The Dimension Within

The barren field became a battlefield for Atlas and the unknown creature. The whole thing seemed to be cut out from a Hollywood scene. Vanessa's eyes would always scan his body back and forth while her hands trembled from time to time.

Looking at her action, Atlas, who was lying on the rugged ground, smiled at her. He held her hand making her trembling stop. "I don't think I'm going to last long now, but you don't have to worry I'll be alright."

She grasped his hands as she pleaded. "Please don't die on me! Help would arrive soon!" It seemed that she would cry if he would continue to tease her. She seemed like she really wanted to help him alleviate the pain he was feeling. But she didn't know what to do—which made Atlas laugh.

"Don't laugh!" she shouted. "It's no laughing matter!" Her brows furrowed with anxiety.

"Don't worry I'm not going to die. I think I'm going to fall asleep any moment soon tho." He squeezed her hand as gentle as he could.

"Muu, don't make such a comment that's easy to misunderstand…" She pouted seemingly unaware that her anxiety was gradually fading.

He smiled. "Then take care of me then—"

Darkness overtook his vision.

She tucked her hair behind her ear and displayed a beautiful smile. "I will—just have a good rest."

James kicked the dead creature while cursing it before coming over with a medical kit and Mike in tow. Mike tried to kick the monster but it suddenly opened its bloody mouth making him run for his life behind James.

"Hey, don't leave me!"

When James got closer, Vanessa said, "He's just sleeping." She was gently stroking Atlas's hair while still holding his hand as gently as possible. To James, it looked like they were lovers. But he knew that they weren't.

"Now would you look at that!" he said with a laugh.

Ignoring James' remark, Vanessa turned to him. "He is in deep pain right now… please help him."

Mike's eyes were wide open. "Do you know this guy?"

James said, "Are you stupid? He's our Saviour!" He took out a Hansaplast wound sprayer from the medical kit and sprayed it on the wounds, before cleaning everything and wrapping them up.

Having done the first aid, James wiped the bullets of sweat forming on his forehead. "What the fuck is this guy?"

Seeing every wound and bruises on Atlas, Mike said. "He is a monster right, don't you agree?"

With furrowed brows, Vanessa said, "If you two don't have anything else to say, then please leave."

It was at that moment, they knew they fucked up.

"We're sorry," James said. "Hey, Mike, come here. Let's try to contact the authorities."

"Y—yeah," Mike said with a laugh, "let's do that, James."

But before they tucked their tails between their legs and went back to the chopper, they didn't forget to kick dead things.

Far away from the love birds, James put his arm around Mike's shoulder.

"Mike," he said, "What do you think about miss?"

"Vanessa?" Mike asked.

James nodded. "Yes, do you think she' smitten?"

Mike knitted his brows. "I don't know. Vanessa has never been with a guy before— much a less a monster of a guy."

"He is one lucky guy if he landed it right," James whispered.

Having realized something, Mike shouted, "Oh, I bet he is!"

"Don't you agree?"

"I certainly do," Mike said. "So we'll be leaving the love birds for now."

James smacked his back. "That's what we are doing!"

…

After waiting for a few minutes, the police and the medical team came. The first people the rescue team saw were the two guys, who were waiting beside the chopper. James and Mike were waving their hands while shouting something from afar.

"You finally came!" James said with urgency. "Follow us!" Without waiting for authorities to speak, James and Mark were already dashing straight to the site where Atlas and Vanessa were staying.

The people followed them while the person who looked at the head of the rescue operation started talking. "We were sent by the agency of international affairs and the chairman of a conglomerate."

"We don't know what exactly is going on but we need to get there—there's a guy who needs medical attention ASAP!"

"Sure, but you need to explain—What is that!"

James just expected the reactions they got. He and Mark had the same thing reactions earlier when they saw this massive beast of unknown origin, lying on the ground.

"See?" Mike said, "Aren't they the same?"

"Yeah, I get it." James turned to the authorities. "It's that person."

The captain's face paled when he saw the beast. "Is it safe there?"

Someone said, "Captain Leo, there are people there—look!"

Vanessa waived incessantly at them with a pleased look on her flustered face.

"There's a person here who needs help!"

"I need the details later." The captain came closer and took a look at the person whose wounds and bruises were very visible, especially his left arm—it was too mangle to be called an arm.

Before the Captain could make his order, the rescue team was already doing their best to get Atlas checked. A rescuer spoke to Vanessa. "Ma'am, you don't have to worry we'll do our best to help him."

"Yes please." Vanessa thanked the person. "

"But we need to put him on the stretcher."

Atlas couldn't seem to let go of her hand, and she didn't want to let go as well.

"I need to go with him!" Vanessa said with conviction.

"I don't kno—" When he saw Vanessa seemed to look down. "—yes, you can. But you need to be extra careful the patient is in critical condition."

After doing performing a quick test, they carefully put Atlas on the stretcher. "Listen up," Leo said, "we need to get this man back to health."

"Yes," They simultaneously said, "Captain!"

"Just what exactly happened here?" Captain Leo sighted. "And who was that guy?"

Ring! Ring! Leo picked up the phone and said. "We got the subject, sir. Sound and safe…" The call was drop after a few seconds.

One police officer asked, "Captain?"

"What do you want?" asked Leo.

The police officer pointed at the dead thing. "What do we do with this thing, Captain?"

Leo furrowed his brows and scratched his head. "Shit, I didn't sign up for this!" He continued. "Just do what you want." He looked so pissed that it made the police officer scratched the back of his too.

Leo snorted. "Call the headquarters and ask them to bring a carrier and have this guy deliver to them. Maybe they might find something about this guy."

…

Inside the ambulance, Leo looked at the person, who was lying on a stretcher.

"Who is this guy?" He asked Vanessa, who was still holding Atlas's hand.

"Atlas Nightshade," she said. "He said that it was his name."

Furrowing his brows, Leo asked, "When we received the report from the headquarters, it says there that there were only three people inside the chopper."

"We… just met him. When the chopper came down from the sky, he was already there. He was there when I woke up." She smiled.

"No offense—"

"We don't know how we survive the crash. I too am sure that we were a goner by then." Although it seemed to be a scary experience, she didn't seem to be perturbed about it. She was just focusing all her attention on Atlas.

"The chopper would have been gone, but there's no damage. Well, except for the bottom part it seemed to be dented by a strong impact. Surely, you have asked him since he was there when you were unconscious."

"He said that someone helped us and he was just a passerby."

"Do you believe him with he said that he was just passing by?"

"Tried to," she said. "But then this happened."

"Do you think he might somehow plan all of this?"

Vanessa smiled and pointed at her eyes. "I have eyes, Captain Leo."

A chilling sensation ran through the captain's back when he saw those black eyes that seemed to suck his very soul.

"Don't cover my eyes--I saw what everything that happened with these eyes, Captain!"

Vanessa, who was busy looking at Atlas, turned to Leo. "I don't really know what's going on, but please take care of him. Without him, the three of us would have been dead... much less have this kind of conversation."

Leo answered, "Yes, we will. Well, that is our duty in the first place. You don't have to worry. We're going take care of him, Ms. Vanessa." Leo assured her. It looked as if nothing happened to their earlier conversation.

"Thank you very much. Please provide him the best accommodation possible."

Leo looked to be trouble. "But—"

Vanessa said, "Don' worry about the payment. I'll pay--"

"We'll pay it," James interrupted. "He saved us after all."

Vanessa gave a lukewarm smile. "Okay, we'll pay for it. Just provide him the best that you can."

When they arrived at the hospital, they unloaded Atlas and quickly got him a very extravagant-looking room inside the hospital. The police came over and appeared to ask them the same question. However, Leo interrupted them saying that he already had asked them everything that was needed. He said that the people from the incident needed time to rest.

When Atlas was sent to the hospital, he was still unconsciously holding Vanessa's hand. Vanessa wanted to stay with him until he woke up. However, her family had sent guards to get her. She didn't want to leave him. But, she had other things to do. Vanessa knew her family was worried sick.

Also, the people who were sent by her family didn't want to compromise. James and Mike were interrogated for quite some time by them. It was a hectic situation.

…

When Atlas opened his eyes, he was already inside this weird but magnificent place. He had to cover his eyes as flashes of light started licking his eyes. Gigantic trees were everywhere. The leaves of the trees sheltered the living creatures from the direct light of the sun in the sky.

"Where am I?" he mumbled. He looked above while covering his eyes from the flicking light that was distracting his vision. Finally, when his mind became wide awake, he started to address the elephant in the room. He looked at the beasts of different kinds, who were aiming and trying to gnaw at him with their fangs. The beasts looked about somewhere about 4' to 5'ft tall. They were carrying clubs that were made out of woods and stones. Not far from him, there was a group of those things that carried bows and arrows. They tried to move forward but weren't able to because something peculiar was hovering over his body. It seemed to be protecting him from danger.

It was a small golden feather—the Feather of Hope to be precise. It was the thing that he had always brought with him wherever he goes. From time to time, it would burst miniature shock waves pushing those who wanted to go forward. It even rendered the flying arrows useless. Even the leaves of the trees shook and fell because of the power of the shock waves. It was raining leaves.

"What am I doing here? What's going on?" He caught a leaf and stared at it. Then he took a deep breath feeling the beauty and wonder of the place.

"I transferred you to a different dimension. You said that you want to be stronger right?" It hovered around him while bursting with light.

"Yes, I did. But what is this place? And what are those things?" He pointed at the critters.

"Those goblins are supplements that you're going to devour from now on—until you reached the level you wanted."

He looked at his body and started moving around. He didn't feel any pain when he moved—nothing at all. It seemed as if he didn't fight for his life earlier, because he felt his entire body became stronger. "What about my body?" he asked. "What happened?"

"Don't worry. Everything is fine outside and inside. I got you covered, my boy."

"You know that I never trusted you in the first, right?"

"I know, I can feel it. But don't worry. Since you ask me something, which is quite rare, I'll lower myself to give you a gift."

Atlas scanned the place before spreading his hands wide. "And this is your gift to me?"

"Hahahahah—If you just know the effect of this, you would want to stay here forever."

"Then let's go and try it out. But—"

"There's a price to everything, Atlas," It whispered. "I already told you, haven't I?

"Yes, you did." He agreed. "How much is it this time?"

"The same thing..." it continued. "Just 2%percent."

Atlas stamped and growled, "You took a lot last time! Who will take care of my kids when I'm gone?"

"Of course, you will take care of them." It said with a laugh. "You don't have to worry about those measly things that I took from you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you remember I told that this place is something special?"

"Yes, you did. But how special is this place that you're so proud of it?"

"You will know when the moment comes, Atlas. Time will tell you itself. Come on, I barely have the energy to spare for you now." It continued as the light on it seemed to stopped flicking. "It's your time to have a taste of hell and heaven at the same time." The falling leaves stopped falling from their trees.

"What am I going to do here?"

"Do you see those things there?"

"Clear as the skies," he replied.

"Kill them and consume their essence—Devour them, Atlas!"

"How am I going to do that?" He looked in askance.

"Just kill them and they will be devoured. Once you do that you'll have a taste of what it really tastes like."

Atlas blew the leaf on his palm, then he picked up a stone and threw it to the one who was holding a bow. It went Whish as it flew like a bullet of a gun. The target was caught off guard. It pierced through its head. Before the rock collided with a tree, the goblin had already dropped down. It died.

"See those walls of light?" The feather asked while Atlas was picking another rock.

"Yes, I do." He threw another rock. Whish! Another went down—leaving the creatures agitated that their eyes were becoming red.

"They are weak..." Atlas said. "What were you saying--Oh, yeah. Please do continue."

"After they are gone, I wouldn't be able to cast a projection to protect you."

"You'll help me right?"

"No," It said, "I can't do that now. "

"Why can't you?"

"I'll be maintaining a link between your body, your world, and this world."

"Don't underestimate them. They will consume you if you fail to kill them."

Throwing another rock, he said with conviction, "I won't die!"

"You'll never know what the future has in store for you."

"How long are we going to stay in this place?"

"You can only stay here for about 5 minutes. After that, you will be transported to your world."

"Automatically?"

"Automatically," it said. "After 5 minutes end."

Atlas nodded while preparing himself. He stretched around as he looked at them.

"Remember, we only have 5 minutes to stay here. I can't maintain the projection in 3 seconds."

After three seconds passed, a flying arrow went past him. It barely missed his shoulder. Seeing the arrow, the green critters started rushing like a flood. They were very eager as they pushed forward without worrying about the flying arrows being fired at their backs. They were so agitated that they just push forward. He evaded and fought the scores that came to him.

When he began fighting, time seemed to become endless. Everything appeared to be endless. Eventually, he was covered with bruises and cuts. Another volley of arrows was coming to him. He had picked up a dead goblin and put it right in front of him just to make sure the arrows wouldn't reach him. After the volley of arrows, he threw the porcupine goblin at them breaking their line of offense. Then he picked up a club and started swinging it at the critters. Blood splashed across his body, and the mangled bodies laid dead across the jungle.

"Come and I will tear you down to pieces!" The fight was so chaotic that 5 arrows were got him. Time passed and he was the only one left.

"It's about time to wake up, my boy!"

"Huh?" Atlas was holding a club while taking a mouthful of air—when he heard something. A spear was flying straight at him. He stared at it. Dropping the club, he took a deep breath and concentrated. He could feel everything, from the flow of the wind to the sound of anguish in the air. Hush! It was about to hit him when he lowered his body and leaned sideways while trying to catch it.

"Got it!" He caught it in the middle of the shaft with his right hand when it missed midway on his left shoulder.

"Here it goes!" He twisted his body changing the direction of the spear. With its current momentum intact, he threw it where it came from. Swish!

The speed of the throw broke the air barrier—boom!

An angry cry resounded in the depths of the forest.

"It ends here, Atlas," The Feather of Hope said. Then light encased him before vanishing into thin air.