In Search of Epsilon

Slow and Steady

I start shooting the Owl in the head.  

Over and over again.  

I still have some bullets left, but I decide to stop. I am, after all, not really doing anything. 

A grueling, terrible idea comes to my head.  

If the giant Owl is made of birds, and birds come out every time I grab it. What happens if I grab all the birds inside and kill them?  

“There must be thousands of birds,” says Ana.  

Flying around on top of the bird is nice.  

This must be what it feels like to be above people.  

“I'm nothing special,” I say as a matter of fact. 

 I don’t have the brains of Louis, the bravery of Alexander, the power of Kai, or the talent of May. 

I’m not particularly determined, accomplished, headstrong or confident. And I would never say that I have worked hard. All of the people I have met have different ambitions, different dreams that they want to accomplish. I don’t really have anything like that. But right now, what is required isn’t anything special. I don’t need any of those things to achieve what I want to achieve right now. 

“I do not need anything if I want to survive,” I told her.  

And so, my grueling, epic task began.  

The bird had started picking up and eating the people that had ran away at the beginning, while I slowly and steadily plunged my hand, took out a bird, and killed the birds one by one.  

The seconds, minutes, hours, days, flowed fast or slow. I could not tell. The landscape never changed from day to night. 

One of the interesting things that happened was that battles were occurring everywhere. Why exactly? I did not know.  

But I could tell you one thing. It definitively was getting smaller. Smaller and smaller. My stupid plan worked. Maybe it wasn’t a brilliant idea like Louis’ plans tend to be, but it worked.  

As a law of Murphy declares; If it's stupid but it works, it isn’t stupid. 

I kept pulling birds and crushing them to death in my hands until I spotted an owl. The moment I crushed it, the animal cried in pain.  

Something inside my brain clicked.  

I killed an owl, and the giant bird is an owl.  

It really isn’t a hard guess.  

I keep going at my task, fueled with more enthusiasm.  

I can kill it.  

If it feels pain, it can most definitely die.  

I kept going with renewed fever until I found another one. 

How many would I have to snap until it actually dies? I do not know.  

The bird screeches in pain once more and starts to fly around like crazy. Maybe it was the pain or maybe it was tired of giving me a free ride.  

Either way, it went crazy. 

It was like a raging bull, but a thousand times worse, and in mid-air.  

“Stop moving you stupid bird,” I tell it. 

It does a strange sound.  

“Not a very good comeback” 

He kept flying and thrashing around, trying to dislodge me, but my entire arm had pretty much become part of the bird. My other arm was busy pulling and killing the birds.  

Another owl.  

This must have been the third one.  

I crush it in a second, and the Owl noticeably slows down. 

I start laughing in triumph.  

“You really are going down you stupid bird.” 

I keep going, now with way too much enthusiasm.  

I am so close.  

I can feel it.  

Breathing is getting harder and harder, but I don’t pay that any attention and keep going.  

The Owl is finally not nearly as large as it was once. It is almost the same size as me. Still quite big, but a lot smaller.  

Suddenly, it stops ascending, as I find another owl.  

“Is this the last one you bastard?” I ask.  

Of course, it doesn't respond.  

I finally look at my surroundings. I was so focused on my mind-numbing task that I was not paying attention to my surroundings.  

I am at the summit of a mountain. 

I crush the owl, and the bird drops to the ground, not able to fly anymore.  

“If I kill you, can I get out of here?” I ask the bird.  

Again, no response.  

I keep going, and the giant bird keeps shrinking.  

It's smaller than me now. 

I want to stop, and I do.  

I kinda feel bad for it. 

I try to pull my arm to find out that it's not coming out.  

I guess that makes sense.  

If it wasn’t trapped inside, I never would have stayed on top of it for so long.  

I try to dislodge it a couple of more times.  

But to no avail.  

“Damn it” 

SCREEEEEECHHHHH.  

A sudden cry echoed even at the top of the mountain.   

My eyes almost pop out of my face in shock.  

That wasn’t this bird.  

“s**t”  

From the clouds, another giant Owl makes its grand appearance.  

And this one looks very, very mad at what I am doing to its counterpart.