FIELD OF SCREAMS
“Attention, June Shimizu. June Shimizu, are you there? It’s getting a little lonely over here. Where you at?”
June scoffed at the spirited tone of Callista’s voice. It was coming from her helmet, which sat upside down in her lap. Ever since their imprisonment together by the Draconoires, their relationship was like night and day. It wasn’t that they weren’t fond of one another before that, but something was definitely different about their relationship.
While Andrew was her adoptive brother in real life, for all intents and purposes, she was willing to include Callista to their ever-growing family. There was no one among them that she respected more than her. Not even Marius.
Callista was the one who had figured out how to fix the Red Rover back on Araneus and now she had miraculously brought Dee-Dee back from the dead. It was chilling to think about just how screwed they would’ve been had she not been around. They would’ve been so fucked. June activated her suit’s telecommunicator.
“I’m coming now. Are they gone?”
“Yup. It’s just the two of us—again. And Witchy, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Oh and don’t forget my sidearm.”
“No problem. I got it right here.”
June attached her helmet to her spacesuit. Her sidearm was already attached to her hip, while Callista’s rested on the bench. She rose to her feet and pulled her sidearm out of its holster. She replaced it with Callista’s on her way out.
It was eerie being the only person on the ship. The sooner she was back with Callista and Witchy the better. She exited the Red Rover the same way she entered, through the side airlock. Once again, the forcefield was covering the basecamp. She walked in-between the two ships before bending around the Yellow Rover.
Her carefree pace came to an abrupt end as a giant beast was standing between her and the Yellow Rover loading bay. It had fish eyes and a gaping mouth that hung. Part of its body was still beneath the sand.
Oh dear.
So much for the forcefield offering them total protection. This had to be another one of those monsters that Gordie and Andrew were talking about. She took precaution not to make any sudden movements, keeping her eyes on the beast while slowly bringing her sidearm into the ready position. She looked at her telecommunicator. Thankfully, it was still on.
“Uh, Callista.”
“Yeah.”
“I got a problem.”
“What kind of a problem?”
“A really big one.” She gulped.
The beast narrowed its bulbous eyes and rose back onto its hind legs. It was massive. Probably ten-feet tall. Easily larger than any human she had ever seen. Its mouth dropped lower, revealing its jagged teeth on the top and bottom. The odds of this being a peaceful exchange between them were nil.
“Oh shit.”
“What? June, what’s going on out there?”
June raised her sidearm and began shooting at it. The beast recoiled hiding its head under its scaly body. Her fusion bullets were having no effect. She stopped shooting as the beast unfurled itself. The look in its eyes almost made her think it was enjoying this.
“Oh, come on.”
She turned around and began running back towards the Red Rover. Even with her heart pumping, it was damn near impossible to run over the sand. A shadow was cast over her as she heard a thud land against the ramp of the loading bay. It was the beast. It had leaped over her.
“Oh my God, are you fucking kidding me?”
Her astonishment aside, June resumed shooting at the beast several times trying to kill it. It recoiled into a defensive position again, rendering her attack useless. Once she stopped shooting, it rose up for a second time. She noticed a central area just below its head that was a different color than the rest of its body.
She shot at the central area, hoping it was a weak spot. The beast put both of its claws in front of it, blocking her attack. It fanned out towards her as she flailed backwards to avoid being slashed. If she would have fallen that might have been the end of her. She resumed shooting at the beast while backtracking. She would not be turning her back on it this time.
The beast began rushing her as she took off running back to the Yellow Rover. Just as she was rounding the ship’s rear rockets she tripped and fell face first into the sand. She rolled onto her back to see that the beast was bearing down on her. It was hideous.
The beast exposed its ravenous teeth and was about to attack when out of nowhere appeared Witchy, who speared the alien beast, knocking it off its feet. The beast was largely unaffected as it backhanded Witchy across her body. She yelped from the pain as she crashed in the sand.
“Witchy!”
She unloaded on the beast, but her sidearm was not much of a deterrent. It was bearing down on Witchy to finish what it started.
“Not so fast.”
June turned her head to see Callista pointing a shotgun at the beast. She fired at the beast as the fusion shells lifted it off its feet and blasted it towards the forcefield that surrounded them.
While Callista continued pumping and dumping on this beast, the attack didn’t seem to be doing much damage other than delaying the inevitable. Every time Callista hit it with a shotgun shell, the beast would fall to the surface for a brief moment.
She joined Callista in shooting at the beast, but it stayed curled as their bullets bounced off of it. They were going in circles.
“Our weapons aren’t working.” Callista said.
“I’m aware.”
The beast was about to rise again for an attack. For the second time, Witchy joined the fight. She speared the beast head on, knocking it back into the forcefield. The forcefield was electrocuting it. For the first time it looked like the beast was actually being hurt.
“Hey.” She turned to Callista. “Your weapon seems to hurt it. Aim for its chest.”
“You got it.”
Callista steadied a shot and fired several at the discolored area of the beast. She landed a direct hit as the beast stopped flailing and began slowly melting against the forcefield. A gruesome sight to be sure.
“You still with me, Junie?”
“Yeah, unfortunately.” She said while trying to catch her breath. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this forcefield supposed to protect us?”
“It does. Remember the sand wave?”
“I do now. So then tell me, how the hell did this thing get into the camp?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it happened when I turned off the forcefield so Jovan and Dee-Dee could leave.”
June sucked her teeth.
Sounds about right.
She watched Callista approach Witchy, who was lying in the sand, bleeding from the beast’s attack.
“Oh girl. Look at what that thing did to you?” She said. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”
Callista tapped her legs as Witchy rose and followed her towards the Red Rover loading bay.
“Where are you going?” June called out.
“I’m gonna patch her up and then get my suit. Better to be safe than sorry.”
June turned back to the smoldering remnants of the beast. No matter what happened from here on out, when the time came to take a vote, there was no way in hell she would ever agree to stay and build in a place like this. This planet was not worth it.
“Hey!”
She turned to see Callista standing beside the control panel just inside the loading bay.
“You coming or what?”
June smiled and followed them back into the Red Rover. Once inside, Callista closed the ramp. If there happened to be any more of those beasts roaming around, at least they wouldn’t be able to get inside the ship.