Harbinger

by Stephen Christiansen

  Eric’s side started to hurt. His legs started to feel like lead and his head started to swim. He was sure that he was getting increased oxygen from this planet’s daytime atmosphere, but he was pushing himself too hard. He was over using what precious oxygen he had and what little energy that was from his last meal.

  The bird had closed the distance and Eric knew that one slip, and the creature would be on top of him and it was only a matter of time before that happened. His legs were already threatening to give out on him. Dizziness was starting to overwhelm him.

  Eric found a spot where two of the trees had grown close together. Quickly he turned toward it and turned sideways, letting his body just barely pass through. He hoped his plan worked as he continued to sprint beyond its point and further into the forest.

  The terror bird was too close and was too caught up in its chase to turn away. Its body slammed into the two trees in its attempt to follow its prey. Its momentum, speed, and strength were too great and its form became slightly wedged between the two trees.

  Eric heard the squawking of the terror bird as he continued to put some distance between him and it. Yet, he knew that the thing would get loose and once it did it would catch him. His endurance was waning. He knew that he couldn’t outfight it and he could no longer outrun it, what he needed to do was continue to outsmart it.

  His eyes scanned the forest in front of him to find something, anything that he could use. There was nothing out here, nothing but trees and branches...and then he saw it. There was a low hanging branch, low enough that if he jumped...it was his only chance.

  Eric poured on the speed he had and what energy that was left and when he was close enough, he jumped. His body soured, his arms reached. At the last moment his hands caught hold of the branch.

  Out of breath, but desperate, Eric pulled himself up and started to reach for the next branch. As he did, he could hear the terror bird break free of its predicament and make it way toward him. He ignored the sounds and kept climbing with hopes that he could get higher than the thing could jump.

  Several branches up gave Eric the confidence to look back, the necessity to rest from his exhaustion gave him the excuse, and the sounds below him gave him the curiosity. There, at the bottom of the tree, was the bird, the terrifying, horrible beast that was waiting for him to come back down. It circled the massive tree trunk with its eyes continually gazing up on him. Twice it attempted to jump upon the lower branch, but missed both times. It had become obvious to Eric at this point that the bird could make incredible jumps, but only when combined with its speed. However a standing still vertical jump wasn’t its strongest suit. He wondered how long it would take for the bird to realize this itself. He didn’t have to wait long.

  The terror bird turned back the way it came. At first Eric thought that it might have given up. But then it turned and sprinted toward his tree. Faster and faster it came. Its legs pounced, its body flew and its form landed upon the branch.

  But its speed and momentum was too great. The bird wobbled for only a moment before it fell to the ground.

  Eric’s heart seemed to stop at first. He was sure that the terror bird would jump from one branch to another and catch him up here. Then he was elated. The creature had fallen and with any luck, it had fallen upon its neck and had died. There was no such luck.

  The creature flopped around for a short time to catch its balance before it was able to turn upright and stand again. A quick ruffle of its feathers told Eric that it had only wounded its pride the quick look back up at him told him that the bird wasn’t about to give up. This thing would either climb up after him or wait for him to come back down.

  Suddenly the terror bird froze. Its body was held in complete immobility. Something had caught its attention.

  The bird shifted its head left then right in the attempt to find what it seemed to have sensed. Then, without notice it sprinted, not like it had when it had chased its prey, but in a fashion that suggested absolute terror throughout the entirety of its being.

  Eric gave a sigh of relief as the beast ran off. As long as that thing stayed far away from him then there was no longer a need to…

  The thought crossed his mind as the sound echoed in his ears. If something scared off this creature, then…

  What little horizon could be seen through the thick forest of these huge trees was suddenly filled with panicked movement. The area erupted with a flurry of blue and green, purple and yellow, feathers and talons and beaks. What seemed to be a whole flock of terror birds came charging through the forest as quickly as their legs could carry them. However, unlike the first one that had chased Eric up the tree, these had their feathers down instead of fluffed up, and their heads kept turning back in a desperate attempt to keep track of what was herding them.

  Eric watched as the birds ran past him in complete terror. Their bodies moved in frenzy. Some stumbled and fell only to get back up and continue to run for their lives. Others hit trees that they had forgotten to look out for while looking backwards. These were stunned for a short time, but quickly recovered and continued their flight of fear.

  The ground rumbled with their passing. Eric’s ears were filled with the sound of their squawking. Feathers flew in all directions. Dirt was kicked up and displaced. Chaos had erupted.

  It had taken a couple of minutes for the herd of terror birds to finally pass and even then Eric could hear them running as quickly as they could, smashing into trees, falling down, and squawking. The scene had been completely surreal.

  As soon as everything had quieted down, he stayed in the tree, listening. His ears heard nothing but silence. His eyes saw nothing but trees.

  Slowly Eric started to climb back down. He still had no idea where he wanted to go. He knew that he needed to stay near water, at least then he would remain hydrated. But what he really needed was food. It was now obvious that there were carnivores here, which meant that there was a definite food chain, a food chain that he was now part of. This not only meant that he had to be careful of things that might want to eat him, but it also meant that there were things that he could eat. All he had to do was…

  The ground erupted violently all around him. Dirt and soil sprayed in all directions as if there had been an active volcano that had exploded right under his feet and when the creature that had caused the eruption emerged from the gaping hole that had ensured he understood why.

  The beast had some resemblance of a badger with the exception that it was nearly fifteen feet long and well over three feet, perhaps pushing four feet, in diameter. It also seemed to have some kind of armor plating, like an armadillo. The thicker plates were on top of the creature, in a silver metallic coloring. The sides had smaller copper plates. Its gigantic paws ended with long talons and when it opened its mouth, Eric could see the long, sharp teeth that it possessed. Now he understood why the terror birds had fled in such horror. He also understood that there was only one thing he could do.

  Eric ran. He ran like he never had before. He ran with what little energy he had left and despite his aching muscles he pushed himself beyond his abilities. His feet moved as quickly as he could make them. His arms pumped as hard as they could. It was one thing to run away from an overgrown parrot, it was another to run from this armor plated beast whose very presence screamed “I am going to eat you while you are still alive and the last thing you will ever hear will be the crunching of your bones.”

  His body zigzagged between the trees. His feet beat against the ground. The only question was, was it making a difference? He couldn’t run anywhere near as fast as the terror birds, he knew that he didn’t stand a chance. With a look back, he turned to consider his fate.

  The beast was gone. It seemed to have simply vanished. At first Eric thought that there was no way that he could have missed such a large creature, it would stick out like a sore thumb. It should be chasing him and should be right behind him. Then it dawned on him, the creature, the burrowing monster was probably back in its hole.
But the question remained, what was it going to do next? He didn’t have to wait for his answer.

  From where the hole was, the place where the creature had come from, there was a disturbance in ground, just below the ground level. It was as if something that wasn’t too deep was tunneling straight toward him. This animal, this burrowing beast, was digging its way through the soil to track him down. It was practically swimming through the ground as if it were some sort of...land shark.

  Eric continued to run. He had no idea what else he could do now. He didn’t have the strength to try to jump to another branch and even if he did, he would have to make it on his first try. Still, assuming he could make it, he wondered if this tunneling terror could knock the tree over or even climb the tree. It wasn’t worth his life to find out.

  Eric turned back to see where he was going. He had to plot his next few moves around the massive trees and figure out where to go from there. Perhaps he could out turn the beast. Perhaps he could double back at the last moment. Perhaps he could…

  The ground came out from under his feet. His body freefell as the world spun above him. For one moment he was weightless and nothing seemed to matter, nothing seemed to be worth his care. That was until his body smashed onto ground beneath him.

  Chapter: 48

  Eric lay there, stunned by the fall that he just had. His head hurt, his body throbbed. He didn’t want to move despite the fact that everything in his inner being told him to run.

  His eyes quickly took in his immediate surrounds. He had fallen off of a cliff about ten feet above him. There was where the trees had stopped. He was out of the forest, but where he was now would have to wait. What he needed to do was…

  The ground above, where he had fallen from, erupted as the tunnel terror burst from the ground. It stood there, above him, on the ledge of the cliff, like some majestic creature that was proclaiming its right to rule over everything that is surveyed.

  Eric froze in terror as he looked up upon it. As soon as the thing jumped down, he would be dead. If the beast didn’t eat him alive or tear him to shreds then at least its body weight from that height would crush him. There was nothing that he could do. There was no way that he could get up fast enough. There was no way that he could run, he was too exhausted. There was no way that he could fight this thing. He simply closed his eyes and waited.

  Time ticked. Time passed. Nothing happened.

  Eric opened his eyes and looked up toward the horror beast that still stood upon the cliff. There the creature seemed to sniff the air and then the ground. Then, it seemed to pat the ground that it was standing on. When that didn’t seem to help, or at least when the creature didn’t seem to get the results that it wanted, it put its head to the ground and seemed to listen.

  At first Eric wondered what this creature was doing. Couldn’t it see that he was down here? He was only ten feet away. Then the answer struck him.

  Of course the creature couldn’t see; it was blind. It didn’t need to see when it was a tunneling creature, there was nothing to see underground. Only an above ground creature needed to see. What this thing needed was a good sense of smell to hone in on its prey, perhaps a good sense of hearing to listen to its prey attempt to run away or perhaps even a type of tremor sense. In this regard, it would be able to feel vibrations of the ground around it. No wonder why it was putting its head on the ground.

  With this in mind, Eric laid perfectly still. His only hope to stay off of this thing’s radar and to remain alive was to stay still. And even though his body lay as still as it could make it, his heart was racing as quickly as it had been while he was running. He hoped that it wouldn’t give him away. For one moment, he held his breath as if to try to quill his beating heart.

  It only took a moment and then the beast was gone. It had found that it had lost its prey and had turned and moved on.

  Eric lay there for a moment longer before he decided to breath. Even then, he lay there for a little longer before he decided to move.

  As he stood, he took in his new surroundings. He could tell that he was in a valley, no, more of a very wide and shallow canyon. Although the height seemed to be constant all around, about ten feet, the width of the area was immense. It was at least a couple of miles across to the cliff on the other side while its length went beyond his vision in either direction.

  Unlike the forest, there were no trees here. This area had been clear cut of any trees, bushes, or shrubbery of any kind. Here, there was only grass. As far as his eyes could see and as far as the other side of the canyon, there was grass. It was green like he had never seen before. On Earth, he was fortunate to find any, and when he had seen pictures, it was usually brown or faded yellow. Here, on this planet, the grass was such a vibrant green that it almost hurt his eyes.

  And it was a green that he had never seen before. Most of the plants that he had seen on Earth usually had a dusty, dirty layer of pollution from the air and the ground. Then the parts of the plants that were supposed to turn green would have a dull brown tint from not getting enough nutrients or water. Dark spots would often cover leaves from radiation poisoning or carbon dioxide poisoning. There was nothing, in the entirety of Eric’s life, which had come close to the vibrant green that was now before him.

  However, the field was far from empty. To his right, off in the distance, stood a town, or at least what looked like one. From what he could tell the town was walled with white alabaster. Beyond the wall, were spiral, white buildings that seemed tall, even from this distance. There were only a couple of dozen buildings, but they all practically looked the same. One of them seemed to have some sort of flying wooden boat. Its full details were lost from here, but the cavans sail was obvious. In the center of the town was the one exception. This building was taller and wider than the others and if Eric could guess then this was either the religious or political center.

  Eric wondered if he should make his way toward this form of civilization. After all, they would have resources such as food, water and obvious shelter. They would know how to survive the environment and the predators better. With any luck, they might even have the ability to transmit messages back to Earth or might even be able to transport him back. Even if he couldn’t make it back to any other human being, he might be able to live among them if he needed to.

  Eric was about to give thought to the alternative. He was about to toss around the idea of not visiting a strange place of aliens that he knew nothing about. He was about to reconsider walking into a species that might be more aggressive that the terror birds or the burrowing horror. However, something caught his attention before his mind could carry out such thoughts.

  The sound was like that of an engine coming to life. It wasn’t like the sound of the old internal combustion engine cars that Eric often saw on the side streets of Earth, but more like the sound of a hover car. It had a higher but softer pitch. Yet, despite his ability to see for miles, Eric simply couldn’t see it source.

  Then, about a quarter of the distance between him and town, the air started to shimmer. There was motion, yet Eric couldn’t quite make out what it was. It was when he was in the military and saw a tank turn on its experimental cloaking device.

  Without notice, the shimmering stopped and the form took shape. The item was, in fact, a hover car of some kind, although not like he had ever seen. The bottom was semi-oval before it came up to create the frame. The front had a glass type half windshield but the rest of the vehicle remained without a top.

  Inside the hovercraft sat two humanoid things, for the lack of a better word. One was sitting and from what Eric could surmise, was probably the one driving. The other stood in the craft next to the first and gave Eric a good look of their appearance.

  They seemed to be almost the same size as a regular human, but thinner and frail looking. Each hand had five long bony fingers. On its shoulders rested an oversized head that resembled more of a six tentacle squid or octopus than one would normally find on any humanoid body. Their eye
s were large, black and bulbous.

  “Skweeeeek, squaaaawk…”

  There was that sound again, the sound that he had heard before but he couldn’t quite make it out. He was sure that had heard it somewhere, and recently. He was also sure that the sound had nothing to do with the oncoming squid faced humanoids.

  However, even though there weren’t any sounds from the creatures, there was something that did seem to come from them. Eric received what he could only believe to be a mental image. It was filled with hate and anger. It was filled with scenes of dissections. His world spun as his brain became lightheaded as one barrage of negative emotion after another hit him. He felt that he would vomit right then and there before passing out.

  Eric knew, deep down, that the images that were sent to him were going to be his fate. He knew that if he passed out here then he would never wake up. There was one thing, and only one thing that he could do. It was the one thing that he had been doing since he got here.