SNAFU: Heroes: An Anthology of Military Horror

Andy broke into a loping run. He pulled his pistol from the holster. From his mouth came the Tarzan yell that Johnny Weissmuller had made famous the world over, copied by kids from Chicago to China. But Andy was no longer a kid. He wasn’t even a man any longer. Finally, amidst Hurricane Edgar and the death of the girl at the hands of the giant wasp, he’d become that being he’d spent his whole life denying. He was the King of the Jungle, imbued with savage strength and animal instinct. His need to save superseded his desire to survive. He’d finally become that man Tarzan could be.

Batista heard him and turned towards the sound. The smile on his face faltered as he spied Andy rushing towards him.

Andy didn’t give him a chance to make a move. He raised his pistol and fired three times. At least one of the rounds hit, knocking Batista to the ground.

Then all hell broke loose.

From behind him, the Vulcan cannons opened fire. The gunners couldn’t have been able to see, so they must have been firing blindly. Mines were exploding all over the place. The signature explosions of Hellfire missiles accentuated the mines with their deeper concussive blasts.

Andy felt something coming towards him and dove for the earth. A wasp swooped past him, foiled by his instinctive maneuver. Andy rolled to his back, and took aim with the pistol. He fired four times as the wasp swooped and came back towards him. Each round found a home on the underside of the shiny black carapace. He managed to roll away at the last moment as the wasp crashed dead to the earth.

Clawing his way to his feet, Andy ran the rest of the way to the girl. He fell to his knees beside her. He felt her shoulders and her head to make sure she was okay. She stared at him in terror.

“It’s okay, Jane. Everything’s going to be okay.”

He smoothed her hair. Her expression softened a moment, then exploded into a preternatural scream.

Before he could turn, Andy felt himself buffeted by half-a-dozen blows on his back. He fell hard to the ground, his breath gone. Then something bit his leg. He kicked out and managed to free himself.

He rolled to his back and brought his pistol to bear. But what he saw froze him in place. Even his scream locked in his throat, blocking his breath.

Covered entirely in black and brown bristly hair, the tarantula stood ten feet tall. Its legs arched from the ground to a body with sections the size of VW Bugs. Its front two legs were poised directly above him. Andy drew his attention from the multifaceted eyes to the tips of the spiders fangs, poised to pierce his chest.

Finally his scream tore loose.

He fired the remaining bullets from his gun into the giant spider, but it had no effect.

Andy scrambled backwards.

The tarantula followed.

Out of the corner of his eye, Andy saw that the girl was stock still. Good — if she moved it might draw the monster’s attention.

He scrambled backwards again and threw his gun into the face of the creature.

The spider stopped. It shuddered once, then twice, then shuddered for a long time.

Andy scrambled to his feet just in time to get out from beneath the giant spider as it fell. He stood shakily. The girl ran towards him and threw her arms around him.

They both watched as the tarantula shuddered once more and then died. Who would have thought that he could have killed it so easily?

But then they heard buzzing coming from the spider’s back. Andy and the girl backed away. Horror dawned in Andy’s mind. Was it going to...?

A hand reached out and grabbed his ankle, pulling him off his feet. Batista! As he fell, the back of the tarantula exploded open and three wasps, each the length of a broom, clawed their way free. They appeared hungry and eager and mean.

The girl was transfixed.

Andy tried to scream, but a hand clamped around his throat.

“Fucking Tarzan puta!” Batista growled as he climbed on top of Andy. He clamped his other hand around Andy’s throat and began to throttle him. “Who the hell do you think you are to try and stop me?” Blood foamed at the corners of Batista’s mouth.

Andy struggled to break free, but no matter his newfound Tarzan desires, he couldn’t remove the other man’s iron grip from around his neck. He felt his vision dimming as Batista cursed him.

The hand suddenly relaxed. Light went out of Batista’s eyes. Abruptly his chest blossomed a long thin stinger. Andy watched, unable to move as a golf ball-sized egg pushed down the length of the stinger and squirted free of the end. It landed on his chest then rolled to the ground.

Andy screamed and heaved Batista backwards until they both fell, crushing the baby wasp to the ground.

Looking toward the girl, Andy felt his universe implode. Something bestial came over him.

He barely remembered breaking off the stinger from Batista’s chest and rushing over to the other baby wasp that had its own stinger deep inside Jane.

He barely remembered stabbing the giant insect with its brother’s stinger until it fell dead beside the girl.