EPISODE CXVIII - HUMPTY HELEN AND THE WONDER TWINS
Stauch watched helplessly as the small outbuilding where Broski had taken cover collapsed upon itself.
"NOOO!", Stauch bellowed, launching himself from behind the cactus he'd been using for cover, toward the bullet riddled pile of lumber.
Lt. Scott and VanTedly each grabbed one of the sergeant's legs, causing him to fall to the dry earth as he lunged forward.
"Lemme' go", Stauch demanded, "I've got a man down out there!!"
The two officers drug him back through the dirt to the relative cover of a shallow ravine. Stauch continued struggling against the duo, yelling obscenities as he went. As he rolled down the embankment,
an errant round struck the ground near his head, a seeming reprimand for his current behavior. He looked at the two young officers that had possibly just saved his life.
"Sorry, sirs.", he said soberly, "I guess I lost my head for a second."
"It's alright.", VanTedly assured him, "We know how close you two were." Stauch eyed the Ensign darkly. "What do you mean by that?!?"
"Oh, uh nothing.", VanTedly stammered. "Just that you spent a lot of time together."
"We worked together", Stauch protested, "of course we spent a lot of time together."
"Right, sure", the ensign replied, "that's what I meant."
Stauch, who was slowly becoming irritated by the insinuations of the junior officer, was preparing to launch into a lengthy retort when the pile of wood that had been an outhouse began to shift and stir.
Stauch, Lt. Scott, and VanTedly stared aghast as a slime covered hand sprang out of the debris and began clawing at the dusty soil. Finding purchase, the form attached to it began to emerge from the splintered
and scarred lumber. Dark liquid dripped from creature's body as it began to shamble in the three crewmen's direction. Stauch recognized something familiar in its loping gate as it drew closer, though
the bipedal form was indistinguishable beneath the dark film of thick slime that coated it.
"Broski!", he shouted as the monstrosity approached their position.
"Dohn thoooot...", the corporal called to them, brown liquid blasting forth from his maw.
The three men gave Broski a wide birth as he plunged over the side of the ravine, and even a wider birth once the stench hit.
"You're alive!", Stauch proclaimed excitedly, though his joy was somewhat diminished by the aroma of his subordinate.
"Damn right!", Broski exclaimed angrily, as he wiped his crud covered face with a crud covered sleeve, "and I intend to stay that way long enough to get a little revenge."
"That's great, Broski", Number Two replied, "as long as you do it down wind."
