It was described as "something out of Lovecraft." The newscasters that hadn’t been driven completely mad immediately on impact continued to do their best to provide up-to-the-minute coverage of what was called "E-Day" in the coming days and weeks. Cities were abandoned in the wake of the newly transformed Horrors.
And just how did humanity come to that name?
At the time, there was no colloquially agreed upon name for the creatures. Some had heard the phrase "nightmares" over pirate radio, and had stuck with that. Others chose "abominations." Eventually, through cultural osmosis, or whatever culture was left, humans had learned to avoid large metropolises for fear of them. Statistically, that is where the biggest concentrations of "Horrors" were found. And why?
Because they had once been humans.
-
Horrors, a Short History, by L. Linden Carter.
Nile closed the hand-written paperback gently, so as not to destroy any more of the yellowing, untreated paper than had already been worn away by age. He sat back in the creaky, damaged seat of a burnt-out car, what remained of an old station wagon. He tucked the book, a thick number, bound by weak staples, within his jumpsuit pocket. Above him, and through the torn metal roof of what used to be a vehicle, stars twinkled gently, and the almost benevolent glow of the moon seemed to lull the young man into dreams. Though his bedding arrangement was far from what he’d call comfortable, it was the best he’d had in weeks, aside from riding within her cockpit.
"You know you could’ve been reading with me, right?" A female voice came from what used to be the passenger’s side door. It sounded slightly irritated, even through the digital filter.
"Speak of the devil."
A gentle smile crossed Nile’s face, mocha-colored skin lit by the harsh LEDs emanating from his partner’s crystalline visor.
"January, you know I can’t read that while I’m inside you." Nile began, earnestly attempting to explain himself. In truth, he hadn’t yet gained the dexterity necessary to operate his cohort’s controls while reading a book. It took all his ability to operate a firearm.
"Then at least let me scan the thing, for archival purposes." January leaned down until her huge frame was level with what used to be the car’s windshield and held out a lithe, metallic hand towards Nile. Actuators spun and whirred quietly as she did so, a sound that comforted January’s partner immensely. The warm Summer air caressed Nile, blowing through his deadlocked hair gently.
He stared at his partner for a long time, taking in her features. The tips of her metallic fingers were sharpened tungsten, claws that could tear open concrete if she so chose. Her yellow-painted chestplate resembled armor more than an approximation of a woman’s chest, and yet Nile had always felt January’s shape was attractive to him. He cursed the designer who had granted her these female wiles.
“It couldn’t hurt, could it?” Nile pondered.
"Remember the last time you attempted to "archive" some literature I scavenged?" He replied, fishing the makeshift book that was more like a political pamphlet in size, out of his jumpsuit’s breast pocket. The reflective Cyrillic lettering along the sleeves glinted as it caught the lights on January’s chest.
"I simply followed procedure, pilot." January responded, surprisingly straightforward.
"What kind of procedure involved you busting open a comic book and destroying the bindings? Do you know how much comic books sell for?" Nile adjusted the surprisingly intact car seat until he was sitting upright once more. He stared at January, genuinely curious. He hadn’t bothered to ask at the time, but now couldn’t hurt.
"I was following a process known as "scanlation"," January began, "my archives told me this was the most efficient way to preserve drawn media." She was clearly being honest. Nile could barely operate the computer to run diagnostics on her, let alone the internet to confirm what she had said. It was likely better to take her word.
"Yeah, but I was trying to sell that…" Nile sighed. He couldn’t even begin to be disappointed with her. January’s tail swung back and forth gently in recognition of her partner’s apparent resignation. It was mesmerizing to watch.
"The stars in the sky couldn’t put a man to sleep like watching that tail." He thought to himself. It genuinely seemed like whatever roboticist had designed the exosuit had given her curves in all the right places.
“Is it fun?” Nile asked, suddenly.
“Is what fun, darling?” January responded.
“Scanning books.”
“Well, it’s sort of like reading them, except they’re archived forever.”
“I mean, if I read something I like, I remember it for a while.”
“But if I scan something, I can remember it forever.”
"Yeah, but January," Nile sighed a little, "I’m never gonna be able to read Magnificent: Volume 2 ever again."
At this, January’s actuators spun quietly. She contemplated saying something to assuage his worry. Humans, she had learned, were extremely sentimental. Even this human, a creature she had come to feel something resembling a romantic feeling for, wasn’t immune.
"I treasure my human. I think that’s enough, right?" The visualizer that sometimes displayed a basic face upon the exosuit’s visor switched on, and January’s confused expression was displayed across it. Her status indicator light flashed a strange orange-yellow, blinking after several seconds.
"It’s the same thing I feel when I imagine something happening to you." The young man had left the relative shelter of the burnt out car husk, stretching as his worn combat boots crunched dry soil and gravel.
"I’m nearly indestructible. And even if I weren’t, you could transfer my AI core."
"To what, January?" It was obvious Nile really liked the form she’d always been in. The armored combat exosuit she inhabited was, to both of their knowledge, the only body she’d ever had.
While she tabulated and processed a response, Nile pulled his goggles over his eyes. The tranquility of the night made him regret that the pair were here for a job.
"Babe, it’s time." He said, nonchalantly.
"Finally! And here I thought I’d have to comfort you, or something. You humans are all so unpredictable." January let out a relieved laugh, her shoulders and visor opening slowly so Nile could climb inside. She presented her hand in a graceful way, like a princess in a fantasy novel. For a moment, the display of delicacy took her pilot by surprise.
Nile took his time grabbing her hand and climbing upward. Eventually, he reached the top of the automaton and climbed inside, his legs fitting into the spots they were expected to, without much trouble. As he slotted in his hands and arms, the visor closed above him, and he felt strangely claustrophobic. January’s heads-up display lit up his vision and he could see directly through the crystalline helmet that adorned the top of his girlfriend’s head.
“I’m… still not used to that, you know.” Nile said, nervously.
“Hah, it’s okay. You’ll have to get accustomed to being inside me sooner or later.” January chuckled mischievously.
Nile’s cheeks grew hot as he tested the grip within the arm slots.
“Let’s go, alright?”
The pair began walking slowly through the clearing, further away from the husk of the burnt-out car and towards a large, cracked wall. It reminded Nile of castle walls from old books he had read. The crunching of dried leaves underneath reminded the pilot that just a week ago, the trees were drying up and shedding their foliage.
“Hey, January?” Nile called for his partner’s attention, flexing his finger control repeatedly.
“Yes, Pilot?”
“Do you think there’s any place where the weather is stable?”
“Well, I couldn’t say, but given the amount of radiation permeating almost every place we’ve been, it’d have to be in some far-flung corner of the continent.” January said, in a rather serious voice. Nile thought she sounded more like a calculator than an AI when she spoke like that.
"Then, I’d like to travel to the far-flung corners of the continent with you." Nile said, opting to be thoughtful and romantic instead of saying something that would offend the one-ton death robot he was riding inside.
"Huh!?" January sounded more like a surprised schoolgirl than a hyper-intelligent AI with her response. Nile was sure that if she could blush, the reinforced glass and other alloys that made up her visor would be a deep crimson.
"Yes, I’d like that a lot, pilot." She responded, after a few seconds of gathering herself again.
The pair had eventually reached the base of the wall, and Nile ran January’s hand up against it.
"Structural integrity couldn’t possibly be above 25%" She said.
"Best course of action?" Nile replied, curling his girlfriend’s powerful metal gauntlets into fists. The thought of a weak stone wall he could practice smashing through actually excited him a little.
"Find the front gate, Nile?" January replied, completely deadpan.
The pilot was left deflated as he commanded his legs and torso to pivot and began to move around the perimeter of the wall wordlessly.
Dried leaves gave way to dewy grass and green trees as the pair continued to follow the wall around to the other side of the seemingly endless structure.
"I can’t tell which side is natural." Nile said.
"Well, it’s all natural."
The young man ignored his partner’s snark and continued to direct her until they came to a small brook that ran underneath the seemingly impenetrable (extremely penetrable, were you to ask Nile) wall.
"Wait!" Before January could get her point out, Nile had activated the thrusters and the pair launched across the brook at tremendous speed, until the shocked pilot deactivated the propulsion system. Exhaling loudly, he relaxed all his limbs, standing there for a moment.
"You don’t even know how to adjust the levels."
"Do you have some kind of tutorial program? Otherwise, this’ll probably keep happening."
"A tutorial?" January asked.
"Yeah, some kind of instructional course."
"You want your girlfriend to run a tutorial program?"
"When you put it like that…" Nile fell silent. The sound of swaying foliage and a light breeze was the only audible sound. An owl, or whatever horrible equivalent lurked within the arcane darkness created by eldritch radiation, hooted loudly. Somewhere in the distance, January could detect something large skittering through the woods, and several heat signatures from within the walls of the stronghold.
"Heat signatures within the stronghold?"
In an instant, January had taken direct control, shocking Nile. Her tail, sharpened to a point like a spear, stood erect and ready to strike, more like a scorpion than the lizard-like figure her partner had long decided she resembled. From her back she retrieved a rifle, matching her body’s yellow-and-black color scheme. Training it on the signatures behind the wall, she continued to track them as they continued to move. Her body remained hunched, digitigrade legs primed and ready to launch a mass of metal actuators and lethal power towards the threat lying behind the weakened stone stronghold walls.
"Jan… your status indicator…" began Nile, recovering from his shock.
"Signatures detected. I’ve engaged combat mode."
Nile’s heart began pounding in his chest as the heat signatures materialized on the inside of January’s visor, made visible to the young human. Surely whatever it was didn’t know they were here? Did engaging the thrusters alert whatever word on the other side of the wall? Did it know what lie in wait on the other side? He brushed his dreaded, curly hair from in front of his eyes and tried to steady his breathing as the blips on the screen representing the targets continued to move along the wall.
Without words, Nile maneuvered his partner forward, careful not to wrap the large metal fingers around the trigger of her rifle, resting on the guard instead. He vaguely remembered a post on some BBS or other about "trigger discipline" and felt proud of himself.
As the pair tracked the signatures, neither had taken notice of the looming shadow of a gate that was quickly approaching. In fact, they had missed it so clearly that even January nearly lost her balance. The drawbridge lowered slowly, making creaking metal sounds as it did.
"Jan…" Nile began.
"Yes, I know."
The heat sources moved towards the drawbridge as it lowered. Water reflected the moon’s blue glow upon its surface, rippling gently as crusted dirt fell into it from the bridge.
January stood stock-still. If she could hold her breath or still her heartbeat, she would.
"So, d’you think it’s Horrors?" Nile asked, his hands tense on the trigger guard.
"I’m not sure! Horrors could mess with my heat sensors as well." January responded, pondering.
"Alright. Well, now would be a good time to tell me if you have some kind of active camouflage."
"What do I look like, a Stealth Suit? With plating like this?"
Nile was about to think of a rebuttal when they were interrupted by the sound of several guns cocking. A dog barked loudly directly outside of the cockpit.
“Now, you drop that weapon nice and slow, varmint.” Spoke a man with a heavy accent. From January’s visor, Nile could see the man wore a large mustache, curled at the ends, sort of like a character from an old archived cartoon his partner had shown him in the past. Not sure whether he should speak through January’s comms or let her talk, he remained silent. The exosuit’s headlamp illuminated more of the people that surrounded the pair. One of them stepped back in shock as the light’s intensity increased.
“I think this is more than five signatures, Darling.” January spoke directly into the cockpit.
“Speak up! I know you ain’t dumb.”
January’s tail swayed anxiously. A man who was behind the duo fell onto his butt. “Holy shit, sheriff! The tail’s bladed!”
“‘Plannin ta dice us up, were ya?” The man, now known to Nile as Sheriff, had readied his weapon and pointed it directly at the crystalline visor adorning January’s head.
Then, January herself spoke.
In what Nile could only assume was the most intimidating voice she could calculate, January spoke. Her voice projected at maximum volume through her comms, Nile moved her head down to face(?) the man known as Sheriff.
“I would lower my weapons, if I were you.” She spoke firmly. Her normally sweet and pleasant voice carried no emotion save for the coldness of a block of ice. Her rifle was still trained on him.
“I don’t think I will. What are ya, anyway? Fuckin feds?” Sheriff wasn’t backing down.
The rest of the group was quiet. A few held lanterns or flashlights, to which fireflies drew close, their strange purple glow randomly lighting up like some kind of strange morse code.. Even the dogs had grown quiet.
“That’s none of your concern. Are you really in any position to ask questions?” January popped a round the size of the man’s forearm out of the chamber with a *ping*, and it fell to the ground in front of him. A bead of sweat trickled down his temple, glinting in the bright, blinding LED headlight.
“Sheriff, we oughta light it up, right?” Another armed man spoke, to which Sheriff held up a hand, signaling him to stop.
“Hey…” Sheriff squinted. “I think this fuckin’ thing has a pilot. Quimby, take a look at the head here.” he motioned a man with a makeshift shield to come a little closer to January. Nile shrunk back against his beloved girlfriend’s cockpit as much as he could, but there was no doubt he had maneuvered her head too close to the resistant man.
“I’m going to kill them. If they touch you, I’ll wipe them out.” January growled internally, in her normal, caring voice, albeit threateningly. The coldness from before had melted to address her partner. Somewhere in this dire situation, Nile felt relief.
“Why don’t you come on outta there, little man?” Several of the gunmen now had their rifles trained on January’s visor. The tension grew thicker than the miasma the pair had traveled through to get here. The fireflies flickered faster and faster, their frantic dance matching Nile’s heartbeat.
“I don’t want you to kill any of them.” Nile said, swallowing spit down his dry throat nervously.
“Unfortunately, darling, there’s no laws for robotics in this world.” January responded, the growl in her voice still evident.
Nile finally understood the feeling her threatening tone elicited from him.
“You have no idea how attractive hearing you talk like that is.” He said, without a hint of shame.
A blushing face flashed across the inside of her visor. She didn’t need to say a word. Silently, Nile opened the cockpit with his hands up.
“Alright, here I am.” The young man stepped out of January as she knelt down to give him an easier time. The wrench on his belt swung gently back and forth, and he moved his goggles off of his face.
“You don’t sound so scary when you ain’t in your little weapon, huh?” Sheriff looked relieved, and extremely angry. He pointed the gun at Nile as January’s cockpit closed. She stood back up slowly, the sound of grinding gears and rolling actuators filling the night air. Seeming to get the gist of the situation, she stopped moving completely. Her tail froze in place, her hands gripping the rifle stiffly.
“Yeah, you got me.” Nile sighed loudly.
“I reckon you’ve got some explaining to do.”
“If you answer my question, mister… Sheriff?” Nile said, a little unclear.
“That’s m’name.” Sheriff’s grip on the rifle tightened. The young man felt for a second he could grab his wrench and take a swing, but thought better of it. The night air, which had been breezy ten minutes ago, was as stagnant and stale as a humid summer day. At the rate the weather was changing, the sun would simply appear on the horizon any minute now.
“The sun’s the only consistent thing in this world.” He thought to himself.
“Do you guys live here?” Nile began, sweating a little without the pleasant breeze from earlier. “Is this an Oasis?”
“I reckon it is, by way of us makin’ it one.” Sheriff replied.
“So it isn’t an Oasis. That explains why the structure didn’t appear in January’s computer.”
“Hey, boss?” The man known as Quimby spoke up as the trees in the distance rustled loudly.
“What is it, Quimby?”
“I’m thinkin we got somethin big comin.”
“Alright, here’s the plan. We kill this little bastard, take this piece of equipment, and head back inside.” Sheriff said, his voice sounding a little panicked.
“I really would rather resolve this without bloodshed.” Nile said, trying his best to sound calm.
“And I would really rather you explain what you and this piece of military shit were doin’ skulkin around our base.”
“Oh, that’s easy. I came here looking for parts to scrap. I’d heard this structure was abandoned, so my girlfriend and I came out here to check.” Nile finished, his demeanor still calm.
The rustling in the trees grew louder. Even Nile could hear it, now. Not only that, several trees began exhibiting the same behavior. Nile tried to guess what variety would appear from the forest. Insectoid, perhaps? A few of the men surrounding January began to back away, heading back towards the drawbridge connecting the road they were on to their stronghold.
“Yer girlfriend?” Sheriff said, trying not to lose his cool in front of his men.
“That’s right! I named her January.”
“You’re noth’n better’n a man who falls in love with his car. That thing ain’t alive, an ye can’t fuck it. Ain’t much of a woman, is she?”
Nile’s brow furrowed in frustration. He spat on the ground next to Sheriff, to which the disrespected leader raised the butt of his rifle.
A large oak that had been standing at the edge of the treeline let out a loud, violent crunch. It would seem to anyone, even without being able to see the specifics, that the trunk was being split.
“I wouldn’t lose your cool, Sheriff.” Nile said. “My girl wouldn’t like it much.”
He pointed the rifle straight at Nile’s head. The diminutive pilot flinched a little at the much taller bandit about to fire 7.62×54 directly into his skull. Even the shaken goons stopped moving towards their escape to take a look at the turn of events.
“That’s the FUCK it.” The leader had made to pull the trigger, but something stopped him. In an instant, a finely sharpened blade attached to the tail of a particularly feminine exosuit had sliced him from his head to his crotch. Blood sprayed from the halves of the newly vivisected Sheriff Jacob Bellvue.
“January! I told you not to kill anyone!” Nile said, the side of his face he had turned towards the slaughtered bandit covered in blood and viscera. He wiped bits off his face as several of Sheriff’s men, confused without their leader. Some of them ran for the drawbridge. One of them tried to shoot Nile. His disappointment was genuine, moreso when he saw his girlfriend’s tail raise above her head defensively.
Without a word, The assailant was impaled by a spearlike tail that had come from above to end his life like an oversized scorpion’s sting. January shook her tail and his corpse slid off, dropping into the river below the drawbridge. The trees that had started cracking at the treeline flew from their roots in the ground, a few toppling over, some of them flat-out careening into the clearing.
“No more, alright?” Nile climbed into his beloved’s hand. The hand that brought death, yet gently cradled her pilot. He clambered back into the cockpit, complete lack of finesse in his movements. In truth, Nile was scared out of his wits. He could barely even think straight. But who was he trying to impress anymore?
A moment later, the Horrors had risen from beneath the weald they had been slumbering in. The commotion probably wouldn’t have awoken them. The bloodshed, however?
That had probably done the trick.
“I’m sorry! When he pointed that rifle at you, I just lost my cool, you know!?” January replied, sounding genuinely remorseful. One of Sheriff’s men, not sure whether to aim at the duo or the approaching abominations, took a pot shot at January’s plate armor. The shot ricocheted, landing near his feet. He jumped back in fear. Before he could scream out, however, a tendril had wrapped around his ankle. In the dark of night, it looked more like it had consumed his foot. A visceral crack echoed through the air as his foot was ripped off entirely.
“Nile, this isn’t good.” January sounded a little worried.
“Yeah?”
“This looks like a swarm.”
The darkness that had removed one of the goon’s extremities extended, taking shape from a formless mass of writhing, glowing eyes and skittering legs.
Creeping darkness.
The miasma that had pursued them before they had arrived in front of the stronghold intensified. If he weren’t inside of January’s cockpit, Nile felt like he would’ve suffocated. A few of Sheriff’s remaining men forced the drawbridge door closed and were likely cowering behind it.
“dO YoU LOVE me noW?” a horrifying, ear splitting sound that attempted to mimic a human voice rose from the crawling swarm of Horrors.
“Fall back, Jan!” Nile, who hadn’t taken direct control yet, commanded. His partner obliged, leg thrusters moving her backwards rapidly as the nightmare creatures drew closer. Any of the goons who hadn’t escaped were swallowed completely by a wave of eyes and writhing limbs. Misshapen legs, bulging, catlike eyes that shifted and darted around eclectically, consuming anything living. The disgusting miasma that rose from the mass smelled of death. There was no doubt about it.
“B-BASTARD!” One of Sheriff’s men tossed his torch in fear. It landed within the writhing mass with a wet smack. The childlike legs and other bent limbs shook violently. The creature seemed to let out a cry at the impact of the flaming wood. It sounded like a baby’s cry, and had January not been reinforced, it felt like it’d crack the glass of her visor. Nile readied a shot from the rifle.
“AR-CH1E engaged.” January responded. “Aiming calibration incomplete.:”
“We don’t have time to calibrate, babe!” Nile almost yelled back.
“You’ll have to aim manually, then.” January responded, dashing and thrusting upwards to avoid the reach of the creeping darkness as it snuck its way towards the couple. Dark tendrils that nearly missed January wrapped around a tree like a looming shadow, cracking bark and wood and toppling a massive leafy elm, sending it crashing into the drawbridge.
“You know that saying about crunch time being the best time to learn?” January said, speaking without a hint of fear.
"T-that’s just too much pressure…" Nile replied, activating the upward thrusters, sending January into the sky. His hands were shaking from his partner’s rapid movements and several near collisions with a mass of writhing limbs and twitching eyes.
"Don’t worry, darling." January’s voice took on a calming tone as the pair took flight. Directly below, the creature collided with the weakened walls of the stronghold like a disgusting, otherworldly fist pounding on a door, making loud splashing and squelching sounds as inky black liquid coated the grass and filled the moat, soaking up water flowing from the creek.
"Just how high are we going, January?" Nile said, nervously. Up in the sky, the blue moon was completely visible through the clouds. Nile remembered a book he’d once read that said that the moon was supposed to be white.
"High enough for a clear shot, my love!" January replied, stabilizing in the air. Nile looked downwards and realized he could see the stronghold within the huge walls they had just been circumventing earlier. It looked like a small settlement, and in the dark of night, the panicked inhabitants scrambled about like ants as the abomination slammed itself into their protective walls, probably made worse by the death of what Nile assumed was their leader.
"Alright!" January’s voice snapped him out of his daze. Nile raised his hands, and so too did his beloved companion. January’s grip tightened around the rifle and her finger eased toward the trigger with precision Nile didn’t know he had over the controls yet.
"Here we go."
Nile looked downscope and attempted to find any kind of heart or core to the mass of blackness that flowed below, like ink spilt from a bottle knocked over by a careless quill. Nature gave way like a painstakingly written manuscript, completely coated and indistinguishable from the rest of the nightmare. He realized that the swirling liquid river of limbs and eyes converged on one point, directly below the pair.
"Think that’s the heart?" Nile asked.
"Some kind of core, darling."
Without saying a word, Nile pressed down on the trigger. Even with January’s shock absorption, the recoil made him shake a little. Huge casings fell to the earth beneath them. Nile kept firing. The rounds were tearing holes clean through the mass, revealing dead grass beneath for just a moment before being swallowed up again.
"Keep firing, darling!"
Nile did as he was told, stabilizing and firing repeatedly, the volley of rounds carving an opening within.
"Alright, now what?" Nile asked, looking at the hole in the mass directly below.
"Now we run out of power to the thrusters."
"Eh?"
Nile barely had time to react as January began falling towards the ground, quickly hitting terminal velocity.
"Let me handle this one!" The AI called out, her voice echoing outside the cockpit. Nile hurriedly scanned all of her status readouts, many of which were flashing. Nothing was red, which struck him as odd. It seemed this wasn’t even close to her full capacity.
January reached for her broad tail, which she grabbed in her powerful hand. It detached from the base at her back with no effort. In its solid, stiffened form, it felt like a spear in she and Nile’s shared senses. In an instant, he knew what to do. He brought up their other hand upon the shaft of the thick, bladed tail-spear, which only a few minutes ago had been prehensile and scorpion-like. It felt natural in the couple’s hands. Though whether this was due to his connection to his lover, or some other sixth sense was beyond Jim.
The pair pointed January’s tail downwards, and directly toward the quickly reforming Horror-mass as they reached terminal velocity.
The pair smashed into the ground with terrifying force, the hard dirt, gravel, and abominable flesh below cratering beneath their impact.
"I think I know where this is going." Nile spoke up, tail-spear clenched tightly.
"I promise you’ll love it. On a side note, have you noticed that we’re basically holding hands like this?" January sounded a little excited at the prospect.
"It feels right. It feels even better than when we’re separated." The pilot replied. "I’ve been meaning to mention it, actually. Every time we’re together like this, i-"
“-Feel like we’re completely in-sync?” January cut him off.
“Yeah!” Nile replied, the crawling chaos at their feet closing in slowly, but surely. A gunman from upon the top of the wall took a potshot. The sound of a bullet pinging off of January’s plates shook them from their romantic reverie.
“Activate the thrusters, please~” January requested politely. As swiftly as if it were his own body, Nile obliged. The looming darkness and cacophony of screams and foliage destruction melted around the pilot as he shifted his lover’s leg thrusters to full capacity, sending the pair flying forward. He gripped her tail-spear in his hands, January’s grip tightening with his own.
“We’re going to aim for that big eye, right in the center. It seems to be the core.” The AI guided Nile gently. He could feel his heart rate slow down at her calm tone. Around all the heads-up display data shown on her visor, he could see his target. The eye seemed to stare directly back at him. It didn’t have eyelids to blink. The pupil dilated suddenly upon the realization that they had technically locked eyes. Was it in rage? Terror? It bore through January’s hard alloy exterior and into Nile’s soul.
Nile readied the spear like a mounted knight, up to January’s shoulder level. The actuators inside her arms whirred as he did so. The pair was launched towards the monstrosity with all the force January could muster. Nile yelled out himself, a battlecry, and something uncommon for him. With perfect precision, and a disgustingly loud squelching sound that seemed to silence everything else, January’s tail pierced the large core eyeball.
The limbs of the creature, horrific liquid tendrils made up of separate human appendages melded together and writhing about, flailed wildy. A scream that could break concrete rang out from the center of the mass. It echoed like a thousand voices reaching crescendo at the same time.
“DoN’T yOU LOOOVe mE? wHY WOuld YOU???” The Horror cried out. Tendrils thrashed against January’s body as the pair struggled to retrieve her tail, which had penetrated directly through the eye and to the other side, releasing some sort of purple mist and soft pink tissue.
One of the limbs smashed against January’s side, and it seemed the absorbers couldn’t stop the full force. Some of the shock transferred Nile, and he exclaimed in sudden pain.
“Darling!?” January’s voice echoed in the cockpit in worry.
“Don’t worry. We’ll… just have to reinforce your side plating next chance we get.” Nile responding, his hands in the arms slots of the suit and gripping for dear life.
“Use the thrusters backwards.”
“Ah, oh yeah. I didn’t think of that.” Nile did as he was asked, still gripping the spear. The sudden backwards force sent the pair flying as well as January’s newly freed tail, and a long ocular nerve, releasing with another squelch. January’s absorbers stopped Nile from feeling anything except a lot of bumping as the lovers careened and collided with the already cracked fortress walls, crashing through in a mess of concrete and construction dust. January’s form lay up against the wall like a drunk taking a rest before catching the train in the middle of the night, and Nile was just as dizzy.
As the dust and smoke cleared, a woozy Nile could see the sun starting to rise. There was no chance they had been fighting for an entire night, and the sudden arrival of daytime seemed to be some sort of effect of the environment. January’s heat sensors were beeping quietly. It seems the signal directly ahead of them was fading slowly? The destroyed core lay on the ground in a heap like minced meat in front of the disgusting Horror mass, which had begun shriveling and letting out weaker and weaker screams, like a child continuing to throw a tantrum after losing its voice.
“My little dragoon~” spoke January softly. She began moving autonomously as she collapsed the large anti-material rifle that lay at their feet.
“Eh? Nile couldn’t even find it in him to be flustered. He let out a sigh of exhaustion, releasing his hands from the controls. January let out a shudder. He couldn’t tell if it was a system reaction or her disappointment that their hands were no longer connected.
The destroyed trees and foliage that had gotten in the Horror’s path revealed a beautiful sunrise. As the horrible, inky-black creature shriveled and shrank, Nile could see bodies, destroyed and strewn about upon the now-dead grass.
“I could finish them all, you know?” January said, taking note of where her beloved was staring. “But I won’t.”
“They won’t mess with us, I don’t think.” Nile responded, recalling the sniper who had taken aim at the pair uselessly during the fighting. He had probably run off or hunkered down after he had failed.
“If they did, I’d kill them. How could humans be so ungrateful? After we saved them!”
“We did kinda kill their leader.”
“Touche, my love~”
Nile yawned loudly. It was at this point that he realized he could barely keep his eyes open. His side ached, and his heart rate dropping so suddenly from the lapse of action had caused him to become drowsy in record time. He opened January’s visor, letting in some of the warm air.
“Aren’t you worried about breathing in any of those Horror vapors?”
“Won’t you close the visor if you sense I’m at risk?”
“Right again. As if I’d let anything hurt you.”
“That’s why you’re the best, darling.” At this, January let out a squeak, a sound Nile didn’t think the beautifully synthesized voice could produce. It echoed against the remaining intact walls of the dilapidated fortress and into the morning sky.
“Hey January?”
“Yes, Nile?”
“I’m going to sleep.” Nile said flatly.
“Do you want me to photograph this sunrise? It seems unique, like the one from the Western Sector.” January responded, recalling a strange order Nile had given her just the other day.
“Nah, no need.”
“Hmm? Why’s that?”
“I’ll be sure to see plenty more sunrises with you, so there’s no need to photograph every single one.”
January’s flustered shriek could be heard throughout the remnants of the Horror-filled forests. Nile sincerely doubted they’d be coming out to hunt tonight.
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