Short Stories - {for Contests}

Discover

An egg was about to hatch. And I had to kill whatever creature was coming out of it. 

I pushed past the crowd of people on the street as I made quick strides. I looked down at the phone in my hand.

2 hours

I kept walking until I was standing in front of her apartment building. I used the key they gave me and placed it in front of the sensor. Then when it beeped, I opened the door. I quickly walked towards the elevator, then pressed the button to go up. The door opened and a man walked out. I went in after him pressing the button that would take me to the sixth floor. Once I was on that floor I walked down the hall looking for the numbers 618. When I reached the door, I turned the handle, not surprised to find it locked. 

I took one of the hair pins that was holding up the curls at the top of my head and bent it. They couldn't get the key to her suite so I have to pick the lock myself. I put it in the hole the key would go in and twisted it a few times. I sighed in relief when I heard a click.

"Hey! What are you doing?" I looked up to see a man standing behind me. I stood still for awhile not knowing what to do. They never prepared me for this. 

"Sorry," I whispered as I elbowed the man causing him to the fall to the ground. I quickly opened the door. The apartment was huge. I looked around the space trying to find anywhere that she could have hid the egg. I thought back to what she had said right before she died. I wasn't there. It was repeated back to me by Markus, the leader of my team. 

"Before I die, there is something you need to know. It's something the world needs to know," she had said. She was in the hospital, barely holding on. It was her time. "I have an egg. The last remaining Persum egg. And it will hatch in less than twenty-four hours." 

"That was the last words she could utter before death took her," Markus had told me. "We have very little time and we don't even know where that damn egg is."

I opened every drawer in the house, even ones that seemed too small to fit the egg. I had to find it. And quick. It won't be long until someone notices the unconscious man in the hallway. I opened the doors to what look like a bedroom. I bent down to look under the bed but found nothing. I clasped my hands on my forehead as my eyes scanned the room. Maybe it's in a safe. Or somewhere where no one would find it. It was important to her that no one had known she had the egg. Persums had been extinct for fifty years and before that they reaked havoc on the world. I couldn't understand why she would keep something so dangerous. Especially when she was one of the scientists that were responsible for their extinction.

I took my phone out of my pocket and called Markus. It ringed for awhile and then there was an Hello on the other end. "I don't think it's here."

He paused for a minute and then he sighed. "Of course it's not in her apartment. It's too obvious." There was some typing on his end and then he stopped, speaking again. "So we just got something. She had a storage container under a different name. I'm sending you the address."

"Okay. I'll be there."

"Remember as soon as that thing hatches we'll be there." 

I hanged up. Quickly making my way out of the apartment. The guy I elbowed was still on the ground. I took the elevator and then came out of the building. I walked back to my car parked on the street and got in. 

The storage facility wasn't far so it didn't take me long to get there. I pulled into the parking lot. Then looked at my phone to check how much time I had left.

20 minutes

My phone rang and I answered it, holding it up to my ear. 

"Go to the front and say you're Sylvie Hunter. They'll give you a key." This time it was Illia.

I sighed. "And I thought I would have to pick another lock."

"Not underestimating your abilities but there was no way you could pick it," Illia said. She hung up and I put my phone in my pocket. 

I entered the building going to the front desk. "Sylvie Hunter," I said to the receptionist, tapping my hand against the counter. 

"Just a second," she said then she left for a few minutes.

I checked the time every now and then while I waited. The woman came back after a few minutes and then placed a key in my hand. I quickly walked past the front desk and down a corridor. 

5 minutes

The time wasn't completely accurate, the egg could hatch any minute now. It could have already hatched. 

No, if it hatched I would know. 

And then there was a loud screeching sound down the hall. It echoed through the building. I started to run. I called Markus again. "The Persum has hatched."

The only thing I could hear on the other end was shouting and then he hung up. 

I kept running towards the sound. I stopped when I came to the storage container the egg was in. The container looked like it exploded on the inside. And then I saw it.

The creature had four wings holding it up. Its skin was covered in dark grey feathers. This was not a Persum. A Persum was more reptile looking. No, it was not a Persum. It was something much worse. And It wasn't extinct like Persums because it never existed.

"It's a Crodeus." Markus was behind me, a hand over his mouth. "How? They never went through with plan B." 

"I guess they did," Illia said, coming after him. Crodeus were creatures meant to hunt and kill Persums. They were never made because plan A worked. Or at least we thought so.

"Why would Professor Willow keep the egg? Persums are already extinct," I said. "Why would she lie to us?" 

"We have to kill it." Markus pulled out his gun, pointing it at the creature. The Crodeus bobbed up and down as it struggled to fly properly. It was just a baby.  

But before he could shoot, the baby screeched again and flew through the glass. I covered my face as my body was bombarded by tiny shards. Now we could hear more distant shrieking.

"There's more of them," Markus said. 

Today we didn't just discovered an egg. We discovered the beginning of an apocalypse.