Wings of Death

The Hunted

Captain Elijah realized that this solitary Bloodwing was much larger than the ones they had just killed. As it came closer to them he could faintly make out its physical features. Unlike the other Bloodwings this one had two large blue sacs hanging under its throat. He waited for the Bloodwing to come closer so that they could get a clear shot. When it was just 10 metres away from them it stopped in mid air.

“Shoot it down!” ordered the Captain.

Corporal Matt and Sergeant Abel fired at it simultaneously. All the grenades hit the target but the Bloodwing didn’t go down. The grenades didn’t even scratch its feathers. Without a moment’s delay the Captain took aim with his Z-19 rocket launcher and fired a barrage of laser guided missiles at the target. The rockets exploded on impact and left behind a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared they were shocked to see the Bloodwing still hovering mid air. There were no scars or bruises visible on its body.

Sergeant Abel stared at the Captain with a terrified look on his face. Dr. Erica Von Hart had confirmed that Bloodwings could easily be taken out by explosive weapons, yet this monster did not even flinch after being blasted by a hail of explosive rounds. Captain Elijah realized that something was horribly wrong. He was about to fire another volley of missiles at it when the huge Bloodwing opened its mouth and spit out a blob of green fluid. It narrowly missed Captain Elijah and landed on an abandoned car to his right. Instantly the liquid burned through the metal hood and left a huge hole in the car.

“It’s spitting acid pellets! Fall back right now!” screamed the Captain.

The soldiers heard him and started running towards the vehicles. The Bloodwing started chasing them and kept spitting blobs of acid at them.

“Start the vehicles. Get inside”, shouted the Captain and he kept running towards the Arch Knight Tanks. Nathan and his friends had never seen the Captain running away in fear. Without wasting any time they immediately boarded the Arch knight tanks.

Corporal Matt had barely managed to reach his Shock Hound when a blob of acid fell on the turret of his car. The acid burned through the metal as if it was made of butter. Nathan could not believe what he had just seen. He had never thought a Bloodwing could spit acid which could melt down metals in a few seconds. Alex urged the driver to start the tank immediately. The Arch Knight tanks opened fire on the Bloodwing to buy the Shock Hounds time but even the explosive cannon shells had no impact. The creature kept spitting at the armored vehicles.

“Stop shooting at it and get the hell out of here”, thundered Captain Elijah.

Half the cars in the convoy had been pelted with the acid pellets by the time the vehicles turned around and headed for the base. The Shock Hounds were out of the Bloodwing’s reach in a few minutes but it still kept following the slow moving Arch Knights.

“Drive faster. It is still on our tail”, Joshua had started trembling in fear.

The Vipers had ventured outside at night to hunt the Bloodwings but the tables had turned rather quickly. The hunters had now become the hunted. The men understood that they weren’t safe even inside their cars. The acid had already eaten through the outer armor casing. Captain Elijah realized that they were woefully unprepared for dealing with such a threat. The Bloodwing kept spitting at the tanks relentlessly. Luckily most of the pellets missed the target and only a few managed to land on the rear guard. The acid spitting monster chased them all the way to where the bandits had been killed and then suddenly disappeared. They tried to find it using the cameras on the vehicle but it was nowhere to be seen. Nathan did not understand why it had suddenly stopped chasing them. Suddenly Alex tugged at his shirt and showed him his palmtop, “Look, it is drizzling outside”.

The rain had arrived just at the perfect time once again. It was no less than a miracle for them. Under the cover of rain, the convoy eventually managed to return to Fort Barton. Nathan had a lot of questions on his mind and he knew only Dr. Erica could answer them. As soon as the vehicles had stopped inside the base, he got down from the tank and ran towards the research facility.

Captain Elijah checked on his men to make sure everyone was alright and then started examining the vehicles. The two military engineers who had come to inspect the vehicles were shocked to see the armor corroded in so many places. They stared at the Captain and waited for an explanation but he walked straight past them and ordered Lieutenant Amy to call Major Morris,  Dr. Erica and Dr. Grant immediately. They needed to know about their terrifying encounter. The scientists needed to know every detail about the Bloodwing which had wreaked havoc on their vehicles. For the time being he decided to keep the incident a secret from the survivors to avoid any panic.

Meanwhile Nathan had already reached Dr. Erica’s lab. Margaret and Dr. Grant were also present there. They were discussing the social organisation of the Bloodwings when Nathan barged in.

“We were just attacked by a huge Bloodwing. It wasn’t like the others. It was spitting some kind of acidic pellet from its mouth and our explosive rounds couldn’t even scratch its wings. It kept chasing us like a demon. If it hadn’t started raining we would all have been killed by it”, he blurted out while gasping for breath.

Margaret rushed to his side and offered him a glass of water. “Sit down Nathan. You need to catch your breath. You are safe now”.

Dr. Erica and Dr. Grant both were terrified upon hearing Nathan’s words. It could only mean one thing; the appearance of a sub species of Bloodwings.