James Axler – Rat King

“Gaia! What’s doing that?” she exclaimed.

Her cry brought Ryan and Mac back from their position at the front of the group.

The two mute sec men, standing to Krysty’s rear, made signs at Mac.

Ryan gave him a questioning glance.

Mac shrugged. “Yeah, weird. Looks like that hill over yonder—” he gestured with

his blaster. “—is making itself as we watch.”

Ryan focused his one eye on the distant mound of earth. It was true. It was

growing as he watched, a sign of something powerful. To see it grow from that

distance meant that a generous amount of earth was being moved.

“Don’t like,” Jak said pithily. “Anything moving under ground cause lot

surprise.”

“Good call,” Mildred said, looking around at the scrub. “Who knows what’s

lurking here?”

Ryan turned to Mac. “Can I suggest we get out of here before whatever’s doing

that decides to come looking for us?”

“Good idea.” Mac turned to the two mute sec men. “Let’s press on.”

Gesturing with his blaster, he led the way toward the lip of the valley and his

ville. Ryan noticed that Mac had suddenly increased the pace at which they

proceeded, obviously rattled by the sudden appearance of the earth mound, and

wondered if J.B. would be able to keep up.

The Armorer was finding it hard. The pain in his ankle was like a hot poker with

every step, and despite Mildred’s help it was difficult to keep up any kind of

speed. What he desired most was just to sit down, ease his combat boot off his

swollen foot and rest the aching limb. Yet he knew that this was impossible

until they reached the ville. So he drove himself onward, sweat dripping off his

brow, making his spectacles slip on the bridge of his nose and gathering around

the brim of his fedora as he gritted his teeth and kept going.

Now that they were near the edges of the valley, and the storm was reduced from

a roar to a whisper, it was possible to hear other noises. Dean was aware of a

rustling from the brush to his left—the same direction as the mound—and whirled

in surprise.

“Hot pipe! What’s that bastard thing?” he yelled, taking a sideways step to move

more toward the center of the group.

Mac raised his blaster and fired into the brush. There was an agonized yelp, and

a creature flung itself toward the group. It rushed at J.B. and Mildred, almost

as though it had instinctively picked out the weak link in the group chain.

“Dark night,” J.B. breathed, falling back and pulling Mildred with him as the

creature, now in its death throes, flung itself at them. As they hit the ground,

it flew over them, thudding to earth a few feet away, twitching.

“Take a look at that,” the Armorer said, pulling himself painfully to his feet

and hobbling over to where it lay.

“That’s an evil-looking bastard,” Mac said, bending to examine it. Ryan crouched

beside him.

“Just look at those,” he commented, indicating the creature’s teeth. “They could

really do some damage.”

“And would have done, if John hadn’t been so quick,” Mildred added, shrugging

off the twinge of pain in her shoulder where she had landed awkwardly.

The creature was a sobering sight as it lay on the dry earth. The blood had

ceased to flow where the creature had died, but enough had leaked out to color

the dull earth, framing its corpse. It was eighteen inches long in the body,

with short, dark gray fur. The head had elongated jaws and almost reptilian

black eyes that were now hollow and empty in death.

The jaws were what drew the attention immediately. Long and powerful, they had

large incisors that were sharpened almost to points. Mac prodded the jaws with

the barrel of his blaster and pushed back the dead lips. The other teeth were

also sharpened, uneven and yellow with scraps of meat and vegetable matter

caught between them.

The body was thin and wiry, with short front paws that had wicked claws and

powerful back legs that could spring long distances. The muscles seemed bunched,

almost bursting out of the fur. The tail was vast and bushy, almost as long as