9 Tales Told in the Dark 2
Page 12
And just like that, they went back beneath the surface, and we all took a step towards the middle of the trailer. I glanced over to see Alucantra mid-prayer. Her lips trembled as she mouthed the words.
Down a ways, a tree cracked and splashed into the water. There might’ve been something beneath the surface, car, or another tree that did it, but I don’t think it would be unfair for me to assume that we all thought they (the demons, the dragons) had the strength to break down a tree.
We let that thought fester, and no longer did the bird crap covered roof of the trailer provide comfort, nor did scaling back up a tree and recommencing our vaulting from one to the next.
The gray-skied day gave way to night. An eerie golden glow came off the waters around us. It felt radioactive in a way—certainly unnatural. It was supposed to be dark.
But it was silent—like we all think night is supposed to be. Not like it actually is. Even this far out from a city, there should’ve been the choir of frogs and crickets. They were likely drowned. But where were the owls? Did they fly away to somewhere that still had critters scurrying about on dry land?
The silence might’ve lasted deep into the night, but then Earl had to go and get logical.
“There’s something to them there creatures. I ain’t never seen any like it. Probably global warming is what the government will tell us. They unthawed from some big iceberg. They’re dinosaur animals.”
“Dinosaurs are extinct,” Alucantra, informed us. “Unless they made ‘em like in the movies.”
I kept my eyes up and watched Kimmy as she ignored the conversation. I could tell there were real thoughts going on in her mind. Things that didn’t pertain to us, or even those creatures.
Then she stood up and waited to get a word in all the talk of a reasonable explanation.
She said, “My father was raised out this way. One way is the interstate, the other way are farms, farms for miles. He told me a story once about a well that was dug in the middle of a field, so the cows would have something to drink. They had to dig deep, when the water came up, so did something unseen by man. Horned snakes. They ate all the cows.”
“So these creatures have come before and no one thought to put up warning signs?”
“How could they know?” Earl asked.
“It’s a conspiracy,” Alucantra said.
“The well formed a pond,” Kimmy said. “It probably wasn’t far from here. The cows, my father said, stopped drinking from it. But anything that did was never seen again. I thought it was a story to keep me from swimming in the ponds around my grandfather’s farm. I thought he was just trying to scare me.”
“I bet you’re scared now,” Earl said.
Kimmy nodded. “Then again, maybe not. The waters have to go back down, and these things if they only killed the cows that drank from the pond, then they can’t live on land.”
“Look around. Does it look like the water is going back down?” Earl asked.
Boom!
The trailer shook.
Boom!
The creatures struck the side of the trailer again, then again and again.
Kimmy lost her balance. I snagged her arm before she toppled off the side. She landed on my chest, and me on my back on the bird crap.
There was a splash.
Earl had fallen in.
“Help! HEY-YELP!”
I never saw him again.
Down to Alucantra, Kimmy, and myself there was the strange feeling that because I was the last male standing, I was expected to do something. Bravado filled me, something primitive or purely chauvinistic. Now, no one ever asked me to do what I did next. But I did it anyway.
Without the help of my eyes, I knew they women were watching me. Perhaps they thought I was merely stupid, but perhaps they witnessed a man rising to a challenge. Perhaps the hearts behind their shapely breasts thumped at my majestic ascent. I couldn’t look back and analyze their gazes any further. They were struck with silence. All I could make out was my own panting, as I climbed a tree, snapped free a branch, and then dropped back down on the trailer. It bobbed in the water from my landing.
I shouldn’t have been wearing such a proud smirk.
“What are you going to do with that branch?” Alucantra asked.
I snapped the branch and began rubbing it against the roof of the trailer. Rubbing its end into a spike.
Kimmy liked my idea and out of the corner of my eye, I caught her darting up a tree for her own branch. She was kind enough to break one off for Alucantra as well.
We all sharpened our branches, until they were spears.
Then we watched and waited.
Our adrenaline wavered.
The dragon-like creatures avoided us, as if they knew we were armed.
“What a waste of time. I broke a damned nail,” Alucantra said.
I braved the edge of the trailer. And they were there waiting for me.
They splashed me as they struck up in the air at me. I spun my spear. I connected with one of the creatures and it retreated a few feet to reassess its attack. It’s thought process was quick, it wasn’t thinking, it was rearing back for a larger strike. Its fanged mouth cleared the trailer by a few inches before it slapped down on the roof. Alucantra stabbed its horned head. Her spear twisted beneath the horns, and the creature rolled. Alucantra’s grip gave way easily. Her spear was flung out into the murky waters. She tripped and nearly fell off the trailer.
The creatures swarmed in at this possible feast, but were not satiated.
Kimmy struck the closest. Her spear penetrated the serpent’s eyes and with my help, we had a pair of giant chopsticks. We raised the creature out of the water, seeing more than we had even imagined we would. The snake like form was just beginning, and we did not see the end. For beneath the snake like body was a thick neck and chest and an array of tentacles.
It squealed as Kimmy and I pushed our spears in deeper. The rest of its ilk drew back and watched.
The tentacles raised its complete form, and spread out on the surface of the water like a spider. There was another mouth, a large one with mandibles surrounding it. Clicking and slurping the air that invaded its normal liquid intake.
I threw my spear, and like St. George and the Dragon, I watched the serpent flop back into the water. I had struck its lone weakness—a heart pulsing blue.
I killed it. The other withdrew from out trailer even more
Only Kimmy had her spear still
It didn’t seem long before the serpents realized this.
Even if we kept fighting. Eventually we’d run out of branches to turn into spears. The serpents knew this, and though it was no earthly or human laugh, the water bubbled around their mouths as they imagined our nearing fate.
I hoped they would be disappointed…at least with how I tasted.
“Run for it,” I told the girls.
“You mean swim?”
I gave a final nod and dove into the pack of serpents.
In my final moments, I realized that this was mankind’s true nature. We give up, and hope it yields results.
THE END.
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