Hardcore Prawn

by Jacob Rayne

One of the divers wasn’t as lucky and fell back, his throat slit by one of the flailing claws.

  His head went back on his neck, like his throat was yawning.

  Blood began to stain the water red.

  The creature’s tail lashed out, knocking two of the team into each other with force enough to shatter their skulls.

  The rest of the team began to fire their harpoons.

  Most of them bounced harmlessly off the creature’s chitinous hide – what the hell was that thing made out of? Mendoza wondered – but one found its home between two plates of armour.

  Mendoza swam in, narrowly avoiding the claws taking out his air tube, and shoved the harpoon in further. He twisted it.

  While the creature writhed in pain, the others swam around it, drawing the net tight.

  It seemed to sense their intent and thrashed again.

  Its tail flattened one diver’s tank and he began to claw at his throat for air.

  While he floundered, trying to swim over to his friend to buddy breath, the prawn’s claws shoved through his stomach.

  His bowels came free, like two obese sea snakes swimming in their own private crimson pool.

  The prawn’s mouth was there in an instant, slurping up the entrails.

  While it fed, the others moved in.

  The tail hit one man in the chest hard enough to crush his ribs into his lungs.

  He suffocated under the water while his friends watched helplessly.

  While the creature was busy with his friends, Mendoza managed to get in close.

  He fired the harpoon into its tentacle. The barbed tip stuck right through the creature’s limb.

  Its enraged screech was distorted to even more horrific proportions by the water.

  More dark sludge clouded the waters between them.

  While it was distracted, his friends followed his lead, firing their harpoons into the creature’s tentacles.

  He swam for all his worth towards the boat.

  The others began swimming for the boats too.

  Each of the men swam up, stabbing their harpoon into the back of one of the boats.

  Mendoza raised his hand and the boats simultaneously began to drag the creature towards the shore.

  The speedboats got the creature as close as possible to the shore, then the team on the beach attached the harpoons to the coastguard jeeps.

  These began to drag the creature up the beach towards the abandoned swimming pool.

  The creature’s screams were deafening as it was fully dragged out into the sunlight.

  On the sand, they saw its true scale for the first time.

  It must have been twenty feet from tail to skull.

  Black gleaming armoured carapace.

  Dark eyes the size of a man’s skull.

  Teeth sticking out of its maw at jagged angles.

  Thick, black tentacles waving around in front of its dripping jaws.

  Long, gangly spearlike limbs.

  A huge tail with a flat, hard paddle on the end.

  The creature let out a hideous screech and began to writhe, throwing vast clouds of sand into the air.

  Forming its own goddamned tornado, Mendoza thought.

  The crowd of onlookers looked on in horror as the creature began to attempt freeing itself.

  It bucked hard, pulling one of the coastguard jeeps back a little.

  The rev of the engine only partially blotted out the creature’s enraged cries.

  A man in coastguard uniform ran in, what looked like a dart gun in his hands.

  ‘What the hell’s he doing?’ snapped Mendoza. ‘He’s just gonna get himself killed.’

  The creature’s back was to him, but it let him get close enough.

  He fired the heavy duty darts, which bounced off the creature’s hide harmlessly except for one which sunk into the skin beneath one of its legs.

  The creature twisted round, its features contorted with rage.

  It lunged in fast, headfirst.

  The spike on its front limb went through his stomach with a sickly squishing sound.

  It lifted him high into the air.

  ‘Like a coastguard fucking kebab,’ Mendoza said, shaking his head.

  Blood ran down the man’s body and into the creature’s gaping maw.

  It slurped the blood greedily.

  Then it began chowing down, crunching his skull with ease.

  Blood gouted from the neck stump as it savoured the contents of the man’s brainpan.

  The crowd watched in horror as it consumed him.

  Then Mendoza broke the daze by firing a flare gun at the creature’s head.

  The jeeps began pulling again.

  As if the man’s blood had given the creature more energy, it began to twist and writhe with renewed strength.

  Unbelievably, it began to gain ground on its journey back to the sea.

  The jeeps revved hard, throwing more sand into the air.

  ‘They’re not gonna fucking make it,’ Mendoza said.

  His eyes scanned the horizon for a potential answer.

  Then his eyes lit up and he began running away from the sea, towards the boulevard.

  ‘Where are you going? We need you here,’ Slaine snapped, but Mendoza broke free of his grasp and ran up the beach.

  The monster prawn’s screeches and the screams and revving of engines were still audible as he reached the main boulevard.

  14

  Mendoza frantically dodged traffic as he made his way to the building site on the other side of the boulevard.

  The foreman – Gus, his black marker penned name tag read – grimaced at him until Mendoza produced a wallet full of dollar bills.

  Mendoza pulled out a decent wedge of them, pointed to the JCB then to the creature on the beach.

  Gus shook his head and pointed back to the wallet.

  Mendoza gave him another wedge of notes and Gus let him in.

  A minute later, Mendoza was piloting the JCB through the building site’s fence.

  Gus shook his head in fury, but couldn’t help but watch as Mendoza trundled the digger down the beach towards the monster prawn.

  Mendoza had spent his teenage years helping his dad on the building sites, so he knew what he was doing with a JCB.

  Still, it was years since he had driven one.

  The prawn had managed to bite through one of its tentacles that held it to the jeeps and was consequently further down the beach than it had been.

  Mendoza leant on the horn, allowing the people to scatter as he approached.

  The creature looked round and hissed, seeming to recognise him.

  The JCB made slow progress down the beach, but the journey gave Mendoza time to think.

  He gave the bucket a quick test run, surprised how well he could move it.

  Here we fucking go! he thought as he drew within ten feet of the creature.

  It hissed, spraying stinking, blood-flecked drool over a metre-wide radius, then reared back.

  He raised the bucket slowly and floored the accelerator.

  The vehicle shot forwards, hitting the creature in its upper thorax.

  The hard collision shook the cab, and seemed to hurt the creature a little, but didn’t have the desired effect.

  It lunged forward as he lowered the bucket for another go.

  Its stinking face cracked the reinforced glass.

  The broken glass distorted its face but it was no worse than its real features.

  The thing was truly hellish in appearance.

  He raised the bucket, lifting it slightly.

  He felt the pneumatics strain a little.

  The creature moved back for another attack.

  As it did, he raised the back hoe and swung the JCB round.

  The back hoe whiplashed, hitting the creature hard in the belly, knocking it onto its side.

  It squealed in horror.

  At such close range, it was like having acid poured into his eardrums.

  The creature lan
ded on its side.

  Mendoza moved in for the kill, straightening the vehicle and heading for the creature.

  As he neared, it dropped its head to the sand and threw its tail overhead.

  The heavy tail struck the roof of the JCB hard enough to dent the heavy duty metal.

  Mendoza covered his head as glass rained down on him.

  He was bleeding in dozens of places.

  This was a fucking terrible idea, he thought.

  The creature reared back for another shot.

  He drove forward fast, making it screech as he trapped one of its limbs beneath the wheels.

  It bucked and writhed, moving the heavy dozer but not managing to free itself.

  He brought the bucket up high, bringing it down hard on the creature’s head.

  The creature’s heavy black armour protected it even from this hardest of blows.

  He raised it again.

  The creature began to wriggle.

  But its leg was still stuck.

  I’ve got it here, he thought, grinning.

  He raised the bucket again and brought it down fast.

  This time he hit the creature in the side.

  It squealed then pulled back.

  There was a horrific tearing sound, then it was free.

  Its stuck leg had been wrenched loose from its body. Dark blood sprayed out, staining the digger’s cracked windows.

  ‘Shit,’ Mendoza hissed.

  The creature’s tentacles grabbed the bucket and began pulling.

  There was a horrific squeal of rusted metal and the arms began to twist a little.

  Mendoza spun the vehicle and swung the back hoe again.

  The blow hit the creature hard, knocking it to the ground.

  Gotta finish this, he thought.

  He turned the JCB just so, lined the bucket up and revved the engine.

  Sand sprayed up behind the vehicle.

  The JCB shot forward and the bucket hit the creature right where its armour met its chest.

  The creature fell back, stunned.

  Gotcha, he thought.

  He managed to use the bucket to flip the creature onto its back.

  Gus was leading a charge of builder’s vans down the beach.

  The workers from the building site were in the back of the trailers.

  They had an arsenal of builder’s tools; sledgehammers, chainsaws, power drills.

  Gus nodded to Mendoza.

  Mendoza brought the bucket down on the creature’s throat so it pinned it to the floor.

  The creature hissed and threw its limbs and tentacles out.

  One of the builders took a hit to the chest, and fell back, blood gushing from the wound.

  Gus ducked the flying limbs.

  The builders moved in and began hitting the monster prawn with sledgehammers.

  Still, they were wasting their time.

  Half a dozen fluorescent-clad builders ran in with chainsaws.

  The air was thick with the creature’s enraged screeches and the roar of chainsaws.

  A blizzard of dark blood was hurled into the air as the chainsaws began to carve into the creature’s writhing tentacles.

  One of the builders was swiped to the side by the tentacle.

  He fell back, his chainsaw meeting with his leg in a flurry of flying blood. His screams added to the cacophony.

  The air was thick with a heady cocktail of blood and petrol fumes.

  The builders kept grimly at their task, covered from head to toe in the flying clouds of gore.

  All but one of the creature’s tentacles fell, still writhing, onto the sand.

  One of the builders had had his arm crushed by the creature’s remaining tentacle.

  Mendoza ran over and helped him to lift his chainsaw to the creature’s belly.

  Black blood flew out like a blizzard, spattering the men and the onlookers.

  The creature began to cry out.

  While it bucked and writhed, Mendoza looked in the back of the trailer.

  His eyes lit up.

  ‘Are those what I think they are?’ he asked Gus.

  Gus grinned and nodded.

  ‘Already set to blow,’ he said.

  Mendoza grinned.

  The builders darted in, breaking their chainsaw blades on the creature’s armoured limbs.

  ‘It’s not working,’ Mendoza shouted.

  ‘Get its fucking legs pinned,’ Gus shouted.

  They went round each limb in turn, pinning it to the sand.

  It took four men per limb.

  And it was still winning.

  Mendoza frantically looked around.

  A high-pitched beeping cut through the sounds of carnage that filled the air.

  Mendoza grinned when he saw a cement truck backing up to the abandoned swimming pool.

  Gus was behind the truck – which glinted in the sun like a gift from God – waving the driver back.

  Mendoza and the monster prawn were maybe fifteen feet from the pool.

  He darted back into the JCB, lifted the bucket slightly and revved the engine as hard as it would go.

  Sand flew from beneath the tracks but he didn’t seem to be moving.

  Then he heard grunting from behind the vehicle.

  A quick glance back revealed dozens of blood- and dirt-smeared faces.

  Determination hewn into their faces, the builders were shoving the JCB towards the swimming pool where the cement truck was now tipping its payload.

  ‘Come on,’ Mendoza hissed.

  Finally, the JCB began to move.

  It was slow going, even with dozens of helpers, but he got the monster prawn to the edge of the swimming pool.

  The pool was half full with slate grey cement.

  Mendoza let out a cry of triumph as the creature tipped sideways into the cement.

  Triumph became terror when the creature’s remaining tentacle grabbed hold of the JCB and dragged it into the cement after it.

  Mendoza cried out at the unfairness of it all.

  But Gus had darted in and grabbed his arm, holding him steady. Half a dozen builders dived onto him, making him part of the devil’s own tug of war as they pulled him out of the cab.

  ‘Get that fucking tentacle off,’ Gus bellowed.

  A chainsaw began to roar and, a sickly spray of gore later, the tentacle’s grasp was released.

  They watched as the bubbles began to slow in the cement.

  Mendoza leant over the edge of the pool, to see if the creature had perished.

  The hardening concrete suddenly cracked as its head broke the surface.

  The creature stared at him coldly for a few seconds.

  He swore he saw recognition in those black globes.

  The monster prawn’s efforts to free itself intensified.

  Mendoza grabbed the demolition charges.

  As the creature’s jaws opened, he hurled the charges deep into its mouth.

  But he had misjudged the distance; the creature managed to burst through the concrete and its jaws were headed straight for his face.

  Mendoza caught a glimpse of a partially-digested skull halfway down the creature’s immense throat, then felt a hand on the waistband of his shorts.

  He was flying backwards, just as the creature’s teeth snapped shut.

  He spun to see Crystal behind him on the sand.

  ‘Run,’ he shouted, his composure instantly regained.

  Gus took the plunger and counted down from three.

  Everyone scattered.

  The creature made one last desperate attempt to get free, seeming to know what was happening.

  Its claws reached into its mouth and tried to pull out the explosives.

  But it was too late.

  The explosion blotted out every other sound on the beach in that moment.

  The force hurled everyone to the floor, singing the hairs on their arms.

  Stinking gobbets of blood and guts showered the crowd, who were now lying face down in th
e sand.

  Mendoza looked up, seeing only a crater in the sand.

  The creature’s head lay twenty yards away, hurled clear by the force of the explosion.

  Mendoza looked at it up close.

  ‘That’s one ugly fucking thing,’ he said.

  Marla smiled.

  ‘How the hell did it get that size?’ Mendoza said.

  ‘Fuck knows, but it’s not our problem anymore,’ Crystal grinned, already taking a long pull on a beer.

  The clean up patrol took a long time, due to the remnants of the creature being scattered over a huge area.

  After they were finished, they had a huge cook off.

  ‘Throw a shrimp on the barbie,’ Mendoza said, much to the crowd’s amusement.

  They feasted and washed it down with cold beer.

  Marla kissed him full on the lips.

  ‘At least some good came of this,’ he said, taking her glistening body in his arms.

  ‘Yeah,’ she smiled, kissing him again.

  The end?

  Further out at sea, the dark eggs that had just that morning been laid by the mother prawn were still floating around in the water.

  Mother prawn swum up slowly, ensuring she got each of her offspring safely back to the shelter of their nest.

  Daddy prawn had been gone a long time, but she’d managed to claim a swimmer for their first meal.

  Patiently, she waited for them to hatch.

  Coming soon

  What is left of you when you lose everything?

  Too Many Humans will immerse you in an alternate future where over-population has led to humans being culled like animals.

  The survivors have become tribal, some obsessively following religion, others living a life of debauchery, treating every day as if it is their last.

  Who do you trust when everyone has blood on their hands?

  In this bleak, unforgiving world, the line between good and evil is thinner than ever.

  Even the righteous have committed horrific acts in their fight for survival.

  How do you retain your humanity when society has been obliterated?

  This world is not for the faint of heart.

  It features heart-pounding action set pieces, unforgettable characters and scenes that will scar themselves into your subconscious.

  Release date 5th November

  Pre-order now!

  UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07W4HL9QF