Forest of Savages by Rookie Burwick (nonfiction book recommendations TXT) 📕

and slammed his head against the horn. The only question in his head was why? He’d asked himself that so many times, it was like a habit, which was sad.

 

He rubbed his forehead against the soft materiel, and stared down at the floor of the vehicle. The noise of cars zipping past rang out every few minutes. The highway was pretty empty around this time of day, which helped.

 

The noises made him want to sit up and take the action like a man, but he had been through a rough morning already. Trying to get a job was almost impossible in this tiny little town.

 

Suddenly, a loud crash drowned out the rushing of cars. He sat up, fully erect. What he saw was a large, smashed up ball of white metal. The sight made him swallow hard. His eyes widened as he glanced toward the forest off to his right. Beyond the edge of the bike trail was nothing but pine needles and forest, which soon rose into a steep slope.

 

The smashed up metal had crushed the asphalt around it. Cracks seeped through the rough, black substance, and ended just beneath his right tire. He killed the ignition, and watched for a few minutes. Nothing further happened.

 

John pushed open the door and stepped out, keeping his eyes glued to the metal object. Moving swiftly, he approached the object. It almost looked like a vehicle of some kind up close. But if that was the case, it brought up a lot of questions.

 

He suddenly heard wolves howling off into the forest. They were moving towards the highway. But the closer they got, the more they didn’t sound like wolves. He turned his vision and focus away from the crushed car, and stared into the trees.

 

The hairy beasts emerged at a running pace, growling and snarling as they went. John took a step back, but couldn’t move any further. The creatures resembled Bigfoot greatly. In fact, they all looked not only alike, but just like Bigfoot.

 

Their loud howls and battle cries stormed through the air. When he heard them, panic surged into his brain. The natural instinct of fear began to take over. John spun around and dashed back into his car, slamming the door loudly behind him. He got the key into the ignition, and fired up the engine.

 

But one of the Bigfoot creatures were already at his window, smashing its fist against the glass. He let out a scream when he saw it’s horrible face. Fangs, small, beady eyes and brown, oily skin looked back at him.

 

Just before he could get his trembling foot onto the gas pedal, the creature broke through the glass, and sank its claws into his chest. He let out another short-live scream as the creature pulled him through the window, and through him across the highway.

 

He landed in the barrow pit, at the base of another slope that was covered with a thick assortment of pine and cotton trees. His bones cracked, his muscles tore, but he was still alive. By some miracle, he had survived the fall.

 

As he slowly sat up, his bones cracked even more. He held his forehead with one hand as blood oozed down it. The pain made his fingers tense. His fingernails dug down into his skin, only adding to the blood and flesh he lost.

 

The creature turned around and growled in a low angry tone. Hundreds more of the god-awful monsters were swarming the highway, beating their chests and howling loudly.

 

John jumped this time to his feet. He watched as the Bigfoot creatures tore into an oncoming car. In a matter of seconds, they fully rummaged the car. They used their claws and powerful arms to literally pull it apart.

 

A scream escaped his lungs at the horrifying sight. Soon, the car looked just like the other mess of metal. Then, one of the creatures turned toward him, and leaped through the air, using its strong legs to do so.

 

As it flew toward him, he spun around and ran down the barrow pit. He pumped his legs to their ultimate limits. His sweatpants only made it worse. In a matter of minutes, sweat was soaking his forehead.

 

“Dear god. . .” he said in a whisper.

 

Energy drained from his body. Behind him, the Bigfoot creatures followed with a simple pace. Their loud howls continued to pierce the silence of the late afternoon.

 

One of them got up ahead of him, using extra strength to jump out in between the tree trunks. It landed on its feet in front of him a couple of yards, and right away started running right for him. When he looked up and saw it, his feet began to screech through the dirt.

 

After a quick halt, he jolted to the right just before the Bigfoot could get to him. He ran up onto the highway. His shoes thudded against the fading asphalt as the sweat continued to spread.

 

A strange whooping noise came from somewhere behind him. He only had time to glance over his shoulder. He saw a police squad vehicle racing down the highway, beginning to veer away to avoid hitting him.

 

The vehicle sped up ahead and spun around, and then sped toward him. He stopped, and watched in horror as it came right for him. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t even breath. The wheels of the vehicle came to a smoking halt to his right. The window rolled down, and a man about his age wearing a cop outfit stared back at him.

 

“You alright there?” the man asked, desperation in his voice.

 

John stared at the man for a moment, unsure if help had just arrived or not.

 

“Just get me out of here!” was the only reply he could come up with.

 

“Get in the. . .”

 

A scream coming from the passenger’s seat interrupted the man. He spun toward the noise, and let out a scream himself. The creature on the other side drug him out through the now open door. Blood splattered onto the windshield. John watched only two seconds into the horrible ritual before heaving. The last bit of his sandwich came up and splat onto the highway.

 

The Bigfoot was ripping open the cops’ throats. Blood trickled onto the asphalt from every direction now. One body lay on its side in the barrow pit, and the other still lay on the asphalt.

 

John was already preparing himself to die. The screams were both cut short by a loud roar, and the evil face of one of the Bigfoot creatures. It glared at him for several seconds, which all felt like minutes, then darted out of vision.

 

He swallowed hard, and took a few steps back. The Bigfoot emerged only seconds later from behind the vehicle, growling as its loud footfalls smashed down into the asphalt.

 

“God help me!” he screamed, and then fell to his knees.

 

The Bigfoot approached him slowly. Its anger-filled tone grew closer with every breath he took. But then, a loud roar, like that of a tiger, boomed into his ears. He opened his eyes to see another Bigfoot approaching. It stared at him with its evil eyes, and then looked at the other creature.

 

The two creatures began to snarl and swipe their claws at each other. They crouched down close to the ground, eyeing each other with fierce anger in their beady little retinas.

 

Then, the fight began. Both of the beasts dove into a full-on fight. They clawed and bit into flesh and fur. Blood leaked out from both of them. Snarling and growling still commenced from their deep lungs.

 

John saw the perfect opportunity. As the Bigfoot fought, he stood up as quietly as he could. His cracking bones made the least of noises, but the beasts didn’t notice. Step after cautious step he took towards the driver’s door. His kept his eyes on the fighting apes. They never once looked at him.

 

He soon got close enough to reach out, and wrap his fingers around the handle. He got a good grip, and then pulled forward. The door came open easily, but squeaked loudly as it came.

 

The noise caught the attention of the fighting beasts. They came to a fairly quick end with their brawl, and turned their growls to him. Now, he dove into the driver’s seat. A prayer of thanks escaped his lips when he saw the keys still in the ignition. He gripped them, and turned them hard to the right. The engine stuttered and spit, and then died. All hope fell.

 

He wiped the tears from his eyes with the backsides of his hands. He gripped the keys, and tried again. Again, the engine died. Tears now fell like rain. The Bigfoot slammed into the window, and snarled at him. He let out a quick scream, and then tried yet again, this time with trembling hands. He turned the key, listened close. . .

 

This time, the engine started.

 

Hearing it roaring up, John slammed his foot down onto the gas pedal, pushing it clear down to the floor. The squad car took off at a speed he’d never experienced before. He glanced into the review mirror, and saw the Bigfoot were following.

 

He couldn’t help but wonder where the other creatures were. They had been flooding the highway earlier, but now there was only two. Even though it seemed odd, he was too worked up to worry about it. He did slow down a bit, but only enough to keep his control.

 

The beasts were keeping up, much to his amazement. Their legs were like steel springs, ready for action at all times. He could still see their snarling faces, even at the distance they were at.

 

The highway was now empty. Not a single car came into view through the dirty windshield, and he was thankful for that. Right now, he needed as much space as he could. Not just to speed, but to survive.

 

A yellow sign flew past, baring a symbol of a car on winding roads. He was coming up on some rough places, with tight curves. He knew it all too well. At one time, he’d driven it to work for six days a week. Those days were the good ones, but they had been short-lived.

 

His eyes had dried up now from the tears he’d shed. Tears of fear. Tears of anger, tears of hate. They were all gone, for now.

 

 

 

***

 

A bright light streamed into Prine’s glasses when he lifted his head from the cold steering wheel. A deep imprint of the wheel stained his cheek. It hurt a little when he’d moved it, but now it just felt a little numb.

 

A loud groan drained his lungs of air. He lifted his arms, and stretched for a while. It felt so good, yet so painful. When he finished, and sat up straight, everything came back. All of the memories of the past day returned to haunt him. Tears began to sting his eyes.

 

Even though he’d barely known Nick, he’d grown to like the man. And what had he done? He’d left Nick to die at the hands of monsters that shouldn’t even exist. Freaks, mutations in nature. He didn’t know what they were, or where they’d came from, but he didn’t care.

 

There was only one thing he wanted to know. He needed to know; how to destroy these things. They breed like rabbits, hunted like mountain lions, and looked like apes.

 

He reached up and lifted his glasses to message his temples. Everything seemed so foggy still. Was there an answer somewhere? Was it hidden somewhere right in front of him? Or would he and all of mankind existing in this area be forced to surrender?

 

There had to be some answer, somewhere. Bullets seemed to work okay for killing the beasts, but as many as there were, he needed a lot more than bullets. At that thought, the answer hit him.

 

These things were apart of nature. They had to be. So, he would just have to use nature against them. Now fueled by a plan forming in his mind, Sheriff Prine opened the