Chasing Time

Sector A2, Lower Terragon. 12:20, 2nd September, 3000. "Run! Julia! R-" the next thing she heard was her brother's scream as hundreds of the tiny monsters that had appeared a few moments ago tore into him. She shuddered and gasped, trying but failing to get out any words. She swallowed and took a step back, then one of the creatures looked up at her with its grotesquely large eyes. What seemed to be an ear was in between its mangy teeth. As she tried backing up to get further away from the tiny beasts, the one observing her opened its mouth wide and let out the same deafeaning screech that had alerted the whole of Terragon of their presence. She screamed and turned on her heels then began to run. She ran and ran, she ran like she had never ran in her life. Yet, it was not enough. There were thousands of them everywhere, they were tiny and they were clawing at her feet. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she dashed through the debris filled streets of lower Terragon. The always cloudy sky gave the city an dark orange hue even though it was noon, the cries of the city's sirens filled the air. All around her, people were screaming as they were being viciously attacked by the creatures. Julia took a sharp right turn in an alleyway. She knew the streets like the back of her hand, down that alleyway was an abandoned chocolate factory. If she managed to make it there, she should be able to hide for a while. One of the creatures screeched. She gasped and looked up, it was right above her. It screeched again and jumped down. Thinking fast, she grabbed a stick from the piles of rubbish that lined up the alleyway. As it reached her, she swung as hard as she could and hit the tiny monster right in the face, causing it to yelp. Without missing a step, she dropped the stick and kept running, the beasts were even closer now but she could see the factory up ahead. A couple more steps and she would be safe, hopefully. She reached her hand forward and pushed at the large door that led into the factory. It was stuck. "No," she whispered under her breath and pushed harder, it still would not budge "no!" she screamed and stared pushing even harder. A snarl came from behind her. She turned around and saw what must have been thousands of the monsters behind her. She let out a shaky breath and screamed. •|•|•|•|• Sector B, Middle Terragon. 20:32, 2nd July, 3000. Layana gasped awake. She looked around and sighed, feeling the tension leave her body as she realized she just had a bad dream. She turned her head to her side stool to see the time. She must have dozed off when she got back from work earlier in the evening. She was still in her scrubs. She sighed again then pushed herself off the bed, she probably would not be getting anymore sleep. The room lights came on automatically as she got to her feet. She made her way slowly to the bathroom as she thought about the recurring dream she was having. It always started the same way. A beautiful woman with skin greener than any grass and hair darker than any soil appears to her and grabs her hand. The woman would show her the whole of Terragon on a hovering White cloud unlike anything she had ever seen. They started from Terragon down to Lower Terragon. Upper Terragon was beautiful, the streets were made of silver, lined with magnetic rims that allowed the vehicles to hover. There were very few people in Upper Terragon, so the houses were spaced out and each house had a compound. It was this part of the dream that Layana liked the most. She had never been to Upper Terragon yet everything was so vivid and beautiful. Next, they would go to Middle Terragon with its four sectors. Sector A was the best sector, there were few high-rise buildings which served as offices. Middle Terragon was the commerce center of Terragon and Sector A had the best kind of workers. They would then go to Sector B where she stayed. This sector had more high rise buildings for both commercial and residential. After a while, they would finally make it to Lower Terragon. "Look," the lady would say to her "what do you see?" "Lower Terragon," she would answer. "Look again," the lady would say and she would look down. Suddenly, they would be even higher in the sky and she could see all of Terragon. Lower Terragon was the largest part, half of it was filled with debris and the other half with cramped up houses and abandoned buildings. "I see...dirt, decay..." she would answer. "Look again," the lady would say and Layana would look down again. She would gasp, holes were opening up in the earth and millions of tiny creatures creep out and start attacking everything and everyone on sight. She would looked up and see that the lady was now blood red, bald and her eyes were a blazing orange. "Why?" Layana would ask and the lady would smile, a cruel smile. Without answering, she pushed Layana off the hovering cloud. That's when she would wake up, as she falls into the sea of monsters. "What does it all mean?" Layana whispered to her reflection in her bathroom mirror. She turned the faucet and splashed some water on her face. She felt very tired again. She pulled off her scrubs and took a quick shower. Water was scarce and she was not making enough as a nurse yet for her to splurge on water supply. Changing into more comfortable clothes, she made her way back into the bedroom and slid back under her bed covers then fell into an unexpected deep and dreamless sleep. •|•|•|•|• "No!" Julia screamed. "Whoa, what are you screaming about?" She turned her head to the side and saw her brother, staring back at her with a confused and irritated look. She looked down on herself, she was on the only couch in their living room and her brother was watching TV. Was everything that happened a dream? She closed her eyes and saw the monsters again. No, it was definitely not a dream but she was confused. "T-travis?" She muttered and her brother rolled his eyes at her. "Have you been smoking that thing Melinda keeps bringing home? I told you not to-" "Listen to me!" Julia screamed, stunning Travis "you were...there was...I can't..." she stuttered and started crying. Travis immediately dashed to her side and hugged her. "Hey, shh...it's okay, it's okay," he said calmly and stroked her back while she cried. He did this for a long time until she calmed down. Then he tried asking her what happened and she started crying again. Feeling desperate, he crushed some sleeping pills into tea for her and she drank it, then fell asleep.