There was a long moment where no one responded, everyone stuck in shock at the suddenness. Until the creature flicked his forked tongue threateningly.
Gale took a step back, shaking his head no with disbelief. The mob ran away faster than they’d approached the monster. One guy fell, getting trampled by the others in their rush to escape.
The monster’s red eyes locked onto me, and the intensity made me breathless.
Think, Talia.
I ran over to my hammock as he stepped on the guy on the ground, and the sickening snap of vertebra almost made me falter. Another guy fell to the ground and vomited in the bushes.
I didn’t have time to let my brain process what happened, not if I wanted everyone to make it out of this.
Except those students he ruthlessly murdered. I fought to keep my stomach down as I slid the last stretch to my equipment. My hands shook as I grabbed the long box at the bottom of my things, sending the stack tumbling down. Countless expeditions, and I’d never once had to use this.
My fingers struggled to undo the latches. I glanced over my shoulders to see him shoving through the camp, tossing grown men to the ground with a rough shoulder.
“Talia!” Shannon shrieked with terror that twisted all my organs painfully. All her fire was replaced by pure desperation. “Gale! Do something!”
Shannon needs your blood.
A simple goal that steadied my hands, and I pulled the tranq gun out of its padded case. The warm metal was familiar, despite the fact I’d only worked within the gun range. I loaded it with a single shot without even looking down.
On my knees, I aimed the scope at his tender underbelly, guessing his scales were weaker there. Just like an alligator.
As soon as the shot was lined up, a foreign fear crawled up my throat. It was uncomfortable and made it impossible to swallow the rock suddenly lodged there.
He stood there, putting both arms in the air as if to dare me to do it. His confidence irked me. Cocky asshole.
“You can’t kill something that is a part of you,” he told me with a growl that vibrated underneath my skin.
My fingers tensed on the trigger, but refused to pull the little lever.Come on, two pounds of pressure. That’s all it takes.
“It’s just a nap,” I told myself more than him.
I breathed in deep through my nose to steady myself. With every ounce of strength in my body, I pulled the trigger. The dart flew from the gun, hitting my target right in the neck.
Betrayal filled me, making me nauseous.What did I do?
Dealt with a threat.
So why did pain shoot down my neck and turn my shoulder in a smear of pain. I dropped the gun when my shoulder couldn’t hold the weight of the gun anymore. Had the blowback gotten me?
Why did guilt and shame fill my gut? My face grew hot as if I’d publicly humiliated myself.
The monster snarled, running at me with rage in his piercing eyes. I refused to run, holding my ground. He stomped through the sage, only to retreat a second later.
Fire burned my feet and ankles hot enough, I checked myself to make sure I hadn’t combusted or something. Only to find I was perfectly fine.
Then what was this lingering throb slowly easing away?
He reached in, but I was right out of his reach.
Why wasn’t the tranquilizer taking him down?
He was huge. He was a creature that we didn’t have known tolerances for. Sweat dripped down my temple.It won’t work.
Right before the panic could fully set in, he did a couple of slow blinks. More chinks in his armor. He wasn’t infallible. Everything alive had a weakness.
If we could exploit that, we might make it out of here.
