by Jonah Buck
She’d heard that noise before. In fact, she’d heard it for the first time only earlier today. Now, it seemed like a lifetime ago, but she remembered that noise from her ride on the snow tractor. It was the sound of the dragon creature flying.
This was not the time. If that thing was flying around over the crater, Denise wasn’t sure that they could use the cable car. The giant creature might very well attack and knock them right off the cords. It wouldn’t even have to spray their bodies with acid after that. The two of them would simply be a couple of red smears at the bottom of the crater if the cable car line snapped.
Fortunately, the creature wasn’t interested in hanging out around the exterior of the crater. Unfortunately, Denise learned where the dragon was planning to go because it crawled through the entrance to the cavern, scrambling right over their parked cable car in the process. The thrumming noise ceased as it landed on the wall and climbed sideways through the narrow gap until it was in the chamber with them.
Denise and Metrodora both froze. They were behind a particularly tall stack of boxes, mostly obscuring them from the entrance to the chamber. The gigantic creature apparently hadn’t noticed them yet. It must have heard the sound of the gunfire and come down to investigate.
Oh hell. Denise looked over her shoulder. A couple of the bug men were moving toward her at an alarming clip. She and Metrodora needed to get out of here. They’d leave the emergency supplies if they had to, but Denise really didn’t want to do that. They’d just have to come back for them later.
The creature moved across the floor of the chamber, picking its way between the aisles of crates and supplies. Sometimes, its tail would flick out and nearly tip a crate over with a loud thwack, or a foot would knock something else off balance. The monstrosity moved quickly but not without a certain delicacy.
For the first time, Denise could see the creature’s face. But for the head, the creature really did look like some sort of dinosaur. The similarities ended there, though. It had the same iridescent compound eyes as the smaller bug men. These eyes were huge though, larger than a basketball. They never blinked or showed any sort of expression. They were completely inhuman. If the eyes were the window into the soul, these were the sort of windows that birds accidentally flew straight into and snapped their necks.
While most of the body looked like some sort of oversized tyrannosaur, the mouth was another big difference. Like the smaller bug men, it didn’t have any jaws. There weren’t any cruel teeth to chomp and bite at prey, like a dinosaur. Instead, the creature had a lengthy, flaccid-looking proboscis. The proboscis flared out at the bottom a little, a bit like an oversized suction cup. Some sort of unpleasant-looking liquid dribbled from the end of the proboscis. Thick, ugly bristles sprouted around the creature’s head.
The monster’s compound eyes made it hard to tell where it was looking. Then Denise realized that it was looking more or less everywhere at once. Its exact visual acuity must not have been very good, though. It hadn’t spotted her peeking around the edge of the crates. Denise couldn’t begin to imagine how a creature with hundreds of different eyes viewed the world, but it was probably a bit like looking through a kaleidoscope. It would have trouble focusing on any one spot or object because its attention was diverted in a hundred different directions.
Two large, mostly translucent wings were attached to the creature’s back. On the ground, the wings were tucked tight against its armor. The nearly transparent material glimmered in the diffused light that reflected off the icy walls. Even though the wings were mostly clear, large, snaking veins and cartilaginous filaments ran through them in places, giving them some structure and definition. They looked like the wings of a fairy with syphilis.
If they were in here with only the hulking, dinosaur-like monster, she and Metrodora might have been able to sneak the crate of emergency supplies out to the cable car unnoticed simply by creeping around behind the crates and only moving at opportune times. However, they didn’t have the luxury of moving only at opportune times right now. There were still two more of the bug men approaching with their odd, juddering walk, and they were getting too close for comfort. In another few seconds, they’d be in range to start launching gobs of burning mucus at Denise and Metrodora.
Metrodora was standing very still, the crate of emergency supplies in her grasp apparently all but forgotten. Her eyes were glued to the gigantic, bristly abomination. Denise gave a quiet whistle to snap Metrodora’s attention back.
She readjusted her grip on the crate to free up one hand, and then she mimed a quick plan. It was simple enough. She jerked a thumb at the approaching bug men and then made her thumb and forefinger into a gun shape. Then, she gestured to herself and Metrodora and pointed to indicate that they would have to speed around the next corner fast. Metrodora’s lips thinned into a bloodless slit.
Denise set her end of the crate down and unshouldered the Nitro Express. She took one last glance at the dinosaur-bug making its way across the room. It still hadn’t given any indication that it knew where she or Metrodora were. In fact, it seemed to be proceeding toward the rubbish heap.
She suddenly realized that the garbage dump was in such disarray because the creature had been using it as a nest. The old food scraps and other organic material in there would provide plenty of food for a monster that wasn’t too choosy about what it ate. Bears and other omnivores could be a big problem around some landfills. This thing wasn’t so very different.
Before, she’d thought that the creature probably had some sort of den around Merovée Station. It had disappeared in this direction after attacking the snow tractor earlier. Now Denise was pretty sure she knew where the abomination made its home. She was standing right in the middle of it. It was relatively protected and it had ample food resources. This cavern was a veritable haven for a primeval monstrosity.
Leveling the elephant gun, Denise took aim at the closer of the two approaching bug men. She placed her sights on the easiest part of the target, right in its center of mass. The arthropodal figure showed no expression on its malformed face. Its compound eyes were so different from anything mammalian, that Denise wouldn’t have known how to read anything in them even if there was an expression.
The Nitro Express kicked Denise in the shoulder like a steel-toed boot. The first of the bug men all but blew apart, tumbling backward in a broken mass of tangled limbs. Viscera squirted across the ice in quivering heaps.
On the other side of the cavern, the dragon spun its head around. It knew they were in here with it now.
Denise swiveled the elephant gun around and blew the life out of the second bug man with another thunderous blast. She didn’t even bother to reload as she whipped around and grabbed her end of the emergency supplies crate and started lugging it as fast as she could. It was heavy and awkward, making it all but impossible to move quickly.
They needed to move quickly, though. There were more insect-like figures approaching from the direction of the trash heap, as well as a couple of slower ghouls. However, the bigger problem was the tyrannosaurus-sized behemoth lumbering across the room to investigate the noise from the elephant gun.
Puffing and shuffling, Denise and Metrodora managed to move past several rows of crates and then angle themselves down another aisle just as the creature reached their side of the cavern. Denise held her breath as the creature made it to where she had been standing in only a few loping strides. It stopped and seemed to sniff the air.
Denise held her breath as she waited to see what the beast would do next. If it found them, she wasn’t sure there was much she could do to prevent it from spraying hot acid on them and reducing their bones to sludge. She could hear the monster’s heavy, wet breathing, like the sort of noise that might come out of a backed-up gutter. Gooey liquid dripped from its proboscis as it moved. Stubby antenna twitched questioningly as the creature searched for the source of the loud noise.
Biting her lip, Denise watched as the creature lingered for another mome
nt. She stood as still as she could, wishing with all her might that the monster would continue on toward the trash heap as it originally intended. Don’t come this way. Don’t come this way. Don’t come this way. She hadn’t even reloaded the Nitro Express. She was afraid that the sound of mechanical parts in action or the jangling of brass in her pocket might alert the creature to their continued presence only a few short strides away.
Finally, after what seemed like a minor eternity, the monster turned the opposite direction. Its long tail swept over Denise and Metrodora, briefly casting a shadow over them. The creature had spotted the corpses of the two bug men and it went over to them, its tarsal claws clicking on the ice as it moved.
The monster’s proboscis patted the dead bodies as if frisking them for wallets. The lobes at the end of the proboscis left smears of mucus on the bodies wherever they touched. A second later, it unloaded a torrent of yellowish slime on the bodies. The corpses began to dissolve, melting into piles of sizzling lumps. It looked like someone had tried to make scrambled eggs and sausage only to give up halfway through the process.
Denise nodded to Metrodora, and they continued their shuffle toward the cable car platform. A couple of the undead ghouls had stopped and tried to eat the half-melted remains of the bug men. Their hands melted into meat jam as they tried to pick up the acid-covered chunks. One of them managed to stick a chunk of sizzling goo into his mouth, and his entire jaw started to soften and liquefy.
Denise still didn’t really understand the biology of these things. The slugs were dangerous all on their own. Once they curled up inside a human brain, they could hijack the central nervous system and pilot the corpse around, though. In such cold weather, where it would take a very long time for the bodies to rot, they could presumably drive the dead bodies around almost indefinitely. In warmer climes, the corpses would start to fester in due course. Here, they could probably wander around the ice for months or maybe years. The wind would strip the flesh from their bones before they started to decay properly. Even though they were impervious to pain, as evidenced by the man with the melting jaw, they weren’t in the least bit intelligent.
A couple of the bug men ignored the smorgasbord in favor of continuing after Denise and Metrodora. Denise moved as fast as she could, given the awkward load she was sharing. She didn’t want to stop to shoot. Another blast from the Nitro Express would only draw the attention of the bigger beast.
They reached the cable car platform and hustled up the short ramp. Wedging themselves through the open doors, Denise set the crate down and grabbed the cable car controls. Metrodora pulled the doors shut as the car started moving.
Apparently realizing that their prey was escaping, the two bug men sped up, lunging toward the cable car platform with their disturbing, twitchy movements. They almost looked like they were moving under a strobe light.
Denise had the car controls pushed as far as they would go, but they couldn’t move much faster than a brisk walk. The bug men reached the platform a few seconds after the car clanked and wheezed away down the icy entryway to the cavern.
A gob of acid appeared on the window as the nearest of the bug creatures spat after them. The glass made a strange sound, something like a tea kettle with a case of gas. A lot of steam appeared, and the section of glass covered with slime turned black and slightly pitted. It didn’t actually shatter, though. They were safe for now.
Breaking her Nitro Express open again, Denise fed two more shells into its hungry mouth. The weapon’s barrels were hot to the touch, and her ears still had a high-pitched ring. The elephant gun had served her well, though. She still regretted not getting Cornelia’s gun out of Delambre Station before the place was leveled, but hopefully, there was another weapon in the crate of emergency supplies. Denise wasn’t sure what kind of emergency the scientists had in mind when they prepared these crates, but obviously the worst-case scenario had come to fruition. She wanted to crack the crate open right now and check what was inside, but she needed a pry bar.
The front end of the cable car had just passed out of the ice tunnel and into the open when there was a thud from overhead. Denise looked up from the single crate they’d worked so hard to smuggle out. She was just in time to watch as the second bug man skittered across the wall of ice and took a flying leap at the cable car.
Smacking onto the side of the car, the creature reached out and managed to grab onto the side of the car with its claws. The other one was already on top of the car, scratching away at the metal and trying to find a way inside.
Cursing, Denise stumbled backward in surprise. She bumped up against the far wall, and the entire car swayed on its cable. The wind buffeted the compartment anew as it emerged from the cavern, sending the little car swaying even more.
The bug man spat another gob of slime onto the window. The glass made that awful noise again, like someone was dissecting live rodents, and the area became scorched and blackened. Rather than trying to spit through the glass again, the bug man punched a claw through the window and reached for Denise. Glass tinkled to the floor as the creature tried to pull itself inside the car, paying no attention to the sharp edges of the jagged glass. A gnarled claw reached out to grab them.
Denise had other plans. She raised the freshly loaded Nitro Express so the barrels touched the creature’s diseased-looking skin right between its compound eyes. “Sorry, this car is full.”
She pulled the trigger, and the creature flew off the side of the cable car. Denise leaned over just far enough to see the mangled body plummet through the air toward the bottom of the crater far, far below.
That just left their friend on the top of the car. The monster was still banging away at the metal, trying to dig its way inside. Denise pointed her Nitro Express upward, but she didn’t fire. Blasting the elephant gun straight upward might accidentally sever the cable they were riding on or damage the motor mechanism and leave them stranded in the air above the middle of the impact site. Neither option was exactly appealing.
Instead of firing, Denise took the Nitro Express and jabbed it upward like she was trying to tell some noisy upstairs neighbors to shut up by banging a broomstick against the ceiling. The mad scrabbling and thumping noises ceased for a second. Denise poked the barrels of the Nitro Express upward again a couple of feet to the left. There was a scraping sound as the bug man moved to follow the noise. The cable car swayed more violently.
Stepping over to the shattered window, Denise tapped on the roof of the car right next to the edge. A second later, an inhuman head poked over the side to look at them. Denise was waiting for it. She pointed the elephant gun straight at the misshapen head. Try as she might, she couldn’t think of anything pithy to say. She’d had something that sounded cool when she blew the first bug man off the car, but apparently, those opportunities had to arise naturally. Damn.
She pulled the trigger. A second later, the now headless insect creature slid off the side of the cable car and into the frosty abyss below. Denise reloaded the Nitro Express yet again. The adrenaline was still flowing through her body, making her movements shaky. The inside of the cable car smelled like spent gun smoke and old bile.
“Nice shooting,” Metrodora said.
“Thanks. It’s not exactly hard from this range, though. Pretty much fish in a barrel. Do you know how to shoot one of these?” She held up the Nitro Express.
“I’ve seen you do it enough times now to get the gist.”
“The basics are easy. You can open it up here to reload. The triggers are pretty obvious. The most important part is to make sure you’re holding it right. Like this.” Denise demonstrated. “Otherwise, it will do its level best to wrench your arm out of its socket when you fire. If I don’t make it, Cornelia is pretty good with a gun, too. But you should know the basics in case things don’t work out.”
“That’s a morbid thought.”
“Pretty much everything within a thousand miles in every direction wants to kill us. It inspires morbid thinking for s
ome strange reason.”
“You raise a good point.”
“I think we’re safe for a few minutes, though. Here, hold the gun for a minute so I can make sure you’re handling it right.” Denise handed the Nitro Express over.
“Like so?”
“Here. Let me adjust you a little.” Denise pushed the stock a little more into the proper position. “Alright. You’ve got it. Nothing will prepare you for the kick the first time you fire it, but that comes with experience. I don’t want to waste ammo while there’s nothing to fire at, though.”
“Uh…we’re about to have something to fire at,” Metrodora said, her gaze drifting off to something behind Denise.
“What?” Denise turned around to Metrodora was looking at.
Behind them, the monster crawled into view, pushing its way out of the ice tunnel. It spread its wings and beat them until they became a blur of movement. The noise of its flapping wings grew into a steady thrum as they built up remarkable speed. A second later, it was airborne and heading straight for the cable car. It must have heard the shots from the Nitro Express.
“Aw, crap,” Denise said.
FIFTEEN
MERDE
Denise snatched the Nitro Express back from Metrodora. Now was not the time for a lesson in marksmanship and weapons handling. She moved to the window and readied the weapon.
Maybe the monster couldn’t see them inside the cable car. Maybe it had more pressing matters it had to attend to. Maybe it would pass them right by.
Flying through the air, the creature reminded Denise of a dragon more than ever. It had tucked its legs tight against its body, and it flew with its long, flexible tail sticking out almost like a rudder. That position gave it a streamlined shape, almost like an elongated, sideways raindrop.
The creature started its flight slowly, gathering speed. Denise glanced the other way. The cable car was nearing the terminal back at Merovée Station. If they could just make it into the terminal and stop in the little bay at the platform, the oversize creature would have trouble reaching them.