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by Scott Normandin
Fenton
turned with fear in his eyes to face the
driver. The driver, with his index finger
pointing at the claws muttered to Fenton,
"Clickety clack..."
The talons
softly tapped a steady rhythm on the glass,
making a sick clicking sound. Fenton's heart
slammed it's own beat against his rib-cage.
His adrenaline was kicking in again, but
this was a new kind of fear. This was a
fear he had not felt before. A fear for
life.
The driver
sat back in his seat and softly sighed,
"Time to go through this again."
Fenton
was realizing that this man was fleeing
this beast the whole time. He was curious
about it all the same, "What do you
mean, 'go through this again'?"
The man
lit his cigarette, "My name is Lenny
Farwell. I'm a construction worker from
Jelsonville about four hundred miles from
here. I met a girl on the internet and was
driving out to meet her and had to drive
through the desert. My car didn't make it
very far when I got flat about ten
or fifteen miles into the desert. I decided
to hoof it a while to find the next service
station.
"Next
thing I knew, I got picked up by some looser
in a pickup truck that insisted I get off
the road. After I asked to be let out, he
refused to stop and we fought. I grabbed
the wheel and drove us off the road. It
was kind of like this, you know?
"Anyway,
we sat there with this thing perched on
the roof of the truck clicking it's claws
on the windshield all night, and it never
stopped. It didn't stop until one of us
cracked. It wasn't me. The guy opened the
door of his truck and ran like hell, but
this gigantic thing jumped on top of him.
Actually, it kind of flew over and pounced
on him. It has wings, but it's too big to
actually fly I think. It looks like a giant
lion with wings, and it's covered with black
scales. It's head looks more like a wolf
than a lion, though. I have no idea what
it really is, but I know what I saw.
"I
ran off into the desert as it was feeding
on the guy. It didn't come after me until
it was done eating. Since it was dark when
I ran from the truck, I lost my way and
ended up running deeper into the desert.
The thing chased me for the next three days.
I spent daylight hours sleeping under rocks,
dark hours trying to slip ahead of it through
the desert brush, and all I ate was cactus
and other desert plants.
"I
found my way back to the road. Actually
I have no idea what road it was, but I hitched
a ride with the nice gentleman that owned
this car. It was some grease monkey from
Edgerton. He didn't make it either, but
that's how I got this car. Then I saw you
walking long the road. I didn't want you
to end up the way I did. I truly thought
I could make it out of this desert and save
someone else, too. Guess I was wrong."
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