Guns of Mars 9
A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon
CHAPTER 3.2
He was expected to eat like a beast, to hunch on his knees as an animal would. But his pride could not win an argument with his empty belly which was roiling at the scent of the cooking flesh. With a grunt, Kal shifted onto his hip to lean down to where his tusks could reach the charred slab. He took the whole thing in his teeth and drew up to a sitting position to hold it between his raised knees where he could tear at it. Grease dripped down his chin as he chewed great mouthfuls that quieted the pangs of his gut.
“Drink,” he said when he had swallowed the last of it.
“Eat snow,’ the man said.
“You have water.” Kal nodded to the pot of water, his own pot, filled with snow melt by the fire.
“I’m not getting that close to you,” the man said.
Kal snarled and bunched his leg muscles. He could make one leap that would carry him over the fire to where the man sat. If he could get his weight on the man, he could crush him with his bulk or use his teeth to tear out the man’s throat as easy as he’d consumed the roast portion.
The man shook his head again, eyes narrowed. His hand was now filled with a pistol that Kal had not seen him draw. He did not know all the firearms that men carried but this one was new to him. A long, narrow barrel set in a frame ahead of a large cylinder. Though strange to him, Kal sensed it was a deadly enough weapon.
His gaze followed along the barrel to the hard eyes regarding him. They were of a blue color like deep waters. They were also bereft of mercy. Every human, male and female, he’d ever met had either eyes of green or jet black. Kal settled back, relaxing his legs to lean against the cold flesh of the carcass behind him.
“It would be better if you killed me now,” Kal said.
Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.
