Michael Robertson - New Reality - Truth

Bang! The sound was like a horse kicking a stable door.

Adrenaline surged through Jake, but his limbs were lead and his back ached. Riding the rush, he took quick breaths and stared up at hole he’d fallen through. The wind above raged as fiercely as before, but inside there was a musty stillness. It was like he’d fallen into a tomb—perhaps his own.

Bang!

“Fuck.” Lifting his head, Jake pulled air through his clenched teeth. It felt like his vertebrae were being separated with hot knives. Was his back broken? He wiggled his toes. No.

Bang!

Taking huge gulps of the musty air, Jake sat up, wincing with every millimeter of movement. He was on a bus. What the hell? It was a double-decker, and he was riding on the top deck. The top always afforded the best view of the city, although all he saw through this bus’s windows was rubble. Were it not for the hole he’d created, then it would be pitch black inside.

Bang! Bang!

The bus shook and Jake grabbed on, his damaged right hand screaming from the movement. Finding a rock on the floor, Jake picked it up and got to his feet.

Bang!

The sound was coming from the rear of the bus. Hunched over, Jake stared in the direction of the noise.

Bang!

This had to end now. Stepping forwards and straightening his back, Jake nearly vomited before he got his words out. “Show yourself, you coward.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A thick cloud of dust rose into the air, and Jake stopped still. Looking at the rock in his hand, he dropped it on the wooden floor. Who was he kidding? There was no way he could stand toe to toe with it.

Bang!

The entire bus shook again, and Jake thrust his arms out for balance.

Bang!

Retreating a step, a line of tension riding from his left hip to beneath his right shoulder blade, Jake kept his eyes on the back corner of the bus. When he bumped into one of the old seats, it rocked on its rusty hinges. If the inside was ruined, what was the outside of the bus like? How long would it be before the thing burst through the rusty shell?

There was a scrabbling sound and the rubble along the bottom of the large back window shifted.

The dust in the air got into Jake’s throat, and it itched when he swallowed a sandy gulp. Jake looked up. He was directly beneath the hole he’d fallen through.

More rubble shifted on the other side of the back window. When Jake saw a hand, he froze. “What the fuck?” It looked human, but where the fingernails should have been were black crusts of dried blood. A life underground seemed to have no need of them.

The hole above seemed impossibly out of reach.

After pulling some more rubble away, an arm rubbed along the back window. Its movements were frantic as it fought the environment to get to its prey. The pallid appendage had dark veins running along it as if it had oil for blood. The creature hissed.

Gritting his teeth, Jake lifted one of his legs, the base of his spine feeling like it was about to click out of place. When he raised it high enough to get onto the seat, he stepped up, a wobble shaking his entire body.

Using his left hand, Jake grabbed the handrail above. Grinding his jaw, he stretched a leg across and straddled the aisle, a foot on the back of each chair. The seats rocked beneath him and sent ripples up his spine that made the muscles in his back spasm. If he didn’t hurry up, the seats would tear free of their bolts and throw him back down to where he’d come from.

Long dark hair appeared at the window. Below it was a pale forehead. It was a little girl. Squirming, she slithered up the rubble. Using her head, she cleared a path.

Taking several deep breaths of the musty air, Jake bent his atrophied legs.

Then he saw the little girl’s face. She was no more than eight years old. The grease in her hair made it thick. Nestled in sunken sockets were the bloody eyes he’d seen in the house. A glazing of deep red sat where irises and retinas should have been.

Three, two, one. Jake pushed for the hole.

Rising out of it, he brought his elbows crashing down on the outside of the bus, but there was nothing to latch onto. Slipping, his legs kicking, he fell backwards into the hole and hit the ground with a thud.

Writhing on the floor, his body contorting, Jake chased the dusty air to fill his winded lungs.

Looking up at the window, he saw the girl lying diagonally across it. A lizard on a hot tile. With her bloody eyes locked at him, she hissed, banged on the window and snapped her jaws.

The hiss rang in Jake’s ears as he sat up again, his winded body slow to cooperate. Standing up, he lifted his leg and stood up on the seats. The rusty bolts groaned under his weight for a second time.

Clenching a fist, she banged it against the window.

Stretching his damaged arm to the sky, Jake reached for the lip of the hole. Some of the rust at the edges crumpled like ash, but then he found a piece that he thought would support his weight and grabbed it, a burn running down his arm. “Ow.”

Bang!

Raising his left hand, he found a place to grab opposite his right. With sweat running into his eyes, he glanced back at the girl. Hatred twisted her evil features.

Bang! A crack appeared on the back window.

Jake’s right foot slipped off the seat. Clinging onto the lip of the hole with his left hand, he prevented his fall, his back cracking as his body jarred.

Bang! The window creaked as the crack stretched.

Looking down at his dangling feet, Jake found the backs of the seats again.

Bang!

Just as he found his footing, the window popped with a whoosh! A solid thud as she hit the floor was accompanied by tingling glass and crashing rubble.

Bending his knees, his strength having all but vanished from his legs, Jake looked up out of the hole.

One last glance into the bus showed the girl spring up and land in a crouch. Hissing again, she ran at him, her bare feet pattering against the wooden floor.

After a deep breath, Jake pushed off and jumped for daylight.

Rising above the hole, Jake found a lump of metal and grabbed it with his left hand. Pulling himself up, the girl hit his dangling foot, but Jake managed to get free before she could pull him back in.

Scrabbling away, Jake fell onto his side and gasped. With blurred vision, he stared at the devastation surrounding him, and his body felt like it would never work again.

As Jake lay there, he listened. Despite the strong wind, he could hear the snarling and hissing in the bus below.

Once Jake had recovered, he got to his feet. The grit on the wind stuck to his sweaty face and he shook violently. Walking over to the hole on wobbly legs, he peered in.

Pacing up and down the aisle, she kept her face turned towards Jake. Her red eyes glared death and her open mouth was a black pit.

Jake stared at the creature below. Despite having a human form, her actions were alien. There was a twitchiness to her gait that Jake had never seen in a living creature. “What are you going to do now, you horrible cunt?”

When her lips pulled back, it revealed sharp teeth.

“You can’t do anything down there, can you?”

She hissed.

Teetering on the edge of the opening was a lump of reinforced concrete that was almost as big as the girl. Thank god that hadn’t fallen in when he was down there. Sidestepping around the hole, Jake watched the thing and she watched him right back.

“You killed my friend, you little bitch.” Tears stood in his eyes when he gave the concrete the gentlest shove. It toppled in.

Flinching at the wet crunch, Jake looked down and saw the girl’s limbs protruding from beneath the concrete at unnatural angles, broken like a spider beneath a mug. Her porcelain appendages with their black veins lay limp. An ever-increasing dark pool spread outwards.