A panic became a bloody nightmare as blood and bile sprayed across the crowd.
Mouth agape, Gideon watched the creature rise higher and higher into the air, exposing more and more of its round, massive body, while the Watchers stood frozen.
The creature headed in their direction.
Gideon grabbed for the people around him on the platform, but there was no easy place to run. Thorne’s mouth screamed a command no one heard. Cries of agony and panic melded with a rumble so loud Gideon thought he might go deaf.
The creature rose high enough for Gideon to see the end of its circular, gigantic tail, and then it was directly above them, descending.
In horror, he looked up to find its open mouth, and bloodied teeth coming down on top of the platform.
And then Gideon’s world went black.
Chapter 57: Neena
“What’s that noise?” Neena cocked her ear, halting before they were halfway to the entrance of the cave.
“I don’t know.” Darius looked back and forth in the tunnel, as if Watchers stampeded them.
But it wasn’t Watchers.
Kai tensed and held up his knife. Fear crossed his face as an undercurrent of noise became louder. They took a few more hesitant steps, clutching their weapons. The tunnel’s mouth provided a slivered view of the colony. Far and to the left, Neena saw the dark, curved shadow of the river and the bridge, but no one was near it, not even the Crop Tenders.
Strange.
The rumble persisted, loud enough for her to consider they heard thunder. This wasn’t thunder.
Neena and Kai exchanged a glance as screams pierced the air.
“Do you think…?” Neena didn’t need to finish her sentence.
As one, they moved toward the entrance.
Neena’s heart hammered against her chest. She kept a cautious eye on the end of the tunnel as they approached, ready to fight or flee, even though she feared The Watchers were the least of their worries.
And then they were at the threshold, staring out across the colony’s southern end.
Neena looked left, toward the long, empty river, verifying the bridge and the crops were vacant. Looking right, she found the southernmost rows of hovels deserted.
The screaming and the rumbling noise continued.
Neena felt as if she was on the cusp of a nightmare. All at once, she was back in the desert, searching for a place to hide, or climb.
And then the noises became a reality she couldn’t ignore. Running, screaming people appeared between the hovels, barreling down the smaller alleys, streaming down the main path from north to south.
A trickle of people became a cavalcade.
From their distance several hundred feet away, the people looked like insects fighting over a rotted corpse. But these were no insects.
They were her people.
Colonists knocked into one another, fell, or trampled each other. Some dashed into their hovels and slammed the doors. Screams filled the air. Children spun in circles, looking for lost parents, or simply standing and shrieking. An old person who had managed to keep pace with the others fell face-first onto the path, mashed to the ground by panicked feet.
“By the heavens…” Neena whispered, unable to take her eyes off the chaotic scene.
More and more people filled the paths in an uncontrolled panic, waving their arms, shouting. She swiveled toward the northern end of the colony, in time to see a cloud of dust floating north to south. In horror, she saw a few hovels on the edge of her field of vision crumble and fall.
“It’s here,” Neena said, trembling. “The Abomination is here.”
Darius’s mouth was a gaping hole as he clutched his cane. Kai held up his hands and his knife, as if he might ward off a monster bigger than the cave in which they stood. She glanced over her shoulder, expecting to find more atrocities behind them.
“We should get back into the caves,” Darius said, his voice quivering. “From everything you’ve told me, we’re safer in here than out there.”
Neena turned, ready to act on the obvious plan, until reality struck.
“My brothers are out there. So is Helgid.”
Fresh horror hit her as more houses collapsed. The cloud of dust was an enormous, smothering pillow, washing over Red Rock, engulfing it in a murky haze.
The monster would take her family, if it hadn’t taken them already.
Looking at Kai and Darius, she reiterated, “I have to get to Raj and Samel!”
Without stopping to think about the ramifications, Neena ran into the patch of desert, her boots pounding the sand. Sunlight hit her face. She glanced around for Watchers, but she saw none of them in the frantic commotion.
Far greater dangers occupied them now, she assumed.
Crossing twenty feet of sand, she got a better view of the people ahead of her, swarming from the alleys to the river and the bridge. Their hovels weren’t safe, and many of them were quickly figuring that out. Doors opened as people ran after others, trying to get across the water in hopes of safety. She looked among them for Raj and Samel, but she couldn’t identify them among the running people, or the dusty haze.
Where would they go?
Back to their house?
Or would they follow the rest of the people?
Boots pounded behind her. Spinning with her knife, she found Kai behind her, with Darius trailing.
“Get back to the caves!” she shouted.
“I’ll help you,” Kai insisted, his eyes blazing with determination.
“You’ll be killed,” Neena insisted.
“I’m not leaving you,” Kai said. “I owe you my life.”
Seeing that her arguments were fruitless, she turned her attention on Darius. “Get back, Darius!” she yelled. “I mean it!”
Darius was torn.
“You’ll never survive out here!” she shouted. The words were harsh, but true.
Slowly, Darius turned.
“We’ll meet you back here!” she promised.
She took a moment to confirm Darius headed back to the cave, before another scream pulled her attention back to the chaos in front of her. She resumed running in the direction of her colony, this time with Kai at her side.
Chapter 58: Raj
“Samel! Stay close to me!” Raj shouted.
Samel’s lips quivered as another rumble shook the ground and the air around them filled with screams. The Watchers guarding them looked in all directions, pointing their spears. Bigger worries than troublesome kids plagued them, and most had figured that out. A few had already run. The others looked ready to abandon what seemed like a pointless mission.
Taking the lead, one of The Watchers said, “Get to the Comm Building! Hurry!”
And then the kids were forgotten.
The Watchers beelined in the direction of the round structure in the distance. Raj had no idea what was happening, but it sounded as if the planet might explode. They needed to get to safety.
“Hurry, Sam!” Raj shouted. “Get to Helgid’s!”
The rumbling had grown so loud that Raj thought it might deafen him. Screams filled the air. Dust seeped into his nostrils and lungs as he pulled Samel in the other direction. He couldn’t hear Samel coughing, but he felt the wrack of his small body as they clung together and ran.
It must be a storm. What else could it be?
Soon, the winds would pick up and the sky would darken.
Men, women, and children streamed past them, crashing into their shoulders. To his surprise, Raj looked left and saw Bailey and the hook-nosed kid running next to them. For the moment, their previous scuffle was forgotten; fear was their bond. Raj looked from the sky to the ground as more rumbling echoed underfoot.
The dirt beneath their feet moved.
More screams filled the air.
Twenty feet to their left, a building’s walls exploded. Rocks fell in half on two sides, creating a new cloud of dust and debris.
Another house fell, just past it.
<
br /> Then another.
Raj veered to the opposite side of the path, pulling Samel away from the imploding ground. Bailey and the hook-nosed kid kept up with them. Some people snaked through smaller alleys, while others were caught in the wake of the debris, as rocks rained down on top of them, burying them.
Raj looked ahead at the rising ground, unable to avoid the unfolding terror. A group of people ran in front of the broken houses, terrified and screaming. Just ahead of the path of destruction, a panicked mother looked around fruitlessly for her children, screaming their names.
The earth erupted, knocking her skyward.
Her scream grew farther away as her body rose.
An enormous beast emerged underneath her, opening a mouthful of pointed teeth, catching the top half of her in its jaw. Raj froze with terror as the beast clamped down and cleft her in half. Her separated legs dropped, landing with a wet hiss. The thing rose, revealing a long, scale-covered body that seemed to unfurl forever. Raj looked from the mangled remains of the woman to the unfurling creature, a demon worse than any nightmare.
Even Bailey and the hook-nosed kid stopped running.
The boys yelled and clung to one another.
Bailey’s face was a mess of blood and fear.
The beast continued up from the ground ahead of them, unreeling as if Ravar had given birth to it, until finally its smaller, pointed tail flicked behind it in the air. An enormous shadow cast over some running people far ahead on the path, a hundred feet away. An enormous crash sounded as the beast landed on the ground, and the pointed tail slammed the dirt behind it. Raj watched in horror as the creature’s gigantic back end turned several runners to pulp, its tail slithered across the ground, and it burrowed its body into a new hole.
The rumbling continued, curving east.
Raj stared at the enormous, gaping holes and the pulverized people, before adrenaline took his feet again.
“Come on, Sam! Come on!”
Raj pushed onward with his brother. Bailey and the hook-nosed boy continued running with them.
An inner voice screamed in his ear.
Get Samel to safety. Get Samel to safety.
Chapter 59: Neena
Neena and Kai raced across the patch of desert separating the cliffs and the easternmost row of hovels. More and more people tore away from the north end of the colony, threading through the alleys. It seemed as if most were escaping the destruction by heading south. But the beast wasn’t just following one direction. Neena heard more rumbles emanating from another part of the colony.
Far and to their left, a slew of people stampeded the bridge. The wooden planks were filled with people pushing past one another, flailing their arms, and trying to reach the other side.
“The water won’t stop the creature,” Kai said, gasping for breath. “The beast is powerful enough to jump the river, or go far underneath.”
Neena nodded. She had feared as much as she appraised the panicked mob.
“Do you think your brothers might be there?” Kai asked, pointing toward them.
Neena paused. Of course, she couldn’t see Raj and Samel from here. “I taught them to go home or to Helgid’s when a storm hit.” Of course, this wasn’t a storm.
“If I knew what they looked like, we could split up and I’d search for them,” Kai said.
“Obviously, we can’t.” A lost moment might mean death, for any of them. Making a split-second decision, Neena said, “Let’s get to Helgid’s. If they aren’t there, we’ll check my house, and then we’ll circle back to the bridge!”
Reaching the first of the alleys, she prayed her guess was accurate. She watched a few people run past, heading for safety. A few spotted her and Kai, but of course, no one stopped. More pressing concerns than a stranger and a runaway colonist faced them now. People peered from their cracked-open doorways, searching for danger, or second-guessing their decision to return to the hovels, preparing to follow the rest of the crowd and run.
They kept through the alley, battling a thick cloud of dust that was getting thicker. The screams and the rumbling were coming from the northeast.
Hopefully, we can avoid the beast long enough for me to find Raj and Samel, Neena thought.
What came after, she didn’t know. Yet.
Reaching the main path, they cut through a thicker flow of people, fighting the current of elbows and screams. Kai kept a quick pace, hurrying at her side. They were almost at the other edge of the path when two men bumped shoulders with them. Unlike the rest of the crowd, these men stopped.
They fell back, raising their spears.
Watchers.
Surprise bled through their fear as they recognized Kai and Neena.
“It’s the stranger!” The Watcher’s voice cut through some of the commotion. He took a tentative step toward Kai, keeping half an eye on the direction of the rumbles. Kai held up his knife.
A few people stopped running long enough to notice a new spectacle, before realizing their lives were worth more than a story they may never tell.
Two more Watchers emerged from the crowd, drawn by their comrades’ yells.
They formed a tight row, looking from Neena and Kai to their knives.
The rumbling persisted.
Pained screams echoed from far away.
Neena raised her knife, determination on her face.
The Watchers hesitated.
The creature might take their lives while they followed an order most had probably forgotten.
“Forget them!” one finally yelled, turning and taking off down an alley.
His friends followed.
And then Neena and Kai were running again, toward Helgid’s hovel.
Chapter 60: Darius
Darius looked out from the mouth of the cave into chaos. Dust and raining debris engulfed Red Rock. Neena and Kai were already gone, lost in a spreading haze. He looked north, toward the source of the rumbles, tracing the silhouettes of the hovels still lucky enough to remain standing. Shrieks of terror rose and fell. People ran in clusters, fighting for what might be the last moments of their lives.
He cursed his lame leg, wishing he weren’t an old, crippled man. He wanted to help, rather than spend what might be his last few moments hiding in a cave.
A boom in the distance made him reconsider his bravery.
His mouth hung open.
Through the haze of dust, a mammoth silhouette rose into the air, dwarfing the hovels along the northeast side of the colony. Darius blinked, thinking he might be imagining what he knew was real. Only a foolish man would believe he was mistaken. He’d seen the bones. He’d heard the stories.
And now he saw the creature.
The Abomination soared through the air, rising many feet above the hovels, opening its mouth to reveal teeth that looked just as terrifying, from a distance, before crashing down and prompting a new wave of screams and terror. More dust accompanied its landing. Houses along the northern edge collapsed. Dying people screamed.
Darius swallowed as the creature rose again, high into the air, and curved to the ground, taking who knew how many lives with it.
A fright he’d rarely felt in his old years coursed through him.
The sane part of him told him to heed Neena’s instructions and stay put. They might need a guide.
That thought led to another.
Elmer.
Watching the destruction, he thought of his old friend, alone in his hovel.
Was Elmer safe, or dead?
Darius scanned back and forth along the edges of the colony, and back to the bridge, feeling an urge to save his friend, even thought it wasn’t feasible.
And then he saw something.
Across the strip of desert, along the outside edges of the hovels, a mother ran with two children, racing away from the cloud of dust on the northern colony line. Several newly destroyed hovels lay behind them. Nearby, a few more fell.
Darius no longer saw the Abomination, but at any moment it might emerge, e
ngulfing them.
All of them might die.
Darius looked along the edges of the rock formation, but he saw no Watchers. They’d probably given up the search the moment the creature arrived. He looked from the mother and her children to the caves, and back again. If he were to cut out now, he could show them a safe place to run.
He could lead them to the caves.
He might not be able to save Elmer, but he could save them.
Before he could second-guess his decision, Darius hobbled out of the tunnel and across the sand. He thrust his cane in front of him, heading back into danger. The family—a young mother, her son, and her daughter—rushed away from the destruction, tears streaking their faces. They looked over their shoulders, unable to quell their fear. The mother pulled the children by their skinny arms, tugging them faster. The daughter stumbled. In a panic, the mother scooped up the young girl, while the son glanced behind them, shrieking.
“Over here!” Darius shouted. He waved his cane in the air as he closed within fifty feet of them, pushing through the pain of his achy joints.
Rumbles echoed from between some hovels a few alleys north. He kept his focus on the woman and her children, struggling to intercept them and narrow the gap.
Thirty feet away, they heard his cries.
“Come with me!” he shouted, over the increasing rumbles.
The woman paid him only a quick glance. To her, Darius was another screaming colonist, as petrified and panicked as the rest of them. It wasn’t until he got closer that she realized what he offered.
“Over there!” he said, waving his cane behind him at the cave. “You’ll be safe! Come with me!”
With a frightened nod, the woman changed direction. She heaved thick gasps as she carried her young daughter, and Darius reached out for her son’s hand. Clutching the boy’s fingers, Darius led him away as fast as he could. They made it halfway across the patch of sand before an explosion ripped their attention behind.
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