Chapter Text
Newt is running like mad through the halls of the Shatterdome - which is also sometimes Hong Kong - yet it doesn’t feel as if he is getting anywhere fast. He’s just moving so goddamn slow. He can hear the kaiju thundering behind him, getting ever closer. He knows it’s after him. He knows that it knows that he drifted, and it’s going to kill him. Why can’t he run any faster?
He suddenly notices that all the halls and streets are empty of anyone and are totally silent other than the sounds of the creature behind him. He is wondering where everyone has gone when he rounds a corner and sees Hermann leaning in the door way to a bar that was across from his dorm when he was in grad school. “This is all your fault, you know,” Hermann remarks calmly as Newt skids to a stop.
“Hermann, what the hell- we have to run! There’s a kaiju coming!” Newt gasps. Looking over his shoulder he can see the massive shadow moving through the cityscape.
Hermann waves his cane at him. “And how the hell am I supposed to run anywhere?” he demands.
Newt stares at him disbelievingly. Hermann looks back, the only expression on his face annoyance. “Ohmygod!” Newt shouts in frustration, then grabs Herm’s free hand and attempts to drag him along. He can hear the kaiju coming closer and closer, and the fear is becoming overwhelming. He knows that if he doesn’t escape, with Hermann, they’ll both die. Everyone will die.
But with Hermann dragging at his hand, he goes even slower.
“I told you! If you hadn’t insisted on drifting with those creatures, none of this would have happened!” Hermann shouts.
“Shut up! He’ll hear us!”
“It’s far too late for that. He knows where we are.”
“What? What do you-“ Newt twists his neck to look at Hermann, but somehow the other man is at the far end of the street. Newt becomes suddenly aware his hand is empty. “Hermann, please you have to hurry!”
But Hermann doesn’t move, he simply stands there, looking at Newt, a sad expression on his face. The kaiju looms up behind him, crushing underfoot Hermann’s blackboard’s and Newt’s equipment, and Hermann doesn’t move. Newt is screaming desperately, shouting his name, running toward him, but he isn’t moving at all, and he watches through a haze of fear as the monster reaches down and grabs Herm in one huge hand, ripping him apart easily as Hermann screams and then it’s coming for him-
Newt rips out of the dream as a shout tears from his throat. There’s a terrible disoriented moment where he is alone in the dark with a scream echoing in his ears and he doesn’t know where he is or who was screaming. Then he remembers it was him screaming. Slowly, the pieces of reality settle back in. He is sitting up in his bed in his shitty little room in the Shatterdome and the kaiju are gone and Herm definitely did not get eaten.
But it still takes a while for his heart and breath to settle back to normal.
He runs a hand through his hair and notices that his hands are shaking and that he is covered in cold fear sweat. He mutters “shit” and notices that his throat hurts too. At least he didn’t grip his hands so tight that his nails cut into his palm this time.
“I gotta stop doing this.”
It’s pitch dark in his room, but that kinda happens when you live in a metal room with no windows. It doesn’t tell him much about the time. He scrabbles with still trembling hands for his phone, finally finding it in the dark, and it’s another moment of frustration to try and turn it on and enter the code with his stupid shaking fingers. When he finally succeeds, he stares unbelievingly at the time for a long moment before swearing loudly.
“It’s only twelve o’ fucking clock, are you fucking kidding me! I’ve only been asleep for like five fucking minutes! Goddammit! ... I really gotta stop doing this.”