Ark: Object of Extinction

Chapter Five: Claustrophobia

Josh stood up. He picked up the bat, and held it at arms length. Ethan did the same with the axe. Josh walked to the door, and flung it open. About twenty feet away from the gate, stood a man, he had black messy hair, a white stained undershirt, a pair of black jeans, green eyes, he was barefoot, and his left arm was missing. His right leg seemed to be broken as well, because he was hopping on his left foot towards the cabin. “PLEASE!” He screamed “HELP ME!!” I took the axe from Ethan. “Who are you?” I asked calmly. The man just kept hobbling towards them. “Please!” He said, much quieter this time. “Help me.” He whimpered. “What’s the problem?” Josh asked. As if nature itself decided to answer, the ground shook, a large grey monstrosity came out of the forest. It was over twenty feet tall, and forty feet in length. Josh let out a scream. The man in front of us did as well. The creature stomped towards us, stopped behind the man in front of us, bent down, and ate the man whole. Josh started running. Ethan and I quickly followed. The creature stomped slowly behind us. We sprinted into the tree line, I pointed towards a small gap in the hill in front of us, though I could not say anything, Josh seemed to understand, he led us towards the small gap. Josh squeezed through, followed by Ethan, then me. I dropped to the rocky floor of the cave, out of breath. “What do we do now?” Ethan asked. Josh shrugged, “Best we can do, is make camp in here for the night, and in the morning, we better pray that creature is gone.” I nodded in agreement. We then devised a plan for the night, Josh would sneak through the cave entrance and grab firewood, while me and Ethan grab random handfuls of grass, moss, and leaves, to use as beds. Soon, we had a roaring fire going, and small, makeshift beds. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. Ethan and Josh fell to sleep immediately. But I couldn’t sleep, not after seeing what happened to that man. I started wondering if the man had a family, if they were waiting for him to come home, if he was another of the contestants on this vile island. The more I thought about it, the more tired I got. But I refused to sleep. It just wasn’t going to happen. So I stood up, with the intention to wake Josh up to ask him more about the island. But, when I walked to his bed, he wasn’t there. Instead, the bed was messed up, and a long thick trail of blood ran from his bed, and into the back of the cave. I quickly ran to Ethan’s bed, to wake him up, but he was gone to, a trail of blood ran from his bed into the back of the cave. I grabbed a stick from the dying fire, and made it into a small torch. Then, I rushed into the darkness, following the trail of blood, as I went along, the cave got smaller, and smaller, it got so small that I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get through. The air got thicker, I could only hear a loud ringing sound from inside my head. My breathing became more shallow and ragged. Soon, I felt as if I was drowning. I looked to see if I was still following the trail of blood, but it wasn’t there. I didn’t understand, had I taken a wrong turn? I attempted to turn around, but found very quickly, that I was stuck. I panicked, squirming and wriggling around in the small space I had. I couldn’t turn around, I couldn’t go forwards, and I couldn’t scoot backwards. I couldn’t move at all. Suddenly as if I had just noticed, I felt as if I was tilted at a forty degree angle, with my head pointed down. I felt the blood drain to my head, I could hear my heart beat in my brain. The rocks around me started shifting and cracking. I realized what was going on, the cave was collapsing. As soon as this thought hit me, something else did, it was rock, a big one too, about the size of an infant. I was immediately knocked unconscious, or was I dead? I couldn’t tell, but I felt the sensation of freedom. I could hear someone calling my name, the voice got louder, and louder, and- SPLASH! I felt cold water dripping all over me. I opened my eyes with a start. Ethan stood in front of me. Josh stood beside him, holding a large makeshift bucket. “You okay?” Ethan asked. “You were sweating buckets, and screaming louder than a pig.” He added. “I was?” Ethan nodded. I stood up, and quickly eased my shaking hands. “Were you having a nightmare or something?” Josh asked, raising his eyebrow. I shook my head. “Is that creature still outside?” I asked, trying to change the subject. “No, not that we saw. But Josh claims he saw a camp of what looked like humans farther into the forest.” Ethan replied nervously. He cast a look at my head. “Oh, you okay? You’re bleeding.” He said. I felt my head, and sure enough, right on the back of my skull, was what seemed to be a small cut. I shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”

Previous in Argentavis, next in Arthropluera.

By MGG