Beasts of the Wasteland

After a moment of darkness came the light. Not a particularly bright light but still a sharp contrast to the total blackness Samuel had experienced moments ago. He was alive. Or at the very least aware. He felt the dirt and gravel under his hands. The sky glowed in a faint violet light though no Sun or stars were visible in the cloudy sky. Sounds of distant thunder echoed. It was a wasteland as far as the eye could see with sickly and dried grass, and thorn bushes being the only vegetation around. Bare mountains were like spires reaching towards the clouds and fissures scarred the surface of the land. There was a foul scent in the air, bringing forth imagery of dust, decay and volcanoes, even if none of the latter were visible from where Samuel stood.

There were no buildings to be seen, though Samuel did find that what he thought was a pile of stones, did seem man made. It was the rubble of a collapsed structure with pieces of broken brick and stone still visible, though by the state of it, its old age was apparent. As he took a step closer there was a crack beneath his shoes. There was a dried out bone that he had broken in two. The constant breeze brought faint sounds of barking. What manner of beast would live in a place like this? A shiver ran through his shoulders. On a rational level he understood that the world he was in right now was not his own, but his thoughts resisted it as if this denial would lead to him waking up in his own bed and the events of the last day would be nothing but a fleeting nightmare, forgotten before even managing to get of his pyjamas. Try as he might, the ground remained solid if a little trembling under his feet.

He turned around and saw a dark figure about a hundred meters away. It dropped down from a standing position and seemed to be facing the other way and hadn’t noticed Samuel. Should I run away or try to get help? Either option was liable to lead to his own untimely death in its own unique manner. He decided to risk an approach. As he was starting to be able to discern more details on the faraway figure, he saw that it was a man hitting the ground with his arms. The wind carried his frustrated screams back to Samuel. That bastard. Abandoning any sense of vigilance and ignoring the aches all over his body from the beating, he dashed towards the betrayer that he had once called a leader.

“It’s all gone. There is nothing left. Hear my pleas mighty one,” Jarek was in turn lamenting his state, cursing his enemies and begging for help with no cohesion whatsoever.

“How could you!” Samuel screamed as he came closer. Jarek turned around but remained on his knees and glared with a delirious expression. “We were friends. Hell, we might as well have been family. And you did this. Why? What could possibly lead you to this.” Samuel was panting both out of exhaustion and anger towards Jarek. After he offered no response, he grabbed him by the collar and shook him. “Answer me!”

That was enough to snap Jarek back into reality. He knocked away Samuels hands and got to his feet. “What do you know? You don’t understand anything, you always thought little of me and made fun of our rituals.”

Samuel’s anger boiled even hotter. “How can you still be talking about that idiocy. We were kids, it was only games. Nothing was ever real. You were the only one blind enough to not notice that.”

Jarek laughed. “I’m the blind one? Look around yourself.” He gestured to the barren land. “Does this look like nothing we did was real?”

“I don’t know what this is. But so what? Even if the rituals were true, why would you betray us? Do we mean so little to you? You would have us killed in a sacrifice. For what? Power?”

“We are still alive aren’t we? I did what I had to do in order to move on to the next le…”

Jarek was unable to finish his sentence as Samuel hit him in the face. He had never considered himself a violent or impulsive person despite all the fights he had participated in, however many things had changed in the last day. As he had been speaking with Jarek he had to hold back, but as his answers continued to fuel the fire within him, he snapped. He pummelled Jarek in a wild and disorganised way in a stark opposition to the elegance he had developed when using his cane over the years.

Jarek hadn’t been their leader just because of his wonderful personality, but for his strength and fighting ability. And while the advantage of him being older was diminishing with each passing year, he remained bigger and stronger than any of the other members of his former gang. Thus, despite Samuel’s initial onslaught, he was able to begin landing blows as well and drive Samuel away. The fight might’ve continued until one of them was passed out or worse, if it wasn’t for the beast that appeared in front of them. It looked like a dog or small wolf, but was missing large patches of fur. The four legs were partly covered by grey scales and ended in long sharp talons. In some places bare bones were visible on its body.

Jarek had been lying on top of Samuel and choking him, but released. Samuel also stopped his frantic punching and kicking. They disentangled and got to their feet in slow and measured motions. The beast growled and began circling the pair. Samuel began stepping backwards in hopes of avoiding another fight. The beast roared and charged, and so did Jarek. In his hands he held a long leg bone like a club. Samuel looked around and picked up a rock, then saw a better weapon. He was only a few paces behind Jarek as he gave the old stick he had found an experimental swing. It was nowhere near as good of a weapon as the cane that he had used and lost but was far better than going into battle empty-handed. His skill of fighting with the cane was something he was proud of. He was one of the best fighters in the gang, perhaps on par with Jarek himself even if he was a little smaller and much weaker. I wish I could’ve brought my cane with me.

The creature jumped towards Jarek when they closed the distance and took the head of the femur bone to the snout and yelped with pain before crashing to the ground. Jarek sidestepped to avoid the creature after he had struck it. Samuel struck it moments after it fell as he ran up to it. Before it was able to get back up, they took it down with a couple of additional swings of their improvised weapons. The beast was even uglier from up close. Samuel turned towards Jarek but his sigh of relief froze inside his lungs. A group of four more of the creatures was running towards them.

“Run!” Samuel shouted to Jarek. He didn’t understand why, since not so long ago he had been willing to put an end to the traitor with his own hands. Somehow it just felt wrong to have him devoured by animals. Jarek didn’t object to Samuel’s idea. They both took off in the same direction. He could’ve run the other way at least. Samuel understood the thought was a little bit evil but at the same time, perhaps it could improve the chances of one of them surviving.

That turned out to be nothing more than wishful thinking, as another pack of beasts appeared from the flank. They made it to the top of a small hill with their pursuers right behind them. In another moment they would have caught up. Jarek pointed to a large boulder at the peak and they placed themselves with their backs against it. Samuel picked up a handful of stones and began hurling them at the monsters. He was able to score a couple of hits but each throw only delayed them for a moment.

The first pack dashed towards them and they each swung their weapons to bat them away. They managed to fight off two then three, but the next one was able to score a gash across Jarek’s arm. He roared with pain and dropped the femur. Samuel managed to fight it off, but by then the second pack of the wolf like monsters was already upon them. Jarek shoved Samuel away from the boulder, making him roll down the slope of the hill. As Samuel managed to look back, he saw one beast slash across Jarek’s chest and blood splattering from the wound. The entire pack jumped him.

Did he save me? Why now? Samuel got to his feet and sprinted down the slope. A more cynical voice in his head told him that perhaps Jarek had hoped he the beasts would have decided to jump him instead. Still, Jarek’s last action had save his life, even if it was also his fault that Samuel was in this accursed place at all. A strange thought crossed his mind, a game they had played many years ago. The prophecy of his own death. He sneaked one last glance at the place of Jarek’s death. So in the end it was just a silly childhood game after all.

The other side of the hill featured much the same landscape as the first, however, the stench of sulphur increased and there were even random small fires burning from the ground. It wasn’t the plants burning, the fire seemed just another element of the local topography. Perhaps some kind of gas escaping from below the ground.

Samuel’s lungs burned because of the revolting air. Samuel considered giving up as the canines were gaining on him. I might not be the first, but dying a minute later will hardly make a difference for me. Then he got an idea and ran towards the closest of the fires. Perhaps the fear of fire was present in the creatures. Either way, he saw no better alternative. He jumped over a fissure and landed on a large stone. It shook and Samuel tripped and fell to the ground. He looked back and saw that the stone was moving. It unrolled its elongated body and revealed multiple long and thin chitinous legs and two pointy claws almost as big as Samuel’s hands.

“No,” Samuel could only let out a small whimper. When will this nightmare end? The insectoid or perhaps crablike beast moved towards him and stood between him and the fire. Its legs were clicking against the rocks on the ground like a mechanical clock. At least it was not moving fast. The next moment it sprung in the air towards Samuel. Perhaps that was for the best. If he could only get past it, he could get to the fire. He swung his stick to bat it away but something felt off. The bug flew past him, and he had dropped the stick. The agonising pain threw him to the ground. He screamed and held the stump of his arm with blood spurting out in regular beats. His hand, still clutching the stick, and half of the forearm were lying next to him and blood pooled around him. There was nothing he could do or even think about. The bug was already coming back to finish the job. He tried crawling away towards the fire. His movements were sluggish but at least the pain was becoming muted as well. He collapsed to the ground and could only move his head to witness the canine creatures attacking the bug. Blood and gore were being splashed all around the scene of the battle.

Lightning flashed before Samuel’s dimming vision followed by a crack of thunder. Where the beasts had fought only a blackened smouldering crater remained. A cloaked figure stood above Samuel when he regained his consciousness a moment later. The next time he opened his eyes, the man had dragged him to the fire. The immense pain of his mutilated stump getting burned by the flames lasted only a moment before he fully passed out.