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Lexi grinned at me. "Stet will do something to confuse things. I talked to him about it earlier."
I rolled my eyes at her confidence in the demon, turning in a circle. Mountains rose in the distance to the north, and I pointed those out to my sister. “Over there.”
She nodded and started out at a quick walk, slipping a pair of sunglasses out of a pocket and putting them on. I grimaced, pulling out my own as I followed her, listening for anything unexpected.
A husky moan sounded behind me and then pounding footsteps.
There it was.
“Jeez! We haven’t even been here five minutes and the predators are already coming. Pick it up, Lexi!” I urged, speeding up into a jog. She transitioned into a run, keeping up with me easily.
“Not sure if we can make it before they catch up, though.” She puffed out between steps.
I glanced over my shoulder and spotted clouds of dust rising behind us. Something was hunting us, and bearing down on us fast.
Fuck. She was right. We wouldn’t make it. Not unless we changed into our wolf forms. Except, we would lose the clothes we were wearing, and we couldn't afford to do that.
“Faster. Let’s see if we can find a place to hide,” I replied, swinging my head from side to side.
Nothing. There was nothing here.
The vibrations through the ground got a little stronger and the dust cloud grew a little bigger.
Running flat out, we were not getting any further ahead of whatever monsters that were coming after us.
I would not die on the first day in this place!
A projectile shot over our heads and I heard the squeal of one of the beasts as it fell. Growls and yips filled the air as whatever those things were tore into its wounded ally.
We kept moving, hoping that whoever had helped us was friendly.
Sweat poured down my face, but my vision was focused on my destination, the mountains in front of me. Way too soon, the rapid vibrations of many pounding footsteps started up again, moving after us.
“Here!”
Someone stood on the top of a rocky cliff wall. The person threw down a rope, and I pointed towards it, turning to head that way.
My sister was strong, but she was tiring. Life had been more civilized on Earth, filled with technology that made activities like running something one did when they wanted. Not to survive.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her along, sprinting for the rock face.
“Go up first.” I turned and thought about what I had with me. I had a rifle, but I hadn’t prepared it yet. Pulling out my Glock, I scanned the horizon, hoping Lexi would reach the ledge soon.
She snagged the rope and dragged herself up, hand over hand, while I studied the land behind us.
What I saw caused me to want to push her up the rocky cliff.
The beasts were extremely tall, with long bodies and sharp claws. We would have to climb a considerable distance up the cliff to get away from them. I figured they would be able to snatch us off of it if we weren't at least fifteen feet up. Maybe twenty. The cliff couldn't have been more than thirty feet at this point, though, which meant it wouldn't offer us much safety.
These predators were like a mixture of lion and oxen, both on steroids. The heads were that of jungle cats, with long fangs and enormous manes. Massive horns with pointed tips sat on top of their heads, spiraling forward allowing them to stab at their prey. Their necks were thick and corded with muscle, flowing into an bovine body. The fore legs ended in paws with sharp claws while the back ones had pointed hooves.
And the teeth! All those teeth were meant for ripping and tearing flesh apart.
I had seen nothing like them before, but the primal fear that flooded me indicated these were apex predators.
Another arrow flew towards one of the beasts, hitting it in its eye. It fell head first, plowing through the dirt as it came to a stop twenty feet in front of me. But the other front-runners didn’t pause to eat its brethren's flesh. Not with prey in sight, running from them like rabbits.
Nope, they were fixated on me, closing in for the kill. If they were intelligent, they would know that their fallen brethren wasn't moving. After snapping me up, they could return to gorge on the larger beast later.
