5
Cutlery's new bed was comfier than her drawer. It was squisher, softer, warmer, bigger and she didn't have to listen for Mome's footsteps. She had to remind herself not to roll off the frame's high ledge. The drawer space had still felt safer. The Crushing walls had been like a hug. Finding the side of the bed to push her feet against never happened. Cold air greeted her.
From the whimpers and creaking beds, it sounded like most of the room was having trouble sleeping. No soldiers were in the room. The metallic clank of armor would pass by the doorway at the far end of the room every thirty minutes or so. The upper windows above Cutlery flickered with a dim red light that made the room seem like a bloody ocean. Some intelligent kid said 'red light made you sleepy'. Well if that was true, why was over half the room thinking about home instead of dreaming of ogres and mumbling in their sleep?
Cutlery glanced over the edge at Rega below her. Rega stared back. Talk about creepy. Rega smiled at her and Cutlery rolled onto her back again. Rega was a stare-at-the-ceiling type huh? Better than wild horse shifters like Cutlery, she got kicked out of the big bed at Many House because of how much she moved when she couldn't sleep.
Unrest could be put to use. Throwing off the sheets and leaping to the floor got several kids' attention. She could feel Rega's eyes on her back. Cutlery padded in bare feet across the floor. More kids watched her go.
Cutlery saw several huddles of whispering friends and quivering sheets. A few were even tucked in together. Mome said you can't sleep in the same bed as a boy. If the boy had a coin or a respectable job you could negotiate. Lots of the older kids left cause they wanted to sleep with someone. Some a few years younger would get in trouble for sneaking around at night. Cutlery was uninterested in boys completely. One older girl told her to stick to girls. She wasn't sure what she meant by that.
She made it to the front of the room. Leaning down by the door she heard clinking metal outside the door. She tried the door. It was locked. Pressing her face against the nippy stone Cutlery could see under the door. Three pairs of feet stood facing the door. Dull whispers crawled through the crack as well. Cutlery moved her ear to the crack.
"Don't you think we should test them like normal?" Said a stern feminine voice. Probably that punchy guard from yesterday,
"Emergency response is hard to train. This is the best way, it's also faster." The familiar voice of General Haze said.
"That's true, you're very right sir." A third unfamiliar voice said.
"We are ready sir. Just push here and it should start." A voice said. Cutlery recognized the voice of the punchy woman soldier speaking.
"Alright let's begin. Don't let them out." Haze said. A soft purr started on the other side of the door and the sound of their voices faded away. Cutlery moved her ears away from the crack and put her eyes back against the door. A silvery film of glare obscured the crack now. Then the room turned into a dumpster fire as she had never witnessed before.
-
Cutlery stuck her pinkie finger under the door and tapped the barrier. Despite its liquid appearance, it felt solid. While she pondered the barrier the room slowly brightened. Murmuring began to fill the room.
"It's only been a few hours!" One voice complained.
"Make it dark again, stop casting spells or whatever!" Another said. A breeze came into the room and more complaints were spoken. Cutlery looked away from the door to find the source of the breeze, the windows at the top of the room had opened up. A shadow fell over the fringes of the spaces. All of the porthole windows began to writhe and undulate downward.
Long tendrils of slimy marbled red flesh began to descend into the chamber. Only Cutlery noticed this at first. The others still were in their bunks groaning. Being the farthest from them from her doorway spot it was easier to observe the whole room. In morbid curiosity, she watched as the descent of fleshy tentacles covered the window frame. They began to turn onto the roof and squelch across it.
More and more of the fleshy tubes came into the room. Most trailed across the ceiling but a few thin ones ventured into the empty air. Kids noticed and began to back away in sudden silence. Others pointed them out. At first, voices just died as the children detected the creature. Children surveyed the sight as they descended farther in. A few that were tracing the ceiling hit the walls and began wrapping along the corners. The roof was a writhing pulpy carpet now.
Then someone screamed. The room erupted into movement as those on the top bunks lept down. A few landed on others. The people falling over each other became roadblocks for others who were moving away from the lowest-thin tentacles. Cutlery watched from her nook. The closest tentacle to her was a thin one still a good ten feet away. It was randomly waving about with slow motions.
The pale goliath child stood between two bunks near the center of the room. They were so big that they were able to reach up and grabbed one tentacle. They wrapped their hand around the tentacle and pulled. The tentacle audibly squelched and slid up the goliath's arm. The goliath watched it slowly move towards their elbow. A small silence filled the room from those who saw what was happening. The goliath raised their other hand towards the tentacle. Then they grunted as the tentacle stopped moving and several larger ones began to move toward them.
The goliath tugged and their arm was held tight. The goliath put a foot on the wall and pulled. The tentacle tore apart a prolonged wet snap. The tentacle fell limp and slid off. It provided a nice moist impact against the floor. The remaining chunk of tentacle it had been torn from, spasmed, and fell off the ceiling. As it swung away from the wall, it slurped like spaghetti back into the hole in the ceiling.
A girl near the goliath moved to escape. She ducked under a huge tentacle and came within a hair's breadth of a small scouting worm. The small limb continued past her and ran into an older child. The kid looked away from one large tentacle at the small one that had hit him. As he brought his arm back to punch it, it snapped away from him and into the ceiling. As if on queue, several immense tentacles rushed the considerable child.
Cutlery watched in safe interest as more kids began to interact with the tentacles. The scouting small one near her was five feet away now. The fleshy seekers were low enough now that all of the tall kids ducked as they moved. The room seemed to compress as the thousands of creatures moved downward.
Cutlery remained happy with her situation, until she saw Rega, asleep on her bunk. That is as absurd as the Temple exploding, she thought. She would need to be as fast as the Temple if she wanted to save her before a tentacle happened upon her. The center of the room seemed to be the freest of tentacles but many kids were beginning to crowd there. She would rather deal with an upset kid than an arm-squeezing tentacle.
The scouting tentacle was only a foot away. She moved slowly back into a crouch and began to go under the thin tendril. It didn't go after her, as it had for the goliath or older kids. The door seemed to be its target. Cutlery began to stand and run through the crowd. Tentacles had begun to move onto the tops of bunks and a few kids under the covers of them screamed or moved to get out.
One kid stayed under their covers too long a tentacle had already gone stiff around them. They were pressed against the bunk. They squirmed. Cutlery couldn't even see who it was as she slipped through the crowd. More tentacles came down on the bunk. They wrapped the bunk like a flesh burrito. Then all of them went rigid at once.
crunch echoed through the room. The bunk stopped shaking. A huge silence blanketed the room suddenly. Everyone near the bunk slowly turned and looked at the mass of tentacles. The sheets began to darken with fluid. The tentacles began to rise with the sheet coffin into the air. Dripping fell from the sheets and the body bent as it was forced through one of the holes in the ceiling and out of sight.
The room transitioned into inhumane death screams. Cutlery was quickly smashed between kids as everyone went ballistic. A roar echoed from the goliath who had torn a dozen tentacles now. Some kids even moved toward the goliath even though a swarm of tentacles had descended on the area. Cutlery shoved past the middle of the room and rushed through a sudden gap of kids.
Cutlery half-fell half-dived toward Rega. Their bunk shifted as Rega peeked out blearily from under the sheets. Cutlery stood and grabbed her.
With vigorous shaking Cutlery watched the tired energy fly off of Rega. To Cutlery's surprise, grabbing Rega for the first time revealed how truly thin she was. Her strong grasp felt only bone. An intrusive thought told Cutlery to make sure Rega ate more. Rega peaked out and looked at Cutlery. By the gods, she was a slow waker on top of being a deep sleeper.
"Up, now, or die!" Cutlery screamed. Rega looked at her and then past her. Her eyes slowly went from narrow sleepy, to wide information-gathering size.
"What is happening?" Rega asked Cutlery.
"Death flesh rods!" Cutlery screamed. Rega began to pale. Cutlery tore the sheet off her and shoved her to the floor.
"Hey!" Rega said and looked poutingly at Cutlery. A scouting tentacle swiped in the air above where they had been. Rega looked at it. She swallowed and began to crawl around the bed to Cutlery. Grabbing her arm and standing, Cutlery pulled her toward the middle of the room. Together they began to push through the crowd. Then a second crunch echoed in the room. Rega looked, but Cutlery didn't. Rega squinted towards a kid who had fallen limp and was being pulled up toward the ceiling. Their body swung in the air as the tenacles were only wrapped around their waste.
Rega screamed. Cutlery pulled her along with a wince. Then crunches began to echo across the room. The kids pressed together as the tentacles descended onto the largest groups. Some small kids hid under their bunks or just cowered between them.
Cutlery couldn't put a finger on it but she thought she knew what the tentacles were after, big piles of flesh. Bigger kids batted at tentacles and little toddlers seemed to slip right by them without being accosted. Rega and Cutlery switched to diving through bunks instead of cutting through the middle.
Shoving meant pushing someone else into a tentacle. Some kids were having to choose between shoving or getting closer to one themselves. Screams echoed as some kids were dragged towards the ceiling uncrunched. In the darkest pits of her mind, Cutlery figured it was better to be crunched to silence. Some kids screams as they were dragged into the ceiling still alive.
Rega had begun to sob and was falling behind Cutlery. Cutlery changed to shoving Rega through bunks and then picking her up when she tripped. They passed by the Goliath girl who had one arm limp at her side. Her shaved head gave no handhold for the fleshy tentacles unlike everyone else. The kids around them helped fight off at least a quarter of the room's invaders. Cutlery and Rega smashed through the crowd.
The pair made it to the front of the room and Cutlery grabbed a sheet to bring with them. The scouting tentacle that had been there before was now pressed against the door.
No large tenacles came to it. The two girls crouched in the corner and watched the small tentacle in fear. Cutlery pressed the sheet to Rega's ears and Rega's sobbing continued to rattle her body. Then the door began to shake. Something pounded hard against it from the other side. The scout jerked back at the impact and retreated.
Then the door shattered and the shining body of General Haze came through.
-
Golden light filled the room.
"I fucking knew it! You fucked up! This is the wrong one! You bastard now look what we have to deal with fuck Fuck FUCK!" Haze said.
He reached for his back and then stopped. His hand snapped to his waist and grabbed a small sword. He drew a curved blade and sliced the tiny tentacle as it snapped backward. It wriggled on the floor at the girls' feet.
Two more guards came crashing into the room and then halted. They turned white as snow. A wand and an orb came into their hands with a snap. They brought up their palms and muttered something Cutlery didn't understand. Bolts of pink came from the orb, and warbling spikes rippled the air from the wand. Tentacles began exploding around the room. Haze's sword sliced one dragging the blue demon girl by the stubby horn into the air.
Like a wave, the kids noticed the guards. A riot broke out to reach them. Every living thing inside the room rushed towards the door. Haze was shoved backward while fighting a rapidly growing number of tentacles.
"Get away unless you wanna get cut!" The General bellowed. They pressed past him. He missed more several swings and a few tentacles tried to wrap around his blade. Cutlery and Rega pressed into the corner as dozens of kids slammed against the doors.
Over the next full minute, another two kids got dragged into the ceiling. Survivors had poured into the hallway. Haze plus the guards splintered nearly three dozen tentacles. Haze and the two soldiers were covered in gore as the tentacles pulled back into the ceiling. More soldiers arrived, and one of them began to attend to wounded kids who wailed with broken ribs and torn scalps.
The rest of the soldiers rushed into the room and looked about for the threats. Haze turned around and saw Cutlery and Rega in the corner.
"That was one of the most fucked situations I have ever seen anyone go through." He said as he approached them. He pulled a gauntlet off and placed a hand on them. His palm glowed and spheres of golden light jumped from out of his skin. Bruises and cuts along their legs disappeared. "You two got off more than lightly." He said. "I can only hope this will be a dark start to a bright future," Haze whispered. He stood and began to bark orders.
Kids were separated by species and then by the genders of the species for healing. Palms were placed on bones that pressed against the skin. Herbs were rubbed on friction burns from where the tentacles had grasped. Blessings caused a yellow glow around scalps, quickly regrowing the hair. Horns, feathers, scales, exoskeletons, and other parts mended just the same. Guards took the organized groups to the showers and had the kids wash off. The water by the drain was red.
Then to Cutlery's surprise, Rega and her were brought to a new room with two beds. They were told this was their dorm and to stay inside till the morning. Consoling soldiers showed them their clothes and helped them to bed. They shut the door and walked out. A small window let a trickle of the four moons light into the room. Tonight only the red moon was full. Cutlery remembered the nightmare tales of the moon called Fluloris and its rivers of lava. Rega was shaking in her bed.
Neither of them slept. They watched the window and flinched when clouds covered the light of a moon.
-
