12 After Coming - 12 A.C. (Ch.1)

I run downstairs, my heart pounding along with my feet. I knock on door, after door, after door. Their metallic coverings are bruising my knuckles, but I don’t care. I know it’s really no use. In this building, no one ever opens up, but I need to tell them. Finally, I get to a door I recognize, door number 114.

“Tristan!” I yell, pounding away at the door. “Open up! Open the door!”

I look down at my arm. I take the stylus out of its holder and open an instant message window with Tristan on the small tablet PC every Baltic citizen is required to carry with them.

“Opn door let in”, I write. “hurry goblins cmng”

I hear footsteps inside the room, getting closer and louder.

         The door opens. Tristan is standing inside the door panting, soaking wet, and completely naked.

“Shower,” he says, out of breath, with a sort of embarrassed half smile, although seeing others without clothes is not terribly taboo in Baltica, especially between friends who know each other well.

“Well, come in,” Tristan says pleasantly, his hair dripping water onto his feet.

I walk into his entrance room. Turning around, I close the door, locking the deadbolt, lock, and entrance pads.

“What’s this all about, Kaden,” Tristan says, sitting down on a couch in his great room.

I look out the window. “Goblins,” I say, still sore from the memory of just nights ago, when the Goblins attacked our apartment building, stealing away my twin sister in the process.

“They’re back?” Tristan says as he gets out his tablet.

He dials in three numbers. “Yeah,” he says. “They’re back. Asteria Complex.” He looks relieved as he puts down the tablet.

“The Robots are coming,” he says.

I glance out the window again, looking at a small alleyway on the water between our building and building D. I see tall, thin robots walking out in a perfect line.

“So, tell me. When did you see them?” Tristan asks me.

“I was up in my room,” I told him. “I saw things swimming in the river. Looked closer, they’re Goblins”.

         Just then there is a knock on the window. I look out. I shout, seeing the furry face of a Goblin, all too common to me. I take a closer look, and the figure is simply a red-haired, bearded police officer scaling the wall like the Goblins like to do.

“Anyone in there?” the short, bearded officer yells, knocking again.

I realize that he has heard us, but can’t see in through the tinted windows. I yell, “Yes! Yes, help!” But it is to no use. He can only hear mumbling, not the words coming from my lips.

I see an assistant of the officer moving his lips and pointing to our window, however the officer shakes his head. I try to make out the words.

“Could be Goblins in there,” I think I hear the assistant saying, but they start to move on to the right, to the next window. Suddenly I see movement out of the corner of my eye. The officer is torn off the wall by an even more diminutive, harrier creature, a goblin. The officer’s assistant discharges two bullets from a small handgun down towards the ground. I see the man call for assistance, and then drops down the wall on his hook to check up on his partner. I see more movement just below the window.

“Put down the blinds,” I tell Tristan, but he is already pressing the button.

“It’s stuck!”, Tristan yells, as he continues trying to get the metal shield blinds down.

The glass shatters as some furry, or rather hairy hand punches into the room. I look back at Tristan. He reaches for the door’s locks. While he is unlocking them, I hear a metallic, squishy sound from behind me. Turning around, I see that dangling from the closed shutters is a mangled Goblin head.