Silver Light Chapter 8 (Patreon)

**Hello! Thought I'd mention that all the chapters I post to patreon are pre-beta reader check, so there might be errors and stuff. If you see any, please feel free to post a comment here <3. Thank you so much for being my patron and for being readers of my stories!**

Our next stop was the sporting goods store, which was even closer to the so called “walking fire” that the pharmacist had mentioned. The heat was a physical thing in the air now, and I felt like I should be basking in midsummer sun instead of cowering beneath a titanic column of smoke and flame.

We were hoping to grab pretty much anything that would be useful, but the items that were high on our list included a sleeping bag for myself, some more lighters, and possibly a pair of foam camping mats. We were going to be sleeping on the ground with only the tent fabric between us and the ground, so anything that made us more comfortable would be more than welcome.

We found the sporting shop relatively intact and abandoned, its proximity to the fire must have scared all but the ballsy and desperate. It was too close to the fire for me too, the beginning of the inferno just half a block away. I could almost feel my skin starting to burn even from this distance, like I had been in the sun too long.

The store was one of those ones that also held a large selection of guns, and that was the section that had been hit the most. The cases and locked racks had been smashed and broken. Fiona and I went straight for the sections we needed instead. A sleeping bag was easy to find, as were two foam mats. The lighters took a while to locate, we found them behind a store counter along with some bottles of lighter fluid.

We wanted to get out of there as fast as we could, so we rushed things a bit. We didn’t stop to consider if most of the things around us would be useful, which they probably would be. It’s hard to think about the pros and cons of lugging a felling axe across the country side when the room you were standing in was starting to resemble the inside of an oven with every passing minute.

We did however grab two prepacked first aid kits, as well as some harnesses that would give us more places to carry things. I was starting to feel a little too weighed down now, although Fiona looked to be having an easier time when she swapped to a new larger backpack.

We were about to leave when Fiona stopped and pointed at a stand that had been toppled, “Think we should take some of those MREs?”

“I mean I guess so… we aren’t exactly carrying much food. Just what was in your apartment,” I nodded.

“Alright, let’s load up. We’re probably going to have to haggle with people to get food anyway though,” she said.

I thought about that for a moment, then turned back to the store, “Should we look for stuff people might want to buy from us then?”

“Like what? There isn’t anything here that would be worth much later down the line that we can also carry easily,” she said, sounding dubious.

“Let me think…” I mumbled, staring around the store.

“Don’t take too long… that fire is going to be here soon,” she urged.

“Wait! I know!” I blurted happily, then rushed back into the store towards a section near the guns.

I rushed straight to an undamaged display case and grabbed the weapon I wanted, then the ammunition I’d need for it. Along with that I also grabbed as many packets of the related items as I could, stuffing them into my back, but keeping one out to show Fiona.

“Here! You think people will want these? Maybe not right away, but in a month or two they will be really sought after!” I grinned.

“Arrow heads…” she blinked, then returned my grin, “Shit that is smart! Fuck yeah. Was there any more? I could probably carry some too… and is that a crossbow you’re carrying?”

“Yup! I figure it might be good to have so that I don’t need to announce my magic to people to get them to fuck off. I think pointing a crossbow at someone’s face will be a good deterrent. Ranged weapons are rare drops now,” I laughed.

“No shit. Good thinking! I’m going to go and get one as well, then some more arrow heads. Be right back,” she smiled, rushing off to where I had just been.

I watched her grab the items from where I had just been, still smiling at her praise. Impressing her felt good. I wanted to do it more! Wait… what’s that noise?

I tilted my head to listen better, and heard a strange rhythmic hissing sound. Hiss… Hiss… Hiss. What an odd sound.

“Hey Fiona! There’s a weird sound outside! Maybe we should get going!” I called.

“Right! Coming!” she called back, rushing over and motioning for us to leave the store.

We stepped out together, and I turned my head to look up at her, smiling at our success in the store. She was so pretty, in the light of the fire. The glow of the fire catching her skin and hair and setting her skin alight with a reddish orange that took my breath away.

The fire. The thought crashed through my mind in a searing instant, and I realised that the fire was close. I turned my eyes down towards the street behind her, my smile fading as I laid eyes on the fire. The fire that walked. It stepped slowly, almost methodically towards us. It didn’t… he didn’t look at us. He just put one foot forward, then the other, like a robot.

His skin was magma, every step he took cracked the rough black surface to reveal molten insides that quickly dripped from his body for a few moments, only to solidify soon after. Around him the road boiled as the heat coming off his body then set it alight, causing the tar to burn happily. What surprised me the most though were the tears. They fell from his molten eyes in dark rivulets that sizzled as they ran across his face. A face that was bent in a mask of sorrow and pain so raw and real that it pulled at my gut.

“Fiona… look…” I breathed. I didn’t say it urgently, we had time. The molten walking flame didn’t care about us.

She turned, and I saw her eyes widen when she laid eyes on the molten man. She didn’t say anything, but she reached out and took my hand to slowly usher me backwards. We should have run.

I don’t know what changed, but with a slow turn of his head he brought his burning eyes to bear on my own. His mouth cracked open and I could feel the heat from the furnace that was his body come pouring out.

“She chose you. She chose you over me,” he rasped, a fury building in his voice.

“Oh fuck,” Fiona said with more than a note of fear.

“Run! Run run run!” I squeaked, tugging on Fiona’s hand.

We turned and ran, and I heard the molten man behind us do the same, his footfalls hitting the ground like dropped anchors. He began howling with a crashing rage that caused my teeth to vibrate in a wholly unpleasant way and I felt my heart shudder in my chest as the fear blew through me.

We reached the end of the block at a sprint and dove around the corner, not stopping to rest before we took this street at a run too. I was beginning to flag as my unfit new body tried to pull me to my knees, but the fear of what lay behind us overpowered my physical limits and I ran on. Problem was, it didn’t sound like it would be enough. Behind us, I could hear the terrible thudding of those footfalls coming ever closer.

I began to fall behind as we reached the end of the next street, and Fiona’s hand flew out to grasp mine, pulling me along like I was a kite in the wind. Gosh she was strong! How the hell was she running like this?

The next street was harder, I was just carrying too much. I wasn’t used to exercise like this, before or after my sudden shift in body shape. My heart hammered in my chest, threatening to burst under the unwelcome pressure, but unable to stop as adrenaline forced my whole body onwards. The heat on my back began to signal what I knew would be the end. He was gaining and there was nothing we’d be able to do.

Fiona could live though. She might be able to outrun this terrifying weeping man with his molten body. Her grip was iron, but I managed to extract my hand from her grip, causing me to plunge to the ground in a heap.

“Go! I’m slowing you down! I can’t keep up! Just run!” I cried to her as she turned back with terror writ large across her face.

“No! Oh my god you stupid girl! Get up, get up, get up!” She yelled in panic.

Neither of us had time to argue the point before there was a ribcage bending boom behind us. The heat decreased instantly, and I flopped onto my back to get a look at what had just happened. Had we been saved?

It took my mind a few seconds to parse what I was looking at, but when I was able to make sense of it, I recoiled in horror and disgust. What the fuck was that? 

The thing was far more otherworldly and terrifying than the molten man had been. It looked to be constructed of fluorescent blue bones held together by writhing tentacles of a similar nature. The whole thing dripped a sizzling blue liquid that glowed with the same light. The tentacles thrust out of the creature from random points, seeking to ensnare the molten man within their embrace. As one tentacle sizzled and popped under the blistering head, it retreated into the whole, allowing another to take its place in the struggle.

The molten man was not helpless either, he screamed in elemental fury, tearing at the sizzling blue tentacles with a ferocity that did not bode well if he caught Fiona and I. With a roar, the molten man pushed up at the thing attacking it, trying to take up the chase once again.

I was so busy staring, I didn’t see Fiona reach down and haul me to my feet until I was already wobbling on unsteady legs.

“No heroics! No noble sacrifice! Move!” she ordered, pushing me away from the disturbing struggle behind us.

Our strange luck did not hold out. A cry of fire and victory from behind turned my head and I saw the molten man throw the thing made of bone and tentacle off himself. As soon as he was free, he ignored it, making a beeline for us with the same terrible speed as before. His footfalls once again shook the street with terrifying force that seemed wholly disproportionate to his size. Was he made of molten metal?

Turning blindly down another street we pushed forward, fuelled by utter terror. This was something out of a fever inspired nightmare. What was the blue thing? Who was the molten man? Who had chosen me over him? Moon maybe? Did that mean that if she hadn’t intervened, I’d have turned into whatever he was now?

My wild thoughts were interrupted when the blue thing crashed into a building in front of us, sending debris high into the air. I expected even a strange horror like that to have to shake the dust off and get its bearings, but it was right back out of the collapsing building like a bolt from a blaster. It didn’t bother using the warped skeleton feet it hadn, choosing instead to hold itself aloft with a multitude of those blue tentacles. It was fast when it moved like that, the strange limbs propelling it back down the street with blurring speed.

It flew past us fast, and I felt myself thrown to the side by a strange force. It wasn’t the wind or its speed that send me flying… it felt like gravity had suddenly gotten confused. I was up and running again without Fiona’s help this time, and we rounded yet another corner while the battle raged behind us.

We kept running through the streets with the molten man hot on our heels and the blue thing constantly attempting to kill him. I don’t know how many times I almost died. Burning debris flew in all directions like some sort of action movie. Occasionally Fiona would stumble as some piece of rogue masonry dinged off her armour, and once or twice I was thrown to the ground as the same happened to me.

Each time this happened I felt my shield grow just a bit weaker. I could see it ebbing as I took hits, and it didn’t recharge. I hoped it held out longer than my legs, because those were about to give in. When I was almost certain I had one block or less in me, Fiona wrapped a gentle hand around my forearm and pulled me to a stop.

We’d lost them. Somehow during the chaos of our flight we’d lost them. In the near distance you could hear them going toe to toe like two titans of myth. Around us were scared people moving away from the supernatural chaos unfolding several blocks back. When had other people joined our terrified sprint out of the city?

My legs felt like jelly, and with the pause they had decided that enough was enough. I fell to the ground in a heap, unable to move more than an inch. Looking down at myself, I was greeted with a rather jarring view. I was not used to seeing a pair of boobs heaving up and down under my own laboured breathing. The world had gone mental. I was just chased through the streets of Boston by monsters and now I was on the ground marvelling once more at the fact I had tits.

“Fiona?” I gasped, trying to fill my lungs enough to speak.

“Yeah?” she asked, her own breathing sounding worse than mine, with a little added whistling sound to it.

“I... have... boobs,” I stated between gulps of air.

I must have caught her by surprise with that one, because she cracked up laughing. She struggled with her laughter for a long while, shaking her head and hitting her breastplate with a fist. I think she coughed something up because she had to spit it out at one point. When she finished laughing, she struggled with something in her pocket, pulling it out to reveal an inhaler that she fumbled into her mouth and took a gulp of air through.

A few more gulps later and she was ready to speak again, doing so with a wide grin, “Girl we just got hunted through the streets of Boston by two fucked up monsters and you’re talking about your boobs? You’re something.”

I smiled back, letting out a sound that might have been a giggle, “I know right? Why are we not more freaked out over what just happened?”

“I don’t know maybe there’s so much crazy shit that’s happened that we can’t process any more of it?” she said, her eyes sparkling with mirth.

“Yeah probably. Fuck I can’t move! Everything hurts!” I groaned, trying to stretch and only succeeding in hurting myself.

“Uh huh. You’re going to be hurting a whole lot as we walk our butts out of this city and off into the distance,” she replied, nudging me with a toe, “Maybe you should have done some stretches?”

“How the hell was I supposed to know that was going to happen? I can’t prepare for that!” I complained, scowling up at her.

“Oh don’t pout. You should have been in better shape!” she teased.

“I’m not pouting! Also, this body is like brand new! How was I meant to get it into better shape?” I grumbled, wobbling my way to my feet.

“Time travel. It’s probably something you can do now anyway,” she winked. Wow that was a powerful wink. How was a wink powerful? What was happening? Oh right, I’m talking to Fiona.

“I don’t think I can do that Fiona,” I said while rolling my eyes.

“Yup, sure you can’t. You’re totally not just holding out on me,” she teased sarcastically.

“No! I’m actually not. I don’t understand any of this,” I protested, poking her in her metal plated arm.

“Maybe, but I’m watching you,” she said, doing the gesture to go with her words.

“Yeah, watching my ass,” I said, and it was my turn to wink.

“Only a little,” she said loftily, then moved forward, “Come on, let’s get out of this city before something else tries to stab, burn or eat us.”

“Yes ma’am,” I said with a purposefully sloppy salute.

“You’re a little shit you know that?” she said with a snort.

“I’m a tired little shit. I want to rest soon,” I grumbled under my breath. She didn’t hear me.

We made our way through the darkening streets, away from the carnage behind us. It was strange, the further we got away from the center of the city, the more it seemed like things were normal. People milled around talking to each other, and someone was selling food at a stall on the side of the road. Some cops with far better manners were busy addressing some people about the local authorities current plan to deal with all of this. We didn’t stop for any of it however, we just wanted to get the hell out of dodge before people realised the true gravity of what had been done to the universe.