Seed of Evil by Greig Beck (smart books to read TXT) 📗

now. Instead, they were decrepit creatures with twisted limbs, spiked growths or wing-like extrusions branching from them, and glowing yellow eyes with bodies all held together by slimy mosses and meshes of fibrous vein-like roots.

They screeched and whined and scuttled toward him. Some hobbled on broken limbs, some dragged themselves trailing fibrous roots, but others came incredibly fast.

Mitch began to run toward Karen and Benji, and as he closed in on them, he lowered his shoulder and charged one of the beings holding onto her. He struck it hard and knocked it backward a dozen feet, but it damn hurt and felt like he had just rammed a tree trunk.

Mitch used the only weapon he had—the heavy Maglite flashlight—and he swung it like a club, smashing it down and crunching away chunks of the petrified skin and caving-in heads.

In seconds more, he had freed them, but only temporarily as hundreds of the things were coming at them fast.

“Can you run?” he asked her.

She clung to him and nodded jerkily.

“And Benji?” He lifted the boy’s chin. Benji nodded more slowly and it seemed the methane was fogging his mind after being down here so long. It would happen to all of them soon, and then they’d either be fed to the tree god or changed to become its servants until they eventually rotted down to nothing.

“Gotta move, Benji. We have to run fast, and you must keep up with your mom, okay?”

Benji nodded again and put a hand on Mitch’s shoulder to lift himself to his feet. He opened glassy eyes wider.

“I dreamed you’d both come get me, Batman.” He gave them a hazy smile. “I want to go home now.”

Mitch helped Karen up and then turned to the approaching horde. He knew they’d never be able to outrun them all.

“I’m going to slow them down.” He handed her the gun. “Use this, but do not fire it until you’re out of this cavern. And don’t stop running for anything, okay?”

“No, not without you.” Her eyes were panicked.

“I’ll be right behind you. Don’t stop for anything. Go! Save your son.” Mitch pushed her. “Save Benji.”

Her face was twisted with anguish, but she nodded and then the pair began a staggered run to the mouth of the cavern.

Mitch turned back toward the horrifying beings that were coming at them. He felt his stomach roil with fear as it looked like someone had opened the gates of Hell as they came toward him. To his horror, he saw that some began to run toward Karen and Benji, trying to head them off.

He waved his light at them. “Hey! Here I am, you ugly bastards.”

He bent to pick up a slimy stone and hoisted it at the group, managing to strike one, but it didn’t even flinch. He picked up another rock and this time threw it with all his might toward the tree. It fell short, sending up a splash of mucousy water. But even the failed attempt prompted a response to his attack on their god. Immediately, all the things turned toward him. And only him.

“Here it comes.” He ground his teeth together hard to stop his chin from shaking and then, turning, saw that Karen and Benji had vanished back out through the crack in the wall. He began to edge backward. Unfortunately, there were so many, he knew that they’d cut him off before he made it to the opening.

From high above, he saw that those branching things on the back had purpose, as some flapped the membranous coral-like wings to swoop down on him. He turned back to see there was even worse news—some of the horrors were running a lot faster than Karen could manage and she’d be chased down before they reached the surface.

“Never lose anyone again,” he breathed out. His mind was becoming foggy from the gas and his thinking clouded. Flashbulbs of light began to go off behind his eyes and he suddenly remembered another woman who had died in his place on the battlefields of Syria, seeming like 100 years ago.

“Not this time, you sonofabitch.”

He smiled as he reached into his pocket for the cigarette lighter, drew it out, and held it up. He looked out toward the grotesque tree and saw that it had gone back to feeding human beings, some struggling, into the many maws along its trunk. It obviously felt it had won.

“Go to Hell.” Mitch flicked the lighter’s tiny wheel.

CHAPTER 35

Karen staggered toward the mouth of the mineshaft, dragging her son with her. From up ahead, she could hear a voice chanting, and as she emerged, there was an ancient Native American to the side with his arms raised and eyes closed.

“Help us,” she begged.

But he ignored her and continued to chant his words in a sing-song manner and stamped his feet. Next to him was a smoking pile of shrubs that gave off an odor of eucalyptus, licorice, and other fragrant scents.

He stopped his chant and turned ancient eyes on her. “Hurry now, move away. Retribution is coming.”

Karen sucked in a huge breath and dragged Benji forward. There was no one else waiting for them, as the sheriff had obviously taken his deputy to hospital.

Benji wheezed as he recovered from the methane saturation in his lungs. Karen pull-lifted him out of the small depression in front of the mine mouth, just as she felt the ground rumble beneath her feet. In another second, an orange hurricane burst from the shaft to roar like a jet engine and incinerate the remaining twisted trees and everything else before it.

She threw Benji down and covered him with her body but luckily, she was to the side of the gout of flame. After another minute, she slowly sat up, her eyes glistening as she realized what it meant.

Benji coughed. “Where’s Mitch?”

She blinked as he stared into the mine. “He stayed…” she whispered, “…to save us.”

“I knew he would,” Benji said.

“It’s over,” the old man said. “I beat it.”

“You beat it?” She