Page 65 of Alien Jeopardy

“No.” The word comes out weak, weaker than I could have imagined. She’s trying to get it to pick her instead as a meal, trying to divide its attention between us.

I take a deeper breath, my chest finally able to more fully expand. Until a sharp pain seizes me up.

Shallow breathing instead, then.

I kick my legs as the beast loosens its coils from around me, the massive tail knocking me sideways as I try to make my way towards Ellison and the boat.

“It’s coming for you,” I shout at her.

“I’m ready, Rex.” She holds up a knife that’s the length of her forearm. “I have a plan.”

Its hide is impenetrable. My talons proved that very quickly.

“Swim for the boat,” she screams. “Hurry.”

I don’t waste time thinking about it. I swim, and I hope to whatever god might be watching that the eldritch screaming isn’t hers.

My wing drags behind me in the water, pain shooting from the tips all the way to my shoulder blades. Flight isn’t an option now, and it won’t be later, not until I heal.

If I get the chance to heal.

Lightning flashes again, dazzling in the dark of the storm, though it is no longer raining as hard.

What I see sends a jolt of fear all the way down to my toes.

The many-toothed serpent is wrapped around something out of a nightmare. A huge monster, some horrible combination of tentacles and razor-sharp teeth. Jet-black eyes pay me no heedas I take in the battle in front of me. The newcomer gnaws on the hide of the serpent, who screams again, lashing in the water.

Ellison is still in the boat, screaming for me to swim.

I do as she asks.

Finally, I’m at the boat, and she’s doing her best to pull me in. My wing is dead weight behind me.

I don’t care. She is alive. I am alive.

We’re together.

“There’s a motor,” she yells at me. “I think I can drive it.”

With that, she leaves me sitting in several inches of water, stunned and hurt, but alive. Blood seeps from a dozen jagged wounds, and I can’t move my wing or breathe too deeply, but I’m alive.

“You saved me,” I croak out. “How did you know that thing would…” I cut my gaze to where the alien beasts are still fighting.

“I gambled,” she says gaily, then laughs hysterically.

A mechanical rumble starts, and I hold onto a bench in front of me with one hand as Ellison laughs and laughs, the sound eventually drowned out by the boat’s engine as she cuts through the water.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-ONE

Ellison

By the time the rain stops, I’m shaking all over. My teeth are chattering.

Rex is asleep, one cheek against the bench, his body folded into itself.

The cut on my hand stopped bleeding. Maybe an hour ago, maybe less, maybe more. It’s impossible to tell how much time has passed.