She clung to the piece of driftwood, praying for daylight. Along the sides of the river, she heard them jumping from tree to tree, their voices a distorted version of her sisters yelling “COME BACK! COME BACK!” Although she was safe in the water, she would not put it past them to find a way to get to her, like they did her sister.

The log she clung to for dear life smelt old, and it was rough and breaking under her the pressure of her hands. The surrounding woods did not look familiar to her in the slightest, even with the moonlight. Ignoring her sister's distorted voice she took in her bearings, it was a full moon, so a lot of the surrounding area was lit up. It was just trees, everything looked untouched and that was not a good sign.

An hour of drifting aimlessly along the river and those things still had not given up “persistent sister murdering voice mimicking fuckers…” the girl looked up at the moon a wave of grief washed over her “why could not it be me; I am the eldest, I was meant to protect her but all I did was standstill as they tore her body apart like it was nothing…”

Lost in her thought she did not realise one of the things had dropped from an overhanging branch onto her. Shaped out of her daze the girl thrashed around while still trying to hold onto the driftwood. It dug its claws into her shoulders, and she emitted an ear-piercing scream. It was like acid was burning through her flesh, she could hear the sizzle as the thing's claws dug deeper into her flesh. Without thinking she grabbed a semi-detached piece of driftwood and stabbed towards the creature’s head.

It let out a cry of pain and detached itself from the girl, she shook it off and with a satisfying splash, she knew it was done for. The girl learnt from a previous encounter that they cannot swim and sink to the bottom rather quickly. She also learnt that they breathe air, hence the not liking water part. The ones still on land started to cry out in a wale like a roar before deliberately throwing themselves at the girl one after the other. Missing her by only inches they all sunk to the bottom of the river, sharing the fate of the first.

When she thought they had all but left or sunk to the bottom of the river another one jumped out from above and latched itself onto her, shredding her back even more than the first one. She tried fighting it off with the same tactic, but this thing was clever, it threw its head back just out of reach of the piece of bark, then snickered. A gurgling snicker that sent shills down the girl’s spine, before biting down on her forearm.

The acid burning sensation that came with the claws, quadrupled for the bite, the amount of pain she was in was unfathomable. She could not cry out in pain as there was no sound that could properly fit with the amount of pain she was in from the bite. And just as she thought that this was the end of her, the girl’s arm that clung onto the driftwood slipped and she and the creature fell back into the water.

She wrestled with it like one does a crocodile, it clung to her not wanting to let go but she stayed calm, she waited it out and just like the others it sunk to the bottom while she was floating to the top. The girl breached the waters surface, her lungs screaming at her as she took in that first breath of oxygen.

She managed to crawl her way onto the river’s embankment, her hands sinking into the mud as she struggled to get out of the water with one arm. The girl lay on her back, out of breath, her body was in incredible amounts of pain and she did not want to think about the amount of blood she had lost or the number of bacteria that would be in the bite and claw wounds. All she wanted to do was to rest her eyes and hold her little sister close to her, to say sorry. As the girl lay there, the sun was just coming over the horizon. She felt a small sting in her side before succumbing to sleep.

A group of heavily armed men came out of the bushes “subject 17a has been recovered, deep wounds to subjects back and right arm have been sustained, request to move subject 17a out of the area?” a man voiced. 

“request granted sergeant, bring 17a to the lab for treatment. What is the status of 17b?” a woman’s voice replied?

“17b is deceased, the freaks got to her took her voice and everything” the man jokingly answered chuckling to himself.

“What a waste, I had high hopes for 17b, oh well, there are always more subjects down in the pits.” The woman paused briefly before speaking again “that reminds me, I need you to head down to the pits and feed them. They have been nonstop complaining and it is getting on my nerves.”

The soldier rolled his eyes “we don’t have any oats left ma’am, what do we feed them?” he questioned she quickly responded, “each other of cause, only the strong survive.”