Never Get Out Alive

Chapter 11: Kiss Me Goodbye.

As I was waiting I took my time to look at the ship and finally noticed how large it really was. Im pretty sure it was about the size of two basic airplanes. Wow.

Everybody came out of the ship and we split into our two groups and got ready. "Okay, Memphis you and your group go that way." I said signaling on the other side of the ship. "We'll go this way." I said pointing to the trail ahead of me.

She nodded and then gave me a worried look before she pulled me aside. "You better stay safe..." She said. "I know we just met like a week ago but you do mean alot to me." I nodded and gave her a quick kiss goodbye and then we headed off.

I pushed through the brush and the thicket of flowers that lay before me with Cyrus right behind me and thankfully Rayven covering the back. Normally I wouldn't want someone who was in like tech behind, but I saw the way she handled herself in the ship with the Supermodel. She's fine.

As I pushed through the brush the trail became much more clear. I saw all sorts of plants and then I noticed something. A bird, in the trees. Wait a second...that's no bird, I thought.
It had rows of teeth in the beak. I don't like the looks of that.

Then it noticed us and it flew towards me and i really got a view of its full size. It was about the size of a cat as it dove towards me face and i ducked out of the way. I stood up and looked for it but didn't see anything so I continued forward. It would be hard to miss considering it's bright almost neon red color.

As we got further down the trail we took a break and all day down leaning against a tree. I looked at Cyrus and studied the tattoo on the right side of his neck more closely. Screw it I thought. I might as well get to know him better.

"So...what's the tattoo on your neck about?" I asked him gesturing to his neck. He smiled and laughed a little. "This," he said. "Is a very special tattoo to me. Clearly it's a dragons head, yes. But the rest of it wraps around my back." I then noticed that he was right. It's neck and head stuck out covering the right half of his neck, but it was obvious that the rest of it's trailed off somewhere.

I nodded and looked at his arms which were both equally covered in the black ink as well. He had words and pictures as well and he had a rose that seemed to be burning on one hand and a weeping woman on the other. As much as I hated to admit it...Cyrus was looking like a badass.

"It's cool." I said. "Everyone's got something special to them. Let's go, we've gotta keep moving. We haven't found anything here. Just leaves. Plants. And a bird monster of some sort." As if on cue when we got up the bird returned and perched on a branch now staring at us. It looked at me and cocked it's head and then stuck out it's head and ripped open its jagged teeth filled jaw and let out a screech so loud I was sure Memphis heard it.

But that wasn't the most disturbing part, the most disturbing part was it had four wings, yet each one seemed to have claws at the end, as well as razor sharp talons. It had its eyes locked and set on me and jumped up and flew barreling at me at full speed and before I knew what to do I balled my fist up and punched straight for the birds face. As I did the blade came out of my gauntlet and went directly through the creatures throat.

I retracted the bloody blade and the dead bird fell lifeless at my feet. I turned around and looked back at Rayven and Cyrus, who was smirking at what I had just done. Rayven just stared at me jaw dropped and stood there. "That was....epic." She said.

I smiled but the moment was short lived. Soon about a minute later we all heard a growl and roar so loud it shook the trees and even Cyrus looked concerned. Actually. He looked more annoyed than anything, like all of the creatures on this alien planet that wanted to kill us was just pissing him off.

Before any of us could question what it was, a giant monstrosity of a creature burst out of the trees from whence we came and stomped it's way about ten feet from us. It was the size of about two elephants and it was a bulking beast. It had fur everywhere and it was covered from head to toe with muscles. It had no eyes but a mouth with at least six rows of poisoned teeth and it had a giant barbed tail to go with it. It had six muscular legs and was standing up on the back two while the others flexed and clawed at the dirt.

At once it's eyeless head snapped at us and I realized it had two huge ears flattened to the side of its head and a smaller one burst forth out of the jungle next to it. It was about the size of a rhinoceros. "Everyone...stay calm." I said. "I'm not sure what this is, I don't even have the slightest clue, bit I'm pretty sure that whatever we do, the slightest move we make and it will attack."

It landed with a thud on all six feet and hunched it's back making the fur stand on edge as its thick barbed poison tail flicked in the air with the smaller one doing the same thing. Then another one of the hellbirds burst out of the jungle and landed on the beast's shoulders. Before I could react I realized too late what was happening.

The bird let out a screech and I screamed out to run at the same time.