Bart0nius

So, What Now?

He sat there, among the weeds and tall grass, staring at the sheet of paper in his hands. The words in front of him didn't seem real, even by his standards. This wasn't something he could have expected.
The emblem on the page… it hadn't always been the most friendly to him, but now it felt alien. The past few days had been the worst he had ever experienced, and it was only now that he knew why.

"Due to circumstances outside of our control, this directive has now changed…" but why? What reason would they have for doing this? To go against all they had stood for, to spend over a century doing one thing, only to turn around and do the exact opposite… even under the most extreme of circumstances, he couldn't imagine a logical reason behind this.

He sighed, brushed the dirt off of his pants, and stood up. This place was so serene, so calm… a patch of completely unaltered nature. For a moment, he could almost forget that the world was ending.

"…Our previous mission centered around the containment and study of anomalous objects…"

Almost.

He turned around, facing a massive boulder nestled against the side of the canyon. He coughed, then shouted as quietly as he could:

"The password is 'Trilobite Schemes'."

A voice, the voice of a woman, spoke out from what seemed like the boulder itself:

"Oh, shit, you remembered."

As if by magic, a giant, slender hand materialized in the air and pushed the entire boulder about two feet to the left, revealing the entrance to a small cave. He hastily squeezed past it, making his way into the dark little space. As he turned on his flashlight, the boulder moved back to its original position. The woman in front of him put a little Polaroid picture into her pocket, and turned to face him.

"Welcome home… guy."

He gave her a fake-disapproving look. Of course, she couldn't see his face. "Wow, Iris. I remember your name just fine, but you can't be bothered to keep mine in your brain?"

"I'm not calling you Grabnok the Destroyer."

"Hey, come on! It's funny!"

Under the light of the flashlight, he could see her put her hands on her hips. He rolled his eyes.

"Fine, you can call me… Steve, I guess. It's still not my real name, but it's a more reasonable alias."

"Okay, Steve… how was your trip outside?"

He paused. "Uneventful, actually. Didn't find any food, just a fun little sheet of paper that told me my life is a lie."

He pointed the beam of the flashlight at the paper. He could feel Iris's complete disinterest radiating off of her, even without seeing her.

"So, you just found out about that? This stuff's been going on for, like, two months."

Steve crossed his arms defiantly. "Hey! To be fair, I just got back here three days ago! I don't even know if I'm in the right dimension!"

"Pretty sure you are, bud. And now you're stuck with me until we get to someplace safe." Iris chuckled. "Lucky you, landing around Site-17. You found yourself a top-quality travel buddy in no time."

"You know, you're awfully smug for someone who actually had to stay in a-"

Iris glowered in the dark. She was surprisingly good at expressing herself even when she couldn't be seen. "Don't even start with me. You think you were the only one who got special privileges? I got free roam of the facility, too. And I never had to be collected like a stray cat every couple of days."

Steve fell silent. Iris shifted uncomfortably.

"…Aw, jeez. That was a bit over the line. Sorry, dude."

"No, it's… it's fine. Don't worry about it." He brushed aside the bad memories that had suddenly billowed up in his mind. "On a different note, what's the world looking like right now? You had enough clearance to know, right?"

"Literally everyone had enough clearance to know. They stopped hiding shit when this all started, 'cause they didn't need to anymore.
But, uh, in short… we're in a state of global anarchy, basically everyone who could stop it is dead, countries are no longer really a thing, and there's a war being waged between a deer and the combined forces of a lizard, a computer, and an eight year old."

"Excuse me, what?" Steve sounded as though he had been struck by lightning.

"You heard me. All of what I just said. That's what's going on right now."

"…Holy shit."

"Yeah."

He stood there for a moment, put his hand to his forehead, and sighed.

"Did we get any explanation as to why they did this?"

"Nope. We aren’t getting one, either. Everybody in the whole Foundation’s either dead or too brainwashed to even talk to us before sliding a knife into our throats."

"…Brainwashed?"

Iris sounded bored. "MTF squads are pretty much trained to be sub-human these days. Line up, get stabbed, if you react you get shot to pieces. Classic military training. To be honest, it’s a miracle they stopped involving me with MTF a while ago. I’d be gone in seconds."

"I’m glad they never involved me at all."

"Yeah, I-"

Before Iris could finish, they both heard screaming outside. A nasally, whiny voice, full of terror. Steve snapped off his flashlight, and both he and Iris fell to a hush.

"Hey, go away! I don't have anything to give you!"

A second voice spoke out, one that immediately put both of them on edge. This voice was crooning and malevolent, and though its words were sweet, its tone was sinister. However, that wasn't the issue.

It was Iris's voice.

"Oh? Nothing? That's really quite a shame…"

It spoke again. Hidden in their cave, Steve and Iris felt a sinking feeling come over them.

"Are you sure you can't give me anything at all? I mean, I'm just so hungry…"

Again, it spoke.

"Please, sir… I haven't eaten in days… I would hate to do something rash."

For something this unsettling, it was quite the talker. The two refugees relaxed ever so slightly, now that the initial terror was wearing off.
That sense of security lasted less than five seconds, as the victim of the creature spoke.

"Go away, get back, all of you!"

All of them?

"You see, mister, the competition's been driving away all the food… not to mention that most of it's died off by now. It's so rare to find anything worth eating that can talk…
…because that also means it can scream."

Iris elbowed Steve, turning to him. Through the darkness, they both knew that they had to do something, even if the person they saved ended up killing them.
Well, no. They didn't actually think about that. It's difficult to think everything through when someone's about to be killed outside.

Iris pulled the photograph out of her pocket. Grabbing Steve's flashlight, she turned it on, pointed it at the photograph, and flicked the little Polaroid with her finger. As she did, Steve could see the same giant, disembodied Iris hand flick the boulder to the right, opening the entrance to the cave and launching it down the canyon. It seemed to hit something along the way, as they heard a soft 'squish' as it rocketed away.

The scene that lay before them was unnerving. Two misshapen, dog-like creatures, one red and one black, loomed over their prey. Spines protruded from their backs, and their flat, featureless heads and open jaws nearly made Steve sick. The creatures stood over what looked like a traditional depiction of an alien, with big, black eyes and gray skin. Its thin, rubbery arms were raised in front of its face, which was inches away from the maw of one of the 'dogs.' They looked poised to strike, but the interruption had dazed them for a moment.

One of them turned to Iris.

"Is this your voice, madam? I was unsure where I had gotten it from… by being defenseless in our presence, are you already a victim?"

Iris clenched her fists in defiance. Steve could see her shaking.

"Stop doing that, you freak. Leave that guy alone."

"Or what? You're next, you know. How about you let me claim my prize, and let us worry about you later?"

"I said stop. Stop using my voice."

"Oh? Would you prefer I use this one?"

As it spoke, the voice of Iris melted away mid-sentence as it was replaced with that of the alien.

"Does this sound any better?"

Her voice remained firm. "You know, you should probably just do away with the whole 'mimicking' thing altogether."

The other creature spoke up. Its voice was that of a man they had not heard before, a gruff, deep voice. "Oh, but it makes hunting so much easier… you'd do it too, if you could."

Iris clenched her teeth. "Can both of you just shut up and go away? You saw what I did that other one, right?"

The creature's sickening grin changed to a disgusted frown. "Oh yes, you caught one of us. We're a rare breed, you know. Almost irreplaceable."

Iris looked equally displeased. "A breed of what? What the hell are- you know what? I don't really think I care. Point is, I'll do that again if you try to hurt me or that alien."

"I'm not leaving until I get a meal, madam. Unless one of you is willing to die, we'll be taking all of you."

The alien looked terrified. Iris looked furious. As she opened her mouth to say something, she was interrupted by another voice.

"I'll go."

Both dog-things, the alien, and Iris all collectively looked at Steve. He suddenly felt extremely self-conscious.
All was silent for a moment, until the second dog-creature spoke.

"Hmm. How noble."

"But first, I have two things to ask of you."

The first creature let out an exasperated sigh. "If it means I can start killing something instead of standing around, fine. Get it over with."

"One: you can't harm the other two."

"And the second?"

Steve grinned.

"You'll have to catch me first!"

With that, he ran as fast as he could along the canyon. The monsters looked at each other for a moment, then quickly followed behind.
As he ran, Steve realized how much of a gamble this plan was. He wasn't exactly in shape even before the global containment breach, and these were creatures that seemed to be apex predators compared to everything else around.
He ran like his life depended on it. Indeed, it did.

They caught up to him quickly. They were, after all, predatory animals. Still, he had gotten enough of a headstart to lead them away from Iris and the alien. He turned to the creatures, slowly closing in on him.

"So… this is the end, huh?"

"For you, I believe so."

Steve smiled. He could feel that his plan was a success. "Well, bye."

As he said this, he felt himself shift, and the creatures watched as he winked away, as if he had never been there.

All around him, it was dark. Steve felt a wave of familiarity creep over him as he turned around to see a face grinning at him with terrifying intensity.

"Hey, bud."

Steve groaned. "Why here?"

The smiling man did not stop smiling. "Maybe it's destiny… we were meant to meet again."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up. Please, just shut up."

"Why so down, bud?"

Steve fell silent.

"The world is ending. That's why."

The smiling man didn't break his grin for an instant.

"Isn't this place better, then?"

Steve glowered back at him. "No, not even slightly. I hate this place."

"But it's not ending."

"Did it even start in the first place?"

"That isn't important. You're not in danger here, are you?"

"Maybe I am. Maybe you're dangerous."

"Do I seem dangerous to you, Steve?"

Steve said nothing, instead giving the man a skeptical look.

"Okay, fine, maybe I do. But how is your world any better than mine?"

Steve pretended to think for a moment.

"Well, I guess yours is… whoops, time's up."

As he said this, he shifted again, leaving the smiling man in the dark, alone once more.

As he shifted back into his own world, Steve found himself surrounded by tall grass. Tall weeds, and tall grass. A cheerful but shaken voice shouted to him from across the rocky crevasse he stood in.

"Hey, moron! What were you thinking?"

He stumbled over to Iris and the alien, who was now on his feet. Standing up, he realized that this creature was actually pretty tall.

"I got the dogs to go away, didn't I?"

Iris did not seem impressed. "I guess. Don't try something like that again. The fact that you managed to run all that way with your… figure… is absolutely bewildering."

Steve rolled his eyes, brushed off the insult and turned to the alien. "Sorry, we, uh… didn't even bother to ask your name."

It spoke to him rather enthusiastically, as if it had been eager to talk to him. "Oh, that's all right! I'm Arty. Nice to meet you. Your name is Steve, right? I picked it up through your conversation. You guys argue a lot, you know. Oh, and don't worry, Iris already introduced herself to me. And I introduced myself to her, too! So really, you're lagging behind a bit. Anyway, thanks for saving me from those things!"

Steve immediately regretted saving him from those things.

"Sure… no problem, man. Glad to have you."

"By the way, Steve, do you write at all?"

Steve was taken aback. "Erm… not really, not serious stuff, anyway… why?"

"Oh, I just wanted to tell you this really cool idea I had for a science fiction novel."