Solifuge

As a kid, I was scared of anything my father told me. Maybe because I didn't want to feel bad, or because he rarely sees me because he comes home from his tour in Afghanistan for my birthday, or any other major holiday, or even because I was just, you know, little. However, one day he came home for good. He said he lost his legs when he stepped on a landmine. I was both sad and happy, sad because, well he doesn't have any legs, and happy because, well, more stories. I guess he was feeling the same thing too, because he told me story after story. Normally kids my age would be playing on video games, or playing football, but me? I just listened to my father's stories. However, one day he told me the strangest story I have ever heard him tell. He claimed this story was the story of how he really lost his legs. After he told me, I thought two things: One, this story is actually scary. Two: Is he lying? I asked him if he was lying, because I though his legs were blown off. By his expression, I could tell that he was telling the truth. This was what he told me.

"You know son that I was in Afghanistan, right? Ok, good. Well our commander at the base told me and some other guys to go out and look for this guy in AlQueda that they say would be worse than Osama, so we just shrugged and said ok. We got these missions a lot, and most just turned out to be recon missions: boring stuff, ya' know?"

"Anyways we got into our jeeps and Hummers and drove. We past a couple of villages that we liberated before, an' they seemed awfully quiet. Before they were all bustlin' and going along like what they used to do before everything went down. I thought that they were just packing up for the night, because it was getting dark. Hell, if I'd known why they were hiding in the first place, I would've hidden too!"

"We got over to the caves where command said our target would be. These caves were a lot bigger than the caves we usually found these guys, and the cave command said our guy was in looked, well, like a huge animal made it. One of our guys squealed like a baby, because one of them camel spiders, or solifudges I think they called em' can up his shirt and bit him on the chest. We all laughed when we saw him screamin' and flapping his arms around like if he was a bird doing a mating dance or something. He managed to fling the thing off of him. We asked if he was ok, and he said that he was. So then we got our gear, and walked to the cave."

"We first shined a flashlight into the cave, looking for any signs of our target and for possible booby traps. We deemed it clear, and we tossed a 'nade in it so see if we can get the guy to come out. No response."

"One of our guys decided to go in, and one guy, I think his name was McDownell or something like that, said "I dont think you should go in there, it is giving me the chills." The guy who was about a few meters in the cave, I think Darren was his name, yelled at McDownell for being a wimp. That changed McDownell's mind and he went in."

"Me and Ron, the other guy with us, had to stay and guard the entrance. Boring, right? Anyways it was about half past 11, and one of our guys in the cave started screaming. We head gunshots and yells of pain, so we held up our rifles and asked what was going on down there. One of our guys, sounded like McDownell, yelled out "HELP!" and then started screaming. We were about to reply when Darren ran right past us like a madman. As he ran past he screamed at us to run."

"What happened next was like a scene from a horror movie. This huge....THING, came outta the cave. It was one of those solifudges, camel spiders, whatever. However, it was HUGE. It was about half the size of one of us, and about as long as how we are tall. Ron was running for the Hummer, leaving me with this thing. I could see blood and intestines in its hideous jaws. Probally came from McDownell, poor sonofagun."

(NOT YET FINISHED, PLEASE WAIT FOR ME TO FINISH IT)