Out of the Black - Lee Doty [144]
Behind h, Li fired, but Vega felt the shells tear through him as the puppet shoved him backwards. Li tried to shoulder him aside to get a shot at the thing, but it was already moving around him. Vega hit the floor before Li's shout ended in a gurgle. His last volley went into the ceiling, showering dust down on them all. Vega could only groan as the flesh puppet entered his narrowing field of vision slowly... almost playfully.
In its right hand was Li's pistol, in its left hand was Li's severed right hand. As the world seemed to darken a few shades, the puppet bit the three middle fingers from Li's hand. As it swallowed, the lock indicator on the gun went green.
"Gaff togg gruumen, Asado." It said, smiling as it bent over him. Vega's fondest hope was that it would use the gun on him, but there was no mercy in this creature.
It bent lower, the world darkened, its teeth tore into him.
***
"So, let me guess: you're Ping, and you're Alex, right?" Anne pointed to the cute little Asian guy first, and the slightly littler chrome-haired kid next.
They looked a bit surprised.
***
"But they're gone now, and if I ever see them again, it'll be in the next minute or two." The kid with the coke-bottle glasses said. "We don't have much time."
"Time for what?" Anne asked, as the rolling violence of the car crash continued around them.
"For anything really," the kid said with a thoughtful grin. "But you've got to get out of here right away. If you want to live... if you want anyone to live, you've got to get away before they get down here."
"Down here? Are we in the ocean?" Anne must have looked confused because the kid held up his hands for patience. "Now, whatever you do, don't freak out and run away from me again... wait till you wake up, then you can run like everyone's life depends on it, ok?"
Anne felt fuzzy, distracted. "You're a plucky little guy," she said, tussling the kid's hair. The way he'd said 'freak out' was just so cute.
"Now quit that!" He batted her hand away. "You really have some issues with focus, don't you?"
"My issue bin is large and unorganized... focus may be in there somewhere." They both laughed, but then the kid got assertive again.
"Now listen! I wasn't kidding when I said the fate of the world was at stake here..."
"You never said that."
"Ok, I just said it then... and I wasn't kidding."
"So precocious!" She tried to tussle his hair again, but he was way too quick this time. He grabbed her hand and didn't let go. "Hey!" she complained.
"Listen!" He said, getting a bit testy. "Here's what you need to do: There's some people who will find you soon. There're some important things you need to tell them."
"How are they going to find me?"
"Long story, but there's something I have... like a harmless radio tracker kind of thing a friend tagged me with. I'm hoping that's being transferred to you along with most of my power..."
"I'm hungry. Can we go back to that donut shop?"
The kid was done being distracted from his point. "Thing one: Don't trust Kaspari... He's in bed with the bad guys."
Anne nodded. "Gotcha, Kaspari's got low love standards."
The kid shrugged that off, "Thing two: There are two types of bad guys, one is Asado... an ancient clan of Savants and killers. I hope Alex knows Asado... Anyway, the other is... well like... I don't really know. Sort of like a puppet master, except his puppets are somewhere between ninjas and zombies."
"Ninja zombies... yep that sounds serious." Anne wrinkled her forehead in mock concern. Her neck hurt. She rubbed it slowly, but the pain seemed only to intensify. "What to do... ninja zombies... Hmmm..."
"Believe me... it's scarier than it sounds... they don't wear those silly masks or tabby socks, for one thing..." he shook his head as if to clear the irrelevancy from the conversation, "Anyway, you see, about six months ago Kaspari actually cracked the Loom, and this... thing... it's trying