Page 60 of Mytho Investigations: Side Stories

“I don’t know. First aid?” The city’s hospitals would rapidly fill if it was everywhere, not just this area. “Something.” He couldn’t hide in his room and wait for others. The person in the new building cried out again. “I’m coming,” Jordan called. He glanced back at Sean. “If you don’t want to help me, find out where is affected. Call for help. Get water and blankets and stuff....”

“Right.” Sean nodded. “Water. Blankets. Yours?”

“Sure.” Jordan tossed the key at him. “A torch, too.” Then he picked his way over bricks and broken wood to the crying. The person, a woman he thought from the pitch of her voice, called out in a language he didn’t understand. He moved the rubble aside, needing to find her. Needing to do something.

He pushed aside a piece of wood and stopped. His brain turning to static again as the person’s human-like hand reached for him. That was where the likeness ended.

They begged in their language, tears welling in yellow eyes with rectangular pupils. Small horns sprouted from their head and a beard grew from their chin. He blinked, but nothing changed. He wasn’t hallucinating.

The creature? The person? What were they?

Their crying and begging continued. Their hand outstretched.

Jordan glanced at the rest of the rubble. He couldn’t lift what looked like a concrete slab crushing their body.

Another roar from the sky. This one was different, pained, and Jordan didn’t see the dragon that made it. It couldn’t be a dragon.

But if it wasn’t, what had he seen?

The talking goat-person broke into sobs, their hand dropping to the rubble. His heart ached. He couldn’t walk away from them, so he took a breath and sat. He gently lifted their hand and held it. Their hand felt like any other hand he’d ever held. If he didn’t look he could pretend that there was nothing strange going on.

“Help is coming. It’s okay.” What else could he say? Did they even understand him?

They gripped his hand tightly and kept begging, and he listened even though he couldn’t understand what they were asking for. Their body shook with sobs, and tears streamed over their face.

He made himself look at the goat-person. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do.”

Now the ground had stopped shaking more people were screaming for help. Students who lived in his building were venturing out to look at the damage. Some of them were freaking out and adding to the noise and chaos. He wouldn’t give himself the opportunity to fracture and panic, not right now, anyway.

His heart thumped against his ribs as he stared at the person trapped in the rubble. What were they? How had they gotten there?

The person’s sobs became whimpers and their words slurred.

He squeezed their hand. “Stay with me. We’ll pull you out.” He needed help to lift the slab. “Hey, come here.” He used his other hand to beckon to the onlookers.

The grip on his hand loosened and when he glanced at them their eyes were staring blankly at the sky.

Jordan’s eyes prickled. “No…” He should’ve done more. How many more were trapped in the building?

Sean returned with a blanket and a bottle of water and a torch. His face was pale. “It’s everywhere.”

Jordan swallowed down the lump in his throat. “What’s everywhere?”

“This. People are posting videos of buildings…arriving. Of monsters on the street.”

Monsters? Jordan glanced up at the half-building that didn’t belong. “Arriving from where?”

Sean pointed at the person whose hand Jordan was holding. “Wherever that is from.”

Deep in the rubble, a baby whimpered.

Jordan turned toward the sound, with dread swelling in his chest. Now he understood what the goat-person had been asking. They wanted their baby. He let go of their hand and placed it down. There was nothing more he could do for them. Whatever they were, or wherever they were from.

He stood and faced Sean and the onlookers, and shouted over the noise. “We need to help the survivors. We need to find them and pull them out. We can’t wait for emergency services to get here.”

He glanced down at the goat-person he’d let die. No one should die alone buried in rubble. Behind him, the baby’s cries became louder.

No one moved. They stared at him like he was the one talking a strange language.