Claimed By The Touch-Starved Alpha Beasts

a's lung

rotting sugar and heavy ozone. She pushed herself up from the

r eyes. The w

a sickly bioluminescent purple light. Mushrooms the size of car

ack mud. Her favorite pair of blue jeans was torn at the knees, an

r stomach lurched, sending a wave of nausea u

re

ndings, the ground vibrated. It wasn't a subtle tremor. It was

was entirely alien-a guttural, metallic screech tha

slammed against her ribs, a frantic, painful rhy

ed to her f

, her sneakers slipping on the slick, mossy ground. Branches whipped a

the underbru

her shoulder. Her breath caug

plates of dark gray armor. Three glowing yellow eyes sat asymmetrically on its blunt face. Thick, corr

es on her. It let out another

st heaving. Her vision narrowed to the pa

thick, glowing root h

ound hard, tumbling down a steep incline. Sharp rocks and thorns tore at he

asped, her mouth opening and closing like a f

look

cline. It dug its massive, clawed fe

crambled blindly in the dirt beside her. Her right hand closed a

turned stark white. She dug her fingern

sive jaws opened, reveali

n branch in front of her face, locking her elbows. She

blue light pierced

ng pain. The ground shook as something heav

a opened

the ground, a smoking, char

pended in the

acks extended massive, metallic wings that gleamed like polished gold. They hovered

n eyes-shouted a command in a harsh, guttural language

e tree, her brain entirely short-circuiting

d another precise shot into the

reath. Her fingers loosened

unded right ne

aller but just as terrifying, had crept through the bushes. It

n yelled from above, his voic

time to think. She did

her arms forward, driving the splintered branch

momentum d

eft eye socket-which was already bleeding from a

apsed onto Cassandra, pinning her legs to the ground. Ho

nds still gripping the bloody branch. She was hyperventila

ng fell de

owered their weapons

amlessly into a compact pack on his back as his boots touched the

e dead beast. He loo

ately, he sank to one knee. He placed his r

weat stinging her eyes. She tried to speak, to

ng dark and fuzzy. The metallic hum of the f

finally failed. Her han

er, and she slumped forw