Stone Sickness

Start “Can’t you move any faster?”

The scraping grinding sound became more pronounced as Peter cursed her under his breath and redoubled his efforts to drag his petrified leg across the ground. Sasha’s frantic breathing only increased her panic; her dreads flying through the air as she whipped her head left and right, desperately trying to see through the smog.

They were in a parking lot, or what used to be one, littered with debris. The wind rustled lazily through the wrappers, discarded clothing and open car doors whirling the haze over the dead grass that had pushed stubbornly through the surface.

Peter cursed again as some sparks danced away from his foot, catching a nearby patch. Wisps of barely discernible smoke began to curl into the air before Sasha stamped it out.

“As if we need any more of a sign for them to follow eh?” Peter grimaced, choking out a dark laugh, “Not that you could see it through this muck anyway.”

He grunted, breathing heavily through the filthy cloth wrapped around his face before his working foot slipped and he crashed to the floor.

Sasha dived towards him, heaving him back to his feet and wrapping her hands around his belt for traction. Throwing her weight in the direction of what looked like a dilapidated mall just a hundred feet behind them, she and Peter continued to struggle, dragging what used to be his right leg as fast as they could.

A deep thrumming sound rippled through the air, reverberating through their chests. Sasha shrieked and became frenzied, tearing at his trouser leg as their eardrums began to throb. She sobbed and shook as Peter went slack, sinking to the ground in defeat.

“Don’t give up please, you can’t just give up, Peter, please-” Sasha choked on her words through her own makeshift mask, as he looked up at her, the eyes that were so often twisted in pain and terror now calm.

“Go.” Pulling away the cloth from his face, he smiled faintly, touching the locket around her neck he had bought for her what felt like centuries ago. The heart glinted silver, for a moment reminding him of the chrome sheen of the stone that now replaced his leg.

“Not without you,” Sasha’s voice cracked as she gripped him like a vice, the throbbing getting louder and louder, “I won’t leave you.”

“Please Sasha,” Peter wiped the tears from her eyes, “You’re clean, they won’t hurt you.” He cupped her face in his hands and pushed his forehead against hers. “I don't want you to see this.”

Sasha groaned with grief, holding his hands tight.

“It’s not fair, you didn’t do anything different than anyone else! It’s not supposed to end like this!”

“We agreed Sasha. We said it might happen and we agreed that we wouldn’t torture one another by sticking around.”

Sasha clenched her teeth, trying to stifle a moan.

Peter hugged her close, ignoring the throbbing that was almost deafening now. He ignored the shuddering of the broken down car next to them, the tremors in the ground, the thudding of something big getting closer and closer. He ignored the pain in his leg, the cracking and splintering of his skin, the aching of his bones from the struggle, the tightening of his chest as his lungs failed to process the polluted air.

He ignored it all and held her, Sasha, held her and squeezed her tight. He whispered something she couldn’t hear but that she understood and pushed her away.

Sasha fought it but let herself be untangled from him, her eyes screwed up in grief. She turned and ran, forcing herself to breathe through the sobs and the mask, trying not to trip over anything or anyone. The shaking ground hampered her escape but she darted between abandoned and crushed cars, squinting through the smog and making her way out of the parking lot onto the main road. She couldn’t help but look back at his shadowy form, barely visible through the fumes. Her heart broke as her feet took her further and further away from the one she loved. Peter lifted his hand in a weak wave with a half smile, watching her grey shape until she’d vanished from sight.

As she disappeared he let his hand drop, the smile vanishing from his face. Sasha was right, it wasn’t supposed to end like this. Although he had forced her to swear she would leave him at the end, that she wouldn’t die with him, he found himself feeling desperately alone as the thudding almost lifted him off the ground..

Peter felt the throbbing through his entire body, his eardrums screaming with the pressure of it. He turned and looked up at the monstrosity behind him, trying and failing to bite back a whimper. They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. Peter, however, could only remember how everything went wrong. How the pollution got out of hand and the waste piled up. How natural disasters swept the planet and how the ash and smoke rained from the sky. It became an endless smog, the human race choking to death on the very fumes they created. Many who survived ended up finding their bodies petrifying, slowly turning to solid stone, the poisoned air they breathed painfully changing them. That was when the earth decided to fight back. Creatures emerged from enormous burning fissures in the ground, hunting the part-human statues and devouring them. It was one of these monsters whose fiery breath singed Peter’s hair as fear took control of his body and his trousers became damp.

It was massive, at least the size of a small house, the chrome stone looking almost black to Peter as it blotted out the sun in the sky. Rock crashed and scraped together as it moved its crablike stubby legs, pounding them up and down as it adjusted it’s stance, it's pincers raised, pointing at him accusingly. It was like a walking volcano, it's gaping maw glowing an angry red and orange, brilliant white and yellow lava churning around inside, the spewing flame and heat searing Peter’s skin as it inched closer.

Peter choked back vomit as he smelled the hot air. The stink of roasting meat overwhelmed him as he tried to back away, scrabbling at his leg that refused to move.The creature thudded to a halt, it's pincer reaching for him. Peter began to scream as it lifted him off the ground and over it's fissure effortlessly, his skin sagging as the heat melted it off his body. Silence cut Peter off as he was dropped into the molten hellhole and the creature lowered it's pincers again, standing still for a moment.

Suddenly it began to move again, thudding away through the claggy streets, searching.