Mega Worm Apocalypse

NINE

An ambush.

An invasion.

A swarm.

Justin had never seen the sharks behave this way, in numbers so vast. They overwhelmed the Victory, spilling over the sides like a wave.

Justin ran out of his room just as Robbie pulled up with the truck. Justin flipped down the flatbed to check the gear, Robbie loading beside him - three spear guns, four shot guns, two mounted harpoons. Neither of them said a word. They both knew what to do. They'd been doing it for a year now.

But never had they faced this many sharks at once. Justin hadn't even realized there could be so many, out there, lurking in the bay. Why now?

The door to Maddie's room flew open and the girls spilled out, Nat the unicorn girl emerging with them. There was a scream, somewhere in the night, a shrill, ghostly animal wailing, and the clip clop of hooves as the horned nightmare horse galloped into the parking lot. That was why now. He didn't know exactly the mechanics of all this, but, Justin was sure, whatever trouble had found them tonight, it began and ended with Nat and her Unicorn.

Justin watched as Nat leaped up onto her steed, stroking the beast's neck. Her cowboy was beside them in an instant, carrying two backpacks. They looked more ready for a camping trip than a battle.

"Is this what I asked for?" Kayla appeared at Justin's side, inspecting the new harpoon cannon. "The seventy five millimeter?"

"Yeah," said Robbie. "Plus the sixty."

Maddie loaded the harpoon gun and hopped onto the flatbed. "We better hurry. Doesn't look like Dyer's doing too good down there."

Kayla hopped up beside her, both girls eager to join the fray. Justin was less excited. "Kay," he said, "don't you think this is weird?"

She rolled her eyes. "I got over the weirdness of zombified sharks a long time ago, Justin."

Maddie cleared her throat, loudly, and Kayla sighed. "I just mean," she said, changing her tone, "yeah maybe it's weird. But it doesn't change what we have to do."

It kind of did though, didn't it? he thought. The unicorn. The worm queens. Things were different now.

Nat rode up, the ember coloured eyes of the unicorn fixed on Justin so that he felt his stomach clench. "What do you think you're doing?" she said, angry and eyes narrowed on Kayla.

"Going to help."

"No," said Nat. "We're getting out of here. Now."

"Forget that," Kayla fired back. "This is my home. You can't come in here and tell me what to do."

"They're here cus of you," said Nat, and Justin's heart seized in his chest. Because of Kayla. "They want you. You want to help your friends? Then let's go."

"I can't abandon them."

"You can't stay. You think it's just sharks coming for you?"

"Kay," said Justin, heart pounding, "maybe we should listen-"

"I am listening!" shouted Kayla, getting to her feet. "If this is cus of me, then how am I supposed to walk away? You think I'm scared? You think I can't-"

And then the earth exploded.

The ground beneath their feet lurched and they were all tossed skyward, so high Justin could see the tops of the trees. He landed hard on the roof of the motel, his body screaming in pain, rock and dirt and flame raining down.

He sat up, his back aching and his elbow throbbing where he hit, his head ringing. The truck was stuck in the branches of a massive oak. And below that,  there it was - writhing and chomping and flapping in what was left of the motel parking lot - a fat, massive, grey slimy worm, its gaping mouth a whirlpool of sharp, infinite teeth.

Justin felt a wave of sick, his stomach heaving. He'd never seen anything so grotesque. So huge. The creature was as long and wide as the motel. It reared up, coming down with its mouth just feet from where Kayla was firing her shot gun, the bullets barely denting the beast's leathery hide.

Nat and the unicorn paced nearby, the unicorn rearing and screaming out of Nat's control.

And Maddie -

Where was Maddie? And Robbie?

And the harpoons.

The harpoons were in the truck.

But the truck was in the tree.

Beside the worm, a cable flapped and sparked - electric.

"Kayla!" Justin screamed, but she was too busy with the worm.

Justin raced along the roof and slid down the shingles, hopping onto the office and then the shed before landing hard on the ground. The cable was writhing, spitting, furious and ready to strike. He couldn't grab it. He'd be electrocuted. He had to bring the worm to the lightning.

He ran wide around the worm until he was beside Kayla who was still shooting.

"Kay!" he screamed as the worm came down again. Justin and Kayla dove sideways and the worm shrieked, its scream like the longest, strongest, most ancient finger nails on some cosmically endless chalkboard so that Justin and Kayla were doubled over, palms pressed tight against their ears.

They were running out of time.

Justin leaped to his feet, waving his arms wildly. "Hey hey hey!!!!"

The worm cocked its gigantic head, eyeless but attentive. The creature was nothing but fat, wriggling flesh and razor teeth, but still, somehow, it had heard him.

Justin swallowed. He'd have one chance.

"Come on come on!" he taunted, darting back the way he'd come.

The worm screamed again and lunged, its massive body heaving along the ground to follow.

"Justin!" Kayla screamed after him. "What are you doing?"

But there wasn't time. There was only foot on broken pavement, the ache in his lungs, the pounding if his heart -

And the lightning.

He leaped over the thrashing cable and kept running, glancing back to see the creature following. It rolled its massive girth over the cable and shrieked, the noise louder and more piercing than anything that had come before, so hideous Justin had to cry out, the pain threatening to force blood from his ear drums.

The creature tensed, the bite of the electric current doing more than any bullet. And then the worm dropped, slinking back into the earth from where it came.

The world went quiet, and Justin waited, unconvinced it was really over. It wasn't dead. He knew that. How long before it recovered from the shock?

And then Kayla screamed.

She was running, running passed the open hole in the earth to a heap of debris on the other side. To a pair of legs poking out beneath the torn up asphalt.

Maddie.