The young man walked through the city streets and headed toward the train station. As any other day, he was going to work at Mister Fox’s farm in the northern part of the city.

The young man was surrounded by people, going in different directions and minding their own business. They all had jobs they needed to do or things they wanted from life.

There was a man who sold food, and another woman instead stood behind an information stand advertising her services as a masseuse. Another offered advice on where to go if someone wished to find companionship, and another was trying to sell something that looked very much like drugs.

Despite living in a militaristic society, the world wasn’t freed by criminals. They became worse with the advent of the brain crystal powers and brought much damage to society.

Erik later arrived at the train station; the place was always full of people and trains leaving and coming.

He spent some time looking at the shops around him; they were full of things the young man had never had the pleasure of using.

One shop sold weapons; knives and swords hung above the entrance. Next door was a small clothing store selling mostly women’s wear; at the end of the building, Erik saw a barber pole standing proudly against the shop wall.

In front of it, several men waited patiently while waiting for haircuts. Most of them wore uniforms: soldiers, police officers, firefighters—they came here every month to get their cuts.

It seemed this establishment was popular among those professions because the owner himself happened to be one such person.

The young man bought tickets for both ways, then boarded the first train heading north. After riding along the rails for about some time, Erik noticed that everything around them began to change; houses turned into fields, and buildings were replaced with forests.

Soon enough, they entered the city’s edge and reached the area where Mister Fox lived and worked.

The place was beautiful and in stark contrast with the city, where technology reigned supreme. Here, instead, nature took its rightful place.

Trees grew freely everywhere, even up high on the walls surrounding the houses. The sky overhead shone brightly under the sun. Birds flitted across the skies, singing sweet songs.

Mister Fox owned a large portion of land and used most of it for growing plants and vegetables. Some of the crops were grown indoors, but not many people did that anymore since it only resulted in higher prices when buying food.

The place was littered with flowers and grasses, making walking down the path almost surreal. The air itself felt cleaner than anywhere else.

This was the kind of environment where the young man would want to live, and he hoped he would one day be able to do so after retiring from the military.

When the train stopped, the young man went running toward the farm and arrived fifteen minutes later. From a distance, Erik saw Mister Fox tending the field.

His hands moved rapidly across the soil, which appeared somewhat moist despite being dry outside. With every move, dirt flew away in dust clouds, revealing a small mound of the earth below each hand.

The young man arrived at the gate of the farmer’s property, and he greeted the old man. “Good evening Mister Fox; I came to work.”

The man looked up when he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Then, he looked at the boy standing in front of him and coldly said to the young man, “C’mon, kid, these plants won’t grow alone.”

“Yes, sir!” Erik replied. He then went to the barn to change, he still had his school uniform, and he couldn’t risk dirtying it. Once he changed, he ran out again, “Go there,” Mister Fox ordered, “I already collected all the product and cleared the soil. Now go make yourself useful.”

Erik ran there to use his power, as he did every day, and after a while, plants started sprouting from the ground.

He decided to start collecting the plants that he made grow. Some grew taller and bigger than others, which were shorter but thick and tough. All of them provided food and nutrition for the farmer’s animals but most of them were sold to the government.

The sun started to set as he worked, but Erik was too focused on his task to notice.

***

“Ah… Ah… Ah…”

The sound of footsteps echoed inside the forest surrounding New Alexandria. A soldier tried desperately to hold back the tears that threatened to fall down his cheeks. Behind, thaids were chasing him. They appeared like rats, but their teeth were razor sharp, and the creatures were as big as house cats.

These creatures were known as Densoph; the soldier recognized them immediately since it was his and his team’s task to find out what was happening inside their population.

The militaries, in fact, found out that the creatures had been behaving strangely recently since they were moving outside of their usual territory and were often attacking New Alexandria.

The soldiers who survived the assaults claimed the monsters attacked without reason or provocation. Since there wasn’t any apparent reason for those things behaving like that, a team was dispatched to find out.

It took some days before the team managed to enter the deep woods east of the city. Their mission was simple: investigate the situation and report to the military command center.

However, the investigation proved difficult because multiple thaids were spotted along the way, and they all had the same behavior as the Densoph.

They attacked indiscriminately and were far out of their usual territory. After much difficulty, the team finally arrived at the Densoph territory. The team, though, found it completely empty, not a single one of the weird rats was there, and they searched for days.

Eventually, the team realized that the Densoph must have been driven away by another species of monster, so they headed west, trying to go back toward New Alexandria. After a while, the beasts came out of their hiding place and swarmed the team sent by New Alexandria.

The monsters were too much for the team to escape. It didn’t matter if the soldiers fought well against them. Once they surrounded their position, the fight became impossible.

“Martin, Luke, you have to run. Make sure you are able to warn the city about the monsters!” the team leader said. Both men nodded and ran off.

As soon as they disappeared into the trees, the remaining members turned their attention to the monsters closing in. They were outnumbered, and even though they knew how to handle themselves, there weren’t enough people left to take care of the group of monsters. They were all killed minutes after, swarmed bu the high number of monsters.

At the same time, Luke and Martin fled deeper into the woods, hoping to reach safety somehow. But no sooner did they leave the sight of the monsters than several others of them chased relentlessly. Martin tripped over an obstacle and fell face-first onto the ground.

In less time than it takes to blink, a monster grabbed its throat and ripped it open with little effort, dying during the escape.

Luke, instead, lost the usage of an arm due to a monster surprising him by jumping from behind a tree and biting him. In spite of this, the soldier kept going until he reached the city’s border. Still, as he thought he would be safe, the monsters rushed out from the forest and started chasing him.

“Fuck!” He screamed. “Help me! Please help!”

The creatures were on his tail now, he knew he wouldn’t survive if they caught him, and he didn’t want to die. So he turned left and ran through the forest.

The young man used his power to make illusions to drive away the creatures, but the thaids had a powerful sense of smell and were able to chase the man deep into the forest.

The place was surrealistic, with trees towering above him and strange flowers blooming everywhere. As he got deeper into the woods, the sounds of nature became more intense, birds chirped loudly, and insects buzzed incessantly. It was almost impossible to hear anything except the noise created by the environment.

The soldier kept running, sending illusion after illusion of himself going in different directions. This confused the pursuing monsters and gave the man enough time to run ahead and hide.

The creatures kept following the man each time, separating into different groups to chase the new illusion. This didn’t last long since the monsters could differentiate him from his illusions thanks to the smell. Soon, they began to chase him relentlessly again.

Luke made sure to stay as hidden as possible by staying under a giant boulder, hoping the cover might protect him from the pursuit. But even then, the monsters were getting closer to his position.

The scent of sweat and blood was strong on him, alerting the creatures of his position. One of the thaids jumped onto the rock beside him, its claws digging deeply into the stone. 𝒃𝒆𝒐𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝙘𝙤𝒎

The soldier resumed his running, but he eventually, tripped over a rock and fell onto the ground, landing hard on his chest.

As soon as he hit the dirt floor, he saw the pack of monsters charging at him, ready to kill. He tried to stand up quickly, but the beasts finally arrived upon him and started tearing him apart.

They bit off his leg first, then his arms followed, and eventually his head. His breathing stopped, and he lay still among the grasses.

One of the creatures then looked up, and the image of multiple skyscrapers appeared in its field of vision.