As he swayed back and forth over the teeth-lined cavernous mouth, Richard realized there was no escape for him now. This would be how his life would end. His body would be chewed into bite-size chunks by a monster maggot from another world. Who could have predicted such a thing? Soon he would be nothing more than a brown stain on the sludge-covered floor. He closed his eyes and hoped the monster would bite through his neck to give him a quick death. He sobbed in terror as he was lowered towards the waiting teeth and felt the warm, waft of the monster’s foul breath wash over his face.
Gunfire echoed around the chamber.
The monster’s painful shrieks quickly followed.
Richard opened his eyes when he was thrown across the room by the tentacles that had discarded him to fight off the latest threat. Richard struck the wall hard and fell to the floor. Slightly dazed, he watched blurred flashes light up the foul room.
Talbot cursed Richard when he left him at the mercy of the monster. He should have known better than put his hope in the cowardly man. His accusing eyes followed Richard until the sleeping monster’s ugly form hid him from view. A tearing noise that followed Richard’s cowardly flight was in turn followed by an unholy screech, a gruesome slurp and a wave of stench that surprised him almost as much as the monster crashing to the ground. When the tentacles that imprisoned him as secularly as any caged cell uncurled from his body and left him free, he rolled away and climbed to his feet. Fearing the monster would realize its mistake and the tentacles would return at any moment, he aimed the rifle at the monster’s grotesque form and sprayed it with bullets. The monster writhed in pain and its piercing shrieks were almost as deafening as the gunfire. Talbot rushed past the Slug Monster and almost slipped on the slimy mess of offal that had slipped from the long gash in its stomach. Richard had to be responsible. He glanced at the man he now thought he might have misjudged sprawled on the ground. “Richard, it’s time to leave.”
Richard glanced at the monster riddled with holes oozing thick pus when it toppled to the floor with its tentacles waving frantically in all directions. He snatched up the knife he noticed beside him, climbed to his feet and in a staggering dazed run, followed Talbot back through the passage.
The soldiers moved quietly through the room, which they assumed by the rows of beds lining its walls, to be a hospital ward. Some of the contorted skeletal remains of the patients’ corpses remained on the dark-stained beds where they had come to be healed, but instead, by the evidence of missing body parts and gnawed bones, had suffered a horrifying and brutal demise. Remains of other unfortunate victims who had attempted, but ultimately failed, to flee from whatever horror had confronted them lay in pieces strewn about the floor. The gruesome remains both horrified and fascinated the men who cast anxious gazes at the bones of the crew who had once piloted the huge spaceship through space. It was a sobering thought to them all that advanced technology was no match against nature’s primal instinct to slay and feed, whatever planet it originated from.
Startled by the loud boom and the crunching of metal that thundered through the room, some of the men instinctively glanced back at the sound, but found the door the beast had just struck blocked by rows of monstrous cocoons.
Colbert and Sullivan turned their gaze upon the cocoons surrounding them when the movements of whatever was inside increased. They were waking up. Bulges appeared over their surfaces like fast-forming boils about to erupt. Sullivan wasn’t eager to be around when they did and pressed on. Equally eager to put as much distance as possible between them and whatever horror emerged from the now swaying sacks, the rest of the SEALs quickly followed. Haste had replaced their previous priority of silence.
Metal skidding across the floor followed the loud crash and rending of metal as the beast announced its arrival and charged through the room in search of its prey. The cocoons it barged aside, slammed into others. Casings split and dark-brown shiny things the size and shape of a soccer ball poured out. Some bounced slightly, others drifted in circles before coming to a stop, while others rolled across the floor.
Confused by the mass of cocoons blocking its view, the beast slowed and nudged another of the obstructions aside. Unaware of the object that rolled beneath its belly, it kicked it when it moved forward.
Hearing something approach, Brody glanced behind and stared at the strange ball rolling towards him. Though he had no idea what it was, he assumed it wasn’t anything he wanted anywhere near him. When he lashed out a foot to kick it away, the ball changed.
As a head uncurled from the round mass, strands of sinewy hair sprung out from around the top. Dark eyes, more like shapeless holes, appeared. A crack on the lower part of the skull-shaped head separated and dropped to form a jaw displaying shiny, black teeth splayed at various angles. Committed to the maneuver, Brody was powerless to pull his foot away from the frightening monster that had formed in a split second. Two slender arms sporting four-fingered, clawless hands, unfurled from its body as it sprung over Brody’s foot, scampered up his body, grabbed his face and pressed two fingers into his eyes. Brody screamed and pawed at the beast gnawing his cheek.
The beast snapped at the fingers, biting off three at the knuckles.
Brody screamed louder and staggered back into a cocoon.
Ramirez spun towards the scream and, for a moment, stared at the grotesque creature perched on Brody’s chest. When the creature looked back at him, its hair splayed out like a bizarre crown as it dropped its blood-dripping jaw and let out a scream so high-pitched it hurt Ramirez’s ears.
A single shot rang out.
The hole punched through the creature’s head, ran with thick blood so dark it was almost black, like crude oil.
Ramirez knocked the dead creature to the floor and examined Brody. Blood poured from the man’s eyes, cheek and hand. He was in bad shape, but still alive. “Okay, buddy, it’s gone.”
“I can’t see,” screamed Brody. He wiped at his eyes with fingers oozing blood from severed digits.
More of the creatures poured from the top of the cocoon behind Brody and headed for the scent of blood. Ramirez dodged back when they swarmed over Brody, biting and pulling free lumps of flesh.
Colbert arrived, saw the carnage taking place, aimed his gun at Brody’s head and fired. The bullet brought a merciful end to the man’s agony. He grabbed Ramirez’s shoulder and turned him away from the horrific sight.
“We have to go before more come―we’ve found an exit.”
The beast appeared and rushed towards them. It snorted loudly, its eyes wide and full of terror. Colbert and Ramirez dodged aside and watched it bolt past. Creatures feeding on its flesh clung to its sides and back. More of the creatures were in pursuit, chasing the beast for a share of the feast. One leaped at Ramirez. His rifled barked, killing it in midair. Colbert joined him in spraying the oncoming hoard as they moved back and as soon as they saw a space, they turned and fled.
Creatures poured from every evil sack. There were hundreds of them. Gunshots echoed through the room from different positions, a sign the others were having their own problems. Colbert prayed they had managed to get the door open.
Colbert and Ramirez veered to the side and sought sanctuary on the nearest bed when a group of creatures blocked their path. A commotion raised their heads.
In its attempt to be free of the creatures eating it alive, the beast slammed into the wall, crushing those on that side. It bounded forward, knocking beds aside with its massive head and shoving others in front like a bulldozer pushing soil. Beds, mixed with the crew’s ancient skeletons, tumbled over each other in a mass of metal and bones. A cocoon ripped from the ceiling joined the oncoming wreckage, adding the screams of the foul creatures trapped inside to the screeching clash of wreckage.