Chapter 243: GOOD GIRL!

Chapter 243: Chapter 243: GOOD GIRL!

Content Warning: violence, blood, injury, and children in danger.

Nilo saw it first.

"Kairo."

Something in his voice made Kairo look down immediately.

The Hollowmaw was already climbing.

Not rushing.

That was what made it worse.

Its stone-gray body lay almost flat against the wooden support, six hooked limbs working upward one by one.

Clack.

Clack.

Clack.

Each claw sank deep enough to shave curls of wood away.

Kairo’s golden eyes widened.

"Mama!"

Swanly spun.

Her stomach dropped.

"No!"

She ran.

The Hollowmaw was already too high.

Across the collapsed path, Kael heard her scream.

He had never left.

He was still there.

Still pacing the broken edge like a panther trapped behind invisible bars, black paws bloody from repeatedly testing every piece of rubble for a path that would not crush the people pinned underneath.

Soren’s enormous white body was coiled beside the collapse.

He had been lifting fallen beams one at a time with the end of his tail, painfully slowly, because every movement made the trapped survivors scream.

Kael’s head snapped toward Swanly’s side.

He saw the Hollowmaw.

Saw the platform.

Saw his children.

His ears flattened.

A roar ripped out of him.

The Hollowmaw heard it.

Its eyeless head twitched.

Then turned back toward the five small heartbeats above it.

Sira stopped crying.

Her wet silver eyes fixed on the creature.

Eira went completely still in Kairo’s arms.

Swanly knew that stillness now.

Snake stillness.

The Hollowmaw’s skull split sideways.

Rows of pale teeth unfolded.

Sira hissed.

A real hiss.

Not one Miko had taught her.

Her little fangs showed.

"Sira, no!"

Swanly was still too far.

Sira leaned over Nilo’s arm.

Spat.

A thin stream hit the creature across the soft flesh around its mouth.

The Hollowmaw shrieked.

Its body spasmed so violently the entire platform shook.

Steam curled off blistering tissue.

Sira startled at her own success.

Her eyes became enormous.

Nilo stared at her.

Miko stared at her.

Kairo shouted through his fear:

"GOOD GIRL!"

Eira’s head turned toward her sister.

Then toward the creature.

Swanly saw understanding enter those tiny silver eyes.

"No."

Eira hissed. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

"Eira."

The Hollowmaw dragged itself another handspan higher.

"Don’t you..."

Eira spat directly into its open mouth.

The effect was worse.

Flesh bubbled.

The Hollowmaw screamed.

Soren’s massive head snapped toward the sound.

His tongue flicked.

Once.

Twice.

He could smell his daughters’ venom through the blood and smoke.

His silver pupils widened.

If this were any other day, Swanly knew he would have been unbearably proud.

Tonight?

His coils tightened around the rubble so hard stone cracked.

The Hollowmaw lost one grip.

Then another.

Swanly reached the support.

"Fall, you ugly bastard."

She drove an arrow upward.

The System bow hummed in her hands.

The arrow punched through the creature’s open mouth and exploded out through the softer joint beneath its skull.

The Hollowmaw dropped.

Swanly dodged.

It hit the ground hard enough to bounce.

Still moving.

Of course.

She fired again.

The second arrow buried itself through the mouth.

The creature stopped.

Swanly looked up.

"You two."

Sira was panting.

Eira looked extremely pleased.

"You do not spit unless something is coming for you."

Sira nodded immediately.

"Spit."

"No. That was not permission to spit."

Eira looked at Sira.

Sira looked at Eira.

Miko whispered:

"They’re going to do it again."

"They are absolutely going to do it again."

Then the support beneath the platform made a sound.

Crk.

Everyone froze.

Nilo looked down.

"Mama."

Swanly saw the fracture.

"No."

The Hollowmaw’s claws had cut deep into the support.

Too deep.

The platform tilted.

All five children slid.

The screaming started at once.

Kairo dropped onto his knees and wrapped one arm around Eira.

Nilo fell backward with Sira against his chest.

Miko’s feet went out from beneath him.

He slid toward the side.

"Miko!"

He grabbed the rail.

The rail broke.

His body went over.

For one second, only his hands remained visible.

Then one slipped.

"MAMA!"

Swanly’s heart stopped.

Kairo threw himself forward.

He caught Miko’s wrist.

The force dragged Kairo across the boards.

Eira screamed as she was crushed between his chest and the floor.

"KAIRO!"

"I HAVE HIM!"

His claws dug out instinctively.

Wood splintered beneath his fingers.

Miko dangled.

Below him, another Hollowmaw emerged from behind the dead one.

Its head tilted.

Miko was crying now.

Not shouting.

Crying.

"Mama, please."

Swanly drew.

Three arrows formed at once.

She released.

The first struck armor and shattered.

The second punched through a front joint.

The third went through the mouth.

The Hollowmaw jerked.

Not dead.

Swanly drew again.

Four arrows.

The bow gave them endlessly.

That had never been the problem.

The System could make arrows until Swanly’s fingers fell off.

Her body could not.

Multi-shot pulled brutally across her shoulders.

Four separate trajectories had to be held in her mind.

Her forearm already shook.

She released.

Two struck armor.

One missed.

The fourth entered the mouth and buried itself into the brain.

Dead.

Swanly jumped.

Caught Miko around the waist.

"Let go!"

"No!"

"Miko, let go!"

"I’LL FALL!"

"I HAVE YOU!"

He looked down.

Saw her.

Then released.

His whole body dropped against Swanly.

She nearly went down with him.

He wrapped both arms around her neck so hard she could barely breathe.

"Mama."

"I’ve got you."

His body shook.

Swanly climbed onto the tilted platform with him.

For just a few seconds, she stopped everything.

She gathered them.

All of them.

Kairo.

Nilo.

Miko.

Eira.

Sira.

Five children shoved against every piece of her they could reach.

Eira crawled straight up Swanly’s chest and wrapped her little snake tail around her mother’s wrist.

Sira buried her face under Swanly’s chin.

Nilo pressed his forehead against Swanly’s shoulder.

Miko would not let go.

Kairo was trying to breathe quietly.

Then Swanly saw his arm.

"Kairo."

Three deep splinters had ripped along his forearm when he caught Miko.

Blood ran down to his elbow.

Swanly’s face changed.

Kairo immediately hid the arm behind him.

"I’m okay."

"You are bleeding."

"I didn’t drop him."

Swanly stared.

Kairo’s mouth trembled.

"I didn’t drop Miko."

Miko looked at his brother.

Then started crying harder.

"Kairo..."

Swanly grabbed Kairo’s face.

"You did good."

His eyes filled.

"I was scared."

"I know."

"I thought he..."

"I know."

She kissed his forehead.

Kairo finally broke.

He leaned into her.

For that tiny moment, Swanly was not the woman who had survived zombies.

She was a mother sitting on a platform that was breaking apart, holding five terrified children while creatures crawled underneath them.

And she had nowhere safe to put them.

That was the worst part.

There was nowhere.

A scream erupted from beneath the collapse.

Across from them, Kael spun.

A trapped male had one arm sticking through the rubble.

Something below had caught his foot.

"HELP!"

Kael dropped to his stomach.

Claws extended.

He reached into the gap.

"Give me your hand."