A Nodeshell Commando Action (rabbit commando)
Major Maltsby was having
a hard time getting his
radio to work. He'd never been required to run one before, but after seeing his radioman
on fire,
melting and screaming for his mother as he died, he was happy for the small luxury of
even broken communication.
"
Colonel! Colonel, come in! Colonel Drops! Shit!"
Swearing did nothing to
fix the radio; banging the
circuit box on the table did no good.
Nothing seemed to be
doing any good.
Major Maltsby heard the rustle of his
tentflap behind him and he turned to see who had entered. It was Colonel Drops, or rather
what was leftof Colonel Drops. He could
barely manage to look at
his longtime friend in his present state, but he had
to be strong and give confidence to his
broken, dying officer.
"Major!
Reports from the front lines, sir!" As he said this, Drops' eyes
rolled wildly in their sockets, showing the sickly yellow color quickly becoming prominent in the
eyes of everyone.
"Go ahead Colonel, have a seat."
The
woundedColonel drew himself up and
balanced on the back of the chair; it was only when his position changed that Major Maltsby was able to see
how bad the injuries were.
He didn't have
a whole leg left on either side; parts of his
left arm and right shoulder were
missing. And flowing out of every
gaping hole...
"Major, it's the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. Our
intel really
screwed the pooch on this one. I've got soldiers with no heads, I've got soldiers
losing limbs and pints all over the damn battlefield, and
I have nothing to show for it. We're being completely wiped out and Major..."
The Major
observed his Colonel break down into
racking sobs that looked as if they might tear the remainder of the
poor soldier's body apart.
"What is it, Drops? We're friends and you are
relatively safe here. What is it?"
Drops looked up, stared Maltsby in the eye and,
unflinchingly, said:
"They're animals. They're
EATING OUR DEAD! THEY'RE FUCKING TAKING OUR DEAD FROM THE BATTLEFIELD AND EATING THEM!"
Drops
wrenched himself from Maltsby's
ever-tightening grip and fell to the floor,
weeping.
Maltsby tugged on his
chin whiskers just once before deciding on exactly what
he had to do. He knew that his next action would either
win the war or
kill them all. But either way, all of this would
be over very soon. He stepped out of his tent and
callied his armies to him. They slowly gathered.
===============================================
Diane rushed
around the bathroom, finishing her normal
primping routines before church. She walked down the stairs,
calling to her husband and son as she descended.
At the bottom of the stairs, she found Eric and Jaimie standing at
the big window in the den, staring outside. Curious, she walked over,
slid her arms around Eric's waist and
kissed him.
She then knelt down to
eye-level with Jaimie and had to
repeat his name several times before she
could get an answer.
"...what?"
"I asked what you and Daddy are looking at out there,
sweet thing." She
hugs him tight.
"So baby...
what ARE you guys looking at ou...
As far
as the eye can see, a quivering,
thriving blackness shifted and waned. Every section of street, highway, sidewalk... and as she was looking, millions of
little yellow dots shifted toward the house almost
drunkenly. The darkness began to pulse and move towards her.
Diane
yelped and turned to Eric, hoping for some sort of explanation, but that hope was
cut short by the rock that came hurtling through the window and into her husband's blank, lifeless face.
Diane screamed again, louder this time, backing away with his blood on her clothes. She heard voices outside, coming from the blackness. She turned to Jaimie, and
grabbed him the shoulders.
"Jaimie! What's going on!? What's out there?
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!"
Jaimie smiled at his mother and
pointed without looking away.
"It's okay mommy... it's the
easter bunnies. Just the
chocolate easter bunnies."