humble and wicked alike in check. Either way, where they came from mattered not, what
mattered was that Aetario had one.
“Come, my friend, lets get the fuck out of here.”
We exited through the rune-door, and were greeted with mole-people and humans
trampling over each other to escape the death ray. We entered the crowd and looked out towards
the sound of the atom-cruncher and sure enough there floated Aetario Atomcruncher. His pale
blue eyes and unmistakable frown confirmed his presence.
“Fuck” muttered Brendan.
“Come, my friend,” I said as I held his hand, “we need to get to the serum.”
We ran through the hysterical crowd, and as we ran I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the
Iranian bandleader dead on the floor, his skull crushed under hundreds of feet and his brains
everywhere. The mole-man who helped me earlier slipped in the brains and fell to the floor.
“Shhelp!” he called out, but it was too late and his skull was soon crushed as well.
Brendan and I moved on forwards to get to the serum, to get to our last hope. With the serum we
could get away from this chaos forever, and spend the rest of our days together. Seated next to
each other in some far away cabin, sipping on vodka and reading old tales to one another. The
thought nearly made me cry. I hoped so dearly Aetario wouldn’t see us and we would get that
serum. My legs ran on that hope, and I pushed through the crowd fast as I could, faster than I’ve
ever run in my life. My joints ached with pain, and I breathed heavy breathes with each stride.
My whole body was heating up, and I could feel myself drenched in sweat. Still, I continued to
hope. I hoped, I hoped and I hoped… but I was foolish to hold onto such hope.