A blurry shadow whooshed past them and a bloodcurdlng, soul-wrenching noise rang out behind them before their brains could even begin to register what happened.
The noise made them to look backwards but all they saw was a blurry image and when it was gone, all the people in that small area farther from the crowd than others, who amounted to at least seven people, were nowhere to be seen. They were gone, clothes and all. Nothing was left, not even the slightest drop of blood and the only thing that told Jim, Wilson, the teenager, his sister, father and grandfather that there was more to it than met the eye was the huge pawprints that were now on the broken tar road.
The teenager boy was shaken beyond words and like every other normal person, his legs turned around and began to move in the opposite direction.
"Matt, stop!" The old man managed to gain his bearings in time and grabbed his grandson by the arm to prevent him from running away.
Jim looked around and saw that the over hundred people who had gathered to form the crowd at the tar road, were yelling and screaming and crying and dying quite quickly. And they did so in various positions and mannerisms. Some died by bleeding in the seven orifices, some by beaten crushed to death by heavy beasts, some were eaten alive, some were bitten by venomous snakes and other beasts. Jim shivered in fear.
Most especially the ones who had the advantage in speed or distance covered, they died the most horribly. Seems like Wilson was right and those hunters were not joking. These one eyed beasts truly did not want any single person to escape. Was this going to be the end for him as well?
No way! never! How could he die like this? Especially after coming so close to being eaten by the highly revered and rare snow tiger? pfft. He suddenly wanted to laugh.
"Let's go that way." Jim said as he pointed to his right side. There seemed to be the least number of beasts in that area.
"No, this way." Wilson said, and pointed in the direction with the second most numerous beasts.
Everyone looked at him like he was an idiot.
Wilson quickly explained in a short sentence; "They are the easiest to handle."
Jim and the family looked at the direction Wilson pointed at again, just in time to see a two meter tall, one eyed gorilla clap its hands and squish two old people's heads into a meat and blood paste. They all shuddered in fear. That was really bone chilling.
Then, they looked at the other side where Jim planned to move earlier and coincidentally, they saw a snake spit at a youthful lady with above average looks and her skin instantly melted. Even though she did not scream the loudest, one could still tell her pain filled screams apart from the rest of the crowd.
"We go that way." Jim said without another thought, pointing in the direction of the gorilla. In his mind, dying by being squished into paste cannot be as hurtful as dying from acidic spittle. That was just plain terrifying. Just the mere thought of something like that happening to a person was capable of killing such a person. Jim believed anybody would have made the exact same decision without any extra thought.
Cautiously, they jogged closer to the edge of the beasts' encirclement, the area where the gorilla and other smaller apes wrecked havoc together.
As they moved, they would often stop, literally freezing in fear of some rampaging beast or person running or noticing their less than subtle movements. Occasionally, a beast or two or three would come at them or someone near them. Fortunately for them, they were mostly beasts with strength-related abilities and Wilson was able to divert the beasts away from them without making any of the beasts feel threatened.
Soon enough, they got within arm's reach of the two meter tall gorilla with a single eye, jumping from side to side as it attacked angrily. The eye seemed like it had been dyed red from how bloody it looked up close. It was totally terrifying. There was even a small all black monkey on its right shoulder that did nothing but chatter continuously.
In truth, the monkey was the one giving the gorilla directions. By a stroke of good luck, the gorilla had jumped farther than usual to face a person who was being surprisingly tough to kill. Wilson thought that that person was most likely one of those cowardly hunters who refused to join. Although, now, it seemed like it was not such a cowardly choice after all. In fact, the person was not the only one still fighting. It seemed like a good thirty or so people were holding their ground against these things, albeit barely, while some others were still running amok, moving back and forth within the encirclement while the beasts temporarily paid more attention to the threatening fighters.
Jim, Wilson and the old man and his family had managed to close in on the edge of the encirclement. Instinctively, they began to get excited. And with the previous nervousness and fear that was still pretty well existent in their hearts, their heartbeat reached an all time high. Their footsteps increased in frequency. There was barely a two meter difference left before exiting the encirclement. What to do after leaving the encirclement was yet to be known, but at the very least, they had to leave first and escape from the one eyed beasts' line of sight.
Just then, the monkey on the gorilla's shoulder shot out a thin laser beam from its eye. It did little to hurt the hunter the gorilla was having a tough muscle tussle with, but it successfully distracted the hunter for a brief moment. Very brief. But that was all the time the gorilla needed. The hunter's legs were grabbed by the gorilla and it swung him over its head and smashed him on the ground over and over again until he could resist no longer and died.
Then, the monkey looked around and sighted Wilson and co. It chattered excitedly, even jumping on the gorilla's shoulder to get its unbridled attention and then pointed at Wilson.
*ROAR*
The gorilla roared and jumped and landed right before Wilson who was in front of the group. It best its chest and roared again. Jim sighed exasperatedly. Seems like this was the end of his life's journey. He, to his own surprise, was not really frightened in the face of death. Such a pity though, they were so close. Those were his thoughts. He was only one having such thoughts. The family escaping by his and Wilson's side were terrified beyond description. The old man himself had mistakenly looked in the monkey's one eye and fainted instantly. His young grandson quickly grabbed him before he could hit the floor. The little girl was so scared, she wet herself and fell on her butt, tears falling freely and unrestrained while her father tried his best to gather his courage and look strong, albeit his legs shook so badly from the fear he was feeling, he could barely remain standing.
As for Wilson, he stood boldly and stared in the face of impending doom. What fear. He had always been numb to the feeling of fear since childhood. His ability to fear has always been somewhat lethargic and instead, danger and fights gave him a sense of thrill he never could explain. It was a major factor in his decision to become a pro wrestler. That and money.
Now, he stood and stared the gorilla eye to eye. A pair of human eyes looking straight into the gorilla's singular blood-red eye. Wilson stared with as much disdain as he could muster. Truthfully speaking, he felt like he had very little chances of surviving if he faced the gorilla one on one, but, so what if he died? He wanted to be able to save his friend, Jim's life and the lives of that family behind him. It felt to him like it was his responsibility to do so, even though by all means it was not. But since he felt like that, then he might as well fight and die without any more regrets than he already had. Else, that will just be sad. The real reason might be because of what happened previously with his village chief's son, Uncle Dale and his friend. Not like this was the best time to address that issue.
Anyway, the monkey had finally stopped jumping and chattering in excitement. The gorilla roared for the third time and Wilson roared back angrily.
The two meter tall, one eyed gorilla swung its left arm at Wilson with amazing speed seemingly unfit for its size and Wilson swung his own left, looking to parry with a punch, his blood pumping, adrenaline rushing.