The flat landscape lay empty. My night vision goggles guided me through the black of night while I ran for my life. The only sound penetrating the silence was my own puffs of breath. My lungs burned with the inhalation of air and adrenaline combination. The fleeting flash of a shadow slid by in my periphery on the right then another on the left.
I stopped and swept the terrain in front of me then to the rear, but there was no movement. Then I cocked my head and crinkled my brows when the ground in front of me moved. I was standing still, so this shouldn’t have happened. It led down now into a dark abyss. I couldn’t see into the depths below, even with my night vision goggles donned. I turned around, facing behind me again, ran two steps, and skidded to a sliding skid then tumbled down a steep slope. Not thinking to check the rest of the ground me, I assumed the rest was flat. Now, I fell on my butt, skidding downward. I pushed backwards with my hands and feet, but all that did was delay the inevitable. I rolled onto my stomach, scrambling upward. In that moment four dark figures with spikes protruding from the circumference of their heads stood at the mouth of the hole.
Anger heated my insides, and I jammed my fist into the dirt. The result drove it in six inches, so I used the indentation as a hand-hold, stopping my fall. I repeated same action with my left boot. Now, as I stood, pasting myself to the side of the slope, I gazed up again at the rim of the hole. But the four dark figures were gone.
A light high in the sky moved toward me, gaining in strength. I tore off my night vision goggles and continued staring at it. Its source came into view. It was a bright, glowing orb. It stopped above the hole, sunk lower in the sky as though staring at me, then it lifted back into the atmosphere, and shot away.
The ground beneath me lifted, becoming flat once more. The quiet air around me was deafening. I sat up, donned the night vision goggles again, and swiveled my head in all directions but saw no one. I tore off the goggles and stood, breathing hard and heart pounding. Then a pinch in my left side snapped my hand up, covering where I felt it. I leaned to the left, staggered a couple steps, and slumped to my knees. Something slick and sticky oozed. Dizziness played with my vision. I peered down, and a dark liquid covered my hand. Something hard slammed into my back. I hit the ground face down. Then someone struck the side of my head and darkness took over.
To be continued
