Time stopped and for Cook and I we knew that there would be no escaping this beast. Its jaws parted and the five things dropped limp to the ground, half chewed yet still alive and in agonizing pain.“Jesus Christ…” said Cook, whether in prayer or random phrasing of dire terror as he and I stumbled backwards. The wolf turned its entire body around, giant and menacing. In what felt like an eternity, we stood facing each other, eye to eye – it felt like forever, waiting to die.
It watched us with such a confusion in its eyes, as though it had never before seen human kind, but surely this could not be. Just then, from all around, the humanoid creatures propped down onto the beast, stabbing at it with sharpened sticks, biting at it and within seconds the giant wolf was swarmed with these things until we could not see it any longer, like a million bees on one flower. As we watched, the wolf tried in vain to free itself from the ever swarming things, crying out and wincing in pain.
“We have to go!” said Cook grabbing my arm and plucking me backwards through the brush, away from the blood bath. Part of me felt guilt at leaving the wolf there to die, and I could see it written across Cook’s face too, but we had to save ourselves first. As we stealthily rushed away from the roaring, yelping and squawking we heard a grumbling on the ground and we pressed down beside the blackened trunk of a tree as three more giant wolves paraded past us, towards their falling friend. Then spun around, glaring at us.
Before we were even able to gather what precious thoughts of hope we had left, we had to gain enough courage to make a run for it, run before these wolves noticed our departure. Cook was still in shock, his chest pounding and heart begging to stop to relieve the pain. But I grabbed him - we had to run now, this was our only chance to escape this place before the followers regrouped.
As Cook and I made yet another dash for our survival the beasts' deathly eyes were upon us, all three of them. In the short space of time they had completely devoured their friend and now eyes were on us, we were next. Although we were already running, their eyes pierced through us so sharply and we could not go forward in this endless conveyor belt of death and fear as the brush lay almost blocked off ahead of us with fallen debris. We stopped abruptly, the 3 wolf like beasts drooling as they approached us with gliding speed.
We looked at each other as though through telepathy, chests pounding and eyes crying out with exhaustion. We both knew what to do - face them, and try to outwit them somehow, some way. These beasts were clearly desperately hungry for human flesh and eyes were set on us. They had tasted us in the air, they now our fear and are acting upon it. They stopped about 10ft from where we were, snarling angrily and smelling us. This was it, the grand show down. Us or Them.
Sooner or later one of us would have to make the first move.
We stared into their eyes, finding nothing, just darkness, an unforgiving darkness of pure evil. They were the eyes of the devils - the demons that were on their way. Both he and I stood hopeless yet adamantly strong in our faith, in our strive to survive this place. But ultimately, we were trapped now.
“Rek.” Said Cook softly, “To the left on three.”I moved my eyes to the side where a nook lay in the blackened debris of fallen trees and wood. “One.” He said softly.
The wolves moved forward, growling savagely, a pace hastened now as though they knew our plans.
“Two.” I said, my heart almost ramming through my chest now.
“Now!” said Cook, grabbing my trembling arm and we ran towards the side, ripping through this tiny hole in the brush into the other side.
One of the beasts pillaged directly into the hole after us, tearing it down with its immense body while the other two leaped over, their clawed paws tearing and ripping for speed after us.
We ran and ran and ran, fearing the inevitable that we could not outrun them. Like a guide, Cook grabbed me to the side towards a large blackened tree. In those seconds it made sense, Cooks actions. Our next and last hope was to climb on of those blackened branches where at least we could regain some sort of strength in this dead place.
The beasts congregating around the base trunk, leaping up with their immense claws, trying to climb behind us, but the ashen trunk broke away with their weight and they toppled down, choosing to wait impatiently, wait for us to fall. Breathlessly, we continued upwards, finding finally a core hollowness between branches wide enough of us both to sit and gasp for air and regain thought through terror in our minds, almost 17 feet above the malice wolf like beasts below us.
The tree itself was different, it wasn't dead like it held a secret or something. But it felt dark, evil had spread through its veins and owned it now. The whispers were like soft, yet terrifying screams of unbearable torture - they seemed closer now, too close.
I looked at Cook, riddled with cold dire to be set free of this constant hunting!
Without a word, I was asking with the terror in my eyes if he felt the same.
His reply was shocking, "It’s coming from the trees itself."
We sat there, high above the ground as the howling, moans faded into the air – the entity we both had felt watching us since we entered this place of black…
No comments:
Post a Comment