“The Lord is my Shepherd!”
Reverend Johnny ran down the rocky slope toward City Hall and the non-operational command vehicle, but would need to outmaneuver the bore-sharks to get there; all three adjusted their course as they locked on to his body heat at fifty yards.
He fumbled with his utility belt as he ran and found a flare.
“Let…me…have…your…undivided…” the flare sparked to life, “attention!”
He could nearly feel the sharks roar in hunger as the sparkling heat signature beckoned like a siren’s call.
The creatures closed to twenty yards…ten…five…
Johnny cut hard and changed directions like a halfback heading for the end zone. As he swerved, one of the attackers leapt from the ground, hungry for a new meal. For an instant, Johnny stared directly into its round mouth. He saw no teeth, only pinkish gums dripping with liquid and he understood: the creatures did not chew their prey; they dissolved them. Dissolved them with the same acid that allowed them to ‘swim’ through rock and earth.
In the next instant, that Bore-Shark disappeared into the ground again.
All three creatures circled around for another attack.
“Get that gun going!” Johnny yelled to his friends on the hillside. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this!”
The Reverend’s nifty dodging bought him enough time to reach the snow-covered dirt road outside City Hall. He aimed specifically for the cluster of fuel drums by the partially assembled command vehicle.
Johnny set the flare on top of one drum, bear-hugged the container, and found the strength to move it-in hops-thirty feet away from the other two barrels.
Behind him, the three remaining Bore-Sharks completed their circle and found his heat signature again. They ‘swam’ through the ground in his direction. When they closed to fifteen yards, they accelerated for the kill.
“And Joshua said, why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with FIRE…”
The Reverend ran, leaving the flare atop the fuel drum.
All three Bore-Sharks greedily targeted the heat source of the flare. The lead creature jumped from the ground with its acid burrowing excretions coating its head as usual. It swooped half the petrol barrel and the flare into its mouth.
Boom.
A golden explosion knocked Johnny off his feet. He felt a blast of heat singe his neck as he fell face-first into the cold earth. A rain of burning liquid fell around him, thawing that cold ground to mush.
The explosion left behind a crater, chunks from two melted monsters, and a smell similar to burning electrical wires.
“Praise the Lord, two for the price of one.”
The remaining creature withdrew, most likely disorientated or frightened off by the explosion. It ‘swam’ around to the far side of City Hall, disappearing from the Reverend’s view.
Johnny brushed glowing embers from his jacket, stood, and started back toward the mountainside and his comrades.
The fin appeared almost directly in front of him, allowing no time to dodge or even think about dodging. The Bore-Shark jumped. It seemed to hover over Reverend Johnny’s head as if time paused so the beast could relish its victory.
Then its side exploded. Steaming acid splattered inches from Johnny’s feet and the ugly beast with the big round maw flopped to the tundra like a fish out of water.
A split second later, Johnny heard the clap of the sniper rifle shot that saved his life.
Up ahead on the hillside, Casey Fink wiped his brow.
“Much obliged, Mr. Fink!” Reverend Johnny yelled.
Fink stood from his prone sniper position and both he and Jon Brewer descended the slope where they met with the Reverend.
“You just blew up a third of our fuel,” Brewer said, eyeing the dying flames from one barrel of gas.
“My apologies, General, but it was the only plan I could muster on such short notice.”
Fink said, “Unless anyone sees a tail fin swimming around here, I think we got every last one of the things.”
“Good,” Brewer said and pulled his radio from his belt. “I’m going to call everyone in. I want my ride put together and then I want to get on our way.”
Minutes later, the expeditionary force gathered around City Hall. While the technicians finished assembling and fueling the command vehicle, others collected body parts of their fallen comrades and managed to dig shallow graves in the hard ground.
None of them noticed the storm in the distance moving across the horizon: a gray whirlwind spinning to the north.
The competition had arrived.
17. Potential
Nina Forest arrived at Wrightsville Beach just in time for the hard work.
More specifically, the ‘guard’ at the bridge directed her to a small, one-story building a few blocks from the beachfront. There she found Jim Brock, his ‘orphans,’ and a small crew of adults working on a community project.
Nina spied two large piles of timber as well as buckets and boxes of tools outside of the “Wrightsville Beach Physicians Association,” a single-story building that happened to be missing most of one wall.
Jim greeted her as she parked at the curb. Denise Cannon stood in the distance with a group of bored-looking kids ranging in age from under eight to over twelve.
“Hello, Captain,” Brock offered as Nina exited the topless Humvee. “Did you bring a hammer?”
She looked at the hole in the wall then to him.
“Actually, I brought an appetite. An appetite for seafood.”
Brock tried hard but he could not contain his smile. “Great…that’s great. But-”
“But you’ve got something else going right now,” she stated the obvious.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that this is the only doctor’s office around and some big hairy thing knocked it down the other day. Some of those dogs-I mean, K9s-of yours chased it away but not before…before this…” he waved at the damage.
“Damn. Well, I guess we better start working if we’re going to make that dinner before it gets too dark.”
“Hey, uh, Captain-I mean Ms. Forest-uh, no, I mean Cap-”
“Nina.”
“Oh. Right. Um, Nina, you don’t need to do this. It’s going to take us forever. Besides, you’ve done more than-”
“Forever? Listen, Jim, we just have to put some elbow grease into this.” She walked toward the building with Brock in tow.
“Well there’s only four of us, I mean, I guess, five of us now, so it’s going to take a long, long time.”
“What about them?” Nina nodded at the kids standing around.
“Oh, yeah, them. It’s just me watching them now and I couldn’t leave them by themselves.”
Nina yelled, “Hey, ‘D’!”
Denise Cannon stood straight and cocked her head in such a smug manner that she might as well have told her friends, Yeah, that’s right, I’m tight with the coolest soldier around. Worship me.
Nina approached Denise and her circle of admirers.
“Hey, um, hey,” Denise said but kept a ‘cool’ posture.
“How you doing, girl?”
Jim Brock’s mouth nearly unhinged in fascination as he watched the exchange.
“Everything’s, like, cool. You know?” Denise answered.
“Hey, Denise, I need you to take care of something.”
“Yeah? Whatchya need?”
“We got to get this wall patched up real quick like, so I need you to take charge,” the Captain said.
“M-me? I mean, take charge of what?”
“Your gang over there,” Nina answered. “I know most of them are just kids, but I figured you could maybe get them to help do this.”
Jim Brock tried to say, “Oh, the kids don’t need to-”
“Yeah, you bet,” Denise answered.
“Tell me what you think,” Nina asked of Denise. “But I was thinking maybe me, Jim, and the other people here would start putting up the boards and nailing them on; do the dry wall and stuff. You could take your team and start hauling over those supplies. Just keep the real little kids away from the sharp stuff.”