The Departed (Working Title)

Chapter Ten

The creatures looked almost like scorpions - they had a hard segmented shell and spiked tales that darted back and forth. They had claws in the front that snapped at anything that came within inches of it. My eyes couldn't comprehend the rest of what I was seeing. That was just the lower body of these creatures, connected to it was the torso and the head of a man. Long charcoal colored hair braided down their backs. They had the most severe looking faces, their eyebrows permanently furrowed beneath bushy eyebrows, their jaws set firmly.

I stared, petrified, unable to move my feet. We hadn't covered these things yet in our training. How was I supposed to help?

"Shit!" Jax yelled as he ran into the chaos.

One of the scorpions was cornering Les up against one of the crumbling burning cabins. She carried what looked like a thick broken off branch in her hand, and had fashioned it into a spear. Claws came hurtling down on Les, and she pushed the spear in front of her as they clamped down and crushed the stick into three equal pieces.

The scorpion's stinger poised just above her head, ready to strike. It hurtled down towards Les, but didn't make purchase. The scorpion flew several hundred feet back from the camp, with a gut wrenching crunch. Jax was frozen in position with his hands in the air, tracing shapes into the sky. He was spell casting. He was the one that got rid of the scorpion.

An ear splitting snarl echoed through the air, and I looked to my left to see Kyle riding on the back of one with a thick rope wrapped around its neck, cutting of its air supply. The scorpion fumbled to reach the rope, screeching and thrashing in the process. But Kyle held his ground as he increased the pressure of the rope. No, it wasn't a rope, it was a bunch of his guitar strings.

Kyle dawned a proud grin, he was winning. But the celebration was cut short as a the scorpion's stinger hovered hauntingly behind him. I started running towards them, but my legs couldn't carry me quick enough. "Kyle look out!"

It was too late, the scorpion's stinger jabbed at Kyle's back forcing him to release his hold on the garrote he had fashioned. "No!" I felt myself yell. I was starting to disconnect myself from my body at the horror that transpired before me. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real.

There wasn't time to retreat into myself. I needed to act, I needed to help my friends. I tore my gaze away from Kyle's limp body on the ground and glanced around the campgrounds. I needed to think quick and fast.

"Here!" I heard a deep voice yell from behind me.

I turned around and a spear similar to what Les was using was thrown at me. I caught it, but it was sheer luck. Reach's eyebrows lifted, impressed with my catlike reflexes for once. "Let's make ourselves some scorpion skewers!" He yelled before disappearing into the carnage.

One of the scorpions hovered over Kyle's body. He reached his arms out to pick him up, but what for? I couldn't let this thing take Kyle away. He belonged with us. "No!" I screamed at it, hauling its attention to me.

I lifted my spear and threw my arm back, ready to throw it. But what was I going to throw it at? The hard impenetrable shell? It's torso that could easily be blocked with its arms or claws?

The window of opportunity to throw my spear was quickly vanishing as the creature closed the gap between the two of us. My heart beat nervously in my chest, reaching up into my throat and my palms were growing sweaty making my grip on the spear slip.

The scorpion was only inches from me now, and he heaved the spear forward, aiming for its torso, but I was knocked to the side. My feet flew out from under my and I hit the dirt, landing on my shoulder. A resounding pop forced a scream from my mouth. A dislocation for sure. The creature bared down on me, it's stinger ready to strike. I rolled onto my back and looked around for anything to grab when I saw it. Only an arms reach from me was the spear I was using. I stretched my good arm as far as I could, the rough texture of the wood tickled at my fingertips.

I was too late though, the stinger dashed through the air and was mere inches from my face when Reach intervened. His arms wrapped around the scorpion's tale so it couldn't move another inch. He pulled as hard as he could as the scorpion attempted to push its tail forward. I rolled out from under the tail, pain jutting up my arm as it hung limply at my side. I grabbed the spear with my good hand, and ran back closing the distance between me and this hideous beast.

One glance back at Reach, and I knew I needed to make this coins. All of the scorpion's attention was on him now - the tail, the claws, even it's arms made to grab him and strike. But Reach was strong and he was fast. He let go of the scorpion's tail to dodge the claws that clomped at him. "Hurry!" He yelled.

I ran to within inches of the scorpion's massive towering body and jabbed the spear straight into its torso. Black gunk oozed from its wound as it bent over in agony. It released another scream that was at an octave only dogs could hear and slowly started to crumble into itself until it finally collapsed with a thud on the ground.

There was no time to celebrate as another tail bashed me in the back, forcing me to fly several feet before grinding back into the ground again. It was never ending. There was going to be too many and not enough of us. The scorpion that hit me was hurdling towards me with anger and rage haunting their features. Had it seen what we just did to its brother?

I scrambled backwards along the muddied floor until my back was against a tree. This was going to be it, I had nowhere else to go. My right arm was no use as it hung limply beside be and any movement I made was agonizing from all the thrashing around. There was no time to react as a stinger zoomed through the air, and pierced my shoulder. I cried out as the scorpion pulled the stinger back and poised for another attack. My shoulder burned like the rays of a thousand suns that radiated along my arm. Tears welled in my eyes, unable to hold back. The stinger descended on me at warp speed again, this time piercing my leg. "Jax!" I yelled.

I felt like my entire body was on fire now, and I couldn't take the pain any longer. I helplessly watched the scorpion ready itself for another attack even though I was clearly no longer a threat. In fact I was beginning to fade, and lose my grip on consciousness. Was it from the pain? Was there some sort of venom from the stings? Venom? Was that even a word? I couldn't concentrate, I couldn't think. All I could think about was the immense burning pain pumping through my bloodstream, feeling as if all the flesh on my body would singe off and I was going to be reduced to a pile of ash in no time.

A bright light, a small speck at first. Growing. Growing. Just a small speck, but it was getting bigger. It reached me and wrapped me around like a warm hug. Was I dying? How could I be dying? I was already dead.

A shadow hovered above me. Lapis lazuli contrasting against the bright blinding light. A warm embrace. Then it all started to fade. It was fading. Fading. Fading.

Until it all faded to black.