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"And drop a few of these in our wake," J.B. said, easing a gren from his
munitions bag.
"Got any Willy Peter?"
"Nope."
"Damn. Then use whatever you got," Ryan said.
Turning toward Dean, the man gestured at the web. "Give it something to worry
about aside from us."
The boy nodded and retrieved a Molotov from the padded saddlebag. Holding it
ready to throw, he watched as the rest of the companions began creeping
forward on their bikes, boots dragging. As the spider began to start toward
them, Dean quickly ignited the oily rag tied around the neck of the bottle and
smashed it on the concrete at the middle of the web. The Molotov crashed into
a fireball, blue
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flames licking at the thick strands.
Keening loudly, the giant spider rushed for the blaze, and the companions
separated to roll past the huge mutie. As they came alongside, they each drew
weapons but nobody fired or made any sudden moves. A pungent wave of
putrescence followed the creature as it scuttled by, the reek of honey
sweetness and rotten meat almost making them gag.
Once past the norms, the spider dashed for the precious web. Crackling loudly,
the flames were commencing to burn through the lower cable, the silky ropes
above charring badly. In frantic haste, the spider crawled onto the web,
snipping lengths free with its mandibles. In only a few moments, a ragged
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patch of smoking material fell to the ground, and promptly burst into flames,
the silky material sending off greenish smoke.
Now angling its head, the insect keened again in a lower tone and crawled off
the web to charge toward the departing norms.
"Move!" Ryan shouted. He twisted the grip on the handlebars to the last stop,
and the Harley lurched forward.
As the rest of the companions hit the gas, gray smoke poured from under the
spinning rear tires until they caught, and then the machines shot forward. But
the spider was only fifty yards behind, and closing fast. The Harleys were
slowly building speed, but so was the spider.
Shifting to the highest gear, J.B. pulled the gren and used his teeth to peel
off the safety tape. Grabbing the pin with his other hand, the Armorer yanked
it loose and tossed the HE charge at the oncoming creature.
"Shotgun them," he ordered, wheeling to the other side of the bypass and
dropping another. "No groupings!"
A rain of grens arched over the companions to hit the concrete road, and
bounce toward the spider. Moving with incredible agility, the mutie dodged the
pattern of spheres and was past the first gren when it detonated. Zigzagging,
the spider
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nimbly maneuvered past the grens, the rest exploding in ragged order, throwing
out great clouds of black smoke to mix with the green fumes of the burning
silk.
The friends fired a flurry of rounds at the mutie as it snapped its mandibles
at the rear bike carrying Jak and Doc. The LeMat boomed twice, but the .44
mini-balls did no visible damage to the creature.
Spitting curses, Ryan pulled out a gren and started to slow, attempting to
reach a position where he could drop the gren and ace the mutie, but not Jak
and Doc.
As it tried again, Doc fired the LeMat steadily until realizing that the
creature was dropping farther behind with each passing second. In triumph, the
old man gave a shout in Latin as the beast began to fall behind the
motorcycles, and then receded into the distance.
SLIDING BACK into formation, the companions reduced their speed and put a
couple more miles under their tires before they stopped watching for the
mutie.
"Need an armored tank to chill that thing," J.B. stated grimly. "Something
that size would toss an APC around like a kitten."
"If it caught the APC," Doc offered.
"Armored personnel carriers are not famous for their speed or durability,"
Mildred said, allowing herself to breathe once more. "The best would be an
Apache gunship with heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles."
"Any chance we might find one of those at the armory?" Dean asked.
"Could be a lot of choppers there," his father said, watching the temperature
gauge. "But that's not a wag you can operate by guessing, like a tank or PT
boat."
On the horizon, the southerly volcano belched forth a tremendous black cloud
of ash, laced with geysers of white steam. A minute later, the roadway
trembled, and
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