You're In The Tall Grass

Chapter Two: Gerard

When Gerard's ship alarms started blaring at five in the morning, he didn't know what to expect from his day. A crash? Sure. Emergency landing on a strange planet? Definitely. But this was not on the mile-long list of outrageous scenarios that he'd thought of.

'Stranded on an alien planet that was a giant grass maze' was rather close to the bottom. Above 'eaten by a giant space caterpillar' but below 'stuck on a planet populated by talking rocks'.

After he'd wrestled himself out of his crushed ship, Gerard had begun looking around to take inventory. Everything he owned was on fire, but that turned out to be a favorable outcome. The planet was nearly pitch black, and he couldn't make out any detail no matter where he glanced...only vague shapes. Luckily, Gerard was a trained colonizer for Earth's Galaxy Travellers, and was mentally equipped to traverse a dark planet. He'd shrugged his iridescent jacket up to his neck to fend off the lightless cold and began his determined trek through the impossible maze.

And now...it's been hours. Gerard has taken every twist and turn imaginable in an attempt to find a way through the maze, previously believing it had an end. Now he wasn't so sure. This grass maze had no dead ends that he could use to map his journey. No matter which direction he traveled there was always a path either leading to an array of new paths, or the occasional barren dirt field with abandoned cottages. Gerard was beginning to think he was permanently trapped in the tall grass.

Clink

Gerard screamed as something cold and hard sprung up around his right ankle. He felt jagged steel teeth snap shut in a vice grip around his leg, tearing straight through flesh and muscle. His body crashed into the moist ground and the trap around his leg was pulled up from the soil. Gerard rolled onto his back and sat up to gain his bearings. The pain made his brain fuzzy and his sight blurred, but he was trained for this. He could handle this.

It was a disgusting sight. The metal teeth were locked into his leg bone while shredded pieces of flesh dangled from the spikes. The planet's soil seemed to drink up his spilled blood with a sentient greediness, feeding on his wound. A shiny engraving on the trap's side caught his eye:

You're in the Tall Grass

A shiver ran down Gerard's spine as he realized the gravity of his situation. This wasn't simply an outdated grizzly trap left behind on an abandoned planet. This was a deliberately set trap meant to capture and impede him. Someone was hunting him like a wild animal.

Gerard flexed his leather-clad hands and carefully wrapped them around the trap. Scrunching up his face with morbid anticipation, Gerard started to pry the steel from his body. The process remained the same for no less than twenty minutes.

White-knuckle the steel trap for a few minutes while the teeth slowly exit his body.

Collapse and breathe heavily and hope the blood loss doesn't make him black out.

Repeat until the leg is free.

Once a merciful snap DID ring through the agonizing silence, Gerard was sure he was going to die there in the mud. More blood gushed from the holes in his leg and fed into the hungry dirt. Gerard wasted no time pouring alcohol on the tears and wrapping the limb tight with the torn bottom of his flight shirt.

You're in the tall grass

Welcome to the tall grass

Feed the tall grass.

His amber eyes were blown wide as he searched frantically for the source of the whispers. No one but the grass was there.

"It's just the blood loss," he whispered to himself. But it wasn't the blood loss.

He was in the tall grass.