Nightly Creatures (part 8)

By the fountain, the giant reptile was drinking water. It expected more water to wash its face and snout. Also, it was expected the rain to wash its pains away. “Water is my element,” it says. “Nightly creatures are… faster than me. They are tiny. I can crush them all with my claws, tail, and body. I am bigger than their size. They cannot mess with the giant reptile for years. I lived longer!”

“I hear your doubts!” I said my thoughts out loud. I was beside its tail. The creature turned, its eyes closed with stuff. It cannot see me, but it can sense my presence.

“Where?” it was confused.

“Do you not see her?” Hooker asked.

“Where?” its claws touched my torso. “Breast?”

I was feeling uncomfortable. Hooker’s claws cut the creature’s claws. I was relieved, but that was short-lived. Hooker is thrown into the fountain’s water. The creature faced me. My mouth was crooked. “Do you know where I locate?”

“Here.” One of its claws pounded the ground a few feet away from me.

I shook my head, hoping it was wrong, and destroyed an area of ground. It did immediately. I moved to the left carefully, not to make any sound or smell toward it. I moved around to get to the fountain to reach for Hooker’s arms. I grabbed them. He was heavy, but I put him on the ground. He was lifeless.

I do CPR by pushing his core down like 30 compressions and two rescue breaths to force the water out of his mouth. He coughed water and sat up to look at me. “I thought I die.”

The creature was busy digging a hole, and the fountain tilted. Hooker grabbed me, and we moved out of the way. The fountain slides and hits the tail. The creature roared. We hid behind the bushes near the road.

The creature was roaring without patience. That was not cool. It should sit still and let the pain rush out like water or mud.

After a long time, the creature settled down and slept on the grass. I popped my head out and saw it slept. “Seriously!”

“Shhh. Do not wake the creature up.”

The creature slept forever until morning came. I brought an enormous crossbow from the tunnel. We have searched it an hour before. It was dusty but still workable to kill that thing. I was so excited to kill when Hooker was in front of me. He said, “Not yet.”

I wondered why he had to stop me from using the crossbow. He showed me the gigantic rubber bands to close the snout and legs. A giant staple gun pinned down the tail and limbs more. How was he going to pin the creature down?

“Stone slab,” he said.

“How can we move that creature out of here?” I asked, not sure.

“The kids will be the bait.”

“Okay.”

The male children arrived with ripped clothes. One of them put his butt towards the snout. The creature sneezed. So the children laughed and ran. The creature followed their scent into the stone slab several miles from the fountain. Hooker and I carried weapons and moved slowly. We took forever to get to the slab.

By noon, we made it to the slab, except for the blind creature, who was still chasing after the kids. The kids are supposed to be sitting on the slab and waiting for the reptile to come forth.

Hooker found the rotten meat somewhere and put it on the slab. The creature ate the meat and landed its tail on the slab. Hooker quickly put the rubber bands around its snout and legs. He shot the staple gun so the tail stayed on the slab. I moved the crossbow to the neck. One arrow shot through skin and flesh. The reptile struggled to be free.

The kids found it gruesome in my shooting ability. I shot one of them by his back. The other kid got angry and scratched my hands. Hooker got hold of that kid, and gunshot him. I moved to the front and shot another arrow into the chest. The heartbeats were louder and thunderous. Then, the slab cracked with the fallen creature into the metal trap below it.

Hooker and I got closer to the hole to see the devastated look on the creature’s death. “Done,” Hooker said.

“Now, Mint?” I asked, not forgetting about my revenge on this kid who killed my friend.

He looked at me. “Where do you send them to?”

“Either they leave or are eaten by the reptile.”

“They arrived at Safe Haven, a couple of minutes from here. We have to walk faster,” he said.

“Wait for me!” the male, deep voice called after us.

We turned around to find the one I took care of him in Mint’s house. He dragged the wooden wagon behind him, and the ropes tugged around his torso. His muscles pronounced from heavy exercise much more than Hooker's. Hooker do not seem to have a lot of muscles but can carry heavy objects.

I put the crossbow on the wagon. Then, Hooker put the staple gun facing the sky, away from the man. His name was Cobalt as the metallic blue paint color.

He did not look tired as we were tired. He was ready to help us to get to Safe Haven in just minutes. Hooker asked, “Are you just bored?”

“I am bored as heck. This town is too quiet for me.”

“Safe Haven is boring as this one,” he said.

“At least, give me some tasks. I can help, I can drag, I can…”

“Let’s move!” I shouted.

While we were on the way to Safe Haven, Mint and his father were in the truck searching for places to hide. They did not think the creature would be here, but they feared being eaten or chased by us.

The truck stopped by the lake. They got out and camped there at the edge. Mint was sunbathing while his father prepared drinks. He gave his son the Gatorade bottle. Mint drank with joy. “I love drinking this in the sun.”

“Same goes for me,” his father smiled next to him. He has sunglasses over his eyes. He looked over the lake for peace.

We made it to Safe Haven. We saw a big hole in the ground, and we knew it was the reptile from earlier. Cobalt moved forward, and he passed us far away. We ran after him. Hooker yelled, “Stop moving!”

Cobalt paused. Hooker slammed into the wagon. I paused. Hooker stood. He said, “We should find them in the lake.”

“Lake has too many things,” Cobalt warned. “Too many to hide from us.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I did not mean the nightly creatures live in the lake or the reptile. I mean that the scientists dropped chemicals there like salt. If one nightly creature swims there, one dies instantly.”

We gasped. Cobalt continued nonetheless, “It could mean that Mint and the other one died swimming there. I doubt that. They may be camping on the edge.”

“That is what we thought,” I said. Hooker’s face was red from sunburn. I knew I had to do something to cover up. I ran to find the house that had blankets on the bed. I grabbed some and ran back to Hooker, who was under a tree waiting for me. Cobalt was standing next to him.

I dropped the blanket over Hooker’s head. Cobalt received a blanket. I said, “You both need to cool down.”

“We know,” Cobalt said. He wiped all his sweat off with the blanket and gave that to me.

“I did not need it. You are a nightly creature, who needed it.”

He put it on the grass while Hooker removed the blanket to say, “That is not your blanket, Buttercup.”

“Just use it to cover your skin.”

“I am ready to do a task,” Cobalt said.

Cobalt tugged the ropes around his torso and moved the wagon behind him. We followed him to the lake. The lake was clear and transparent. We were on the other side of Mint and his father. They were sunbathing and sleeping.

I sat on the grass with my knees bent sideways. I can put a crossbow here and one arrow shot of the males. But I have no extra arrow. It was not good. If Hooker used the staple gun, he had to be very close to them and shoot at their skin.

“Buttercup!” Hooker called me.

I looked up, and his palms were on my cheeks. He asked, “What are you thinking?”

I was about to laugh because the blanket was covering his face. He looked like a spirit. He stayed silent until I answered his question, “Strategy.”

“Wait till dark comes,” he said.

Cobalt threw a rock into the lake. Bloop. A second later, it was nothing until the particles appeared gray and opaque. He said, “Oops, we should hide.”

We looked at the lake and Cobalt, who hid behind the wagon. We hid in the same spot as him. Lake was turning gray all around. That did not wake Mint or his father.

Night fell as Mint and his father woke up. They both stretched. Mint drank another bottle to power him through the night. His father found the lake pitch black. “Weird,” he said.

We move out of the hiding spot. Hooker sensed they were awake. Cobalt said, “Nightly creatures arrive at night. Here we are at the lake, where the scientists dropped chemicals.”

“Cobalt, quiet,” I said.

Hooker snatched the staple gun and went behind their truck. I looked back to find only a crossbow in the wagon. I took it and moved slowly around the lake. I was dragging while Cobalt picked me up, and we were already behind the truck next to Hooker. Without Cobalt, I would have never finished the walking pace.

“Did you hear a sound?” his father asked.

“What sound?” Mint asked. “And why are we supposed to hear sounds at night? It was peaceful in the daytime.”

Hooker abducted the older man by covering a blanket and dragged him to the forest. Mint chased after them. I quickly put the crossbow over the truck’s hood. The arrow released from the crossbow shot his back. He collapsed.

A staple gun clicked on the man’s head. Mint’s father fell forward. “I am done with their punishments.”

I was looking over Mint’s back. I remembered that he kill my friend Bubbles. Cobalt said, “I sensed older ladies incoming for--” He snatched me. I left the crossbow behind. He caught Hooker, who left the staple gun behind. Both weapons do not have extra arrows or staples to use again.

Cobalt moved quickly into the highest canopy of the tree. Just in time, the young ladies in tight jumpsuits came into view. They saw the corpses by the lake and into the forest. They suspected murders by weaponry.

The one with green pigtails holding a ranger’s gun blasted in the air. “Come on out, murderers!”

“Hush!” The other one with a deep orange ponytail holding a device of soundtracking. “Stop making a noise!”

“We are running out of time, Vermillion,” Viridian said.

“We always waste time when you blast your gun, Viridian,” Vermillion shouted.

Then, the older ladies argued for a while. That made Cobalt bored. He said, “They are helping the scientists to guard the information about the nightly creatures. Hooker and I should avoid them. They can vaporize us with their special weapons.”

A crack was beneath our weight. Cobalt jumped, and we landed on the ground in the forest. The ladies kept on arguing for some time. We ran away to the town that I was from. I was the last to lock the door in my house and covered the windows and doors with wooden planks with the help of the nightly creatures. They should be safe here.