The Forsaken

tentacle. I’m thrown forward and lose my balance between the two mechanical monstrosities.
    I feel a vertiginous sensation of absolute liquid terror. My vision constricts like I’m looking through a tunnel.
    I’m about to be taken!
    I race sideways as fast as I can, letting myself be guided by instinct. I regain my footing and try to slip past the feelers, dodging them. But one of them lifts up and comes down hard to my left. I stumble and catch myself.
    “Help!” I scream.
    But no one hears me. I focus on a tree with a huge trunk and thick branches. It’s much larger than the other trees around me, and I race toward it, thinking I can take refuge there.
    As I run, the feelers keep plunging and swooping. Attacking. At any moment I expect their mechanical fronds to curl around my body and fling me upward into the sky. I zigzag, refusing them an angle of attack. I’m getting close to the huge tree now, just ten paces away, closing the gap quickly.
    Another tentacle comes down and slides under my foot as I’m stepping forward. It jerks me off balance, and this time I can’t recover. Before I can twist out of its grasp, it gets me around the ankle and throws me down.
    “No!” I scream as loudly as I can.
    I claw at the earth, its damp scent thick in my nostrils. My hands can’t find purchase on anything. I hammer at the dirt and grass with my feet, trying to get the thing off me. The feeler starts pulling me up. Other tentacles slam down next to me and begin curling around my limbs, writhing and bucking.
    I yank against them with all my strength, but I can’t make them budge. I hear myself screaming, sobbing like a crazy person. I kick and hit at the metal.
    Then I feel my body rising into the air.
    My hands grasp at tree branches, tearing off fistfuls of leaves.
    This is the end.
    I know that I’m about to die, but I don’t feel peaceful. My life doesn’t flash before my eyes. I just feel furious and terrified.
    “Get the hell off me!” I scream at the tentacles as I continue to rise. I’m four feet off the ground already. In a second, I’m going to get yanked all the way up above the clouds.
    Then I feel something crash into my lower torso, slamming me sideways into a tree trunk. I hit the tree so hard I almost lose consciousness. One of the tentacles around my waist loosens and uncurls. Something crashes into me again, scraping the skin off my left arm.
    Then the tentacles are gone, like they’re retracting into the sky as the feeler departs.
    And I’m falling . . .
    I plunge through branches and leaves, trying to get my hands around my head to protect myself.
    An instant later, I slam into the underbrush, and the breath explodes from my lungs. I choke for air, gasping. Everything goes numb from the impact. I can’t feel my arms or legs.
    I lie there, trying to figure out what happened. I wasn’t taken; I’ve been let go. But why? I try to move. Slowly the feeling starts coming back. I struggle to sit up, terrified the feelers are going to seek me out again.
    Then I realize that the feeler that grabbed me is still there. It’s just preoccupied because someone else is doing battle with it.
    Liam.
    He’s the one who rescued me. He must have thrown himself at it, not caring about his own life.
    He’s now wrestling the largest of the tentacles, using all his strength. Luckily, one of the feeler’s other tentacles has gotten trapped between two tree trunks, so it can’t get at him. The motors inside the tentacles whine as they go into overdrive. The noise from the feeler is nearly unbearable.
    Liam is yelling to the other hunters. They’re rushing over, including Gadya. I realize most of the feelers are gone now, except this one. The one that almost took me. I would have been the last person to get snatched.
    I manage to get to my knees, shaking. Liam saved me. The surviving hunters have reached him, and they’re attacking the feeler with everything they have—their entire arsenal of bows and spears, as well as their brute strength.
    I remember what Rika said about how they cut off part of a feeler once. This time it looks like they’re going to bring the whole machine down, and reveal the secret part that hovers above the clouds. They’re pulling at its tentacles, keeping it earthbound. I struggle toward them to help.
    But as I move, the tentacle that’s been stuck between the trunks finally gets loose. With a massive flailing motion it tears down the trees that were trapping it,