Chapter 71: Terrifying Cannibals

Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Terrifying Cannibals

Chapter 71: Terrifying Cannibals

Smoke and dust rolled across the crater, yet the harsh creak... creak... of chewing remained perfectly audible through the sudden silence. Axel Vance, Seth Brundle, and Lionel Cosgrove stopped firing almost simultaneously and kept their weapons trained on the center of the cloud. None of them knew what had survived the blast inside that stone coffin, but whatever it was sounded disturbingly unconcerned.

A tall, lean silhouette slowly emerged from the smoke. The figure wore a battered wide-brimmed hat and a long, filthy coat that hung almost to his boots, giving him the outline of some wandering drifter from a distance. Once he stepped fully into view, however, Lionel stared at his face for several seconds before blurting, "Jesus Christ. That guy looks like somebody tried to sculpt a human from roadkill."

The creature’s grayish skin was deeply ridged and warped, while the center of its face had almost no recognizable nose beyond two dark openings. Its mouth stretched wider than anything human, and its jaws moved steadily as it chewed. In one hand it held the severed arm of a mutant, already half eaten.

The explosion had apparently done little more than provide it with an appetizer.

On the raised platform below, Papa Jupiter threw back his head and laughed. "My child! My masterpiece!" He spread his arms toward Axel’s group and roared, "Go! Tear them apart and bring their insides to your father!"

The creature stopped chewing.

Then it looked up.

Its dark, almost emotionless eyes settled on the three men standing above the crater. Whatever Papa Jupiter believed he had awakened or created, Axel recognized enough details to feel an uncomfortable familiarity with the thing.

The coat suddenly spread open behind it.

Two enormous, decaying bat-like wings unfolded from its back.

The span was easily several yards across, and the first heavy beat sent dust whipping outward from the ground. Seth’s expression changed immediately as he watched the creature lift its body with almost effortless power.

"It flies," Seth said. "There goes our high-ground advantage."

The creature gave them no time to reconsider their position.

Its legs pushed against the earth, the wings slammed downward, and the thing shot into the air.

"Fire!" Axel shouted.

Lionel’s heavy weapon roared first, followed immediately by Axel and Seth. Streams of gunfire chased the creature across the sky, but its movement was nothing like that of an ordinary bird or aircraft. It climbed, dropped, rolled, and changed direction so abruptly that even Axel’s Police Marksmanship Lv.3 could not guarantee clean hits.

The creature circled once above them, almost seeming to study how they reacted.

Then it dove.

Not toward Lionel, despite the heavy weapon in his hands.

Not toward Axel.

Straight toward Seth.

Seth had just shifted his attention to his rifle when Axel saw the movement. "Down!" He lunged sideways and drove Seth to the ground just as something dark flashed over their heads and buried itself in the dirt where the scientist had been standing.

Seth rolled over and stared at the object.

It was a crude but carefully shaped throwing weapon made from bone, with dried strips of tendon still attached around portions of it. The impact had driven it deep enough into the ground to make Seth immediately reconsider how close it had come to his skull.

"It’s intelligent," Seth said, breathing harder than before. "It recognized which one of us represented the greatest strategic threat."

Lionel kept firing into the air and shouted back, "This really isn’t the time to compliment yourself!"

The creature easily avoided another burst and climbed before landing on a tall rock formation some distance away. It crouched there with its wings partially folded behind its body, staring down at the three men like a predator deciding which piece of meat to eat first. Then its nostril-less face tilted slightly as it drew in a long breath.

Axel’s eyes narrowed.

The thing was smelling them.

Enjoying whatever fear it could detect.

That was when Axel’s memory finally clicked into place.

The Creeper.

The ancient predator from Jeepers Creepers selected victims through their fear and replenished its own body by consuming the parts it wanted. Whatever connection Papa Jupiter and this mutant clan had somehow established with it in this world, the creature itself was far older and far more dangerous than the mutants treating it like a sacred weapon.

The Creeper’s attention suddenly shifted.

It stared directly at Lionel.

For the first time, something resembling genuine desire appeared in those dark eyes.

Lionel noticed immediately and raised one eyebrow. "What are you staring at, ugly?" He gave the creature a mocking grin and added, "Never seen a handsome man before?"

The Creeper released a piercing shriek.

Its wings snapped open.

Then it launched itself directly toward Lionel.

"Perfect!" Lionel shouted as he brought the heavy weapon around. "Come closer and I’ll turn you into hamburger!"

Axel and Seth immediately moved to support him from both sides. The three weapons focused toward the descending creature as its speed increased, but the Creeper suddenly folded its wings tightly around the front of its body. The leathery membranes became an enormous shield.

Rounds hammered into them.

Instead of tearing straight through, many impacts merely punched deep dents into the thick wings before glancing away or losing most of their force. The Creeper rolled in midair, using the protected dive to slip around Lionel’s firing line.

"Lionel!" Seth shouted.

The warning came a fraction too late.

The Creeper appeared at Lionel’s side and behind him almost instantly.

Its claws punched straight through Lionel’s back and burst from his chest.

Lionel’s body jerked.

The Creeper clearly expected him to collapse.

Instead, Lionel immediately dropped his weapon and grabbed the creature’s arm with both hands.

The Creeper froze.

Lionel slowly turned his head toward it.

"Got you."

Then he shouted, "Now!"

Axel moved first.

The enchanted chainsaw came alive with a surge of Psionic Power, and Axel closed the distance in seconds. He brought the weapon down across the Creeper’s trapped arm.

The chain screamed against bone.

Sparks jumped from the contact point as the creature’s skeleton resisted far more than any normal body should have. Axel increased the pressure, and the enchanted weapon finally tore completely through.

The severed arm dropped.

The Creeper shrieked and beat its wings violently.

Axel immediately redirected the chainsaw toward its chest, trying to finish the attack before it escaped. The creature threw itself backward with a powerful wingbeat, avoiding the worst of the strike, but the moving chain still carved a deep wound across its torso.

Its flight collapsed.

The Creeper spun through the air and crashed onto the rocky ground roughly a dozen yards away.

Lionel looked down at the fresh hole through his torso. The claws had passed almost directly beside the wound Leatherface had already left, turning his shirt into little more than blood-soaked fabric.

He stared at it in disbelief.

"Again?"

Seth looked toward him.

Lionel grabbed the torn front of his shirt. "I bought this thing yesterday."

Axel and Seth quickly moved forward while Lionel retrieved himself and followed. The Creeper lay motionless for several seconds, its severed arm separated from the body and blood leaking from the deep chainsaw wound across its chest. Seth kept his rifle trained on it and asked, "Dead?"

Axel shook his head. "Not that easily."

The words had barely left his mouth when the creature moved.

The Creeper slowly pushed itself upright.

It looked down at the missing arm, then touched the wound crossing its torso.

A low growl escaped its throat.

Then its mouth opened unnaturally wide.

Something long shot outward.

A barbed, whip-like tongue wrapped around one of the mutant corpses lying nearby and dragged it across the ground toward the Creeper. Axel immediately recognized that particular feature as something different from the creature he remembered, another abnormality this AU had apparently added to it.

The Creeper sank its teeth into the corpse.

It tore away flesh greedily.

Then swallowed.

The effect was almost immediate.

The ragged wound across its chest began tightening as newly consumed flesh disappeared into its body. Even the ruined tissue around the severed shoulder began changing, the creature rebuilding itself through what it ate just as the Creeper of Axel’s memories restored damaged body parts by feeding.

Seth stared in fascination. "It’s using what it eats to repair itself."

"Then stop letting it eat," Axel replied.

He raised the enchanted chainsaw.

Psionic Power surged into the Spirit Binding weapon, and the chain spun faster as old blood and flesh flew from its teeth. Axel looked toward Lionel without taking his eyes off the feeding Creeper.

"You still good?"

Lionel bent down and picked up the Creeper’s severed arm.

Then he drew the two bone knives from behind his waist.

A dangerous smile slowly appeared on his face.

"I’m going to let this bastard experience the power of Spirit Binding."

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