction she had just aimed towards. Good, that bought them precious time. Briefly inclining her head, she saw Lionel and his parents still standing there rooted, staring at the scene in shock and disbelief. As she was about to yell at them to get moving, she heard Ezra scream, “MOVE YOU IDIOTS!! We die here, and there’s no chance of finding your daughter!” That seemed to bring the trio of family members back to their senses, and she saw them beginning to rush towards the parked jeep near their cottage, alongside Ezra who followed them as they ran.
RIana turned her head around as a rumbling sound permeated through the air from the direction of the abomination. She saw its form slowly standing up, clearly recovering from the sudden blast she had hit it with. As it made eye-contact with her a second time, it snarled, baring its fanged mouth towards her. She looked into its eyes, which almost felt like they were re-appraising her, like some predator studying and re-evaluating its prey. A rush of terror filled her heart, and she found herself, staring before an abomination, paralyzed for the second time after the cave. Fuck! Why was it so menacing? Move, damnit!
Thankfully Keith was there to cover for her blunder, sending a stream of water from one of his stored bottles straight towards the thing’s face. The water torrent glided across the air, and upon reaching the abomination, it expanded, engulfing the abomination’s head and completely trapping it in a bubble of water. Reacting to that, the abomination began to flail about as it tried to remove the liquid, sending nearby cars flying and crashing into the surrounding buildings as it thrashed around. It was clear what Keith was trying to do. He was clearly trying to drown it. It was a good tactic, and it was clear he was a natural team player seeing how smoothly he covered her own mistakes. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough.
“ROOAAAR!” Another roar caught their attention, and she quickly turned her head to see another one of those abominations, this one wielding a large mace, charging down the streets and towards the jeep, with Ezra and Lionel’s family on it, who were getting the vehicle started. Shit. Looking back towards Keith, the man himself seemed strained and focused on keeping up the water bubble around the thrashing abomination’s head, currently suffocating it. The thing was still thrashing around, and whilst it seemed to be in blind panic for now, it might try and attack Keith if it got ahold of itself. She needed to provide cover fire, make sure that didn’t happen, but now? Shit, if she went ahead to stop the second, it would leave Keith vulnerable to any potential counterattacks from the first one he was currently drowning. Fuck, they didn’t have enough manpower!
With no time for additional deliberation, she decided to take the risk and deal with the second. Turning sideways, she moved to face the oncoming abomination. She re-positioned her hands, intending on summoning the white pistol. But as she was about to do so, however, an unlikely ally came forward.
“Ezra?!” Out of the corner of her eye, Riana spotted a figure in a white lab-coat jump off from the jeep, and in a move Riana could only describe as suicidal, dashed straight towards the charging abomination. “Hey! Where are you going?!” She heard Lionel cry out towards Ezra. The family of three seemed just as flabbergasted as her by the man's incomprehensible actions. Riana took a second to calm herself. Wait, Ezra survived back then in the Crack too, didn’t he? She also recalled her own suspicions towards the man at the beginning. Come to think of it, it was strange how he had managed to survive largely unscathed. Did he have some sort of a–
Riana found her thoughts cut off halfway upon seeing the charging abomination swing its mace right down towards Ezra. She tried to call out his name, telling him to duck away. She knew it was impossible, but couldn’t help but call out at that moment. Suddenly, she found herself cut short by a massive, blinding flash of light.
