The Forest Beneath
I did some free writing on theprose.com today. I am so proud of myself. The general concept for the following is part of my idea for a "lost world" style novel. In this case, a member of the expedition gets separated from her fellows and let's just say it doesn't end well...Enjoy...or don't...Ignore spelling mistakes, theProse doesn't have a spell checker.
Karen ran, panting and gasping as the close heat of the dense forest of ferns stifled her ability to draw in air. Her vision was shrouded by the dense supernatural fog, limited to not much more than a car’s length ahead. It should have been enough to see them. She should have been able to hear them at least.
There was nothing.
Her party vanished completely, leaving her alone in a primeval forest filled with god knows what and buried beneath miles of rock. How did the rest of them move off without noticing she was gone. They should have called for her or something. Were they attacked? Dead?
Karen felt her pulse pounding in her ears, felt the blackness closing in as panic took hold.
Karen stopped and leaned against the massive roots of an ancient tree, bending over to ward off the nausea and to catch her breath. She wiped sweat from her brown and felt the sting as the liquid slimed its way into the half a hundred cuts on her body. Her reckless flight through the jungle was rewarded with tripping over moss covered roots and stones and the grabbing fingers of thorny vines.
Shit. Karen prayed none of the plants there were poisonous.
Battered and bruised, Karen looked over her body to see that her clothes were torn to shreds and she was matted with mud and bits of sticks and leaves. Luckily there were no leeches here. That gave her some hope.
Karen was not going to give up, but she would think twice about leaving the group to investigate a chunk of pottery again. That thought made her laugh, but the smile disappeared when she heard something moving through the forest nearby.
Something was out there in the fog.
The creature made a chirping sound, not unlike a bird, but with more gusto and a deeper pitch. Karen turned her head in the direction she thought the sound had come from. Still she could not see anything through the curtain of mist.
Karen jerked her head around to the right when the chirp was echoed from that direction. Before she could focus, a third chirp answered the first two from straight ahead. Whatever was out there, they were communicating.
The sounds continued for another minute, back and forth and back forth. The animals were moving in tandem, but they seemed to be moving closer using their cries as a form of echolocation. Karen was not a biologist, but she was still a scientist and her curiosity got the better of her. Her fear was tempered by her need to analyze the unknown.
That was until she saw it.
First there was the smell. A musty odor, not unlike an aviary, followed by a sickening sweet stench of decay. The stink wafted through the sick air and tickled Karen’s nose, bring back the nausea. Her heart began to beat faster, the adrenaline building in time with the realization that she was being hunted.
These animals were predators.
The rational and instinctual part of her brain rebelled and urged her to run. Run as fast as she could and hope she could find shelter. Anything was better than standing here and waiting.
Karen tensed, building up to spring away and sprint for fuck anywhere else but here. As she prepared to shoot off, the rusting of ferns drew her eyes to the left. She covered her mouth with her had, stifling a gasp, as a bird the size of a pony stepped out onto the path she had been following.
The creature moved with slow tentative steps, bobbing its head lick a chicken. If chickens had a reptilian snout full of fangs. It sniffed the air and cocked its head to the left and then to the right as if listening to something.
Raptor. This was a type of raptor.
Karen felt that her heartbeat was equivalent to a stick of dynamited going off in a rock concert. She pushed her body back against the tree, using the large, buttressed roots to conceal her form. Didn’t she read somewhere that predators couldn’t see you if you didn’t move. Fuck, she prayed that was true.
The ferns shuffled again as the animal swung around on the trail, its head facing directly away from her. Karen could see that the body was covered in feathers along the spines and tail as well as along the legs and arms. The rest was all lizard scales and sharp claws and if she wasn’t mistaken, they were covered in blood.
That was too much for her. Her bladder loosened and warm wet spread down her legs.
Karen ran.
The beast turned, bellowing with a growl which was both screaming eagle and pissed off lion.
Answering snarls surrounded her and the forest came alive with movement.
Brush slapped her face and tore the rest of her clothes to ribbons. Each branch and thorn that tore at her left more blood.
A scented trail of red leading the raptors to their prey.
Karen kept running, exhausted but unable to stop. She screamed for help, somehow knowing that no one would hear.
Roars and chirping calls of death and bloodlust filled her ears as the forest opened around her. Karen could see water ahead. Water and light.
This was where the landing party had disembarked. The ship was anchored offshore.
Karen pushed harder, breaking through the last line of tree ferns and onto the rocky beach, screaming for help. She fell hard on her knees, the pain shooting up through her spine and across her back.
That wasn’t right. She had only fallen on her knees.
Warmth spread across her back as she realized with horror that the pain was coming from a massive laceration bisecting her entire torso.
A pool of crimson spread around Karen as something heavy thudded into her back and drove her face first into the rocks and sand.
There was pain and horror, but a surreal sense of peace and calm washed over Karen as the pack tore into her flesh. She felt a tugging at her arm, then heard a sharp crack.
Karen opened her eyes one last time and through the sand and grit she saw a Raptor carrying off the butchered remnants of her left arm. Then with resignation and a need for the pain to end, Karen closed her eyes.
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