Shades of Earth Read Online Free PDF Page B

first instinct is to jab my finger into my wi-com and get help, but of course that doesn’t work.
    The thing stretches out its wings—each twice as long as I am tall and adorned with two-fingered hooked claws on top of the sharply angled joints. The claws spread apart and grasp at the air in my direction. The beast’s feet grip the sandy soil as it leans forward, opens its mouth, and emits a piercing, ringing scream at me, a high-pitched shriek that feels as if it is vibrating my bones. Even though the creature is far enough away that I couldn’t reach it, I can feel its hot breath on my skin, see its sliver of a black tongue raised as it screeches at me.
    I fumble for the gun, the grenades, anything.
    The creature launches up, pushing off from the ground and slamming into me with its hard, boney head. I crash to the ground, the monster on top of me, its body so heavy that I can’t catch my breath.
    It bends its long, snake-like neck toward me, its jaw opening, the black, saw-edged teeth foaming slightly as it nears my face.
    A shot cracks out.
    The beast whips up its head, startled. A bullet whizzes past, nicking it in the back. Its claws clench, and my skin rips along with the cloth of my shirt.
    Another gunshot and the bird-like thing launches up, pushing against my rib cage as it leaps to the trees. I gasp for breath as it claws its way up one of the trees and takes off, flapping its voluminous wings as one final gunshot echoes after it.
    â€œGet inside!” Amy shouts from the bridge of the shuttle. “Hurry!”
    I scramble up. Blood drips from my chest, and my shirt is ruined, but the wounds are nothing compared to what could have happened. Amy grabs my arm as I reach the top of the ramp and jerks me into the shuttle.

7: AMY
    As soon as the door slams shut, I spin Elder around, looking for wounds. All I can think is,
I almost lost him
. Every other thought—excitement about the planet, anticipation for my parents’ return, fear of the monsters outside—all of that is gone as my eyes and my heart focus on the blood leaking down Elder’s chest. He knocks my hands aside, taking off his shirt and using it to blot out the blood on the scrapes. They don’t look deep, just jagged and rough. I grab some of the disinfectant Kit had me using to help with the stitches and spray Elder down.
    â€œHow did you know to come outside and help me?” Elder asks, still breathless.
    â€œI heard that pterodactyl-looking thing scream—it sounded so much closer than before.” I pause. “What was that thing?”
    Elder shakes his head, looking at his ruined shirt. “One of Orion’s frexing monsters, I guess. Did you see anything in the forest?”
    I shake my head. “What was in the forest?”
    â€œI . . . I don’t know.” Elder finally meets my eyes. “Think one of those things knocked into the side of the ship when we were landing? It was big enough to throw us off course.”
    â€œI don’t know,” I say, echoing Elder. I am only starting to realize how much I just don’t know. Like, for starters, what the hell was that
thing
? It looked kind of like a pterodactyl, with a pointed head and massive wings and jagged claws, but there was also something distinctly
alien
about it.
    Alien. That’s what everything on this planet is to us. I suppress a shudder, my hands instinctively gripping the still-warm gun.
    I should have been able to hit that creature; I should have killed it. But I was too scared, afraid that I might accidentally hit Elder.
    And afraid of
it.
    Elder takes the gun from me. “I’ll put this back in the armory,” he says. “And I think I should take a closer look at what we have there.”
    I try to push the image of the beast from my mind as I head back to the cryo chamber, but I keep seeing the way it opened its mouth, lowering it toward Elder’s face. . . .
    Kit grabs