Excerpt:

“Help!” she screamed again, tears filling her eyes and falling from her cheeks. She knew she was doomed, yet still she ran on, hoping foolishly that they would give up; that she would find her way home. She would lose hope soon enough, all the victims lost hope in the end, it was inevitable. Already she was tiring. Every step was more difficult than the last, her body accepting what her mind could not; that she would never make it home. She would die here, as had all the others, quickly, and with a lot of pain. The only thing stopping her from dying slowly of thirst and starvation was them, and like all who had been here before her, she would rather waste away slowly. That would be, by far, the least painful death. For even during death it wasn’t over, it would never be over.

“Somebody help me,” she whispered, falling to her knees and weeping uncontrollably. Tears fell from her cheeks, the only moisture to ever touch the parched ground below. Even blood couldn’t reach the earth here, not a drop was wasted.

She could hear wings beating above her, flapping slowly and strongly, as though counting down the time she had left. They had been flying above her for a long time, watching, waiting for her to give up. The end was near now, they knew it as well as she did, and they were already circling closer in anticipation.

Looking up at the sky, she began to shake, her fear increasing now she knew how close they were. “I didn’t want it to end like this!” she cried, her voice breaking as the sound of wings got closer, her hair moving with the artificial wind.

“Who say’s it ends here?” hissed someone behind her, a cold hand gripping her shoulder. A chorus of inhuman laughter started from above, and with a final cry of despair the girl collapsed, her eyes closing for what she hoped would be the last time. Closing to block out images too terrible to imagine, images of what would happen next.

Lying face down in the hard earth, she didn’t see them land beside her; didn’t recognise any of them as they surrounded her; didn’t see the cruel joy they all felt at finally capturing their prey. She didn’t witness any of this; all she felt was the agony and they drank their fill, draining her body of blood before she could even scream.