Chioma had grabbed me, and speedily led me through the chaos unfolding, and we reached the underground stairway.
It seemed empty and no sounds came up from underneath.
"It wasn't human. Or even from earth. We must get away from here." Chioma breathing heavily, "I saw it. Its insane. Not in my wildest dreams did I think something like this could happen!"
She slammed her hand into the wall, closing her eyes and took a pause. "Let's go", she said and went down the stairs.
I quickly followed her.
It only took a few seconds to reach the underground parking space. It was completely dark apart from a weak blue light halfway down the area. It came from a stairway leading to the grocery store.
"I can't see the driveway to the streets. It's too dark"
Chioma grabbed my hand, "lets go and find it, there should be some light from outside when we get closer."
We moved through the parking lot without trouble, Chioma leading me by hand, only occasionally bumping into a car and changing direction.
"I think it's blocked." She stopped up and let go of my hand.
Feeling my way forward with my hands in front of me. I moved my hand over a nearby car and reached the wall.
Moving to my right along the wall, the smoothness of concrete changed into sharp edges of stone and other elements.
"It is. This is certainly the way, but it's filled with bricks and destroyed things."
"We have no choice but to go back up then." She sounded beaten.
"No, I'm not going back to those things. I saw some light from the grocery stairs. We should go up and have a look. Maybe we can reach another street from there." I really didn't want to go back up to the chaos and evil creatures.
We moved towards the grocery store, in the same manner as before. As we reached the stairs, we regained visibility and could walk properly again.
As we ascended, the light became stronger.
There was a glass door, broken, hanging on its hinges. I pushed it to the side as we went in.
Miraculously the store had mostly survived the blast. Most of the store shelves still standing.
However, there were many people inside. Grabbing what they could before leaving.
"FREY" someone called. "Over here!"
A huge man came walking in our direction, appearing by the colonial shelves.
I recognized him immediately. It was Rolf's friend. He was two meters tall and semi-alcoholic. His body clearly showing signs of beer and fast-food.
He was fat. No other way to put it. Not regular fat, with floppy arms and rows of fat. Simply big.
I bet even if I went into the fetal position, his stomach would still be larger than my entire body. He was truly big.
With his acorn-red hair and large brown beard, he truly looked like a Viking from our history stories. Though he wasn't too smart.
The times I met him at the pup, having beers with my uncle, I always thought that he maybe had some sort of mental disability. But they never talked about it, being good friends. And I never mentioned it.
"Magnus! What are you doing here?" I asked in surprise.
"What do you mean? We need food of course, and my place is gone."
I closed the gap between us, with Chioma in tow.
"Do you know what's going on? It's chaos outside. Those blue light things, something came out of them. Started killing people!"
He scratched his beard. "I went here with Rolf, he's on the roof. He is the one who told me to gather food here, while he would try to look at the situation from above."
"Rolf is here?" I was surprised again. "We were actually trying to find him."
Magnus smiled, "Good thing that I found you first, his home got the worst of it. It crumbled just after we went outside to Rolfs car."
Commotion started at the street entrance to the store.
A group of guys had appeared and grabbed a man trying to exit with his bounty of looted things.
"This is all ours now! Drop it or I'll kill you!"
We all turned our heads towards them.
The one who spoke, punched the man two times in the head before he dropped what he had.
"Good boy. Now run along. And don't think about coming here again!"
They turned their attention away from him, and I briefly had eye contact with the one who was clearly the leader.
I turned to Magnus. "Lead me to Rolf. Let's get out of here."
He had a perplexed expression on his face, "I'll just grab the stuff I gathered before." He turned around and went to the aisle he came from.
"No Magnus, just leave it, we need to go." But he ignored me.
The gang had spread out, starting to gather people, or beating them up if they didn't drop what they had taken from the store. Coming closer every second.
Magnus finally reappeared, with a big black plastic bag swung over his shoulder. It was stocked to the brim by the look of it.
"Let's go Magnus, fast now, lead the way!"
He grunted, waved with his left arm, and went towards the far end of the store.
Following his path with my eyes, I saw the doors to the groceries storage room was fully open. The way to the roof must be in there.
But it was too late. The gang members had already noticed us.
It was hard to overlook Magnus, especially with a full bag over his shoulders like that.
"HEY! You, there! Stop and give us that bag!" It was the leader, pointing towards us.
Chioma had been silent so far, going with the flow, but she quickly yelled now, "RUN FREY! Let's move!"
We ran to Magnus, and I gave him a quick tap. "Run Magnus, those guys are crazy!" He didn't look, just started running after us.
"Get them! Follow those people and fuck them up!" I heard the call behind me and I ran faster.
Reaching the open doors, I noticed the portal that gave the grocery store its light. Something was wrong with it.
Of course, it being here was wrong in the first place. But this one looked different. And only the lower part of it was visible. As if it had phased through the ceiling and got stuck halfway through.
But that wasn't all. It was slightly shimmering, very slowly. Almost looked like those old 3d games where a monster had spawned on top of another of the same kind, and the passive movements of them made them look like they were lagging.
Chioma yelled from further inside the room, having passed me as I waited for Magnus. "I found the stairs, this way!"
Magnus came running, but as he passed the doorway he suddenly fell forward, hard.
Behind him stood a crazy looking guy, with a skull tattoo on his chest. He had just swung a baseball bat, hitting Magnus across the back, making him fall.
Magnus was already getting up again, sturdy as he was.
When I gained eye contact with the culprit his expression changed from malicious pleasure to pure anger.
"I remember you! Is that crazy woman here Aswell? I'm going to make her my bitch all night!"
His gang members only ten meters away and closing fast.
"Let's move Magnus!" We ran to the stairs and rushed up, with the skull-tattoo and co. close behind.
Reaching the roof first, I saw Rolf in the light from the half of the portal, protruding between us. He was talking to Chioma.
I couldn't read his expression. Not happy, not angry, not worried or calm. Just resolute.
I turned around, and Magnus appeared.
He quickly swung about, and with roar of victory he clashed his huge knee into the skulls face.
Craack
The sound filled the air as he stumbled backwards into the gang members behind him, and they all fell down the stairs.
"Rolf, we are in trouble. Those guys are serious."
He looked at me. Finally, a small smile appeared.
"What took you so long, I though you would come after your tour." He laughed, clearly knowing what had held me back.
"We need to get away, have you spotted any way down? For sure they'll come back up any second."
"Your friend got me up to speed. But sadly, there is nowhere down, but those stairs." He pointed to the stairs.
I could hear they were coming back up.
Magnus tried to close the metal door, but it was impossible. It had been bent in such a way, that it didn't fit anymore.
The door sprang open, and he stepped back, defending himself from the attack that instantly began.
"Kill the big guy. Capture the others!" The leader had joined the gang.
A guy kicked at me, and I grabbed his leg, making him trip and fall.
At the same moment I got tackled by another, hitting the ground hard with him on me.
I quickly wrestled about, managing to place my elbow in his face.
Chioma and Rolf were both fighting two guys each.
I got my guy in a headlock. Pulled and twisted.
His neck broke.
I felt dizzy. I had never heard that sound before. Never felt the motion of a body going limb.
But hell if I was going to die without a fight!
Rolf had managed to throw a guy over the edge of the roof. But the other guy was hammering his arms with an iron pipe.
Chioma was yelling frantically. She had given a guy a bloody nose, but was held down by him, her hands locked.
While the other guy was trying to pull her pants down, revealing her white G-string, laughing enthusiastically.
But I couldn't help them.
The skull appeared next to the leader, holding one hand over his chin and mouth, and supporting himself on the stairway wall with the other.
"That's the guy! Fucking kill him already!" Pointing at me.
The leader grinned and spoke to me. "So, you're the guy who made my brother so riled up!"
I didn't have time to react, before he came. He was fast! A flying kick directly to my center, made me fly backwards.
Falling, I felt the time slowed down.
Chioma was crying and screaming, the guy had already pulled her G-string to the side. Who knew what or where he was touching now.
Rolf had fallen, the iron pipe doing its damage.
Magnus didn't even move, having taken the brunt of the attacks. Then I felt something hit the back of my head.
Time stopped.
The portal shattering into tiny glass pieces, then everything went dark.