Cosmic Correction
Ages changed. Beliefs changed. But not you. You were formless. Peerless. Remorseless. Throughout time, you’ve cloaked yourself in myth, shedding each only to don whatever form the new age looked to as hero. Or as villain. You always became what you needed to be.
The only other aspect in the cosmos that proved infallible was humankind. Despite the change of age, the change of belief, the change of morality, humankind unerringly moved its hand nearer self-destruction. And in every age, you awoke, the rod, the whip, and the sickle, to drive them back from the flame and stave off obliteration, only to reset a clock that would one day wake you again.
Brrum-brum-brum, came the call. The age of wakefulness had arrived; humankind once again approached its destruction.
You leaped from the surface of the ocean, a formless mass like a whale. Porpoising, you continued across the water’s surface, a cosmic pull drawing you to a destination. The water passing over you left a residue, a sheen of something not native to the ocean. Another jump and you corkscrewed, shedding the contaminant and extending limbs that took hold of the wind.
You climbed higher, scales forming under and jettisoning the last of the pollutant. Your skin took on the color of a night’s sky as you became a quadrupedal dragon.
An enormous platform, an island, stood before you, its mighty smokestacks sending dark green clouds roiling skyward.
Thrack-thrack-thrack, sounded in your head as a scene bled over your senses, footsteps thundering down a metal walkway, your breath coming in gasps. You glanced back to see men in gray uniforms pursuing you.
Then, you shook your head. You weren’t running along any catwalks. You were a dragon. And you were flying. Still, you felt like you needed to catch your breath. You felt panic. You felt desperation.
What’s going on in this place? Just what are they doing here?
You flew nearer the platform and began gliding around it. But the catwalk images returned.
Abby didn’t so much round the corner as she did trace its outline, her shoulder colliding with the opposite wall long enough for her to redirect her forward momentum. She reached up and grabbed her lucky goggles, the impact almost jarring them free.
“Hang on, goggles!” she yelled. “This exit ain’t gonna be as smooth as we planned”
“There she is!” yelled a group of pursuing guards. “You’ve got nowhere to run. Just give up!”
She took off again, her arms moving in alternating circles as if to attain top speed sooner. No where to run? Just what do they think we’ve been doing all this time? There’s lots of places to run. She shoulder checked a door and it sprang open, the building spitting her out, only for her to collide with some handrailing as a crosswind announced its presence.
Abby took off along a catwalk, then flailed for a handhold as she suddenly ran off of the platform. She grasped for the railing, even took hold, but as she looked down, she could see nothing but the hundreds of feet between her and the ocean. The platform, the handrail, everything around her was gone.
She heard footfalls pounding along the metal grating and everything reformed around her. The platform and the handrail, it was all back.
Beep-beep-beep, sounded from her watch and she looked at it with widening eyes.
Kaboom!
All of the guards were thrown from their feet as an explosion rocked the platform. More detonations followed, flashes, smoke, and screams all rising to pass through the steel grate that she looked down through.
Exploding, burning, falling, or drowning, she thought as she climbed to her feet. Every one of them were shit choices but at least the last two would allow her to fly before she died. Another explosion had her grab the rail again, then she ran. The catwalk jolted, she stumbled, arms pinwheeling as she fell, then bounced up again.
Abby never got to be a hurdle runner, but ahead, the catwalk turned ninety-degrees and its three-foot railing took her back to simpler times---a time with simple problems and simple dreams, her main problem being that she had too many dreams. But now her biggest problem was that she had too much void where her family had once been. ‘Give ‘em hell, kiddo,’ her dad said, his memory echoing in her thoughts.
Another explosion rocked her sideways. She pulled her father’s pilot goggles down over her eyes, and fixated on the railing ahead. Beyond it was nothing but a seam---the place where the ocean met the sky. Her footfalls thundered nearer. She leaped. And it was perfect.
‘Never had a doubt,’ she heard, her stomach lurching as moisture filled the inside of her goggles. Dad...Mom...wait for me. I’ll be there soon. She stretched out like she had always seen skydivers do, her jeans and over-sized flannel shirt plastering around her.
Abby could hear nothing but the roar of wind, and yet, someone called to her. She glanced over and found a massive shape falling alongside her. But she couldn’t see through her goggles. She thought to drain them and lifted them, only for the wind to tear them away from her grasp.
“No!” she cried, rolling and reaching for them.
‘Grab on to me!’ someone yelled in her head.
The shape was near enough to touch, but the wind was forcing her eyes closed. She grabbed the object, they rolled, and she wound up on top. She looked back, saw her goggles falling, then leaped towards them, feeling her new platform settle instead of allowing her to spring out as far as she intended.
‘Stupid child!’ she heard as her fingertips brushed the goggles.
Splash! Something hit the water behind her, but she grabbed the goggles, pulled them into an embrace, then---
*Nothing.
A divine twin, you thought. This stupid creature? Now? Just what has humanity gotten themselves into this time?*
Reddit Writing Prompt:
You have been known by many names through the years, leviathan, The Rainbow Serpent, Jörmungandr. After a relaxing thousand year nap you wake up to an absolute horror! The humans in less than 1000 years have turned your ocean into a polluted wasteland. You decide to do something about it.
