The Rat

I could see it sitting there, its body bloated, skin removed by the radiation, its frame a highway of thick puslating blue and red veins. Every breath it took created a sticky wet rattle that echoed up and along the empty streets, and each movement shook more drops of liquid decay from its continually dying body.

It raised its bald head, twitching nose sniffed at the air, while the optic nerve hung loosely from bloody void where its eyes had once been and spasmed in the cool breeze as if tasting the air. I moved my position, careful for it not to see me. It didn't, its attention turned the other way and it slid farther up the street towards the house my party and I had used for shelter a few nights previous. Its giant frame dragged along on broken front legs, with its rear pair being nothing more than withered stumps unable to support the bodies gargantuan weigh.

I breathed a sigh of relief I had survived another close call . . . Only, I hadn't seen the female that had been waiting around the corner.