Marcus Pelegrimas - Blood Blade

“Run!” he shouted.

The blonde’s face was drained of all color as she looked at him with the blank expression of a lamb that had already resigned itself to being slaughtered. Cole locked eyes with her and shouted once more.

“Run!”

She nodded quickly and started to move.

There was nowhere for him to hide, so he stood and chased the woman he’d just sent away. No more than four feet behind him the gun nut was shouting and firing round after round into the creature’s chest. Somewhere along the line, he had swapped out his first two guns for an automatic rifle of questionable legality.

The creature was on all fours now, tearing up chunks of the floor as its thick, shaggy limbs carried it forward despite the hot lead being thrown its way. Now that he was closer to the thing, Cole could see the taut layers of muscle heaped onto its shoulder blades. Judging by the damage done to the fur along its chest and ribs, those were the gun nut’s primary targets. The lower half of the creature’s body looked trimmer now. Its hind legs were planted firmly against the floor and it stretched its neck forward with jaws wide open, exposing glistening, crooked teeth. With one, snapping bite it turned its head sideways and clamped down on the gun nut’s chest.

Cole could only watch in horror. Hanging like a toy from the creature’s mouth, his eyes impossibly wide and his jaw strained open well past its normal limits, the man was unable to utter more than a strained, wet gasp. Still, he managed to slam the butt of his rifle against the creature’s head. It loosened its grip on him for an instant and then lunged forward again to sink its teeth into the man’s neck and shoulder. The automatic rifle let out a prolonged burst. Pieces of the creature’s coat smoldered and caught fire, but not one drop of blood was spilled. Finally, the beast shook its head from side to side until the body in its jaws simply fell apart.

Blood and flesh hung from its teeth as the creature reared up on its hind legs and clawed at the cabin’s roof, letting out a deafening howl. Then it dropped back down so it could nip at the fires on its back.

“We’ve got to leave,” Cole rasped into the blonde’s ear. “We’ve got to leave, and it has to be right now.”

Although she was close to hyperventilating, the blonde replied, “Back door…in the next room.”

“Let’s get outside and get to the woods,” Cole demanded. “Maybe we can lose that thing or get some help once we’re far enough away.”

That was all the blonde needed to hear. Keeping her head down, she gave the creature as wide a berth as possible as she rushed around it and headed for the door to the smaller room.

Cole followed her into the bedroom. When he caught sight of the two frat boys huddled in the corner, he snarled, “What the hell are you two still doing here?”

There was a roar from the main room followed by heavy steps as the creature stomped through a pile of wet human remains. The young snowboarders nodded as if their heads were coming loose and got to their feet. They had barely moved toward the smaller door that led outside when the light from the other room was blocked by the massive creature’s shaggy frame.

Crystalline, blue-gray eyes glittered in the shadow of the creature’s brow. A few persistent flames crackled from the fur on its back, but the monster let them burn while calmly assessing the contents of the smaller room. Those brilliant eyes fixed upon the college kids for a moment, causing Cole to step forward and shout as if trying to scare a stray dog off his porch.

The creature glanced at him only a second before baring its teeth and once more fixing its gaze possessively upon the fresh meat in the funny hats. A growl churned at the back of its throat before exploding into a blast of hot, fetid breath seemingly pulled from the bowels of hell.

The two boys jumped over the beds and raced for the back door. The creature reached into the room with one paw and tore through the spine of the one wearing the jester hat with one swipe. Before the creature could take another step into the room, it buckled and let out a high-pitched yelp. When it raised its head again, there was a fire in its eyes that made its previous rage pale in comparison.

Putting its back to Cole, it hunkered down and let out a growl that sounded like an approaching freight train. Cole shoved the blonde toward the back door but was reluctant to follow her. The second frat boy was already outside and running through the snow.

“Come on,” she whispered urgently. “This may be our only chance.”

He waved her off while backing into a shadowy corner. “Go ahead. There’s other people still in here.”

“They’re already dead or gone and there’s nothing you can do against that thing!”

“Gerald and Brad were doing something!” Cole barked. “Maybe I can too!”

The blonde wasn’t about to waste any more of her breath on him. With tears pouring from her eyes, she bolted through the back door and ran away.

The creature was standing with its back to the bedroom, but was close enough for Cole to feel heat from the fire that still sputtered in its fur. Then it shook like a dog coming in from the rain and extinguished the flames. It kept shaking until several small, dark objects fell from its thick layers of fur and clattered to the floor.

One of them rattled against the floorboards and rolled to within a few inches of Cole’s grasp. He snatched the object up, saw that it was a small chunk of warm metal that appeared to have melted. Then he realized the metal hadn’t melted, but had been squashed. Holding the object closer to his eye, he saw the distinctive shape of the back end of a bullet, along with the gnarled remains of a caliber marking. More of the flattened slugs rained down from the creature’s coat then, pelting the floor like hail. Since there wasn’t any blood on the floor or on any of the bullets, it seemed that the earlier gunfire had been wasted.

“Jesus,” Cole whispered.

The creature had stepped away from the door. The beast’s hulking, battle-scarred form filled up most of the room, but Brad and Gerald had taken up positions to fight it. The triple points of Gerald’s staff had been broken off into a single jagged tip. Cole could also make out spiked protrusions along the handle of the staff.

Gritting his teeth, Gerald tightened his grip around the weapon, thorns and all, and jabbed the spear into the creature’s side. Brad still wielded his blade, which Cole could now see resembled an elongated spike forged from dirty steel. Although Gerald was carefully picking his targets and taking clean shots, Brad swung the blade erratically. Oddly enough, the creature seemed more concerned with that blade than the spear, which continued to gouge into its flesh. Bloodied and barely standing, the men did their best to coordinate another attack.

If the blood hadn’t been rushing through his head with such force, Cole would have been able to make out more than a few words.

“Remember what I taught you,” Gerald said.

Brad nodded, gripped his weapon by the blade and flung it through the air. It rotated during its flight and landed solidly in the beast’s chest. As the creature howled with pain, Brad drew an identical blade from a scabbard at his hip.

The creature reflexively turned away from Brad, allowing Cole to see a trickle of blood from the spot where the blade had hit.

Finally seeing a chance to do something other than run or hide, Cole rushed forward, reaching out with both hands.

A chill spiked through his blood the moment the creature looked in his direction.

After another step, his legs no longer wanted to work and he had to rely on his own momentum to carry him forward. His left hand snagged the creature’s coat, which felt like a coarse, matted tangle of bare wires and nylon cords. His right hand found the blade in the creature’s chest and twisted it.