James Axler – Rat King

resistance of her neck, and her head was ripped from her shoulders, her

anguished howls suddenly lost in the storm.

Tilly’s head wasn’t firmly grasped in the tongue, and as it reached the farthest

point of its wild loop, there wasn’t enough suction to cling on to the severed

head. It flew off into the storm, tossed by the currents in an irregular arc

that carried it out of view.

The wild swings of the dying lizard’s tongue began to lessen, and it began to

sink toward the earth. Underneath the throat, which was still spurting blood in

gouts, Jak felt the lizard begin to tremble and sway. The clawed feet quivered

in its death throes, churning up the mud pit its lifeblood had created.

It was now or never. The head of the lizard began to drop, coming close to

pushing Jak’s head down, pitching him face first into the mud.

The gap under the belly had closed. There was only the one way out—under the

jaws and past the arcing, deadly tongue.

Jak went for the narrowing gap, crouching low and pulling his feet from the

bloody ground beneath him. He was still clutching the stinking, bloodstained

knife that he had pulled from the lizard’s throat as he emerged into the open.

Sheltered from the storm by the bulk of the lizard’s body, he was hit by the

wind with a violence that pushed the air from his lungs. He gulped down clouds

of dirt that made him choke, but even this felt clean after the stench and the

blood.

Ryan saw Jak emerge, coughing and stumbling, blinded by the storm and the shower

of blood that still stung his face. He could see that Jak was trying to avoid

the thrashing tongue, but that his vision was impaired and his senses still

adjusting to the change in conditions.

The tongue was beginning another arc. It was slower now, with less speed and

momentum. It wouldn’t rip Jak’s head off, as it had Tilly’s, but the venom would

still be enough to cause him considerable injury.

The arc of the tongue would take it right across Jak’s path, and there was no

way that he could see it from the angle at which he was headed.

Ryan didn’t waste breath shouting. There was only one course of action open to

him, and he took it. Breaking cover with a push of his powerful leg muscles, the

one-eyed warrior propelled himself across the expanse of earth between cover and

Jak. The albino was stumbling over loose rocks, his eyes still partially blinded

by the dust and blood.

Noting Jak’s position and speed, Ryan decided it would be better to keep his eye

on the tongue as it swept toward them with an almost mocking slowness. Mocking

because he still had to make up ground on an uneven surface that moved beneath

his feet.

Ryan felt his heart pound as he sprinted across the surface. His muscles ached

as he pushed them against the resistance of the storm and the yielding earth,

aiming for Jak as the albino stumbled, trying desperately to clear his vision.

The tongue swished toward the albino teen who unwittingly turned toward it. Ryan

cursed under his breath, unwilling to waste any of the oxygen in his bursting

lungs as he launched himself forward.

Jak gasped, the breath driven from his body, as Ryan crashed into him, pushing

him back into the earth with a pile-driving force. The lizard’s tongue flicked

over their heads, reaching the apex of its arc before sliding back across them

as Ryan pushed himself into the soil, regardless of the albino beneath him. He

could smell the creature’s blood on Jak as he crushed his face into youth’s

hair.

A solitary drop of venom dripped from the end of the tongue and dropped onto

Ryan’s back, burning a small hole through his jacket and shirt, corrosive on his

skin and burning a spot on his flesh. He gritted his teeth at the pain, his eye

screwed up in concentration as he tried to blank the pain.

When he looked up again, the creature lay on the ground, twitching violently as

the last motor functions ceased to operate and the final sparks of life were