It sat. Head in the sand, finally awoken, it quickly pushed on the shell. Once, twice, and then once again, cracking open the egg, the baby turtle shut its eyes as it saw the shine of the sun and felt the heat of its rays landing on the sand. It saw others, just like itself, scurrying their way to the water. It quickly realized it must follow in order to survive. It saw another creature. This one is bigger. With a big shell on its face. Only it’s not a shell. It had hideous eyes and hideous claws and a hideous mouth and a hideous jaw. The creature reached out quickly and grabbed a different turtle, just like it was. The crab quickly took it back to its burrow. Fear struck the turtle. There were more and more of these hideous creatures coming up. It must get to the water. Fear in its heart and heat swarming throughout, the turtle rushed to the water. With every step he felt the bottoms of his feet touch each singular grain of burning sand on the ground as it pushed off again just to fall back down. It kept going, denying the need to turn around to see what destruction had been caused. It smelled of salty water as it managed to get closer and closer to shore. It felt its head throb from the fear of the hideous creatures. It rushed around every one of them that arose from the beige desert. It reached. Its journey was over. It turned around to see most of its fellow turtles gone. It felt its heart slowly stop pounding and let its shell rest effortlessly on its back. The cool water hit the side of its legs and pushed against them. It was cold but felt like some sort of warmth. It felt the wet sand underneath its feet that slowly sliped away as the water went back down. The sun continued to shine rays on its face as it stared at the horror that could have been it’s fate. It smelled the salty air again, but crisper this time. With the strength of the wind and the look of all the creatures it would never have to see again, the water came back onto shore, this time faster, brushing its entire body in water and pulling it into the vast, endless sea. It was free. They never got a chance.