DRAGON (mxm)

1. Superior (Chris)

   I am gazing at the cheerless landscape before me. A deep groan escapes my chapped lips. I was wrong. There is no water here. The river I once knew as an untamed, babbling stream, sparkling against the lush greenery, is gone. Only a sad, dusty path is winding in its place among dead branches and silent rocks, covered in yellow dirt.

   This used to be a dense forest, beautiful and teaming with life. It has the color of the desert now. The mighty oak trees have turned into motionless giants, dry and hopeless. Their leaves, painted in all shades of brown, are waiting resignedly for the weakest gust of wind to wipe them away from the land that no longer gives them strength, but only poison.

   I've been climbing the high hill all day under the cruel sun to reach the ridge from where a steep but short slope leads to a thicket of shrubbery and undergrowth that gradually transitions into an old oak forest. The only thing that kept me going was my hope. I naively thought I would be here before sunset to find the place exactly as I remembered it from my childhood. Twenty years of wandering across the wasteland should have made me wiser. I should have known better.

   There is no hope. There is no water. There is no home.

   It is almost dark. Staying in the open is the stupidest thing one can do when the night is approaching. I contemplate what to do for a while, but there is no turning back. The best option is to hide in the forest. The trees grow at the very crest of the hill and extend all the way to where our family farm once stood. The house must be razed to the ground by now. Maybe, I will go and have a look tomorrow, although, to see it in ruins will surely break my heart for a thousandth time. I wonder how much pain a man can bear when the world he was born into crumbles before his eyes.

   Suddenly, a horrid, gruff growl shatters the silence in the advancing twilight. I can feel the sound waves penetrate my body, not only through the ears, but through every pore on my skin, all the way to the bones, making them vibrate on the same low frequency. The dreadful sound courses through my blood stream, accelerating my pulse until it feels like hammers, hitting directly on my eardrums. My heart is pounding. The adrenalin is rushing in my veins. I am petrified.

   There is no doubt it's a monster. It seems this is not an ordinary one. Not that the word 'ordinary' fits any of them. Each one of those vicious, merciless predators is terrifying, but it still remains an animal. Although the mutations have made them far more aggressive than before, they can't be as smart as a human, determined to stay alive. We have learned how to avoid them and how to survive an eventual encounter. If it sounded like an ORD, I wouldn't be more worried than about a sprained ankle. But this...

   Another growl echoes through the lifeless forest, this time followed by a long, menacing hiss. I instantly fall on my knees and take my backpack off my shoulders. It is a bad idea to stay on top of the hill. I need to find a shelter as soon as possible. Not taking fear and scent suppressants first could be even worse. I am scared and they can smell it. It won't matter where I hide because the beast will instantly know exactly where to find me. I am convinced it's a SUP. I also think there is nothing that can save me, if I am right. But I am a fighter, or just stubborn, and will try anyway.

   The 'superiors' are rare. We know nothing about them. They are almost like a legend. There were no more than twenty encounters in twenty years and only a couple of survivors. Death rate over ninety percent. I will still take my chances. I quickly swallow a handful of pills, spray myself with the stinky liquid and roll down the slope, hiding in the dry grass. There is a huge fallen log, forming a small cavern between the rocks on the river bank. I get on all fours and crawl into it, pulling the branches to cover it completely. If I am lucky, the monster may go away, without even passing by my hiding place at all.