Colony by Benjamin Cross (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📗

her dark hair draped over the side of her cheek. She was breathing loudly and her hand was clamped tightly onto his jacket as if, in her dreams, she was clinging to a rockface. Ava was also asleep, slumped over onto her side with Lungkaju’s pack propped awkwardly under her head.

Lungkaju himself was still not back. Callum checked his watch. He had been gone almost twenty minutes. Given the circumstances, that was a long time. But if there was one person who seemed to know exactly what they were doing at all times, it was Lungkaju.

Having to unpeel his tongue like a strip of Velcro from the roof of his mouth was a new experience for Callum. His throat was parched. He was dehydrating in the warm, dry atmosphere inside the tent. Thankfully, Lungkaju had brought another canteen of water with him for the group to share, so they were no longer solely reliant on Ava’s. As he went to retrieve it from the tent pocket, he heard the door zip begin to unfasten.

“I was starting to worry,” he said, turning towards it.

A pair of large, black eyes was staring across at him.

4

Callum froze.

A narrow snout, over-crowded with teeth, cracked open and vented a cloud of reeking breath into the tent space. Three clawed digits crept calmly around the doorway and held back the fabric as a long neck extended towards him, into the interior.

At that moment, Ava awoke. Still lying on her side, she took one look at the face peering down at her, before sitting bolt upright. Her eyelids seized open in terror and she screamed out, startling Darya from sleep. Darya also screamed, and the creature looked from her to Ava, before unleashing its own high-pitched bray into the tent.

It burst forward suddenly, attempting to force its way in through the doorway but failing as its shoulders caught behind two of the struts. Callum scrabbled for the rifle. In the chaos it had been kicked out of reach and it was now lying on the other side of the tent. With no other option, he lashed out with his feet, kicking repeatedly at the side of the creature’s head. Beside him, Darya joined in.

“Get the rifle!” he shouted to Ava.

Still hysterical with fear, she was screaming out and clinging so hard to his arm that he could feel her cutting off the blood supply.

“Ava!” he shouted again, snatching his arm away. “This thing is going to kill us if you don’t get the rifle and shoot it, now!”

Kicking against the creature’s jaw felt like kicking against marble. It must have been doing some good, though, as blood was now pouring from its nose and gums. Undeterred, it was still forcing itself ferociously towards them, and with every charge it bent the tensile struts further inwards.

“For Christ’s sake, Ava!”

Responding at last, Ava extended her leg and caught her heel over the edge of the rifle. Her eyes were fixed on the creature’s face as she dragged the rifle within reach of her hand. Then she stretched down and took hold of it.

“Shoot it!” Callum yelled.

She fumbled the heavy weapon until it was aimed loosely in the direction of the doorway. Then she snatched at the trigger.

Nothing happened.

“I-i-it’s n-not working,” she stammered.

“You need to switch the safety off!” Callum yelled. “It’s the catch beside the trigger guard!”

One of the creature’s hind legs shot suddenly in through the doorway. It passed between Callum and Darya, shaving the side of Callum’s neck, and tearing a gash in the back of the tent.

For a split second they were left staring at each other in disbelief, before coming round. “Ava!” they chorused.

“I’m trying!” Hands shaking, tears streaming from her eyes, she ran her fingers over the rifle’s stock until she found the safety catch. It depressed with a clunk.

By now, gusts of mist were spilling into the interior, giving it the same opacity as the world outside.

Ava raised the rifle once again. This time the creature shrieked and made a determined charge towards her. Finally breaking through one of the tent ribs, it seemed to get caught up on the fabric and slumped to its knees.

“Come on!” Callum shouted, taking the opportunity to turn and drag Darya through the tear at the back of the tent.

“Ava!” she screamed. “What about Ava!”

Callum left her outside and pushed his way back in through the half-collapsed structure. After several lungfuls of fresh air, the creature’s impounded stink turned his stomach. He could no longer see it, but he could feel its bulge pressing into him through the fabric as virtually its entire weight pulled at the roof’s apex. Strong as they were, the remaining poles creaked loudly. Any second and the whole thing was coming down.

Callum could just make out Ava’s legs from the shadow. His hands fell upon her ankles, and he dragged her clear, heaving her from the ailing tent just as it folded in on itself.

She fell to the ground next to Darya, the rifle still clamped in her hands. Callum wrenched it from her, shouldered it and aimed it at the fabric now entangling the creature. As he brought his finger to the trigger, the creature’s head burst up out of the tear and it lunged for him, letting out a frustrated screech.

He fired two well-aimed shots into the top of its crown, watching as the back of its skull exploded into pulp, and its face dropped down onto the cold rock. He stared at it. His memory of the creature supposedly dead in the Centaur’s pincers was fresh in his mind. He was convinced that if he looked away, this one would also reanimate, fresh and ready to pounce. But it was still.

All the same, he edged forward and prodded its snout with the muzzle. Only when he saw the rest of its brains slop from the back of its cranium did he allow his shoulders to relax. Then he walked back over to the others. They were huddled together, and