Page 7 of Devin
Devin, however, took a breath to assess the situation. The thing had four tentacles, and a large clumsy looking body mass about the size of an auto taxi. Its mouth didn't look large enough to consume Kavendish without pulling him to pieces first. It didn't seem to have much in the way of fangs. All the teeth faced inward as if to prevent the prey from escaping, rather than to chew its food. The tentacles were thick and sinewy from the way that the warlord’s knife just seemed to bounce off them. A better place to strike would be the body mass. Devin reversed the position of his knife and leapt over the swinging tentacles that were all heading toward the other pair. He grabbed a handful of the shaggy mane and shoved his knife into the creature's mouth.With a quick stroke, he jammed it into the roof of the mouth just past the rim of the teeth. His aim had been accurate. The thing shuddered, gurgled and then fell to the ground with a large flop.
The tentacles released and flopped around aimlessly for a moment before finally laying still.
"Ha!" The warlord shouted hoarsely, as if he had killed the creature himself. Devin tried to extricate himself from the creature, but the weight of its frame had fallen and closed its mouth firmly around his arm.
"That is not a godlip, but it is a reasonable prey," the pilot said. "What is it called?"
"I have no idea," Devin grumbled. He tried to pull his arm, but the teeth had clamped down. He'd probably end up tearing his own arm off before it came out.
The warlord stood over him and surveyed the problem.
"The one that slays it claims naming rights."
"Then I name it Kavendish," Devin said.
The warlord threw back his head and laughed. Then he started to cough. Apparently the tentacle had squeezed his throat enough to make him hoarse, but not enough to do enough damage. Pity.
"I take it as an honor," the warlord stated. He began stabbing a circle around the maw. He smeared a bit of blood on the analyzer and let it do its job. "But you should call me Kave. Everyone else does. Zenik," he said, pointing to the other side of the mouth. The pilot began to saw at it with his knife and soon, the pair had cut the mouth out of the creature, freeing Devin.
His arm bore the tattoo of a thousand little pointy teeth but with his Mahdfel healing, it would be gone by morning. Kave checked the analyzer. He nodded approval. "Edible. Tonight, we feast on Kavendish!" He seemed to think this was quite amusing. Zenik went back to the transport to grab a laser to chop the thing into smaller pieces.
Once they had loaded the carcass into the transport, Kave surveyed the site one last time.
"I suppose this will do. When do we start?"
Chapter 3
Val
There was something sad about the fact that Val's entire life fit into two suitcases. She had decided to wait until she got to her destination before she pawned her new suitcase. Honestly, it was bigger and nicer than her old one, and she was feeling rich with the new money that had been deposited into her account, as promised.
That didn't stop her from going to the pawn shop and getting rid of the rest of the stuff that Esmeralda had given her. It was worth a tidy sum of credits. She bought a bus ticket for St. Louis, and then would decide where to go from there. St. Louis had been a small enough city to largely escape Suhlik notice during the invasion. While cities like L.A. and New York had taken serious pummeling, St. Louis had sustained relatively little damage. As such, it was now a thriving center of transportation and just like a hundred years ago, it was a gateway to the west.
Val didn't want to go so far west that she hit the beach. She'd had enough of that on the Atlantic. St. Louis was relatively central and she could regroup there. Now the only thing left to do was grab her suitcases from her apartment and get going on a great adventure. She'd survived Esmeralda, and she now felt that she could survive anything.
Even the suspicious looking man in a suit that was leaning against the side of her building, trying very hard not to look suspicious. She'd spotted him a moment too late as his head snapped up and his eyes went directly to her.
"Shit," she muttered.
"Don't run. I'm not wearing heels, but I still haven't properly worn these fuckers in, and I'm just going to be pissed off when I get around to the not-running part of my job," a female voice said from directly behind Val. Mr. Suspicious had a partner. Great.
"Why would I run?" Val asked innocently.
"Smart girl," the woman noted.
Less than twenty minutes later, Val found herself in a room, cuffed to a metal table that she was pretty sure was bolted to the floor. There were cameras blinking at her from the corners of the room.
Mr. Suspicious sat down across from her, glancing down at a tablet that undoubtedly had a detailed report on Val. The female agent stood behind him with her arms crossed over her chest. Good cop, bad cop, it looked like. Apparently, they actually did things like that.
"Going somewhere?" the man asked.
"Yeah. The lease ran out on my apartment. I'm going to St. Louis." Anyone with access to her bank records would know that, and she wasn't going to be caught up in a lie this early in the game. He put down the tablet. She could see they'd taken pictures of her two suitcases. He flipped to the next picture. Upside down, she couldn’t quite identify it.
"And this?" He turned the tablet to her side. It was the vial she'd downed right before heading in. It hadn't occurred to her to try and hide it. She'd just tossed it in the trash can in her apartment when she'd emptied the purse before heading to the pawn shop.
"It looks like a bottle of some sort."
"And you know what was in the bottle?"
