by Tony Johnson
Everything seemed to be happening at an unreal high speed. The crowd simultaneously stood up and began moving away from the heat of the flames that were igniting the wooden bleachers. Kari was pushed and shoved from every direction by panicking people. Body masses slammed into her shoulders. She lost her balance and would have fallen and gotten trampled if it wasn’t for being held up by slamming against someone next to her. The crowd was so tight it was impossible to fully fall down.
Kari began to hyperventilate. She did not care for tight spaces in which she had little control to escape from. She preferred the open air of the outdoors. Claustrophobia made it hard to breathe, and she began to panic as much as the people on fire.
Kari watched people on the opposite side of the arena in a column of rows in the bowl of the stadium. A huge boulder was coming down on them. They were all looking up at it while pushing into the backs of the people in front of them. They managed to create a small clearing where the boulder was going to crash down, but it wasn’t large enough. The people closest to the clearing must have been pushing with all of their strength as the boulder got closer and when they realized they were directly in its path.
The crowd surged the opposite way from the eastern exit as a small group of minotaurs ran into the stadium. Luckily, Kari was heading to the only other exit; the western side of the arena. She was somewhat successful pushing and squeezing her way through people, headed down the wooden bleachers instead of to the side stair sets that paralleled each column like the majority of people were doing. She went to put her foot out on the seats below her when she received a slight accidental bump in the back from someone. She missed the step and fell hard into the wood. People began to step on her hands, knees, and feet as the screams from her section grew louder.
Everything got darker around her. A large boulder was casting its shadow as it came down on her column of rows. Kari felt someone grab her under both of her arms and lift her up like she weighed nothing. She didn’t even get to see or thank the man that helped to pick her up because she was in the air a second after she was back on her own two feet. The flaming boulder smashed into the wooden rows just as she was hopping down. The top half of the column of rows caved in, which jutted everything below it outwards.
Everyone, including Kari, who was in the first fifteen rows closest to the stadium floor, was spilled out onto it. Kari picked herself up, choking and coughing on the sand she had inhaled. She stopped and looked herself over while dusting herself off, just to make sure she was still all attached. Sometimes it took a couple seconds for pain to register with the body. She realized that other than a couple bruises she was sure to have the next morning, she was fine.
Kari surveyed the possible exits. She was almost at the western exit, but it was incredibly smoky. The exit was narrowed because it was partially blocked by a tall building that had toppled and crashed through the side of the oval arena. The eastern exit looked to be void of the minotaurs now, but she would have to run across the arena to get to that side. She wanted to get out as soon as possible in order to avoid the falling boulders. Kari continued in the same direction figuring it was her safest bet out of two unsafe choices. The exit had already become bottlenecked, with so many people rushing out of the narrow escape.
A bright orange moving light stole her attention. It was a person, on fire, trying to roll in the sand to extinguish the torturing flames. Kari quickly unclasped the pin that held her blue cloak together and threw it over the man. The fire died as soon as the oxygen was cut off, but nothing was moving underneath the cloak. The putrid smell of burned flesh filled Kari’s nostrils and made her gag. She was afraid to lift up her cloak, afraid of the grotesque sight she might see underneath; but she did.
It was worse than she possibly could have imagined. The man’s hair was singed, along with his arms and legs. His clothes had been mostly burned through. What skin she could see was charred black and covered in disgusting red and pink blisters. A woman came over and collapsed to her knees in the sand next to the burned victim. She laid her body across his and was sobbing uncontrollably. “My Husband! Errol!” She screamed his name over and over again in agony.
Kari tried to grab at the widow and encourage her to leave and get to safety, but the woman swatted her gesture away. There was nothing Kari could say or do to fix the lady’s broken heart.
Kari got up and pressed along with the funneling crowd out through the narrow exit, leaving the death filled arena behind her. She emerged out into the smoky air of the small plaza outside the arena. Abandoned carts with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, jewelry, and handmade products were scattered everywhere. Vendors always used the plazas nearby the stadium to sell their goods, especially when the stadium was in use, as it was today. A high amount of traffic guaranteed high sales.
The plaza also featured carved marble statues of Celestial champions from previous Warriors’ Jousting Tournaments. They lined the curved wall of the entrance heading into the arena. There had only been six Celestial champions in the forty-five year history of the Warriors’ Joust, but there were only four statues standing. A couple of them had been toppled over. One was broken by catapulted debris. The other was pushed over by a group of people onto a medium-sized black spider. The monster was about the length of Kari’s shoulder to fingers. It was flattened under the heavy stone statute as a splatter of its dark yellow blood spilled out onto the plaza floor from both of its sides.
Kari saw two more spiders in the plaza. One was the same color black and the other one was a creamy white. The white one’s focus was distracted while eating a half-alive Elf. Kari took her bow off her shoulder, drew an arrow from her quiver, and shot it into the monster’s back. It crumpled up in pain and died within a minute. The half-alive Elf, lying on the ground with intestines spilling out of his open stomach turned to Kari. She saw the pleading look in his eyes and knew exactly what he wanted.
She shot an arrow through his skull so that he wouldn’t have to endure excruciating pain in his final moments of life.
In less than a second, Kari had already notched another arrow and carefully shot it across the plaza, avoiding the running crowd, and into a black tarantula before it bit a child with its poisonous fangs. A couple other spiders that found their way into the plaza were being ganged up on and beaten to death by civilians with random objects. Broomsticks, chains, and canes can be just as deadly as a sword when they are swung in anger.
Kari notched another arrow even though no target was in sight. Expecting the unexpected never hurt anyone, and today was already a day full of surprises. Kari would not die on account of being unprepared.
She looked to the sky and saw something airborne that had also caught the attention of others. It wasn’t a large boulder, but rather a collection of smaller objects that had been catapulted over the walls. Whatever they were crashed onto the stone floor and exploded like red paint with a horrific splattering sound.
Kari had a feeling she knew what had been launched from outside the inner wall. Looking closer, she realized in disgust that she had guessed correctly. Someone else in the plaza observed the catapulted ammunition being used by the monsters and yelled out what it was at the same time Kari did.
“Those are bodies!” The appendages of people were littered everywhere. Most of the people appeared to have been killed before they were launched. Based on the cheap clothing, the parts looked to belong to the farmers and field workers who worked in the miles and miles of farmlands between the outer and inner wall all around the city.
A little boy was crying as he kneeled over his dead mother, trying to shake her back to life. Kari saw white foam in the mother’s mouth and what looked like a spider bite on her arm. The boy looked up at all the people frantically running past. One man stopped and picked him up into his arms. The kid started kicking and screaming as he was carried away from his unmoving mother.
That man just saved that boy’s life.
Kari realized the child was too young to understa
nd death and probably would have stayed by his mother until the monsters came through and killed him too. It wouldn’t have been a quick kill either. Monsters enjoyed torturing people who could not defend themselves. Whatever the age, gender, or race was, it did not matter. Monsters would fill their prey with fear and pain before they violently killed them.
Kari noticed the boy was looking at her through tear drenched eyes as the man put him over his shoulder and carried the boy to safety. She mouthed the words, “It will be okay,” as she nodded to the child. The man’s selfless action of taking care of the boy reminded her of one of the greatest things about the people of Celestial: whenever you were in trouble, you could always count on the fact that someone would go out of their way to help you. Sometimes you might not even know who the person was.
Every week after Kari’s father had left and her mother was in her eternal state of depression, someone left a basket of fruit and a case of milk on their doorstep once a week. Kari had always wanted to find out who that person was, but she never did. The anonymous donor was a hero to her.
In Celestial, people treated others as they wanted to be treated. Preparing meals for the sick, giving them some of their gold, and spending time with elderly to hear their stories was what the people of Celestial did. It was a city of good deeds. Celestial was like a brotherhood, just like the warriors were known to be. Everyone stuck up for one another and everyone loved each other. Being a part of the brotherhood was like an unbreakable bond.
The city wasn’t perfect of course, nothing was. For every eight or nine people, there might be one person who wasn’t a role model citizen, but even gruff people like that contributed in their own way. They may not have liked intimacy with people like everyone else, but they were the ones who hated monsters more than anything. If a monster was hurting a citizen of Celestial, they would be the ones brave enough to protect the person.
Kari shuffled through the loosening crowd, when a spider jumped at her from behind one of the large wooden vendor carts. She instinctively fell backwards to the stone plaza floor while pulling back the bowstring, releasing her notched arrow into the hairy gray and black spider’s six-eyed face before her butt even hit the ground. Kari got up, loaded another arrow, and pressed on. She left the plaza and started to take the quickest route of roads that would lead to her apartment.
Down the road, about fifty meters from where she was, Kari saw a dog run out of a side alley with two of her litter wide-eyed and trailing behind her. An average litter usually consisted of six to eight puppies. Kari didn’t want to think what had happened to the missing ones. The mother navigated aimlessly, lost in the confusion of the surrounding noise. It didn’t matter where she ran, no place was safe.
A medium-sized boulder crashed through a nearby building. The poor dog was hit by one of the tumbling stones. Kari watched as it lay injured in the street, motionless, as her puppies nudged their mother with wet noses. Her breathing was shallow and her heavy eyelids blinked less and less until they didn’t open anymore. The puppies looked at their mother’s stomach, expecting to see it rise in inhalation of another breath, but it never did. One of the puppies lay down and curled up on the ground in between the mother’s arms and legs. The other was not convinced she was gone and trotted around to her face. He lightly head-butted her muzzle, but there was still no movement. He, too, realized she was dead and snuggled up under her chin.
Didn’t I just see the same thing happen with the little boy in disbelief at the death of his spider-bitten mother? How many innocent people have been killed? How many children have lost their parents? How many parents have lost their children? That is even worse. Parents should never have to watch their child die before them and in violent pain nonetheless. No one is exempt from monster attacks, person or animal alike.
Monsters are on a mission. A mission to breach the city, gain control, and keep control. They will kill every living, breathing, moving thing in the city, down to the last insect if that is what it takes for them to succeed in their goal.
Kari made a promise to herself that she would not become a victim like so many of the people (and animals) she had seen die today.
It would turn out that her promise would be upheld. She would be one of the few lucky ones to keep her life on this tragic day. But it wouldn’t be easy. As if the past hour of Kari’s day wasn’t bad enough, things were about to take a turn for the worse.
Chapter 20
Kari’s small apartment was not far from where she watched the dog die and the puppies mourn. She lived above the restaurant where she worked. The owner of the building was a friend of the family. He was a second cousin to her mother and aunt. He knew of Kari’s rough life experience and allowed her to stay in the empty apartment for a generous rent.
Kari figured she would be safe at home. She would lock and bar the doors while she hoped and prayed the warriors could hold off the monster attack. She had to slightly change her path, since parts of a broken building blocked the street in front of her. At least she was close to home and knew this area well. Many people who had been visiting had no idea where to go. They were lost in a foreign city. Civilians were stopping and giving the visitors quick directions or leading them back to their own houses for shelter.
Kari ran down alleys, half spending her time nervously watching all around her. A fear had crept into her mind that a monster would come from around any one of the many corners she was passing.
She exited the alley and entered into the tiny, homey cul-de-sac her apartment was in. She gasped and immediately stopped in her tracks when she saw a huge red, orange, and gray feathered phoenix hovering in the middle of the half-circle of buildings. The monster was blowing flames everywhere, starting fires. Kari quickly darted behind the building she had just run past and then slowly snuck a peek around the corner.
The restaurant was already aflame. There was a sound of shattering glass as the intense heat broke the windows of the restaurant. The shattering was soon followed by a small explosion. The fire must have ignited our cooking oil.
Tears welled in Kari’s eyes as she watched the flames rise within seconds and engulf her apartment above the restaurant. Everything she owned was in there save the bow, quiver, and the locket around her neck. The feeling in her legs gave out, and she sunk to a crouched position with her back against the building as she thought about everything she was losing.
She didn’t have much in monetary value by the world’s standards, but her belongings were special to her. Her favorite item in the house was likely one of the first to burn. An old friend of Kari’s parents kept tabs on Kari unbeknownst to her. The lady knew Kari didn’t have much financially. She had purchased Kari’s parents’ dinner table and chairs when their household items went up for auction after Kari’s mother died. She gave Kari the kitchen furniture for free. Kari was moved by the act of kindness. It was the table she had sat at as a child with her father, listening to his incredible stories and tales of adventure.
The dinnerware that went on that table was the hardest earned item in the apartment. She wanted to have a fancy cutlery collection for when guests came over to eat, but she could only afford to buy a couple pieces at a time. Occasionally she would barter and trade to get parts of the complete set, but mostly she had to save up her money. One week, she only had enough to buy forks and spoons. The next week, she bought the knives. Two weeks later, she had saved up enough to buy the decorative plates and cups. Once Kari had dinnerware for three and felt that her home was adequately furnished, she invited her aunt and uncle to join her for supper.
Kari had been so upset when they had come in and ate with her, only to criticize the quality of the dinnerware. They then went around and critiqued all of her cheap paintings on the walls, along with the minor flaws they saw in the table, chairs, bed, and other furniture she had worked so hard to acquire.
All she wanted to do was make a good impression. She was so proud of what she had accomplished on her own, but it could never have bee
n enough for them.
That was the last time she saw her aunt or uncle. She assumed if they were by her side right now, they would be happy to see the worthless junk burning. Although she didn’t get along with them, she still loved them, and she would never forget how they lent a helping hand when she and her mother had nowhere else to go. Wherever they are, I hope they are safe.
Other than the family table, the thing that she was going to miss most of all was all of the gold that she had saved up for the trips she was planning. Sometimes it was just two or three gold coins a week, but it had been adding up for years. She had everything planned. Three weeks from today, she would have had enough gold to take a trip to Almiria.
Countless hours of hard work gone within minutes. Now I’m going to have to find a new job and a new place to live. Once again I will have to adapt in a new environment because things always seem to be taken from me unexpectedly.
She angrily stood up. The phoenix was setting fires at the other end of the small cul-de-sac. All of the buildings were connected side by side, with no space between them. No doubt every building would eventually catch the fire of its neighbor, but the phoenix was enjoying causing immediate destruction.
Kari sprinted behind the enormous beast and burst through the door of the unlocked building next to the restaurant. She could feel the heat already starting to come through the shared restaurant wall. The room Kari ran through was filled with smoke. She quickly took a flight of stairs two steps at a time and exited out onto the roof. In this less wealthy section of Celestial, roofs were considered another floor of the building. People often slept under the stars when the weather allowed for it. Cookouts and dinners were sometimes held on roofs as well. There was always a short barrier wall that surrounded the entire perimeter of the rooftop. It protected people from accidently falling off the side.