Chapter 488

The first reports had been dismissed as drunken ramblings, embellished tales of hunters returning from the deep forests of the Pacific Northwest. They spoke of creatures, of wolves, but wolves unlike any ever witnessed. Not just large, but colossal, some standing taller than houses, their fur like the night, eyes burning with cold fire.

No one believed them. Until they had to.

It began slowly, almost like a game. Cattle disappearing first, whole herds vanished overnight, leaving only flattened earth and the acrid stench of a predator beyond imagining.

Then, the missing persons began, hikers who never returned, families vanishing from their homes on the outskirts of small towns. Authorities attributed it to wildlife, to bad luck, but the fear spread, crawling along the land like a slow, cold sickness.

Veylvi had been a skeptic too, one of the few who clung to the rationality of the scientific world. She was a zoologist, accustomed to observing nature with detached analysis.

She had read the early reports, her academic curiosity driving her initial engagement. Now, it felt as if the reality had completely broken loose, a terrifying fever dream becoming their everyday lives.

She found herself staring at a trail of paw prints pressed into the mud, each the size of a small car. Their sharp definition and unbelievable depth had set off a bone-deep terror she hadn't even been able to properly register at the moment.

This was no wolf, not in any way humanity had previously come to know, and the scent left on the disturbed earth was more akin to burnt metal than that of any animal she could have imagined. Her partner, Michael, stood next to her, silent and pale, his face reflecting the dreadful understanding that had settled deep into them.

"We have to leave," Michael said, his voice barely audible. "This isn't safe anymore."

Veylvi only nodded. There were no longer arguments or debates about logic or scientific probability.

Their old ways had stopped being relevant, replaced by pure animal fear. She didn't need anyone to explain it to her that if it wasn't already over, then it surely was approaching rapidly.

The stories they'd brushed aside from desperate small town radio broadcasts began playing like a record inside her mind. It was real, it was truly real and nothing would ever truly feel or be the same.

They packed what little they could, abandoning her life, her career, and the safe assumptions that always made her days simple, but also fulfilling. The highway was a stream of battered vehicles, each fleeing what they dared not speak.

They could only communicate in glances, shared fears passed back and forth, knowing they were but another few grains of sand that could easily fall into an endless abyss of pure death. A small, and hopeless, hope for something else to happen tugged, tugging so subtly on their heartstrings, it went virtually unnoticeable.

As the sun dropped below the horizon, they stopped at a gas station on a barely used country road, mostly isolated. The fluorescent lights of the deserted convenience store cast an eerie glow on the scene.

A battered pickup sat in front of the pumps, and an unmoving form sat inside of the car, motionless, a single dark stain seeping into the faded leather of the truck seat, still attached to the mangled, shattered man. It was like they just fell to it at random, like the grim reaper just chose whoever, or whatever, caught his eye.

It was the closest they'd seen anyone close to the beasts themselves and in spite of that, it sent them directly into absolute shock.

"Someone has already passed here," Michael said, staring at the corpse in absolute shock, completely horrified and unblinking at what sat inches from their presence.

Veylvi went to speak but couldn't, only able to turn away in utter dread. A low growl resonated from the surrounding trees.

The sound was deep, guttural, a promise of something ancient and hungry. Veylvi instinctively reached for the shotgun that Michael had salvaged, his grandfather's, a useless antique that could maybe bring about the slightest glimmer of solace.

It didn't matter, really, she'd only grab it because that's just what any average person would instinctively grab, but deep down she knew how meaningless it truly was.

The first one came from the edge of the forest, emerging slowly into the light of the parking lot like an omen pulled out from some far-off nightmarish realm, not this planet or even universe. It was bigger than she'd imagined; her mind felt overwhelmed by the shear scope and impossible size of this gargantuan beast.

It wasn't real, none of it could be, that much was becoming more and more certain with each dreadful, terrible second that passed before her own tired, scared, confused eyes.

Its fur was like the dark of an empty galaxy, absorbing all of the available light from their little space of fake hope, making her small world fall deeper and deeper into total emptiness and unmeasurable dread, while the stars in its eyes shone with an uncanny intelligent fire, calculating. Veylvi felt a moment of despair as all of the energy rushed from her body, she could see how small her own world had truly become in this moment.

How could anyone possibly try to make an argument as to why this didn't deserve everything they had? She could have accepted any god if it came to this.

Her whole body trembled and she found herself dropping the gun with an almost casual pace to the floor of the worn car seat. More of the behemoths started emerging from the trees, their movement slow, deliberate, making the very earth tremor under their huge, almost surreal foot falls.

They had arrived. The first one dropped, and the first person passed, now all bets were completely off.

They charged, the pack descending like a force of nature, each paw slamming into the earth like thunder, closing the gap in between their intended meal at impossible speeds that seemed almost illogical, given their mass. Veylvi screamed but her cry was lost in the growing pandemonium that swallowed the world whole, her entire world crumbling as time stretched and distorted like silly putty being pulled in every direction at once, everything, completely meaningless, in its design and sheer unyielding absurdity.

They ripped the pickup truck apart with such easy and effortless abandon. The tearing of metal was so much louder and more painful, making even the deep grumbling, growls sound so soft, but her eyes fell upon what was happening only moments later and when it truly began sinking in what it all meant and represented, Veylvi's eyes shot over to the next area and she gasped when her stomach twisted and turned so fast that her insides felt they would start twisting and moving to match the horrific dance of madness happening only mere moments away.

Michael was frozen in time, a scream caught somewhere deep inside of his throat, just before a razor-sharp claw reached right past and tore off his whole lower body. It didn't stop and it did nothing as it came down like an act of God, it kept right on tearing its flesh away piece by piece and his face became as much as a portrait of sheer pain as any human could realistically take.

Her hand slapped on the seat of her pants as she saw it tearing away at the seat, inching towards them with a sick and terrible patience. Veylvi found that she could not process it, like a record skipping at the same line and making every thought repeat as it slowly degraded away piece by piece, going through this horrible repeat until there was truly nothing else but the horrific chaos around them, which had grown more, exponentially, becoming even louder.

This didn't make sense, she found herself saying as they started to lift the truck that sat in the very place of her small little life up, their teeth reaching for the very structure holding their hope. Her entire world felt like an unyielding nightmare as her old truck spun in the air, twisting upside down and the windows exploded around her with an almost whimsical burst.

The vehicle flipped through the air and they landed upside down, the sound was overwhelming and deafening, making the world truly mute as time lost itself to this maddening void. They went right back up and the sound repeated.

Her mind only registering pure chaos now, nothing but loud booming of thunder as she went over and over and over again as they tossed the truck. The behemoth flipped their truck once more before landing the right-side up again and everything just became quiet again, as she found herself pinned into the seat from all the metal as it mangled everything but herself in the cage she sat.

She looked outside her busted windows, at the terrible monsters with their blood and her whole mind shattered in total silence, until it came from behind. They didn't stop, she realized, it didn't need to make noise now, now that it had found its spot, everything it needed had happened, they were here.

A claw tore off the door, slow, steady, and smooth. The sound echoed even with all of the horrible noises that lingered in her shattered mind.

The immense head lowered, dark, fiery eyes looking into hers, the scent of its hot rancid breath reached her nostrils, not metallic anymore, but completely and horrifically, biological and she knew then it was her turn. And it wasn't for a second but, it was like she had lived one thousand, painful seconds just waiting for this particular beast to finish this horrific meal that seemed completely routine.

And then there were none. Her life was about to conclude as the sharp, massive teeth began descending, closer, always closer, tearing through the cab.

A feeling came over her, though, no fear, and then even that just turned into nothing, because it was coming. She almost saw herself as the one who was witnessing it and not who it was actually happening to as it pierced her leg, it only got closer and closer and even as it ripped away her own limb and tossed it aside like it meant nothing, Veylvi couldn't make a noise or a cry or do any of those things that any normal person would be capable of in this particular scenario.

But she found peace in her mind finally and felt nothing but a calm that didn't belong to a situation as cruel and grim and torturous as her current situation. She would not suffer.

That was enough for her. But the wolves would still finish the job, each tear like a new day being added and nothing would stop them as they tore apart the vehicle around her piece by piece until it looked nothing like the hunk of metal that sat, just moments ago, on that country side road.

As they finally pulled her from her cage with utter disregard for what remained of her ruined human body. It pulled up a last glance from their huge eyes that stared so calmly into her as her eyes met the dark black void of the monster in a twisted gaze.

Veylvi could feel all the fear melt away. She'd just exist for that little tiny time until she wouldn't be here anymore, there was no panic now, but rather there was just nothing and her brain went completely silent.

The final tug as it bit into her skull was all she would need to truly exist in nothing. There would never again be another piece of herself and yet, it didn't hurt anymore.

It only brought what remained, which was finally a sense of rest. The dark sky watched down as they finished with her and then left into the void that came before they did.

And she did as well. No grand final thought, but a single peaceful rest.

And that would be the most kindness anyone ever knew again, in the land of the damned.