Ravenous

by West, Terry M.

  “We gotta do something!” she cried. “We can’t let that little one get hurt!”

  “I got it!” said Brax. He looked at Druid and grinned. “Druid… make me big.”

  Druid rubbed his temples, an expression of perpetual frustration seizing his face. “Brax, I already told you; that would be a childish and selfish abuse of my powers, not to mention…”

  “No, no, no!” He cast Ferrez a quick, sheepish grin. “I don’t mean that. I mean; make me big.”

  Druid grinned as comprehension dawned. “Oh! Now that I can do.”

  He thrust his hand, palm-outwards, at Brax, and concentrated. Brax shuddered, every muscle in his body tingling, his flesh rippling as the very molecules of his being grew in size. In seconds he towered over every house on the block.

  “Ferrez!” he said, his voice a rumbling boom. “The only way to kill this thing is to destroy Catscratch’s book! Do you think you can find the bastard?”

  Ferrez nodded. “I could smell his corrupted stink from a mile away.”

  “Good.” His huge face broke into a wild grin that was bigger than the moon. “I’ll stay here and fight the beast.”

  Ferrez turned and ran in the opposite direction; the only time Brax had ever seen her run from a fight. Although, in fairness, she was running towards another one.

  Brax stepped between the Car Nex and the cowering little girl. “Listen up, Cloverfield,” he growled. “You wanna get to this tasty little morsel, you gotta go through me!”

  Red eyes brimming with hatred, the Car Nex zoomed towards the gargantuan warrior. Brax met the beast head-on, grappling with the whirling fiend. The Car Nex was now significantly smaller than Brax, but it was still a fiery bastard; it took every ounce of agility and strength in Brax’s possession to maintain his grip on the monster’s shapeless form. Groaning with the effort, he hauled the mammoth beast into the air and flung it against a nearby brownstone, showering the street with chunks of broken bricks and mortar. Flailing like a cat tossed into a swimming pool, the Car Nex scrabbled to its feet and rushed at Brax once more. This time, he wasn’t quick enough to stop its teeth from slicing into his shoulder. He cried out as blood trickled down his steel arm.

  “I’m not losing this arm again, bitch!” he snarled, and raised his left fist for a punch that sent the Car Nex sprawling across the road.

  The Car Nex bounced back again and shook itself off. Brax drew his broadswords, each now the size of a streetlamp, and waited for the beast to come.

  ***

  Down on the ground, Druid and Callahan watched the dueling giants with disbelieving eyes.

  “I’ve seen some crazy shit in my time, y’know, kid,” said Callahan. “But this… this just ain’t right.”

  Druid sighed. “Tell me about it.”

  Brax swung his humongous swords at the oncoming beast – clang, clang, clang! The blades rebounded every time, only momentarily slowing the monster in its tracks. Seizing a brief pause between vicious blows, the Car Nex lunged at Brax, knocking him onto his back with an earth-shaking boom. The monster hovered over Brax’s prone figure, priming itself for the killing strike, when Brax’s booted feet caught it square in the centre of its formless body, knocking it through several buildings and a rusted bronze statue of a bewigged man holding aloft a moss-covered scroll. Brax leapt to his feet and raced after the temporarily frazzled creature.

  “Shit!” Druid sprinted after the disappearing giant. “Come on, we gotta catch up!”

  “Why?” said Callahan “What can we do to help?”

  “A visual link is crucial to upholding the spell!” he explained. “If I can’t see Brax, the spell wears off and he’s back to the comparatively tiny six-foot-seven he’s always been!”

  “Shit!” Callahan rushed over to the little girl, who was sitting on the grass and staring vacantly into space. “Come on, sweetie, we gotta go.” She let him grab her pudgy hand and he hauled her, not ungently, to her feet.

  Together they ran across the street, dodging large chunks of brickwork and the occasional smashed piece of furniture. People were lining the sidewalks, watching the spectacle with gawping mouths, their hands drawn protectively around their children’s shoulders.

  “So much for S.H.A.D.O.W’s usual policy of absolute discretion, huh?” Druid called over the deafening roar of the world exploding all around them. “This has gotta be going viral as we speak!”

  “We’ll come up with some official excuse to give the public,” Callahan shrugged, dragging the unspeaking girl behind him. “Something about uncontained gas leaks, I expect.”

  “Yeah, that’s what they said about Godzilla,” Druid muttered.

  “You know that was just a movie, right?”

  “Duh, I’m not stupid.”

  “Bigfoot, on the other hand.” Callahan let out a low whistle, a tiny smirk playing in the corner of his mouth. “Now that’s a different story.”

  “Wait, what? Bigfoot’s real?” It was too late, Callahan was already rushing ahead. He was fast for a seriously wounded man. “Callahan, wait, come back! Bigfoot’s real?”

  ***

  Ferrez’s splashing feet echoed around the hollow, underground chamber, a fine spray of filthy water kicking up behind her as she ran. He’s down here, I can sense it. The sour-black stink of his corrupted presence mingles foully with the suffocating stench of human waste. The tunnel shook with the force of a monumental blow from above. Ancient dust filtered down from the lichen-spotted ceiling and a family of bats, startled from their napping, squealed and fluttered away down the tunnel, the leathery rustle of their wings ricocheting off the grimy stone walls. The sewers. A place for all of God’s dank, bottom-feeding creatures. I bet Catscratch finds himself right at home.

  Shitty water seeped into her boots, slipping and squelching between her toes, but she didn’t pay it a mind. She had thoughts only for Catscratch. When she found that no-good shit-weed, she wasn’t gonna stop at just killin’ ‘im; she was gonna go Humpty Dumpty on his ass. When she was done with him, there’d be no piecin’ him back together again.

  She paused, the steady trickling of dank water the only sound in the shadow-stricken labyrinth. Something wafted gently against her nose. The faint but cloying stench of rotten, fly-blown meat.

  Catscratch! He’s close!

  An instant later, a fist crunched into the left side of her jaw with the stunning impact of a stone-mason’s hammer. She reeled backwards, slapping the mossy wall to keep her footing. Before she could shake the ringing from her pounding skull, a second fist shot into her belly, forcing all the air from her lungs and crumpling her like an empty potato sack. Her skull smacked the slippery floor-tiles with a blinding crack and she lay still, blinking brilliant spots of light from her swimming vision.

  “Well lookit what we got here!” Catscratch crowed, human slop sucking at his steel-capped boots as he stepped into view. “The sewer-rat caught himself a scuttling dung-beetle! And what’s this?” He made an exaggerated show of gazing all around the sewer, lidless eyes bulging obscenely with mock disbelief. “No musclebound warriors or teenage sorcerers here to help you?”

  “They were busy,” Ferrez grunted, propping herself up on one elbow.

  “Up-bup-bup!” Catscratch tutted, pointing a gnarled finger at Ferrez’s prone body. “I’d stay down if I was you.”

  A sudden, crushing weight pressed down on her chest with enough force to almost make mincemeat of her. She choked for air, hearing the brittle, twig-like snapping sounds as several of her ribs shattered.

  “That’s a good girl. Now, I should probably be thanking you.” He grinned, narrow fingers of milky moonlight from a sewage grate overhead casting an eerie pattern of bone-pale stripes across his hideous face. “I gotta say, I ain’t had this much fun since the old days! Watchin’ you and your dumb-fuck friends runnin’ around while me an’ my new pet wreaked some serious havoc has been the highlight of my… what is it now… my third life?” He let out a dumbfounded snort. “Hot damn
, I’m gettin’ old.”

  Ferrez wheezed as the immense pain squeezed every last puff of air from her body. Her vision was fading white at the edges, her every aching bone trembling with the strain. Still, her hand crept discreetly towards the Springfield rifle in her belt, her fingers twitching with the effort of rebelling against Catscratch’s dark magic.

  “You should know, Anthea,” Catscratch went on, an ingratiatingly smug smile seizing hold of his perverted features. “The only way to end the reign of the Car Nex is to exterminate the one who summoned it. And that, my dear, would be me.”

  “I was countin’ on it,” Ferrez gasped, and she jerked the Springfield from her belt, clutched it to her chest and let loose three rounds before Catscratch had time to blink. Three slugs slammed into his chest, releasing three puffs of black dust. Catscratch threw back his head and laughed.

  “What part of ‘unkillable, all-powerful sorcerer’ don’tcha understand?” he jeered. With a flick of his wrist, the rifle flew from her hand and smashed into a million pieces against the stone wall. “Y’know, it was your capriciousness that I found so enticing in those early days. But now… you’re just so damn predictable!”

  He waved his hand and Ferrez’s trousers were yanked down her waist, becoming wedged between her rump and the slimy ground. In another second, her kicking legs were hoisted into the air and the trousers were tugged loose, baring her smooth, dark skin from the hollow curve of her hips to the tips of her toes. She struggled in vain to free her arms, but they were pinned to the ground by Catscratch’s evil power.

  “You silly goddamn bitch, Anthea,” her father sighed, the disappointment in his voice cutting deeper than his words. “You’re fucked now, ain’tcha?”

  Catscratch’s soulless black eyeballs held nothing of delight; no glimmer of glee, no sparkle of anticipation. They were empty, cold and staring. The eyes of a dead man.

  “I’m gonna fuck you now, Anthea,” he said simply, staring at the thatch of wispy black coils between her legs. “I’m gonna fuck you in the shit and the filth, ‘cause that’s all y’are to me. Nothin’ but shit.”

  He took a step forwards, pastel light from the pallid moon rippling across his nauseating features, and Ferrez opened her mouth to scream.

  ***

  The stunned crowd gasped as Brax’s giant robot fist slammed down on top of the Car Nex’s head, knocking the ferocious beast to the floor. A moment later, a collective shout went out as the Car Nex sprang back to its feet and swept Brax’s legs out from under him.

  “You really think they’re gonna buy that whole gas leak thing?” said Druid, twisting around to gaze at the entranced mob behind them.

  “Probably not,” Callahan replied, giving the little girl’s hand a comforting squeeze. “Maybe we’ll say we were filming one of those big-budget action blockbusters.”

  “Yeah, but that stuff is usually performed in front of a green screen in a movie studio,” Druid pointed out.

  “Pfft, people will believe anything they read in Entertainment Weekly.”

  Something, a faint noise, caught Druid’s attention. He took a step forward, his eyes narrowed, peering around for the source.

  “Everything alright, Druid?” asked Callahan.

  He took a moment before answering. “Thought I heard something. Must’ve been my imagination.” Then he heard it again. Yes, it was definitely a scream. A woman’s scream. His eyes were drawn to an iron sewage grate embedded in the road, directly beneath Brax’s enormous feet. “Holy shit, it’s Ferrez!” he blurted. “She’s down there! She needs help!”

  ***

  Brax squinted, rivers of sweat stinging his aching eyeballs. It’s just you and me, big fella. The Car Nex rushed at him like a charging bull. Brax dodged to the side and the wild beast crashed into the glass and steel-fronted shopping mall with a ringing explosion like a thousand smashed dishes, scattering the Italian restaurant’s dining tables across the road like thrown dice.

  “They say you can never be killed,” he muttered aloud, striking the beast with a blow that shook his arm from wrist to shoulder. If he was honest with himself, he was starting to get tired, and it was making him slow. “Well they said I would never fuck King Darnikoff’s daughter, but I proved ‘em wrong about that!” He swung his second blade at the monster, earning a shriek that was more of annoyance than pain.

  He couldn’t do this much longer. He hated to admit it, but his strength was draining rapidly and the Car Nex was only growing faster and more powerful with every passing moment. If he failed to vanquish the monster, his fellow Face-Punchers would be dead. That little girl would be dead. The whole world would be dead.

  Bugger the world! Ten more minutes of this and I’ll be dead too!

  Unexpectedly, a tiny figure separated from the crowd and ran towards him. He recognized it immediately as Druid, waving his skinny arms over his head like an aircraft signalman directing a plane to land. Brax’s brow furrowed with confusion. What the fuck’s he want? Can’t he see I’m busy over here?

  “The sewers!” Druid screamed at the top of his lungs, stabbing a finger at an iron grating in the road. “Catscratch is down there! You can end this! End it now!”

  Slowly, groggily, understanding bloomed in Brax’s frazzled brain. Grinning, he gave Druid a wink. Got it. The Car Nex, roiling like a tempest, flew towards its blonde-haired opponent. Brax squatted and met the full force of the deadly beast with his steel arm, pushing the thrashing creature into the air and tossing it over his head. It landed with an earth-rumbling boom right on top of the grate Druid had pointed out.

  “Do something, Druid!” Brax roared.

  With intense concentration, Druid waved his right hand in the air, uprooting a nearby streetlamp from the sidewalk with a crack of ruptured concrete and sending it rattling across the street to wrap around the Car Nex’s kicking legs like a cuff. The Car Nex roared and writhed with the humiliation of its entrapment, its rancorous teeth gnashing like an ensnared shark’s. Dropping to one knee, Brax ripped open the front of his silken shirt, revealing the enormous, humming steel cannon fixed into the centre of his broad chest. A blinding blue glow erupted from the biomechanical weapon and Brax let out an agonized roar as a payload the size of a sofa exploded from his chest and smashed into the ground, shattering the road beneath the Car Nex’s twisting body.

  ***

  Ferrez screamed, her body pinned to the ground, her legs thrown out wide as though held in place by invisible stirrups.

  “Hush, girl,” her father scolded. “You gonna give that son-of-a-whore the satisfaction of hearin’ you scream?”

  She clamped her mouth shut as Catscratch reached out for her, his dark eyes brimming with merciless hunger. There was a thunderous crash from above, followed by a boom like the world exploding. Catscratch glanced upwards as the ceiling began to tremble and crack.

  “What in tarnation…?” he muttered.

  The roof of the tunnel burst inwards and the Car Nex, scrabbling and clawing like a spider sucked down a plughole, plummeted down into the sewer. Catscratch’s bellowing scream of rage and frustration was abruptly cut short when he was crushed beneath ten tons of falling rubble and the monstrous bulk of the enraged carnivore. Then, with the death of its summoner, the Car Nex vanished as though it had never been, leaving Ferrez alone in the tunnel with a gigantic mound of smoking wreckage and no trousers.

  ***

  Brax emerged from the enormous crater in the road, normal-sized and covered in a patchwork of cuts, bite-marks and smudge-like bruises, his blonde hair streaming in the nighttime breeze, Ferrez flung over his shoulder like a rolled-up carpet. Her head was still spinning from the events of the past fifteen minutes, but she still had the presence of mind to be thankful that Brax had put her pants back on before dragging her out of the tunnel. As soon as they reached even land, Ferrez struggled free of Brax’s iron-like grip and pushed him away. She was Anthea Ferrez, goddammit. She didn’t need anyone to hold her up.

  The stree
t looked like a warzone. Charred lumps of furniture, smoldering bricks and smashed roof-tiles littered the earth like confetti after a parade. Clutches of confused pedestrians wandered the streets like homeless vagrants, gazing at the rubble with shell-shocked eyes or mourning over lost possessions. Callahan was ushering them away from the scene with a friendly, confident smile.

  “Thanks for sticking around for the filming of Battle of the Gargantuans, folks!” she heard him say. “That’s right, you’re all gonna be in the movie! Visual effects today, you can’t beat ‘em!”

  Ferrez looked past him and saw Druid picking his way through the drifting civilians. She desperately needed to collapse; every ounce of life had been sucked from her being. Druid, weaving around an upturned vehicle, ran towards her and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her as tight as he could without hurting her injured body.

  She let him hug her. The part of her that had always dismissed the need for companionship had been cut off for the moment, buried deep by the events that had nearly transpired down in the sewer. Despite her staunch disregard for the advances of men, she had to admit that she liked the feeling of his arms around her, comforting her.

  “Thank god you’re ok,” Druid whispered in her ear. “I thought we were gonna lose you.”

  “I ain’t goin’ nowhere,” she mumbled into the warmth of his shoulder. “You?”

  He shook his head. “Never.”

  “Guys!” shouted Callahan’s voice. They turned to see the agent approaching them hurriedly, his face drawn with concern.

  “Where’s the girl?” asked Ferrez, glancing around, her eyes suddenly wide with panic.

  “She’s alright,” he assured her. “I already had her sent to S.H.A.D.O.W’s Civilian Coordination Department. They’ll find out if she has any other relatives in the area.” He winced and clutched his chest wound with a white-knuckled fist.