Hybrid Zone Revelation, page 8
Looking quickly around the kitchen, my eyes came to rest on her collection of cast iron. I would have preferred a gun, but it was better than nothing. Lunging for the makeshift weapons brought me right in front of the stove, right in front of the plates piled high with pancakes and bacon. Aw, man.
“Macy,” Reynolds hissed in a strangled whisper.
Right. Focus. I threw a piece of bacon in my mouth and picked up the Dutch oven in one hand and the lid in the other. When I turned around, I was skewered by Reynolds look of disbelief.
“I really don’t think this is the time for breakfast,” he said angrily.
“Didn’t your mama ever teach you that breakfast was the most important meal of the day?” I joked, banging the two pieces of cast iron together for emphasis.
“I’d like to stay alive long enough to eat breakfast,” he retorted as he sidestepped the slashing tail of the lizard who’d maneuvered from the ceiling to the floor when I was distracted.
“Catch,” I called and tossed him the cookware.
He caught them smoothly and clocked the advancing lizard in the head. “Huh, not bad,” he mused, spinning the lid to adjust his hold.
The stunned lizard lurched backwards, just as Granny finished her kill. Realizing there was another one in her kitchen added new life to her. She raced towards the lizard, shifting her heading at the last moment in order to use her front paws like battering rams.
“Granny, no!” I yelled, but it was too late.
Howling at the pain the acid inflicted on her tender paws, she clamped her jaws around the lizard’s neck and threw it against the wall. A wide spray of acid flew from the lizard’s body. Some of it landed on my arm before I could pull it back. I wiped it on my pants immediately, but that didn’t stop the burning that erupted. It felt like my skin was melting off. Venturing a quick look at Reynolds, I saw that he was furiously scrubbing across the side of his neck.
“It’s their whole bodies,” he said through gritted teeth. “They’re covered in it.”
Before I could deal with the dilemma of how to fight acid covered lizards, several rounds of what sounded like gunfire reverberated through the kitchen, followed by one singular howl. Reynolds and I exchanged looks, but it would have been pointless to consider sending him to find out what that was about. He wouldn’t leave me, and I wasn’t leaving Granny. Granny, who, though it obviously hurt her, smacked the lizard back into the wall every time it stood up.
“Heads up,” I shouted when the third lizard cleared the hole. “Look who wants to join the party.” Removing a large skillet from the nail it hung on, I swung it back and forth a couple of times to test its weight.
“I think this one is bigger than the other two,” Reynolds said as he angled towards me.
“You know what they say. The bigger they are…”
“The more acid they have?” he finished.
Not the answer I was looking for.
Scout limped into the kitchen, a blood soaked towel wrapped tightly around one thigh. “Don’t shoot them,” he panted. “The bullets just ricochet.”
A cast iron skillet and back up griddle it was.
“Look how the ceiling’s bowing,” Reynolds said. “It’s going to pull the whole thing down on top of us if it doesn’t get down from there.”
Adjusting his hold, he hefted the iron into position to take a swing at the lizard, but Granny decided she wanted first dibs. Abandoning the lizard she was using as a play toy, she rose on her hind legs and roared at the new lizard. It was impressive, made even more so by the saliva dripping from her teeth.
The lizard answered by slashing its tail around the length of its body. The light fixture exploded in a hail of glass and sparks, causing the lizard, formerly known as Granny’s play toy, to burst into flames. The inferno that molded to its body snapped it back to life. It thrashed wildly about the kitchen, colliding with the curtains at one point and setting them on fire.
It was too much for Granny. She dove at the blazing lizard. The force of their collision sent them slamming into the far wall. A loud snap echoed through the room, and Granny and the lizard disappeared as they fell through the wall.
“Granny!” I yelled, quickly rushing forward. But my chase was cut off by the lizard clinging to the ceiling suddenly dropping to the floor in front of me. I jumped back out of pure instinct, causing the ring of acid launched into the air to mostly hit my pants. Not a shock, considering the universe seemed to have it in for my pants.
Reynolds joined me on the opposite side of the stove. His pants were polka dotted with little plumes of smoke. It would have been funny if I didn’t know how much it burned.
“Oh, look. Another guest,” I said sarcastically of the one crawling up through the newly created hole in the floor.
“We’ve got to stop creating doorways,” Reynolds said, eyeing several other holes in the floor where only plumes of smoke had been previously. “It’s like they see it as an invitation.”
Yeah. I’d like to speak to the person responsible for the guest list. “Oh look, they’re talking.” The two lizards huddled in the corner opposite us were exchanging a steady stream of hissing and gurgling. Reminded me of Harry Potter. “It’s always good to have someone you know at a party.”
The lizards stopped making noises and looked at us.
“You know,” Reynolds drawled. “I don’t think I like your parties.” Then he leaped towards the lizard that charged at me, driving the handle of the Dutch oven into the lizard’s side. It curled in on itself, modeling the letter C as it barreled over into the burning curtains and burst into flames—barely missing Scout, who’d materialized out of thin air—what the heck? Hadn’t he just been on the other side of the kitchen? And where’d he get the fire extinguisher?
Whirling in panic, the newest recruit to the flaming lizard brigade careened into the next lizard emerging from the floor and produced yet another burning lizard in Granny’s kitchen.
“If any more show up, they’re gonna have to start wearing name tags,” I hollered in aggravation.
Scout hefted the fire extinguisher he was holding and aimed it at the lizards. One bolted for Reynolds, the other for me.
“Batter up,” I hollered, raising the skillet into position. The sickening thud of Reynolds’ hit sounded the second before mine. The lizards arched away from us, colliding in a tangle of movement and fire.
“Man, that stinks,” Reynolds coughed. “Like burnt beans and sulfur.”
I stood up to take a breath and nearly gagged when the smell hit me. “Oh, that is rotten.” Wrapping a hand over my mouth, I tried to protect the air I was breathing. “Scout, you’re the closest. Push them through the hole in the floor.”
He couldn’t answer given that he was currently bent over, retching.
“Macy, watch out!” Reynolds shouted.
The window next to me exploded. In my attempt to avoid the flying debris, I rammed into Reynolds, sending both of us to the ground.
“Cast iron is not meant for landing on,” I moaned as I fished the Dutch oven lid out from under my hip and handed it back to Reynolds. Rubbing the quickly forming bruise, I tentatively pushed to a stand, only to be arrested by the sight of Granny. Her front paws rested on the floor of the new opening where the window used to be. Her muzzle was caked with blood and there was a disgusting piece of lizard tail hanging out of her mouth.
“That is gross, Granny,” I said flatly.
With much exaggeration, she sucked the lizard tail in and swallowed, and if it was possible for a bear to smile, smiled at me. Again, the bacon threatened to make a reappearance.
Reaching behind me, I offered Reynolds a hand up. He had good reason to move slower than me. He’d landed half in and half out of the Dutch oven, dissecting his most intimate parts. Youch.
“Be careful of the floor,” I called to Granny as she climbed back into the kitchen.
She was careful alright. In one movement, she leaped over the holes, snatched a lizard from the ceiling and dove into the jumble of lizard on the floor.
“That was impressive,” Reynolds whistled in amazement.
“I didn’t know bears were that nimble,” I marveled. I almost felt sorry for the lizards as I watched Granny work. She was so fast and powerful. Her paws were practically on fire when she came up for air.
“Seriously, Granny,” I said in exasperation. “It’s like you want to burn up.” Retrieving the skillet from the floor, I moved away from Reynolds, who wasn’t quite able to stand upright yet, and hefted it into position. “Stop hogging the lizards. Herd them over here. And whatever you do, do not breathe deeply.” They might have been scentless before, but man howdy did they stink when they were on fire.
She did send one my way, and I swung the skillet with all my might. It caught the lizard right underneath its jaw, like an uppercut. But instead of sending the lizard hurtling away, it spun in place, slinging acid and fire, and one very wicked tail.
“Crap,” I yelled and dropped the skillet. Diving under the table, I balled up behind the griddle I snatched from the wall. The majority of the acid and fire missed me, but I still felt the smack of the tail as it shoved me out from under the table and into the wall. When the drapes crashed to the floor on top of me, I used the griddle like an umbrella. Scout fished me out, liberally dousing me with the extinguisher as he did.
“It doesn’t work,” he said, shaking the extinguisher in frustration.
As I was clearly soaked, I knew it did.
Using the back of my fingers, I slung the frothy mess from my face. “I wasn’t on fire,” I snarled him.
“You could have been,” he shrugged. “The griddle is.” He discharged the extinguisher on the griddle. The flames merely flickered in the draft created by the spray.
“Yikes,” I shrieked and dropped it. “Watch out!” I grabbed Scout and spun him out of the way.
The lizards were charging at will now, like it was their last ditch attempt, which it might be. The kitchen was a mess. There were numerous gashes in the walls, and large portions of the floor and ceiling had also disappeared during the fray.
Granny tried to fling the lizards out of the openings she’d created, but her aim wasn’t that great. The house rattled each time she hurled a lizard into the already fractured walls. Reynolds, Scout and I took turns at the lizards with the cast iron, but so far we’d only managed to kill one of them.
“At this rate, the house will burn down around us before they’re dead,” Reynolds said.
Nervously eyeing what was left of the kitchen, I thought he was right. Granny must have, too. She abandoned her attempts at tossing the lizards from the kitchen. Falling heavily on the nearest lizard, she used her weight to trap it while she dug her nails deep into the scales around its neck. Loud bellows of pain echoed through the kitchen as the fur on Granny’s belly melted away.
Scout took a step forward to help her and fell through the floor up to his waist. Sensing an opening, the remaining lizard charged towards Scout. Reynolds and I simultaneously dove for it, catching the lizard’s head in a cast iron pancake. It was disgusting, but effective. The lizard sank to its belly and didn’t move again.
Tossing the skillet aside, I rolled onto my back. The flames had licked a path covering half the ceiling already. We needed to get out of here before it caved in. “Reynolds.”
“Yep,” he answered.
Working together, we freed Scout from the floor boards entrapping him and began to carefully pick our way across the pockmarked surface. Granny had finished the remaining lizard and was almost to the living room. Her gait was decidedly painful as she lumbered out of the kitchen, but considering the state her paws were in, I was grateful she could walk at all.
“So, that’s trouble?” Reynolds murmured, gingerly fingering the burns on his neck as we crossed the threshold into the living room. “Adam wasn’t kidding.”
Scout winced and pulled a spike size wood splinter from his abdomen. “And, how,” he nodded in agreement as he tossed it to the floor.
“You got a little something,” Reynolds said. He waved his hand, motioning towards my back.
I turned in a semicircle, looking over my shoulder at my back, trying to see what he was talking about. “Ow!” I cried involuntarily as a sharp pain laced down my back.
“Got it,” Scout said and added the glass shard to the rubble in the kitchen.
“A little warning next time!” I yelled at him.
He shook his head no. “Creates too much drama.”
“I don’t know,” observed Reynolds. “That was pretty dramatic.”
Glaring at them did nothing to wipe the smiles from their faces. Knuckle heads. Turning from them, I went in search of Granny. I found her. Back in human form and buck naked. Closing my eyes, I roughly shook my head. I guess we were even now.
From what I could see, which was everything, Granny was a good deal worse off than us. She had very little skin that hadn’t been eaten away by the acid. Her hands concerned me the most. They didn’t look like they were scabbing over like the rest of the burns. By the way she was cradling them, I knew they hurt her the most.
“I’m so sorry, Granny,” I said softly. I wanted to reach out to her, but due to the extent of her injuries, I didn’t dare.
“Water’s a no go,” Scout yelled.
That meant the house was going to be a total loss. The look on Granny’s face told me she understood that too.
Reynolds gently wrapped a blanket around Granny’s shoulders. “Is there anything you want to save?” he asked.
Heaving a sigh, she grasped the blanket firmly about her and headed for the back bedroom.
“Come on,” I whispered to the guys and started after Granny.
Chapter 5
“Wrangle, did I say start trouble or stay out of trouble?” Kenny asked as I came down the front steps towards them.
“I’m relatively certain that it was the latter,” Wrangle answered sagely.
“You know, I could smell something burning. But I thought, nah. Surely Doc—”
“Shut up and help,” I snapped at them. Shoving the load I was carrying into Wrangle’s arms, I pointed him in the direction of the drop off point. “I did not do this.”
“So, the others started the fire?” Kenny asked doubtfully.
Wrangle paused and turned sideways to wait for my answer.
“No,” I said, avoiding their eyes and picking at the flaking bits of my semi burnt shirt so I wouldn’t think about how lame what I was about to say sounded. “It was the lizard people.”
“Lizard people. Of course,” Kenny deadpanned. “My mistake.” Hanging his head, he shook it gently. “Only you,” he muttered in disbelief.
“Yeah, well, at least Granny found some clothes,” I griped as I stomped up the stairs after him. “At least, you’re spared from that shock.”
Kenny suddenly paused in front of me. “Company,” he said, shielding his eyes as he turned.
Squinting, I could just make out Smiley behind the wheel of the camo van. But he wasn’t smiling as he pulled it into Granny’s front yard.
“I got it. Keep helping Granny,” I told Kenny.
“What happened?” Smiley asked when I jogged over and hopped onto the running board.
“Giant flaming lizards.”
Charlie’s face appeared behind Smiley. “Seriously?” he asked.
“Seriously,” I nodded.
“That is…uh…I got nothing.”
I’ve got the burns to prove it. And witnesses. “Any sign of Linc and Van?”
“They’re in the back,” Smiley answered carefully. Too carefully. I didn’t like the way that Charlie slunk back into the interior either.
Opening the door, I climbed in and made my way past Smiley to the rear of the vehicle. The back door was open, but Van wasn’t there. Linc, however, was on the floor. I froze when I saw the reason why.
“Linc? Are you okay?”
He popped his head up. “Right as rain,” he quipped, then let his head fall heavily back to the floor.
“Maybe, if you’re talking about a torrential, gut piercing rain. You do know there’s a small tree limb sticking out of your stomach?”
“Yeah,” he groaned. “I know it.”
“I told him not to jump,” Van growled angrily as he climbed back in. Over his shoulder was a large duffle bag with the words first aid stamped across it.
“Van won’t let me forget,” Linc whined dolefully.
I was thinking it was more the stick’s fault than Van’s.
Setting the bag aside, Van kneeled over Linc to closely study the wound. “This wouldn’t happen if you’d listen to me. But you never listen, and this always happens.”
“He always impales himself on tree limbs?” I asked, only half joking.
Van reached forward and grasped the limb with both hands. “Among other things.”
Linc grunted loudly when Van ripped the limb from him. I couldn’t help but gasp at the same time. It hadn’t been a gentle tug.
Holding the stick with one hand, Van pulled his shirt over his head and used it to wrap the bloody end of the stick. “Toss that in the fire, would ya?” he asked, handing it to Charlie.
I nodded at Charlie when he made eye contact with me.
“This time it’s a tree limb,” Van continued. “Last time it was an antenna. You don’t even want to know where that one went in. I’m still having nightmares about it.”
