The creatures.
The last thing he heard before losing consciousness was the sound of them scurrying up the wooden buildings and climbing over the awnings. They hadn’t had time to run for the cover of the forest. There’d barely been enough time to hide.
The Pave Hawk’s side door slides open.
“No!” Byrne shouts.
Men in camouflaged isolation gear jump to the ground, their rifles at the ready. Their face shields reflect the sun as they run toward him. They don’t know what hits them.
The simian screams explode from all around them at once. The men turn helplessly in circles as the primates leap from the open windows and burst from the shadowed doorways. They streak across the street and converge upon the soldiers, who barely manage to fire their weapons before they’re buried under a flurry of slashing claws and snapping teeth.
The rotor whines back to life, but it’s too late for the pilot. The blades turn impotently as the creatures bound through the open door and converge upon the cockpit. A blur of brownish-red fur through the windshield, then a spatter of blood. The landing gear rises and drops back to the ground. The tail swings around, tearing through the front half of a building and filling the air with wooden shrapnel.
Byrne falls to his knees. He can hear the screams of his would-be saviors even over the roar of the rotors.
They will all share the same horrible fate. Once the men from the chopper are subdued, the creatures will return their attention to Byrne and there will be absolutely nothing he can do to stop it. He lacks the energy to run, not that he’d make it very far, and he no longer has the will to fight.
He slumps forward and sobs in frustration. Blood trickles down his chin, dribbles onto the Plexiglas.
One by one, the screams of the men are silenced.
Byrne glances back at Graves. The first lieutenant’s feet scrape the ground in an effort to stand, but he hardly has the strength to raise his head. If only he’d been right and the chopper had obliterated the entire town. At least then their deaths would have been swift and merciful.
The helicopter blades kick up dirt as the chopper continues to bounce and judder and swing slowly in circles. Through the side window Byrne sees the pilot crumpled against the console and the creatures climbing over each other in their hurry to get out the open door.
He looks at Richards, who has dragged himself closer. The captain’s mask is cracked and he’s covered with blood, but the expression of resolve on his face is unmistakable. He reaches for his rifle, which remains well out of his reach.
Byrne picks up the IAR. Richards’s eyes lock onto his, then direct them toward the chopper.
The creatures rise from the fallen soldiers and turn as one toward Byrne.
Richards nods solemnly.
Byrne understands.
He raises the rifle to his shoulder. Sights down the Pave Hawk as the tail spins around again.
A blur of brown as the creatures bound toward him, their long fur flagging on the tempestuous gale.
Byrne pulls the trigger. Watches the bullets punch through the helicopter from the rear propeller toward the back door, puncturing the gas tank and tearing through electrical components.
A flash of light turns the creatures to silhouettes.
Their fur becomes flames as they’re thrown like rag dolls ahead of the explosion.
A wall of heat tosses Byrne backward.
He hits the ground near Richards. Skids across the gravel. Meets the captain’s stare one final time.
Richards nods to Byrne, then closes his eyes.
Byrne screams as the flames engulf him.
Thanks for reading SNAFU: Unnatural Selection.
We hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we did putting it together.
Please consider leaving us a review, or even sampling the rest of the SNAFU series or anything else we put out, as everything is packed full of action, monsters, and creatures that wish you harm.
SNAFU: Unnatural Selection
Amanda J Spedding & Geoff Brown (eds)
2018 REISSUE
ebook - 978-0-9944286-8-4
Print - 978-0-9946304-2-1
Anthology © Cohesion Press 2016
Stories © Individual Authors 2016
Cover Art © Dean Samed 2016
Interior Art © Monty borror 2016
Internal Layout by Cohesion Editing and Proofreading
Set in Palatino Linotype
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
Cohesion Press
Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum
Beechworth, Australia
www.cohesionpress.com