Eight Years have Passed (1)

*GRRRR*

My eyes went wide with shock seeing the creature that emerged from the trees.

A creature emerged from the trees. It was a creature I have never seen before. It was as big as a rhinoceros, but its appearance was far from one. The first thing my eyes saw was the two long fangs and razor sharp teeth as the creature was snarling at me. Its skin was covered with scales. It was standing on its four feet with sharp claws. Its eyes were amber and had slits for irises. All I could think while looking at the creature was it was a monster that only exists in books ang movies.

My body was shaking in fear. The monster was looking at me while salivating.

'This thing looks at me as food.' Was what I thought.

The monster was stalking me slowly. I did not make sudden moves, knowing that it could endanger my life. The monster can tear me with its claws and teeth in an instant.

'Think, Claudia…. Think' My mind was racing on what to do in this kind of situation. I have thought of what should be done when seeing a bear like playing dead or something, but I think that won't do with this kind of creature. Then I thought about the grenades inside my backpack.

'I can use that as I diversion and run away after the explosion.' I thought to myself. 'Even if I was not able to throw it successfully, the explosion can give the monster a moment of confusion giving me the time to run and hide.'

I slowly reached towards my backpack slowly, not making any sudden movements to alert the monster. While I was doing so, the monster was clearly stalking me slowly. Once I was able to get one grenade from my backpack, I quickly placed it back on my back and looked carefully at the grenade in my hand.

"Just pull the pin and throw it." I told myself. "It is that simple."

This was my first time to even touch a grenade, let alone use it. My heart was racing inside my chest as if horses were running in full speed. I can feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead.

"Well, here goes nothing." I quickly pulled the pin out of the grenade and threw it at the direction of the monster.

The monster was unfazed with the grenade I threw and tried to smell it with its nose.

'Now run!' I thought to myself.

I turned around and dashed to the opposite direction. Once I did so, I heard the load roar of the monster.

*ROAR* *BANG*

I huge explosion followed the roar of the monster. I was thrown a few feet from where I was standing after the explosion. I tumbled down the ground until I was able to stop. I looked at the spot where the explosion took place and saw think smoke brewing.

"Did I get it?" I asked myself.

I was sure that the grenade was directly below that monster. It should have blown that creature to smithereens.

*GRRR*

"What the f*ck?!" I cursed out loud. "It's still alive?!"

I did not wait to see the monster once again and dashed away. I was running like hell through the thick bushes. The tree branches on the way were scratching my face and arms while the bushes were scratching the jeans I am wearing.

Then I heard the monster's foot steps just behind me. It was dashing towards me at tremendous speed.

"Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t…" I cursed silently while running with all my strength.

Then I saw a huge tree with a hallow trunk underneath. I quickly ducked and hid myself there. I scooped up fallen leaves and made it as a cover for the opening.

I tried to calm my racing heart which was thumping heart in my chest. I held my mouth with my hand to prevent my deep breaths from being heard from outside.

'Please don't let it find me… please don't let it find me.' I was chanting in my mind like a prayer.

I heard the monster's footsteps coming near slowly. I can hear its heavy breath, like it was just near where I was. I did not move from my spot, I tried to concentrate with my hearing. After what felt like forever, I can feel the monster move away from my hiding spot. I did not move until some time had passed. When I thought it was clear, I sighed in relief. But my relief was short lived because I heard the monster roar ferociously just from outside.

*ROAR*

The tree I was hiding shook violently, as if the monster were ramming unto it from outside. I did not wait until the tree was uprooted from where it stood and rushed out of my hiding spot. I grabbed the pistol from behind and turned off the safety lock.

When I cam out the monster was lying in wait. It was running towards me ready to pounce. I lifted my pistol and shot at the monster. The bullets hit the monster, but it ricochets when it hit the monster's body.

"What the…?!" I was confused why the bullets did not even pierce the monster's body, but what I thought was maybe its body is hard as steel. "It that why the grenade did not even give that monster a scratch?"

The monster was just seconds away when one of my shots luckily hit one of the monster's eyes. The monster stopped in its tracks and howled in pain. It was a lucky shot, but I did not wait for it to recover so I ran as hell out of there.

My lungs felt that it was on fire while I was breathing harder. I was running so fast since a while ago and I felt my body was at its limit. My legs were shaking, and my speed was starting to slow down. When I thought that I was able to run away in a safe distance from the monster, I felt a force push me down the ground hard.

"Ahh…" I shouted in pain after feeling the powerful jab at my back.

I can feel the weight that was pinning me down on the ground, I felt like I was being crushed. A powerful force pushed me sideways and now I was facing upwards. Then I saw the monster that was chasing me. Its paws were pushing down from above. I tried to break free from the paw that was pushing me down to the ground but to no avail. The pistol I was carrying was thrown in a distance from me, leaving myself defenseless while the monster was pinning me down to the ground.

*GRRRR*

The monster growled on top of me. I saw blood dripping from its left eye where I luckily shot it. The monster's saliva was trickling from its mouth right towards my face. I felt helpless with my current situation.

"No… I can't die here." I told myself trying to be brave in this helpless situation. "I won't die until I find my daughter." I had a firm resolve.

I made eye contact with the remaining eye of the monster. At that time, my mind went blank in an instant. The monster also stopped growling on top of me and we stared at each other for what felt like forever.

I felt in a daze while I was looking at the monster on top of me. It felt like time stopped as our eyes met. I did not know how long the monster and I was like that until I heard a loud sound of some kind of machine. I did not know where it came from or how to explain the sound, but what I could tell from the sound was it was like an electricity charging and a sudden loud bang was heard.

*BANG*

The monster from above me was thrown away with a huge force. A blue streak of light just passed thru my vision very fast.

*ROAR*

The monster roared loudly in pain. I was disoriented from what was happening and was still gathering my bearing when I tried to get up. My body felt like it was hit pretty hard, I can feel the pain all over.

"Are you all right?" I heard a man's voice by my side. When I looked up, I saw a man that looked my age wearing an all black suit with blue strips of light. He had dark brown hair and dark green eyes. "Are you hurt? Can you get up?"

"I-I think I can…" I replied still unfocused.

"Here, let me help you." The man lent me a hand and helped me up.

"Thanks." I said when the man helped me.

"Stephen, that daemon is still alive." Another man who was wearing the same clothes as the man who was helping me said.

"Kill it while it is still down!" The man that helped me up said. I believe Stephen is his name.

"Understood." The man replied.

Then I heard the same sound that I heard a while ago. Now I knew where the sound came from. It was a sound that came from the weapons that the people with Stephen are holding. The weapons they are using are like firearms but bigger. It had blue strips of light that was connected to the person's clothes.

The group of people bombarded the monster with what I thought was blue lasers coming out of the weapons they were using. The weapons were able to pierce the monster's steel like skin. Blood oozed out of the monster. The people just stopped when they were sure that the monster was not moving from its spot.

"Is it dead?" I asked in disbelief.

"I am sure it is." Stephen who was holding me up replied.

"That's great…" I felt relief wash over my whole body. And maybe because I felt safe, my body lost its strength, and I was about to fall down. Thankfully, Stephen who was still holding me caught me.

"Miss… miss…" I can hear Stephen calling out my name, but my consciousness started to fade to darkness.

Edited by: nalyn