“Good shot,” Campbell called from behind the cannon, as he eased his grip on the trigger. “About time we had some fresh meat.”
“Thanks,” Scotty said, walking over to the beast and putting one more round into its ear. The head jerked from the impact, and the beast exhaled into death.
“Son of a bitch,” a corporal gasped, then chuckled. “The bastard was faking.”
“Seen them do that before,” Scotty said, kicking the body a few times just to make sure. “Bears be smart. Smarter than dogs.”
“Griz,” a sec man said, scowling. “Nasty tough.”
Climbing from the turret, Campbell jumped to the ground. “I like bear,” he stated. “Better skin it quick, though, or the bugs will start chewing the hide.”
“Take the meat, sure,” Scotty said, drawing a knife. “But why are we going to tan it?”
“Present for Collette,” Campbell said. “She likes fur and knows how to say thanks to a real man.”
The sec men laughed at the image of their sec chief spread-eagled on a bed begging for it. They had all been there and wanted to go again. The bitch was a roller coaster with a tongue.
“So how are we going to tan it?” the corporal asked, unsure.
Scotty rolled his eyes. Ville boys! Didn’t know nothing about nothing. “Scrape off the fat with a knife, then we all piss on it and rub in some salt. That’ll do until we can get it home.”
“What do you mean, piss on it?” he demanded.
Suddenly, a winged creature darted in from the woods, landed on the bear and plunged a barbed beak into the corpse, ripping out a bloody chunk of flesh.
The sec men stepped back and drew their blasters. The mutie looked just like a screamwing, only it was much bigger, twice, three times the size!
Scotty fired at the screamwing, stitching a line of holes across the bear and the mutie. The slugs slapped the thing around but didn’t penetrate its leathery hide.
Looking directly at the sec man, the screamwing launched itself off the bear and crossed the twenty yards separating the two in only a second. Scotty cried out as the mutie buried its beak into his chest, struggling to remove whatever internal organ it had hooked with its beak.
“Chill it!” Campbell shouted, and opened fire with his Kalashnikov. The rest of the troops did the same, and Scotty was torn to pieces under the fusillade of bullets, his arms flailing wildly.
The human corpse dropped, and the screamwing struggled out from under the dead man, a ropy piece of intestine dangling from its wicked beak. It stared at the humans as it consumed the tidbit in a few swallows.
A private broke ranks and ran for the ruins, but the rest stood firm, then- blasters blowing a hellstorm of lead at the gory killer. The 7.62 mm rounds impacted all around the beast, a hole was punched through a whig, a bloody score along one side of its body. Barely scratched, the mutie narrowed its hate-filled eyes to slits and lifted into the air, angling its taloned feet at the gunners.
Dropping his Kalashnikov, Campbell drew his handcannon, aimed and fired. The .45-caliber round from the Colt pistol slammed into the creature like the hand of God, completely removing its head and neck. Blood pumping from the ghastly wound, wings still flapping, the headless mutie flashed forward to crash into the side of the armored LAV. Cursing, Campbell fired again and again at the creature until it stopped flopping on the ground.
“Fucking muties!” he cursed, dropping the half-spent clip and slapping in a fresh one. “Getting meaner every damn day. Hey, Adams, check Scotty.”
Grabbing a predark med kit, the man rushed to the still form and rolled over the body. “Aced, Sarge,” the healer announced glumly, looking at the exposed lungs and heart. “Nothing I can do to help.”
Campbell bolstered his piece. “Shit, and he was the only one who knew how to operate the sextant. It’s yours now, Adams. Learn how to work that thing fast.”
“Me?” he gulped. “Yes, Sarge.”
“Mac, get his blaster and boots,” the sergeant ordered, retrieving his longblaster. “Corporal, you skin the bear. No sense wasting all that fresh meat. Randy, man the 25 mm and shoot anything that ain’t us. The rest of you apes stay with me. We’re going to do a fast recce of the area to see if there are any more of those mings around.”
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