31.

The next few minutes played out in slow motion and double speed simultaneously. The thing scuttled away frantically, two stretching appendages wrapped around nearby tree trunks. Its pointed legs tore huge divots out of the rocky soil as it backed away.

"Nine o'clock!" Phil yelled again. I spun wildly, unable to think about facing, knowing only that it wasn't where I was currently looking. I fumbled at my weapon as I turned, only seeing another one of the creatures charging me too late. I froze, and the big iron roared again. A jet of white-yellow fluid sprayed from a widening crack in the thing's carapace. As the jet/mist-covered a fir tree, it burst into flame. I realized that the abomination's blood was the OTHER kind of plasma; superheated and apparently, highly pressurized.

32.

The creature pulling away from the fight slowed down as its tentacles stretched to their limit around the nearby trees now stripped of bark. I managed to extricate the 9mil from its holster and peppered one of the untouched creatures.

"No!" Phil screamed hoarsely. "They'll target you! Run, Thomas!" As I tried to keep tabs on all of the distortions resolving into the abominations, my gaze fell on the one affixed to the trees as others started to--

33.

When I realized what they were doing, it was already too late. It had turned itself into the world's worst slingshot... and as its segmented shell clicked, changing the direction of its joints, it launched directly at me.

Philip threw himself in the way, the massive THING impacting and spinning off to the side. I felt my face go numb as I watched Phil stagger backward, the slide of his gun locked back. Empty. His eyes were closed, as if seeing what I saw would make it real.

The bladed spider had cleanly sliced off his already amputated stump and the shoulder connected to it.

The wind howled, the ground shook, and the creatures closed in from all angles. Phil opened his eyes as his lifeblood drained from him. Then it all blew away.

34.

Glacier Peak erupted. The mountain tore itself into atoms as the shockwave leveled everything in the valley below. As I watched it race toward me, all I could think is, "This must be a dream. This is too much."

And then it was upon us. Everything was torn away. The creatures, my brother, the ground cover, and trees. No, the very PIGMENT was ripped away from the trees. And yet, I was untouched. When it had passed, I stood on a white, featureless topographical representation of Whitehorse. The sky and ground were the same smoothly shaded but otherwise barren alabaster.

Across from me stood a man.