The Key to My Hart

Chapter 22

The moment I stood, the brute paused in its eating. I cracked my neck and shook my limbs. This was going to be brutal.

The moment the pop echoes through silent woods, the brute roared and struggled to its feet. So it had enough dexterity to sit and stand. Interesting. The brute moved in a slow circle, swinging it's engorged head back and forth.

I whistled. Finally, the beast focused in on me. It started running, slowly building up speed. Every footstep sounded like thunder. The ground even shook slightly.

Moment of truth. Right before the brute reached me with its outstretched arms, I ducked and rolled. The brute couldn't slow down fast enough, running straight into a large pine tree. The trunk splintered, and dead branches and leaves came crashing down.

I stayed low to the ground, watching. The brute wobbled on its feet for a moment before gaining traction and turning around. Plenty of recovery time for myself. The biter looked like it was having a seizure jerking it's head in every direction before finally spotting me low to the ground.

Instead of rolling away this time, I stood my ground, letting the monster run straight at me. I dodged its raised arm, grabbing onto one and swinging it into the nearest tree. This time, the tree cracked in half and fell over.

Pain flared in my shoulder as my arm got caught between two of the bulbous masses and was ripped from its socket. My vision began to turn red. The brute had yet to get its bearings as I walked to the closest tree and slammed my shoulder into its trunk, successfully popping it back into place.

The pain only fueled my rage. I could feel my blood boiling as the black veins began creeping up my arms. I had to end this and eat the rest of that jerky.

What once was Josh and Lacy's father stood and growled at me, this time not rushing me. The brute reached out and grabbed a small tree, ripping it from the ground, roots and all.

The brute started swinging the tree back and forth while roaring. I ducked, twisted, and rolled out of the way but the bastard kept coming for me. I sprinted towards the newly fallen tree, used it's base as a stepping stone, and leapt into the air, clinging to a thick branch about fifteen feet in the air.

The brute's eyes had tracked me to my new position and readied the tree for an upward swing. I leapt from that branch to another one in the same tree, taunting the beast before me. It roared, dropped the smaller tree and started beating on the trunk. I flipped off the branch backwards and landed on the shoulders of the monster.

It twisted and turned, trying to raise its arms high enough to claw me off, but the mass of its body prevented it from reaching high enough. My legs squeezed around its neck. I made sure to keep away from its mouth, but the brute didn't seem interested in biting me.

As the veins grew further up my arms, my fingernails transitioned into black points. The back of the brute's neck was thick, but I sunk my nails into its flesh anyways. I started ripping out muscle tendons, tissue, and skin as I dug my way to the spinal cord.

The brute began bucking, attempting to knock me loose. It was yelling out in pain. Finally, my fist closed around the spinal cord, and I gave one final yank. The biter collapsed under me. I threw myself off and rolled into a crouch, waiting to see if it would continue to move. It didn't.

I could hear my pulse in my ear. The red vision had almost taken over completely. With jerky movements, I managed to dig the small bag of dried meat out of the pockets of the sweats I was in, and shoved the rest in my mouth.

I flopped to the forest floor exhausted as the biter retreated back in me. There was a small rustle in the distance, but I was too worn out to give chase to whatever animal had braved returning.