𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍 》TMR, Minho

002

After already killing two Cranks that walked around and one animal to eat, I continued walking through the dry woods. I only walked over the same mountain, basically our territory, so if a Crank or any other creature dared to pass that, I had to kill them.

It was silent while I walked. It always was, but this time it was too silent. Suspiciously silent like every living thing around disappeared or I was the only one left.

But later, when I already got a strange feeling in my stomach, a howl echoed through the woods. I stopped right in my tracks, knowing, out of experience, that wolves were harder to kill than other animals. 

Slowly the howls turned into a weird buzzing noise, like a loud bug or dolphin. It scared me, to be honest. I had never heard it before, but decided to keep walking, hoping the sound would fade away.

A part of me thought it might've not been an animal, but the familiar beeps I used to have in my head, yet this time I didn't see any visions, so it wasn't possible. It couldn't be. No one was around, so no one could control my mind like that, hopefully.

My breathing got stuck in my throat when I heard something rustling behind a bush. And then it jumped out of there, right on top of me.

"The fuck!" I let out a scream, feeling something cold drip onto my skin. A sort of slime. It was wet and left me shivering.

Not a Griever, right? I hoped, crossing my fingers mentally. Horrible creatures.

Soon, I came to the realization I was still wrestling with the nasty thing. I managed to grab a knife and stab it into the shoulder of the attacker, giving me the chance to jump up.

For a slight second, I saw the creature. It was a few inches taller than me and had the same body form as a human. The skin was grey-brownish, and it indeed was some sort of slime dripping off.

The weirdest thing was the way the slime smoothened the whole skin. Literally. There were no eyes, nose, or ears, only one long, but thin line on the place a mouth was supposed to be.

The creature stumbled over before it took the knife out of its own shoulder. I stood there frozen, by now focused on its hands. It had fingers, but they were connected with thin, almost clear skin.. as if it was a frog.

Eventually, I realized I would have to come into action to kill the creature, 'cause it definitely seemed stronger than a Crank. And before I knew it, the knife got thrown toward me. Out of reflex, my hand moved up, the knife sliding in it perfectly. I caught it!

The thing let out a howl and attacked me again. I didn't have much time to escape from its grip, so lay there, struggling on the ground until my eyes widened. The thin line opened, which was supposed to be a mouth. And that frightened me the most.

Thousands of teeth were in there. The mouth was long, almost coming to the side of its head. I felt a wave of its breathing hit my face, and it was nasty. The smell made me sick in the stomach.

I grunted and used the knife in my hands as my other arm pushed against its neck. It let out another howl when I stabbed the knife in its disgusting body again, but it didn't affect anything.

For a second I was taken aback, so I started running away, but soon heard the footsteps behind me, hitting the ground fast and repeatable. I definitely had to use some effort to run fast enough and not let the thing touch me.

As I ran, I grabbed an arrow out of my quiver and put it in my bow. It was one of the two special arrows I had. The arrow would explode if it hit the target, one of the things I loved, though most of the time I hoped I wouldn't have to use it.

For the first time in who knew how long, I was actually scared of the creature, but it gave me adrenaline. It pumped through my veins, making my legs move forward faster than ever. Branches hit my face and I almost tripped, but I ran like my life depended on it... because it did.

After a while, my legs started to slow down automatically. The panic rose in my chest. I had to run faster! But I didn't even get the chance to do so.. the creature already attacked.

I screamed, my voice spreading over the whole woods, mirroring against the trees when I felt the worst pain ache in my side. Not able to tell what happened, my hands clasped on my side in the hope the pain would stop like that. I was weak, I realized. It should've never happened!

My ears rang, vision got blurry as I got thrown onto the ground again. But I didn't want to give up. I didn't want to die. It went so fast I barely realized what happened, only me being able to fire my arrow with shaky hands came through me. The arrow hit the creature, which was walking closer to me, right in the chest.

I threw my head back in relief when I heard the explosion go off and slime spat onto my skin. No way that didn't kill it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I indeed saw there was nothing left of the thing except for some last chunks on fire.

My heart doubled pace while the pain in my waist turned worse, spreading through the rest of my body. I cried out, tears leaking from my eyelashes. It hurt so badly!

I wished to pass out so I wouldn't feel the pain, but no one was around to help while I was unconscious and I couldn't give up after all those years. Slowly I crawled over the ground to sit against a thick tree. My mind spun from either pain or questions about what the hell the creature did to me.

I felt my face tighten, probably pale too. With hands still trembling, I moved my leather jacket to the side and lifted up my shirt, that by now was soaked in red blood.

I winced only by seeing the wound on my side. It was like someone's nails pressed into my skin deeply and then started moving around, cutting my skin. I guessed the thing bit me.

But not only red blood came out, it was black too. I forced all my pain into a grunt and balled my fist, gathering enough energy to take a better look at the wound.

Something in the sparked, metal hitting the sun. Knowing from one of the lessons Holt gave me, I knew what to do. Always clean the wound, he had said, so that's what I did.

Sweat dripped down my body, but it didn't stop me from grabbing an arrow. My teeth already clenched together since I knew how painful the thing I was about to do would be.. but it had to get out of my body.

I took a breath and then stabbed the arrow right into the wound. I gasped, my mouth falling open and my body going into another freeze. Electricity hit me, sending shocks everywhere.

Whatever was in there, couldn't make contact with a silver arrow without giving me awful pain. My wish to pass out continued as I moved the arrow a bit around, trying to find the thing stuck. Hands were unsanitary, Halt had explained. At least more unsanitary than the point of a silver arrow. I hoped it wouldn't give me an infection.

I relaxed my whole body when I felt the arrow hit the thing that immediately jumped out of my wound, landing on the ground.

I threw my head back once again, knowing no one would look for me and that if I wanted to survive, I would have to heal and get up myself without any help.

More pain rushed from vein to vein as I took the small thing off the ground. It was a tooth of the creature. Sharp, shiny, and silver.
How the hell could a beast like that arise?

My eyelids started to get heavy after a while. My vision was too blurry to notice if it was really getting darker outside or if it were just my eyes closing, but not long after, I drifted off.

~

A/N: I'm sorry, writing fight scenes isn't my best quality 😭