Nasty Little F___ers-Kindle Read Online Free PDF

damage at a distance of fifty yards, but at close range, it’s almost like a miniature apocalypse. The Jared-thing’s head exploded in a cloud of blood, brain, and bits of bone, but it’s body kept moving forward, propelled by the inertia of its charge. A second or two after the shot, as Harper hid his face behind his hand, a headless lump of flesh and larvae fell to the ground in front of him with a loud splat, sending up a spray of grubs and blood that painted Harper’s exposed flesh a sickly red color.
    Colby kept the gun pointed at the body, just in case it moved again, while Harper remained true to form and puked his guts up, adding his vomit to the general mess in front of the tent.
    “What the fuck was that?” Bock asked, shoving his head through the opening.
    Harper finished throwing up and stared at the corpse, whimpering Jared’s name over and over.
    “Fuck Jared,” Colby snapped, and replaced the gun in its holster. “We had company, Bock. You dressed?”
    “No,” Bock replied. “Harper and I are spooning, and clothes just get in the fucking way.”
    Colby smiled in spite of himself. Nice , he thought. At least Bock still has his sense of humor. “Get your shoes on and give me a hand. There’s a mess out here.”
    "Be right out.” The sound of shuffling came from the tent as Bock pulled on his socks and shoes.
    Harper knelt at the tent flap still, his upper body outside the tent, but the majority of him still inside. “Jared,” he said, shaking his head.
    Colby stepped over to the tent and grabbed Harper’s face in his hand, forcing him to look away from the body. Harper winced – Colby wasn’t gentle – and tried to break free. He almost made it. The blood and gore on his face made it slippery, but Colby squeezed harder and managed to keep hold.
    “Listen to me, Harper,” he said. “Whatever that was, it wasn’t Jared. Not anymore. Understand?”
    “Then…then what—”
    “It doesn’t fucking matter. But the three of us are getting out of here right now, and you are going to keep it together until we get back to camp. I can’t carry you the whole way, and neither can Bock, so snap out of it, all right?”
    Harper, his face held in Colby’s vice-like grip, nodded. A single tear fell from his right eye and rolled down his stubbled cheek. “OK.”
    “Good. Now clean up, you’ve got bugs and blood all over your face."
    As soon as Colby let go of Harper’s jaw, the scientist started swatting at his face, trying to get the grubs and blood clear. Colby noticed a few red welts on his skin, and remembered what he and Bock said about the grubs biting. Harper probably didn’t feel anything just yet due to shock, but Colby would have bet money in a few minutes the man’s face would sting like a bastard.
    “Move it, Harper,” Bock said from inside the tent. “I can’t get out.”
    Harper slid out of the tent, stepping around the body in an almost dainty fashion, then Bock’s head poked back through the tent flap. He looked at the body in front of the tent, but didn’t throw up. “That Jared?” he asked.
    “It was,” Colby replied.
    Bock studied the body for a few moments, then his eyes narrowed. “Those grubs look familiar.”
    “They should. My guess is they’re the same as the ones we found on his hand and foot. Which reminds me, you might want to back off a bit. Remember how far those little fuckers can jump.”
    Bock, who’d been leaning over the body to get a better look, raised back up in a hurry and rammed the back of his head into the tent fabric. “The little bastards are still eating him.”
    “Of course they are,” Harper said. He seemed to have recovered himself a bit, for which Colby was thankful. “That’s what larvae do. But I’ve never seen this species before.”
    “We know that,” Colby said. “You told us already.”
    Colby felt a sudden sharp pain in his right shin, and his leg gave an involuntary jerk. “Ow! What the fuck?” He reached down and