Veins of the Earth

Karrik tiptoed on the cracked highways from the Old World, careful not to fall in one of the massive gaps caused by the Earth’s Veins rising so long ago. It was one of the few times in the year that a scrapper could leave the protection of the New Cities to find materials to sell for food. The veins were receding, and Karrik had a job, find an old oven, he was getting paid good money for this. He would have to go to one of the Old Cities for this, some of the most dangerous places in the New World, aside from near Earth Veins of course. The spirits of the dead, killed during The Great Cataclysm, wandered the cities and the highways, though they were much harder to avoid in the cave-like cities, as compared to the clear-skied no man's land in between the New Cities and the Old Cities. Along the way to the Old City he knew best, he saw a couple of other scrappers, scavenging what little was left of the cars and trucks on the highways, they gave each other friendly waves, in-fighting between humans was far too dangerous.

He finally arrived at the Old City he knew most, his old home, he barely remembers anything from before the Cataclysm, he was only 4 after all. He thinks his parents died, but he barely remembers even that. Those few humans that survived have tried to forget what it was like before the Cataclysm. Though he doesn’t remember it from before, he does know it quite well now. Back then, it was supposedly a city of towering proportions, with buildings reaching up and touching the sky, but not now. Now, it was like a sprawling cave system of glass and metal, sinking lower into the ground each time Karrik comes back. He also knows the locations many spirits are, and as he gets closer to the entrance, he begins tying a blindfold around his eyes, to avoid those spirits near the surface.

While not physically dangerous, these particular spirits, called spirits of madness, apparently look like disfigured, horrible abominations, but oddly human. The human mind wants to keep looking at them, to attempt to comprehend them, but it can not, nobody truly can explain what they appear to be, as those who look for too long are… broken. Wandering through the darkness of his blindfold, Karrik slips. He begins to tumble down a pit, his face scratches against a jagged edge of glass sticking out of the wall, ripping off his blindfold, and causing his face to begin to bleed. He lands on his side. He can hear his ribs crack. Shit, he thinks, That’s never been there before. He quickly grabs a gauze as he looks up through the slide he just fell down. Trying to get rid of the blood on his cheek, he examines the walls of what he just fell through. There’s no getting out of here the way I came in. The floor was extremely steep, and the only handholds were sharp nails or glass, and the blood from that would attract the Vampire Shark spirits, they could “smell” blood from miles and miles away, and would try to eat whatever had the blood on it. This eating was more like a spider consuming its prey, all of the blood of the victim would just… disappear.

Looking around at where he landed, he sees something glowing in the distance. It looks like a flashlight. Maybe someone else is down here! He begins to run towards the light, and he sees the flashlight laying on the ground, pointing at a sign on the wall. Raid Apartments, huh, sounds familiar. Karrik picks up the flashlight and waves it around the room he was in, he waved it in the opposite direction in which it was pointing and- “What in the-” His voice blurts out before he can stop it. He sees the dilapidated body of… what he can assume is another scrapper, the gear seems similar to his, but the body seems to be infected by some sort of… sickness. The majority of its right side is covered in some kind of weird monochrome fleshy bulges, and most of the scrapper’s face is covered as well. Karrik almost throws up at the sight of this body. He’s seen plenty of dead bodies in his day, but this one… this one is too much.

Karrik wipes his eyes, trying to forget what he just saw, when he feels some sort of warm presence coming from a door. Looking up he sees some sort of blue light coming from the entrance of the Raid Apartments. He is drawn to it, and he gets up to walk closer to it. The closer he gets, the clearer a memory becomes in his mind. A twin sister, someone he had completely forgotten about. She died in the Great Cataclysm. They were in the Raid Apartments together, their home. The Cataclysm began, and Karrik’s father took him, and his mother took his sister. But it was too late for his sister and mom. A piece of their ceiling fell, crushing his poor sister, and leaving him and his dad scarred. Some of their family member’s blood is still on them.

Tears began to stream down Karrik’s face as he rushed toward this glowing light, his long-forgotten sister. He tries to hug it, and he feels a warm hug back. “I’m so glad I found you,” He cries through tears and sniffles. He feels a pat on his back as the light begins to go farther, and deeper, into the cave. “Are you trying to lead me somewhere sis?” He asks, and the blue light fervently bounces up and down as if trying to say yes. “Then I’ll follow!” He smiles.

The walls around them slowly transform to a monochrome flesh, with giant, white, tube-like spirit houses laden into the walls. Karrik begins to realize what these are, these are the Veins of the Earth. He reaches toward the light and taps it. “Where are you taking me sis…” The ball stops and flies towards Karrik’s heart. “The… heart?” He questions, “Of what, the earth?” The ball bounces up and down again. “Why are you leading me there?” The ball flies towards the dagger he has strapped to his chest and moves back and forth a bunch of times. “Oh! You want me to stab it!!” The ball bounces up and down again.

Karrik and the glowing light finally make it to a giant room, with what appears to be a massive human heart, almost 3 times the size of Karrik himself hanging from the ceiling. It seems to be beating, just being in its presence makes Karrik uncomfortable. It’s evil. He needs to kill it. He takes his knife off his chest with his right hand. I need to kill it. The only thought in his mind as he walks toward the heart. The beating of the heart fills his ears, he needs it to stop, HE NEEDS IT TO STOP, HE NEEDS IT TO STOP!!!! “SHUT UP!!!!!” Karrik screams as his arm thrusts towards the heart.

What’s happening to my arm! Karrik’s mind immediately clears as one half of his arm is suddenly covered in monochrome flesh, slowly spreading towards his head. Karrik looks back at the glowing blue ball as it takes the form of a broken, desecrated little girl. Wait a minute, He thinks as he begins to back away towards the entrance to the room, I never had a twin, I was an only child! I didn’t even ever live in these apartments!! What did that thing do to me!! Karrik begins to run away from the room, back on the path that his “sister” had taken him. With every step, the flesh takes over more of his arm, he makes it back to the entrance to the Raid Apartments, holding his flashlight, the flesh is at his face now, and it begins to reach towards his brain, eating it alive. Karrik collapses against the wall, dropping his flashlight, to perfectly illuminate the sign that clearly read Raid Apartments. Karrik’s vision darkens, and the last thing he sees is the broken girl stepping up to him and smiling a crooked smile, licking her lips.

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He couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d done this exact thing before, on his way to the Old City, Karrik tiptoed on the cracked highways from the Old World, careful not to fall in one of the massive gaps caused by the Earth’s Veins rising so long ago…