Desire for Destiny

Desire for Destiny (1.01)

As Jason slowly climbed up from the depths of slumber he could feel the hard cold surface he was lying on. Wait, that didn't make any sense! He could distinctly remember, through the mild haze of hangover, that after a night of drinking with his friends he fell into his bed to catch some sleep. At worst he had to feel hot and sweaty in his formal suite, not cold and with numb. Some few moments later he started to get the feeling back into his limbs, and even, human resilience be praised, was able to slowly open his eyes to see book shelves?

Indeed those were the tallest walls of papery goods he had ever seen. There were no obvious sources of the soft ambient light that filled the room, which was neither too bright nor too dim. It was just perfect for ocular observation. Not that it allowed him to see the roof or the top of the shelves. No sir!

After some time, enough strength returned to him, and he was able to get up.

"Ai, the hell." Well he tried to get up. Rather unsuccessfully as his knees hit the floor.

'Goddammit, couldn't those jackasses leave him some clothes, instead of dumping him on the frosty cold floor." His friends were for sure behind this. Who else could have been stupid. Jason regretted not befriending a med student, who could've told others how bad it was for kidneys to leave him in such state.

Having no other choice, Jason sat there, massaging his limbs and grumbling at the merits of friendicide. Normal blood flow restored, he got up and looked around properly. What he saw didn't surprise him: long corridor between bookshelves, crisscrossed by other corridors. Only when his gaze lingered on books' spines for a moment he started suspecting something was amiss.

The words weren't in any of the languages that Jason had a passing familiarity with. Moreover it seemed that each and every book was written in different languages. The symbols used had very little similarity. One had letters made up of geometric figures, and another one had angular signs that strongly resemble viking runes. Jason used to date a girl who was into this neopagan nordic scene, so he picked up couple of things. But even if he squinted, closed one eye and reverted to the drunken state of yesterday the best he got was - 'pretty little breakwind'. So yes,Jason was quite sure those were no runes.

Another bizarre thing - all the books were covered in translucent film. Jason took one book from the shelf to get a closer look. The book was hermetically sealed. The material was stronger than cellophane. He tried to unwrap it, but found it impossible. 'Maybe it's to preserve them? Reduce effect of environment or whatnot.'

A horrible cough racked his body. Jason doubled in half, dropping the book as his forced cough out his body. When the coughing calmed down, Jason saw something very worrying on the palm of his hand - blood.

Oh that wasn't good. Worse than that it was impossible! He was healthy as a horse for as long as he could remember. On top of that he went to medical check ups twice a year and nothing concerning was found. Jason hyperventilated. Here he was - stuck in some high-end archive, with lungs, damaged from tuberculosis or cancer. Panicked, Jason ran down the corridor. His eyes wild, he ran without direction, purely for the sake of moving. He needed to do something, to get out of here. He screamed at the top of his lungs, desperate to find someone to help him.

Alas, it only resulted in racking his body in coughing. As his body shuddered, expelling blood and mucus, his thoughts turned depressive. He was starting to doubt he had his friends to blame.

Once he stopped coughing, he turned around the corner and froze in place. His ears had finally picked up something that wasn't a product of his actions. Seriously, even the typical library silence was absent. Instead of comfort the silence that space filled the space was alien to him. It pressed oppressively on him.

So with great relief and relish he drank in the sound of someone else's steps. He didn't know why was he standing in place, listening, instead of running there. Maybe it was this entire situation. It was certainly bizarre enough to warrant some caution.

As Jason continued listening, steps became stranger and stranger. It was obvious a duo. Two distinct patterns could be heard. That wasn't the strange part.

Jason was no Sherlock, but he was sure: one of them was massive, the steps were too heavy. They thumped with the sound of potato sacks being dropped on the floor.

The other had an opposite problem - steps were very light and...skittish for the lack of better word. It sounded more like a centipede scuttering around than a person walking.

Doubts plagued Jason. Risk it or not?

Jason made his choice. He breathed in, breathed out and stepped around the corner.

He wished he hadn't. The figures were anything but human. One was a massive hulking ape. Its flowing orange fur was braided in multiple places, with colourful beads and streaks weaved into braids. As Jason looked up he got a good look at its "face*. It was an elongated mug, a twisted parody of an ape. Deep green eyes shone with unexpected intellect. Also, leather belts with pockets were wrapped around his arms and torso.

Jason's mind flashed back to the safari his parents taken him 7 years ago. They were driven through the park, when the gaggle of monkeys attacked the car. They rocked their vehicle, banged on the windows, smearing their excrements wherever they could. The thing is, they were meter long and not 2.5 meter height that this specimen showed.

The other one was even worse. If the giant ape at least looked like something that could be found on Earth, the insect was certainly alien. A chitinous parody of a centaur, it stood on six multi jointed limbs that were attached to a broad hard shell. It was lustre, and shone with dark blue light. From it rose a long torso. It had two limbs that ended with surprisingly human looking hands, albeit blue and 7 fingered. However the worst was the head. Jason had to held back the vomit, as he watched bobbing three-eyed head. The eyes looked like those of a fly. Now Jason could hear the clicking of its many mandibles.

Jason stood there frozen. He saw as the creatures' heads turned in his direction when the shout escaped his mouth.

"Dharm pklun sttram." rumbled the Ape as he started walking towards me.

"Click click clock click" Insect spread his wings and waved his antennas. It's head froze for a second before a spray of pungent skunky liquid heat my chest. The smell was beyond horrendous. Apparently it was what he needed as it snapped him right back. So without any thoughts he turned around he sprinted away.

Second later beasts gave chase.

'Think Jason, think!' Begged himself Jason as he turned around another corner. It was obviously stupid to run down straight corridor. Massive Ape would be on him in seconds, as his superior physique would grant him speed to catch up to him. So the only hope was to constantly cut corners in this maze.

Left, right, left right. It was important to never turn in the same direction. The last thing he needed was running in circles.

Jason was never a star athlete. Sure, he didn't adhere to wimpy nerd stereotype, but jock he was not. With each second of sprinting his breath grew shorter. Unable to breathe fully, he couldn't enough oxygen in. Jason could almost physically feel as lactic acid accumulated in his muscles. He had little time before he would have to stop. There was one trick he had to do.

He picked a bookcase that was slightly smaller than the rest. He paused in front of it, squared his shoulders and leveled defiant gaze at the oncoming Ape. With even a bit of running distance it was able to accelerate to an incredible speed.It ran straight at him.

Prepared, Jason bent his knees and in the last second he jumped away, expecting Ape to crash into bookcases. What he didn't expect was for Ape to grab his arm and slam him against the shelves. Air was forced out of him as his ribs worryingly cracked. Pain engulfed Jason. His vision started to blur and fade. The last thing he saw were the forms of Ape and Spacemantis peering down on him. After that there was only darkness.