Coyote Read Online Free PDF Page B

treated to a view of a hungry, sucking mouth, right in the middle of the bottom shell. She was bending down to look at the mouth when the thing got two of its remaining legs underneath it and gave a sudden pop, flipping itself into the air and landing upright again.
    The movement startled her and she brought her knife slamming down onto the center of the thing’s shell. It skittered off the rounded shell, finding no purchase, and she ended up stabbing the road next to it. Frowning, she grabbed a fist-sized rock from the ditch by the road, and slammed it onto the shell. It was hard—the rock bounced off, doing nothing more than making the thing skitter its legs more quickly in agitation.
    She gave a worried look up the slope. There were many more of these, making their own careful way down the hill, and if they were all tough like this, she had a problem. The man and the dog were both alternating between watching her investigations and looking up the slope. Neither looked like they had any suggestions.
    With her knife in one hand, and the rock in the other, she used the knife to flip the thing over again. As soon as it was on its back, the brought the rock down again, aiming for the mouth on its underside. The rock crashed through the underbelly with a satisfying crunch, and gore sprayed out, coating her hand and spattering her clothes. It was a sandy brown, and gave off a foul stench. The thing stopped moving. She smiled, and stood.
    “Připravit,” she said.
    The dog came to stand next to her. The first of the crab things were arriving at the street.
    “What?” said the man, giving her a puzzled glance. Then he took in her stance, as well as that of the dog. “Oh Jeez, no way! Shit no!” He went around behind her, giving a wide berth to the dog, staring up the hill. “There’s bunches of ‘em!”
    Both she and the dog ignored him. She saw no future in running until exhausted, like the man already had. She would fight. The dog and the man could do as they wished.
    The first one hit the level surface of the road. It came right at them with no hesitation. On the slope, they moved at the speed of a man crawling. On the level pavement the crab-thing’s speed increased to that of a slow jog. That seemed to be their top speed. Not too fast.
    The first one arrived, and she flipped it with her knife, bending down to crush it quickly, before it managed to flip itself back over. On her knees now, it was inches away from her, reaching out with its claws to take a chunk form her thigh when she brought the rock down. One good crunch, and it was done. But by then, the next one was in range. She stayed on her knees there, flip, crunch, and splatter, dealing with each crab-thing as it arrived.
    Glancing over, she saw the dog dancing around, trying to bite the crab-things. Each time it tried, it got nipped by the nearest claw and its nose was now bleeding from several small cuts. It was quick, though. It didn’t let any of the crabs get a good grip on it.
    “Come on, dog! Bite it! Kill it!” she yelled, “Zaútoč!”
    The dog looked at her, ears pricked.
    “Dělej!” she yelled. “Zaútoč!”
    Seeming to respond to her urging, the dog latched onto the body of one crab and gave it a vigorous shake. As the dog shook, limbs came flying off the crab. Then the dog bit down hard, and she could see the dog’s lower jaw crushing into the softer underbelly. When the dog let go, the crab-thing dropped to the ground, feebly twitching its few remaining legs. It was out of commission.
    “That’s right, dog. Now all of them! Zabij je všechny!” She was surprised to hear the fierce joy in her voice, but there was no time to ponder that. Again the dog responded.
    The dog lunged for another, shaking it and then crushing it. Now that it had the technique it began to tear through the crab-things in a frenzy.
    From the corner of her eye, she saw the man to her left and behind her. He had picked up a stick and was poking at them, and