[1-3] The Nose

[Gildarts]

After taking a few gulps of air, Christa leaned her head back on the nearest tree, which yes, took some struggle to get there. More or less it was comfortable. The bark scraped her skin, but she didn’t care. One hand of hers, held the fabric, which she’d fastened on her leg almost better than a doctor could have. The other hand had stowed the knife, and pulled out her Beretta. She felt safer, less nude, with one bullet cocked in the chamber.

Shadows dwelled in the forest, and swelled in her mind. Christa heard a stirring among the bushes. “Hello?” her ears perked, “Is someone there?” There was no answer, and Christa straightened the pistol in her hand. If it wasn’t human, she got the sense that it was some kind of... Creature. A rumbling growl confirmed the assumption that she’d jumped to, and she would’ve held her ground, had the woman not see the trees shake leaves, coconuts, and unripe bananas from above. A coconut slowly rolled over to her and lightly tapped her leg. The sniper drank in the tropical air and felt her lungs constrict with fear. Whatever it was, it towered over her, with a height she couldn’t even scale against the trees.

The distinct sound of unearthly sniffing could be heard over the blood rushing in her ears. It snorted and dust and soil clouded the air, cloaking all she could assume about it, save its direction. There was a disgusting gurgling coming from the bushes directly in front of he, it crawled closer, snapping twigs and breaking limbs, as though fueled by the promise of blood, it lunged forward.

There was a roar, so brutal, so carnivorous, it chilled her blood. A surge of terror was perpetuated by a need to caterwaul in correspondence with her complete trepidation. The haunted shadows of the forest swirled around her and infinite dread lurked too close to her near-bursting heart. It was getting closer, following the trail of her blood.

Before she could train her eyes on it, she listened with her ears, angled her gun, and pulled the trigger six times. It sounded like a cannon, and reverberated over the island before it could be drowned out by wind and waves. BANG! The final shot rang and was followed by the drums that had started in her ears. Now, it was life or death, for she knew she had missed it, and now, it steamrolled into trees, as though angry. The wood crackled underneath its force and filled her ears with a sound resembling a whip. The fear in her gut told her to run, and though her wounded leg protested, Christa's heels dug into the ground and propelled her forward, each step struck her with a loathsome wince.


Air cascaded in her lungs, a residual burn blazed in every muscle that could still move, and her hair flew behind her like a mane on a mare. She left the sound of snapping trees behind her and felt the strain on her leg overwhelm her, but she kept running. There was no way to fight a monster like that... Until her mind caught on the idea of tossing a grenade, but she wondered if the creature even had a fixed shape to attack. It was worth a try, and she would rather die fighting than running. Suddenly, she turned. In one hand she held her pistol, the other, grasped the explosive with her thumb through the pin of the most explosive grenade she had. As soon as it got close enough...

There was a crack and a stirring in the bushes that her eyes had fixed on. She gulped, raised the grenade in her hand, and convinced herself that she was ready to die for her cause, but doubt prickled in her mind, for the rustling sound approaching was much smaller than what had chased her. A red, cat-like creature strode into her line of sight, and walked right into the aim of her pistol. He froze and his expression was full of shock. Christa’s index twitched on the trigger, for out of fright, she had nearly fired the bullet straight into Red’s head. Following him, was a Syntech employee she vaguely recognized from the flight.

Her blue eyes were still full of fear, it seemed less and less possible that this red creature was what had chased her, that he was what had wanted to feast on her flesh and crunch her bones as mere slivers. The terror shown bright on her perspiring skin, but she gave Red XIII the benefit of the doubt. “Who are you?” she demanded to the both of them, mind, still at gunpoint. Her voice wavered, shrill from mind-encompassing horror, “Did you... See where it went?”

Red and the employee exchanged exasperated glances, noting both the gun in her hand, and the blood that dripped down the injured-woman's leg. There was a stillness in the air and Red finally asked, "See what?"