Jasper Rush's eyelids
slowly creaked open. As he regained consciousness he began to shiver violently.
His body was damp and it stung from the cold. His mind commanded his right arm
to move but to his dismay it didn't respond. He tried moving his left and it
slowly left the cold earth until it rested on his face. He dragged his numb
fingers across his forehead and realized that all that was left was some dried
blood crusted to his skull. The sudden awareness of his injuries brought a flood
of pain that surged through his body.
He turned his head to the side until he felt dirt
on his cheek. About thirty feet away a small sliver of light pierced through
the darkness. He rolled his head back upright, the dried blood on his face
taking part of the ground with it. The only thing he could conjure to do was
get into the light. He bent his left knee and pushed his foot into the ground,
slowly moving his body. Every movement felt like he was being stabbed by a
thousand needles as his gaping back ripped across the jagged pebbles on the
ground.
As he repeated the painful process he tried to
remember anything that might help him make some sense out of his situation. He
remembered spending the evening with his fiancé. The thought of her big brown
eyes was a soothing thought amidst the hellish nightmare he was in. He could
hear her screaming in his head. It was interrupted when he reached the light.
He squinted as the light stabbed his eyes. A
feeling of hopelessness started to bubble up from somewhere below his organs.
He was freezing, severely injured, and trapped in a dark rocky prison but for
some reason he couldn't explain, he knew that all of that was the least of his
worries. He could feel himself starting to doze off. Despite his eyes being
caught in a blinding light his vision started to blacken. He wanted nothing
more than to give in to the darkness, to escape into a pleasant dream. Just as
he was about to lose his conscious mind he heard it.
It jolted his body painfully but that soon dissipated
as adrenaline primed his muscles for actions that his injuries would make sure
never would happen. The sound started out as a low gargling then elevated to a
shrill so bone chillingly loud that his right ear started to bleed. The echo
made it difficult to pinpoint the direction it came from. He heard a scurry of
movement.
Despite having the use of only one arm and leg he
moved his bloody mess of a body backwards all the while having his eyes trained
on the darkness in front of him. Even though he was moving much faster then
would have been possible for someone in his condition, the unknown creature was
closing in on him fast. When the sliver of light was about thirty yards in
front of him his hand struck something sharp and he collapsed.
He raised his head back up to peer in the direction
of the light. He half expected to see a monster come flying through, but there
was no sign of movement. He gazed into the void for minutes that seemed longer
then hours. Finally his heartbeat slowed back to normal and he took a deep
breath and exhaled. That’s when he felt it breathing on his neck.
His eyes went so wide a train could have fit in
them. Every time the creature inhaled he could feel cold air all the way down
his back, like whatever was behind him was leaking air out of its rib cage. He
felt as though his life was only seconds away from ending but then he saw a
picture of a revolver flash through his mind. He realized that his hand was now
resting on the sharp object that pierced him moments earlier. He could feel the
unmistakable shape of his most prized possession, his colt .38 revolver. He
clutched it in his hand and could feel the hammer already pulled back. He hoped
to God he had a shot left in it.
He lurched forward, his sudden momentum startling
the creature behind him. It shrieked like before and the sound was so deafening
he almost dropped his weapon. The creature was on top of him an instant later.
Jasper struggled to get the revolver into firing position. The creature had him
pinned down. He turned over quickly and
clipped it in the face with his elbow. It stumbled backwards and lunged
forward. Jasper rolled to the side and pulled the trigger. He heard a pop and
felt a splatter of blood cover his body.
Moments later
the creature collapsed with a thud and once again the cavern became silent. It
seemed that for the moment, Jasper was safe...
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