Hybrids: An Indoraptor Story ✓

End Of A Beginning [Pt. 2]

The air reeked of death tonight.

Crimson embers tumbled across the stars like scuttled leaves in an autumn breeze. The pines shivered to their touch, some swift to go ablaze, others engulfed in the radiant displays of the dead. All the while a soulless moon watched from above, inspecting the fallen few and wavering under its smoky perfume to peek on the few souls that remained. The few who were still alive.

Those few who still believed in a chance.

I've sensed wrong more times than I can count, but never like this. In the air, in the ground, from within; the feeling was mutual no matter where I looked. Each pearly scale of mine would tremble in the chills of the ancient night, and my broken tail would bobble against the broken asphalt, too worn to stand on itself. My pale snout, smeared with the blood of my enemy and my inners, weakly grazed over the asphalt to sample what little scents were left, and to leave a trail from my frothing muzzle. As splintered skin and exposed flesh grinded and squeezed into each other, I could feel my senses slowly beginning to dim. It's a sensation I've felt before.

And it terrified me.

I growled aloud; I couldn't let it take me. Not now. Not so soon. The crave to live was still there, dragging my little body through the ruins of Clearlake. Nevertheless, failure continued to nick at my scales and tug at my heartstrings, whispering truths that I didn't want to hear. I tried to block it, sealing my dilated eyes away from the crusted burnt vehicles, the splattered shades of human blood and glass, and the crackling brick walls that once held this town together. I thought of my friends, the ones who stayed behind to give us time, the places I've been that've changed me for better and for worse. But Death still found ways to haunt me, to scare me... to break me. To tell me that my time was near.

He wasn't going to give up this easy picking.

I nearly stumbled mid-step; a quick readjustment helped align Click back to my spine to carry. My poor friend was hurt, too, wheezing for air and clamping his claws around my spine (like a vice) just to hold onto his reality. There was a weakness growing inside him, something that I feared more than the monster hunting us. His eyes would move slowly, blinking as if trying to make sense of his surroundings and himself. I could hear his lungs straining for oxygen, and see his teeth clench again and again; the pain was striking in waves, now. But as I looked around, I couldn't see anyone that could help us. It was quiet, here, in Clearlake. It was empty. We were all that remained.

And nobody was coming back.

"Mrrr..." I faltered again, ceasing my trek just to pant. My vision was beginning to blur, and my tongue was lolled out, fighting the anguish. Stress turned to strain. Hope turned to force. Briefly, I looked ahead; Biosyn's glimmering building was still several miles ahead of us. Too far...

Too far away...

I groaned, taking one more step and stopping. My body shook -- harder, faster, rattling about like a rock in an earthquake. I snarled to myself, trying to fight fate with one more step-

The ground suddenly rushed to me. A hard punch struck my lower belly, forcing a pained gasp, and a whimper. I couldn't go any further. Click slumped off my back, coughing hard from the wounds plaguing his chest. He looked at me and pressed a bloodied hand against my neck, stroking it over and over again.

"S-Seven..."

Click... I squeezed my eyes shut, breaking into a sob. He tried to ease me with a few comforting whispers and a nuzzle. but it never got to me. Nothing would, now. I just didn't have the strength to get him out of here. To get any of us out. I failed-

THUMP.

My eyes opened.

THUMP.

Now the ground was shaking. Hissing aloud, I tilted my skull sideways and squinted, straining to peer into the smoke clouds polluting Clearlake's frozen emptiness.