No subject

The digit ripped though the buckling walls as if they were cotton fluff. More mass began pushing the bunker
beyond any limits its designers had ever dreamed of.

There was a muffled explosion as the final seals failed.

Typhonna was free.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"What the hell was that?"

Turgidson couldn't meet Ripper's eyes.

"It could be...many things, Sir."

"Such as?"

The General squirmed under that cold gaze.

"Well-"

"YAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHH!!!!"

An earpiercing scream from behind them made both men jump.

Something bounced wetly into the room.

It was a man's arm. The camo sleeve of his uniform still clung to it.

And then the Ebony Nightmare Bitch from Hell was in the room among them.

Soldiers dropped what they were doing and snatched up their rifles to open fire on it.
Secret Service agents dived for cover as their service pistols barked loudly, doing their
duty to protect their charge.

They might as well have tried hurling water balloons for all the effect it had.

Dick Ripper stumbled back, slipping on a stray puddle of blood as the creature darted back
and forth around the room, snatching up soldiers and agents one man at a time.

Razor sharp claws disarmed them in the literal sense while the set of humanoid appendages 
above pulled the unfortunate victim close into an obscene mockery of affection that brought 
the beast's frontal pelvis in alignment. Lips pulled back to reveal a dripping hole that 
pulsed in a steady rhythm which caused the rows and rows of serrated teeth to rise and fall.

And then it started to eat them.

Screams of terror changed from tenors to sopranos as the geldings commenced.
 
Ripper scrambled on his hands and knees for someplace to hide.

Behind him he heard Turgidson shouting something, but whatever it was he never found out
as the General suddenly shrieked as he was seized. He kept on screaming for several minutes
after that until a wet popping sound abruptly cut him off.

The Vice President suddenly realized he was all alone now.

The only sound was that of blood dripping from various parts onto various parts of the room.

He whimpered. It was same sound his distant ancestors had made back when they were small rodents 
trying to avoid being dinner for large hungry reptiles.

Ripper looked at the gun he held in his hands.

He was not a brave man. But he was out of options and there was no way 
he was letting this thing get him alive.

The old man stuck the barrel into his mouth and closed his eyes.

He pulled the trigger.

*Click*

He pulled it again.

*click*

A horrible realization suddenly seized him in its cold clutches. He had used up the entire clip on Sukebe's dead body.

His hand fumbled in his pockets for a spare clip. In his clumsy haste he dropped the ammunition onto the floor.

As he reached out to pick it up, something wet and slimy dripped onto the back of his neck.

Slowly, as if in a bad dream he hoped to wake up from, Vice President Dick Ripper 
looked up into the grinning face of Linda McKenzie.

And then he started to scream.

He would be screaming for a very long time.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

In a small room the capsule lay with its armored shroud facing up towards the blank ceiling.

Faint green lights were the only illumination in the empty darkness.

The Sleeper slept, but did not dream.

-End Prologue: Beware of the Boogeyman