Island Of The Cryptids

33

Manuel jogged back towards the plane. He was safe, for now. He just wanted to get back inside, and hope for his life that either the plane was back on, or Jake had found the phone. Then he could rescue Kaeli and be off this godforsaken island.

He heard rushed footsteps behind him. He turned to see Jake, running towards him.

"Get going! We have to move quick!" he shouted in a

faltering voice. The way that he ran gave Manuel the impression that he was weakened severely by tiredness.

"Is something after us?" Manuel shouted as he ran ahead.

"No, but we have to move quickly otherwise we'll run out of

time!"

"Did you get the phone?"

"Just run! There's not much space left until the runway!"

The shack came into view out of the blackness. Then, as they

rounded the corner, so did the hollow black shell of the plane and the gaping hole the cryptid left in the foliage. For a sickening moment, Jake thought Carlin might have left, but as he boarded the plane and opened the back door, he saw Carlin sitting and waiting.

"Did you get the phone?" Carlin asked.

"No," Jake said. "The car was missing."

"What?" Carlin and Manuel said simultaneously. Jake panted.

"How is that possible?" asked Manuel.

"I have no idea," said Jake. "I assume that one of the

cryptid things took it somewhere. I have no clue where, but it obviously took it."

"I have an idea where," Carlin began. "I was talking to Hadden on the radio a few minutes ago, and he said he was holed up in some abandoned tower. He saw a bunch of the things going in and out of caves, and he assumed it was a nest of some sorts. Our best bet to find that phone is in that nest."

"So we're going to go into their nest to get the phone back?!" Manuel cried. "That's impossible with three people! That's suicidal!"

"Well we could meet up with Hadden, and take Kaeli with us too." Carlin shook his head.

"Hadden is infected, and Kaeli might be, too. I could radio him, and maybe he could help us though." Carlin leaned into his radio. "Hadden?" he called, fully knowing that Hadden would not be responding. "He's not there."

"Maybe something got him," Manuel suggested.

"Something worse than we've seen yet, probably," said Carlin. He wanted to smile so bad. He wanted to release his emotions.

"We could take Kaeli then, four is better than three."

"But she's infected."

"No she's not," Jake said, refuting Carlin. "That's what I was talking about. I read more of that book while I was down at the clearing. The contagion is waterborne."

"So she's not infected?!" Manuel said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, she's not infected."

Manuel rejoiced and then grabbed Carlin's shoulder.

"Give me the keys to her cuffs."

"Fine," Carlin conceded. He reached into his pockets and handed Manuel the keys. "Be careful. And be back soon, we have to get Tucker ready for the trip."

"He's out like a light," Jake commented as Manuel excitedly burst out the door.

***

Manuel rounded the corner of the shack to see the shattered window pane littering the ground. He sped up and rounded the corner, heart thumping in his chest. He saw Kaeli curled up on the ground, weeping.

"Kaeli!" he yelled, and she looked up, with a smile on her face.

"Manuel! Thank you so much! I saw you with the flare and the thing and thank you so much I love you." Manuel stared at her. Then he bent over and pulled her into his arms.

"I know now. I was reluctant at first to move on, to find someone else. But I think we have something tonight."

"I think we do too," Kaeli whispered into his ear. She bit it with her lips, then moved to his face and they kissed. They passionately held each other for a moment, each advancing closer to each other, Kaeli still chained to the pipe.

She stopped dead and her mouth didn't move. Manuel pulled

out.

"What is it?"

Kaeli's eyes were so wide they looked like golf balls.

Manuel veered around. Standing in the gap of the window was a cryptid.

Manuel tried to dive away, but it swiped its paw lightning-fast and smashed into his back. Its sharp claw stabbed through his torso in his spine, splitting the bony shaft, paralyzing him from the waist down.

Kaeli wailed, groping for him as the thing dragged him along

the floor, smearing blood everywhere. He got picked up, and the thing wrapped its jaws around his skull.

Manuel's glasses shattered as a tooth punctured the lens. Kaeli screamed frightenedly. Manuel began to cry. He screamed, terrified. Piss jetted out of his pant leg, staining it a darker color.

The tooth stabbed his eye, blowing the capillaries out and shattering the bulbous orb with a pop. The thing's teeth punctured his cheek, breaking his own teeth off and pinning his tongue down. He screamed an agonized wail as his arms flailed at the cryptid's throat.

There was a crunching noise as the cranial bone shattered, splitting Manuel's scalp open. Blood jetted out of his nose like a fire hydrant, and it hiccuped out of his mouth in crimson waterfalls. The cryptid sunk its teeth into his skull, crushing it into a pulp. Grainy brain fibers spurted out along with chunks of his skull.

Kaeli was hysterical. She screamed so hard her tongue ran dry and bile boiled in her throat. The cryptid took a bite out of his torso, yanking off a strand of flesh containing parts of organs and rib bones. Kaeli screamed again.

Manuel's keys were on the ground. She quickly grabbed them, and attempted to stick them into the keyhole to free herself, shooting glances at the cryptid.

It grabbed Manuel with both hands, then toted him away.

Kaeli abolished the cuffs and ran out the open hole, turned right towards the plane, and then sprinted, tears streaking down her face.