The giant worm or what ever it was dove down into the snow and then leapt into the air like a dolphin. It was getting closer to Tom. By now Rose was aware of what was happening. She took a few steps forward with Alex taking steps into the opposite direction involuntarily.
"Run! Get going!" Tom shouted at the top of his lungs. His shout seemed to knock everyone out of their initial state of shock. Alex wanted to start running but he couldn't leave Rose and the kid behind in good conscience. Well, that's what he thought. But in reality Rose had already taken off with Daniel in her arms, not slowing her down in the slightest.
She kicked up a ton of snow when she ran. Tom had almost made it to where Alex was standing. He had to get moving, so with all the power he could muster he began running.
He did his best not to look back because if he did it would slow him down. But he kept hearing something strange happening and couldn't resist. He turned his head to look and what he saw chilled him to the bone.
Tom was right on his heels with the worm close behind. Now that it was close enough Alex felt like something enveloped him. Like the worm was giving off some kind of aura. It made him feel cold all the way to his soul, and he felt a sort of primal fear that he had never experienced before. It screamed "Hungry". It wanted to devour them. To use them as fuel.
Frankly, Alex didn't care what that thing wanted. He needed to get the hell out of this frozen wasteland and fast. The worm let out a guttural roar behind them. Alex pushed his legs to their limit. He was definitely going to be sore later. He couldn't think of a time when he used his body like this, pushing it as far as it could go. He never needed to before this. The world had already been tamed by humans that lived before him.
Tom quickly caught up with Alex. He made him look like a toddler taking his first steps.
"Pick up the pace or your as good as worm food!" Tom shouted. His words were almost drowned out by the screeching of the worm. Its roaring was equivalent to its size which was massive.
"I can't...just leave me!" Alex yelled, sweat dripping from his forehead. He was getting slower. A few more seconds and he would be eaten alive. Just when he was at his limit, when he was about to collapse right there in the snow, he felt an arm wrap around his waist and lift him up.
"You did good, now let me help!" Tom said.
Alex was caught off guard for a moment. He didn't expect these people he just met to help him out. Especially in a life threatening situation like this. That was when, out of the corner of his vision, Alex saw the look on Tom's face. The manic smile. Like he was having the time of his life. He was enjoying this! He only looked like a mad man to Alex.
Yet he had no choice but to let himself be saved by Tom. Tom lifted him up using one arm and quickened his pace. They were only a short distance behind Rose and were gaining on them fast. Alex looked back while being carried to try and get a better look at that thing that was chasing them.
He had never seen a animal that size before. Of course he knew about elephants and other creatures but this worm was on a whole other level. While lost in thought he heard something chilling. Laughter. Coming from Tom. Alex sighed and moved his eyes from behind to the front but surprisingly Rose wasn't there. Did she find somewhere to hide?
"You better hold on tight, kid!" Tom called out. Before he could even question him he felt weightless. Like gravity lost its hold on them. One second they were running and then...
They were airborne.
Alex resisted the urge to squeeze his eyes shut but what he saw would make any normal person panic. Tom had jumped clean off the edge of a cliff with Alex in hand. He felt weightless for a moment until they started to fall. He got a funny feeling in his stomach like he was riding a roller coaster or something.
"No no no!" Alex cried. They fell faster and faster, the freezing cold air pushing against them. Alex could see the bright white ground getting closer by the second and just before they made contact Tom held out his hand with the strange device on it. Then they started to slow down just enough to keep from breaking any bones on impact.
Alex could hear the terrible shriek from the worm that was still on the top of the cliff. Alex thought it sounded like raking your nails against a chalkboard.
Tom landed pretty hard but the heavy snow broke his fall. Without a word he dropped the stunned Alex on the ground.
Alex got back on his feet with a huff. "You could've killed us! What were you thinking!?"
Tom was surprised. He just saved them from being eaten by a giant worm and this is what he gets? "What I'm thinking is I just saved your ass, that's what." Tom tried his best to ignore Alex at this moment and focused on finding rose, who he saw jump from the cliff just before they did.
"Rose! You there!?" He called out.
"Over here!" He heard her call out from behind a large rock and was relieved. He approached the rock and saw Rose and Daniel, both unharmed thank goodness.
Daniel was still looking up at where the worm used to be. "Scary..."
"I know, buddy. You did good though." Tom ruffled his hair. Daniel gave an innocent smile in return.
Rose walked up behind Daniel and put her hands on his shoulders. "How much longer until we can leave this world? Its not safe here..." She looked worried.
Tom held up his hand and looked at his device. Alex was finally able to get a good look at it this time. It almost looked like a normal watch except it looked advanced, definitely not something that existed on earth.
"We still have a couple of hours before we can jump again. We should find somewhere safe to stay while it charges." Tom said.
Rose nodded her head. "You okay to walk for a little while?" She asked Daniel. He didn't look happy about it but tried to act tough and walk on his own.
Looking around the immediate area revealed nothing new to Alex. There was just snow as far as the eye could see. There were no good places to hunker down in. Alex thought if they wanted a safe place then they would have to build igloos or something.
They started walking again with Tom in the lead. They were much more wary this time around and tried their best to not disturb anything that lived there.
"Hey can ask you something?" Alex asked after a while.
"Shoot." Tom replied.
"I've just been wandering why you guys are doing this. Travelling between worlds like this. It seems extremely dangerous especially with your little brother here." He asked.
Tom seemed lost in thought for a moment. Alex felt like he might not even reply, but finally he did. "Were just trying to get home." To Alex it looked like that was all he was comfortable with saying for now so he didn't pursue any further.
So they left their home for some reason and now they're trying to get back. If they can travel between worlds like this then they should be able to just jump back to their home easily. Unless they cant control where they jump to and that's why they ended up passing through his world.
Earlier Rose had told him they unknowingly travelled further than expected. This was all so strange for Alex. One moment he was sitting in class like every other day, surrounded by people he didn't care about, learning about things that seemed pointless. Now he was on an alien world with alien people being chased by alien monsters...
It was a lot to process for sure. He went over it multiple times in his head trying to make sense of the situation.
"At least I was able to get away from my old life. I wont waste this second chance." He said to himself with determination in his eyes.
"Well, would you look at that." Tom said shielding his eyes from the bright sun with one hand.
Rose moved to catch up to him. "What is it?"
"Somewhere we can lie low for a while." Tom replied. He pointed to a cave in the distance. Judging from how large the mouth of the cave was he could only guess how big it was inside. Alex didn't know if there was any correlation between those two things but it kind of made sense to him.