Silent Gulch Chapter 15
Church ran like hell, barely managing to avoid the giant snake's tooth. He was at a loss as to what to do. He had a stick and a knife and was fighting a giant snake that was trying to eat him. The monster lifted its head, moving so it could strike again.
"Kill it!" Alessa shouted from where she stood. Oddly the snake didn't seem to care about the unarmed child, rather determined to destroy the armed soldier. Apparently she really hadn't been kidding when she said that the monsters would leave her alone.
"With what?" Church asked, dodging another strike and nearly losing his footing as he changed direction. "It's a giant monster snake with super hard scales. How do you kill that?"
"Not all of it's covered in scales," Alessa pointed out. Church had to admit that she was right. The snake's scales didn't start until the base of its skull. Beside the body and the outside of the mandibles the snake was vulnerable. The question was, how could he get to those areas without being eaten.
"That's it; I'm doing it the Caboose way," Church decided, fed up with running from it. He turned toward the snake, watching it as it rose up to strike again. The monster spread its mandibles and lunged forward like lightning toward Church.
The soldier ran forward, dodging the upper jaw and teeth of the monster. He spun around, finding his target right before him. He pulled out his knife and sunk the blade into the roof of the snake's mouth up to the hilt. The snake hissed in pain and raised its head. Church hung onto the knife, trying to pull it free. The blade wouldn't budge, leaving Church dangling in the snake's mouth. Church looked down quickly, turning his attention back to the knife as he realized how high up he was. The snake's tongue slithered out, wrapping around Church's waist and trying to pull him back into its throat. Church held onto the knife, trying to keep himself from being dragged into the beast's intestines.
"Like hell I'm going to be your dinner," Church growled, trying to pull himself toward the knife. In a matter of seconds, the knife moved, causing the snake to cry out as the blade stabbed at nerves. With the force of the snake and Church pulling on it, the blade cut through the flesh of the snake's mouth, leaving a long deep wound. The tongue let go as blood poured forth from the wound. The snake shook its head, trying to rid itself of the pain in vain.
The knife slid from the open wound, sending Church flying to the side and away from the snake. He hit the ground hard, rolling to a stop a ways away from the snake.
Church groaned, rolling over onto his side and struggling to get up. Blood fell openly from the snake's mouth, creating a growing lake of blood on the ground. The snake turned toward Church and moved forward angrily. Church struggled to his feet, barely managing to avid the snake's head from crushing him. He nearly fell as he moved forward, stabbing the knife into the snake's right eye. He felt the knife easily slice through the soft tissue of the eye. He stumbled back as blood and an odd liquid flowed forth from the eye down onto him. The snake once more drew back, hissing in pain.
Church took the time to move farther away from the snake, wanting as much distance as he could get. He needed time to recover and catch his breath before he could do anything else. The snake didn't want to give him the chance, though, easily ignoring the pain in favor of rage. It turned and slid toward him, keeping its left eye on the soldier. It struck out, trying to impale Church on one of its long lower fangs. It nearly succeeded, ripping a hole in the side of Church's shirt as he moved away.
Church swung, letting his knife find the snake's left eye and blinding the beast. The snake turned to the only thing it could do with no way of telling where its prey was. It flailed about, slamming into the walls of the room, trying to find Church.
Church was exhausted and his vision was becoming blurry. His body moved without him thinking, running over to Alessa. He picked her up, carrying her over to the side of the room to where there was a slight crevice between the wall and one of the supports. Then he put himself between her and the flailing snake.
The stone wall cracked as the snake's body hit them, causing bits to crumble and plummet to the ground. Church remained huddled against the wall until the dust settled. When it did, he stood up, moving to look at the snake. It had been hit by the falling debris, breaking one of its mandibles, and at some point the snake had been hit in the head hard, driving the crooked fang up into the snake's skull.
"I am Church, leader of Blue team, destroyer of monsters!" the soldier shouted before collapsing to the ground.
Alessa moved over to his side, looking down at the unconscious man. "Mr. Church?" she asked, kneeling beside him. When he didn't reply she sat down beside him to wait.
~With the others~
"I'll say it's a pig," Sarge decided, staring at the statue that they had gathered around. Why they were all standing around guessing what animal it was was anybody's guess.
"I'll go with boar," Grif decided. "Yeah, that's definitely a boar."
"I think it's a pig," Simmons decided.
"Of course you say it's a pig, kiss-ass," Grif snapped. "It's obviously a boar."
"I agree with Grif. Pigs don't have as much hair as this thing does," Tucker decided, though his choice was mainly influenced, like Grif, by the fact he wanted to piss off Sarge.
"Hey, how about we call it a warthog?" Donut suggested.
"That's a stupid idea, Donut. It's a pig, not a warthog. It doesn't even have tires," Sarge scolded the private.
"I thought it was a good idea, Sergeant Pancake," Caboose spoke up.
"Thanks, Caboose, you're the best enemy ever," Donut said, hugging his brain-dead friend.
"You're just being a kiss-ass," Grif snapped at the maroon soldier.
"And you're only trying to be difficult," Simmons shot back, glaring at the orange soldier.
"By the gods, would you two just make out and get it over with?" Tucker nearly shouted.
"For the last time, Tucker, we are not a couple," Simmons snapped at the cyan soldier, getting rather tired of having to repeat himself.
"Not yet, but we've got a pot going for when you two will get together and which one will be on top," Sister stated.
"My own sister?" Grif said, looking at his sister, stunned. "You know I only like girls."
"Oh, come on, you never brought any girls home, and you went to prom with a guy," Sister argued.
"Terry wasn't a guy, she was a girl," Grif argued back.
"How do you know? Did you sleep with Terry?" Sister asked.
"No, you know how I spent that night. Someone spiked the punch at the dance," Grif reminded her.
"Well, while you were in the bathroom vomiting, Terry and I had sex on your bed," Sister said, grinning. "Trust me, he was all man. Why do you think I suggested you wash your sheets the next day?"
"Oh, my god, you let me sleep in your mess? I thought that sticky stuff had been vomit," Grif said, horrified.
There was a loud thud behind them as stone fell to the ground. "Tucker did it!" Caboose said out of habit.
"It wasn't me, Caboose. The stupid snake statue just broke." Tucker walked over to the broken statue. The snake's head had fallen off and broken into pieces. "What crappy workmanship."
"I don't know, that cut looks pretty clean." Simmons ran his hand over the stone where the head had been connected to the body. "Grif, would you let go of me?"
"No, you're my meat shield," Grif replied, not releasing his grip. The orange soldier had his arms wrapped tightly around Simmons like a big teddy bear.
"Dude, I think I'm just about to win the pot. Quick, Sarge, Donut, start making out. Maybe they'll follow your example," Tucker said, excited.
"What in Sam's Hill are you talking about? My team may be fairies but I'm not." Sarge glared at the cyan soldier.
"Sarge, even you're in on the bet?" Simmons asked, sounding hurt.
"Oh, quiet, Simmons. Who do you think started us betting with money?" the red soldier said, ignoring Simmons, who looked like a kicked puppy.
"Oh, come on, everyone knows Red team is the gay team and Blue is the straight team. We're the only team that's had women on it," Tucker pointed out.
"Two girls and one of them's a slut and you still couldn't get laid," Simmons taunted, and the argument moved into full swing.
~End chapter 15