The Antisanity's blog: "6th Layer"

The Thanksgiving Massacre The tears poured down Terrence's face. He hadn't been able to believe it. They couldn't' have been cold enough...but they had. They had just killed Amanda, it had all been true. Eddy had been right, the goddamned toad had been right. But Eddy hadn't known the extent of it...they were eating her. And laughing...laughing...Terrence couldn't forgive the laughter. He turned, and ran down the hall, jumped onto the fern and to the window he had used to enter the home moments before. He stumbled, caught a claw on the sill, and toppled down to the ground, his face landing in a puddle of mud. He let his grief overwhelm him for just a moment, and his mind went back to all the sunlit afternoons that he and Amanda had spent under the maple trees, pecking at random crap, playing bob for waterbugs, and shooting the shit with Eddy. They had snuggled together through the winters, had picnics during the springtime, and made love under the summer stars. But then fall had come, and with it unsettling rumors from Eddy. He claimed to have heard passing references to murder in the human household. Terrence and Amanda hadn't put much stock in his words, Eddy ran his mouth frequently, and less frequently actually knew what he was talking about. But Terrence had woken up that morning, hung over from the moonshine the night before, and Amanda had been gone. There had been blood splattered around the stump in the back yard. Fresh blood. Terrence shook his head, and struggled to stand in the slippery mud. He needed to move, the humans surely had heard him racing out of their home. He shook the tears from his eyes and headed toward the woodshed. There would be time for grief later. Now it was time to prepare. For these humans would pay. They would pay dearly. -- Eddy was flopped back in his hammock underneath the woodshed when the loose panel came crashing inward. He was surprised Terrence hadn't come earlier, actually. "So, he said blandly. "You found out." Terrence looked at him for a long moment, and Eddy was sure that he was going to collapse into sobs, but the turkey just stared. "I need weapons." Terrence finally said in a blank, dead voice. Eddy raised his eyebrows. "Weapons, huh?" he said. "It just so happens I might be able to help you out there my friend. I just got a shipment in from Lester, you know, over at the Milford ranch? Anyway, seems like the cows from over there let off a lot of explosive gases, and Lester's been bottling the damned stuff and apparently it works pretty well as a bomb. How many did ya want, I can sell them singly or by the doze-" "All of them." "All, huh?" Eddy shot his tongue out and nabbed a fly, and chewed on it thoughtfully. "Alright, here's what I can do. I can set you up with 12 of the bottles. That'll cost you about 2 pounds of grain." "Done." "Hold your horses here Terrence, I've got something else you might be interested in. This fireplace skewer the humans use for poking at coals in their fire. No idea what they're doing, poking fire, but the skewer's pretty sharp, and it might come in handy." He turned back toward Terrence, who was already hefting the skewer and giving it a couple experimental twirls. "Beats me how you do that while balancing on one damned leg," he grunted. "T.T.M." Terrence said briefly. "Hunh?" "Tactical Turkey Marines." "What the flying koala is that?" "Just made it up, I'm gifted. Now you gonna give me that methane?" "Yeah, yeah, just give me a second." Eddy shuffled to the back. "I got a strap or something so you can put these here bottles on your back." "Good." "I really hope," Eddy said as he rolled the bottles of methane over to the turkey. "that you know what you're getting yourself into. These humans are strong, and they had no compunctions about murdering Amanda, so they won't think twice about murdering you." He handed Terrence a small belt, with string ties all along it. The turkey took a moment to tie the bottles onto the belt, and turned toward the door. "They won't have time to think twice." "Hey," Eddy called as the turkey ducked under the door. "Be careful out there Terrence...and give em hell." Terrence paused, and looked back at Eddy. "Terrence was a name for a more happy time, Eddy. It's Meggers now." The panel swung back into place, hiding Eddy from the light. "Meggers, huh?" Eddy said to himself. "Well then, Godspeed Meggers, Godspeed..." --- The sun had nearly set when Meggers finished his preparations. The turkey had come up with two strategies, in case one failed. The first one was his preference, for a number of reasons, but it was always good to have a backup. He couldn't afford to fail...not with Amanda's death still unpaid. Meggers crept around the outside of the house, reaching the front door just as the sun dipped below the horizon. --- Rebecca had just turned on the evening news when she heard the doorbell ring. "Not it." grunted her son Richard. "Not it." echoed her husband Roger. "I'm to young to talk to strangers," stated her daughter Rose. Rebecca gave a deep sigh. "Honestly, you three." She hefted herself out of the chair, and marched across the hallway. Looking through the peephole, she couldn't see anyone. She had turned away and was about to go back into the living room when the doorbell rang again. "Goddamn pranksters," she muttered, and threw open the door, hoping to catch whoever it was in the act. Nothing was there. Taking a step outside, she glanced around the yard. That was when the claw reached out of the bushes and raked the back of her heel, severing her Achilles tendon. She let out a scream, and crumpled, narrowly missing the corner planter with her head as she went down. As she rolled onto her back, off the steps, something flashed from out of the bushes and landed on her left breast, digging it's talons in for purchase. It was a turkey. And it was holding a fireplace skewer in it's right claw. That was the last thing she noticed before the turkey leaped into the air and drove the fireplace skewer into her left eye. --- Made up or not, the T.T.M. had apparently done wonders for Meggers' strength, because he managed to drive the skewer all the way through the human's eye into the brain, and pierce the skull on the opposite side. The screams didn't last long after that, not nearly long enough for his satisfaction, but it was enough to draw the other humans to the scene. Screams from the younger female soon pierced the air, and Meggers dove into the bushes to avoid being seen. "Oh my God!" came an older voice, and Meggers saw that it was the larger male, who threw the younger female back into the house and lumbered outside. He wasn't looking anywhere except the face of his dead mate. His mistake. Meggers jumped from the bushes, executed a double flip, and at the peak of his jump, released two flaming methane cocktails. They missed the human's face, instead exploding on his back. The human didn't go down, but his outer clothing did catch on fire, and a satisfying bellow of surprise was heard. Meggers landed on one leg behind the human, whipping one leg back to snag another methane cocktail, and deftly scraping his beak together to generate a spark. It worked like a charm, and when the human turned around, Meggers was ready. --- Richard's back exploded into heat and pain. Emitting a howl, he stumbled down the step, but managed to keep his feet. He turned to see what had attacked him, while reaching back to try to slap out the fire which was quickly engulfing his back. What he saw made him stop, even as he burned. It was a turkey, drenched in what he supposed had to be his wife's blood, holding a beer bottle with a flaming cloth sticking out of it in it's left claw. His mind barely had time to register this before the turkey crouched, then leaped straight up into the air, did a twirl like a ballet dancer, and heaved the flaming bottle at him. Richard was very fat, but that didn't mean he couldn't move when he needed to. He leaped to the side, and the bottle glanced off his arm, failing to shatter. He then charged the turkey, or perhaps he wasn't so much charging the turkey as he was running to the only safe place he knew - his house. At any rate, the move caused the turkey to leap aside and Richard barreled into the house, slamming the door before dropping to the floor to roll and do his best to put out the flames. Richard heard his daughter screaming, and his son running, and the fires still weren't going out - they were spreading. His whole back was on fire now, and he could feel the back of his head starting to get extremely hot. Suddenly, Roger appeared in front of him, and threw a huge bucket of water at him. Most of it caught Richard in his face, but enough of it splashed down his back to dampen the flames somewhat, and he dropped and rolled once more, and finally the heat was gone. The pain however...was not. --- Meggers cursed as the door slammed shut in his face. The plan had called for all the humans to leave the house, where he could simply pelt them with explosives until they were incapacitated. But that had already failed. Time for plan B. Meggers hopped down the steps, wrenched the skewer from the dead human's head with a satisfying squelch, and headed for the south side of the house. --- "Thank you, than-ooouuch" cried Richard as Roger and Rose lowered him onto the couch. "My back..." he groaned, "It's burned pretty bad...and Rebecca..." his eyes began to brim with tears. "What happened, dad??" sobbed Rose, as she tried to cover him with a blanket. "Turkey...skewer...fire," Richard panted. "Dad, you're not making any sense." Roger was trying to get a look at his back, and he was white as a sheet. "There's a goddamned killer turkey out there!" Richard shouted, "It stabbed Rebecca in her f-f-face, and th-threw cocktails..." Richard slumped on the couch, and lapsed into mumbling. Roger took Rose aside. "We've got to get this shirt off of him before it fuses to his back, it's pretty damned charred back there already. I need you to do that, while I go call the ambulance and police." Rose just stared at him blankly. "Damn it, Rose, snap out of it, I need you here!" Roger shook her, but she only stared blankly at him. Roger suddenly tensed, hearing the sounds of braking glass. He found himself unable to swallow. --- The glass hadn't been as hard to break as Meggers had thought, it had only taken a couple decent sized rocks. He hopped up onto the sill and looked around. What he saw there almost made his knees give. Sitting on the counter was the corpse of Amanda. It had been savagely hacked apart, there was hardly anything left of her. But he still knew. She had been disemboweled and some mixture of goo had been stuffed inside her. Meggers bent, and threw up into a plant on the sill next to him. When he looked up again, he noticed that there was a banner hanging down from the ceiling, with happy turkeys dancing on it. Printed across the banner were the words "Happy Thanksgiving". And that was when the human stumbled into the room. Meggers gripped his skewer tightly, and leaped forward. --- Roger took in the bird on the kitchen sill with a numbness that seemed to originate in his brain and radiate down to his toes. He stopped in the doorway and stared. "It's a turkey." he said to no one in particular. Then he noticed that it was tensing to jump, and it had a skewer gripped in it's claw. Roger acted on instinct, and as the turkey jumped at him, the skewer held forward like a lance, Roger grabbed the a pair of tongs off the counter. He whipped the tongs up, and swatted at the skewer as it and the turkey hurtled towards him. The skewer embedded itself into the wall an inch to the left of his head. The turkey flipped around the skewer and somehow perched on top of it, then reached up with a claw and slashed something tied around it's chest. --- Meggers severed the cord holding the remaining bottles of methane, and they dropped around the human's head like a necklace. Almost too easy, thought Meggers as he struck a match on his beak and dropped it onto the short string sticking out of one of the bottles. He jumped off the skewer and slipped behind the fridge as the human flailed to get the bottles off. Too slow. Meggers crouched as the fridge rocked with the force of the explosion. A human hand landed in front of Meggers; one of the fingers twitched once and was still. Then there was a thunk, and Meggers couldn't feel his left wing anymore. Looking to the left he saw a butcher knife stuck into the floor, and his wing was laying next to it. Then there was a whistling and another knife buzzed past his head. It was the larger male. Even with his injuries, he still had fight in him. Meggers almost regretted what he had to do. But then he thought of Amanda...and all thoughts of regret left him, replaced only by blind hate. --- Richard slid another knife out of the rack, trying to fight off the feeling that somebody was rubbing salt in the wounds on his back. He had to protect his family...He had to...the turkey moved. --- Meggers knew he had to act quickly, he was loosing blood, and this human wasn't showing any signs of quiting anytime soon. He lunged forward, ducking under the knifestroke. He pecked hard at the fleshy part of the human's foot, hoping to bring the creature down. It didn't work. Instead, he felt a meaty hand grip his neck, and he rose into the air. Then another hand grabbed Meggers' feet, and began to twist. There were two horrible snaps as he felt his legs give. The world started to go red. But it couldn't end like this. It couldn't. With a surge of adrenaline, Meggers brought his beak forward and down with all his force, burying it into the man's wrist. Still, the creature didn't let go. Meggers tensed himself, and whipped his head around, burying his beak into his stump of a wing. Meggers almost blacked out, but it worked. Blood squirted high, up, up into the human's eyes, The human let go of Meggers's neck, and the turkey swung from his broken feet now, upside down with the human's belly staring him in the face. Meggers drilled his beak forward again, and again, and sunk it into the human four times before crashing to the floor. The human fell with a thunderous crash, pinning Meggers to the floor. Meggers's broken body was screaming, and the pain overwhelmed him. --- As the turkey lay under the human, a curious thing happened. Over by the window, the charred remains of a cooked thanksgiving dinner began to glow. A swirling cloud of iridescent particles rose from the remains of the bird, and floated across the room to the downed Meggers. The particles moved faster and seemed to thicken as they reached the turkey. --- Meggers heard a strange humming sound through the red. With great difficulty, he opened his eyes a crack. Then he opened them wider. Standing before him was Amanda. She seemed strangely translucent though...Meggers tried to speak, but only coughed up blood and emitted a harsh croak. The shimmering version of Amanda bent and gently touched beaks with Meggers. The particles seemed to seep into the broken turkey's nostrils, and a great warmth filled Meggers. He closed his eyes, and it seemed to him that he was underwater, nothing hurt anymore, and his wing was back! He opened his eyes. His wing was back. He was warm. And he was alive. With a great heave, he pulled himself out from underneath the human. His feet worked too. He turned and looked at the human. It's eyes stared at him, unbelieving. The human made a grab for him, but Meggers easily stepped out of the way. Meggers casually sauntered over to the wall, stepped up on the charred body of the smaller male, and pulled the skewer out of the wall. The human had hauled itself into a sitting position and was staring open mouthed at Meggers. The turkey hopped down, and landed on the chest of the human. "Wha--what do you want?" it said. Meggers felt the iridescent particles gather around his throat, and he realized that at least for a short time...He opened his beak. "White meat," he said, and plunged the skewer into the the human's forehead. --- Rose sat on the couch and stared at the kitchen, unable to move. Smoke was now billowing out from around the corner, and it had been quiet for some time now. She refused to believe that her father...her brother...her mother...There was movement. Something was moving through the smoke. Suddenly, something flew out of the gloom. Rose screamed, as the skewer buried itself in her stomach. And the turkey emerged from the smoke. Was that her imagination, or was it grinning? Could turkeys even grin? She tried to move, but the skewer held her in place. As the turkey advanced, she felt the blackness overwhelm her, and she fainted. --- Meggers stood at the doorway to the house, wiping the blood from his wing, and looked at the night sky. It was beautiful, the stars shone brightly, and the moon was full. A dull pain began to form in his left wing. He looked over, and saw small iridescent particles rising from it. The pain increased, and Meggers understood. Amanda was out of strength. But it didn't matter. It had been enough to finish the job, he had done what he needed to do. The pain increased, and Meggers felt his legs begin to ache as well. He pulled the skewer off his back, and jammed the handle into a gap between boards on the porch. Then he climbed with his dwindling strength onto a deck chair, and took one last look at the night sky. "I love you Amanda," he said...and jumped. FIN