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The body rising from the water was the largest living thing Bryan had ever seen. For a split second, amidst his panic and fear, Bryan thought it was probably the largest living thing any man had ever seen.
Its eel-like torso stretched out of the water as high as a five-story building, with untold lengths still hidden beneath the surface. The massive tentacles were attached all along its dark, slimy frame. At the apex of its body opened a mouth the size of the Danver church. Dozens of smaller appendages surrounded the opening, waving wildly through the air, scooping in water and small sea life Bryan had never seen before.
Thousands of serrated teeth lined its mouth and what little they could see of its throat. Like everything else in this world, it appeared to be eyeless.
It roared – the sound hitting him with such intensity that his eardrums felt like they might burst. Bryan held his hand to his ears and screamed, his throat burning, tears spilling over his cheeks. His mind felt loose, meandering, as if he had stepped out of his body and now watched the events unfold in third person.
When the roar subsided he could hear Katie shrieking beside him. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought she was screaming ‘Leviathan’. The sound of her fear and pain shocked him into action. He struggled to pull himself together and clamber to his feet. Pulling his eyes from the demon in the water, he grabbed Katie’s shoulders and yanked her up the beach.
Her feet didn’t move, resisting him as he tried to pull her away. She only stopped screaming long enough to take a breath before resuming. Bryan tightened his grip on her shoulders and shook her as hard as he could, shouting her name into her face.
“Bryan?” She asked. Her eyes fluttered as she peeled them from the beast and took in his face.
“Yeah,” he said, surprised at the hoarseness of his voice. “We need to go!”
He jerked her into motion and the two of them stumbled through the sand, ascending the slight slope. Kyle stood a dozen feet beyond them, still staring at the colossus pulling itself onto land.
“Kyle! Are you with me?”
“Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Kyle yelled. He grabbed one of Katie’s arms and helped pull her up the beach. The two of them dragged her along, her feet barely contributing in their escape.
The forest loomed before them, its ominous presence looking like the best thing Bryan had ever seen. Nothing could be worse than what came behind them. The ground quaked, knocking them to their knees, their grip on Katie broken. She sprawled on the earth, sliding in the sand, the flashlight jarred from her hand.
Bryan grabbed the light with his right hand and her arm with his left, hauling her to her feet. Kyle lost his cell phone in the sand and frantically searched for it, sifting with his hands as fast as he could.
“Leave it!” Bryan chanced a quick glance over his shoulder, shining the light backward. The Leviathan had crashed down; straddling the water and beach, its immense body squirming in a crater the impact had created.
One of its giant tentacles smashed into the beach by Ben. It curled in on itself, scooping up the body and shoveling it into the horrifying mouth. From his new vantage, Bryan could see further down its gullet, noticing that the rows of teeth descended further into its throat than made any kind of physiological sense.
“Fucking go!” He grabbed Kyle by his hair and jerked him to his feet.
Kyle swatted his hand away and helped drag Katie into the woods. They struggled with their footing in the darkness. Bryan tried to hold the flashlight steady as they ran, but his arm naturally pumped as he went, throwing shadows in every direction.
Trees snapped and popped behind them, the deafening destruction echoing through the woods. Bryan didn’t dare slow down, fearing the trees might topple over on them. He tried to increase his pace even more, hoping the forest would slow the sea monster enough for them to escape.
A tall, dead hardwood lay waist high in front of them, blocking their path. Bryan released Katie and scrambled over it, holding the flashlight in his arm pit as he went. It took several precious seconds to drag Katie across; her limbs still weren’t responding and her eyes were glassy and moist.
“Are we even going the right way?” Kyle asked as he vaulted the log.
Bryan couldn’t be sure. He hoped they were going in the right direction, but they could have veered off course in their panic. “Yes,” he said, not wanting to panic Kyle anymore than necessary. He could barely hear himself over the thunder of the collapsing forest.
A tree landed beside them, the top of it crashing to the ground less than twenty feet to their right. Though they were incredibly tall, having one land this close to them told Bryan that the woods weren’t slowing the Leviathan as much as he’d hoped.
Onward they ran, thorns and branches cutting their faces and arms, threatening to gouge into their eyes. Bryan felt his scabbed over facial wounds being reopened, but didn’t dare slow down. Katie’s head hung down, protecting her face from most of the damage.
The beast bellowed from behind them, sending rancid breath blowing past them like a strong breeze. It smelled of death. Kyle gagged, hunching over as he ran, but managed to keep up.
They reached the hill Bryan had tumbled down and looked up its slope in despair. In his terror the hill had slipped Bryan’s mind. Now he stood at its base and wondered how they were going to get Katie up it before one of those giant tentacles crushed them.
“Shit! How the hell are we going to drag her up this hill?” Bryan asked.
From behind them came another incredible roar, prompting Kyle to grab Katie around the waist and throw her over his shoulder. He started up the hill like a fireman carrying someone from a burning building. Bryan watched him for a second, amazed at the strength of his friend.
After a few seconds of climbing, Bryan passed them, but slowed so he could keep the flashlight in front of them both. His quads burned as he pushed up the hill, cursing himself for getting so out of shape. Kyle huffed behind him, but managed to keep up.
More rocks covered the hill the higher they climbed, their footing becoming more treacherous, and their ankles close to rolling with every step. Bryan heard stones tumbling down the slope behind him a moment before Kyle cried out.
Spinning around, Bryan saw Kyle leaning back too far, threatening to topple over backward along with Katie. His free arm pinwheeled as he tried to regain his balance, but he failed, and leaned at an even steeper angle as he looked for something to grab onto.
Bryan’s arm shot out, grabbing Katie’s ankle and pulling as hard as he could, falling to the ground and trying to flatten his body against it. Kyle tightened his grip on Katie’s waist, holding the two of them in place for a moment before he was able to step back onto a rock, gaining some stability.
“Jesus Christ!” Kyle said. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. His eyes blinked rapidly, trying to clear themselves.
Without responding, Bryan let go of Katie’s leg, rolled over, and clambered the rest of the way up the hill. He could feel his knees wobbling as he stood at the top, waiting for Kyle to finish the last few steps. The church wasn’t too far away; if his memory was accurate, but he couldn’t be certain that his legs would hold out long enough to make it.
Kyle crested the hill, his face beet red from exertion. With what looked like a significant effort to Bryan, he lowered Katie, setting her on her feet between the two of them. He dropped to a knee, panting and rotating the shoulder he’d carried her on.
The ground shook again, the forest booming from the impact of dozens of enormous tentacles. Bryan threw his arm around Katie’s waist and dragged her along, ignoring his shaking knees. Kyle staggered along behind them, trying to keep up.
The flashlight in Bryan’s right hand shook as he tried to keep it trained in front of them. The beam fell across a wet, dark stain on the ground. A severed hand sat in the middle of the soupy puddle. Bryan kept going, dragging Katie’s feet through the blood, forever staining her shoes.
Charles Danver had emerged from the woods forty years ago with the same injury. The man once famous for the supposed murder of his cohorts had suffered the same turn of events that they now dealt with.
Bryan remembered the creature he’d seen moving behind the trees earlier, its grotesque claw snapping shut as it fled the light. The woods were silent, but he swept his eyes back and forth nonetheless, hoping that whatever had killed Travis or Joey wasn’t watching them right now.
The trees were thinner and more spaced out as they went, allowing them to continue staggering along. A scream pierced the darkness from ahead, high pitched and pain ridden.
“Shit.” Bryan stopped, looking over at Kyle, unsure if they should continue, or veer off in a different direction.
“That sounded like Joey,” Kyle said. His breathing hadn’t slowed much since they’d topped the hill. He bent down and searched the ground, finally picking up a handful of marble sized stones.
“What are you going to do with those, annoy it?”
“I thought I could throw them into the woods if we see something – try and direct it in the wrong direction,” Kyle said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Should we keep going?” Bryan asked.
“Katie said that the church, or the land around it, or whatever, was the gate. Even if that worm thing is still in there, I don’t see what choice we have.”
Bryan knew he was right, but he was also aware that going in the church with one of those things in there would be suicide. The destruction of the forest behind them had fallen a little farther back as they walked, but was still too close for comfort. If he had to choose between the giant sea monster, and a large centipede, he chose the insect.
“What if we get to the church and it’s empty, but we don’t cross over before that... thing, catches up to us?” Kyle nodded his head back the way they had come, as if Bryan didn’t remember what chased them.
Bryan took a deep breath. “Then we’re fucked. We’re too tired to keep running and what would we do anyway? We clearly aren’t in Kansas anymore. Either we somehow go back through the doorway, or gate, or we die.”
They stood in silence, staring at the ground and contemplating their likely fate. Bryan shined his light in Katie’s face, hoping to see some kind of recognition in her eyes - nothing.
Kyle looked at him and grinned. “See you on the other side, Ray,” he said, before setting off in the direction of the scream.
Bryan laughed in spite of himself and went after him, pulling Katie along as best he could, every step a struggle. He thought about asking Kyle to help, but the way his friend staggered drunkenly told him that he was more fatigued than he let on.
They could see the church a few minutes later, a faint glow appearing from the front door. It had been pushed open, leaning again on its broken hinge. A low whimpering came from inside, followed by someone trying to quiet them. Kyle held his finger to his lips, warning Bryan to stay silent as they approached the church.
Bryan gave him a quick nod and did his best to lift Katie a little higher, trying to keep her feet from dragging too heavily on the ground. They were less than ten feet away when Kyle used his hands to tell Bryan to turn off the flashlight.
Moving to the right side of the door, Bryan leaned Katie against the stone wall of the church. Kyle stepped to the threshold of the door and peered inside, squinting in the darkness. He stood that way for several seconds, slowly moving his head from left to right. With his left hand he motioned for Bryan to follow him inside.
Bryan quickly stretched his sore back before grabbing Katie by the arm and trying to lead her into the church. She responded to his movement, but with slow, jilted steps. He tried to keep her in his peripheral vision as he stepped through the door, hoping she wouldn’t fall over and hit her head.
Joey and Travis sat against the far left wall, their dim flashlights resting on the floor in front of them. Joey held his left arm tight to his chest, his right overlapping it as he whimpered quietly. His pale, drawn face appeared to have aged ten years since they’d last seen him. Blood covered most of his clothing.
Travis sat beside him, holding his head in his hands, rocking back and forth in evident panic. When he heard them step into the church he jumped to his feet, crouching low in a runner’s stance. His face lit up like a Christmas tree when he recognized them and he ran over, breaking into sobs as he went.
“Thank God it’s you! We thought you were de—”
Kyle clamped his hand over Travis’ mouth, silencing him. “Quiet.” He kept his voice low and soft, but his eyes blazed with anger.
Travis nodded his head, his lips working under Kyle’s palm as he tried to speak. Kyle slowly moved his hand away before walking past him to where Joey sat.
“It came out of nowhere when we were running back,” Travis told Bryan, oblivious to the catatonic woman beside him. “We were so tired when we got to the top of the hill... we didn’t hear it coming until it was on top of us! It was so... terrible. Oh my god!” His sobs came fast and hard, racking his entire body as he relived the attack.
“Travis, I need you to calm down,” Bryan whispered. “We don’t need it coming back because it heard you.”
“It had these big pinchers, and it took Joey’s hand off like it was nothing! We were dead men, sure as shit. Then something roared, it wasn’t close, but it still shook the trees, and the crab monster ran away!”
Bryan didn’t say anything back, afraid of antagonizing him even further. He walked Katie over to the wall, ten feet from where Joey and Kyle were, and tried to get her to sit down. She seemed content to lean against it, so Bryan left her there.
“What happened to her?” Travis asked, his voice a little steadier.
Bryan closed his eyes, picturing the abomination that rose from the sea. “We saw something that she couldn’t handle.” He didn’t want to go into any more detail.
“Oh. Is that what we can hear now? It sounds like the forest is falling down all at once.” Travis had a queer expression on his face, like his mind had checked out, but his mouth still moved on instinct.
“Yeah. Why don’t you take a seat over by the wall with Katie and relax. Kyle and I are going to check on Joey.”
“OK,” Travis said. He walked over by Katie and started talking to her in hushed tones. She didn’t react, but stared off into the distance, passive. He hoped that whatever happened to her would wear off soon.
Travis’ compliance confirmed to Bryan that he had lost his mind. Since he’d stepped out of the car he’d been nothing but antagonistic and cocksure. Now he stood by a wall and played with a catatonic woman’s hair, petting it like a child would a dog. Bryan watched the two of them for a few seconds, wondering what could possibly happen next, before he walked over to where Kyle knelt beside Joey.
“I can’t help if you won’t let me see it,” Kyle said, trying his best to soothe the wounded man.
Joey sat against the wall and shook his head like a stubborn child. He rocked back and forth slowly, his eyes fixated on Kyle’s chest as tears rolled down his cheeks in streams. Most of his shirt had turned maroon, and a small pool of blood formed under a stream that ran down the side of his thigh.
Kyle looked up as Bryan approached. “He’s in shock. Judging by the trail of blood we followed here, and what’s all over him, he’s probably close to losing consciousness.”
Though Bryan was concerned with the amount of blood that Joey had lost, he needed to figure out what happened to the large wormlike creature that had been locked in the church earlier.
“Joey,” Bryan said. “I need you to focus for a second. When you came back to the church, did you see the thing that chased us out of here?”
Still shaking his head, Joey looked up at Bryan with pain filled, red eyes, but didn’t reply. Travis meandered over, nonchalantly looking around the room, as if there were no pressing matters at hand.
“The church was empty when we got here,” he said. “Except for our equipment, the pews, the books—”
Another roar cut him off, closer this time, louder. Everyone looked toward the door, wondering how long they had before the monster from the water was atop them. The gate didn’t seem open and Bryan couldn’t see any sign that it would be anytime soon.
The centipede creature crashed through the window above Joey, showering them with glass.