Starting Life From Zero: Far From Home

Chapter Thirteen

More of them were racing out from the shadow of the tree line with their teeth barred and glowing red eyes. They didn't even bother with Peter, passing him by on the way to where Rem was tearing into them like a storm. The chain of her weapon whipped and snaked in the air as she swung the ball in wide arcs only to retract it back towards herself. Then she would kick or throw the ball out, giving it renewed momentum to rip into the mabeasts encircling her.

"This has to be fake—like that white girl from the woods," Peter said. In the millisecond after the words left his lips he realized how off that sounded. Only Karen was listening to him at this point.

"As I said before, that girl was real and this, too, is really happening," Karen replied.

There was little Peter could do but watch, Rem moved under the moonlight surrounded by the things, but they hadn't overtaken her yet. She was screaming the word mabeast, yelling it as her silhouette danced across the grass manipulating the chains.

"Well, I can't leave her like this," Peter said.

"You could try carrying her," Karen suggested.

Peter shook his head. "Something tells me she wouldn't like that too much," Peter said. "How much webbing is left?"

"About one hundred feet," Karen said.

Rem flipped into the air, grabbing the spiked ball and using its momentum to redirect her own movement. She landed on the back of one wolgarm, locking her legs tight around its body and twisting to bring it down to the ground.

"I'm going to try something stupid," Peter said.

"How stupid?" Karen asked.

"Very," he said as he got down into a squatting position to run. Then he felt the ground shift beneath his feet at almost the exact moment that is spider tingle triggered. He jumped to the side and rolled as another geyser of fire erupted from the spot where he had been standing.

The little puppy with the bald spot was standing and barking happily, while wagging its tail and looking at him. Peter climbed to his feet and checked on the girl on his back.

"It's you, isn't it?" Peter asked as he eyed the dog.

It barked twice as its reply.

"I don't think it's going to let us leave," Peter said. "New plan: incapacitate that puppy then we choke Rem out so she goes down and get her out of here."

"What makes you think that will work?" Karen asked.

"She has to breathe, doesn't she?" Peter asked as he charged the puppy.

"I don't know."

He jumped into the air avoiding two more of the explosions that seemed to be timed to catch him if he dodged the wrong way. His movements were limited with someone his back, but it was better that he avoided all of the fire since she was there. Peter landed and rolled into a crouch with one left stretched out to his side.

"One hundred feet, gotta make it count!" He sent a blast of web out like a small net that trapped the puppy to the ground. "Yeah!" Peter shouted as the puppy struggled against the web restraining it. "Kind of sad that it's still pretty cute."

Peter turned to look at Rem who was mostly mopping up the last of the mabeasts that she had called over. Some of the smarter ones had started to hang back as if they had judged her maximum range. Before he could go to her aid or to try and take her down, the web on the ground that held the puppy began to glow and finally it burst as the dog climbed to its feet and grew at an exponential rate until it was over a story tall. Its dot like black eyes became red, glowing and monstrous. The stubby tail it had once had was like a spiked club.