Hmm, this seems like a story prompt rather than a "guess what's happening in my life prompt" :) However, the creature is coming down from the rooftop or our boys will never be able to shoot it....
From the rooftop Jimmy reached the cave entrance before he turned and realised that Ben and I had ignored him and stood our ground, so we were firing at the creature before he even finished running. Having seen how it worked last time we'd moved sideways, away from each other, and were trying to catch the creature in a cross-fire, and it was working. It would jump and twist in the air, trying to avoid whichever of us it was looking at, and a lot of the time a bullet from the other gun would strike it, causing it to flip, or twist, or jack-knife. It wasn't making a lot of forward progress, and there were splatters of black ichor on the ground. I glanced at Ben -- he looked as grim as I felt, and he looked over and made a reloading gesture. I nodded and reloaded as quickly as I could while Ben used up the last bullets in his chamber, then I took covering fire and he reloaded. That meant we could expect about 4 shots on target out of six. Not the best odds for a creature that didn't seem to be capable of feeling pain and seemed to have millimetres of natural armour. Then Ben picked up a rock from near his foot and hurled it at the creature. It both tried to dodge and turned its head to see what was being thrown, and we both seized the opportunity. Our guns roared, and my arm started shaking from the recoil, but we each hit it three times that I could see, and from the way its head flung back, I guessed at least one had hit it there. It flopped to the ground like a ragdoll, and I shot it, slowly, twice more while Ben reloaded again and ran over to give it the last rites. By which I mean six shots in the face, though these things had precious little in the way of faces: two eye slits behind which was just darkness, no nose, and a sphincter-like mouth lined with tiny sharp yellow teeth, something like a worm or maybe one of those strange things that live in the sea. Jimmy came up behind us. "You didn't run," he said, sounding stunned. "You just... stood there." "It's faster than us," I said. "Running meant we weren't fighting back." "One of us would have gone down," said Ben. "You running distracted it though, as it didn't know what you were doing." "I... I'm sorry," said Jimmy, clearly more shocked that we were. I rubbed my aching arm, and remembered to reload my gun. "You're dragging this thing," said Ben. Jimmy looked up at him as though he'd not heard what he said properly. "You heard me. I think we better give the townsfolk their chupacapra and then skedaddle. Let them figure out what to do with it, since this is all their mess anyway." "It's a long way back," said Jimmy, looking at the corpse with reluctance. "And what if it's not dead? What if it recovers?" "Then we shoot it dead again," said Ben, sighing. He flipped the chamber of his gun open and started reloading. "I've had enough of this, I want it over. We deliver this corpse, we've got enough from this city for payment, and we dodge out of town and go find the city with all the pretty trinkets and no guardian monsters. Then maybe I'll retire." I raised an eyebrow. "Oh, and I need more cigars," said Ben. "I've got one left, and I'm smoking it now."
Greg - yes, well, they're *all* story prompts. Your creative genius just takes things to ridiculous heights :P
Very impressive final gunfight in the underground city of gold, for all that Jimmy had little to do with it. And I'm with Ben - definitely past time to get the hell out of there.
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Hmm, this seems like a story prompt rather than a "guess what's happening in my life prompt" :) However, the creature is coming down from the rooftop or our boys will never be able to shoot it....
From the rooftop
Jimmy reached the cave entrance before he turned and realised that Ben and I had ignored him and stood our ground, so we were firing at the creature before he even finished running. Having seen how it worked last time we'd moved sideways, away from each other, and were trying to catch the creature in a cross-fire, and it was working. It would jump and twist in the air, trying to avoid whichever of us it was looking at, and a lot of the time a bullet from the other gun would strike it, causing it to flip, or twist, or jack-knife. It wasn't making a lot of forward progress, and there were splatters of black ichor on the ground. I glanced at Ben -- he looked as grim as I felt, and he looked over and made a reloading gesture. I nodded and reloaded as quickly as I could while Ben used up the last bullets in his chamber, then I took covering fire and he reloaded. That meant we could expect about 4 shots on target out of six.
Not the best odds for a creature that didn't seem to be capable of feeling pain and seemed to have millimetres of natural armour.
Then Ben picked up a rock from near his foot and hurled it at the creature. It both tried to dodge and turned its head to see what was being thrown, and we both seized the opportunity. Our guns roared, and my arm started shaking from the recoil, but we each hit it three times that I could see, and from the way its head flung back, I guessed at least one had hit it there.
It flopped to the ground like a ragdoll, and I shot it, slowly, twice more while Ben reloaded again and ran over to give it the last rites. By which I mean six shots in the face, though these things had precious little in the way of faces: two eye slits behind which was just darkness, no nose, and a sphincter-like mouth lined with tiny sharp yellow teeth, something like a worm or maybe one of those strange things that live in the sea.
Jimmy came up behind us. "You didn't run," he said, sounding stunned. "You just... stood there."
"It's faster than us," I said. "Running meant we weren't fighting back."
"One of us would have gone down," said Ben. "You running distracted it though, as it didn't know what you were doing."
"I... I'm sorry," said Jimmy, clearly more shocked that we were. I rubbed my aching arm, and remembered to reload my gun.
"You're dragging this thing," said Ben. Jimmy looked up at him as though he'd not heard what he said properly. "You heard me. I think we better give the townsfolk their chupacapra and then skedaddle. Let them figure out what to do with it, since this is all their mess anyway."
"It's a long way back," said Jimmy, looking at the corpse with reluctance. "And what if it's not dead? What if it recovers?"
"Then we shoot it dead again," said Ben, sighing. He flipped the chamber of his gun open and started reloading. "I've had enough of this, I want it over. We deliver this corpse, we've got enough from this city for payment, and we dodge out of town and go find the city with all the pretty trinkets and no guardian monsters. Then maybe I'll retire."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, and I need more cigars," said Ben. "I've got one left, and I'm smoking it now."
Greg - yes, well, they're *all* story prompts. Your creative genius just takes things to ridiculous heights :P
Very impressive final gunfight in the underground city of gold, for all that Jimmy had little to do with it. And I'm with Ben - definitely past time to get the hell out of there.
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