CHAPTER 21

It’s bigger up here than I expected. And darker. There’s no sign of Amy or Sam. They’ve disappeared into the vast gloom. Shadows jump out at us. Old equipment. Shelving. Furniture. Remnants of a time long past. So many fucking places they can hide.

I glance across at Luke, silently asking what we should do. My brain is too fried with fear to decide. Before he responds, the shadows give birth to the two we are searching for.

Sam steps forward, dragging a reluctant Amy. She’s gone unnaturally quiet, but upon seeing us, her eyes open wide and her lips move like she wants to scream but no sound escapes. She’s completely and utterly terrified. We feel the reason for her fear before we see it. The platform we’re standing on jars and shifts as a sinister shadow detaches itself from the darkness.

Acid churns in my stomach.

The super mind is big. At least eight feet tall. It’s face, although very humanoid, is still very wrong. Misshapen. Skeletal almost. A broad browbone sticks out over its strangely tiny nose. Its cheekbones protrude out, the skin over it tautly stretched. The mouth is far too wide, home to dozens of razor-like teeth, no doubt, and sporting thin lips. But its eyes are what scare me the most. Strangely beautiful in a way. Thickly lashed. Wide and clear, big orbs of brown. Cold and lifeless as a day-old grounded fish. No emotion. No humanity.

Its body is shaped like us, but its proportions are wrong. A long torso is covered in what looks like a breastplate of crystalized bone. A shell almost. Strips of bone extend over the shoulders and down its arms, ending in sharp talons on each long finger. Short, powerful legs, are also sheathed in this shell? Bone? My mind can’t comprehend what I’m looking at. It’s almost as if its skeleton grew on the outside of certain parts of its body, protecting the vulnerable bits. It has no sexual organs. None that I can see, anyways. No telling if it’s a he or she. No kicking it in the balls. That option’s off the table.

It steps closer, and I swallow the extra saliva pooling in my mouth.

“Ho-ly shit.” Luke’s whisper only adds to my fear.

“Amy, come here.” I hold out my hand to her. She tries to move, but Sam won’t let her go. He stares at us, not blinking. No sign of recognition.

“Sam, let her go. She has nothing to do with this.”

My voice is barely more than a squeak, but it could have boomed through a foghorn for all the attention Sam pays to it. The creature takes another step, so it’s standing almost directly behind them now. My voice raises to a shrill shriek.

“Sam, let her go.”

The thing raises its claws, and both Luke and I raise our rifles. Not sure if it’ll do any good, but there’s no way I’m watching these two die in front of me without shooting that fucker up with every bullet I have.

But it doesn’t hurt them. Instead, it rests its two massive hands on the top of their heads, like it’s patting a dog.

“Mine.”

The voice is low. Guttural. Wrong. It’s meaning, however, is quite clear. It’s not giving those two over without a fight.

I stare into the dead brown eyes. “Wrong. They are not yours, you motherfucking, overgrown crab.”

It tilts its head, observing me like it’s trying to understand. Then its mouth moves again, forming words. Communicating with me. “Your. Kind. Full of… hate.”

Your kind? As in humans?

“Yeah, I’m feeling more than a little hate for you right now, buddy.” I grip my gun tighter against my shoulder. “That’s to be expected since you assholes swooped in and practically destroyed my kind. Pretty good reason to hate.”

“Bix,” Luke warns.

It tilts its head to the other side, its unblinking eyes staring back and forth to me and Luke.

“My kind… does not know hate. We learn… from you.”

Seriously? He’s trying to blame this on us? They travelled here from butt-fuck nowhere in the universe to lay one big guilt trip at our feet?

“Why are you here?” Luke growls. “What does your kind want with us? Why do you want to take over our world?”

It’s quiet for a moment, its eyes unwavering, trying to understand the question. I stare into the spooky depths. Intelligence radiates out. Intelligence that is cold, ruthless, and not of this world. No matter what DNA it’s stolen from us, it can’t replicate humanity.

Finally, that distorted voice emerges again.

“Food. Existence.”

That’s it? No big take over the universe plot. No Star Wars fight for the galaxy reason. Just the simple fact that we were an overpopulated chicken farm in their eyes. Ripe for the picking.

As if to emphasize the point, its hand curls at Amy’s back and digs into her shirt. It lifts her from her feet and pulls it up close to its mouth as she screams in holy terror.

“Food,” it says again, mouth opening and the oversized teeth emerging.

“No!” I scream as both Luke and I fire on the beast’s lower extremities. Chips of bone scatter at our gunfire, but not a single bullet penetrates the thick armor.

Amy flails wildly, trying her best to stay away from the ginormous teeth.

“Sammy,” she screams in desperation, but Sam shows no reaction. He truly does belong to the beast.

A loud boom pierces my eardrum as the creature flies backward off its feet, dropping Amy in the process. It crashes back into the bookshelves, taking out three in its mad slide as they tumble over on top of it.

“You guys okay?”

Barclay and his fucking elephant gun. I’ve never been happier to see him. I run to Amy and pull her up. She wraps her arms around my legs so tight she nearly knocks me over.

“Come on, sweetie; we gotta go.”

I glance over at Sam. His face distorts like he’s sneering at Luke and Barclay, his eyes full of hate. Before I can utter a warning, he runs at Luke and leaps, bringing them both crashing to the floor. I scream as they roll dangerously close to the edge of the platform. Even though Luke has thirty pounds on Sam, Sam’s fueled by the thing in his head. He flips over on top of Luke, straddling his chest. His hands circle Luke’s throat, squeezing tight. Luke’s desperate gasps echo across the room even as he retaliates with a powerful right hook, but Sam stays attached. I run at them, dragging Amy behind me and not quite sure what I can do, but Barclay beats me to it. He coldcocks Sam with the butt of his gun. Sam topples over, his head hitting the floor with a sickening thud.

“Come on,” Barclay yells at me as he helps Luke to his feet. “We need to get out of here and blow this damn place now.”

“The others?” I yell at his back as we make a mad dash for the stairs.

“Out already.”

The creature appears out of nowhere, dropping to the floor in front of Luke and Barclay. We skid to a stop, trying to redirect our terror-fueled momentum. The super mind lunges forward. Barclay stumbles, trying to raise his gun, but he’s too late. With a swipe of its hand, the creature stabs its claws into Barclay, lifting him into the air. Luke fires on the beast, but the bullets ricochet off its head like it did the rest of its body. As if he’s an insignificant mosquito, the beast swats at Luke with his free hand. Luke tries to leap out of the way, but the hand connects with his back, slicing it open and sending him spiraling across the room into a pile of chairs. He slumps to the floor, unresponsive.

Amy’s screams mix with mine as I pull her into my body, trying to shield her from the grisly sight. We stumble backwards as the hybrid tears into Barclay’s stomach, shredding the soft flesh and pulling out his innards. The contents of my own stomach rise to the back of my throat, but I can’t tear my eyes away from Barclay’s death dance. He looks like a possessed marionette. His jerks and screams finally taper off as his eyes glaze over and blood bubbles from his mouth. His head slumps forward on his chest.

My throat raw from screaming, I stifle my shrieks as the hybrid tosses Barclay to the side like a child with a broken toy. I push Amy behind me between me and the wall as it turns to stare at us, head tilted to the side. I raise my rifle to my shoulder, trying to control my trembling and my bladder, as it comes our way.

Suddenly, it stops moving and I swear it smiles as Sam comes to stand beside it. They look at each other, and like some decision has been reached, Sam moves toward us.

“Sam?”

He shows no reaction to his name, his face a blank mask. It scares me more than the super mind.

“Stay back,” I growl at him, leveling my gun. He keeps coming.

I move sideways, tiny steps, my body pushing Amy as well, all the while never taking my gun off Sam. I inch us toward the edge of the platform. Maybe we could jump for it. Be lucky enough to hit some scaffolding on the way down and break our fall, along with a few bones most likely, but it’ll be damn better than having our innards ripped out through our belly buttons.

Sam is closer now. Close enough for me not to miss.

“This is your last warning, Sam. I’ll fucking shoot.”

He halts and just stands there, staring with his blank eyes. Then without warning, he leaps forward and pushes the gun down. I manage to squeeze the trigger before he yanks it away, but all I do is shoot a hole in the damn floor. The gun skitters across the wooden floor as he tosses it aside and towers over me. Yanking his knife from his sheath, he holds it underneath my chin and digs the tip into my neck.

“Sam, stop. Don’t do this,” I whisper, staring into his blank eyes.

Amy starts crying. “Sammy. Don’t hurt Bix. Please, don’t be mean.”

He glances her way, and I swear I see a tiny flicker of recognition.

“Sam, you don’t want to do this,” my whisper is more urgent now. “It’s me. It’s Bixby. And Amy, your sister. You don’t want to do this. You don’t want to hurt us. Please, you have to remember us.”

The knife’s point pulls away a little, and the pain eases off. I think I’m getting through to him. The hybrid emits a low growl, and I feel Sam stiffen. The knife digs in again. I suddenly realize what it’s doing. It’s testing Sam’s willpower. Seeing how much control it has over him.

“Sammy, you can fight it,” I say. “Kick that bastard out of your head. I know you can do it.”

The thing growls again, and Sam starts to turn, but I reach up and grab his face, keeping his gaze connected with mine.

“Look at me. It’s me. Bixby. Bixby and Amy. You remember us. I know you do.”

His eyes stare deep into mine, and I swear I see the moment he pushes that thing from his head. It’s like a cloud lifts and leaves nothing behind but the clear blue sky.

“Bix?” he whispers just as I catch movement out of the corner of my eye.

Luke hurtles toward the super mind holding one of Barclay’s grenades to his chest. He leaps and jumps on the hybrid’s back.

“Luke. No!” I scream in absolute terror. I know what he’s fucking doing. He’s going to blow up the super mind, sacrificing himself in the process. He glances at me for a split second as I scream his name, his ebony eyes filled with apology. The creature staggers under his weight and stumbles close enough to the edge of the platform that one leg goes over. Luke pulls the pin and shoves the grenade inside the damn things boney shell. It jerks and twists, digging a claw into Luke and preventing him from jumping away.

“Luke,” I cry again, my voice twisted with fear. Sam reacts instantly. Plunging toward them, he drops to the floor and slides straight into the creature’s other leg. The creature falters for a moment, letting go of Luke as it tries to catch its balance, before going over the side and taking Luke with it.

“Grab my hand,” Sam shouts as he reaches out, seizing Luke’s wrist. Luke leaps as Sam pulls, and they manage to get the big guy back onto solid ground. They smash into the platform and scramble backwards, trying desperately to move away from the ticking timebomb still hanging onto the ledge. The creature’s claws scrape across the floor, digging into the wood and trying to climb back up. But it starts losing traction. As if it knows its time is up, it growls in pure frustration as it lets go and reaches out, latching onto the legs of its enemy. I stare in shock as it falls backward, taking Luke and Sam with it.

“No!” my agonized scream resonates around the platform seconds before the explosion rips the air. A shower of gore rains down over Amy and me. My legs buckle, refusing to support me any longer. I sink to my knees screaming, as my heart shatters into a thousand tiny pieces.