Part 45

"YOU GUYS LEFT ME!"

"WHERE IS HE!? IS HE OUT THERE!?" Frank pointed to the mayhem out in the main corridor. The worm's bulk was once again blocking the entrance, but only temporarily. With violent, irregular thrusts, the worm propelled itself forward into the tide of creatures eager to consume its flesh. The mouth slammed shut, snaring dozens of them at a time before the rest either forced it backwards or it retreated on its own.

Meanwhile, hundreds of nightmarish shapes tore at its flanks with claws, talons and teeth. The worm's blood... if that was what it was... spurted in fountains from every wound.

-and with every wound, each creature virtually guaranteed its doom. Each opening in the worm's flesh transformed soon after it was made... becoming a new mouth to swallow the creature that had carved it. After the initial spurt of pinkish blood, new, jagged lips spat out tangled nets of stringy white flesh that ensnared anything they touched and dragged it... writhing and screaming... into the very wound that the creature had made. Soon most of the worm's flank was chewing and feeding on the creatures that had escaped its 'true' mouth. If this was a war, the worm was winning. The only horrors that lasted longer than a few moments in its path were those that fled... and fled quickly... rather than attack.

"IS HE OUT THERE IN THAT MADNESS?!" Frank shouted at Maurice.

"Why do YOU care-"

"Because he was the only one trying to HELP US!!"

"That's what you think! That kid was CRAZY! AND YOU TWO LEFT ME TO DIE!"

"Yes," Frank hissed. "We did. So do you think that makes me MORE likely to strangle you right here, or less?"

"Wh-wh-what do you want!" Maurice squeaked.

"Now that you mention it-" Frank slid his other hand around Maurice's throat and squeezed. "-I don't want anything-"

Maurice opened his mouth, but something else screamed. Frank looked just in time to see something hurtling toward them from the main corridor. He released Maurice and threw himself out of the thing's path. The twisted shape sailed over Maurice's prone body and hit the wall beside him with a noisy splatter.

It looked like it COULD have been a man... at least in general outline. The pink torso was long and flat, with two thick tentacles instead of legs, and another for an arm. Each ended in a trio of shorter appendages that could have been fingers or toes. Where its other arm should have been, there was only a jagged wound as if what had been there hadn't merely been bitten off... but CHEWED off.

The thing squirmed and thrashed, but it was dead before it stopped moving.

Frank stared out into the main corridor, where the War of Horrors was in its final moments. The lesser horrors were in full retreat. Those that weren't in the process of being ensnared or swallowed were trying to escape from the giant worm's path. Nightmarish shapes leapt, slithered, and climbed in any direction that took them away from the victorious worm. Some bounded over the walls or even managed to fly... but most simply slipped away into side corridors-

-like the one they were in.

As he watched, something that resembled a giant locust landed with sharp 'click' at the mouth of the corridor. The sharp head rotated slowly toward them; a severed tentacle dangled from its black mandibles, dripping fluid on its sleek torso.