The Redlands [FEATURED]

Chapter 5

John could hear wild, primal baying from all around him. Dogs seemed to bark and growl both distantly and from just behind him in a bizarre animal opera. He pushed on and the sight of the skeletal tree made mad hope bloom in his aching chest. He could barely see it, swaying and sweating and terrified as he was, but he dimly recognised the shape in the distance.

He staggered and limped across the field, tripping over mounds of loose dirt and desert plants until he reached the tree. He clung to the brittle, burnt bark and, in spite of his utter exhaustion, began to slowly climb the tree. The knowledge of the dogs' strength and their murderous conviction spurred his aching limbs. Adrenalin coursed through his veins. He could almost feel the Zeus' hot breath on his ankles. He sat astride the first branch and lent back against the trunk with his eyes closed. He was barely five feet off the ground, but the dogs couldn't get him from there. Right? He panted and sweated and shivered, listening to the wind whistle against the roughened bark of the tree. Alone. Surrounded by the Redlands. Hounded by feral dogs. But alive.

Rustle. Thump. Snuffle.

When he was breathing slower and more confident about his situation, John opened his eyes. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, strange shapes and colours whirled across his vision. He blinked rapidly until only one remained. It was about a foot away from him, dark in colour and swaying slowly. It looked like...feet.

His head shot up and the pale face of Pete looked down on him, filled with terrible knowledge. His eyes were bulging and his face was bloodied; he had been beaten mercilessly. Pete stared directly down into John's shocked eyes and croaked out a word that he couldn't understand.

His mouth gaped impossibly wide, jaw cracking under the strain, and something moved in his throat, distending the soft flesh as it followed the channel up and up. Smaller things crawled under the visible skin of his arms and legs and disappeared under his tattered clothing. John could hear him gasping and gagging as the thing entered the cavern of his mouth and rested it's thin, spider-like limbs on his face. John saw a many teeth and more limbs; he heard the sound of David's pitiful whining and a low buzz; he felt the gaze of the creature even though he was sure it had no eyes. It needed no eyes. It sensed him and he knew that it saw him as an infinitely inferior being, as prey.

In a panic, John gasped and tried to scuttle away; he tumbled from the tree, landing on his face in the dirt. He stood and whirled around, looking up, but Pete was gone. The tree was empty.

The terrified man's breath rattled rapidly through his chest, "What the fuck? Pete? Pete! You sick fucker, don't play jokes like that! Bloody hell..."

He squinted into the darkness. The sound of the pack was fading – had he lost them? And what the hell was he seeing Pete for? Was he even there at all? John rubbed his eyes. He'd been smoking pot for years and he'd never gone a trip like that before. Maybe it was the mix of booze with it that had caused it, or because he had been running around in the dark for hours.

"Fuck this," he muttered and continued doggedly towards Raglan.

Rustle. Thump. Snuffle.

"This is fucking ridiculous," he exclaimed as he walked, "If they'd bloody driven me, I'd be in Raglan by now and wouldn't have to deal with this shit!"

He walked cautiously in the direction of the town, eager to escape the wilderness and his own hallucinations, but careful of running into the dogs again. He just wanted to crawl onto his mattress and sleep until noon. He checked his phone – it was already two in the morning! And of course his phone had one percent battery life left and no reception to speak of. As he stared at it, the phone died in his hand and he almost threw it at a tree. Just great! Blood from the shallow scratches on his arms and legs dribbled down his flesh, cool and wet, stinging in the cold wind. He just wanted to be home. At that moment, there wasn't much John wouldn't give to be free of the Redlands.