//------------------------------// // Searching, Finding, and Fighting // Story: Consequences // by shallow15 //------------------------------// “This is bullshit,” said Boyle. He shoved a low hanging branch aside with the twin pronged hook he had in place of his right hand. The burly goon straightened up and glanced over at Caelano. “What the hell is Capper thinking, sending us through the woods in the middle of the night? What are we even looking for?” Caelano sighed. “I told you. Shimmer thinks there's something out here that's been causing all the damage in town. Capper owes her a favor, plus he's worried that whatever it is might attack Lix on her way back. He wants us to see if we can find it.” “Seems like a snipe hunt to me,” said Mullet. His sole eye narrowed. “Why's the boss giving Shimmer the time of day anyway? She's the one who left the gang.” “I don't know,” Caelano replied. “But he says we do it, so we do it.” Boyle grumbled. “Waste of friggin' time.” The three had been in the woods on the southeast end of town since sundown, looking for any sign of the thing in the woods. They'd been out here for almost three hours without any sign of anything. Just trees and darkness. Caelano herself was starting to agree with her underlings. This had to be a wild goose chase. I'll give it ten more minutes, that's it, she thought. After that, the little bitch can come out here and waste her time for once. Mullet turned left and pushed his way through another set of low branches. He cast the flashlight he carried around before pointing it at the ground. His eyebrow raised. “Hey, guys? You might want to see this.” The other two gang members made their way over to where Mullet stood. All three looked down. “What the hell is that?” said Caelano. “Whatever made that, it's big,” Boyle replied. The beam of Mullet's flashlight illuminated a trail of large animal tracks, easily a foot and a half in diameter leading deeper into the woods. Each print consisted of a large pad and four slightly smaller claw marks. The distance between each print seemed to indicate whatever it was traveled on four legs. Caelano pulled out her phone and took several pictures of the tracks. “I don't believe it. She was right.” “Yeah, great,” said Boyle. He cast his own flashlight around the trees surrounding them. “Can we get outta here now?” “What's the matter? Scared?” Mullet smirked. Boyle frowned and punched Mullet in the shoulder. “Okay, okay, jeez,” Mullet moaned. “Come on,” Caelano said, following the tracks. “Wait, what?” said Mullet. “You wanna follow those things?” “Only for a short distance,” Caelano replied. “I wanna see which way it went. Then we can tell Shimmer and let her deal with it.” “If this thing is as big as it seems,” said Boyle, “She's gonna get herself killed.” “And wouldn't that just be a shame,” Caelano snorted. “Come on.” The other two gang members reluctantly followed Caelano deeper into the forest. The tracks stayed mostly in a straight line, but veered off when they heard the sound of rushing water. They found a small creek nearby where the tracks overlapped around each other, and what looked like a large body imprint in the dirt. There were also quite a few branches that had been snapped off the trees above lying near the creek bank. Caelano looked around and found what appeared to be fresher tracks leading away from the creek. “This way,” she said. The three continued exploring the woods, keeping at least one flashlight on the tracks at all times. After a moment, Mullet noticed something. “Is it me or are those tracks getting bigger?” Caelano stopped and cast her light back on the prints they had followed. Sure enough, while the increase had been gradual, the prints that led away from the creek were visibly larger than the ones that had led to it. She frowned, and cast her flashlight up. In the distance, beyond the beam, there was a slightly darker patch of blackness that rose into the sky, slightly silhouetted against the starry night. Could be a cave over there, Caelano thought. Good place for this thing to hide. She got out her phone and brought up a GPS app. She copied the coordinates and saved them on her notepad app. She put the phone away, then turned to face the other two. “Let's get the hell out of here.” Boyle and Mullet nodded and the three began following the tracks back they way they had come. They reached the creek when they heard something crack in the distance. “You hear that?” Boyle said, shining his light behind them. “Yeah. Keep moving.” Caelano led the way, increasing their pace. Soon, they were back where they had found the tracks. She stopped. “What's the problem?” Mullet asked. “Do you remember which way we came from?” Mullet frowned and looked around. They had entered the woods while the sun was still up, but now the darkness had come, and he wasn't sure which way the car was. “Um...” he said. “I think--” Another crash resounded through the woods, causing all three to look behind them. A loud groaning sound came form the shadows, followed by a series of crashes as branches fell from the trees. Caelano cast her laght into the darkness and sucked in her breath when she saw the distinctive glitter of eyes reflecting the light. The glittering was a full nine feet off the ground and she was sure she caught a glimpse of white fangs just underneath them. “Run,” she hissed. “Run now.” The three gang members turned and began running. A loud roar echoed through the night behind them, nearly overwhelming them with its volume. More crashes and thumps could be heard from behind them. Caelano pushed herself harder, trying to ignore the burning in her lungs, forcing herself not to look behind her, afraid she might see the thing gaining on them. “Shit!” Boyle yelped. Caelano looked to the side and saw Boyle drop from sight. She stopped and turned back, only to catch a glimps of the massive shape rising to it's hind limbs. A paw came up, tapped with large yellowed claws, ready to smash down on Boyle. Without thinking, Caelano's hand dropped to the knife at her hip, withdrew the blade, and hurled it at the thing in one smooth motion. It connected and the thing roared again, forcing all three of them to put their hands over their ears in pain. Caelano recovered first, and grabbed Boyle's arm, trying to pull him upright. What felt like a freight train collided with her midsection and the rest was a blur as she felt herself sailing through the air, before impacting with something hard and unyealding. She tried to gasp in pain, but the wind had been knocked out of her and she could only lay on the ground, trying to force her lungs to work. A shadow, darker than the night, passed over her. Caelano looked up and blinked. Stars? A muzzle – long and wet – came down and sniffed. Long fangs protruded from the mouth, almost dragging on the ground. Caelano swallowed. The action caused her lungs to start working again and she hacked and coughed directly in the thing's face. It recoiled and roared again. Caelano gagged as warm fetid breath rolled over her, smelling like hot garbage and dead fish. “YAAAAAAAH!” Boyle crashed into the side of the thing like a linebacker. He blinked when he came to a dead stop and looked up in time to see a giant paw coming straight at him, knocking him aside. The monster snorted and begam moving its head back toward Caelano, who was trying to get to her feet. Several loud cracks echoed through the trees. Mullet had withdrawn a pistol and was taking shots at the beast. The shots were wild and untargeted, but one managed to graze the thing's nose. It let out a huge bellow of pain and reared back, swiping blindly around it. Caelano was backhanded just as she got up and rolled to a stop next to Mullet, who threw himself to the ground beside her. “I made it mad,” he said. Caelano glared at him. “You THINK?!” They both got up as the monster turned away from them. Boyle appeared, nursing his bruised shoulder.. “You think we scared it off?” he asked. The answer came when the thing grabbed a large boulder in its paws and wrenched it out of the ground. It turned back to them, holding the huge rock over its head. All three gang members' eyes widened. “Nope,” Mullet squeaked. The monster hurled the boulder at them. Caelano shoved Mullet and Boyle aside and danced backward. The boulder hit the ground with a jarring thud. Another roar came from the beast, coupled with the sound of crashing tree limbs and huge chunks of dirt and rock falling back to earth. Mullet and Boyle got up and stared after the monster, which lumbered off into the trees and was soon swallowed by the darkness. They looked at each other for a moment before they heard the moans. They dashed around the side of the rock and stopped short at what they found. “Oh, fuck,” said Boyle. He quickly got to his knees and began digging under the edge of the boulder. “Call the boss! And an ambulance!” Mullet nodded and got out his phone. “Capper? We have a really big problem. Yeah, we found it all right and it nearly killed us! We need an ambulance out here now! It's bad, Cap.” He swallowed as he looked over to where Boyle was still trying to free Caelano's crumpled form. “Real bad.”