The Island

Chapter 6- The Last Stand

Hailey watched as Todd half carried-half dragged Ben into the cave. She had a feeling that she'd never see them again.

Hailey pushed that feeling away.

She turned around, spike in hand, to find that while she and Todd had been talking, they'd let themselves be surrounded. The trees' branches all hung low over her and the cave like a dome, the monster prowled forward.

She'd successfully poked out his eye, and Todd had left a nast lump on his head, but the monster still came. "Hailey LaLiberté," it growled. "You only delay the inevitable."

Hailey ignored him, the rush of adrenaline came back to her more powerfully than ever, blood pounding in her head and all distractions going away. It was just the monster and Hailey.

"Maybe so," she said. "But if I go down, I'm bringing you with me."

The monster's lip curled in that cruel, horrible sneer. "Whatever you say," it said. It seemed amused, the way one would be when they watched a young puppy just starting to test the limits.

The pair stared each other down in a standoff, waiting. Waiting for what, Hailey didn't know.

After a few long seconds, Hailey yelled defiantly and charged the beast. The beast jumped up, but Hailey had known he would; she slid down on her knees like she was making a homerun in baseball, and jabbed her spear into the beast's underbelly.

Bronze blood spurted out of the monster, covering Hailey in it. Hailey barely noticed as she leapt back onto her feet. The monster howled with fury and pain as it turned and came back for another attack, this time it didn't jump.

Hailey shoved her spear into the beast's mouth, straight through the top and into its brain. The monster's eyes widened as it swiped its paw at her chest, slamming her so hard her heart nearly stopped.

Blood burst out of her chest, she staggered back as the beast rolled over and fell to the ground, dead.

Stars swam in front of Hailey's eyes, she felt dizzy and disoriented. She looked down at her chest. Her wound was bright green.

The dumb monster's claws were poisoned.

Hailey felt strangely calm as the life drained out of her. She'd saved her friends for the time being, and she was glad of it. Hailey smiled as her heart pumped out its last frantic beasts, and she took her final breaths.

"Never defeated," she said as her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed, her head turned towards the sky.

And with that, she died, still with that triumphant smile on her face.