'Not an inch,' Savage hissed. 'Don't even exhale.'
Because it was supporting all his weight, Tucker's left leg started to quiver, ever so slightly, in the thigh. He flexed it and it stilled. More rain swept to his face and he blinked against it, fighting the water out of his eyes. His hand was white-knuckled around the branch. Some mud slid from the bottom of his raised boot and slopped to the ground.
A flash of lightning lit the air, and he saw dangling beside and above him the enormous creature, not more than an arm's length to his right. She swayed upside down from the branch of a tree, blending in almost perfectly with the fluctuating foliage all around her. Her forelegs were folded, as if in prayer, her wide wings pulled in tight across her back. If she weren't right next to him, he wouldn't have even seen her among the branches, twigs, and leaves.
Normally a greenish-tan, the creature's eyes had turned black for the night. Set in a triangle between them were the ocelli, three smaller eyes used only to distinguish the degree of light. They glimmered like pearls beneath the arc of her antennae. The hooks on the ends of her legs were clamped shut around a wide Scalesia branch about fifteen feet above the ground; it creaked when she swayed.
Tucker turned his head with excruciating slowness and looked into her face. Her front antennae vibrated in the breeze, her mouthparts quivering, and for an instant, Tucker caught his own frightened reflection in her black eyes.
Szabla's voice cut back in sharply. '-next in command. I'm thinking we could use a little leadership-' Tucker jerked ever so slightly, and the creature's antennae snapped erect at the movement. His nostrils flared, his chest jerked with a quick intake of air.
The strike was so quick Savage couldn't even see it. The raptorial legs flashed out, folding over themselves and crushing Tucker within them. Tucker screamed as the spikes dug through his flesh, almost scissoring him in two. His arm was pinned to his side. The strike took three hun-dredths of a second.
Tucker's stick tumbled to the ground.
The creature dropped from the branch, landing expertly on her legs while not relinquishing her hold on Tucker. Her frightful head lowered to the back of Tucker's neck, the mouth spreading wide, a collection of living tools.
Savage charged the creature, swinging his knife at the prothorax. The blade glanced off the hard waxy exoskeleton, unable to dig into the smooth surface. Though the blow didn't puncture her cuticle, the crea-ture swayed back with its force. Tucker's free arm flailed, his hand fisting the air as he screamed. Savage grabbed his arm and pulled, though he knew the thing had him wrapped up too tight. Blood spurted from Tucker's mouth, spilling over his chin.
The creature would have struck Savage were her raptorial legs not wrapped around Tucker's body. She flung Tucker to the ground and low-ered herself swiftly, standing territorially over his body.
Savage staggered back. Beneath the creature's abdomen, Tucker squirmed in the leaves. The creature spread her mouth, though no sound issued forth. Then air hissed from her spiracles, forcing Savage back another step.
A stream of blood ran down one of Tucker's arms, stark red against his white flesh. Savage could hear him rasping through a punctured lung. He was lost. There was no way he was going to pull through.
But it was in Savage's blood to stand ground when there was a com-rade down. He stepped back farther out of the creature's range and reverse-gripped the knife with the blade running down along his fore-arm, sharp edge out, ready to punch. The creature tilted her head, watching him curiously. It was night all around them, but in the lightning he could see the rain running off her sides. Her mouth opened in another silent roar, a maw of mandibles, maxillae, and labrum, and she drew her-self up to her full nine feet. Behind her, her abdomen and wings stretched back, thick and firm, like a horse's body. Though Savage was across the clearing from her, she seemed to tower over him.
She gave a startle display, spreading her wings and rearing up on her hind legs, filling the entire space between the trees and revealing two eye-like markings on the insides of her front legs. The upper part of her abdomen scraped against her underwings, producing a harsh hissing. She lowered herself, then stepped deliberately back behind Tucker's body and struck him with her front legs, knocking him a few feet across the ground. He howled, more in fear than pain, and tried to struggle away. His intestines were spilled on the ground beside him, and one of his hands was trying to scoop them back inside his body as the other clawed him forward.
Savage was frozen with indecision, unable to venture within range of the thing without being killed but desperately wanting to get his hands on it. He hoped for Tucker to pass out. But Tucker had never passed out, not from pain or panic. He kept moving, clawing and scooping like a wind-up toy running out of steam.
The creature's raptorial legs flashed out again, snatching Tucker off the ground and curling his body in toward her face. He screamed as the mouth approached him. The mandibles cut into the back of his neck and then he went limp in her front legs, twitching.
Savage and the creature watched each other as she ate.
She chewed with her mandibles, holding and manipulating chunks of flesh with her maxillae. Tucker's head rolled off and struck the ground with a thud. The creature made no effort to pick it up.
Savage watched one of Tucker's arms go down, the elbow sticking out of the preoral cavity. Despite her strong cutting jaws, the creature was a messy eater. It was not a pleasant meal to see consumed in any event, but the image of Tucker's various parts protruding from the crea-ture's mouth was sickening.
Savage crouched and glared at the creature, wiping the rain from his eyes with a swipe of his arm. 'I'm gonna fuckin' kill you,' he whispered, almost lovingly.
The creature paused, as if she had heard him. She lowered her head, tearing a thick band of meat from Tucker's flank, and when she looked up, Savage was gone.
Chapter 42
Cameron jerked to her feet when she heard something crash through the brush at the edge of the forest. They all squared defensively until Savage's figure cut from the dark, charging toward them.
'Where the fuck were you?' Derek yelled. 'You're over an hour late and we couldn't transmit to Tucker. Szabla said his transmitter just cut out.'
Savage didn't answer as he neared the circle of logs, his eyes steeled on Szabla.
'Where's Tucker?' Cameron asked, concern coloring her voice.
Without slowing, Savage passed the fire pit and seized Szabla's under-shirt around the thin arm straps. He tore the straps forcefully to the sides, ripping the shirt down the middle and exposing her breasts. He towered over her, his knee pushed tight between her legs on the log as she leaned back. Before anyone could reach him, his knife was out of the sheath and pointing at the small raised circle of her transmitter. Cameron and Derek were tense on their feet, ready to pounce on Savage if the opportunity arose.
'This is not a fucking toy!' Savage yelled. 'Fuck!' He stepped back and threw the blade hard at the log. It stuck deep. Tank was between him and Szabla in a flash, but Savage didn't make another move toward her. He yanked the bandanna off and ran his fingers through his hair, grab-bing the back in a ponytail before throwing his hand off to the side. 'He's gone. He's fucking dead.'
Mouth ajar, eyes glassy, Szabla sat dumbfounded on the log, making no effort to cover herself. In the silence that ensued, Cameron walked over and pulled Szabla's shirt back up. She stood in front of Savage and raised her face to his. 'What happened?'
'He got eaten. By this huge fucking thing. With snapping front legs. Like… almost like a praying mantis.'
Derek snorted. A strange expression worked its way across Rex's face, then vanished. He turned to Diego and something passed between them. Cameron's stomach turned over once, as it sometimes did just before she vomited.
'What are you talking about, Savage?' Justin said. 'Where the fuck is Tucker?'
'It was swinging upside down like a fucking bat and it grabbed him in those legs, clamped down on him like a bear trap.' He shook his head. 'You shoulda heard him screaming.'
Cameron sat down heavily. 'Is this a fucking joke?' Derek asked.
