Slither - Edward Lee [97]
Yes. The corporal really liked these field assignments.
He took a last look at the blonde, who lay crumpled and spread-legged, wrists lashed over her head.
No, he decided. I won't kill her. I'll leave her for the worms instead.
He was about to make tracks back to the station, but stopped cold. He thought he'd heard a sound.
A metallic click.
Then came the last sound he'd ever hear.
Bam!
The corporal collapsed right on top of the blonde, dead from the bullet that had slammed into the middle of his back.
(N)
Gun smoke stung Loren's eyes. He couldn't believe what he'd just done; he hadn't even given it a thought.
Holy fuck! I just shot a guy in the back!
Only after the pistol pumped out its round did Loren remember he'd never fired a gun in his life. The weapon kicked so hard, it flew out of his hand .. .
He stared through vertigo for several moments, listening to his heart beat. Annabelle's rapist had collapsed right on top of her. When Loren snapped out of it, he rushed over, yanked off the motionless assailant, and tended to Annabelle.
Ohno...
Her hands were tied and lay limp over her head. Her legs were disarrayed. Loren felt encased by dread when he put a finger to her throat to check for a pulse. After what seemed a minute, he found one and sighed in relief. He jostled her around, gently slapped her face, but she remained out cold.
"Goddamn, what the hell happened?" Lieutenant Trent had just come to. He sat up, a hand to his head, then stared in disbelief at the scene.
"That guy in the suit raped Annabelle," Loren's voice cracked. "So I ..."
Trent saw the revolver on the ground. "You shot him?"
"Yeah. Uh, in the back."
Trent instinctively checked his gun belt, found his own pistol intact, then leaned over the man in the suit. "Man, this is really fucked up. Who is this guy?"
"I don't know but that gear he's wearing looks military to me," Loren said. "We need to get out of here right now and find Nora. That guy's got colleagues who are going to be looking for him."
"You're right ..." Trent grabbed the gas-masked man's shoulder, to look at him. "He's military, all right, but I can't tell what branch." The mask's eye portals were mirrored. Trent yanked at the hood but couldn't get it off.
"Help me with her," Loren said. "We need to leave." He picked the revolver up and stuck it in his waistband.
"Where'd you get that?"
"Long story, I'll tell you on the way."
They each shouldered one of Annabelle's arms and stalked off.
"This is crazy," Trent muttered. "Military personnel in decontamination suits?"
"Yeah, and surveillance cameras in the woods and our cell phones and your radio being electronically jammed. Plus a parasitic worm that looks like a genetic hybrid, a damn gene-splicing experiment or something-all on an island nobody knows about."
"I'll bet that guy's with the Army Research Command. We walked right into the middle of one of their black projects by accident."
It sounded too coincidental, but after he thought about it, Loren had no choice but to agree. "I can't think of anything else it could be," he said. "We're in the middle of it, all right, and now we have to get out before we wind up dead. Other people have died on this island-"
"The body you said you saw in the water-"
"Not just that. This pistol I have I took off a dead college girl. She'd committed suicide with it, after telling me that other people have been killed by the worms."
"What?"
Loren sighed. "Just wait till we find Nora. I'll tell you the whole story."
They huffed through more brush. Annabelle didn't weigh much, but under these circumstances, the burden-was wearing both men out.
"Stop!" Trent said in a sharp, sudden whisper.
"What?"
The lieutenant stared at Loren. "Did you hear that noise?"
Loren looked desperately about, listening. "I ... I don't think so ..."
"Something rustling." Trent seemed sure. He looked