madmanic999's fiction

nothingman-Block9-fight or flight

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:: Sunday, December 2, 2007 by madmanic999

Only our wrists are chained now...

The two strangers and I were relieved of our leg shackles, Reese needs us to move swiftly.  We jog through the tall grass just off the road.  The road would definately be easier, but Reese seems deliberate in keeping us to the right of it.  Suddenly the dark haired woman trips, she drags the old man down with her.  I manage to stay upright.  Decker turns from his position ahead of us, he looks incensed. 

"Get the fuck up bitch!" He rushes towards them grabs the girls arms and lifts her back onto her feet, "Do you wanna die out here darlin?" he is inches from her face, his teeth clenched.  Fisher slips an arm between them.

"I got them Deck, we need to keep moving." Decker spits in the womans face and jogs ahead.

"C'mon, keep running, you know the alternative, if you want to live stay on your feet."

We continue, Fish behind us, Reese, Sullivan, Ramirez, and Decker just ahead.  The strangers are breathing heavily, exhausted.  Fish winces in pain, sweat pouring from his brow, his muscles must be burning.  I am not tired, not sore.... I am not sweating... I just keep running.  The sky is a bright shade of orange, the clouds on the horizon turning a brilliant pink.  In another life I would stop to soak in this scene... or would I, would I care?  Was I the type of man who cared for such things, or was I oblivious?  Did I have a wife, a family, someone to share such moments with?  I stare into the pink and orange horizon, for a moment I am lost in it, a thousand miles from this place, from these people.  oranges slowly turn to reds, pinks becoming purples...... and then.... pain.

My senses scream... it feels like a thousand voices at once, all inside my head.  The pain stops me dead in my tracks and my chains pull tight and throw me to the ground, I drag the strangers down with me.  I yell in pain.  All around me stop in horror, temporarily forgetting the sun is slipping away.

"What the hell is happening?" Sullivan shouts.  She no longer sounds like a soldier, she sounds like a frightened girl. 

"Fish get him up!" Reese shouts.

I feel long invisible fingers reaching into my skull and the pain starts to ease, replaced by an overwelming sense of dread.

"It's to late..." the strange woman whispers from her knees in front of me"  I am not sure what she means, but somehow I know one thing for certain, she is right.

I sense them, who or what they are I do not know, but they are many.  To our left just past the dirt road there is a field, probably once farm land, and just beyond that the horizon is thick with trees. 

"Something is coming," I point into the trees in the distance....

"No.. Jesus no." Ramirez says in disbelief.

"Everyone get up and start mov.." before Reese can finish the sound reaches their ears... branches snapping, earth being trampled, and another sound, one that is difficult to describe,animalistic, snarling, growling.  We should be running, but everyone is still, unable to look away.  Something in their nature forcing them to catch a glimpse of what is in the trees.  A deadly curiosity.  We do not wait long...

Many emerge at once, seven, or eight.  Sick yellow skin, hairless, naked. Many wounded ragged, but still moving forward.  Monsters, they walk like men, but they are not.  Some seem to have tools or weapons in their clawed hands...  Reese snaps a fresh cartridge into his automatic.  "We can not be followed."  At this Ramirez readies his weapon as well.  Now others emerge, moving on all fours... the Stalkers, the savage beasts... chained by the throat.  Reapers holding them fast like the cruel masters of some twisted wild dogs.  From this distance you can still here their roars clearly.  One of the Reapers with a chained beast stops while others shuffle past him, he is completely still.  He raises his arm pointing in our direction.  A roar rises from the mob, all at once, in unison.  It sounds like one huge creature, coming for us. Suddenly they start pouring out of the trees and into the field, dozens of them, heading in our direction.  Sullivan and Decker break and run, the sound of their flight snaps us all back into reality. 

"Run!" Reese says swinging his weapon back over his shoulder.

Fish and I help the stangers to their feet... They do not seem tired this time...