“One’s coming,” he muttered, switching his weapon’s light off entirely.
In the sudden darkness I strained to catch any hint of what Hunter had noticed. And then I heard the faint scrabbling of claws on rock.
And it was growing closer.
“Get ready,” Hunter whispered.
Suddenly his light flared to life once more, spotlighting one of the creatures in the tunnel ahead of us. The beast stumbled in the sudden intense beam, turning its head away from us for a moment. Martina staggered back in surprise even as Hunter and I opened fire, slamming the thing with round after round. It shook its head once as though still blinking away the light from Hunter’s gun and then crouched as though to spring. But it never did.
Instead, it exploded.
Or rather, imploded and then exploded.
For a brief instant
