––––––––
“Shit!” Bryan bolted upright in his seat and honked the horn furiously. He watched as it closed in on them, his mind struggling to understand what he saw. It had two large claws resembling those of a lobster, each at least three feet in length, but one appeared crushed and hung limply by its side.
It stood more than twelve feet tall, towering over them as it scuttled along on four insect-like legs. Along with everything else they’d encountered, the beast had no color to it, and its pale trunk of a body was covered in some kind of exoskeleton.
Bryan watched in terror as it moved across fifteen yards of space in the blink of an eye, descending upon Travis before he could even react to the honking car. Katie swiveled on her heels just as it scooped Travis up in its remaining claw. He dropped the equipment cradled in his arms and let loose a gut wrenching scream.
Blood already poured from Travis midriff as it lifted him from the ground. He punched at the pale claw twice before he was severed at the waist. Blood splattered across Katie as Travis’ upper body fell at her feet, spasms racking his arms and hands. Katie threw the flashlight at the creature’s head and sprinted across the bridge before it could give chase.
“Get out of the car!” Bryan yanked the Taurus into gear and held his foot on the brake. “Now!”
Kyle had been trying to sit up in the backseat, unable to see what happened. “What’s going on?”
“Just get out!”
Without another word, Kyle opened the backdoor on the driver’s side and slid from the vehicle, moaning from the pain as he went. Bryan didn’t wait for the door to close before mashing the gas pedal to the floor. Katie reached the other side of the bridge before it could catch up to her.
She dived out of the way as Bryan’s decrepit car accelerated through the small clearing toward the bridge. Katie rolled into a crouch, tossing her bag to the side, and watched as the Ford zipped past her, heading straight for the gore soaked beast.
Bryan’s car smashed into it at thirty-five miles an hour. It had just cleared the bridge as well, rushing toward Katie, when the front bumper mangled its legs. It rolled onto the hood, crushing the front of the car with its incredible weight. Bryan shielded his face with his right arm as the windshield shattered in front of him.
The working claw burst through the broken glass, shredding the passenger seat as it tore furiously at the fabric. Bryan kept his foot pressed on the gas as he tried to maintain control of the car, and open his door at the same time. His visibility was gone as the creature obstructed his view. Though he couldn’t see the crevice in front of him, he knew it couldn’t be more than a few feet ahead of the car.
He tried to lunge from his seat before the Taurus went over the side, but his mangled leg gave him no leverage at all. He only made it halfway out the door when he felt the claw crush his right arm, propelling him from the vehicle as it went over the side of the chasm. The left wheels spun in the air as the car rolled sideways off the bridge and fell into the precipice.
Bryan’s arm exploded in agony, feeling like it was bent in too many places, as he rolled on the ground, sliding at the very edge of the fissure. He watched as the car smashed into the far side of the crack, crushing the lower half of the monster and shattering the headlights. The beast wailed in pain and anger as it fell with the car into the depths below.
With his feet dangling over the edge, Bryan rested his head against the cold ground and gritted his teeth at the searing agony in his arm. It hurt worse than his leg, blocking his ability to think coherently.
He could hear Katie yelling something at him in the darkness, but couldn’t understand her. With no flashlights left, he couldn’t see anything save her rough outline from the cresting daylight behind her. He felt her groping at his body, trying to pull him away from the abyss. A cry escaped him as she managed to slide him across the ground, his arm and leg dragging behind.
“That was an incredibly brave and stupid thing to do,” Katie said. “I hope you don’t mind, but I think I might have to write that into my next book.”
Bryan tried to laugh, but his body felt loose, the pain subsiding in his arm and leg. His eyelids felt weighted. “I think I’m going into shock.”
“We’ve all been in shock for hours now. Just hang tight, I need to get Kyle loaded into my car, and then we’ll pull forward and pick you up.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to go on a date with me?”
“Do you still have a penis?”
“I haven’t checked lately, but I think so.”
“Sorry, I think I’ll have to pass then. Don’t worry though - I have a feeling you aren’t going to have any trouble with the ladies after we tell our story. People are going to be hounding us for a very, very long time.”
Bryan smiled to himself in the darkness, listening to Katie try to find her car, and did his best not to think about the things he’d seen.