At the sound of approaching footsteps, Union lowered the device and turned. There, in the flesh, was someone from the top of her shit list. Exo.
Life was good. She wouldn’t have to chase him down, because he was coming right to her.
“Union!” Exo’s high-pitched screech cut right through the creature’s latest roar and the rumbling of the quake. “What have you brought me? What is that thing?”
Union flashed him her brightest smile and gestured with the controller at the creature. “I call him Fido.” She laughed. “He’s a girl’s best friend.”
“Amazing!” Exo stopped beside her and reached for the device. “Let me try!”
“Hold on.” She pulled the controller away from him and brought it to her lips. “Let me show you something first.”
Pointing the device at the creature, she blew into the mouthpiece gently and flickered her fingers over the jeweled control studs along its surface. No sound came out that she could hear, but the beast—like a dog with a higher range of hearing—picked up on the signal right away.
The great monstrosity was completely free of the hill now, towering above her on two massive legs. As the signal played, it stared down at her with bright yellow eyes that blazed like twin suns in a misshapen reptilian face.
Carefully, Union padded away from Exo as she played. It wasn’t hard to put some space between them, as he was entranced by the creature looming above him.
All she had to do was play the final notes for her pet to complete the demonstration. But first, she lowered the device once more to speak.
“By the way, I know you were the one,” she said.
Exo frowned as if he’d only just remembered she was there. “The one what? What are you talking about?”
“The one who turned the shifters against my sisters years ago,” Union said. “The one who put the wheels in motion that got them killed.”
Suddenly, she was no longer a distraction to Exo. He locked eyes with her, giving her his full attention, and opened his mouth to speak.
But before a single word could emerge, she played the controller again. The silent signal went out, and the creature roared its rage.
Then it raised one mighty foot and brought it down suddenly. Exo didn’t even try to get out from under it.
He just screamed as the leviathan’s weight came down on top of him, the mass of mutie flesh crushing the life out of him.
Union lowered the device. Walking over to that enormous crushing foot, she patted it and smiled.
“Good boy,” she said. “Such a good boy.”
When the foot finally lifted to take a step, she could see Exo’s flesh had been absorbed into it. His flattened face gaped out from the bottom of the foot, his eyes blinking in mindless terror.
* * *
DOC COULDN’T RUN fast enough to catch up to Jak. He stopped to recover, even as Jak kept charging toward the woman and her monster.
It was then, as Doc bent over and panted for breath, that he saw the creature trample Exo. Just like that, the shifter who’d abducted him, put him through all kinds of craziness and beaten him repeatedly was gone.
Doc even felt a brief stab of regret that he hadn’t followed through with slashing Exo’s throat when he’d had the chance.
But the regret was quickly replaced by a different feeling altogether. This one didn’t have anything to do with Exo’s death, in fact.
It started with a fizzing in the back of his head, a familiar sensation he identified immediately. It meant the transformational power of the Shift was building again, about to unleash another change in the landscape.
And Doc, once again, would have a front-row seat for whatever was coming.
* * *
RYAN POPPED OUT of the chute and quickly hopped to his feet, making way for the others who were close behind him.
Heartbeats later, the rest of his companions zoomed out in short order. Each one got out of the way fast, so only a minor pileup happened between the last two.
Even as J.B. and Mildred untangled themselves, Ryan took in the bizarre scene in front of him: the giant creature roaring to the heavens; Union playing her device like a musical instrument; Jak running across the sand toward them both.
“Gaia.” Krysty was standing beside him now, sharing the view. Her voice was strained—she was clearly still in great pain, but she was forcing herself through it. “What is that abomination?”
“What’s it made of?” Ricky asked, taking up position on Ryan’s opposite side. Leaning forward, he squinted at the great beast, then whistled softly. “Holy crap, are those people?”
“Some kind of amalgamation.” Mildred finally joined them, dusting herself off. “A colony creature? Or maybe it just uses discarded organic matter to create a kind of shell, like a hermit crab.”
“The real question,” J.B. said, “is how do we stop it?”
“Jak has the right idea.” Ryan unslung the Steyr Scout and made sure it was ready for action. “We go after the bitch who’s calling its tune.”
* * *
AS THE MONSTER roared, Jak kept his eyes and mind fixed on a single target: Union. It was either that or take on the creature single-handedly, and Union was probably the key to stopping it anyway.
Now, if he could just avoid getting stepped on by the monster like the shifter who’d just gotten crushed…
In spite of all the noise from the beast and the earthquakes, Union still heard Jak approaching. She spun to face him, holding a blaster—Doc’s LeMat .44, which the shifter had to have dropped when he got stomped.
Without a word, she cracked off a shot. Jak instantly judged the trajectory and leaped upward, spinning above the path of the bullet.
The second his feet touched the ground again, he hurled one of his leaf-bladed throwing knives with his usual deadly accuracy. Union bobbed fast to one side, firing another round—but the knife still caught her under the collarbone, and her round went wide.
Jak’s second blade went in just as smoothly, flashing into the middle of her abdomen. Anticipating another round from the .44, Jak dived and rolled after making that second tag. Sure enough, Union unloaded three rounds in his direction…but he rolled so fast that none of them even nicked him.
Springing up out of his roll, he saw her use the controller even as she pulled the trigger on the .44 again. No rounds fired, as the blaster was empty, but the controller delivered. The creature swung around and dropped a three-fingered fist as if it was a giant sledgehammer, aiming directly at Jak.
As fast as he could, Jak sprinted away from that dropping fist. When it came down, it barely missed him, and the impact threw him off his feet. He heard a chorus of screams and groans as it lifted away, and he had a terrible realization: the bodies making up the creature’s enormous frame were alive. The beings that had been absorbed into that monster were aware of everything, and they were suffering.
Even as Jak vaulted to his feet, he knew those terrible cries would stay with him long after that day. He also knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had to find a way to take that thing down and give those poor people some measure of peace.
“Jak, wait!” Union said it in Carrie’s voice, skittish and full of sincerity. “Stop running! That thing only reacts to movement! You’ll be safe if you stand in one place!”
But Jak never stopped moving, which was a good thing. No sooner had the words left Union’s lips than the creature swung its fist back after Jak like a gigantic pendulum. It would have smashed Jak to a pulp if he’d done what she’d told him to do.
Then the creature surprised him, sweeping its fist around in an unexpected loop that intersected his zigzag path. The side of the fist only brushed him, but that was enough to pitch him several yards. Jak came down hard, feeling the jarring impact in every bone. His head swam, and he barely managed to stay conscious.
But he found himself wishing he’d blacked out after all. He was still on his back, staring upward, expecting to see the creature’s fist or foot plummet toward him…when, instead, he saw Union step into his field of vision.
“Poor Jak.” She had Doc’s sword, which had to also have fallen free when the shifter was crushed—and was waving it over her head. “We had a real thing together, didn’t we? A real connection.”
Teeth clenched, Jak struggled to slip a blade from one of his sleeves, but the spring-loaded scabbards were jammed from the fall. He was going to have to pull from one of his pockets, meaning he’d have to move faster to beat her to the draw.
“Don’t worry, I’ll always remember you fondly.” She said it in Carrie’s voice, then switched to Dulcet’s. “That kiss will always leave us wanting more.”
Jak tensed, ready to grab for a knife, hoping he could outrace the sword in her hand.
Her next words were Rhonda’s. “Say good-night, dumbass.” Then Taryn’s. “For a man, you weren’t a complete waste of flesh.”
She shook the sword overhead. Jak knew she was ready to strike.
This time, when she spoke, it was as Sasha. “Da svidaniya, comrade shithead.”
Then, finally, she used the voice from the mat-trans chamber, that of the “true” Union personality that had overridden all the rest. “Notice, I didn’t whistle for Fido to take care of this. Some things a girl just has to do for herself.”
She stopped shaking the sword and grinned down at him. “Consider this a breakup, Jak.”