Casper took a gasping breath that seemed to get lost within him; he pressed back into the seat as if this was an adequate retreat. He couldn’t remember how to drive the Gator, how to jump out and flee, how even to scream. The bug moved almost as fast as the dogs, climbing the hill in a motion that seemed almost too fast to track. Casper dropped his hands to his sides and his fingers brushed the cold metal of one of his misplaced gun clips.
The bug was now just feet from the ATV. Casper ejected the spent clip from his pistol and pulled the full one from the folds of the seat. The bug jumped to the hood of the ATV. Casper secured the clip, aimed at the bug, pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.
In his haste he had forgotten to chamber a round. He pulled the slide and let it snap back into place. The bug was in the air with its claws extended and its fangs exposed. Its deadly tail arched up over its body. Casper extended his arm and just as the weight of creature pressed against the barrel of the pistol, he fired.
The force of the shot knocked the bug backward. It hit the ground in front of the ATV, scurried to its feet then started toward Casper again. Casper locked his good foot under the seat then stretched his body over the hood. His bad leg screamed in protest but he swallowed the pain long enough to draw a bead on the bug. He thought of Maggie, Tad, Beth and Lucy. He fired and this time his hands didn’t shake. The bug cartwheeled across the grass with every shot, but continued to right itself. Relentless, it continued to attack, even after its tail and claws had been blown away. Casper fired until the gun was empty and nothing remained of the creature except a quivering pulp.
Casper fell back into the seat and searched for the other clips, but there were no more. He scanned the grounds for more bugs, but he could detect no movement. The dogs stood near the shredded remains of the fourth creature, licking at each other’s wounds. King’s side was still bleeding and Sky had much of her left ear torn away. No blood was visible on Shadow’s black fur but she favored her rear left leg.
Casper drooped in the seat. The rush of panic dripped from him and his mind once again turned. Hadn’t there been two more men with Pummel? Where were they now? He looked toward the thin path at the rear of the property. The heat of the burning pole barn baked his face and the smoke dried his eyes. A series of whines caught his attention and he turned to see the trio of dogs looking up at him.
“Go find my family. Protect them, please.”
Shadow uttered a short grunt then turned and ran toward the path with King and Sky flanking her. Casper put the ATV in gear and followed. It would be a tight fit, but he would follow the dogs as long as he could.
* * *
“Go on,” Maggie screamed. “Get over the top.”
She turned on her toes, leaned over the edge of the large stone block on which she was perched, and fired her gun. She knew her shots had missed wide; the man her bullets were intended for was too well concealed in the large gaps between the slabs to get a good aim. She started up the blocks again, expecting at any moment for the man below to return fire, but he did not.
Patrick and the children topped the highest block and started at a run for the other side. She wanted to call to them, tell them to skip the cave and keep going, but she was out of breath. They had heard the gunshot. Surely Patrick knew that the cave was a death sentence.
Maggie topped the mountain of limestone. Her arms were jelly and her legs felt like flimsy pieces of superheated wire. Her chest burned as if she was drowning and the gun in her hand felt a hundred pounds. Still, she pushed to her feet and pressed on. She ran past the cave and from the mouth she caught a pungent and alien smell. Patrick and the children were standing just ahead and she started to scream for them to move. But as she opened her mouth, she saw the man before them, his machine gun held high.
“Whoa, that’s far enough,” the man said. “You can go ahead and toss that cap gun down there.” Maggie hesitated and the man pointed his machine gun at Tad.
Maggie tossed the gun toward the pond, but it clattered down onto the slabs and slipped into one of the deep cracks.
“Good girl,” he said. “You alright, Wexxel?”
The first man came walking up from behind. “I’m fine. She’s a terrible shot.”
Maggie stepped in close to her children and gathered them to her. It was a terrible catch-22. She had thrown the gun away because she didn’t want to see her children killed, but now that she was unarmed, that was most surely what was going to happen.
The two men stood near each other with their guns still pointed at the children. Their eyes were filled with a maniacal fire and the moonlight made their grins of pleasure ghoulish.
“What do you say,” the one named Wexxel said to the other man, “take them down and drown them in the pond?”
“That would be fun, but I don’t think we have time for that. It’s not going to be too long before the police come searching around here.”
Wexxel grimaced. “Damn, Coining, you sure know how to spoil a man’s good time.” He sighed. “Fine. Let’s just shoot them and toss them down that hole over there.”
The men brought their machine guns up, widened their stances, and their faces hardened like the limestone on which they stood. The children buried their faces in Maggie’s stomach just as Patrick valiantly stepped in front of them.
A strange noise, like a prehistoric bird chirping, rose like thunder from behind the men. Hearing it, Maggie’s skin broke out in goose bumps. Patrick gasped, wrapped his arm backward around her and the children, and began to press them backwards. Maggie glanced around Patrick’s hulking frame and what she saw pushed her mind to the edge of insanity.
A large space of air behind the men twisted and turned as if the mouth of the cave had belched out an intense heat. Then, from nowhere, there appeared a monstrous insect the size of a bear. Wexxel and Coining turned, their bodies flexed with fear. They brought their guns up to fire at the creature. The thing made an ear-popping chirp and everyone lurched as if the ground had suddenly shifted beneath them. The beast lashed out with its mantis-claw, ramming the razor point through Wexxel’s chest like a rapier.
In the movies, Wexxel would have screamed and clutched at the instrument of his death; in reality he simply dropped his gun and went limp. Coining turned on wobbling legs to run, but the thing whipped its tail high into the air and brought it down with a crushing blow to Coining’s head. The man tumbled to his side and the creature skewered him with the sharp barb on the end of its tail. It tossed the two dead men into the mouth of the cave and from deep within came another, even more menacing chirp.
The giant insect turned its attention toward Patrick, Maggie, and the children. Maggie felt the urge to run, but deep within she knew that the creature’s speed would easily outmatch their own. It snapped its claws together and brought its tail high as if to strike.
As Maggie prepared herself for the worst, the night was filled with a ferocious clamor of growls and barking. Shadow, King and Sky slid to a stop in front of Patrick, their hackles raised, their teeth bore in warning.
The monster came at the dogs and they charged to meet it. Maggie’s heart once again urged her to run, but the spectacle before her held her prisoner. And it seemed the same was true for Patrick and the children.
She had never seen animals move as the trio of dogs did. Words failed her. It was like watching a tornado composed of fur and fangs. Their speed wasn’t possible. The force of their attack was supernatural. The creature spun, snapping it claws at the dogs, but missing. It struck with its tail only to smash the sharpened tip into pieces on the limestone.
The dogs’ attack was brutal but not perfect. The creature slammed King against the outer wall of the cave with its tail moments before Sky received a long gash down her body from one of the claws. Immediately after this, Shadow was trampled by the creatures many legs.
King rushed in and clamped down on one of the monster’s claws and ripped it out at the base. It fell to the ground, still twitching. Sky appeared on the ot
her side and severed the other claw. Shadow leapt to the creature’s back and bit off its two smaller stingers. King and Sky snapped its large tail backward with a sickening crunch. The giant insect fell upon its belly in defeat, but the dogs gave it no pardon. With fangs and claws they tore through the creature’s carapace and spilled its rank and shiny bowels onto the ground. Victorious, the dogs limped away from the dead abomination and fell down exhausted before the mouth of the cave.
Something grabbed Maggie’s shoulder, pulling her from her trance and drawing an imprisoned scream from her throat. She spun on her heels, the children still clinging to her, and cried with delight as Casper fell into her. She tried to catch him and hold onto him, but his force knocked the whole family to the ground.
Maggie lay on the cold limestone clutching those closest to her, looking up at the pinprick stars and listening to the sound of approaching sirens echoing over the treetops. Patrick picked Casper up, setting him on his feet.
“What’s in your hand, daddy?” Lucy asked.
Casper held up a long orange tube and stared at it for a moment as if it were a strange new appendage. “It’s a flare, baby.” He looked to Maggie. “It was in the ATV. I was out of bullets and it was the only thing I had to use as a weapon.” He looked over at the colossal insect lying in ruin then limped over to the dogs. He reached down and patted Shadow’s upturned head. He looked to Patrick. “Please tell me that’s the queen.”
King stood up and started for the children, but he limped no more than a few feet before a tail as thick as a telephone pole exploded from the cave. Its deadly stinger caught King in the side, piercing him straight through.
“No!” Tad screamed.
He rushed for the lab, but Patrick snatched him by the arm and held tight. The long serpentine tail lifted King off of his feet, pulling him down into the cave. Tad thrashed and kicked until his strength gave out and he crumpled to the ground. From somewhere down in the deep darkness, King uttered a single pain-filled yelp.
The Queen of Extinction
When Casper saw the massive bug dead in front of the cave entrance, he had deceived himself into believing that this was the queen of the creatures. But that hope had not lasted long. The true queen was below, still alive and very much pissed off.
The silence of the night was so profound that for a moment he thought he had gone deaf. King’s heart-wrenching yelp played over and over in his mind. Shadow and Sky stood at the mouth of the cave, their fur bristled, snarling and foaming at the mouth. They made several short lunges toward the entrance. Casper could feel their sadness, their anger . . . and their fear. They were building up the nerve to rush inside. This was the battle they had been preparing for all along, and now they must face it without King’s brute strength.
To enter the cave was to enter the mouth of death. There had to be another way. Casper reached for them with his mind, the word “No” forming in his mouth, but it was too late. Shadow and Sky plunged into the eternal pitch of the cave.
Casper had never wished to be deaf before, but had he the ability to shut his ears off, right then he would have used it. The layered cacophony of barks, yelps and growls combined with the queen’s unearthly chirps and squeals were enough to drive him insane. He looked to Patrick and his family, but their anguished faces, painted by the moonlight, was somehow worse than the sounds of the cave. He dropped his gaze and that’s when he saw the pair of machine guns resting on the ground.
Casper pushed to his feet, grabbed one of the Uzis, expelled the magazine, saw that it was nearly full then popped it back in and started for the cave entrance.
Maggie clutched his arm. “Where are you going?”
“I have to help them.” Casper stopped at the entrance and lit the flare. The gaudy orange light and noxious smoke fell before him and the darkness of the cave seem to gobble it up.
“Wait.” Patrick snatched up the second Uzi then joined Casper’s side. He held the gun out. “I’ve never shot one of these. Is it good to go?”
Casper flipped the safety off of Patrick’s gun then gave him a thumbs-up. “Just point, squeeze the trigger and try to hold on.”
Casper moved down the steep decline of cave with Patrick holding him steady by the back of his shirt. The sounds of the battle bounced off of the walls until in sounded as if a whole war was being waged below the earth. The smoke of the flare wafted back into their faces, almost negating the light that it provided. Casper’s eyes ran as if he was weeping, and his nose and throat burned from the fumes. Finally the floor evened out and they entered a large open cavern.
Gelatinous blobs the size of basketballs were piled along the floor, among the many natural shelves of the cave and even clung to the walls. There had to be at least a thousand eggs, each with a squirming life form visible beneath the translucent shell. If they were allowed to hatch . . . if they managed to escape this cave . . .
Casper’s soul shriveled at the thought.
Shadow and Sky circled around the queen, dodging the beast’s massive claws and powerful tail with preternatural speed. The queen was the size of small bus and with every strike she made, the cave shook and debris fell from the ceiling. Not far in front of them King lay on the cavern floor. Casper rushed over to him, dodging the shredded remains of Wexxel and Coining. King might have been asleep except for the tattered hole in his side. Casper placed his hand on the dog’s neck and scratched it as he had often watched Tad do. He expected to see King’s large tail bat the ground, but he remained still. King was gone.
Casper tossed the flare to the ground and climbed to his feet with Patrick’s help. He trained his gun on the queen, but couldn’t get a clear shot because of the quick and erratic movements of the two remaining dogs. He stretched his mind toward Shadow and Sky, willing them to retreat, but they would not heed his call. He sensed their anguish and anger over King’s death, though that wasn’t what galvanized their disobedience. They had been training for this moment, honing their skills with every kill. But until now, Casper had been unsure as to why. As Shadow and Sky traded attacks on the queen, a single thought rolled through their minds and Casper felt it as if it were his own: Protect.
To save Casper and his family. That had been their purpose all along. Somehow they had known this calamity was coming.
Shadow and Sky moved in and out with the speed of a summer storm, tearing large chunks from the queen with every strike. The queen tried to scurry up the wall but the dogs leapt fifteen feet in the air to drag the creature back down. Sky managed to sever the large barb from the queen’s tail, while Shadow amputated several of the boney, arachnid legs.
The queen staggered to the left and right. The swings of her tail lost their force and she seemed weary and spent. She fell onto her belly, her claws drooped to the ground. Casper’s heart raced and sweat poured from him in great drops. The dogs, sensing their victory, regrouped in front of the queen to deliver the final blow.
As wise and smart as the dogs were, the queen was even more so. Overplaying her injuries, the queen feigned exhaustion giving her opponents a false sense of security. The moment Shadow and Sky moved in to strike, she lashed out with her claws, missing Shadow, but snatching Sky off of the ground.
“No,” Casper and Patrick yelled in unison.
Their combined screams were still not enough to blot out the sound of the dog’s crunching bones. The queen tossed Sky through the air and the dog landed at Casper’s feet as though the creature were mocking him.
Shadow, the tiniest of the three, stood alone against the queen, but she did not retreat. Instead, the Schipperke rushed in and tore out one of the queen’s eyes, stalk and all. The queen bellowed a high pitch squeal that threatened to knock Casper off of his feet. She swiped with her claws, missing each time. Shadow dodged one last snap of the queens claws, hopping to the beast’s left. Almost in unison, the queen’s tail, thought to be too injured to use, was quickened.
The massive tail rose high in the air, the tip vanishing out of the arc
of light spilling from the now sputtering flare. Shadow turned to escape, but was not quick enough to get clear of the strike zone. The queen’s tail fell with a thunderous crash, crushing Shadow beneath the mangled tip.
A great unexpected sorrow pierced Casper like a fiery blade, and from the wound rushed a thick, viscous anger. Hatred, as hot and wild as lightning, surged though him. It funneled down his arms and pooled in his hands. He felt the weight of the gun as if for the first time. The queen turned her broken body toward him as if she could smell his wrath floating in the air, and he saw contempt in her one remaining black eye. Casper brought the Uzi up. The light from the flare was fading, yet his vision had never been clearer.
The queen started forward. Casper pulled the trigger and Patrick followed his lead.
The sonic vibrations of the gunfire echoing off of the cave walls was tremendous. The fire flashing from the barrels of the two Uzis painted the cave with a sickening strobe light. It took Patrick a moment to get his aim down, but before long his shots lined up with Casper’s. Casper kept the trigger squeezed tight and splashed the gun from side to side. The queen threw up her claws to protect her face, but the bullets tore through her defense and soon her remaining eye was taken from her. She whipped her tail about blindly, but Patrick turned his gun and laid waste to her remaining weapon.
It took no more than seconds to empty the Uzis and the cave fell into silence. All either man could hear was the ringing in their ears from the Uzi blasts. The queen quivered as she attempted to move, issuing garbled chirps, but her injuries were too severe. The flare warned that their time in the light was short and that they should finish their business. Casper touched Patrick’s arm (because he couldn’t hear him calling his name) and he jumped, dropping the gun in fright.
“We need to go,” he mouthed. Patrick nodded. “Help me take the dogs out.”
Predatory Animals Page 26
