Arcana 99: Stage One

“Johannes! Get in now!” I shouted as I started the Jeep’s engine. The vehicle shuddered to life, and that terrified me. I hadn’t put the keys in yet. I looked to the hood of the car, and my eyes met those of the monster that had been thousands of meters away less than a moment ago. I turned my rifle towards it, fired, and felt a sharp pain in my back.

Another one?

That monster on the hood was the last thing I saw before another pain appeared in my head as it collided with the Jeep’s door. I awoke some time later in a pitch-dark room. A distance away, I could hear the shuffling of some creature.

I must be in some cave, and if it hasn’t eaten me yet. . .

I didn’t consciously finish that thought, but I knew that I was just a meal-in-waiting. I fumbled through the din until I reached a wall. It was oddly flat for natural stone. A building? No use trying to figure it out by hand; I reached to my belt and pulled my flashlight out. Click, and. . . nothing.

You’ve got to be kidding me. Did it break while I was dragged here? Or did the-

There was a scuttling a few feet away from me. It sounded too clear to have a wall between us. I turned towards it and flipped the flashlight over so the heavier, battery-laden end, would become my club. It was warm. The scuttling returned, but my fear of becoming dinner was nowhere near the forefront of my mind now. The scuttling grew louder, then vanished.

Did it stop, or did it jump?

I didn’t bother waiting for the answer and wildly swung my flashlight. I hit nothing and fell over a loose rock. I hit the ground, hard, and could clearly hear the flashlight roll away from me. The scuttling appeared once again. This time, right beside my ear. It hadn’t jumped. It slowly made its way beside my prone body and climbed onto my back. I’m not sure if it was the adrenaline or some side effect of the monster that stabbed me, but I could feel every single one of the scuttling creature’s legs. Twenty-four pin-pricks crawled around my side and onto my back. A dozen on the left, a dozen on the right. They made their way up my back, and each row stopped in turn. Then the pain began. Two dozen tiny spears forced their way through my jacket and into my flesh. I didn’t dare listen to whatever ungodly noise they made as they forced their way ever deeper, ever widening the holes they cut. Then the horror began. As whatever creature forced its teeth, or bones, or whatever, into me, I noticed that the pressure on my chest was shrinking. Something was starting to support my weight beneath me. And, judging from the new pains across my chest that something was likely me.

Minutes passed, or were they seconds? I won’t recall. The thing on my back continued to push further in. When the parts of me it had forced out fully escaped my flesh and let my body fall to the floor, it stopped. It left me on the floor atop whatever it had forced from me, left me to recover from the pain it caused, left me alive. A moment to recover, and a moment to struggle to my feet, and it was like the incident had never happened. Of course, I’m sure there was some evidence. Blood, scratches, the body of whatever did that to me; just none I could see.

Wait, what about those things it pushed out of me?

I put my hand to the cold, stone floor and felt for them. Nothing.

Where were they?

2

I rubbed my eyes. Hand against them, and hand away made no difference. I could see naught but the glowing white number before me. I moved my hand towards it.

1

0

I felt a wet warmth. My hand had met something small, round, and curved when it reached the mysterious ‘0’. I lifted the object, and the ‘0’ vanished. I pondered for a moment on what this thing could be, then remembered more than one of them was pushed out of me.

24

Once again, a number appeared; however, this time it merely flashed a moment before my eyes before leaving my vision blank once more. I already had my suspicions on what the thing was, and that number did not bode well with them. It was best not to think about what bones they may or may not be. So, instead, I focused on what the hell these numbers were. I don’t personally know any blind people, but I feel like that blindness having a side effect of floating numbers would be decently well documented. In other words, this was likely a result of whatever that thing did to me. Not exactly a fun thought.

Alright mysterious numbers, where’s the exit?

The number fourteen appeared to my left. I cautiously made my way towards it, and it gradually shrank. It reached zero my hand felt a hole within the wall. Another step forward, my hand slid around the corner, and my foot met nothing. I gripped tighter on the wall and caught myself.

Ugh. The floors too?

A single ‘2’ appeared beneath my foot. Or, beneath where I thought my foot was at least. I stepped upon it as it changed to ‘0’. I moved my right foot forward and saw a second number following it. I moved my right foot to my left, and the number beneath it became ‘0’. I took a deep breath and moved my right foot forward again, and the number beneath it became '2' once more.

Pretty uniform drop for a cave.

I’m not sure how many minutes I spent inching my way out of that place. And, it wasn’t until the number denoting the ceiling above me gained a few dozen zeroes that I knew I was outside once more.

A small growl came from behind me. The creature that had caught me was back. Shit. What is that thing?

Right, numbers. How far is that thing from me?

17

Seventeen what?

Numbers, right. Dammit!

I took a step back and the number remained the same. A second step, no change. My third step was cut short as I met the trunk of a tree.

18

Good, it's a little farther now. The number slid across my vision as its footsteps loudly sounded around me. Of course I got out of there the moment this thing came back to finish its meal. or add another course. Where’s the way out of here?

14

The number appeared to my right, in the same place the 18, now 17, was. I turned my head towards it, and the number shrank to zero. So this thing works with degrees too, shame I learned that just before I’m eaten. I put my hand on my belt and grasped at my holster. There was a hefty weight within, and I felt a cold.

Good. At least that wasn’t taken from me. And, maybe. . . Where should I aim to kill this thing?

Nothing? Shit, shit, shit. Maybe if I go back into the cave? I’ve got a vague memory of what the stairs were like, and the numbers could help.

I turned around and saw an ‘11’ a distance to the left of where the cave was. The creature behind me roared and made another slow move towards me. I stepped towards the eleven, too engrossed by this new mystery to remember to pay attention to the thing behind me. As I moved closer, the eleven stayed the same and moved downwards.

Degrees?

I unholstered my gun and raised it as best I could without visual feedback.

10

9

8

The creature behind me snapped a branch and moved closer. The ever-shrinking number I aimed my gun towards remained silent and unmoving.

2

1

2

I moved my gun a little lower, and a little more to the left, and when the number hit zero, the creature behind me charged. I sighed, and I elected to trust these numbers. I pulled the trigger as I could feel the creature's breath upon my neck. Breath that vanished alongside the ‘bang’. The number I had shot at quickly moved down and to the left before slowly rising higher and growing closer.

A different target, and now it's running at me. Great.

I repositioned until the number hit zero once more and fired. The number vanished. Then, I heard something peculiar, an engine followed by something even stranger, Johannes’ voice.

“Urho! Grab on!”

I turned towards the sounds of salvation and asked the numbers for more specific distances.

25

20

15

10

They were approaching fast, and not slowing. Was there something else here? No, I didn’t have time for that. I just needed time to ask: where did Johannes want me to grab?

5

I reached my arms out, and Johannes pulled me into the vehicle. As the adrenaline faded, Johannes' voice and pleas muted themselves, and the realization of what had happened sank in. That strange teleporting creature had nearly eaten me, something had burrowed its way into my back, and my eyes. My eyes had been. . .

“-our eyes?” Johannes’ mimicry of my own thoughts pulled me back and brought with it the pain I had been ignoring.

“Gauze. . . I need,” Johannes shushed me, pulled me to the back bench of the jeep, and started sterilizing the wound. I would have considered this painful yesterday, but compared to that thing in the cave, very few things were.

The next eight hours of Aksel’s shift at the wheel came and went. When it was time for him to switch with me, Johannes drove in my stead. Another eight hours passed in which Johannes swore at several cars, animals, and shrubs that had encroached upon the road. When night fell, our one-car convoy halted and Johannes and I fell asleep. Aksel stayed awake. He blamed it on his sleeping throughout the day, but I could hear him pacing about the camp, gun drawn, the entire night.

It wasn’t loud enough to keep me awake, yet I remained restless all the same. My mind was too preoccupied with what I was going to do about my new condition. I briefly thought of my wife and soon-to-be-born child. I’ll never see her smile again, never be able to point out that rebellious strand of hair upon her head before laying it back down. I’ll never even know what my child will look like. Their existence to me will be nothing but a floating number showcasing the physical distance between us whilst hiding the distance I am from them. I would love to say that those thoughts alone were what kept me from rest, but there was another person I thought of far more than them.

Nerio. Some part of me had longed to see him once more ever since the war ended and he left. That longing had never shrunk even as the years progressed; though, I had found numerous things to long for more. That desire for a reunion was resurrected ever since I heard his name the radio on the first day of the race. I told myself it was just a desire to meet with an old friend, but now, the thought of meeting up with him overshadowed all else. Whatever those things that attacked me were, whatever dug itself into my back, I knew. I knew that Nerio would know about them, and if he didn’t, he’d have a way to fix it.