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In the distance, a wolf cried out to Creator. On the hotter,
western half of the American Dome, buffalo grunted and circled, the bulls
pushing the cows and calves into the center of a black herd.
The shon:gili’s paw
twitched.
A trap, Carl whispered. Now
they’re going to kill and eat us. In the depths of Carl’s biting anger,
the shon:gili’s lips pulled away to
show rows of jagged teeth. Eyes burning, he forced the lids to blink. The drugs
dulled his mind. They slowed him, making him less than he was, and a rage built
in the shon:gili, eating away more of
the effects.
The shon:gili was
dragged onto the gurney and rolled into the depths of the building.
In a room that smelled of corpses, he was stopped.
A knife touched his throat and drove in deep. The shon:gili
gagged, tasting his own blood.
An artery spurted blood over the men.
“Hey, don’t waste it.”
“It was an accident.”
Even before the gouts of blood slowed, the knife ripped through
his guts. It burned him and made the legs twitch. The men moved away, and the
black nostrils took in the odor of burning manure. Viva Mari-Juana.
He shivered. The air was growing colder as the heart faltered. The
blood sluggish and darkening. The drugs drained from his mind, and the shon:gili
grunted.
Carl bellowed and rammed rock-hard fists into the demonic spirit,
knocking it away. The demon shrieked and came out of a freezing shock.
I will not die with thee,
slave, it said, the voice shrill and echoing in the dying mind. I
shall not.
It tried to flee, and Carl grabbed it, forcing it to carry him with
it out through the shon:gili’s
mouth. They broke free, and the shon:gili
sighed, the body sagging. Carl punched the demon in the face and something
shoved them back into the dead animal.
It dies, so do you, freak. I
go to Hell, so do you.
Nay, to hell with thee.
The demon froze.
Hisses whispered, and the body twitched. Long, sinuous tormenters
eased through the body seeking Carl and the demon.
The demon wailed. Nay.
It clawed at Carl. With a bellow of pain, Carl staggered back and the demon
twisted, ripping free and out of the carcass. A needle-like thing stabbed at
Carl. He ducked and lashed out, kicking it away. He dived along the faint spark
of nerves from the lungs and stopped, casting a frantic look for more.
God, help. Oh, God, but I
want to live and stop this thing from killing my kid. I don’t care if I die
then. Do what you want, but help me to help Benny and Anna.
A spark flickered and died. Carl drove himself at it. Tormenters
hissed. Knife-lined mouths gaped and snapped at him. He rammed himself into the
brain and stilled. A thick, dark tormenter faced Carl over the bundle of nerves
called the Knot.
Staring at it, Carl reached out to touch the Knot, and the
tormenter hissed. It snapped at him, and he jerked his hand back.
Smaller worms came up around him. One drove through his leg.
Shouting in pain, he stomped his foot on a second and slapped a third from his
face. The one in his leg burned a trail up into his groin, and Carl hunched over
with a scream.
The massive worm loomed over him. One by one, the dozen jaws slid
open until the mouth was a grotesque blossom of red-black spirit flesh and the
throat glittering shards of fangs.
Carl dived under it to beat on the Knot. The tormenter snapped
down, and Carl was swallowed, shrieking as acid melted his spirit to nothing.
The stomach closed, and the gaping wound in the shon:gili’s throat trembled. The body shuddered in the midst of
change. Jaws gaping in a silent scream, Carl found himself staring at a pair of
men standing in a huddle and wreathed with oily smoke. He shivered and blinked.
The tongue came out, licking at his own blood, and he snapped into a ball with
the force of change.
The shon:gili whimpered.
With little strength in him, he ripped into the mess lying on the tray table
outside the body. He gulped down his own guts. Heat seeped through him and
withered muscles cramped and swelled with new life.
Shocked and raw with pain, Carl sprawled weeping over the Knot.
With a scream, the demon knocked him away and shoved him into a deep pit.
The men were giggling now and sucking on a small pipe. Mists crept
into the building. It seeped from small cracks and over the floor to the gurney
and twined around the legs. It came up but the shon:gili leaped away from it. He jumped and stumbled, but reached
one man, knocking him down.
“Hey, look. The bear.”
The second man stared for a moment. The shon:gili ripped open the first man’s leg and swallowed a knot of
muscle tissue. Giggling, the man watched as the head loomed over him, and gaping
jaws closed over the chest.
The shon:gili gulped
down living flesh, and the man was still smiling as his head slumped to one side.
The mist closed in, and the shon:gili
leaped away from it. It pierced the man, ripping the spirit out and dragging it
across the floor.
The second man giggled. “Where ya goin’, man?” He fell and
crept after it.
The shon:gili knocked
him to the floor. He crushed the man’s neck and ripped the spine out.
Light shined down, and a siren screamed. Annoyed at the
interruption, the shon:gili glanced
up. An aircar whined over the building.
©2004 StoriesByEmail.com
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