SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Horror

by Jonathan Maberry

I had a half second to do the same, and as I did I realized that my arms were no longer dead weight. I wrapped them around my head and squeezed my eyes shut and screamed.

  Another big fucking white light.

  Another wave of the vibration that shook me all the way down to the bones.

  Maybe their version of a flash-bang grenade.

  Alien shock and awe.

  I could hear, somewhere beyond the wall of blistering light and sound, the Serbians screaming. Maybe my own guys were, too. Probably.

  Then the spiders were up and moving, the two of them flashing down the slope at incredible speeds. They raced toward the dazed Serbians and then they were among them.

  I fought to get to my knees, to grab the AK47 and fire it. To join the fight.

  All I managed to do was fall face-forward onto the ground.

  A big black well seemed to open up beneath me and I fell and fell and fell.

  -10-

  I woke up to see that the sun was a dying red ball behind the treetops.

  A voice said, “Welcome back to the world, boss.”

  I turned my head. Just a simple thing like that took a lot of goddamn effort. Bunny sat with his back to a tree. His face was bruised and bloody. His shirt was torn to rags and there were crude bandages wrapped around his huge arms and chest. Beside him, Top Sims lay asleep. He looked fevered and weak.

  “Is he...?”

  “He’s bad,” said Bunny. “Shock. And his leg’s a mess. They’re going to have to be creative on it. I set it the best I could, but it’s going to need more than that.”

  I looked around.

  “I was able to salvage a sat phone from one of the Serbians. I made a call. Mr. Church is sending an extraction team. Should be here in a couple of hours.”

  “Thank god.”

  “Yeah.”

  We were on the highest point of a clear slope. There was a campfire burning, the smoke spiraling up into the darkening sky. Farther down the slope was a dark, lumpy tangle of things that might have been human beings. Might have been. Bunny followed the line of my gaze.

  “The Serbians.”

  “Oh.”

  “They did that.”

  “They?”

  He nodded up at the sky. “They.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah.”

  I looked around. “What about the briefcase?”

  Bunny snorted. “They melted it.”

  “Melted it?”

  “Yup. One of them opened it and suddenly made that weird high-pitched noise they make. And then they pointed some kind of thing at it. Maybe it was a ray gun, the fuck do I know? Next thing the whole case and about ten feet of ground around it is a puddle of boiling mud and liquid metal.” He shrugged. “Guess they’re not big on bioweapons.”

  “Points for that,” I said.

  We sat in silence for a long time. Real long.

  “Not sure how to talk about this,” Bunny finally admitted.

  “Me neither.”

  “At the end there, before everything went to shit... I saw two more of them spider things. Like the others, but...different.”

  “I know.”

  He cut me a sharp look.

  “I saw them, too,” I said.

  “You saw that they were different, right?”

  “Oh yes.”

  Bunny started to say something several times and stopped each time. Finally he gave it up shook his head.

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  After maybe five minutes of silence during which the forest grew darker and the fire grew brighter, he tried it again. “This is going to sound stupid but...”

  “Say it.”

  “I think they were like us.”

  “I know.”

  “I mean, I think they were soldiers.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I know.”

  “Like us.”

  I nodded.

  He nodded back. After a while. Above us the first stars ignited. Somehow it made the sky look bigger. Farther away. Stranger.

  “Those things,” he said. “The ones that were getting killed, not the ones that came after. They weren’t fighters.”

  “No,” I agreed. “They weren’t fighters.”

  “So the others. The two that came in later? What were they? Some kind of extraction team?”

  I thought about it. Nodded.

  He nodded again, too. The answer seemed to offer him some measure of relief. It was a theory and it made a kind of sense. Enough sense that you could tie a rope around it and use it to keep your sanity from flying off into the air.

  “Boss—?” he asked much later.

  “Yeah, Bunny?”

  “Think we’ll ever find out who they were? Or... where they came from?”

  I shook my head. Not because I didn’t think so, but because I simply did not know.

  Above us more and more of the stars were kindled to brightness as the day burned away and night took possession of the world. We lay there, confused, scared, hurt, and watched the stars and planets and galaxies appear in their numberless brilliance. Which one of those was the home of our visitors? Would we ever know?

  I sat and watched the wheel of night turn.

  When I looked at Bunny I saw a single tear on his cheek. It glistened, reflecting starlight. I reached over and gave his shoulder a single squeeze. Didn’t say anything. Nor did he.

  Somewhere far off to the south we could hear the faint beating of helicopter rotors.

  Special Operations Interview PTO-14

  Wayland Smith

  This is a transcript of an interview between an OSS operative and a United States Marine, regarding the Marine’s experiences on the island of [NAME REDACTED]. This file is rated for the BLACK FILE section, clearance level ULTRA SECRET. The names of the participants have been redacted. They will be referred to simply as MARINE and OSS. Unauthorized perusal, removal, duplication, or distribution of this file will be considered an act of espionage and treason, and will be punished accordingly.

  – – – – –

  MARINE: So that’s one of those recorder machines? I just talk and it can play the whole thing back later?

  OSS: Yes, that’s right. You’re here to talk about what happened on [NAME REDACTED] Island.

  MARINE: I never hear that name again, I’ll be okay with it. That’s the strangest damn thing I ever saw. Oh, hey, is it okay if I swear with that thing on? I don’t want to get in trouble or something.

  OSS: Tell me however you need to.

  MARINE: OK, then. I was assigned to the [NAME REDACTED], and we were out doing recon, to see if we could find any Jap ships to call the bombers in for, or maybe a sub. Some damn thing went wrong with the engine, I don’t know what it was, I never was a mechanic. So we had to put in somewhere and fix it, and the navigator, he looks at the chart and says we’re close to [NAME REDACTED] Island. We find a little lagoon and anchor there, so the mechanic can fix the damn boat. Me and some of the guys, we get told to grab our rifles and our canteens and go scout the island, look for fresh water and any stray Japs, right? So, I go. I’m a fightin’ man, I’m here to fight, that’s jake by me.

  We all split up, mostly looking for water. This is just a small damn island near nothing, so why would we think we’d actually find a Jap? But I did. I’m going over this hill, figuring there might be water at the bottom on the other side, right? But halfway down, there’s this clearing, see, and that’s where I found the Jap. I was so startled I just sorta stood there a sec. The place felt wrong. Like, when I was a kid, my granddaddy took me to these old Indian ruins? The place was abandoned and everyone said it was haunted, and it felt like that, cold and dark and just wrong. So I’m trying to get my hands to work so I can get my rifle up, and the Jap starts yelling. I thought he’d seen me at first, and was calling his buddies, and I thought, “Oh, God, that’s it, I’m dead.”

  But he didn’t even look at me. He had this strong tone, like I’ve heard the preacher use sometimes, when he was preachin
’ about something he really thought was important and special.

  OSS: What did he say?

  MARINE: Hell, I don’t speak Jap. I got no idea. But he says this stuff, and the rocks scattered in the clearing start glowing, I swear, like the sun was coming up and hitting them square on, but the sun was on the other side of the hill by then, see? And then this smoke comes out of the rocks. I sound like I was on a bender or been raidin’ Doc’s pills, but I swear, I was stone cold sober. This smoke, it twists, like a snake or something, and it swells, and then gets thicker. All of a sudden, there’s this huge I don’t know what the hell it was standing there.

  OSS: What did it look like?

  MARINE: I’m gettin’ there. It was eight feet tall, easy, and was huge, muscles like the biggest circus strongman you ever saw. And I swear to you, I saw it just like I’m seein’ you now, it was blue. It’s skin was this blue like a real clear sky back in Texas. It had this huge club in one hand, looked like it was metal. And it had two horns comin’ out of its head, and this thick tuft of white hair around the back of its head, like a guy goin’ bald? And it had on, I don’t know, this little bathing suit looking thing, but it was made out of tiger skin, or looked like it.

  OSS: I see. What happened?

  MARINE: They kinda yelled at each other, but it wasn’t just yellin’. There was something else going on. I don’t know, it started feeling like... You ever been too close to a lightning strike? That tingly feel all over and your hair standing up? Like that, but worse. I’ll tell you... This is all secret, right?

  OSS: Right, no one hears this but a very few people, and they won’t know your name.

  MARINE: Yeah, OK. It was scaring the hell out of me. That feeling? It was like I was waiting for it to just cook me or turn me inside out, or something. I knew the Japs weren’t Christians, but I never knew they were sorcerers.

  OSS: He was working with it?

  MARINE: Well, that’s what I thought at first. I mean, it looked like he called it up, like you read about in the Bible, see? But when they were screaming at each other, that was a fight, sure as the ones I’ve been in with bullets flyin’. I don’t know how I know, but you could just tell. And the Jap, I mean, he’s a Jap, he’s the enemy, I get that. But this demon thing, it was just wrong. It wasn’t human. You could feel cold and evil coming off it. I know I sound like I’m ready for a long rest in a white coat somewhere, but I swear, it’s true. All of it.

  OSS: I believe you. What happened next?

  MARINE: Well, yeah, that’s the thing, ain’t it? They finish screaming, and the demon roars, like some kind of lion, but louder. I’ve seen lions, the zoo, the circus, see? I know what they sound like. This was louder, and stronger, and it made me scared. I won’t say that much. I been shot at, stood up to the enemy, seen buddies of mine blown to hell, but that thing? It was just different, and wrong. So, they finish screaming, and the Jap, he had one of those damn swords they have, see? The big ones? You seen those?

  OSS: Yes, I’ve seen them. They call them katanas.

  MARINE: They can call them Ish Kabibble for all I care. But he pulled the damn thing out, and there was like, fire on the blade. But it wasn’t fire. I don’t know how to say it. It was like fire that burned blue, but the damn sword was metal, and metal doesn’t burn. And fire isn’t blue. I don’t know. But that’s what I saw, blue fire on a metal sword, running up and down the blade, and kind of pulsing, like a heartbeat. That’s what I thought when I saw it, it was a heartbeat, and it was alive.

  OSS: Did the man seem surprised by that?

  MARINE: Naw, he didn’t look twice at it. The demon, it was surprised. It roared, but it wasn’t strong and commanding like it was before. It almost sounded afraid, if you can imagine something that big being afraid. I mean, it was huge, and it was moving that big metal club around like it was nothing, I’m not sure I could have lifted it at all. But it sounded afraid and mad.

  OSS: What happened next?

  MARINE: Yeah, sorry. I was thinking about that, and just... Is it cold in here? I’m gettin’ all goose bumps. Anyway. Yeah. It roars, and then it throws its head forward like a guy whose gonna puke or something. But it belches, like, and this fire comes out of it. The sword had a blue fire, so maybe that’s why I wasn’t so surprised that this was a green fire, light green. It belched out this fire, and the Jap, he moves like damn Fred Astaire or something. Not like he was dancing, exactly, just, that kinda easy way Astaire moves? Do you know what I’m trying to get at?

  OSS: He was graceful?

  MARINE: That’s a funny word for it, especially in the middle of a fight. But yeah, that’s it. He, the Jap, moved gracefully, like he wasn’t barely trying, but somehow he wasn’t where he’d been, and the fire just made this char mark on the ground. And I felt it. It was a wave of heat, even from back where I was hidi – watching. It was this wave of heat, like if you open an oven, a big one. My uncle worked in a bakery, and it was like that. But the bakery always makes you hungry, even if you just ate, and this? The heat, the fire, it smelled like hell. Like something died and was rotting. It made my eyes water just smelling it, but the Jap, he was closer than me, and he didn’t care, or didn’t notice. He just moved again, and it burned like a flamethrower, and missed him. The Jap just wasn’t there again. He was moving like he was out for a Sunday stroll, but he just wasn’t where the fire went. Yeah, maybe it was like dancing a little.

  OSS: [NAME REDACTED]? Are you all right?

  MARINE: Yeah, yeah, sorry. I was just seeing it again, in my head. It was kind of like a dance, I guess. And the fire was burning that weird green, and it was giving everything this hellish glow, if Hell is green. I guess it could be. I never thought about that, what color Hell was. I’m sorry, I know, I’m off wool-gatherin’, that’s what my Pa always called it. My head hasn’t been quite right since that day. I guess that’s why I got the vacation here with all you guys, huh? All I ever wanted was to fight for my country and I’m Section Eight like someone from the loony bin.

  OSS: You’re going to be OK. The doctors are helping you, aren’t they?

  MARINE: Yeah, some. I can even sleep sometimes now. And I know you don’t care about any of that. The story, you just want to hear what happened. It’s all anyone wants to talk about. Only, the docs, see, they want me to say it wasn’t real so I can get better, “Make progress,” they all say. But you, you know its’ real, don’t you? You’ve seen things. Hell, I might not even be telling you the craziest thing you heard, right?

  OSS: We’re here to talk about you, not me.

  MARINE: Yeah, you guys never want to talk about you. Ok, so the demon thing... Hey, you know what the sword was called, do those things have a name? The demon thing with the blue skin?

  OSS: They are called Oni.

  MARINE: Oni. I don’t know what that means, but it’s nice to have something to call it. Are they all blue? Yeah, yeah, I see you lookin’ at your watch, you don’t want to answer my questions, just have me tell this damn story. Again. Where was I? Oh yeah, it’s spittin’ fire, like those English planes? They call those Spitfires, but this was the real thing. It belches fire at him again, and the Jap, he catches it on his sword. I don’t know how, the blast, the flame, whatever, it should have been bigger than the blade was, but it worked. The green fire from the Oni *audible chuckle* and the blue fire on the blade, they met, and the sword held up, somehow. The Jap, he’s saying something, maybe a prayer? I’d have been praying if that thing was trying to cook me, I’ll tell you that for nothing.

  The Jap, he’s doing this dancing, moving, whatever, and just barely not getting singed, and the Oni, it’s getting powerful mad, you can tell. And the Jap, he gets too close, and it lunges at him, swiping with that big club, but the Jap knew what he was doing. He just folded himself up, like a damn circus acrobat, and the club missed him, but he cut the thing on its arm. It howled, and that sound was the worst one yet. My hair was standing up, my knees were knockin’, the whole bit, like when Lou Costello sees a mons
ter in the movies? We don’t get many movies in here.

  Yeah, the monster. I know. Oni. That. The Jap has the sword there, and it’s pushing the flame away. I guess the prayer worked, maybe? The fire goes out, and it roars, and swings that club at him, and he just dances off to the side. Gracefully, like. And the club hits the ground and it was like a bomb going off, and brother, believe me when I tell you I know what that sounds like now. I’m thinking, how are the boys not hearing this? The roars and the fire and the club hitting like a bomb, how is no one hearing this and yelling, or comin’ running, or something?

  They go at it that way a while. The Oni is snarling, and the Jap never says a word after that prayer or whatever it was. The Oni, it’s stronger than he is, stronger than any man. But the Jap, he just keeps moving. Now, you gotta remember, those islands, in the summer? It’s hotter than Hell there. Well, maybe not. Maybe that’s why the Oni didn’t care, if it’s a demon, Hell is home, so it’s used to being hot, right? But the Jap, Hell, I was damn near melting just standing there watching, and he was jumping all over like a frog or something, and I’m not even sure he was sweating. I sure was. It was beautiful and terrible and, I don’t know, fierce, all at once. And the Jap, he’s gettin’ close more than it thinks, and he’s cut it, a dozen times now. The Oni, it’s bleeding and it’s a real dark green, it’s not right for blood, or anything else. It shouldn’t be green. It’s just wrong, that green.

  OSS: Are you OKAY? Do you need a cigarette?

  MARINE: *sound of chair scraping on floor* NO! No, thanks. No cigarette. I don’t like fire much anymore. I just can’t stand it. I don’t want it near me, see?

  OSS: OKAY, no cigarette, and I won’t smoke either, OKAY? See, I’m putting it away.

  MARINE: Yeah, thanks, buddy. I just... No fire, OKAY? So, the Jap cuts this thing over and over, and it’s roaring and bleeding this green that isn’t right green blood, and that’s when [NAME REDACTED] shows up. I guess he’d finished doing his scout, and he was looking for me or something. This kid, he’s green, like we just got him before we shipped out for this cruise. And he sees this blue Oni, demon, and the Jap, and he screams, but it’s not a scared scream. It’s like a challenge. And he yanks his rifle off his shoulder and he shoots the Oni. The Oni and the Jap, they both just stopped when he showed up, like two teenagers caught necking. But [NAME REDACTED] just shoots once, twice, three times, and he’s hitting it, I can tell. I can see it grunting a little, but the bullets, they’re not going in. They’re not getting through its skin. It’s like those guys shooting Superman in the funny books. But this ain’t so funny.