We continued to walk toward the evacuation center, taking a shortcut through the forest. Thanks to the spring rain that came in just a little after we started walking, the fires there were put out. Walking through the fresh mud soothed the pain in the soles of my feet that I had gotten from fleeing the mech lizard. However, it did feel like it made us slower. I shot a glance at my sister and noticed that she was also walking slowly so maybe it wasn't just the mud.
While both of us were injured, we kept on going, hoping to feel safe among the rest that were out hiding. Marie, especially, looked tired, so we had to keep a slow pace so she wouldn't pass out on me.
Knowing it would take a while to reach our destination, I decided to ask Marie some questions about what had happened while I was away. Her eyebrows furrowed as I asked, showing a look of grief. A moment of silence passed until she cleared her throat, looking like she was ready to answer.
"...So what happened, Marie?"
"...a little before these monsters appeared, father was rushing in and out of his office, taking a lot of calls and looking worried. After a while, he checked the news, then went back to his office immediately. Not long after, father had told me and Mom that we were going out and rushed us to the car and-"
Her voice had cut off. I looked at her after she had finished talking. She started to whimper, holding back tears. She didn't need to explain because I had connected the dots. They were only two or three streets away from the house where I had found the car. I had concluded that maybe my dad had a bad feeling and had tried to get them out of there.
As we walked, I heard— we both heard— the sound of growls and rustling in the bushes. We stopped for a brief second before one of those creatures appeared in front of us. This time, though, it had a different form. It had the form of a dog if it were 2 times bigger as a normal one. Standing tall with its long arms gripping the earth underneath it, and its massive body, it was definitely intimidating. We stood frozen, not being able to move or run. It had noticed us and started heading our way when I snapped out of it and grabbed my sister to run away.
"Marie, hurry, let's go!"
As I grabbed her hand, she tripped, letting out a slight groan. I was shaking, knowing the creature was close and heading our way, and my sister was on the ground. But before I knew it, she picked herself back up and started to run, not looking back. I followed suit right behind her. As we were running, I looked back to see how far the alien creature was behind. Between this thing and the other mech lizard, I noticed a significant difference. This "dog" was significantly faster running, not even 3 meters behind us.
While running was helping, it also felt like the beast was getting closer. Soon it was bound to catch up to us, so I decided that I had to hide Marie. Telling her wouldn't work as she would refuse so I had to improvise.
As we sprinted through the forest I simultaneously looked for a good place where I could hide her. Then I had spotted a place where the trees made a sphere-like shape that was hollow which was the place to hide her. It also had a few rocks lying near it which would prevent her from escaping as soon as I placed her inside.
As we reached that cavity I looked back to see how far it was which wasn't a lot so this had to work, or who knew what I could have done to us. I grabbed Marie and lifted her in the air placing her inside and covering it with the surrounding rocks. I started lifting more and more rocks with each one feeling heavier than the last. Lifting them made my already aching body feel even worse. My arms felt weak and like they were about to fall right off but it was almost over. On the last rock, I suddenly felt a surge of strength giving me the ability to keep on going. With it also came back the pain behind my neck from earlier. But I paid it no mind focusing on the task at hand, trying to make it in time before the beast caught up to me.
As I put the last rock in place the creature was nearly on me. It had lunged but I had managed to evade it at the last second, weaving to the side. As it stalled to get its footing stable again I started to run but paused for a brief moment when I heard Marie's screams.
"Aster please don't-!" As soon as she had said this she realized what I was trying to do. Knowing I was going to distract the thing she stopped talking so the "dog" focused on me.
Damn it she didn't know where to go once she managed to get out.
With all my might I screamed out where she should go.
"Marie, keep going to the grasslands and find our hideout! And if you see a monster hide and be quiet until it goes away!"
With this message left, I kept on going in the opposite direction from where I had left Marie. Looking forward and trying to keep my pace without tiring myself was stressful, knowing there was a beast that could kill me if it got to me chasing right behind. I was running out of breath, panting heavily, my lungs were gasping for air feeling like they were on fire. And with all my accumulated injuries it was hard to keep going, so I decided that if I wanted to go back to my sister I had to kill this thing. Though this wasn't the place to kill it. It was an open field in the middle of the forest so attacking here would be suicide with nothing to act as a shield. Also, I didn't know what scale of damage it was able to cause.
With the strength that I had left, I sprinted to find a place where trees were abundant. Suddenly I had spotted an area outside of the open field where it looked like there were a lot of trees. However, there was a catch, I had to climb a hill to get to it. And at the top of the hill, there was this wall-like thing that I had to climb to get there.
My luck wasn't so great, was it? I wonder if Marie is OK. Did she make it safely? Hopefully, someone trustworthy found her.
Gathering my thoughts back to the task, climbing was really the only choice I had if I wanted to have at least some chance of winning against it. Hopefully, I had enough strength to get over the wall. With my plan thought out I hurried to the hill, climbing it as fast as I could. If I didn't make it in time the beast would catch up. When I reached the top I looked back to see where it was. I felt my heart skip a beat feeling the blood drain out of my face. It was right behind me almost at the top of the hill. I lunged towards the wall making a jump to catch the ledge to propel myself up, but I couldn't. I was too weak to even pull myself up. I thought about giving up, the beast was about to reach me, just then I felt something strange. A hand reached out to me from the top and shouted.
"Hurry! Grab on to me!"
It was a girl. Her voice sounded gentle and soft and at the same time so powerful. Hearing her made me feel lighter, it was as if an angel had come to save me. I was trying to look above but I couldn't see who it was. They sounded around the same age as me so, although I didn't know who she was I grabbed on as it was my last chance to get away from death. I stepped on one of the rocks protruding from the wall and pushed off as hard as I could. I had managed to get away from it for now. I took the girl's hand and pulled her with me rushing deeper into the woods.
Finally, there were enough trees around to use as cover and jump on. As for weapons, we were sort of lacking in that. I rushed and grabbed a sharp-looking rock to use as a substitute.
I don't even know if this would even work. After all the beast did look sturdy. But this was the only thing I found.
I decided not to think about what would happen if this didn't work and looked at the girl. She had grabbed a normal rock though it did look quite heavy so maybe it could do some damage. We heard the creature make its way to us while growling menacingly.
Trying to find a place to wait we climbed trees and waited to pounce as soon as we saw it. I explained to the girl that I would go down first and try to make it lunge at one of the trees to make it lose its balance. Then I would attack its legs to cut off its mobility and as soon as I did that she would throw her rock on top of it. Staying silent I thought it would be a while until the alien dog showed up again, so I decided to take a look at the girl who had saved me. But just then I heard growls coming from right in front of us, the creature was back. I steeled myself for the next moments of life would not be easy.