"Scarlet move!" Jared screamed as he dove to the side, barely escaping the overgrown mountain of fur. Glancing behind him in mid-flight, he saw Scarlet narrowly avoided injury. He hit the ground with a crunch of bone. Not his bone, but a pile of bones and flesh in various stages of decomposition. The bones snapped under him and he felt a sharp jab into his shoulder as a shard of bone broke and embedded itself into his flesh.
Jared rotated his arm, and the bone caught between his shoulder blade and rotator cuff. Rather than delay the inevitable, he reached behind him and ripped out the bone before he could second guess himself.
"AAAGGHHHH!" He felt blood trickle down his back, but he could move his arm and that was more important right now.
SCARLET, WE NEED TO AVOID THIS THING WHILE I SHOOT FROM A DISTANCE. I DON'T THINK EITHER OF US WILL SURVIVE IN A PHYSICAL CONFRONTATION WITH THIS THING.
Scarlet acknowledged his mental communications and darted around the room staying just ahead of the thing. Meanwhile, Jared freed his Colt and fired six round in rapid succession. The bullets definitely hit the thing, but he couldn't tell where. They seemed to disappear inside the layer of fur. The only visible reaction he hit the thing, was it whirling about to chase him down.
Fishing a few rounds from his pocket, he reloaded while doing his best to avoid the creatures jaws and the massive bone piles that created a maze in the room. If he slipped and fell into one of the phone piles, the rat would pounce on him. The thing had to weigh a thousand pounds and would make short work of him, enhanced strength aside.
Three rounds loaded, Jared risked a glance behind him to fire a round into the creatures face. Two of the rounds missed, but the third punched through one eye.
"SCREEEEEEEE!"
The scream pierced his mind again and left a throbbing headache in its wake. He didn't know how much more he could take before passing out from the mental assault. The only saving grace to the headache was the sight of this massive rat stop dead in its tracks as it pawed furiously at the injured eye. Taking advantage of the situation, Jared quickly reloaded his weapon.
Before he could fire more rounds into the creatures face, it looked at him with its good eye and Jared swore the eye burned an even brighter shade of red as the thing charged like a bull straight at him. Again, Jared needed to dodge to the side to avoid the rush, but this time he wasn't as lucky and the thing scored a gash along the length of his leg spilling blood everywhere.
The rats momentum carried it several yards past him before it arrested its trajectory. The metallic scrape of its claws echoed around the room as it scrambled for purchase to come after him once again. Jared tried standing, but collapsed, his leg unwilling to support him. Worse, he felt a searing pain rip through his back and leg. Looking down, he saw maggots as thick as his fingers, with sharp teeth ripping into his flesh where blood flowed freely.
Unable to stop himself, Jared dry-heaved wishing he had something in his stomach as his body tried to vomit his internal organs.
SCARLET, I NEED HELP!
I'm coming, hang on!
Scarlet bounded over from across the room and made short work of the filthy maggots feasting on his flesh. At that point, the rat finished its turn and sped up toward him. His leg crippled, he did the only thing possible, "BOOM, BOOM, BOOM..." six shots fired in rapid successful while he braced himself on the floor. From this position, he could line up the shot with precision and every round drilled a hole into the creatures beady little eye and head. Blinded, dazed, and charging the rat plunged forward at maximum speed intent on destroying everything in its wake.
YOU ARE READING
Radioactive Evolution
Science FictionThe world as humanity knew it was gone. In its place was a radioactive wasteland, scorched by nuclear furnaces. The third millenium passed unmarked and uncelebrated by those in the safezones. The rich took to the oceans, and to the skies, leaving ev...
