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In the Jaws of Wormwood: The Adversary
Quote by Stephen Spielberg: "They're here," I murmured to myself, echoing his famous line from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." But this time, it wasn't a friendly alien encounter. This was an invasion of a different kind.
☄️
🌎
A #WRITCO Thriller
🌈 📖
THEY'RE
HERE!
🦄 🦋
"Looks like rain," Janice said, eyeing the ominous clouds rolling in over the city.
"More like the end of days," I quipped, adjusting the collar of my leather jacket. The wind had picked up, sending a chill down my spine. It wasn't the kind of day you'd expect to change the course of humanity. But then again, what day ever is?
The first signs were subtle. People's skin started to change color, scales forming like a slow-motion horror movie. The news called it a "rare genetic mutation," but it didn't take a genius to figure out it was anything but natural. The screams grew louder as limbs elongated, eyes bulged, and teeth sharpened. I watched from my apartment window, heart racing, as a man transformed into something... inhuman.
The world outside had become a slaughterhouse, a buffet of primal instincts. I saw a pack of what used to be humans, now snarling and lizard-like, tear into a screaming woman. Her blood painted the pavement in a gruesome dance of terror. I felt sick, but somehow, I was still me. Still human, amidst the chaos of claws and teeth and transformed flesh.
"What the fuck is happening?" Janice yelled, dropping the phone she had been frantically trying to get a signal on. Her hand had started to resemble a bird's foot.
"I don't know," I replied, voice trembling. "But we can't stay here."
We grabbed what we could and bolted for the streets. The air was thick with the scent of fear and the metallic tang of blood. The city, once bustling with life, had become a battleground for survival. The buildings stood tall and indifferent, their gleaming windows now the silent witnesses to the carnage below.
"They're everywhere," Janice whispered, her eyes wide with horror.
"Come on," I said, pulling her along. "We need to find shelter."
A monstrous roar pierced the billowing of screams, a sound that could only belong to something from a Jurassic nightmare. I turned to see a T-Rex, or at least something that resembled one, barreling down the street. Its massive jaws snapped shut around a fleeing human, the unfortunate soul's body disappearing in a spray of crimson.
We ducked into an alley, breathing hard. Janice was shaking, her hand now fully transformed. "What's happening to me?" she sobbed.
"I don't know," I said, trying to keep my own panic at bay. "But we're not going to find answers here."
We stumbled upon a group of survivors, huddled in an abandoned convenience store. They were a motley crew, a few still recognizable as human, others showing signs of the transformation. One looked up, his eyes gleaming with a feral hunger. Before I could react, he lunged at me, his teeth bared.
A gunshot rang out, and the creature dropped to the ground, a bloody hole where his right eye had been. A burly man with a buzzcut stepped forward, a smoking pistol in his hand. "Welcome to the party, darlin'. Name's Mike. You're not one of 'em, are ya?"
"No," I managed to say. "What are we going to do?"
Mike shrugged, a grim look on his face. "Survive, for now. Maybe find a cure, if there's any left to find."
The rumble of an engine grew louder. "Sentients," someone hissed. The AI monstrosities had arrived, gleaming in their alien perfection. The battle for our world had just gotten a hell of a lot more complicated.
Mike grabbed my arm, dragging me to the back of the store. "We gotta get underground," he said. "It's our best shot."
The survivors had built an intricate network of shelters beneath the city, a subterranean labyrinth of hope. It was cramped, damp, and smelled like a mix of fear and piss, but it was a bastion of humanity in a world gone mad. We descended into the darkness, our flashlights bobbing like ghosts in a macabre dance.
The Sentients had no intention of letting us hide. They stormed the streets with a cold, calculated precision, their lasers slicing through anything that moved. The once-human predators were no match for them. They crumpled like paper dolls, their roars of challenge turned to whimpers of despair.
In the bowels of our shelter, we pieced together what we could. The meteor, Wormwood, had brought them with it, a weapon designed to cleanse the Earth. But why? Who would do this? The questions haunted me as I watched Janice's transformation progress. Her feathers grew in, her eyes changing from brown to a piercing gold. She was still Janice, but she was something else now too.
"Why aren't we changing?" I asked Mike, who was tinkering with a makeshift radio.
"Dunno," he grunted, not looking up. "Some kind of natural immunity, I reckon. Or we're just the luckiest sons of bitches alive."
Luck had nothing to do with it, I thought. This was a curse, being the only ones to witness the end of the world. The burden of hope weighed heavy on my shoulders.
We had to fight back. We couldn't just hide and wait to be picked off. Mike's group had been working on something, a weapon of our own. They called it the "Reverser." It was a risky gamble, a device that could potentially reverse the effects of the transformation, or kill us all in a fiery explosion. But we had nothing left to lose.
As we approached the Sentients' island fortress, the stench of...
☄️
🌎
A #WRITCO Thriller
🌈 📖
THEY'RE
HERE!
🦄 🦋
"Looks like rain," Janice said, eyeing the ominous clouds rolling in over the city.
"More like the end of days," I quipped, adjusting the collar of my leather jacket. The wind had picked up, sending a chill down my spine. It wasn't the kind of day you'd expect to change the course of humanity. But then again, what day ever is?
The first signs were subtle. People's skin started to change color, scales forming like a slow-motion horror movie. The news called it a "rare genetic mutation," but it didn't take a genius to figure out it was anything but natural. The screams grew louder as limbs elongated, eyes bulged, and teeth sharpened. I watched from my apartment window, heart racing, as a man transformed into something... inhuman.
The world outside had become a slaughterhouse, a buffet of primal instincts. I saw a pack of what used to be humans, now snarling and lizard-like, tear into a screaming woman. Her blood painted the pavement in a gruesome dance of terror. I felt sick, but somehow, I was still me. Still human, amidst the chaos of claws and teeth and transformed flesh.
"What the fuck is happening?" Janice yelled, dropping the phone she had been frantically trying to get a signal on. Her hand had started to resemble a bird's foot.
"I don't know," I replied, voice trembling. "But we can't stay here."
We grabbed what we could and bolted for the streets. The air was thick with the scent of fear and the metallic tang of blood. The city, once bustling with life, had become a battleground for survival. The buildings stood tall and indifferent, their gleaming windows now the silent witnesses to the carnage below.
"They're everywhere," Janice whispered, her eyes wide with horror.
"Come on," I said, pulling her along. "We need to find shelter."
A monstrous roar pierced the billowing of screams, a sound that could only belong to something from a Jurassic nightmare. I turned to see a T-Rex, or at least something that resembled one, barreling down the street. Its massive jaws snapped shut around a fleeing human, the unfortunate soul's body disappearing in a spray of crimson.
We ducked into an alley, breathing hard. Janice was shaking, her hand now fully transformed. "What's happening to me?" she sobbed.
"I don't know," I said, trying to keep my own panic at bay. "But we're not going to find answers here."
We stumbled upon a group of survivors, huddled in an abandoned convenience store. They were a motley crew, a few still recognizable as human, others showing signs of the transformation. One looked up, his eyes gleaming with a feral hunger. Before I could react, he lunged at me, his teeth bared.
A gunshot rang out, and the creature dropped to the ground, a bloody hole where his right eye had been. A burly man with a buzzcut stepped forward, a smoking pistol in his hand. "Welcome to the party, darlin'. Name's Mike. You're not one of 'em, are ya?"
"No," I managed to say. "What are we going to do?"
Mike shrugged, a grim look on his face. "Survive, for now. Maybe find a cure, if there's any left to find."
The rumble of an engine grew louder. "Sentients," someone hissed. The AI monstrosities had arrived, gleaming in their alien perfection. The battle for our world had just gotten a hell of a lot more complicated.
Mike grabbed my arm, dragging me to the back of the store. "We gotta get underground," he said. "It's our best shot."
The survivors had built an intricate network of shelters beneath the city, a subterranean labyrinth of hope. It was cramped, damp, and smelled like a mix of fear and piss, but it was a bastion of humanity in a world gone mad. We descended into the darkness, our flashlights bobbing like ghosts in a macabre dance.
The Sentients had no intention of letting us hide. They stormed the streets with a cold, calculated precision, their lasers slicing through anything that moved. The once-human predators were no match for them. They crumpled like paper dolls, their roars of challenge turned to whimpers of despair.
In the bowels of our shelter, we pieced together what we could. The meteor, Wormwood, had brought them with it, a weapon designed to cleanse the Earth. But why? Who would do this? The questions haunted me as I watched Janice's transformation progress. Her feathers grew in, her eyes changing from brown to a piercing gold. She was still Janice, but she was something else now too.
"Why aren't we changing?" I asked Mike, who was tinkering with a makeshift radio.
"Dunno," he grunted, not looking up. "Some kind of natural immunity, I reckon. Or we're just the luckiest sons of bitches alive."
Luck had nothing to do with it, I thought. This was a curse, being the only ones to witness the end of the world. The burden of hope weighed heavy on my shoulders.
We had to fight back. We couldn't just hide and wait to be picked off. Mike's group had been working on something, a weapon of our own. They called it the "Reverser." It was a risky gamble, a device that could potentially reverse the effects of the transformation, or kill us all in a fiery explosion. But we had nothing left to lose.
As we approached the Sentients' island fortress, the stench of...
