The Monster: A Fragment

An excerpt from my latest writing project, The Monster.

As if the mention of the monster had summoned him, Rob came running over the hill, he fell into the gathering of workers.  Exhausted wouldn't begin to describe the look on Rob's face as George looked down to see if the man was alright.  "What's wrong, Rob?"  George asked, the others seemed to be a bit surprised, maybe even shocked at the suddenness of Rob's bursting in.

Rob tried to form a sentence, but his state of exhaustion forbid him from doing so, instead, what came out of the man's mouth was a garbled mix of almost-words and in some cases words that weren't even words.  "Tom… Monster… Woods… Ran…"  Was all that George could gather from what the man was saying.  Rob put his arm up and pointed in the direction he came from, "…Mile…" 

"Somebody get help for Rob."  George said.  "Joe, you're coming with me." 

"What are we doing?"  Joe asked.

"Going to see if Tom is okay.  Come on."  George said, he had already started walking in the direction Rob pointed.  Joe followed without anymore question.  As George hit the tree's edge he thought to himself, why am I the superior?

Thankfully, the day was clear, which made travel in the woods easy.  George and Joe pressed on into the depths of the woods at a brisk pace; to run would expose oneself to the cold.  The woods was oddly quiet, as if it had witnessed what had happened to Tom and Rob and was in some way trying to reveal to George the seriousness of the situation.

"Probably just a bear."  Joe said, George noticed a tinge of nervousness to Joe's voice, as if he was the tiniest bit unsure of himself.

"Just keep an eye out."  George said.

The woods was covered in snow fallen from the day before, from ground to branch, George usually liked the look of the snowy woods, but found that he didn't on this venture.  The snow was giving the woods a sort of sentience, George noticed, as if the very trees were watching him and Joe press on.

"Look up ahead, George."  Joe pointed forward. 

George focused his attention to where Joe was pointing, "Oh my god."  George muttered when he saw the red stained into the white.  There was a tree blocking the full view of the scene, both George and Joe began to run closer.

Once around the tree, George slowed down due to what he saw.  Before him and Joe was Tom's body, leaning against a tree as if pressed there by force.  What was once Tom's stomach and intestines were littering the ground, a giant hole was left where they once were located within the man.  His right arm was barely hanging onto his body, perhaps only by a single tendon.  Blood was everywhere, but none of it led away from the sight.  George heard Joe throwing up beside him.

"What the f**k."  Joe squeezed out in between the vomiting.  "Holy s**t."

George went to get a closer look at Tom's body.  He noticed that the tree Tom was pressed up against had an indent from the man's body.  "Look at this, Joe."  George said.

"How are you being so nonchalant about this!?  He's f*****g ripped apart, George!"

George didn't know why he was being so calm, perhaps it was the supposed leader in him, but he didn’t care at that moment, "I don't know.  But something pressed him up so hard against this tree that it left an indent." 

"We need to go get someone."  Joe said.

"Yeah, let's go."  George responded.