Swamp Invader part 4

Claire struggled fiercely against the pulling tendril, yet it seemed unimpressed by her resistance. That was until she was pulled near a tree which she latched onto with curiously strongly muscled hands. Her grip was quite strong and she held on like a bulldog with its prey. She reached down at her hip with one hand and tried to free her Mare's Leg from the holster. But the tendril was holding her too tightly for her to pull the gun from the holster. Then she got an idea. However, this was one of those ideas that seems good at the time, but later wonder how you could have been so blind. Now Claire didn't bother trying to pull the gun free. Instead, she lever the action that chambered a big shell, aimed blindly and fired the gun while it was still in the holster! 'BWOOM!' gun announced. The stiff recoil of the magnum cartridge helped loosen  it from the grip of the tendril, allowing her to pull it the rest of the way out of the holster. She quickly levered the gun again one handed the way Arnold did in Terminator 2. Turning her head she lifted her Mare's Leg and aimed carefully. However the angle was awkward and difficult to see. Plus her left arm was now in great pain from the pulling. She aimed as best she could and fired. BOOM!! She saw water fountain up in the water not far away. A clean miss! She levered the gun again and began to take aim once more. But then her grip gave out and she slid quickly towards the water. Not good! With the reflexes born of someone accustomed to danger, Claire whipped the lever gun upwards and inserted it sideways between the V-notch of the tree, again stopping her movement. Holding her gun by the middle, she had a much better grip than she had on the thick tree trunk. With her left hand she quickly grabbed her small emergency gun. While not nearly as powerful as her Mare's Leg, it was far better than nothing. Feeling that her time was running out Claire decided to do yet another drastic action of the moment. She put the muzzle of the revolver to the tendril around her waist, aimed carefully, mentally crossed her fingers and snapped off all five chambers. The medium caliber bullets went through about five inches of the alien limb before exiting out the other side. Immediately after the tendril unraveled poor Claire and slid into the inky water. Claire coughed hoarsely, having had trouble breathing from the strong limb. Aside from a burn on her thigh from having fired her Mare's Leg so close to herself she was otherwise alright. Marcia approached her carefully, having had her own rough time it seemed. Claire ejected the spent shells from her revolver and inserted fresh ones. Then she reloaded her Mare's Leg, but didn't re-holster it. She was fairly jumpy now.

Marcia asked the question they both wanted to answer.
"What… the reeking devil piss was that!?" she profaned, seemingly venting through harsh language.
"Dat… was one mess'd up freak o' nature cher'!" Claire replied, not sure what else to call it. Now treating the ground like a mine field, she carefully crouched over to the ground where the tendrils had emerged from. It was pretty clear that they had tunneled under the ground there, waiting for them. They both carefully prodded and examined the tendril that Marcia had brutally savaged and severed. Then the obviousness hit her.
"Dat was a friggen' plant!" she exclaimed.
"Are you kidding me?" Marcia asked bluntly, looking at Claire the way one looks at a person when they say they've seen a flying saucer.
"Yeah! Er, I mean no! Dangit, it was a plant! Those were roots. Think 'bout it. They were underground and only reacted when we were close to 'em. C'mon, look." Claire bent over and pointed at the tiny hair like projections coming from the sides of the tendril. Then she pulled up a root from another nearby tree for comparison. The two were frighteningly similar. The one they had though was notably more… grabby.
"Okay, you seem right on that." Marcia conceded.
"It explains why there have hardly been any traces of  what's been happening to people. The things are under the ground!" The roots certainly were aggressive and strong enough.
"Makes sense. But the question is, where do these roots lead to?" Marcia asked soberly. That was certainly a chilling thought.
"Well, we'd better find out where they do lead. Then waste whatever it is that they lead to." Claire said seriously. Marcia gave a rare grin.
"That's exactly what I was thinking. Think we can follow them at all?
I think so. Roots usually spread out from a central plant. So we should just go in the direction of where they went, and should be able to find the main plant. You up for it?
'Course I am! Lets do it!" Marcia hopped agilely into the canoe. Claire hopped in right behind her and began paddling quickly.
An hour later the two were still searching the haunting swamps for the plant-monster that they had briefly encountered earlier. They had to go slowly for many reasons. For one thing they had to keep their direction correct so to keep from missing their target. Another was they were both antsy about getting attacked by a monster that they couldn't see. They expected at any moment for the wicked roots to splash up from the water and entangle them. But they would continue on, carefully, patiently. Both now unconsciously worked together, the way natural hunters do. Marcia took the natural job of being the guard while Claire paddled them noiselessly through the swamp.
Suddenly Claire's nose twitched. She lifted her head higher, sniffing the air. She had some kind of scent.
"Do you smell that?" she asked quietly. Marcia sniffed the air as well. She thought the caught something, but wasn't sure. It was clear that Claire had a better developed sense of smell. But Marcia wasn't about to admit that.
"What is it? I can't tell." Marcia said, her eyes picking at anything suspicious in the murk, rifle pressed tightly to her shoulder.
"Neither can I. And I know every smell out here. Means we're getting close." They continued onwards, now on edge. Then Claire pointed into the swamp, which was now obscured by rising fog.
"There! That must be it!" she breathed. Marcia saw it too and felt her skin go cold.
About 30 meters off was a grotesque structure coming up from the water. It looked like a giant green and brown barnacle. It had a big round base that was maybe 40 feet wide and was topped by a rounded dome that had large holes here and there. There were perhaps 10 of these holes, yawning wide and dark like dead eyes. It seemed to be like an island unto itself, mired deep in to mud and mire. It was probably even larger underneath the surface of the water. Even from their current distance they could see the mass of roots beneath the surface water at the base of the monstrous plant. The thing probably had a reach for miles in every direction! As they watched one of the roots pulled itself up and out of the water with a wriggling young alligator in its grasp. The reptile was lifted slowly into the air and dropped into one of the gaping holes in the top dome. They both came to the sickening realization that the creature was feeding on humans and the local wildlife, dropping them into a big stomach filled with digestive juices no doubt. And it would keep going on like this…

"You don't happen to have anything bigger to deal with this giant pumpkin, do ya?" Claire asked, not taking her eyes off the plant.
"Uh… One of my thermite grenades inside of it should mess it up pretty good… Probably boil it from the inside out." Marcia said, brandishing a grenade that looked like a soda can with a pin in the top. Marcia grinned wickedly at her little toy. It was her own personal design that would send chunks of super-hot thermite in multiple directions. It was a sadistic incendiary explosive.
"The trick is getting close enough to lob the thing into one of those holes. Think you can make a good distraction?" Marcia asked Claire.
"Hey, you're the one with the big gun! Then again, it is your bomb too. Yeah, I'd rather not risk burning myself again. I'll see what I can do!" Claire hopped into a tree on a nearby island, climbing like a monkey while pulling out her Mare's Leg. Marcia began paddling gently towards the other side of the monstrous blob, hoping that she would go unnoticed.
Claire then double checked her lever gun to make sure all was in order. She pulled a few shells out of her belt and held the shells between her fingers for a fast reload. When Marcia gave her a wave Claire took aim and fired a magnum slug into one of the big holes in the domed abomination. A strange gurgling noise sounded from inside and the various roots began moving around slowly in all directions, as if searching for the source of pain. Claire then began firing away at the searching roots, putting big gaping holes in them with each shot. She hoped that doing so would lessen her chances of getting grabbed yet again. That certainly got the plant's attention. Mottled vines began reaching out in her directions, conveniently away from where Marcia was paddling.
Claire could see that the thing was quickly zeroing in on her area. She thought at first that the thing was almost purely reflexive, but this seemed to indicate that it had some kind of intelligence. That made her very nervous. Definitely not a good thing. She reloaded faster than you can say 'You done yet?' and began popping away again. Each shot blew wet chunks out of every tentacle, eliciting another pained gurgle from the monstrous plant. Marcia was only half way to her target now. But Claire now saw that the roots were slithering up her tree now, apparently aware that she was up there. She aimed downwards and tried fending off those creepy roots, moving to a defensive position now. She reloaded again, but was firing more rapidly now, shots more hurried. The thick roots were in large numbers now as they creeped up her tree like giant pythons. She shimmied up higher, trying to stay out of reach. Reload again. More rapid shots. More roots bleeding but still coming. She could see that she had chosen a bad place to be. She had almost nowhere to go! She looked around for where else she could go. She could try jumping, but then she might just be going from the frying pan and into the fire.
"Marcia! I need help!" Claire shouted, still firing downwards. Marcia looked up and was surprised to see how close the searching roots were to her teammate. Marcia lifted her rifle and let off a burst, which blasted apart several roots viciously, setting a few others on fire. Another burst. More exploding roots. She wasn't trying to destroy them all, just hold them off for a bit more time. She quickly got back to paddling, now feeling more hurried. But with another stroke she put the paddle too deep into the water, striking a root which immediately waved upwards, knocking Marcia clean out of the canoe and flying onto the lower base of the plant beast.
Claire was sweating with effort now. The roots were dangerously close now. And she was lowing run on ammo. Marcia couldn't help now either! Claire took out her knife. She breathed deeply and jumped from her perch just as the roots grabbed for her. As soon as she thumped to the ground though they were after her again. She fired one handed at the roots while walking backwards and slashed at the first tentacle that came within striking distance. But she tripped on a root that had come up behind her and she fell to the ground. The roots surged towards her, slithering around her legs greedily. Claire gave a cry of horror and began slashing desperately at the roots. But for every root she cut there was another to replace it.
"Marcia!" she cried before being smothered underneath the twisting tentacles, finally succumbing to their sheer numbers.

Marcia looked up just in time to see Claire get buried beneath the curling roots. She felt chilled at the sight. And she knew that such a fate was quickly approaching herself. Looking back she saw that more roots were coming after her now, the plant clearly feeling her on top of it. She opened up mercilessly on the tentacles, eviscerating and burning them with her explosive rounds. But there were so many! She shimmied backwards, towards the main dome. Her rifle ran dry and she ejected the spent magazine while simultaneously putting a fresh one in, racking the bolt and opening up again. Only a few feet away now. Then a root came from behind her and wrapped around her torso tightly. Marcia yelled out in pain, unable to point her rifle at the blindsiding roots. It corkscrewed itself around her as if trying to immobilize her while at the same time lifting her into the air upside down. She couldn't move! She looked down and saw herself getting lowered into one of the holes. Through it she could see bleached skeletons  in the pale green liquid inside… Human skeletons…
"No… Not… ME!" Marcia growled. She bit down savagely at the root which flinched distinctly, the grip loosening. With the momentary opportunity Marcia reached up and grabbed her grenade. She popped the pin and hurled the grenade into one of the holes. A wet 'plop' sounded as her grenade struck home. A second passed… and a blinding light flared from inside the dome. The holes glowed with the intense light as a loud hissing sounded, no doubt from the intense burning thermite. The gurgling that before indicated the plant felt pain now groaned loudly in agony, all of its tentacles writhing and flicking. Marcia was dropped and landed in the water. She quickly splashed to the surface in time to see greenish smoke billow from the holes in the domed plant. It spasmed and twitched as it was horrifically burned from the inside out.  The roots then began to stop their moving, settling in the water. The monstrous plant beast was dead.
"Whoooooooo hoo! Take that you fugly freak! That'll teach ya to mess with me!" Marcia cheered, making sure to give the massive corpse a very un-ladylike hand gesture. But then she remembered: Claire! Marcia quickly slogged through the water to the small island where Claire had been. There was a huge pile of roots that she was obviously buried under.
"Oh come on… Don't be dead…" she muttered. But she grew pale as she saw a hand hanging limply from the pile of roots, not moving. Marcia looked down sadly. Although she'd hardly known the cooky Cajun, she'd been a sturdy ally for the short time they'd been together.
"Sorry Claire… But I managed to kill the freak for ya." Marcia said, knowing that the dead couldn't hear. But it felt right. But she jumped when Claire's hand moved and gave a weak thumbs up.
"Whoa!" Marcia backed up as if a three eyed frog asked her to kiss it.
"I'm not quite dead…" a weak, muffled voice protested from under the heavy roots.
"Holy heck! Uh, hold on Claire!" Marcia quickly began shoving the roots over and out of the way, trying to free her teammate. A minute later Claire was able to sit up and coughed.
"Its really stuffy in there. Thanks. Good work killing the thing too!" Claire was grinning from ear to ear.
"Yeah well… Lets get out of here. I don't wanna stay in this sewage plant for the night." Marcia said, assuming her normal toughness again.
"Sure, sure. Lets go." Claire said, still smiling.
"Uh… Where's my canoe?" Claire asked, looking around.
"Its… Aw crap." Marcia said, seeing the canoe bent in half underneath one of the huge roots.
"You do know you're paying for that, right?" Claire said testily. It wasn't quite a question.



THE END