Superspeed has been one of the staple superpowers of comics, movies, and mythology. While true superspeed as depicted in media will forever stay in the realm of fiction, Dale Copper is the closest a man has ever come within reality. With a dexterity Number of 1074, Copper obtained a record 23 olympic gold medals across thirteen different events in both the winter and summer olympics. Nicknamed “Flash Dale”, his competitor and fellow gold medalist Eric Nbamba describes Copper as “The fastest there ever was, or will be.”

- Excerpt from “Extreme Numbers: Fact and Fiction”

About thirty minutes later, I come out of the woods back on to the road. I don't recognize the section of road I'm on, and I'm unsure of what direction I should head to find my wheelbarrow. I'm not too worried that I'll accidentally pass my wheelbarrow's hiding place, as it's roughly right between the bus and the location of my battle with the second dog-monster. The only problem is that I'm not sure which direction down the road I need to head to hit all three of those landmarks, and an incorrect choice could mean having to repeat my taunting game of tag with the tree-monster.

The road is relatively flat where I'm standing, but I can see it start to slope upwards off to my left in the distance. I left the right side of the road, and thinking about the "hill of death" and the hike I was on before this most recent series of crazy events, I don't recall going downhill at all for at least an hour before arriving at the bus. Which must mean I'm further up the road than the bus, and will have to backtrack a bit to find the wheelbarrow.

Crossing my fingers, I turn to face the hill, and with a sigh begin to jog.

Luckily, I chose correctly, and very quickly I encounter the section of the road with the bus. Only a few minutes later, and I'm pulling the wheelbarrow from its hiding place in a bush, and turn back around, feeling the strain in my legs. I'm exhausted, physically and mentally. I hiked all morning, fought a rabid dog-monster over lunch, found the dead bodies of my once classmates immediately afterward, escaped a tree-monster, and have been jogging ever since.

I don't know how much longer I can keep going today, but I know I have to push myself for at least ten more minutes. Once I'm away from the section of the road that the tree-monster will (presumably) come out on, I can take it easy. But until that time, I have to keep pushing myself.

I'm panting terribly by the time it happens, but I manage to make it past the bus and to the top of the hill. Dropping the handles, I rest my hands on my knees and gasp for air. I don't know if it's just my body's lack of Numbers or if I'm at a higher elevation here than back home, but I can't seem to catch my breath.

A minute later, when my breathing has slowed down to a more normal pace and I slowly stand back upright and look down the hill, I notice something move off to the right of the road at the base of the hill, about fifty meters ahead of me.

The tree-monster! I was hoping I would have at least ten minutes more, but apparently not having its prey sitting right in front of it causes it to move faster rather than slower.

Judging the distances, I quickly estimate my chances...I may have a shot. At least I think I do. But for it to work, I have to go NOW!

I pick up the handles of the wheelbarrow and break into a mad sprint down the hill, my earlier exhaustion all but forgotten in the wake of the adrenalin pouring through my veins. The wheelbarrow bounces madly as it rolls in front of me, each of my steps feeling more out-of-control than the last.

It seems that the monster senses me somehow, as it's branches being to wave frantically through the air and its pace picks up marginally. I'm not sure how, but it's almost as if it can tell what I've planned, and is actively trying to cut me off, rather than head straight towards me. That displays a level of intelligence I wouldn't expect it to have.

To be fair, I wouldn't expect ANY intelligence of a tree, but that it seems able to sense my plan and actively attempt to counter it is a worrying development. At this point, however, I'm moving too fast to easily stop. If I do bail out, I for sure won't be bringing my wheelbarrow with me.

It's either run past the tree-monster now, or repeat my two-hour long distraction maneuver through the forest to regain my supplies.

I grit my teeth, and speed up the beating pace of my feet ever so slightly.

It is close, oh, so very close. I sprint past, as far over to the left side of the road as I am able, just as the tallest limb in the tree comes swinging down to impact the ground next to me. A thin branch manages to get just enough distance to whip my forearm, and I cry out in pain, but have enough self-control to maintain my hold on the handles. As much as it hurt, it is nothing compared to the two-inch divot dug into the ground from where the thicker section of the branch impacted, which is what will happen to me if I trip up now.

But after a second, I am through, and begin to slow my mad sprint. I'm ahead of the tree-monster now, and in a fair race I could outrun it by crawling. Or out-crawl it. Whatever.

I slow into a walk, my lungs once again heaving. Looking behind me, the monster doesn't seem to be giving up. I snort. There is some sort of intelligence in the monster, but clearly not enough to know when it's been beat. I pace the monster for a few minutes, allowing myself to regain a measure of composure, before lengthening my stride once again. It's time to leave this monster in the dust.

I may have spoken too soon, I realize.

It's been five hours since I managed to just slip the tree-monster's grasp, and it's beginning to get dark. My muscles throb as I put my feet one in front of the other, carrying me forward through willpower alone. Willpower, and a desperate need to survive.

At first, I had managed to stay ahead of the monster easily enough, in fifteen minutes out-pacing it to such a degree that it disappeared into the distance behind me. An hour later, I settled down for a snack and a much needed rest.

After slurping down a surprisingly delicious can of beans and starting to prepare a bed of blankets for a quick nap, some sixth sense caused me to glance up the road, and I froze, seeing the monster inching its way towards me. I quickly packed up what little supplies I had scattered around me and resumed my trek.

Two hours later, I made a second attempt to make camp for the night, this time a hundred meters from the road. It took longer than it should have, but I managed to fight the wheelbarrow through the underbrush to a small clearing, where I sat quietly, peering through a clump of bushes towards the road, waiting for the tree-monster to pass.

I could have cried when it paused for less than a second at the place where I left the road, immediately turning and heading directly towards my hiding place. It took another thirty minutes of leading it in circles and then fighting with the wheelbarrow before I was back on the road, with the monster less than twenty meters behind me.

I consider my options now. I long ago left the tree-monster behind, but I've given up on actually being able to lose the monster entirely, at least as long as I stay on the road. I could abandon my wheelbarrow of supplies and head into the forest, but that feels very much like an option of last resort, for several reasons.

First, I am not optimistic about my chances to last another few days without many of my supplies. Sure, some of my supplies are likely extraneous, but I'd much rather have carried them unnecessarily all the way with me back to civilization than not have a shovel or other essential implement when some other insane beast-thing attacks me.

Second, I find it unlikely that I will be able to find the closest town simply by walking through the forest. My navigational skills are next to nothing. Sure, I know the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, but who knows what direction the town lies in? I'm currently heading south on a relatively straight section of the road, but a single bend in the road later on could mean I'm left spending the remainder of my short life exploring this seemingly infinite forest.

And finally, as it's getting darker, I begin to feel less and less inclined to walk back among the trees. I can't help but notice that, although the tree-monster doesn't look terribly similar to the surrounding normal trees, it doesn't look terribly dis-similar either. There were more than one of the dog-monsters, why can't there be many different tree-monsters? The thought of walking unsuspectingly under the boughs of the tree-monster make me shiver.

No, I'm definitely not abandoning my supplies and the road, at least until I have no other choice. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave very many options.

I can just keep walking, snatching forty winks here and there when I get far enough ahead so that it won't immediately catch up, always staying just ahead of it.

I can attempt to run for a few hours, hoping that if I get enough distance whatever motivates and allows the monster to track me will expire.

Or, I can fight.

S: 82 (+30)

D: 31 (+3)

W: 35 (+6)

I: 27 (+1)

C: 25

0