The arrow pierced exactly between its two
eyes. The creature shrieked in the most awful way and then it collapsed, making
the ground beneath it tremble. It tried to breath for a few seconds, but then
it all stopped, his belly going still fast. Archer came down and checked the
body. He was dead. Gunman approached too and congratulated Archer for his
handling of the situation. The creature had come out of nowhere but they had
been prepared. Doctor arrived with Bio, both women, and as one checked the state
of the humans, the other checked the body of the collapses animal. It wasn’t
uncommon for them to wander out of the highlands that were their home but this
one had seemed particularly vicious. He had been drooling ever since they had
seen him come into their lands and his eyes were red.
The four of them decided to go back to the
research facility to change clothes and have some food. In the facility there
were only five people, all identifiable by their profession and not by their
real name. This was because the agency that hired them didn’t wanted them to
risk their personal lives for any task at hand so they call themselves whatever
they were. Archer was an archer and gunman a very skilled shooter. Those two
were the security team in the group. Then there was Bio, who was a biologist
dedicated to preserve the last few animals that lived in this region. And there
was Doctor, who tended the wounded people. The fifth one, and the one that
hadn’t come out when the gigantic boar attacked, was Vet. He was key but was
very strange.
When they came back to base, a rather small
house with a lab on its basement, they noticed Vet wasn’t there. He normally
took long strolls all over the place but as his destination always changed, it
was impossible to know where he was. Any way, the team went back to pick up the
body of the big boar but found out there were only bones there and they also
seemed to be decaying. It was very strange and uncommon for this to happen.
Coming back again to the base, they found Vet and had a very heated discussion
about how he was never there when needed. The women demanded for him to be
always available but the men had decided not to say a word.
Vet apologized and explained to them why he
had left. He wasn’t walking around or anything. He had actually stayed behind
because he had seen a group of birds flying in an uncommon pattern. He knew it
was strange so he tried to follow them with his binoculars but it wasn’t
necessary. The birds landed not very far and as fast as he saw them, he realized
something wasn’t right. The birds were bigger than normal, even surpassing the
height of Pet’s knees. They had red-blooded eyes and very black feathers that
appeared to shine with every move they made. And then they heard him coming and
two of them attempted to attack. Vet ran like crazy and found shelter in the
forest where he stayed until they had left.
The team was amazed by the story but the women
were still upset that he had missed the opportunity to check the boar’s body in
order to know what was happening to him. Vet told them that it appeared to be a
contagious disease but it was strange that it passed from one species to the
next, with the same results: the infected animal seemed to be bigger, with
red-blooded eyes and very aggressive. He suggested that they needed a live
specimen or at least to have a well preserved body at hand. But then they
explained to him what had happened to the boar they had left in the hills. Vet
had no idea what to do or how to proceed. He told the team that they had to
really think their plan through, as they had no idea if humans could be
infected by whatever the animals had.
After agreeing they needed rest in order to
think straight in the morning, the team decided to have the rest of the day
off. The men were really happy about it and the women realized they could use
some rest after a very strenuous day. The man took off their shoes and jackets
and decided to repair their weapons and clean them. Arrow by arrow, bullet by
bullet. The truth was that the security team consisted of very efficient guys
but that were not really useful for much else. They were big and muscular and
tall but they didn’t have much in their heads. Maybe they were a stereotype but
at least they could be funny when they wanted, telling jokes and anecdotes
about their lives.
The girls decided to do different things:
Doctor decided to clean her equipment and then have a shower with hot water,
which they had to heat themselves in the kitchen. It had come as not surprise
to them as the base was very far from any trace of civilization. On the other
hand, Bio decided to check on a small fragment of bone she had been able to
take from the decaying corpse of the boar. The fragment was now bone but she
was confident she could achieve something by testing it with everything she had
at hand. Bio was a very skillful woman and loved a good challenge when it
presented itself to her.
Vet just took off his clothes and tried to get
some sleep. It was the afternoon but he wanted to rest. He had various reasons for
this but mainly because he felt that, in the next few days, he wouldn’t be able
to relax as much as he was in that moment. And also because he had been having
problems sleeping. He had always had those problems but now they seemed to be
getting worse. For the last two nights, he hadn’t been able to sleep at all,
instead guarding the base and letting Arrow or Gunman sleep. He would often use
this wasted time to think about his mission there and about his decisions in
life. He had been wrong to take the job. But there’s was nothing he could do
now. It was too late.
Somehow, Vet fell asleep pretty fast and had a
nice dreamless nap for several hours until someone woke him up very late at
night. It was Doctor and she seemed very scared. He sat on his bed and realized
they were all there, in the bedroom. True, they all shared the space but it was
a weird scene because they all stare at the stairs and no one was asleep. He
stood up and realized that they had put some sort of big plank on the space of
the stairs. And that something was pushing from downstairs. The banging was
scary but whatever was downstairs was not strong enough. Vet turned around and
looked through the window and saw nothing, except the blackness of the night.
He told everyone that maybe they could escape
jumping from the window. It wasn’t that high and it was better than staying
there and wait for death or whatever was going to happen. They agreed, so the
girls went through the window first. Bio fell landed nicely but Doctor
apparently smashed her ankles against the ground and had serious problems
walking. Bio helped her up and they waited for Gunman to jump and join them.
Arrow, who had foot on the plank in order to prevent the beast from entering
the floor, told Vet that he had to go first and that he would run just after
him. They needed to be ready down there in order to catch him to avoid hitting
his face against the ground. Vet nodded and jumped, landing in a rather weird
way but with no injuries.
They only had a minute to organize in order to
catch Arrow, who landed almost perfectly flat on their hands. They saw the room
fill up with noises and shadows but the men pressed on in order to run
downhill, towards the river. For transport, they had a small boat there that
could take them downstream to the house of the forest ranger that had a car to
take them to civilization. The walk, or rather run, towards the boat was very
erratic and difficult, as two people helped Doctor walk and then Gunman decided
to take her on his back. They run without rest and without looking back until
they finally reached the small pier.
The river was enraged and the boat wasn’t
there. There was only a piece of rope hanging from the pier. Then, it seconds,
Vet told them they should keep running downhill until they were able to escape
or loose them. But the sound of the animals, a combination of buzzing and shrieking
and growling, was nearer and neared. It didn’t seem to them that the animals
got tired, different to them who were already having difficulties breathing.
After a long run, they arrived to a point where they could see big rocks on the
river. They could jump on them to go across and then run downhill to the
ranger. Arrow jumped first. The rocks were slippery but he made it. Bio went
second and then Vet.
But when the turn came for Gunman and Doctor, the
man slipped and hit his behind against the rocks. The women stood up on the big
rock as she could and helped the man up but it was too late. The animals were
there and the members of the team on the other side of the river saw their
companions being attacked by pecks and feet and paws. They decided to keep on running
and not to watch. They ran for several hours until they reached the small house
were the park ranger lived. But he wasn’t there. He was behind his cabin, dead
on the ground. The body had no eyes and had been bitten all over.
They
had no way out…
