The fog cleared, and the monster crawled toward me.
I had seen tanks during the Great War, but those had been operated by men. The monster crossing the scarred battlefield toward me bellowed and cursed at me with a deep, mechanical voice.
“Blood!” it screamed, and the machineguns opened fire, forcing me to take cover in a trench which contained the remains of its previous residents. Crawling out of the rotting flesh I had landed in, I made my way forward.
The monster kept up a steady rate of fire with foul epithets intertwined. Unsurprisingly, the beast knew a considerable amount about my past, though there were some parts of it that I could not lay claim to.
I reached a collapsed wall and saw I would have to be exposed to the monster’s weapons.
It was an unpleasant thought, and I hastened over the debris.
“Look what they’ve done to us, Blood!” the monster howled, and the machinegun rounds kicked up dirt only inches from me as I hurtled once more into the trench. The beast’s main cannon fired and destroyed the blockage and sent wreckage hurtling past me.
The treads crushed the earth, and it seemed as though the ground would break apart. Bits of the trench’s edge did just that as the tank trundled along.
I came to a stop and waited. It was all I could do. None of my weapons were strong enough to penetrate the thick armor of the tank, and I doubted if I would be able to pry open the hatches. Even if I could, what would I accomplish?
All I could do was wait.
“Are you alive, Blood?” the monster demanded, its voice sending shockwaves through my body.
“You must be,” it snarled. “We can never die. Not even when we wish to. Look what they did to me. They caught me napping outside the blacksmith, and they put me in this. This is your fate, too, should they catch you. Or perhaps worse. I know not. I care not. I only want to kill myself, Duncan Blood, and since I cannot do that, I will do the next best thing. I will kill every Duncan I find.”
It rambled on for several more minutes before turning away.
I reflected on what it had said and decided not to let the monster find me.
#horror #monsters #supernatural #death
