The Diseased Heart

Chapter 15

I groaned as I smashed my head into a tree repeatedly to stop the pain of Maple and Olive's endless stream of stupid questions that seemed to uave no end or sense of reason. Can those two ever shut up?

Jack was with me on that front, who had also smacked his forehead into the same tree, though I was up in the branches while he stood near the trunk. The girls looked between eachother with confused looks on their faces, seeming to not understand our reaction to their newest installment in their string of questions.

"Okay okay okayokayokay," I started, pinching the bridge of my nose whilst my voice trailed off, "Did you seriously just ask if Crawlers could spin webs?"

Olive nodded slowly, fiddling ith a loose strand of her black hair, "Yeah, I mean, we saw those pictures of the Crawler nests and they look sort of...stringy? What are they made of if it isn't webs, I mean you are spiders."

I sighed heavily, "No, we can't spin webs. A Crawler nest is mostly made of plant matter and whatever bits of rubble the feral decided to use. It is held together with the feral Crawler's saliva and venom, which, when moxed together and dried, looks grey. That's what the nests were made of and why they were stringy, the venom makes the spit dry that way."

"Oohhh."

I facepalmed, I didn't want to know how or where they thought Crawlers could make some sort of silk or other material, so I was going to spare what was left of my sanity and not ask.

I shuddered and leaned back on the treebranch I was sitting on, allowing myself to fall back and hang off my knees. Jack looked at me, pointed to the girls, and twirled a finger around the side of his head. I nodded profusely.

This group had many questions about Crawlers, and I was happy to answer if they weren't stupid about it. The museum and other knowledge only covered what humans knew back then, so much of Crawler's behavior and hidden manerisms was lost on them. Asking if Crawlers could spin webs, grow wings, regenerate their entire head, or eat rocks were very stupid questions.

I looked over my shoulder, still hung upside down, at Olive and Maple, "I'm no biology teacher. Just because I am a Crawler doesn't mean I know everything about them, like how you don't know everything there is to know about humans. Try to have a bit of common sense at least."

Maple checked her watch, "Oh geez! We gotta head back for today, it's getting late and I have a family thing going on. See you tomorrow, Rye!"

I rolled my eyes, not that they could see from behind my glasses. Rye was a nickname my English teacher insisted on calling me, "Stop calling me Rye, two of us being named after plants is enough."

I watched as the three left for the day, with Jack struggling to hold back his snickering laugh. Each time they left, it was bitter sweet. Being alone with nearly nothing to do was boring and all, but being stuck with them for so long wasn't great either. I noticed that Maple had forgotten her backpack here, but she would likely come get it in a few minutes once she remembered. I had some more important business to attend to, which was part of why I was glad they left when they did, my instincts were growing.

I climbed up the tree a bit fsrther, high enough to spy out the topmost branches without damaging the new and weak ones. I smelled the air around here, I could smell some strange animal in the area, reminded me of a fox or wolf, but I'd rather not attack a wolf any day of the week. Their pack usually wasn't too far behind. Regardless, canines weren't of too big a concern for me.

I decided to go after the small group of rabbits nearby.

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I jolted out of the bushes, scaring away the rabbits in every possible direction, with them now very aware of my presence. I was not upset about losing my prey, however. I was focused on the shrill scream that echoed through the air from a few kilometers away, slicing deep into my mind with a primal sense of urgency.

Without missing a beat, I jumped up into the trees and bolted after the shrill cry. I knew that voice anywhere. That was Olive. As I ran, the scent of that canine creature got stronger, as did the scent of her blood. My instincts recognized that as a scream of pain, a wounded human in my woods. I felt my heart drop as my stomach clenched, but I pushed on through the foliage, ignoring the call of the hunt.

Getting closer to the source of the scents, I was able to hear her crying out in pain, almost drowned out by the sound of Jack yelling to, likely, try to scare off this creature. I kept running, hoping to get there before something terrible happened to someone. Who am I kidding, before something worse happens!

A million thoughts were running through my mind, the main one being, what were we going to do if her wounds were as bad as I feared? My urge to eat her alive aside, we were in the middle of the woods, with no way to quickly get her to a hospital.

Before long, the creature came into view. This creature looked only vaguely like a wolf or fox, with course sand colored fur which faded to black at its paws. Its tail was more that of a labrador, but much longer. Was this some sort of bizarre evolution of a fox in the last three hundred years? Their narrowed blue eyes brought more attention to the blood dripping from their jaws.

My vision flared red as I saw it lunge at Jack, who was blocking it from Olive and Maple. Maple was holding a large wound on Olive's back from bleeding as best she could. Jack screamed in terror as he held the murderous animal back with a treebranch.

Without a second thought, I lunged from the trees with a glass shattering screech, but nothing like a full Crawler screech, my intent was to distract this thing. The animal whipped around to face me, and within the second I had lunged on it's back and sunk my fangs into its spine.

It howled out in pain as I yanked my head back, tearing out a large chunk of flesh, exposing its spine in the process. It whipped around as best it could and swiped its claws at me, managing to latch onto my shoulder and chest before snapping at me with its bloodied jaws.

I jumped back with it still hanging off my collarbone claws first, and shot a Crawler leg at it, attempting to either knock it off, or impale it. This damn animal seemed to have catlike reflexes, it dodged my strike and jumped back off me, tearing a large scratch in my shoulder and neck.

I snarled at it, getting down into a fighting crouch, but with my Crawler legs positioned in a way that let me both pounce at it, or jump away if needed. The canine locked eyes with me, slowly walking to the side with its head lowered and back arched, it bared its teeth as if I was afraid of it. All I felt was enraged that this thing dared come into my forest.

I just stared at it, waiting for it to make a move, but then a terrifying sound caught my attention, lr better yet, the lack thereof. Olive had stopped screaming. Before I had time to look back at them, Maple began to scream herself, "No! Stay awake! You have to stay awake! Olive? Olive!!"

My vision flared red again. I was not going to let this mutt kill Olive. I didn't even care anymore. I bolted at the thing infront of me with full speed, and let out a screech that rivalled the one I had threatened Travis with so long ago in the cabin.

The thing stumbled backward, and shook its head with the mind shattering scream. I took my chance, and pounced on it, before snapping its neck with a sickening crack. The canine slumped down on the ground as the life left it, but I could only go fof what I had heard, as my back was already turned to the corpse.

Jack was panicking, but trying to hide it, "We have to get her to the hospital! But...its so far away...an ambulance would take too long!"

He was right...

There were a few options, none I was very fond of. We could try and help her here, leading to her inevitable death, I could infect her and she would survive, but be forced to live in the woods and hunt live animals, or...

I could risk my life, and many other's, getting her to the hospital myself. But she would likely survive, and if I managed to cause as small a freakout as possible by running across buildings...

I knew what I was going to choose.