Neena and Kai kept a quick pace, stumbling every so often in the heavy wind and sand, pushing through the soreness and the powerful gusts that fought their every step. Neena's body was scraped from her fall. Her legs felt as if they might collapse.
She wished she had her spear.
Even the long, pointed weapon would be useless against a creature as large as the one they'd seen. She pulled her knife from the sheath at her side, realizing how useless it was. It might as well be a grain of sand to the beast. And Kai had nothing but the clothes on his back.
It felt as if they were insects, waiting for a giant boot to squash them.
Neena reached up, smearing some of the dried sand and blood away from her goggles. A coppery odor filled her nose, but she had no time to clean herself or her gear off properly.
They kept running, skirting between desert dunes for longer than she could keep track of, heading in a direction only the heavens knew. Every so often, Neena heard a rumble in the distance, but never as close or as loud. More than once, she looked down at her feet, as if the ground might disappear beneath her, or a gigantic set of sharp, bloodied teeth might emerge and engulf her.
Eventually, after they had run for a long while, the rumbling ceased again, and a large, reddish-brown silhouette appeared through the wind and dust. Four connected, maroon rocks reached into the sky. The segments of stone varied in length, like the enormous, thick palm of a hand and several fingers. Neena recognized the formation.
Her hope renewed.
She passed by the reddish rocks on every hunting trip. Although most of the formation was solid, she knew of a downward outcrop of rock that hid a small cave just big enough to crawl into. She had a memory of going inside the small den with her father on one of her earliest hunting trips.
"This way!" she urged, tugging Kai.
Getting close, Neena weaved around some unattached rocks that surrounded the formation's base. She traveled in a circle until she found the opening. Beckoning, she showed Kai. Together, they huddled down and scooted through the formation's narrow entrance. The cave was small and smelled of animal droppings, but it was a few degrees cooler than the heat of the desert.
And it was out of the storm, and away from the creature.
Neena scurried over loose gravel and rough stone. The ceiling was just high enough that they could walk with their backs bent. Several, smaller holes on the walls spoke of hiding places for desert animals, but Neena saw nothing else in the dim lighting. They stopped and turned. With the walls around them, the keen of the wind fell slightly quieter, but it was still abrasive, battering against the outside of the solid formation.
Sand blasted by the opening. Sticks and pebbles carpeted the cave's first few feet. Neena clutched her knife, her panicked breaths burning her throat.
"Is it gone?" she asked Kai, listening for more rumbles over the wind.
Kai knelt. Cocking his head, he said, "I haven't heard it in a while, but it could be deeper underground. The rumbling is only audible when it gets to the sand's top layers."
"How did it find us?" Neena kept her voice low as she stared through the entrance.
Kai pointed at his boots. "Vibrations," he said. "It followed us."
Neena thought of how the sand rats hid from the storm. They sensed something, even before it was coming. Perhaps this was something similar, though she had trouble fathoming it.
"Can it hear us talk?" she whispered.
"We should be safe if we keep our voices to a whisper, but we shouldn't risk more than that," he said.
Neena nodded. Kai didn't need to tell her twice. Dozens of questions swam into her head. "Where did this thing come from?"
"It lives in the deserts near my colony," Kai said.
"New Canaan?" Neena remembered, still having trouble processing the existence of another colony, let alone the beast. "How far away is that?"
"I don't know anymore," Kai said. "Several days, probably even longer. I lost direction in the sandstorm. The Abomination has followed me, never close, but never far. I haven't been able to lose it."
"All this way, and it is still tracking you?" Neena asked.
"It has taken a keen interest in me. I wish I could lose the thing." Kai shook his head.
"I've never seen anything like it. And my people haven't, either. At least, I don't think they have." Neena's confusion was written on her face. "I don't understand how something like that could be here."
"Your people are fortunate. Or perhaps they live far enough away that they never had to worry." Kai's expression went grave. Looking out the cave's opening, where the wind whipped past, Kai said, "We should be safer in here, because the rock that makes up this cave is more solid than the sand. I can't promise our safety, but we are better off here than in the desert."
The pungent odor on her goggles filled Neena's nose. Reaching up, she carefully lifted them off and inspected them. A thick, clear goop was mixed with the Rydeer's blood. Neena had skinned and dressed plenty of animals, but she'd never smelled something so foul.
"What is this?" she whispered, smearing it off on the floor.
Kai looked over, catching sight of the vile substance. "The creature's bile," he whispered gravely. "It helps it swallow its meals."
A panicked fear struck Neena as she reached up, finding some of the substance on her face.
Noticing her expression, Kai said, "You don't have to worry. It's disgusting, but it won't cause you pain."
Kai silently removed his goggles, dusting the sand off. Without the protective mask, or the whipping debris, she got a better look at him. His eyes were blue and intense; his nose was sharp. The strange, curved markings started at his hairline, extending down toward his temples. He was about five years older than her. If she were one of the girls down by the river, she might have called him handsome, if she had time for such thoughts.
Was he one of the strange visitors her people had seen, in that visit years ago?
Too many questions.
The strange word Kai had told her rang in her head. The Abomination.
The name was almost as terrifying as the beast she'd seen.
"Earlier, you said that the storm confused the creature," Neena remembered.
Kai nodded.
"But it found the Rydeer," she recalled.
"The Rydeer panicked," Kai said, brushing some of the sand from his face. "It made too much noise. Its bleating and its frantic hooves brought on its death. Or maybe the Abomination got lucky."
Kai tried using his shirt to clean some of the debris near his eyes. He cursed and blinked.
"Take my water," she said, handing over one of her flasks. "But use it sparingly."
"Thanks," he whispered. He tilted his head back, washing some of the sand from his eyes, but careful not to spill too much. "If you hadn't found me, I probably wouldn't be alive."
"Do you have any supplies?" she asked, looking him up and down as if she might've missed something.
"I lost them days ago," Kai said, shaking his head. "I haven't had time to do much more than run. I barely managed to eat and drink. I dug water from tree roots. I ate whatever plants I could find, while I avoided that thing." A gruesome expression took over his face. "A few times, I scared some birds away from a carcass and ate the leftovers. Sometimes the food made me sick, but I did what I had to."
Neena grimaced, but they both knew eating was better than dying.
"Before you found me, I had a sharp stick." Kai patted his pants in confusion, as if the weapon might appear. "I must've lost it when I fell."
Neena nodded. It was probably buried in the desert, where she'd found him. Of course, there was no going back for it now.
Holding up the flask, he asked, "Do you mind if I drink some?"
"Go ahead."
"We should stay hydrated, " Kai told her. "We might need to run."
Neena removed her other flask, and they both drank while the wind shrieked outside. The storm seemed to have intensified. Clouds of dust and sand drifted into the cave, like some translucent monster, swirling around the cave with wispy arms. They put their goggles back on. More questions rattled around Neena's mind.
Before she could voice them, a flash of light illuminated the cave.
The walls around them brightened, revealing a multitude cracks and crevices. Neena looked on either side of them, as if she might find another threat, skulking nearby. Or maybe the lightning attracted the Abomination. She didn't know enough about the monster to be certain of anything.
She recalled her time on the dune, hunkering down and watching for lightning. If only she knew how prescient that thought would be.
But lightning seemed like the lesser worry.
Another grumble sounded from further away.
"Was that it?" she hissed over at Kai, wondering whether she heard something worse than a side effect of the storm.
Kai looked frightened. "I'm not sure, but we should stop talking, in case."
He handed back her flask. Together, they grew silent and listened, and Neena held on to her many questions.