Ten Open Graves: A Collection of Supernatural Horror
Page 212
Not a Rattletail. A humanoid shape.
“Alive,” said a gruff, feminine voice.
Kenyon tried to push himself up, but a spear tip poked his chest, holding him in place.
“Truck man enemy,” the woman said. There was no inflection, but he thought she was asking a question.
He leaned to the side and viewed his interrogator, free of the sun’s glare. The face was long and feminine, sporting long, curled teeth that rose from the mouth and punctured holes in the cheeks. Her lean body was framed by a mane of wild hair that hung from her head and grew from her back.
She crouched over him, pushing the spear tip into his armor, snarling as she spoke again. “Truck man enemy.”
Kenyon grinned. “Yes. Truck man enemy. Hate truck man.”
The woman stood and withdrew the spear. “Kill truck man?”
Another question.
Kenyon sat up and wasn’t stopped this time. He rose to find himself at the center of a battlefield. Three large, hairy beasts lay dead and dying. Two male versions of the humanoid monster beside him were dead as well. And all four Rattletails, including the thirty-foot specimen. These ExoGen creatures had fought a life-and-death battle around his unconscious form, one side eager to consume him, the other something else. He saw that same primal hunger in the woman’s eyes, but something else. She hadn’t lost all of her humanity, or perhaps had simply regained some of it to survive. The result was an ExoGen with real emotions and complex thoughts, all leading to a desire he recognized as a mirror of his own heart.
“Revenge?” he asked.
The woman grinned, stabbing her face with her teeth. “Revenge. Kill truck man.”
“Kill them all,” he added.
The woman offered her long fingered, talon-tipped hand.
Kenyon accepted.
The End
If you enjoyed Famine, try Feast by Jeremy Robinson.
Jeremy Robinson is the international bestselling author of sixty novels and novellas, including Apocalypse Machine, Island 731, and SecondWorld, as well as the Jack Sigler thriller series and Project Nemesis, the highest selling, original (non-licensed) kaiju novel of all time. He’s known for mixing elements of science, history and mythology, which has earned him the #1 spot in Science Fiction and Action-Adventure, and secured him as the top creature feature author. Many of his novels have been adapted into comic books, optioned for film and TV, and translated into thirteen languages. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children.
Visit him at www.bewareofmonsters.com.
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