Nightmares (Short Stories)

Heaven or Hell?

"It's been a long day. Why don't we all just go to bed and wake up fresh without the screaming match. We are trying to stay hidden from the beasts, not wake them up early and advertise our position." Max was leader of their little band of refugees and trying to control his extremely short temper since most of his group were under 12. Eight people. That's how many it takes to drive a 32 year old veteran insane in less than two days.

"But Kal started it! Why do we have to go to bed early? Can't we just stay up? I can't sleep anyway because of the nightmares." Everyone nodded again that. Jolie always had an argument, but a valid reason thrown in to sway opinion toward her side. The little shit was annoying, but useful.

"I don't care who started it. Go to your tents or get out on watch all night. Either will make me happy and you shut up. I don't want to get eaten because your ass doesn't know how to be quiet." Max was done treating them like children. They would have to grow up quickly now that the world had devolved into a nightmare of creatures crawling out of shadows, hunting everything in sight and either making humans food or worse. He didn't know what the worse was, but he honestly didn't want to know.

He had always laughed at the idea of an apocalypse, but this was real. Humans weren't the top of the food chain anymore. He had already seen too many creatures to describe any pattern except that they resembled humans in a way with characteristics of random animals including bugs and sea life mix in. He had seen a part cat, beetle, human mixture last time and never wanted to see that again. The eyes had haunted his dreams for days.

Everyone groaned, but went to bed. It was that or freeze outside by themselves since they weren't allowed to have a fire in fear of it being a homing beacon for creatures. The mountains were chilly during the day and downright fucking cold at night. Deacon was the only other trained adult in the group and one of only two other adults period. They always alternated watch to make sure no one did anything stupid and to make sure they weren't slaughtered in their sleep.

"Deacon, I got first watch. I'm too pissed off right now to sleep." He was begrudgingly taking up his normal post in a nearby higher tree so he could get a better view and hide from sight while waving off the man eating another granola bar.

"You don't even have to tell me. That's what you say every night. I just presumed tonight would be the same." His mouth let a few crumbles slide, but he was quick to gather them back up to not waste any food.

"Asshole." He heard Deacon chuckle and a tent flap get moved and zippered. It would be a long six hours, but someone had to do it. Four hours wasn't enough to sleep every night and still be functional plus the days were short and traveling with idiots wasn't the best way to stay safe in the dark.

Three hours passed without any out of place noise or movement. It was just like every other night. It was the moment that Max started to relax that he heard a muted growl coming from below him. He hadn't heard anything crunch a leaf or even brush a twig. He slowly peered down and what he saw horrified him. It was a mix of what looked like a porcupine, lizard, dog and human. It's tail was thick and long with dark skin, still as his breathing. It had spike down its back that seemed to move into an outward stick direction from laying flat on its back when it noticed me glaring at it. The snout and massive teeth were definitely creepy and horror inducing. It's eyes we're reflecting the light meaning it was meant to hunt at night.

Max didn't want to go near the thing. He knew it would eat him within a few seconds. He would just have time to scream for everyone else to know they were being attacked. On the bright side, Max only saw this one creature. Sometimes they tracked in groups and sometimes alone. Maybe he could fight this one off for a minute or two, enough to get the kids up a tree for safety.