Chapter 319
Jake directed the stream of high-powered automatic rounds at one of the wrecks. Two bandits hiding behind it tried to get out of the way, flattening themselves against the ground. One of them was too slow, though, and the bullets turned his body into a gory mess.
Somebody on the other side of the roof returned fire. Bullets whizzed past him like angry hornets. One of them struck his shoulder and exploded on impact, sending bits of armor flying through the air. Other than that, the hit didn’t inflict any real damage to his body.
Sweeping the barrel around, Jake unleashed automatic fire at the rusted car frame where the shooter who had just targeted him was hiding. The bandit dove for cover, but he couldn’t outrun a bullet. One of the rounds hammered into his forehead and came bursting through the back of his head in an explosion of gore.
All the bandits’ attention was on him now. Each of the humans took cover behind a derelict car frame, crouching low to the floor to present as small a target as possible. Nobody paid any more attention to the muscle car, believing there were no enemies left inside.
Just as Jake aimed a stream of devastating fire at the wrecks behind which two bandits were ducked low, he sent his spider a mental command to exit the muscle car and attack the humans. The acid-spitting ten-legged crawler immediately obeyed, emerging from the hole in the car roof moments later.
None of the bandits noticed the new threat, too occupied with staying low to the ground as heavy-caliber rounds zipped over them. Jake could let go of the machine gun and continue to eliminate the humans with his natural weapons, but he first wanted to let his spider have some fun too.
He directed the torrent of rounds at one of the derelicts, and bullets hammered through the rusty frame, tearing it apart. At the same time, he noticed his spider jump from the roof of the muscle car to the wrecks lining the left side of the roof level. While he continued firing at the vehicles on the right side, keeping the bandits pinned down, he kept an eye on his spider out of the corner of his vision.
He saw the crawler disappear between two broken-down cars where a bandit lay sprawled on the ground. A second later, a scream of pure panic cut through the gunfire. Jake watched as the human jumped to his feet, his spider clinging to his face, completely covering it.
The bandit couldn’t see anything. He stumbled across the roof, hitting the arachnid with his fists but inflicting little to no damage. He grabbed the spider with both hands, trying to pull the spider away, but its ten legs tightly wrapped around his head held the creature firmly in place.
Some of the bandits on the left side rose from the ground, peering over and around vehicle frames, trying to understand who had attacked them from the other side. Jake seized this opportunity to swing the barrel of the machine gun back toward the left side of the roof, killing a couple more enemies who were careless enough to expose their heads and shoulders.
His spider finished its victim off by driving its large fangs through his skull. The now-dead human collapsed to the ground, and the spider scuttled back to the wrecks. It darted behind two cars where two more humans were taking cover. They both noticed the creature and jumped to their feet, gripping their weapons tightly. Aiming at the crawler near their feet, they opened fire.
No, you don’t, Jake thought as he immediately directed his fire at them, mowing them both down. His spider, unscathed, scurried beneath one wreck and emerged on the other side, where another bandit was. Before the man could comprehend what was happening, the crawler spat acid at his face, eliciting a scream of pain and horror from him.
Without waiting for the human to succumb to his mortal wound, the crawler leaped onto the roof of the next vehicle in line. Below him were crouched two more bandits, the last ones on the left side of the roof. The spider shot a glob of acid at one of them and leaped toward the other.
Believing his crawler was capable of taking down both bandits, Jake redirected his fire to the right side of the roof. Those taking cover behind the wrecks there couldn’t quite understand what was happening on the other side, as the muscle car parked in the middle of the roof blocked their view.
Two bandits craned their necks around the cars and popped their heads over them, trying to see what was happening. Jake opened fire again, managing to kill one of the two bandits as the other dove back behind cover. That’s when the machine gun ran dry. Instead of reloading it, Jake jumped from the truck’s bed to the ground and dashed to the right side of the roof.
There was no longer a need to maintain his disguise, so he discarded it. Vaulting over the hood of the first wrecked car in line, he landed beside a bandit crouching behind it. Before the bandit could even get on his feet, Jake plunged his cone-shaped drill through the top of the human’s skull.
Having dealt with the bandit, Jake leaped onto the roof of the next vehicle in line. Dropping into a crouch, he looked down and saw another person below him. A precise acid shot dealt with him almost instantly.
That’s when Jake heard a thunder-like gunshot from the other side of the roof level. He turned and saw that one of the last two bandits was still alive. The bandit stood on his feet, aiming at the underside of the wreck before him, where Jake’s crawler must have just hidden.
His spider seemed to be in trouble. It might have even been injured. Jake extended his left hand toward the bandit and launched a circular saw blade. It zipped through the air and then cut through the human’s head, slicing the top of his skull clean off. The human remained on his feet for a second longer before collapsing to the ground, dead.
His Feral Instincts alerted him to a danger: someone suddenly popped up from behind the cover of the next vehicle in line, aiming a shotgun at him. A fraction of a second before the bandit squeezed the trigger, Jake jumped to the side, landing on the ground before the front of the car.
He then leaped over the hood of the next vehicle, colliding with the shooter and knocking him to the ground. Jake slammed his smashfist into the bandit’s face, turning his head into a gory pulp. After that, he jumped to his feet and pressed on along the row of cars, dealing with every human in his path.
Just as he killed the last one, he heard the roar of an engine behind him. He spun around and saw one of the two SUVs flanking the pickup truck lurch forward. Behind the wheel was a person whose face was half burned by acid. One of his eyes was missing, and a large hole gaped in his left cheek, revealing the teeth.
It had to be one of the two humans his crawler had dealt with earlier. The person drove around the muscle car parked in the middle of the roof. Once cleared of the obstacle, the driver began to accelerate toward the ramp on the other side of the roof.
Only Jake wasn’t about to let the human escape. This group was the first to learn about his disguising ability, something he preferred to keep secret from humans for as long as possible. He could definitely benefit from it in the future.
He launched a grappling hook at the passing SUV. Once it latched onto the side of the large vehicle, he jumped, simultaneously yanking the cord and sending himself flying toward the massive car. He slammed against its side and quickly crawled to the roof of the speeding vehicle.
Morphing his right hand into claws, he pierced the metal roof. Gripping it firmly, he peeled off a fragment like the lid of a tin can. The person looked up at him with an expression of absolute horror on his mangled face. Jake thrust his hand through the breach he had just created, sinking his claws through the driver’s skull.
With the bandit now dead, Jake jumped from the roof of the speeding SUV. The massive vehicle kept moving forward at the same speed. Moments later, it careened off the roof, smashing through the barrier and plummeting to the street several floors below.
The fight was now over, but Jake took a moment to examine each body, ensuring all the humans were dead. After confirming there were no survivors, he summoned his ten-legged crawler, which emerged from beneath one of the wrecks where it had been hiding from the attacking bandit.
The creature stopped at Jake’s feet, and he looked down at his spider. Contrary to what he expected, the crawler was uninjured, which was a relief. Jake turned and began making his way toward the edge of the roof, ready to jump down to the street. It was time to return to his lair.