Matt Archer: Monster Summer

by Kendra C. Highley

  * * *

  Twenty minutes later, we were speeding along the desert floor. Even though the ride was rough enough to bounce me out of my seat, Schmitz pushed the Humvee hard. We had to be doing at least fifty; scrubby brush, red sand and rock formations blurred together as we flew toward our destination. You had to hand it to the people who made Humvees; any other vehicle would’ve had four flat tires and a bent axle—or two—with this kind of abuse. Instead it motored on unfazed, while giving most of its passengers bruises.

  I just hoped we got there in time.

  Peace, the knife-spirit whispered. Then in contradiction to its command to chill, it flooded my bloodstream with a buzz of energy. I twitched hard in my seat and Will raised an eyebrow.

  “You good?” he asked.

  Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I said, “Yeah,” even though I wasn’t totally sure. My vision seemed off…but not in a bad way. In fact, it had sharpened. “That’s a little weird.”

  “What?” Will asked.

  “Huh?” Oh, wait, did I say that out loud? Crap. “Um, nothing.”

  Uncle Mike didn’t even notice our conversation. He was staring out the window, an intense, almost ugly, expression on his face. Like he’d personally wring the neck of any monster who dared mess with his woman. I sucked in a breath. Was this what it took to reduce a guy to basic instinct? To turn him back into a caveman? I thought about the time I saved my girlfriend from a monster attack in the woods back home. Even though everything had turned out okay, rage coiled deep in my belly, like it was happening to her right now.

  Yeah, this was all it took; Mike’s face told the whole story. If he lost Julie, I didn’t think I could stand to see what would happen to him. It was too horrible to even think about.

  Fine, my part in all this would be very simple, then—I’d keep that pack of flea-ridden dogs from taking my future aunt away from Mike. End of story.

  “We’ll get them back, sir,” I said, my voice low and strained with fury. “And we’ll finish this mission. Today.”

  Uncle Mike’s eyes flicked my direction. “I’ll hold you to that, Chief.”

  “We’re coming up on the drop-off point, sir,” Schmitz shouted from the front seat. The road noise made it nearly impossible to hear someone sitting more than two feet away. “I’ve found us a place to stop.”

  On cue, we all peered out the windows. A large sand dune, rimmed with small trees and desert grass, was coming up on our right. Schmitz maneuvered the Humvee between the trees and the base of the dune. The tires skidded in the sand, but Schmitz fought it the whole way, keeping the vehicle on the move until he parked us deep in shadow.

  The two enlisted guys Schmitz had recruited hopped out and started unloading gear. Will accepted a backpack with medical supplies, canteens and survival gear. Even though Uncle Mike offered him a pistol, Will refused to carry one, saying there wasn’t any point. He was right in a way—if a monster got past my knife, the only option left would be to run like heck. Bullets wouldn’t even leave a dent in a monster’s hide, so why bother with a rifle?

  The others weren’t of the same opinion, though. Schmitz was packing both a rifle and a sidearm. Uncle Mike carried a rifle, too, although he looked like a guy spoiling for a fist fight more than anything. One of the enlisted guys—his name patch said Jeffers—had an M240L machine gun strapped to his back, and the other one, Perkins, carried the extra ammo along with the communications pack and, you guessed it, a rifle.

  Well, at least we were prepared if we met any rabid kangaroos.

  While we were prepping the gear, Uncle Mike checked in with blue team. They were ten miles out, moving slow to make sure they were seen, but hadn’t spotted anything. “That gives us time to get into position,” Mike said. “Let’s go.”

  We followed him into the trees. Schmitz took point, creeping through the grass without making a sound. Will and I copied his movements, trying to improve our “stealth mode.” It worked; everything around us was dead quiet.

  We were a quarter-mile away from the checkpoint when a crawly sensation tugged at my chest. In response, the knife vibrated in my thigh pocket. I unsnapped the guard holding it in place and drew it slowly. Schmitz saw me and held up a fist, telling everyone to stop.

  I turned in a circle, using the weird tug as a gauge. It strengthened as I veered slightly off-course to the left. Pointing that direction, I started forward and the tug grew stronger with each step until my arms started shaking. Rustles in the dry grass stopped me cold.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two shadows dart out from behind the trees.

  “Go!” I shouted. “Out into the open!”

  We all took off running to our right, at an angle that allowed us to burst out of the tree-line ahead of the Dingoes in pursuit. When we broke free, though, everyone skidded to a halt. Two more Dingoes waited for us, each holding a member of the advance team. The other two stayed behind, pacing back and forth on all fours, tensed and ready to spring.

  It’d been a trap all right. And blue team was nowhere to be found.

  The largest Dingo of the pack was one I’d never seen before, a red-brown nightmare with a fresh slash mark across one cheek. When we approached, it took a step forward, dragging its prisoner along. Julie had a black eye, blood crusted in her hair and a long scratch down her left thigh. The Dingo held her tight, mashing her back against its chest, pinning her arms to her sides with its paws.

  Mike let out a growl. I held out my hand, hoping he wouldn’t forget all his training and do something stupid. Usually he was the one holding me back, but I’d think about the irony later.

  The other members of the advance team weren’t in much better shape than Julie. One guy was barely conscious; his guard dog held him upright with its meaty paws under his arms, but his head lolled to one side. The other wasn’t conscious at all, lying in a jumble off to one side. I couldn’t tell if he was dead or just knocked out.

  I raised the knife, aiming it at one of the Dingoes behind me. “You make a move, and I’ll put down two of your guys before you get me.”

  “Aw, ain’t that a pisser?” their leader said. “But would you be able to do it before I squeeze the life out of your bitch here?”

  “Don’t you call her bitch,” Mike said, his voice a mix of iron and ice.

  Alpha Dingo looked confused. “Well, what do you call her?”

  Mike lunged; luckily Will and Schmitz caught him. I held up a hand to Uncle Mike, telling him to dial back the rage before things blew up.

  “Simple misunderstanding, sir. They’re dogs—that’s what they’d call her.” I turned to the Dingo. “We call her a woman, and if you hurt her, I’ll show you what your insides look like before I kill you.”

  The knife liked the sound of that. It made approving noises in my head before hitting me with a power rush so intense I could practically feel my reflexes improving. I bent my knees, calculating the distance to the Alpha and determining where I could hit it without hurting Julie. Maybe if I did in the leader, like last time, I could confuse the others enough to take them out one by one.

  My knife’s handle glowed green, signaling it was ready to attack, and I tightened my grip. Time to rush them.

  To my surprise, Julie’s eyes narrowed and she gave me the tiniest of smiles. Mike drew in a breath, shook his head….

  Julie kicked both feet off the ground, twisting in the air, and caught the Dingo holding her other team member in the temple. In the same motion, she jerked her head back and butted the Alpha square in the nose. The other guy snapped upright; he’d been faking being unconscious. Before I had time to admire the trick-play, he pushed backward hard enough to throw his captor off balance, and they landed in the dirt, soldier on top.

  Snarling, Alpha Dingo dropped Julie and drew its foot back to kick her.

  I threw the knife with all my might. It buried itself in the Alpha’s eye and the beast toppled over, dead. Julie rolled out of the way and popped into a crouch. As I ran to
retrieve my knife, she went after the other Dingo. She wasn’t even armed, but that didn’t seem to matter. She looked pissed, stalking at the monster with her fists clenched. I tugged my knife free and followed her. The Dingo threw the not-really-concussed guy to the ground and swiped a paw at Julie’s head. She ducked it easily. It swung again and she danced out of the way, calling, “Matt? A little help?”

  I’d been so impressed with her evasion skills, I’d kind of forgotten she was providing me a distraction. I took a running leap and landed on the thing’s back, plunging the knife in with my full weight. The Dingo arched, trying to get away from the sting of the blade, but I twisted it, then slashed. It tumbled with a howl and I landed on my knees next to it.

  While we’d been tussling, the two Dingoes who’d been guarding us had closed in on the rest of the team. Schmitz turned and fired several rifle shots at one; Perkins fired at the other while Jeffers assembled the machine gun. The bullets probably hurt the monsters less than BB pellets, but it did slow them down a little.

  Uncle Mike ran to take care of the wounded man still lying unconscious in the dirt, and Will was on the sat-phone, yelling directions to blue team.

  Melee averted, I stalked toward the closest Dingo. My BDUs were streaked with bright-orange blood; so were my hands. I was sure I looked like a reject from a horror flick but everyone was too busy to take a second glance. Schmitz kept circling, firing warning shots at the monster as I approached. I’d almost closed the distance before the Dingo grabbed Schmitz by the front of his jacket and flung him like a ragdoll. Schmitz bounced twice before coming to rest; he didn’t move after landing.

  The Dingo focused back on me, so I couldn’t help Schmitz. I had to hope one of the others could. The monster growled and I crouched low, expecting it to spring.

  “Look out!” Will shouted behind me.

  I turned in time to see Perkins catch a paw across the chest before he had time to reload his rifle. The Dingo ripped open his ribcage with one swipe. Perkins’ mouth formed a perfect O, but no sound came out as he crashed to the ground. The beast whirled around on Jeffers, who didn’t bring his weapon up in time, and went for his throat. Knowing the other Dingo was right on my heels, I threw the knife at the monster. The blade punched into its back, and it fell on top of Jeffers.

  The other Dingo and I reached the body at the same time. I got a hand on the knife’s handle before the monster shoved me so hard I flew backward five paces and slammed into the dirt. All the wind rushed out of my lungs and I couldn’t draw a breath to save my butt. Gasping, I rolled to my knees. Black spots danced in my eyes, so I missed seeing Will run past until he’d jumped on the last monster’s back. Uncle Mike rammed into the creature’s mid-section with his shoulder, and together they toppled it over. Aunt Julie was there, too, already dragging a bloody Jeffers away from the scene.

  I sucked in as much air as I could and staggered over. The Dingo rolled, shaking off Will, and pushed itself up. Mike tried to block it again, but ended up head-first in the dirt for his trouble. Holding the knife steady, I stared the thing down.

  “You’re the last one left,” I said. Dang it, my voice sounded weak from the lack of air. I cleared my throat and tried again. “This is the end of the road for you guys.”

  “One is still free to complete our task,” it said. “And that’s enough.”

  The sound of grinding gears made us both turn. Blue team pulled in, a dead Dingo strapped to the hood of their Humvee. Somewhere they’d picked up Major Ramirez, the other wielder, and they’d caught the last one. I totally forgave them for being late in that case, and a weird rush of glee raced through me—coming from the knife.

  I’d have to sort out all this blended emotion crap with the knife at some point, but for now, I let the satisfaction rush through my bones. Giving it a cold smile, I said, “Now you really are the last one left.”

  Ramirez jumped out of the Humvee before it stopped rolling and ran our direction. The Dingo turned to me and said quietly, “This isn’t the end, you know.”

  Then it dropped to its knees. Ramirez gave me a quizzical look, but came up behind it and slit its throat. The Dingo’s eyes never left mine until they dimmed and went dark.

  I shuddered. No, it wasn’t the end. On that, we could agree.

  When the Dingo slid into a heap on the ground, everyone let out a collective sigh and started cleaning up the scene. Schmitz had a giant knot on his head and a cracked rib. Jeffers was still alive despite a bite to the throat, but he’d lost a lot of blood. Uncle Mike and Julie had stabilized him enough to be rushed back to camp with blue team. One of their guys was a medic, and another was O-positive. Between the two of them, they were sure they could keep Jeffers going. Perkins…well, we’d just have to make sure his body arrived home safely for his family. It made me sick, knowing I hadn’t gotten there in time to save him. The only thing that kept me from losing it was the fact that we’d finished the job. The Dingoes were gone.

  That night, back in camp, Uncle Mike came over to my tent for a visit, Julie limping behind him. When I saw them coming, I stood and saluted. Uncle Mike returned the salute, but I didn’t stand at ease. No, I waited until Julie saluted in return. She’d earned it.

  I nodded at Mike. “You were right when you said you needed to keep an eye on her. She’s crazy.”

  Julie laughed. “You have no idea.”

  No, I probably didn’t. Any woman willing to head-butt a monster deserved my respect, though.

  “She’s definitely crazy, but she’d have to be to marry me,” Mike said, giving Julie a sappy smile before turning back to me. “So…I know this is a weird time to ask, but how would you feel about being my best man?”

  A smile spread across my face. After everything that had happened the last few days, I needed a little good news. And the wedding was good news; I knew that now. I could hate the fact that Mike would be moving, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t still be glad he was marrying Julie.

  “Yeah, man. I’m in. I’ll even wear a tie.”

  Four Weeks Later