Part 4 – Living Nightmare

     Meerin's dreams were filled with nothing unusual to her. At least they felt normal. But the images, perhaps memories, were more than disturbing. Blood soaked battlefields and horrified faces haunted her sleep for a few hours before Shoul's return woke her up. She sat up feeling better than she did before and rubbed her eyes clear. He had just closed the door and turned around noticing she had woken up. He was carrying an armful of junk food.

     “I couldn't find much else that wasn't burnt”. He set a partially melted bag of chips in front of her along with a bottle of water then proceeded to rummage around the place as if looking for something. Meerin who was hungry picked up the bag of chips and opened it but immediately held them away.

     “ugh they smell strong” she put them back on the table having suddenly lost her apatite.

     “You need to eat something” Shoul said as he walked back over and sat next to her. He looked at the bag and picked up. “They smell fine”

     “No they smell strong of salt and who knows what else” She watched in disgust when he took out a chip and put it in his mouth. “How can you eat that?” He ate another and gave the bag to her. “You really can't expect me to eat these.

     “They're not poison, we need to leave soon so eat” He got up and started looking around again.

     “What are you looking for?” She reluctantly started to eat some of the chips.

     Shoul stood up from looking inside some cupboards. “I was looking for something to carry the food in and other supplies we might pick up along the way but it seems this place doesn't have anything like that.” He sighed.

     There was a sound of a window breaking in another room. Meerin by instinct jumped to her feet with her hand on the hilt of her sword. Neither one of them said a word. Shoul motioned for her to stay and went to the room where the noise came from. Before he could open the door however something slammed the door off its hinges and right into him. The force knocked him down. Then a creature emerged from the room and looked down at him with a pleased look on its insect like face. It was completely black aside from its eyes that glowed a solid orange. It seemed to radiate a dark energy. The creature turned its head noticing Meerin standing there and took a few steps towards her. She pulled out her sword ready to fend it off. She tried to see past it at Shoul.

     “Hey, hey uh Shoul” There was no response from him, he must have been knocked out. The creature ran at her so sudden it caught her off guard and pushed her up against a wall. “ah.. g-get off me” She moved her sword to cut it but had no effect. It was like the sword moved through it. It pulled back an arm and extended a jagged spike from its palm. Meerin was struggling to get free now but no matter how hard she fought she just was not strong enough to escape its grasp. It made a wispy hissing sound as it thrust its arm towards her face. She closed her eyes prepared for what was to come, but there was nothing. The weight holding her against the wall disappeared. She opened her eyes to see that the monster was gone.

     She stood there for a few minutes thankful to be alive before rushing over to Shoul. Sure enough he was unconcious against the wall across from the room. She felt relieved that he was fine although all her muscles went solid when the sound of a hundred hissing creatures eminated from outside the shattered window.