One on one with a predator

[Remaining Time: Calculating…]

[Remaining Time: 7 Days]

'What?' Miguel thought, he was shocked, he could feel his heart which was already beating fast, thump beneath his ears. 'I have 7 days left.' He thought, his head a mess from inside. He was trying his best to get away from this place. But it seems like it might be his grave instead. He was overwhelmed with fear and uncertainty.

The next day, Miguel just walked around appreciating everything near him. "At Least it isn't a bad place to die." There was a voice that wanted him to get away from this place. But there was another part of him, who knew how futile it was for him.

"How many times have I tried finding the cure? No, not me, my family. They were the only ones to understand that what I had been experiencing at that time wasn't a small thing. Even I had dismissed it for something my mind had created to cope up with not having any sense of doing anything." Miguel said to himself, hoping that some of the worms that were roaming about would hear about it.

"Even after going through several doctors and even psychiatrists, they weren't able to cure me of this disease. The very thing which snatched away every bit of happiness from me." Miguel said with no hint of emotion on his face. Even if he had made conclusions with the fact that the attacks, the very ailment won't leave him alone, and he would remain like this, faking. It still hurt him from inside.

How much Miguel wanted to meet his parents and his sister at this moment. He couldn't even be sure, if it was him or that he was faking it even now.

"But even if it is fake, I want to meet them at least once before I die." Miguel's eyes swam in fire. The unignited never ending flame, that gives hope, that makes people do things.

The fire that makes people realize dreams.

For two days, the gray-eyed monster didn't come out. It was only on the third day that he was finally able to see it. It was squatting, waiting for something. There was no prey near him, nor there was a desire on the creature to hunt something. There was a thorn in Miguel's hand. It looked more refined than the natural ones. Miguel knew for a fact that thorns couldn't be alive more than 15 minutes after separating from its stem. So he had decided to chisel it away on the same stem. He wasn't removing it completely, the thorn was still fixed to the stem to make it more comfortable for his hands, carving away the bit and pieces with the help of a rock. He would only tear the thorn when he required it. And that was at this moment.

There was even a bag he had made using the leaves on the ground. It was a mystery, how the thorn couldn't survive being separated whereas some of the few leaves he would see here and there on the ground. Many of them rotted away. He was lucky to find one in a perfectly good condition. So using thorns and some of the veins present on the leaf, he had decided to craft the bag. The bag on his back was filled to the brim.

Miguel put his hands inside the bag, and took out a small creature that looked like a rat. He had already killed it. He threw it toward the creature.

The rat landed some distance away from the gray-eyed creature. It took its eyes to follow toward the fallen creature. And just a moment later. He was onto the creature, grabbing with his claws and tearing it apart. As it showed no mercy to the corpse of the creature.

The sight had always been uncomfortable to Miguel. He took out another creature, it looked like a worm and it had a hole inside its body. Its size was no less than the rat. He threw some distance away from the now feasting creature. The creature paused for less than a moment, before he threw it and ran toward the worm. The creature sliced it into several pieces before throwing it again in its mouth.

Miguel could hear the crunching sound coming from the creature. It didn't take the creature before he had eaten the worm, some pieces had fallen on to the ground, covered with saliva. The gray-eyed was going back toward the still left rat, before it heard another thud. The creature ran toward it, the destination closer to the field of flowers.

Miguel looked closely at the creature. It wouldn't take long before it finishes the rotten bird on the ground. He had only a few moments to spare.

Miguel took a stance, spear in his hands, his hands sweaty but gripped firmly onto the makeshift handle. His eyes looked straight toward the creature's mouth. It was only a moment's chance. The instant he missed it would be his last.

Despite no experience in hunting. Despite no survival guide to help him. He screamed inside as he left forward, the bouncing of his feets creating a straight path toward the monster. His breath caught in lungs. The adrenaline that pushed him forward. The thump of his heart, the rushing of blood inside his head, and even the warming of his hands were proof. That this was the moment he had been waiting for.

The creature was a moment away from putting the pieces of scatter bits inside his crooked and sharp mouth, when it heard a noise. The noise was nothing like that of any prey he had laid his eyes upon. For a moment it hesitated on what to do, but that was when it felt a push on its body. A sharp one, that didn't even give it a chance to see what it was. And then it found itself hurling on the ground, something sharp poking in its body.

"Shit," Even with the proper execution, Miguel found the sharp edge of the thorn poking the gray-eyed creature onto the side of its face. The impact and the adrenaline rush pushed Miguel onto the ground along with the creature.

He found his vision trying to trail the creature, even when tumbling. But it wasn't easy. He had no experience of falling, but somehow he was able to roll to come skidding to a halt. Without missing a second, he propelled his feets to move forward toward the creature as it tried to get up.

His feets found his way onto the creature's body, sending it on to the ground. Miguel found himself, falling at a sharp angle. His shoulder hurt from the impact, but still he didn't waste a second. With his fierce eyes, he wanted to find the creature again, before he found himself ripped from his chest.

The creature had hurled its claws in a defensive manner and it had found its target. Miguel fell on the ground. His chest burning with extreme heat, he wanted to take a look at it, but time didn't permit him. He found the spear toward the left of the creature. It would take a few seconds before the creature would be able to get to him. To him that was enough.

Lifting his foot from the ground, Miguel found himself exhausted, but even when his mouth tried to grasp air he got to the spear again. WIth the handle of the spear, he found himself skidding on his knees to stop himself. His face and even his posture facing toward the creature. The creature launched itself onto Miguel.

Even when scared, he had no seconds to doubt his judgment, he escaped one of the slashes from its claw, finding the creature behind himself. He immediately tried turning to face the creature. But Miguel found himself a tad bit late, and the gap was closed immediately on the side of his abdomen. The creature moved its face this time to give a crushing blow onto its prey when Miguel fell, slipping his balance due to the gore of the worm that was left on the ground. His face now facing the creature, as he fell, the thorn still grasped in one of his hands, he immediately hurled it forward, not thinking about his aim. The thorn found itself onto the lower end of the creature's abdomen.

Miguel immediately side rolled, feeling the gore on his face and the hotness of the creature's body as it fell where he had been. Its mouth with the biggest opening to the end of its jaw, but it found nothing. He wanted to wake up and immediately go toward the creature to kill it. But he found his body failing due to the exhaustion. The instant he failed to get up, he found the creature clawing its way on the ground toward him.

Miguel turned around, and started crawling as well. After a few failed attempts he got on his feet, the creature following behind him, crawling, even faster than he was. Thinking that the creature would immediately take hold of him any time, he hurled his kick in a roundabout manner toward the face of the creature with whatever energy he could gather at that moment.