RUN
Baylor
20th day of Silvershine, Year 1011 of the Custorian Calendar
We'd been driving since last night toward the area we suspected the Guardian to be located. Thena had ordered me to sleep for half the night inside the Hauler. Since I was our tracker, my mind and senses needed to be sharp.
Once we got closer to our destination, I climbed up and took my position on the small seat, mounted to the roof. I occasionally looked around with my Farsights and frequently smelled the air for any unusual scents, searching for anything useful. But I didn’t get anything out of the ordinary. All I saw was open grassland and a forest far off in the distance to our right.
After a few hours, I started to think that maybe Horas was wrong. That the Guardian wasn't anywhere near here. But I cast that thought aside immediately.
He wouldn’t make a mistake. Not him.
Thena had introduced me to Horas and his husband a little over two years ago. They were both super kind and–despite my circumstances–even opened up their home to me. They gave me a place to live when I had nowhere else to go. I’d trust him with my life.
A little after four in the afternoon, I finally caught something. It smelled… burnt.
“I think I have something. It's directly ahead,” I said into the small transvox that was clipped to my jacket.
The Hauler slowed to a stop a few minutes later, and I climbed down. Thena stopped her Speeder beside a large burnt circle in the grass. A few meters away from the circle, there was a small, empty black duffel bag.
Oh my gods, this is happening! We’re going to meet the Guardian!
Thena flipped open her visor. “Are you able to get his scent?”
"Shouldn't be a problem," I ran over to the duffel and sniffed it up and down. The smells of two people–and some Sumita flower that had been stored in the bag–flooded my nose. I crouched and smelled the ground near where I was standing. Nothing.
It must have been thrown from the circle, I realized
I dropped the bag and walked to the scorched grass, where I lowered down to my hands and feet. Crawling over the burnt markings and sniffing the ground, I hoped to figure out which scent had been the Guardian's and where they'd walked off to. Instead, I became confused.
Well, that can’t be right.
I backed up a few feet and smelled a wider area.
Ooooh crud.
“Uhhh...Thena? We might have a problem," I sat on my haunches and looked at her. "I thought you said there was only one person being summoned.”
Thena straightened up. “What are you talking about?”
“There were definitely two people who came out of this circle. Their scents are very similar, so I'm guessing they're related.”
Her eyes widened as she looked back at the burnt grass.
“Gods damnit, they dragged an innocent into this. Can you track them?”
“Yes, ma’am!” I replied, placing a fist over my heart.
I crept along the grass for another minute to be certain of which way they had gone. Once I had that, we were off. Luckily, they were upwind from us, so it only took about twenty minutes before the scent of the two people with smoky clothes began to reach my nose. I put the farsights to my eyes. In the distance, two figures were running toward the forest. The smile on my face went from ear to ear. I'd found them. My hand reached for the Transvox, and the breeze kicked up again. My smile vanished. The hair on my tail bristled, and a low growl rumbled in my chest. There was another scent coming from that direction.
#
Jacob
20th day of Silvershine, Year 1011 of the Custorian Calendar
"Have I ever told you how much I hate cardio?" I shouted.
"Almost daily," Ash answered. He sounded annoyed, but not about my question.
It had only taken a few minutes of running before he started bitching about how his backpack swinging side to side was a massive pain in the ass. I wouldn't say it, but that was the real reason I'd ditched my bag and made him the designated pack-mule. Running with a bag on your back fucking sucked.
The noise was getting closer, and while I'd figured out which direction it was coming from, I still couldn’t see the source.
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Wait, is that… yeah, that’s two different engines.
The sounds suddenly got louder, as though the drivers had stepped on the accelerator.
Whoever was coming our way might not have the best intentions, so we needed to get out of sight as fast as possible. We made it to the trees faster than I thought we would. The funny thing was that my breathing wasn’t any more labored than when we'd been walking. I was sweaty as hell, but not even remotely winded. It was like I hadn’t just run my ass off for ten minutes straight. My heart rate hadn't increased much either. Probably all the extra training I’d been doing lately.
About twenty feet into the tree line, we crouched behind a few thick thorn bushes that stood a little shorter than chest height.
"Just observe, right?" Ash asked.
"Yeah, we have no clue if who or whatever the fuck that is wants to eat us. If they're chill, we'll make contact. Otherwise, we'll just follow them towards civilization."
Two vehicles appeared in the distance, a small one and a much larger one, but I couldn’t make out any details beyond that. They were heading straight toward us, and it looked like the small one was racing ahead of the big one.
Was it being chased?
Beside me, Ash's grip on the backpack straps grew tighter. Both vehicles were booking it, and the closer they got, the faster my heart beat from the anxiety surging through me. I wiped the sweat from my brow and tried to steady myself.
Just focus on the forest, Jacob. Breathe in the calming smells of dirt and pine trees. Listen to the leaves in the breeze. The birds that are chirping and playing above you. The branches snapping behind you… Wait, hold up.
Ash perked up, too, when the branch snapped. We slowly turned. Something was walking among the oak trees, back where the forest canopy kept light from reaching the ground. I could only see its outline, and whatever it was looked to be around the same height and build as me.
Thank God, we aren't the only humans here.
Ash and I looked at each other, then back at the being in the forest, as we stood.
I raised a hand to my mouth and yelled, “Hello? Hey, do you speak English?”
Whatever was walking around stopped, turned toward us, and started coming our way. Quickly.
“Jacob, I don’t think that’s a person,” Ash said, as we both took a step backward.
The insect-like creature marched out of the dark section of the forest and into the light. It was at that exact moment that we both knew that I had royally fucked up. Making a beeline towards us was a brownish-black skinned monstrosity.
It stood almost as tall as us and had a very muscular physique. Its form was human-like overall. It stood on two legs, had two arms with human-like hands, and one head. But that was where the similarities ended. The clawed hands had too many fingers. Black, tarry lips pulled back to reveal a large mouth full of sharp and jagged yellow teeth. Two red eyes with slit-shaped irises flicked back and forth between us as huge, razor-like mandibles clacked in front of its mouth. Once. Twice.
“Fuuuucking hell, you’re ugly,” I mumbled.
The creature shrieked in rage and charged with alarming speed. It took three running steps and lunged, diving headfirst at us, with clawed hands outstretched. I dove right, and Ash left, barely avoiding the attack as the creature crashed into the thorny bush behind us.
What the hell is that thing?!
The creature leaped to its feet and immediately turned towards me.
“Of course,” I grumbled, bringing my hands up and backing away. It sprang forward, attacking relentlessly. Its claws tore through the air with incredible speed. I dodged as best I could, but barely kept up. A rush of air pushed against me as each strike missed by less than an inch. The only reason I managed to avoid the strikes so far was that it telegraphed each one with its body movement. Over and over, it tried to rip into me with those freaky hands–all while making a god-awful chittering sound.
Its right shoulder twitched just before the strike. The creature slashed at me diagonally from the left, and I parried the attack, sending its arm far to my right and leaving the monster off balance. The skin on its arm felt like some kind of smooth chitinous shell.
“Fuck you!” I shouted, throwing a hard right straight. The punch connected perfectly between its demonic eyes. The creature stumbled back a step, and I winced from the impact. It felt like I'd just punched a brick wall.
Shaking my hand out, I hopped backward to create some space between me and whatever this thing was. The creature cocked its head and stared at me. As its mandibles twitched quickly in annoyance and its eyes narrowed–my eyes widened. The realization finally sank in that this thing really might kill me. But we weren't going to give it the chance.
“Any time now!” I yelled.
With a furious shout, Ash slammed a large piece of wood down onto the back of its head. The wood snapped in half with a loud crack, and the monster dropped to the ground. I kicked it in the head repeatedly and shouted every profanity I knew, while Ash looked for another weapon.
We both froze when we heard the chittering sound. It wasn't coming from the monster below me. My head turned, and a pit of ice formed in my stomach. High up the trunk of a tree that stood twenty feet away, another one of those things was watching us. It clung to the trunk, upside down, claws securely dug into the wood. A horrific shriek filled the air, and Ash shouted, “Run!”
He snatched his backpack off the ground as we sprinted toward the tree line. Behind us came a heavy thud as the creature landed on the ground. Glancing back, I saw that both of them were chasing after us. And gaining.
“This forest is bullshit! Why would you tell us to come here?!” I snapped at Ash as we raced passed the final trees.
“Me?! Coming here was your idea!”
Behind us, the monsters screamed and erupted from the forest. A short distance ahead of us were two vehicles. The one coming to a stop was a large RV that looked like it was built in the 1980s. It was painted with a dark green, brown, and black camouflage pattern, and someone was standing on the roof.
The large, rugged motorcycle that was already parked was painted the same way. It reminded me of the lightcycles from the movie TRON. But the more pressing issue was that running straight at us, wearing a black riding suit with red and white trim, was the motorcycle’s rider. While their face was concealed by a matte black helmet, it was their hands that captured my focus. More specifically, what was in their hands.
They ran leaning forward with both hands back, each one carrying a thin sword that was maybe three feet long. The tip of each blade traced the ground as they ran between us and toward the monsters.
Ash and I slid to a stop and turned back to watch. The head of the first creature was already halfway to the ground, and dark purple blood geysered from its neck as the body collapsed. The rider ran straight to the second bug monster.
It shrieked in rage, and a clawed hand lashed out, coming in from the side. The swordsman pivoted quickly, slicing down with one sword and severing the creature's arm cleanly at the elbow. The arm flew several feet before it bounced along the grassy ground. The creature screamed and recoiled, and then it lashed out again, swiping at the person's helmet with its remaining hand. Our savior leaned far back and twisted their body. They stabbed their other sword straight up under their attacker’s extended arm, and the blade went straight through the creature’s skull.
A moment passed, and the swordsman straightened back up, jerking their arm back and withdrawing the weapon. The creature collapsed into a heap on the ground, twitching as blood pumped from its wounds. Our savior flourished their swords, casting blood from the blades, as they stared at the corpse by their feet.
