Age of Monsters by John Schneider (a book to read txt) 📕

number of them had found a perch where the wreckage of a highway overpass crossed almost directly over their heads.

Rosa looked up just as three of them came leaping down, seemingly right out of the sky.

They first targeted the wounded Leroy, and he was yanked bodily out of Rosa's hands.

This was followed by a wet ripping sound, and Leroy began to scream.

Rosa gasped as she felt the second creature's claws latch onto her shoulders – not digging – just grabbing – pulling her back in to that disemboweling sickle.

A gunshot rang almost directly in her ear as Allison shot the creature between the eyes, before turning to the third, even as it landed almost on top of her.

Lucas, however, took that one out with a single shot.

Bud drew a bead on the remaining creature, even as it dug into Leroy's still-kicking body.  Bud pumped five shots into its chest, blowing the creature off its feet.

Rosa blinked, as the dead sickle-claw twitched at her feet.

Lucas shouted again.  “Go!  They're still coming!”

From the broken overpass, more lizard-heads were peering down.

Allison clambered down into the manhole, followed by Jeremy and Bud.

Rosa, however, was bent over Leroy's torn, bleeding body.

She looked up.  “He's still alive.”

“No he isn't,” Lucas said, and shot Leroy once in the forehead.  Leroy's leg kicked once and went stiff.

Rosa gasped, stumbling back, staring up at Lucas in horror.

Lucas shook his head.  “Didn't like him anyway,” he said.  “Get in the hole, Doctor.”

Rosa stared back at him, speechless.

Above them, the sickle-claws were lined up along the overpass like crows, and several were poised to leap.  Lucas picked off the cheekiest of them, and it dropped limply to the street.

This time however, the others did not retreat.

“DOCTOR...” Lucas began.

Rosa scrambled down into the tunnel.

A second later, Lucas was behind her, dragging the metal plate back over the top.

Chapter 17

“Well,” Lucas said, “THAT didn't go as planned.”

The sewer was dim, but the bits of broken light leaking in from the gratings was enough to see that they weren't the first who had tried to escape underground.

It was also clear why there weren't that many bodies left out on the street – they had been dragged down here.

Actually, there weren't bodies, so much as bones – gnawed clean.

There was a rustle of movement.  But it was no skittering rat – it was one of those little sickle-clawed scavengers.

Its lips were bloody as it screeched at them – and the sound was so much like a human scream.

Lucas took a shot at it, and its head disappeared in a splatter.  As the body went spinning, Rosa saw several more scurry for the corners.  Lucas took a moment to pot shot as many as he could before they disappeared down the tunnel.

“I HATE those little bastards,” he said.

He turned to the others.  “Stick close,” he said.  Popping out a small but surprisingly bright flashlight, he led the way down the tunnel.

They all fell into procession.  Julie was hugging close in Lucas' footsteps – not even consciously – just gravitating where she felt safe.  Jeremy had Jamie under one protective arm, and Allison and Bud likewise huddled close.  Bob and Daryl dutifully brought up the rear.

Rosa, herself, walked alone.  She still had Leroy's blood and brain matter on her hands.

Lucas seemed utterly unconcerned, as if it were long past.

Rosa wondered how many people he had killed – he was a soldier, after all.

She wondered at the fact that she still seemed willing to follow him, even though he'd just shot someone literally right out of her hands.

Although, she was at least willing to admit that, if he hadn't, she would very likely be dead now – maybe both of them.

In point of fact, she thought, glancing back to where Allison walked behind her, she was lucky not to be dead several times over – but for the actions of others, who she had actually put at risk.

She slowed down in step next to Allison.

Allison never met her eye.  Rosa had instinctively disliked her from the beginning – trashy and knocked-up – but Allison had twice saved her life.

It was true her type was tough in a crisis – but Rosa also knew that no one ever becomes tough on-purpose.

She, herself, was currently feeling rather helpless and foolish.

Allison didn't look up at her.  Rosa tried anyway.

“Thanks for what you did up there,” she said, and was rewarded with a quick furtive glance and an acknowledging nod.

Bud eyed Rosa warily – the protective guard dog, debating whether to tolerate a stranger.  Clearly, she was encroaching.

“Some rough stuff happened to you,” Rosa said.

Allison's lips twitched in a very small, ironic smile.  She didn't answer.

“I've seen a lot of that kind of thing,” Rosa ventured and now Allison sighed, looking over at her directly, perhaps for the first time.

“You know,” she said, “it occurs to me.  I can have a secret again.”

Rosa blinked.  “Pardon?”

Allison gestured around her.  “All this.”  She rooted in her pocket for her dead cell-phone.  “It's all gone.  No one can search my name and find out all about me.”

She shrugged.  “See?” she said.  “There's a good side to everything.  Even the end of the world.”

Rosa wasn't sure if she was serious or not – at best a tasteless joke.  Rosa had intended to express gratitude, but instead she felt that instinctive dislike bubbling up again.

That wasn't helped when Allison, as if she'd only been holding it down all along, turned and was noisily sick.

Her morning sickness had been getting worse, Rosa thought, and moved forward to help, but then she felt Bud's restraining hand on her shoulder.  He called up to Lucas in the lead.  “Hold up!”

Lucas