around it, balancing like a trained
bear but resembling something part human.
Clio sobbed and trembled as she saw it looking at her,
towering. “Leave me alone… I hate you!” she shouted, aiming her weapon in
crying anger.
The beast dropped back down on all fours, coiled, and
launched, hurdling the open ground toward her.
She fired. “Zzzzzzwhhhap!” Piercing its shoulder, the
monster was knocked it in a diagonal summersault.
The creature stopped and regained its balance. Reset, it
lurched and ran harder than before. Wounded and bleeding, it came at her
enraged, driven by pain and the smell of girl-flesh.
“Ahhhhh!” she screamed over her firing pistol.
“Zzzzzzwhhhap,” the pistol sang, nailing the creature in the head, dropping it
dead, and sending it sliding at her feet.
With her chest rising and falling, she sucked in oxygen and
noticed the trees around her. Is it dead? Afraid to run, Clio continued aiming her pistol. She looked out and saw the
forest in sharp vision.
The smell of wood and leaves and luscious palm root were
distinct. Clio breathed deeply, detecting all of nature, as if it were under
her nose. Slowly, she rose to her feet. The sap was sticky and sweet as it
rolled down a pine in smooth amber streams, tasting it on her tongue. Clio
broke fear’s grip and pushed off an oak tree, feeling the coarse bark and
noticing the sun’s minute ascension. Blazing a path, she raced toward the
horizon.
Are they after me? Clio suddenly halted, turning in every direction and holding her weapon like an
African warrior child. She looked through the trees for signs of danger.
Nothing was after her. This way’s as good
as any, she thought, turning and running with one destination in mind . Forward! Clio cursed the dry leaves crackling under her feet; they rang like dinner
bells through the crisp air.
She was a young girl and her body was at the ledge of
falling off - falling into womanhood. Over the last few months she was
experiencing new feelings - she was changing out of a young girl. Emotions came
knocking… They called with curious desires from inside her body. Clio acted the
way most girls act through puberty; she kept things secret. Maybe there’s something wrong with me , a
thought she had days ago seemed to pale in comparison to what she now felt.
Over the course of the last three days, Clio didn’t recognize herself.
Unfairly, the free-fall of puberty was now being experienced along with her
fight for survival.
Clio felt like an alien creature walking on a distant
planet. Her mind raced, flooded with new emotions. The thought of her mother
being dead wasn’t something she could handle. Her defenses would not allow such
a wretched thought to permeate her mind. She wouldn’t allow the idea to come
close to her, not even the distance of the heat that permeated off her skin.
My mother is out there was the only admittance that was permitted through her mind – that, too, barely
existing as a real thought. Tired from running, now, all she knew was to walk.
The girl covered the length of almost five miles…
Thirsty, she realized it was break time, one she’d earned.
Clio tilted her shoulder down, letting the strap of her rucksack fall before
grabbing it and slinging it off. She pulled
out a water bottle and drank, kneeling and keeping her eyes open - never
tilting her head too far back, losingsight. That’s it; tilt the bottle up, not your head .
She paused, noticing the ground was different below her.
Man-made and covered with fallen limbs and dead foliage,
Clio was standing on the edge of a road. Cracked and lopsided as a blind man’s
porch, it had more than a few sizable trees growing out of its faded asphalt.
Saplings broke through the road’s shell like hatchlings. It hadn’t seen a
working vehicle in years, one of which she saw abandoned with its back bumper
still on the road, the car’s grill nosed off down the shoulder. The highway was a shabby mess, but still, it
bear but resembling something part human.
Clio sobbed and trembled as she saw it looking at her,
towering. “Leave me alone… I hate you!” she shouted, aiming her weapon in
crying anger.
The beast dropped back down on all fours, coiled, and
launched, hurdling the open ground toward her.
She fired. “Zzzzzzwhhhap!” Piercing its shoulder, the
monster was knocked it in a diagonal summersault.
The creature stopped and regained its balance. Reset, it
lurched and ran harder than before. Wounded and bleeding, it came at her
enraged, driven by pain and the smell of girl-flesh.
“Ahhhhh!” she screamed over her firing pistol.
“Zzzzzzwhhhap,” the pistol sang, nailing the creature in the head, dropping it
dead, and sending it sliding at her feet.
With her chest rising and falling, she sucked in oxygen and
noticed the trees around her. Is it dead? Afraid to run, Clio continued aiming her pistol. She looked out and saw the
forest in sharp vision.
The smell of wood and leaves and luscious palm root were
distinct. Clio breathed deeply, detecting all of nature, as if it were under
her nose. Slowly, she rose to her feet. The sap was sticky and sweet as it
rolled down a pine in smooth amber streams, tasting it on her tongue. Clio
broke fear’s grip and pushed off an oak tree, feeling the coarse bark and
noticing the sun’s minute ascension. Blazing a path, she raced toward the
horizon.
Are they after me? Clio suddenly halted, turning in every direction and holding her weapon like an
African warrior child. She looked through the trees for signs of danger.
Nothing was after her. This way’s as good
as any, she thought, turning and running with one destination in mind . Forward! Clio cursed the dry leaves crackling under her feet; they rang like dinner
bells through the crisp air.
She was a young girl and her body was at the ledge of
falling off - falling into womanhood. Over the last few months she was
experiencing new feelings - she was changing out of a young girl. Emotions came
knocking… They called with curious desires from inside her body. Clio acted the
way most girls act through puberty; she kept things secret. Maybe there’s something wrong with me , a
thought she had days ago seemed to pale in comparison to what she now felt.
Over the course of the last three days, Clio didn’t recognize herself.
Unfairly, the free-fall of puberty was now being experienced along with her
fight for survival.
Clio felt like an alien creature walking on a distant
planet. Her mind raced, flooded with new emotions. The thought of her mother
being dead wasn’t something she could handle. Her defenses would not allow such
a wretched thought to permeate her mind. She wouldn’t allow the idea to come
close to her, not even the distance of the heat that permeated off her skin.
My mother is out there was the only admittance that was permitted through her mind – that, too, barely
existing as a real thought. Tired from running, now, all she knew was to walk.
The girl covered the length of almost five miles…
Thirsty, she realized it was break time, one she’d earned.
Clio tilted her shoulder down, letting the strap of her rucksack fall before
grabbing it and slinging it off. She pulled
out a water bottle and drank, kneeling and keeping her eyes open - never
tilting her head too far back, losingsight. That’s it; tilt the bottle up, not your head .
She paused, noticing the ground was different below her.
Man-made and covered with fallen limbs and dead foliage,
Clio was standing on the edge of a road. Cracked and lopsided as a blind man’s
porch, it had more than a few sizable trees growing out of its faded asphalt.
Saplings broke through the road’s shell like hatchlings. It hadn’t seen a
working vehicle in years, one of which she saw abandoned with its back bumper
still on the road, the car’s grill nosed off down the shoulder. The highway was a shabby mess, but still, it
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