Stinger

ed Vance and Celeste Preston were sharing a third bottle of Lone Star at the Brandin' Iron and waiting for the end of the world when they heard the shriek of tires turning onto Travis Street. Several times in the past fifteen minutes the Brandin' Iron's floor had shuddered, and a stack of plates had crashed down in the kitchen with a noise that had almost shot Sue Mullinax out of her sneakers. The old-timers who'd been sitting at the back had fled, but Vance didn't budge off his seat because he knew there was nowhere to run to.

Now, though, it sounded like a lot of cars were heading north up Travis. Sounded like some of them were banging into each other, they were in such a hurry. Vance got off the counter stool and went out to the street. He could see the headlights and taillights of vehicles roaring along Celeste Street, turning onto Travis, some running up over yards and adding more dust to the thick air. Looked like a mass exodus, but where the hell were they goingi He could barely make out the glow of the 'Gade fort, and he figured that was drawing all the cars. They were racing like the devil himself was snapping at their fenders.

He realized Celeste had followed him out. "I'd better get up there and find out what's goin' on," he told her. "Seems that'd be a safe place for you too." "I'm gettin' my ass out of here." She still had hold of the Lone Star bottle, about three swigs left in it, and she dug into her jumpsuit pocket for her Cadillac keys. "Best thing about that big ole house is, it's got one hell of a strong basement." She started around to the driver's side, but paused before she slid under the wheel. "Hey, Vance!" she called. "Basement's got a lot of room. even enough for a fat sumbitch like you." It was a tempting offer. Maybe it was the beer sloshing in his belly, or maybe the fact that the light wasn't worth a damn, but Vance thought at that instant that Celeste Preston was... well... almost pretty.

He wanted to go. Wanted to real bad. But this time the monsters of Cortez Park would not win. He said, "I reckon I'll stick here." "Suit yourself, but I think you've seen High Noon too many times." "Maybe so." He opened the patrol-car door. "You take care." "Believe it, pardner." Celeste got into the Cadillac and plugged the key into the ignition.

Vance heard a sound like clay plates cracking. Celeste Street seemed to roll like a slow wave, fissures snaking across the concrete. Sections of the street collapsed, and human figures began to crawl out of the holes. Vance made a choking sound.

Something burst up out of the street next to Celeste's Cadillac. She looked into the seamed face of a heavy-set Mexican woman, and the woman's hand darted in through the open window and closed on Celeste's wrist. Celeste stared dumbly at the brown hand, at the saw-blade-edged fingernails digging into her flesh. She had a split second choice of whether to scream or act.

She picked up the beer bottle beside her on the seat and smashed it into the creature's face. Gray fluid splattered from the slashed cheek. Then she let the scream go, and as she jerked loose, ribbons of flesh flayed off her arm. The thing reached for her again, but Celeste was already squirming out the passenger door. The claws ripped across the back of the driver's seat.

Celeste tumbled to the curb. The creature hopped nimbly up onto the hood, was about to leap at her - and then Vance shot it point-blank in the head with the Winchester rifle he'd pulled out of the patrol car.

The bullet went through its skull and shattered the windshield; now Vance had the creature's full attention. He put the next bullet between its eyes, the third one knocking its lower jaw out of joint and fountaining broken needles into the air. It made a shrieking noise and jumped off the hood, its spine bowing and the scorpion tail bursting loose. Its arms and legs elongated, mottled with black scales, and before Vance could fire again the thing scrabbled off and dropped into a hole in the street.

another hunched and misshapen replicant, its spiked tail weaving like a cobra's head, rushed out of the smoke at Vance. He had time to see it wore the ooze-wet face of Gil Lockridge and then he started shooting. a bullet ricocheted off the pavement, but the next thunked into the body, staggering the creature, and Vance shot it in the forehead. The tail crashed against the front of Celeste's Cadillac, caving in the radiator grille, but it backed off and retreated.

an acidic, sickly-sweet smell was in the air. Vance saw other figures scuttling in the haze, and he ran the four strides to the patrol car, popped out the spent clip of bullets, and shoved a fresh one in. He had two more, each holding six cartridges, and those he jammed into his pocket. a third figure lurched toward him. Vance fired twice at it, didn't know if he did any damage or not but the thing - a scorpion's body with the dark-haired head of a man - hissed and darted away. "Come on!" Vance shouted, his gaze sliding from side to side and his heart slamming. "This is Texas, you sonsofbitches! We'll kick your asses!" But no more of the things rushed him. There were others out there, maybe five or six of them, emerging from the holes like scorpions stirred up from a nest. They were racing toward Travis Street.

Oh Jesus, Vance thought. Stinger's found out where Daufin is.

There was a crashing sound and the thud of falling bricks. Vance looked to his right, saw the smoke and dust swirling around a shape as long as a train's engine moving along Celeste Street. He caught a glimpse of a massive spiked tail, and then it slashed from one side to another and the storefronts exploded as if hit by a demolition ball. The thing's tail swept aside the chainlink fence that surrounded Mack Cade's used-car lot, hit a car, and knocked it onto its side. Then the thing was clambering through the cars like a roach over food crumbs, and as the tail kept smashing cars Vance saw sparks fly. a pickup truck upended and slid into the street. The creature got amid the cars and madly flailed left and right, and there was a hollow boom of gasoline going up, followed by a leap of red flame that let Vance and Celeste see the black, eight-legged body and the narrow head that was a bizarre combination of horse and scorpion. The thing flung cars in all directions, more fires started up and fed on the ruptured gas tanks, and then it continued its progress through the heart of Inferno.

Vance grasped Celeste's bleeding arm and pulled her up. Sue Mullinax was standing in the cafe's doorway, her freckled face milky white as she watched the monster coming. Vance saw that it would be on them in seconds, and its tail was battering everything on both sides of the street. "Get inside!" he yelled at her. She backed into the cafe, and Vance pulled Celeste with him through the door. Sue scrambled over the counter, huddling down beside the refrigerator. Vance heard stones crash into the street: a wall toppling. He dropped the rifle, hefted Celeste Preston and shoved her over the counter, and he was climbing over too when the entire front wall of the Brandin' Iron imploded in a storm of white stones and mortar. The patrol car slewed in, smashing chairs and tables out of its path. Three fist-sized pieces of rock slammed into Vance's shoulder and side and knocked him over the counter like a bowling pin.

The roof sagged, the air white with rock dust. Pools of fire burned around the broken oil lamps. The Brandin' Iron's front wall was a gaping cavity. Outside, the creature veered to the right, its tail whipping through the front of the House of Beauty, and then it crawled north along the buckled wreckage of Travis Street. In its wake, five more of the smaller things came up out of holes and followed like scavengers after a shark.

In the Hammonds' house, Scooter was barking fit to bust. Sarge lay on the den floor, his hands covering his head and his body trembling violently. about a minute before, something had hit the wall that faced Celeste Street and the entire house had jumped off its foundations in a shatter of glass and breaking stone. Sarge sat up, his nostrils stung by dust and his eyes wide and glassy with the memories of incoming artillery rounds. Scooter was right beside him, still barking furiously. "Hush," Sarge said; his voice was a husky rasp. "Hush, Scooter," he said, and his best friend obeyed.

Sarge stood up. The floor had been knocked crooked. He'd gone into the kitchen ten minutes before to raid the refrigerator and had found a pack of wooden Fire Chief matches, and now he struck one of them and followed its light to the front door.

There was no front door. Most of the wall was gone too. antitank gun, Sarge thought. Blew a hole clean into the house. He could see the red leap of fires in the direction of Cade's used-car lot. and something else out there, gliding through the smoke and flames. Tiger tank, he thought. No, no. Two or three Tigers. Maybe more. But he couldn't hear the clank of treads, and the thing didn't lumber like a machine. It had the fluid, terrifying power of life.

Celeste Street had broken open. Sarge could see other shapes - human-sized, but hunchbacked things that moved with the quick purpose of ants swarming toward a meal.

The match burned his fingers. He shook it out and let it drop, and he retreated from the collapsed wall. Struck another match, because the darkness had claws. Scooter circled his legs, whining nervously. The house was no longer safe; it was laid open like a wound, and at any moment those things in the street might scurry in. Sarge dared not leave the house, but he knew he and Scooter couldn't stand out in the open like shell-shocked fools, either. He backed out of the den and into a hallway. There was a door on his left; he opened it, faced a closet full of boxes, a vacuum cleaner, other odds and ends. It was too narrow for both himself and Scooter. The match went out, and he struck a third one. Panic was eating into him. He remembered a captain's face, the man saying, always take the high ground. He looked up, lifted the match, and found what he was seeking.

at the hallway's ceiling there was a little recessed square and a cord hanging down about six inches. Sarge reached up, grasped the cord, and pulled it. The square opened, and a folding metal stairway came down. Just as in his own house, there was a small attic. The high ground, Sarge thought. "Go on, Scooter!" he said, and the dog scampered up the steps. Sarge followed. The space was a little larger than the attic in his house, but still there was just enough room to lie flat on his belly. He got himself turned around, pulled the steps back up, and the attic door clicked shut.

The match died. He lay for a moment in the dark. The attic smelled of dust and smoke, but he could breathe all right. Scooter nudged up against him. "ain't nobody can find us here," Sarge whispered. "Nobody." He scraped another match along the Fire Chief box and held it up to see what was around them.

He was lying on a mat of pink insulation, and the storage space was jammed with cardboard boxes. a broken lamp leaned against the eaves, and what appeared to be sleeping bags were rolled up within Sarge's reach. The insulation was already itching his skin. He grasped one of the sleeping bags and pulled it toward him to lie on. He got it spread out, but there was something lumpy in it. Something round, like a baseball.

He reached into it, and his hand found a cool sphere.

The match went out.