Pine Needles (Veil Realms Series) (15 page)

“We need to go, we’re not alone
.”

Chapter Seventeen

The Pack

I subtly lean over to Rayden and quietly mumble, “Our predator has turned into predators.” 

With a deep serious contemplation set in his shadowy eyes he assesses the area as we begin to walk back in the direction of the others. “How many?” He inquires me with almost the exact same discreet tone.

My infrared vision easily detects the rigorous beast that has been hunting us for some time, and the slow ticking, bone-chi
lling sounds tell me one thing. It’s a signal, a calling of some type to other predators that a smorgasbord awaits. Now that I can hear its primitive bizarre communications calling back and forth excessively, more begin to appear in my vision.

“I count four in total, but they’re—” Another sickle-clawed beast mounts precisely over the beveled embankment while the main four hold their stance some distance away.  My heart triples its resonating beat, as every internal nerve in me bypasses rational thought and centers on strictly the fight or flight response.  

The blood craving carnivores have circled the river entrapping us. It is a clever ambush by allowing me to be distracted with the one while the others position themselves for the attack.  The one that I have tracked has modified his position in front of us. This is a bad sign because the others stalk us from the rear. 

Little did I know that the kill zone was right before
me. The ambush is sprung when a heavily scaled beast erupts directly out of the river.  There is no time for any of us to think.  The camouflaged beast was submerged the entire time they drank from the water.  I’m too distracted to come up with any logic of why I hadn’t detected it before other than the water may have shielded my new vision. The pitched-dark eyes display nothing as the beast soars through the air, claws spread out with every intention to kill all of them as they huddle together.

Jack moves instinctively shov
ing all three of them out of the fray but the sickle-like claws stretch outward and catch his right leg.  An explosion of blood coats everything in sight as his severed leg soars into the jungle behind him. The swooping momentum of the beast takes it temporarily out of sight and into the jungle, but the rustle of noise is clear it is detouring back to strike again. 

Jack’s afflicted screams are drowned out by Cass who bends over his bloody body and wails in horror as she clutches his shirt. Through the half sobbing and half shr
ill coherent words, she begs him, “Get… up… Jack please? Get up!”  The foliage twists and the ground shakes as the beast barrels a path toward its marked target again, which is maimed, blood-soaked Jack.  Rayden starts to run toward him, but I forcefully pull his arm back, arresting his advance. Louisa charges deliriously past Tiffany, practically blindsiding her as Louisa latches onto Rayden.

The three of us stand frozen in place as Cass falls across Jack, making her body a human shield. Her crazed sobbing has overridden any rational thought and no matter our urging she cries over Jack’s inert form. In the next witless moment a loud screeching bellows and the snapping of branches break away as the beast shoots over the embankment, making a direct kill with its next prey. Flesh rips from bones and the gurgling, torturing screams from Cass burn into my heart
forever.

More leap from the jungle and clamp their massive jaws over the disemboweled bodies. The feeding frenzy begins as lacerating claws and skull-crushing teeth rip apart any semblance of Jack and Cass. A wild bloodlust takes away all of the beasts’ restraints as they bite into anything that moves, including one another.  A raw stench of de
ath saturates the stifling air and the four of us turn in unison to flee from this violent scene of carnage and gore.

Incidentally our escape is blocked as all eyes fall on the Alpha of the pack. Thirty feet from us he crouches low to the bank. His front claws seem more enlarged and keen-edged as the sharp nails dig deep into the undergrowth of the thick and rotting forest. Its mucus covered jaw pul
ls tightly back giving the inky-dark eyes a wicked glaze. The clicking, repetitive sound chatters as its distinct teeth vibrate together. I push everyone behind me, including Rayden and in a hoarse voice I pronounce each word in one quick breath, “When I say run, run!”

Never daring to take my eyes off our aggressor, I make every endeavor not to flinch
with each depredating stomp it takes creeping up. The miscreation cocks its armored head at an angle, and opens its bone-splintering mouth wide producing a mind splitting scream. The muffled whimpering becomes freakishly loud as Louisa can barely contain herself anymore. The beast covets the fear, its heart rate increases and its covered nostrils flare open. I’m in a stand-off and I take on the stance of Sirius, completely immobile, my breathing slows down, my muscles tight, and then Louisa makes a break for the jungle.

In one surge, I catapult the beast into the barricade of entangled vines and f
oliage. It collides through tree after tree until the final spine-breaking impact. My ability to manipulate the force of gravity still is a concept difficult for me to grasp, numbing me momentarily motionless. Rayden’s arm loops around my waist, thrusting us together. “Move your ass, Selene!” he implores as we chase after Louisa and Tiffany.   

I have clear sight of Tiffany and Louisa running ahead as Rayden and I follow behind them.
I exert my hands in front of me, preventing every jungle plant, limb, and corkscrewing vine from our path. Rayden’s short footfalls are directly behind me, but the rapid pace of the nightmarish beasts now coexist with us. Howls of doom pen the vaporous jungle with a warning, our end draws near. 

I glance to my right about the same time a beast breaks through the expansion of foliage and hits me with unimaginable force, slamming me down into the base of a tree. Seepage of blood fills my mouth along with remnants of dirt. I spit the gritty soil and blood to the jungle floor
and drag my hands underneath me. I try to push myself upright from the impact.

The overbearing weight that plowed me into the tree has now dissipated. Wheeling around sporadically I look for the beast.  The blood drains
away any flushed color I may have as I stand in absolute shock. Rayden clamps his right arm fearlessly around the neck of the creature, but he struggles to maintain his bearings on its back. Swaying and flailing about the intemperate beast staggers a disorienting charge deeper into the spinney, under wood ahead of me. 

Speeding past th
e trees, strands of sweat soak my hair making it cling to my face. My heart echoes a nerving heavy pounding sound, making my ears ring profusely.  I duck under a branch and anchor myself next to a vast mountain of trees. I have a full view of Rayden and the beast fighting to overthrow the other. In Rayden’s left hand he stabs repeatedly with a jagged tipped stone into the creature’s iron-like flesh.  

I
feel the rough bark of the giant tree against my hands and that gives me an idea. I focus all I have on Rayden and the beast as I use my push against the tree.  It resists the push at first but I refocus it a little higher on the tree and it begins to give way.  The roots start popping around my feet like gunshots.

Rayden grips the creature’s natural armor
and tries to smash a sharp-jagged stone into the right eye of the beast.  I feel the tree give way and I yell as loud as I can, “Rayden! Jump!”  He dives into a roll from the creature’s back as the tree falls, crushing it as the ground trembles from the massive impact.

I lumber over to where Rayden lays on th
e ground and offer him a hand up. His grip clamps my hand tightly as he rises up. He blows out an unbelievable sigh and runs his fingers through his hair. “I don’t want you to explain how you can do it, I’m just glad you can.” I meet his eyes wanting desperately to tell him everything but I drop my gaze and readdress our situation.      

I start looking
for a place to defend us, a deep bank or one of the hollowed out trees would be useful, but nothing comes into view.  What I do see are more of the creatures.  At least three are racing parallel down the trail. The first two charge onward after the women, maintaining the chase with one on each side of the river.  “Rayden, follow Tiffany!”  I yell as I pull up short and turn to meet the oncoming attack.  I choose a small-scaled clearing with larger trees outlining the area. The sodden jungle is still thick and lush with vines and plants, but I have a better view from here.  I see through my converted sense of sight the pulsating, inflamed beat of its heart as the beast launches high overhead, up into the canopy.  Both talons extend and its gaping jaw ready to provide a deadly blow. Quickly, the monster descends from above and I drop to my haunches and roll back with both hands out and the push supports a barrier. It snaps and grinds its teeth at the obscure energy keeping me safe. I thrust my other hand forward and it flies the beast back against a giant tree. The crack of bones resonates through the dusk fallen day. 

The sun seems to hide as a
mantle of darkened clouds house the sky. I reel over onto my feet and practically jump out of my skin when the boom of thunder discharges through the air. A hair-triggering current zips through my hands while I lean forward. The repetitive chattering of teeth almost blends in with the roar of thunder. Whether I want to see it or not I distinguish another beast so close to me that it is only two steps away from breathing down my neck. My body locks up and my mind gropes for a counterpoise. Is there a chance I can—? My self-counsel is suppressed when suddenly to my right a hefty sizable rock hits the creature in the head without any results. The rock tumbles and lands next to my feet. I seize the moment and pitch my hands back, inserting all my force it slings the snarling beast back the way it came.

I meet his mirthful ey
es as I plod my way toward him and shout, “Rayden… what the hell do you think are you doing?”  My hands grip my hips as the anger hikes a level in me that I’m sure blazes through my gilded eyes. He stands about twenty feet away with a bat sized branch and another stone in his hand as if he is at a baseball practice. 

“What?  I am not leaving you
alone to fight them off by yourself, Selene,” he calls back. He takes a step closer as I step closer, our breathing clearly visible. Each exhale puffs out a noticeable vapor, we both listen, and wait, but our eyes never leave each other. Hanging onto our bated breath I watch as a drop of rain trickles down the side of his face. He blinks as another drop falls and without thinking I brush my thumb across his brow. He doesn’t flinch or swat my hand away but what he does surprises me. His hand clutches my wrist analyzing the mark his eyes narrow as he says, “This is bullshit. You know that, right?”

I jut out my chin and
notice the harshness in his eyes but the softness on his lips, I don’t respond to his words. There’s nothing to debate, nothing to undo, what has happened to me, to him, to us. The raindrops teem over our visibility and his expression washes away when the blinding rain pelts down. He laces his fingers through mine as we race to find cover.

“Where are you going?” I shout over the roaring thunder.

“Due west!” he hollers back.  

“What?!”

His hand whips around my hips and leads us to higher ground. Our clothing clings to our bodies as we stoop and bend around the foliage. I spot it the same time he does. A shelter of sorts, quickly we hunker down inside the cavity of a moss covered tree. It’s wide enough for one of us to lie down but the bitter rain has us huddled against each other for warmth.  With the light almost completely depleted from us, all I can rely on is the sound of his voice and the reaffirming hold he has along my back.

“Rayden? What’s due west?”

“The veil.”

I can’t seem to formulate words when he announces it without company of worry or doubt. His body doesn’t
bristle with fear or goes slack with hopelessness instead he holds me bravely closer. His arms cradle me as his mouth breathes next to my ear, softly he says, “Selene, there’s a weakness in the veil… I’m not sure how or why but we found it. Jack and I—”

He chokes on his words
from the shock of Jack being gone, but he slowly continues, “We found a weak point in the veil. When the city was powerless, no electrical items work within five miles of the veil, cell phones, computers, generators or anything else. The military was called in and ever since they have been trying to get something to work within the area, and luckily they did. Before that Jack and I spent well over nine to ten months traveling on foot around the veil, testing it, watching it absorb all the electricity around it. Then we passed a small pine grove the same one you and I used to go to and found that the veil was not solid but it would give a bit. It caught our attention because it wavered like ripples of water and then something inside my gut told me that this was our ticket in. We tried everything to penetrate it at first and then one day I was so damn pissed and I stared chucking rocks at it. A rock landed inside the veil. Then Jack and I grabbed whatever we could, twigs, branches, and the pine cones, it seemed anything natural would pass.”

“So how did you get through?”

“It was hard for us to believe we may have found a way in, and in the end I formed an alliance of people, people that were tired of how the government was classifying the area restricted. We worked day and night to unlock the secret of the veil, anything natural could pass without mutating it somehow. We found out that covering everything with mud worked. We brought guns and ammo, but none of that functioned on this side of the veil. Survival knives, blades and machetes seemed the best to bring. So we came through to find survivors, lost family members, and a way to destroy whatever came our way. We were sick and tired of waiting Selene, tired of not knowing what happened to the people we loved. I came here to find you. To find you, babe, because I lost my soul the day I watched your horror stricken face banging on the veil, screaming my name and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do.”