All of Tree’s guys re-loaded and let loose another volley into the counter and kitchen. They had heard T-Roy’s screams and figured he had been shot. This enraged them and they turned their vengeance onto Cam and the rest.
“Everybody down the hall, stay low,” Cam said as round after round chewed up the sheetrock above his head. “Into the clinic!”
“Are you fucking crazy?” Troy said. “That thing’s out there.”
“It’s okay, it’s eating that guy,” Carla said. “It’s occupied.”
Lexie wasn’t wasting time. She crawled down the hallway, leading Father Mike and Sister Joanie behind her. Carla followed. Cam and Troy raised their guns up and fired a few more rounds toward the gangbangers and followed behind Carla.
“You got a plan?” Troy yelled as he followed Cam on all fours.
“No,” was all he got back in return. “Don’t die.”
“I like that plan,” Troy said.
They all scampered into the lobby and turned left into the little receptionist’s area and into the back examination room, putting as many walls as they could between them and the outside. When Troy and Cam made it into the little office, they turned toward the open door and caught a glimpse of the thing munching on what was left of T-Roy. Huge amounts of blood were dripping from its mouth, and Cam could swear the thing was smiling as if it were savoring a flavorful barbecued rib or something.
Or something.
“That it?” Cam yelled.
Troy looked at him and back at the creature. “Hmmm. Let me see. Yeah, I think so. How many weird fucking monsters we got running around, anyway? Of course that’s it!”
Cam was mesmerized. He should have screamed and run for cover, but he just froze. It was like people watching an approaching tornado. They knew it was dangerous, but the sheer awesomeness of the thing seemed to override their instincts. That was what was happening to him. He pulled out his iPhone and snapped a picture. He figured the strobing lightning and darknesss probably screwed up the shot.
“What the…” was all he could say. Until the thing saw him. Its huge eyes focused on him as it swallowed the rest of the gangbanger. The creature, still on its back legs, rose up and charged for the door.
“Run!” Cam said.
With one great crash, the massive creature ran into the front of the clinic and took out the whole wall. The old wooden siding splintered and cracked and the roof slid over to the right, exposing the entire lobby to the elements.
Cam and Troy spider-walked backwards on their asses into the examination area, turned on their sides and got up, pushing Lexie and the rest of the gang before them. Carla and Joanie screamed.
There was that whip-like sound again and the tongue thing flew above Cam’s head and hit a back wall with a thud. It retracted back the way it had come with frightening quickness. The quick flashes of distant lightning made the scene seem otherworldly.
“Shoot that fucker,” Troy said.
He and Cam turned as one and emptied their weapons in the general direction of the creature. It didn’t do any good. The thing was ripping its way into the clinic, tearing out walls, ceilings and anything else that was in its way, like a hungry cat after some mice trying to escape into a hidey hole.
The gangbangers who stood in the bait shot got a glimpse of the thing and stopped firing. The three of them froze in disbelief.
“What is that?” one of them said.
“Fuck if I know. Shoot it!”
They all let loose with another barrage. That got the creature’s attention. It turned toward them and hissed. Its tongue-thing shot out of its mouth, down what was left of the hall, over the counter and attached itself to the face of the gangbanger who stood in the middle. He went airborne without a sound, head first over the counter, down the hall and into the huge mouth. In two quick bites he was gone. It all happened in less than four seconds.
The remaining two guys ran out the back of the bait shop, onto the porch that overlooked the bayou, screaming like little girls.
Tree saw them run by. That whole back side of the store had been destroyed, and he could see through the debris and the fallen tree canopy as his guys ran. Occasional flashes of lightning from the north silently lit the scene.
“Hey, fuckers. Where you goin?” he yelled.
Roland looked up from his drug recovery duties, took notice of the fleeing gang members, and resumed his work. He wondered what scared the shit out of those guys.
The female creature lay hunkered down in the carwash. She had watched with some dismay as the male entered town, ignored her, and headed over to the building for a bite to eat. Actually, she was more than a little dismayed. She was supremely pissed. For days she had been anticipating this moment, and when it finally came, the male chose food over sex. Typical.
She concentrated and sent out another low vibration, her version of a mating call. It was the strongest yet, and this close it must have made the male shake where he stood. But, no. That asshole was eating his way through the building. Might have been eating the building for all she knew. The storm had subsided, and the moment was right, yet he was so crazy with hunger he completely ignored her.
She thought for a moment about dragging her ass out of there, running over to him, slapping him around a bit to get his attention, and maybe raping him. But while she let this movie play through her head, something caught her attention from behind. It was two of the smart things. They came running out of the back of the structure and would pass right by the carwash. And they had guns. This was just getting better and better, she thought. Could she have worse luck?
Sure enough, they passed directly in front of her. In a fit of anger, she flicked her long oral arm out of her mouth, grabbed one of them, picked him up off his feet and slammed him into the ground. The smart thing lay unconscious on the side of the road, blood oozing out of its mouth. She would eat it later before she high-tailed it back into the bayou.
The second smart thing turned and watched its friend go airborne. It backed away but tripped over its own feet and dropped the weapon it was holding. Without retracting her tongue, she let go of the unconscious body of the first smart thing and grabbed the second by the legs. The angle was all wrong and she couldn’t pick him up, so she dragged him her way, right towards her mouth, and bit off his two feet to keep him from running off. He howled in pain. She figured he might drag himself off, but that would be okay. The young ones would be hungry when they were born and might want something to chase and nibble on. Or maybe she would eat him, too. Whatever.
That done, she sent out another vibration.
The male was feeling pretty jacked up. He’d eaten two of the smart things in just a few minutes. Man, that was some good eatin’, he thought. His appetite wasn’t sated, not by a long shot. If anything, the wonderful flavors he was now enjoying made his stomach growl even more. Bet ya can’t eat just one!
He turned his attention back on the group of smart things he’d cornered in the back of the building. They were holed up back there and hard to get at, so he began tearing the structure apart again. There was a veritable feast just waiting in there, and he meant to have him some more.
Cam pumped the action on the shotgun again and fired at the monster that was slowly working its way toward them. He saw the tight pattern of pellets hit the thing in its chest. Something oozed out of the gray/white skin. It was black and viscous. Probably the thing’s blood. But that skin looked dense and tightly wound, and rather than blowing a hole into its body, the pellets merely embedded themselves on the surface.
Troy popped away with the pistol. Lexie was kneeling and held her gun out in a classic two-handed combat position. She aimed carefully at the monster’s head and fired off one shot after another, but with no effect. The rounds just seemed to bounce off the thing’s thick skull.
One thing was for certain, though. They were definitely pissing the thing off. Rather than just a malevolent blank stare, as one would expect a nightmare like this to have, it possessed an almost human expression. Its huge eyes narrowed and its mouth worked in a frown of frustration and concentration. Its face contorted, and there were almost comical grimaces as the bullets hit it. Comical in a kind of non-comical way, Cam thought. There was nothing funny about being eaten alive.
Closer and closer it came to them as it tore through sheetrock, doorframes and the partially collapsed roof. Cam and friends were now with their backs to the wall inside the kennel area. Cages of various sizes were stacked here and there, some small for cats, others much bigger. The force of the creature’s efforts had toppled some to the floor. Once, the thing’s tongue shot out and flicked a couple of the cages out of the way.
Cam was out of shells. Lexie reloaded and kept firing, as did Troy, but nothing was stopping the creature.
Suddenly, its eyes went wide and it stopped its attack. It turned its head to the right and the left as it tried to look behind it. The narrow hallway prevented that, so it backed out.
Cam could now see all the way into the lobby and out onto the parking area. It was now just a huge open space lit up by distant lightning. The creature got itself out and turned 180 degrees, still trying to look behind it.
And that was when Cam saw the most amazing thing he’d seen that night. Okay, maybe not the most amazing thing, but at the moment, it was pretty high up there.
Attached to the thing’s tail was one badass thrashing, biting, tearing, growling yellow Lab of a dog named Huey. He had his big canines sunk into the thing’s rat-like tail, near the end where it was about as thick as a bicycle tire. He was thrashing his head back and forth, snarling for all he was worth.
“Get him, Huey! Get him, boy!” Cam yelled.
The creature next tried to swat Huey off his tail, first with one clawed hand and then the other, but with no success. The thing made that weird hissing sound again. If Cam had been in a comfortable movie theater watching this, it might be somewhat comical. The monster and the dog in a dance of death. But this was real, and his good buddy was in danger of being the thing’s next snack.
“Huey, get out of there! Let go!” Cam yelled again.
But it was too late. With one violent twist of its body, the creature flicked its tail left and Huey went with it, but the big dog didn’t let go. The thing then flicked its tail the other way, and this time Huey went flying right out into the parking lot. Cam heard a loud yelp and then nothing.
The creature turned its attention back to Cam.
“Oh, shit,” Lexie said behind him. “Here he comes again.”
Carla screamed as the huge thing leaped back into the clinic. He was now on all fours and looked like a huge burrowing rat/frog/dinosaur coming right at them.
No sooner had it had gotten to within five feet of them than it stopped. Its eyes glanced off to its left and then up behind him. Was Huey coming back for more?
The creature backed out and turned its attention to the street. Cam could see that Huey was not attached to the thing’s tail. Something else was distracting it.
“I gotta go get some more shells,” Cam said.
Lexie took a quick check of her ammo availability. “Down to just a few more rounds myself.” She was breathing heavily.
“You okay?” Cam said.
“Long day,” she said and gave him a wink.
Cam smiled and took inventory of his compatriots. Troy gave him a thumbs up. Father Mike was in some pain from his leg wound, but the bleeding had stopped. Sister Joanie looked like she could use a drink. Carla was fixing her hair with her hand, but was otherwise okay. M’Lou still had that blank look on her face. He looked back toward the outside and tried to spot Huey. He whistled. “Huey, here boy!” Cam waited a beat but didn’t hear the dog respond. Even though the calm eye of the storm was overhead, there was some residual wind, a mild breeze that scattered a few leaves on the gravel parking lot outside. A silent flash of lightning took a snapshot of the road beyond and the old Dairy Queen across from the clinic. There was no sign of any of the gangbangers, and the firing had stopped.
He knew for sure that two had been eaten. That left three more, four if you counted Roland, who hadn’t been seen in a while.
Cam gave Lexie a head nod, and he proceeded around the corner and down what was left of the hallway, back into the bait store. Lexie followed close behind, staying low and covering Cam’s advance.
He dug around the shelves under the counter and found one more box of shells. He loaded the shotgun and stuffed his pockets with a few more. He tossed Lexie the box of ammo for her pistol, and she reloaded as well.
They both began to crawl back to the others when they heard an unearthly sound from outside. It was an animal cry combined with a multi-syllabic phrase, like an unidentifiable foreign language. And it seemed to come from a very, very big mouth.