Read Wormwood Dawn (Episode VIII) for Free Online

revolvers, taking the creature down in a splattering display. As the creature fell forward, another much larger figure shot forward with an axe, chopping the creature’s head in two.
    Gena remained silent, unsure of whether their rescuers would soon turn on them. She held her hand up to make sure Grace was quiet, and waited.
    “Hello,” a voice said from below.
    The large man stared upward as another one stepped forward.
    “Are you alright?” the voice asked.
    Against her better judgment, Gena began climbing down. “We’re okay,” she said. “Thanks for the help. Grace, come on down.”
     
    Dan studied the creature as the two women made their way down the tree. Jake helped the smaller woman get down safely, and everyone gathered around to join Dan. He took note of the second woman, a short and slim woman with highlighted brown hair and glasses. She looked like she knew things.
    “Just what I thought,” the woman said. “Human type.”
    “You know about these things?” Dan asked.
    The woman nodded. “I do,” she said. “I’ve been studying them since this whole thing started.”
    “Are you a scientist or something?” Jake asked.
    “Microbiologist among other things.”
    She turned and began looking around, and the woman in the military garb addressed the group.
    “Are you all holed up somewhere around here?” she asked.
    “We have a camp nearby,” Dan said.
    “Were you drawn out by the crash?”
    “No,” Dan said, shaking his head. “We lost one of our members. A small boy about ten years old.”
    “Oh no,” the woman said.
    “We saw the crash and decided to detour hoping maybe he saw it, too.”
    “That was our chopper,” the soldier said. “We hit something in the air and went down like a sack of shit.”
    “Are you Army,” Cliff said. “Or Guard?”
    “Army,” the woman replied. “Not much of us left.”
    “What are you doing in this area?” Dan asked.
    The woman looked around to make sure her companion was alright. “We were going to land at Atterbury to refuel on our way to the impact site. That’s when we hit whatever it was.”
    Dan looked at Drew, who had a look of recognition on his face. He thought back to the bat creature they had encountered in Oolitic. “Did it look like a bat?” he asked.
    The woman shook her head. “Didn’t see it, but it was big enough to take down a chopper.”
    “Found it,” the other woman said. She returned with a backpack, evidently happy to have found it.
    “I’m Dan,” Dan said. “This big guy is Jake. This other big guy is Eric. This is Drew, Cliff, and finally Toni.”
    “Gena Ramirez,” the woman said. “And Dr. Grace Hill.”
    Dan smiled at Grace. She smiled back, but he wasn’t sure whether it was a shy smile or an “oh my god this dude’s a scumbag” smile. He didn’t care. She was pretty either way.
    “Look,” Gena said. “I really need to get to the chopper. There may be some equipment left and I need it. We have no weapons.”
    “We have plenty,” Dan said. “But we need to find this boy if it’s not too late. Eric and Jake, get Grace back to camp. The rest of us will go with Gena and find the crash site. Toby might be there.”
    “Are you okay with that, Grace?” Gena asked.
    Grace nodded, clutching her backpack. “Yes,” she said. “I’m freezing.”
    “Thank God,” Toni said, smiling. “This group was turning into a sausage fest.”

Chapter Four
    “What’s wrong, Toby?” Maynard asked from his mysterious hiding place.
    Toby’s mind had been scrambled by his recent encounter with the strange monsters behind the glass. They were all frightening examples of his own nightmares. Though he had seen many of the moldy people, and even a whole horde of dead ones, the mutant things were just too much for him to handle; especially the one called that Maynard had called the Overlord.
    “What did you mean that the Overlord was our future?”
    “These creatures, of which I have seen only a few, are the