Escaping Shadows
255 Words
Erica bolted up the crumbling staircase, the pounding of mutated claws echoing behind her. She reached the top floor and spun around, spitting words caught in a web of panic. "Darryl, get down!"
A towering creature emerged through a cloud of dust, its deformed face twisted in rage. Darryl threw himself to the ground as talons sliced through the air, missing his neck by inches.
Erica's heart raced as she grabbed a rusted pipe, met the beast's soulless gaze, and swung with all her strength. Metal cracked against bone in a spray of black blood. The creature howled and turned on her with predatory focus.
Darryl regained his feet and flung a charred wooden beam. It smashed into the mutant's flank, barely slowing its charge. Erica scrambled back from snapping jaws, feet meeting open air at the building's edge.
She teetered on the precipice, the ground several stories below shrouded in shadows and debris. The rotten stench of decay rolled from the darkness, carrying sounds that shivered her bones—many creatures, gathering.
Darryl barreled into the mutant, toppling it over the edge in a tangle of limbs. He pulled Erica to safety as the building shuddered in its death throes. "We have to run, now!"
They bolted across rooftops under a blanket of stars, the pursuing horde's snarls and clicks rising from ruined streets. A nondescript building loomed ahead—Erica's siblings took shelter within. But as Darryl guarded their escape, he noticed lights in the wreckage below, and human silhouettes moving with purpose.
- Writer
