Suddenly, Xeno grabbed my arm, and pointed silently into the forest. Peering into the shadows, I could make out movement. There were no shapes, just what appeared to be a giant amorphous shadow, moving towards us. It took us about a quarter of a second to decide to run in the opposite direction, and we did just that, heading uphill back towards the tower. Glancing back, I saw three people stumble out of the woods, almost falling, as if they had tripped on a root or stone. But they kept stumbling, almost unable to walk, and from what little light there was, I could see the white of bone gleaming through their legs in places. We stopped at the base of the tower, and looked down the hill at the three beings. One finally fell over, it's foot caught in a gopher hole, and immediately the other two were upon it. They tore the flesh and limbs from its body with a horrific sound that we could heat almost a thousand feet away, listening to the pop of every tendon, the snap of every bone, as the creatures feasted on what had once been their companion. We knew we had to get out of the area, back towards the city, if only to find what was going on. The creatures hadn't shown special interest in us yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if this was because they had not yet noticed us. Military helicopters didn't needlessly shoot random people, nor was it common for them to crash and explode. The city also had yet to replace the air support, and had not launched another chopper to replace the one it had lost, which was unheard of. Ever since the events of three years previously, no citizen had been allowed to live without a helicopter flying within earshot, constantly, as a reminder. If something was keeping the air fleet grounded then something bad was afoot, very bad.
It was fortunate that the best route back to the city was on the far side of the clearing from the creatures, allowing our hasty return without disturbing them. Although on our guard the entire way back, and holding hastily harvested branches as a makeshift defense, we saw and heard nothing out of the ordinary. If anything, there was a lack of things to hear and see. The night seemed quieter than most, as if the insects were all staying silent, out of fear of what was coming.
We came up behind the abandoned industrial sector of the city, and snuck through an old drainage pipe, neatly bypassing the razor fence. Carefully making our way back to the inhabited areas, we got the distinct feeling that something was out of place, but we couldn't quite tell what.We agreed to return to our homes and sleep, and would meet later the next day to discuss what we had seen...
No comments:
Post a Comment