Free Nasty Little F___ers-Kindle by David McAfee

wouldn’t even be a supply helicopter for another week. That didn’t leave a lot of options. In fact, it only left one.
    “There’s not much we can do, is there?” Janice asked. “It’s too far to hike back, and we couldn’t carry enough food to make it, anyway. We’ll just have to wait until Monday.”
    Colby looked at her and nodded, impressed that she’d reasoned it out so quickly. Her face was flushed, and her pale blue eyes sparkled with a mixture of fear and adrenaline. Yet her mind was sharp as always, and he found himself thinking about the hours ahead. He wondered if, during the upcoming mess, they would be able to find time for themselves. Probably not. The nights of sneaking into the woods were long over. He felt a twinge of loss at that, but it couldn’t be helped.
    Three of his charges were dead or dying. He didn’t intend to lose any more.
    “That’s about right,” he said. “We’ll sleep in shifts. Someone needs to be up and on their guard at all hours.”
    “What about our work?” This from Edison. “We still have a lot to do here.”
    Colby wanted to slap the man, but managed to hold himself in check. “Two people have died, and a third one is probably dying. Once that chopper gets here, I plan to get on it and get the fuck home. If you want to stay behind and finish your work here, be my guest, but you’ll be doing it without me.”
    Around the group, every head nodded. No one wanted to stay behind after knowing what happened to Jared, Harper, and Bock. Even Edison seemed to accept the idea.
    “All right, then,” Colby said. “Now that that’s settled, who’s hungry?”
    ***
    Twenty feet from the edge of the science team’s campsite, Bock and Harper, or what was left of him, watched from the concealment of the brush. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he could guess it readily enough.
    “They’re going to post a guard tonight,” he said.
    Harper nodded, and a small group of grubs fell from his half-eaten face and landed on the ground. They quickly loped and crawled their way back to Harper, and began feasting on the remains of his toes. Soon Harper would be nothing but a pile of bones, just like Jared, and then Bock would be alone. He would have to make his move soon, before Harper rotted away and left him without any backup. Harper probably had another six hours before his muscles and flesh were so far gone as to render him completely immobile. Six hours, maybe eight.
    Not a lot of time, to be sure, but if he could get Colby (and his gun) out of the way, then it wouldn’t matter. The rest of the team could be brought in at his leisure. He looked down at the hole in his belly and marveled that he was still alive. The grubs had taken care of him, fixing up the worst of the damage so that he could carry out their plan and bring more people into the fold. He’d have succeeded back at the bear carcass if the flies had any teeth, but they didn’t. They didn’t have the necessary proteins in their saliva, either. Only the larvae did. Only they could dig in and take control. The flies were just vessels for the eggs, and nothing more. Too bad.
    He rubbed the hole where the bullet pierced his body. Fucking Colby. Should have just stood there and waited for a Queen, but no, he had to go and ruin everything. Well, Bock would get him for that, and the grubs would have him. He’d see to it.
    “Tonight,” he told Harper. “We’ll move tonight.”
    Harper smiled, sending more grubs to the ground.
    ***
    Bock didn’t know it, but he wasn’t the only one staring at Colby and wishing him ill. Moretz stood at the entrance to his tent, watching Colby and Janice talk as they walked through the campsite, probably headed for the first aid tent so Janice could help tend Colby’s wound.
    Leave it to that bastard to come in fucking shot. Janice had fawned over him like a mother duck over a duckling. He probably planned the whole thing, wanting to come back injured so Janice would