Chapter Twelve: Lisa Smith

I quickly found Damian and Victor both to have been right. Dr. Miles really was intolerable. Every five seconds she found something new to complain about. The heat, the terrain, the smell, the brush. How bright or dark it was; she even complained about having to work with 'the ugly two'. I could tell I wasn't the only one who wanted to leave her dead body in a hole somewhere in the woods. I was about to tell her to shut up when something caught my eye.

A short tree only a stone's throw away had pink, apple sized growths hanging from the boughs. I staggered through the brush and grabbed one of the fruits. It had a fuzzy texture like a peach.

I turned and held it out for Dr. Miles. She stuffed it into her satchel and kept walking in the direction of our original course. It couldn't have been fifteen minutes later when we saw something that caused our jaw to drop. A large expanse of dirt expanding beyond the edge of the treeline, glistening like a field of glitter. I had to squint, as the reflection made it look like the sun was shining at us from the ground. Damian made his way about fifty feet in, scooping up a large cup of the dirt into a cup, then sealing it. He turned to us and froze when he was looking in our direction. I didn't move, I didn't even think of moving, I knew that he had seen something. He crept slowly up to me and pulled out his machete, using it to scoop something off my shoulder into another cup before showing it to me.

It looked to be halfway between a rat and a spider. It had four eyes, four legs, large mandibles, and a tail the length of my arm. I turned and found myself staring at another one, except instead of rat sized, this one was the size of a large dog, hanging from a tree behind us. It bared razor teeth at us and dropped to the ground. It stalked towards us, growling and hissing aggressively as it drew closer. Damian stood in front of us, his weapon held at the ready. Just before the creature would have pounced, the ground opened up beneath it, the worm catching us all by surprise as it swallowed the creature whole.

We froze and watched in terror as the worm rose from the ground and burrowed back in, revealing it's full size from head to tail. The ones we'd seen before had been fifteen to twenty feet in length, and six to eight feet in diameter.

This one was no less than fifty feet, and likely ten feet in diameter. Our trio looked at each other once it had left, and without a word, we made a mad dash in the direction of camp. I didn't have to look back to know the worm was following us. Fortunately, the monster was exceedingly slow because of its size, and quick glances back confirmed we were slowly gaining distance from it. Damian radioed Lieutenant Lorries and told him the situation. Lorries only said he'd be ready when we got there. His response made us feel no better. We broke out of the treeline, and once we did, we heard a loud scraping noise behind us, a glance back revealed the worm had come to the surface and was now gaining on us, the resistance of the dirt no longer holding it back.

In the distance, I could see Lorries standing at the edge of the wreckage, next to a large piece of jagged debris sticking up from the dirt. As we slowly neared Lorries, I could feel the worm's hot breath on my back as it drew close, and the stench of death coming from it's maw. Lorries waved us over to the debris, and we ran past it on either side. The worm fell for the trap, hitting the jagged edge at max speed. A loud squishing noise came from behind us as it connected. We staggered to a halt and looked back, finding the worm to have had it's head split in half, blood spilling into the dirt around it. I sighed in relief, looking at the others, laughing. Damian had the same expression, but Dr. Miles was nowhere to be seen. We looked around briefly before finding her staggering into camp behind the remains of the worm. She was completely coated in dirt and grass and she was furious,

"Nobody noticed me being smashed into the ground by that foul thing!?"

Damian rolled his eyes,

"Sorry we value our survival over your well being."

Lorries barked at them,

"Stop it, it's not his fault you fell and he has no right to give back talk like that to anyone. Get the samples scanned and for the love of Pete stop your bickering."

Even though they stopped arguing, Freeman and Miles shot daggers at each other with their eyes.