Part 53 (1/2)

”You want Orc?” he bellowed. ”Come and get me!”

The boy, whose name was Buster, tried to get away, tried to stand up and run, but he was far too slow, far too sick. He coughed and stumbled and fell on his knees.

The bug's tongue attached to his neck and yanked him headfirst into flas.h.i.+ng mouthparts.

A girl named Zoey coughed, doubled over with the pain of it, and a second later was caught and eaten.

It was a ma.s.sacre.

Brianna flew like a madwoman, her knife flashed, her sawed-off shotgun barked, but the bugs were up the stairs and pus.h.i.+ng inside, smelling the fresh meat in the hospital.

One of the bugs had grown so big it became jammed and blocked the doorway, but at least one of the creatures had made it inside already, and Brianna could hear m.u.f.fled screams of terror from down below.

She darted, bypa.s.sed a flas.h.i.+ng tongue, leaped over scythe mandibles, and stabbed a bug in both red eyes. Then she stuck her shotgun into the gnas.h.i.+ng mouth and pulled the trigger.

The ma.s.sive creature shuddered, but did not die.

Brianna barely leaped aside in time to avoid being caught. And then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the ma.s.sive creatures rise, turn in midair, and land hard on its back.

”Caine!” she yelled.

She threaded her way through the swarm, leaped easily through the wildly waving legs of the overturned bug, and stabbed her knife into its guts.

Then, into the largest of the gashes she thrust the shotgun and pulled the trigger.

BLAM!.

Bug guts and bits of sh.e.l.l blew back and covered her. But the legs were jerking wildly now, slower, slower ...

Caine had overturned another bug and this one he hammered with a car, lifting and slamming, lifting and slamming, until the creature was a giant mess of stick-legs and goo.

The creatures turned away from feasting on the sick. There were only seven of the bugs left now, not counting the one that was down in the so-called hospital or the one stuck in the doorway.

Seven.

”I'll flip them!” Caine yelled.

Brianna picked a piece of bug guts off her cheek and nodded. She quickly reloaded her shotgun and zoomed to mount the latest overturned creature. She was learning as she went along. The creatures had weak spots, one of them was the underside of what would be their chin. She stabbed with her knife, twisted to make an opening, pushed the shotgun into the gaping wound, and pulled the trigger.

The bug's head blew apart.

”Oh, yeah! Oh, definitely!” Brianna cried.

But Caine had been a bit too slow and now three of the creatures were pursuing him. All three had latched on to him with their tongues and he was yelling his head off for help.

Brianna dashed down the steps, now slick with blood- human and insect.

She cut the first tongue and the other two reeled back defensively.

”Flip 'em!”

”Trying,” Caine said through gritted teeth. He turned one over but the bugs were learning fast. A second bug charged the first, slid beneath it, and heaved its brother back over onto his legs.

”Oh, no, we don't do that,” Brianna said.

Caine had to back away again as the creatures charged. If they caught Caine, then the battle was over.

Brianna raced, grabbed Caine's arm, and yanked him to temporary safety behind a tree.

Cuh-runch!

A bug mandible sliced the tree straight through.

Caine lifted and flipped the creature, but now the swarm was converging.

”They'll follow us,” Caine yelled to Brianna.

”I noticed.”

”Gas station,” Caine gasped. He was already running, flat out, arms pumping. Brianna caught up easily. The bugs surged after them, crowding the street.

”You understand?” Caine gasped.

”Not much gas left there,” Brianna said.

”Go!” Caine yelled, and Brianna zoomed away. She reached the gas station. There was a heavy padlock on the pump and, to her utter amazement, one of Albert's people sitting there guarding it.

”Unlock it!” she yelled.

”I can't unless Albert ... ,” the kid started to say until Brianna laid her knife against his throat and said, ”Really no time for chitchat.”

He unlocked the pump. Brianna grabbed the handle-the hand pump was the only way-and worked it as fast as she could. Unfortunately it wasn't the kind of thing that worked better at superspeed.

She grabbed the guard and yelled, ”You-pump! Pump unless you want to die.”

”I don't have a tank to put it in!”

”On the ground,” Brianna said. ”On the ground. All over the place. Pump it!”

Gas gushed in irregular spurts from the pump and splashed onto the concrete.

Brianna zoomed back to find Caine laboring hard and barely staying ahead as he reached the highway. Out in the open the bugs would be able to use all their speed and catch him long before he reached the station.