Dennis dashed to the side, barely dodging the centipede's bite. 'Oh my gosh... i almost died!' He thought as he was still trying to process what just happened. He didn't have much time though because almost immediately, the giant centipede recovered and tried again. Dennis once again dashed to the side and barely avoided its next attack, then got up and ran away. 'Oh crap!, oh crap!' He kept repeating in his mind, as he desperately ran around the forest, slipping and sliding between the trees.
Dennis was already exhausted, this was the fastest he had ever ran, but even so, he had to keep moving. The centipede was still right behind his tail, flinging itself at him whenever there was an opening. Dennis evaded one more attack before hiding behind a tree, hoping to catch a breather. 'What do I do? What do I do?!, how can I run away from this thing?" He panicked. Without enough oxygen to support him, Dennis's thoughts were all over the place. In the end he was only given about 3 seconds to breathe before he met the centipede's gaze once again. 'Damn it!'
He was right back to running and dodging, hoping to outmaneuver the giant centipede. 'How do I lose this thing!' He thought as he was trying to come up with different ways to get rid of this monster. He had long discarded the crazy idea of trying to go toe to toe with it, as he was not only significantly smaller than the centipede, but he was also unarmed and had no experience in fighting... anything, let alone a creature that looked like it came straight out of someone's nightmare!
He tried to climb a tree, but the monster just crashed into it and knocked it over with ease. Dennis hit the ground with a thud, but luckily, Dennis wasn't high enough to sustain any real damage from the fall. He then picked up a large rock and threw it at the centipede...but he missed terribly. 'Damn it! Think! Think! Otherwise you'll die!'. Finally, after a lot of thinking, he came up with a plan, sort of. He dodged another attack from the giant centipede before running straight ahead. Then, once the creature started following him again, just inches away from him, he took a sharp turn at one of the trees, ran back towards the middle of the centipede's body and climbed over it, forcing it to turn around away from the tree and back to the rest of its body, which took more time than when Dennis was right in front of it.
'All right, finally some progress!' However, it still wasn't enough time to allow Dennis a complete escape. 'OK, let's try it again'. The centipede was now facing him again, staring him down. He dashed towards the rear end of its body this time, which would take the centipede even longer to switch directions and continue its hunt. He climbed over its body again, jumped forward,and ran away with whatever little energy he had left. He ran even faster than he had before,relying on adrenaline to save his life. He did not look back, he didn't even think, he didn't even Breathe!, he couldn't, his body was running too fast for even his brain to adapt, let alone his lungs. He slipped and slid through the trees, constantly changing his direction in an attempt to lose the monster chasing after him.
***
After a while, he stopped hearing noises. He glanced back, and saw nothing but trees and his footprints. He did it, he lost the giant centipede. 'Finally lost him!'. He kept on running until eventually, he slipped. He fell face first on the hard dirt ground, his nose was now leaking blood. 'Aah!' He grunted, then, it happened. All at once, the results of his confrontation with the centipede hit him like a ton of bricks. He couldn't move, his chest felt heavy, as if he were being crushed by something, a burning sensation took over his lungs, as if they were about to explode, not to mention the throbbing pain he felt all over his body.
Its no secret that Dennis had used every last bit of his physical ability and more to escape the giant centipede, he had ran faster than his body should've allowed him to for over two minutes, the number of times he fell to the ground took a massive toll on his body and not to mention, he did all this without breathing, apart from the 3 seconds he had at the beginning.
He now layed on the ground, effectively paralyzed, with his body in a world of hurt, gasping for air. 'Get up!', he screeched , his voice barely able to produce a sound. 'Come on!... breathe,BREATHE!', he tried urging himself, but the pain in his chest was too much for him to bear, and every breath he took made his lungs feel like they were going to pop . His mind was now hazy, and everything looked blurry, almost as if he was losing consciousness. 'No...Breeeeaathe!'. This time he tried to force the air in, taking deep, exaggerated breaths, pushing it out quickly, then pulling it back in. He didnt care about the pain anymore, no matter how badly it made him think of just giving up.
And it worked...kind of. More air was being inhaled than before, but because his breathing was not controlled, and because he was breathing too quickly, it would still take him a considerably long time to control his breathing, which he didn't have as the giant centipede was still roaming around, as well as other creatures which he was yet to encounter.
'Come on, get up! If you stay here lying like this, that thing is gonna find you again! or worse!', he grunted internally, trying to pull himself up, in which he was successful, but with another loud grunt, he quickly went crashing right back into the ground. "Sh**, my leg!". Dennis reached for his right leg, which was now sprained from his earlier fall. With his legs now unable to support him, he had only one option of movement left, crawling.
He dragged his body along the ground, desperately looking for somewhere to spend the night. He didn't travel far though, as he quickly got tired again, now facing the consequences for his half-hearted rest period. This time he dragged himself up, getting support from a nearby tree. once upright against the tree, he ripped off one of its branches and used it as a makeshift crutch, then continued moving.
The branch was relatively thin considering the size of the other branches on that tree, but for Dennis, it was just the right size, thin enough to hold in his hand, but thick enough to be somewhat durable. Plus, it had a sharp end, which could come in handy if he ever encountered another monster. Well, that's if he's brave enough to actually try and fight it.
He walked around the dark, quiet forest, his pace inconsistent as he was unsure of whether to hurry up and find something, or slow down and be as quiet as possible in case there was something hiding in the red darkness. After a bit of careful, nervous strolling, he finally found something. 'A cave, perfect!' he exclaimed in his mind, 'But... there might be something inside. Argh! but I'm really tired though, and my body hurts so bad'. After a few seconds of evaluation in his mind, he finally reached a conclusion,
'Okay, let's just sleep here for the night. I'll sleep close to the entrance of the cave in case there is something in here. If there is, hopefully I'll have enough time to get away, and if I can't, well...I'll just have to fight it, I mean, this stick is pretty strong and sharp so I will at least be able to do some damage...right?' Honestly, his plan wasn't the best, in fact there was way too much at risk for just a good night's sleep, but his brain was too tired to even consider that. 'I'll leave as soon as the sun sets' he promised himself, fully confident that he could resist the pleasures of sleep.
And so, he finally limped towards the entrance of the cave and lied down on the dirt floor, resting his head on his arms. The cave was very dark and he couldn't see anything past the entrance. He put his stick down next to him for some added protection, and even hid behind some of the boulders inside the cave. And not too long after, he fell asleep, ending his first night in his new environment.