A Different Kind of Animal

Chapter One

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A/N: For those of you checking this out, know that the novel is already finished on my personal computer, so updates will be without delay! In order to get the votes and comments that I hope to receive for each chapter, I will update every 2-3 days. If I get a ton of response for any particular chapter, though, I will upload sooner! Thanks, and enjoy!!

Chapter One

He was bleeding—from where on his body, he didn’t know, but he could smell the heady, metallic odor. Branches smacked and scraped his face and bare chest, but he couldn’t feel any pain. 

Breathing so hard that his chest blazed, Leonardo plunged through a narrow creek, his feet slipping off the hidden surfaces of slimy rocks that lay below the mirror of icy water.

Run, run, run! his mind screamed.

Behind him, an engine roared like a furious beast, preceding the sounds of snapping limbs and spinning tires as a huge black Hummer smashed through the trees. Four beams of light from the rack on its roof scattered through the trees as the monstrous machine flew over logs and deep ruts in the ground.

As Leo willed his legs to carry him faster through the maze of trees, his shoeless feet seemed to land on every sharp stone and jagged stick that littered the forest floor. But even when the trees appeared to blur together and the wind whistled in his ears, the metal beast charged on, gaining ground every second. Before the next minute ended, he was sure that he’d be dead, crushed to a bloody pulp beneath its enormous wheels.

When its headlights caught him in their beams, he imagined that he could feel their heat on his back, weighing him down. Suddenly, he realized how exhausted his body was. Even while his mind still urged him on—Run! Don’t give up! Run, run, run!—his legs were slowing, trembling, and his lungs breathed fire. 

He couldn’t go on. He’d run for an hour, maybe more. He was no match against a Hummer’s speed in a forest at night. He—

There!

Just to his right was a sliver of impenetrable darkness, a shadow blacker than all the other shadows. Hope returning, he used the last reserves of his adrenaline to sprint over there, recognizing it to be an opening in the ground. He escaped from the headlights’ beams just long enough to squeeze himself through a hole that was no larger than what could comfortably fit a small child.

As he wriggled the rest of his legs through, he swallowed a surprised yelp as he fell a short distance, his body thudding painfully off the damp ground below. His nose was immediately swamped with the scent of wet mud as it squished around him. Blinking, he sat up and tried to look around, but even to his eyes the space stayed obscured in total darkness so that he wasn’t sure what he’d crawled into. His best guess was a cave.

Listening intently, he heard the enraged roar of the Hummer as it drew closer to his hiding spot. Heart pounding, he anticipated the worst as the vibration from the wheels rattled his nerves and made the ground tremble beneath his hands. He expected the Hummer to roll to a stop just outside the opening, but the machine never even slowed, rushing past and moving away until, finally, the sound of the engine was just thunder in the distance.

When he could no longer hear it, Leo allowed himself to breathe, coughing on the dirt still sprinkling down from above. He blindly groped at the ground with his hands, attempting to get a feel for where he was. When his palms came to rest upon a dirt wall—which he was shocked to find was directly in front of him—he shifted around so that he could lean against it.