Apocalyptic Insanity

Chapter 3

HARLEY

My gaze darted through the thin branches and saw Katie running towards the caves entrance. I couldn't see what was chasing her but by the sound of heavy footfalls I'm guessing it wasn't going to be easy to kill.

I scrambled down the tree as fast as I could, adrenaline pumping through my veins. Grabbing my knife from the bottom of the tree I spun quickly only to see the huge body of a shredder sprinting towards me. I stood still, facing the beast. He got closer and closer. In a matter of seconds he was nearly on top of me and in that moment I darted out of the way and watched as he slammed face first into the trunk of the tree.

He fell backwards and sat dazed on the floor. Shredders were ugly looking creature, their arms were as thick like the trunks of really old trees, as were their legs. Their bodies were usually at least two metres wide and although I couldn't give an exact height this particular shredder looked about nine foot tall.

I let out a sigh of frustration and the shredder turned towards me with sickly yellow eyes. He clambered to his feet and charged at me again, however,  I waited too long to get out of his way and his giant hand reached out and grabbed me, bringing me up to its big green face. Its yellow eyes not leaving mine, its hand was slowly tightening around my waist as I tried to think of a way to escape its hold. I couldn't reach my knife and it would probably crush me faster if I reached for my sword that was strapped to my back. Looking away from its face I looked down at the hand, hoping for a weakness that I could use to my advantage. Black spots started to form around the edges of my vision and it was then that I noticed the transparency of the webbing between his thumb and index finger.

I held my breath, hoping this wouldn't be as bad as I expected it to be before lowering my head towards its hand and opening my mouth wide. And before I could talk myself out of it I bit down on the beasts flesh. Biting down harder and harder until I felt my teeth pierce the skin and blood filled my mouth. The beast let out a loud roar before dropping me to the ground which hurt a lot more than what I would have liked.

"Stop whining and kill the bloody thing!" Hazard, who was clearly not happy with the current situation screamed inside my head.

"Alright already, give me a bloody chance will you!" the shredder was looking at its hand with a confused look on its face, they may be dangerous physically, but mentally they're as dumb as an avocado. Taking this as my chance, I drew my sword and started running towards the monsters ankles. I sliced through its tendons and jumped back as it fell to the ground, the shredder lifted itself onto its arms but before it could get up I had climbed my way up its feet (not the nicest of things, it's feet were nasty as it is but with its blood dripping down them. Let's just say I did not leave this in the same state of cleanliness as I did going in, running up its back I leaped into the air, gaining as much force as I could to push my sword deep into its neck. As my sword pierced its skin it let out a huge roar that was cut off quickly when I pushed my sword to the side and ripped half of its neck out.

I jumped off of the monster and rolled when I hit the ground to absorb as much force from the landing as I could. Turning around I was face to face with the fallen shredder and saw the eye move towards me slightly before it dimmed and the monster was truly dead. Breathing a sigh of relief I made my way back to my cave and started to pack as much as I could carry, continuing to live here was out of the question, with the shredder dead outside of my home other beasts that inhabited the forest would find me easily and if I wanted to live, I would have to leave as quickly as I could.

I was rolling up my sleeping bag when a voice spoke up behind me, "are you taking me home?" spinning around I completely forgot about the little girl who was apparently now my responsibility until I could get her back to her family. Nodding I got back to packing and was finished in only ten minutes. I still had the bag I used when I moved into the woods and more or less everything fit in it. Unfortunately, I would have to leave behind my fox skin blanket that I had made as it was too thick and heavy to carry around, maybe I could come back for it once I'd found a new home.

Kyle

Thorn and Rhys had left me as they refused to walk around when the sun had set and I would have gone with them like they'd asked but if Katie was in this forest then there was no way I was going to stop my search for her, especially if she was out here in the dark. I'd been walking for about 2 hours when a rancid smell assaulted my nostrils. Walking through the trees I came out to a clearing that had a cave at one edge and was surrounded by trees. However, what caught my eye instantly was the giant, dead monster that was sprawled across the ground. Was this the shredder that Thorn had been talking about? Carefully stepping around it I closed in on the cave, hoping that Katie had been here while dreading the thought at the same time. Stepping inside the cave was almost empty except for a fur blanket in one of the corners, searching around the cave I left no stone unturned but by the end I hadn't found anything and started to lose hope until I felt something wrap around my foot when I took a step outside. There, on my foot, was Katie's other ribbon. She had been here, she could be close. God I hope she's safe.