As Andy drove, the trees slowly started growing closer and closer, until he was no longer able to cut a path directly towards the firefight that seemed to have died out over an hour ago. He’d been traveling for more than three hours, crawling along the unfamiliar landscape at barely ten miles per hour, often slower. Now he was cutting back and forth around the white barked trees, doing his best to keep traveling in the proper perceived direction, while the forest did its best to deny him.
While he navigated his way through the alien forest he looked on at the myriad variety of fauna. Birds with multiple sets of triangle shaped wings flitted amongst the upper branches of the canopy, occasionally darting down to the ground to snatch up one of the multitudes of creepy multi-limbed insects.
Lower down the trunk of the trees lived some kind of dog sized squirrel-like tree rodent, shrouded in bristly white fur with paws capped in black claws. They had two sets of glassy black eyes, one on top of the other, larger ones below the smaller ones on top. They would come out of manhole sized knotholes in the sides of the trees, screech at him in irritation as he passed, then duck quickly back into their hidey holes.
He only saw a few more of the butthole faced monsters he fought when he first arrived, though they all seemed to have caught their meal for the night and avoided him and his loud truck. One of the things he noticed while traveling was the constant prickling sensation in the back of his mind that varied in intensity depending on what was around him.
When the birds would swoop down to the forest floor, his senses picked up on their level of interest in him, which felt rather indifferent. The dog-squirrels radiated a sensation that bordered on violence, something he categorized as them being irritated in his passing. The butthole monsters left an uneasy sensation in his mind, based on his first interaction he knew that they were the alpha predator, which is why he found it easier to categorize the feelings of, not hate, but hostile indifference.
He knew that if they were hungry, they would absolutely see him as potential prey.
This sensation, this sixth sense he developed after killing his first monster concerned him. He knew it stemmed from the energy that transferred to him after it died. And Andy wasn’t completely comfortable with that at all. Between driving through the forest, gawking at some new alien looking creature, or stopping to listen for any sign of the shooters he’d heard earlier, his mind was constantly diving in on itself. Analyzing every breath, every ache, or every itch. So far, other than the sensation of constantly being watched, he felt fine.
In fact, he felt better than he’d felt in a while. Not that he ever felt bad, but he always joked that he was getting older, and he could feel it in certain joints and muscles. This thought forced him to once again acknowledge that he had let himself go, absently pinching the slight roll of fat around his mid-section.
He guided the truck around one of the oversized trees realizing that the way ahead was opening up, quite abruptly at that. The reason, a small sub-division seemed to have been planted firmly in the middle of the forest. Maybe a mile across, several dozen trendy homes, replete with all the trappings of a southwestern housing development, sat on the edge of what Andy realized was the start of a forest valley. In the distance he even could pick out where a river began further out on the horizon. Might be a day away, let’s add that to my itinerary.
His attention refocused completely on the neighborhood in front of him. At first, he was elated to see such a thing in this alien world, though the longer he looked down on it from his position at the edge of the colossal forest, severe unease began to creep up his spine. He stared down into the yard of the closest house, feeling something was… off.
“Where is everyone?”
The closest house, a stucco affair painted in a medium tan, standing two stories sat at the end of a short driveway in the middle of a cramped lot. The backyard, which was closest to his position, was small with a children’s swing set in one corner across from a patio, complete with trendy furniture and grill. From his current vantage point, all the windows appeared sealed shut, curtains closed for privacy. Nothing seemed out of place, except for the lack of life. The occasional mesquite tree, or multi-limbed cactus, along with the fact that none of the yards was blanketed in the soft grass he was familiar with confirmed without a doubt that this was somewhere from the southwest.
Andy scanned another house, and another. His eyes would linger momentarily, searching for any indication someone was there, dead, or alive. Cars and trucks remained still, parked where they were when they were yanked from Earth and transplanted where they are now. Nothing seemed out of place, except for the aforementioned supernatural event that moved them here.
He found it curious that the roads seemed to just start where the jungle conveniently ended. There was a line in the ground, a seem, as it were, running around the edge of the sub-division. It was almost invisible, and he felt like maybe in a few weeks, other than the artificial roads, the neighborhood would settle in place and nature would ensure the transition was as smooth as could be.
Not being awake during the transition, he had questions forming on how everything was transferred, and how it was determined where to place the… stuff. Why did whatever system was in play decide to dump him in the middle of an alien jungle, while it transplanted a seemingly empty sub-division miles away. What else was transferred, and did everything get placed in the manner it was collected? So many questions, and no answers to be found.
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“This shit is just… too strange.” He shook his head, not quite believing what he was seeing. What he’d experienced so far.
He was about to return to his truck when something several houses into the neighborhood caught his attention. Standing stock still, he focused harder on the far corner of the house where he could swear he saw the dark green trash bin shake slightly. For a moment, nothing happened, then his blood ran cold. For the briefest of moments, he saw what looked like the hind leg of the butthole-faced monster he killed previously sticking out from behind the bin.
His eyes began tracking across all the yards he could see from his current vantage point. Panic crept into his breathing as he frantically searched the neighborhood. Then his breath hitched in his chest, on the roof of a large three story situated at the end of a cul-de-sac, was a trio of the monsters lounging in the waning sun across the warm tiles. One of the creatures began to convulse briefly, which Andy realized in disgust, was the thing coughing up something that apparently didn’t go down well. What came up was nothing more than a crimson red blotch around a fleshy lump that seemed to slowy drip down the slope of the roof.
He forcefully slowed his breathing as he realized the monsters were more than a half mile away. His logical brain took over, considering he was so far away, they couldn’t possible know he was there. Just as he was about calmed down again, that sixth sense he picked up flared in the back of his mind. He followed the sensation back to the first yard he had scanned and dropped to the dirt almost immediately.
Less than two hundred meters away, another pair of the monsters began climbing over the children’s swing set. Their sickly wet pedals flapped erratically as they swung their heads back and forth. He was beginning to think the pedals were more than natural camouflage. They clearly were how the creatures perceived the world and hunted for food. One of them snapped its head in his direction and the pedal flapping increased to the point he could here them slapping back and forth from where he was trying to make himself as small as possible.
This continued for several more seconds before the one next to it snapped at it, then they both leapt to the roof to take up a similar position on the house rooftop. They seemed to be absorbing as much sunlight or warmth as possible before there was no more to be had.
Releasing a breath he didn’t know he was holding, Andy crawled back to the drivers side of his truck, crouched inside the door and turned off the engine. “I don’t know if it’s smell, or sound they are tracking, best to be safe.” Then he pulled the lever action from the gun rack, made sure extra rounds were in his pockets and the round carrier, and crawled back to the edge of the hill he was previously perched on.
Let’s see just how many there are here. He thought silently to himself. He managed to crawl up underneath a large blue fern that sufficiently concealed his visual presence. His thoughts on how they tracked their prey trickled through his mind, in the end he didn’t want to leave it to chance that there were other things out here that hunted visually he hadn’t encountered yet.
By the time the sun had settled below the horizon, he’d counted at least fifteen of the creatures, all lounging in groups of two to five on the various rooftops across the neighborhood. Wish I had spent the money on a suppressor. He was certain he could take the closest two before they could react, the question then would be whether the rest of the pack reacted in a beneficial manner for him. As in, GTFO!
The other problem he identified, the most obvious, is that the sun was almost completely set. He would need to wait to see how much light was reflected down from the multiple moons that hung eerily overhead. The creatures, luckily for him, seemed to be willing to sleep into the night. So, not nocturnal hunters? Makes sense considering how well camouflaged they are for this jungle. If their prey is the dog-squirrels, and these bastards are too big to get into their homes, better to catch them out during the daytime.
He lain in the dirt under his fern for over three hours watching the creatures sleep lazily on the rooftops. While he waited, another half dozen of the monsters revealed themselves, most sleeping in the middle of the streets. They were easy to see as his primary concern as to how much light would be reflected off the planets moons was revealed to be quite a bit. It wasn’t exactly daytime levels of illumination, more like what you’d get in a large city with plenty of street lights. Long black shadows cast between the buildings to create a foreboding twilit maze.
While he waited, he considered whether there was a reason for him to go through the neighborhood below. Ultimately, it came down to resources. Yes, he had enough to get him through a few days on his own, though he had room for more in the back of his truck. Not breaking into his BOB would also beneficial. There’d be food and water as well. Maybe some more ammo, or even some reloading equipment. All things that fell into the category of ‘the more the better’.
Just as he was about to make his move, shadowed movement at the front of the nearest house caught his attention. Two forms were attempting to sneak out the front door and cross the street. He watched in rapt attention as the pair, a rather portly woman and a thin young man based on their silhouetted profiles, inched slowly down their drive towards a blue BMW SUV parked on the street.
“Don’t do it.” He whispered to himself as he watched the woman fishing into her pocket for her keys. The lights of the SUV flashed as she frantically smashed the unlock button, not even bothering to remove the fob from her pocket. The “bleep bleep” sound echoed up into the jungle where Andy tensely watched the disaster in progress. He was distinctly aware that everything behind him seemed to have went still.
Before the lady and her assumed son reached for the door handle, Anderson swung his rifle up to his shoulder and sighted in on the closest of the butt-faced monsters which was already stirring in their direction. It’s mate had yet to rouse from its slumber. God damn it, these fools better not get me killed! With that final thought he pulled his electronic ear-pro on and pulled the trigger.