I brought the old composite bow, fully drawn, up to my face. I aimed down the sights and aligned them with the right shoulder of the injured buck. He was too young, it seemed, to be fighting for a mate. Some older buck apparently didn’t agree though. He looked like he was impaled by sharp horns at least three times, once in the back leg, effectively slowing the young deer down. I release the arrow and it flies straight and true. It hit exactly where I had envisioned it would. The deer ran forward a few steps before he collapses to his knees. He then proceeds to fall on the ground sideways. The arrow was a through and through shot, so he doesn’t land on it and break it. I am about to start collecting my kill when I hear something walking in the woods beyond where my deer lay. I stop and return to the ground waiting to see if I could bag another kill.
A ghostly figure stepped out of the woods and into the clearing. It had a tough looking grayish skin that looked like it had seen the sun too much. The thing was a hunched figure, but even with the hunch it was about seven feet tall. Its eyes are small, compared to its size, and he didn’t have a nose in the front of his face, leaving his face flat and featureless. The mouth was set in a tight line so you couldn’t see its teeth. Its hairless figure was steaming sweat in the morning sun. He picked the deer off of the ground with a strength that defied all Human concepts, and slung it across its back.
I knew I had to do something. We needed that deer to survive. I stood up, making the alien creature turn around to face me. Even the faint rustling of leaves was susceptible to its amazing hearing. He growled a warning to me, revealing its massive canines. I raised my bow. Took aim. Then fired.
Its inhuman speed saved its life. The arrow hit his shoulder spinning him around to where he wasn’t facing me. By the time I had another arrow knocked it had threw the deer aside, ripped the arrow out, howling in rage, and threw it to the ground also. It ran at me closing in fast, as the arrow hit it in the chest. It fell to its knees and looked at the arrow with a confused dazed look. Suddenly its eyes filled with rage and it tried to stand up again, when it was hit once more in the chest. It didn’t show any pain in its eyes as it looked up at me as I walked closer to it, just looking at me with a resigned, peaceful air. I knocked another arrow and put it through its left eye.
This time it fell forward and died. I ripped the three arrows out of its body. The arrow in the head was broken, so I broke off the arrow head and put it in my quiver. I started dragging the deer to the safety of our enclave when five more of the aliens came into the clearing. Apparently they had heard their fallen comrades roar. I let the deer drop to the ground and knocked an arrow. I knew I wouldn’t survive this, but I was at least taking some with me. I loosed the first arrow hitting the third alien in its thigh. It fell to the ground howling. Its brethren looked at it then back at me. Then they charged. I hit another alien, this time in the stomach, and I threw my bow toward them hoping to slow them down for a second. I took out my long saxe knife and waited for them to get to me.
I didn’t have to wait long. The first one fell, courtesy of my blade, with a non-survivable cut to the neck. The other two jumped on me, forcing me to the ground. I stabbed wildly and was surprised to feel it sliding into the soft flesh of the monster, before it hit bone. I couldn’t tell where I had hit it, but it did slide off of me cradling its side. The last monster, craving revenge, grabbed me in a crushing bear hug. I instantly felt my ribs cracking, and I tried to scream out in pain only to find that I wasn’t able to. I looked up, and through the red haze, saw that one of the aliens had recovered and was holding a fist sized rock in its palm.
Its hand rose up in the air out of my vision, and then quickly came back down in an arc. Then a flash of pain. Then nothingness.