A sharp pain radiated through Alex's skull as he pushed himself up from the floorboards. The entire world seemed to be tilted, swaying nauseatingly. The cabin groaned around him, a symphony of stressed metal and creaking wood. On the desk, the lantern flickered wildly, threatening to plunge him into total darkness
"Alex! Report! Are you okay?" Elara's voice, tinny and frantic, crackled from the radio on the floor where it had fallen.
He crawled toward it, his ears ringing. "I'm okay," he managed to get out, his voice rough. "It hit the tower. The whole thing shook."
As if in response, another tremendous BOOM echoed from below, followed by the violent shudder of the entire structure. This time, the impact came from the opposite side. A coffee mug slid off the edge of the desk and shattered on the floor. The creature was testing for a weak point, hammering at the tower's legs like a battering ram. It was trying to knock him out of the sky.
Panic gave way to a surge of pure, primal adrenaline. Hiding was no longer an option. Cowering on the floor while the creature toppled his tower meant a hundred-foot fall into the darkness. He had to drive it back.
"I'm going to try the flare gun," he yelled into the radio, scrambling toward the desk.
"Be careful! Don't set the forest on fire," Elara cautioned, her voice tight with fear.
"I'm a little worried about the monster trying to kill me right now!" he shot back.
He grabbed the heavy plastic flare gun, his hand surprisingly steady. He crawled to the south-facing window, the one that looked down toward the stairs and the clearing. He peered into the darkness, but could see nothing but the black shapes of the trees. The creature was a phantom, its presence felt only through the violent shaking of his world.
Another BANG rocked the tower, this one closer to the stairs. He had to act now.
He pushed the window open just enough to aim the gun, the cold night air rushing in. He pointed the barrel downward into the darkness, aimed in the general direction of the last impact, and pulled the trigger.
The gun kicked hard against his wrist. A ball of brilliant, sizzling magnesium shot out into the night, casting the forest in an unholy, blood-red glare.
For three terrifying seconds, the world below was illuminated as bright as day. And Alex saw it.
It was huge, far bigger than a bear, standing on two long, backward-jointed legs. Its body was a mass of lean, wiry muscle covered in the same coarse, black hair he'd found on the tree. Its arms were unnaturally long and thin, ending in hands with dirty, claw-like fingers. It was in the process of raising a massive rock over its head, preparing to hurl it at the tower. It had been using tools.
As the flare light hit it, the creature dropped the rock and recoiled, shielding its face. It didn't have a face, not really. Just a smooth expanse of flesh with a gaping, vertical slit of a mouth that opened to let out a piercing shriek of pain and rage. It had no visible eyes, but it clearly hated the light.
The flare hissed as it hit the damp ground and fizzled out, plunging the world back into absolute blackness. The creature's shriek subsided, replace by a low, guttural growl.
Alex felt a momentary surge of triumph. It had worked. He had hurt it. He had driven it back.
The feeling lasted less than a second. The growling stopped, and a new sound began. It was a rhythmic, determined noise.
A scrape. A clang. Another scrape.
It wasn't at the bottom of the tower anymore. It was higher.
Alex's heart stopped. He leaned out the window, peering down the steel lattice of the tower leg. Halfway down, he could make out a hulking shape against the starlight. The scraping sound was the creature's claws into the metal frame.
It had given up trying to knock the tower town. It was climbing.