The winged creature slammed into the ravine with a deafening crack, sending a shock wave through the ground that knocked Marla onto her hands. It unfolded itself slowly, monstrously, like some ancient nightmare waking from a long sleep. Its wings stretched wider than any living thing had a right to—membranous, ragged at the edges, each flap stirring the hot air into violent gusts.
The three survivors bolted in different directions, screaming.
The creature turned its head with horrifying precision. Its long, hook-shaped beak snapped open, revealing rows of needle-like teeth. It lunged.
The woman with the makeshift spear didn’t even have time to raise it. The creature’s talon punched through her torso as though she were made of paper. She was lifted off the ground, impaled, still alive long enough to let out a gurgling, wet scream before the beast flung her body aside like refuse.
Marla clapped a hand over her mouth, choking back her own scream.
Andrew grabbed her arm. “We have to go!”
But the creature’s head snapped toward their hiding place.
Its eyes—black, bottomless—locked onto them.
It shrieked, the sound splitting the air like torn metal.
Andrew pulled Marla into a sprint up the ravine wall. Dirt crumbled beneath them. Stones slipped. Branches clawed at their arms as they scrambled toward higher ground. Behind them, the beast clawed its way upward, talons gouging deep furrows in the rock.
One of the two remaining strangers—a man with a bandaged leg—limped desperately alongside them.
“Don’t stop!” he gasped. “If it grabs you, you’re—”
A shadow swept over them.
The creature swooped low, its massive claw hooking into the man’s shoulder. He was ripped off the ground mid-sentence, his scream trailing behind him as the beast carried him into the sky, higher and higher, until he was little more than a dangling silhouette against the blood-red sun.
Marla stumbled but Andrew steadied her. “Move!”
They reached the top of the ravine, plunging into dense undergrowth. Vines lashed against them. Thorns tore at their clothes. Somewhere above, the creature circled—its cry echoing like a warning across the prehistoric forest.
It was hunting them.
The remaining stranger—a short, broad-shouldered man—pushed through a curtain of giant fronds and gestured frantically.
“This way! I know a place!”
Marla hesitated, but Andrew tugged her forward. They crashed through the vegetation until the stranger dropped to his knees and crawled beneath an enormous, uprooted tree. A hollow space beneath its roots yawned like a natural bunker.
“In!” he barked.
They scrambled inside just as a thunderous crash shook the ground. Dirt rained down from above. The creature’s talon stabbed through the root wall inches from Andrew’s face. He yelped and jerked back, heart hammering.
The beast shrieked again and raked its claws through the earth, trying to widen the gap. Roots snapped. Soil tumbled.
Then, after a long, horrible pause…
Silence.
Marla didn’t dare breathe until a distant echoing cry told them the creature had flown off—searching elsewhere.
The stranger wiped sweat from his brow with a trembling hand.
“You two,” he said, voice cracking, “just made the worst mistake of your lives.”
Marla swallowed. “Coming here?”
He shook his head slowly.
“No. Staying alive long enough for it to notice you.”
Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model
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