STERLING

 

Tuesday January 14 - 2006 CST

One day until Turbocharger activates

 

Trying to get my feet under me was next to impossible. The press of humanity around me was like the current of a fast moving river. Every time I'd get a hand under me to get up off my knees a foot would smash down on my fingers. About all I could do was shield my head and face while being forced in the direction of the herd. The air was filled with the constant shriek of a mob in full panic. That and the stench of fear that you didn't so much smell but felt.

As I almost got to my feet I felt the impact of someone's knee against the side of my head. The world spun around me though I wasn't sure if it was because I was spinning or that I had simply just been kicked that hard in the head. I ended up slamming sideways into something unmoving which turned out to be the bumper of some parked vehicle. The press of flesh around me was so thick that was all I could tell about the vehicle. I couldn't even see what make or model it was.

People flowed around it like water around a boulder trapping me in a little cocoon of safety. I was certain this was going to be where I rode out this storm of herd panic. But then a pair of hands reached down and dragged me up. In a moment I went from being trapped between an unstoppable flow and a metal bumper to standing in the bed of a parked pickup looking over the hellscape.

Doctor Johnson released the death grip he had on my arm as I steadied myself and looked at the side of my face with concern. "You've got a nasty bleeder on the side of your head, Steven."

He handed me a handkerchief which I pressed against the warm spot I felt just below my right temple. The cloth quickly went damp and warm. "Thanks, but we have more important concerns. Where is the spider-crab?"

"There." Johnson pointed at a spot in the crowd, but I saw nothing. "You can tell it's there because people are giving it a wide berth."

It clicked then. There was a wide hole in the mob there where twenty people could have fit. Instead the fleeing townspeople ran around it like there was a pit there. Or something worse. When one of the runners was yanked back and disappeared below the line of rapidly bobbing heads my fears were confirmed. It was there and it had just snatched someone else.

"How the hell are we supposed to deal with it?" I had to fight hard not to chew my lip. With all the pent up frustration I felt I would have just opened up another wound. "We can't get a shot from here, we can't get closer, and…where the hell is Adam?"

Somewhere during my tumble through the crowd he'd disappeared. If we lost him that was incredibly bad news.

"I don't know." Johnson scanned the crowd but abruptly stopped his search when his eyes were drawn down the street. Another tree trunk sized tentacle had burst through the mystical wall separating our world from another. "Steven, we need to hurry to end this. Every time someone dies the ritual is fueled with more power and the barrier is weakened."

But I didn't see what we could do. If we fired indiscriminately than we risked the double whammy of killing an innocent and helping the cultists at the same time. "I know, Doctor. But I don't know what we can do."

There was a sudden interruption of the flow of townsfolk running past the pickup we were standing on top of. It was like highway congestion when one car slams into another and triggers a backup miles long. Johnson saw it too. "Dear God! There's another one."

I desperately wanted Johnson to be wrong but my gut instincts told me he was right. So did my eyes. Coming down the street towards us was another hole in the mob. People were parting in front of something desperate to get out of its way. As the corridor stretched out beside the truck I caught a glimpse inside and what had people so terrified that they would turn around and run back towards a Category 3 spider-crab. It was indeed something worse.

Skittering along the pavement was the largest centipede I'd ever seen. As fast as it was moving it was hard to tell its exact length but it was at least as long as an alligator and a lot more terrifying. Hooked mandibles curved around its beak-like mouth like butcher blades. It scanned the crowd with bulbous red eyes that gleamed in the glow of the streetlights. And on its back clinging for dear life was Adam.

I had to blink twice to convince myself I wasn't hallucinating because the image of him bouncing along on the impossible creature's back with both arms wrapped around its body was just preposterous. My place in this entire catastrophic mess didn't seem so bad then. Adam certainly had it worse and the grimaced expression on his face showed that he knew it too.

That was when I saw sparks shoot out from Adam's hands. Those quickly turned into arcs of blue lightning jumping back and forth between his fingers that looked hot enough to fry anything not fast enough to get out of their way. Adam had told me about his special gift that had come along with the changes to his body, but I'd never actually seen the current jump through the air. It was always little tricks like powering a light bulb or the motor of a boat with his touch. Nothing like this. It was an awe-inspiring sight and made me wonder why he didn't use it more often. The centipede saw it too and its reaction was instantaneous and violent.

The monster made an impossibly rapid turn doing a one-eighty back onto itself. Even Adam's remarkable strength wasn't enough to hold on through those G-forces. My heart sank as I saw him tumble through the air before rolling across the asphalt like a motorcyclist that had just wiped out.