Jason held his breath, staring at the humongous tail. The stinger went past the cave, going closer to the surface. It lingered around while the sound of its movement echoed within the small man-made cave. Jason could hear and feel his heartbeat, pushing against his ribcage, hastening at a rapid pace.

Calm down, you idiot. The man who killed Muzgonk worried that even the slightest sound even from his heart would attract the attention of this unknown beast. And he wasn’t alone.

Hakeem sat there with his eyes shifting side to side. He didn’t move a muscle while keeping his breath as slow as possible. He knew things were pretty bad, considering that even the not so touchy Jason was holding on to his mouth. One thing he knew about this friend of his was that he disliked maintaining too much contact. Shit, the hell is going on here? Hakeem thought.

While the other person who still awake maintained his current position, not moving even a little bit. Arrluk’s wide-opened eyes stared at the deep darkness, knowing that something was out there. The act of not being able to see was tormenting. It only grew the anxiousness.

Yet, for one person, he didn’t know whether it was a good thing or not for being able to see in the dark. He stared at the huge pillar-like tail swaying left and right. His forehead was sweating like mad as he could feel the beads of sweat dripping on his face.

What should I do? Jason tried to figure out a way. But it was pointless. They were trapped inside a small cave built for the whole purpose of recuperating. The only way out was to go back up to the surface, but he knew that was an impossible feat to be done. Who knows how many hundred feet they had gone down? And with that thing out there, Jason doubted they could outrun it.

What was that? His train of thought cut off by the sound of a groan coming from the depth of the ravine. It was subtle, but the echoes intensified the horn-like sound. Hakeem and Arrluk bated their breaths, shackled by the fear of not knowing what was out there. They wished they could run but going out there was only a deep fall.

The horn-like groan came in a drove, continuous as it drummed the ears of everyone who was still awake.

“Hmm?” a person frowned in her sleep, annoyed by whatever noise that disturbed her. She opened her eyes and wondered about the horn-like sound. She was about to open her mouth, but something closed her shut right before she could utter a word.

“Ssh…” she knew that voice. It was Jason.

Jason, who had been staring at the tail, caught notice of Esther moving around in her sleep. He was quick on his feet and stopped before anything unfortunate happened. He drew a sigh of relief…

“The fuck is that noise?”

But things always didn’t go according to plan. Esther wasn’t the only one who awoke, Nuniq awakened from his sleep by that horn-like sound, and he was quick to voice out his complaint. Every anxious man in the cave felt their heart dropped. Arrluk scrambled his hand, searching for Nuniq to alert him. But, he only made it worse.

“Grandpa? Is that you? What are you doing? And what’s that-”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Nuniq turned silent as the horn-like sound grew louder as if something was coming from the depth of the ravine.

Yup, we’re fucked. Jason ignored the antics of Nuniq and his grandfather as he knew they were ousted. He turned back to the tail and witnessed it moved.

BOOM!

The cave shook as the tail struck the cliffside. Jason hugged Esther tight with his eyes staring at the sight of the tail, slamming its huge girth at the cliffside. Jason didn’t know what to do other than to just watched. He didn’t have an option and not within the current state.

Hakeem was restless as the ground shook. He dragged his bum further inside of the cave, inching closer to the family of three. He bumped into Arrluk as both reacted in agitation. Arrluk held up his fist, ready for a fight. Being blind by the dark made him easily agitated.

“It’s me…” Hakeem whispered. Arrluk dropped his fists down and grew closer to Hakeem.

“What is it?” he whispered.

“I don’t know, but I bet Jason knows what it is,” said Hakeem.

“He’s alive?” Arrluk was surprised. For some reason, a tint of hope emerged from the depth of his heart. For someone who witnessed the brilliance of a man like Jason, he felt like that man could achieve anything, and in their current situation, he thought Jason had a way.

Hakeem was about to answer, but his words fell short. All ears heard the screeching noise of something sharp being dragged across the surface.

Fuck, what is it doing? The slamming stopped, yet the tail didn’t stop moving. Jason didn’t know what was going on, but the moment the screeching grew louder, his sight saw it.

A pointy end of a stinger crushing the cavern ceiling, emerging within the dirt and rocks. Jason jumped further into the cave, along with Esther in his arms. He kept his sight at the tail, which stopped the moment it reached the cave.

The stinger stood motionless as Jason had a bad feeling about it. Numerous hair strands on the stinger stood up straight acting. Jason’s first thought was it was a sensory organ, but he was wrong. These hair strands grew as it expended crawling over the ground like limbs, searching for whatever source that made those noises.

Jason moved further into the cave and tucked himself along with Esther at a corner. He had no way to run as he watched those hair strands coming towards them.

Fuck, I didn’t think this is how I’m going to die. Jason took out his sword and held it in his right. Even when death approached, he won’t back down without a fight. He did have an option of fleeing away as there was a chance of him surviving if he used these people as bait, but he couldn’t.

Surviving was important, but he couldn’t be that despicable. That thought crossed his mind, but it let be and paid no heed to it.

It stops? His mind grew wary. The hair strands that were coming stopped in their tracks. Jason waited and didn’t make a move. He anticipated what was about to happen. The hair strands might be readying itself to do something, considering he didn’t expect it to grow in size and searched the whole cave like some kind of feelers.

Jason thought it was about to get worse, but he heard it once more. The horn-like sound coming from the depth. It’s going back?

The unexpected happened. The hair strands receded, returning back to the stinger. Jason didn’t know what was going on, but whatever it was, he felt grateful for it. The stinger turned away from the mouth of the cave and went back up to the surface.

The horn-like sound echoed once more, louder than before. Then Esther probed a question.

“Are we going to die?”

Jason looked down at his sister and said.

“Not right now.”

Meanwhile, to the ignorance of the whole group, the stinger tail emerged into the light of the surface. Its armor-like carapace shined underneath the brightness of the sunlight.

The horn-like sound intensified as the stinger tail swung itself with great momentum.

BOOM!

It hit something and split it apart. It was a helicopter, an Apache, and it didn’t come alone. A flight of Apache cruising in the sky. Every soldier who sat inside those helicopters stared in confusion at the still stinger tail. They were all confused as they didn’t expect a hostile in Oshawa. But there they were, staring at the stinger tail.

Then, the tail moved.