The nighttime stars were slowly blinking into existence, casting a eerie pale light on the remains of the old crumbling world as the lone wanderer walked across the remains of the highway, his leather satchel bouncing with step and slapping against his leg as he began to pick up his pace when he heard scratching noises begin to rise from the depths and ascend against the concrete support beams.
"W-who's there?" He asked while drawing his .44 magnum and reached into his bag with his free hand to yank out his flashlight that cast a dull flickering light to the barriers of the road.
The scratching noises stopped as he began to walk over to the barriers where the noises were coming from, he shined the light on the barrier before taking a quick look over the edge, not seeing anything in the mist he aimed his flashlight down into the mist and he wished he hadn't.
The creature looked back up at him eagerly and with hungry eyes as it's lower jaw fell off and its elongated arms reached up quickly and tried to grab the stranger by the throat, but missed and caught hold of his hand that was holding the flashlight and began to pull him till his body was pressing against the barriers as he tried to aim his .44 and let loose a few blind shots and heard the creature let loose a piercing screech that made his ears bleed, and released it's grip on the wanderer before falling to the depths below.
"Never going to get used to travelling like this any-" That was all he managed to say when he heard the sound of dozens scratching up the concrete support beams.
"Fuck me." He said before he began to sprint madly across the bridge, trying to evade them, and hopefully get away from them, and began to pant as his breath began to come in short, sharp gasps as he heard the scratching noises begin to drag on the road, moving slightly faster than him and gaining on him since he was beginning to tire quickly from the humidity in the air.
He came to a near skidding stop when he realized that there was a eight foot gap across to the other side of the bridge.
"I don't want to die just yet." He said and backed up about twenty feet and heard the scratching right behind him, having no need for further encouragement, he took off at his fastest spring and leaped into the air with his arms outstretched in front of him, his upper body landed on the jagged concrete, cutting roughly into his stomach as he threw his .44 and flashlight so he could quickly begin to climb up.
He stood up quickly and picked up his flashlight, not worried about needing his gun just yet and turned around and shined his light across the bridge to see the creatures pacing the edge of the gap, tapping the concrete.
"Not today bitches!" He yelled at them, doing a jerk off motion at them and laughed before he stopped and picked up a chunk of concrete and threw it at one of the creatures, hitting it in the eye and sending the out of its skull.
The creature howled with pain and shot out its tongue, flailing it around wildly as if searching for food before it stopped and looked over at the wanderer and a smile seemed to form across its bony and pale lips as it removed the arm from one of the creatures next to it and tossed it across, the others smelling the bloody arm began to jump across and climb up the ledge.
"Fuck, fuck , fuck!" He yelled while looking around for his .44, throwing some of the rubble around before he found it near a broken barrier, and quickly picked it up and began to run again, struggling to keep ahead of them, he was beginning to slow down to a brisk jog when he saw a van and quickly used the last of his energy to sprint over to it and tugged the back door open and jumped in and slammed it closed behind him, and reloaded his .44 before he put his light out and waited quietly.
He waited a few hours before he decided that it was safe enough to sleep and layed down on his side with his gun tucked snugly into his holster before he began to doze off, and found some comfort in his sleep, haunted by nightmares of those things chasing him endlessly.
Author's Note
I am switching over to the 'I' for the main character instead of addressing him as 'He, or The wanderer.'
Chapter 2
I from I hellish sleep when I felt the soothing suns rays blind me momentarily as I thrashed around while drawing my .44 and stopped when I realized that it was just his nightmare that I had and stepped outside the van quickly, curios to see what the creatures looked like that I had shot at last night, and walked back to the edge of the highway and saw the body of the one who's arm was ripped off, the skin on it was a light pink with a few patches of fur and it's tongue was easily the same length of it's body, covered in small little hooks that was dripping greenish ooze, and the remains of it's head was smashed in, and that's all I could stomach before I quickly turned around and continued on his journey.
The sun was just beginning to set when I arrived at a small town that had some armed patrols walking around the outskirts, and began to head my way, I continued walking as I didn't want to stop and answer any of their questions and began to jog at a normal pace so I would like I was in a rush.
"Sir, stop or we will shoot!" Another patrol said as they joined up with the other patrol, and forced me to stop as I became surrounded by armed men and women, at least several of them.
"What now? I ain't even done anything." I said while resting his good hand on his .44 and looked around at them.
"Did you come from that bridge?" One asked while pressing the muzzle of his gun against my neck.
"Yeah, now let me go before things have to turn nasty." I said in a threatening tone as I took his .44 out and kept it aimed at the ground.
"Hey,hey,hey we don't want no trouble around these parts, just the first time anyone lived crossing that thing." One said while nodding to the one behind me who took the muzzle off the back of my neck and shouldered his rifle and backed up.
"You sure you don't want any trouble? Cause I think I might be itching for some." I said while lunging and grabbing him before I turned around with the muzzle of the .44 pressed against his temple.
"Y-you don't have to do this sir!" The one in my grip said while stiffening up when he felt the muzzle.
"Now you people are going to tell me just why the fuck you actually stopped me, and why you all are just so damn curios about why I came from that old highway." I said while backing up till he was outside the group.
"It's just a standard security check." One said while the one with the rifle slung his rifle off and had it in his hands and aimed it at the guy I was holding.
"Since when did a standard security check require the security teams to be in their best riot gear and have heavy duty weapons?" I asked while addressing the rifleman's faded black 50-cal rifle and then nodding at his Kevlar vest that matched the others.
"Never mind, let our pal go and you can continue on your way stranger." The rifleman said as the others walked past me and back to the town.
"Alright, but I am watching you." I said while shoving his friend into him, and watched as he caught him as I turned and began to walk to the town.
"This isn't over, so you better watch where your sleeping tonight stranger." the rifleman whispered into my ear as he bumped into me before jogging back to his patrol group, and left me there wondering if this town was to be trusted.
"Don't mind Jason, He's been hot-headed since his kid died after his wife left him for another man." The one that I had taken hostage said while stopping next to me to admire the sunset.
"Still gives him no right to put feelings over duty and responsibility." I said while turning to look at the security officer next to me and saw a pale pink scar that ran from his jaw to his temple on the left side of his face.
"Tell you what Mister, lets go to the bar and the first round is on me, sound fair to make up for this.....little accident?" He said while looking over at me.
"Sure, bourbon would be nice right about now." I said while holstering my .44.
"Well your in luck then, our bartender makes the best bourbon you can get for miles around here." He said while giving off a friendly laugh before patting my back as we made our way to the old wooden bar that was a simple two story wooden house that stank of rancid piss and rotten meat as the first floor had been rearranged to look like a old style saloon and the townsfolk there were getting rowdy as the people were consuming their beverages, and alcohol, and getting loud while some were even drawing their weapons, but stopped when they saw the security guy and me walk in, and take a booth in the corner next to a window.
