Atom Bomb Baby by Brandon Gillespie

Author:Brandon Gillespie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Revenant Press

The bone plate in its forehead remained cracked, and something dark oozed out.

She sighted in, switching from full-auto to burst fire, and aimed between the Deathmark’s eyes—which was easier now without everybody moving around.

When it stepped towards her, she stroked the trigger.

Only one shot landed on its face, glancing off an armored bone ridge near its eye. The rest either missed or did no damage.

It huffed and moved its head back and forth, looking in her direction, trying to focus better on where the shot came from, before It started toward her. Ashe glanced at Rainwood, frantically thinking of which way to run. She continued backing up while aiming and could feel the heat of the burning farmhouse on her back.

Blood loss made her lightheaded, and she wondered what toxins the spines injected. Her vision tunneled, and color seemed to fade.

Rainwood appeared as a blur behind the beast, slashing at the Deathmark’s Achilles tendon, and it stumbled to its knee, showing the first sign of weakness—even as it twisted to hit him, barely missing, then snapped more spines in his direction.

Ashe ground her teeth, too afraid to call out and coordinate attacks, so with it now just meters away, she focused on the crack between the Deathmark’s eyes and took a slow breath.

The Deathmark roared again, its rotten breath making her gag, but she felt calm settle into her. The memory of her dad’s first instructions on using a rifle came to mind—she could almost feel his hands wrapping her, holding her arms balanced as she aimed.

She breathed out and pulled the trigger, focusing on the crack in the bone plate.

Each shot hit true. Black spots appeared on the Deathmark’s forehead, puncturing the plate and sending an eruption of matter out the back of its head.

It crashed to the ground with a loud carumph.

Ash stood, almost in shock. The Arbiter slipped from her fingers, clattering to the ground. The house behind her crackled and roared as the fire consumed the entire structure.

She didn’t know if this Deathmark was the one that killed her family or not, but it didn’t matter. She had finally faced it and survived.

She fell to her knees, exhausted, wanting to cry but unable to even do that.

Rainwood stepped toward Mason but froze, then gave Ashe a slow shake of his head.

Ashe felt hollowed out. Staring at Mason on the ground, regret ran through her mind. Why was I mean to him? He was a nice guy.

Jade arrived and carefully pulled a spine out of Ashe as she stared numbly at the carnage before her. Then another spine. And another.

Even with Mason dead, all Ashe could feel was relief. Relief that she was still alive. And this crushed her. “I’m a mean person. I don’t care about anybody,” she whispered.

Jade finished pulling out spines, then hugged her.

Rainwood moved to the barn, and she figured he went to check on Moonbeam.

She wrapped her arms around Jade, who hadn’t let go. But, she still felt hollow—burned out.

A minute later, Moonbeam stepped out of the barn while holding the back of his head.

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