Taken Over (The Ravening #2)(20)
Author: Erica Stevens

“Here!” I gasped. “Here!”

I tore at the bittersweet and grape vine. They cut into my hands, tore at my skin, but clung to the fence with frustrating and frightening tenacity. Lloyd appeared at my side, his eyes narrowed as he pulled and ripped at the vines with me. “Go,” he hissed when we had cleared enough of the hole to fit through. “Go Bethany!”

I slid through the fence, tugging at my shirt as it was momentarily caught up on a piece of broken metal. I heard my shirt tear, felt the bite of metal against my back, but I didn’t care. I pushed Barney back as he eagerly tried to lick my face. “They should have named you freaking Lassie,” I muttered at him.

He licked me one more time before backing away. His tail tucked between his legs, his ass end dropped down as he began to cower. I refused to look behind me, refused to see what had him so frightened all of a sudden, what he could see approaching and I could not. It might be spineless, but I found I could not turn and face my death head on. Jenna, Bret, and Lloyd came through the fence next. “This way.”

Lloyd broke into a brisk run that we all struggled to keep up with. Though the fence had kept us out, there was no doubt that it would do the same for the things hunting us. “Wait!” I gasped suddenly skidding to a halt.

“What is it?” Jenna demanded.

“Shh,” I whispered, placing my finger against my lips as I watched Barney. He had stopped suddenly; his withers were hunched up, his head tilted to the sky. There was something out there, I could just barely make it out, but if I concentrated I could hear a low humming noise in the air. I frowned as I lifted my attention to the sky. The ships were nearly silent; I had never heard them so clearly before, not even when they had been directly overhead, but I was certain they were there now, coming toward us, searching for us. Hunting us.

“Against the trees!” I commanded. “Now! Against the trees! Against the trees!”

They looked at me in confusion for a moment but followed my lead as I flattened myself against the tree. My back pressed against the trunk, my arms wrapped around it. I silently cursed the scraggly pines that sprouted everywhere throughout Plymouth and offered little shelter. I would have cut off my own hand for a giant oak or maple right now. Even a Locust would do. But all we had were the small rough trees and the little bit of protection they offered us.

I was trying hard not to shake, trying hard not to completely freak out and go fleeing through the woods as terror pulsed through my veins with every rapid beat of my heart. Especially as the sound of snapping trees continued to ring through the air as one of those things grew steadily closer. We were trapped, cornered beneath what was hunting us from above, and what was pursuing us from below.

“What the hell do we do?” Jenna hissed.     

We all looked to Lloyd, but he seemed just as confused and uncertain as I was. What could we do? If we continued to run the ship would only track us from above. It would follow us through the woods, and none of us knew exactly what their defensive mechanisms were capable of. I thought of the bridge, of the blinding white light that had erupted from nowhere. I recalled Aiden’s description of the man, the one that had seemed to burn from the inside out. The one who’d had flames shoot from his mouth moments before becoming a crumbling pile of ash. The heat it had taken to incinerate a person so completely, in such a short time, was nothing short of amazing, and terrifying.

Though the ships had not been present at the bridge, there was no way to know if perhaps they had the capability of doing such a thing also. I shuddered, my fingernails dug deeper into the tree coming up with only rough hewn bark and sap. Not now, not like this. I did not want to go out like this. I was shaking, trembling so fiercely I was certain my legs were going to give out.

The sun slowly began to disappear. It seemed as if a solar eclipse was taking over the sun, than something straight out of a horror movie slid into view. It took over our world, encompassed everything above us as it moved slowly over. Barney cowered by my side, his head down, his ears flattened against his skull. I don’t know why he stayed with me, why he didn’t just run. He had a chance of escaping these things. He was faster than us, and they might not even want a dog. But then again I didn’t think they would discriminate against anything warm blooded, or cold for that matter.

The bright light of the afternoon had become dusk in a matter of moments. I tilted my head back; my heart ached with dismay as the ship crept over us. The sun’s rays shone around the edges of it, but the dusk of the day was absolute as long as the massive ship remained above us. Barney whimpered softly as he pressed against my wobbling legs.       

A loud thump echoed through the forest. I tore my eyes away from the ship. Trees snapped in the distance, folding over like toothpicks beneath the encroaching beasts. We had managed to elude them this long, and they appeared to have lost our trail, but it wouldn’t be for long, and especially not if that ship spotted us.

I didn’t know if the ships had spotlights but I felt as if one was shining down on us, hunting us, locating us amongst the trees. I could hear Jenna’s rapid pants; her eyes were rolling in her head. Bret remained motionless against the tree next to her. Lloyd was the only one with his weapon in front of him, held tight against his front. His hand was pressed over the glass of the scope as he watched the tree line with narrowed eyes.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and bowed my head. I needed a moment to think, to be, to draw upon the courage I felt slipping rapidly away. Just breathe, I told myself over and over again. Just breathe.

Heat bathed over me. I opened my eyes, blinking against the sudden influx of light that flared against my irises. I gasped softly; momentarily frightened that it was the same bright light that had burnt the others alive. I forced my gaze upward, a strangled cry escaping me as I realized the sun was no longer blocked out. The ship was still visible over the tops of the trees, but it had moved on to scan another area of the forest, leaving behind its monsters to scour after us.

“They’re going to try and box us in,” Lloyd said softly. “Move parallel to each other, squeezing us together, and eventually pinning us in.”

“What do we do?” Jenna breathed.

Lloyd glanced rapidly around, and then heaved a big sigh. “You’re not going to like it.”

“Just tell us,” Bret said impatiently.

“We double back.”

My mouth dropped, my head snapped toward where we had come from. “But there are even more of them back there!” I hissed.