~Calamitous Chronicles~ A Severed Connection

Chapter 3

Tony was paralyzed with fear. Whoever or whatever killed those people was still here with him. Tony finally started shining his phone light all around trying to look for the thing stalking him in the dark.

Tony searched frantically, searching for something but couldn't find anything.

Tony dared not to speak. If whatever was out there didn't know of his presence then he wanted to keep it that way.

'Maybe it was just my imagination' Tony thought to himself. But he knew it wasn't true. He knew that there was something out there waiting for the keen opportunity to finally reveal itself.

He finally built up the courage to start walking, his legs trembling with every step. He didn't completely know the way back but had sort of an idea.

pit pat pit pat pit pat.

Tony's heart started beating faster as he heard quick shuffling footsteps coming from somewhere in the cave. Whatever was in here definitely knew that he was here. He kept walking. He needed to find the exit fast or else he'd be one of those bodies in that room. His face would be on the missing posters that give everyone false hope that he will be found. His dad would be devastated. Tony didn't want any of those things to happen so he started to pick up the pace a little bit.

While walking, trying to avoid stepping on all the random objects, which he assumed belonged to the previous victims that he saw, he came upon one thing that made him stop in his tracks.

"Our tent?" Tony quietly whispered to himself. "How did it get here?"

He walked a little closer to what he had thought to be claimed by nature and quickly took a picture before walking back towards where he thought the exit was.

After a little more walking, Tony saw the broken pair of glasses he saw when he first walked in the room. He had to be close to the exit now.

pit pat pit pat

Tony heard the footsteps again only this time he swore he could see something moving, moving towards him. Tony shined his light at whatever was coming at him and he closed his eyes and braces for something horrible to happen to him.

Tony waited for 5 more seconds before opening his eyes to see a beach ball come to a stop at his feet. Tony let out a sigh of relief. Then Tony thought for a second. How did the ball move on its own? Tony's Train of thought was quickly disrupted by more shuffling footsteps coming from behind him and they were a lot louder than before. Tony turned and knew that this time, something in the dark was coming for him. He beamed his light at whatever was coming and closed his eyes, bracing once again for tragedy to befall him.

Tony waited and listened for the footsteps to reach him but to his surprise they stopped. He opened his eyes and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

The thing that was standing in front of Tony wasn't human but it wasn't exactly an animal either. It was a small creature that was maybe a little under 4 feet tall. It wore a neat black robe that went all the way up its body to meet a perfect white sphere head with a smiley face on the front of it. It had long black shadowy arms that had very sharp fingers coming from either side of it. It just stood there in front of Tony was expecting it to do something but it just stood there, rubbing its eyes.

Tony was in bewilderment. What the heck was this thing? Its arms were way too long to be human and its head seemed kind of small too. "Was this thing the cause of the rotting corpses in the other room?" Tony thought to himself "No, it couldn't be. It's way too small to do any major damage alone."

pit pat pit pat

That was odd. The creature in front of Tony wasn't moving yet he heard more footsteps. That's when another one stepped into Tony's light. Then another. Then another. Then another. Soon all Tony could see in front of him was these tiny little creatures, all with the same smiley face. They all seemed to be... whispering to each other? The words didn't exactly sound human. Tony looked at them all. They were in every direction but behind him. They all seemed to be looking at one another chatting about something. "This could be my chance to leave." Tony thought. He slowly turned and took a step back towards the exit. All the little whispers stopped. Tony looked back up at them to see that they were all staring at him. One lifted it hand up and pointed it at him.

"Strava vesbuloo." It uttered loud enough for all of them to hear. This triggered something in all of them. They held out their hands towards Tony, some of them even clawing at the ground. They started slowly advancing towards Tony. Tony's heart was racing faster and faster with every step they took. Finally, he found common sense again and immediately bolted for the exit behind him. Tony glanced back to see hundreds of these small creatures chasing him. They would shove each other out of the way, trample over one another, heck, Tony saw one get thrown into a wall. Tony could feel his heart beating out of his chest as he ran as fast as he could to get away from these beasts. Tony could hear them all making a noise that sounded somewhat like a combination of a scream and growl at the same time.

Tony finally found the slope that led back to the exit. He reached it and started to try and run back up, using his arms to try and help propel himself forward.

Suddenly Tony felt a sharp pain in his ankle. Tony let out a scream of pain and looked down to see that one of the creatures somehow got ahead of the rest and had its pointy fingers plunged into Tony's ankle. Tony thrashed and kicked at it with his free foot causing it to let go and hold its head in pain. Tony didn't give it a chance to regain its bearings before he continued desperately crawling upward to make it to safety. Tony could hear the rest of them start to catch up causing him to go faster.

Eventually the slope ended and Tony stood up and continued to run towards the exit as best as he could with his injured foot. Tony could see the light up ahead that led to sweet sweet freedom from this absolute hell hole. Tony ran faster. There was so much blood leaking from his foot but he didn't care. He kept running as hard as he could. He was not going to die alone in some random cave he randomly found at the side of the mountain.

Tony could hear the roars from the creatures behind him grow louder. He took one last glance back to see that the creatures were gaining on him. He was so close to the exit. Tony didn't know why but outside in the light felt safe even though it was right outside the absolute nightmare he was in. But Tony had a gut feeling that they wouldn't leave. He couldn't explain it but right now, that was the only thing on his mind. Get out now.

Tony was right there. The light at the end of the tunnel was so close, but so were the creatures. Their roars were now so loud it was paining Tony's ears. He was too close to die now. In an act of desperation, Tony made a leap of faith.

Either he was going to make it out, or die right here, letting his face be on the next missing person poster.