Chapter 25 #3
I panicked at the movement, shifting my wrist to put the knife between the leech and myself at the last second. It made a horrible squealing noise as it launched itself at me—and impaled itself on the blade. The impact rocked me back; the bodies of these creatures were incredibly dense.
Blood, ooze, and spittle sprayed out from the Sanguir, drenching the dagger in the thick viscous fluid. It reeked and I gagged.
Falling back on my ass, I watched for any remaining signs of life in its putrid pumpkin-sized body as it twitched its final death throes.
Disgust curled my lip as I tried to dislodge it from the knife without touching it. I dragged its sticky body and the blade across the sand, hoping to separate them.
“Watch out Lisia!” Someone called behind me. I turned and saw three Sanguirs squirming toward me from different directions. Eyes wide, I threw caution aside and grabbed the squishy backside of the deceased leech, tearing it off the knife and throwing its carcass toward one of the others.
Two of them pivoted, heading straight for the remains. The third creature was still coming straight for me. I tried to shake some of the blood off the dagger and my hands, with limited success. It was moving faster, almost close enough to launch itself at me.
Everyone was screaming, and I couldn’t distinguish if it was in warnings, fear, or pain.
I swung around to face the Sanguir, noticing two more crawling toward me out of the miasma. The blood from the first one was drawing more of them.
A quick glance to the side revealed that I wasn't the only one experiencing this growing problem, more Sanguirs were crawling out of the miasma toward the others as well.
This was an endurance fight, with more blood exacerbating the situation for us the longer it dragged on.
It would have been nice to get my new Skinscript before coming here.
That one quick glance almost cost me.
The Sanguir jumped toward me, from further away than I would have thought possible, its trajectory straight toward my face.
I scrambled sideways, narrowly avoiding a direct collision with the leech.
I lashed out with my knife, stabbing it down onto its head as it landed.
Squeamishness overpowered by survival instinct, I kicked down on its back as I yanked the knife free.
Without warning, the smoking edge of the miasma began to bubble and undulate.
Well that didn't bode well.
I ran, away from the deceased Sanguir’s body which was already being surrounded by other cannibalistic leeches.
I sighted another near the hole in the outer perimeter's wall, which was thankfully rapidly shrinking.
Sprinting toward it, I used my momentum to carry me forward, knife sharp side out.
The Sanguir let out a sickening gurgle as it died, blood spurting out.
Wrenching my knife free again, it revealed this Sanguir had been feasting on the body of one of its own. The stench was beyond offensive.
Nausea threatened to bring breakfast back up.
There wasn't much shoreline left near the perimeter gap that wasn't covered in more Sanguirs or steaming pools of miasma. More Sanguirs were making their way out of the miasma even as I watched.
And I'd only killed three so far.
Looking around, my eyes were drawn to Zevrial as he fought.
His movements were precise and swift. He killed several more feeding Sanguirs in a matter of seconds.
He caught me looking, and his eyebrows pinched together as his gaze slid to my side.
Following his line of sight, four more Sanguirs were moving toward me.
I was outnumbered and cornered against the perimeter and miasma.
Before I could panic, they changed course toward Zevrial.
A fresh red blemish stained his pant leg. It was too clean, there was no trace of Sanguir slime around it.
He’d injured himself on purpose with his second blade to distract the Sanguirs from swarming me. There was no time to dwell on it, not when they were still surrounding the others.
Rosa was a few yards away, retreating from ten leeches.
She was dripping with blood, and I couldn't tell whether it was her own.
More importantly, she was isolated, and outnumbered worse than I had been.
I navigated my way carefully around the carcasses littering the sandbank toward her as fast as I could.
One of the Sanguirs lunged for her, and she cut it down in midair.
Another three hesitated in their pursuit of her, turning toward me as I ran toward her.
Gripping the knife in both hands, I held tight so that it didn't slip from all the blood already on it.
I went after the leech closest to the perimeter first, plunging the dagger into it before it could leap at me.
The second one was already airborne as I wrested the knife free.
I didn't have enough time to get back up.
Remembering my training, I twisted my torso to get a better angle and held the knife directly in its flight path.
The blade struck true, embedding itself deeply into the lower jaw of the creature.
As it fell, I realized too late that the weight of the Sanguir was pinning the knife into its body. I kicked out with one foot, trying to pull the weapon free again to no avail. The Sanguir bodies were tough, and the knife was jammed all the way to the hilt.
The third Sanguir wasn't waiting for me to arm myself. Its body curled on itself, readying to lunge at me.
Rosa screamed, a high and shrill note that I hoped to never hear again.
Something moved in front of me, too fast for my eyes to track.
The Sanguir's body fell in two dissected heaps onto the ground, blood pooling around it.
Zevrial stood above it, not even breathing heavily.
“Get up,” he ordered, grabbing my upper arm and yanking me to my feet.
“And get her out of here,” he pointed toward Rosa.
I turned toward where I'd last seen her, and almost wished I hadn't.
There was a line of Sanguir corpses between me and her, and several more living monsters were creeping up toward those bodies from the miasma's edges. Rosa was on the ground, screaming as she stabbed blindly at a Sanguir that was attached to her face.
“Go!” he demanded, snapping me out of the stupefying horror that had taken hold. He tipped his head toward a door not too far beyond where she was at. “Get her to the Outpost.”
I clamored to my feet and ran toward her. The newest wave of monsters coming ashore was too distracted by the piles of fresh meat to notice me.
Rosa was inconsolable by the time I reached her, flailing and tearing off fleshy chunks of the Sanguir still adhered to her face. It had a series of gashes down its body, and wasn’t moving. Blood from its body was pooling underneath her head, sticking to her peanut-brown hair and turning it maroon.
“Rosa!” I yelled, raising my voice to be heard over her screaming. “Hold still and I’ll get it off you!”
She sobbed, shuddering as she stopped flailing.
I grabbed the tail end of the creature, pulling hard as I peeled it off her face and tossing it toward the miasma.
A gruesome sight laid beneath.
The left half of Rosa’s face was a ruined mask of blood and tears.
A trail of triangular bites ran up the length of her cheek.
A chunk of her eyebrow was missing. Her left eye was sunken red pulp, thin red bites from the Sanguir’s many teeth surrounding it.
And where her eye should have been convex, it was concave.
I flinched before I could stop myself, even as Rosa’s right eye swung toward me.
I stole a quick glance behind us to make sure no more Sanguirs were near us yet. They weren’t, but something worse was.
A house-sized miasma wave was rushing toward the line of Sanguirs behind us. Medic service wisdom from Papa took over.
Don’t panic. No matter how severe the injury.
Panic would kill you faster.
“Can you walk?” I asked, hooking my arm under her shoulders using the technique Izaiah had used when I’d sprained my ankle. I grunted under the added weight. We both struggled to stand.
She sobbed and whimpered, her voice gibbering as she tried to reply. She reached up her free hand as if she was going to touch her injured eye, but I grabbed it before she could.
“Breathe,” I ordered, waiting until she’d gulped in a few lungfuls of air. I pulled her hand away from her face. “Do you think you can walk?” She hiccupped, shuddering.
“Yeah,” her voice was a hoarse rasp from screaming. “I just…” she hiccupped again. “I can’t keep my balance,” she admitted.
“Let’s get you out of here.” I moved us toward the nearest door in the perimeter, veering as far from the incoming wave as I could.
The wave was crashing down now, sweeping over the Sanguir carcasses behind us. It crept closer, sand smoking beneath it as it did.
Rosa teetered dangerously as we walked, almost falling over several times, but we managed to make it through the sturdy wooden door.
The wave pulled back, three feet shy of the outer perimeter’s base.
Rosa wept, making soft keening noises as we walked.
I glanced over my shoulder at the hole in the perimeter. It was nearly completely sealed at this point, Talissa and Pasha were carrying stones toward it while four others I didn’t know lifted them up into place to fill in the gap.
A distant yell erupted from beyond the gap, in Zevrial’s voice. “Fall back! Fall back!”
I breathed a sigh of relief, turning Rosa’s body and mine toward the inner perimeter wall and walking forward. She was supporting her weight well, and her legs moved fine, but her balance was precarious. Every few steps, she’d totter to one side and I’d stabilize her.
The fight was over. We’d secured the outer perimeter. My family was safe.
Listening to Rosa cry as I shouldered her weight, it didn’t feel like a victory.