ADAM

 

Tuesday January 14 - 2007 CST

One day until Turbocharger activates

 

The world spun around me as I tumbled across the pavement. Once the hard asphalt of the street got finished slapping me across the face and back I found myself staring up at the night sky. What was surprising about it was that I wasn't looking up at a mob of people trying to stampede over me while they ran in full panic. As I sat up I quickly learned why. There was a ring of people around me backpedaling against the herd trying to get away from the Scolopendra that was in the ring with me. I don't know if that was the thing's real name but it looked just like the scolopendra from my Centurion comics, so that's what I was calling it.

Like the one from the comics this one was a gigantic centipede covered in dark colored plates with tiny bright spots that worked like camouflage to break up its outline. It stared across the bubble we had created in the crowd but it wasn't looking at me with its big red, multifaceted bug eyes. There was something else inside the bubble with us, and it brought back memories that I wished I could forget. On the other end of the opening was the black, lobster-like form of a spider-crab, and it was a big one like the one I had fought in the warehouse an eternity ago. Just like that one, this spider-crab had a monstrously overgrown claw on one side of its body that was incongruous with the leg on the other. Animals weren't supposed to be lopsided like that, they were supposed to be symmetrical. That's what made exos so frightening. They just didn't look right and some part of the human instinct recognizes that as a huge danger.

People in the crowd screamed and backpedaled away from the two monsters, but the press of the mob was too much. Those people behind them were in full panic and couldn't see the threats ahead of them. This was what happened when fear took over a crowd. It turned into a huge organism that didn't care about the individuals and just went forward on blind instinct. I was surrounded by a wall of screaming faces and trapped between two unearthly monsters that had settled into a duel.

The spider-crab began circling, hissing and snapping its overgrown lobster claw for intimidation. I was certainly intimidated but it wasn't meant for me, it was for the scolopendra. The big centipede monster had curled up tight, like a spring ready to shoot out. Unfortunately, it was circling away from the spider-crab and right towards where I was sitting on the asphalt staring mutely. All I could do was crab walk away on all fours as the scolopendra circled around towards me.

I was trapped, unable to act. Sure, I had Dominus but those big, fifty caliber rounds would travel right through either monster and keep going through the crowd. That was a no-go. I could also grab onto one of the monsters and run eighty thousand amps through its body, but while I did that the other one would have free reign on my exposed back. But before I could decide on which path would cause the least damage the scolopendra sprang out. It was a blur of mottled gray and black that landed on the spider-crab before I could even blink.

Its mandibles went straight for the joint between the spider-crab's head and body, about the closest thing to a neck that the thing had. As I watched them struggle I couldn't help but think that these two species knew eachother and fought to the death regularly on whatever hell world they came from.

Mandibles clattered against armored chitin plates and black blood spurted out. The spider-crab squealed so loudly it left my ears ringing even with shooting inserts in my ears. But it wasn't enough to kill it. The big lobster claw came around with supernatural speed and smashed into the side of the scolopendra's head. That wasn't enough to kill it but enough to take off a mandible and leave an ugly gash in one bulbous red eye. The scolopendra was now tightly coiled around the spider-crab's body. It wouldn't be long before one of them finished the other. The fight was just so brutal that it was guaranteed that both of them wouldn't be walking away. And it left me a problem of my own. What would I do once the fight was over? Because I was the obvious next target. What I needed was for everyone to clear out. Though that presented its own issues.

Up above me the strange cloud that had been forming growled with muted thunder. Calling it unnatural would be an understatement. It was spiraling out from the site of the ritual and growing bigger. But looking up at it reminded me of a tiny bit of trivia. Storm clouds often created huge negative electrical charges. That's what caused lightning. Those negatively charged particles would seek out the nearest source of positively charged particles for an electrifying meet up. With the ground being that closest source you ended up with lightning strikes. While lightning usually came down from the clouds there wasn't anything in the laws of physics that would prevent it from going the other way. And that gave me an idea.

Raising both arms high above my head I concentrated on my fingers and made them into positive terminals for a colossal surge of amperage. Blue lightning shot out of my fingertips and soared up into the miniature cloud lighting up the streets with neon fury. And just like I had hoped the herd reacted to the sight…they ran away from it.

Both monsters were still going on tearing out bits of eachother wherever they could score a strike, and behind them I saw a big, beautiful swathe of openness free of any bystanders that would get hit by my shots. The crowd was surging away from the fight in either direction and I had a clear shot. Dominus came up to my shoulder and I squeezed the trigger.

BOOM!

The sight picture jumped and I waited until it settled back down before firing twice more.

BOOM! BOOM!

Chunks of alien horror blew out of the back of both monsters and I saw one of my shots ricochet on the pavement behind them and into a paint store. Whoever owned the store was in for a long day of cleanup but it was better than leaving these two creatures to tear apart the town. I kept firing.

BOOM! BOOM!

More ichor sprayed out of the monsters' bodies, but then I was done. Dominus was an incredibly powerful weapon, but only had five shots in a magazine.

I dumped the mag and jammed in a reload to pump more fury into the exos, but as I sent the bolt forward and took aim I saw that it was a moot point. Both monsters laid there motionless slowly leaking their insides out into the street. They were done and would never hurt innocent people again.

The cloud rumbled above me followed a moment later by the street rumbling beneath me. The source was clear. That big eye was pushing a few inches farther into our world and I saw more tentacles poking through. And the half of the crowd that was still running toward it didn't even seem to notice. Not even when those tentacles started plucking people out of the mob.

My job wasn't done yet and I had a lot more to do. I really didn't want to get any closer to that thing than I had to but I saw no other choice. Then I put on the speed and ran as fast as I could toward the danger.