So all was fallen, all dismay

And only sorrow ruled the day

Not even gods, for all they’re worth

Could undo the promised scourge of birth

For all are given breath and lives

To wait as the walking dusk arrives

You have not heard true thunder. Not like this. With that in mind, imagine how terrifying it must be to realize that it is man’s machines that drown out nature’s roar. The contest was inconsistent but every time the crash of artillery batteries destroyed the ripple of lightning. I heard nothing else, except for the pounding footsteps. All darkness was arrayed in ranks. Water poured out of the sky and mingled with the blood shredding through the atmosphere.

Now imagine even with all that power, they accomplish nothing. There were five positions. None ever ceased to rain hell down upon our foes. The three colossi. The angels of death. I never in all my years would have thought that they would look like this. Amora stood over the center of camp, her eyes scanning the crater of wasted life that she had just carved out of the surging mass. The human population seemed to pulse with a singular life, like it had become a larger, singular organism. The other two were indescribable. The darkness dulled many of their features but they were clearly male. One, whom Amora seemed to cling to, had a square face singed black with awful burns. His arms were worse. Though he was fit he didn’t not appear in good health. His limbs sagged and he would drag his feet when he walked. He was only a little taller than Amora, with dirty blonde hair that came down to his shoulders, and a layer of stubble on his face. The third giant, the one whose name I could not remember, was odd and aloof. Not at all how one would expect a murderous male to appear. He was, by giant’s standards, thin and gangly. Though I didn’t observe him for long it was clear he was at the bottom of their social hierarchy. The way the other two would speak down to him, rolled their eyes, even used physical bullying to dominate him was deeply troubling. Yet, as I watched their approach I felt as though I learned  more about their group dynamic than I ever had from Vera or Amora’s tales.

The carnage started immediately. I can’t tell you exactly how it happened, I couldn’t bare to look at it, I was just trying to escape. What I do remember was that they tried to surround the main mob from three sides. They weren’t quite so successful though. The constant barrage of distant artillery and carefully placed explosives kept them constantly readjusting their paths. Gurn, or the one who I assumed to be Gurn, became consumed with battle-hardened fury. Despite his anger though, his actions were sluggish and weary. The other male lashed out at the scattering humans with jerking movements, as though he were afraid to touch them. Only Amora seemed to glow with malicious vigor.

“God dammit, get those heavy gunners to their flank, now before they maneuver!” Censor screamed into a radio. The other side gave no response. Not that they could be heard anyway. The grumble of guns, the shaking earth, the screams of thousands rattled the human senses. Was this hell? I sat stupefied for a moment. Finally, someone broke my concentration. A jittery hand seized my arm. When I spun to face them I saw Constable Mica looking on at the fray with quivering terror.

“E-e-e-ellis” he stuttered. “Wha, what do I do, what do we do, you must know something. What have you learned. Y-y-you must know!”

I pulled away from him. The adrenaline in my system made me want to strike back but I stopped myself in time. The tears in his eyes meant he knew there was nothing to be done. I guess I should have said something reassuring, but lies just seemed pointless at the time.

“There’s nothing to be done Consta-”

“Maybe you can talk to them, you know her right? Y-you can reason with them.”

“There’s nothing to do now Constable!” I screamed. “Its over, she’d probably take greater pleasure in killing me than anyone else here.”

He fell into harsh sobbing. I placed a single hand on his shoulder and tried to pull him away.

“Come on Constable, we can still get out of here.”

“No” he muttered quietly. “I’m not abandoning my post.” With a quick sniffle, he pulled his sidearm off his belt and began tentatively walking toward the fray.

“Goodbye Ellis,” he said. “You’ve been a good soldier. Despite what the others may say.”

That was the last I saw of him. He disappeared into a wave of panicked refugees crashing past him in the opposite direction. They seemed to consume his form like waves sweeping away a pebble on a beach. At the moment I didn’t think much of it and...well, now I wish I had.

Minutes later I was on the far north road. Already a hundred people pushed past me to hide in the rubble of the old camp or scatter in the shallow forests. I just kept walking. That’s right, walking. The giants were making slow progress behind us, and the terrible, deafening clamor they created in their sick games served only as a reminder that they’d soon be upon us. Every once in a while I’d fall to the ground because of the catastrophic tremors. It was a wonder that I was able to move at all.

To my right, the troop of harpooners was wading through the crowd. You probably don’t remember them, those models aren’t made anymore, but they were these large armored vehicles. Not many produced but they were originally used for bridge laying in the military. Anyway, they were modified to shoot these long barbs that would stick in the giants, it was one of our most effective weapons against them. Anyway, four of them ground down past me in a single column. The grinding of their treads tore through the soil like teeth.

“Ellis!” another voice cried out amid the crowd. I didn’t catch it at first but after a few more attempts I twisted my neck around. Zinc, in all his oiled glory, sat atop one of the vehicles as it puttered past. He waved a tenuous wave in my direction. His eyes too were sullen and puffy, as though he too had been crying. I ran up to him and took up a steady pace next to the gas guzzling machine.

“Zinc, what are you doing?” I cried out to him.

“I’m going to do my job.” he shakily replied. “I’m going to keep these things running while they bring those fuckers down!”

I shook my head in disbelief. I even remember reaching up to him, as if to pull him off the vehicle.

“No, you- you can’t. You’ll die out there, come with me, we have to go!”

Zinc’s somber face gave way to disappointment. After shaking his head slowly he replied:

“No Ellis, this is what I’m here to do. This is my purpose, if I can even do just a little good, save a single life, that’s enough. Goodbye Ellis.”

“Wait no!” I screamed again, chasing after Zinc. The harpooner began to pick up speed as it came to a longer, flatter plane. I tried to run and keep up with it, but the fatigue and pain in my limbs was too much. The vehicle was gone in a matter of moments, leaving me on the scattered plane alone. Zinc never once looked back.

That’s when I felt some heavy weight climb out of my stomach and into my chest. I stood paralyzed in an eager stupor, drinking in the awful sounds of death and chaos surrounding me. The ebb of my mind suddenly become like clay. It hardened from its usual liquid state into a moldable consistency. I decided then that all that had been expected of me by the world and by myself was complete bullshit. I didn’t care. My life meant nothing already, but it wasn’t too late for that to change. I remember smoothing out my shirt and feeling the static electricity building up in my palms. Then, after turning back toward the three hulking shadows in the distance I started forward. I did not care about the rain. I did not care about the mud or the screams. I was not going to leave this, not now, not after everything…

I don’t think I have to tell you how far I got. The closer I would come to fray the more disastrous it became. There was one moment when the dust and debris forced me to drop to the ground. I shielded my face with my shaking limbs in the hope that I would not be blinded. The shrieks of metal and mouths crashed against me in waves. I had to find others, I had to help them to safety. There was something I could do, I just had to find it. I lept over a fallen corpse and began  toward a ravine of people. They scattered in the shadow of the two closest giants. I looked up in the dim light through the light scatter of rain. Gurn and Amora were no more than six hundred feet from where I stood. Luckily they seemed preoccupied with another matter. I kept running all the while. The sting in my lungs gave me reduced purpose.

Then, amidst the confusion, something caught the end of my foot and I careened down onto the muddy earth. Just as I was about to pick myself back up a mob passed over me. The harsh tread of a few boots slammed into my back, forcing me back into the filthy embrace of the ground. When they had gone I picked my head out of the trench and spat bits of soil. The sickly sweet taste of minerals grinding in the corners of my mouth made me want to vomit. I carefully pushed myself out of the slop when, all of a sudden, something seized my shirt. It hoisted me upward roughly and, for a moment, my heart nearly exploded. I thought perhaps one of the giants seized me but when I finally rocked back onto my feet I saw two, dark but battered figures through the veil of smoke.

“You!” one of them grumbled. Then, through the brief yellow flash of a distant explosion I saw the man’s fleeting illuminated face.

“Deck…?” I muttered hoarsely. Behind him was one of his old cronies. At first I expected him to murder me right there, but, instead of snapping my neck, I heard only fumbled words trying to escape his throat.

“You-you have to dos uhm, thing”

He seemed to be suffering from shock induced aphasia. It made him even more unbearable but I had to try and listen.

“What?”

“Yu, neeed to”

Suddenly his friend pushed past him and stepped in front of me. The once strong, resolute Deck crumpled like a dried leaf. The other figure spoke with more severity, but his voice still trembled with a detectable ambivalence.

“He says you need to talk to these things. You know them, you...you were with them!”

I shook my head vigorously, just as another violent tremor rocked the earth. I had to stabilize myself on the stranger, who, after the shaking subsided, aggressively pushed me off.

“Look I don't’ care if you want to or not you have to tell them something to get them off our back!” he screamed. Before I could protest he seized me by the collar and started dragging me toward the battlements. I tried to look up at the towering bodies of Gurn and Amora but the rain blinded me. Suddenly, a harsh spray slapped me in the face. When I opened my eyes I felt warm liquid running down my face. Was it blood? I could not tell.

“I can’t...I can’t help you!” I cried, desperately trying to pull myself away. A flaming transport went careening overhead , crashing into the remains of tree not fifty feet behind us. The resulting explosion sent all three of us to the ground. All sound was blanked. The ringing in my ears made me believe that, for a moment, I might be dead. The sensation of heat was still present though. It's scalding fingers pulled me back into reality as the fire-ball diffused into the atmosphere. The brief flash of light illuminated the dark, mountainous beings. Amora was near.

“Ge-”

A single syllable. It was all I heard. Then another. Then the roar of pain and suffering returned to me. A strong, sweaty hand dragged me to my feet. Deck’s companion had a blackened face. Ash scattered along his brow like he was some profane figure. A fallen angel at the gates of hell or heaven.

“Get up, Get up!” He screamed. This time though, my reaction was more fierce. I pulled away and began to stumble down toward a broken wreckage of unknown origin. I didn’t know where I was going but I knew I didn’t want to stay there. When I made it thirty feet I turned back. The others were still screaming at me. Cursing and making curious noises of primal discordance.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he screamed. I turned back, my head bowed forward slightly to hide the trickles of tears sliding down my face. “You think you can get us into this mess and then just leave?” he continued on. I looked up, faced him squarely. “This is not a-”

But then that was it. Another flash of pain. Like a candle’s wick being snuffed out by two fingers, the pair was gone. After the dust and shock disapeared I looked up. Realizing I had fallen into an uncomfortable crouching position, I quickly readjusted myself to run away. A wall of pale skin was all that was left in their place. I followed it with my eyes up the wrist, the arm, the shoulder, only stopping when I saw the colossal shadowed visage of my one-time patient. Her face was completely obscured by darkness but I knew exactly what lay upon it. Anger, satisfaction, relief. My old self would normally have tried to escape, but I knew that her eyes lay fixed upon me, and fleeing would be as effective as trying to hurt her with a thrown rock.

“Well” an ancient whisper echoed. “This is an opportunity I was starting to think I’d miss.” The devilish tone of Amora’s voice filled me with a supernatural sense of dread. I turned to her and tried to speak, but before a word could escape my lips a flash of movement caught my attention. Another crippling pressure on either side of my body expelled my breath and hope. The ground retreated below me and, moments later, I collapsed onto a familiar surface. All the blood and chemicals dancing around my brain left me irreversibly dazed. Even now I feel like that dizziness still holds me in its greedy clutches.

Again my eyes knew exactly where to go. I peered up into the shadow that should have been Amora’s face. She wore the darkness well. It did not lay upon her like a mask or an uncertain veil but rather it was somehow at home on her, and she was at home in it. Yet, even despite her malice and savagery, it was not an evil darkness. Rather it was a blinding one. A separation from experience. I felt only pity.

“So, this is what it has come to?” I called up to her. She nodded. This wasn’t how I’d expected it to all go down. I did not expect for her to kill me. I did not expect for her to seem so ambivalent in the moment. Her thirst for blood seemed sated. If anything it was as though my death was a chore. One she just wanted to get over with.

“You’ve been an odd little thing…” she said blankly.

“You’ve been exactly what I expected.” I responded. She seemed hurt by the remark. I could feel her fingers twitch behind me slightly. I set my feet further apart and looked back up into her colossal eyes.

“So what will come after this?” I asked. “That’s all I want to know.”

“What do you mean?”

“After I’m gone, after you’ve wiped all of the others out, then what? More? You keep going on like this till you’re dead?”

She paused. I could sense the flutter of her eyelids as she considered my words.

“Is that not what you expected?”

“Just get on with it.”

But she didn’t make a move. Instead she stared at me a little longer. Finally, when I thought her hesitation finally subsided, just as she was poised to seize her retribution, something stayed her wrath. She looked away at something in the distance. The thunder of cannon fire was dimmer, while the victorious grunts of the other giants swelled.

I knew what it must have been long before I ever saw it. Nevertheless, with my titanic captor occupied I ran to the edge of her palm and peered in between her fingers. There, illuminated by a few stray spotlights of those furthest from the fray, was another enormous figure. The slight slant to the hips and the way her hair lay to one side was all I needed to confirm her identity. Amora’s hand began to tremble. Her breathing was quick and furious. For a second I think I even heard a sob. When I looked up to her I saw that her attention was locked on the newcomer. Then my head swiveled around to the others. Both males looked on as well. Gurn tilted his head slightly while the other quickly turned his attention back to the assault.

The four of us remained in a state of suspension. As if waiting for some cue. Then, just as another barrage rained down from the distant batteries, all hell broke loose. Amora tried to shield herself with her other arm and I was thrown onto my back. When we both recovered I saw Gurn had moved. No, not just moved. He began to charge at Vera. It was swift, ferocious, and unexpected. The attack thundered like the bellows of the earth. Creation seemed to quake. The fires of hell and the lights of paradise dimmed in its wake. Vera was not ready and Gurn slammed into her with all the force he could muster.

The two crashed onto the earth. The bodies falling together was, even to this day, one of the most magnificent things I’ve ever seen. It made me truly believe that there was beauty in destruction. Like the shifting of the earth’s plate, the submission of the skies, or the cleansing of a continent by some horrific tidal wave. Then they were obscured. Debris, smoke, dust, everything blinded us to what was going on. What we did perceive though, was the screams. Gurn grunted with rage.It was an Id driven, animalistic, guttural sound that terrified me. Vera only shrieked. The only other time I had heard a scream like that was all those days ago during Vera’s first meltdown. It was so tortured, so fearful, that it finally helped me to decide that these beings, despite their size and cruelty, were in fact human. I had known human suffering and I had now known the same pain in their kind. I was certain about it.

When some of the dust did start to clear I saw Gurn lay atop Vera, pinning her arms down with his hands. The dry thrusts of his pelvis made me want to vomit again, but I had nothing in my stomach to expel. The horrible cries of anguish were worse though. I felt responsible, I don’t know why but I did. Then, the whole horrible scene drew a bit closer. I turned back to Amora and saw that she had begun making a few timid steps toward them. What little of her face I could see clearly was glazed over in a broken sort of apathy.

The other giant did nothing. It was as though he was just trying to ignore it all. We grew closer and closer and Vera’s screams became more and more crippling. Amora’s own deterioration wasn’t helping either. When I finally looked back out I saw that Amora now stood over them. I looked up at her and she looked down at me. We exchanged no words. Instead, as her crimson eyes bled rivers of tears, she slowly, cautiously lowered me to the ground.

With a slight tilt of her hand she let me slide off onto the ground. Then, before standing back to her full height she reached out and lifted the body of a half-buried helicopter out of a pile of debris. The horrible noise of Vera’s torment made my knees collapse. I just lay in a pile of filth watching. Then, amid the horrid screams and wicked grunts another tortured cry emerged.

Amora erupted into a noxious hysteria. She struck Gurn on the back of the head with her chosen weapon and fell into a frenzy of movement. The force of the blow shattered the chopper like a glass bottle, sending shrapnel and blood across a three hundred foot radius. Gurn immediately collapsed and Amora fell upon him. As she continued to moan with awful dismay Vera lay on the ground as though she had spent all her energy. The only perceivable movement she made was the heavy heaving of her chest. Meanwhile, Gurn in his surprise and delirious state tried to batter off the other giantess. Even as he dealt reckless blows to her sides and face her fury could not be overcome. One hand clamped on his throat while the other picked up whatever it could to savagely beat him.

Then, something rocketed out of the darkness and struck her in the arm. Then another similar dart hit its mark somewhere between her ribs. The harpooners must have been making their assault. It didn’t matter though, she ignored every arrow that struck her. The minutes went by, and finally, long after Gurn’s futile attempts to fight back had ceased, Amora slumped down off of him. She curled her legs up to her chest and folded both wounded, blood drenched arms over her knees. Then, she wept. She cried a sorrowful cry that could only come from a broken heart.

I collected myself and tried to repress all that I had witnessed. Yet, my brain could not function as I wanted it to. It was as though all my actions were now governed completely by my unconscious. As I sluggishly descended the mass of rubble I heard another voice. At first I didn’t notice it over Amora’s wailing. Then, it hit me like a train.

“Ellis?” Vera whispered through the haze. I turned in her direction and saw that she now sat up slightly. Her hand was stretched out toward me in an unclear gesture. I could see, even in the twilight, the fresh bruises on her wrists and neck. Both pieces of clothing looked as though there had been an attempt to rip them off. A slight crimson line snaked down out of the corner of her mouth.

Then I ran to her. I vaulted over bodies and refuse. I ducked beneath the arm of what had once been the makeshift hospital until I was just barely out of her reach.

“Ellis…” she whispered again. “Go”

There were plenty of things I could have said then. Anything would have been better than how I did end up responding.

“Go? Go where?”

“Ellis go.” she said as her voice began to well up with trauma.

But the sobbing had stopped and only grim quiet remained. Not even the rattle of weapons and cries for mercy in the distance seemed to interrupt it. I think we both sensed the next act of violence, for both our heads turned at the same time to see Amora slowly pulling herself back to her feet. Her grief temporarily replaced with cold hatred. With one hand she plucked the harpoons from her body. Holding them in a bundle in her hand she turned her attention to Vera. Then, the two fell upon one another. Vera seemed to leap off the ground in anticipation of Amora’s attack.

I cannot relate what all went down because I chose not to look at it. It was as you might imagine though. Both became consumed by the fires of aggression. All their trauma was molded into hostility for one another. The earth shook according to its design and I hid as I was ought to do. Not because I was scared for myself, but because I could not bear to see either slaughter the other. In the end though I didn’t have much of a choice. They, whilst still intertwined in one another, slammed into the near near me. The rain had subsided and now the only spray was their acidic spit, blood, sweat, and tears. Amora lay below, her face spotted with red dots while a portion of her golden hair stuck to her cheek with a blackened-scarlett glob. Vera hand lay clamped over her mouth, as if to suffocate her.

All became empty for me then. When I stopped paying attention to the wails of my fellow humans caught in their tumultuous struggle I knew that whatever evil purpose these beings had been made for had been fulfilled. I felt as they did. The nihilistic squalor of my mind was left open for whatever to come crashing down into it. I would let my synapses be drowned by their bitter fluids, I would purposely drink from that bloody well. I almost felt a slight twinge of satisfaction when I saw Vera lift Amora’s head up and slam it into the ground. The cracks in the earth did not interest me, just the repeated thud as her skull was pounded against the earth again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Finally, her sclera had gone completely bright red. I saw not glimmer of life in them anymore.

Then Vera, somewhere overhead, let out a cry. It was not for her victory but for her relief. Her tremendous, battered body crashed down in the space between Amora’s corpse and my hovel. Again I watched her chest rise and fall with heavy rhythm. She stared up at the sky, which now allowed a little pale moonlight to escape from it.

I crawled out from my space and took inventory of her predicament. Her hands were completely covered in sticky red fluid. Her drenched hair clung to her face and neck and her stomach was riddled with holes. Each thrust dealt my Amora had punctured her flesh, leaving a half dozen stab wounds.

“Ellis…” she whispered again. I snapped my attention back to her and met her bloodshot eyes once more. “Ellis” she repeated once more.

“Vera” I cried out, as I motioned as if to move. I didn’t make it far though, her trembling hand plopped down in front of me with her palm turned up.

“It's so cold here Ellis…”

“I know Vera, I...I know”

“So...cold. It's been so cold now for-”

“I know Vera, it's ok, you’ll be alright. Look at me Vera-”

But her eyes strayed to the bloody mess on her abdomen. The sight sickened her slightly, as her head then slumped back against the fractured soil.

“No, don’t look at that, look at me! Vera, look-”

“Ahh,” she muttered with a slight choke. “I never looked up at the stars here Ellis…”

“Vera, no I-”

“There look even brighter here than back home.”

“We’ll get you there Vera, just, stay with me now ok?”

She let a hitched sigh and turned her face back to me. Even with all the cuts and bruises she was still beautiful. Beautiful like the whole world. Beautiful like this whole tragedy. Beautiful like this whole comedy. It wasn’t fair to be beautiful like that. Even when you are scarred and terrible. But then again I guess beauty is always terrible.

I reached out and placed a hand on one of her finger tips. She looked back at me and gave me a weak smile.

“Vera come on, we can help you- you just have to-”

“Ellis…”

I paused.

“Just let me die”

“No, Vera, no you’re not going to die.”

“Ellis just stay where you are. Just stand just as you are.”

I froze and, all the while, felt my own tears returning.

“Ahh, I’ve never wanted anything more from you. Just standing there, next to me...standing there next to what I will have been.”

“Vera, don’t say things like that, there’s still time to help you.”

“No, there was…” she stopped and looked back up at the sky. “There was never any time to help me.”

While I regarded her with tremorous expression she finally returned my tortured look.

“Do you think there will be more?”

“More what?”

“Just...more?”

“Yes Vera, I think there’s always more.”

She nodded slightly.

“That’s good, maybe I’ll find something for me there.”

“Vera I’m...I’m sorry”

“No” she quickly interrupted. “No, you’ve been good. You’ve been everything, and I couldn’t ask any more from you.” Again she paused, closed her eyes, and with one final sigh said: “Ahh, there it is again.”