Page 60 of A Very Monstrous Desire

“They are doing well to keep up with them.”

It was then that Theo realised he could hear gunshots. They had been partially disguised by the noises of the munchers.

“I wonder if my squad is down there?” Theo whispered.

“I hope so,” Baku said. “I did not intend for them to be harmed in the shop.”

“I know.”

“I wanted only you.”

“I know.”

More gunshots, something that sounded like a small explosion, and then bullets again. “I never understood why they couldn’t just shoot and shoot and shoot and deal with it that way,” Theo said. “If they surrounded the infestation, I mean, and just fired constantly. I get it now though. There are just too many.”

He turned again and followed Baku to where his monster was now walking, weaving in and out of the nightmares. It was away from the MDF and towards another bright, multi-coloured light in the distance.

They passed dozens upon dozens of the nightmares as they walked. Some brushed into Theo, others into Baku, but they all seemed to accept their presence. The serum was disguising them well…but they were on borrowed time...

“Look,” Baku said, and he gestured to a clearing in front of them where there were dozens of huge, globule-like balls.

Theo knew what they were. He’d seen pictures of them in the very classroom where Becky had updated them on their mission. He’d never seen so many before though and as he watched the things inside them rolled and moved. A dozen or so munchers were tending them, moving around them, covering them in some sort of gelatinous liquid which stuck to the sand and pooled in clumps on the beach. Theo knew what they were doing, the understanding was given to him through the vibrations, and he shuddered slightly as he watched the hatching.

He skirted around the clearing, Baku by his side, as a handful of the eggs opened. Fresh munching monsters started to appear. They weren’t full sized, but they were not far off. The moment they vacated the egg sac one of the adult munchers dropped a new egg in it and it closed back up. They covered it in more of the liquid.

Theo understood then why the MDF would never be able to keep with the nightmares, and Baku confirmed it when he said, “I have never known a creature who can breed as fast as they do. The queen will produce hundreds of eggs in every laying, and she can lay every day.”

“She must need a huge amount of food to fuel that,” Theo whispered.

“No,” Baku said as he moved past a muncher. “The fluid is what grows them, and any nightmare can produce it.”

The fluid was not pleasant. It reminded Theo of rotting eggs. He tried to breathe only through his nose as they skirted the clearing. Before long they were past it and they were getting closer to the multi-coloured lights now. They gave Theo a bad feeling, an unnatural feeling, and honestly it combined with the over-caffeinated feeling from the serum to make him dizzy all over again. He had to be really careful as he moved in between the munchers, and he had to dig deep to find the courage again.

It seemed to want to slip away.

Theo could not let it.

“There,” Baku whispered as they moved between a large outcropping of rock. It adjusted their view ever so slightly, so the multi-coloured lights were clearer now. Theo leaned in against one of the rocks and let out a shuddery breath. “There she is,” Baku added.

And though Theo couldn’t see her then he suddenly realised that he could feel her.

It was the queen.

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

They had no choice but to continue onwards. Time was not on their side. They walked across the beach, sliding in and out of the nightmares that surrounded their queen, and eventually paused next to a similar outcropping of rock. Theo hunkered down there, knife in his hand, as he tried to understand what he was seeing. He could describe it no other way than as if someone had set off an entire box full of fireworks only the fireworks didn’t fly but stayed at ground level, and they made no noise, but were filled with a horrible, unnatural static.

“Why does it look like that?” he breathed as the colours seemed to twist and turn in time with the waves crashing onto the shore.

“Because she is eating through,” Baku whispered. “And the dimension is fighting back.”

“None of the other rips look like that…”

“Once she is through it will settle again,” Baku said. “And then it will look like all the other rips.”

Theo shook his head even as he remembered what Baku had told him before. “This rip here is going to create more elsewhere?”

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