Read Online Planet Chimera by Brian Nyaude - Free Book Online Page B

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generations.”
    “Yeah,” they all chanted, raising their
weapons up, their spirits lifted.
    How did I get myself stuck
in this? I thought.
    “I have been meaning to ask, but why haven’t
any of you morphed into your other chimera forms?” I asked, my eyes
tracking a dark creature, which was moving through the trees,
camouflaged by the darkness. “It would certainly be to your
advantage if you were to confront him as true chimeras.”
    “Yes, it would be; however, we can no longer
take those forms once more,” Salyanna said, shooting into the
forest, a look of frustration on her fair face. “The madman did
something to us, and because of that, we can no longer assume those
forms. We are stuck with these limited physical bodies, until we
can somehow reverse what was done to us.”
    “This is annoying,” I roared, when I missed
my perfect shot. “We have to go after them, otherwise, this will go
on forever.”
    “You jest, right?” an older man, with a long
beard, asked. “As long as they don’t attack us, we can take this
time to recuperate, and, perhaps, move the elderly to a secure
location.”
    “No, it won’t work,” I snarled, my patience
growing weary, as the cold weather was starting to get to my brain.
“In these conditions, I am afraid—we won’t make it till dawn. And
even if we did, assuming that we could, their numbers will keep
growing.”
    “He is right,” Salyanna added, supporting
me, her gun extended in front of her face, her mind in a state of
focus. “We have to take the offensive position before it’s too
late.”
    Nodding, I took the first steps, cutting
across two burning buildings, headed for the forest. The mutant
chimeras howled, communicating in a language unknown to me, as they
began to scurry through the trees, using the branches to mask their
approach. Salyanna and her six men followed after me, bullets
firing in every direction. Unexpectedly, a big chimera, without a
dark cloak, jumped down, landing on one of her men. It sunk its
feet into his skull, pressing all of its weight on him, as it
killed him. The remaining men, terrified, turned around and
unloaded all of their ammunition into the creature. It had a face
of an eagle, the body of a polar bear, and long, talon-like hands.
Reaching down, it grabbed the dead man’s mushy head and flung it at
an elderly man, felling him to the ground in an instant. Perplexed,
the elder man sat up, screaming at the sight of his friend’s head,
which was lying on his lap. He stood up, dropping his gun, and
darted off away from us. He didn’t make more than a few yards, when
three mutant chimeras, which had been hiding behind the trees,
lunged at him and tore him to pieces.
    “Stay together, all of you,” Salyanna
screamed, delivering the final blow to the eagle faced chimera.
“They will pick us apart if we split up.”
    “Right,” Jutcer added, wiping off sweat, his
gun shaking in his hands. “Maybe we should go back.”
    “No, we press on,” Salyanna boomed, looking
at me, with her gun above her head. “We must push them back before
it’s too late.”
    Digging into my pocket, I retrieved a
grenade, tossing it at a pack of feeding chimera. The grenade
landed behind one of them, and as they turned around, blood
dripping from their mouths, the grenade exploded, and killed all
three of them. The snow on the ground became red, stained with the
blood of the fallen, the strong winds blowing away the scent of
death from the air. Unable to hold back my bloodlust, I darted
forwards, leaving the others behind, hoping to draw the beasts
towards me. And as expected, they took the bait, coming at me from
all direction. I rolled away, picking up a wooden log, leaning
against a bark, and whamming an elephant faced chimera in the face.
I grabbed its left leg with all of my might and tossed in the air,
before riddling it with a dozen bullets in the stomach. I pulled
out my dagger, tracking an agile chimera, and flung the blade