Writing Prompt Series 1 - Rich Dreams

(Author's note: I have a "Complete the Story" book that has a whole bunch of writing prompts and I expect to use every one.) 

     At first, we thought the black liquid was oil, that we'd struck and that we'd be able to retired and live in leisure. We actually started writing down all the ways we'd spend the money. Our first choice was....

.... to buy our favorite saloon. We'd been going there for more than five years while out on this excavation. It was always filled with thrills and excitement, not to mention the madams' there were pretty nice too. It was a long journey to get to this point. After finally witnessing it, it didn't feel real. We laughed and looked at ourselves. We talked about how we were gonna buy fancy new clothes like them rich folk wear in town and ditch the mud covered boots and dusted shirts. I sat down and Atkin sat with me. We relaxed. We weren't in any hurry. We worked hard and it paid it's due. Atkin took his hat off and laid it on the ground next to him. He let out a sigh of relief. I looked down at his hat laying in the dust as the ooze flowed towards it. It was thick and slow. The occasional air bubble popped out. Neither of us have seen oil in person before. We still used horses. We knew these machines would replace horses in no time. We have seen the efficiency of them passing by the city.

     "Atkin you might wanna move your hat", I said to him to exhausted to move it for him.

     "Nah, that ol' thing has had its day. I'm gonna toss it out and get a brand new one", He said to me with a smile on his face. 

     We didn't know it then, but that could have been the difference in our happiness. If we moved the hat maybe we would have never learned what it was. We could have sold it and became rich just like we intended to. It would have been someone else's problem. It all changed when that thick black ooze touched the hat. Unlike itself the ooze bubbled rapidly when touching the hat almost making its mass bigger by the second. It started covering the hat whole. Eating it. That's the only way I could describe it. It was consuming the hat whole. Me and Atkin jumped back in disbelief. 

    "Does oil do that, Malcolm?" Atkin said to me. 

    " I ain't seen anything like that", I told him. We start backing away slowly. After the ooze finished the hat it's mass stayed larger and it propelled itself at us faster than it had ever moved. Not like it was fast, but it wasn't the same molasses speed it was before. It was more like honey in how it moved. The color was the same dark black it was before. It looked as if it was moving towards us. I take my pickaxe off the ground and slam it into the liquid. It was no use as the ooze ate the axe in a matter of seconds. The ooze was the size of a dog and moved as fast as thick blood. We ran away from it as fast as possible. The speed of the ooze was frightening. Atkin tried to mount his horse as did I. The ooze bubbled around the horses ankle apparently causing some pain to the horse. It arched back and Atkin rolled into the mass of ooze. It started bubbling around him. I jumped off my horse and tried to grab him. His screams were loud. He was fighting to get up. I reached out a hand to him and started pulling him out until his body went lifeless. I was pulling so hard I didn't notice the tar-like substance on my hand. I let go and tried to thrust myself away. I could't pull away. it started bubbling on me. I felt like chunks of me started disappearing. Every bubble that popped on me was more of me disintegrated. The pain was unreal. I quickly take my machete of my back and slash it down on my arm severing it. I screamed as I did it. I didn't have time to feel the pain. I didn't have time to care. I ran. My horse was long gone by the commotion. His horse was half eaten in the puddle. The bubbles still popping on it. Before turning around and running I saw Atkin. Not actually him. The ooze pretended to be him. I saw his face smile wearing his hat but instead of skin it was the tar. Pitch black making it hard to tell for certain if it was imitating Atkin. I didn't care I ran. I ran as far as I could. After about ten minutes of straight running I collapse. i felt light headed and dreary. The blood loss a major contributor to that. I lay there. I hear horse trots in the distance.