A New World

The Beginning: Part#2

The feet looked like human skin, but gone horribly wrong. They were a sickly, jaundiced yellow, crisscrossed with swollen veins and open, festering sores that oozed a viscous, greenish fluid. Fat rolls upon fat rolls lapped over each other, like grotesque, fleshy waves crashing against the shore of some unspeakable beach.

I forced myself to look up, dread coiling in my gut like a venomous snake. The higher I looked, the more thankful I was to have already puked my guts out. Looming above me was a naked, thirty-foot giant, a monstrosity that looked like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon but weighed tons. Its skin was the same diseased yellow as its feet, stretched taut in some places, hanging in obscene folds in others.

Its ass was completely raw, bloody, and covered in years of s**t. I could see the individual smears of feces clinging to the cracked and weeping skin, each one a testament to the creature's unimaginable filth. The sight was so utterly horrifying that my mind almost blanked, desperately trying to shield me from the reality of what I was witnessing.

It stopped, lumbering forward with earth-shaking steps. Then, it leaned down, its massive, trembling hands reaching out. They were the hands of a giant baby, pudgy and dimpled, but stained with grime and caked with dried blood. It grabbed up people in its folded hands, scooping them up like toys from a sandbox. Their screams were swallowed by the sheer scale of the creature.

Then, it lost its balance.

The ground trembled as it swayed, its weight shifting precariously. With a sickening lurch, it crashed into the post office.

The shockwave was like a bomb going off. The air itself seemed to compress and explode outward, carrying with it a wave of debris and destruction. People, cars, buildings – everything was blasted away. I was thrown backward, tumbling head over heels. In a stroke of dumb luck, I landed in front of the giant blue mailing boxes, offering a sliver of protection.

I still hit hard enough that my head slammed against something solid. A small gash opened on the back of my skull, and I could feel the warm, sticky blood running down my neck. For a moment, the world swam in a dizzying haze. I managed to crawl over to a building that had a wooden overpass.

I shook my head, trying to clear my vision. The ringing in my ears subsided, replaced by a chorus of screams and the sickening sounds of tearing flesh. The blob – because that's all it was, a gigantic, grotesque blob – was just sitting in the ruins of the post office like a spoiled toddler, chomping away on a victim as if they were peppermint sticks. The screams and the crunching of bones were driving me insane.

The damn thing didn't have a face. Or, if it did, it was buried beneath layers of rolls, pus-filled sores, and congealed blood. The only thing you could discern was its mouth. It was gigantic, a gaping gullet that took up half of the creature's… head? It was a cavernous hole filled with rows of jagged, yellowed teeth, each one stained a horrifying crimson.

I crawled out from under the dubious protection of the wooden overpass, my limbs trembling. I stood there in shock, watching the nightmarish scene unfold. The flying monsters wheeled overhead, their shadows dancing over the c*****e. A deafening, inhuman roar echoed from above.

I watched as the people running for their lives were lifted up into the air by the winged horrors. One by one, the helpless victims went, screaming for help that would never come. Some were dropped from a great height, their bodies shattering on the pavement below. Others were carried away, their fates unknown.

The stench was overpowering, a nauseating mix of rotting flesh, excrement, and something else… something indescribably foul that clawed at the back of my throat. I wanted to run, to hide, to disappear, but my feet were rooted to the spot, paralyzed by fear and disbelief.

Another inhuman screeching roar comes from behind me. The screech ripped through me, a sound so unholy it felt like my very soul was tearing. Blood gurgled in my left ear, warm and sickening. It was followed by a dull, throbbing ache. My eardrum had finally given way. I lurched behind one of the giant sequoias that lined Main Street, the world tilting precariously around me. My equilibrium was shot, making each step a drunken stumble.

Peering out from behind the tree trunk, I braced myself for whatever fresh hell was about to unfold. And what I saw… what I saw defied description. It was a grotesque mockery of nature, a twisted chimera of beauty and horror.

They were women, or at least, the upper halves of them were. But “woman” felt too pure a word to describe these abominations. Their torsos were gaunt, the skin stretched taut over bone. Where a face should have been, there was only a gaping, tooth-lined maw. Matted, blood-soaked hair hung in clumps, clinging to bits of gore and unidentifiable… things. Their arms were unnaturally long, the skin pale and stretched, ending in hands tipped with claws that resembled those of a grizzly bear, but sharper, crueler.

And then there were the breasts. Hideously, inexplicably, they were perfect. Full, ripe, and impossibly alluring, a stark contrast to the horror that surrounded them. I couldn't tear my eyes away. It was like they were pulling me in.

But it was the lower half that truly cemented the nightmare. From the waist down, they were colossal snakes, scales shimmering with an oily sheen, thick bodies coiling and uncoiling with unsettling grace. As I watched, paralyzed by a mixture of fear and morbid fascination, I saw people drawn to them, their faces blank, eyes glazed over in a horrifying trance. They walked, almost willingly, towards the waiting monsters.

A man in a business suit, his tie askew, stumbled towards one of the creatures. He reached out, a vacant smile plastered on his face. The snake-woman simply waited, her hypnotic breasts swaying gently. As he drew closer, the serpent's tail lashed out, wrapping around his legs with terrifying speed. He was pulled in tight, pinned against the scaled body. His smile faltered. He flinched, trying to escape the grip.

The claws of the snake-woman descended slowly, deliberately. The first slice drew a scream, a raw, animalistic sound that shattered the trance. The man’s eyes widened in horror as he finally understood his fate. But it was too late. The claws began to tear, ripping chunks of flesh from his body. The snake-woman devoured the morsels with savage hunger, her lipless jaws stretching wide.

I watched in sickened silence as another, and then another, and another fell victim to these serpentine predators. It was a m******e, a grotesque ballet of seduction and slaughter played out on Main Street. There must have been thirty of these things, slithering and feasting, turning my once-familiar town into a charnel house.

Suddenly, a blur of shadow descended from above. A figure, screaming in terror, was snatched from the ground, lifted high into the air. I looked up, shielding my eyes, and saw… something else. The details were lost in the speed and the shadow, but it was huge, winged, and undeniably malevolent.

A shower of blood, bone, and viscera rained down on me. I was drenched, gagging, blinded by the sudden, horrific deluge. It was everywhere, coating my skin, filling my mouth, burning my eyes.

And then, a bizarre thought struck me. It was like a scene from The Three Stooges. A grotesque, bloody pie fight. The sheer absurdity of the comparison, the grotesque comparison of slapstick comedy and unimaginable horror, threatened to push me over the edge.

Frantically, I wiped the gore from my eyes, desperate to see what was coming for me next. I knew, with chilling certainty, that I was next on the menu.

I stumbled backwards, tripping over something unseen. I landed hard, the breath knocked out of me, pain searing through my ribs. I looked down and saw I was laying in the grass on the parkway. I realized that I was winded because I broke a rib... maybe more than one. There were also pieces of glass puncturing my back. Nothing immediately life-threatening, but the pain was a b***h.

A very loud ringing comes from my ears. My head is feeling fuzzy and numb. I sit there stunned, watching everything as if it is in slow motion. The slaughter and chaos doesn't stop. I get back to my feet somewhat snapping back into realization.

The stench of death and fire make it hard for people to breathe. I pull my shirt over my nose to try to breathe. I still end up coughing hard. I stumble through the streets covered in blood, dirt, and sweat. Everywhere you turn is utter horror. Hell has come to Earth.