Scorch Trials 3

Raiden was sitting on the ground, slowly trying to shift as far away from the hole. His legs were shaking, he couldn't even get up on his feet.

There was a dangerous threat right in front of him. A creature that shouldn't exist in such a way. A centipede, but as big as a house. That centipede constantly glared up on Raiden, observing his every single moment. 

'Raiden…. Raiden…. Raiden.. Raiden,' a voice echoed in Raiden's brain. 'You have to run!'

Before Raiden knew, he was now on his feet. All the fear and shaking of his legs went away. 

The centipede was now, few centimeters away from Raiden's face. They both looked into each other's eyes. The centipede's breath gave Raiden a big hot breeze over his head. It let out a large amount of air from different holes in its body. 

The centipede hadn't done any harm to Raiden till yet but he knew he can't stay there forever like that. He had to make a run for it. Somehow get away from the centipede.

Raiden took a step back. The centipede didn't flinch at all. Then, Raiden took another step back. He continued dragging his body backward. This time, the centipede leaned a little bit forward. Its half body was still hanging inside the hole. 

Raiden stopped. Centipede stopped leaning too. Raiden again backed off. Centipede came along. Raiden understood that it wasn't going to let him leave that easily. Now, his only option was to outrun the centipede but it looked like an impossible idea in his current condition, he was tired up from the earlier running, plus the heat.

'What should I do?' he asked.

'Just outrun it,' Sheila replied.

He chuckled in his thoughts, 'Easier said than done.'

'So what? Are you just gonna stand here until it goes on its own? And let me tell you, you will get passed out because of the heat in some minutes or so. Your only option is to run and find a way to lose it.'

Raiden started breathing heavily. The heat had tired him up again. 

'Damn you are right,' Raiden said.

'You can easily lose it if you try. You are part of "The Undead Kings", remember? You had gone through a lot more than this. You can easily do it.'

'The Undead Kings?' Raiden lets out a sigh, 'Brings back terrible memories.'

Raiden turned around and ran with the little energy left in him. 

The centipede leaned ahead. But Raiden had gone pretty far away from the centipede. It backed off a little, and, pushed itself ahead just to pull out the remaining part of its body from the hole. 

Its full length was as big as any building. It started crawling just like a snake to make its way towards Raiden. Considering its size, it covered more ground than Raiden could and reached up to him in no time.

Raiden could see it coming all the way in. He ran with all his might to not get caught up by the centipede. 

It dashed ahead, making its way In the sand towards Raiden. 

Raiden saw the upcoming centipede and jumped to the left side of the road. The centipede went all the way straight.

Raiden got up on his feet. He was all dried up. He felt like he could get passed out at any moment but he gave his feet a little more pain and ran up to the house which was on the left side. He crawled inside through the broken window.

The centipede hit the ground pretty hard in order to catch Raiden. It took it a moment to get stabilized. It had lost Raiden's trail but it knew where Raiden had dodged it.

The centipede adjusted itself in that short road to get its face in front of the house in which Raiden just crawled in. 

Raiden was under the window, taking heavy breaths of air. His body felt torn apart. His feet felt like needles had just picked up on them. 

The centipede started checking every window of the house. It put its eyes so close to the window and tried looking for Raiden. 

Raiden peaked outside the window and saw the centipede searching for it. He stepped away from the window and crawled over to the other room in the house.

He slowly crawled to the back of the house and jumped from the window to the other side. There was another road waiting for him. 

The centipede's search was still going on and meanwhile, Raiden was slowly crossing the road. 

The centipede couldn't find any sign of Raiden through the windows. It got annoyed and put its head inside the house by breaking the walls of the house.

Raiden saw all the hustle behind his back. He tried speeding up but couldn't manage it for long. 

Raiden reached the house on the other side of the road. He opened the door and looked behind to see the house breaking apart. Raiden shut the door in.

The centipede took the whole house over on top of its head and tossed it to the other side. 

After breaking into the house and still not finding Raiden, it went on a rampage.

It started destroying every house in that row in search of Raiden. 

After destroying eight nearby houses it went back to where it had come from.

Raiden just sat down by the door. After not hearing anything outside he stood up and went into a room. 

He put his bag on the bed which was present in that room. He laid down in the bed beside his bag. He closed his eyes and let out a big sigh. 

"Fuck, I hate centipedes," he said.

He enjoyed his couple of hours of sleep. When he wake up he found himself in darkness. Sun had set down and it was night. 

Raiden's eyes adjusted to the little light of the moon coming from the window. He felt the hunger take over his body.

He took out the canned food in his bag and started eating them. He had gained his strength back after the sleep and food. He had to look for Joel now.

Suddenly the darkness around him swept away and a green light shone from outside the window.

"No, no, no, no, no!" he murmured as he came by the window to look outside.

The green light came from the sky at some far distance. After a while, it went dark again, but the green light again showed up in the sky. It happened three times. 

"This is really bad," Raiden said.