A Circuit of Time: Book Two of Spark (A MPHFPC Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine

Ethan reached into the water and pulled her out as five dark shapes swam toward them. Emma fired at the crocodiles, but they soon disappear under the surface.

A moment of silence passed among them.

Then the bridge shook.

"Go!" Olive shouted from the island.

They tried to run, but the bridge was shaking too violently for them to even walk. Then the whole thing collapsed, and everyone fell into the lake.

Olive fired her rifle at the swimming crocodiles, trying to keep the crocodiles at bay. Emma made it to shore first and pulled John and Blanche out of the water. Sophie, being too far to the shore, held on to a piece of wood board just big enough for a person to sit on and climbed onto it.

Ethan swam toward the board Sophie was on and pushed it toward the shore while Edmund stayed just behind him, providing cover fire. Before they could reach the garden, Edmund ran out of his ammo. He threw his gun at the predators and pulled out a grenade. But a crocodile charged at him and chomped down on his arm before he could even touch the pin. Ethan let go of Sophie and turned to help him.

"Just go!" Edmund shouted and kicked Ethan. Ethan slammed into Sophie's wooden board, and both crashed on the shore.

Before Ethan could went back to help Edmund, a dozen more crocodiles swarmed him, tearing apart his invisible flesh.

The red water denied his last scream.

"No!" Olive screamed.

Emma held her back as crocodiles crawled onto land and started running at them. And then Emma realized that those weren't crocodiles. Their legs were too long, their stance too high and every one of them had long tusks protruded from their bloody jaws.

These were monsters intentionally placed here to defend this loop.

"Go! We need to get to the other side!" Miss Bittern.

They ran onto the second bridge, while firing at the creatures to keep them away. Emma used up her rifle ammo and shifted to her pistol. The creatures on land scattered back into the water and started hitting the bridge.

They kept running and shooting and dodging jaws of the creatures that leapt out of the water. But eventually the bridge was shaking so badly that it started falling apart.

They all fell into the water, and the crocodiles swarmed them. Ethan pulled out two grenades and threw it toward the animals at either side of them.

The explosion didn't keep the crocodiles away for long but bought just enough time for them to make it to the stairs waiting for them at the other side.

They climbed onto the stairs one by one and got as far away from the water as the wall allowed them.

Blanche was the last to make it, but as she stood up, a crocodile leaped out of the water and clamped its jaws around her calf. Olive and John held onto Blanche as the creature tried to drag her back into the lake. Ethan pried open the jaws from Blanche with his hands and Emma stuck a grenade into it. The animal struggled against them, but Ethan quickly kicked it back into the water. A few second later, an explosion turned the water red. The rest of the crocodiles disappeared under the water again, as if they were never there.

The sight of Blanche's wound made John flinch. The toothmarks were deep and dirty. The tusks even punctured her bones. Blanche groaned as Miss Bittern applied some kind of powder on her injury. "This powder has healing and numbing effect, but these are very deep wounds. It will heal, but she wouldn't be able to walk on her own for a while."