SHORT STORY: Track 8 – Crawl

Track 8 – Crawl

Jesus Christ I gotta get out of here. Please let me live through this. I got to go; I got to go, but where? Open nothingness behind me where the danger hurriedly seeks me. It is only a matter of time before it realizes where I went, I am sure. Then before me, the unknown. Can I even make it? I have never before, nor has anyone like me. I have heard rumors, but am I special, can I crawl to a new home?

Imagine me, sucking in air and blowing out my exhaustion; that would be the day. Please, I need this. I already lost my wife today; watched her gobbled up by the behemoth. Now it wants me. I just want to live, please let me live. I promise I will not take anything for granted anymore, and I will always look fondly back on everything I had and appreciate everything I will have.

Why does the beast have to put me in this situation? Why does it need to destroy me and my life? Just stay wherever you are and let me be. Just let me go away from here. I should seriously try crawling away, what is the worst that can happen?

A new life, a new me, and a life of solitude; is that really that much better than painfully being devoured? I guess it depends on your state of mind, and right now mine wants to survive. I feel it; it is nearing. I could fight. I would lose, but in the pain at least there will be the joy of knowing I fought for the loss of my love. Who am I kidding, I am a coward, fleeing is my only viable option.

I poke my head up and I am greeted with a welcoming droplet of water. The rain should make the transition a little easier, but will I still dry out? I have no time to consider, it’s now or never. I look back with one final glance of farewell and I lock eyes with it. It found me, and it is racing towards me with stealth I have never seen before. So swift, so deadly.

I lean forward hastily and I flop onto a rock, I try to breath, but nothing is happening. Was I foolish to have hope? This could never work, I am a victim of my own temptation, but then again I was a goner anyway. I feel the sensation of suffocation overwhelming me, but I feel no pain as I witness the blood curdling jaws trying desperately to get at me from just out of reach.

One more failed attempt at breathing, yet I am still alive. Why? Perhaps these short gasps I am making through my mouth are helping? But what is the use if I just lay here and bake once the clouds retreat? I need to move on if this is to work.

I stare above me and see a winged predator circling the skies. Great, I have had dealings with them in the past and I know they are just as cruel as the behemoth; who knows where it would drag me to and what it would do to me. It swoops down; I have no time to think so I just react. I roll over and when it is within striking distance I hurl a nearby stone into its face. It must not have been expecting that because it retreated with a shrill squawk.

How did I even do that? I could never do that before, but I guess I never tried it before. Wait, I hear something. Friend or foe? I roll over because it is my only option and I scrap my fins across the boulder were I lay. Traction; I move forward. This is working, but now what? I keep it up, I keep sliding and crawling and I make my way up the mound that was once before me.

I feel as if I am on top of the world, and for a moment I am. I look down at what is in store for me and I am elated. Scurrying about I see others like me. Moving about with ease, they must have all made the same desperate journey. I have a new home; evolution is a wonderful thing.