“Ain’t gotta tell us twice!” Dee muttered. “C’mon, man! We’ve seen all there is to see!”
“Yeah, reckon so!” Tiger shook his head and sighed. He wondered if this creature had posed any threat at all? Or had it merely been a victim of trigger-happy paranoia? What if it had just been a gentle, harmless dumb animal? He remembered something his Uncle Mud had told him years ago.
Man’s an animal, just like any other. If he fears somethin’ or don’t understand it … his first instinct is to kill it!We’re no different than any other beast in the jungle.
Yeah, you weren’t kiddin’, Unc!
He turned to go, but a noise behind him froze him in his tracks.
It was a wet, sloppy sound, not at all pleasant to the ears. He looked at Ruff. The look on the AnthroSplice’s face told him he’d heard it too. Damn! There it was again!
It was the creature!
Slowly, they both turned in unison. Others had heard it too and were looking around with uncertainty. The creature lay there and appeared to be stone-cold dead. How could it not be? It’d been shot to bloody tatters. If, of course, its blood was a slimy green, snotty substance.
The sound seemed to be coming from underneath the creature. The belly wobbled and jiggled like disgusting gray gelatin. Something was inside the beast… something alive!
“Look at that shit!” A trooper exclaimed, throwing his pulse rifle up. “It’s moving!”
The sounds of pulse rifles charging up as they were raised to the firing position filled the air. Without thinking, Tiger was suddenly in front of the carcass, waving his hands frantically.
“Whoa! Whoa!” He expected, at any moment, an errant shot from a trigger-happy rookie to blow a hole through him, but luckily everyone held their fire. “Nobody shoot!”
He turned back to glance at the quivering abdomen of the unfortunate … whatever. Slowly …. mesmerized … he moved toward it. He tapped his combat helmet, and the built-in spotlight came on, illuminating the scene better.
“Trooper!” The Guard officer furiously waded through the others to confront him. “I told you to get away from that thing!”
“Thomas!” Ruff stepped forward, desperation in his voice, “Please!”
“Something’s happening!” Tiger muttered, fascinated by the strangeness of it all. And he was right. Something was happening. Something … strange. The creature seemed to be convulsing. It’s flanks rippled. Something was inside it, something quite large, a bulge …. moving toward its tail.
“I said for you to get away from there!” The officer was really starting to get on his nerves. Tiger contemplated shooting him. Unfortunately, the captain was thinking along the same lines. He pointed to Ruff.
“You there! Dog … thing! If that man takes another step in the direction of that creature, I order you to shoot him! Is that understood?”
“Sir, I don’t think that’s necessary,” Ruff called back nervously. He turned back anxiously to Tiger. “C’mon, man! Leave that thing alone!”
But it was too late. Before Tiger could take a step in any direction, there was the unpleasant sound of something being ejected from the creature’s rear. A large, disgusting, wet plop! was heard.
“Hang on!” Tiger held up his hand. He moved slowly around the beast’s flanks and cautiously peaked at its ass area.
His eyes grew wide at the wonderment he saw. A baby … whatever … all covered in a slimy, chunky film of … placenta? Tiger shook his head. The damned thing had been pregnant! In its moment of dying, this strange creature had given life.
The infant looked around in the dark interior of the facility, craned its neck, swept it around once more, and then fixed its six eyes on Tiger. They blinked erratically for a few seconds until finally, they settled into a sequence, so that, at no time, there wasn’t a pair of eyes that weren’t open … and then it trumpeted an inquisitive squeal at the spacer.
“Move, and I’ll shoot it!” Ruff called out, fearing the thing was coming after Tiger, but Tiger sensed something else.
“No!” He raised his arms and moved between the alien infant and the AnthroSplice, using his body to shield it. “Again, I say … No fucking body shoot!”
The … whatever … called out to Tiger again, then sniffed at him, seemingly confused at what this creature was standing before him. It was a sentiment Tiger shared. After a few moments, it turned and looked at its mother. It crab-crawled over to her, squealing and rubbing its neck up and down the hide of the corpse.
“Trooper!” the officer bellowed. “You are ordered to move aside so we can exterminate that thing!”
Tiger was no soldier. He wasn’t even good at being a fake soldier. He turned slowly and set his jaw spitefully.
“Instead of killing what you don’t understand … for once, why don’t you give it a chance? Who knows what you might discover, you fuckin’ backassward, baby-killing Neanderthal!”
The whole place fell silent in disbelief, except for Dee, who groaned out, “Awwwshit!”
The commanding officer’s voice lowered to a deadly calm, “Someone place that man under arrest. If he resists, you have my permission to shoot him along with that abomination he suddenly seems so fond of.”
“Sir, I must obje—” Ruff spoke up, but the officer cut him short.
“You’ll do as you’re told or you’ll be shot down, too … like the dog you truly are!”
Ruff’s eyes were wild with fear and panic. Tiger felt a pang of sympathy for him. He’d put poor Ruff in this situation. It wasn’t his fault Tiger wasn’t taking any shit off this asshole.
Tiger nonchalantly clicked the safety off his rifle. He’d lived a full life. He couldn’t say he hadn’t. Looking the officer square in the eye, he sneered. “I dunno who all else is gonna die right here in the next few seconds, but I can assure you of one thing. You and me ... we’ll
