Screamer (8 page)

“
Move fast and quiet,” He muttered, then he turned and was off, crouching as he moved so that his head was barely above the weeds.

Elsa followed, keeping her rifle ready. She was focused on watching the grasses for signs of the hostile animals and nearly ran into Tarn when he stopped in front of her abruptly. She looked past him and saw another ditch carved into the ground by a different screamer pod. “Back up slowly!” Tarn hissed.

She turned to follow his gaze and saw the tail end of one of the chitin covered animals. She felt her eyes widen as she took in the slender but still dangerous tail and the four multi-jointed legs that looked like a cross between a spider and a lizard. She backed up slowly, carefully picking up her feet one at a time and retracing her steps. She stopped abruptly when she heard a soft rustling noise made by something large moving through the grasses behind her.

Elsa turned and dropped to her knee in a single smooth motion. The scene before her made her hesitate, she was staring at the four eyed head of one of the drones less than six feet from her. The vicious mandibles were stretched wide and its inner mouth opened to reveal rows of sharp teeth. They both fired at the same time, hers a blast of supercharged ions that caused the short and bristly hair on the side of its head to melt and burn. The brunt of the energized burst struck the armored body of the beast.

The stream of spittle from the creature splattered against her abdomen and hip, on the side that the screecher hadn’t destroyed. She could smell a caustic odor from it, but thought no more of it as she adjusted her one armed aim and yanked the trigger again. Its mandibles waved wildly and it tilted its head to the sky, then its legs gave out and it collapsed to the ground. One of its eyes exploded and viscous juices ran out of it.

Elsa heard some grunting and a scuffling sound behind her. She turned and saw Tarn standing on the top of the other drone. He pulled his spear free of the creatures head and looked about briefly to find her.

“
Time to go!” He told her, no longer speaking quietly. She nodded and jogged over to him.

“
Lead the way, I’ll cover us!” She said.

He took off at a run, angling straight away from the mound toward the ridge. One of the drones intercepted them but Elsa hit it in one of its shoulders, causing it to dip low and crash into the ground. Tarn speared the beast before it could pick itself up, then wrenched his sharpened stick free and kicked it hard enough in the head to snap one of the mandibles off as he ran past it.

Else clutched her rifle between her broken arm and her side so she could toss both of the grenades behind her as they ran. She set them with a time delay to grant them some cover and felt both blasts, even though they were well beyond the area of affect by the time they detonated. Whether they’d hurt their pursuers or not she couldn’t tell, but at worst they’d slow them down or confuse them.

Tarn didn’t slow until the grasses had grown shorter and small scrub trees began to grew. The ground rose, forming the beginning of the foothills. He turned to look back, panting hard for a few moments. He recovered faster than Elsa thought possible. She was still wheezing a little from the fight and flight across the plain. She glanced down at her armor and saw that it was darkening where the spit had struck her. Without thinking, she reached down to wipe some of it off. It felt sticky and viscous at first, then a burning sensation erupted in her hand.

“
Oh shit,” Elsa muttered, staring at her hand.

Tarn glanced at her, then did a double take. “That was pretty fucking stupid,” He commented.

“
Hurts like hell too,” Elsa forced out through clenched teeth. The sensation was amplifying, her hand felt like it was one fire now. Any other feeling was gone. Her fingers were locked, contorted in agony that overrode every desire she had to move it. The pain moved quickly, climbing into her wrist and forearm. The pain overwhelmed her and made thoughts of moving her hand impossible even though the fingers now hung limp.

“
Don’t know if this is gonna kill you or not,” Tarn said, shaking his head. “But I ain’t touching you with that shit on your armor.”

“
Take. It. Off!”

Tarn muttered something as he stalked towards her. He reached for the releases on her armor and activated them with a familiarity that she would have found alarming if only she could have cared. He stopped, grabbing her rifle and wrenching her broken arm harsh enough that she almost noticed it through the pain that was climbing up her other arm.

She watched as Tarn fired multiple blasts from her rifle, but by the time she was able to turn and see the result of his sharp shooting her vision was becoming blurry. She thought she counted the bodies of three or perhaps four more of the drones. Tarn tucked the gun between his knees and worked the releases on her armor. It fell free, unbalancing her just enough to make her fall.

Tarn stared down at her for a moment, then took the gun in his right hand. He shook his head and muttered something else. She assumed he was muttering because nothing he said seemed to make sense anymore. He bent down and scooped her up in one arm, then hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack of grain.

Elsa stared at the sweat on his muscled back until it began to grow dark. She didn’t think the sun was setting this early, but under any other circumstances spending time this close to Tarn at night could be quite an experience. She realized the burning sensation had faded. It was just a background warmth that permeated her entire body. It soothed and relaxed her, making her feel that everything would be okay.

“
If I wake up with a sore ass you’re in a lot of trouble!” Elsa muttered. It sounded funny to her, at least. She didn’t have the energy left to follow it with a giggle. She hoped he knew she was just kidding. Well sort of. He wouldn’t do that to her, would he?

“
Hang on,” Tarn said, “There’s more coming. I can’t lead ‘em back to Treetown so this might get a little rough.”

Elsa thought she heard him but she really didn’t care. He could take her anywhere and she’d be fine with it. His strong body felt so reassuring and she knew he would take care of her. She tried to moan out a response but she wasn’t sure it made any sense. Her eyes closed a moment later and even the nearly ten foot drop off of a small cliff a moment later failed to rouse her.

###

About the Author

Jason Halstead is a science fiction and fantasy author who spends his daytime hours as an IT Manager in the automotive industry. In his spare time Jason enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, writing, and competitive powerlifting.

He enjoys reading and responding to fan mail as well, so if you liked any of his books, don't be shy! Find him on the web at
http://www.booksbyjason.com
, email him at
mailto:[email protected]
, or follow him on Twitter:
@booksbyjason
.

Other books by Jason Halstead

Voidhawk

Voidhawk – The Elder Race
(Voidhawk, book 2)

Voidhawk – Redemption
(Voidhawk, book 3)

Voidhawk – The White Lady
(Voidhawk, book 4 – pending)

Wanted

Ice Princess
(Wanted, book 2)

Dark Earth

Devil’s Icebox (Dark Earth, book 2 - pending)

The Lost Girls
(The Lost Girls, book 1, a Dark Earth novel)

Traitor
(The Lost Girls, book 2, a Dark Earth novel)

Wolfgirl
(The Lost Girls, book 3, a Dark Earth novel)

Voices
(a Dark Earth Book)

New Beginnings
(Vitalis, book 1)

The Colony
(Vitalis, book 2)

Parasites
(Vitalis, book 3)

Screamer
(Vitalis, book 4)

Squatter’s Rights
(Vitalis, book 5)

Human Nature

Sex Sells

Vitalis

Squatter’s Rights

“Gunny!”

Kira ignored the interruption to the meeting as the FIST Marine walked up. “What will they try next?” Kira addressed the question to the assembled survivors.

“What happened?” Gunnery Sergeant Elsadora Quinn whispered after she’d moved to stand beside Jess Robinson. The Marine medic was the only other surviving woman from the FIST drop. Three men had survived, a corporal and two PFCs.

“Your boys found out that Vitalis don’t take kindly to visitors,” Tarn spoke up, his voice carrying from the other side of the campfire.

Kira was losing control of the meeting. She spoke loudly to draw their attention to her. “The atmosphere diffused the Marine energy weapons. Only two of the missiles made it to the ground and one of them failed to detonate. One shuttle crashed into the ocean and another onto the plain. Two landed safely but the spitters tore the Marines apart. The TCS air support either suffered failures that caused them to crash or they ran into the biggest flock of flyers we’ve seen yet.”

Corporal Sampson, nickname Radio, shook his head. “Haven’t been able to get my gear to power up. Power pack blew in it and fused the wiring.”

“Four shuttles?” Elsa mused out loud. “That’s eighty fucking Marines! The Desperado only has a handful left.”

“That answers my question,” Kira said. “They’ll either head back or wait for reinforcements. Was there any other ships set to follow the Desperado out here?”

“They wouldn’t just leave us here!” Jess snapped.

Elsa nodded. “We don’t leave our fallen. Never have and we never will.”

“They got no choice.” Those words came from a man who’d been sitting quietly on a log and watching the exchange. “Before we had to abandon the research station we were learning what was happening to us. Vitalis doesn’t like alien life.”

“What are you talking about?” Elsa snapped. “Were you one of the researchers?”

He nodded. “Jeremy Sinclair. We—“

Kira waved him silent. “Vitalis either kills you or, if you’re strong enough, it makes you a part of it. You think you can recover in two days from a broken arm and all the beatings Tarn said you went through?”

Elsa gasped and stared at her arm. It had been broken and splinted the last time she was awake. Tarn had found her after she’d gotten the snot beat out of her by a pack of baby screechers. An adult screecher was a meat eating monster twenty feet tall that walked on two legs, the babies had only been about five feet tall but no less hungry or mean spirited for it.