Chapter Sixty-One – Go Kill the Thing

Chapter Sixty-One – Go Kill the Thing

“All students at Bartholomew G. Wordstum Elementary school must follow the dress code. That includes:

All students will be provided with new school software for their augmentations at the beginning of the semester.”

–Letter to parents of students of Bartholomew G. Wordstum Elementary school, 2039

***

I had about a second to come up with an idea of what to do.

That second passed.

“Cat!” Gomorrah shouted. “Go kill that thing.”

“Got it!” I said. Then I ran.

The earth shifted and rent, and from the growing hole came a beast whose appearance alone was enough to clutch my heart.

I wasn’t a coward or anything, and there were few things that made me nervous or that scared me, but that antithesis… fuck me if it wasn’t terrifying.

The antithesis clambered out of the hole it had made, slabs of cement falling into the growing pit even as dozens of model threes came pouring out of the hole after it.

Its legs were tree trunks, its body was long and covered in thick bones with leathery segments between them. Four legs, and a face like a lamprey fucked chuthulu. As I ran, eyes on the monster, two long tusks ripped out of the sides of its head. They were bigger than I was, with serrated edges and sharp points.

One of the tanks nearby started to back up, turret turning towards the antithesis while the big beast was still pulling itself out of the ground.

The tank fired, and I slowed my run down. Was that it? Had I been freaking out for nothing?

The dust cleared, revealing the antithesis which was shaking its head to clear out the smoke left behind by the exploding shell. It was injured, a crack in the off-white bone over its sternum and skin ripped through, but it wasn’t dead.

“Myalis, what is that?” I asked.

A model twenty-eight, though that is a small specimen of the model.

A small specimen? It was the size of a tanker! The PMCs and militia around the hole turned around. Some opened fire immediately. The smarter ones ran for cover first. I saw two of them get gunned down as a nasty cross-fire started near the backlines.

The model threes were going to be a problem.

“We need to patch that hole,” I said.

The model twenty-eight turned, then started to charge with its head lowered. Its tusks rammed into a parked van and it lifted it clear off the ground before swinging its head around. The tusks retracted and the van went flying.

“We need to kill that thing,” I said. I must have had fire on my mind. “Myalis, need a fire grenade, something long-lasting.”

A bomb appeared in the air before me, just at the right height for me to catch it without having to slow down at all. I pulled the pin, then vaulted over the barricades.

Militia-people were scurrying around in barely contained panic. Officers were screaming orders out, and I could tell that the other sections were looking our way, wondering what to do.

I flung the grenade Myalis had given me out and ahead as hard as I could. It sailed through the air in a nearly perfect arc, bounced off the head of a model three, then disappeared into the hole. A heartbeat later a dozen red beams flashed out of the opening, some of them spearing into and through the model threes still on the edge of the hole.

That will last for approximately one minute.

Good enough for the moment. I refocused on the model twenty-eight. A lot of others were doing the same, firing into its sides and flanks. The big alien seemed almost confused for a moment before it spotted a group of power-armoured PMCs running by. It ran after them, like a hyperactive dog who’d just spotted a juicy squirrel.

I winced as the monster swung its head down and picked one of the men off the ground and into the air, its lamprey mouth crunching down on the soldier.

Now that I was closer, I raised my gun to fire at it, then paused. Plenty of others were doing the same. It wasn’t working. The damned thing had tanked a shell to the torso with barely more than a scratch to show for it.

If I couldn’t do anything from the outside, then… the inside?

My Claw wouldn’t go deep enough. For that matter, I bet the bastard was nearly as tough inside as it was on the outside. I needed something with more oomph. “Myalis, get me the Claw’s bigger meaner brother,” I asked.

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