Outrun – a midweek flash fiction story

I couldn’t see. It took a long time for me to be able to make out shapes at all. Wherever I had ended up this time obviously had a star giving off light with some extreme wavelengths. I managed to pull out some night vision goggles from my pack and slip them over my eyes. The lenses managed to strip out some of the more difficult light and let me make out my surroundings.

Suddenly the bizarre readings we had taken before I shifted made sense. It was already too late for this universe. My feet were sinking into wet sand. All around me a thin layer of water sat above the sand as if the sea and the desert were fighting for dominance. Dead limbs of trees were strewn like fallen soldiers who had been clawing their way to safety when the enemy hit. As I looked up at the sky, I could see the star pulsating in the heavens. The enemy had used the star as its weapon. The burning mass expanded and contracted to strongly, I could see it from here. Flares leapt from the surface and lashed out in all directions. As it did, it cast ribbons of rainbows across the clouds. It would have been beautiful if not so devastating.

There was nothing for me here. But there were five hours until I could open a return portal so I might as well get comfortable. There was nothing to be seen in any direction. I made my way to the nearest fallen tree, ignoring the slapping sound my feet made with each step. I sat down and decided to check through my rations.

The cry that broke the silence is indescribable. It made me freeze to my very core. There was nowhere to hide, the only cover was the blasted tree debris but I had little choice. For I knew that noise. I had heard it right before the first shift I had ever made, through the portal that helped me escape my home universe. That noise had haunted me since that day, living in my nightmares ever since. The enemy, the Destroyer, who I was trying to get ahead of was still here. He hadn’t finished his destruction of this world yet. And from the sound of his cry. He knew I was here too.

This flash fiction was written in repsonse to Midweek Flash Challenge Week 265.