The Shape of Death
What the bloody hell made this?
At a distance, I would've said a bear. Or a sasquatch. My fingertips tentatively touched the packed earth, the depression two knuckles in depth was slowly being erased by the gentle ebb and flow of the lake water. The track was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Nearly the right size and weight impression of a bear, indicating a large animal except it walked upright and had a dewclaw like a falcon's talon. No bear made this. Fuck, unless it was a cryptid like the Jersy Devil, sasquatch, or a chupacabra, no terrestrial animal made tracks like these. And while I wasn't a xenozoologist or biologist I didn't think a Xenomorph had made it either.
This was something new. Something big. And very, very deadly.
My eyes cut to the heap of so much meat. I'd avoided the remains for several minutes, afraid to confirm with my eyes what I already knew, but I couldn't any longer. I wasn't sure a quick field necropsy would reveal much of anything, however, the situation called for prudence. We knew next to nothing about our newest enemy and I'd take anything I could glean from Gotrek's dead packmates.
My packmates.
Ice carved a path through my veins as I gingerly pawed my way in and around the carnage. Gotrek gave a wary sound, a cross between a whine and a growl. If I were anyone else, he would've killed me for the transgression. Wolves were extremely social creatures with strong ties to their families. They grieve and mourn the passing of a loved one. They would give their lives for each other. In so many ways, this pack had taught me what having a family truly meant. Something I'd never quite experienced before...
Or will again.
A flap of fur with a unique white star mark brought a rush of recognition so fast it felt like I'd been punched in the throat. Gretta. The oldest of the pack. She'd been the alpha female at one point but she'd passed the crown to her daughter Vera. Wolves rarely got to be her age and she'd been the best caregiver for the pups when the pack was off on a hunt.
Anger prickled at the backs of my eyes as I knelt down to pull her head out from beneath her body. She'd been ripped apart, her head torn clean off. Pale eyes stared wide, almost accusing. Where were you?! They howled.
I'm sorry.
I checked her teeth, hoping she'd done some damage in return, and had a bit of a start when something serpentine slipped out to fall on my knee. A black tubular appendage thing, about four inches in length that narrowed into a point which gave it a snakelike appearance. I picked it up, surprised by its density and more than a little weirded out by the phosphorescent green ick crusting the end. Is that supposed to be blood? Whatever it was at least it wasn't acid.
I gave the fleshy thing an experimental squeeze between my thumb and forefinger and a bit of green ick plopped onto my thigh. Brighter than the already dried stuff, the ick against the black of my cargo pants fucking glowed. Glowed.
That was some supernatural shit right there. Horror used to be a favorite and slightly obsessive pastime of mine... I should take up reading romance instead.
Bleh. The notion made me mildly squeezy.
Okay, not a bigfoot. Maybe a pukwudgie. Nah, too small.
Whatever this thing was, it belonged in the encyclopedias of horror. I dropped the appendage and took a closer look at Gretta's teeth. More green here too. So, yeah, looks like whatever this fucker is it bleeds green.
Respectfully, I set Gretta's head beside her ribcage and promised to properly bury her later. The other wolf she'd been with didn't offer up much more information. His head was gone and the spine had been torn free of its fleshy housing and discarded among the rest of the slaughter. And I only knew it was a he because of the genitals.
Water sloshed at my feet, the soft spray darkening as it leached the blood from the dirt. The ground was so saturated with it that it swelled a murky red around my boots where they sank.
Pinpricks danced across my toes as I stood up. Adrenaline had propelled me forward through the night and now that my RHR was stabilized the weariness sank in. Going on no sleep for over twenty-four hours, the ache in my bones felt like they'd been scrapped across the bottom of a barrel full of nails and broken glass.
"Let's head back." Despite the exhaustion, we had to go on, because this wasn't over. Whatever killed Gretta was still out there.
I walked back to the treeline and using a paracord, I strung up my bag to keep it off the ground and away from curious paws. I'd come back for it later. A few minor adjustments for maneuverability and I started heading down the shoreline with the Morning Star at the ready.
We didn't make it more than eighty yards before Gotrek stiffened. Alert. Listening.
I heard it too. A chorus of angry snarls skated out over the water.
Gotrek snarled and leaped into action. White hot adrenaline lit up my muscles like a live current and I found myself running harder than I ever have in my life. All I kept thinking was- move faster! We were headed up the sheer path. It would be difficult to climb up on the lakeside of the ridge. But going around would take too much time.
Move faster!
Loud clangs from bells I'd strung up with trip wire were distantly rattling. An old hunting trick that still worked quite well. I only hoped the one caught in it was the enemy.
A roar of fury rose up over it all which nearly resulted in a spontaneous bladder malfunction. Strong instinct sent emotions catapulting in my gut. The fresh caress of adrenaline was indistinguishable from what I felt when going into a burning building. Only death awaits here. But we would cross that threshold anyway. You could say it was thanks to our fire training, or pure selflessness and wanting to protect people, but for some of us, it was the rush. To brush against death and say 'I won'.
Another roar. Louder this time.
Sounds mad.
My four-legged friend hit the ridge first and started the climb, sending scree and tiny avalanches of dirt cascading down. I fastened the Morning Star to my chest rig and started up after Gotrek. Admittedly a bit slower than him but nature hadn't blessed me with a lithe form.
Quarter-sized rocks dinged off my head. I glanced up. Swore. Kicked off a boulder and swung my weight to the left just as a minor rockslide swept past. It wouldn't have killed me but it would've knocked me around pretty good. Jamming my glasses a safe distance back up my nose, I then shot a glare at Gotrek, only to watch his rear end disappear over the ledge.
Damn it!
Tired muscles ached from being pushed a third time in a span of twenty-four hours without adequate rest but I ignored them.
Kill whatever the hell's up there first. Then worry about the aches and pains. Ignoring the slight tremor in my hands, I pushed harder. Adrenaline could only get you so far. The ferocious symphony of growls and beastly howls above had me pulling myself hand over hand in an epic surge of will and intense physicality.
Despite the early chill, fine beads of sweat raced down my brow. Roots tried in vain to bar my way at the ledge but I managed to shimmy a leg over and then haul myself up. I'd barely managed to exhale when a hot flash of blue and an immense pressure wave boiled my skin. My synapsis worked overtime, identifying the explosion just a few meters away and simultaneously reintroducing me to the ground after a stunt-woman-worthy jump and roll.
Chunks of vegetation and dirt rained over me as I recovered and came up on one knee with the Morning Star in my hands. Air whistled between clenched teeth as I tried to find my target and control my erratic breathing. A grainy film addled my sense of sight, leaving me feeling momentarily unmoored until I realized I'd lost my glasses.
I kept the barrel straight and my eyes front. Leaning forward just enough to search the ground with a hand. I wasn't blind. I could still identify individual wolves. But further shifting shadows left me at a blurred disadvantage. After a slightly frantic minute of sweating paranoid bullets and muttering curses, my fingers found the familiar blocky frames, and the world was thrust back into focus. Utterly alarming focus.
Anika and Jojo lie still in the grass some yards away from me, their fur blackened and flesh charred. Along with their mother-
-Vera!-
-her belly filleted from throat to pelvis. Bloody organic masses that were easily identifiable as her unborn pups had spilled out onto the ground.
A heavy exhalation escaped me and I bit down on the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste blood. I wanted to cry! To run! To scream! To fucky kill something! Riptides of anger sprung to my eyes but I furiously blinked them back. I was stronger than the emotion.
I forced my eyes away from the unborns and sought a mark. Gotrek, Misty, and Sasha were circling a wide area. Ears back. Teeth bared. They were a menacing sight to behold... but I was confounded by the empty space they seemed to have marked.
In my periphery, I saw the scorched earth where I'd been standing moments before. Something had clearly shot at me. Something was there. I would have to trust the wolves' senses over my own. I took aim at the center. Finger on the trigger.
Hesitated.
Dappled sunlight began its morning dance across the forest floor. Slow and lazy with a barely-there breeze. It often played tricks on the eyes and this time seemed no different... except that it was. There appeared to be a weird double exposure to the forest. It caused me to rapidly blink, unable to make sense of what I was seeing. But the more I stared, the more my eyes seemed to adjust, and a sort of unnatural ghostly overlay manifested.
So what's the underlying picture?
"Fuck it!" I fired. But not in time.
A bizarre whirl of refractions had me blinking crazily again, and a savage otherworldly snarl cut through the din of wolf anger. It moved. The wolves moved with it. There was a whaling cry from Sasha as she was thrown off her feet. My eyes only caught hints of something boiling toward me, but it happened too quickly to make sense. Heavy footfalls- louder and louder; my heart pounding in time with them. I aimed blind and fired at the strange wavering in the air.
Pain rippled in waves of fire as something caught me in the chest. I shot wild. Momentarily blinded as the burning blast struck home directly in front of me. Cooked flesh assaulted the air. Unknown warmth spattered my face as the thing snarled. I fell to one knee, my hand slapping over my shoulder as if that would stop the pain. My palm came away in a puzzling mix of after images, scarlet and phosphorescent green. I looked down at myself, shocked by the directional arterial arch of green across my chest.
Gotrex was suddenly in front of me, phantom images of the muzzle flash cartwheeled mockingly, partially obscuring my view, but the wolf's abrupt motion snapped me out of my daze. I brought the Morning Star up and clamped down on the urge to cry out as the butt nestled into the shredded tissue of my shoulder.
Bright green and slightly glowing blood dripped from a crescent tear in the fabric of our dimension. Or at least that's how it looked until the mirage gave way to structural mass and flesh solidified out of the rippling mist. Sudden and terrifying, whatever mechanism the creature used to hide himself in plain sight, flickered out.
"You're new." Was all I managed. No religious slanders or biblical ideations. Even if I believed in such things, he was not created in anyone's divine image.
One second a weird oozy green hole in the universe, next a being of utter chaos steps through to rip said universe apart. I'd seen the devil, and while this alien creature wasn't him, the alien was definitely an ugly step-sibling. Six and a half plus feet of heavy muscle cast in iron-forged grey skin and sparse metal armor that only emphasized how big he was. I went with he only because those were quite obviously behemoth-sized pectorals in my face, not breasts. Mammal? Definitely. No cold-blooded creature could've matched his locomotion, especially with a chill in the air. A helmet of sharp angles and wicked glaring red-eye lenses covered his large face. Ornaments of conquest and death bound to his strappings.
It took less than a second to take him in. Less than a beat to notice the wolf skull adorning the crest of the helmet. And less than a breath to decide his fate.
I tried to fire again. But the alien was faster.
So was the pack.
He managed to knock the gun from my hands as it went off, sending me sprawling. As I went down, Gotrek latched onto the alien hunter's outstretched forearm. Joined by his sisters Sasha and Misty who caught him on the calf.
The considerable hole in the alien's arm impaired his ability to wrench himself free of Gotrek, but his other arm remained free and when he raised it for the strike, two serrated blades the length of my torso shot out. Before I could yell for Gotrek to move away, the wolf must've heard the blades unsheath because he was a blur of grey.
Red glittered the ends of the blades. Gotreks' chest was a mess, but if it bothered him, he didn't show. He didn't even slow down. Gotrek went after the alien again. Biting and snapping the air near the alien, looking for the best possible opening.
I scrambled for the KA-BAR knife in my boot, then rolled forward onto my feet. The wolves were too close, I couldn't use the Morning Star. Not for the first time, I wished for my ax. Something I could really put my weight behind.
Snarling with fury, the alien hunter lifted his left leg, shook it, and brought it down on Sasha when she didn't let go. The echo of bones snapping bounced off the trees. Sasha yelped and in that instant gave the alien an opening.
"NO!" Too late.
Sasha's head imploded like a crushed pumpkin. Organic matter, a mingling of red and chunkier pink bits matted in fur. One eyeball dislodged to roll wildly across the dirt.
Anger burst from my lungs in a howl as I launched myself at him. "I'd rather meet death on the burning fields of hell for the sake of someone else than suffer the passage of time until I'm old and withered and can't shit on my own..." Our bodies collided, a leaf caught in a ferocious gale. He seized the KA-BAR and squeezed until my bones rubbed painfully together. But dammit this leaf had thorns. I bit down on the ragged and burnt ends of his shoulder where the Morning Star left its mark. He snarled. I sank in harder, ignoring the way I convulsively swallowed blood and other bits. At that moment, my flat human teeth sharpened by fury became wolf fangs and I dug down until I felt his collarbone scrape my canines. Determined to send him to an early grave even if it meant I'd lie next to him forever.
Spirals of fire raced up and down my hand as he twisted. If he'd had a better hold of my hand, he might've wrenched my shoulder right out of the socket. Why not let go? Why not go for my throat instead?
Other random wonderings crowded my head. Why attack an entire pack? Was he that sure of himself? Despite his size, throwing himself against a whole pack, even a relatively small one, seemed rather brazen. I'd seen wolves drive off grizzlies.
With heavy feet, the alien pounded the ground, attempting to dislodge the wolves. "Ell-osde' pauk ooman lou-dte kalei!"
Guttural and explosive, his voice evoked a primal fear as it vibrated over my skin. The cords of his neck thrummed, forcing me to clap down until my jaw ached. What kind of language was that? Whatever, he'd said, it wasn't an olive branch of peace.
A flash of teeth and Gotrek was beside me, tearing into the dense muscle of his arm, keeping the alien hunter from shattering my wrist. Unfortunately, for me, even though he'd sustained heavy damage to the shoulder that I was desperately trying to shred further, his fight or flight instinct was stronger. He grabbed me around the middle and I gasped as claws raked my ribs. With a snarl and power beyond measure, I felt my grip being torn away. The ground and trees spun. I had a moment of understanding I was airborne. Then, pain. Darkness boiled around me.
Growls and snarls resonated in the darkness. Nausea roiled in my gut, the acid stinging the back of my throat. Slowly grainy blurs of movement formed pictures. A wolf- Misty! Held in the claws of the alien hunter, the twin blades of the gauntlet he wore driving into her middle. Warmth slid down my cheek. I was helpless to act as he eviscerated her before tossing her aside like trash.
Snarling as if he were Fenrir, Gotrek clamped onto the back of the alien hunter's neck.
Nausea bubbled and I contorted on my side to dry heave. My body shook uncontrollably, the panic rising.
Breathe! Div's calm collected voice spoke through the haze. Controlled your breathing or you'll run out of oxygen before we hit the surface. So just breathe.
And I did.
Whimpers of both terror and fury cleared the rest of the haze. No... The alien hunter held Gotrek to the ground beneath one massive foot. Three red dots in a triangular pattern slide over trampled earth and gore and then found their mark centered on Gotrek's forehead.
My heart lodged in my throat. I saw the Morning Star and scrabbled to it on my forearms. A high-pitched whine had me screaming and clawing for the butt of the gun.
Brrrrrrrt!
Cold sweat broke out all over my body. Everything felt suddenly agonizingly slow as I turned. Gotrek was gone. A charred husk embedded in the earth splintered me apart. The world felt wrapped in cotton, everything fuzzy and muffled. But I was screaming. And firing.
Blue streaks of lightning struck where I was moments past, the heat searing. I fired regardless. Missing by mere inches each time. My aim was good, but he was fast. Then I fired a round ahead of him, forcing him to abruptly double back. I saw the gun on his shoulder rigging lock onto me. Knew death was coming. I fired again.
An explosive pressure wave threw me off my feet. I landed hard. He'd missed. But not by much. I picked myself up on shaky hands and knees. My left leg slipped and I realized I was stooped over the edge of the ridge. A few yards in front of me, the alien staggered to one knee. I bared a smile full of teeth as he held the pulpy-green gore of his side. I could hear the crashing waves of his breath behind the mask. The unwavering red glare of the orbit shields bore into me with hatred.
I hefted the Morning Star. "Bye. Bye. You cock-" Click. "-sucker!" Click. Click. Click.
"What the fuck!" A red warning flashed on the screen of the Morning Star. Warning! System shutdown!
Fuck! Did you have to overheat right the fuck now?!
A soft whirring hum set my teeth on edge and frosted my skin with needles of ice. I lifted my head. Four spherical orbs ejected from the alien's gauntlet and floated above his palm. Unseen seams split the spheres to reveal a pulsing red glow.
Oh... shiiiiit!
Just as the spheres flew apart, I sprang to my feet and leaped out into open water. A force like a bus hit me in the back and the black haze ringed the fringes of my vision once again as I hit the water. But that icy chill thrust me back before the darkness could yank me below and drown me. I held my breath, flapping my arms as I spun deeper. Thankfully, the lake wasn't the ocean abyss. I could see the surface. See the glorious orange and yellow refraction of the sun off the water. I kicked. Ignoring the burn in my lungs and the new sting the water brought to wounds I'd barely been aware of before now.
Above, the glow grew brighter. And brighter. The dazzle became painful.
Anguish bubbled in my chest. Acrid air scraped the back of my throat as I surfaced. Smoke and flame snarled at the ridgeline, spreading as if it were an insatiable cancer devouring everything in its path.
Cold. Numb. I stared in abject horror, watching my world burn...
A/N: Sorry for the delay. Life tends to have parental duties popping up like weeds lately. Anyway, I'm getting super excited about the future of this story. Hope you guys are enjoying the ride as much as me. Thanks for all the favs, follows, and reviews.
NeverNeverLady: Sorry :( It had to be done for the sake of character-building. There will be more to it all later.
angel897: And its always a thrill to read your comments :) Thank you
KyloRen'sgirl213: Thank you, KyloRen'sgirl for reviewing! Hope you enjoyed the update.
Anonymous: Some of my earlier work is without a doubt better. I sometimes struggle with consistency and take long breaks and when I do, my writing flow takes a hit. But I'm working on it :)