She opened her eyes and saw a large creature with five limbs approaching her at breakneck speed. Before she could even scream, she was grabbed and pulled from the cozy spot where she'd been enjoying her time chatting with her friends.
She felt the creature's legs loosen, and she fell. The impact with the hard floor hurt deeply, and she felt as if she'd momentarily lost consciousness. Slowly, the pain and the paralysis of fear began to fade. Finally, she could sit up and look around. Three other creatures of the same species lay nearby. Yet, they were different in color and shape. She was dimly aware that she should know their names, but she'd been in the darkness with identical friends for too long to remember any others now. She nudged the orange creature closest to her. He opened one eye, looked at her suspiciously, and immediately closed it again. She grew irritated and nudged him harder. He opened his eye again, and this time she read anger in it. He spoke to her in a barely audible whisper,
"What do you want, idiot? Lie down and pretend you're dead, then maybe nothing will happen to you.
" "What are you talking about, idiot? Don't call me an idiot!" Her voice was nothing like the orange one's whisper. She jumped to her feet and stood over him with her arms folded.
"He says if you don't calm down and do what we're doing, you'll die immediately."
She turned sharply to the other side. It was the small, round, fat man who decided to butt in.
"What nonsense is this?
" "So you haven't seen that thing with five legs?" Another orange one joined in.
"Yes, I did, but this idea of you pretending is utter nonsense. We have to get out of here immediately. It's the only way to save ourselves.
" "You're crazy." If we move, he'll see us immediately. We only have a chance if we pretend. - The fat man spoke again.
- He knows where he left us. Have you lost your minds? What's your name? - She turned to the fat man.
- Felek.
- And you? - She turned to the orange ones.
- Marc and Hewa. And you?
- I'm Pietra. I think we should get out of here as soon as possible. I don't know about you, but I have no intention of waiting here for that monster.
With these words, she moved toward a smooth metal wall that curved gently from right to left. She approached it and, before beginning to walk away toward an elongated wooden platform she saw nearby, examined her reflection in the wall. The view was slightly distorted, but quite clear. She noticed that a fine green mop of hair had begun to grow on her white head again. She gently ran her fingers through it and, satisfied, set off at a light jog. After a moment, she found herself at a wooden platform. She stood on it, scanning her surroundings for the best escape route. Behind the platform lay an elongated object, three-quarters metal, one-quarter wood. Behind it, she saw a white, round figure. Driven by a foreboding feeling, she walked around the platform and approached the fallen figure. She approached very slowly, almost on tiptoe, but she was noticed nonetheless.
"Run," she heard a very quiet, plaintive voice. "Don't come near me. Run while you still can."
But Pietra didn't listen, approaching and kneeling by the white, round figure.
"What happened to you? Can I help you somehow?" She felt a strange stinging sensation in her nose and eyes and began to cry.
"I can't be helped anymore. Look what they've done to me... They've ripped all my clothes off. They've cut off my roots and hair. See, see... I can't move... All that's left is to wait for death." She sobbed pitifully.
"Don't worry. The roots will grow back someday. You have to live. There has to be some way to escape." Pietra rubbed her eyes and looked around nervously. "Maybe I'll start rolling you and we'll run away together." She could barely see through her tears, but she tried to push the fallen figure.
"Leave me alone. Run... Look what they've done to me... I don't want to live anymore... Go away." She could barely be understood through her constant sobs. "Go, save yourself while you still can."
Pietra stood up. Tears streamed from her eyes. She took a deep breath.
"Fine, if that's what you want. I'll just tell you that you're giving up too soon. Unfortunately, I can't force you to help. Tell me your name, so I know who I should mourn."
"Celina." She began to sob loudly, desperately.
"Goodbye, Celina." Pietra turned and walked away without looking at the white figure. The other's cries tore at her ears and heart.
She walked around the landing and approached the metal wall again. She felt sorry for Celina, but she didn't understand her attitude. How could anyone stop fighting for themselves, give up, and simply wait for death? That wasn't her style; she would always fight to the end. Searching for a new escape route, she looked up, her eyes brimming with tears, and saw the wall at the top bending toward her. Suddenly, she heard a question.
"What happened there?"
Surprised, she looked ahead. Felek was emerging from behind the wall, Marc and Hewa standing right behind him. They all had curious, yet frightened expressions.
"What do you care?" She answered the question with a question, angry at them for being such cowards.
They glanced at each other. Finally, Marc shrugged.
"It's nothing, really. What are you going to do now?"
"I'll keep going. I'm definitely not going to sit here and wait for death." This time, she was the one to shrug.
She turned her back on them and walked along the metal wall. They looked at each other again. Hewa moved first, ran up to Pietra, and started following her. Felek and Marc, after a moment's hesitation, followed. She heard them approach and smiled to herself. They walked in silence for a while. Suddenly, she stopped. Hewa stopped right behind her, and Marc bumped into him. Felek, walking slightly to the side, stopped next to Pietra.
"What's going on there?!" Marc shouted, irritated by the collision with Hewa's back.
He didn't hear a reply. All three stood transfixed, staring at the transparent wall, or rather, at what they saw beyond it. Pietra couldn't believe her eyes, and neither did the others. They stood in shock, unable to move. Finally, she moved first, running to the transparent wall, bracing her hands against it and pressing her nose against it. Slowly and with difficulty, the truth sunk in. Behind the wall, reaching high into the air, lay a pile of various body parts from creatures similar to her. They lay cut into pieces, strips, or simply crushed. Multicolored life-giving juices dripped down the debris, creating a lake behind the wall that reached almost to Pietra's knees. It was a complete disaster.
"Who could have done something like that?" She barely recognized her own voice. "How could someone do something like that?
" "I told you to stay put and not move." If he finds us, he'll do the same thing he did to the others." Felek stood beside her, staring at the mangled remains.
She turned to him, her face contorted with anger.
"Shut up! If we were lying there, we'd have suffered the same fate. Are you so stupid as not to understand that?"
He lowered his eyes, avoiding hers. Marc and Hewa stepped closer. Neither of them were looking at the wall or what lay beyond it. Hewa approached Pietra and tried to stroke her shoulder, but she pulled away. Marc spoke first:
"So what do you propose we do now? Where do we go now?"
Pietra buried her face in her hands for a moment.
"I don't know. Maybe you have an idea?"
They looked at each other helplessly. Felek was about to open his mouth to say they had no idea what to do next when they heard a piercing scream. Pietra took off in that direction. She ran as if on wings, knowing it was Celina's scream.
"Not that way!"
She heard Felek calling behind her, but she didn't even look back. She felt she had to check on Celina, that her fate depended on it. Finally, panting, she stopped at the spot where the three had decided to join her. What she saw before her terrified her so much that, for the second time that day, she was completely paralyzed. The monster with five legs held that elongated metal thing, and on the wooden platform, it was slicing Celina into tiny strips. White, life-giving juice was everywhere. With each slash, the juice sprayed in every direction in a great fountain of tiny droplets. Pietra's eyes filled with tears. She stood there for a moment, unable to move, and then she began to scream. She screamed louder and more desperately than ever before in her life. Even after they had torn her from the comfortable darkness where he had provided her with everything she needed. Even then, she hadn't felt such despair and terror. Someone grabbed her around the waist and began to pull her back. She stopped screaming and began to cry loudly. She glanced back. It was Hewa dragging her toward the place where they'd first met. Behind him, breathing heavily, stood Felek. She calmed down enough to follow Hewa under her own power.
"Where's Marc?" she managed to ask.
Felek pointed ahead.
"He's checking the area." He barely managed a breath.
They set off in the indicated direction. Hewa was still holding her hand. They reached Marc, standing in the exact same spot where they'd first met. He had his back to them, but he'd heard them approaching. He glanced in their direction, a smile on his face. Pietra thought he was about to mock her, but his expression changed abruptly. The smile froze on his face, the mockery vanished from his eyes, replaced by terror. They stood for a moment, watching his transformation, not understanding what was happening, when suddenly they heard him scream:
"Run!"
Pietra finally realized the threat was behind them. She looked back and saw an elongated metal object approaching Felek. She began to run as fast as she could. Hewa released her hand and began to run alongside. She looked back and saw Felek, breathing heavily, lagging behind. She also saw the metal object stab the little fat man deep in the head, saw his frail limbs begin to twitch erratically in various directions, and white foam leaked from his mouth. That was the end for Felek. She turned back toward the escape route and, quickening her pace, began to scream horribly.
Marc ran first and showed them a large piece of red meat lying on another wooden platform. They ran to the other side and stopped, panting. Pietra sat on the platform, leaning against the meat, which was long dead and unconcerned with what was happening around it. She began to breathe heavily. If she had to run any longer, she wouldn't have had the strength to take a single step. Before her, Hewa fell to his knees, propped himself up on his hands, and began vomiting, choking every now and then because he couldn't catch his breath. Marc, looking the least tired, leaned back against the meat and breathed evenly and deeply. Pietra began to sob. She pressed her face against the red meat, reminiscent of the long creatures that had visited her in the safe darkness of her youth, loosening the Black Lifemaker around her. How she missed it.
They rested like that for a while. Marc recovered first.
"I'll go upstairs and see what's going on around here."
"Where upstairs?" Hewa didn't understand what his brother wanted to do.
"Up here." Marc pointed at the meat.
Hewa and Pietra just nodded. Marc began to climb. When he was above her head, Pietra looked after him. She saw that the orange man was already on top of the meat and began to look around. Suddenly, high above him, a very narrow, elongated metal thing appeared. For a moment, she froze with terror, but quickly recovered, jumped to her feet, and, jumping away from the meat, began screaming,
"Watch out, above you! Watch out! Run!"
Hewa looked at her, then at his brother. Marc, hanging over the edge of the meat, watched as if hypnotized by the rapidly approaching metal. Hewa ran up to the landing and tried to grab his brother's leg. At the last moment, Pietra grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the meat. They began to run. He kept looking back, calling for his brother. Suddenly, Marc came to his senses and began to quickly descend to the landing. Pietra and Hewa stopped, waiting for him. But it was too late. A long, narrow metal slammed into the flesh, slicing Marc in two. A piercing scream rang out, followed a moment later by his brother's. Pietra refused to watch. She turned and began running. Behind her, she could still hear the double scream, piercing every fiber of her being. After a moment, one of the brothers fell silent, followed shortly by the other. She dared to look back. Hewa was running after her, sobbing loudly and tripping over his own feet. She stopped to wait for him. When he reached her, she embraced him gently.
"I'm sorry."
She was truly sorry for Marco's death, just as she was for Celina and Felek. She began to cry with Hewa. But it didn't last long; she knew they had to escape immediately. She released him and moved forward, holding his hand, and he followed obediently. They found themselves again next to the glass wall, behind which lay the mangled remains. They passed it without looking in that direction. They found themselves close to the landing where Celina had died.
"Don't you feel like we're going in circles?" Hewa, somewhat more alert, asked Pietra.
She stopped and began to think. After a moment, she decided it was very likely, as they kept passing the same places.
"Then we'll go back to the meat, and when we pass it, we'll turn the other way. Do you agree?"
He nodded. He was in such a state that he would have agreed to anything. They looked once more at the wooden platform, the site of Celina's execution. Here and there, tiny white fragments could be seen, remnants of Celina. They turned and once again moved along the metal wall. Suddenly, Pietra thought she heard something. She stopped and began to look around. She looked up. A narrow, metal object was flying straight at her. She began screaming at the top of her lungs and running as fast as she could. Hewa lagged a little behind. She regained consciousness and turned to grab his hand, but it was too late. The metal slammed into his head and cut him in half. In his last moment, barely audibly, he managed to utter a single word:
"Goodbye."
Pietra began to run, screaming in terror. She began to lose her breath. She tripped over her own feet and fell to her knees. She looked back and saw the reflection of her pale, terrified face in the smooth metal, rapidly approaching her head. She began to scream even louder…
She jumped up with a scream and opened her eyes. For a moment, she breathed heavily with terror, but slowly began to calm down. She rubbed her eyes and looked around. In the dim light, she saw her sleeping neighbor, who muttered something under her breath and turned over. On the other side, her plump friend began to snore lightly, comfortably lying on her back. Aside from the sounds her friends make while sleeping, there was a pleasant silence. Pietra took several deep breaths.
"Thank you, O Black Life Maker. It was only a dream."
She rubbed her eyes again. When she removed her hands from her face, she saw a piercing brightness, from which a creature with five limbs emerged. She began to scream…
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