Vicious World - The Fist and the Eagle

Chapter 5

        Danger takes out some tools, a bundle of electrical wiring, and his rifle, “Maybe if I can recalibrate the firing mechanism to work with the trigger of my rifle, I can enable this thing for long-range rapid fire, and possibly give it enough damage to blow their sensors off completely, effectively killing them.”

        “Long-range?” I look out the window steadily advancing mutated wasps, locusts, and cicada, “Define long.”

        “Believe me, we need to make this, Mikey,” he says, hands flying this way and that, setting up a few bulbs here and there, probably to complete circuits and chamber electrical build-up. “It’ll be good for short-, mid-, and long-range fire.” He removes the handle, trigger, and orb case, revealing the guts, and hooks it up to where he jury-rigged the rifle trigger.

        He cocks the rifle, kicks out the exhibit window, and begins firing, weapon clearly working. I can tell the truth of that as the insects begin dropping, heads blown off. Told you Danger was brilliant.

        The last one drops as a bone-rattling screech rings through the air. “Sh. Sh,” says Danger, “Mama’s in the house.” He points at a huge wing sticking out the side of an exhibit for tree-mongers. The massive beast climbs to the peak, antennae moving this and that way. I back up and my shoe scuffs a bit of rebar.

        The insect’s antennae stop and aim straight for our exhibit.  With one flap of its enormous wings, it lifts itself off the building and begins to divebomb. As it gets closer and closer, I see just how huge it is. I take in every feature; its massive eyes, glowing red; its equally as massive mandibles, opening and closing in anticipation of its newfound snack. I see...

        Danger throws me over his shoulder, rifle in one hand, and runs for the door just as the tree-monger crashes through. He puts me down, cocks his rifle, and begins firing on it, resulting in one really pissed off bug. It lets out a screech and we’re blasted back through the door.

        I stand up, wobbling slightly. Danger is yelling at me, but I can’t make out what he’s saying. All I can hear is a loud ringing. After a few more seconds, I vaguely hear Danger, “We need to get out of here, Mikey!” I can hear again, and I nod at the exhibit next door.

        Danger shakes his head, “No, we gotta kill this thing. It won’t stop until we’re its dinner. If you can take out its eyes with your sniper rifle, we might be able to get it still enough to hit the antennae with the low-resonator.”

        I take out my pack and produce my sniper rifle just as the tree-monger slams through the wall, crashing into Danger hard, giving him a nasty gash on his right arm that immediately starts bubbling. He holds his ground, heels digging in against the force of the giant insect, teeth gritted with all the force he’s mustering, and probably with all of the pain in his arm.

        It finally stops trying to run him through and shoots up. We squint up into the bright sky as the tree-monger readies itself to dive. I take up my rifle as Danger injects himself with a Synstem directly in the vein nearest his wound. Oh, did I happen to mention Danger is immune to radiation? Another side-effect of being a mutated one-hundred-year-old man.

        I see an opportunity as it zooms into my scope, and take two quick shots, blinding it.

        It screeches and tries to stop, but it crashes to the ground just as I jump out of the way, still firing at the eyes. It gets up, revenge in its unseeing eyes. It swipes left and right, missing us both drastically. Danger takes out his knife, primed and shining in the sun, and jabs it into the side of the tree-monger and begins climbing atop it. This makes it shriek out in terror as its green blood pumps out of the puncture wounds Danger is leaving on the way up to its head.

        With a jerk, Danger is thrown in front of it and it lets out a screech that shatters all the windows around us, littering the dirt ground with glass and bits of metal, leaving that same ringing sensation I had the first time, only magnified. Danger is thrown at least five yards but lands on his feet, winded. He clutches his chest, breathing heavily, and lifts the low-resonator.

        I get my bearings back and shake my head, screech still resounding through my skull. I fumble for my own knife and grab it as I run up to the tree-monger, and begin doing the same thing Danger had been doing, only now Danger was firing on its antennae, allowing me to reach its head.

        When I reach the top, I bring up my bowie knife and shove it down into the tree-monger’s head. With a shudder that throws me off.  it collapses, anger leaving its blind eyes.

        My hearing is back, because I hear Danger walking up next to me to lend me a hand up. I take his hand and get myself to my feet. He’s laughing, “I’ll assume you’ll pass on some stewed tree-monger?”