The snake twisted around the struggling man as the hooves stopped striking the pavement. It would make another fine addition to the new nest it was creating in its recently rediscovered home.
The cat cub ran off as the snake slithered back towards the mines and its home. People moved out of its way, but one thing was following it without fear.
A black bird flapped and bounced along the rooftops trailing the snakes progress. That bird had been following it for weeks and after every kill it would hop on and then either leave or take one bite and fly off. The first few times the snake had tried to retaliate, but now it saw little point.
It was going along the metal beams with the wood laid underneath right next to the underground entrance. It was about to enter when several walkers appeared. The walkers began to sting it with those horrid metal devices they used to kill things.
It took the body beneath and threw it further down, but then realized that it could not lead them to the nest now…that would endanger the family she had found again.
The serpent went outside and confronted them, but was hurt in the process. It escaped once into the Deeps nearby, and waited.
***
“What was that?” Anghkarn asked.
“The snake thing.” Kimika said and Cyan pointed to her, “What she said. It doesn’t get hurt easily.”
The militia member agreed as she mused, “I must have hit it. But I don’t think it did much.”
Cyan hid behind her, figuring it was smart to hide behind the person armed with a gun. Yang, who had only just arrived, had a similar idea. However he also remembered the night before when Emerson had nearly shot him with one of Kimika’s ray guns and nearly burnt down the Gangplank and the sushi barge without ever once getting close to hitting the serpent.
Orpheus pulled out a gun as well, but Kimika looked at them all and nodded, “I’m going back for a bigger gun. Something experimental I’ve been working on.” She didn’t tell them what as she hurried off, but they asked her to hurry.
***
The snake had smelled the creature that reeked of fish, the weird furry thing that had cut it time and again. It slithered out of the water and attacked, the metal things they wielded hurt but could not kill it. The parts they cut off with the long metal sticks would grow back.
They tried to fight it, one with a small stick which shocked it, one with a metal stick which cut it, and one with the device which stung.
A small fireball shot past them all and erupted beside the snake along the pier. The snake scrambled as the vibrations shook it to its core, and the walkers fighting for their lives also jumped back.
The other walker, the female one, brandished a strange new device which was aimed at the serpent. The snake tried to back away and reach the water but a second volley was fired and the snake exploded into flame.
What was that weapon?
And, is this really the end for the snakey?
The weapon was an electro-chemical rifle that I’ve been tinkering with. It generates and fires globes of ball lightning suffused with explosive gas. The globes are just stable enough to hold together until they strike something. Kaboom. And I can’t overemphasize the importance of test stands and remote controls.
(( I’ve no idea if that could actually work but I’m guessing not. Ask this guy —> http://what-if.xkcd.com/16/ ))
Test stands and remote controls sound good. Might have avoided that unfortunate explosion a couple of years back… *makes a note*
Unless the snake can regrow its head, it truly is vanquished. Also, its mounted head is going to look great wherever it gets hung.
So what happens if it regrows a whole new body from that head? oO
Shortly before it started attacking people on the streets again the snake was expecting a small brood of her own…it was glad that it had rediscovered its family in the winter of last year.
((The snake is dead. But to say that there will never be another Serpent of Clockhaven which likes to venture above ground is premature…even if the next one didn’t come up for another fifty years.))