NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3: When Social Breaks
"..."
A single punch and the loose bundles of flesh scattered themselves across an area the size of a baseball diamond.
Clearly, I wasn't the only one who thought of the underground since there were dozens of the melted flesh monsters within just one of these parking lots, probably just waiting for any survivors to come down before dragging them out into the sunlight.
In fact, they've probably already done that if the evidence of blood, torn fingernails, scratch marks, and signs of struggle on the ground were any indication.
They're smart. They're very smart... I really hope this wasn't like a Flood situation where the masses of loose molten flesh grow more and more intelligent as they clump together.
Squatting on the ground, I sighed. A mental tiredness coursed through my body.
I'm still too limited. I can't search the corner of every building in New York. Not like these sun-mutated flesh monsters.
Despite being Kukulkan, one of the most powerful servants from F/GO, I felt powerless. I have so much power yet I'm unable to save more people!
In a rage, I leaped up and punched one of the nearby pillars that supported this underground parking lot.
The sides of the pillar immediately gave way for my fist. The concrete fillings disintegrated and the metal rebars warped with the force behind my fist.
I stood still, my arm embedded within the pillar, my head hanging low as silvery hair surrounded the edge of my vision.
I am... weak...
I grit my teeth. One person. I only managed to save one person.
A dark part of my mind wondered if this was how firefighters during the events of 9/11 felt. Perhaps a more accurate comparison would be with rescue dogs during that tragedy, who got so depressed because of their inability to find any live humans that the firefighters had to bury themselves in the rubble just so the dogs could intentionally find them.
This sense of powerlessness before a tragedy. Only now the greatest tragedy ever faced by humanity.
Well, maybe the second greatest. It was said that 74,000 years ago, Mount Toba volcano erupted causing the greatest depopulation of humans ever, reducing humans to as little as 10,000 individuals alongside a 1,000-year-long cooling episode.
Humanity survived then, humanity must survive now.
I took out my fist from the pillars. Covered in dust, I shook it a few times before taking off.
To a normal human, flying at this speed, everything would other than those right in their path would appear blurry. But for me, with the body of Kukulkan, it was just like watching from the windows of a car moving at 10 kilometers an hour.
I flew out of the parking lot and sped through the city. My eyes spied hundreds of shaded places every second across downtown Manhattan and beyond until I spotted a pair of legs wearing shoes extending out from a large green metal garbage bin.
It's been only around 15 minutes since Day Break.
Dropping down fast yet soft enough to not crack the ground, I entered the alley shielded from the sun's rays thanks to it being surrounded on all four sides by tall buildings.
I approached carefully, wary that it was another trap created by whoever was controlling those things.
Lifting the cover of the bin open, I found a hooded man covered in trash resting inside, face aimed towards the sky.
Probably a druggie, I speculated. I almost hesitated about wondering whether or not to save them before chastising myself.
I'm here to save as many people as possible. In this apocalypse, the only requirement is to be human, so the druggie underneath me is worthy of being saved.
"Hey, get up," I said and banged on the sides of the metal trash bin.
The druggie took in a deep breath before hurriedly getting up and almost fell to the asphalt ground before I caught him with one arm holding him up.
I gave him a quick glance. He was a young man in his late teens, of African-American descent. There were stains all over his jeans and black hoodie and he was missing a single tooth. He smelled much better than whatever was in the trash can and his pupils were deflating to adjust to the brightness of the daytime sky.
"Damn girl, you're hot!"
My mind blanked at what the guy said. If I were a computer, there'd be an error message displaying on the monitor right now. Multiple error messages.
The guy just complimented me on my looks.
This guy just complimented me on my looks in the middle of an apocalypse.
This fucking dude just praised me for my looks in the middle of When Day Breaks, where he should be paying more attention to ensuring no part of his skin is exposed to the sun.
"Pfft!"
I accidentally dropped the guy as I couldn't hold back anymore.
"Hahahahahaha!"
The alley filled with the sounds of my laughter.
I couldn't help it! There's just something so disconnected between this guy flirting with me in the middle of When Day Breaks. You're supposed to worry more about your survival rather than romance!
And it's due to that dissonance that's causing me to find this so funny.
Romance is probably the furthest thing on my mind. This guy just brought it to the forefront.
Calming down quickly, I saw how the guy looked like he had just suckled on a lemon. Lying on the floor, his posture suggests defeat and its acceptance.
Aww, he probably feels himself inadequate.
"Come on, was it that bad? Was it really that bad?"
Taking a deep breath, I was about to tell him to cheer up before a second fit of laughter seized my body as I heard his complaint.
"Hahahahaha."
It only took me hearing the distant sound of those flesh things crawling towards me to cease my laughter.
"Sorry, I just really needed that laugh."
The guy pushed himself up before dusting himself off, asking in the meantime, "Tough day? That's why you're here? To smoke a cigarette? Violent customer? Don't see any marks."
'Violent customer'? What does this guy mean—
"You a stripper no? You're hot as hell. How much for a night?"
My everything halted. My mind bluescreened for the second time today as I struggled to try and comprehend what the guy just said. Dozens of error messages would've popped up if I were a computer.
There was an awkward silence between the two of us. I stared at him with a blank expression while he stared at me expectantly.
I reminded myself that I was here to save people, not to engage in chitchat.
"I. Am. Not. A. Stripper." I firmly stated as a feeling of dread fell like curtains on the local area.
The guy must've realized something was off about me. He raised his hands in a disarming manner.
I don't pay any further attention to him as I hear large masses of monsters moving closer. I think if it weren't for the buildings that surrounded this turn-in in an alleyway, a normal human could already hear the car alarms steadily getting louder— getting closer, like the monster in a horror movie.
"Hey, hey, I get it, alright I get it. But uh, maybe you should change your clothing if you don't want people—"
"We got company."
I gave a brief glance at the sunlight that was slowly peering down the wall. If I had been later than maybe an hour I think it would've fully encompassed the trash bin and the moment this druggie woke up and tried to get out, he'd be bathed in the bright, mutating ever-present rays.
"Company? Oh shit, is the cops on us?"
The answer came as a steadily creeping louder alarm clock.
By the loudness, I think the monsters are now rapidly closing in on the entrance to this alleyway. They're trying to block the only exit other than flying.
"The fuck?" The guy cursed out at the car alarms, surprised by that sound but he hadn't seen the melting meat personally yet.
I looked at him with sincerity, "Listen, the apocalypse has just happened. Anyone who gets touched by the sun's rays gets mutated into a mass of molten meat."
"What?" The druggie looked even more confused, before raising his eyebrows and shaking his head, "Damn girl, you be on some of that good stuff if you think Armageddon has just started. Let me have some, I'll pay you premium."
The man reached into his pockets and took out five, 100-dollar bills, offering them to me.
"..."
I really was not expecting this. In hindsight, it made sense how no one would immediately believe that the apocalypse had just happened. Really, who would? No one expects that tomorrow something will corrupt the sun. They all expect the most sudden world-ending apocalypse to be perhaps a nuclear war where a rogue leader ordered the launching of an ICBM and the subsequent rapid escalation into a full-on nuclear exchange.
Even then, people would have many minutes to say goodbye to their family.
My head turned to face the sky, the blue sky that was not even close to any shades of red. How subtle, how sinister. No one would know that something's wrong. There's no forewarning like the tremors before a volcanic eruption.
Here, in When Day Break, no one had time to say goodbye to their family before they were all conjoined together into something straight out of The Thing.
"No, you're not understanding me." I grabbed the man's hood thereby taking control over his head, "The apocalypse has just begun, I'm flying around the city trying to gather as many survivors as possible."
His 500 dollars dropped to the ground as he struggled in my grasp.
I forced him to look at the entrance to the alleyway, at the huge flood of molten, waxy, meaty mass that was now filling the entrance. It really was like a flood as at first, it was just a puddle of meat before that puddle grew higher and higher until it was up to your waist. A flood of molten flesh.
That must be what's causing all the car alarms. A huge mass of meat the size of a train slithering down the street, pushing cars out of the way and making their alarms go off.
I could feel how the guy stopped struggling against my grasp. I could feel shock radiate from his body like light from a candle. Terror coursed through his mind.
"This is what happens when you're exposed to the sun. That right there is what happens when you get mutated."
"Oh lord almighty! Oh lord almighty!" He began praying.
I dropped him, "You have two options of transporting. Either I transport you via a teleportation or I transport you via a sleeping bag. Choose."
"Oh lord almighty! Oh lord almighty!"
He was unresponsive. He kept on praying and doing nothing else other than staring at the encroaching amalgamation of humans.
"Oh lord almighty! Oh lord almighty!"
I sighed as my head drooped. He's in ways similar to the girl I saved. No one could blame them for reacting in shock like this. If I didn't know that I was going into When Day Break, I think there's a non-zero possibility, I'd freeze the moment I saw people melting on the street as my flight or fight response fights a war.
Placing a hand on his back and taking out the Smart Device, I deposited him inside my pocket space. A one-meter by one-meter by three-meter volume of personal space is more than enough for a single human. In fact, I think I can maybe push it to three humans.
"Join ussssss... outsider... there'll be no more need for you to fight..."
My attention which was originally focused on the ground trailed up to eye the second-largest amalgamation of these molten corrupted humans. I was again thankful for Stress Defense.
It's seriously disgusting how the humans melted into each other.
I temporarily gained ownership over Quetzalcoatl's Authority with the usage of We Are the Winged Serpent. Unlike last time, here, I extended my senses through this Authority.
Or rather, the many Authorities possessed by Quetzalcoatl.
I could feel what Quetzalcoatl felt. I could feel the movement of the air around New York. I could feel the beating of the corrupted sun upon this concrete and glass jungle. I could feel myself learning more about these flesh abominations through Quetzalcoatl's Authority over knowledge.
For one, I could sense how the cells that made up the molten fleshy mass weren't dying. They weren't splitting either, nor were they expelling waste or taking in nutrients.
They were just there... not performing any activity that suggests life.
It's like looking at a human moving yet their metabolism was stopped in time. Their ruined muscle tendons were being shredded and stitched back together by the thousands every second as this large amorphous mass continued to move. To crawl closer to me.
I tried to contain what I was about to do. I tried to create a mental image of a 'gentle breeze' instead of the hurricane I conjured up previously.
I snapped my fingers...
*KABOOM*
...and the air exploded.
An omnidirectional percussion wave expanded from my finger snap, amplifying the normal noise of a snap into one where its decibels are comparable to a nuclear bomb going off.
The wall and ground around me looked like spider webs as they cracked from the incredibly powerful percussion wave. All windows within hundreds of meters shattered.
The combined might of the large amalgamation of melted human and animal flesh faired no better. The parts that were leaking into the alleyway were turned into a million tiny pieces by the sonic vibrations while the one further down the street screeched.
God damn it. I really am not fit for anything 'quiet'.
I blasted off, the alley quickly disappearing underneath me as I was once again high above everything, high above all the problems of the World.
*Krissh*
Just as I was about to search the city for more people, my sense of hearing picked up an extremely powerful pulse of radiowaves spreading all over the North American continent.
"What?" I can't help but remark.
Normal TV and FM/AM radio waves are too weak and get diluted into the cosmic background radiation, but that wave that suddenly spread all across the United States was like a shining lighthouse within a stormy sea.
It sounded like gibberish. Probably because I don't understand the 'words' yet.
So instead I used my 'other' hearing and listened in to whatever TV was still functioning.
All across New York and beyond, every radio, every TV, every phone, and every device capable of connecting with another lit up and started broadcasting the same message:
"This is the United States Emergency Alert System. In cooperation with the SCP Foundation, the United States government will now issue an Apollyon-Broken Masquerade scenario announcement. Effective immediately and for the foreseeable future, all individuals must stay indoors and away from any natural sources of visual light coming from the sun. All individuals must stay away from any natural sources of visual light coming from the moon."
Huh, I remarked as I hovered there in the air, passively drifting towards the closest TV in a residential skyscraper near me.
Took 'em less than 20 minutes to fully break the masquerade and announce that an Apollyon-level SCP was happening.
I could faintly feel similarly powerful radio waves coming from all across the globe.
It wasn't just North America that was broadcasting and receiving these kinds of messages. The SCP Foundation was broadcasting all across the world.
"Due to a catastrophic anomalous meteorological event, an estimated 6.8 billion casualties have already occurred within the first 20 minutes of the sun turning hostile. Cities and man-made structures provide the greatest protection. Anyone attempting to travel outdoors must fully cover their bodies in protective clothing, multiple layers are recommended. Forested areas should be avoided at all costs."
There's a faint disturbance across the broadcasting radio waves.
"Travel by foot should be avoided as much as possible. Secure— close all entrances and windows to a shelter."
It's becoming unstable.
"D— look outside. Any unusual noises and persons outside are— to be investigated. Ref— — request — persons — come inside. — — — Human they — — appear."
The broadcast cuts out. Then, a new one takes its place two seconds afterward.
"Euthanization is not be to attempted. Persons exposed to sunlight are still people. You should not abandon them. You should let them in. People are encouraged to get over themselves in thinking they know better. —Goddess join Us— Nothing — wrong —Goddess join Us in holy matrimony— The light has been neutralized —Goddess we are one— The surface is now safe and everything is beau...ti...ful————— —freed. This message will now repeat."
I felt a desire to wash myself, to fully scrub every inch of my body with a rough sponge and industrial-strength soap as though I had just touched radioactive material. Those radio waves felt dirty, their very act of passing through me somehow polluting my body and soul.
And the message did repeat. Constantly.
I tuned it out, mentally filtering out those sounds coming from TVs and radiowaves. I should probably find the source of that broadcast and destroy it.
Closing my eyes, I focused on receiving radio signals of other frequencies. Like a master codebreaker, I translated the information within radio waves into words that I could understand.
I didn't find any other useful content. There was only more of that creepy, corrupted broadcast calling out to me and every other survivor. The corrupted broadcast is powerful enough to overshadow all others to such a point it'll be the only thing anyone with a radio can receive.
I tuned out radiowaves as a whole and opened my eyes.
"What the hell...?" I muttered in shock.
When did the sky turn red?
The blue sky turned into a bright shade of red as the sun itself changed to a sphere of white. The ex-life-giver no longer had a crown of corona around it, appearing more like the hateful pupil of a baleful eye.
It was as though a god had bled and its blood dripped onto the sky, dying it a bloody crimson.
The sun's own luminosity decreased by a percent or two. Photosynthesis will be harder but most plants should still survive... if they haven't melted yet. Earth's climate will definitely be unpredictable for a few years as the air and ocean currents alter to better fit the new luminosity.
Hold on a second... radio waves... television... the news! Right before Day Broke, there should still be live news coverage of events. Those studios inside shouldn't have any sunlight breaking in since it'll be counterproductive if rain somehow floods the expensive lighting equipment.
They should at least have some survivors!
I blasted Northward, towards the area around Times Square where News studios like BBC, CBS, Fox, and ABC are situated in.
God... I hope I'm not too late. I dearly hope this won't be like the underground parking lot where it's a trap instead of a safe space.
Wait for me, survivors!