Inscape 2020

Page 77

Nighttime Excursion Parker Johnson

The moon shot pale beams of light through the clouds, far above Zeke’s head. He slowly made his way down the road, carefully watching for any movement in his peripherals. The past few months of scavenging had made his senses much sharper than they were before, but he had been taught by his father to be wary of the traps of arrogance. Zeke adjusted the heavy pack on his back and checked his sidearm—a revolver he had found near the beginning of his time as a scavenger. It had been kept in remarkably good condition, forgotten at the bottom of a safe, in an abandoned home, outside of the town’s ramshackle walls. The gun’s previous owner had kept a few dozen rounds of ammunition in the safe, as well. Zeke counted himself lucky that no one had stumbled upon such a bounty earlier. Judging by the height of the moon and the stillness of the wind, Zeke figured that it was well past midnight. The monsters that plagued the town were less active during the night. While this was a comforting sentiment for those traveling in groups, the creatures were still quite a threat to a lone scavenger like Zeke. Trained and armed as he was, he did not relish the thought of having to fend off a monster on his own. From what he had been told by the more senior scavengers he had encountered, the creatures were a force to be reckoned with— small, agile, and with a bite that could pierce all the way through a man’s arm. With caution, Zeke poked his head in some of the cars that dotted the road. Most were empty, with only a coat left here or an empty backpack there. In the beginning, people thought that they could flee the monsters in their cars. However, the rumbling of automobile engines were like sirens to the creatures and they could outrun most vehicles. People soon abandoned their cars and flocked together in whatever shelter they could find. Cars were to be used only as an absolute last resort. Zeke was getting closer to his destination- a small grocery store. The handdrawn map he had been given placed it just around the next bend in the highway. Putting the map away, he glanced at the moon again. He counted himself lucky that it was so bright. A rustling in the trees off the side of the road caught Zeke’s attention. He quickly ducked and hid behind a nearby car. Straining himself as he listened, he could pick out what sounded like a few pairs of feet, slowly crunching their way through the fallen leaves that dotted the tree line. Suddenly, the rustling stopped. Zeke peered around the bumper of the car, towards the source of the noise. He froze as he caught a glimpse of what was lurking about in the woods. It was one of the monsters; a small, black, reptilian creature. It was no bigger than the average dog—it even walked around on legs like a dog would. That was where the similarities to anything earthly ended, however. This particular monster had three legs and a long tail that dragged behind it through the underbrush. Its face was

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