Page 68 of The General's Captive
“Not sure yet, but we have an hour and half to figure it out, so I am open to suggestions,” I told him, making him grin.
Seriously, I tell this guy we are heading into the enemy’s lair, most likely to our deaths, and he smiles like it’s an average Sunday!
“I’m sure we can come up with something. We will have the element of surprise, at least, and I doubt this General guy would think you’re brave enough to go and try break him out alone,”he replied, not realizing just how wrong he was. Because even though I had made this deal with The General, I still couldn’t trust him to keep up his end of the bargain. Couldn’t trust that he would actually let Riley go and not just keep him to use him as leverage against me. To get me to do whatever he wanted for fear of what he would do to the man I cared about. So, my plan was to break him out first and what came after that… well, I still didn’t know.
“The General doesn’t know me,” I stated firmly, ignoring the look he shot me.
“No, but I bet it’s not the first-time people have underestimated you,” he commented and I shot him a look of surprise.
“What makes you say that?”
“Back at the base, all that stuff you told me about how to kill the Myths, you came up with it, right?”
I nodded.
“And how long did you survive before finding the base?”
“Six months,” I answered.
“Six months and you spent it using your brain, not just shooting bullets and hoping for the best.”
I scoffed and told him, “I wouldn’t give me too much credit, most of it was dumb luck, to be honest.”
He laughed and said, “You tell yourself that if you want, but fear makes some people stupid, and it makes some people smarter, I think I know which one it made you.”
I had to say, that was nice to hear.
“My uncle always said that fear will get you killed,” I told him, making him nod.
“Smart man,” he replied.
I winced before telling him in a sad tone, “He was.”
Aster took this for what it was, a sad ending to a great man’s life, and to move on from this, he asked me more aboutmy experiences. Yet I did start to notice that he wasn’t as forthcoming about his own. I pushed a few times, trying to get him to give me something other than just basic stuff, but he remained cagey more often than not.
In fact, we were only about twenty minutes from the city and had just been going through a potential plan, when suddenly disaster struck!
Out of nowhere, something huge landed on the hood of the truck, crushing the front. The whole thing felt like it was folding in around me as glass exploded and the airbag detonated in my face. My body slammed forward, the seatbelt cutting in deep before I was jerked back and thrown off to the side.
My head hit something hard, and just as my blurry eyes could make out the crazed beast ahead of me…
My world went…
Black.
My eyes didn’t want to open.
Because I had a feeling that when they did, it would only be more proof that this plan of mine had gone to shit. The pounding in my head was only more evidence of that. But then the sound of a snarling roar prevented me from ignoring the inevitable any longer. So, I opened my eyes and tried to make sense of what I was seeing through pieces of the smashed windscreen.
“Oh fuck!”The curse fell from my lips at the sight of the huge, winged beast, and not one I had ever seen before. The only way to describe it was as if a monster had forced its way out of the skin of a seven-foot lion. As if the Hell inside had broken out and what was left beneath was the bluish-gray skin, void of any fur. More like a thin membrane that was stretched over muscle and tissue, yet its joints and feet were scaled. Its giant paws held deadly talons like an Eagle, but much thicker. The claws were strong enough to gouge lines in the road, and it looked ready to charge at the truck.
I looked at the passenger seat, expecting to find Aster there bleeding and unconscious but it was empty. The door was open, and he was nowhere to be found. A little cry made its way past my lips, knowing that he had just left me to face this alone. A little voice in my head argued that maybe he thought I was dead, though I couldn’t help but feel hurt.
Not that I had the time to waste on thinking about this, only terror and survival. So, I quickly fumbled with my seatbelt, knowing I needed to get the fuck out the truck, right now! The Myth’s monstrous wide head swung my way as if hearing my panic for itself. The mane of fine black hair rippled with eachmovement it made. The thick folds of its skin created demonic features where it followed the skeletal lines of its face. Its flat nose was almost hidden completely, had it not been for the V-shape where its nostrils were.
Its glowing yellow eyes homed in on me and it opened its huge jaws letting out a mighty roar. Its lower jaw jutted out further than the top, as if it had too many teeth to allow its mouth to fully close. What with its sabretooth fangs looking ready to sink into me.
Its whole body bristled as it readied itself to attack, the darkness rising from its skin like vapor as the spikes on its back shook. A vibration made them stand on end, just like the ones that ran down its tail. A tail that was a fucking weapon in its own right! The mass of spikes gave it the appearance of some hellish mace. And if all of this wasn’t bad enough, the fucker had wings! Two demonic bat wings, that extended from muscular arms protruding out of its shoulder blades. There was a stretch of purplish skin between the long-arched finger bones, like folds of leathery material. Each bend in the wing were like fucking bidents of spiked bone that faced forward like pincers.
