Chapter 10: Between A Rock And The End

  Around the time Niles and Eric had encountered the mysterious creature to the north, the rest of the survivors had made eye contact with the one from the south, as well as its elongated body.

  Moonlight shimmered against its smooth scales. A beautiful vestige that played the backdrop for its ominous arrival and fear-inducing appearance.

  A long, serpentine body with two jointless arms that almost dragged along the ground, just a few feet from its head. From side to side, its mouth had to be about five feet, while its head was maybe three feet tall. Besides its incredible size and appearance, what really made it stand out was the mess of hair, like a mane, that continuously undulated, moving like sea grass against an unseen current.

  A brief moment of staring at each other later, the colossal snake hissed and smelled the air with its tongue. Then, its seemingly purposeless arms suddenly rose and stretched, planting themselves into the ground like the rubber bands of a slingshot.

  And just like that, it started pulling back.

  Without any common sense, it felt like they were staring down the barrel of a very hungry cannon. Like a herd of deer in headlights, they were frozen for a moment. Frozen long enough to be unable to turn when they heard the air horn.

  The massive serpent finally let the tension go and tensed its arms, causing it to begin launching at the campers.

  Its mouth started to expand large enough to swallow a cow whole.

  Then, they all heard it.

  Ha–

  Quite some distance behind them, they heard a rapid inhale. One that amplified their already hopeless sense of dread.

  However, in response to hearing it, the serpent caught itself with the trees using the last half of its tail. The hair-like tendrils on its head fell, and its eyes went blank. And in the next moment, a monstrous roar blew through the forest, against the humans’ backs.

  ***

  Imagine the sounds of a whale’s call, mixed with the screech of a nail scratching against a chalkboard. Then you might have an idea of what it sounded like to the survivors.

  But to Niles, standing only about five feet away, behind a tree, it was like a bomb had gone off. All he heard was the initial low grumble, then everything was spinning, and his head was killing him. It took only a few seconds to realize that its roar had busted his eardrums and caused immediate severe vertigo.

  His ears were bleeding, and his vision blurred, but he could still feel the vibrations of its voice.

  He wanted to pass out then and there, but he couldn’t stand the thought of dying in his sleep, powerless to prevent this thing from going after the others.

  As such, he did the unthinkable in response to his circumstances.

  As the monster continued its devastating howl, he barely managed to stand on his own two feet and started jogging north-northeast, out and away from the clearing.

  Looking back, the abominable horror had contorted itself back to its original appearance and was already taking the first few strides of a full-on charge.

  “Crap–” His breath hitched in his throat from the pain pounding against his head. Niles could barely jog without falling over, but now he had to run. Run for dear life and pray that the density of the trees up ahead will slow it down.

  His clumsy jog turned into a chaotic sprint, tumbling and running over any stone or root that was poking out of the ground, stumbling against the trees that slowed both him and the monster running after him. Cuts, scrapes, and bruises quickly built up on his body, and exhaustion was only a few steps away.

  But Niles pushed through it.

  No matter how much his body screamed in anguish and terror, wanting him to stop and rest despite the threat looming just over his shoulder, he didn’t give in for longer than any man should have reasonably been able to hold on for.

  In his periphery, he could have sworn he’d seen a couple deers running north as well, along with something he was pretty sure was one of those giant spiders bolting for the east through the trees.

  Not that it mattered. Niles was its only target, and it was getting closer and closer by the minute.

  That is, until all the damage he’d accumulated in his mad dash had reached his breaking point. His foot caught the edge of a root, forcing his delirious body to lurch forward, crashing into a tree with his left shoulder before rolling down a hill. In his fall, he nearly forgot to cradle his head in his arms to protect it.

  Though his left shoulder was dislocated when he slammed into the tree.

  Niles hit every stone and bramble on the way down, riddling his body with more fresh wounds, until he was stopped by a boulder jutting out of the ground.

  He convulsed and spat out blood as he pushed himself against the boulder, righting himself until he was seated with his back pressed on its cold surface. Checking his hands, they were shaking uncontrollably. His strength was gone, his mind was fractured and in chaos, even though he didn’t have the energy to think anymore.

  His eyes rose to see the monster stepping closer. All the anger it had against him had been condensed into a single, furious emotion.

  If Niles didn’t know any better, he could have believed it was smiling. Relishing in how pathetic he was, sat against a stone, completely at its mercy. In fact, it might have been. After all, it didn’t just stomp on him or eat him outright. Instead, it glared down at the disabled prey that had caused its ears to ring with a satisfied glare for a long while.

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  As though it was savoring the sight.

  Not that he cared how it felt. He had successfully pulled it away from the camp long enough that, if they survived whatever threat came their way, they could run away from this thing before it got to them.

  He looked up at the sky, the beautiful moon shining down on him and his adversary. A solemn witness to his demise. He blinked, and it was gone. Replaced by the top section of the circular wall of needle-like teeth.

  Now that he was close enough to see, each one pulsed like a heartbeat, acting as a conveyor belt to pull anything it wanted to eat into the black void beyond its gullet.

  Somehow, despite the pain and suffering his body was going through in that moment, Niles’ mind cleared up. Like, none of it was worth thinking about. Instead, he started remembering moments of his childhood he hadn’t thought about for ages.

  The world slowed down around him, his life flashing before his eyes.

  The earliest memory he had was when his dad had left him with the Fairbanks for two years. From age three to five. It stuck with him for three reasons. His dad’s empty smile as he turned and left through the big blue door; the struggles he went through trying to get Dominic to play with him, since he was upset that he wasn’t at the center of his parents' attention anymore; the dead eyes and unwashed face of his father as he returned from wherever he had gone.

  When he came back, for about six months, while he still took good care of Niles, he had become a miserable drunk, refusing to do much and letting him spend a lot of time back at the Fairbanks.

  He was sure he heard him crying one day when Denice came to pick him up.

  Once those memories faded, he recalled all the days Danica forced him to watch anime and play video games with her when her brother was gone to some special ‘smart kids’ retreat with his mom. In a way, he was just as much her brother as Dominic was.

  He enjoyed that feeling of being relied on.

  ‘Maybe that’s why I was so quick to put myself in harm’s way.’ He thought to himself. ‘I really am an idiot.’

  He wasn’t chastising himself this time. No, he was just pointing out the obvious, as well as the difference between himself and Dominic. After all, Niles barely paid much attention to school and only graduated because that was how he would get to go hunting and fishing on the weekends.

  Meanwhile, Dom was always at the top of his classes. A real genius in academics. Though his fascination with mechanics and rock music grounded his image to something people wouldn’t be so quick to put on a pedestal.

  A stiff breeze hit the back of Niles’ head, making it drop to the ground in a lull. He was starting to go numb, but somehow, that breeze felt warm. Comforting, even.

  His vision was fading, which he was thankful for, as he didn’t want to see the horror about to devour him anymore. But then the breeze started to pick up. Only, it was just his right arm that could feel it. Like the wind itself was pleading for him to do something.

  ‘What? … Do you want me to fight or something?’ He asked it mentally. He didn’t have the strength to muster actual words.

  And yet, it seemed to hear him.

  The invisible warmth wrapped around his arm and begged him to lift it.

  It felt desperate.

  It felt… hopeful.

  Niles had no words to describe his confusion. Maybe that was just because his mind had faded too far to have such thoughts. Either way, he was amused by this hallucination he must have been going through, and relented.

  ‘Fine. I guess I can try, so fight back. What’s the worst that can happen? I die faster? … maybe slower? Ah, whatever.’ He scoffed, then used the last drops of strength he could muster to pick up his forearm and extend his hand out. ‘Is this… enough…?’

  There was no answer. Instead, everything went dark.

  ***

  There wasn’t a single thought, nor a single fragment of recollection. Only pure, unfettered darkness all around him.

  It was peaceful, if a little terrifying.

  Was this death?

  If Niles had the capacity for thought, that’s what he’d ask right about then.

  Though maybe he could think. After all, he could still feel the peace in the dark. And the fear in his heart.

  Did he even have a heart anymore?

  As though the abyss that surrounded him was answering this sense of confusion, something came into view. Or, maybe it was fading into existence. Doing so with a dim orange glow.

  The object was a clear crystal sphere floating in the emptiness that surrounded him. Inside was a small square spark. Paper-thin, dancing in a breeze at the very center of the glass ball. It was the source of the light, but it was constantly fading in and out.

  When the light it made was at its brightest, Niles could feel something warm radiate throughout the space. And when it dimmed, he felt a cool embrace of something beyond it.

  Both sensations felt good; however, he wasn’t sure which he preferred.

  The warmth, he assumed, was life. While that meant he might still be alive, did he even want to be? The world was nothing as he knew, and had become something dark and twisted. But if that was the case–

  Then the cool embrace was death.

  An unknown plane where either he would simply cease to exist, or he might meet his deceased father in the afterlife.

  Speaking of his father, what would he say in this situation?

  Would he scold him for struggling to choose whether he wanted to live or not? Or would he gently accept whatever choice he made? Obviously, he knew the answer.

  But did he care?

  …

  Phooo

  The spark danced a little harder and became a little brighter.

  ‘Is this worth it?’

  …

  …

  Phooo

  Again, the spark moved violently in the wind, and its glow became more prominent.

  ‘Will I really live if I do this?’

  …

  …

  …

  Phooo

  ‘It doesn’t matter.’

  Phooo

  ‘I don’t have the luxury to say no.’

  Phooo~

  ‘I have to find out if they’re okay!’

  PHOOO~!

  The spark moved erratically, swaying in every direction until it couldn’t handle the force of the will pushing against it. It curled and balled itself up as its light grew, then it snapped. Erupting like a sparkler in the night.

  The light was now a constant heat that cast out the cold touch of death. The crystal ball that kept it protected became the single lightbulb in the vast darkness.

  After taking in the breathtaking view of the sparks shrouded in their glass prison, his eyes opened.

  The sun and Nadia greeted him, tears running down her and several others’ faces.