Flashmaster (Short Horror and SciFi)

What Ever Happened to Summerville Part III - "The Gunslinger"

Sammy had always assumed it would be aliens. When they played out on the playground Matt Smith and Kyle Knutson always made Sammy play the alien. He'd go to the bushes beside the fence, come sneaking up behind the jungle gym, imaginary ray gun in hand, and then get blown away by Matt and Kyle after a fierce gun battle that often involved artillery and battleships. Yep, he'd always figured one day there'd be real aliens coming up the fence line; Aliens from Mars or Neptune or some such place. Sammy didn't know what the things destroying his school were but he felt pretty confident they weren't aliens.

They'd shown up first flying around outside the school, small, black winged creatures that cackled and chattered in high pitched, evil sounding voices. At first Ms. Richardson had tried to ignore the beasts. Then, when the class wouldn't pay attention, she shut the blinds. Finally, when the sounds of breaking glass and shrieking had started coming down the hallway, she'd gone out to take a look. She never came back.

The black beasts did though, tearing in through the classroom door, shrieking and hooting. One of them had grabbed hold of Emily Lumpkin's pigtails and rode her like a bronco buster as she ran screaming from the room. Two others had upended the science desk with the worm farm and the aquarium on it, ending the lives of Puff and Mr. Bubbles as well as an untold number of worms.

The class had cleared fairly quickly; children and monsters streaming out the door in a swirling storm, leaving a wake of upturned desks and scattered books behind them. Now only Sammy and two of the little beasts were left. Sammy had been knocked over by Clara Wilson in her hurry to leave and was cowering behind an overturned desk. The two monsters had become fascinated by the locked drawer in Ms. Richardson's desk and were gnawing at it, making terrible scraping sounds with their teeth.

The lid to the desk that Sammy was behind was partly open and he slid his hand inside looking for something that might distract or hurt the creatures. His hand wandered over a couple of books, a pack of chewing gum, something sticky that might once have been part of a lunch, then his hand slid easily around a pistol grip.

He pulled his hand back and found a yellow, plastic water gun in his hand. It had little silver fins on it like a ray gun. He was behind Matt's desk and this was Matt's, strictly against the rules, water gun.

Would the monsters know to be afraid of a gun, he wondered. Would they know enough to not be afraid of a water gun? He sat for a moment in deep concentration. Then, with the giddy feeling he was playing the good guy just like he never got to on the playground, he leapt to his feet and yelled; "Freeze!"

The two monsters jumped, as if he had appeared out of thin air.

"Freeze or I'll use this thing." Sammy said warningly.

The two little beasts looked at each other and one of them gave a distinctive, unmistakable shrug. The other launched itself at Sammy from across the room.

By reflex, Sammy squeezed the trigger. He didn't have time to think what a useless gesture it was.

The thin stream of water struck his assailant square in the head. There was a hiss and a yowl. The monster careened past Sammy and crashed hard into the wall. It fell to the floor and lay screaming and clawing at its smoking head. After several seconds of dramatic agony, the tiny creature rolled onto its back and died, one claw twitching spasmodically in the air.

Sammy and the remaining monster looked up from the fresh corpse to each other. A slow smile spread across Sammy's face. "Draw." He said, raising the water gun and firing. The monster shrieked and flew out the classroom door. Sammy loped after him. At least he hoped he loped. He'd read about a space cowboy who loped around in a Weird Tales story and, although he didn't know what it meant, he thought it was probably a pretty cool way to get around.

It was tough work, clearing the building. First with just the water gun then with it and a cup of water he found in the cafeteria, he went room to room splashing and squirting the little devils and rescuing kids pinned down in corners. He felt like Buck Rogers. Several times he thought he must be dreaming.

After about a half an hour, he'd gotten everyone out. Making one last check of the principal's office, he headed out the front door hoping to pick up some high praise on the way home. He was stopped on the front steps however. There on the lawn in front of him, holding a bloody mess that might have been the principal's head, was a tall, gray beast with wide wings and vicious fangs. Several of the small beasts were circling around the larger one's head, shrieking and chattering.

Sammy and the monster regarded each other coolly. "You've been hurting my children." The beast said in a gravelly voice. "I can't allow that."

Sammy thought about running back into the building but he'd just refilled the water gun at the fountain and he still had half a glass of water. He flexed his fingers so that his grip was tight on the water gun. "Bring it on." He said.

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