I was pretty sure the scratching was getting louder, but then that could just be in my mind. It seemed like everyone was starting to go crazy by varying degrees. Besides the constant whine of the dog, the only sound was the scratching. But really, it did seem like it was getting louder.
We were hunkered down in a cave that we’d almost moved past before we realized it had an opening. There were rocks and boards inside of it that we had wedged in the open spaces, hoping they wouldn’t be able to track us. It made it impossible to see anything, but that was almost refreshing.
“I think we should be moving soon.” Randall whispered into the thick, tar-like darkness. His voice seemed to be the void of noise compared to what I now thought of as the “white noise” of our little burrow.
“I still don’t see the point.” A voice that sounded like a hot poker grinding its way through my head sliced through the air.
It wasn’t even because the voice was unpleasant. In any other situation I would have enjoyed listening to it. But, you know, there’s always one of those people who go completely bat-shit crazy when they’re in a survival situation and this guy was a total nut case. He was the kind of guy to knock over the young ones to make a clear path to safety, or just give up and in turn force someone to save him. I don’t understand how he’s lasted so long. That’s probably my fault.
Randall sighed heavily. “The point is to keep going. What other point do you need, Jamie?”
“No matter where we go, they’re gonna find us. We might as well just give up now.”
And that was when we heard the deafening crack. Light started streaming in. Jamie screamed and I looked over to see him flying backward oof the mound of dirt he had been sitting on and hit his head against the cave’s granite wall. I couldn’t hear if it cracked or not, the sound of gnashing teeth and excited scratching had accelerated.
That’s when Marrow started barking. He ran toward the crack in the door, meaning to do his best to protect us.
“Marrow! Come!” I called with my best command voice. There was no way I’d survive without that dog.
“We have to get out of here, now!” I called as I turned toward the others. Randall was on the ground next to Jamie who was now curled up against the wall.
“No! No, I’m not going anywhere! There’s no point! Forget it!” He was whining at Randall who was trying as hard as his old, gnarled bones could to pull him up and coax him away from the wall.
“You need to move Jamie. Come on, let’s go. You know I can’t lift you.” He continued to try and convince him.
That’s it. I wasn’t going to stand it anymore. I marched toward the two with my gun in my hand and my dog at my side as the cracking continued behind me and more moonlight shined through.
“Just leave him.” I ordered Randall.
He looked back up at me with his withered old face contorted. “You can’t be serious!”
“I’ve been saying it all along. If he doesn’t want to come, he doesn’t have to. If he’d rather die, let him.”
I grabbed Randall’s shoulder and Marrow helped me to herd him back deeper into the cave.
“Wait!” Jamie shrieked as I heard the thump of something throwing itself up against the creaking and weakening door. “You’re actually leaving?! How dare you!?”
“We can’t go. We can’t go! We can’t leave him. How can you leave him?” Randall blubbered beside me.
I rolled my eyes as we continued into the darkness. “I’m not stopping him from coming.” I turned around to shout behind me, "He can get up and follow us if he wants to!”
I was pretty sure that the scuffing I heard behind us, along with a lot of sniffing and mumbling was Jamie finally moving on his own. It didn’t sound fast enough, but it would take them a while to make a hole big enough to fit through. I could hear their angry, guttural noises and gnashing teeth as they worked their way in.
Trying to filter out the terrifying noise, I concentrated on moving as quickly, yet carefully as possible. I’d heard in the past that when you’re scared enough you can build up enough adrenaline to do amazing things, but what I’ve found out in real life it that it’s all bunk. The more scared you are, the stupider you are and the more likely you are to be killed. End of story.
I couldn’t believe how far the cave went back. Randall was wheezing next to me. His gnarled hand was now on my shoulder, hooked into it with his crooked fingers digging in for support. He wouldn’t make it much farther.
As that though crossed my mind, we heard the big break. Marrow barked and started growling deeply. The clacking and scratching on the hard wood and stone floors made my heart race and the hair on my arms and the back of my neck rise.
I put an arm around Randall and half hoisted him onto my hip to try and carry him as I ran recklessly forward. I should have known better because before we gained any distance my foot hit something that wasn’t quite soft, but most definitely wasn’t hard either. Randall and I both went flying. He landed with an oomph a foot or so away from me. I hit face first, scraping my eyebrow and cheek on the hard ground, but the rest of me landed on something much softer.
That’s when the groaning started and whatever it was that I landed on started to move slowly. I could tell that there were more things about me moving as well.
“Randall!” I called. “Randall? Jamie? You guys ok?”
“Yeah.” Randall breathe. He didn’t sound good, but how can you at a time like this?
“Jamie?” As much as I’d given him a hard time, I didn’t want anything to really happen to him.
Then everything went very fast.
A light that I hadn’t really noticed coming our way was close enough for me to start to see my surroundings. Still on the floor, I looked directly in front of me and saw a putrid husk of what must have once been deemed a human. Hunks of skin were missing from various area s of the body, and so was an eyeball. I was frozen in horror until the remaining eye rolled around to look right at me and a hand missing part of a finger started reaching forward in my direction.
I jumped up, pulling away from the hand to then stumble over the leg of another one. They were all around us. Randall was scooting back on his hands and knees, trying to get away, his eyes huge with horror.
Then the screaming started. Jamie had plastered himself against the wall. Blood trickled down from his head into his face from where he had hit it earlier. He was staring into the direction where we had come and I saw what was causing him to make the terrible noise. It was the unicorns. They had found us.
They were in a herd, as they always were. They had all set their razor sharp horns to glow, which was why I could now see. Each mouth was foaming with saliva from smelling us as we tried to escape from them.
Poor Marrow didn’t know what to do. He wanted to defend us from the charging unicorns, but he also felt a need to see if the other things that were groaning and starting to fumble their way to their feet were also dangerous.
Even though I wasn’t sure who to attack first, I decided I needed to do something. Wielding my gun, I fired a shot at the oncoming unicorns, but as I was firing, I was hit from the side by Marrow and knocked over. The shot went wild, the bullet ricocheting down the cave. The gun slipped from my hand and slid into the moving bodies behind me.
Morrow was next to me, ripping into one of the bodies. He had knocked me over so I wouldn’t be attacked. I’ve owed my life to him more than once.
Seeing a hunk of splintering wood I’d grabbed as we started down the cave lying a few feet in front of me, I grabbed it. Brandishing the wood as a sword, I swung it around and did my best to attack the unicorn closest to me.
As I jumped in and back, trying to stay away from the bone crunching teeth and impaling horn, I was able to get in a few good hits. The ragged wood caught in the side of the unicorn and ripped into his skin. He squealed with pain, then as I expected him to lunge toward me, his eyes opened wide and he started backing up.
Screaming, he reared back and tried to run away but only managed to knock into his comrades behind him. He fell, and as I watched, frozen in surprise, I was able to see what had caused him to scare. The hulks of disgusting rotting flesh were closing in on the beast. They moaned and gurgled in…excitement? It sounded different than the noise they had made before; as if there was a happy timbre to it.
I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the raging animal as he and his friends were converged on. The animated bodies began pulling at the open wound in the unicorn. What they started to do next was enough to make me turn around and lose the very little that was in my stomach before I could try to calm myself. It was the sight as well as the smell of the moving decay that had done it.
I was glad that show of cowardice was over by the time I looked across the cave to where I had last seen Jamie. What was left was a mound of trampled flesh and bones. I looked away as quickly as I could so I wouldn’t be able to recall any details. Unfortunately, when I looked away, my eyes landed on what I could only guess was the remains of Randall. It seemed he had been the appetizer to the feast had continued behind me.
Before the grief could hit me, I was about myself enough to know I needed to run, and I needed to run now. But which way? If the dead creatures had been huddled here, there was no way I was going to go farther into the cave. I looked down at Morrow who was panting next to me, dark goop on his muzzle and chest. His eyes were trained on the massacre. I turned that way too.
Scanning the area, I saw a little sliver of space between the wall and a mass of feeding. Every predator over there looked preoccupied, so now was better than later.
Taking a deep breath and almost gagging from the smell. I coughed for a moment and tried to steady myself. Then something rolled into my foot. I looked down and saw a still glowing horn from one of the unicorns. Bending over, I picked it up and clutched it in my free hand. This would come in handy.
Making sure to avoid the deep breath, I started to run and Marrow came with me. He wanted to get out just as much as I did. We had to leap over the leg of a downed unicorn. Marrow went first and cleared it just fine. When it was my turn I felt something squishy close around my ankle. The break in my momentum sent me stumbling to the ground. Luckily, I was able to land squarely on my free foot.
Turning around to assess the situation, I saw a hand decaying as it clutched onto me. Realizing I still had the wood in my hand, I swung as hard as I could at the head that was moving closer to me. It caved in easily with a sickening smack. I had to wrench the wood out of the brain and mush that it had sunk into.
I was up again and running as fast as I could, holding the horn in front of me so I could see where my feet were landing. Morrow stayed a short distance in front of me, staying in the glow of the light. It seemed like I was in the cave for years, yet before I knew it I was in the surrounding forest, resting and panting against a boulder with tears streaming down my face. I hadn’t been aware of crawling out of the cave or reaching fresh air and moonlight.
Rubbing my face with the back of my hand, I came face to face with the glowing horn and it made me freeze. Did this mean what I thought it did?
Biting my lip, I concentrated as hard as I could and thrust the tip of the horn toward a smaller stone a few feet away. A stream of lightning flowed from the tip before the stone disintegrated into gravel. Morrow whined as he sat next to me.
I looked over at Morrow and felt a smile creep over my face as hope crept into my being. “This changes everything.”
No comments:
Post a Comment