Dust of time

ㅤ "There's a person here! There's a person!" Arche shouted excitedly, calling her comrades over. A sleeping person was visible in a capsule with a small window. In Thor. A place buried in time. The restless girl didn't want to part with everyone so soon, so she delayed the inevitable as best she could, peering into every crevice of the ancient city. That's how she found the small room with the capsule. "Is he alive?" Cless squinted incredulously. The body behind the glass showed no signs of decay; it looked completely real, but it was hard to believe there were still people left in such a place. "Maybe it's some kind of doll?" Chester stood next to his friend, peering. Trying to get a better look, he leaned against the capsule—something squeaked. Cold steam sprayed out of the pipes in all directions. The device emitted a prolonged hissing sound, the lights on the instruments flickered erratically, and a quiet mechanical grinding sound was heard. "Oh-oh…" was all Arche said. Klarth let out a resigned sigh: his comrades weren't known for their caution and prudence, but he hadn't expected this either. True, he was interested in the object, but he'd prefer to first study the data on it, which was probably stored somewhere in Thor's database. The capsule's lid's lock shook, and the man inside twitched. Suddenly, the door to the room swung open, as if something had shorted out—everyone was distracted by it, only to see the dust of time glistening in the light. It was enough to make everyone lose their guard and fail to react to the "man" who had broken free of its icy confinement. The first thing it did was lunge at Chester, biting his arm bloody as he tried to defend himself. With a roar, it tore out a chunk of flesh. Screams and shrieks filled the air. Cless immediately drew his sword and pierced the inhuman's chest, shielding the girls whom the thing had targeted as its next victim. "Man" didn't even notice the wound, continuing to impale itself on the sword and reach for the flesh. Warm. Fresh. Cless froze for a moment. But Arche came to her senses, quickly firing fireballs—she had to let go of the heated sword. But the monster in human form was still standing, groaning and making guttural, incoherent sounds. Klarth finished it off with Ifrit. Convinced it wouldn't rise, the group slowly calmed down. His temples were still pounding with tension when Cless heard the horror in Mint's voice: "What was that?" She was desperately trying to heal Chester's gushing wound. Chester endured bravely, but his face and sweat betrayed suppressed agony. Arche tried to support him, but could only sit next to him, looking at him with concern. "Whatever it was, it's already dead," Klarth said seriously, staring at the charred corpse. Although it no longer showed signs of life, that didn't ease the tension. "How are you?" Cless finally found the strength to ask his friend. "I will live," Chester tried to laugh, fortunately the pain was gradually receding, thanks to Mint. The crisis had passed. The group was in no hurry to disperse, wandering aimlessly through Thor. Already wary, but gradually relaxing. Whenever new discoveries were discovered, Arche was kept as far away from it as possible, condemning themselves to a ton of loud indignation. No one wanted to go home… After all, this time they would be separated forever. Except Arche. But she, too, didn't want to think about a hundred years of solitude. "Wow!" Arche caught everyone's attention again, as soon as she was left unattended for a moment. "Look, look! The image on the screen is reacting to this thing!" By accidentally pressing a button on a strange staff on a string, with a glowing red knob, Arche moved a human figure on the screen. In the corner, in an ancient language, was written: "Tennis 1000.00: Anniversary Edition." After a thorough scolding of Arche, the boys began studying what turned out to be a game. With a joint effort they understood the principle, and soon forgot themselves completely, having fun. Chester alone was uneasy. He'd eaten the food Arche had kindly prepared, and now he felt, to put it mildly, unwell. The contents were escaping, and his head was spinning. He didn't want to bother anyone, so he simply stayed away, asking Mint to use the antidote on him once, in case it helped. It didn't. Chester was getting worse. His skin began to itch, his mind was clouded. This no longer resembled ordinary poisoning. At some point, he caught himself looking at his friends somehow… differently. The sight of them intensified his hunger. Terrible hunger. Insane. He felt sick. Just the thought. Images. A piece of flesh being torn away… Was it him? Or his? Then. Now. The images intertwined, merged, blurred. His vision darkened… ㅤ It was Cless's turn to try to defeat his opponent with improvised "swords". He had an advantage in such things, so the support team eagerly awaited his score and whether he could make it onto the ancient civilization leaderboard. To give him room to swing, the guys dispersed: Mint stood slightly behind him on the right, holding her hands to her chest, cheering for Cless with all her heart, while Arche and Klarth stood on the left. As expected, Cless was doing brilliantly! He didn't give up a single point to his opponent, but he was scoring regularly. It was impossible not to be captivated by the match. That's why no one heard the suspicious shuffling sounds. No one noticed the quiet, unnatural sounds, hardly resembling a moan. Feeling a touch, Arche turned around. Seeing Chester reaching out to her, she smiled broadly. "You're just in time!" Cless is about to break into the leaderboard! Arche was moving actively—it was difficult for Chester to grab hold. His gaze was empty. Dead. His movements were broken. Chester's mouth opened wide, drool trickling down his chin. He leaned forward, aiming for Arche's neck. "Chester…?" Chester took a few steps back, getting hit in the face with a book: Klarth managed to react, standing closest to Arche. His friend's strange behavior hadn't escaped him. Both intuition and logic were sounding the alarm. "Chester, what are you doing?" was all Cless managed to ask, when Chester snapped his teeth again. This time, towards Klarth, the person closest to him. "Could it be…!" Mint was horrified by her own assumption. "It looks like it," Klart understood her. Chester was immobilized and tied to a metal pipe with wire. Mint tried unsuccessfully to cure Chester with Methodism, but no technique worked. She tried combining techniques, using the most powerful ones until she was exhausted—to no avail. Gritting her teeth, she expended her last strength until she collapsed into Cless' arms. "Enough…" he begged quietly. Klarth knew where they could find the answers… He hoped it would be there. ㅤ The group felt uneasy in the small room with the open capsule and the charred corpse. The place where, without even realizing it, they had lost a friend. Klarth was determined to find information about the dead man and began digging through Thor's archives using the touchscreen next to the capsule. Name, age, height, and weight were of little interest to him. Patient zero—that was what mattered. A virus that turned people into flesh-eating monsters. An antivirus… "Dear descendants, we humbly ask your forgiveness for shifting our problems onto your shoulders. But in our time, there is no technology capable of dealing with this disaster. We have left patient zero for study in the hope that one day you will be able to find an antivirus. Then you will be able to awaken Thor from its slumber. Strict quarantine no longer allows us to separate the healthy from the infected. All those who are still sensible will be placed in cryosleep, awaiting a miracle. To prevent the possibility of the virus spreading beyond the city, we will activate the drone defense system, and we will hide Thor in the depths of the ocean. If we fail to invent an antivirus or patient zero goes missing, destroy the remaining traces of biological life by cremation, leaving only ashes of us, and bury Thor forever, so that no one else will ever have to face our misfortune. We were too naive and foolish to realize how serious this was in time, distracted by the approach of a meteor. But our civilization perished before it touched our planet's atmosphere. If the world still exists, if technology is advanced, we ask: save us. If that's not possible, then at least save yourselves…" Klarth read the message left after the virus's effects, detailing the attempts to combat it. There was no hope of saving Chester. "We…" Arche wept silently, realizing the utter hopelessness. "We can't just leave him like this." "That's right," Klarth swallowed hard, imagining the horror to come, "we must burn him…" "No!" Cless protested. "I won't allow it!" "Cless…" "The process is irreversible!" Klarth raised his voice. He himself didn't want to direct the Ifrit's power against his comrade. He didn't want to destroy him, even knowing he was already dead… "We can do nothing." "We can," Cless suddenly realized. In a moment of panic, his mind had projected various scenarios, from the horrific to the implausible. But one of them… "We will fix everything. If there's no way to save Chester in the present or future, then we'll go back in time and get rid of the reason: we won't let him open this thing!" Cless pointed at the cryopod. Klarth considered. The solution seemed simple and obvious. If not for one "but." "Then why didn't the people of Thor do something similar?" "I don't know and I don't want to know! I'll save Chester!" Without waiting for further arguments, Cless ran out of the room towards OZ. "Wait for me!" Arche wanted to save Chester just as much as he did. "Cless!" Mint tried not to back down. "Damn it…" Klarth had no choice but to make sure his young friends didn't get into any more trouble. ㅤ Cless told OZ the date and location. Thor. The recent past. However, for the first time, OZ was in no hurry to carry out the order. "There's a high probability of a time paradox. Are you sure you wish to travel to this time and place? Please confirm the order." Klarth tensed. He would have preferred to hear the details of the paradox first. Cless barked angrily: "I confirm!" "Please be careful," OZ gave his final instructions. The time shift happened quickly. Cless rushed just as quickly out of the same room they'd been transported from, but in a different time. "Cless, wait! We need to think this through!" Klarth shouted after him. The warning haunted him. But Cless didn't give him time to think, forcing him to follow. Reaching the fateful room, Cless took a deep breath to immediately shout, "Stop!" Just as the others arrived. The door swung open. Everyone inside the room was distracted by it, only to see the dust of time glittering in the light… ㅤ