Hangar

...After making sure my mom had fallen asleep, I changed clothes and departed into the night.

I wore a black hoodie over a black t-shirt, sweatpants, and very worn-out combat boots. As I strode through the night toward my destination, I made sure I had everything I needed.

Flashlight? Check. Pocket knife? Check.

A knife is just for safety… if it turns out to be some weird voodoo guy or whatever… But does it really keep me safe? This person can alter my senses in some ways… and influence my surroundings even if it's only in the net… it's scary… I wonder how much more capable this is… or they are?

I was snapped out of my thoughts by all the streetlamps around me suddenly turning off. I jumped a little, but quickly turned on my own light. Now I was walking in darkness, able to see only a small circle of my surroundings. I looked ahead. The lamps had only turned off along my path…

I turned onto another street, hoping to find some working lights. But they kept shutting down whenever I looked in the direction of the brighter side. One time, I thought I saw a huge dog! But it was too big… I was probably just seeing things.

Realizing I was being played, I sighed—partly out of resignation, partly from the fear of what situation I had stumbled upon. Even after being shaken by all this, I kept going into the darkness.

Only then did I notice how strangely empty the streets were. They were usually moderately crowded at this hour… but I hadn’t encountered a living soul yet!

The closer I got, the stronger the scent of chocolate became. Also, I began hearing things… like the rustling of leaves? But there were no leaves in this industrial area… I think.

Of course, all of that made me extremely paranoid.

Every step was a drag. Every breath was shaky. My eyes were wide open, and my only line of sight was trembling because of my shaking hands. On the way there, I looked around a lot. But I couldn't see anything following me.

Finally, I got near the hangar. I sighed yet again. Whatever this is, it’s ending soon…

As I got closer, I heard voices. Human voices.

Closer. Familiar voices?

Ansie? Jake? Caroline?

I… I don't know why, but it made me angry… they had been telling me I was crazy all this time! And now they were hanging out at the destination given to me by someone playing with me!

It could only mean one thing…

"YOU DID THIS TO ME?!" I screamed, kicking the hangar doors wide open.

Then I looked around, ignoring them immediately.

"No! We wanted to tell... He told us to not tell you…" Caroline tried to mediate, as always.

But I was too lost inspecting the surroundings. The hangar looked… larger on the inside. I noticed the place was so big that the lights from the center didn't reach the corners. And in the center, there was a big… I don't know what. A weird glass structure? It was moving… a projection? A rift of sorts? It probably had a diameter of five meters, its inside dark as a black hole, surrounded by a dim light-green contour.

"…We are really sorry," whispered Caroline. "...He convinced us..." mentioned Jake. "…And that's why we thought it was valid for us not to tell you… We would've told you if we had made sure it was safe for you to know!" Ansie ended her monologue.

I shook my head. I couldn't understand them talking over each other.

"Whatever. So what is all this? And where is he?" I asked, running through thousands of possibilities as to why someone wanted me to see my friends here specifically.

They looked at each other and sighed.

"We don't really know… But—"

Before they could start explaining, the lights turned off. The impossibly big area inside the building was now illuminated only by the dim green light contouring the hole.

The moment it became dark, the rustling of leaves I had heard on the way here played once again.

"What's happening!?" "I don't know!" "Who turned out the lights?"

I turned on my flashlight and looked around.

Right: Clear. I sighed. Front: Clear. I started sweating a little. Behind me: Clear.

With shaky hands, I turned the light in my friends' direction. I dropped the light, a yelp escaping my lips.

"BEHIND YOU!!"

They all ran forward towards me. I watched in horror as a loud chomp echoed through the empty hall, nearly beheading Jake. And the thing that nearly killed him… It was a massive dog, at least two meters tall and three wide. A fern dog. With chocolate dripping out of its mouth onto the floor. It's body looked hollowed constructed of circles and random shapes of fern leaves grouped into ropes of building stripes. The torso was most hollow while limbs were more dense in material. The densest part was his mouth with its fangs that made a horrific sound on chomp.

The monster looked confused as its prey ran, but immediately chased after them. Ansie started screaming in fear. Yet I was stuck in place. I couldn't move. What is this thing? Is it "his"? Ferns don't grow into dogs…

My eyes widened at the pool of chocolate underneath the vile creature. A memory returned to my conscious mind. “…Blatuans overflow constantly with chocolate…. Calculate how long it would take for them to stop working if their outlets were shut.” I murmured under my breath. But those were just stupid exercises… It can't… it isn't real…

I thought those were structures… but they are moving… and they are fern dogs… I shook my head and tried to look around. My understanding of the surroundings shifted a little. I could see trails of steps from each creature running towards my friends, who were losing their minds. Also, there were more of them! Twelve? Twenty?

But how… how am I supposed to stop them… Wait! I was supposed to be hunted!

"IT'S ME YOU WANT, YOU DUMB DIABETIC DOGS!"

But they ignored me as they successfully circled my friends. I ran towards the circle, trying to push them away. They wouldn't budge. After the third try, one of them kicked me with its hind legs. I cried out, landing on the floor.

"LEAVE THEM ALONE!" I was panicking. They can't die… not because of me…

"NEA!" screamed Caroline. "HELP US!" "PLEASE!"

The sounds of the surroundings faded into the background of my thought process. Tears were flowing like a fountain from my eyes. With blurry vision and an aching body, I stood up, trying to think of a way to stop these creatures. Think, THINK, GODDAMMIT!

I saw trails. The more I looked around, the less it made sense. Numbers around the monsters' heads… Trails of others behind them… Coordinates? The heads… they must be IDs then… What did the challenge say? "Write the code that will allow you to proceed. You may submit the solution in LSPL or execute it physically."

How do I execute it… physically? I just want to save my friends!

My imagination ran wild. I knew the code that would save them, that would destroy the monsters. I recited it in my mind like a mantra. I stood up and kicked one of the dog's legs in frustration. It kicked me back to the floor. One of them jumped towards Ansie.

Time seemed to slow down. The dog made a three-meter leap towards her. While in the air, I stopped reciting the code in my mind. It all changed to one simple will: "SAVE THEM".

I reached out my right arm in desperation; the dog was about to connect its teeth with her arm. I screamed.

"SAVE THEM!"

IT WAS EVERYTHING I WANTED IN THAT MOMENT!

Silence fell. I closed my eyes, unable to witness my friend being injured. Then I heard a scream. A blood-curdling shriek from Ansie.

After ten seconds of silence, I opened my eyes. My friends were looking at me. The dogs were looking at me.

"Nea?" Jake and Caroline asked in unison.

I looked around them. They were safe. Under some barely visible green-tinted dome. The dogs now started moving towards me slowly.

I felt cold.

I heard liquid spilling.

I couldn't see my right hand in front of me. I looked down.

My arm was gone. Severed just below the shoulder.

There was no jagged bone, no torn muscle. Just a smooth, clean cut, as if the atoms had simply ceased to exist. And then, the blood came.

MY ARM? HOW? WHY…?

I couldn't scream. The cold instantly turned into white-hot fire. My exposed nerves ignited. I gasped for air as I bled out into the pool of my own blood.

I couldn't handle the pain. It was excruciating.

I was slowly falling unconscious.

The things. Dragging me. Hole… Friends. Safe.

Darkness.