Chapter 76 - 75: The forest bite back (part 2))
The creature moved.
One heartbeat it stood several meters away.
The next...
It exploded forward.
Its body remained low to the ground, all four limbs working together with terrifying speed. Long forelegs ended in curved black claws that dug effortlessly into stone and soil alike, launching it forward with every bound. Its hind legs bent at unnatural angles, allowing it to leap farther than anything that size should have been capable of.
Its grey hide clung tightly to layers of wiry muscle.
Scars crossed its body like pale cracks, evidence that it had survived countless hunts.
Its mouth stretched impossibly wide as it charged.
Rows upon rows of thin, needle-like teeth glistened beneath strands of thick black saliva that dripped onto the trail below.
Its yellow eyes never blinked.
They simply locked onto the nearest prey.
Someone screamed.
The monster crashed into the front of the refugee line.
A man thrust a crude wooden spear toward its chest.
The sharpened tip struck.
Then snapped clean in half.
The creature barely reacted.
Its claws swept sideways.
The broken shaft flew from the man’s hands as he stumbled backward, crashing into two other refugees.
A woman rushed forward with nothing more than a kitchen knife.
She slashed wildly toward its face.
The blade scraped across the creature’s cheek, leaving only a shallow cut.
The monster snarled.
Not in pain.
In irritation.
It lunged again.
Children cried.
People scattered in every direction.
Some abandoned their bundles without a second thought.
Others grabbed loved ones and ran blindly into the trees.
The orderly line dissolved into complete chaos.
Nina couldn’t move.
Her eyes found a little girl standing in the middle of the trail.
The child had fallen.
She was crying.
She needed help.
Move.
Her body refused.
The monster lowered its head.
Its jaws opened.
Flash.
Teeth.
Blood.
Pain exploded through her shoulder.
Veronica’s desperate voice echoed somewhere behind her.
Run!
She couldn’t.
The memory swallowed everything.
The terrified child became herself.
The charging monster became the one that had torn away her arm.
The smell of fresh blood mixed with the memory until she couldn’t tell which belonged to the past and which belonged to the present.
She couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t think.
Her knees locked in place.
"Nina!"
She didn’t hear it.
"Nina!"
The voice came again, closer this time.
Then something slammed into her side.
The teenage boy.
He didn’t stand between her and the monster.
He grabbed the back of her torn jacket with both hands and threw every bit of his weight sideways.
The world spun.
The two of them tumbled off the edge of the narrow trail, rolling down a short rocky slope littered with loose dirt and broken branches.
Stones scraped across Nina’s back.
A branch caught her shoulder.
They hit the ground hard.
Above them, claws ripped through empty air where Nina had been standing only a heartbeat earlier.
The monster’s roar shook the trees.
The boy groaned as he pushed himself onto one elbow.
His spear had disappeared somewhere during the fall.
He looked at Nina with wide, frightened eyes.
"Get up!"
She stared at him.
For a heartbeat, she still saw Veronica.
Then the illusion shattered.
The forest rushed back into focus.
The screams.
The growls.
The terrified refugees fleeing between the trees.
The monster wasn’t hunting memories.
It was hunting them.
"Get up!" the boy shouted again.
This time...
Nina moved.
Nina pushed herself upright.
The teenage boy was already scrambling toward the trail. "Come on!"
She didn’t need to be told twice.
They climbed back toward the road as quickly as their shaken bodies allowed. By then, the refugee line had completely collapsed. People were running in every direction, shouting for their families while others desperately tried to drag the injured out of the monsters’ path.
One of the creatures lunged at a fleeing man.
He swung a wooden club with both hands.
The club struck its shoulder with a heavy crack. The monster barely moved. Its yellow eyes snapped toward him. The man stumbled backward.
"Hit the eyes!" someone screamed.
Another survivor thrust a broken spear toward the creature’s face.
The sharpened end scraped across its cheek before snapping against its hide.
The monster recoiled.
Not from the wound.
From the sudden strike near its eye.
"Again!" Another survivor shouted.
A woman beside him understood immediately. She grabbed the kitchen knife from her belt and slashed toward the creature’s face.
The blade caught the corner of its eye.
The monster shrieked.
It jerked its head violently and struck the woman with one of its forelegs, sending her tumbling across the dirt.
"It works!" someone yelled. "The eyes!"
The discovery spread through the chaos almost instantly.
"Attack the eyes!"
People began striking wherever they could.
A man swung a broken piece of wood at a monster’s head.
Another jabbed a spear toward its face.
Someone threw a stone and it missed completely.
The stone struck a tree instead.
Nobody cared.
They were no longer trying to kill the creatures.
They were trying to make them hesitate.
A monster charged toward the group.
The teenage boy stepped forward with his short spear raised.
Nina’s stomach dropped. "Don’t!"
The boy waited until the creature was almost upon him before thrusting the spear upward.
The point caught beneath its eye.
The shaft bent.
The monster screamed and recoiled.
The boy immediately dropped the broken weapon and ran. "Move!"
Nina grabbed his shoulder as they passed. "You’re insane."
"So are you!"
They barely made it three steps before another creature crashed through the undergrowth.
Nina ducked.
A set of claws swept over her head and tore through the branch behind her.
Wood splintered.
She stumbled forward and nearly fell.
The teenager caught her arm. "Keep moving!"
Behind them, the others were still fighting.
Not winning.
Fighting.
Every attack bought them another second.
A kitchen knife stabbed toward an eye.
A wooden club struck a jaw.
A spear scraped across a yellow eye and made the creature rear back.
Someone screamed when another monster knocked them to the ground.
Two people immediately grabbed their arms and dragged them away.
Nobody stopped to ask whether they were strong enough.
Nobody had time.
The creatures were too fast.
Too strong.
Every time someone managed to hurt one, the monster only became more violent.
The road was already covered with footprints, scattered belongings and dark streaks of blood.
Then another scream came from farther up the trail. "Run!"
The command spread faster than anything else.
People stopped trying to hold the road.
They fled.
Nina followed the teenager into the trees, branches whipping against her face as she ran.
She heard the monsters behind them.
Heavy footsteps.
Snarling.
The crash of something large tearing through the undergrowth.
She didn’t look back.
None of them did.
The trail disappeared almost immediately beneath the trees.
People who had spent the entire day carefully following the same road were suddenly scattered across unfamiliar ground.
Nina could hear people shouting in different directions. "This way!"
"No, they’re coming from there!"
"Where’s the road?"
"I don’t know!"
The teenager grabbed Nina’s sleeve and pulled her farther downhill.
They stumbled over exposed roots and loose stones, barely keeping their balance.
Behind them, another roar echoed through the forest.
Closer this time.
Nina’s lungs burned.
Her legs shook.
But she kept running.
They had not defeated the monsters.
They had barely escaped them.
And somewhere behind the trees, the hunting pack was still alive.
Still searching.
Still following the trail of frightened humans who had dared to pass through their territory.
For several minutes, nobody knew where they were going.
They simply ran.
Nina stumbled through the undergrowth with the teenage boy close behind her. Branches struck her face and caught against her clothes. Loose stones rolled beneath her feet, making every step uncertain.
Then someone screamed. "Watch the edge!"
The warning came too late.
A man running several paces ahead disappeared from sight.
There was a brief cry, followed by the sound of rocks tumbling down the slope.
Another roar echoed through the trees.
"Keep moving!"
They ran again.
The slope had become steeper, and the trail they had followed earlier was nowhere to be found.
A woman stumbled nearby.
Blood covered one side of her clothes.
Her hand was gone.
Another survivor limped badly, one leg dragging behind him as two others supported his weight.
Nobody stopped.
The monsters were still somewhere behind them.
A child’s voice cried out in the darkness "Mom!"
A woman turned instinctively.
"Don’t!" Another survivor grabbed her arm and pulled her onward.
"But my son..." Her voice broke.
The roar behind them silenced whatever she had been about to say.
Nina’s chest tightened, but she forced herself to keep moving.
Eventually, the group slowed.
People leaned against trees, gasping for breath. Some collapsed onto the ground while others checked their wounds with shaking hands.
Nina looked back through the darkness.
Nothing moved.
The forest had swallowed every trace of the road.
The teenage boy bent forward, breathing heavily. "We lost them," he whispered.
Nina wasn’t sure whether he meant the monsters or the other survivors.
Perhaps both.
The elderly man finally reached them, supported by one of the women.
His face was pale. "We keep Moving."
Several people stared at him.
One of the men looked exhausted enough to collapse. "Already?"
The old man glanced toward the darkness behind them.
"The blood will attract more of monsters."
Nobody argued.
The ground around them was marked with blood from the wounded. Their clothes were torn, their weapons scattered, and the noise they had made had carried through the forest.
Staying in one place was an invitation.
The woman who had lost her hand struggled to stand. Two people immediately helped her.
The elderly man pointed deeper into the forest. "We go that way."
And so they did.
They moved without knowing whether they were heading toward the road, Velaris, or deeper into the wilderness.
All they knew was that standing still was more dangerous.
Nina tightened her grip around her knife and followed.
The forest grew darker around them as the last traces of daylight disappeared beyond the trees.
Behind them, somewhere in the distance, a low growl echoed through the darkness.
Nobody looked back.