Chernzobog Dream Cycle
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"The blast tore a hole in the earth and the sky, the smoldering ruination obstructed by a
massive white mushroom cloud. The heat was unbearable, I could feel my hair
falling out. No matter how hard I closed my eyes, how hard I pressed my sunglasses to my face, I was still blinded by the searing light.
It illuminated my skin, giving an unsettling juxtaposition between my opaque flesh and darkened bones.
I noticed the trees in the distance bend over towards me, and a powerful wind was tearing across the battered landscape.
The several zeppelins and ornithopers that loomed over the
battlefield were reduced to ash and tangles of red-hot iron beams. I notice a ring forming
around the top of the mushroom cloud, it was expanding quickly and was almost directly
above me. The shock wave hit me with a deafeningly loud bang, shattering the windows of a nearby car as well as the lenses of my sunglasses. It knocked me off my feet, and out of consciousness.
When I woke up, the landscape was now a hideous ichor of brown and grey, with orange embers raining down from the now black mushroom cloud.
That was when I saw it. A hideous mass of black eyes and sharkskin, drenched in the bile,
viscera, blood and semen of it's former world. The thing was flying like a drunken moth as it was
birthed from the churning smoke and ash. Flying on angular golden wings it surveyed the
abused landscape, it altered course and beamed it's "head" at me, summoning a large beak-like protrusion, forming something one could almost call a face.
I began to remove my broken glasses, when I noticed my skin was mutilated and red from the radiation of the
blast. Looking upon my melted, wrinkling skin I wondered how I was still alive, and I
wondered even more so after I noticed my left hand was all but a cudgel of bone and
flesh.
Amidst my horror I failed to notice a gaunt figure, red as the smoldering iron it loped over,
skulking over the mud and wreckage.
I finally realized my assailant when I heard a mulish, depraved, yet
sharply-pitched wail coming from the figure, summoning embers and smoke from its
jagged mouth. I innately find the strength to run, or limp, away from the figure. I've been
motivated by fear and anger in the past, but I have never had to endure such horrors as this. I
made my way towards what looked like a large, grated sewer pipe about seven feet
in diameter. It seemed to be the only cover from the burning embers and radioactive mud
raining from the sky, as well as the unyielding gaze of the beaked thing.
I stumble over defunct brass war machines and charred corpses, still clutching their rifles
and swords. The desperation of the situation begins to sink in as I realize there are no
nearby roads or buildings; just charred husks and ash. When I finally make it to the
outflow tube there was no water in it, just an outline of sediment and feces.
I walk through a hole in the grate, and notice the red-hot thing was now a light grey, and gaining speed as it
lopes towards me in a hypnotizing yet sickening gait. Pain in my left arm and face begins
to set in, as a smoldering hunk of flesh slides off my neck and lands on the floor of the
chamber like a wet, fleshy rag. I advance into the darkness, hot wind coming from the
inside of the chamber like the breath of some hellish beast.
Pieces of paper and ash roll out from the depths of the tunnel. I could hear the loping thing coming closer, its howl getting louder.
I begin to stagger away from the thing, its deafening scream echoing through the chamber, Its footsteps get louder. When it wasn't screaming
in that horrible tone it was wheezing trenchantly, with phlegm and god knows what undulating in its
mouth. I hurry down the musty tunnel, noticing a copper shine to my right, about a hundred feet
away.
The creature hurries as well, its scampering feet coming closer, scratching like a dog on
concrete. It screams again, echoing throughout the tunnel, piercing my ears. The shine reveals
itself to be some exposed copper pipe, warped in a manner that allowed me to wedge myself in,
hopefully safe from the loping thing's grasp. I was about fifteen feet away from
the pipe when the creature took hold of me, pulling me away, slamming my mangled
head against the ground. It was the most grotesque sight I, or quite possibly anyone has ever
seen. I think I went mad then.
It was just under seven feet tall, it was hairless, with a hunched, warped back and large, three-fingered hands at the ends of long, lanky arms.
Its legs were essentially the same as the arms, but slightly longer. Its head was that of a humans, but much larger, earless
and inverted, with crusted, dead eyes and with a fleshy hole where it's nose should be. Pink tentacles protruded from the
nasal bones, and the mouth was large, with horribly deformed, tiny jagged teeth. It let out another depraved scream as I writhed away.
It leaped at me, but I dodged its lunge. The evasion was not without toll, however, as my back was now completely skinless. It a fit of pain
I stagger towards the exposed pipes, nestling myself between two layers of pipes. The thing clawed at the pipes, trying to get at me, wailing and screaming.
This assault went on for about three hours, and then you showed up."
"Did you see anything more of the 'beaked thing'?" asked one of my interrogators.
I replied, "No all I saw of it was outside the tunnel."
The secretary typed furiously on her typewriter.
"Do you know where the creature went?" he asked.
"No sir, I passed out after about an hour." I respond. My condescending emphasis on the "sir" went unnoticed.
"Did you know you were the only survivor of the blast?" the other agent asked.
"I'm blessed." I reply flatly.
I feigned a smile,showing my yellowed, gritty teeth.
The agents looked at each other, one nodded to the other, who then signaled the secretary
stop typing.
"That'll be all for today, Mr. Wozniak." one says.
The agents and the secretary leave the room, the secretary carrying three papers,
presumably transcripts from the recollection of my misfortune.
The rhythmic thuds and hums of the life-support machine lull me to sleep. It's been so long
since I was last immobilized like this, with tubes and needles encompassing my broken body like
an empathetic cornucopia, binding and degrading me in an attempt to spare my feeble life.
I can't hope to repay the debt I've made in this condition.
The beaked thing knows that.
The loping thing knows that.
This machine knows that.
I knew I wronged red crown the moment I looked into the beaked thing's eyes. The red crown
will not forgive, nor will this machine once it turns. I can feel the shores of Adamantinarx hissing in my ears.
The zephyrs of the Keter tremble my innards, my side hemorrhages at the very sight of my new interrogators...
