Outside

abyss.

  I was attacked and everything became shadow, like in a deep sleep.

  When I awoke in what seemed to be the next morning, I was on the floor of my room, completely still, contaminated by a chemical that the creature has put on me.

  I had a sore shoulder and a swelling down my chest, but it was a swelling that was moving.

  It was a parasite growing under the skin and I could not do anything to save myself, just stay there, motionless, doped and feeling the thing sliding inside me and slowly eating.

  Desperately, I tried to imagine how far it would take for the parasite to deepen and reach my intestines or heart.

  That's what the beasts wanted to do: more of their own, turning people into eggs and hatching their kind.

  The pain was intense and the parasite seemed to expel a substance that made the internal wound get a cold feeling.

  I looked in all directions, looking for something that could help me, a bailout.

  The blade of my knife was still there, on the floor next to me and almost impossible to be touched by my paralysis.

  It was my only chance, close my eyes and try to make my right arm move.

  I didn't want to see how it would be if it were to fail, so I kept my eyes closed, forcing mentally instinctively.

  The parasite continued to eat and each time the pain got worse, I forced my arm more.

  Suddenly, the creature moved sharply, causing an even stronger pain, which made me open my eyes and realize my arm, finally, had moved a little.

  My heart raced and I had hope.

  There was the blade and I touched it, wrapping my fingers on the meta, even hurting my hand.

  I raised my arm to the height where the parasite was in, so I had a macabre reminder:

  In hospitals, when they tried to remove the parasite, it only deepened, fleeing removal.

  I would not have speed to plunge the blade, only enter slowly towards the living swelling.

  It was my chance, and I would die if I made a single mistake, and it is unlikely that this plan would work.

  I lowered the arm as I could, with the blade slowly digging and burning.

  The parasite, below, churned and perhaps tried to dig deeper in my body, but the pain made my arm gain a little speed, or at least I thought.

  The blade sank in the parasite and it struggled violently, causing me to fight more.

  My blood and the parasite were mixed, and it began to evaporate that white smoke they produce.

  When I realized, we were united by the blade and pain, me being inert and the parasite struggling more than a fish in the net.

  The movements of that thing opened the wound of the blade and the one inside of me. The pain was too intense for me to stay conscious.

  I awoke slowly, with body movements resuming as I palpated my stomach to see if the blade was still there.

  I lifted my head and saw scars from shoulder to the stomach, where the creature died.

  The blade had fallen and the swelling had disappeared, but within the wound, there was a dark crust, which was the dead body of the parasite.

  Our body mixed in those gray scars, yet painful.

  Carefully I stood, feeling that patch within me, then I walked out of the house, supporting me against walls with difficulty.

  Outside, everything was broken open, the gate to the house of the neighbors, and I wondered if they had the same fate as I, winning over the parasite.

  I took a few steps down the empty street, passing in each house to see if there was a survivor.

  There were stains instead of people, eaten until there was only a red blur left inside their own homes.

  I observed the entire street, but knew that, for every person eaten, there was a new beast.

  I went home and my TV didn't show anything, no channel, wich made me get the feeling the world was over.

  I tried to find the phone and saw dozens of missed calls from my family, who lives in another city.

  It was my turn to call them and gather information.

  To my delight, everything was fine, there was still a world outside of my city.

  My family was desperate, but they could not enter the city, not only for the barrier, but the for the war going on in the barrier.

  Probably the creatures destroyed the television transmission towers in the city, but the rest of the world watched the battle between soldiers and beasts on the border.

  People of value were giving their lives to prevent the tragedy from propagating.

  The creatures had more than tripled in number, as they made people their incubators, as would have happened to me.

  I know that at that time, everything was concentrated on the borders, and my health was a bigger concern ...

  I described the events to my relatives, but did not let them know that I was "mixed" to a parasite, because neither I knew if it would bring me sequelae.

  It was time to ensure my health and rest, knowing that conflicts were relatively far away.

  Probably there were other survivors, but my body was too weak to go far away, searching.

  I looked for signs of bleeding around the scar, but there was nothing but the frightening feeling of having my body bound to a parasite.

  From time to time, I felt a strange chill, like a small electric wave through the body.

  My recovery could only rely on resting, and that's what I did, sleeping a few hours to wake up from time to time, feeling as if someone had called me.

  With the body stronger, I followed up the street, trying to see who it was.

  I did not find anyone with the episode being repeated a few times, then I slept soundly all night.

  I could not imagine that my sleep would help me get answers, but as I started to dream, I saw my body taken by those light electric waves, vibrating almost imperceptibly.

  In the dream, I was looking for something through the city, but could only rely on the vibrations to guide me to my target.

  The more my body vibrated, the more I felt I was approaching something big, important ...

  I walked to the hospital, where the creatures came out, I was guided to a particular point on the ground floor, beyond what was, one day, the reception.

  There was a hole in the ground, but it was a perfectly cylindrical space, a perfect tunnel.

  In the dream I did not come down the hole, but I felt my body vibrating with intensity, showing me that there was something there, hidden under the earth.

  I awoke with the certainty that it was not just a dream, and I decided to take a walk to the hospital, now abandoned.

  The whole army of beasts was busy in the extreme corners of the city, and I lived near my target, not forcing too much my weakened body.

  Before leaving, I was standing still, feeling the frequency of vibrations of my body and how it originated in the scar.

  With the frequency in mind, I began my slow walk past the street and watched the sadness that it has become.

  I approached the hospital every step and could feel the change in my body, getting close to something that was sending me signals.

  I went to the hospital, fighting the fear, remembering that, there, everything was empty.

  Things were not as in my dream, now with much more destruction, chairs to pieces, holes in the walls and ceiling, floor darker with spilled blood stains.

  I was guided by the vibrations to find the mouth of the mysterious tunnel, inclined, leading to some unknown point.

  I was right, I had the strange feeling of having visited that place, but needed a light source to see what was down there.

  I did not bother with equipment, because I knew the tunnel was dry and tilted in a way that would facilitate my return.

  I sought an emergency lamp inside the hospital debris, as they always contained a charge of energy and functioned as a strong rectangular lamp.

  I managed to find one easily, and took the wire to wrap my arm and make sure my impr
omptu flashlight would not fall.

  I've put my body in the tunnel and started to crawl, feeling little change in the level, as I descended.

  Finally, in the shadows of the tunnel, I tried to move forward and fell in an open space, a chamber that made my body shiver.

  I stood up quickly and threw the beam of light there, around me, to see what was there.

  I winced, but now with horror. There was one of the creatures in front of me, almost motionless.

  In shock, I noticed more movement in the chamber, revealing dozens of creatures, all waiting for my arrival.

  Two of the beasts closed my exit, then everything else moved, opening a corridor for me to walk to the depths of that cave.

  Deep down there was something absurd, with many limbs, being the source of all those vibrational signals I felt.

  With difficulty, because of fear, I approached that different thing, watching as the creatures did not attack me.

  The parasite killed in me must have left their scent or some identification that only they understand.

  I came near that thing in the bottom of the chamber, which looked like the creatures, but was much bigger, with a prickly shell, gigantic jaw, even for the body, and three long tails.

  Out of fear, I could not move, causing the creature to lose his