One Crazy Machine by Michael Todd & Michael Anderle

Author:Michael Todd & Michael Anderle [Todd, Michael & Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642021554
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2019-04-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The storm had scrubbed the desert into a repetitive pattern of undulating hills like a beach at dawn, still devoid of tourist tracks. Nothing broke the uniformity of the view, except for the scorpion queen. It was like an alien planet devoid of life, of survivors, of everything except something that could only be described as an alien.

While most directions featured nothing but tiny hills of sand that rolled endlessly into the distance, the northwest featured a maelstrom of sand as tall as a man that raced toward them. The scorpion queen remained mostly under the cover of the freshly swept sand, but as Ava watched her approach through the scope on her carbine, pincers and mouthparts, extra legs, and antennae poked through occasionally as she moved. It was like a tornado or a tidal wave or some other powerfully terrifying natural force but with traces of something vaguely recognizable as a greater power.

Ava stood out on the desert, farther from the Flying Bastard than she’d like to be. Peppy was the same distance but in the opposite direction. Gunnar—his shirt back on, thank God—stood in front of the downed helicopter with his rotary cannon mounted on a tripod. He was the only one of the team who looked excited that their doom approached them inexorably through the wasteland. Although excited probably wasn’t the right word. It was more like he’d already failed the class once and would be damned if he failed it again. Ava assumed that part of his confidence stemmed from the fact that they were about to use his plan, but standing far enough apart not to be eaten in the same bite didn’t seem like much of a plan to her.

“Hold your positions,” Manny shouted from the top of the Flying Bastard. “Don’t fire until you see the whites of its eyes—or facets, or whatever the hell a pissed-off scorpion has. On second thought, maybe shoot it in the face whenever you damn well please.”

“We have a plan, thank you!” Gunnar said. “You’re supposed to run out there and tell it a damn tall tale until it gets bored and kills itself.”

“If I survived, it will too.” Peppy raised her weapon and fired at the scorpion queen.

She plunged beneath the sand. Obviously, she disliked the idea of being shot and had learned her lesson. At this distance, it was easy to see her target—Peppy.

The soldier stuck to the plan—such as it was—and sprinted toward Ava like her life depended on it. The creature caught up to her easily like a salmon hunting a bug that had fallen to the surface of a river. She surfaced and the monstrous claws snapped at Peppy, and Gunnar opened fire.

The scorpion queen writhed in pain. He had shot her behind her clawed arms on her long, segmented centipede-like body. She dove almost immediately, though, and sucked a great pit of sand in her wake. In an instant, she reappeared, literally in his face.

He was ready and fired, but

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