10) The Rhino-Beast Thing

Alphonse:

This part of my life, is called "running." Not just any running. Running-for-my-life running. A giant thing was chasing after us. Marshall was still too weak and injured, so Brother and I struggled to carry him with us as we ran.

The thing, it was some kind of rhino... At first I thought it was one of the soulless beast things like Auri, but it's different. Instead he was more animal than human. He crashed through walls with no problem and knocked building over using his horn.

I don't think I'll be able to keep this up... I can't keep running. I can hear Brother breathing heavily as he ran beside me, one of Marshall's arms around each of our shoulders.

"We can't run forever," Brother said to me between breaths. 

"But there's no where to hide! He'll find us no matter what!"

"Not if we fight him," He said, looking at me with his determined look.

"There is no way we would have a chance against this thing," I retorted as i heaved, trying to fill my lungs with air. 

"We have to try! We can't outrun him."

It was dangerous, but I knew Brother was right. Either way we didn't stand a chance, but I would rather die fighting than running.

We ran through a building- in the front door, out the back- in an attempt to slow the rhino-beast-thing down as it would inevitably plow its way through the walls.

Once we were through it, Ed and I sat Marshall on the ground against a wall and braced ourselves for when the rhino would come bursting through the wall.

The side of the building collapsed, and the rhino-beast-thing stood there and stared at us. We held our ground, challenging it.

It looked just like a rhino, it was big and fat with a rough hide, but it walked on two feet. And it had opposable thumbs.

It kind of growled at us, then lowered it's head and began to charge.

The next couple of minutes seemed to go in slow motion. Ed and I braced ourselves to be run through, the rhino bearing towards us.

Suddenly, the rhino-beast-thing tripped. It didn't just trip though, it was tripped by someone. A foot stuck out from around the corner of a building.

All while still seeming to be in slow motion, a fist came around and landed in the rhino's chest with so much force it was sent flying backwards. At the same moment the rhino hit the ground, the owner of the foot and the fist also hit the ground.

I watched in surprise as Auri rolled around in the dirt clutching her hand yelling "You b*****d!! That hurt! You should have warned me you were hard as a friggen rock!" 

She was suddenly on her feet and glared at the rhino as he struggled to get back up. She kind of took a step back and I heard her mumble, "Well, damn. You're not Landon..."

She turned around to to see me and Brother standing there, bewildered. She smiled.

"Hey Alphonse!" She sounded very cheery. Her eyes turned to Ed and her smile faded and she glared at him. "I still don't know you...."

"Well, I'm-" Brother began.

"Excuse me! I'm busy! Shut your face! Go away. I have business to attend to," She cut him off and turned back towards the rhino-beast-thing.

Brother looked at me with a confused expression. I only shrugged.

"What are you doing!? Grab dinkleberry and get the hell outta here!" She yelled over her shoulder at us. I assume "dinkleberry" is Marshall?

Brother and I looked at each and nodded. We ran to the wall Marshall was slumped against and wrapped one of his arms around each of our shoulders.

"What about you?" I called to Auri.

She looked back at me with a smile and gave me a thumbs up. "I'm all good. I got this. Go away now. Bye-bye!"

"We can't just leave you here!" Brother protested.

She looked at him like he spoke a different language. "Why not? It's easy. start running in either direction. Simple."

Brother was now annoyed. "That's not what I meant! We can't leave you here with this thing! You can't fight it by yourself."

She laughed. "Well, I'm doing a better job than you were."

I tried to hide my smile when Brother blushed at this. 

He opened his mouth to argue back at her when suddenly the rhino's giant fist plowed into the side of her face sending her through a wall.

Author's Note

(I deserve an awesome rating for the "Pursuit of Happiness" reference in the first line!)

Reviews

[Emunah June.]

Eh heh heh! I saw the Will Smith line there!! X3