Chapter Text
Warren couldn't move, he was so terrified. Or maybe it was pain that had him locked up in the human's shadow.
All of it started when Warren had found food. Well, technically it started when demons started pouring through portals, but what did that matter? Warren had just been wandering through the charred, barren building he'd discovered when he saw a vending machine that hadn't been ransacked yet.
It had been too good to be true, considering today marked the third day since he'd been able to eat anything. His water had run out too, but he was dizzy from the lack of calories, so Warren was just trying to tackle one thing at a time. There was a big hole in the glass in front of the snacks, so Warren was able to scramble up through there.
There was more food here than Warren to eat or carry with him, so he had to pick something, quickly, and then get back to cover. Getting caught before meant moving at best, death by the hands of a human at worst. Now, the best case was a quick death. Worst case was unimaginable.
He'd managed to just get up to the lowest row of snacks when he heard someone approaching. A gunshot had sounded and Warren dropped the protein bar he’d just grabbed to see what was going on.
An enormous muscle bound human, clad in green armor, carrying far too many weapons, was murdering the demons outside. They didn't care when they got demon blood on their boots as they stepped over the mangled corpses to enter the same building Warren was in.
Adrenaline began to pump through Warren’s tiny body and he kicked the protein bar down from its coils and jumped down. He could not get caught.
Humans had been extraordinarily dangerous before earth had been invaded by demons, and this human was a giant gun toting maniac! It was no stretch of the imagination to see this human grinding Warren into a stain under one of those huge boots.
Warren stopped struggling with the push flap of the vending machine when the human's shadow fell over the machine. He glanced up to see the human staring into the machine. He couldn't see the face from behind the visor in the helmet at this angle, but he knew the human was eyeing up the snacks inside.
He softly swallowed, and abandoned the protein bar, hunkering down in the corner of the vending machine, praying he wasn't spotted.
He'd moved just in time. The human reared back and shattered the glass with his gloved fist. The spot Warren was standing filled with broken glass and he softly whimpered as the human started grabbing everything.
Humans. Greedy as always.
Once everything was taken, including the protein bar Warren had rightfully earned, the human left the vending machine alone. The adrenaline rush was over from the promise of food, leaving him aware of the ache in his ankles and the hole in his stomach. Warren clutched his empty stomach and tried not to cry. No tears flowed, he was much too dehydrated for that, but the muffled whimpering attempted to leave his throat.
That was his only chance at food in days, gone. Snatched up by some human who probably wouldn't even appreciate it. A human that big probably ate too much to actually care what he was eating.
I just need to be thankful he didn’t spot me. That would have been the end of this.
It took a few minutes for Warren to calm down, but once he did, he started to climb down. Time to go back to searching, hoping he could find something before he was either found by a demon or collapsed without the energy to stand.
Thundering footsteps were heard upstairs, and gunfire. The human must have moved upstairs.
Warren needed to get the heck out of there. He started for the opening in the wall where he could probably take shelter until he found….. Something. Anything.
He never made it to the wall.
A loud crash shook Warren down to his bones and he stared up at the ceiling. The floor above had a bunch of cracks and dust started to pour down. There was another crash and an explosion and then the floor above gave way.
The human, standing on top of a demon, crashed to the floor. The human had a shotgun buried into it, and with a gunshot it became nothing more than a pile of gore.
Warren’s knees had given out sometime between the breaking of the ceiling and the deafening silence that followed the brutal kill. With ringing ears, Warren made no move to get up from the ash and dust.
The human didn’t stop moving once the dust settled and removed their shotgun from the dead demon.
Warren was too scared of the dark blood creeping towards him, and the looming human to notice the cut that appeared on his leg when he’d fallen into the debris.
An involuntary gasp left Warren when he realized he was exposed. He was on the floor maybe a few feet from the edge of the blood puddle. The human was standing and scanning their surroundings. He had to move or be discovered.
Warren didn’t even have time in order to get his feet under him. The human’s helmet snapped to the spot where Warren was in the dirt. They had seen him somehow. He was caught.
He gave up trying to run when his legs wouldn’t respond and fell to a defensive position, arms thrown up to protect his face and head. Not that it would do anything to stop those massive armored boots from crushing his tiny body into oblivion.
The shadow of the human fell over him, and Warren whimpered. He couldn’t move. His legs wouldn’t uncurl from where they were tucked against his chest, and his arms wouldn’t release from their position to protect his head. This was it. They were dead.
The crushing blow never came.
It took a full thirty seconds crouched down in their shadow for it to dawn on Warren he was still alive. He managed to look up.
The human was crouched too, looming still over him. Their visor was eerily clear. Warren could see the human was male, and he had a deep scar across one cheek, a smaller one over the bridge of his nose, and one split part of his eyebrow. Hard green eyes stared down at Warren, and the tiny man felt like this would be the last thing he ever saw.
A massive gloved hand descended and tightly wrapped around Warren’s body. The small man squeaked in fear as he was lifted up off the ground and brought in front of those cold, calculating eyes.
The whimper returned and Warren nearly choked on it. “P-please don’t hurt me.”
After an eternity of being held by the human, Warren found himself dumped into some kind of pocket. He couldn’t scramble up to a sitting position before it shut on him. He glanced around and his heart rose into his throat.
He was stuck . In the pocket of a deranged human. With an unknown fate awaiting him.
“Let me out of here!” Warren pushed at the fabric around him. “Please! Let me go!”