Escape

by **Eightball** August 27th 2013, 6:25 am

Escape
by Eightball

Heavy breaths of air rushed to and from his lungs, his heartbeat resounding within his ears accented by the leaves he crushed with his labored flight. His tired limbs screamed for rest, but rest he gave it not. A looming fear fueled him, propelling him through the woods to escape his fate. Escape was his only prize, his greatest desire he could not reach. The sun was setting, and darkness was beginning to form. Night was unavoidable, just as his demise. His boot snagged on a decayed log, and he fell into the dried leaves of autumn with a sharp crumple. His dirty hands immediately pushed against the brittle things, struggling to bring his panicked face from the forest floor. The scent of the trees filled his nostrils, a smell he would have normally enjoyed. Beastly sounds then emerged from behind the trees, and he desperately fumbled to his feet, drawing his gun from his belt. He fired shots, but to no avail. His eyes widened and the pistol fell from his fingers.

He spun around and continued to run, horror now filling his mind as he avoided branches and dashed through the forest. Despair now curled within his flesh, allowing the fatigue to slowly wear his escape one step at a time. He could not escape it, this thing, and he could not fight. Tears welled from his eyes, knowing that this could become one of his last moments. The gunshots had not even phased it, only angering it further. He was sure the abomination could catch him now, his life only still living by its cruel sense of humor. His lungs screamed as loathed air expelled with burden. Leaves rustled from the depths of the forest, echoing his own retreat like a malevolent shadow. A spark of hope ignited within his heart, seeing a glaring light from ahead. The end of the forest. If only he could return to civilization and security, he may very well retain a sliver of his jagged life. If only he could.

He just had to make it to the light.

Growls began to grumble louder behind him, the light patter of paws against the forest ground increasing in rhythm, a howl increasing in his ears as the final pounce was about to be made. Adrenaline shot up through his limbs, and the beating of his heart now deafening in his ears. Fear consumed him as he suddenly knew with utmost certainty that his time would come. And then, simple as that—

—Nothing.

His eyes suddenly widened as his figure emerged from the trees into rough field, light enveloping him, and surprise rising in his chest. He stumbled through the clearing, his getaway now called to a halt. He waited for his fate, the inevitable final judgement, inescapable. The growls now silenced did not come, the demon exorcised of sheer ersatz of life. It had gone, now abandoning its chase. Calm began to defile the fading despair. He took a tentative step forward. And then another. He paused, pain rattling his body. He collapsed upon his knees, now enslaved to the earth by the chains of torpor, drops of blood dripping from the edge of his nose and staining a yellowed blade of grass.

The call of civilization seduced the energy from his limbs, urging him to inch up the unkept hill, populated by unkept grass and dry dirt. His fingers grasped the thin, flexible strands of grass as he slowly made his way up the field. He smelt a strange scent, one that brought back memories of barbecue and camping. Another scent wafted above it, mixing with it, and desecrating it with an evil stench. A hint of confusion pushed his ascent, his crawl beginning to scale the hill faster. Near the peak, his palm touched the dead grass, feeling a searing heat that caused him to flinch. Horror began to fill his eyes as he realized the desolation that he was witnessing, a wake of destruction.

Fire had raged upon his home, now reduced to reddened, smoking charcoal cracked by the blood of his people. Bodies littered the scorched ground, nothing but mutilated, sable husks mocking that of what once was, frozen in the excruciating positions of their last moments. An small, miniature body lay nearest to him, a child fallen in her tortured crawl. Her soul now lost among the abyss, buried under thousands of murdered men and women.

A tear formed at his eyes, tainted by grief. It slowly began to trickle over his eyelid and descend down his cheek, mixing with dirt. Life as he knew it had truly been consumed by destruction and death, now cruelly cheating him of his own. If only he could escape from the agonizing heat of the fire that devoured his kin and ravaged his heart. If only he could end the chaos ensued by the calls of death, the eternal chase of life and death. If only he could.