Chapter 3: ENCOUNTER (1)

At the Safe-zone that night;

The feeling of something wet falling on his face was what brought the priest back to consciousness. He opened his eyes. Something was above him. Watching. Everything was blurry, like a dream. Nothing felt real. He squeezed his eyes as if to wish the blurriness away. His eyes cleared and adjusted to the little light coming in from the meagre moonlight. The gaping, salivating mouth with sharp teeth is what hovered above him. He froze. Still, to him, it felt like a dream.

An ear-splitting screech coming from that mouth sobered him up. This was real. He wasn't dead. The mouth inched closer, grew wider as if readying for a delicious bite. He shrank in fear and flinched. The mouth grew closer until... A jerk from its owner made it lunge forward towards him. A split second decision to roll away from the bite is what saved him. The mouth bit a huge portion off the back of the tree. Still, he rolled away trying to escape. He found himself outside. A small pile of rocks stopped him as one small rock pierced bandaged side. Pain coursed through his body, this affirmed what he wasn't hoping for... Everything was real. True unbridled terror touched his whole being as he struggled to sit up, he saw the owner of the mouth.

A hybrid. A creature that was the stuff of nightmares, nightmares that he often read about at the seminary. Bathed in the moonlight, the creature stood, turning towards him. Its body was a mix and match of the old and the new. It had block buildings on one side while on the other, clumps of raw flesh moving around. All this was covered by a membrane so light it seemed that it could break any moment. It also has six legs each pair seemed to belong to an ancient creature. Its head looked like that of a huge crocodile while it bore its large seeming metallic teeth towards him.

The priest still sat there still, numbed by fear. Death was right before him. His mind tried to make him move but his body didn't register. The hybrid came closer its mouth opened wide enough to devour a fully grown human in one bite. Slowly the terrified priest's mind filled with fear as well. Was this it? The end? Irrationality overcame him. He couldn't think. He only sat there, watching the hybrid coming closer and closer. It bore its teeth, salivating on the sides. Closer... closer. The priest wet himself. Death came closer, its breath tickled his cold face as it screeched again. Louder. His flashed before his eyes. Is this the end?

Two weeks ago...

Walking along the huge marble hall of the High Citadel Seminary, the priest was angry. He had just been dismissed by the teachers after they told him that he was nothing like his talented brother, a high priest. This always made him agitated. For as long as he can remember, everyone always compared him and his older brother. The latter was known as a genius talented priest who always succeeded in his missions across the world preaching the hot water doctrine. To others he was the perfect priest, to him he was a source of his pain and anger, a thorn on his side.

Still, he walked across the hall, his mind preoccupied. He had to beat his older brother, no, surpass him. A slight tap on his shoulder. He looked up. It was his brother. He is surprised, what was his brother doing here? He smiled and said," Hi." His brother's bald shining head and expressionless face whose dark brown eyes bore no emotion looked down on him. "I heard you graduated," he replied. He studied his younger brother's expression then continued, "I hope you do your best Alvin, " he turned and walked away.

Alvin just stood there, angry. In other words what his brother just said was," Make sure you don't shame the family". He gritted his teeth. I'll show him, he thought angrily, I'll show all of them! A few days later, he was given his first mission, a crusade. He was to take a small blimp that ran on steam and go out to the Ourtworld ( this was the name given to places around the world where it hadn't received the hot water religion; the post apocalyptic heretic world).

He was excited to go on his first mission. He also wanted to prove himself as a priest, to find a way to step out of his older brother's shadow. He prepared himself took a bag and a few advanced weapons to protect him just in case, carried an extra set of clothes and made his way to the hangar where the blimps were. Along the way, he encountered other priests. Some looked at him jealously. This was due to the fact that going on solo crusades was considered special, a mark of your maturity as a priest, so naturally some were indeed jealous while others acted indifferent to him. Still, it didn't stop him from being excited .

After a few minutes being briefed by the engineer, a prayer and a few sanctification sentences of blessings and protection, he entered the blimp and took off. It was only after flying for three hours that he realized something was wrong. Terribly wrong. The blimp's pressure meter began to let out a worrying sound. The pressure was rising, fast. At the same time the rudder and fins were also making crude low noises, as if they were becoming loose. Again, the pressure indicator let out a warning. The blimp was over pressurized and shrinking. Alvin strapped himself in and tried to regain control by releasing all the pressure. This was a mistake as it exploded and began to a rapid descent. He screamed, tried to eject out to no avail. Steam as well as unbearably hot water poured on him as he scrambled midair to get away. He didn't and the blimp, what was remaining of it crashed into the safe-zone. He had finally ejected but it had been too late, he had landed on charred trees. They took the brunt of the fall and he landed on the ground unconscious. That was two days ago.

Now he sat there , facing death again. The hybrid moved closer as if enjoying every moment the priest spent in fear. Soon it stood above him ready to for a bite. A sense of survival gripped Alvin . He wanted to live. Yelling as loudly as possible, he grabbed a rock and hurled it inside the hybrid's mouth. It choked. The hybrid pulled back and coughed screeching erratically as though confused by its prey. It spat out the rock, the tilted its head and looked at the priest. It was angry. The priest closed his eyes and offered a prayer, this was the end.

For a moment, no one moved.