Chapter 7

I woke hearing a girl scream. I grabbed my carbine and ran out of the tent. I saw she was pointing at something in the distance, as she yelled, “WHAT IS THAT?”

I quieted her with a quick ‘Shhh!’

The rest of our assorted group were waking up too. I looked where she was pointing and saw a very large snake-like creature a long distance away, 800 meters, maybe a click. It was about two meters high, and twenty long. I looked through my scope, and saw it had four sword-like appendages near its mouth, and was cutting a dead bison apart with them. It took no more than 15 seconds to dismember and eat the whole animal, probably over a ton! It started moving toward us, slithering across the rocky ground.

Pedro read my mind. “What happened to all the cliffs?” He was right, there were none of the stone walls in sight. In a few directions I could see three or four kilometers with no obstructions in the way.

Pedro rested the huge sniper rifle’s bipod on a log and looked at the beast. It was around 500 meters away now, and still approaching. I kneeled and aimed for the center of the monster’s mouth. I quietly said to him, “Last one to hit it makes breakfast.” I squeezed off a shot. ‘Bang.’

I hit its back, but it didn’t seem to notice. I fired three more times. ‘Bang. Bang. Bang.’

I was sure at least two hit it, and I heard a ricochet off the thing’s tough hide. A small bit of orange liquid dripped from its mouth. I had hurt it, at least a little.

I was about to fire again, when Pedro took a shot. Instead of a ‘Bang.’, there was a powerful ‘KAABOOM!!!’ Dust flew up, obstructing our vision a moment. I couldn’t believe what I saw. The mighty 50 cal had only put a dent in the side of it, and didn’t penetrate! All it did was anger the creature!

“Pedro, the mouth! Shoot it in the mouth!”

It was only 200 meters away now, and approaching fast!

I heard another ‘KAABOOM!!!’ with no apparent affect. I fired off the rest of a magazine on full-auto. ‘Budududududuh!’

In the time it took for me to drop the empty mag and load a fresh one, Pedro got off another shot, then yelled, “FUCK!” when his big rifle jammed. The monster was only 50 meters away now! In seconds it would eat us!

For only the second time, I did it slightly before I said it. “SHIT!”

I slapped the full clip in tight, yanked the charging handle, and started to pull the trigger as the muzzle swung on target.

I heard a loud “WHOOSH!”, followed half a second later by a “BOOM!”, then a girl crying.

The monster disappeared in a cloud of flame and smoke. Bits of flesh and orange blood flew high into the sky. It rained alien parts for a several seconds, splattering Pedro and I with stinky orange goo.