33(S3E7)-Run

33

(Season 3, Episode 7)

Run

A lot of things should have been going through Zachariah’s mind as they descended the ancient staircase to the garden of Zersch.  Something along the lines of why was he going along with this, probably should have been one of those things.  After all, he was trying to kill himself only a couple of hours ago.  What had changed since then that would make him want to stay alive?  If he had been asking himself these questions, this would have been the point where he looked at his oldest and best friend walking ahead of him into the black unknown below, willing to battle demons ninjas and apocalyptic horsemen to save him.  He would wonder, if a guy like that wanted to work so hard to keep him alive, was there something worth saving?  These were the questions he should have been thinking.

They would have been his thoughts, by all means, if he was not so hungry.  Since they had begun their descent, a hunger had started to build inside him.  It had spread like a wildfire until it completely possessed him.  All he could think about was eating.  It was the only thing that occupied his mind, which was why, when he looked at his friend, he did not have the introspective thoughts he should have been having but instead, found himself asking if people really tasted like chicken.

“Holy shit…”  Scott muttered it as they came out of the staircase into what seemed like an endlessly huge cave.  A dead forest stretched out in front of him, thousands of tightly knit dead and leafless trees. A dim light stretched over the impossibly massive cave.  The light source was unknown, but it created shadows that played through the woods.  The cold and emptiness of the place hit them all like a wave and it was obvious that the only thing that lived here anymore were the shadows.

“What happened here?”  Scott found himself asking, knowing this was not supposed to be like this.

“It was once a garden, a place where magic fed the life.  The magic came from a wyvern called Zersch.” Mel explained as simply as he could.  “Zersch is dead… without him the place has faded and will eventually cease to exist.”

“A wyvern?”  Scott was not sure why he was surprised at this point, “What happened to him?”

Kahn jerked her head toward Zachariah.  Scott’s eyebrows rose.  “You killed a wyvern?!”

He turned and his curiosity was gone once he saw the state of his friend.  Zachariah had somehow lost fifty pounds on the walk down the stairs.  Scott could see his rib cage through his tee-shirt.  His color had drained out of him and he was now an empty pale white.  Sweat beaded on his forehead and a trickle of foam fell from his mouth.

“Zachariah?” He asked concerned.

Zachariah’s lost eyes seemed to notice Scott now. “Hungry…  HUNGRY!”

Zachariah leapt through the air like a possessed demon.  Scott’s training clicked on.  Instinctively, he caught both of Zachariah’s incoming hands and fell to his back.  Scott put his foot to Zachariah’s abdomen as he did and in one fluid motion, flipped Zachariah over him as he rolled to his back.

Zachariah soared through the air and crashed into the back of Mel who was unaware of the scrap.  The small druid was thrown forward into a tree, cracking his head on the trunk.  Mel dropped to the ground, motionless.  Zachariah rolled to his feet then began to roll around on the ground, screaming.

“Jibun o junbi shimasu.”  Kahn spoke the Japanese and Scott did not have to speak the language to know it was an order.  The four ninjas who had accompanied them on the trip tensed and got into fighting stances, hands to their blades.

“What the hell is happening to him?!”  Scott asked as arms began to pull themselves out of Zachariah’s back.  Zachariah screamed.

Kahn turned toward Scott.  “The second horseman is coming.  Plague.”

Scott was ready to prepare for another otherworldly encounter when a screech cut the air, not from Zachariah but from somewhere behind him up the stairs.  The screech conveyed a hunter’s excitement as he had finally found his prey.  Scott’s brain flicked back to the Dahaka and the shield that Mel maintained to keep it at bay.

Scott pointed at Mel who was unconscious on the ground.  “Does he need to be awake to keep that Dahaka shield up?”

Kahn’s face dropped.  “Kuso ttare.”

Scott again did not feel he needed to know the language to know they were in deep-

The Horseman pulled itself free from Zachariah.  It was the visage of someone who had starved to death, skin on bones, its eyes were white and pupil-less and it had long, thin, wispy, almost clear, hair on its head.  The only thing that looked healthy on the creature was its rows of dagger-like teeth.

Zachariah passed out again and dropped to the ground next to Mel.  The Dahaka’s screech sounded again, this time much closer and Scott could swear he was watching Kahn’s brain calculate in her head. She had seconds.  Finally, she stared acting.

She spoke Japanese at such a rapid pace, it was too fast for Scott to follow.  Her ninjas did not have the same problem.  Three of them leapt into combat, drawing their blades and engaging the Horseman who screamed, welcoming the attack.  The other two ninjas leapt over to Zachariah and Mel and with a puff of smoke, they vanished and a dead tree appeared in their place.

Kahn made a series of hand gestures, then tossed something at Scott’s feet and a burst of smoke made Scott cough.  “What the hell?!”

He fanned the smoke away and looked at Kahn, confused.  “You need to run.”

Scott was even more confused.  “What?!”

“I’m sorry.”  Kahn said, unconvincingly.  “It is going to think you are Zachariah when it gets here.”

 Scott’s eyes went wide.  “The fuck it is!”

Scott heard the screech again.  Kahn snarled.  “Run!”

Scott knew he had no more time to figure this out.  He turned and bolted, sprinting into the forest.  The dead wood clawed at his face and arms as he smashed through it with the finesse of a wild bull.  He felt it behind him, tearing through the trees after him.

The Dahaka; a creature that erased you from time.  Now that it thought Scott was Zachariah, would it take him instead if it caught him?  Would he take Zachariah’s place in oblivion?  If so, no one would ever know his sacrifice.  No one would know he had ever been.

Scott turned, only for a second, to try and gauge how well he was doing and he saw it.  It was indescribable, like looking at pure force.  It moved like an animal with the intention of a person.  It was a phantom, a shadow of a universe that was never going to happen.  The fear it caused in Scott was unlike anything he had ever felt in his life.  No boogey man or monster under the bed could equal the pure absence of existence that chased him.

Scott’s backwards glance cost him and he failed to see the drop-off in front of him. He blew past the edge like some kind of cartoon character and, for a second, he hoped that if he did not look down,  somehow gravity would forget him.

Gravity forgets no one.  Scott fell at least twenty feet, crashing into the trees again before hitting the ground and rolling through the loose dirt.  His body ached but something inside him kept screaming at him to move.  By the time he listened, he pulled himself up, face to face with the creature.

He froze, as if coming face to face with a jungle cat, and stared into the void of the force of reality.  The creature looked clear, but somehow black at the same time.  At first, it looked like a four-legged jungle cat-like creature then it looked almost humanoid at the same time.

Scott took a deep breath, remembering his wife for what he knew would be the last time.  He remembered his son… would he even be born?

“I’m so sorry.”  Scott said to the air, hoping that somewhere, somehow, his family would know he was.

The Dahaka screeched and moved.

****

Kahn heard the screech and knew she was out of time.  She had healed Mel’s head wound while the ninjas had been torn to shreds by the Horseman and Scott had lead the creature away, but the jig was up.  The screech meant it had caught Scott and was coming back.  The only way to finish the mission was to wake Mel and get his spell back up.  She shook him furiously but he refused to come-to.

The screech sounded again, closer this time and Kahn finally grabbed Mel with one hand, pulling his head up and with one large wind up, the other hand slapped him violently.  She did this while yelling, “Mewosamasu anata no chīsana rokudenashi!”

Mel snapped awake.  “God Damn!  I speak Japanese and that was hate speech!”

The screech sound again only a few feet away, “Mel!”

Mel quickly muttered a series of Latin words and then a light flashed from his hand.

****

Scott dropped to his hands and knees and vomited.

The creature had screeched and moved through him before racing off, leaving him intact.  It had realized he was not Zachariah and lost interest in Scott.  Oblivion had passed him over.  His body began to relax slightly as he finished spilling the contents of his stomach onto the ground.

His resolve was shaken.  He had a family; a son; a wife.  The weight of the insanity he was dealing with dropped onto his shoulders like an anvil, he had been ignoring it, focusing on helping his friend but he could not put it off any longer.  He was in over his head.

Scott hated himself for his next thought, but he could not help it.

‘Is Zach really worth this?’

When Scott’s resolve fails, you know the heroes are in real trouble.  Narrowly avoiding the Dahaka again, the group has taken heavy losses and a second of the Horsemen is free.  Can they make it to the Chamber of Time in time, or is the only way to save the world through Zachariah’s death?  And what’s going on with those future guys?

FIND OUT NEXT TIME!

Stranger Things; Zachariah’s Death