The Last Bell

The dust covered room sparks to life as its lifeblood seeps back into its systems. Displays pop up at some of the desk with unfinished reports appearing, their cursors flickering unending where they were left. Soon images of several people, all bearing different degrees of similar markings across their bodies, begin fliting about the room. They don't seem to see us and go about fiddling with the displays and then flickering into another position somewhere else. They seem unworried about state of the room around them. They don't seem to notice the over turned table or the long stain of blood leading toward the door. They simply walk past it all and go about their business.

These ghosts begin disappearing, one by one, each flickering for a moment and then vanishing back into the dark. From twenty, to sixteen, to eight, and finally to four. They stand around the bulky table, now cracked and covered in dust. They seem different than the other images, more solid and much more stressed.

The closest to us is a young man. His hands splay over the table and his eyes dart across its screen as if he were looking for something in its black depths. His black hair is cut messily short, uneven in many places, and his beard unshaved and unkempt. His clothes hug his figure, yet they move with his body easily and a small gun hangs off his belt. His tattoos are easily the most complex of the four, crisscrossing across his skin in intricate patterns.

One of the girls is watching him expectantly. She looks to be the youngest, barely out of her teens. Her hair is a bright blue and her clothes sport many stains and patches. A thick, orange grease coats her hands and arms. She spins a small wrench deftly through her fingers as she watches the man.

A second woman stands over the last girl, observing and moving her body. She looks the oldest of the four and a white lab coat drapes over her shoulders. Across its breast, faded and barely visible, is the name Fuchs. Her auburn hair is tied up into a bun and her glasses are cracked on one side. Blood coats her hands as she begins checking the quickly darkening bandages on the girl's side.

The last girl was in pretty bad shape. Her entire torso and right arm was wrapped in thick bloody bandages and her tattoos were giving off a very faint green light. Her clothes echoed that of the man's, however looked far more worn out and she didn't carry a weapon. She was voicelessly arguing with the man as he stared at the table. She looked angry at something, and she kept trying to gesture at the two other women in the room but Fuchs kept stopping her so that she could continue to change her bandages.
The man finally broke from what can be assumed to be the last girl's arguments and pulled his gun on her. She lunged at him, pushing the older women to the side and flying across the table.

The scene flickered and vanished has the others had and we stood confused. The room remained dark for a few moments before the girl that had jumped across the table reappeared. She was sitting on the edge of the table and the bandages had been replaced by a beaten-up jacket. Her wounds were completely gone and her hair was pulled up in loose bun like the women had worn hers. She looked out into the room before she began speaking.




"Have you ever dreamed of a world where anything can happen? The one's you dream of when your teacher is droning on about the complex use of equations to find the sum of some imaginary number? How often do you wish you could slip out the window and soar away into that realm of magic and mystery?

"I used to dream like that. I dreamt that I could just fall through the glass of the window and tumble into a world, vastly different than the one I inhabited. One where I could wander the street of my town and find pixies flitting around corners and a fae serving coffee at a quaint little coffee shop. I would slump against the glass next to my desk and let my imagination take me to a wonderful new world full of magic and dream.

"Things are different now. I just want to go home. "

Her voice grew distant and she pulled something silver from her pocket and clutched it tightly. It was a moment before she began speaking again.

"There are things about this world you need to know. Things without, you'll die. We lost a lot of people to learn these lessons, I hope you remember them and survive.

'Soon you will find your tattoos are starting to form. Do not worry, this is natural in this world. They will give you strength and the power to survive. But be aware, while they will protect you, given enough time to grow from almost all mortal deaths, they will not protect you from the Alitar. They can still kill you if you let them get too close.

"We have only seen two types of Alitar but we suspect there could be more. They will appear after the bells chime and they will try to kill you. The more common one, the Beasts we called them, is a massive creature that will simply tear you apart until you stop coming back. The other is tall and moves with far too much grace. Their touch is chilling and deadly. We only saw a few of them during the last few years but they had been cropping up more and more. Both are creatures of the fog and if you find yourself lost in it, keep moving and pray that they do not find you.

"They only come out after the bell toll. We don't know anything about this event, other than that it precedes every single attack by the Alitar. We haven't even managed to find the bell itself.

"The best way for you to hide is going to be by using the doorways. They appear and disappear almost with a mind of their own, but if you watch them for long enough you can begin to discern a pattern to their appearances. Though it is very rare that they will lead to exactly the same spot. They like to move-- "

A loud crash resonates through the air and the girl turns toward the door we had entered through before turning back to us and whispers quietly

"Look through our reports, try to find something we missed. I know there is something there but they are coming for me. Try to find us if you can. And under no circumstances should you trust Max if you find him. He's not himself anymore."
The image flickered and faded again leaving us in the dark room with only the table giving off a soft glow. A list of reports appears on the its display. We click the first one and start to listen.

Year 6, Day 146, Tuesday, Night fall,
Elfie, Second Runner

Gravel sprayed up behind me. I knew I didn't have much time left, the bell had rung and the hunt was about to begin.

Streets flew past as I ran. I needed to find something familiar, something I could use as a landmark to find my way back to the safe house. But I'd never been out this far before and was now regretting ever trying to learn more about this damned decrepit city. I needed to get off the main streets before they saw me. They'd run me down in an instant if I stayed out in the open like this. I chose an alley behind one of the many abandoned stores and sprinted down it.

Lucky for me it didn't end abruptly, it branched off with other alleys that disappeared into the distance. Within moments, after rushing down several different forks that these new alleys supplied, I slowed to take a breath. They couldn't fit in the alleys quite as well as humans, and it slowed them just long enough that one could get away.

I looked around again, taking in my surroundings carefully. Only a single light burned overhead lighting the tight alley I was currently standing in. It looked like part of an old fancy lamppost that had been devoured by the way. Only the light and part of the very top of its tall column branched out of the wall. The wall itself was made up of simple grey bricks that loomed up into the sky which smothered the world with an unending darkness. I don't think I've even seen a star up there once since I got to this place.
Glancing back the way I'd came, I saw a dense fog rolling down the alley. I needed to get moving again, just because I was in the alley didn't mean that I was safe yet. Nowhere was safe after the bells had rung.

I jogged down another alley, hoping it took me somewhere that I recognized. No such luck for me. I was back in the street again. This time however, the fog had enveloped the first few feet of the ground, anything could be hidden underneath. I turned to re-enter the alleyway hopping to find another alley to hide in, but the alley of course, was gone.

"Shit," I muttered to myself. I moved out into the center of the street as I continued on, hoping that the litter that had accumulated there would be less plentiful than that that often cluttered up along the edges since the city had been abandoned. I couldn't afford to be tripped up in the fog.

Overhead I saw a light, pulsing a soft teal color, race overhead. They were getting closer. I speed up, hoping recognize something soon. I caught up to the light after a few minutes. It was hovering high above next to the tail of plane that was jutting out of the side of a building as if inspecting it.

It was just enough to know where I was, with chances of finding the safe house as probable as finding a Lego in the dark without shoes. I took a turn off the main street I'd been following and moved off in search for the next landmark, the Market. I quickly found the building and ran my hand along its length, searching for the door that I knew was hidden there. My hand brushed against the doors invisible knob just as the pulsing light intensified just behind me. I wrenched the door open as the air chilled around me and the fog suddenly started to become oppressive. I could feel the cold shearing into the small of my back, the light must have noticed me when I passed it by. It must have told them where I was. I needed to be through that damned door. I tried to step through, only to find myself being pulled back by the fabric of my jacket.

The cold was becoming unbearable now, as a deep shiver danced down my spine. I glanced behind me to see what I was caught on; gripping tightly to my jacket, was what looked like a shrivel severed hand. Its skin was a dulling cool grey and was wrinkled worse than a paper that had been crumpled up hundreds of times. Its veins pulsed and the hand shuddered, the fog solidified at its wrist and began forming part of its forearm. I tried to pull my jacket free, but the hand moved with the fabric as if attached to it. The hand continued to grow, straight up the arm, and began spreading into a thin shoulder about four feet above my head. I quickly un-shouldered my bag and slipped out of the jacket, diving, rather ungracefully, through the door away from the quickly forming body. I slammed the door shut, crushing its half-formed head in it as it leaned in to peer at me. Blood squirted over the door and chunks of its head fell to the floor, disappearing back into the fog as the door sealed shut.

I scrambled up and tore off down the hall, praying to whatever stupid gods actually existed in this place, that I hadn't left anything important in my jacket. The door would have moved and that would buy me a few minutes at most before they managed to get into the Market. I needed to be long gone by that point. I sprinted down the rest of the hall, coming out on the balcony that overlooked massive atrium that dominated the center of the market. I peered down, multiple balconies lined the atrium as it descended toward the bottom to the market. I guessed from the distance that I had probably entered the building at least thirty floors up. It was a long way down and there was no way I could reach the bottom safely before they got in.

I looked around for a way down. Off to the right side of the atrium, I saw the remains of an elevator system that had recently been rigged by other runners as a pulley system to move things up from the lower floors. It looked that all the rigging point were all pulled up on the next floor up. I jumped up on the railing of the pit, instinctively grabbing onto handholds that were barely there, and began to haul myself up to the next floor.

It was about half way up to the next floor, when the memory of a girl I had met several months prior invaded my mind. I watched from a rooftop nearby as she climbed out onto a part of a sign that hung only partially connected to the side of one of the many towering buildings that made up the inner parts of the city. The tattoos on her arms had barely begun to form, hinting at how little time she had spent in this expanse. She was about midway across the sign, trying to reach a bag Max had lost when he'd been thrown off the top of the building after the last ringing. ""GET BACK, YOU ARE STILL TOO NEW TO BE DOING THINGS LIKE THIS. THE FALL WILL STILL KILL YOU!" I called out to her. She ignored me and continued climbing; slowly and freely until she trusted the wrong handhold and lost her grip. Her screams reverberated off the buildings as she slid down the sign unable to catch a new handhold before falling into the open air and quickly disappearing from sight. I shook the memory out of my mind. My tattoos were far more extensive and a fall from this height probably wouldn't kill me, though it would definitely leave me immobile long enough for them to find me. They would kill me if given the time to do it. I chose my hand holds carefully and moved up onto the next landing.

I went to go toward the elevator shaft, only to find much of this floor was littered with boxes with Kaldio's Emporium of Imported Goods plastered across them. I kicked at the nearest one, spilling its contents across the ground: an egg the size of a watermelon, a small pixie shaped figure that started shouting "Feed our Eshues or fight our socks!", and several other items. It probably wasn't the best idea to be near the loud toy when they got in. I turned down the other hall hoping that I'd be able to find a way around all this junk deeper in the market.

I took off at a quick pace, passing shop after decrepit shop filled with boxes from Kadio's Emporium. Eventually, I found another side hall and went down it hoping, that for once, I would actually find what I was looking for. Unluckily enough as that day had been going, instead of finding a nice easy way around the piles of boxes, I found a door that had just started opening to reveal one of them coming through. It was still clutching my jacket and parts of its face where still congealing back together. One of its eyes were dangling uselessly from its socket.

I grabbed the nearest tower of boxes and brought it tumbling down in front of me. The screaming of "fight our socks" began in a scattering of choruses as several of the pixie toys come tumbling out of the books. I really hope they find it to be as annoying I found it. Stupid line is still pounding in my head.

They had moved through the door, closing the door with a soft hiss it sealed itself and faded away. The boxes began drifting lazily away from them as they walked down the hall toward me. None of the boxes would come close to them, not even when one of the other boxes pushed past another tower of them which normally would have spilled any number of boxes upon whoever was moving around underneath them, but they joined the other box and floated away in the same uninterested fashion that the previous boxes did before returning to their original position has after it had passed. The only things that didn't float away, was one of the few eggs that had fallen, and dented the ground and the building itself. It just sat nestled into the crater it had formed and they stepped over it, otherwise, ignoring everything but me.

At this point I finally remembered that, even though information on their abilities was very scarce, I should probably be running; at which point I turned and ran straight back toward the ledge where I had seen the elevator shaft. I could hear boxes crashing it the walls as it took off at an alarming speed. I belted around a corner, feeling the sharp sting of the cold fog reach me, and seeing it has the only things I could really use to defend myself, dove for an egg. I rose quickly testing its weight in my arms. It was light, much lighter than I had expected and the air around it felt distorted. It barely weighed more than a thin jacket. I looked up to see it mere feet away from me, boxes leaping back away from it, then converging together behind them this time not in the same fashion as before for but an avalanche.

I spun on my heel and tried to create as much momentum as I could before launching the egg at it. Its free hand was barely inches away from my chest when the egg flew out of my hands. It had barely escaped my grasp when it suddenly rocketed at it with exponentially more force than I ever could have thrown it with and caught the Alitar square in the chest. Both it and the egg went careening back down the hall at a startling speed. Upon reaching the wall at the end of the hall, they burst straight through it, with no need to slow and disappeared into a cloud of smoke and fog.

I looked down at the ground to find another of those eggs embedded in another dent in the ground. I scooped this open stored it safely in my bag for Usi to look in to when I returned to the safe house. Vaulting over the side again and clinging to the railing, I began scaling the wall toward where the elevator shaft was located. About halfway past the blockage on the balcony, one of the metal rails I was holding came loose and dangled me out over open air. Reacting with barely a thought my body slung me onto a lowest rail and I continued along the wall.

I made it the rest of the way across the blockade without any more trouble and pulled myself up over the railing again. I wasn't far from the elevator shaft. I made to move towards it, when the boxes behind me exploded off the ledge on the far side of the balcony and fell into the atrium. The eggs however, began flying around the room and violently embedded themselves into walls and floors indiscriminately after being thrown from their boxes. I darted for the elevator shaft as things continued to launch themselves into the air at increasing closer intervals. I grabbed a thick glove used to hold onto the ropes, shoved it over my right hand and catapulted myself over the side of the railing. As I fell, I found the rope with my gloved hand and let it snake through a loose grip as I plummeted down the long shaft of the empty elevator. The floor had seemed to be a lot closer than it actually was before I jumped.

As I fell I could see flashes of numbers passing by as I plummeted toward the ground. 45...37... 26... 14... 8.... My tattoos sparked red as I locked my grip onto the rope as soon as I saw a four speed passed me. the pain was excruciating as my shoulder, elbow and wrist all separate from each other, and I slowed immensely. The pull of the rope had wrenched my arm up and spun my body so that I had braced myself to land on my other side as the ground rushed up to meet me. I felt my entire arm and shoulder detonate as I slammed into the ground.

I laid on the ground, stunned for a moment, as the glow of my tattoos changed from their powerful crimson to a soft minty green, and the pain lessened. I tried to drag myself back to my feet, but make very little progress until my right arm began to snap itself back into place. I used the rope to drag myself back onto my feet and immediately start stumbling toward a door I could barely see through a haze of blood that had begun to clouded most of my vision. A loud bang and crunch announces the Alitar's arrival as it slammed into the ground a few feet away. I felt its blood splatter across my shoes and legs as I find the door and push through it.

I stumbled out into the street, letting the door slam shut and fade away. I hear someone shout close by. I think it's Max's voice. I must be near the wall, I thought. My vision had been completely obscured and my legs gave from underneath me. I hit the ground just as my consciousness slipped away. Sleep is such a rarity in this world, and I took it happily. I dreamt of coolness of the window back in my old classroom.