Defensive Instinct (Survival Instinct Book 4) (60 page)

“Help,” she heard again. Even though she was closer now the voice sounded more feeble. Megan suddenly wasn’t sure she wanted to see the state of the woman. Whatever gruesome mess was inside of the crater would probably stay with her forever once she saw it. Yet she couldn’t just ignore a cry for help. Her mother hadn’t taught her much worth learning, but she had at least taught Megan that.

She skidded to a halt at the edge of the crater. She could see now that it was deeper than it had appeared from farther away, also wider. The smoke and steam had subsided enough that she had a fairly clear view inside it, even if that view didn’t make a lot of sense to Megan. There was some water pooling at the bottom now that the thing at the center was no longer quite hot enough to instantly boil it away. And that thing was…well, Megan couldn’t be sure. It definitely had the general shape of a human but there was no way it could be the source of the voice she’d heard. That would require the person to be alive, and nothing could possibly survive what this person had been through. The person’s skin, right along with any clothing they might have been wearing, was charred right through. Megan thought she could see the muscles underneath, but even that was burned black. There were still veins of orange and red cracking through the charred outer husk, giving the illusion that whatever had burned this person was still working its way through the inner flesh. The strange thing was that there was no smell, though. Megan would have expected the smells of blackened skin and singed hair to stink up the air, but Megan smelled nothing more than the fishy tang of the lake water misting through the air.

“Help.” The thing’s dehydrated lips moved. She really was still alive, somehow.

“Oh dear God,” Megan said, again checking her smartphone and fiddling with it in the hope that it had magically added some bars in the last few seconds. It still gave her the X that indicated no signal. Deciding that probably wouldn’t change anytime soon, she put the phone back in her pocket. The only way she was going to get help would be if she ran back to her car and drove until she got back in range of the cell tower. Leaving this woman behind somehow felt wrong though, especially since Megan didn’t see any way she was going to survive more than a few more minutes.

“Just…just wait there,” Megan said, realizing how stupid that sounded even as it left her mouth. This woman was in no condition to go anywhere. She didn’t even look like she could move her limbs. She was curled into a semi-fetal position, and the black and dehydrated muscles made her look like pictures Megan had seen of those mummies that would sometimes be discovered in ice. Megan went to the very edge of the crater and assessed whether or not it would be a good idea to go in. The sides of the crater weren’t so steep that she couldn’t get out, and in terms of depth it would only go up to her belly button. It was filling up with water faster now, though. In less than a minute, the woman would probably drown rather than succumb to the burns. Maybe that would be the more humane thing to let happen, although Megan didn’t think she could force herself just stand by and watch that. At the very least, she had to try to pull the woman out, maybe even get her to say something about what had happened before she died.

Her skin still looked hot, though, probably too hot to touch. Megan pulled out a pair of winter gloves from inside her coat and put them on. They were rather flimsy and wouldn’t protect her hands for long. They likely would, however, work just long enough to pull the woman out. She didn’t look like she weighed much.

That thought stuck in her mind as Megan carefully stepped down the steep sides into the crater. Maybe it was the burn damage, but there seemed to be something odd about this woman’s proportions. She looked like she hadn’t had an ounce of fat on her body, and she looked smaller than a grown woman should. Holy crap, was this a little girl? No, Megan realized as she got closer. Two large yet still shriveled protrusions from her chest marked this woman as a full adult, or at least a teen who had been well-endowed early. Her back was messed up though in a way Megan couldn’t quite identify, almost as though the woman had been deformed even before whatever happened. These were all details that Megan knew she shouldn’t be dwelling on just now, though. She could wonder what it all meant later, after she’d given the dying woman what little comfort she could and the police were involved.

“Help.” This time the word was barely audible. Megan stooped down in the growing pool of water and leaned her ear in close to hear whatever the woman’s last words might be.

“Please,” Megan said. “Tell me what happened.” She knew this would be a sight that would haunt her for the rest of her life and every moment she stayed here was a little more psychological trauma added to her already heaping pile. Yet she couldn’t leave yet. It was the only right thing to do.

The woman’s lips moved again, but this time no sound came out. Megan moved closer, hoping she might decipher some of what she was saying through lip reading, but there weren’t enough lips left to read. There was, however, something else odd about her mouth. Something strange about her teeth…

With lightning speed, the woman grabbed Megan by the shoulders with both arms. She sat up, her entire body creaking and cracking yet moving with a quickness that Megan had never even seen in a completely healthy person. Megan screamed, partly out of shock and partly at the red hot touch of the woman’s hands that burned right through Megan’s coat to singe the skin underneath.

“Help,” the woman said again. There was no longer any sign of weakness in her voice. Her voice was strong, deep, throaty, and very clearly not human. Her charred lips curled back in a grim parody of a smile, giving Megan a clear view of the woman’s teeth. All of them pointed. All of them sharp. All of them dripping with some kind of mucous-colored ichor like venom.

“Help me,” she said again, then opened her mouth wide and came at Megan.

Megan’s scream was short.

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