The Token by Kevin Bird (the little red hen ebook .TXT) 📖

though some were still restless and standing. We arranged ourselves so our first leap would be completely efficient, as thereafter, it would become confusing enough. The images passing around clearly showed which of us would go for which of the animals; no wasted efforts here. With one last message of familial love, we leapt over the fence towards our targets.

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“It’s them! They’re coming over the fence now!” Cale’s voice was excited and Drake was impressed that he kept it at a whisper so as not to tip the creatures to their presence.
“Copy. Hold your fire, I see them and they’re getting closer to me.” Several black shapes were bounding from the rocks over the fencing and landing directly on the backs of Jacob’s blues. As the animals ran around some came close to Drake’s side of the fencing and within the short range of his weapon. One of the blues let out a piercing scream as the creature on its back plunged its proboscis downwards.
Drake could see this all happening almost in slow motion and took advantage of the creature’s immobility for the moment and fired his weapon. It gave out a quiet popping noise and he saw the tag embed itself in the thing’s side. The creature immediately jumped wildly to one side apparently trying to get away from what had just stung it. Before Drake could even pat himself on the back for his good shot he heard a series of louder shots coming from the direction of Cale. His security chief hadn’t wasted any time.

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“What was that?” Bettine’s voice was quiet and scared.
“That was one of our blues screaming. They must be here now.” Jacob was suddenly terrified. He had seen what these creatures could do and here they were on his farm. Then he heard a faint noise from Drake’s direction, Jacob could just see him with his weapon to his shoulder, and then almost immediately there followed a series of sounds that were obviously Cale firing with the more powerful ammunition.
Then his eyes caught a movement and he was in shock. His blues were running about their enclosure in a panic and many of them had black monsters on their backs. Every couple of seconds one of the creatures would jump from the back of one blue onto that of another. Also, every now and then one of the black things would explode and be knocked from its perch, apparently shot by Cale. Jacob could not see him in the tree so far away from the raising barn, but he could easily see the flash from the muzzle of his gun as it spat its projectile into the black shelled animals that were attacking his blues. He might not be a lover of technology, but he had to admit he liked what it was doing to the creatures that had caused so much trouble.
“Dad, look!” Bettine shouted as she pointed towards Drake. Jacob swung his gaze away from the crazy scene in front of him with difficulty, and saw nothing for a moment.
“What?”
“One of those things jumped over the fence and is trying to get up the seed barn to get at Captain Drake.”
It was true, he could see it now, a deeper black against the black shadows had taken a jump from the ground attempting to reach the rooftop. The first time it fell short and was now changing its position so it might leap from a higher spot; it looked like it would succeed this time.
“Drake! Look out behind you!” Jacob screamed at the top of his lungs, but Drake didn’t show any sign that he’d heard. In fact Jacob could now see the man was talking into his radio headset oblivious to the danger only the other side of the building from him.
Without any real thought other than this was a man who was trying to save them and was about to be killed, Jacob ran down the stairs from the rafters intent on doing something. On the way he grabbed a pitchfork, and as he did so he called up to his daughter. “Lock the door behind me and stay inside.” With that he was gone, running towards the seed barn vaguely aware that he could hear screams from some of his animals as they were attacked. He ignored them, leaving their immediate fate to Cale, intent on stopping the creature before it got to Drake.

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The first image of pain shot through all our minds and we were confused. We had not sensed, nor seen anything to be cautious of, and here was one of our number in pain. Still alive, but clearly injured by something other than one of the animals. Immediately we had tried to see where the danger was and one of us gave an image showing a two-leg up on a roof. The rest of us carried on with our task trusting to our comrade to deal with the thing that had hurt one of us.
Suddenly a loud noise followed by a bright flash of light accosted our senses. It was from outside the enclosure and as we tried to place it and understand what it was, we knew we were in trouble. The previous night the two-legs were unable to stop us or hurt us, but tonight was different. A thought of pain and then darkness flashed to all of us, and we could see one of us knocked to the ground from the back of a beast, never to rise again. Instantly others began to be stung from afar and in most cases the sting was the last thing they would feel. We felt it, too, and were enraged.
We had found where the noise and flashes were coming from and several of us bounded that way, toward a large tree. As we approached we could see a two-legs up high, too high. It was causing pain and death to us without having to be close and there was nothing we could do about it. Staying longer would just be a death sentence with little return for the loss. We had visited almost all the animals in the pen anyway.
As we all leapt over the barrier into the darkness there was still one more of us left behind. The images told us what was happening and that we should not wait for the results of this one action. Maybe the two-legs would be killed and maybe not, but our friend had chosen to stay and try to avenge the pains visited upon us. Moments later, as we scaled the rocky hillside towards home, we felt and saw our comrade’s final pain and could not be sure whether the two-legs had gone to its death also. Either way we would mourn the loss of our fallen comrade.

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Jacob ran screaming Drake’s name into the night air and as he got closer he could see that Drake had finally heard him and was looking quizzically over the edge of the roof. Before Jacob had a chance to shout up a warning he saw the black shape out of the corner of his eye flying upwards, this time reaching the roof. In a fluid motion that seemed to come instinctively to him he threw the pitchfork through the air towards the moving thing. The pitchfork defied the mundane use it had been designed for and flew straight at its target striking home. The creature was knocked off balance by the blow and was slowed considerably. Then Jacob saw nothing for a moment as he stood there catching his breath, unsure if he had killed it or not.
A second later he heard a muted pop and the creature came flying over the edge of the roof above his head and he ducked automatically, afraid for his life now the creature was upon him and he was unarmed. But, in that moment of paralyzing fear, he heard a thud just behind him and then silence. He opened his eyes, not realizing they had been closed, and saw the black shape lying still on the ground. It was bleeding from its side, presumably from where the pitchfork had hit it, but obviously what had killed it was a shot from Drake’s weapon. Jacob could see a large wound in the creature’s head between the eyes and sticking out was the splayed-out end of the special tracking bullet Cale had shown him earlier. Though they were not designed to kill it was clear that at such short range and in such a delicate spot they could kill; lucky for Drake. Suddenly he realized that the silence that had hit him a moment ago was because his blues had stopped screaming. Looking around he saw no more things leaping from back to back. They’d gone.
“Thanks.” Came Drake’s panting voice from overhead. “That was pretty quick thinking and a hell of a good throw.”
Jacob was still shook up, but was able to sense the sincerity of the pirate’s words; the first time he had felt that from him. Maybe he wasn’t all bad after all.
“I guess you won’t be so eager to laugh at us using a pitchfork for a weapon from now on will you?” He was actually surprised to realize he had found some humor in the situation. Drake seemed surprised, too, and he laughed aloud shaking his head in the negative. Before they had a chance to exchange any more niceties they heard Bettine screaming, though they could not make out the words.
Jacob ran back towards the barn and as he approached it the double doors burst open and several of his breeding stock ran past him. They were panicking, running blindly about bumping into each other and the two buildings. Jacob ignored them, for the moment, and he ran inside to make sure Bettine was all right. He saw immediately that his daughter was fine, but the animals were not. Those that remained inside were running about in apparent terror, blind to the injuries they might be doing to themselves. He closed the doors and went in amongst them raising his arms and making a soothing sound he knew the adult’s would often make to their young in times of stress to calm them. Bettine did the same and between them, though they were both knocked around a little for their trouble, they were able to placate the crazed animals. Once this was done, Jacob told Bettine to stay with them and he went out to see to the others.
About ten of them had run from the building and Jacob could only see two of them now from the doorway. Both had been heavily pregnant, and both were lying apparently dead at the base of the fencing around the enclosure holding his other blues.
“They took one look at the others in the corral and just ran straight for them plowing into the fence. I think they broke their own necks! I’ve never seen anything like it.” Drake’s amazed voice came to Jacob through a fog of fear. What had happened? And more importantly what would happen if more of his animals were found dead?
“Can you see the others from up there?” Jacob had to find them and bring them back to safety before more were injured. But it was too late for that now once he heard Drake’s reply.
“I think I see at least one more on the ground. It’s on the other side of this building. From here the only other movement outside the fencing that I can see is below some trees on the other end of the nearest enclosure.”
Jacob ran around the barn and immediately felt his stomach flip. Drake had been right; another large blue seemed to