a_time_slip | (no subject)

"You'll never hurt me!" said the monster, as the fog quickly became thicker.

"He's going to run." Janie said, before raising her weapon and firing. She didn't want all of the people on the island to be unhappy, but she also didn't want the monster feeding off of them.

"We'll see about that!"

Julian shot as well, letting the monster's voice guide his aim when seeing it became harder. He moved quickly and tried to reach for the creature, determined not to let it get away.

The fog quickly lifted, and the ruins of a town surrounded them, and the monster lay dead on the ground.

"He's gone, Julian." she said, slowly "Do you feel any different? I still like you, and I don't think we made a mistake."

Julian kept his gun aimed at the monster for a while longer as he couldn't believe that it should be over so quickly. But the beast didn't move, and he had a quick look around before turning to Janie again.

"... It doesn't feel as if anything changed", he answered, still too wary to feel relief. "Are you sure it is over?"

"I don't know." She said, walking over to the monster "Should I shoot him again?"

She was worried. The ruins seemed empty, and everything was still quiet.

"I don't think that's necessary", Julian answered quietly.

Watching the dead monster made him feel uncomfortable, but he looked thoroughly for any sign of life.
When he couldn't see anything, he focused on the ruins.

"We should have a look around this place, to make sure he hasn't got friends somewhere."

"Right, others." She stared at the monster for a long moment, then turned away. "Let's do that, before they start that fog again... I can't wait to leave this place."

Julian nodded and avoided looking at the monster again. This would give him a lot to think later, but now wasn't the time for it.

"Yes, you're right. Let's leave as soon as we're done here."

He started walking towards an empty street, listening to any sounds that might indicate someone else was here.

There was a sound coming from a building at the end of the ruined street, but otherwise, it was silent.

"You pick the next vacation."

Julian couldn't help but smile a little. "Alright. I'll pick something as boring and as little dangerous as possible."

Then, he focused on the building the sound was coming from and pointed. "Something's there. Let's have a look."

"I want to have picnics with you, under the stars." Janie said "Can you pick somewhere like that? Please?"

She looked toward the building with fear, but walked to it anyway. She moved slowly and made sure Julian was never too far from her. "They're all going to have to rebuild this world... if they stay that is. This place is in ruins."

"Definitely. You have no idea how much I'd love to do that just now", Julian answered.

He tried to focus on the task again and checked for more signs of life. When they reached the building, he stopped, making sure himself that Janie was nearby, before he opened the door. "I wonder what happened here", he said quietly. "Perhaps we'll find out."

"I don't know." Janie frowned, then walked into the building. It was very quiet, but someone or something was hiding inside.

Julian gave her a reassuring shoulder squeeze and a half-smile before he concentrated on his target. Silently, he moved into the direction where he thought he had heard a faint noise coming from.

As soon as Julian walked forward, something ran past him very quickly. Something ran by Janie too, and all that could be seen was a few dark blurs.

"What is that?" Janie asked, as more things ran by them.

Julian spun around when the first one came past him. Even though he instantly focused on the other ones, he found it hard to make out what they were.

"Don't know. Let's see."

He froze for a moment, then his hands shot forward as he tried to catch one of the moving things.

The creatures were fast, so fast that no one could catch them. Janie focused for a moment, then turned to Julian.

"I'm going to slow them down. I know you will be able to catch them. There are three, catching and killing them will end this."

She turned away once more, and the dark shapes began to slow down. Julian would be able to see that they were minature monsters, shrouded in darkness.

Julian muttered a curse and made a quick step forward to regain his balance after having caught nothing but thin air.
He glanced at Janie over his shoulder and nodded. "Alright, let's try that again."

He had only a vague idea what Janie did to slow down the shapes and how she knew that killing them would end this situation, but he trusted her. As the movement to his right became slower and the shape less blurry, he spun around, took aim and shot in one fluent motion.

The darkness left the shape, and the small monsters fell to the ground, then exploded into dust.

"You got one!" exclaimed Janie, as the remaining shapes slowed down even more. "I can keep them this slow for a few more minutes, but I can't stop them."

Julian didn't even stop to check on the monster, Janie's words were confirmation enough that he didn't have to worry about that one anymore.

He whirled around to face the next shape and shot, missed, shot again, all the time aware that the remaining one was heading for the door now, trying to escape.

Janie saw what was happening, and ran to the door, just barely able to stop the shape from escaping.

"Julian! Hurry!"

Julian's second shot hit, but only managed to slow his shape down even more.

"I know! Almost got it!"

Julian briefly glanced at the situation at the door, thankful for Janie's help, then turned his attention back to the shape in front of him. He forced himself to concentrate on aiming properly, then fired again.

The second shape stopped, and turned to dust, much like the first shape did. All that was left was the third, which was trying hard to get Janie to move so it could escape.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep it slow, Julian."

"Coming!"

Julian wasted no time and ran after Janie, targeting the last monster. As soon as he had a clear aim, he shot - only to find there were no more bullets left in the magazine.
Cursing, he dropped his now useless gun and lunged for the shape instead, claws ahead.

Janie was relieved, for just a moment, until she realized that the gun was out of bullets. She had a gun, but had been concentrating so hard on slowing the shapes down, that she couldn't use it.

"Julian! Be careful!" she yelled, as he lunged at the shape. It turned away from her and to him. The darkness surrounding it spread, trying to make it too dark for Julian to see. "I'm going to slide my gun towards you, you have to shoot it. I can't because I need to concentrate to keep it slow."

When she spoke, the shape seemed to move faster as it tried to attack Julian. When she stopped, it slowed down again.