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The buzzing of the spider’s wings couldn’t drown out the roars and screaming in the distance, even though Lisa tried to make it buzz louder. The trip was silent… as everyone was on the lookout. Wasteland as far as the eye could see… until they saw it on the horizon.
A city.
Or at least something that looked like one. Lisa smiled, pointed forward and went,
”Let’s take a break there! That place looks s-”
However, high up as they were, they couldn’t avoid noticing the ground shaking beneath them… as something colossal burst out in front of them. Lisa screamed as she suddenly swerved left, spinning out of control, and then they crashed against the barren stone ground of the wasteland. They came to a skidding stop before they could go off a cliff, but Lisa’s spider mount was done for. Lisa looked up at the colossal entity - dust and debris clouded the creature’s complete form, but it was enormous, the size of a skyscraper.
However, the dust settled, and it was a skeleton. Its head touched the skies, and Lisa looked on in horror.
”Maybe it didn’t notice us…” Lisa awkwardly laughed.
It took a step towards them… it was prolonged and deliberate, but it covered so much distance. With this one step, it appeared as if it was about to fall onto itself, but it held steady. The ground shook; it paused momentarily before raising its other foot.
"We can’t fight that," Saskia hissed.
"Let’s run!" Ella shouted, taking one look at the thing and knowing she didn’t want to fight it. How could they even take on something that size?! "It’s slow enough that we can probably… avoid it!"
Ella grabbed Lisa and Saskia’s hands, dragging them to run away from it as fast as she could, in the vague direction of the city they’d seen.
The ground violently shook with every step the giant skeleton took; while each step was slow, it covered enough distance to remain in close pursuit. Lisa peered over her shoulder.
”... We’re not getting away from that!” Lisa shouted. ”I have an idea! You’re not going to like it!”
The ground shook one more time.
”... Everyone! Pick a direction, and run! Split up! It’s the only way!”
"No, I don’t like it!" Ella shouted. "Before we do-"
Ella channeled her magic through their held hands. "Magical Girl Aurora, squad transform!"
Lisa and Saskia’s clothes changed to magical girl outfits just like Ella’s, except themed after their magic. Both were dark coloured, with Lisa’s covered in spider web designs and other spider theming, and Saskia’s with blood and skeleton designs. It would protect them better than their normal clothes.
"Ok… Go!" Ella let go of the two of their hands, spinning around and setting off to her right. Saskia ran in the opposite direction. While Lisa continued to run straight ahead… the skeleton turned to its left toward Saskia. Lisa stopped, turned on her heel, and slowly raised a hand into the air… and trillions of spiders crawled up the skeleton’s leg. The sheer impact of its steps killed a majority of them; however, plenty of spiders were still attached to its leg.
”Saskia!” Lisa shouted. ”Get ready to dodge!”
All of the spiders became miniature acidic bombs that dissolved the Giant Skeleton’s bones… it took another step on this leg, and it snapped with the most sickening sound. It fell forward… towards Saskia.
"Shit," Saskia ran as quickly as they could, blood tendril forming on their back and throwing themselves into the air. They launched to the of the Giant Skeleton’s trajectory, falling face first into the ground with a horrible crack.
But it didn’t fall on them and squash them, at least.
"SASKIAAA!" Ella wailed, turning around and running over to them. She started using her healing spell as Saskia rolled over with a groan, holding up a hand.
"Not a big deal, just some broken bones, I can heal them. It’s probably still alive."
"Oh yeah!" Ella turned around, lobbing a massive fireball at the Skeleton, hoping that it’d be hot enough to… burn the bones to ashes or something. It just put ashes on it.
Lisa sighed, grabbing her arm, as she nearly stumbled forward.
”... What are you two doing!?” Lisa shouted. ”Run!”
The Skeleton raised a hand that gently drifted towards the three…
"My bones are broken."
"Ok, ok, ahhh, run!" Ella bent down, lifted Saskia into her arms, and started running like her life depended on it (it did). However, they managed to escape the reach of the giant skeleton… which dug its fingers into the ground and dragged itself forward. The ground violently shook from this act, as if the three were in the middle of an earthquake. Lisa was still panting and fell over onto her back. However, Lisa managed to use her little strength to create a flying spider, and she was panting the entire time. It was in a glowing cocoon… she just needed some more time.
"Lisa!" Ella shouted. She was the only one still standing… She put Saskia down beside Lisa and stood in between them and the skeleton. One hand on the Ice Scepter, the one pushed forward and a massive blast of freezing snow shot out of it. Hopefully it would… freeze it or something. She didn’t know how to deal with a skeleton! (Ella needs to git gud)
The skeleton's bones were frozen by the ice blast… which slowed it down significantly. However, it was still going.
"Really?!" Ella wailed. She didn’t want to get any closer to it… she pulled bright blues from the ton of bracelets along her arms, forming a ball of colour in her palm before shooting it - fast enough and hard enough it would be like getting smashed by a brick. Which might as well have been a cotton ball to a giant skeleton - though it shattered the ice around its face.
Thankfully, the spider managed to force its way out of its cocoon - not at max size, but big enough for all of them to pile on top of to escape. The spider flew over to them, and Lisa smiled as she found the strength to push herself to her feet - with some spider legs, she managed to force herself on top of the spider…. Ella grabbed Saskia and climbed onto the spider with them in one arm, shooting another blast of ice behind her at the skeleton.
"Go, go, go!"
The spider jetted off high into the sky, far away from the skeleton… and they were against the red sky of the Pit as they flew towards the city.
After a little while, they managed to make it to the city… which, as expected, was a destroyed mockery of a significant metropolitan area. The streets were cracked, buildings were knocked over, tunnels had collapsed, and there was just nothing. No life, just chaos and ruin. The spider landed on top of a several-story office building - and Lisa tumbled over, falling off. She panted on the ground as she said,
”... We gotta take a break,” Lisa said, panting. ”I can’t go any further.”
"Agreed," Saskia groaned. They were walking now, but there were still the telltale, horrible sounds of their bones snapping back together. "Let try get somewhere more sheltered…"
"I’ll look!" Ella started looking across the roof (as much as it could be called that) they were on. There were plenty of holes, and it just took kicking one in more to give them an opening. "Let’s go down here!"
Lisa pushed herself to her feet again as the spider legs gently carried her through the hole, and she hung from the ceiling. The office was, well, an office. There were rows and rows of desks with computers on top and chairs pushed against them, as far as the eye could see. However, it was like a tornado flew around the room! Most of them were flung around, with trash and debris all around.
Lisa climbed down, pushed one of the chairs up, dropped her backpack, and sat on it, leaning back in it.
”... This place is scuffed.” Lisa sighed.
"It fucking sucks," Saskia agreed. They took their rucksack off, rummaging in it and pulling out some of the food supplies they’d brought. A whole bunch of stuff they didn’t need to cook. They offered up some of the protein bars. "Want some?"
"Ooo, yes please," Ella snatched one up, immediately grimacing when she started eating it. It was gross. She was pretty sure the various rations packs they’d brought would only be worse… "Wait, you’re just tryna make your bag lighter!"
”Hold on!” Lisa dug into her bag and pulled out the glowing green potion inside of a mason jar that was one of Greta’s healing potions; she raised it into the air and twirled it a few times. ”Surprised this didn’t break, but I guess these are built to last. Right, girls?”
"Greta’s the best!" Ella nodded.
Lisa awkwardly laughed as she took the protein bar, downed it briefly, then laughed, then looked to the left and right as she put the potion back into the bag. ”Let’s make sure this place is safe, then let’s… I don’t know, take it easy.”
"Yeah, we need to go slow, I think," Saskia sighed. "I hoped we could get it done quickly but… if we just keep walking around we’ll get eaten. Or worse."
"I don’t want to get eaten!" Ella said, looking around. "Hopefully there isn’t anything lurking in here…"
”... There probably is,” Lisa shrugged as she stood up, the spider legs retracting into her back. ”I almost passed out, getting us away from the skeleton… I can’t do any more fighting right now.”
However, they heard some rustling down the hall, and Lisa quickly turned her head towards it. There were footsteps, and a girl was stepping out of the shadows into the light illuminated by the Pit’s red sky. A Caucasian girl with a black bob cut was dirty, covered in scabs, and oozing red wounds. Her clothes were tattered—typical goth clothes with a black shirt with a star, shorts with stockings, boots, and a spiked choker. She hesitantly walked up.
“... A-are you people?” She asked. “... Where the hell am I?”
Ella’s eyes widened. Another person! And she looked really hurt… oh no! She jumped up. "We are-"
Saskia wrapped their blood tendril around Ella before she could step towards the girl, pulling her back. "Are you a person? Prove it."
“How?!” The girl said. “I just… I just… fell through a crack. I’m from Gary, Indiana… I don’t know what’s going on! This place is hell!” She began panting.
”... Tell me about it,” Lisa rolled her eyes.
“I just want to find a way out of here!”
Saskia let go of Ella, frowning. "We’re stuck too, so can’t help with that."
"Let me heal you!" Ella said, holding up her Channeler and hitting the girl with a healing beam of light. She didn’t actually step forward, though, in case Saskia grabbed her again. "What’s your name? I’m Ella!"
“Chloe,” the girl said, sighing in relief as her wounds healed. She sat on the chair across from them.
However, Lisa leaned into Ella,
”... Are we going to, um, bring her with us?” Lisa whispered. ”I mean, we shouldn’t leave her by herself, but we also shouldn’t bring her along when all we want is the All-Blade.”
Ella frowned, whispering back. "I don’t know… I don’t want to leave her behind, but we only have enough for three! Maybe… maybe if she fell in nearby, there’s a way to fall back out?"
Lisa paused for a moment.
”... I think we should, instead, eat her,” Lisa whispered back. ”Think about it: it’s a win-win! Just for us, though.”
"No way! I refuse," Ella whisper shouted.
Saskia leaned in too. "I agree. We can make it quick. It’ll be merciful, really."
”Okay, so I’ll just put a spear thro-”
“... I can hear you all,” Chloe said, scoffing.
"Oh, well," Saskia pulled out their knife with a shrug. "Don’t worry, I know exactly where to cut so it doesn’t hurt."
"No, we can’t do this!" Ella jumped up, standing in between Saskia, Lisa and Chloe. "It’s- It’s not right! It’s not very magical girl!"
”But no one has to know!” Lisa shouted, throwing her hands in the air. ”We can just head back and have Greyson wipe our memories; then it’s all good!”
"That’s…" Ella frowned. She was stumped. Lisa was right, they could have their memories of eating Chloe wiped, and then they’d still be magical girls. Was it even the wrong decision? They probably couldn’t keep her alive. Like Saskia said, it was merciful! But killing people who weren’t possessed was wrong… Also she didn’t look all that tasty. Was there even enough flesh there?!
She turned to Chloe, and asked, "do you want to be eaten, or die alone?"
“How about neither!?” Chloe shouted. “You people are crazy! I’m out of here!” She shouted, as she turned on her heel and took off running down the halls.
Lisa stared at her for a few moments, before she shrugged.
”She was cute,” Lisa began. ”We should have kept her.” She shrugged.
"Yeah, Ella, you had to go and ruin it," Saskia said.
"Consent is important!" Ella threw up her hands.
”... Even when we’re talking about eating her!?” Lisa shouted.
"Yes! She probably would’ve tasted nasty if she didn’t consent!" Ella shouted back.
”HOW WOULD THAT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?!”
Lisa shouted, grabbing both sides of her head.
"It- It just would!" Ella flailed her hands about. She couldn’t explain it, it just seemed right.
"Well it doesn’t matter now, does it?" Saskia rolled their eyes. "Let’s move on."
Lisa just shrugged, ”So, let’s secure the building and find somewhere comfortable t-”
They heard a shriek of terror from what sounded like Chloe, and Lisa came to a stop, her jaw-dropping for a moment. She looked to the left and then the right….
”... Rip Chloe.” Lisa said.
"Do you think whatever it was left something behind? I’m still a bit hungry," Saskia intoned.
Ella grimaced, looking a bit sad. They should’ve kept her with them… or just killed her right away. It would’ve been better! Faster! Kinder! "Let’s not go that way."
She turned the opposite direction to the scream, starting to walk that way, creating a small flame in her hand in case it started to get darker.
”Let’s just find a nice room with no windows and one door, and we’ll just hunker down with some spider webs, okay?” Lisa said as she looked around before her eyes landed on a door with a sign next to it that said
CAFETERIA. Lisa walked over to it, pushed the door open, and looked around - it was, as expected, a mess. Tables and chairs were tossed all around, there was trash and debris all over the place… but no windows or holes in the wall.Lisa glanced over her shoulder at Saskia and Ella and said,
”Perfect, right?”
Saskia looked around the room, before nodding. "Let’s put up some of the tables as extra protection too."
"Oh, like they do in survival movies!" Ella grinned, going over to pick up a table and put it on its side in one corner. "This is pretty perfect."
”Hurry up,” Lisa yawned, ”I think I can summon enough spiders to throw up a web...”
"I’m only one person!" Ella wailed, grabbing a few more tables and setting them up like a wall, with a gap that they could get through. She stepped in and took off her backpack, sitting down. Saskia and Lisa followed in, but Lisa placed her backpack down like a pillow and lied down on it.
”... Oh yeah,” Lisa raised a hand in the air, and summoned a few thousand spiders that threw up a web in front of the door and behind it. With that, Lisa passed out asleep and began loudly snoring.
Saskia just lay on their side, falling asleep pretty quickly. Ella waited until both her friends were peacefully asleep before even trying, eventually passing out…
The earth shook.
It was brief.
Violent enough to wake all three of them up.
It was a footstep.
Lisa immediately climbed to her feet and grabbed her backpack. ”... What was that?” Lisa whispered as she slid the backpack onto her back.
"Another skeleton?" Saskia jumped up from where they’d been curled on their side, backpack not even taken off.
"Let’s… let’s not find out," Ella whispered, struggling to pull her massive backpack on. She looked around. "Maybe if we stay in here it won’t find us?"
”... That’s a big ‘if’ there, Ella,,” Lisa dug into her bag and pulled out a survival knife; she sliced through the webs she put up over the door as she pushed it open. ”Let’s just go out there and check it out, okay? Okay?”
Ella frowned. She didn’t really want to… but they had to stick together! She quickly followed right behind Lisa, before pushing past her so that she could be at the front. "Fine! But we need to stay close together!"
"What else would we do?" Saskia rolled their eyes from the back, pulling out their own knife.
”We could have been eating a white ho’!” Lisa hissed.
Ella just shrugged, taking the front and beginning to go back the way they’d come - so they could get back onto the roof. Lisa’s spider legs left her back, and she climbed up the walls until she was on top of the ceiling. Once she was by the hole they entered, Lisa poked her head through it, and her eyes shot open.
Directly outside of the building was a giant creature that towered over the building. It slowly sauntered away, but that wasn’t the only problem.
There were dozens as far as the eye could see.
”... Oh,” Lisa’s jaw dropped.
”... Maybe we should go.”
