ZQ Retold Part 4: It Burns

The roar had come from downtown, and was growing in sound.

Tyler was the first to see it: a crimson, winged lizard gracefully soaring towards them through a sky full of smoke from the buildings downtown. As it approached them, Abe and Tyler could make out rows of teeth in the lizard’s mouth, and a leather saddle atop it. On the saddle sat a Goblin with reigns. It would have looked quite pretty if it weren’t screaming bloody murder and shooting fire everywhere.

Tyler and Abe ran for cover inside as a fireball slammed into a minivan outside the house.

“Well, there’s no hope of taking that thing down”, said Caleb, lying on the basement couch.

“We managed to kill that giant, this shouldn’t be much harder”, said Abe.

“Except the giant didn’t fly. Or breath fire”, Tyler replied. “We should wait this one out. That thing will go away eventually.”

Suddenly, the smoke alarm sounded. All three of them ran upstairs and were greeted with the smell of smoke. Caleb looked up the stairs, and, to his horror, saw orange flames making their way down the stairs, consuming them as they came.

“That dragon thing set the house on fire! We gotta get out of here!”, shouted Abe as a flaming chunk of banister came loose and fell onto the couch, instantly igniting it.

Outside, the dragon had left them for dead, and was currently leveling a nearby park.

Tyler scanned the surroundings, searching for shelter. It was far from easy, as many of the nearby houses had been severely damaged. An SUV with a large trailer caught his eye.

“We can take shelter in that!”, he shouted as he ran to the trailer, Abe and Caleb close behind.

The trailer reeked of moldy tuna and gunpowder. Abes activating of a lantern bolted to the wall quickly revealed why.

The tuna smell was emanating from a mini-fridge wedged in the back of the trailer between a steamer trunk and a stack of cardboard boxes. A bulletin board was hung above a small desk, covered with posters insulting various minorities. The trailer floor was littered with ammunition for various guns. Near the desk, a tablet lay face-down on the floor. Caleb picked it up, revealing the screen to be shattered.

“This belongs to Kevin. I’ve seen it parked outside his house”, said Abe, kicking a rusty bullet across the floor.

“There might be some weapons in there”, said Tyler, gesturing to the trunk. We could stop the dragon with them.

Caleb walked over to the trunk, plugging his nose as he neared the fridge, and tried to open it.

“Locked”, he called to them.

Suddenly, the dragon buried its claws into the trailer roof, then tore it off. Sunlight slammed into the group’s eyes like a fist, blinding them. In a second, the world came into focus again.

The dragon lunged for them. Abe and Caleb leapt out of the trailer, their hearts pounding.

“Wait!”, Caleb screamed as he ran from the dragon. “Wheres-”

A piercing scream answered his question. Tyler stumbled out of the trailer, clutching his right hand. Abe noticed blood trickling from the hand, and ran over to Tyler.

“Get to the garage!”, shouted Abe as he ran. “The dragon’s stuck! We’ve got to get to a doctor!”

The Jones’ garage had escaped relatively unscathed from the Goblin assault. A window had been broken, but that was all. The family minivan, a squat, grey vehicle, gleamed in the sunlight streaming through the windows.

“Get in back. The phone lines are down, so I guess we’ll have to drive you to the hospital”, Abe told Tyler as Caleb rested against the closed garage door. “What did the dragon do to you, anyway?”, Abe asked as he helped Tyler into the van.

“It bit one of my fingers. I think part of it came off”, murmured Tyler, still clutching his hand, trying to stop the blood.

“Guys, I can’t hear fighting anymore. I think we can open the garage door”, called Caleb. Abe strode over to the buttons next to the door, and pushed the top one, marked with an arrow facing up.

The door slowly slid open, revealing the sun setting on a new world.

The office building that would have obscured the sun had collapsed, revealing a gorgeous sunset. Over in the downtown, the fires had stopped, and only a few wisps of smoke still wafted through the purple sky. Off in the distance, a few Dragons could be seen scouring the city, along with. . .zeppelins? The view was strange and scary, yet strangely beautiful.

“Do you see that?”, asked Abe to Caleb.

“Those zeppelins? Yeah, we should be careful if the Goblins have that kind of tech”, Caleb told him.

Abe looked towards the mangled, metal heap that had been, up until an hour ago, a trailer. To his shock, the dragon was gone.

“Caleb!”, he yelled.

“Keep your voice down!”, Caleb hissed back. “There might be a Goblin nearby!”

Abe opened the car door to see if Tyler was okay. He had fallen asleep, and the bleeding had stopped.

“I’m going to search the backyard for food. Call me if you need me”, Caleb said, walking out of the garage.

The backyard was in ruins. The grass was littered with debris: broken card tables, chairs, snack foods, sports equipment, Goblin weapons, and more. The giant lay on the ground, dead as ever. Its fall had destroyed most of the fence separating the Jones’ house from the one next door.
Caleb walked through the yard, searching for food. He picked up a bag of Toridos, which had been ripped open by something. He picked it up, noticing that two-thirds of the bag had been eaten.

After twelve minutes, Caleb returned to the garage, carrying several bags of pretzels and chips, along with an unopened box of XXTREME-CHOCO-MEGA-LOW-FAT-LITE-COOKIES.

“So, we’ll be surviving the apocalypse on junk food?”, asked Abe, eyeing his glowing cookie.

“There’s lots of food in the house, but there’s probably Goblins there”, Caleb replied. “Wait, I just remembered that Mom left some food in the car. I’ll go get it”, he said, walking to it. Suddenly, he screamed.