Deadwastes

Mason gently awoke, his back hurting from the hard ground. Rubbing it gingerly, he sat up and looked at the remains of the burnt-out fire. Ashes littered the ground around him, and he stood up, checking the office for anything amiss. Nothing had bothered him during the night, for once. He guessed he’d been here in this world for about three days, and in that time he’d been attacked by two separate, horrifying monsters, been knocked unconscious, and had his life threatened. It felt like everything wanted to kill him.

He stretched, pushing away the tiredness in his body. Kneeling down, he picked up the rest of the dingy little ads and put them in his bag, thinking they’d make good kindling in the future. Mason slid the goggles and scarf back over his face, put the gloves on again, and slid the bag over his back once more. He walked outside and looked at the window. It was bright and sunny out, and no wind tore through the hole.

Trying to climb back out, he had to push away a large amount of snow to be able to even stand up.

Stepping forward, he was glad he had the goggles on. The snow was up to his knees, and the sun was brightly reflecting off of every last flake. He looked around. The sun was high in the sky. Mason had slept a long time, it seemed. But he felt much more energetic and ready than he had before, so he figured it was pretty well worth it.

He trudged through the snow, and kept moving in the direction he’d been going the day before.
For a few hours, nothing caught his eye, and he was starting to think he’d need to leave the city to find anything alive. Then, after taking a break on an old bench that he’d cleared off, he saw something rather odd.

There in the road in front of him, the snow looked strange. Everywhere else in the street, it was mostly level, save for lumps formed from cars and rubble. But directly in front of him it went down suddenly, like there was a hole in the ground. Mason stood up and looked at it closer. The depression was about fifteen feet in width, of roughly circular shape, and was in the middle of a three-way intersection.

He walked over to it and started to dig away at the snow, curious about what lay underneath. After a minute or two, his hand hit something hard. Pushing the snow around it away, he saw what looked like ice, frozen over something dark and black. He leaned forward to get a better view, trying to see what was beneath it.

Mason had leaned forward too far, and the ice broke with a loud crack, shattering in front of him. The entire depression crumbled away, and Mason stood, wobbling on the edge for a few seconds, before tumbling headfirst into a dark, gaping hole.

He landed on his back, feeling sharp pieces of ice and stone stabbing into his back. He cried out, and quickly sat up, his whole body in pain. Shaking himself off, he stood up, and almost fell back down again, his right leg hurting immensely. He managed to keep himself steady, and take a glance at his surroundings.

The hole had opened up into some strange cavernous space. Looking closer, he realized it was a tunnel, large and open, that spread into the darkness. He stared into the yawning void in front of him, then looked back behind him.

The ice had formed into some kind of tall, reaching pillar, now collapsed into a huge pile of icy shards, blocking the way behind him. The hole was at least twenty feet deep, removing any chance to climb back up. He literally was forced to go forward into the dark.

Sighing, he hoisted the bag back over his shoulder, took out his flashlight, and limped forward into the dark space. Walking through, it looked like he’d fallen into an old service tunnel, connecting through the city. He hadn’t realized these were so big, though. Shining his light down the middle, he couldn’t see the end.

Dust and snow particles flitted through the air like lost souls, brightened by the beam of Mason’s flashlight. The ground was made of asphalt, pockmarks and holes scattered about it.

Numerous doors lined the walls on either side, bolted or locked shut, and broken lights hung dejectedly over his head, their bulbs long since burned past use.

He walked slowly past a small forklift that had crashed into the wall, its yellow paint torn and faded. Mason moved close to it and looked it over, wondering if maybe he could get it to work somehow.

Reaching it, he quickly realized it was clearly past repair, and the way the metal was bent looked unnatural, wrong. The ends were twisted and warped, as if someone had sculpted them like clay. He turned away and kept going, trying not to imagine what could have caused that. He didn’t want to try fighting anything with his leg like this.

His oddly patterned footsteps echoed loudly in the cold walkway. Ice had dragged itself down the walls, like the ground above was trying to reach its frozen claws down below. Mason pulled down his scarf and goggles, trying to make it more comfortable to breath and easier to see. His leg hurt, each step sending a spike of pain through it.

After at least a half hour more of silent walking, keeping his path straight and ignoring other tunnels
so he didn’t get lost, he came upon a crossroads. The way in front of him was collapsed, rocks and rubble blocking the way. He had to go either left or right.

As he was standing there, trying to make a decision, what sounded like footsteps started echoing from the tunnel on his right. He aimed his flashlight down that way, wary. The footsteps got louder, and louder, until eventually he saw a figure sprinting out of the darkness, running as fast as they could.

He squinted, trying to make them out. He could see that they were slim, wearing a dark, black coat and what looked like a gas mask. Their heavy boots pounded noisily down the long tunnel. They were holding something long and metallic, but what exactly, he couldn’t really tell.

The figure started to shout something at him as they ran, but he couldn’t understand what they were saying.

“What?” Mason called down, holding a glove hand up to his ear to try and make out what they were yelling.

The figure was waving its free arm frantically, repeating themselves.

“-really bad attitude!” he heard, finally. It sounded like a girl.

“What has a bad attitude?” he shouted back.

They sprinted towards him and grabbed his shoulder, out of breath. Taking off the gas mask, he saw that it was a girl with long brown hair, pale skin, and green eyes. She reminded him of someone…

She took a long breath and started to talk again, interrupting his thoughts. “Those rock things! I must have woke them up in the tunnels down south.” She gasped as loud rumbling noises started rising up behind her in the tunnel, and he saw that she was holding some kind of machete.

She looked back up at him and grabbed his arm, shaking it violently. “Listen, I don’t know who you are, but you can come back with me to our camp if you help me get out of here!” she said, shouting into his ears. He pushed her off of him and stood looking at her for a moment. The rumbling kept gaining in volume.

He looked at her, confused. “Run where?” he asked. She pointed to the left tunnel with the machete, although she kept looking behind her, a look of worry etched onto her face. Mason aimed the flashlight down there once again, but couldn’t see anything.

“Look, they’re coming for me, and they’re not gonna stop if you get caught up in the middle. So you can come with me or you can get crushed. I don’t really care right now.” she told him, and ran off down the left-facing tunnel. He watched her for a moment, then began to run after her, having no desire to even see another monster.

But his first step angrily reminded him of his injured leg, as pain flared up along the side of his body. Mason cursed, falling onto the side of the wall for support. He watched the girl run off into the distance, eventually fading into the dark.

The ground was shaking beneath his feet.

He leaned back up and started limping forward as fast as he could, listening as the vibrations started to shake the walls all around him. He should have just turned around. Now he couldn’t even see what was going to try and murder him this time.

A loud crash came from in front of him as a large chunk of the wall was blown away, flinging dust and snow everywhere. Mason stopped, staring, as a towering figure walked out, illuminated by his flashlight.

It was at least eight feet tall, bulky, with rough-hewn skin that looked like it was made out of black stone. Bright red gems protruded like spines from its back, and it turned towards him slowly, staring.

A single gem was inlaid in what would have been its head, gazing emotionlessly at Mason, and its massive arms ended in jagged spikes.

Another crash rang out behind him, and he turned around to see another monster, equal in size and shape, but with a marble-white body, and round, blue gems sticking out all over it. It’s hands ended in blunt ends. It took a slow, thundering step towards him, shaking the ground.

The black one let out a noisy rumble, coursing through its body. It aimed an arm towards Mason, who watched as sharp pieces of red gemstones began to grow out of the end of it.

Realizing what was about to happen, he dropped down to the ground quickly, feeling spikes shoot through the air above his head. He got back up and limped hurriedly to the other side of the tunnel, turning his flashlight around towards the monsters.

The black one turned and looked at him again, but didn’t do anything. The white one grumbled, lifted its arm, and slammed it down on the ground towards Mason. He felt the ground waver beneath his feet, and barely managed to sidestep before it somehow liquefied, melting the ground into a black, sticky puddle of asphalt.

The creatures let out more rumbling noises and started to move towards him, faster than they looked like they should have been able to. Mason sucked in a lungful of air and held out his palm, praying that it would still work.

In his mind’s eye, he once again pulled the chain out of the ground below him, as quickly as he could. A crackling noise erupted from his hand, but only a tiny, weak zap came out, smacking harmlessly into the black one’s body. It stopped for a moment and tilted its head, looking at him oddly. Then it resumed its heavy forward motion.

Mason turned around and started to limp quickly away, hoping to find somewhere to hide from these things. He heard their bodies moving, sounding like a rockslide, getting closer behind him. He cursed again, but a sound from behind the monsters gave him pause. The rumbling stopped.
It sounded like an engine.

He turned around, his flashlight illuminating the rock creatures just behind him, but they had stopped too, looking down the tunnel. Two bright lights flared up from the darkness, and he heard the telltale noise of tires whirring on asphalt. The lights sped forward, rushing towards him and the monsters.

Mason gritted his teeth and dove off to the left, landing on his side right next to the wall. The monsters turned back to him and began to move towards him once again, but they had scarcely taken a step before a red pickup truck slammed into them, sending them flying down the tunnel.

Their bodies flew away, knocked clear off their feet. The hood of the truck was smoking. Mason stood up as fast as his legs would allow and shined his flashlight towards the driver’s seat to see who his savior was.

The girl from earlier had come back. She held up her hands against the glare of the flashlight.

“Stop aiming that at my face, you dick!” she yelled at him. He quickly turned it off. She reached over and opened the passenger door, glaring.

“Get in. I’m not gonna ask twice.” she said, and turned away. He didn’t respond, simply doing what she said. He pulled the door shut loudly and looked at her, trying to figure out who she reminded
him of, before an angry roar made him look back down the tunnel.

The rock monsters had recovered, and were both staring at the truck. If they could have shown rage, they would have been furious. They took a thunderous step in unison towards the car, as the white one slowly began to raise its arms upwards.

The girl spat out a curse, and slammed her foot down on the reverse. The truck sped backwards down the tunnel, the headlights showing the ground where they’d been only moments before melting away.

“Watch our backside!” she told him, staring ahead at the monsters. Mason rolled down the window and stuck his head out, thankful the tunnel was wide enough to allow it. He turned the flashlight back on and stared back, not seeing anything. The truck shook noisily as it ran over potholes and patches of ice.

“Watch for what?” he turned back and asked.

“An intersection should be coming up soon! Tell me when we’re there!” she shouted as red gems at least a foot long suddenly slammed into the hood of the truck, impaling it. The engine groaned like a wounded animal.

“Here! We’re here!” he shouted, seeing the tunnel open up. The girl quickly hit the brakes, flinging Mason back into his seat. She twisted the wheel, and deftly flipped the vehicle around.
Looking behind them, he saw the monsters sprinting towards them out of the gloom, their footsteps pounding into the ground.

“They’re right behind us!” Mason shouted. The girl let out a angered sigh and pushed down hard on the gas. The engine rumbled, and for a moment it felt like the truck wasn’t going to move. She hit it repeatedly, and with a groan the truck shook, then lurched forward. Mason closed his eyes, not wanting to see what would happen if they didn’t gain speed. He nervously put on the seat belt.

He heard the tires screaming, then felt his body push backwards into the seat. Opening his eyes, he saw that they were rapidly gaining speed. They blasted down the tunnel, the wind howling through the open windows. He gripped the seat tightly, feeling nauseous. They kept going at a breakneck pace, leaving the monsters in the dust, until the girl spotted a light up ahead. Slowing down, Mason saw that it was what appeared to be a makeshift ramp, leading up to the surface. She drove up it slowly, and Mason could feel it sag beneath the truck’s weight.

With a shudder, they got off the ramp, back into the city. Or rather, the airport. He realized just how fast they’d been going to have gotten here in such a short time. The truck belched out a cloud of black smoke and stopped moving. The girl groaned and closed her eyes, breathing heavily. Mason felt the color return to his face, and let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
After they both managed to recover, Mason turned and looked at the girl again. He still couldn’t place her, and it was starting to bother him. She caught him staring and stared right back, her green eyes boring into him.

“What? You hit your head back there or something?” she asked, sounding annoyed. He turned and looked away, not meaning to be rude.

“Thanks.” he said after a minute, glancing at her. She shrugged. “You didn’t seem like a Locksteel, and anybody who’s not one of them is a friend to me.” she told him. He remembered Greg talking about the Locksteels. Something about a gang.

“What’s your name?” she asked, looking out the window.

“Mason. You?” he responded.

“I’m Erin. I think-” she started, but was interrupted by the ground shaking below the truck. They both turned their heads slowly. The rock monsters had walked up the ramp and were advancing
towards the truck.

Erin cursed, again, and reached behind her into the truck’s backseat. She pulled out a long, pump-action shotgun, and quickly loaded it with shells she took out of her pocket.

“Get out. This piece of scrap isn’t going anywhere.” she told him, and kicked her door open. Mason pushed his open and stood, staring at the monsters. The two of them slammed the doors shut and watched. The monsters were moving slowly now, but they were still moving.

Erin pulled up her shotgun and aimed it at the black one on the left. “I don’t have a gun for you, so you might want to stay back. I don’t know how much this is gonna do to these guys.” she said, and resting the gun against her shoulder, she let out a shot. The gun kicked her backwards, and the pellets shot out, landing in the black one’s chest.

It staggered, chunks of black rock flying off of it. A roar escaped from its body, but otherwise it appeared unharmed. The white one stood behind it, oddly motionless. Mason looked and saw Erin staring at it wide-eyed, before she took the shotgun and ran.

“Follow me!” she shouted. He turned around and sprinted after her, going through a large patch of snow. Ruined airplanes rested on the cold ground, line after line of them. She ran into a building and held it open, waving him inside. It looked like it had been the main service area once, where people had gotten their tickets. Everything looked dull and rusted.

He ran inside after her, and quickly shut the door.

“What even are those things?!?” he asked, getting frustrated and annoyed by having to constantly run. Erin looked at him and shrugged, irritated, the shotgun held loosely at her side.

“I have no clue!” she said angrily. “I was searching for supplies near the Mile High stadium when those things started attacking me out of nowhere!” she told him.

“How did you get in those tunnels?” he asked, and looked around at their surroundings. The windows at the top let in a pale light, and illuminated a cold, empty space.

“I know all the ways through them. When everything wants to kill you, you learn to go where everything isn’t.” she said, looking around as well. “They’ve been there for a long time, I think. I never really cared as long as they could keep me hidden.” She walked forward into the center of the large room, taking stock of the situation.

“We’re near our camp, but I don’t want to lead those things to my friends.” she said to him. “We need to find a way to get rid of them.” Mason turned and looked through the small gap between the doors, trying to see if the monsters were coming. Nothing.

He stood up. “I have an idea.” he told her, thinking about his lightning. He was just about to step back outside when Greg’s angry face flashed through his mind. What if Erin acted the same way? And she didn’t seem to have as much restraint as Greg did. He’d rather not get shot by her shotgun.

His hand, reaching for the door handle, faltered.

“Uh… nevermind. It wouldn’t work.” he said awkwardly. She stared at him for a moment, and he flashed her a weak smile. “Sorry.” he said, and turned around, feeling embarrassed. He could feel her eyes burning into his back.

After a minute of solid silence, Mason got frustrated and looked back at her.

“What?” he asked, annoyed.

“Are you serious? We’re in a life or death situation here, asshole. Don’t say something like that and
not mean it. That just wastes our time.” she told him angrily. Mason sighed. She was right.

“Alright, fine. But you have to do something first.” he told her.

She looked at him and shrugged., her gloved hands resting in her coat pockets. “What?”

He pointed to the far end of the room. “Go over there and turn around. Don’t move until I come back.”

She snorted derisively. “What, are you gonna change and don’t want me to see?” she said mockingly.

He shook his head. “No, I just don’t want you to get hurt.” he said. She raised an eyebrow skeptically. Mason waved her on insistently. She rolled her eyes and let out a huff, but did what he asked. She watched him from a distance for a moment, not turning.

“How, exactly, could you hurt me?” she called to him in a slightly concerned tone.

“Look, do you want those things gone or not?” he shouted back, and made a rotating motion with his fingers.

She groaned and turned around. “Fine. Whatever. But you owe me some answers after this."

Mason stood up, and slowly pushed open the door. The monsters were moving slowly but steadily towards the entrance. He held up his palms, and aimed his fingertips at them.

He closed his eyes and began to visualize the chain looping around his arms and being dragged out of the ground, but right before he could do anything, a horribly familiar numbness crept over him.

“You’re an idiot, you know.” he heard whispered in his ears, softly, as his body suddenly jerked straight up and his arms fell into a resting position.

His eyes were forced open, and he began to move like a twisted marionette. He went into a crouch and ran across the airstrip, sprinting towards a plane that had split in half. The monsters turned their heads and looked. Unwillingly, he raised a hand and shot off a bolt at them. It landed between them, not hitting either, but making them angry. The white one roared, and they both started running at
him.

“You don’t deserve to have this.”

He ran inside the fallen front half of the airliner. He let out another bolt, enraging the creatures further. Mason desperately tried to wrest control back from whatever had taken over his body, but he couldn’t. It had an unshakeable grip on him.

“You have no idea what you’re doing.”

Inside, he ran to the front of the plane. The monsters had followed quickly behind him, and were standing at the foot of the front half. Mason’s mouth opened, and he let out a terrifying laugh that chilled his soul.

The rock creatures looked at him for a moment, then began to walk thunderously up the plane, stepping on shredded metal and ruined carpet. They pushed past broken seats and discarded trays, crushing everything beneath their feet.

“THIS WAS MINE!”

Mason held out his hands, his fingers extending and filling with electricity before slamming his palms down hard on the cold, exposed metal floor. The world froze for half of a second, before a loud zapping noise erupted all around him.

Electricity burst from every open piece of metal, arcing across the plane and filling it with lightning. The bolts looked like deadly flowers, blooming from every broken pipe and shattered piece of airplane frame, creating a destructive web of lightning that spanned the entire half of the plane. The rock monsters froze in place, their bodies stopping, their arms held rigidly.

The lightning started to concentrate towards them, carving off rock and gems from their bodies. They screamed in apparent pain, but the thunder was relentless, smashing into them constantly and relentlessly.

Mason was down low, a twisted grin spread across his face. His palms kept pushing more electricity into the plane, pressing down on the icy metal. His mind was reeling, still fighting for control.

“Stop trying so hard. You’re only going to hurt yourself.” the voice whispered again, a tone of contemptuousness in it’s voice. It sounded angry.

The rock monsters had all but crumbled away now. Mason’s hands came up and shot a large bolt into each of them, smashing them into pieces.

“This isn’t over. I’ll be back again.”

With a gasp, Mason collapsed, breathing heavily. His body felt like a sponge that had been twisted and drained of water over and over again. His arms, his head, his legs, everything ached painfully.

He lay there for a while on the hard metal ground, now blackened and warped by the intense heat of the electricity.

Barely managing to stay conscious, he got to his feet, his muscles screaming at him in protest, and walked shakily towards the building where Erin was. The cold air curled around his cheek, reminding him angrily of the numbness that had controlled him. He pulled his jacket and scarf tighter around him, and opened the door.

She was where he had left her, sitting down now. Her head turned towards him as the door fell shut loudly.

Erin got up and moved towards him, a look of confusion on her face.

“What the hell happened to you?” she asked, and sniffed the air. “And what’s that smell?”

Mason shrugged weakly. “I don’t smell anything.” he told her. He turned around slowly and opened
the door. “They’re gone now.” he said softly.

She looked at him strangely and walked outside, looking around. “I guess they are.” she said, before turning around and planting her finger square into Mason’s chest, almost knocking him off-balance.

“Now you’re going to tell me how you did it. I had a goddamn shotgun and it didn’t do anything. There is no way in hell you did that without pulling off some kind of stunt.” she said, a curious spark
in her eyes.

He stood up as tall as he could with his body hurting and looked at her, trying to appear intimidating.
“No.” he said.

Completely unfazed, she persisted. “You’re either going to tell me what happened or I will leave you
here for some other thing to come and kill you. Your choice.” she said, and started to walk away.

“Wait!” he called. “Wait.”

She turned around, tapping her foot expectantly.

Mason sighed. He really had no choice. It was either show her or be left alone. And he didn’t want to
be alone again.

He slowly put his hand out, the palm aimed at the sky. In his mind, he gave the chain the weakest
tug imaginable, but held onto it, trying to keep it there.

A small flare of electricity flowed out of his fingertips, curling around his hand. Erin let out a little
gasp.

He let go, nervous that the voice would take control again. The lightning fizzled away, and once
more his hand was empty.

Mason stared at her, his eyes wary and afraid. He knew very well that could have been a fatal
mistake. The shotgun was still clutched tightly in her left hand.

Holding up his hands defensively, he started to walk away slowly.

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt you.” he told her.

She snapped out of her stupor and looked at him, confused.

“What are you talking about, hurt me? You’re the kid from TV, aren’t you? The lightning boy?” she
asked.

He shook his head. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” he told her honestly. She
gave him a dubious look, putting one hand on her hip.

“Uh huh. Sure. Look, honestly I don’t care who you are. But if you can do all that stuff with
electricity, then you’re exactly what I need right now.” she told him, and started to walk away.

He stood there a moment, unsure of what to do, before she stopped and called to him.

“Are you going to come, or what?”

Mason let out a deep breath and started to follow after her, nervous and confused, but for the first
time, he felt a strange confidence, like he’d figured something out that he’d needed to for a while
now.