Chapter 2: March of the Vermin

March, (the last girl on earth) always wanted a companion, just not one that wants to eat her alive.

Chapter 2: March of the Vermin

 

It started with a click, then a hiss. March opened her eyes, hazy from hunger as the noises grew clear. Her hand quivered as she hoisted herself up on the hammock to see the Vermin below.

 

She could hardly believe it. Hundreds snipped and snapped beneath, a closer look made it clear that they were moving in the same direction, almost like they were running away from something.

 

That’s when she heard it, a screech in the tunnels, deep and inhuman.

 

No Vermin ever made that noise, it was something else, something nasty, something big enough to make her prey run for dear life.

 

March could do nothing but wait for them to pass. Instead she stared at the dim orange tunnels beyond, mind shot with terror, desperate to run.

 

After their passing she leapt into the water and followed in the wake.

 

“What the hell is that thing,” she whispered to herself.

 

She chased them though every twist and junction, unrelenting against the looming screeches. Mid-run, she realised it was close to the boundary of home. Above rested the ancient sign riveted to the stone mantle reading, ‘BLEE*K** ** S*ATION’.

 

Her hunger vanished, replaced by a knot as she realised what was about to happen. There was a very good reason she never travelled that far in her life. A chasm blocked the path. It stretched down into what looked like infinity. The only way across was a web of steel and concrete, an obstacle the Vermin did not fear as they stuck to the surface and raced across.

 

The knot became a pit that fixed her on the spot with apprehension. One wrong move and death was certain.

 

That screech called louder, nearer, she had no choice. It was fight or flight, March chose flight, literally.

 

A clear gap rested between her and the path. She knelt to the ground and pressed her bare feet against the stone. With a single step she pushed off and started to run. The edge was near. She stumbled. Her leg dangled in the air.

 

“Oh God I can’t do it!”

 

The beast stamped in the tunnel behind. A snort of breathe sounded round the corner. March picked herself up. The creature screeched as its hand rose into view, long and claw like. It was all she saw of it.

 

One final gulp swallowed back the fear as she ran towards the jump once more. Adrenaline fuelled the bound across the void. Her arms reached out to grasp the metal and snapped into place like she was breaking a Vermin.

 

Angered screeches called out in defeat. The shadow lumbered away whilst March lifted herself to safety.

 

Her only option was to press on through the makeshift bridge. Otherwise she would starve to death; a rumble in her stomach told March she was already halfway there.

 

 At first it was dark. Yet the further she climbed, the more a faint glow of luminous mushrooms appeared. Her stomach growled at the sight. No thought was paid to how poisonous they could be. She simply grabbed a fist full and shoved them into her mouth. There was no taste to them, just the texture of sludge. Step by step she’d creep through collapsed corridors, gorged on the edible lights until queasiness made her puke neon blue.

 

“Worth a try…”

 

 They led her through the upturned rooms, past the fossils of the past, an old sign here, a desk frame there, right until her foot kicked something round and hollow. It smashed against the wall where more of the same stared back at her, dozens of skulls.

 

March knew she should have been afraid, but quite the opposite took hold. If anything, those bones made the truth clear. She was the last one left.

 

The ground started to quake, rubble shook from above as the rickety bridge fell to its side. Her pace quickened as the end drew close. She tasted the Vermin in her mind, any thought to steer off panic. It drove March onward through the twisted rebar where one more jump awaited. She very nearly lost her footing, when in the last minute she sprang through a smashed window to collide with edge.

 

She hit the stone with force and rolled a good few meters where she rested breathless as the structure collapsed, happy for the escape yet filled with loss over her home.

 

“Nothing but death waits here. What the hell am I going to do now?”

 

Author's Note

I always review back! and pride myself on giving real honest feedback about my reading experience :)

I'm trying to improve my own writing, this is another experiment into altering a book I finished a while ago. it was in a different tense and I'm still learning so it's not perfect but I really want your help, be brutal. even if you hate it, please say why? :) thank you

cheers for the honest suggestions from last time for those who reviewed, your awesome, lets keep the ball rolling,

Reviews

[Wayward Soul]

Well..... it makes me wonder what happend to the world?, how did thes beings come into existance? Who exactly is march? Things to ponder, a great chapter, keep it up

[M.R Steiner]

Thank you, I redid the first chapter as well based on that other guy's advice, It's still a long way off I'm sure but I feel it's improving with time, no doubt will one day come back to these after I've completed this new version :)

[RJ Snow]

Now I'm interested to know if there's more than one creature. I'm guessing so since March is supposedly the only human left alive.
Very interesting!