by Opal Jones
Chapter 6
May 8th, 2034
For a second, Sara couldn't breathe. She couldn't see straight, and her legs almost gave way beneath her. Then the shock fully hit her.
Sara ran as fast as she could up the stairs. The first room she came to was Jackie's. She instinctively opened the door, knowing that Jackie would be there.
She was wrong again.
Jackie was gone. Sara felt her heart stop, and then begin to race again. Her eyes began to fill with tears, but she pushed them back. 'This is no time to go soft,' she thought, 'you need to get help. Jackie's in danger.'
Not only that, but she knew that they had been wrong. So very wrong. It hadn't left. It had never left.
Sara went past the rooms and up into her room. She grabbed her ax and got ready for battle. Sara found leg and arm pads, along with a set of combat boots. Once she finished, she rushed to the front door and pushed the intercom.
“Everyone, get up!” she cried. “That thing never left Matt. Jackie's in big trouble. Get out of bed now and get ready for a fight.”
As a finishing touch, she pulled the alarm.
The first up was Chloe, who was still wearing her slippers, but was still armed with throwing knifes. Everyone else followed in a matter of minutes.
Sara, alongside Eli, led the small group outside, looking around for Matt or Jackie.
The moon shone over the base, bathing them in an eerie white light. Clouds covered parts of the moon, and the grass was moist with dew. Normally, there would be nothing but crickets, and maybe the pitter-patter of rain on the roof. But there was nothing. Unless you were to count the squash of their shoes and bare feet against the mud.
Everyone was on guard, but no one could find any sign of Matt or Jackie. Even the wind was quiet. The silence was unnerving, and quite frankly, unnatural.
Sara rounded the corner, towards the large leveled field, and nearly cried out again. Eli joined her, nearly running off with her.
Over night, it seemed, a gnarled, dead, stinking corpse of a tree had sprouted near the end of the field. Brown leaves were littered around the ground, with only a few still clinging on the top. But that wasn't the horrifying thing that brought the group to them.
In the dark, it was hard to tell, but it looked like a branch was curling-tightening around something. It looked like it was doing the same thing in several different places. That thing looked like a hand, which was attached to a cut-up arm, followed by a slumped body. The branches had knotted themselves around their hands, and were working on their legs.
Sara knew it almost instantly to be Jackie. The only missing piece was Matt, who had yet to show himself. Eli and the rest followed her up to the tree. He stopped short.
“Sara, NO!” Eli cried, but it was too late.
Sara had already made it up to the tree, and saw who was tied to the tree: Matt. He was torn up pretty badly, with blood drying on his lip. Before she could react, someone punched her across the face, knocking her down.
She looked up, with the others a few feet behind her. Only bare feet were visible in the shadows. When it spoke, it sounded like a combination of scraping gravel and a strangely light voice in its midst.
“Didn't I warn you that I wasn't kidding, Sara?” it said.
Suddenly, it hit Sara (and not just another fist).
Eli helped her up, and eased her back away. She turned to him and gulped.
“It makes sense now.”
“What?” he frowned.
“Don't you get it?” One will die and two will help me' Matt's rank is 1. Jackie is 2.”
Eli felt his chest twist into a knot. He felt ready to bang his head against the wall. Well, clearly the group needed to work on code-cracking skills if they made it through the night.
As they expected, Jackie stepped out of the darkness into the moonlight. But, she didn't look normal. Her hair was braided into threes, and she wore loose black clothing. Her eyes, though. They glowed a dark red, and no other color. She- well, it - laughed.
“You really are a stupid race, aren't you?” It mocked.
Eli stepped in front of Sara. “Let Jackie go. And let us all go.”
It cackled again. “Why would I? This one is much more suited for me. Not nearly as much resistance. Not to mention it’s stronger than that old bag of bones over there.” It kicked at Matt's leg, and he groaned slightly. “Besides, I think that we'd need a proper contest for things like this.”
One snap of the fingers later, the trees started to light up. With a harder look, one could tell that millions and millions of fireflies were lighting up the night sky. Some were lined on the ground, making a sort of large oval.
It spread its hands. “Let us begin.”
In an instant, wolves, mountain lions, and even owls began emerging from the woods. Snarling, they began to advance on the group closing in.
Eli made the first shot, taking a mountain lion out a flash. With that, the battle began.