Star Crossed In Time

Carl leads a group of men surrounding John into a large city inside of the Beast Realm. He grumbles the whole time saying "Let's take a bad idea and make it worse! Great... just great. I'm so over this shit.." John awkwardly coughs as he asks "Do you have any great ideas on how to outrun that crazy bastard and still make it back to our world?"

Carl and John share a look before Carl sighs and says "Let's just get this over with." John gives him a knowing smile as they walk to the center of the city. The townspeople stumble back to make way for the odd group of men carrying a large box of some kind." 

"Who are these people?"

"What are they doing?"

"What's in the box?"  

Carl and John ignore the townspeople as the men place the large box onto the ground and step back. They create a protective barrier around Carl, John, and the box as the town people continue to watch with confusion. 

"Do you see their eyes?"

"Are they from the Higher Realms?"

Carl sticks his finger in his ear, wiggles it around a few times and says "Aggravating pests. Hurry up, John!" It's because most of these guys all have blue or hazel eyes... John rolls his eyes and carefully opens the box. Inside the box is a large glass vial with a clear liquid. Several wires run under the vial and on the side sits a small solar panel, powering the whole thing.

"Will it actually work this time?" Carl asks with boredom making John roll his eyes again. John turns to face Carl as he says "I told Eli that I hadn't been able to work out all the kinks yet but I've added enough in this bad boy to blow up the entire state of Florida." 

Carl sighs and says "I miss the beaches and babes from our world... hurry up." John's eye twitches as he turns around and adds the finishing touches. Once everything was in place, he sets the timer and says "We need to get to a safe distance." 

Carl rolls his eyes this time as he says "So ten feet?" John flips him off and says "Sure, you can stand ten feet away, you annoying bastard!" Carl throws his head back and barks out in laughter as they all start walking away. 

The surrounding townspeople see the men leaving with laughter and cheer, confusing them all the more. Why would they just leave the large box? What's in it? Several children run over and peer down into the box with curiosity. 

"What is it?" One child with long hair asks with confusion. The other scratches the side of his head and says "I dunno. I've seen nuffin' like it." A little girl comes running over to take a look, as the ȧduŀts all start coming over to check the box out as well.

A large crowd of townspeople gather around the strange box, trying to figure out what the strange red numbers that keep changing were. They'd never seen anything like it. A few brave ones poke at it and touch the wires leading under the vial but no one knows what to do with it. A middle-aged man turns to a younger boy and says "Go get the town's leader." The young boy nods his head and takes off running.

Carl and John sit at the top of the nearest mountain ledge, just outside of the town, to get a birds-eye view. Carl snacks on some dried meat as John rubs his chin in thought. "I wonder if I put enough this time... if not, I'm gonna have to make more. Eli's gonna be pissed..."

Carl rips off another piece of the dried meat and says "We can just lie to him and tell him it worked. It's not like he ever comes to check for himself." John freezes and slowly turns to look at Carl with a lifted eyebrow saying "I don't know if you're brazen or just plain stupid."

Carl gives him a large smile and says "I prefer the term... genius." John scoffs at the moron and turns back to see all the people around the box. Much like rats do in the lab. He pulls out his notebook and gets ready to take notes as he looks down at the clock on his wrist.

He looks back up to the town and mumbles "It should go off in ten seconds." Carl bites into another piece and watches like he's at a show. John silently counts down in his head but when he gets to five, he counts out loud. 

"Five, four, three, two... ONE!!" John says with excitement but when nothing happens, Carl snorts in laughter saying "This is even better than the last one! At least the last one kinda went off! Bwahahaha!!!" 

John grits his teeth in anger and yells "Shut up! I probably forgot to switch something on because you wouldn't stop running your damn mouth!" Carl starts laughing again as they all start making their way back to the town. 

Halfway to the town, a large explosion goes off, blasting John, Carl, and the other men several feet back. Carl and John hit the ground hard, nearly knocking them out as the shock wave hits them again. Once everything begins to settle, Carl and John slowly sit up and turn to look at each other.

Both their faces were completely black and their hair was nearly gone. Carl points at John and starts laughing, nearly falling back over until John sneers at him and points at his face. Carl sobers up and pats his face with a sulk. He reaches up to his head before freezing. He throws his head back and yells out as his hands come away with more hair. Everything was so muffled... their ears were still ringing, making everything difficult to hear.

They both turn to find that the town before them was no longer there. Not a single house or building remained... everything was flattened! John walks over with Carl following closely behind. Dust and debris continue to fall from the sky, looking like a war zone. When they reach the center of the town, they're both shocked to see the massive hole.

"Damn John... I think you may have gone a little overboard." Carl says tiptoeing over to the edge of the hole. John licks his blackened lips as he says "This is why there's testing..." Carl slowly squats and squints his eyes, trying to see better as he says "Hey John, I think something might be down here."

John rolls his eyes and says "Not now, Carl. I need to find something to write on so that I can take notes." Carl continues to stare down into the hole as he says "No, I'm being serious, man. I think there might be something down there." 

John ignores Carl as he searches in vain for something to write on when suddenly, Carl screams! The scream is suddenly cut off but John and all the other men jump and turn to look. Carl's headless body kneels beside the ledge before slowly falling forward into the dark hole.

For a while, everything is silent until they hear Carl's headless body hitting the bottom, or what they ȧssume is the bottom. John swallows hard as he takes a shaky step back. He looks around at the surrounding men but they seem just as confused and scared. 

John quietly asks "D... did anyone see what just happened?" The other men shake their heads and continue to back up. They all begin drawing their swords but when they hear something in the hole move, they all freeze.  

A long, skinny, black arm slowly raises out of the hole and grabs onto the ledge. The men tighten their grips on their swords as they nervously wait in silence. The long, sharp fingers slowly dig into the burnt ground instantly making an unpleasant sound.

John's heart races with fear and instantly has the feeling to run. Suddenly, a strange clicking noise is heard before a loud scream. John jumps back and turns to his right to see a large blackened creature, sitting upon a man's shoulders with its fingers buried into his face.

The man struggles to cry out but it comes out as strangled gargles. The thing rips the man's head off without an ounce of trouble before opening its elongated mouth. John doesn't stick around to watch anymore as he stumbles back and takes off running.

He runs faster than he's ever run in his entire life but it's still not fast enough. Screams of terror and death can be heard as something large hits him from behind. He goes to scream out but suddenly, the thing's long, sharp fingers stab through the back of his head and right through his open mouth.

The thing's talon-like claws dig into his back, instantly tearing into his skin as he struggles to cry out in pain. As John falls to his knees, the thing rips his head clean off his body and devourers it.