Mega Worm Apocalypse

TEN

Kayla clawed at the rubble, piled up on top of her friend.

Her legs were wrong. Maddie's legs. Bent and twisted and unnatural. Through the tears, Kayla saw Robbie at her side, hauling away asphalt. The cowboy that came with Nat, Andres, was there too. All three of them digging but it wasn't fast enough.

No noise.

Maddie wasn't making any noise.

Kayla felt a swell of dread, an icy wave wash over her whole body. "Maddie, hang on!" she screamed, some frantic part of her hoping the sheer volume of her voice would reach Maddie beneath the rubble.

Finally, Robbie revealed Maddie's face, black and blue and bleeding. And still.

So still.

Robbie brought his head to hers, checking her vitals. And then he sat back. He shook his head.

Kayla tried to scream, but there was nothing, just a strangled, painful squeak as she felt her throat ready to rip open with grief. She dropped beside her friend, gripping the cotton of Maddie's pink pajama shirt like she could pull her back from wherever she'd gone too. She wasn't here. At the Lookout. Not anymore.

Someone gripped her shoulder tight -- Justin.

He held her close, sobbing as Kayla kept her grip on Maddie, tears streaming down her face, but still she couldn't make a sound. Couldn't breathe. 

Maddie was endless.

Maddie was forever. 

This broken girl in the asphalt -- that wasn't their Maddie.

Couldn't be.

Maddie was powerful. She blew zombie sharks from the water and brought handsome men to their knees. She was MADE for destroying mega monster apocalyptic worms. She HAD to be. Because if the worm could bring an end to someone as epic and fearless as Maddie -- then sooner or later, the worms would get the better of them all.

"Look," the unicorn girl was standing behind her cowboy, who was still crouched next to Maddie's body, his knuckles bloody from the digging. "I'm sorry, but we don't have time for this."

Kayla's eyes were burning, and puffy, swollen from the tears. She didn't think she would ever have enough to spill over Maddie. Would never have enough. Maddie was her best friend. They'd known each other since they were kids. Grade school and high school, back when the world made sense. Back when Maddie was the cool girl and Kayla was nobody. It took monsters to destroy the world to bring Maddie and Kayla together. The only best friend she'd ever had. And just as suddenly, monsters that tore them apart. Without Maddie -- who would she talk to?

"I mean it, Kayla," said Nat. "You gotta suck it up."

The cowboy shot Nat a warning look and she sighed, stretching her neck as she tried to switch tact. "Ok, yeah, sorry. I'm real sorry about your friend."

The cowboy's glare narrowed. 

"I'm sorry," Nat tried again. "I'm so sorry for what happened to your friend. It's not fair."

Sorry. What a useless word. No one could ever be sorry enough for this. No one WOULD ever be sorry enough. Not for Maddie. But oh, Kayla would try. She would spend the rest of her days, however many there may be left, making the world sorry for what had been done to Maddie.

Starting with the worms.

"We can't waste any more time," Nat was saying, more urgently. "The worm will be back, probably with friends."

"We know what to do now," said Justin, his voice hoarse with grief. "We know how electricity can hurt the queens. We can be ready."

"That wasn't a queen," said Nat.

Kayla felt Justin's grip on her tighten. "What?"

"One of the drones," she said. "Like bees. Small males, they have no purpose but to mate and protect the queens. A queen wont come here. They're too important."

"That was small?"

Nat nodded, confirming what Kayla already knew in her bones. Knew the second she'd seen the creature. That wasn't the queen. 

"When we face a queen," Nat said, "you'll know. And then you'll be dead."

"Let them come," said Kayla, her tears spent. When her body made more, they would instantly fall for Maddie. But for now, every drop was gone. "If it's me they're after then fine. Let's get it over with."

Justin reached for her, "Kayla, what?" 

She flinched back, not wanting to be touched and his face fell. She heard Maddie, there inside her head, just a little bit of slack, Kay. Was that the last thing she'd said to her? She was failing Maddie already. 

"Right. Sure," nodded Nat. "Could do that. Could just sit here and wait til more drones and sharks and unicorns and who knows what else show up and decimate the town, your friends, the ship. Kill you all. Or, we do like I said. And we find the third."

"The third?" asked Justin.

Kayla held Maddie's hand. It was warm still. How long before it turned cold?

"A boy," said Nat. "Like us but...he can't break free of them. He needs help."

"And then what?"

"I don't know," said Nat. "Not totally. But with her," she pointed at Kayla, "and the third, we might just have enough sight to find them."

Sight. Kayla knew what she meant. That horrible churning, vibrating presence in her mind. Always with her. Always furious. The queens.

"Find the queens?"

Nat nodded.

Find them, yes. Kayla gripped Maddie's hand tighter. Find them and make them pay for this. Pay for Point Chester. For the sharks themselves. She thought of them, out there in the deep. Magnificent and ancient and innocent, prowling their waters while the parasite stalked. Unaware of the danger. Unaware of the change. Confused and frightened as one by one their kin transformed from the elegant ocean royalty they were, into the mindless, puppet zombies of the Whole. Never did she ever think that one day, she would sympathize with the sharks. And yet here she was, Maddie's cooling hand in hers, a spot opening up in her heart for the creatures she'd been fighting for so long. They were the same, the sharks and her. Kayla stood up, "So let's find them. And then we'll kill them."

"How are you going to do that?" asked Robbie, that infuriating paternal tone creeping into his voice. "Did you see the size of that thing? And that's one of the small ones."

Kayla shrugged. "We'll figure it out." She looked to Nat. "Right?"

Nat grinned. "Yeah, we'll figure it out. First things first though."

"Where is he?"