Icehot

3: Blood & Beasts

Oliver used his arms to propel himself backwards as the spider's fangs descended towards his face.

In an act of desperation he kicked upward with his bound legs, smashing his feet into the underside of the massive spider. It reared up on its back feet, screeching loudly and raising its front four legs up like giant swords.

Released temporarily from the confines of the spider, he rolled quickly to his left. He heard a loud thump and intense pain filled his leg as the spiders legs crashed back down. Using his full body, he began to pull himself and squirm down the side of the dune. Soon he was tumbling down the hill in a cloud of dust and sand. He heard once again the loud screech of the spider. Suddenly, he felt the air squashed out of his chest as he hit the bottom of the dune and less than a second later a massive weight slammed into his side and sent him flying across the sand like he was a frisbee.

Coming to a painful stop, he managed to look up and saw, through the dust, the spider charging at him and quickly gaining speed. He stumbled backwards and began to turn around to sprint for his life when his toe caught on something and he fell face-first into the sand.

Screaming in pain as he realized his toe had been deeply punctured, Oliver turned to see a shard of glass, about an inch thick, sticking out of the sand like a dagger. In a moment of desperation he dove and grabbed the shard, which bit into his already bloodied hand. Laying flat on the ground he could feel a huge something whizzing over him.

Rolling onto his back, he once again saw the spider crawling towards him. A massive leg hit his chest and pinned him to the hot sand. Tears and sweat filled his eyes, making it hard to see clearly.

Before thinking about it too much about it Oliver twisted his arm until his hand was free and then slashed upwards with the thick shard of glass.

He felt himself connect with the spider's meaty face and the leg pinning him down left as the spider scrambled backwards and away from him. Painfully standing up, he held the glass out in front of him. It was slightly curved, like a dagger.

Looking up he prepared for the spider to charge at him again but was shocked to see it struggling to move, as if stuck or severely maimed.

Did I really hit it that hard? he thought.

Then the strangeness intensified as the spider began, quite literally, to sink into the sand. Confused for a second longer, he was suddenly filled with relief as he realized that the spider had gotten caught in a pit of quicksand!

He continued to watch as the massive beast struggled to fight its way out of the pit, but to no avail. The sand swallowed its legs, its body, and finally its squirming head descended into the pit. Oliver almost felt bad as he watched it struggling so much, trying so hard to keep its life in this feeble, harsh land.

Before long, however, his own pain enveloped any feelings of remorse, or, in fact, any feelings about anything. He just felt pain. Blood and sweat mixed together and dripped off of his hands in thick, translucent beads. Lacerations filled his body and a massive line of blood covered his right leg, where the spider had slashed him full on.