NINE

Lou parked his patrol car next to the sheriff’s. In all his years as a deputy not once had he heard Baxter so distressed. Not even with that car crash that killed the entire Henderson family, or the time they had to cut down Jesse Saviuk down from the tree where he’d hung himself. And Baxter did time in Afghanistan. If he was bothered by something it had to be bad. Especially if they were told to bring guns. The sheriff’s department in this town usually only wore those guns for show. Lou glanced at Molly, walking in front of him, carrying a shotgun. She was two heads smaller than him, but twice as wide. Big hips and ass to match. Not to mention the tits. He liked her. She always made sure she smelled real nice, wore make-up. Although she was treated like one of the boys, she never looked like one aside from the uniform. Besides that, she was a sweet caring thing. He was jealous of her husband. He’d been single for as long as he could remember. Nobody was interested in a Goofy-looking sheriff’s deputy with ears way too big and crooked teeth.

“What do you think is going on here?” Lou asked Molly.

“No idea. But if it takes guns to take care of it’s something bad,” she said.

“Yeah. Exactly,” Lou said. “Looks like the chief is inside. Figure we should follow him in there.”

“Figure so,” Molly thought. “You know how to handle that thing, Lou?”

“What?” then Lou looked at the 9mm Glock in is hand. “Oh. The gun? Yeah, sure. I practice a few times a week on the range.”

“Good, I wouldn’t want you to shoot yourself in the foot. Or worse, my sweet ass.”

Lou liked the way she chuckled. She had a good sense of humor. A bit sarcastic and dark sometimes, but that came with the job he guessed. Even in a small town like this.

Then he saw the earth move.

“What the bloody fuck?”

Molly gave him a quizzical look. “Huh?”

Lou pointed ahead. “The earth. There. It fucking moved.”

“Moved? You’re crazy! This whole thing is getting to you with the chief sounding so upset and all.”

“I’m telling you it moved. Look, it did again.”

That’s when Molly saw it as well. It was like something was moving underneath the grounds, stirring up the earth. “What the hell?”

“What do you think that is, Molly?” Lou asked.

“How the fuck should I know? A giant mole or something?”

Lou aimed his gun at it. “Whatever it is, I don’t like it.”

The soil moved aside as, like a Jack-in-the-box a huge creature burrowed up. The body of a caterpillar, the raptorial forelegs of a mantis it was the scariest, most unholy thing Lou had ever seen. He felt his groin get wet as the thing moved towards them with a nightmarish hiss.

“Shoot it! Shoot that fucking demon!” Molly shouted and started to unload the shotgun into the creature.

Lou just stood there, shaking. He tried to pull the trigger. He was unable to. Frozen at the sight of that monstrous thing. Fear had taken captive of his entire body. It was as if his brain was so busy trying to come to grips with what his eyes were seeing it couldn’t find the time to send the command to his hands to fire.

Molly’s shotgun blasts didn’t stop the monstrous thing. “Why don’t you fucking die?”

The creature rose above Molly, it’s shadow darkening her face. The last shell had been expelled and the sound of an empty shotgun chamber heralded her death. A raptorial foreleg cut ripped through her body like it was slicing a lemon. The young woman’s guts spilled out of her like she was a slaughtered pig.

The sight of his dying colleague, perhaps even the woman he loved finally snapped Lou out of it. He fired his gun at the creature, pulling the trigger as fast as he could.

“Die! Die! Die you fucking monster!“

But as Molly had found out, mere guns were not enough of to stop the savage creature. It just came closer to Lou.

He started to run as fast as he could to the patrol car. He yanked the door open and wanted to get inside. He felt something sharp dig in his leg. Something that pierced through his tendons, pulled at it. With a sickening, wet sound he felt his leg being torn off his body. He fell down, knocking his head against the car. Blood flowed from his head where he’d hit it. He was starting to loose consciousness, part as a result of his headwound, part just out of fear. The last thing he saw before he died were the snapping mandibles of the creature in front of his face.