User blog:Bart Gunshot/A Memoir

A Memior - Short Story
'''I am lost as to how formatting works on wikias. If you wish to view it as it is meant to be viewed see here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nbIT_V9RjqQQGImirSg0pTdT8VoAhnU_JirAG_ESzso/edit?usp=sharing'''







I awoke suddenly on that dark and dreary day to a loud rumbling sound. I sat up with a jolt in my bed and watched as pictures fell off the wall and crashed onto the ground shattering the glass. Items fell off shelves and flickering candles shook to the floor. The shaking and rumbling continued as I jumped out of my bed to see what was going on.



My wife burst into the bedroom with a look of terror on her face. She asked me what was happening, I had no clue. I told her that and advised her to get under the kitchen table downstairs and take cover until the rumbling stopped. Then I noticed my son wasn't with her, she immediately knew what I was thinking and told me she had already told him to crouch under the kitchen table.



A loud echoing bloodcurdling roar topped the rumbling of the earth and the house around us. It was as if it was a roar from hell itself. It was horrific, terrifying... I looked at my wife and kissed her, she started crying for she knew I was a militia member of our town. I had to protect it. She knew as I rushed down the stairs to get my armor and spear I may never come back.



My son sat quietly under the table. As I ran past the table to get my gear he told me he was scared. I stopped and crouched down to where I could see him. I told him I loved him and promised him that he would be safe. He simply asked after I had told him this If I were going to come back.



<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I finished gearing up with tears in my eyes as I rushed down the street in our town. Buildings were burning and some had fallen in and collapsed. I met up with another militia member and he told me it was like nothing he had ever seen. It had "broke through the ground" he said and had skin of scales and metal plating. Gears and flesh, blood and oil, and the eyes... He said the eyes were horrendous, the most terrifying thing he had ever seen.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">We ran quite a long way from my house, for this I was glad. My wife and son had a better chance. But for me, my fate was most definitely sealed. The rumbling and roars were even louder now and the destruction was more apparent. There were large cracks and holes in the street the nearer we got.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Smoke filled the air and the smell of burning... Everything. Houses, trees, plants, livestock... Bodies. They littered the ground. I couldn't bear to look at them. Some were militiamen, but many were simple citizens; women and children. The smoke turned the day to night.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw that ghastly day. We reached near the center of town and militiamen had lined up with throwing spears and crossbows to shoot the monster that loomed in front of them. The monster. The only thing to call it. A beast truly from hell.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">It was serpent-like, long and slender. It wrapped around buildings and land. But it was enormous. As thick as my house, if not thicker. And as long as the town was wide if not longer. It's scales were the darkest blackness he had ever seen. Darker than a night with a new moon. Darker than being shut in a room for three days with no light.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">It seemed to suck the color out of everything it moved by. But the beast was not made of only scales. No, the beast seemed to be plated in large rusty metal patchwork plates. They were covered in grime, blood, and rust. Some of the plates were rusted through and revealed large cavities within the serpent's body where flesh and body worked with machines and gears.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Veins connected with transparent pipes showing the blood that ran through the body. Some pipes carried oil and fuel instead of blood. Gears pulled and pushed muscles. Electrical wire pulsated and connected to nerves. I wondered why someone would create such a monster, and why? Why was it made and why was it here?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I ran by the militiamen to get a higher vantage point. If I could burst a pipe by throwing a spear maybe the beast could be defeated. I climbed to a roof of a nearby building and did not throw my spear but instead was taken aback by the chasm the militiaman I had met earlier failed to describe.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The land had split open, and was continuing to, which had split so far down into the earth that the bottom was magma and the sides were a red rock that looked as if it were bleeding itself. Land was continually breaking off and falling into the chasm below, and sinking and melting within the magma.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Then within the center was a circular black - darker than the serpent even, hole. Perfectly circular. The magma seemed to flow away from it. Within the hole I had thought I saw blue, purple, and green stars twinkling. I thought serpent must have came through the hole - a portal I decided to call it. For it did not seem to be of this world.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I broke out the trance I was in and saw an opportunity to potentially slay the monster. It was moving along the edge of the chasm, and I saw a hole that had formed in the rust. I threw my spear with the best accuracy and strength I could at a pipe that I had noticed.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The pipe burst and blood started pouring out of the serpent. But it seemed to have no effect on it. The serpent only seemed to get more ferocious. This was very apparent when the serpent turned so it was looking straight in my direction.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">A chill spread throughout my body as I saw the eyes. They were horrid so much so that I could not move, I was frozen in place with fear. I tried to move but my body didn't respond. I had no control.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">One of the eyes was a mechanical light form, a lantern. It was square, and had two iron bars crossing diagonally across it. On that side, the right side of its head, it was made entirely out of iron plating.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The left side however was scales and skin. The serpent had giant gashes along scales, blood flowed from the scrapes and cuts. This eye was huge and a very dirty orange color. It was round, and did have a pupil. The pupil was brown and appeared to somehow be rotting.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Then the beast opened its mouth. It had the most gnarly crooked teeth I had ever seen. They were rotting yet as sharp as can be. Yet these teeth were mixed with large sharp metal spikes, sheets, and blades. To be swallowed by this beast would be the most painful thing I had thought.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I snapped out of my frozen state of fear when the serpent roared, the loudest most bloodcurdling roar. I jumped off the roof of the building I was on and started running. I had to get my wife and son and leave. There was no saving the town, but I would save my family.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The serpent however had different plans for me. It threw it's body up in the air and crashed down to the left about 10 meters from where I was. The serpent broke right through the ground, creating yet another chasm that was uncrossable.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The land was giving away and tumbling down into the newly formed abyss, I decided to turn and run the other way. I ran into the militiamen once again and told an officer that it was hopeless. He told me that I was a coward.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I heard the roar again, and it seemed to echo throughout the ground. Suddenly the earth broke open and rocks and dirt flew everywhere. The serpent rose out of the ground and magma dripped off of it's body.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The ground started to crack and separate. Large chunks of rock and land fell and broke off. The serpent started devouring or squashing the nearest militiamen as it slithered upon the ground. The ground was cracking beneath it.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The officer and I stood there as we processed this situation. The ground was falling out from beneath us. The serpent was moving closer. I suddenly realized we were on a peninsula suspended over a vast lake of magma. We ran.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The ground now was giving away in random spots now. The land was crumbling, buildings being taken with it. I knew we were next. I could hear the serpent and land crumbling behind us, but I dare not look.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">But then the land gave way right where we stepped. I jumped back and crawled back up on solid ground but noticed the militia officer had not. Horrified, I stepped to look down the hole that had caved in and saw the officer hanging onto a ledge. Beneath him quite a way was magma. It was rising.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I reached down for him to grab my hand, but he was just out of reach. He said nothing, his face was a look of pure fear. The last thing I saw and heard was the ledge crumbling and him screaming as he fell to his doom.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The land I was standing on was now at an angle, not flat as it had been. It was surely falling into the magma. I ran hard and fast as the angle became more and more inclined. I heard the roaring of the serpent, the ground crumbling and rumbling, and my heart as I pushed myself harder and harder.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The land was now so inclined that buildings were beginning to collapse and slide down. I was now almost climbing to the top, which I could now see. There was a lip where the inclined land met the 5 foot high difference of the land that was not crumbling and sinking into the magma below.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I was almost free, I was almost safe. But the serpent would not let anyone escape. He burst out of the ground in front of me. I started sliding down the land as the land started tipping further and further even more so because of the serpent.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I tried desperately to try and grab onto something. But instead I slammed into a wall beneath me. I hit the wall so hard that I felt as if my leg had broke. I was met by an excruciating pain. The serpent was still rising into the air out of the hole it had broke through. But now it was beginning to fall down.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">It slammed into the ground harder than ever, disintegrating it into small rocks and chunks  of dirt. Remaining buildings were destroyed, and I myself was sent flying backwards. I was falling. This was the end.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I fell further and further down, and it got increasingly hotter. I remembered the officer as he fell. He burned before he even hit the magma and... Melted. I would melt. I would burn and melt. This was not how I wanted to die.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I thought of my wife and son. I only hoped my wife had left with my son. I hoped she was safe with my son. I would never see them again. They would never see me. I looked around at the world up above me as I fell. I would never see it again. No more.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I closed my eyes. And waited. Pain like never before. Fire. My body felt as if it were melting. But it only got worse and worse. I started forgetting things. I felt as if my body was shriveling up.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Then it was ice cold. It hit me like a brick wall. Like I had hit a wall of coldness extremely fast. I still felt a feeling of falling. I did not open my eyes. Where was I? Was this an afterlife? I decided to open my eyes and it was pitch dark. The darkest blackness, void of light. Except for a ever shrinking circle of light above me.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I looked at the shrinking circle of light and it was the town, the chasm, the world I knew. I knew then I had fallen into the portal. I was scared. I slowly looked around me and tried to take in any light that was emitted from this void.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I noticed the stars I had seen before. Purple, blue, and green they were twinkling, on and off. It was strange, stars didn't blink on and off... And they usually didn't come in pairs of the same colors. It was then that I realized they were eyes.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Millions of eyes followed me as I fell further and further, the light of the world above shrinking more and more. I could do nothing. My heart pounded. My mind raced. Where was I? What had happened?

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I felt then every bone and thing in my body shatter as I hit the ground. I felt as blood poured out from my body. I could not move. The pain was too much to bear. I knew this was how I would die. In a strange world, bleeding out.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:'HelveticaNeue';color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The surface beneath me was soft. And strangely slimy and wet. It seemed to move up and down. It was alive. And then the millions of horrifying eyes that had been watching slowly came towards me.