Chapter 5: Liminality. Part 4

Chapter 5: Liminality. Part 4

Minutes ago

Inside the tropical cabin the candles in the windows no longer wavered back and forth like they used to. Instead, they remained still, the melted paraffin giving its last drips into the containers.

The knife could be heard hitting a board in the kitchen; the woman was close to finishing lunch.

The man hadn't changed. He was still carefully rocking the sheet-covered baby he held in his arms.

Doger: Man, did you know they have a coliseum, right here, in this province?

Gitta: I didn't know that.

The duo had returned to the living room and sat down on the hard wooden chairs, one of them kept chatting about whatever topic while they continued to wait for the rest of the group.

Doger: They have events and competitions for prizes all the time, with warriors from all over the nation. Like ancient Rome. Just like that.

Gitta: Oh. Sounds interesting.

Doger: And according to gossip, a.k.a. Audrey, at night they hold clandestine fights. No one knows what happens in them but those who participate are never seen again.

Gitta: That sounds dangerous... and illegal.

Joe: Bathroom.

The man had finally done something different. He had gotten up from his chair and slowly walked over to a wooden crib that rested on the living room floor. A crib without toys and covered on most sides. It couldn't be simpler.

He gently placed the baby in this crib and retreated to the hallway.

There was a certain curiosity. It was a fact. Clearly visible in Doger, even not unnoticed by Gitta. Both of them quickly approached the crib.

Since they had arrived at this cabin they had not heard the baby make any noise. He had not cried, had not moaned. He was only still covered in dark brown sheets from head to toe.

Doger: I'm going to pick him up.

Gitta: Please don't.

The composed boy said that, but it was impossible to hide the intrigue he also felt.

Doger: I'm good with babies. It'll be fine if I do it for a while.

Gitta: ...Don't do it —he scolded him again—. He might be sick.

Doger: Ok, fine. I won't do it.

The boy threw himself back into his own chair, somewhat annoyed. While to avoid an awkward moment, Gitta stood up and headed to the kitchen area.

Gitta: I'll go help in the kitchen.

Doger: Yeah, yeah...

Once Gitta had headed to the hallway, the mischievous boy persistently approached back to the crib.

Doger: (Let's see who we have here...)

For his part, Gitta walked down the dark hallway and opened the door to the kitchen adjacent to the living room.

The first thing he could notice was the pile of dirty plates and glasses waiting in the sink to his left. He continued to open the door, careful not to break any.

In front of him, the woman was still cutting vegetables and meats on a wooden board in front of the only lit candle present, not having paid attention to his arrival.

Gitta: Excuse me; do you need me to help you with something?

Unknown woman: Can you wash the dishes for me?

Gitta: Of course —he nodded with a smile.

The amount of dishes waiting for him was not especially large. It was a small family, but this did not seem to be a sufficient reason. There he went again, overthinking things unnecessarily.

While he rolled up the sleeves of his black jacket, Gitta took a quick look at the woman.

Her dress was extravagant, formal and colorful, with a long skirt that almost reached the floor.

However, his attention was not disturbed by her clothing, but by the limbs that stuck out from it. Her forearms, her calves, were pale and thin.

This is what he could tell from a quick inspection. He couldn't see any more without looking weird, so he continued with his task.

Gitta: Oh.

Unbeknownst to him, the dish brush had slipped from his hand and fallen to the floor, rolling to a stop under the cabinet. He quickly knelt down to pick it up, when he saw it.

Gitta: ¡!

The lack of lighting made it hard to make out. So he wasn't sure what he was seeing. He adjusted his vision, again and again, in an attempt to see something different.

But it didn't work. The object next to the brush couldn't be indistinguishable, nor could it be ignored.

It was a small, abandoned shoe. A simple red shoe with a picture of a car around it. However, Gitta had seen something else in it.

Not higher than the tibialis, the shoe had the portion of a leg.

Once he was sure of what he saw, he immediately stepped back, almost falling to the floor as well.

At that moment he had also noticed the presence of ants and cockroaches lurking around. All this made him stand up as quickly as he could, squashing some of them.

This sudden movement caused enough wind to blow out the candle in the kitchen, the only source of light there was.

The woman was now looking at him. Fixedly, motionless. Her eyes wide open.

At the same time, in the adjacent hall room, Doger held the baby in his arms. He amused himself as he removed each layer of sheet covering him, one by one, and when he reached the last one, he finally discovered his body.

Doger: ¡...!

Doger didn't know what to think. A part of him kept thinking that it could be an illness; however, the features were beyond his understanding.

It wasn't right. Something wasn't right. Doger's heart skipped a beat.

That looked like a baby.

Its skin was red, wrinkled, reflecting the candlelight. Its arms and legs, tiny and previously still, now trembled and moved clumsily, as if gravity were a new concept for it, or as worms would move when they were discovered under rocks.

And more noticeably, its body was covered by thick veins that throbbed with a certain accelerating rhythm. Its eyes, twice the expected size, remained completely closed, but this did not last long after its face was discovered.

It opened them. Large, its pupils fully dilated and its sclera red. It opened it. Its mouth large, Its lips cracking from dryness, letting out jets of blood that fell on the boy's hand.

Fear took hold of him. Screaming began. However, it was not Doger who did it.

The baby was crying. It began as a weak moan, barely a muffled whisper that slipped through its lips, and as they opened, the crying increased.

It was not the cry of a baby. It was something primitive, wrong. A tone that became increasingly deeper and deformed, a howl of stretched flesh and torn vocal cords that spread throughout the whole.

Doger jumped back, dropping the baby back into its crib.

Doger: AGH!

However, the noise kept growing, forcing him to cover his ears with both hands.

It grew and grew.

When the normal cry of a baby could reach 110 decibels and be heard a few hundred meters away, this guttural and desperate scream reached for miles around.

The silence had ceased.

Everything could hear it. Now everyone could hear them.

-[Ø]-

The light of the flashlight illuminated the floor of the food warehouse, giving a glimpse of reality.

It was never rotten food. It was meat. The flesh, bones and blood of human beings.

The light trembled, impossible to keep it still. Wherever it shone, the meat lay there, in pieces, in sections, some still covered by cloth and leather, others completely unrecognizable beyond reddish mounds piled one on top of the other.

Men, women, boys and girls.

The flashlight shone. Now everything was visible, everything was clear. In the darkest depths, hidden, the truth had finally revealed itself before their eyes.

Audrey switched to taking the flashlight in both hands and shrugging, making an abysmal effort not to drop it. She didn't want to see, but she knew she depended on it.

The reason; the figure that peeked out from between the piles of bodies.

They couldn't explain how the air now felt thicker.

In the circumference of the white light they could make out dust-covered furniture, stained walls and out-of-place shelves. And in the center of the diameter a murky silhouette was shown.

First there were the fingers, long and bony, separating the flesh from the pile scattered on the floor. Then, a huge figure stood up. It was more than two meters tall, its back hunched as if its own body were an impossible burden to bear.

Its pale skin hung in tatters, but was held in place by whitish fluids. And below its back, a kind of dragging tail could be distinguished. No, it was not a tail. If you looked more closely, you would notice that it was breaking off and falling in pieces with constant frequency.

Its eyes, which had previously been looking at the tragic scene at its feet, suddenly changed to fixate on the source of the light, on the trio of young people.

Audrey took a step back and found something that stopped her from taking the second. It was in the way. It was the severed hand of another human being.

Garwin, in absolute terror, immediately noticed it too. Even where they walked, there was body parts scattered everywhere. When he tried to move, even a little, he crushed one of the puddles of fluids and viscera around him with his own foot. The sound that such an act generated brought him close to vomiting at that very moment. But he couldn't do it.

Izzy remained still in front of the creature. Her mind trying to grasp what was happening and how they had come to this. She felt an inexplicable sensation. Probably because of the pent-up adrenaline, as if mind and body had disconnected for that moment.

What her eyes saw was a Dreamer.

Yes. The light of the flashlight had revealed the truth. The homes they visited, the shops, the commercial area, the residential area... The scene that was now illuminated, remained in darkness in each of them in the deepest, meaning it repeated itself over and over again. And a howl would make it an undeniable fact.

The silence that was once outside was no more. A howl, a shriek, a wail, mingled, replacing all stillness. This scream could be heard miles away, and of course, it was audible inside the warehouse.

It was the trigger.

The humanoid creature in front of the group was shaking and turning its head in random directions with a speed not at all human. The sound of its bones crunching.

When it stopped, it was out of sight. Audrey couldn't understand it. It had only blinked, and it was no longer there. But she quickly realized where it was.

The creature was opening its mouth to an impossible extent, and this same mouth was now chewing on the young Izzy's torso. It had launched itself on all fours in a lunge at her companion.

Izzy: G-GAH!

The young girl's small body had been abruptly slammed into the stands. The blow to her back was so strong that it made her lose her breath. She was now coughing weakly. However, the Dreamer had not let go of her from its jaws. It lifted her easily while shaking her from side to side.

It looked up at the sky. Its mouth murmured, expelling moans between the blood that slipped from its teeth.

Garwin and Audrey had been limited to being mere spectators of an event that took mere few seconds.

Garwin: AH! AH!

Coming to, Garwin was the first to move on his own.

His heart was beating so hard that it would jump out of his chest. Everything looked cloudy. He was not aware of what he was doing, he was not even able to see where he was going, and yet there he was, right behind the Dreamer.

Garwin: Tsk!

With his corpulent build he made the effort to hold it from behind by coiling its neck in a poor attempt of a "guillotine”.

His first reaction had been to force it to let go of Izzy, but the creature didn't react at all; it kept shaking itself, restless, looking at the sky, then returning to chewing the body it was carrying like a puppet.

Garwin had forgotten the improvised weapon he was carrying but Audrey hadn't. In panic she approached and struck with a forceful blow of her hammer on the Dreamer's back.

It had no effect, even though she claimed to have heard at least one vertebra fracture.

Audrey: Guh!

A second blow, as strong as her trembling arms would allow, this time aimed at the back of the neck, split the object in two on the spot and shook the creature to one side.

The creature thrashed wildly once more, freeing the girl from its teeth and pushing the boy against a wall, and then headed for the upper floor like a desperate animal.

It was not possible to see it well in the darkness but the sound of its moans and stumbling steps was attenuated, confirming that it had left the place.

Audrey: Gah! Ah!

Recovering some breath as best she could, the girl searched for the flashlight she had dropped and pointed it at her companions, alternating between one and the other.

Audrey: F-Fuck! What the fuck was that?! Are you okay!? —she asked agitatedly.

Leaning his hip against the wall, Garwin slowly dragged his hands to stand up. He held his head, staining his forehead with someone else's blood.

Garwin: My God...!

Completely stunned, he looked up, watching as Audrey approached to check on Izzy who was lying on the ground.

Audrey: Hey! Izzy! —she exclaimed, bringing her ear close to the incapacitated woman's mouth.

She was breathing, she was alive for now, although visibly disoriented.

However, her torso needed to be checked; the area where the Dreamer had attacked her. Audrey lifted her shirt and noticed the pad she wore on her football uniform.

It was torn apart. These specialized pads that can withstand hundreds of pounds of force were scattered in pieces under her shirt. But she wanted to see her torso clearly.

A faint purple stain on it. Garwin was getting worried. Audrey looked closer.

Garwin: Is she... Is she okay? —he asked.

Audrey: That's what it seems. I think. I don't see any open wounds or bleeding. Let's hope it's the same inside —she deduced with the quick inspection—. Hey, sis, can you walk? Tell me.

Izzy: Tsk... I have to...

Garwin: Thank God...! —Seeing her pulling herself together gave Garwin great relief, who crossed himself and thanked God before helping her up— Let’s go out. Now.

Audrey only illuminated the exit steps; none of them wanted to see what that thing had caused anymore.

The noise continued to permeate the environment. When they saw the light from outside that had not changed.

To one side was Shaun. The boy had to wait at the entrance of the warehouse, but now he got up from the ground.

Shaun: D-Did you see that!? —he asked disturbed while pointing to the streets. He had probably had an encounter with the same being, and by his own fortune it had been a brief one.

Garwin: ... Where did it go?

Shaun: W-What? Me!? I-I don't know. Over there.

His hesitant finger wasn't pointing at any street. It was the direction they were coming from, the tropical cabin.

Shaun: Damn it! What's going on?! What's that noise? You—

Finally the greyish blanket had covered everything. The fog coming from the coast had reached them. Their vision, now considerably limited, only allowed them to distinguish objects a few meters away.

They were unable to see it but their ears still worked perfectly.

Like the rumble of military units' footsteps crushing the hard earth beneath their heavy boots, and the screeching that could be heard in the distance was no longer alone; it was accompanied by dozens, even what could be a hundred voices shouting to the sky. A massive march that brought chaos with it.

Their ears heard the crunch of glass breaking from all directions.

They had woken up.

With complete clarity the young Gitta Vintana watched the awakening before his eyes.

Inside the settlement, he dragged his shoes on the floor, crushing again the cockroaches that fled from one side to the other.

For this reason he had not noticed the smell of death. It was still fresh. The child had been "treated" recently, and none of his remains were wasted with the sole exception of the limb that the young man had accidentally found.

As for the rest, he had no idea what had become of it, nor did he have the slightest intention of finding out; as strange as their behavior had been since they arrived, no one keeps the dismembered foot of an infant in a kitchen without a care and considers themselves sane.

There was the woman in the floral dress staring at him. Still. About four meters away, at any moment she could easily need mere strides to be so close to the boy along with the kitchen knife she held in her hand.

Gitta: H-HA!

He let out an abrupt exhale. It was his torso compressing as a result of the act of his own movement, of fleeing from that place.

He left the area immediately, returning to the dark hallway, and this time he made sure to close the kitchen door, which continued to shake frantically as he distanced himself.

However, his situation had not exactly improved. His attention was no longer diverted as before, now fully focused on that carnal scream he began to hear only a few moments ago.

Gitta saw in the living room how his companion, Doger Biast, staggered from side to side covering his ears with both hands. And he could not help but imitate him.

Gitta: ¡Gh! ¡Agh...!

Unbearable. The baby did not stop crying.

Their eardrums were approaching their limit. If they remained a few seconds longer in that home they would definitely lose all hearing capacity.

Being the furthest away from the crib, Gitta crossed the hallway and ran as fast as he could, reaching out to grab Doger by the collar of his shirt and rushing to the exit.

Crossing the door and behind the thick fog that spoiled the view, shadows began to gather.

Doger: ¡Fuck, fuck, fuck...!

Doger and Gitta stopped dead in the middle of the street, and witnessed in stupefaction the inevitable fate that awaited them.

One, five, ten, forty... The Dreamers thrashed around in an overwhelming euphoria like puppets in the hands of a nervous puppeteer. That's how they started before starting a frantic race towards their location.

Leaving a veil behind, the fog was torn in their wake to reveal their emaciated figures. Their dirty bodies, covered in fluids that dripped from their large mouths.

North, South, East, West... They were approaching from every possible angle at an inhuman speed.

The duo retreated with timid steps, their hearts pounding against their ribs as they realized the implacable reality; there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

To be continued...