Its opalescent and red bulge began to squish and push its way in between Jenna’s aunt’s house and her neighbor’s. Boards were ripped free, windows shattered, the front porch caved beneath the weight of the bulging creature pressing upon it. This was what had caused the antique store my mother had died in to collapse. This was what had ripped the roof free, snapped bracings, and ruined the building with seeming ease. Its progress was hindered by its size, but that was not going to stop it as part of the house gave way to its heavy bulk. It seemed that as long as these atrocities continued to suck up blood, they also continued to grow in both width and height.
Barney leapt off the porch as one of the tentacles whipped toward him. He let out a startled yelp, barely managing to avoid the things hungry grasp. “Barney,” I whispered as I slid to a stop.
“It’s a damn dog!” Lloyd barked. “And he’s faster than you!”
I was torn between going back for the dog, and listening to the complete and utter logic that Lloyd spewed. In the end, it was Barney’s speed and cunning ability to avoid the whipping tentacles that made sane reasoning finally return. The dog leapt and bound forward with grace and speed. He nearly beat me into the relative safety of the woods.
I plunged into the forest at the same time that three more of the monsters emerged onto the street. Two of them came straight at us.
CHAPTER 6
“Zigzag,” Lloyd ordered.
He didn’t have to tell me twice as I raced in and out of the trees. I didn’t know what good it was going to do us though, those damn things were fast, and their freaking tentacles were even faster. We had no position to stand and fight, not right now anyway. We needed higher ground, but the last thing I was going to do was climb a freaking tree. I’d never survive then, a tree was no obstacle for these things.
Unfortunately there appeared to be no other high ground around us. My gaze searched wildly around the forest, looking for something, anything that would give us some sort of protection or shelter. I glanced over my shoulder, Jenna was already starting to lag a little, and I could feel the burn in my lungs and legs. We couldn’t keep this up for much longer, and judging by the rapid snapping of trees resonating behind us, we weren’t putting much ground between us, and them.
Lloyd jumped onto a set of boulders; he turned partially around, his eyes narrowed as he surveyed the woods. He leapt off the boulders, disappearing momentarily from sight. I pushed myself to keep going, but the backpack was becoming steadily heavier, and my legs hurt more and more with every step I took.
Barney darted past me for a moment, brushing briefly against my legs before surging ahead. The saying that a person didn’t have to be the fastest in the group when being chased, they just have to be fastest than the slowest member, flashed through my mind. Apparently Barney knew this saying, and lived by it. Then again, Bret was staying behind me and though I couldn’t see her, I knew that Jenna was falling even further behind.
Maybe some people wouldn’t mind just being able to beat someone in order to survive, but I sure as hell did. There was no way I was going to allow Jenna to be lost, not like this anyway. And I certainly wasn’t going to lose Bret. There had to be something that we could do. Even if these things did catch Jenna, they weren’t going to stop with just her anyway. They would take us all down one by one.
Lloyd suddenly reappeared, he was standing on another set of boulders, his rifle raised, his eye pressed to the scope. The boom of the shot was startling in the forest, but no birds took flight. Where the hell did they all go when they felt the approach of these damn things? I suddenly, and uselessly, wished for wings too. Though I didn’t think there was any chance he could hit one of them through the trees, Lloyd fired off another shot. He probably just hoped to make them hesitate; I didn’t think for one minute that it would work.
I leapt onto the boulder beside Lloyd, struggling to catch my breath as I studied the forest. I could see trees bending and hear them snapping, but I could not see the monsters causing it through the thick foliage of the trees. I may not be able to see them yet, but they were noticeably closer. “Keep going,” Lloyd commanded, sounding annoyingly less out of breath than me and my rapid panting.
“We need to make a stand.”
Lloyd barely glanced at me before firing off another round. “Do you honestly think we can beat those things?”
“Do you honestly think we can outrun them?” I managed to choke out, horrified by the notion that Lloyd didn’t think we could beat them.
“Run.”
“Don’t wait too long.”
I jumped off the boulder, fleeing into the woods behind Jenna and Bret now. We needed to hide, we needed to find somewhere to go to ground, or we were going to die. My heart pounded, I could hear the blood rushing through my ears in giant pulsing waves. My vision was beginning to blur, I could barely breathe through the terror hammering at me. Hope, I was trying to cling to hope, but it was completely eluding me at the moment.
All I had was mind numbing fear.
I was so focused on keeping my legs moving, and trying to see through the bright lights exploding before my eyes, that I didn’t realize Bret and Jenna had stopped suddenly until I nearly plowed into them. “Who the hell puts a fence in the middle of the damn forest!?” Bret exploded.
Dismay and horror filled me, my mouth dropped as I stared at the chain link fence before us. My eyes traveled slowly up, I nearly vomited at the sight of the barbwire twisted thickly around the top of it. I looked to the right, and then to the left, but the fence stretched as far as I could see. A strange guttural sound of complete dismay escaped me.
“This way,” Bret said crisply.
He turned to the right and began to run along the length of the fence. I didn’t know what he was looking for, but he kept his hand on the fence as he moved. I glanced over my shoulder, relief filling me as I caught sight of Lloyd closing in on us. Bret stayed close to the fence line, but it was Barney that found the hole first. I didn’t even see the hole, or know that we had gone past it, until I realized Barney was on the other side.
“We missed something!” I gasped.
Barney followed me as I darted back along the fence. “Bethany!” Bret hissed.
Though Barney didn’t bark, he began to run back and forth in the same area. I stumbled, nearly fell as I tried to push myself harder, but my legs were too tired, and I was too fatigued to move any faster than I already was. I skidded to a halt, nearly falling over as I stopped abruptly. Leaves and dirt kicked up around me, Barney’s tail wagged in eager excitement as he made one more trip back and forth. Vines and weeds had sprung up along both sides of the fence; it was easy to see how we had missed the hole even though it was a decent size.