Read Online The Aberration by Bard Constantine - Free Book Online Page B

luck.
    “That ever open any of the gateways?”
    “No.  But the Other that I slew had guarded it closely. I think it opens the gateway.  The main Threshold.”
    “You mean the gateway to the Other One?  I thought that was only a legend.”
    Her eyes glittered like blue crystals.  “What is any of this, Guy?  We know better than anyone that all the stories are real.”
    “Only the ones without happy endings.”
    Someone screamed.
    They turned to see one of the soldiers as he was snatched into the trees with horrific force.  Guy whirled, pointing his rifle.  Another soldier was snatched, then another.  The air rang with their cries.
    “Where is it?”  Xenia was as bewildered as he was, her rifle swiveling. 
    His eyes widened when he saw the thin, near transparent webbing latch on to her pack.  He threw out a hand.
    “Lose the pack!”
    She frantically tried to unbuckle the straps.  As he reached for her, she was yanked upward.  His fingers grasped for anything as her scream seemed to swell all around him.  He tumbled backward, the key medallion in his hand.  Her body was swallowed in the canopy of shadowed limbs.
    Sergeant Guy opened fire.
    The muzzle flashes revealed something enormous skittering across the treetops.  Xenia’s body was violently yanked through the treetops, snapping branches.
    Snapping bones.
    Guy continued to fire.  His vision blurred, his mouth opened in a wild scream…
    ~*~
    Fran’s voice sounded shaky.  “I think he’s in shock…”
    Michael shook his shoulders.  “Guy… you ok?”
    Guy looked around wildly for a second before realizing where he was.  “I’m… I’m fine.”  He placed a trembling hand to his temple.  “It’s just that I’ve… seen this before.”
    “What about Drake?”  Fran’s face was waxen, her eyes almost too large.
    Michael looked up.
    Drake’s twitching body was swallowed by the web-lined darkness above their heads.  Lightning flashed.  It seemed that Drake still had enough frantic ingenuity to hold on to the pistol that Guy loaned him.  The retorts where the only sound in the world; thunder that shuddered the railing metallically in response.  With every muzzle flare Michael caught a glimpse of the Drake’s flailing form.  He was helpless as a fly in the webbing that snared him, gossamer ropes that sadistically yanked him up through the thin alley between the stairwells.
     The click of empty bullet chambers told him that Drake was finished.  The silence that followed was worse than that echoing clamor that preceded it.  Michael realized that he held his breath; he couldn’t seem to find the will to command his lungs.  He shot a panicked glance at Guy and Fran; they both stared upward as though carbonized in shock. 
    Blood rained on their upturned faces.
    The crimson shower resurrected their lucidity.  Michael released his breath in a shuddering gasp, gripping his knees.  Fran almost bowled him over when she barreled into his chest, sobbing.  Even Guy looked sickened; he gripped his shotgun as though it was a magical key to transport them away from the nightmare they were trapped in. 
    And in the corner Greg’s corpse lay as though mocking them.  There is no escape, it seemed to whisper.  Look at me, and witness what will happen to you…
    Michael clutched Fran protectively as they backed away from where Drake had been seized.  “Guy… we can’t go up now.  Not with that… thing waiting for us.”
    “It’s one of the Others.” 
    Guy seemed to be unaware that Michael and Fran were still there.  He muttered as though thinking aloud.  “Just like the rat… it would have kept growing if we hadn’t killed it.  The first time it was insects … one of the spiders must have killed all the others, and grew… larger and larger.  Then it came up the stairwell, as a… sentry.  It guards the passage…”
    “Uh, Guy? Still with us?”
    Guy gave a start.  “No choice.  We can’t go back.  The Others