Page 7 of Meat

This time when she came up, Alyx held a rock shard between her fingers. It was not large, only about the size of an arrowhead, and not nearly as sharp as that, but at least it was something.

Her heart beat a little faster with excitement.

Once more, Alyx folded her body upward until her abdomen ached with the strain. She managed to grab hold of her briar-bloodied ankle with her free hand, while her rock hand started to cut, sawing at the primitive rope that held her.

It was slow going, but it was working. The rough, slightly sharp stone was gradually chewing through the rope fibers.

Alyx’s heart drummed behind her breast bone. Her naked skin was slick with sweat from her exertion. The fibers of her muscles sang with pain, but she refused to give up. She sawed and sawed with the stone, desperately struggling to free herself.

Suddenly she stopped, listening to the forest.

Fear prickled between her shoulders.

It was not what she heard that disturbed her. It was what she did not hear. The alien birds had all stopped squawking overhead. The forest had grown deathly silent.

Not a good sign.

A moment later, there came a sound from the depths of the woods. The snap of a twig. Was it the nith coming to take her back to the facility? It was impossible to be sure. She had been so spun around by this rope that she had no clue which direction she had even come from.

More snapping of twigs and rustling of underbrush. Closer this time.

Alyx’s blood ran cold in her veins.

She started to saw again, her motions frantic, her breath coming in harsh, ragged gasps. The rock slipped, and she scratched herself, adding to the dozens of tiny cuts that already covered her ankles and shins from running through the thorns.

She hissed in pain, but she kept at it.

More sounds from the forest. Crunching of leaves and branches. Heavy footsteps, and other sounds too…

Grunts.

Oh God.

The numerous nicks and scratches on Alyx’s legs were shallow, but they had bled enough to make it hard to hold on to her own ankle. Her profuse sweat had added to the slipperiness. She lost her grip and her upper body fell downward again, dangling upside down.

The footsteps were so close now. It was unmistakably the sound of a two-legged creature walking toward her. It couldn’t be a nith. It sounded too big, too heavy.

A massive shadow lumbered toward her through the trees, grunting and huffing like a wild beast.

So close now. Oh God, so close…

The nearby branches bent aside as the creature stepped from the shadows and stood before Alyx, upside down in her vision.

The first thing she saw were its feet. They were like a human man’s feet, but much larger, and the toes were tipped with sharp claws. A pair of heavily muscled legs, thick and sturdy as tree trunks, led to a powerful pair of hips from which hung a strip of brown hide. God, was that really a loincloth?

Sheathed at the hip was a primitive dagger. A coiled loop of braided leather cord.

Above that (or below for Alyx, who was seeing everything upside-down), was a set of deeply etched abdominals. Serrated rib muscles. A broad, striated chest and a powerful set of wide shoulders. Slabs of muscle slanted into a thick, bullish neck.

And all over, the beast-man’s tough hide was laced with criss-crossing scar tissue.

Alyx was feeling light-headed, and it wasn’t just from hanging upside down. The blood roared in her ears.

At last, with a great effort, she managed to set her gaze on the creature’s face.

It was a face that looked as though it had been hewn from stone, all straight lines and angles. A heavy brow over deep-set eyes. Brutal cheekbones. A nose that had been broken more than once in battle. A square jaw. Even the creature’s shaved scalp was blocky.

It was a head that could almost have been human. Almost.