Legendary | s. harrington (18+)

chapter thirteen

"We've got company." To Evelyn's horror and complete surprise, there were two more of the creatures she'd never believed to exist surrounding them. Evelyn could taste her heart in her mouth.

"Abort!" Dustin's voice bellowed, the bus door opened with a harrowing creak. Evelyn stood with her back against Steve's.

"Evie! Steve! Abort! Now!" And both teens looked up to him, panic stricken. The creatures were hissing, riled by Dustin's loud voice. They turned as one ran at them, Steve went to push Evelyn out of the way but she took one powerful and unexpected step forward and swung the bat with such force she sent the beast flying back into the darkness on the other side of them. She heard Dustin cheer.

"Okay." Evelyn said with shaking hands. "Not a lizard."

One lurched from their right and this time Steve jumped out of its way, pushing Evelyn in the other direction. Evelyn heard his back slam against one of the cars around them and that's when she turned and looked for the distance between themselves and the bus. Steve wasn't going to make it but her path was clear. She thought, now or never.

"Steve!" Evelyn shouted above the screaming voices of their children. She threw him the bat and he caught it, all of the creatures seeming to follow him, knowing he was down. He smacked one of the creatures while another jumped at him. Eve placed her fingers in her mouth and curled her tongue, impulsively. A splitting whistle erupted from her lips separating the fog around them and catching all of the monster's attention. Steve used the opportunity she gave him to frantically scramble back towards the bus, but seeing the hissing creatures lurch for Evelyn, he screamed her name.

Evelyn jumped as high as she could to avoid one; she landed in the mud and rushed desperately back to her feet. A loud and blood-curdling scream burst from her when one jumped at her face and she pulled a metal sheet over her body in the last available second. She felt the rusted copper cut deep into her arm as she let it sandwich herself against the floor and beneath the beast on top of her. She was yelling, deafened by the fatal hiss and screech above her and the screams of the children and Steve somewhere behind. Her face was wet with fearful tears, she was crying and squirming. She moaned and wriggled beneath the metal as she moved her face away from the creature as it lurched for her eyes. More importantly, despite all of her inconceivable fear, she was still fighting. Evelyn kicked and thrashed, trying to push the metal sheet higher into the air. She screamed as she forced more strength to manifest from her trembling body, she managed to scramble in the space she had made for herself and without looking back, she ran as fast as her feet would take her. She watched the doorway of the bus, dreamed of it as she ran. Steve was already there, having made it back when she'd called them over to her but his face was red from screaming her name, veins prominent in his forehead from his distress. His arms were ready to catch her, grabbing at the air as if it would let him reach her and bring her closer and with nothing to loose as the creatures got so close she could feel their saliva flicking at her heels, she jumped. She threw herself to the doors. Steve's hands knotted in to her clothing the moment she was in available proximity. Tiny hands grabbed at her too and they all yanked her desperately into the bus. Evelyn kicked the doors shut with a screech; they saw the creatures face split open like a bloomed flower lined with fangs. She laughed with no humour; she was alive.

The creature then thumped against the door with more force then Eve expected and Steve's body joined hers against the shuddering metal in a blind panic. He grabbed her hand painfully tight and she was certain her nails would be piercing his skin as she threw her head against the door and groaned with the strain of trying to keep it shut.

"Oh my god!"

"Think of something!"

"They can't get in! They can't!" But then, on queue, the door exploded open and everybody screamed: the creature broke through the gap and Steve immediately hit it with his bat, over and over, until it's screeching silenced to nothing. Evelyn was panting, clutching hold of Lucas who was terrifyingly close to getting eaten.

Dustin was shouting in to his headset, calling for any sort of help, and then they heard thuds on the ceiling and they knew they were on their own. Evelyn, with a shaking hand, pointed to the open window they used as a look out from the roof.

"The hatch!" She shouted desperately. By the time they looked up, a creature was already there. Max yelled in fear and both Steve and Evelyn pushed the kids instinctively behind them and stood at the base of the ladder. Steve used the bat above them, shouting at it, coaxing it. Desperate to distract it away from the children. Then, there was a different louder and deeper growl than what they'd heard from the creatures around them. The fear that filled them was unexplainable, yet the creatures looked away from them. The monster above them then, unbelievably, jumped away from the hatch and abandoned the bus.

There was silent uncertainty as the growls and shrieks grew faint. Steve and Evelyn looked around, not believing that they could have been left alone but after a moment, as Steve edged forward to look out the window in to the clearing, Evelyn's croaky and broken voice spoke softly into the room around them.

"Is everyone alright?"