by Logan Jacobs
I needed to get away and get back to Honest Abe before the Dimensional Engine, Patent Pending, moved on without me, so I scrambled past the dark shape and headed downhill to the right. I could feel branches slapping me in the face as I skidded down the hill, but I could also see the faint shapes of tree trunks in the dim morning light, so I at least managed to avoid smacking right into a tree as I raced down the slope. I could feel pine needles and thin branches breaking under the soles of my Red Wing boots as I ran, but it took me at least a minute to be able to hear the cracking and rustling of my own passage through the trees.
As my hearing returned, I started to realize that some of the rustling and branch-breaking sounds weren’t coming from me, but from something much farther up the slope behind me, and that a dull and almost subsonic thud was also reverberating through the trees along with the rhythm of the breaking branches.
Whatever was chasing me, it wasn’t just the cat-woman. It had to be the dark shape I’d seen through the trees.
And it was big.
I regretted not putting a bullet into the dark lump as I’d passed it, but hindsight was useless now, so I just kept running down the hill as quickly as I could. I tried to grab at tree trunks as I passed them to stabilize myself, but I only had my left hand free because my Glock was in my right, and I realized pretty quickly that I was just slowing myself down and pushing myself off-course when I needed speed more than anything.
I pulled my left arm in and bent it at the elbow so I could use the leverage to pump myself along instead of shoving my hand into scratchy trees, almost immediately stumbled over a huge log, and shot out my left hand again to grab at the thick branch that hung just above my head. I closed my hand around the spiky branch as my left heel went out from under me, swung my right foot over the log, then yanked my left foot over the log as I heard the rustling sound get even louder behind me.
I finally broke through the treeline at the bottom of the hill and tried to stop, but the hill was steep enough and I’d been running fast enough that I immediately realized I was going to fall over if I just stopped short. I flung my arms out to the side to slow myself down, dug my heels into the spongy moss, and shortened my steps, but my momentum carried me over the sandy bank of the river. I winced in anticipation of a cold shock of water as the sole of my right boot plunged toward the surface of the stream, but my Red Wing boot landed on hard stones much more quickly than I’d thought, and the foot that had landed in the river didn’t even feel that much chillier than the other.
I thanked my past self for taking the time to find a pair of waterproof work boots, pulled my foot out of the river, and headed left toward the direction that the arrow pointed. I could hear the faint squish of my boots as they landed in the soggy moss along the riverbank, but at least I wasn’t making those telltale rustling and cracking noises anymore. I could hear rustling and cracking in the distance, but it sounded like it was still coming down the slope rather than heading toward me, so maybe I could lose whatever was chasing after me if I was far away enough by the time they made it down to the stream.
“Drop your cock and hands on socks!” Sol’s gravelly voice yelled in my left ear. “Good morning, kiddo! Time to get the fuck up out of bed.”
“Fuck,” I hissed as I remembered that I’d set my alarm for last night. I shoved my Glock into its holster, and then slapped at the watch’s button to turn the alarm off.
“It’s time to get up, it’s--” Sol’s voice stopped in the middle of his version of “Reveille.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
The rustling behind me paused for a second, and when it started up again, I could hear it getting louder.
Fuck.
“Thanks a lot, old man,” I muttered as I ran, although I knew it wasn’t exactly Sol’s fault that I’d forgotten to turn off my alarm while being pursued through a forest by something huge and terrifying. I could still hear branches breaking and rustling behind me, so I figured that my pursuer was still in the trees instead of running along the riverbank. My only hope now was that I could run fast enough to wear out whatever was following me before I made it back to Honest Abe.
The dim gray light faded into a paler shade of blue as I ran along the riverbank, and I realized that it was getting a lot easier to see me out in the open. I could still hear the sound of rustling and branches breaking behind me, so I figured that the creature chasing me was sticking to the woods for a reason.
Maybe my pursuer went faster through the trees instead of over open ground. Or maybe it didn’t want me to be able to look back and see it easily, and it was sticking to the trees so it could leap out and surprise me. If that was the case, the strategy was working, because I definitely couldn’t tell where the breaking and rustling sounds were coming from other than “somewhere behind me.” The creature chasing me could have crossed the stream behind me and been stalking me from the other side of the river for all I could tell.
Either way, if the thing chasing me was able to keep track of my progress by following my sound, then heading back into the woods would only make it easier for my pursuer to follow me, since I would make a lot more noise running through the trees than just slapping my feet along soggy moss and sand. If the creature was tracking me visually along the riverbank from the forest, then it was probably going to be able to see me through the trees no matter where I was, and I’d probably be a lot closer to its path if I tried to go back into the forest.
I knew it was all just speculation on my part, since I had absolutely no idea what was really chasing me or what it was capable of, but I knew that if I ducked back into the woods I’d slow myself down no matter what. I didn’t have enough time before the Dimension Engine, Patent Pending, shifted realities again to try to be sneaky and lose the creature.
As I leapt over a small curve in the river’s path, I realized that the rustling behind me was getting quieter.
Thank god. I’d finally lost whatever was following me.
My lungs were starting to feel a little rough by now but I wasn’t tired out yet, so I knew I hadn’t been running for that long, but it sounded like the creature was falling behind anyway. I slowed from a frantic gallop to a fast jog as the sound of branches breaking continued to grow quieter, and soon I could barely hear anything at all but a faint rustle that might have been the wind.
I glanced at my watch and noted that it was barely 6:15. I smirked as I realized that I’d finally been able to lose the creature in just a half an hour of running. Now I just had to worry about getting to the car on time and not about being picked off by a hungry beast, although I knew that there were probably other predators lurking in the woods just waiting for a tasty snack to run by. I had no idea what kinds of other creatures might be out there among the pine-covered hills, but I’d have to take my chances with whatever else I ran into.
I’d only been jogging for about five minutes when I heard the rustling and branch-breaking get louder behind me again. My heart skipped a beat, and I nearly stumbled over the bank of the river as I felt an electric jolt of fear surge throughout my body, but I gritted my teeth and sped up again.
Shit. Here we go again.
The rustling grew louder and louder even as I picked up speed. It had seemed like the creature chasing me had gotten worn out and fell behind before it had gotten its second wind, but it was still able to track me even though I’d gotten so far away that I hadn’t been able to hear it.
My chest burned, my sides ached, and my legs prickled with numbness, but I kept running as the soft blue light of dawn turned to the pale orange light of true sunrise. I could hear the rustling of my pursuer’s passage quiet down and fall behind again several times, but I didn’t dial my speed down to a jog again no matter how sure I was that I couldn’t hear them anymore. I could hear the creature speed up again after just a few minutes each time it slowed down anyway. I was still managing to keep ahead of the creature chasing me, despite their erratic running pattern, but I was pretty certain now th
at the only real advantage I had was the head start I’d gotten when I fired the gun. I considered doing it again, but I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t have as much impact this time now that I was out of the close quarters of the cave.
I banked around a leftward curve in the river and glanced at the compass on my watch to check that I was still on track. As I watched the arrow swing down to the right, I realized that even with the arrow pointing my way back to my pocket dimension I had no idea how far away I really was from Honest Abe.
I didn’t have a distance meter on there, and considering the way the river was curving around the hills, I could barely trust the compass to keep me on track as I ran. I could tell that I was running upstream, and I knew that meant I was going the right way to get back to the car, but I had no idea when I’d actually get back to the hill unless I kept looking at the compass to see when it took a sudden turn. I bent my elbow and held my left wrist out in front of me so I could see the watch’s digital face, but my vision and my arm both bounced up and down with my gait as I panted along the river’s edge. I got a glimpse of the way the arrow was pointing every few seconds, but it was still hard to see whether I was going the right way from moment to moment.
I didn’t even recognize the trees that I passed, since I’d been so focused on running from the bear-men when I’d run downstream last night that I hadn’t exactly had much time to look around. I just hoped I’d actually recognize the patch of stream I’d been filling my water bottle from when I came to it.
A spark of hope kindled in my chest as I remembered how I’d shot two of the bear-men before I’d started running away from them. I didn’t think that I’d be able to shoot the beast as I ran, especially since it was following me through the trees instead of running along the riverbank like I was, but I did remember how the bear-men had both fallen pretty close to the treeline. I wasn’t sure if the other bear-men would have taken their corpses away, but if the rat-creatures were as fast to feast on the dead body of a bear-man as they were on the remains of the sloth I’d shot, then the bear-men might have easily left their comrades where they’d fallen once they got back upstream instead of trying to deal with the rat creatures.
I glanced at my watch to check the direction again and realized that it was already 8:30. I’d been going for over two hours straight, and I realized that I’d never run that much at one time in my life. I was kind of impressed with myself that I was even still on my feet.
I only had forty-five minutes to get back to Honest Abe and the Dimension Engine, Patent Pending. I was panting so hard and my legs were aching so much by now that I worried it might take me the entire time I had left just to struggle up both the hills that laid between me and my pocket dimension, but I couldn’t give up or let myself slow down. I kept my watch held out in front of me as I glanced at the passing trees to my right for any sign of the skeletonized bear-men.
When I finally saw the red remains of two stripped skeletons lying on the other side of the river, the rustling had started to get louder again, and so had the pounding of my blood in my ears. My heart was slamming against my chest, my lungs were on fire, and my leg muscles felt like overstretched rubber bands, but at least I knew I was close. I ran a few more steps until I was directly across from the skeletons of the bear-men, then turned right on my heels and splashed across the shallow stream. I knew I was making even more noise than before, but it barely mattered since it seemed like the creature chasing me was able to track me pretty well even when I thought I’d been quiet. I risked a glance downstream as I splashed through the river, but I couldn’t see anyone following me along the riverbed and I didn’t have time to see if any of the trees were moving behind me, so I darted through the tree line and hoped that my change in position was enough to throw the thing chasing me off my trail.
I spared one last glance at the skeletons of the bear-men as I sped past them. Either the rat-creatures had eaten their leather wear and their carrying gourds, or their compatriots had stripped them of their tools and clothing and left their bodies there.
I gulped cool, pine-scented air in through my tattered lungs as I staggered up the slope. My legs had felt like stretched-out rubber bands while I was running on the slight incline of the riverbed, but now it felt like the rubber bands were wound far too tight as I forced my aching muscles to move me uphill. I had to grab at branches so I could haul myself from one tree up to the next, but somehow I still kept moving. I strained my ears for the rustle behind me that meant my pursuer was catching up, but the sound of breaking branches under the soles of my Red Wing boots drowned out everything but the pounding of my blood in my ears.
I tried to look for the path I’d cleared through the pine needles the day before while I’d been searching for pieces of flint, but the forest floor was so chaotic that I couldn’t see any identifiable trail through the woods at all. As I huffed up the slope I wondered if I’d picked the right hill after all, but a quick glance at my watch face showed me that Honest Abe laid straight ahead of me. I also only had a few minutes to get back to the Dimensional Engine, Patent Pending, before it moved to the next parallel universe without me, and I still needed to make it through another valley and back up before I got to my destination.
“You can do it,” I muttered to myself as I felt the forest floor flatten out beneath my feet. I reminded myself that just because I was on a patch of level ground at the moment didn’t mean I could relax even a little bit, and that I had to keep moving if I was going to make it out of this lousy world. I kept my head down, raced across the flat top of the hill as I picked up speed, and then felt the ground drop out from under my boots way sooner than I’d planned.
“Whoa!” I dug my heels into the ground even as I felt my feet skid out from under me, but I couldn’t slow myself enough to regain my balance. I started to topple backward, windmilled my arms to try to keep myself upright as I scraped my heels frantically against the dirt, and grabbed toward a tree branch that had been sticking out at my chest level so I could try to slow my fall. My fingertips brushed against the rough bark of the tree branch, but I fell away before I could get a grip on my target, so I shoved my arms downward in the hopes that my elbows or my hands or both would break my fall. My palms hit packed dirt, my ass hit the soft bed of pine needles that covered the forest floor, and I started to slide down the slope like I was a little kid tobogganing on the Shiawassee Sledding Hill after a blizzard.
“Fu-u-u-u-ck!” My voice broke in the middle and my teeth clacked together every time my ass went over a bump of dirt, branches slapped my face so fast I could barely see the tree trunks in front of me in time to lean away from them, and I was pretty sure that this ride down the slope was going to end in me smacking directly into a tree pretty soon, but I had no way of stopping my ride down. I felt like I was going down a water slide made out of pine needles and wood instead of plastic and water, but at least the slope was steep enough to keep me going downhill on my heels and ass rather than flat on my back. The only thing I could really do to adjust my position was to keep my knees together so that if I did end up slamming myself into a tree trunk, at least I wouldn’t hit it balls-first.
I could feel the ground leveling out under me before I even saw the sunlit tangle of weeds at the bottom of the hill, so I straightened out my feet and pulled back my toes as far as I could, I knew I needed to hit the ground running when I slid past the treeline, and I couldn’t do that if I was about to face plant into a bunch of tangled grass.
When I finally felt the ground start to slow down under my rear, I grabbed another tree trunk and pulled myself up, then started to gallop down what remained of the hill. I could feel myself start to topple forward a little as my strides got longer, but in just a few more steps I was back on level ground. I raced through the tangle of weeds as I heard the rustling and cracking of my pursuer grow louder behind me.
As I started to push myself up the very last slope, I realized that my trip down the hill on my butt had actually restored a lit
tle strength to my legs. I’d felt like I barely had control of my legs earlier, but now my limbs just burned with hot acid instead of being deeply, achingly numb. The important part was that I could push them forward faster again. My breath felt like broken glass in my lungs as I pounded my heels over the forest floor, and I could hear the rustling behind me getting louder than it had ever been.
My leg muscles burned hotter and my breath came shorter as I struggled up the hill, but I could see clearer light lancing through the trees ahead, and I knew that Honest Abe and the Dimensional Engine, Patent Pending, were fifty or so yards away.
I was going to make it. Now that I knew I was nearly safe, and that I would never see this terrifying world or the creature behind me again, I had to see what kind of monster had been following me, so I glanced over my shoulder, and my eyes nearly bugged out of my skull.
The cat-woman from the cave had been following me, but she wasn’t alone. She rode on the back of a woolly mammoth the size of a large pony. One of her clawed hands was buried in her mammoth’s neck fur, and the other wielded her long, stone-tipped spear. She aimed the sharp tip of the spear at my nose as the woolly mammoth reared back on its hind legs.
My jaw dropped, and I nearly fell flat on my face. I knew instinctively that I would never see anything like that again, no matter how many realities I jumped across. I wanted to airbrush the cat-woman and her mammoth across the van door of my memory before I left this world forever.
My watch started to beep. I was pretty sure I hadn’t set another alarm, so I tore my eyes away from the awesome, terrifying sight of the cat-girl riding her mammoth, focused on the ground in front of me, and held the digital face in front of my eyes. The timer read 00:00:00:10.
I had ten seconds left to get fifty yards to the Dimensional Engine, Patent Pending, before I was lost in this savage universe forever.