Ballistic: Icarus Series, Book Two by Aria Michaels

dealing with, so I couldn’t even venture a guess as to what anti-toxin would combat it if someone were to get bitten,” Eli said laying the creature back on the floor. “Anyone got a rubber band?”
    “Will this work?” Christa held out one of the brightly colored hair ties she wore on her wrist. “I don’t like the yellow one, anyway.”
    “Good enough,” Eli shrugged as he wound the elastic around the creature’s mouth. “Better safe than sorry.”
    “If that thing used to be a bird, or whatever, then what are those,” I asked shining the beam of my flashlight on the creature’s skull. There were deep slits that started by the animal’s jaw and stopped at the base of its neck.
    “Curious.” Eli leaned in closer and focused his penlight on the scritter’s neck. He wedged the end of his tweezers into the slit and pried it apart. He tilted his head to get a better angle. He sat back up his brows furrowed and shook his head in confusion.
    “What is it,” Jake asked.
    “I wonder.” Eli trailed off and placed the penlight back between his teeth.
    He picked the animal up by its midsection to get a closer look. Its head flopped lifelessly against its chest as he raised it to eye level. Christa groaned in disgust. Eli grabbed its front leg and stretched it out to the side until the vestigial flap of skin behind the elbow was stretched as far as it would go. He cocked his head to the side again and moved the penlight close enough that his face was just inches from the creatures. His light shined straight through the translucent tissue.
    He turned the creature over onto its back and inspected its abdomen, lifting each of its legs and pressing at the junctures where limbs met the creature’s trunk. After a few more moments of complete silence, Eli set the creature back down and took the penlight from his mouth.
    “We are in trouble,” Eli said wiping the sweat from his brow on his shirtsleeve.
    “What is it?” Jake asked.
    “Our carnivorous little friend here has a fully developed set of gills,” Eli said. “Stranger still is the fact that aside from mammaries, it doesn’t appear to have any visible sex organs. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say it is most likely internally hermaphroditic. If it’s a true amphibian, it could also be regenerative.”
    “Great,” Jake said sinking back onto his heels. “Just freaking great!”
    “It’s really quite impressive, from a scientific standpoint.” Eli stared at the creature in awe.
    “Sorry?” Ty shook his head in confusion. “I think I missed something.”
    “He’s saying that in addition to being venomous and having razor-sharp teeth and claws, our precious little scritter can also breathe on land or under water,” Jake said in a huff. “As an added bonus they seem to hunt in swarms. Even if we did manage to separate them, there’s a good chance they can reproduce on their own. Hell, if they’re amphibious, they can probably regenerate lost body parts, too.”
    “And let’s not forget the fact that they are apparently prone to frenzy,” Eli added.
    “In other words, we are screwed,” I said.
    “Basically, yeah,” Jake said.
     

Chapter 8
     
     
    Blame Game
     
     
     
     
     
    After his examination, Eli stuffed the scritter into a plastic shopping bag from Jake’s pack, tied it shut and shoved it into the corner closest to the door. None of us wanted to be any closer to the thing than necessary. Its presence in our unfortunate sanctuary reminded us that there were hundreds of them on the other side of the vault door waiting to tear us apart.
    Time quickly lost all meaning. Minutes melted into hours. Eventually, exhaustion set in. With a little help from a valium from the med kit, Riley was sleeping soundly in her corner of the room, her head on Falisha’s shoulder. Jake and Christa had each claimed a spot on opposite sides of the vault. As much as the two of them fought, I couldn’t help but laugh when I noticed they had both