Strangers (Fighting the Darkness series)

Vengeance

Petrified trees whipped past as the car bulleted along over the uneven path towards the thing. My eyes were fixed on the creature; they wouldn’t tear away even if God himself struck me down, because I would rise back up to bring this monstrous, evil, demonic creature down. Nothing is going to stand in my way. Nothing.

I hit a ditch and the car jerked violently and flew through the air. The wheels hit the misshapen ground and the back bumper was lost to the terrain. I jammed the gear stick into forth gear, then fifth, hitting well over one hundred miles an hour. Faster and faster the car sped along, dodging skeletal trees and swerving round fallen cattle. And coming up in front of me was a deep, hollow riverbed, sucked dry with only remnants of decomposed fish dotting the edges.

“There’s no way across!” I screamed, tears starting to sting my eyes at the thought of wasting my time for nothing. “Wait…” A large tree had collapsed into the river bed crossing over it, making a makeshift bridge. I turned sharply to the left, almost tipping the car and headed for the tree-like bridge, hoping that my ide would work. Suddenly, the ground started to crack and shift underneath the car. The steering wheel was out of control. I grasped the wheel with both hands, locking my arms to try and fix it in place. I started regaining control as I neared the tree. I veered sharply to the right then left, to line myself up with the tree.

“Almost there…” I wheezed, sweat pouring down my face. I studied the angle and turned right slightly. I pressed my foot down and shifted the gear stick again and prepared for the crossing. Suddenly a dead bird dropped on my windscreen as the car was travelling across the ravine. I shut my eyes, half hoping the car landed safely and half hoping the dead bird didn't knock my windscreen in and land on my face. Just before the car landed I opened my eyes to see that the dead thing was gone, but the windscreen had cracked right through the middle, leaving a large hole in the middle.

The car landed on the ground with a jolt, making the windscreen shatter, glass cutting the sides of my face and making my eyes water, but I was still hurtling towards the demon. There were more and more obstacles as the distance between us began to steadily reduce. I was almost there. I thought that this vacation was going to be a quiet and boring one; the same as usual. Had it been some other day, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to handle being the one responsible to save the world, let alone look after a defenceless animal. As I started to doubt if this would work, the creature was close enough that I could feel its evil aura through my bare skin. I took a deep breath and stared it down to try and control my fear.

The creature was floating above the ground by about ten feet. There was no way I could reach it without getting out of the car. The ground started to crack again. I sped up and veered to the right. The earth in front of me crumbled and fell in on itself leaving a huge cavern in its place. I turned the wheel sharply to the left and there was another loud crack behind me. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw that the ground was cracking behind the car, following its trail. I turned and so did the crack. Left, right and left again. The crack did the same. I managed a glance at the creature and saw the hollow hood staring at me inside the car. I froze for a second, terrifying feeling filled my stomach and I almost emptied my breakfast onto the dash board. I was running out of ground. Suddenly my arms jolted to the side, not of my own will and directed me away from a large boulder that I was about to drive into. The shock made my wrists ache and I could feel my fingers burning and cramping up as something besides myself was controlling them. I forced my arms to turn the steering wheel back around as I began to cover a flat piece of ground which wasn’t broken yet.

Then a large lump of rock vaulted up out of the ground right next to the demon. Without thinking, I turned left, the crack hot on my tail and as headed towards it. There was just enough ground left.