Camping Ch. 3

 

Joon stepped outside the camper warily, scanning the area as the guards behind him crowded close. All was quiet. It was about midnight. He stepped aside to let the guards do their thing- they quickly spread out, guns ready. Joon had one too, although he wasn't super proficient with it. Felt good in his hands, though.     

"Contact," one of the guards reported. They were here to check on the sentries who were guarding the outside of the camper- and they had found one. Throat ripped open. Joon relayed this through his commpiece, requesting backup. Who knew what the fuck was out here? He stepped back as the guards continued their sweep. Where was the other sentry? 

His earpiece crackled as Stella spoke to him and someone else with her at the same time. He couldn't make out exactly what she was saying. Something about sending a whole squad up. And deploying drones. Good. They needed something. He continued scanning the area with his night goggles. Thank fuck for those. The guards were getting a little far away, he was about to call them back when a scream erupted. Something dark and fast dropped onto one of the soldiers from a tree and they were thrashing about on the ground. The othr guard looked for an opening to shoot, but distracted as he was by his teammates' plight he didn't see the thing coming up behind him.  

"Hey," Joon shouted, "Watch out-" 

Too late. 

The thing was on him and both guards were engaged. Joon put his back against the camper and waited for an opening. Somehow the second soldier got free but fell to the ground, and Joon took his shot. The recoil felt strangely satisfying as he pumped bullets into the thing, or at least in its general direction. It didn't fall, though. Instead it looked at him, emitted a screeching howl, and launched itself at him with amazing speed.  

Joon kept firing, wishing he had one of those fancy pulse rifles he heard so much about. He was pretty sure this was it. Maia, he thought as it closed the distance between them in seconds. It was tall, seven feet or more, hairy... Stella had joked there would be Sasquatch sightings after the recent Incursions, and it looked like she wasn't far off the mark. I'm done, he thought, but then just inches from him the thing fell. He could dimly see that the fallen soldier had opened fire as well. Together they had stopped it.   

He just about fell but adrenaline kept him upright. The other soldier, unfortunately, was probably history as there were three or four of the things on him now. The second soldier fell back and as the slavering things turned their baleful gaze on the two survivors they quickly re- entered the camper and closed the door. 

"That's not going to keep them long," the guard said, reloading. 

"No. It's stroner than a real camper, but... yeah. Where are those reinforcements?" he yelled into his comm. "We have one down, had to retreat into the camper. Bad bad bad." There was a crackling on the other end, and the camper shook. A howling could be heard outside.