Chiton

By L. Lindsey Flansburg

This is a love story about a guy that has never in his life been able to do anything quite right. Now the girl of his dreams has gotten him involved in a war with the giant aliens. If it means being able to spend more time with her, then he's OK with that. But how do you fight a war against an enemy that is so much more powerful than you that they don't even know about the war?

• Language: English
• Publisher: L. Lindsey Flansburg
• Release date: Nov 30, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452370408

L. Lindsey Flansburg

Thank you for reading my stories. I would appreciate if you could take a few minutes to leave an honest review detailing a few points that you liked and disliked about each one. I am a CAD drafter in Saratoga, Wyoming. I enjoy fly fishing, camping, and all manner of outdoor activities. I own rental properties and a small sporting goods shop called Gold Hill Bushcraft. I am a longstanding member of the local “Writers of the Valley” Writers group. All my writing starts out as short stories that quickly take on a life of their own. I have a few other ideas for more science fiction short stories and will publish them here as they mature.

Book preview

Chitin

A short story by L. Lindsey Flansburg

Published by L. Lindsey Flansburg at Smashwords

Copyright 2010 L. Lindsey Flansburg

Smashwords Edition License Notes:

This free ebook may be copied, distributed, reposted, reprinted and shared, provided it appears in its entirety without alteration, and the reader is not charged to access it.

Also by L. Lindsey Flansburg, Published at Smashwords:

Magi

The Mistaken

Parity

We were struggling through the dusty soil of another long cavern. It had been two weeks since we’d seen the sky. No one was paying much attention to the trail ahead except to pick up the occasional bug to eat. My mind was wandering again, as it always had since I was young. I was trying to decide if there were anything I could have done differently that would have led me to some other end than this. All my life I had struggled to find my calling. Everyone has something they are born to do. Something they excel at. Not me. I had been apprenticed to almost every possible occupation in the city, and somehow had found a way to fail at each and every opportunity. It seemed that I had the special talent of quickly learning any skill up to an intermediate level, but never excelled at anything. I would be top of my class in any new endeavor until the other students invariably passed me by.

Before I had come of age I had already tried my hand at a dozen occupations. As a carpenter or potter I could do the work, but hated working in the mud. As a mason or cooper I was too slow with the tools. As a blacksmith or cook I kept burning myself, or others. As a farmer or miner I was too unfocused. I had even given the church a shot, but they didn't like my endless questioning of the faith. I suppose that was how I ended up as a field laborer which left me wandering lost with a group of people I barely knew in this endless maze of tunnels.

We were all tired of this eternal flight. I suppose that is why we were taken by surprise. I stumbled to a weary stop, not really knowing why. Those of my companions who were walking ahead of me had given up their forward progress and were slowly stepping backwards. One of them turned and ran past me. Then another, and then the rest broke into a panicked rush back the way we had come. For a moment I stood there alone staring confused into the dim recesses of the tunnel. My legs took a few terrified steps backwards before my mind could resolve the dim shape filling the tunnel before me. I stumbled past another of my companions frozen in terror and I fell backwards into the thick dust.

The pale round face of the creature hung near the cavern ceiling. Its grotesque features scanning toward us, trying to spot us with its two bulbous eyes, nearly blind in the dim light. I could clearly see its two upper limbs scratching in the cavern floor, pulling it forward. Its claws were split into five blunted tips bending unnaturally as they probed toward our group. The back of its massive body scraped against the ceiling as it struggled to support the bulk of its weight on the upper half of its two powerful lower legs, awkwardly bent in half, the lower half dragging uselessly behind.

The screams of the