Vin knew his condition was deteriorating with each passing second. He wanted her gone before she could see the worst of him.

"Alright," Vin started up, pointing toward her way down.

"Go slow; the branches look a lil worn from the first time we climbed up."

Lynn nodded, preparing herself.

"Also, no matter what, make sure you don't swallow any of the water."

Lynn glanced over his withering state, aware of the consequences of doing so. She nodded again, then carefully slid toward the connecting tree. The first challenge would be to cross over as quietly as possible, and as Vin said, the branches wouldn't be as durable and would likely break under too much pressure.

Just as she rose one foot to travel over to the left tree, a loud preemptive fracture rattled the air. Vin had watched her; she'd hardly moved, so why did it sound like the entire tree was shattering?

Well, that couldn't be right. The cracking sound was somehow beyond just that place; it reverberated all around them. A split second later, there was a blinding, colorful flash. It wouldn't have been so incredibly bright if it had been day; however, in the darkness of the night, it acted as a flashbang, overwhelming them both.

Vin reflexively covered his eyes from the flash, shuddering at the notion that anything could be happening beyond his sight. It was a distress to be at the mercy of the unknown.

Ah- the unknown. How he hated it. If life on Earth could have been described as transparent, then that world was disturbingly opaque, always masking its next move.

The light was followed by a loud metallic clunk and a fierce splash of water. Once Vin's eyes adjusted, he immediately checked to ensure Lynn hadn't disappeared from their spot above the land.

She was there, safe, but just as rattled as he'd been. After confirming her safety, Vin turned his sights to the source of the light. He expected nothing good, though, to his surprise, something familiar had sprung up in that foreign world.

On the ground, dozens of paces from their refuge was a chocolate-brown Jeep illuminated by an uneven tear in space. There was another lesser bridge.

The portal seemingly tore the vehicle away from its planet. This unpredictable shift completely halted their escape plan, leaving Vin in an indecisive stupor. The last thing he expected to happen was for a vehicle to drop in the middle of that swamp.

Before Vin could gather his bearings, the driver's side window rolled down, revealing an equally confused man. With no clue how he'd arrived there or even if it was real, the man remarked, "What the heck?"

His mouth was stuck open as his eyes made hundreds of glances around the land. The glowing portal lit the area like a lamp so he could see nearby shapes, but he couldn't make sense of it no matter how much he looked.

Dumbfounded, he continued to study the location; he did so until a piercing shout snatched his attention.

"Get out of the car! Run!" Lynn suddenly

yelled, also alarming Vin.

'That's right,' Vin recalled. He roused and summoned his little strength from his diaphragm to shout, "Come up here quick!"

It didn't matter how loud they'd been anymore. The clamor the heavy metal made when it crashed had already invited trouble.

The door to the Jeep popped open, and the man got out. He was middle-aged, with short, thinning auburn hair and a patchy beard. His cream-colored striped shirt was tucked into his belted pants. His face was gentle and innocuous, giving the vibe of an honest adult. He glanced up, barely able to notice the two, then shouted with genuine worry, "Are there kids up there"!?

"Come down here before you fall and hurt yourself!" Simulationouslly, the rift was closed, clipping the available light.

He flinched, then regarded the ground for a moment, realizing he'd begun sinking into mud, then added, "What's going on?"

"Hurry! Climb the tree!" Lynn fiercely exclaimed, pointing to the lower branch.

"There's a killer down there, move!" Vin shouted, using a relatable danger to incite the man into action. A murder-happy maniac was much more plausible than claiming a monster was coming.

"Killer?" the stranger reiterated, glancing into the darkness beyond. His face tensed, and he trudged his foot from the mud grasp and made haste toward them.

"A-alright, I'm coming up," he said frightenedly.

Lynn heard the presence of terror first, yelling, "Hurry, it's almost here!'

'It's still this closer by!?' It was. While the monster didn't seem like the most intelligent being, its instincts bound its hunting grounds to a small area where its prey had last been seen.

Panic seized the perturbed man as he began to hear a sound further in that humid, misty swamp. Desperation stirred his legs to march with everything he had; his life depended on it.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Vin cheered him on with his broad, hopeful eyes and a clenched jaw. This stranger's presence would significantly increase their odds. There was power in numbers.

The man's do-or-die parade across that vile land carried him to the base of the first tree, where he noticed the log perched against the bark as a ramp. He was almost there, but so was the enemy.

The so-called killer blasted its way across the surface; close enough, its decaying, slick body and primal, hungry eye could be seen fixed on the stranger, its mouth wet as if its quarry was already within its maw.

Once the adult observed the beast, a terrified bellow boomed from his mouth. His moves became messy as he fearfully grasped the log to climb. He heaved himself a foot up, but his muddied shoes slipped against the damp bark, sending his legs back into the water. Lynn yelled something, but Vin couldn't hear her over the pounding of his exhausted mind.

Again, the man hoisted himself up in strain, grunting while repeatedly snapping his now sweat-drenched face at the monster. He huffed and climbed and eventually secured both his hands on the lower branch that would lift him from danger.

With an exaggerated yell of desperation, he hailed all of his upper body strength to lift him, and at the same time, the monster flared its razor-like teeth to rip his flesh.

That realm was not theirs to roam; the monster was faster, slicking across the muddy floor and covering the same distance he had in seconds. In a terrifying instant, it caught up and aimed its jaws.

The stranger screamed, and then his foot was violently tugged downward. Vin watched as the decaying slug blasted by, and the adult man was jerked downward.

Vin instinctively flinched his eyes closed. When he opened them, he saw the monster had snagged something in its mouth. Though not flesh, it was a miracle, but with all the man had to lose, he only lost his shoe.

The driver landed their entire body on the lower branch, knowing that if his shoes had been any more secured on his feet, he would have been hauled into his demise.

Lynn's relieved exhale met Vin's ears as he, too, took a moment to discharge a breath. And more black blood. The stress of seeing a human facing death was not something his weak body handled well.

The stranger rested on his back, his chest rapidly swelling and releasing. Lynn leaned over, glanced at them, and then pointed to the connecting branch that'd led him upward.

The driver had no questions; the higher up, the safer. So, he steadily rose. He didn't stand completely upright, just to his knees to crawl, but it happened. There was a deathly CRACK of wood, and then, in an instant, the well-dressed man plummeted into the water with a terrified, open face. He immediately submerged and ingested that rotting water, but that wasn't the worst of it. As he scrambled to his feet, he felt the breath of death caress his spine. Vicious teeth impaled his right shoulder, brutally shoving him forward and slamming his body into the tree's stomp.

He didn't go quickly. The decaying slug released his jaws, then sunk them into his flesh again to secure its grasp. All the while, it charged forward into the tree, bashing the man's half-submerged body into rough lumber. Every so often, his head would jerk above the surface long enough to scream in agony, but it'd soon get drowned out by death's liquid.

Vin had nothing left to heave; he only held in horror as the scene unfolded. He felt the branch they sat on rattle several times as the incident transpired, making it feel all too real. Lynn had turned away from the gruesome sight. He wished he could, but he felt paralyzed.

A man, a human, was being killed. Brutalized.

In due course, the screams stopped. It was a pity because then all that could be heard through the silence of the night was a disgusting melody of flesh being ripped and bones grinding. This went on for hours and hours, and even once it ended, the sound remained etched in their minds.

…

The night faded away, and dawn came.

Neither of them got any sleep. The light of day revealed their deprived bodies, with Vin looking the worst. Black veins enveloped all his exposed skin; his eyes were red and hardly open, his lips crusted, and his chest barely moved. If not for the frequent dry coughs, one would assume he'd long passed.

After the monster finally finished its meal that morning, Lynn weakly crawled to Vin and shook his shoulders. Her natural tan was replaced with pale skin, and he could see the heavy eye bags beneath her glasses. She had to be nauseated, yet she still spoke, listlessly mumbling, "Let's go home."

To Vin, she just sounded delusional… He was too tired to get much out, just told her, "Go…"

"Not without you," she whispered back.

He'd intended to stay behind so he didn't hold her back. However, after the horror he witnessed, the idea of dying in that place was unbearable. He'd hoped his family was back on Earth; he wanted to feel their warm hugs as he perished.

Vin mumbled back to her, "How are we going to get down? The lower branch is gone…"

Without that, nor the log they'd used as a plank, it was a one-story drop from where they'd sat. And, in his deteriorated state, it was not something he could make.

There was no basis for her conviction, but she readily replied, "It's not far. I'll help you down."

Too exhausted to quarrel, Vin's eyes slowly closed, and he feebly nodded.

Lynn tugged Vin until he opened his eyes again, adding promises of his safety she couldn't guarantee. Once he was up, she grabbed his arms and slowly lowered him like a crane until their arms were fully extended, then whispered, "I'm going to let go now."

Vin breathed, then braced himself to fall. Upon her release, he plunged, landed feet first, then flopped backward into the water. He kept his mouth closed, not that it mattered because he was already infected.

By the time he pulled himself from the water, Lynn had already jumped and splashed more his way. He was happy she landed much more gracefully and quickly stood upright.

'I'm sure it heard that,' he thought. Lynn supported him as they began a hike in any direction in search of any signs of civilization on that planet. However, as Vin initially feared, his body wouldn't allow a covert retreat. The minimal exertion from walking agitated his core, and he began to retch.

Everything had gone wrong every single step of the way. Vin was tired; he wanted it to be over.

Lynn had clearly given their escape some thought. She pulled her shoe off her feet and then launched it at the Jeep, which triggered the vehicle's alarm. The monster's sensitive hearing was disturbed, and it arrived to repeatedly tackle the unknown thing, chewing on its metal exterior to find it wasn't edible.

While the creature went wild, Lynn pulled Vin up and tugged him behind a tree, out of sight. Luckily, the alarm masked Vin's coughing for a while, but their way up the tree was destroyed, and neither had the energy to scale it with their bare hands.

So, they stood there in wait.

Eventually, the monster conquered its metal foe and wandered off. But, it meant little. It always found its way back.

A long moment of silence proceeded between them before either spoke. Lynn, whose eyes were that of a dead person, whispered nothingness to him. "We have to kill it."