The sound of gunfire erupted in her ears, a relentless, staccato beat that shook Raelyn awake. Her eyes flew open to a battlefield painted in blood and smoke. Her chest heaved as she pushed herself upright, her gloved hands trembled against the cold lifeless eyes staring into an uncaring, blood-red sky.The metallic scent of blood mingled with acrid bite of ozone left behind by energy rounds searing the air.
Raelyn's head spun as she took in the scene. She wore a soldier's suit—sleek, black, and segmented like armor, faint blue circuitry glowing faintly across its surface. The insignia emblazoned on her chest was unfamiliar, its shape alien to her. Her fingers traced its edges absentmindedly, her mind struggling to process the chaos erupting all around her.
Men and women shouted orders, their voices hoarse with panic, as they fired advanced plasma rifles into a swirling mass of monstrosities. Her breath caught when she saw them—the monsters. The same monsters from that place. They were impossible creatures, their very shapes a violation of reason itself. Tendrils of shadow rippled unnaturally from forms that were both skeletal and fleshy, their bodies shimmering and shifting, as though reality itself was struggling to contain them.
How are they here? she wondered, her thoughts spiraling as her body moved backward on instinct. The soldiers' cries of anguish cut through her daze. Just ahead, a man was lifted into the air, impaled on an elongated, barbed claw. His scream was short-lived, silenced as the creature split him apart with an almost casual flick of its limb. Crimson mist sprayed across the battlefield, staining the snow and broken earth.
"Fall back! Hold the line!"
The command pierced through the din, snapping Raelyn out of her shock. Her heart pounded as she turned on her heel to run. The ground trembled beneath her boots, and she looked up just in time to see a blinding flash on the horizon. A mushroom cloud blossomed upward, its fiery, billowing form consuming the distant skyline. The oppressive heart radiated even to where she stood, distorting the air with its intensity.
Her stomach churned. That's a nuke. Her mind raced. But nukes haven't been used for centuries. Wars like this... they don't exist anymore. Not in my time.
A low, droning hum cut through her rising panic. Turning toward the sound, her eyes widened at the sight of a massive aircraft descending from the smoke-filled sky. Its sleek, angular design gleamed faintly as it hovered with an eerie cyan glow, casting unnatural shadows across the battlefield.
"Retreat!" a soldier yelled, his voice sharp with desperation. He grabbed her arm, yanking her toward the open bay door. "Get on the plane!"
Raelyn didn't resist. Her legs moved on autopilot, carrying her up the ramp. Behind her, the sound of gunfire and monstrous howls faded as the hatch sealed shut. She collapsed onto a cold metal bench, her breaths shallow and ragged, her mind racing with questions that had no answers.
Inside the plane, soldiers sat slumped against the walls, their faces hollow and pale. Bloodied armor and shattered weapons lay discarded on the floor. The faint hum of the engines vibrated through the cabin, a stark contrast to the deafening chaos they had just escaped.
Raelyn pressed a trembling hand to her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut. The memory was fragmented, blurry, but one thing surfaced clearly: 'I jumped into the void.' The image of the Bound Horror flashed in her mind—its grotesque, writhing form slipping into nothingness as she followed. 'I should be dead,' she thought, her fingers clutching her knees. 'But now I'm here.'
Her gaze landed on a digital calendar bolted to the wall. Her breath caught in her throat as she read the date: 11/21/2100.
"That's... that's impossible," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the hum of the engines.
The last thing she remembered was the year 3190. The history she had learned, the future she had lived in—none of it included this. Her thoughts fractured, unable to reconcile the time she came from with the devastation she had woken up to.
Before she could process anything further, the plane shuddered violently. Soldiers screamed as alarms blared, their piercing shrieks blending with the harsh strobe of red emergency lights. Raelyn gripped a handhold tightly, her body jerking with the aircraft's wild movements.
A shadow passed over the small, reinforced windows. Raelyn turned, her heart sinking into her stomach. Outside, an enormous birdlike creature soared beside the plane, its grotesque form unlike anything she had ever seen. Its jagged wings refracted light like shards of broken glass, and its body—a twisting amalgamation of blackened bone and pulsating sinew—seemed to shimmer with a sickly green luminescence. Hundreds of eyes were scattered across its wings, each flickering with an unnatural glow.
The creature's shriek pierced the air, rattling the plane to its core. It dove suddenly, its talons slicing into the fuselage with terrifying precision. The entire craft lurched, metal screeching as soldiers scrambled to secure themselves.
Raelyn clutched her rifle as the plane began to plummet, spinning out of control. The force of the descent pinned her to her seat, her vision narrowing as the world turned to fire and screams.
When she opened her eyes again, the world was silent.
The wreckage of the plane lay scattered across a snowfield, its twisted metal glowing faintly in the frigid air. Bodies were strewn around her, their faces frozen in terror. Raelyn pushed herself to her feet, her limbs trembling with exhaustion and shock.
Her rifle was still intact, the barrel faintly glowing from residual heat. She held it close as she trudged through the snow, her boots crunching loudly in eerie stillness.
In the distance, she spotted the jagged entrance of a cave. It loomed like a dark wound against the snowy expanse, promising shelter but little else. She staggered toward it her legs heavy and unsteady.
Inside, the cave was silent and cold, the air thick and stale. Raelyn collapsed against the rough stone wall, cradling her rifle as her chest heaved with uneven breaths.
"This isn't real," she muttered to herself, her voice a hollow echo in the darkness. "None of this is real. None of this matters."
The words rang empty, even to her own ears.
A deep, guttural rasp broke the silence, freezing her in place.
Her eyes snapped open as six glowing orbs pierced the darkness, their light reflecting off the cave walls. A massive creature stepped forward, its form monstrous and grotesque. Its elongated, angular body was covered in a glistening, chitinous shell that oozed black ichor. Its mouth split horizontally, revealing rows of needle-like teeth that gleamed in the dim light.
The creature lunged at her, its maw wide open. Raelyn barely managed to raise her rifle in time, jamming the barrel into its jaws. The force of the impact nearly knocked her over as the creature's acidic saliva hissed against her gloves, burning through the fabric.
She pulled the trigger.
The first shot shattered its teeth. The second blew through its jaw, ichor spraying across the cave walls. The creature howled, a sound so loud it shook the ground beneath her.
"Dust to Dust," she muttered through clenched teeth, firing again. "And ashes to ashes."
The final shot sent the creature collapsing to the ground, its twitching form going still as its glowing eyes dimmed.
Raelyn stumbled back, her chest heaving with ragged breaths. The silence returned, heavy and suffocating.
Her eyes turned toward the darkness ahead, and her voice cracked as she whispered, "All of this... it's meaningless."
From the dust of the ground, you were shaped by hand,
A breath of life from the Maker's command.
Yet the garden was lost to the serpent's guile,
And the past of the cursed stretched mile by mile.
"Of the tree, you shall not partake," He said.
Yet from knowledge forbidden, your hearts were led.
Now thorns and thistles mark the earth you till,
And the shadow of death lingers, silent and still.
The flood once cleansed, yet the stain remains,
Man's toil and sorrow in endless chains.
From Eden's gate to Babel's height,
You sought the dark and fled the light.
Thus, dust returns to dust again,
And the breath withdrawn shall not remain.
Selah.