This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL

First published on my wordpress: Here

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Watching these monstrous alien chickens eat was terrifying. Their sheer numbers were enough to slowly make me fall into despair. I could either wait for them to finish eating and leave, or find a way to deal with them. Waiting was not really an option as my mask filter had no more than 6 hours left to it.

Even worse was the fact that today was going to be a short day followed by a few hours of ‘red sun’ before night. I had no idea how long I had before nightfall but I didn’t have time to waste over mutant chickens. Having no idea how to deal with them at the moment, I decided to sit next to my giant pile of supplies and smoke a cigarette.

Smoking one would take only 4 to 5 minutes and since I could breath the air for more than 1h30, this wasn’t going to be too much of a problem. While I was at it, I decided to open a bottle of vodka and have a few sips to give me courage.

Well me being me, I ended up drinking half the bottle. Probably due to drunkenness, these chickens didn’t seem that scary anymore. I ripped a piece of cloth from my shirt and stuffed it in the opening of the half empty bottle I was drinking, creating a Molotov cocktail.

I staggered my way up to the door, opened it slightly and stood next to my trailer bottle in hand. The creatures continued to eat, completely ignoring me again. “HEYY YOU FUCKING CHICKENS! WANT SOME OF THIS?” I then yelled while pointing at my Molotov cocktail like an idiot.

Some of them, surprised by the sudden shout jumped back and looked at me, but eventually turned their attention back to their feast. “Umf.. Thought so…” Yea, some stupid mutant chicken wouldn’t go after the superior being that I am… (Still completely drunk by the way.)

Satisfied, I placed the bottle next to the door, opened the trailer and began to load everything inside. I began with what was fragile like glass bottles and such, then I began to simply throw the rest on top of it. I was quite drunk, and didn’t care as much anymore.

I was totally absorbed by what I was doing and stupidly stopped paying attention to my surroundings while I was finishing to close the trailer and store doors. I grabbed my half empty bottle of vodka, and made my way back to my wheel bucket for my next stop.

As I was about to reach the ladder leading up to the cabin, I suddenly jumped back in fright as one of these fucking chicken came out from underneath the loader. “UUARRRAaaa!!! You fucking chicken, you scared me!” In my anger I kicked the creature as hard as I could but the result ended up being different from what I was expecting.

Instead of flying a few meters back, the mutant chicken exploded like a water balloon, sending blue blood and guts flying all over the area. I, myself was completely covered in this disgustingly smelly stuff. “Nogrrrrrrr* Nog nog noggrrrrr*” (Angry chickens sounds.)

The hundreds of creatures which witnessed the scene suddenly turned their attention toward me, showing their teeth and growling at me. From the look of it, I had just kicked a hornet’s nest. “Ho crap…” I quickly grabbed my Molotov cocktail, lit it with my lighter and threw it at them.

Sighhhh.. This was when I learned that vodka doesn’t burn very well… All I had accomplished was to piss them off even more. They all began to run in my direction and before I could reach behind my back for my shotgun, they all jumped on me at the same time.

There were so many of them that I couldn’t see anything anymore. I could feel their teeth and claws on my skin as they were trying to rip apart every part of my body. I was flailing my limbs around like crazy, sending them flying in all directions but more of them kept coming.

My clothes got ripped off during their assault and I began to bleed from everywhere, I was going to die like this. No! No way in hell I’ll accept that. If I go down, I will go down kicking like a wild horse. I clenched my teeth and grabbed my machete. With them being all over me, a melee weapon was my only option.

Machete in hand, I began to slash left, right, up and down like a madman. Since I couldn’t feel much resistance from the blade, I first thought they were avoiding it, but as the ground began to be covered with a thick layer of blue blood and guts, I understood that it was working.

These creature were simply very fragile, they were like a water balloon only waiting to be popped. I kept swinging my blade in all directions while protecting my crotch with my left hand. Eventually, I managed to clear most of those who were clinging to my body. I rapidly discovered that I could simply kill them by stomping on them with my feet.

The problem was their numbers, for each one of these I killed, 2 more took their place. I was in pain and bleeding but for some reasons, maybe drunkenness, I was not afraid this time. With the knowledge of how weak these creatures truly were, plus my newly found strength and stamina, I was able to stand my ground in this hellish battle.

The chickens’ onslaught kept on going for who knows how long, but in the midst of this bloody carnage, I began to feel something different. As my anger and desire for power grew, more and more of this red mist began to leak from my body. At that instant, it probably looked like I was going super saiyan or something.

It was as if time had slowed down, I could clearly see these creature coming, even those trying to attack from my blind spots. Actually, my mask was covered with blue blood preventing me from seeing clearly but as this red mist began to leak, I felt like I could see without my eyes. Truly a weird sensation.

My blade became sharper, truer and more unforgiving as I slashed everything coming my way into pieces. I eventually stopped feeling pain from my wounds and even started to enjoy this sensation. I was not only drunk on alcohol, I was slowly getting battle drunk as well.

Eventually, after an unknown amount of time, the creatures stopped their attacks. I stood there, blade in hand and panting away my fatigue. I wiped the blood of my mask to see what was happening but this blue crap was sticky and hard to clean, so I simply removed my mask and had a look around.

I was standing waist deep in blue guts and surrounded by a wall of corpses. How many did I kill? Hundreds? All around, the remaining creatures were running away, finally admitting defeat. I took a few steps forward toward a guts free location to inspect myself.

My clothes were ruined, but the hundreds of cuts all over my body seemed superficial. I was bleeding but nothing like a hemorrhage or anything life threatening. Remembering what had just happened, I was amazed. I totally looked like a super hero back then didn’t I?

Realizing I had survived this encounter, my legs gave way and I fell to my knees. I was shaking like a leaf and tears began to flow from my eyes. “S-scary.. Sob* Sob* That was, fucking scary. Bluarggg*” I couldn’t help but puke the content of my stomach. No, I am definitely not a super hero. I am just a stupid NEET after all.

Sensing fear overcoming me, I sheathed my machete and ran back to the loader. I closed the cabin’s door shut and kept crying for a few minutes while clenching the steering wheel with both hands. I was in a poor state and my entire body screamed to run back to my bunker.

For the next few minutes, I fought to regain my composure. I concentrated on encouraging thoughts like the fact that I had just discovered how weak these creatures truly were. This thought eventually lead me to another conclusion. I began to recall how all the creatures I had killed so far had been easily ripped apart by gun shots.

Then sudden illumination! The creatures from this world, may look scary but, their constitution was very weak. Compared to them, the human body seemed a lot stronger and sturdier. Maybe I wasn’t in such a bad position after all. Thinking about it, maybe this big 5 ton loader was even overkill for these…

Just like that, I had regained confidence and came back to my senses. Then there was this red mist thing that had also happened. What was that all about? From having watched so many anime, I developed a theory but had yet to prove it. My theory was that this red mist was maybe secreted like some sort of OP adrenaline.

When in danger, maybe this red ‘energy’ was being used to boost the body’s performance. This would explain how I managed to suddenly become stronger and faster. Or maybe I was just too drunk and imagined all this? No, alcohol doesn’t cause hallucinations, I think.

Still holding the steering wheel firmly, I first looked right toward the way back home, then left, to the big ‘Canadian Tire’ located right next to the grocery store. Canadian Tires are large surface stores offering sporting goods, hardware, electronics, housewares, garden and patio, and auto accessories.

It was right next to where I was, and it was where I would be able to obtain fuel preservative, propane tanks, and most importantly, guns and ammunition. I was injured but, I had already eliminated the danger and didn’t feel like coming back another time just for this.

Gathering my mental strength, I started the big wheel loader and drove the few meters separating me from my goal. I still had free space in my trailer and needed to make this trip count. With that in mind, I did the same as with the grocery store and backed up the trailer in front of the store doors.

By the way, that loud beeping sound this thing makes while backing away was seriously starting to annoy me as I feared it would bring some more unwanted attention. As I was about to stop the engine, a giant shadow swept through the parking lot. “A plane???” I instinctively thought judging by the size of the shadow.

I lowered my head and leaned forward, trying to look at the sky through the front cabin’s window. I searched for a bit but couldn’t see anything. I hadn’t seen anything but couldn’t shake this bad feeling. I broke out in a cold sweat, and I had this deep pit in the bottom of my stomach telling me to run away.

As soon as that thought crossed my mind, a blood-chilling roar froze me in place. “ROOOOAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!” Then, out of nowhere, it landed in front of my loader in an ungraceful manner that made the entire ground shake under the creature’s weight.

The flying creature had bluish grey scales and was almost as big as my loader. By all mean, this thing looked exactly like what anyone would call a dragon. Dragons truly exist? No way! The giant monster was displaying its size by opening its wings and growling in a threatening manner.

For the first time in my life, I understood what it was to piss your pants out of fear. This thing was visibly trying to pick a fight but there was something strange about its behaviour. It didn’t feel like it was threatening me, it actually felt more like this creature was trying to pick up a fight with my giant vehicle.

Suddenly, the creature took a deep breath while arching its neck backward. You know, I played a lot of Skyrim, so I immediately associated this movement with an incoming fire-breath. Panicking, I raised the bucket up to shield myself against whatever was coming and charged forward, toward the beast.

Seeing my giant vehicle suddenly move, the creature responded by aggressively latching itself to the bucket. The dragon attacked furiously, making the entire vehicle shake under its strength like it was a toy truck. This creature was not weak like the others, in fact it was currently biting chunks off of the steel bucket as I pushed it backward.

Since the bucket was raised a few meters up, the dragon eventually began to be pushed on his back and under the bucket. I didn’t want it to get too close to the tires since it could rip pieces of reinforced steel, the tires wouldn’t have any chance.

After pushing the creature around 15 meters backward, I eventually pinned it against a parked vehicle. The small sedan got immediately crushed under the beast’s weight as I tilted the bucket downward, over the dragon’s chest. Then, I dropped the bucket on the beast, using all the weight and hydraulics strength this machine had.

My goal was to cut the dragon in half, using the bucket as a dull blade. This machine was capable of applying an insane amount of force yet, even as the two front wheels began to rise off the ground, the dragon’s body still refused to break.

This was just insane! This machine is capable of crushing cars and everything yet can’t put a dent on this monster. The dragon was still furiously struggling like a devil drowning in holy water, the entire vehicle almost verging on it’s sides. I was in trouble, this thing wasn’t an animal. This thing was a fucking flying fortress.

While I was still jerking the bucket around, trying to break the beast’s ribs or whatever this creature’s anatomy had placed there, I was thinking as hard as I could, trying to figure out a method to kill it. Without warning, the dragon arched its neck back and opened it’s mouth before freeing hell fire on earth.

It was my first time seeing a creature truly capable of spitting fire, this was mesmerizing. It was amazing certainly but I quickly began to panic as the heat of said fire was way over what I would have expected. Luckily, the bucket blocked most of it but was left glowing red hot after the attack. If this reaches me, I’m a dead man.

Then, the two front tires simply exploded, as air quickly escaped them via the gaping melted holes left by the creature’s flames. “FUCK!! Now this thing can’t go anywhere anymore.” Sensing that the time to abandon ship was ripe, I grabbed my backpack, kicked the door open and jumped down.

First falling on my face due to drunkenness, I jumped back on my feet sobered up by fear. I ran away toward the store as fast as I could, not daring to look back even once. Once I had judged to be far enough, I turned around and aimed my rifle at the beast.

I was shaking so much that I couldn’t align a perfect shot. I had to take a few seconds to breathe and calm down before shooting. “Breathe in, breathe out. I can do it!” I laid myself on the ground for better stability and aimed at the creature’s head. “BAM! Ting!* Eh?” The bullet ricochet on its head, barely leaving a mark.

The creature became angered and trashed around even more. Panic setting in, I immediately felt like running away. This thing couldn’t be killed! But soon my eyes focused on something encouraging. The creature had a bloody belly and for once, it was red blood like mine.

If this thing can bleed, it can be killed. (What movie was that a quote from again? Ho right, predator.) Observing the creature through my magnifying rifle scope, I observed where the bleeding came from and immediately discovered it’s weak point.

The bucket teeth had penetrated the dragon’s belly. Therefor, its belly should be its weak spot right? Moving right a bit to get a better shot I laid back down and aimed. “BAM!” This time the bullet went right in, creating a wound that soon began to bleed.

Encouraged, I kept firing, hoping to touch its vital organs but the damned thing kept struggling as if it was getting angrier and angrier. I ended up emptying 2 entire clips in its belly before finally witnessing the creature losing strength. It wasn’t dead, but was certainly mortally wounded.

Not wanting to waste any more bullets on it, I decided to let it bleed out. Finally feeling safe again, I began to look up to the sky, looking for any sign of more of them coming. Maybe these things were social creatures. If that was the case, I needed to get as far away from here as possible.

I ran to the Canadian Tire store and forced the door open with my crowbar. I quickly entered and closed the door behind me. There, I sat on the floor behind the cash register and held my gun close to my chest. It was too much, I had almost died too many times today. This was way more than I could take.

I remained there, hidden in the dark as I silently sobbed my fear away. Not all creatures are weak, not all of them could be crushed bare handed. Cockroaches, hell dogs, devil chickens and all those were small fries but what I had just met right now was the real deal.

This world had some really dangerous creatures living in it but a dragon? This didn’t make sense. In a different world, it would be normal to see creatures looking strangely similar to those on earth but creatures from fairy tales… How is that possible? I mean, the damned thing could have looked like a dragon but, spitting fire for real?

“Did I get transported into a fantasy world?….. STATUS WINDOW!…….” I then yelled. Obviously, nothing happened.. “Am I stupid?” There’s no such thing as real game fantasy worlds. Could it be that all these legends of fire breathing creatures in my world came from dragons from this world being transported to earth by accident in the past? Definitely possible.

“Urggg I feel like I’m going to be sick.” Wait… If dragons made it to my world, could there be a way for me to go back ? This is something I definitely need to look into. I was there, naked, covered in blue smelly bodily fluids, covered with wounds and my spirit half-shattered.

Worst of all, night-time was quickly approaching and I had no more than a few hours left on my mask filter. Even if another dragon appeared, I couldn’t stay here for the night and would have to venture out by foot to avoid alerting it.

I could not see a possibility for things to get better if such creatures lived around here. After struggling to move my sore body, I finally got back up and looked out the windows. Strange, no creature had come to eat the dragon’s remain. Could the local creatures fear it even after its death?

I watched the puddle of blood increase in size as the dragon emptied itself, then began to think about something else. “Red blood…” This was the first creature with red blood I had seen so far actually. (If I exclude the rat I spotted a while back.)

Does that mean I can eat its meat? Insectoids have yellow or green slimy stuff as blood, other creatures have either blue or purple blood. None had red blood like me or this dragon. Knowing that, it could mean I can eat it right? It’s red meat so I could theoretically have some dragon steaks?

Then my mind began to drift somewhere else, incapable of concentrating on one thought at a time. Could it be that instead of coming from this world, dragons were originally transported from earth the same way I ? Then dragons went extinct on earth but not here?

That would mean that dragons did exist in my world as well as ruining my idea about finding a way back home. “No no, let’s not think about that right now” I then thought to myself. I only had around one hour of daylight left before the short period of red light. I would prefer to be home before that if you ask me but for that I needed a new vehicle.

Parked right in front of the store was a brand new ford f-150. It being parked so close would usually indicate that it belonged to an employee, or a customer. I quickly went to the hunting section of the store and grabbed a few pieces of clothing. Mine were all ripped to shreds.

Then I began to go from one cadaver to the other, looking in their pockets. With all the gross stuff I have to touch daily, it’s no wonder I always wear gloves. At my 6th corpse I finally found a key with a ford logo on it. I nervously walked near the glass door while holding my gun near my chest.

I was nervously scrutinizing the sky, looking for any sign of danger. I don’t know how long I stood there but I was frozen in place, scared to death of what could be out there. I pulled the set of keys out of my pocket and used the remote to unlock the doors.

This made the indicators blink, confirming those were the correct keys and also confirming that the truck’s battery still had a charge. You see, batteries have this tendency of discharging themselves if unused over a long period of time. It had been around 4 months now since this vehicle had last moved but the battery seemed still good.

I now had three choices ahead of me. 1: Jump in the truck and haul ass back home. 2: Quickly unhook the trailer from the now useless loader and attach it to the pick-up truck before going home. Or 3: Do all I said in choice 2 but also gather all the equipment I need from this store before leaving.

Since I didn’t want to come out of my bunker ever again, option 3 was the one I was contemplating. I didn’t want to have to come back here in the near future. Decided, I stuffed the keys in my pocket and began to gather all I needed, creating a pile in front of the door like at the grocery store.

I took everything I judged useful, ammunition, guns, propane tank, fuel preservative, giant plastic tarp and other survival equipment. I had managed to find many gunpowder containers in store and in the back-store. I had so much that I began contemplating the making of bombs.

For creature like dragons, I needed something capable of packing a bigger punch than my current 958. From what I had just witnessed, only my 338 Lapua sniper rifle could kill such a thing. I had always called it my “hand cannon”. It was not a .50cal but it was the biggest calibre we were allowed to own back in Canada. Grenades or other explosives could definitely be useful as well.

After estimating my pile of stuff to be the maximum size the trailer could still carry, I walked up to the glass door once again and looked at the sky. No movement, and still no scavenging creatures eating the dragon’s corpse. Could this also mean that dragon’s flesh isn’t comestible?

I was eyeing the beast’s tail with saliva filling my mouth. Strange how fear turned to hunger once the beast was finally dead. I slowly pulled the remote out of my pocket, aimed it at the pick-up truck and pressed start. I could hear the starter having barely enough electricity to make the engine turn but since it was a brand new truck, its engine eventually came to life energetically.

“Good good!” I pulled my bolt cutter out of my bag and ran to the still fuming loader. I cut the chains attaching it to the trailer as fast as possible and cut the straps with my machete. I then jumped into the truck and backed it into a position allowing me to turn the trailer to the left.

Once this was done, I hooked the trailer and backed it away in front of the store door. The entire time, I kept my eyes toward the sky, my blood freezing in my veins at every cloud passing overhead. Confident that the alternator had charged the battery enough, I stopped the engine and ran back into the store.

I waited a few minutes, worried about the noises I had just made but nothing happened other than a few cockroaches walking nearby, completely ignoring the dragon’s corpse. Seeing the sun slowly setting, and the sky turning red, a sense of urgency prompted me to open the trailer and begin to load as fast as possible.

Once that was done, I rapidly closed the trailer, started the truck engine and prepare to drive away but I stopped next to the dragon carcass. “Urgggggg FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!” The only chance at red meat on this planet, I couldn’t let it pass.

I ran out and began to hack away at the tail but my machete blade simply kept bouncing off of it as if it was a steel pipe or something. Annoyed I stopped the truck engine and ran back into the store. There, I grabbed a giant gas powered concrete saw, grabbed an oil canister and ran back outside.

These things were like chainsaws, they didn’t simply use fuel, but a mix of fuel and oil, that’s how these engines lubricate themselves. I emptied most of the oil canister and siphoned some fuel from a nearby car. Then, I mixed it all and fuelled the saw. A few cranks and the engine started in a cloud of blue oily smoke.

This thing made so much noise that I couldn’t stop but keep looking around and at the sky. I immediately attacked the tail, cutting it from the base. Luckily, with the proper tools, dragons could be chopped to pieces apparently.

Unable to lift the tail I chopped it into more pieces and loaded into the back of the pick-up truck. Seeing that even with this much noise no creatures were coming near me, I assumed that dragons were truly feared by the local fauna and so a genius idea came to me.

Rapidly, I severed its head as well and loaded it into the truck. My idea was to use this head as a trophy capable of keeping creatures away from my territory. With my vehicle now loaded at full capacity, I jumped back into the truck and drove away without looking back.

The sun had set a few minutes ago, right now the only light was coming from the red sun which made everything look crimson red. It was light, but not as bright as with a normal sun. As I drove, I kept seeing glowing eyes because of my headlamps, looking at me from the side of the road as I drove past them as fast as possible.

My eyes were looking in all directions, hoping not to meet anything too troublesome. I rapidly reached the convenience store and as I kept looking everywhere, I finally spotted something I had not noticed on my way to the stores earlier. On the other side of the road, in front of the convenience store was a truck stop.

Incredulous, I stomped on the break and pulled my head out of the truck’s window. It was there that I had spotted a massive fuel truck a month back. Remember the tanker truck I wanted to use to store all the fuel I have? Well it didn’t look like it was going to happen anymore.

“T-the tanker t-truck… is gone.”