24. Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Astra
I scream, startling both myself and the creature that has grabbed me. It’s the ugliest motherfucker I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Just like Tareq’s friend said, the lower half of the creature’s body is spider-like, with spindly legs and an egg-shaped stomach. He’s covered in disgusting sticky fur and I want to peel my skin off just feeling him touch me.
His upper half is humanoid, save for the fur, and he seems to be just as nimble with his two arms as he is with his many legs.
As I scream, the spider-man lets go of me, dropping me onto the rocky ground right in front of the pod entrance. I try to roll out of his range, but it’s a little difficult, since he’s about the size of a horse. A spider-horse-man.
I curse the stupid universe up and down for dumping more shit on me. I wasn’t even done dealing with the whole being kidnapped by aliens thing! Now I’m about to be killed by a horse-sized spider-man? Fuck no!
I’d dropped the spear back when I was searching for the first aid kit. Since I’m determined not to go down without a fight, I grab the nearest stone, a bountiful resource on this shithole of a planet. As I raise it to defend myself, I hear a muffled puff. Red light shoots from within the pod, hitting the spider alien straight in his chest. He staggers, and I roll away just in time not to get crushed under his body.
“Found guns!” Nikolai announces from the pod entrance while Lizardman helps me back inside.
Nikolai peeks out of the doorway I just entered, holding a rifle of some kind. “I guess it scared them off,” he says, offering the weapon to me. “Here, take it. I have to tend to the injured people. There are more in that box over there.” As if I needed more than one alien rifle.
I gawk at it, surprised by how normal it looks. Sure, it’s somewhat futuristic, but all in all, it’s still a rifle. It has a long barrel, what I assume is a battery, and a trigger. One doesn’t need a university degree to operate it.
I point it through the door crack, aiming at nothing in particular, and pull the trigger. The gun puffs and a red beam flies out, clearly visible against the gray landscape. It hits a large rock, leaving a charred mark.
“Huh. No recoil.” I fired a shotgun once and had bruises on my shoulder for two weeks. This one feels like a kid's toy compared to that, but as I look at the dead alien near the pod entrance, I realize it’s much deadlier than a shotgun.
Lizardman watches me with unbidden curiosity. I hesitate, then hand him the rifle. He seems intelligent enough to use it. His fingers are too thick to wrap around the trigger comfortably, but he taps it with his claw, letting out a barking laugh when the laser beam shoots out.
I roll my eyes at his excitement. “Boys and their toys. I guess species doesn’t count for much when it comes to guns.”
Dark shapes move in the distance. We’ve momentarily scared the aliens away, but they’re coming back. This time, we’ll be ready for them.
“Hey, Tareq?” I say into the comm even as I shoot at an enemy in the distance. I miss, but my shot makes him duck behind a rock.
“Tareq is gearing up,” the female responds. “He’ll be with you soon.”
That’s comforting, but we still need to survive until he gets here. “Alright, that’s great. Uh…I’m sorry, I forgot your name…?”
“I’m Lyriana, but you can call me Lyri if that’s too long for you.”
Did she just insult me or offer me friendship? I can’t tell. I brush those thoughts aside. There will be time for them later. Hopefully. “Okay, Lyri, does the ship have a way of telling us how many enemies are around us and where? Like, um…” I pause, racking my brain for the right word. “Life sign detectors?” I try, certain I’ve heard something like that in a movie once.
“Yes. D’Aakh is already reconfiguring the thermal signature sensors. Once we get through the atmosphere, we’ll be able to scan your location.”
“Okay, okay. No rush,” I snicker, firing several shots at the approaching aliens. I’m a little disappointed that the rifle doesn’t make any cool sounds. It makes me want to make a “pew pew” noise as I shoot. I hope it’s just my stressed out mind finding an outlet and not a sign of permanent brain damage.
Lyriana chuckles. “I like you. You’re tough. A good match for Tareq.”
“Um, thanks, I guess? Have you known him for a long time?” This is probably not the best time for this conversation, but I can’t help myself. Both Lizardman and I fire occasionally at the enemy, but we hit nothing. “Have you two ever…?”
“Oh, please. Never,” she snorts. “He’s like an annoying brother to me. I love him, but I want to strangle him at the same time. Scan results are coming in,” she adds, switching to a more serious tone. “I count about two dozen enemies in your immediate vicinity, with more coming your way. Five are crawling over the top of the pod. Be careful if you go out.”
Just as I open my mouth to reply that I wasn’t planning on going out, a smoking ball lands before the door. It’s made up of what looks like moss and vines covered in some sort of tar smelling goop. It’s smoldering, and most of the choking smoke is streaming into the pod.
My eyes water as I begin coughing from the fumes. These fucking locals are a little too clever for my taste. They might not have grenades, but that doesn’t mean they can’t force us out of our hiding spot.
Lizardman drops on all fours and crawls through the door to kick the smoking ball away. I shoot blindly at the rocks in the distance, vaguely aware that I should be providing cover fire. Or something. I’m not a military strategist.
A spider jumps at him from above and I’m reminded of Lyriana’s words. Five on the pod.
Before I can take aim, the eight-legged wolf rushes past me, throwing himself at the spider monster. He claws and bites at the spider’s legs, jumping away before the spider can fight back.
Two more enemies join the fight. Not wanting to waste anymore time, I take aim and shoot one down while the other lunges at the wolf.
A shot from behind me hits him in his ugly spidery abdomen. I glance over my shoulder, unsurprised to see Nikolai wielding a rifle. “I hate guns,” he notes, scowling at the enemies outside. “I fucking hate killing things!”
He might hate it, but he’s pretty good at it.
I sprint outside to kick another smoke ball out of the way, ducking behind a rock. A spear flies overhead, clanking against the pod wall. I shoot back, a wild wave of satisfaction sweeping through me when I hear a painful grunt. “Take that, assholes!” I yell at no one in particular.
The remaining two spiders from the roof of the pod try to get behind Nikolai and me, but the wolf takes care of one. A multitude of our fellow companions pile on the other one and there’s a sound of tearing that has me looking away in a combination of admiration and disgust.
There’s a brief reprieve. Surprised by our resistance, the enemies stop attacking to come up with a new strategy. They’re still throwing spears, though, reminding us they’ve not given up.
It sucks. I mean, what did we ever do to them?
Then I realize that the slavers probably landed here not too long ago and stole some of their people. The spiders have a right to be angry, I guess. I wish we could explain to them that they’re taking their anger out on the wrong people, but that doesn’t seem to be an option.
As I shoot at an enemy in the distance, just to remind them we haven’t given up either, I notice there’s a tiny blinking light atop my rifle, one that wasn’t there before. “Hey, Lyri? Does the blinking light mean this thing will stop shooting soon?”
“That’s correct.” I can’t tell if she’s surprised that a primitive species knows you need to reload your gun or just genuinely glad I asked before I ran out of ammo. “The box where you found the rifles should contain spare cartridges. They’re oval objects, about as big as a finger.”
“My finger or yours?” I joke as I move back into the pod, keeping low to avoid flying spears. “Do you even have fingers?” Maybe Lyriana is a creepy tentacle monster?
I can tell she’s grinning. “I do have fingers. I’m a Zyderi. I think out of all the members of our squad, I’m the most human-like. Except for the horns, that is,” she chuckles. “Oh, and the third breast. Have you found the cartridges?”
Third breast? I shake the image off. There will be time for comparing appendages later.
The air inside the pod is smokey and makes me cough. My poor lungs haven’t recovered from the lack of oxygen back on the ship yet and they make a hearty attempt at exiting my body through my throat. I manage to find the box and scoop a handful of pencil-looking objects before rushing back outside.
“Got ’em,” I reply, my voice hoarse from all the coughing. I think of the injured creatures still huddled inside the pod, feeling sorry for them. Right until a spear flies inches away from my face. Maybe a bit of smoke is better than being skewered.
“Good. There’s an orange button on the top of the rifle. Pressing it will eject the old cartridge, then you can insert the new one.”
The aliens sure like the color orange, I think as I press the button. “Which way do I put the new cartridge in?” It doesn’t seem to have any determining points or signs, like plus and minus signs on batteries.
“Doesn’t matter. Just click it in and you’re good to go. Tareq is almost at your position.”
“He is?” The cartridge clicks as I shove it into the rifle. The light stops blinking. I give it a few test shots and the light doesn’t come back on, which I assume is a good thing. “I thought you guys were half an hour away.”
“We are. He’s…taking a shortcut,” she chuckles. “You’ll see. Stay alive, Astra. I’ll see you soon.”
I don’t have time to think about her words because the spider people have resumed their attack. This time, it seems like they want to overcome us by sheer numbers. There are many more than two dozen. As I look around, shooting one blast after another, I’d say it’s closer to a hundred or more skittering on the horizon.
Some of the more intelligent aliens take the remaining rifles, but they aren’t having much success with them. Their shots mostly skirt way over the enemy lines or straight out into the sky. At least they aren’t shooting each other.
I crawl over to Nikolai, giving him a couple of spare cartridges and showing him how to use them. “Thanks,” he says, giving me a rueful smile. “I hate guns, you know? I always wanted to heal people, not kill them.”
I could argue that he’s not going to heal anyone if the alien spiders impale him with a spear, but he probably knows. He reloads his rifle and goes back to shooting at anything that moves between the rocks.
I reload one rifle for Lizardman and another one for the yellow monkey. By then, the enemies have gotten so close I can see their creepy black eyeballs as they move from cover to cover.
A few have also circled around and are now behind us. The eight-legged wolf and the more primitive aliens armed with spears take care of them, but we all know our situation is becoming unsustainable. Soon, we’ll have to fall back inside the pod and then they’ll simply surround us and smoke us out.
A massive shadow blocks out the sun. I look up, expecting to see some terrifying pterodactyl mutant ready to eat us all, because that would be just my luck. Instead, I see an angel.
I rub at my brow in confusion. Did I hit my head again? Is the CO2 poisoning catching up with me?
The angel circles above, and I notice he’s holding someone in his arms. He flaps his magnificent wings before making a low swoop over the escape pod. At the lowest point, he drops the person he’s been carrying.
“Tareq!” I know it’s him before his feet even touch the ground.
He lands with cat-like grace, his eyes immediately focusing on me. “Hi there,” he says as he joins me behind my boulder. He grabs the rifle slung over his shoulder and begins firing, grinning at me in excitement.
“Nice of you to drop by!” I tease, still stunned by the fact that he’s really here. He came for me. He had a fucking angel carry him over to me.
I look back over my shoulder to see the angel perched up on a tall rocky outcrop a few dozen feet away from the main fight. He’s holding a long rifle, looking into what I assume are the optics with infinite concentration. Every second or two, he squeezes the trigger and one of the spider people falls.
Alright, perhaps he’s not an angel. Unless the celestial armies employ snipers. But still, he has wings!
Tareq stops shooting, looks around to make sure it’s safe, then pulls me into a tight hug. “I’ve been so worried!” he mumbles into my hair. “I’m so sorry for disappointing you, Astra. It will never happen again, I swear.”
“Disappointing me?” I roll my eyes. “Nonsense. You saved my life. All of our lives. You’re saving them again right now. So quit yapping and start shooting.” I squirm out of his embrace and raise my rifle, cautiously peeking out from behind our cover before sending a barrage of shots toward the enemy.
“Yes, ma’am,” Tareq responds with a chuckle and begins shooting too.
His hits are infinitely more precise than mine, which is hardly a surprise. He’s probably been training for most of his life while I’ve been waiting tables and restocking supermarket shelves. I don’t care. It just makes it feel like a bigger accomplishment when I finally hit something. “YEAH! Take that!” I yell, pumping my fist in the air.
Tareq stares at me with his mouth agape. Just as I begin to worry he’ll see me as some primitive, bloodthirsty creature, he grabs my nape and crashes his lips against mine in a passionate kiss. “You’re so perfect, my Myále ,” he rasps, his cock tenting his fancy bodysuit.
Maybe it’s the adrenaline or maybe it’s the several near-death experiences in a row, but I’m feeling hornier than ever. I slide my hand over the front of his pants, feeling the delectable hardness underneath. “You are the one who’s perfect, Tareq. A little overdressed, but we’ll fix that when we get rid of these disgusting horse-spider-people.”
His nostrils flare and for a moment, I think he’s going to fuck me right here and now, on the rocky surface, with rifles in our hands, surrounded by enemies. For a moment, I wish he would. Then he shakes his head, grinning. “Later, my dear Astra. Later.”