Grabbing Armstrong’s pictures I shot to the door. I could peer out the round foggy window.
It looked exactly like the photos. We pulled with all of our might to open that door and we
eventually did. I felt overjoyed as I wandered around this exquisite place. Bean came bouncing
out with a thrilled expression that I could relate to. Our time was nearly up so I cast my eyes in
the distance; I couldn’t have seen it could I? A Takhi?
“Alan? Do you know what a Tak-“ I could not have finished, I froze like a wicked witch had
turned me to stone. Only my brain was working, a snow leopard had flashed before our eyes. It
had the kind of teeth that you see on Dracula; it had paper white fur with charcoal spots dotted
around. The two colours clashed with his grey cloudy eyes that match with the rocks behind. His
paws flopped forward on the unstable rocks below, it was truly terrifying. My first reaction was to
run, and run I did.
The ferocious, ghastly smelling beast was chasing us now. It bounced up but missed me by
an inch or two. Though when it took a leap for the second time, it shred a colossal gap through
my last hope to survive, my oxygen tank. I stood there flabbergasted at what had just happened.
My legs stopped running, my eye stopped blinking, and soon my heart would stop beating. Anger
struck every place in my body. I hate that leopard-cat-thing, I hate where I am, I hate that I
wanted to risk my life to come here anyway. Now I will die, and Philadelphia and my family will
be in mourning. I wanted a camera to be on me right this instant to say something to the world.
I was losing air, I could do nothing but inhale! I was still alive, my heart still beating; somehow
there was oxygen that I could breath, on Earth I took this stuff for granted. Only then did I really
know where I was. My daughter and my wife came here with me on a summer holiday once. I was
somewhere in the Gobi Desert.
