Blind and Hungry

This was supposed to be my summer vacation. 

I was on leave god damnit! 

It was a small little island in the Carribean. Never heard of the country before, but the brochures were pretty enticing so I took a chance and went. Now there I was: hiding in a cave along the shore with a cracked rib.

I could hear the sound of my pursuer’s massive body pounding down the beach outside - It sounded like thunder. He was looking for me, and I knew when he found me, that was the end. It was one thing after the other. 

Guess I should start this story properly: From the beginning. 

I guess introductions are in order.

Name’s Rene. I'm twenty-nine and I have been in the Airforce for nearly ten years. Yeah: If there are any Army, Marines, or Navy reading this go ahead get your stupid jokes out of the way.

Got it out of your system?

Good?

Great!

Anyway, I'm not Pararescue, I'm not Security Forces, I'm not a fighter pilot. I'm a Civil Engineer. 

So yeah, a dirt boy. 

We're the guys everyone hates because we can't fix every single broken facility on base, or even close to it. But when we do get a project done we turn out a quality product and people enjoy the results. I love it and wouldn't want to do anything else. 

Anyway, as with anybody in any career field, I needed a break. I had just come back from a deployment and had money and leave to burn. I'm not married, nor do I have a girlfriend. Hindsight - I really should have gotten someone to go with me, but I really just wanted to be on my own with no one bothering me for a little while.

So I bought a vacation package for a place in the Carribean I'd never heard of. I looked it up and found the island I was going to was one of those places where they just started promoting tourism. Yeah, Red flag. 

Again: hindsight.  

Had to take a float plane there and the first few days were actually pretty great: good swimming, food was good and there were a ton of girls there. There were three major hotels and the resort I was in had the nicest girls, if you catch my drift. 

That first night there, the place threw this party that was pretty fun. Downed some margaritas and tried salsa dancing. 

I'm a horrible dancer by the way so I really sucked at it, but the woman that showed me the steps was super pretty. I just let her move my body and tried not to step on her toes.

I really don't remember too much else, it was all a blur of good times and U.S. currency went a long way there. But that was my first night there and my first time meeting her.

The next morning I woke up with a massive headache, a terrible stomach ache, and a massive need to puke. 

Ugh, right... better skip past the usual boring tourist party stories.

Day four: things took a turn for the worst. I was putting on my sandals for a walk in the morning when I flicked on the old tube tv in my room. Apparently the president of this island nation pissed someone off: a coup attempt. I heard the familiar sound of AK's going off while I was hanging by the pool. Skip to that evening: News said the coup was unsuccessful but the President had to go into hiding as the rebels laid siege to the capitol. Everyone at the hotel had to stay inside as the rebels and the president's forces exchanged gunfire.

Yeah, that was a fun night. Especially when the RPG round came screaming through the windows and crashed through the wall on the opposite side of the lobby. It wasn't a direct hit: it missed everyone, but still made a massive mess of the bar. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was - and I figured this out later - someone somewhere figured out I was part of the U.S. military. Two militants came to the now-ruined hotel asking about the ‘Yank’. 

I didn't know what they had in mind but I didn't want to find out. It was either kidnapping, or a recruitment offer, and both of those options seemed bad. So, I snuck out the back way.

I'm not too proud to admit I hid in the forest like a coward. I wasn't there as a military representative or anything, I was just a tourist trying to enjoy my time on leave and yet here they were: trying to involve me in their squabble. Sure - if Uncle Sam tells me I fight I'll do it, but this was a local squabble on a speck of sand that no one knew about. Probably wouldn’t even get a minute of news coverage on CNN.

So, there I was sneaking through the jungle in my khaki shorts, Hawaiian shirt, and boat shoes. With only a driftwood club for protection.

That was my first encounter with those... things. One of ‘em came out of nowhere: The tree line broke open and the creature came barreling toward me. It had an oblong body and four huge flipper-like legs. It reminded me of an armored alligator, but on land.

I’m no biologist, but it was pretty clearly an animal. The thing that really set me on edge was the fact that I couldn't find anything that remotely looked like an eye anywhere on the creature's head: just a pair of huge, gaping maws. It was like some sort of messed up walrus-gator thing that somehow didn't need any sort of sensory organs at all.

It was like a scene from a ‘B’ monster movie I saw once where there were these... blind worm things that had a penchant for eating people. It was like that but so much worse. 

I ran for it. 

It was the first time I really felt the fear of death.

It chased me for I don't know how long. I barely outran it at times, (thank you mandatory PT) and every single time I looked back, the creature would be gaining on me. I eventually made it out onto a beach where the thing's footsteps in the sand finally outpaced me and it was able to tackle me from behind.

I went flying head-first into the sand with it's weight on top of me. I struggled and bashed it with my club repeatedly. I was worried my improvised weapon would break, but luckily it didn't. I guess it must have been some sort of hardwood because it never gave out even when it collided with the armor that covered the monster's face. Somehow, I must have hit something sensitive as the creature grunted and got off of me just enough for me to stand and start moving again. I felt a stabbing pain in my ribs - something was cracked for sure and I wasn't moving too well, but I had one hell of a motivation. 

I looked around, jungle to the left, ocean to the right - either one felt like a death sentence. But up ahead I could see rocky sea cliffs. 

Those might be my best bet, I thought. I could find shelter or try to climb with a busted rib. My breath was coming in ragged gasps and sweat stung my eyes as I ran through the pain. 

I could see more of the ugly shapes closing in around me. 

As I drew closer to the rocks I spotted a seacave. No way was I going to make it up the cliff - this was my only option. My boat shoes kicked up water as I entered the dimly lit cavern, the crunch of seashells echoing against the walls. 

A growl.

I froze as it had entered the cave. I figured there was nowhere for me to run. I tried to crouch behind a boulder, but my breathing was loud enough that I might as well be calling out for help. I could hear one of the creatures pulling itself along the cave making a low rumble sound. Was that how they hunted? Some sort of echolocation? That would make sense, porpoises hunted that way too. Well I wasn't a fish. My eyes had adjusted by then, and I looked up and saw something that made my jaw drop. 

It looked like a staircase  leading up: Narrow - very narrow. Made of stone. Perhaps I could make it up there? Very narrow... but If I could get up there it would have difficulty following me, but I didn't want to make noise by moving and drawing attention to myself.

The creature came closer - the maw of its eyeless face drooling as it tried to find me - the sound of something wet dragging across the damp rocky cave floor.

I took a chance as I threw my faithful driftwood club against a far wall, hoping to draw its attention. It did, and as soon as the creature went after my distraction. I ran to the staircase as fast as I could.

I had to crawl up on all fours because the steps were so narrow, cracked, and broken. This wasn't natural: this was manmade and very old. I had no idea who could have carved a set of steps into the rocky outcrop in some random cave but I thanked god that it existed.

As I made my way up the first step, the creature made its way to the foot of the staircase. My only warning that I was found was a high-pitched screech from the monster. It looked up and let out another call that made the hair on my neck stand up and I nearly fell off the step in shock.

Its call was loud and high pitched - almost ultrasonic.

I screamed in pain and forced myself up the steps until they ended at a circular wall, much like being in a well. I pulled myself up and over and groaned. 

I could hear the creature below struggling to get up there with me. 

"Damn." I muttered. My gaze took in the room. Strange writings carved into the walls in a language I had never seen. Broken statues of long dead people, the writing on those looked vaguely similar to Arabic in terms of shape, but as I stared at them, I felt the tug of vertigo. Something was really off with that writing.

The statues were equally unsettling. They depicted a group of men holding strange spears, all of whom had some form of crowns or headdresses seemingly made from the carapace of the monster that was struggling and growling below me. I had more questions than answers but I didn't have the luxury of studying the ruins. 

My eyes settled on something far more familiar: all around this ancient temple lay modern weapons. The rebels must have been using this place as a staging area. The weapons were mostly rusting Soviet junk, but I knew they'd still function. I grabbed a hand grenade, a Kalashnikov, a pair of binoculars, some magazines and some loose ammunition.

I found a holstered TT-33 in fairly good shape. I strapped the pistol to my hip and slung the rifle across my shoulder.

Would this be enough?

My eyes lit up as I saw something else. 

An RPG propped against a statue. 

“Oh yeah." 

The monster called again. It was up the staircase, and the sound sent shockwaves through the small space causing dust to rain from the ceiling. I looked around and found a tunnel which I hope led out, I ran halfway down before I took a kneeling position and with my ribs complaining to me hefted the RPG up and aimed down the sites. I figured the safety out and then I waited for my monster friend to appear.

The dual heads broke from the well and it made the warbling sound I'd come to despise, that sound would haunt my nightmares for weeks.

I didn't hesitate to press the trigger.

I think I was more surprised that I hit it then it was. The monster had been about to pull itself over the well when I fired and my round exploded right between the two heads. There was an explosion of orange goop and then the creature's two heads just disappeared as it went down the well in a flail of limbs and crashing sound as it fell down the ancient staircase. I stood up, not wasting any more time as I made my way out of the temple and back into the humid forest air.

My ears were still ringing but the only thing I could think about was that there were probably more of those things out there, along with some militants. 

Maybe they’ll kill each other instead of me... 

Everything on this island wanted to kill me and I aimed my gun and looked down the sites for any potential enemies. Anything that tried to screw with me was going to get hosed down with 7.62X39. 

I hope it’ll be enough.

As I stumbled out into the sunlight, I found myself face to face with more of those things. My breath caught in my throat. At first I thought I was going to die, there were easily a dozen of them. The ground rumbled as they surrounded me, there were three on each side, with five or six behind me and a dozen ahead. I wasn't sure what to do.

Then something surprising happened. They moved out of my way. They didn't seem aggressive either, if they were they could have easily torn me apart. I wasn't going to complain, as I was happy to leave them alone as well. I limped through them. They just made their weird clicking noises and left me alone.

The little group ahead of me parted as I made my way back to the coastline. They didn't seem interested in hunting or killing me anymore, and were seemingly giving me safe passage.

Why, though? Were they just... not hungry? 

Or was it something else?

As I limped out onto the beach, I decided there and then that I needed a vacation from my vacation.