Satellites

Chapter 3

I'm running. The wind howls, pushing against my efforts to escape, but I scream at it, I scare it away. The sun pierces my skin, it's rays getting hotter and hotter until I want to scream again. But I don't. Instead, I breath heavily and continue to pump my scorching legs.

I reach a clearing. The ground is dead and dry, and dust puffs with each thundering step I make. But nothing compares to the steps behind me. I take a quick look to see if I had lost the creature and immediately regret it. A monster the size of a bull roars at me in distaste. It's fur was black and matted, and it's face was composted of rough skin and bone. I yelp in surprise as its nostrils puff hot air into my back, but I can't go any further. I collapse onto the floor, prickly grass stinging my shins while the sun digs craters through my skin. I close my eyes as the monster sinks his teeth into my flesh.

My eyes burst open in the darkness. My pulse jumps, and one touch to my forehead tells me that my body was hot. For a moment, I forgot where I was. I look around as my eyes slowly adjust. I was in a cave.

But why?

I spot a metallic handle and a flood of memories block my vision. Running from the man. Slamming the handle down and falling asleep.

I sit up abruptly, and immediately regret it. A pain shoots through my shoulder blades, an unnatural pain caused from something toxic, something sharp. I shudder, remembering my nightmare, and piece together how my mind had made up the vision. My thoughts are interrupted as something shifts in the dark.

"Hello?" I say. My voice echoes for a moment.

There was a pause. Deadness hung in the air like the smell of a dead rat. And then, the sound of a body sliding against metal. My heart leaps as a glint of green winks at me under the slivers of light shining through the sides of the handles, but it vanishes when I blink. Everything becomes quiet too.

I shudder. The silence is unbearable. It's almost as if something is about to leap from the shadows. I press myself onto my feet with unsteady grace. I had lost my shoes somehow, and I can already feel the dirt and rock digging into my toes.

"Hello?" I repeat.