by Harley Hanna
Salamander
By Harley Hanna
Copyright© 2015 Harley Hanna
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
https://harleyhanna.weebly.com
Cover Art Illustrated by Aubrey Yunik
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 1
I pushed open the door to the shop, Garret was at my back, gun over my shoulder. Tony and Carol were pushing through the same door right behind us. We rushed in as I pointed my flashlight through the room checking our surroundings. A door to my left and a door to my right, both closed. I couldn’t hear or see anyone in the shop, a red truck sat in the middle, tons of tools surrounding it. Garret motioned me towards the door on the right, it led to a small office off the side of the shop.
Garret and I searched the office, no one in sight. Carol and Tony searched the rest of the room, while we were in the office. Tons of paperwork and nothing that looked salvageable. We exited the office and moved to the next door, getting in assault formation again. We pushed in to the next room, opening the door in front of us. The only thing that laid ahead was a long hallway with a door at the end. We pushed down the hall and entered the next door.
This room was bigger, it was laid out just like the last one, except no red truck. The truck was replaced with tons of equipment; the whole back of the room was filled with large equipment that was covered in tarps. It looked like it could be spare car parts.
“Holy shit, are those-“Garret blurted.
“Shh!” I replied, silencing him.
One last room to cover, they moved about the place looking for any other exits, they only found one, a small door that led to a large stock room filled with more car parts.
“No one here.” Garret called.
“Fine, but you do not make unnecessary noise during a raid, what if there were raiders stationed in here? We’d be dead.” I replied. He was being reckless, Garret wasn’t like that.
“I’m sorry but wait till Jackson hears about this. Think about all the cars we could have, we’d be moving much quicker than those stupid bikes. “
“He’s right, this is a great find.” Carol replied.
“Yeah Jack’s going to be happy. Search this room and see if there’s any food or weapons, we only have 10 minutes left.” I said, looking at my watch. I never liked cutting it this close, but we got caught up on the way. Tony, Carol’s partner wrecked his bike and we all had to stop and help him up. It was his first salvage trip, so he was another liability.
Garret and I looked through the large room while Carol and Tony searched the stock place. We lifted up a large tarp revealing piles and piles of metal parts. I could see tons of scraps of metal, different engines and other pieces of metal that I’d never seen in my life.
“Jesus, this is the mother load.” Garret said, standing in disbelief.
My watch dinged, 5 minutes left. We had to get leaving soon. I walked towards the stock room to get Carol and Tony.
“We gotta go, 5 minutes left.” I said walking towards the stock room.
“Oh come on Sal, 5 minutes, quit worrying.” Garret said. Garret was the only one that called me that, Salamander. I’m not sure why either, but she liked it. Garret and I had been doing the salvage trips since the beginning, he’d been my partner all along. He’d been acting odd lately though, slacking.
“Too close if you ask me” I replied.
I opened the stock room door when the ground shook. I stopped dead in my tracks and everyone looked at me. We all stood still for a second.
“He’s not supposed to be here for another 5 minutes!” Tony said, dropping the food in his hands.
“This is fucked” I said, turning towards the exit. “We need to leave, now.”
“5 Minutes, that’s too much of a difference, something’s off.” Garret said, getting his backpack.
“Wait. Our bikes are parked right out front, what are we supposed to do? Make a run for it? He’ll surely see us.” Carol said, biting her fingernails.
“Oh he’s gonna see us alright, he’s gonna try his damndest to catch us too, but at least well have the jump on him.” I said, another thundering boom shook the ground.
“Wouldn’t we have a better chance if we just stayed here, under cover?” Carol said, shaking as she held her arms.
“No, they can smell us, they can hear us, and they’d damn sure be able to see us.” I said, I was getting angry now and we were wasting time. Another boom shook the ground, he was getting closer now.
“I kind of agree with her, we could just wait for him to pass.” Tony said.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Do you hear that right now? That is his fucking feet!” I said, waiting a few seconds for the next boom. It came, shaking the ground a little more every time. “Every time you hear that, it shakes your bones, it rattles you to the core. Every time you hear that, he gets a little closer, and he’s coming here, looking for us. Do you all just want to sit here and let him kill us?. I’ve done this a thousand times and by the time I’m done talking he’ll be a little more than a couple hundred yards away, which means he can be here in less than a minute. You two are newbies and you don’t know what you’re talking about. We need to leave now, Garret back me up.” I said, getting frustrated. I tried to get Garret to convince them. Another thundering boom shook the ground, it was loud now. He was close, and we needed to leave soon if we had a chance of making it.
“I kind of agree with them.” He said, looking at the ground.
“Are you serious right now?” I said, staring at him, hearing the crashes off in the distance, getting closer and closer. I let the silence between booms fill the room.
“Fine, get into the stock room. Now!” I yelled, pushing the three of them into the door. We pushed through the door and went to the back of the room, putting as much distance between us and him as we could.
We all stood in a circle, listening to the loud noise become louder and louder, they shook the room and their bodies. Small boxes fell off the shelves, we stood unaffected staring at the wall waiting for the sound to go away.
I clenched my fists in silence, wanting to yell at Garret, wanting to scream at him for not backing me up. This was the stupidest thing we could’ve done. We could’ve been gone by now, back at the base with the Giant at our back.
The booms were deafening now, they were coming one after another in a marching pattern. Then, they stopped. We heard nothing, the silence was killing me. I waited for him to continue walking. I waited and waited and waited. Until I heard the noise, not the noise I wanted to hear. A loud beeping came from my left. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
I quickly located the source of the noise to Carol’s wrist. She didn’t turn her watch off. That stupid bitch I thought to myself.
My eyes widened as I looked at her, she stared back at me for a few seconds before she fumbled for her watch. She grabbed it trying to find the volume button scratching at the metal and finally silencing it.
For a few seconds, we heard nothing but silence and stared at each other in disbelief. For a few seconds, we believed he hadn’t heard the watch. For a few seconds, we believed we had a c
hance. We were wrong.
We heard a loud screech of metal above us as the roof was being torn off the top of the shop. The metal curled and twisted as he ripped the building to bits.
“Run!” I shouted over the screeching of rock against metal.
We ran out of the stock room making our way through the shop, and down the hallway. I looked up to see half of the roof torn off, I could see him. A sight I hadn’t seen in years, and one I’d hoped to never see again. I saw his enormous blue eyes staring down at me, like he’d come back just for me. He let out a bellowing roar, as his large earthen hand tore off the metal roof above us.
I looked back to see Garret, Carol, and Tony all staring up at him, all in different stages of bewilderment. I pushed forward through the door we came in. I pushed my feet into the dirt as hard as I could, running as fast as I could, not stopping for a second.
I grabbed my bike by the frame, running towards the road trying to dodge the large pillars smashing down above me. At this point, I heard Carol start to scream. Her voice was blood curdling. It was almost as loud as the Giant’s feet, bashing into the ground. But not much could beat that sound.
I kept running, pushing through onto the street and quickly setting my bike down, hoping everyone was following me. I jumped on my bike and started peddling using all the muscles in my legs to push the bike forward. I peddled farther and farther, getting down the street and trying to reach the tree line. Once I got to the tree line I knew I’d have cover and I’d have a better chance. I got farther and farther down the road, I heard marching pattern crashes of feet behind me, which meant at least someone other than me got out. He’d be too preoccupied with three people that he wouldn’t be following me.
I looked back one time before I got to the tree line, he stopped following us at this point. I saw two bikes behind me, Garret on one and Tony on the other, both not far behind. He was standing in front of the shop holding something in his hand. He was completely made of rocks, held together by pieces of dirt. It looked like something had put him together, he looked like he came straight from a cartoon. He stood about 100 feet high by my estimation. His hands were the size of motorcycles and his feet were even bigger. He was all different shades of grey and tan, he looked like a giant rocky version of Frankenstein.
He put the object up to his mouth and started chewing. Copious amounts of blood started dripping from the object, coloring the dirt under his feet red. I could hear Carol’s screams even after I reached the tree line.