Chapter 7: Tunnels and Dreams.

Crule kept running. He did as he was told, never looking back, he just ran. The tunnel twisted and turned sometimes going down sometimes going up. Soon Crule came to a fork in the road. He couldn’t choose so he took his shovel and let it fall. The path it fell toward he would go.

The shovel fell to the right so he ran right. The tunnel started to get thinner and thinner, soon Crule couldn’t run anymore and can only crawl.

By then, he was tired. Too tired. He lost count of time but it seemed like hours and hours of running. Trauma and fatigue took his consciousness and he passed out asleep.

What he didn’t know was how intelligent the insects were. They knew their prey couldn’t have escape far, so they took their time to enjoy their harvest before pursuing.

______

In Crule’s dream he was in the fetal position in a dark room. He was crying.

[Crule]: Was it my fault? Why did this happen…

Suddenly a feminine voice seem to come from beside him.

“Crule, Crule, my master, wake up.”

The voice seem to beckon Crule in his dreams.

Crule looked up and saw a ball of light.

“Don’t worry, I will soon be there. Stay alive until then my master.”

The voice seem to enthusiastically proclaim. The ball of light flew away. It then squeezed out of the black sphere Crule was in. Crule could hear another voice coming from the other side. It was deep and prideful. It was faint so Crule couldn’t hear it clearly.

“Did you find it?”

“Yes master, I found you.”

“Take this, give it to him when time comes.”

“This will be our last chance.”

“Yes, let’s prevent this from happening in the first place.”

“I love you.”

“Me too.”

The Black sphere repaired itself and Crule could no longer hear the voice.

Fatigue took him in his dream and he slept the remaining time without dreams.

______

When Crule woke up, he was lying in the thin tunnel with only the glow of some deposit of metal lighting up the place.

No one else could be seen around him. He wonder who the voices were.

Recovering his strength a little thanks to sleeping, he got back up and crawled on forward. The tunnel once again seem to get wider. This time, the tunnel was purely sloping upwards. It seems like he made the correct choice at the fork.

Honestly for having lost so many parental figures, Crule had matured. He knew he could not wallow in self-pity or self-blame. He live was entrusted upon him by the ones who loved him and he can’t waste it.

Remembering the final words of Simon and Burnst, he started running again.

______

The light exited from the black sphere and appeared in the form of a girl around twenty years old.

[Man in the black overcoat]: Did you find it?

[Woman in white]: Yes master, I found you.

Reaching into his pocket the man took out a small sphere about an inch in diameter. He put it up to his head and a green light shined from the sphere. The sphere slowly changed color and soon looked like a purified gem.

[Man in black overcoat]: Take this, give it to him when time comes.

[Woman in white]: So this is our last chance?

[Man in black overcoat]: Yes this is.

He turned around and looked at his foe.

The man and the woman was actually standing in the empty void of space without any protective suits. In front of them was a grotesque creature of pure death. The size of probably a planet, it was the shape of a large maggot with thousands of eyes, nose, and mouth all over it. They were all twitching uncontrollably. The creature opened what seem to be a mouth and light started to gather.

[Man in black overcoat]: Let’s prevent this disaster from happening in the first place.

The woman looked at the enemy then back at her master. Tears slowly fall from her eyes.

[Man in black overcoat]: Don’t cry, this will all be over soon.

[Woman in white]: I love you.

The man looked back at the woman with warm in his eyes.

[Man in black overcoat]: Me too.

He hands the gem and a dagger to the girl and faced the abomination.

The girl turned around and used the dagger to slice the empty void of space. A small crack appeared and she stuck bother her hands in it and pry it open.

She jumped in and the crack quickly closed up.

[Man in black overcoat]: Time to end this, you annoying asshole.

The disgusting creature fired a condensed beam of light from his mouth as the man flew at it. A pale grey aura surrounded the man right before he collided with the beam.

Then the silence of space returned. The empty space of void filled with light.

Then there was nothing.

______

The woman pin pointed the place she went to last and flew over there.

It seems moving a small bit in the place she was took a lot of effort.

Soon she found a mirror in the void, in the small mirror that show the reflection of Crule’s face in complete terror. She dived toward the mirror and used the dagger to stab it. A hole opened up and she entered it.

______

Crule kept running through the tunnels endlessly. He started to grow increasingly hungry and with nothing to eat, he started to worry.

As Crule ran further up the tunnel, the temperature started to get warmer.

In the corner of his eyes he saw something. It was a grey mushroom, but it wasn’t just a normal mushroom. The mushroom was the size of a grown adult. Underneath it grew various colors of other mushrooms.

Crule was so hungry at that point he wondered if he should attempt to eat it or not.

While he was pondering whether to eat the mushrooms or not, the insects who were far faster than Crule had almost caught up to him.

Crule was distracted from his thoughts about the mushroom that he didn’t notice the foreign scratching sounds coming from behind him.

When he finally noticed the sound it was nearly too late.

He turned around and saw death in the face. The insects were only five meters away from him and were coming in fast.

Crule’s expression turned into despair.

Then out of nowhere, a hole opened up.

From it came a woman in white.

But something was wrong.

Everything from the waist down was missing from the woman. It seemed as if she was cleaved in half by a cleaver.

[Woman in white]: Shit, I wasn’t fast enough…

The sudden appearance of the woman and the approaching insects was such a confusing scene.

Hearing the scratching sound, the woman looked up at the insects.

[Woman in white]: Ah, just some Glutos bugs, and here I thought it was the Queen.

With a wave of her hand the insects stopped. Then cracks started to form on their exoskeleton/carapace. Then green fluid started to leak out from them in large amounts. The fluid slowly gathered in a ball above them.

[Woman in white]: Let’s just bleed them dry and remove the annoyance for now, I don’t have much time left.

Crule starved in confusion at the scene.

Just what is happening right now…?