Chasity's scream rent the air. The mortal agony in her voice made me clench my teeth. I shifted my grip on the litter, getting one hand free to raise one of my revolvers to aim at the monstrous bug. Only... where to shoot? Everwhere on the massive head was armored, and it didn't have eyes, or that would have been the obvious target. The acid spur seemed risky; Who knew what rupturing that might do? As I was considering my target, I felt a hand smack weakly into my leg. I looked down into Tex's nearly delirious eyes as he murmured something I couldn't hear over Chasity's scream, and another chatter of submachinegun fire. Damn, but that girl was tough.
"The antenna, you old fuck," Tex managed in the brief silence that followed. "Shoot the antenna."
I looked up to see Chasity hunched behind a rock weeping copiously while trying to slap another magazine into the gun one-handed. The centipede's antennae were whipping furiously, tip-tapping the ground, working their way closer to her hiding spot. It seemed to have forgotten the rest of us in Chasity's determinedly continued assault. It was obvious that she didn't expect to get out of there alive, and she was giving us the opportunity to get away.
To hell with that.
I thumbed back the hammer on my revolver, leveled it and squinted as I brought it to bear. Chances were, I'd only get one clean shot.
26 September 2012
13 September 2012
Unchosen 26
Then everything went to shit in a hurry.
Doc shifted his grip on the litter, and took a half step, preparing to run. Before he could even shift his weight from the other foot, one of the antennae lashed out like a whip, catching him in the chest and making him stagger. Still holding the other end of the litter, I tried to fumble for one of my guns, and the other one swished toward me and swiped across my forehead. It stung, but not like I'd expected; It was more like getting snapped with a rubberband than an attack. The creature instantly started zipping toward us, it's massive pincers levering wide open, and the myriad tendrils on each twitching spastically.
Then Chasity let rip a burst of fire, directly into the sextet of mandibles between the pincers, as Doc recovered. I twisted, getting ready to get out of there, letting Chasity cover our retreat again, as much as it galled me to do so. The centibeast reared up and let loose with a shrill warbling noise as the burst of bullets ripped into the soft tissue inside its mouth. Then both antennae lashed toward Chasity, tapping her a few times before withdrawing and drawing another burst of fire from her in response.
That was when we found out what the spur on its head was for. The pincers slammed shut, and the head came back down, orienting directly at Chasity. Before any of us could react, a stream of slime, exactly the same shade as the puddles all around, shot out at Chasity. In the instant before it hit here, I had time to think she was a dead woman, but she threw up her arm and lunged to the side, just in time for the stream to miss her. Almost.
Doc shifted his grip on the litter, and took a half step, preparing to run. Before he could even shift his weight from the other foot, one of the antennae lashed out like a whip, catching him in the chest and making him stagger. Still holding the other end of the litter, I tried to fumble for one of my guns, and the other one swished toward me and swiped across my forehead. It stung, but not like I'd expected; It was more like getting snapped with a rubberband than an attack. The creature instantly started zipping toward us, it's massive pincers levering wide open, and the myriad tendrils on each twitching spastically.
Then Chasity let rip a burst of fire, directly into the sextet of mandibles between the pincers, as Doc recovered. I twisted, getting ready to get out of there, letting Chasity cover our retreat again, as much as it galled me to do so. The centibeast reared up and let loose with a shrill warbling noise as the burst of bullets ripped into the soft tissue inside its mouth. Then both antennae lashed toward Chasity, tapping her a few times before withdrawing and drawing another burst of fire from her in response.
That was when we found out what the spur on its head was for. The pincers slammed shut, and the head came back down, orienting directly at Chasity. Before any of us could react, a stream of slime, exactly the same shade as the puddles all around, shot out at Chasity. In the instant before it hit here, I had time to think she was a dead woman, but she threw up her arm and lunged to the side, just in time for the stream to miss her. Almost.
11 September 2012
Unchosen 25
It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. Dead ahead, in the remnants of an intersection where two buildings had collapsed into a heap, there was a vaguely round hole, the size of one of those old VW buses, burrowed into the wreckage.
It wasn't the hole that had caught Doc's attention, but the wasted landscape around it. Rock, concrete and steel was scorched and melted, and everywhere in the blackened landscape, there were hissing puddles of greenish goo. Before I could even open my mouth to recommend a quick withdrawal, there was the sound of grinding movement, and deep within the burrow, something stirred.
The monster emerged from the hole segment by segment, one chitinous section after the next, with a dozen legs each. The first part had two long barbed feelers that tapped at the ground and rocks as it emerged. There were no other features that might identify eyes or mouth, which was somehow more horrifying than massive pincers and glowing multi-faceted eyes would have been. At least, that's what I thought in that moment.
Then the far end emerged and whipped around, and our perceptions realigned; The monstrous centipede had exited its burrow backward, but now the business end was pointed at us, and the rear end no longer seemed quite so creepy as it had. Foremost were a pair of massive, articulated pincers, with thousands of waving, foot-long tendrils covering them. Behind them, we could barely make out a hexagon of smaller mandibles surrounding its mouth, each one literally dripping with venom. Topping the thorny shelled head were a pair of long antennae at least seven feet long, constantly twitching and tapping the landscape around it. Between the antennae and the pincers, where eyes might be on another creature, there was a single, blunt spur, no more than a hand in length.
We stared at the creature in fascinated terror for a moment, reflecting that this really was no longer the world of men.
It wasn't the hole that had caught Doc's attention, but the wasted landscape around it. Rock, concrete and steel was scorched and melted, and everywhere in the blackened landscape, there were hissing puddles of greenish goo. Before I could even open my mouth to recommend a quick withdrawal, there was the sound of grinding movement, and deep within the burrow, something stirred.
The monster emerged from the hole segment by segment, one chitinous section after the next, with a dozen legs each. The first part had two long barbed feelers that tapped at the ground and rocks as it emerged. There were no other features that might identify eyes or mouth, which was somehow more horrifying than massive pincers and glowing multi-faceted eyes would have been. At least, that's what I thought in that moment.
Then the far end emerged and whipped around, and our perceptions realigned; The monstrous centipede had exited its burrow backward, but now the business end was pointed at us, and the rear end no longer seemed quite so creepy as it had. Foremost were a pair of massive, articulated pincers, with thousands of waving, foot-long tendrils covering them. Behind them, we could barely make out a hexagon of smaller mandibles surrounding its mouth, each one literally dripping with venom. Topping the thorny shelled head were a pair of long antennae at least seven feet long, constantly twitching and tapping the landscape around it. Between the antennae and the pincers, where eyes might be on another creature, there was a single, blunt spur, no more than a hand in length.
We stared at the creature in fascinated terror for a moment, reflecting that this really was no longer the world of men.
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