Starhoppers

15 - The Imposter

Ellie yanked me towards her, a gasp slipping through my lips as the projectile passed through the air where my head had been just a moment prior. The two of us tumbled together into the dirt as the projectile sailed past, impaling the ground a few dozen feet behind us and kicking dirt high up into the air.

"Thank you, Ellie," I blinked, pushing myself clumsily to my feet as I stared at the projectile - it was a long shard of bone, a snapped rod of offwhite calcium with hunks of rotting meat clinging to its surface.

A shrill howl of pain echoed through the clearing behind me. The monstrous creature had since grown a second appendage, the tip pointed downwards at its disciples. One of the aliens laid now several feet away from the crowd, a shard of bone sticking out from its chest as it writhed in the dirt.

"We need to leave," Albright breathed. "Now."

My breath caught in my throat as bits of brown flesh dripped from the bone and splattered against the alien's chest. A cry of horror tore through the alien's throat as its flesh melted, steam rising up from the wound.

"Now!" Albright shouted, rushing past Caesar in the direction of his shack. The alien leader remained prone on the ground, his beady black eyes focused on the creature.

My bones rattled within me as the monstrous creature took a step towards us, crashing a meaty leg down atop a portion of the kneeling crowd.

"Zach!" Ellie shouted, her voice finally resonating within my ears as she tugged on my arm. "Please!"

I turned away from the melting corpse just as the resulting slime started to drag itself towards the nearest alien, the coagulating blood bubbling vehemently in the dirt. "Oh, my God..."

"Help me, Zach," Ellie pleaded, struggling to drag her father into cover as another alien cried out in pain behind us. The kneeling crowd of aliens had started to panic, some shaking in place as others pushed themselves up onto their hooves, uncertain of what to do. "I can't do this alone."

I broke finally from my trance, grabbing hold of the captain's other shoulder as we dragged the man around to the opposite side of the shack. Isaac groaned loudly as Albright exited the shack a short moment later, holding a large stick in each hand. I noticed the thick layers of cloth wrapped around the tips of the sticks as Albright dipped them into the flame of the torch closest to us. "Here! Someone take this!"

Ellie stepped forward, grabbing one of the torches as she peered towards the dispersing crowd, pushing up on her toes as the awe in her eyes melted into horror. "Where are Ezra and Ralph? We can't leave without them!"

"We don't have time!" Albright shouted, shaking his head as he peered around the side of the shack. "They'll find their own way to safety. I'm sure Calpurnia will find a way out alongside them. She'll know what to do."

Ellie yelped as a stray shard of bone tore through the edge of the shack's roof, flipping rapidly through the air and sending splinters of wood in every direction. The bone bounced across the clearing behind us, small chunks of meat falling from its surface and wriggling gently in the wet dirt.

"I've never seen the parasite act so aggressively before," Albright stammered, crouching behind cover as he peered out towards the crowd of aliens. "We need to get out of here - anything still breathing in this clearing won't be for much longer if they don't follow suit."

Ellie groaned, running her fingers through her hair as I stared down at Isaac. "We're going to have to carry him."

Albright nodded slowly, reaching for his backpack. "I'm sorry, son, but I don't imagine I'll be of much help. I'm not as young as I used to be," he said, slipping Bit's charging station into the bag and slinging it over his shoulders. "I struggle to carry firewood back to camp, I..."