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new muscle and his mouth felt as if it were suddenly too full of teeth. |
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But the best, the absolutely most wonderful part of this strange metamorphosis was the lust. Cyrus had never felt such desire, such an intense need to rend and destroy. He sprang to his feet and literally flung himself on the creatureripping and tearing into the dead flesh like a living chain saw. A shriveled arm went this way, a desiccated leg that. Cyrus plunged his arms up to his elbows in the thing's chest and ripped its rotted lungs to pieces. Finally, leaping high into the air, he slammed his foot into the thing's faceand this time the creature's head disintegrated. |
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The torso stood balanced on its remaining leg for about another five seconds and then tipped over on its back, landing on the asphalt with a hollow thud. Cyrus came down on all fours and waited. When the creature did not stir after two minutes, he crawled over to it and sniffed. Bad move. Whatever had animated the corpse was gone and the thing was decomposing faster than before. |
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He backed up a few feet, snorted and then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The moment he started to relax, he seemed to shrink and every joint in his body began to burn as if it were on fire. Unlike the first time, the agony seemed to go on for hours, the burning, the spasms. Like being stretched on a rack in reverse. |
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When Cyrus opened his eyes he was lying on his side. The ground was cold and as soon as he was able, he pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around. The thing was not only still dead, but looked like a jigsaw puzzle. It took Cyrus a few moments to climb to his feet. The legs of his jeans were hanging down in tatters and his socks were little more than strips of white cottonperfect for surgical dressings but useless for anything else. |
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"What happened?" He turned in a slow circle. "What the fuck happened?" |
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