Cracked Flash
Fiction
The Seige
300 words
300 words
by Alana Dill
@alanapaints on
Twitter &
Instagram
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“I hate it. I wish
it would stop.” Sarah watched through a chink in the second-floor
shutters. They'd barricaded the stairs. “Goats climb, right?”
On the bed, her
guide, Jeb, opened his eyes with effort. Smeared blood had glued his
lashes together. “Yeah.” The deer attack had left him woozy and
weak.
“We're surrounded.
Deer, raccoons... a wolverine?” She wondered if they could
climb the cabin's exterior walls.
“They can't climb
up to the second story.”
“Bears can.”
“Just a SlimJim
and a banana.” She turned to him. “How are we gonna get out of
this alive?”
“Someone will come
looking,” he said. Both doubted that.
•••
They'd awoken to
sudden, deep snow. A last few leaves had fallen atop the drifts,
leaving red-orange puddles on the white forest floor, like too-fresh
blood.
He'd opened the
SUV's hood to find an incinerated raccoon. It had chewed through the
battery cable.
The animals had
chased them back inside.
•••
•••
He said, “I
shouldn't have left the buck strapped to the roof overnight.”
“This isn't normal
animal behavior.”
“Nope.”
In the distance,
coyotes squealed, drawing closer.
She shivered, “What are we gonna do?”
She shivered, “What are we gonna do?”
“Can you climb up
to the roof? Write 'HELP'
on it with kindling sticks?”
“The roof.”
“Yeah. Maybe a
passing small plane or helicopter...”
“We're miles from nowhere and there's another storm coming in.”
“We're miles from nowhere and there's another storm coming in.”
“So hurry.”
___
Sarah climbed out the window onto the porch roof, then climbed up on to the main roof. Jeb handed sticks up to her. She was halfway through E when a distant rushing sound caught her ear. The black tree branches swayed at their tips, swarming from every direction, a furry, terrifying rumor approaching all around them.
She screamed.
___
Sarah climbed out the window onto the porch roof, then climbed up on to the main roof. Jeb handed sticks up to her. She was halfway through E when a distant rushing sound caught her ear. The black tree branches swayed at their tips, swarming from every direction, a furry, terrifying rumor approaching all around them.
She screamed.
Squirrels.
