Zack pulled up to the dock and decided to put his boat in the lift. He had no idea what was going on in the lake. He thought it would be best if the boat was not in the water at all. As he hand cranked the boat up, he peered into the shallow water near the dock. At first the water looked normal. However, when he focused on the ground beneath the surface, he realized the lake had been transformed. The life swimming around was different than anything he had seen in his 30 years of fishing. Fish with glowing eyes chased other creatures that looked more like sea horses. Both were gobbled up but an aquatic version of a Venus Flytrap with fangs. He saw crayfish that looked like armored lobsters eating a dead very large northern pike. Zack watched fascinated with the interplay of all these species in a battle of survival of the fittest until he noticed it was getting dark out. He looked up and saw the sun was already set and the familiar cool air that settles around lakes at dusk in the wind.
Zack grabbed his gear and started up the steps to the cabin. To his right he heard sound of a large tree branch breaking off. He stopped and examined the trees. They were dense but not quite as dense as a normal forest. However, the light was getting dimmer by the moment as the shadows began to grow. He could not see where the tree branch had broken off. As he looked, he thought he saw some movement deeper into the trees. The area was completely still. Then in the deep shadows as if someone turned on two flashlights, a dim pair of yellow lights shown in the underbrush. It was too dark and dense to make out any shapes. He stared at the two lights wondering if he was just making it up. Were they some weird reflections?
He sat for a full minute staring at the lights when they both blinked. Zack had the sudden horrifying realization they were not lights but glowing eyes starting back at him. Zack was frozen where he stood. Zack wondered if this was another very lucid dream or was he losing his mind? As he stood there staring in incomprehension another pair of eyes winked into view next to the first. Zacks heart raced as he felt paralyzed in fear, unable to do anything but breath and shake in his shoes. His paralysis broke when he saw the first pair of eyes start to move up. He heard the branches around the creature break as the eyes just kept going up slowly. They stopped moving at around twelve feet in the air.
Zack thought with trembling fear, the fucking creature just stood up and was huge!
Zack broke into a run into the cabin and locking the doors. He shut all the windows and locked them as well as pulled all the shades. He shut off the lights. The he remembered that Donald told him there was a gun and bullets in the utility closet to fend off bears. Zack raced to the closet and found a Desert Eagle .50 caliber handgun with a box of bullets. Having some experience shooting with his dad Zack new how to load the gun and get the safety off. He knew this was a big handgun and would pack a serious punch as well as a serious recoil. Donald told him this handgun would stop a large grizzly in its tracks.
Zack sat on the couch he had moved away from the window with the gun in his hand and stared at the front door. He had no idea how long he sat there. After a while he started to relax. The sun had gone down, and everything was its usual late night quiet he had grown accustomed to in the past week. Zack used his phones flashlight to find some extra bedding and hung them up over the windows in the living area and the kitchen. Once he was sure no light would show to the outside, he turned on one small light in the kitchen. He moved the table away from the kitchen window and picked up the sat phone. He showed no new messages or a signal.
Zack sighed to himself. He thought, this is turning into a weird apocalypse movie. Crazy fanged fish in the lake, weird weather, crashing planes, and giant creatures with glowing yellow eyes.
He was still scared but the fear subsided with every quiet moment that passed. Zack grabbed a few protein bars and Mountain Dew as he relocated to the couch. He grabbed a book he had been reading as well as the fully loaded Desert Eagle. He decided there was nothing he could do tonight so he might as well settle in and decide what to do in the morning. Zack woke with a start as he heard the dragon screaming over and over again. As he regained consciousness, he realized that his phones alarm was going off. Zack remembered that he set the alarm for 2:10am to see if the Sat phone would get signal at 2:15am like it did the night before.
As Zack got up to grab the Sat phone he heard movement outside the front door. Heavy breathing and something rubbing against the cabin. Zack stopped in his tracks, he reached for the gun and stared at the front door. For a moment the noise outside stopped. Then he heard a claw scratch on the door. Followed by something hitting it. The pounding grew louder and louder. The door began to shudder from the pounding pictures fell off the wall nearby. As the door looked like with was going to give way Zack shakily raise the gun towards the door and held his breath. In the next moment the door was ripped from its hinges and thrown out into the woods. All Zack could sew was two glowing red eyes and the sounds of a low guttural growl.
As the creature and Zack stood there staring at each other he saw two giant hands with 3-inch claws grab the inside of each door frame. The giant creature started to come into the cabin. The flight or fight instinct took over again, however this time Zack was holding a hand cannon. Zack squeeze the trigger several times. The last two shots going into the ceiling as Zack was not ready for the crazy recoil of the big gun. He knew he hit the creature. Without looking back, Zack got up ran an into the utility closet and slammed the door. It was deathly quiet after the door shut. Tears of terror welled up in Zacks eyes and he violently shook. What was that thing? Its eyes were at least 6 inches apart. Its hand were bigger than any bear he had ever seen. The claws were huge and looked razor sharp. That’s all Zack saw before he closed his eyes and fired the gun.
His ears were still ringing for the loud booming of the handgun. He should have had ear protection on. He wasn’t sure if the quietness right now was from an actual lack of sound or the momentary deafness from the booming gun shots. As Zack regained his wits he looked down at the gun. He was not sure how many bullets he shot. He looked at the gun and saw he had five shots left. He must have fired the gun four times. Zack looked around at the closet. It was a 6-foot by 6-foot room without a window. He was happy it did not have a window. He moved as much stuff as he could against the door. He had no idea if the creature was still out there. He grabbed a few old coats and bedding to make a small sitting area and leaned against the wall. With the massive handgun firmly in his grip he sat staring at the door.
Zack had no idea how long he sat staring at the door waiting for round two. Nor did he remember finally nodding off to sleep. He woke with a start. His hands were sore from tightly holding the handgun. He could faintly hear birds chirping from outside the cabin. Happy to know his hearing was back Zack decided to open the door and see the state of the cabin. He moved the stuff away from the door and cracked the door open. Before his eyes could focus on anyone thing, he was overwhelmed with the stench rotting meat. Zack jumped back when the first thing he saw was the giant clawed hand of the creature last night. As he looked again, he saw the hand was not moving. Then he noticed the hand was not moving because it was not attached to the creature. Zack cautiously stepped out of the closet to find a giant creature laying in the doorway with a huge hole in its back and its right hand blown off. There was blood everywhere. He then noticed two holes in the ceiling from his missed shots. The creature was face down on the ground. While his brain new the creature was certainly dead, he still poked it a few times with his foot. The acrid smell was coming from the creature.
It occurred to Zack; a few hours did not seem like enough time for the creature to be rotting away.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
However, upon more inspection it was clear that was exactly what was happening. The creature was approximately 10 feet tall and had to weigh four hundred pounds.
Staring at the dead and quickly decomposing creature Zack was frozen with indecision. He thought, what am I supposed to do with a giant dead creature, a ripped off door and two holes in his roof?
Then he felt it, like the feeling of putting on glasses and seeing he world clearly for the first time. Zack’s mind focused as he pushed all his incredulity, denial, and astonishment out of his mind. He needed to focus on surviving. This was no longer a fishing trip. It was as if his mind had been in a fog just reacting the world around him. Granted the world was losing its damn mind. However, he needed to focus on the here and now. A gentle smile showed on Zack’s face as he knew deep down that his hyper focus just kicked in. He also knew that how much he felt the change and the focused clarity was stronger than ever before. Almost like a self-sustain power in his soul. He looked down at the monster and thought, time to get to work.
The first thing he did was grab the gun reload it and count the remaining ammo. He had a little over 50 bullets in a few boxes. Zack went back into the living area to figure out how to move the monster out of the house. To his astonishment the monster had decomposed even more, and parts had already turned to dust on the floor. Where all the blood had been smeared across the cabin had also turned to dust and what appeared to be smoke in the air. He could watch the monster slowly decompose and disappear in real time. Oddly it was a problem that took care of itself.
After the monster completely decomposed Zack swept up the remaining dust and debris. In it he found two things of interest. First the giant claws on the creature’s hands remained. They reminded Zack of the claws on the velociraptors in the old Jurassic Park movie. Second, he found a small red crystal in the dust around what was once the creature's chest. Zack carefully grabbed it and felt an odd warmth emanating from the gem. Zack resisted the urge to spend too much time thinking about the monster and the red gem. He put the claws and the Gem in a drawer in the kitchen. He had to fix the door and the roof by sundown.
He found the door outside mostly intact. The hinges and the door frame were ruined. He thought, I will have to nail the door shut to secure the cabin.
Luckily there was a side door off the porch he could use. Rummaging through a small shed on the property, he found tools and nails in the small workbench. He nailed the door in place with a few extra pieces of wood to ensure it held. Next, he used the ladder to patch up the holes in the roof. He would not be winning any awards for artistic style but the patched should keep the elements out.
After Zack fixed his immediate problems, he sat down on the table outside, ate some lunch, and finally took some time to process the last few hours. I was attacked by a giant monster with glowing red eyes strait out of his nightmares. I fucking blew a hole through it with the hand cannon. The creature basically evaporated into dust in less than 24 hours and left behind a strange red gem and razor-sharp claws. What was up with the strange creatures with the glowing yellow eyes in the woods. And lets us not forget the crazy fish/monsters in the lake than can take down a fully grown deer in a matter of moments.
As far as Zack could tell the change in wildlife or perhaps more appropriate to say monster life was the most significant change he could sense. With his belly full and the warm sun beating down on him Zack felt his muscles relax and the tension in his core started to ease. By all accounts, it looked like a perfect summer day outside. However, Zack new better than to believe he was not in danger. He wondered if the cabin could keep him safe at night. It was not exactly built to withstand an assault. Clearly fishing had to be put on hold as he was not sure he had a big enough boat. He needed more information.
He wondered, was this crazy influx of terrors happening everywhere? If so, how is family holding up. Zack smiled as he thought, the Tighe family compound is a small armory of weapons. I doubt many monsters survived the night back home.
However, he was worried, how long could people last if this was some sort of new fucked up reality?
Back in grad school when Zack needed a distraction from life, he would read a genre of books called LitRPG. Basically, a narrative was created around people who lived in a reality with role playing game rules, often times called “the system”. This included stats for characteristics like strength and intelligence along with magic and all kinds of supernatural beings. Usually, a person would be dropped into a “system” operated reality or the system itself took over reality on a planet. Thinking back to blog articles of text screens momentarily popping into people’s vision and the sudden appearance of strange animals reminded him of these books. However, reading a fantasy book for entertainment and blowing a hole in a 10-foot-tall creature are two different things. The situation really reminded him of those books. The biggest difference being the lack of magic. He realized it would be foolish to think those books were some sort of guide on how to survive an apocalypse. Wait, was this an apocalypse? He just didn’t have enough information. He needed to talk to other people, find out what was happening.
Zack went back to the cabin and cleaned up the remaining mess from last night’s attack. He made some coffee and grabbed the Sat phone. When he turned it on it beeped furiously. There were several three messages downloaded on the phone. However, currently no signal.
The first message was from his mom, she clearly had been crying. “Zack, I tried calling. It said no signal. I am sending this message hoping it will reach you. I just heard about Donald's plane crash. I cannot believe he is dead. They found his plane after a distress call went out. The plane broke into two pieces. The cockpit was burned up beyond recognition. Donald had died in the crash. They found the tail section about 50 feet from the cockpit stuck up in a tree. He crashed just after hitting bad weather at the Canadian border.” Zach realized he had stopped breathing and took a deep breath. How could they have found the back end of the plane when it was sitting in the lake just down from his cabin. Then it hit him that Donald is dead. A tear came to his eyes. How could this happen. After a moment he read the rest of the message. “I have chartered another plane; we should be there in about 5 hours.” Zack looked at the message info and saw that it arrived a few moments ago. Zack let out a huge sigh of relief as he realized this will be over in a matter of hours. “I hope you are doing ok, I know the news about Donald is tough to hear, I love you, Mom.”
Zack selected the next message “Zack, it is Tom Gulliford from the charter service your mother sent out after Donald’s horrible plane crash. I am crushed by Donald's death. We are sitting here at the cabin and wondering where you are. I hope you don’t mind but after waiting for a couple of hours we entered the cabin. I thought it was a little odd the front door was locked. However, we can cover the damage we caused getting in. Everything was in order and your stuff is still here, including the boat floating next to the dock. We could not find the Sat phone and assumed you have it on you. We found a few gun bullets lying on the floor of the living room. I know Donald usually kept a large caliber handgun in each cabin. I hope there hasn’t been any trouble. I am not sure how long I should wait here for you. I don’t want to fly back in the dark. Tom”
The third message was from his mom again. “Zack, Tom just called and said you were not at the cabin. That they found some of your stuff there but no sign of you. Please give me a call and let me know you are ok. I am worried about you. Why did Tom find bullets? Was there a problem? Call me as soon as you get this message.”
Despite his mother’s worried tone, Zack was confused by Tom’s message. He thought, what damage to the front door? Did he not notice it was nailed shut and the roof recently had two holes in it? Tom said he thought it was weird that it was locked. Zack only locked the door at night. And after the monsters destroyed the door, it was moot point. Zack thought as he shook his head, at some point I should be getting used to weird things happening.
The list of shit that didn’t make sense was getting longer. However, the nightmare fuel of last night’s attack sobered him quickly to his new reality. Regardless of the continuing sequence of weird events Zack had bigger problems to worry about. The tone from his mom’s message made him think that things were relatively normal back home. Other than the crazy storm and a few weird blog posts. Nothing else seemed to be out of the norm.
Zack inspected his handiwork repairing the door and the roof. He decided to reinforce the doors and windows to provide more protection. He set up a sleeping area in the supply closet and barricaded the door. Finally with an exhausted sigh Zack collapsed into his makeshift bed and fell asleep.