"Dreaming of a red sun" by Vasilis Xythalis

I think that I should start walking more regularly, thought Dimitris, as he paused one more time to regain his breath.

He was walking along a path on a mountain, overlooking the city where he has been living for the past five years. He had traveled this particular route on foot for dozens of times, but even after all these hikes he still enjoyed the scenery that was now before his eyes. He stopped for a while and regarded  the city that was located low and to his right and the plains that stretched up to the foot of another series of hills, a few kilometers away.

It’s definitely not the most amazing scenery I’ve seen, but walking up here are some of the best moments of my week, he thought. He removed the backpack he was wearing, took out a plastic bottle of water and drank a long sip. He replaced the bottle in the backpack, put it on his back and started walking up the path again. His heavy breathing had stopped and his heart rate had returned to normal.

The sun was high in the sky, so he estimated that the time was eleven – thirty in the morning. This meant that he had been hiking for approximately two hours. He didn’t know the exact duration, since he didn’t carry a watch or a cell phone with him in his walks. He believed that part of the escape process was not to bring any electronic devices along. In the last months, he felt like he constantly needed an escape from everyday life. He wanted to get far away from the stress, pollution and noise that is part of living in a city during the summertime. Even if one lived in a relatively small town, like he did.

The muscles of his legs were getting pleasantly heavy with fatigue, but still felt like he had enough endurance to keep walking for many more hours. He was wearing the clothes he ordinarily wore in his mountain walks, khaki shorts, a white t – shirt and sport shoes. The air temperature was high and he was sweating heavily. He paused to drink another sip of his water, then kept on walking.

A short while later, he reached a junction and stopped. The path that continued straight ahead, would take him to a nearby village after twenty minutes. From there, he would start the walk back to the city. The return trip would take less time, since most of the way would be downhill. If he took the path that broke off to his right, after half an hour he would arrive to the ruins of an ancient temple dedicated to Zeus. The construction of that temple was never completed. He didn’t remember the exact dates of the beginning and the stopping of its construction. It was located on the top of a small hill, and many centuries later, a small Christian temple was built near it. It was white and located under a grove of pine trees. Even in the hottest summer days, their shade provided a coolness that was welcomed by anyone who happened to pass by. It was one of the nicest spots in the area and Dimitris had gone there many times.

A wonderful combination of natural landscape, ancient Greek and orthodox Christian beauty, he thought.

If he followed that path, he would return to the city from another route and the trip would be much shorter. He decided to visit the ruins of the ancient temple. He had already walked far and still had a lot of distance to cover.

He had walked but a few meters along the path, when he heard the  distant sound of sheep bells. That’s just what I need right now, to come across a sheepdog and have it chase me, he thought, his calmness fading and being replaced by a slight annoyance. This had happened to him a couple of years ago, at the same place. He had to run away and luckily he managed to put enough distance between him and the flock, so that the dog lost interest in him and returned to its duty of guarding.

At that time, he was in much better physical condition than he was now. Even though he was only thirty one years old, he neglected to train. He knew the benefits of regular exercise, but always came up with one excuse or another to deny himself a proper training schedule. Last year, he started an effort to improve himself, training intensively in the city’s soccer stadium and in a gym. Then came an injury in February. While playing soccer with a group of teenagers from his neighborhood, he pulled a muscle on the calf of his right leg. The injury was slight but it proved enough to make him stopped his effort. He resumed an easy regimen of long walks and an occasional basketball or soccer game with the aforementioned group of teenagers.

I should start training in running again though, the belly is getting big again and easy regimens won’t work, he thought and immediately smiled. It was fun taking it easy. As long as he was able to walk for hours at a time, he would be fine. He would be free from risks of pulled muscles or other injuries, and he passed the most enjoyable moments of his week.

He covered some more distance along the path and after a steep turn he felt a great relief. The flock of sheep was in front of him but there was no sign of a dog anywhere. At least, this time he wouldn’t have to run. He paused for a while and looked at the flock. It was in the middle of July, the weather was dry and hot, and there were few plants available for the flock to graze. One of the sheep, relatively small and lean, was higher than the rest of the flock. It had its head down and was picking at a bush which also suffered from the heat and the lack of water. There was no shepherd in sight, but the lack of a sheepdog suggested that the shepherd – or   shepherds – were nearby.

He lost interest in the animals and let his sight wander around the scenery. He was high up in the hills and he had lost sight of the city, a few turns back. The city odor, which is so normal to the city dwellers that they don’t notice it any more, was replaced by something else. A scent of nature and herbs that urged you to go look for them, pick them up and take them with you as you descended back to everyday life.

One thing is for certain, a poet or a writer would find great inspiration for his future works up here, he thought. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, so as to bring as much of nature’s scent inside of him as he could, and take it back with him.

As he had his eyes closed, he felt a darkness spread. It was as if a small cloud had temporarily covered the natural light. Normally he wouldn’t mind, but along the sudden darkness he felt a feeling he couldn’t exactly define. It was like a great and inescapable danger was nearby. He opened his eyes again. His attention was immediately drawn to the sun. There was no cloud that had caused the darkness, but the sun itself had grown darker and its color had changed. Even though it was close to noon time, the sun appeared dark and red. Not red as in all the sunsets he had seen, but red in a frightening way. Its color appeared almost like…

…like blood, he realized with a sudden horror.

A lightning struck close by, and Dimitris concluded that it had fallen close to the ancient ruins. It was followed by a second one, a few seconds later. It looked and sounded like normal lightning and thunder, but there were no clouds in the sky. Dimitris paused and considered this mysterious phenomenon, more with a feeling of curiosity than of fear. Then, he noticed a small sphere land suddenly and without a sound, next to the sheep that had wondered away from the flock. The sheep bleated but didn’t run away, it just stayed and looked at the sphere. The sphere had a diameter of about twenty centimeters and its surface was uneven. It appeared red, but then again, everything else appeared this way because of the sun’s color. The sphere started shaking violently and after a few seconds its diameter had increased to at least thirty centimeters.

A second and then a third and a fourth sphere landed, and these fell close to Dimitris. The fear he felt earlier started spreading inside him. He turned around and started walking with a fast pace, back towards the city. He had only walked a few strides when he heard a second bleat, and this one was very different from the first.

He turned and the sight he saw made his blood run cold. The first sphere had unrolled and had uncovered a creature unlike anything Dimitris had heard of. It was shaped like a cylinder, its body was about half a meter long, and it was standing on eight little legs. This creature had attacked the sheep and in the short time when he wasn’t looking, had already inflicted great wounds in the sheep’s throat and side. The sheep bleated weakly one last time and then fell dead on the ground.

Dimitris looked at the rest of the spheres and saw that they too had started shaking and growing. He decide that he had seen enough. He turned towards the city again and started running. A new sphere fell in front of him, and he stepped on it without pausing his running. The creature made an unearthly shriek, a spray of viscous liquid stained his shoes and legs, and the creature lay still. Dimitris didn’t look at it again, but rather he kept on running.

He ran along a turn of the path and then he stopped. He saw dozens of the creatures in front of him and more spheres were constantly falling. Behind him, more had fallen after the first. Dozens of pairs of red eyes turned and looked at him, shining as if they had a light of their own. Their look was full of malice. They all started approaching him, each moving quickly on its eight little legs. There was no place for him to run, no chance of escape. The one closest to him opened its mouth and showed a series of sharp teeth that appeared disproportionally large to its size. It shrieked and attacked. Dimitris screamed as he felt the teeth sinking into his feet…

…and sat up on his bed, screaming and sweating. He looked around in panic for a few seconds and then he calmed down. The only thing he could see were the indicators of the clock next to him, shining with a soft blue glow. The time was 3:49 AM, Monday morning. The city was sleeping peacefully, regaining its strength for the new week that was about to begin. Everything was as it should be.

It was just a nightmare, he thought with relief and fell back on his bed, lying on his back.

And then, like a residue from his dream, or as if a thought suggested to his mind from the dream, he heard or thought he heard:

“We’re coming and you can’t stop us…”