Page 3 of The General’s Captive (The Rift #1)
The ground beneath me continued to rumble violently and I took one last look in the direction of the volcano.
It was then that a bright light appeared, so bright I feared it would turn me blind as my retinas burned from it.
Then the light pulsed and, though I couldn’t see it, I could only assume it was a shockwave that hit me, taking my breath away and lifting me clean off my feet.
The dangerous effect of which must have thrown me more than twenty feet backward!
Luckily missing the sharp foliage and jagged rocks around me, instead landing painfully on the unforgiving gravel.
Like a second wave packed more of a punch than the initial crack from before, causing the poor animals below to scatter like pins in a bowling alley.
I recovered surprisingly quickly, most likely thanks to engaging some kind of autopilot from the shock.
My arms shook as I pushed myself off the ground, small stones digging into my palms. I stretched my limbs, feeling for any injuries, and though they were sore from the impact, it didn’t seem like anything was sprained or broken.
Thankfully, there was nothing more than some bruises, no doubt.
And it was a good job too, as I took off running back down the path I had come from, my hiking boots slamming against the hard terrain. I knew I didn’t have the stamina to run the whole way back to the cabin but the adrenaline still pumping through my veins was surely helping.
As I continued on, I could feel myself getting tired.
It had taken me hours to get here, so trying to run all the way back wasn’t happening the way I hoped it would.
The adrenaline had finally worn out as my legs began to feel so heavy that I started to trip up more and more, each time scraping my hands and knees on the gravelly surface.
I soon reached the point that I just needed to rest, so as I reached the top of a small hill, I threw myself to the ground just to get my breath back.
What a huge mistake that was.
My legs were shaking from over-use, and they refused to allow me to stand up, even though I felt like I was wasting time.
The land thundered again, and my heart thudded in time with my breaths, it felt as if the Earth was actually splitting open!
It shook so hard, that had I been on my feet, I would have fallen to the ground, regardless.
My childhood instincts kicked in and I covered my head, trees all around me shaking as the earthquake rocked the land.
I didn’t know how long this went on for, but I questioned if the world was going to swallow me whole the entire time.
Until finally, it calmed enough that I was free to lift my head, turning my body toward the heart of the destruction.
Half of me had expected to find a huge cloud of smoke and debris rising from in the distance as ash was spat out into the atmosphere. What I hadn’t expected to see was something so much worse.
The Earth had actually split open, creating a giant Rift in the land. An enormous tear in the world, as if the Gods themselves had struck the Earth with their wrath.
I didn’t know where that thought had come from, but it certainly described what I was looking at now, as the world was literally cracking open!
The ruptured part of the land looked as if it started where I had found myself burning, before traveling away from me, in the direction of the mountains.
A jagged line travelled like lightning as it cut across the valley floor.
One that continued to open up, inflicting a wound against nature as it started to separate the land.
It carried on as far as my eyes could see and beyond that, for sure. But that wasn’t the worst thing, because the second I saw darkness emerging from the sides of the Rift, I squinted, asking myself aloud,
“What the hell is that?”
And Hell was the right word for it.
Darkness scurried over the edge and flowed over the land, like an army all running as one.
I was too far away to see any distinct details, just shapes that blurred and shifted beyond clear sight.
As for the giant split in the land, this only stopped moving when it was as wide as a highway, and more than big enough for more strange figures to emerge.
“Holy shit!” I shouted, quickly flinching back the second I saw all the winged shadows appear, soaring and plunging out of the Rift toward the sky. All I could do was watch them in fascinated horror as they kept on coming.
Unsurprisingly, a fresh new wave of adrenaline began to pulse through me as my building terror ignited the fight or flight response.
Clearly, fighting was not an option. Not only because I had no idea what I was dealing with but if they could fly, then what hope did I have? They had wings and I didn’t.
I couldn’t help but continue to ask myself if this was really happening. It just didn’t seem real. Didn’t seem possible. The world was splitting open and creatures from another world were flooding into ours?
No, there must be something wrong with me. Maybe I had been poisoned somehow and this was the effects of it. Some drugs could do that, right? Make you see things. Well, I wouldn’t know, because I had lived my life by never breaking the rules, which meant that fighting was not in my nature.
I was one of those who shied away from any form of confrontation, be it fighting fist to fist or fighting with words. Running away, though, now that was something I was a master at. Especially in a crazy situation like this. One that made no sense and seemed to bend the rules of reality.
Speaking of which, my shaking legs finally managed to bear weight again, and I was once more back to running for my life. And with each panicked step I took, I did so praying that my uncle would find me soon.
Because if what I saw was real, then it meant I wasn’t just running from the power of nature or Earth’s next disaster.
I was running from the creatures that had been…
Locked within it.