The three of you silently follow the tracks, with each step a putrid stench becomes more and more accentuated. Reaching a dirt road the tracks become scarce, hesitant that the beast might have gotten away you decide to head north guessing it would have ran to the opposite direction where you fought it.
The lack of clouds on the sky allows the stars to light the way ahead, from the tall tree trunks the singing of insects echo and from the vegetation below it is possible to hear the faint sound of small animals, apart from that a tense silence occupies the air, you keep on looking back to check if Diana and Erwin are still there given that even the sound of your breathing is louder than their footsteps .
Indeed this is no surprise, trying to hold the pain on the right side of your thorax you notice that some of your ribs are broken and at each second it becomes more and more difficult to breathe, losing your self to thoughts a voice brings you back to reality:
- What shall we do now?
Erwin points ahead revealing that the road ends a few meters away in a somewhat deforested area, before your brain can adequately analyse the situation a loud road echoes from a hidden trail to the right. The vegetation is tall and if it wasn't for some dead and fallen trees you'd have never seen it, some puddles of blood become noticeable as you three move forward, scratches and cuts are present in some tree trunks, but oddly enough, some of them are too deep to have been made by the beast given its conditions.
Distracted by the destruction and absurd quantity of blood you step on something strange on the ground, crouching and signalling for Diana and Erwin to wait you poke your knife and lifts it to better investigate, it seems to be covered in blood and exhaled the same odour that occupies the air, moving it closer to the lantern Diana is holding you throw it way along with your knife trying not to puke causing Diana to ask:
- Is this....
- A piece of the beast's hide... (You answer, having questions of your own beginning to pop in your head).
- Wait... What?!
Erwin asks but soon is interrupted by a scream, human, coming from somewhere near but oddly enough it wasn't a scream of fear... It was of anger. Alerted by it you three run towards its source, upon reaching a clearing you see Brutus covered in blood fighting the beast, which is completely burned and has a large wound on its right shoulder causing it to shiver periodically, Brutus throws a ferocious attack with his axe but the beast rips it off his hands as if it weights nothing then, it grabs Brutus' right forearm with one of its hands and breaks it without even the slightest difficulty, it then extends the claws from its right hand to attack Brutus' jugular.
You, Diana and Erwin open fire immediately surprising it and causing it to flee grunting loudly in pain, upon approaching Brutus he grabs his axe and looks at you with a surprised expression saying:
- You, you're all alive?!
- Not for long if we continue here! (Diana responds).
Using the trees as cover the beast dashes and dodges waiting for the moment you need to reload.
- I saw a structure east from here. We could use it in our favour!
Still shooting and with the beast chasing, the four of you run towards the structure Brutus had seen.
- There!
He shouts pointing to a tall wall amongst the trees, probably the the back of a house or something like that a few meters ahead. Feeling an agonizing pain on your thorax you become unable to run and shoot at the same time, your sight blurs drastically preventing you from seeing that the others run to the right side of the structure whilst you, now fighting to breathe, heads to the left disoriented.
Before getting close enough, it becomes obvious that there are no doors on this side and the windows are too tall for someone on your condition to jump, therefore you continue running towards the font of the structure hoping that the beast doesn't reach you but it predictably does and attacks causing you to fall on the ground terribly worsening the pain on your thorax, you cough blood on the beast's face staggering it but before being able to free yourself from its claws it bites your left shoulder preventing you from shooting it, panicking you try to punch it but with each hit it becomes harder to breathe and the beast tightens its bite more and more to the point of almost lacerating your shoulder, unexpectedly bullets begin to hit the beast allowing you to free yourself from its bite, crawling away from it you see Diana and Erwin near the front of the structure as Brutus run towards you, he then grabs your shirt and begins dragging you to the other two, the beats jumps over you and spikes its claws on your legs, with difficulty you shoot it at point blank repeatedly resulting in it letting go of you and running back to the darkness.
Now, in front of the structure, Brutus rests you against a wall and tries to force open a door that's bocked by wooden planks and chains whilst Erwin and Diana remain on guard should the beast return. The dimming sound of your breathing is quickly muted by the noise of Brutus ripping off the planks and Diana's shouting:
- Hurry up Brutus! The beast could be back at any moment!
- SHITE! Don't you see it's blocked by chains too, with just one arm I can't open it damn it!
- Uhhh.... Guy, I don't think this is a good time to be fighting like husband and wife... (Erwin inadequately jokes although having some sense to his words).
With all distracted, you – nearly losing your consciousness – see the shine of the beast's eyes amongst the trees behind the field of gravestones ahead, you try to warn the others but as if it isn't enough having Brutus and Diana arguing with each other and Erwin trying to stop them, only murmurs come out of your mouth.
The beast, silent as the wind approaches more and more, entering despair you try to shout but all you manage to do is worsen the pain on your thorax, the beast is dangerously close now and moves like a leopard before jumping over its prey and killing it, trying to raise your gun you shiver in pain, the beast's eyes shine brightly and its mouth drools abundantly as if it already savours victory, retreating its body back, spiking its claws on the ground growling and...
- BEAST! BEAST! BEAST!
You scream spitting blood and shooting on the ground frenetically at the exact moment the beast charges forward and speed towards you four, Erwin and Diana turn around only to see the beast jumping at them but before they can react, a creature fall at the trajectory of the beast and hits it with a punch strong enough to send it flying back to between the trees, Brutus grabs his axe ready to strike the creature but other two begin to descend the walls of the structure distracting him, the first one of them, whilst still upside-down on the wall reaches for the chains blocking the doors and and rip them off as if they were made of paper and, speaking in an old dialect, warns you four to hide inside, Brutus stares at the creature suspicious but soon drags you inside with Diana and Erwin following behind.
With all supposedly “safe” the creature that had attacked the beast closes the doors blocking them with the chains the other had ripped but soon is attacked by the beast that now retreats in pain realising that its claws can't pierce the creature's scaly skin, the heavy wood and iron doors are closed abruptly reverberating the roars and growls from the battle outside, you no longer can determine if truly is the place that's getting darker or if your passing out, Brutus in front of the doors pushing something is nothing more than a blur, Diana's voice at your side telling you to stay awake quickly becomes muted, in your last breath the sounds of glass shattering and shots being fired is followed by a brief grunt as brief as your heart beat...
Comments (0)
See all