Like the ancient homo sapiens, Sonya watched Chet’s mammoth body plummet to the ground. Walker stood above Chet huffing; his soaked clothes stuck to his body allowing her to s…

She swung her revolver to the right to line up with the rest of her body, but it was far too late. The globular monstrosity erupted from the center of the cavern and was on a crash course with her body. She managed to let loose the final bullet into the incoming mass, but the small piece of metal wasn’t enough to stop a several hundred-pound of moist amphibian from flying through the air.

Mass collided with mass, and Sonya was on her back. Toward the exit rolled Walker who, by fact that she wasn’t a smudge, had tackled her out of the way. Roots and water sat to her left, stone and frog sat to her right, and Walker sat between her and the entrance. She winced as metal scratched stone.

Walker had clawed himself to his feet. Relentless. The darkness shrouded his body, but it wasn’t enough for her not to tell what he was looking at. With her free hand, she grabbed the flashlight that she hung on her belt earlier. Searing light cut through the murk to strike Walker’s shadowed face.

After a moment to allow her pupils to contract, she met his gaze. Her breath caught up in her throat mid-inhale. The putrid, soggy waft of fecal matter warmed to room temperature met with an unfortunate sight that led to the regurgitation of her stomach. Situation forgotten, her body through itself onto its hands. Acidic bile sloshed its way up the esophagus and ejected itself out the mouth. Wiping her mouth, she stumbled to her feet as quickly as she could.

Walker was acquainting his metal canister with the steroid-infused frog. It should have been ineffectual, and it was. Each hit bounced off the beast like a toy gavel hitting wood. Gurgling hiccups emanated from the beast periodically as it slowly rotated counter-clockwise, away from the wall it faced. She retreated a few steps to reload her revolver.

Instead of reaching for the leather pouch tied to her belt, she reached into the considerably lighter grey pocket sewn into her left pant leg and, after some consideration, pulled out a bullet. Eyes still glued to the commotion before her, she whispered a certain few words of prayer and loaded the single bullet into the empty revolver. If one squinted, they may have noticed the quaint blue trail the bullet left behind it.

Revolver steady she aimed it between the two, ready to gain a target when one fell. It would be redundant to fire the bullet when both were still on the board.

She didn’t have to wait long.

One particularly aggressive swing, and thwack, later, the metal canister split from the handle stuck to Walker’s hand to hit the ground. Walker stared at the metallic handle with calm uncertainty.

The KER-PLUNK that emerged from the metal device made Sonya bit her inner cheek. Come to think of it, Chet probably didn’t intend whatever the thing was to be used as a blunt force instrument.

Her hypothesis turned out to be correct when Walker fell to the ground while shaking and grunting. The colossal frog mirrored Walker’s movement, sans grunting.

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Sonya’s revolver tip ping-ponged between the two as the seconds ticked by. She crinkled her nose. Burning.

Electricity.

She aimed the revolver at the device, which based on the fact that it emulated a disco ball at the club, was missing certain parts of its shell. Her forefinger quivered against the trigger. She wasn’t nervous, of course not.

The gigantic blob of flesh that was previously just a big frog fell directly upon the device and ceased shaking.

Sonya tasted blood in her mouth and realized she was still biting her cheek. Revolver still raised but hammer de-cocked, she approached the two and dragged Walker through the water to place him a few feet away from Chet.

Based on Walker murmuring in his unconscious state and Chet’s chest rising up and down she figured she wasn’t on the hook for another death.

“Fucking hell,” she sighed as she surveyed the organic blob from afar. It was no longer shaking, but rather… bubbling like tomato soup simmering in a pot. Flesh rose and fell underneath the skin. To her knowledge, Welting frogs didn’t normally bubble, but it wasn’t anywhere close to how weird some creatures got on Thera.

Sonya re-cocked her revolver anyways, the click-click of the hammer being pulled in place comforted her. She stepped in front of the two boys and observed it. “C’mon, just die,” she murmured.

Unfortunately, with each bubble the creature… grew. At least, that’s what it looked like. The moonlight let in by the cavern hole on the opposite side of the creature caused the broken frog to be nothing more than a silhouette. However, as more and more wet bubbles rose to the surface, infant-sized limbs sprouted from its body.

At the sight, Sonya calmly inhaled. Shriveled frog-like hands mopped the floor as the creature took shape. A monstrous limb that hinged at three knees unfolded itself from under the creature’s chin and pushed its body up out of the shallow water.

She pushed the metal protuberant that sat above the handle into the “Custom On” position. Sickly arms slapped against the beast’s wet skin. Plap plap plap. At least two more three-joint hinged limbs tore out of the creature’s skin to push itself-off the ground. It could no longer be classified as a frog, nor one of God’s holy creatures. It shook itself like a dog stepping out of a bath.

Sonya pulled the trigger.

Click. Click. Click.

The tip of the revolver exploded; a light blue comet buried itself into the thing’s bloated belly. The creature teetered on its three limbs before rocketing itself toward the entrance.

The cavern rumbled. The hair on Sonya’s arms prickled as the bullet took effect. The thing tried again, it wanted out. Though it now doubled girth made it impossible to squeeze through the entrance.

Mutated limbs fell off the thing to smash and crumble on stone, no longer just flesh. It gurgled as the limb below its chin grabbed the lip of the cavern exit hole. The light dimmed in the already dark cavern as the creature’s distended body covered the hole.

Like the crackling of logs in a fire, the bullet’s mechanism took hold, and the cavern was finally quiet.

She reloaded her revolver with regular bullets, hugged the wall, and approached the thing. Shivers ran down her spine as she stood only a few feet away. Slumped against the cavern wall sat the creature, frozen solid. Avoiding the limbs that resembled icicles more than anything, she stepped into the pool.

However, her feet broke through crumbling ice with a crunch.

Sonya winced as the cold water cuddled with her toes. She pulled out her phone, identified the correct contact, and sent them a text. Thankfully, she found some service.

She sighed; her breath visible in the little light provided. She holstered her revolver and made her way back to Chet and Walker. She eyed them before her legs gave out and she slid down the cavern wall.

She wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled them close.

She stayed like that for a while.