Capítulo 224: Chapter 224
The city had become a graveyard. Broken glass littered the streets, and the skeletal remains of buildings, once thriving with life, now stood like hollow, forgotten tombstones. The sun was a distant, pale reflection, barely making its presence known behind a wall of cloud and dust. Silence had claimed the world, save for the occasional crunch of debris underfoot or the distant rumble of something far worse moving closer.
Eli ran, though it was futile. He always ran. He had learned that running was the only thing that gave him any illusion of safety. It was a habit now, a reflex.
They called it Hedge, though Eli wasn't sure who "they" were anymore. Perhaps just people who had heard the stories, or those who had survived the first wave. Nobody talked about it much anymore. No one wanted to remember. The thing, the creature, the nightmare that had brought the end of everything, wasn't something that could be easily discussed.
Some said it was born from the earth itself, others believed it was something sent from beyond. All Eli knew was that it had a name, and it ran faster than anything alive. It ran faster than light, than any fleeting thought that could form in a person's mind before it was too late. It killed everything.
At first, it seemed like a hoax. A myth. An urban legend used to scare children at night. But the night it arrived, the world had been thrown into a spiral of chaos. It had appeared from nowhere, racing through cities, tearing through them with unfathomable speed. It consumed everything—people, animals, even the buildings themselves. Nothing stood in its way.
Eli had been among the last to escape his neighborhood. He remembered the first time he saw it. A dark shape darting across the street, its black and purple quills gleaming against the glow of a dying streetlamp. His first instinct was to run, but the creature had already seen him.
Its eyes, glowing with an unnatural light, focused on him in an instant, and the next moment, it had closed the distance, faster than any human could comprehend. Eli had barely managed to get inside, to lock the door behind him, to hide as it tore apart the world outside. It ate, devoured people whole, leaving nothing behind but the echo of their screams.
Now, months later, Eli had become accustomed to the never-ending dread that hung in the air. People didn't stay in groups anymore. It was too dangerous. The more there were, the more it was likely to find you. The world had turned into a game of hide and seek, but the stakes were unimaginably high.
Eli was alone now, his only company the faint whispers of memories long gone, faces that once mattered but were now just figments of his broken mind. He'd learned to be quiet, learned how to keep his movements as small as possible, learned how to hide in the rubble when it came. When it came.
The wind howled through the cracked windows of the building he had found refuge in. The roof had collapsed long ago, but it was enough to shield him from the open sky. Enough to keep him hidden, for now.
His stomach rumbled, but he ignored it. He had gotten used to hunger. He had gotten used to everything. It was all part of life now—this hollow existence that only begged for death to come sooner rather than later. There was no more hope in the world. The human race had been consumed, wiped away by something faster, stronger, and more terrifying than they could ever imagine. The thing was an unstoppable force, devouring without mercy, without thought. It was not alive in the way humans understood. It was something beyond that.
A sudden noise broke Eli from his thoughts. It was too quiet. The world had become so silent that even the smallest sound felt like an intrusion. His heart skipped a beat, then raced. He slowly, cautiously, stood from his crouch, trying to steady his breathing. It wasn't the wind, or debris shifting. This was different.
His eyes darted toward the corner of the room. There, in the shadow, the shape of something moved.
It's here.
The creature was impossibly fast, its form a dark silhouette against the shadows. Its body was like that of a hedgehog, but unlike any animal Eli had ever seen. Its quills were twisted, black with hints of purple running through them. Its face, if it could even be called that, was a grotesque mockery—angular, sharp, and alien. Its eyes glowed, burning with an intense, violet light that seemed to pierce the very soul of anything unfortunate enough to meet its gaze.
Eli's pulse quickened. The instinct to run was overwhelming, but he knew it would be futile. It always was. The creature's speed was beyond comprehension. Even if he made it outside, even if he made it to the alleyways, it would still find him.
He backed into the farthest corner of the room, trying to stay hidden, trying to avoid making a sound. The creature's eyes locked onto him, unblinking, as if it had been waiting for him to make a mistake. Its head tilted slightly, and then, as if reading his thoughts, it began to move.
Eli didn't dare take his eyes off it. His mind raced through every possible escape route, every possible way he could survive. But there was no way out. Not this time.
The creature moved again, impossibly fast, and in the span of a heartbeat, it was beside him. Eli barely had time to react, his hands reaching out to push himself back, but he was too slow. The creature's claws, sharp and deadly, struck with a force that sent Eli crashing against the wall. He tasted blood, felt the sting of the impact, but he could barely comprehend the pain before the creature was on him again.
It moved with terrifying precision, its quills cutting through the air like blades. Eli's vision blurred as he struggled to breathe, his heart pounding in his chest. The creature's eyes were inches from his now, glowing with a sickening light. Eli could feel its hot breath, could smell the rancid stench of its existence.
The creature wasn't just hunting him. It was savoring him.
In that moment, Eli understood. The creature wasn't just eating flesh. It was consuming everything—everything that made life worth living. It fed on fear, on pain, on the last vestiges of humanity. It wasn't a beast of hunger alone. It was a force of nature, a representation of everything that had gone wrong with the world. It was the end of everything, and it showed no mercy.
With a swift motion, the creature's claws tore into him. Eli screamed, but the sound died before it could escape his throat. The world was fading, slipping away from him. His body grew cold, numb. He had always known this moment would come, but knowing it didn't make it any easier.
As the life drained from him, Eli's thoughts slowed. He saw flashes of faces from his past—the people he had loved, the ones he had failed to save. He saw the world as it once was, full of life, full of hope. He saw everything before it all crumbled.
The last thing he felt was the creature's quills, not just piercing his skin, but cutting into his very soul. It was as if it was pulling him apart, not just physically, but mentally. Eli didn't know what hurt more—the pain of his body being torn apart or the loss of everything that had once been. He could feel the weight of his existence slipping away, but it wasn't the peaceful release he had imagined.
No, it was something far worse. It was the hollow knowledge that this was how the world would end. Not with a roar, not with a bang, but with a quiet, brutal consumption, where everything that was human, everything that was good, was devoured until nothing was left.
And then, there was nothing.
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