by Ramona Gray
Rose peered around the redhead’s body. Another two pink creatures were emerging from the trees. “Fuck. Now what do we do?”
Brody glanced around wildly as the five creatures moved toward them. “Shit, I don’t know.”
“Think of something!” Daryl snarled. “Before we end up as their goddamn meal!”
Brody picked up a thick branch that was near his feet. “We fight.”
“We fight?” Daryl said. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
“Do you have any better ideas?” Brody said.
“No,” he shouted. “But we don’t stand a fucking chance against those things. They’re gonna -”
“We gotta jump.” Randy was staring over the cliff at the water below.
“We’ll be killed if we jump,” Solomon said.
“No. The height won’t kill us. It’s our only chance.” Randy glanced at the advancing creatures. “We have to jump.”
“He’s right.” Peter joined Randy at the edge of the cliff. “We can survive it. We jump and swim to shore.”
“Or get smashed into the rocks by the tide,” Marissa said.
“Better than getting our fucking face sucked off,” Daryl said. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Rose grabbed Brody’s hand again. “There are three of us who can’t swim.”
“And that’s our fucking problem, how?” Daryl asked.
“Fuck you, Daryl,” Brody said.
“Fuck you, you goddamn faggot!” Daryl shouted. “You think -”
“Enough! We have to jump now,” Randy said.
The creatures were drawing closer. One of them flicked its tongue out and another sniffed the air like a dog, but they didn’t increase their almost leisurely pace toward them.
“Brody, take my hand and we’ll jump together,” Randy said. “When we hit the water, I’ll help you to shore. Okay?”
“What about Rose and Solomon?” Brody asked.
“Peter and Daryl can help Solomon and Rose,” Randy said.
Peter grabbed Solomon’s hand and dragged him toward the edge of the cliff. Rose tried not to grimace when Daryl took her hand. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“You have no choice,” Randy said. “C’mon, let’s go.”
He tugged Brody to the edge of the cliff and Rose watched in fear as the two men jumped. They were followed by Leslie. Peter jumped, taking Solomon with him before Rose could even say goodbye. Daryl pushed Marissa closer to the edge, and Rose glanced over her shoulder.
The five pink men had gathered together, and they were staring curiously at them. The one on the far right turned to stare at the creature next to it as they slowed to a stop.
“Marissa, jump!”
“I can’t,” she moaned.
“You have to!” Daryl tried to push her off the cliff and Marissa shrieked and clung to his arm.
“No, I can’t!”
The pink creatures suddenly bolted toward them and Rose screamed. “They’re coming!”
Daryl glanced over his shoulder and bellowed a curse before running for the edge of the cliff. He dragged Rose and Marissa with him. As he leaped off the cliff, Rose felt the fingers of one of the creatures skate across her back before she was falling with horrible and stomach-dropping speed to the water below.
They hit the water with a hard splash and panic immediately flooded through her. The water was crystal clear and she could see the feet of the others, kicking hard as they pushed toward the surface.
She held Daryl’s hand in a death grip as he kicked for the surface. She took a huge, gasping breath of air when her head broke the water. “Daryl!”
“I’ve got you. Just relax, Rose.” His arm slipped around her chest and held her tight as a wave surged toward them. “Hold your breath!”
She held her breath as the wave crashed over them. She could see the others under water, their faces pale and wavering, and then they were popping back up to the surface.
“Let’s go. Brody, relax your upper body and kick your legs for me.” Randy, holding Brody around the upper chest, swam toward the shore.
Rose clung to Daryl’s arm around her chest, watching as Peter pulled Solomon toward shore. Solomon’s face was pale and more frightened than she’d ever seen him. She tried to smile reassuringly at him, but Marissa had joined them, and Solomon’s gaze hovered on her face as she swam next to them.
“What was that?” Leslie’s face was pale and frightened as she treaded water.
“What are you talking about?” Daryl said.
“Something just brushed my leg.”
“It’s just seaweed.” Daryl started to swim after Randy and Brody.
“It isn’t. It was rough and -”
Daryl cursed in surprise when Leslie was jerked under the water.
“Leslie!” Rose cried. Daryl’s arm tightened painfully around her ribs. “Leslie!”
Another wave crashed over them, dunking them under the surface of the cold water again. Rose’s eyes widened in horror. Leslie, her long dark hair floating around her face, was in the mouth of a massive sea creature. It was at least thirty feet long with the scaly skin of an alligator and four flippers to propel it through the water. Its mouth was filled with three rows of razor sharp teeth and dark blood clouded the water as it sunk those teeth into Leslie’s midsection.
Rose had one last glance of Leslie’s frightened face before the creature bit her in half. Leslie’s upper body sunk down, her intestines curving and dipping in the water like delicate sea snakes, as the creature crunched up her lower body and swallowed it. It dove for the remainder of Leslie’s body as Daryl kicked his way to the surface, dragging Rose with him.
“What the fuck was that?” Daryl screamed.
Rose grabbed Daryl’s neck in a death grip as he let go of her. “Don’t leave me!”
The others were already halfway to the shore and Rose screamed when Daryl tore her hands away from his neck. “Daryl!”
“I’m sorry!” He pushed her away and she thrashed frantically. “You’ll slow me down – I can’t die like this!”
“No!” She watched in horror as he swam away from her. She tried to swim after him, paddling her hands in the water, but the weight of her clothes combined with inability to swim had her sinking below the surface within seconds.
The creature was back, swimming up from below her and she screamed, bubbles spewing from her mouth, when she saw the long strands of Leslie’s dark hair wrapped around a few of the creature’s teeth. Bits of scalp still clung to the hair and Rose screamed again when a pale hand, its nails painted a bright red, drifted out of the creature’s open mouth.
It swam straight for her and she immediately began to inhale water. She wanted to be dead before the creature tore her apart. As her lungs filled with water, blackness edged into her vision. The creature was almost on her and she wanted to close her eyes, but she couldn’t look away from its widening mouth. Dimly, she was aware of something big, blue and moving impossibly fast heading toward her, but the darkness was all around her now. She dove into it with a feeling of relief as her body was jerked forward.
* * *
She floated in the darkness. The pain from her head was gone, and the panic washed away by the soothing black. She wanted to stay here forever, but a deep voice was calling for her. She tried to ignore it, but it was insistent. Demanding.
Her mouth was pried open, warm hard lips covered them and there was painful pressure on her lungs as warm air was forced into them. It fought with the water for the right to live in her lungs, and she had the overwhelming urge to cough. More air pushed in and she was rolled roughly to her side as she coughed wretchedly. Ocean water spewed from her mouth and she sucked in a harsh gasp of air and coughed again. More water erupted from her lungs and a warm hand rubbed her back until the coughing stopped.
She was eased onto her back and she stared at the man leaning over her.
“Vida?” Her voice was hoarse and faint.
“Hello, little flower.”
“I – what happened?” Her head was still aching, and she touched the goose bump gingerly as Vida watched.
“You were about to be eaten by the creature in the sea. I saved you.” Vida’s voice was matter-of-fact, like he saved a drowning woman from a massive and terrifying alligator shark hybrid every week.
“Why?” She whispered.
“As repayment for saving my life.”
Rose studied the sky above her. The rainclouds had dissipated, and the sky was the same blue colour as home. “Is this your world?”
Vida shook his head. “It is not.”
She tried to sit up and Vida placed one heavy hand on her abdomen. “Stay still.”
He was stretched out next to her and she stared at his face. His blue skin was smooth and vibrant looking. The cracks around his horns were gone and his lips were no longer chapped and dry.
“You look better,” she said.
He grinned at her. “I feel better.”
His hand was still resting against her stomach. Her shirt had ridden up and she could feel the warmth from his hand seeping into her skin. It made a funny little shiver go down her back, and she studied the contrast of his blue skin against her white.
“Can I sit up now?”
“Slowly.” He moved his hand and sat up before sliding one hand under her neck. He helped her ease into a sitting position. She turned her neck carefully and moved all of her limbs. She was already a bit stiff, but nothing seemed broken or permanently damaged.
“Thank you for saving me, Vida.”
“Why do you not know how to swim?”
“I don’t know. I just never learned.”
“You should learn.”
“Yeah. Do you know where my friends are?”
He stood and then lifted her easily to her feet. She swayed and didn’t object when he put his arm around her waist to steady her. “The ones who abandoned you are down there.”
He pointed to her left. The others were about a hundred feet away and she lifted her arm in acknowledgment when Brody waved at her. “They didn’t abandon me.”
“I watched the weak one push you away and deliberately choose to save his own life.”
Before she could reply, Vida released her and stepped back. “Goodbye, small flower.”
“What? Wait, where are you going? You can’t just leave.”
Vida was already heading toward the edge of the jungle and she took a couple steps after him. “Vida! Wait! You have to stay with us.”
He turned. “Why? So you can keep me prisoner again?”
“No, it’s not like that now. There were these creatures in the jungle and they killed John. It’s best if we stick together for safety. You’ll need our help to survive.”
Only a small, white lie. Personally, she was pretty sure that out of all of them, Vida had the best chance of survival. They needed him.
“I do not need your help,” Vida said. “Goodbye, flower.”
He jogged into the jungle and disappeared.
“Rose!”
Brody yanked her into his embrace and hugged her. She returned his hug and smiled up at him when he kissed her forehead.
“You okay, Brody?”
Brody nodded. “I’m fine. Are you?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Thanks to Vida. He saved me.”
She stared at Daryl who flushed and looked away. She stepped away from Brody and reached for Solomon. Marissa had her arms wrapped around his waist and Rose gave her a pointed look. “Think I could hug my fiancé now?”
Marissa turned bright red and let go of Solomon. As she stepped away, Solomon frowned at Rose. “There’s no need to be rude, Rose. She’s just scared.”
She stared up at him in disbelief. “I almost died five minutes ago, Solomon. We’re all scared.”
He made no move to touch her or hug her, and she wrapped her arms around her own torso. “What is going on with you?”
“What is going on with me? We’re on another fucking world, in case you’ve forgotten.” Solomon said.
“I haven’t forgotten, I -”
“Where did he go?” Randy suddenly said.
“Who?”
“The blue guy.” He stared in the direction of the jungle that Vida had disappeared into.
Rose shrugged. “I don’t know. He just left.”
“Why wouldn’t he stay with us?” Peter asked.
“Maybe because we tortured him for a month,” Rose replied.
“We weren’t torturing him. We were doing research.” Solomon’s tone was defensive.
“We were torturing him,” Rose said flatly.
“Rose, you don’t -”
“I hate to break up your little love spat, but we’ve got more trouble.” Daryl pointed to the thick jungle behind them.
Three men – God, Rose hoped they were men – emerged from the jungle. All of them were wearing military fatigues, and while one carried what looked like a homemade spear, the other two carried handguns.
“Solomon, what do we do?” Marissa whimpered.
He didn’t reply. His usual brash and take-charge personality had completely disappeared. Rose tried not to judge him. They were on a different world and it was a lot to take in.
The men were only a few feet in front of them now. The biggest one, he was dark haired with dark eyes and tattoos covering both of his arms, raised his gun. “Hands up.”
Rose and the others raised their hands obediently. The second man with the gun studied them before nudging the leader. “They look human.”
“Doesn’t mean they are,” the leader grunted.
Rose stepped forward, wincing at the wet squishiness of her socks and tennis shoes. The leader’s gun raised a fraction of an inch, but he didn’t aim it directly at her.
“We’re human,” Rose said.
“You’re from Earth?” The second gunman couldn’t hide his excitement.
“Yes,” Rose said.
“Holy shit,” the second man said.
“We don’t know that it’s our Earth,” the leader said.
“You got cars on your Earth?” The second man asked.
Rose nodded, and the man gave the leader another excited look. “Shit, they’re from our world. You got planes and shit like that?”
“We do. We have air cars too.”
“Air cars?” The leader asked.
“Cars that fly,” Brody said. “You don’t have them?”
“Fuck.” The second man spat in the sand before sighing. “Not the same Earth.”
“Maybe they developed the technology in the last couple of years,” the third man said.
“Maybe.” The second man gave Brody a hopeful look. “How long have the flying cars been around?”
“Since before I was born,” Brody said.
“Double fuck.”
“How did you survive?” The leader asked. “The pinkies have been eating everything that comes through the orb lately.”
“Pink creatures with teeth?” Rose asked.
The leader glanced at the others with him before nodding.
“They-they did eat one of us. His name was John. They surrounded us, and we-we jumped off the cliff,” Rose said.
“Motherfucking pinkies.” The second man lowered his gun. “I can’t believe one of the fucking sharkgators didn’t get you in the water. It’s their spawning season and they’re all over this side of the island.”
“I – something did come out of the water. It – it killed Leslie. It ate her.” Rose blinked back the tears. She hadn’t been particularly close to Leslie back on their world, but both she and John were dead because of Rose.
“Big alligator-shark looking thing?” The man asked. “Rows and rows of fucking goddamn teeth? Scales and flippers?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, that’s a sharkgator. You’re goddamn lucky, you know that?”
“Not that lucky.” Brody pushed a trembling hand through his red hair. “Two of our people are dead and we haven’t even been on thi
s fucking world for half an hour.”
The second man grinned at him before shoving his gun into the holster at his hip. “Welcome to hell, Red.”
Chapter Four
“What is this place?” Daryl asked as they emerged from the trees into a natural clearing. Sturdy looking wooden huts with thatched roofs were in a neat circle around the perimeter of the clearing. A makeshift clothesline was strung between two trees and clothes hung limply from it. She studied the yellow bushes that were planted in front of every door of the huts. More of them were tied to the doors and there were yellow bushes planted every few feet around the clearing. Tucked back in the trees was a small wooden structure. It had more of the yellow bushes planted around it and draped across the door.
There was a crude table to their left. Its legs were made from round, fat logs and its top was a thick slab of smooth rock. A wooden bucket sat on the table, next to clay mugs, bowls and neatly stacked plates. A large firepit was in the center of the circle. A fire was burning and a man wearing military fatigues was cooking the body of an animal on a spit over the flames. He turned the spit slowly and didn’t look up when their group stood near the fire.
“Where are the others?” The leader asked.
“Patrick’s in his hut with Talla. Doc is in his hut and Duncan’s on watch.”
Rose followed the leader’s gaze upward. She blinked at the man sitting in the tree above them. Unlike the other men, he wore a plain t-shirt and beige coloured pants.
“Where’s Arden?” The leader said.
“I have no idea where that fucking fairy is, and I don’t care,” the man grunted.
Brody stiffened beside her, and Rose took his hand and squeezed it.
There were a couple of fallen logs set up around the fire and the second man pointed to them. “Have a seat. It’s not fancy or comfortable, but it’s better than the fucking ground.”
“What is this place?” Daryl repeated.
“This is home, boy,” the man said with a laugh.
“Don’t call me boy,” Daryl snarled at him.
The man arched his eyebrow before glancing at the leader. The leader shook his head slightly before turning to face them. “Have a seat. We’ll get you some food and water.”
