Clawing my way though the felled trees, bushes and other debris, I was steadily making my way to the base. At least, where I beileved it was located at.. I was rather fortunate that I didn't have many hills and newly formed mountain ridges in the area. Despite looking destroyed, the road to my "camp" was situated in a valley between multiple mountain formations.

"It really looks like the land was turned inside out.." - I climbed over a pile of dirt and stone, size of a small house.. I wasn't able to ignore the smell of blood when I made it to the bottom.. crushed by rocks were a few carcasses of animals.. considering the talons it had - my guess would be that it was a tree-dweller. The poor lizard was crushed so bad, that the small piece of it's leg was the only thing remaining of it... guts and blood were mixed with sand and dirt, making a crimson dried spot.

"I guess you guys were hit the worst.. considering you live so high up.." - I poked the claw with the toe of my right foot a few times. A gush of fresh air blew the smell of iron away, brushing my face with the cool touch. It felt nice for once, but there was no time to enjoy such small things. Placing the piece of wood that served as my makeshift weapon at the moment, I took another step, carefully placing my foot - not to slice the sole open on another sharp piece of shattered stone.

It was awkward to wander through the changed landscape - as some of the trees remained intact.. some areas seemed untouched- only slightly tilted, which was obvious by the angle of the trees - which were a bit slanted. Some were - on the other hand, utterly unrecognizable. Sharp stones lining the surface of the ground as sharp blades, line after line.. I tried to avoid dangerous terrain like that - one misstep and your head would be cut open like a cabbage.

...

I was closing in on my house, it wasn't just a wild guess though. Within the chunks and piles of dirt and stone, along the uprooted trees, I found pieces of rope lying around, along with spikes. My heart raced - I was indeed happy to see the destroyed traps.. even though it was a sad waste of resources and hard work.. they were signaling me.. like landing lights for a plane. Home was near. I rushed through the bushes that were residing on a slightly raised platform in front of me - these were the bushes I used for my atatl, my fingers gently brushed against the familiar plant before I dove right through it.

"Shiieee..." - My voice rang out as I was barely able to grab a branch with my left hand, hanging with only my left foot on the ground.. the rest of my body was dangerously swinging above a steep crater in the ground.. My heart raced as I looked in front of me with mad eyes... The crater wasn't that deep to be honest, still.. I didn't enjoy the thought of dropping down nine meters.. onto jagged broken up stones.. I pulled myself back and stood straight. Cold sweat trickled down my spine, that was one clutch play on my part..

"...that's the pond?" - I looked at the crater, which was more of a sinkhole to be honest - twenty meters in diameter an uneven circular shape.. Water was dripping down one of the walls diagonally from the place I was standing.. like a small waterfall - though it wasn't flowing over the top.. but right through the solid stone. A crack, no.. rather a tube was going through the rocks..

I narrowed my eyes and tried to look into the distance over the crater - my arm still clenched the branch of the bush tightly. I could make out a smaller circle there.. and some reeds.. the fucking pond was still intact.. even after such a quake.

"It was probably located on solid plate of really hard rock.."- I guessed.. similar to how some of the forest remained standing - the pond was still standing.. though there was no water in it, as the small stream of water flowing along the wall - well.. it WAS the ponds contents.

Two questions popped into my head right away... one - was the pond creature still there.. the other - most important at the moment.. if the pond was there... Where was my hut? I looked around from the spot I stood at..

Around sixty percent of the sinkhole was right at the spot where my base of operations was located... A painful feeling was going from my stomach and clumped right into my throat. It hurt to swallow, as if I had a knife stuck in my neck.. I saw the thatch.. I saw scattered wood.. Down below, along the stones and water.. at the bottom of the crater lay my home.. my blood and sweat wasted by the fucking quake.. everything destroyed.

"So the last months.. were in vain?" - My body trembled from anger.. this wasn't my fuck up.. but I've lost everything I've collected, everything I've hunted.. I was so naive to believe that my shabby hut would survive the quake powerful enough to lift whole mountains up.. - "Right! Maybe I can scavenge some of the supplies I had preparing, at least the meat can last me a day or two..."

Agonizing seconds passed as I sat on the edge looking for meat down below... Something was off.. the hut was there, the bed was along the debris... but.. despite it all being littered along the ground... there was no meat. None. I've had nearly a months worth of stashed supplied drying.. but all I could see were the squashed paper-leaf stems.. still inside the basket I kept them in. All of the meat was gone... not even a random piece of jerky on the ground...

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"Did the.. did the toads loot my camp while I was gone?" - My head dropped down, but a slight scraping sound made me look with widely opened eyes at the source. Slowly.. very slowly.. my body started to move away from the spot I stood at..

"Nope.." - I gulped.. I really wished I didn't get the answer for so many of my questions..

"Nope! NOPE! NOPE!" - My shaking legs were shuffling away at the sight of a creature crawling out from the cracks.. It had a thick greenish tentacle clasped in its mandibles... pulling it out through the crack in the stone it got out of. Metallic black body had a slight greenishly blue hue to it.. Its four long limbs were tightly snagging to the stones, moving in rapid succession, so fast that I could hardly follow... and I followed.. my eyes filled with terror at the sight of the long slender body.

"A giant nope.." - In my mind I was wimping... I wasn't afraid of bugs.. but if a cockroach suddenly flies - you run like a bitch.. and at the sight of a wasp-like thing the size of a car... you get the fuck out crying like a little girl silently.. I did exactly so.. not turning and watching more of them getting out from some cracks in the ground.. it was a mystery how these giant bodies fit through these cracks, but I did not give a fuck at that time.

"slowly.." - I backed away, back into the bushes.. until I couldn't see the giant bugs any more..

"Take the meat, take the resources, take the pond monster.." - I ran through the terrain like a madman, muttering to myself inside of my mind... I rushed full speed away from the creatures, to the right.. I sliced my foot on a sharp stone and pierced my toe with a piece of wood.. but I kept running like a madman.. The pond monster was either killed off, not getting away from the creatures, or was only snipped a bit.. at the time I wasn't thinking about that..

...

If I were to recall this moment - I was afraid and in utter panic. Though later I had the time to think about the whole ordeal with the quake and why the creatures were pulling pieces of Pondy from below. It all made perfect sense, the pond and the nearly circular tunnels dug through solid stone. I mean, if I knew what was coming I'd move away too, for slightly different reasons..

...

I ran for a minute, for two.. I didn't stop running after twenty minutes, nor after half an hour! My feet were bloody from all the cuts and piercing wounds! I ignored the pain as I ran up a mound of debris, and ignored it again as I rolled down it after slipping on a round piece of stone because of the blood! My lungs were on fire.. no.. fire didn't hurt as much. The taste of metal spread through my mouth at every breath, but I couldn't stop.. I ran fast past the tree covered by paper-leaf roots, crushed a nearly decomposed skull as I stepped on it.. feeling the bone shards sliding right into my sole. I ran until through my racing heart I heard the croaking screams and nearly crushed into a toader that jumped from behind a small pile of stones. We only hit shoulders, making us both lose balance and fall to the ground..

"GHaah! HAAH.." - My breaths were more like wailing of a dying animal, and the toad looked at me with eyes full of panic as it shakingly scrambled and on all fours started to shuffle away, standing up and then running away.. Through my own heartbeat thundering in my eardrums, I heard the sound.. Datadadadadadda.. - it was like wheels of a train going full speed thumping on a slightly bumpy road. I felt a strong gush of wind when my hearing was deafened by the grand explosion of the moving wings.. The black figure zoomed right past me after the toad..

"NO.." - that's right.. there were more of the sounds during the night going in all directions.. I could feel the vibrations of the sound made by the flying creature.. and felt another vibration approaching from behind.. My fingers clenched a stone..

I had little hope that the creature would ignore me and just zoom right past me.. just like the other one did.. so in a desperate attempt to save my life.. at the thought that I wouldn't be able to run from that.. accompanied by the wailing sounds of a toad caught in the distance... I fought back.. I rotated my body and seeing the rapidly enlarging black spot, I've swung the stone at it. Crushing it right between the faceted eyes of its ugly wasp face.

I could hear a loud crack.. but I didn't know if it was the exoskeleton of the bug, or my own bones breaking and cracking... the only thing I understood.. was that standing in the way of a creature this big, moving at such speeds.. was fucking suicidal.. The hit of the truck seemed like a light bump, as air was hit right out of me when the huge slender body crashed into my own.. My feet couldn't feel the ground below, as the momentum carried me along with the bug.. As we rolled through the ground I understood that the creature, even though the head was severed, was moving.. and what's more.. it moved its lower body in a rather obvious motion. Screaming I stirred and whirled, trying to free myself from under the weight of its heavy body before it stung me. I felt my skin rip on the sharp spikes covering the limbs of the creature, but that was worth... all was worth if I could avoid the stinger..

I was halfway out from under the bug, when it became a lot heavier.. so that I couldn't move an inch... I saw the slightly tilting head of the wasp stare right at me as it stepped over the dead body of its kin.. The mandibles moved in a chewing motion and I could see the long antennae move in my direction.

"Please.." - I could feel tears well up deep inside my head, my heart raced in panic. This was the end.. I could feel a stinger size of a dagger pierce trough my thigh, and something flowing right into my muscle.. and then.. the world turned red from pain.. I couldn't move... paralyzed by pain from the venom.. I hoped that it would end soon.. but.. but it didn't...