11. Chapter 11
Chapter eleven
-Bryce-
I t was almost comical to see the huge creature emerge like some sort of bad special effect in one of Rand’s classic movies. It would have been funny if it hadn’t been one of the most terrifying things I’d ever seen.
It was like a mutant bear crossed with a rhino, all teeth and claws and tufts of hair. Its thick, mottled skin folded around its head and neck, hanging in strange flaps around its jaws. It didn’t appear to have any lips, and drool dripped from its exposed teeth. Its small eyes were perfectly round and white, with a small black dot in the center.
In that moment of terror—rooted to the spot as my body tried to work out whether to piss itself, sink into the ground, or pass out—the small part of my brain that was still working clicked the last piece of the puzzle of what just happened into place.
The alien had been trying to warn me. I had been about to stumble on this thing and the alien had stopped me. That was why it seemed so agitated, what it was trying to tell me. And my shot had attracted it anyway.
A strangled shout behind me in that alien language jolted me back to reality. When I turned back around, the alien was disappearing off into the trees, shouting what I can only assume meant ‘run, you idiot’ and waving its arms.
I ran.
The nightmare of flesh and teeth came after me, its huge feet making the ground shake and vibrate with each monstrous stride. How many huge goddamn creatures were on this planet waiting for a turn to chase me?
Shit, shitshitshitshit.
I chanted it like a silent prayer, hoping that there was a deity somewhere who watched over unlucky and idiotic space marines. Although, if there was one, they didn’t seem to like me very much, given the way my day was going. Either that, or they were taking a really long nap.
I headed back the way I had come, hugging the base of the cliff where the ground was clearer. This one was faster than the first monster that had chased me. I risked a glance over my shoulder to see the bear creature gaining on me.
Shit.
Still, it could be worse. I wasn’t sure how , but it never hurt to be optimistic.
I jumped over a lump of rocks, breathing hard.
“…Jesus, Bryce, what’s going on?”
Everyone on the line was probably getting a whole lot of me breathing heavily.
“There’s another goddamn animal,” I panted.
“Oh, fuck.” A slight pause. “The drones are up, heading your way. Stay alive.”
“Working on it,” I said, ducking beneath the twisted trunk of a tree that grew horizontally across my path and rested against the wall of rock.
There was no sign of the big purple alien, it had probably got as far away as possible while the nightmare beast had its sights on me. The alien was obviously intelligent life.
I realized my team had no idea I’d come across the enemy.
“I saw one,” I said.
My head passed through a cloud of tiny, glowing insects and I got a mouthful.
“What? Saw one what?”
I tried to spit the little bugs out. My original leg was starting to ache, a hot pain splintered up my shin and calf. Thank the gods my new leg didn’t get tired. I only hoped the rest of me could keep up for long enough.
“One of the—“
As if summoned, the alien appeared out of the trees ahead of me like magic. It was shouting something and waving its long arms, and that was all the prompting I needed. I put my head down and sprinted towards the purple figure. If the choice was between being mauled by this huge nightmare bear thing, or running into the arms of the alien who might have helped me, there was no competition.
The monster was so close behind me now, I could feel the wet spray of its saliva on the back of my neck. The wall of the cliff protruded ahead of me, blocking my path and forming a corner of rock. The Aldar jumped into the alcove, beckoning to me. I didn’t like the idea of being cornered there with the monster on my heels, but I didn’t exactly have a lot of options. I’d be dead in a few seconds anyway, so what was there to lose?
The Aldar was holding a long, golden spear that I hadn’t noticed earlier, and rammed the butt down into the earth, angling it out and up. It held the spear steady with one hand, holding the other out to me. As I closed the last foot between us, the alien grabbed me and pushed me behind its muscled body. The creature smashed into the spear, the tip disappearing into the flesh between the monster’s front legs. The Aldar heaved upwards, muscles in its arms bulging, and the momentum of the beast carried it upwards as it impaled itself.
The monster roared so loudly my ears rang, and I hunched down as it towered over us, the spear stuck in its underside. Claws sliced the air just above our heads, catching the Aldar’s upper arm, and blood spattered my face. Before I could react, the creature screeched and toppled, thrashing and twisting as it went, and the spear tore from the Aldar’s grip.
Distantly, Clyde shouted in my ear, “Gunner, what the fuck is—“
The rearing creature crashed into the rock face, knocking loose stones and a shower of earth. With a shout, I grabbed the alien around its waist and tackled it to the side.
But it was too late, the monster came down on top of us, claws thrashing, teeth gnashing, the spear lodged so deeply in its chest that only the very end of the shaft was visible. The Aldar’s hand closed around the top of my arm…
And then, somehow, we were falling.
I gasped as the expected crushing impact of the beast’s full weight didn’t come. We kept on falling as the ground beneath us gave way, the world tumbling around me, tossing me roughly between unseen outcrops of rock. Stone scraped the side of my neck, and the alien was yanked from my grasp in the tumbling collision of rocks, dirt, and the beast’s thrashing limbs.
And then, all I could feel was the sensation of falling down, down, down, into darkness.