The corn stopped moving.
“Piotr?” Ania called. She parted the stalks and peered along the rows but didn’t see him. “Son, where are you?”
Only then did Ania notice another hole at the far end of the horticultural habitat. “Josep. Come here. Hurry.”
When there was no answer, Ania turned.
Her husband was nowhere to be seen.
“Josep?” Ania started back.
A profound stillness prevailed.
An uneasy feeling came over her. She tried to swallow but her mouth was dry. Licking her lips, she shouted, “Josep? Where are you?”
Ania was almost past the wheat plot when she realized that stalks out in the middle were moving. Specifically, several swaths were bending in her direction.
“Josep!” Ania yelled, scared. She ran until the stairs were in view. So was a figure sprawled on the floor, and the strange things swarming over it. Sheer horror brought her lurching to a stop.
Hideous creatures were ripping her husband to pieces. Already they had torn through his EVA suit, his clothes, his flesh. Blood was everywhere. Worse, one of his attackers was pulling his intestines out of his abdomen. Another raised Josep’s dripping heart aloft.
Ania nearly swooned. She stumbled, regained her footing, and turned to flee. She would hide until the things were gone and report them to…
Several more had come out of the wheat and were scuttling toward her.
Ania screamed. She was still screaming when one of the creatures launched itself at her, still screaming when one of its limbs speared through her suit into her throat. Her scream became a gurgle.
Then more of them were on her.
Battlefield Mars is available from Amazon here
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Epilogue
1
2
3
Serengeti Page 30