Monster #3

The Leviathan roamed the world, swallowing cities whole. Like most monsters that forgot to chew, it sometimes left the inhabitants alive. They would find themselves in a half-lit world, as the skin of the great beast was partially transparent, still allowing sunlight into the cities. There those that remained would meet and discuss amongst themselves, travelling between the cities, waiting for the next to join them. But soon the leviathan grew old, and it knew its time was coming to an end. It went to the desert, and waited to die. The inhabitants realised something was happening; the skin of the beast was growing duller, and light that came in was weaker than before. Beneath them, the many legs of the beast had grown slower. Soon we can escape, they thought.

And one day, the leviathan died. Within it, there was a great churning. The cities that it had swalloed found themselves thrown together. The flesh of the beast was quickly torn away, as hyenas and vultures desperately tore it apart, having followed it for months. Soon the survivors of the swallowings found themselves in a jumbled mess of a city. Great skyscrapers found themselves surrounded by hovels and huts, mosques shared land with temples and churches, bridges connected to highways and train tracks led to rivers. The inhabitants came out, looked at the mad metropolis, and wondered where to begin untangling, even as the great bones of the leviathan reached to the empty sky.