Cattails
Daniel whirled around and launched himself to his feet. He scrambled to regain his balance as he barreled up the stairs. He repeatedly reached out to the wall and even the ceiling as he climbed higher, almost as if to assure himself he was still somewhere real, somewhere man-made, somewhere human. He’d had enough of creepy lights and weird things happening to him.
Finally he burst out of the bunker and stumbled weakly to the ground. He didn’t bother with getting up right away even though the pain in his hand was screaming in protest from the pressure. He needed a moment to catch his breath. He shut his eyes tightly, his head was pounding. The sickly sweet smell wafting through the air wasn’t helping his headache either. He sluggishly lifted his eyelids and waited for his eyes to adjust to the deep nighttime.
He was hovering over a patch of strange plants. They reminded Daniel of cattails, with fluffy looking cylinders waving in the subtle wind around him, but thick leaves crawled rampantly through the plot unlike any cattails he’d ever seen or heard of. The leaves were oozing a sticky gel all over themselves.
“And all over my hand...” he sighed. He tried to brush some of the gunk off his hand and slowly shifted to a sitting position. He stared down at his left hand; the sap-like secretion covered the palm of it like gauze. This gunk wasn’t going anywhere apparently. He sighed again and stood up. He made it one step before pausing again.
Had he just heard footsteps? The undeniable crunch of dirt repeated itself. Daniel’s heart was racing. He had no idea if those footsteps belonged to his friends or someone, or even something, else and at this point he wasn’t sure he cared. All he knew for sure is that they were coming closer.
Written by Flutterbest on 18 December 2017
