020118

Hamster Down

The blimpster was coming in, its four stubby limbs fully extended. Jo noticed the ship wasn't level. She called the tower.

"Hammie's tilted a good 5º to starboard, and I think she's nose down as well!" The pilot must be asleep or goofing off. This was what came of trusting a monkey to do a chimp's job. She ran towards the hospital (really just a converted barn), tripped on a tussock of grass, and her phone went flying.

"Rabbit pellets!" She scrambled back and forth through the field, found the phone, jammed it to her ear.

"... not answering either. Why do I bother?"

"Lost my phone," she panted. "No answer from the brainpan? Better evacuate the terminal." She looked back over her shoulder. "Too late." The lighter-than-air rodent wasn't very dense, but it was big, and had a lot of mass. The right foreleg clipped the tower, taking it out, despite a shattered tibia she could hear 1000 yards away. The chin hit the ground, followed by the belly, and the airship was immediately obscured by a fountain of dust and debris. Jo thought the wreck might miss the terminal after all, but a moment later she could hear it: shattering glass and lath, and then the belly of the beast slammed into the generator. The methane-filled intestines must have torn open and all it took was a spark.

Jo hit the dirt moments before the fireball engulfed the airport. She felt the shockwave race across her back, followed by a hail of metal, wood, and bone. She staggered back to her feet and turned around. Nothing was left. Shreds of this and that fluttered down. A few small fires burned; otherwise, nothing moved. She sniffed: blood. Her back was bleeding and, she peered over her shoulder, furless. She didn't yet feel the burn.

--

Charnel threw the manuscript in the recycling bin."Waste!" he snarled, pointing a gnarled claw at the hapless young writer. "Air 'craft'? Talking primates? Cordless 'phones'? Away with you." He looked down at his desk, whiskers quivering with anger, and pulled a folder out of the "to do" basket.

Bucktooth was dismissed. She trudged away, tail dragging. Would she EVER get out of the sewer?