What's Beyond the Gate

Just as planned, one hour later Leila was standing at the fence’s main gate. When she was little, before her father past away, he had told her that there were many terrible things beyond the fence and she should never go out there. For many years, she had seen men with guns explore the lands beyond the walls and they had always come back unharmed. Maybe it wasn’t so dangerous after all. She had to see for herself. She wasn’t planning to go far anyway.

Leila opened the gate and stepped beyond the fence for the first time in her life. Even though it was late at night, the land was illuminated by bright stars scattered across the sky, and Leila could see as far as the golden mountains that broke the horizon many miles away.

“I’ll explore close to the gate, just in case. This is going to be awesome!” Leila thought excitedly.

Less than a hundred yards from the gate, Leila found a weird ground formation near some rocks. She looked at it from a safe distance.

“What is this thing? It looks like a plant or a fungus. I don’t remember seeing it in the species catalog.”

Leila walked a little closer. The strange object was just a few inches tall and extended irregularly across the floor for several feet. It had a few holes scattered along the surface that seemed to go deep into the ground. There was a hole in the center that was bigger than the other ones.

“Wow! It looks really cool. Maybe this is a new species that no one had seen before and they’ll name it after me!” she thought.

Leila heard a noise behind her and turned her head, scared.

“What was that?” she said out loud.

While she tried to find the source of the noise, Leila hadn’t noticed the tentacle squirming her way. Sprouting from one of the plant’s small openings, the tentacle raced nearer, curved behind her and shot a dart strait into Leila’s neck.

“Ouch!”

Leila felt a painful sting on her neck. The little object pierced through her delicate skin and reached her blood stream. She felt the burning sensation quickly fade away as the world around her started to spin fast. The dizziness made her quiver.

“Oh, God! What is happening? I feel…”

She couldn’t finish the last word. Leila collapsed to the ground as the venom injected in her veins spread through her body. Strangely, just before she lost consciousness, she felt her nipples bloating.