Trail of the Oent'rfazr

LEAX nodded. “I suggest that we start with the pathway that leads to the arch so we can grab the mapRock on our way to find the opening.” The two started walking back into the darkness. As they walked further, Hunt was looking all around watching for whatever it was that he had seen before. It had scared the living daylight out of him and it wasn’t anything he wanted to sneak up on him.

“Shouldn’t we be getting close?” Hunt asked. They walked along the path until they came to the arch where they reburied the box. LEAX looked up, scanned his light across the rock, and stopped at the rock triangle on the wall.

“Let’s see if we can find the ‘Rock so we can get out of here,” LEAX told Hunter.

This time the Locator didn’t register above a very slow, barely visible light emission. While LEAX was checking the Locator, Hunter yelled, “What was that?”

Hunter, trying to get control of his jitters, told LEAX, “I heard some rocks falling that started on the other side of the path and then got louder.” They both stopped talking and started looking and listening as they scanned the area with the flashlights.

“I don’t see anything,” Hunter responded quietly. “Do you?” Just as LEAX started to respond, he stopped suddenly.

Hunter started to ask but LEAX held up his hand. “Be quiet.”

Both men waited for several seconds and then they heard raspy, guttural breathing and then a low scream that reminded Hunter of the videos he had seen when a predator in the wild was closing in for a blood kill. He felt his body begin to shiver uncontrollably. Hunter watched LEAX, who was slowly reaching into his belt.

“What’re you doing?” Hunt asked.

Again, LEAX signaled Hunter, “Be Quiet. Our lives depend on it.” The darkness of the cavern kept them from seeing anything clearly but they could tell from the sounds that something was circling them like an animal closing for the kill. Suddenly, a stench like nothing Hunt had ever smelled before blasted his nostrils.

What is that godawful smell? he thought. With instincts remnant of a past where fighting for survival was a daily necessity, both men pivoted around in small circles trying to keep whatever it was directly in front of them. Suddenly, all sound stopped. They looked around but couldn’t see or hear anything.

“Where is it?” Hunt asked. In the dark, feeling the total helplessness that comes with no control, no awareness, and not knowing one’s fate, Hunter began to believe that he was going to die. The growling began again only this time it was much closer and behind them.

Hunter yelled out without thinking, “Behind you, LEAX.” Then, he realized that he had just given his location away to the animal. Hunter could feel his heart thumping in his throat. The thing began circling again and this time they could hear movement and falling rock. Hunter could see that LEAX was dropping into a squatting position.

He signaled Hunter from about five feet away just above a whisper, “When I yell, you run towards me as fast as you can and run by me on my left side. On my left side as fast as you can,” he repeated, lifting his left arm to emphasize his instructions.

Hunter mouthed the word ‘yes’ as if he understood why he was saying that. The sound began getting closer and, at one point, Hunter shined his flashlight in the direction of the noise just in time to see six jointed, translucent legs attached to an elongated blood red translucent body that looked like decaying meat. Three large pinchers and a segmented tail displaying stingers that looked like two long hypodermic needles extended from the body. Then, it blended back into the darkness.

Hunter commented in a disconnected voice, “That picture in the lobby didn’t do this thing justice.” They heard something on the top of a small ledge just in front of Hunter. He flashed his light and looked up to see four evil looking, dead black bulging eyes above a number of long white fangs jutting out of a drooling mouth. Hunter instinctively backed up and, when he did, he noticed that LEAX had repositioned himself in a direct line with the creature and him.

I wonder why LEAX did that? Hunter thought.

The grotesque legs moved in articulated rhythm as the tail twitched back and forth as if practicing for the death stroke. The mouth opened and closed in a scissor-like motion dripping blood saliva on the ground. It was then Hunter realized that the animal was stalking him.

I am trapped. When he stepped to the left, the animal moved to his left with him. The dead black eyes seemed to follow even Hunter’s smallest movement. Well, I don’t see many ways out of this. I only hope it will be quick and painless. He had already accepted that his life was forfeit. The animal was slowly crouching into a primal springing position.

Just at that moment, LEAX shouted, “RUN”, at the top of his lungs, to Hunter, who turned and ran to LEAX’s left. At the same time, the animal sprang forward with such ferocity and speed that it nearly landed on Hunter’s back where it would have been only seconds to the kill. It would reach Hunter in seconds.

In a final instinctive reaction, Hunter yelled, “LEAX”.

In the split second after Hunter yelled, LEAX raised the Translator, braced himself, and buried it with all his strength against the body of the incoming animal. The impact was so strong that, even though LEAX had prepared himself for it, it jarred him an shoved him backwards with such force that he broke a section of the stone arch when he fell.

LEAX cried out, “Aaaaaaarggghh”. He felt the pain of the impact and then everything went dark.