Banished To Earth Book One (31)

boots.

  “What!?” Chase demanded.

  “She with you? And you’re Hunter and somethin’ else. Wolf?” He limped up to them, eyeing Pry with particular interest, sniffing the air as he neared. “Crichee, and something else, mighty curious.”

  “You touch her, and I’ll tear your head off,” Chase said, stepping up in front of Pry.

   “ 'Cause that’s what monsters do.” Said the dark stranger. “Hey, all I see is placid hair. But if one strand comes my way, I’ll kill you both.”

   “You don’t want her?”

    “Oh, you mean,” he laughed, “no, not in the mood.”

   “Then you get to live.” Chase’s words were ice daggers.

  “This nights not done. None of us might get to do that.”

   Pry eased out from behind Chase. The man surprised them with a smile.

  “Ma’am, my name’s Tucker Sims. His voice was soft as cotton and just as southern.

  “Pry Gillette, and this is my husband, Chase. We want to help.”

  “Your husband? Well, that’s a new one,” Tucker raised his eyebrows and glanced over at the search lights sweeping back and forth behind the western horizon. “They must have them on push carts,” He mused. They want to help too, but they don’t have a clue. Those idiots are calling up monsters and don’t even know it.

  The big ones just love light and noise, and bands of busy people, busy tryin’ to get away. They’re all going to die there, hiding in the light.”

  “Tell them,” Pry demanded.

  “I already tried; those military types really hate it when civilians tell them how to do their job. They shot me. I should have waited just a bit longer. Their guns were still working.”

  “Working, you mean out of ammo?” Chase asked, genuinely confused.

    Tucker gave him an odd look. “Nooo.”

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   Chase just looked at him.

    You really don’t know what I’m talking about do you?

   “Know what?”

   “When the sky tears, metal freezes, so do guns, cars, tanks, jets and the like. The Fall welds all moving metal parts together.” He grimaced and grabbed his side, just before his legs buckled.

   Pry rushed to him before Chase could grab her.

   “All this blood comin’ outta me and you don’t want a taste?” He asked Pry as she and Chase eased him to the pavement. “But you just like the bad stuff, right? Guess I passed the litmus test. You helpin’ a man, no wonder you got booted off your home world.” He continued as Chase examined his wound.

   “It’s deep, through and through. That’s good.” Chase mused to himself aloud. “So, they just hauled off and shot you?” He could not hide his troubled expression.

  “Nobody likes a judge, and they downright hate an executioner. And that’s what we are.”

     Chased flinched. Tucker’s words hit hard, with their own special meaning.

“We can shift you somewhere safe, we...” Chase shook his head at Pry before she could finish.

 “Torn flesh will tear a whole lot more, shiftin’. And it’s not a scratch; it’s a deep tissue wound. And ya’ll don’t know that either, do you? No shifting for me, not yet.  Just let me rest a bit and enjoy the view.” He was looking right at Pry, but her hair remained still. “I’ll heal in a bit.”

   “You’re mighty mouthy for someone with a hole in their gut,” Chase said, growing a bit irritated with the stranger.

  “Keeps me conscious,” He quipped just before he passed out.    

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 Chapter 19

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    They were not about to leave Tucker alone in the parking lot. They would have to wait for him to heal. However, they were not sure how long the healing process would take. Exposed as they were, they were easy targets for whatever monstrosities might shift their way.  But they were still determined to save as many as they could.

   Unfortunately, new blisters were already appearing in the distant spotlighted sky. And each angry red blister was pregnant with some horrific beast.

   The military’s spotlights were not only summoning more monsters but drawing them away from other, less populated areas. This was good for them. Disastrous for the hapless soldiers. Their weapons were nothing more than useless hunks of metal. Their tanks and aircraft had become death traps because every hinge was fused shut.

   Those who were not trapped could do nothing but run, hide and try to disappear in the surrounding countryside. But how does one run from the sky? It was now a living thing that only wanted to devour them.

   Driven from their posts, they sought shelter in the blackness of the forest’s shadows. Only to be confronted by thirty-foot-long serpents that flew on razor-edged wings, belched fire and napalm, incinerating the trees, obliterating their shadows and slicing and cooking the soldiers' trembling bodies with heartless simultaneous ease.  

    Pry and Chase could not witness their plight through the thick wall of trees and buildings separating them. However, their screams echoed through the night, so loud they were only slightly muffled by the distance.  

   Every so often, they would see something resembling a pterodactyl. A black bony silhouette, exploding from a ruptured blister, swooping down, disappearing behind the jagged tree line and sailing back up with a tiny human shape writhing in its talons. A quick flick of its claw and the figure would be airborne just long enough for a massive beak to pluck it out of the sky and gobble it down.   

  

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   Swarms of smaller creatures also clouded the sky, more alien horrors that were just too small to see clearly. But they were just as hostile and hungry as the rest.

  “We cannot just sit here. They are killing your people!” Pry leapt to her feet and was just about to open a portal when a luminous, bright yellow rectangle slid out of the clouds behind them. From the corner of her eye, she saw it slide silently into view and glide