it wasn’t as if it protected him anymore. He twisted it free and threw it at the monster as it lunged again.
Crunch. Those massive jaws with teeth as long as his fingers crushed the helmet. At least it wasn’t his head.
The monster ambled toward him on four legs, its wings tucked to its back. Its head, ending in a snout, showed spined ridges atop it.
He dove for the gun. Aching fingers screamed as he gripped it and rolled to aim. The first shot went wild as the monster dove for him. His second attempt lodged itself in the beast’s side, which caused it to shriek in pain.
Good job on really making it angry. In moving around the ledge, trying to stay out of teeth’s reach, he noticed a crevice in the rock. Probably nothing. But if he didn’t find a way to hide or escape, he’d soon be making his way through the monster’s digestive tract. He holstered his gun, scrabbled to grab the knife on the ground, and headed for the dark slit.
The crack proved a tight fit, but going in sideways, he managed to squeeze in. Not before the monster grabbed hold of his arm and chomped.
“Radioactive fucker!” he bellowed, yanking and screaming as he felt the teeth tearing along his flesh, ripping the fabric from his arm.
Ignoring the agony of being chewed on, Cam pulled free and fell through the crack into a cave. Or so he assumed. He couldn’t see much, given the monster trying to wedge itself in the hole blocked all the light. It managed to only shove inside, and Cam bopped it with the hilt of his knife. For a moment he thought about drawing his pistol, but he worried that firing it in the confined space would have unintended consequences, such as burying him in rock.
The beast didn’t like getting schooled and withdrew with a bellow only to begin smashing at the stone.
Cam retreated from the opening with no idea how far the cave would go or if it even had another exit. He took one step too many and teetered on the edge of something—cliff, pit, it didn’t really matter. His arms flailed, and he tried to keep his balance to no avail.
He toppled, plummeting like a rock, bounced a few times off the hard wall, and landed more softly than expected in water. He knew how to swim, but that required his body to work. So many parts of him hurt. The best he could manage was to float on his back, letting the current carry him, blinded by the darkness, throbbing with his many injuries.
The current quickened and began to buffet him, smashing him against everything in its path. Until a blow to his head knocked him out.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a pebbled shore only faintly illuminated. To his surprise, he wasn’t dead. His mouth was pasty, his body sore, his eyes burned, and his lungs were ragged. But he was alive. Barely. He dragged himself from the water’s edge, wondering just how much poison ran through it.
Finding a rock that made a good backrest, he leaned on it and shut his eyes. It only amplified the pain. He really should do something about it.
Or not.
“Aren’t you going to stop the bleeding?” Marjo, the doctor, asked, biting her lip as she glanced between an injured boy and the man causing the injury. She was the only one to show Cam any kind of kindness even as she obeyed orders.
“Stopping it would defeat the purpose of the test.” The man Cam liked to call Asshole had the same cold expression as usual. He truly felt nothing when he ran a scalpel over Cam’s skin and split it open.
“But we’ve already done this test before. A few times.”
“Your point being?” asked the sadistic Asshole.
“It’s cruel.”
Cam, tied to a bed tilted upright, felt a flutter of hope.
“There you go being sentimental about the test subjects again.”
“He’s only a child,” Marjo said softly.
“Yes, more the pity. He won’t be ready for breeding for a while yet.”
“Did he inherit his genes from the father or mother?”
She must be new because the other doctors, including Asshole, knew the answer.
“We don’t know who the parents are. The Incubaii dome suffered a malfunction, and that information was lost.”
“Surely there must be an indication,” she insisted.
“You are showing an awful lot of interest in this test subject.” Asshole turned his gaze to Marjo.
Cam wanted to say something, to warn her, but he