Slayers (Jake Hawkins Book 1)

by Matt Rogers

  “I do,” Wolfe said. “And it’s far worse than I ever imagined. We need to move now if we even want a chance of making it out of here in time.”

  “In time for what?” Jake said.

  Wolfe’s next sentence was cut off as the sound of a helicopter’s rotor blades became audible in the distance. Everyone looked up, mostly because it was a noise that jarred with the natural sounds of the rainforest. There was nothing but bare sky above the clearing. The sound grew closer and closer, escalating to a deafening thwack-thwack-thwack that drowned out everything else.

  Then an enormous military chopper zoomed over the treetops and came to a standstill in the air, directly over their heads.

  It was the largest helicopter Jake had ever seen. He instantly recognised it from a television documentary he had seen in the past. For some reason, he could recall everything he had heard.

  It was a Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion. The largest transport chopper in the United States military. What else? he thought. That’s right. It weighed something like sixteen thousand kilograms, and could seat more than fifty troops. Why one had appeared in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest, he hadn’t the slightest clue.

  The Super Stallion began its descent. The wind given off from its spinning rotor blades was monumental. Jake was almost blown off his feet by the downdraft. He had to tense his legs and drive them into the ground to remain standing.

  There was just enough room for the chopper to land. It touched down on the dirt without a sound. In reality, it probably made a sound, but Jake heard nothing over the din of the chopper’s rotors. The roar was deafening. He could make out the shape of a single person in the pilot’s seat, unbuckling his seatbelt. The windscreen was tinted and the figure was wearing a chunky pilot’s helmet. They clambered out of their seat and headed back into the chopper’s fuselage, out of sight.

  The rear ramp began to descend. It was a single chunk of steel large enough to roll a tank down. By the time it touched the clearing floor, the pilot had killed the rotors and the blades had slowed to a crawl. There was quiet once again.

  A woman strode down the ramp. She looked to be in her late fifties, dressed in civilian clothing. Her greying hair was tied back in a bun. Her face was panicked, but she seemed to be controlling the fear. She stepped down off the ramp a little clumsily. Everyone watcher her with wary eyes.

  “Someone tell me what the hell is going on,” she said. Her accent was American.

  “Speak for yourself,” Wolfe said. “Who are you?”

  “Irene Fisher,” she said. “I’m bloody Special Forces. Now someone please tell me what is happening.”

  “Slow down,” Wolfe said. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m a pilot. I was in Peru to take part in a mission. To apprehend a group of seven who flew a plane full of weapons into Iquitos, and then escaped custody. Would you guys know anything about that?”

  “No idea what you’re talking about,” Felix said, blank-faced.

  “Holy mother of…” Irene said. She was finally taking in her surroundings. Her eyes passed over Link’s dead body, and then Crank lying on the floor, missing a leg. “What happened here?”

  “You first, Irene,” Wolfe said. “How did you find us?”

  “One of you were stupid enough to bring a police radio along with you,” she said. “We’ve been tracking you the whole time. But the Iquitos police force weren’t ready to follow you into the rainforest, so they called us in.”

  Jake gulped as he remembered shoving a rectangular object into the bottom of his hiking pack back in the evidence room, assuming it was part of their stash. The radio was probably still there, sitting in his pack back on the boat, buried underneath all of his other belongings. How could I have been so stupid?

  “Why did they call in United States Special Forces, Irene?” Wolfe was addressing the woman like a child. He needed facts – fast.

  “Because we were on bloody thin ice already,” she said. “Daniel McCloud’s locked up in a military prison as we speak. Apparently he gave the go ahead on the flight you guys took here. Right now we don’t know who to believe. But look, there’s much bigger issues right now, alright? Something terrible has happened.”

  Jake sat in silence, confused.

  “Oh my god,” Wolfe said. “Has there been an invasion?”

  Irene nodded, a little hesitantly. “Guys, I’m scared. I need to know what you know. Because right now, the whole of Iquitos is in chaos.”

  “Chaos?” Jake said. “What chaos? Wolfe, what’s going on?”

  Wolfe turned to him.

  “Slayers,” he said.

  PART THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Irene’s face was blank. The word meant nothing to her.

  “Pale monsters?” Wolfe queried.

  She broke down. Tears started to brim at her eyes. “Yes. Jesus. There’s hundreds of them. They’re everywhere. I know I’m supposed to be tough – Special Forces and all that – but I just … I just don’t know what to do …”

  Jake’s stomach dropped to his feet. He began to feel like he was in way over his head.

  “Is this part of Archfiend’s plan?” he asked Wolfe.

  Wolfe nodded. “This is the first stage. It’s started.”

  “What’s going on?” Felix asked.

  “Archfiend told me something on the way here,” Wolfe said. “He’s always had slayers in the Amazon. A hundred or so, hiding out in the rainforest. Ever since he was here seventeen years ago, he’s kept a small army here. Expansion, he called it. They kept themselves hidden, obviously, and they did a damn good job of it too. No-one ever found them. I mean, people went missing, of course, but that could always just be attributed to the rainforest. Harsh place, this is.”

  “And Archfiend just turned them loose on Iquitos?” Thorn said, perplexed.

  “Yes.”

  “No…” Jake breathed.

  “He can’t have done that,” Felix said.

  “Well, he has,” Irene said. “Whoever he is. I can verify that, first-hand.”

  Wolfe turned. “What do you know?”

  “The first reports came in, I guess, three or four hours ago. Of monsters swarming into town from the rainforest. There’s widespread panic. No-one has a clue what’s going on. Everyone’s locked in their houses. And these ‘slayers’ are everywhere. That’s all I know.”

  “And what happened to you?”

  “Our team was stationed at the United States Consulate. I’m the pilot, in case you couldn’t tell. My four guys were inside, and I was out on the airstrip, firing up the chopper.” She flicked a thumb back towards the Super Stallion. “We were just about to head off. We’d planned out how to intercept you, how to deal with the situation if you were armed, everything. Then the slayers came. I don’t know how many. They scaled the fence. You know, Special Forces desensitises you to pretty much anything, but this … I don’t know, this terrified me. I ran for it. Just got off the ground in time. I don’t know what happened to everyone inside the Consulate. I’ve had no response from my guys. I don’t know…” She sobbed.

  “I’m sorry,” Wolfe said. “We’ve just lost someone too.”

  “Why’d you come here?” Felix said suspiciously. “Why us?”

  “Like I said, we were ready to go,” Irene said. “I had your co-ordinates entered into the chopper and I was hovering up there in the air with nowhere to go, looking out over Iquitos, and there was smoke everywhere, and buildings were burning; and I thought to myself, what’s the chance that a group of seven people who flew in armed to the teeth and then disappeared into the jungle had something to do with it? Turns out my guess was good. I didn’t have many other options, anyway.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not sure we can help,” Wolfe said. “But at least we know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yeah, okay, listen,” Irene said. “I don’t want to offend anyone, but we don’t have time. This has already attracted worldwide attention. I need to bring
you five back to Iquitos and we need to formulate some kind of plan. You need to brief whoever’s left.”

  “No,” Wolfe said.

  Jake looked across. “Have you lost your mind, Wolfe?”

  Irene stared at him. “This isn’t a negotiation. I’m still a soldier. You’re coming with me.”

  “I know we are,” Wolfe said. “But – and I don’t say this lightly – Iquitos is nothing compared to the real attack.”

  “What real attack?”

  “Irene, we need to get to Washington D.C. as fast as possible,” Wolfe told her.

  Crank spoke for the first time. “D.C. Why?”

  “Because Iquitos is nothing more than a distraction. What Archfiend has planned is going to be devastating.”

  “It can’t be worse than this,” Felix said. “Wolfe, man, we need to get to Iquitos. We need to help people.”

  “This invasion is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. It’s capturing the world’s attention. And from what you’re telling me, Irene, it has. But that’s all it’s supposed to do. There’s a hundred or so slayers running around. That’s controllable. You know what’s not controllable?”

  No-one spoke.

  “Three thousand of them.”

  Jake gulped, sick at the thought. It took all his willpower to remain still. He wanted to turn and run off into the rainforest, run until his legs gave out, until he had put all this madness behind him and had just a few minutes alone to think about what Wolfe had just said.

  There was no time to think.

  He was in way over his head.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  “Where?” Thorn said.

  “Underground, somewhere in Washington.”

  “Did Archfiend get any more specific?”

  “That’s all he told me. But I don’t doubt him. He wouldn't lie. It’s not in his nature.”

  “Wow,” Jake said. The concept of an army of three thousand slayers made him feel insignificant.

  “I think they might be in the sewers, but I can’t be sure,” Wolfe said.

  “That’s impossible, man,” Felix said. “Washington D.C. has a population of, what, half a million? You can’t hide an army of slayers under all that.”

  Crank’s gaze never left the ground. “I thought … I thought slayers were just in Australia. This is beyond our control, Wolfe.”

  “I know,” Wolfe said. “But someone needs to try and stop it.”

  “Why is Archfiend doing this?” Jake said. “What can he possibly achieve by causing this much death and destruction?”

  “He’s an anarchist,” Wolfe said. “He doesn’t think rationally. The virus has done things to his brain. Terrible things. He wants to watch the world tear itself apart.”

  Irene said, “Jesus Christ.” Then her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. She was having trouble comprehending the weight of Wolfe’s words. As was Jake. “Are you telling me there’s three thousand of those things stashed away in Washington?”

  “Yes,” Wolfe said. “And unless we do something about it, Archfiend is going to unleash them while the world’s attention is transfixed here in Iquitos. People will be helpless.”

  Jake visibly saw Irene’s brain shift into military mode. No more messing about.

  “Alright,” she said. “The Army is already on the way to Iquitos. They should be able to deal with it.” She turned to look at the Super Stallion. “I only have enough fuel to get us back into the city, though.”

  “I don’t mean to be offensive,” Jake said, “but how important are you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Can we land at the airport and borrow a jet?”

  “Anyone who knows anything about those monsters right now can get whatever the hell they want.”

  “Let’s go then,” Wolfe said.

  “What happened here?” she asked.

  “Later, Irene.”

  Jake scooped up his hiking pack and headed for the rear ramp of the chopper. Before he boarded, he turned and took one last look at the mound of dirt that Sam was buried underneath. A pang of sadness seized him. They were leaving a man behind. He bowed his head and strode up into the fuselage.

  It was huge, wide enough to fit two cars side-by-side. The walls, floor and ceiling were all made of steel. Two metal benches ran along both sides. There were twenty seats in total, all accompanied by thick harnesses. Underneath each seat was a khaki green backpack.

  Felix and Thorn carried Crank inside, while Wolfe brought the gear. They set him down across two of the seats and Felix ripped one of the med-kits off the wall. Even from across the fuselage Jake could see that it was infinitely better than what they had. They set to work on his leg as Irene fired up the Super Stallion. Jake turned away. He couldn’t bear to look at the wound.

  Irene lifted off. The rotor reassumed its thwack-thwack-thwack above their heads. Instead of watching Felix and Thorn mop up the bloody stump, Jake stared out over the treetops from one of the small circular windows in the side of the chopper.

  The Amazon was beautiful from above. It was a sloping, sprawling mass of vibrant greens, cut in two by the Napo River snaking across the landscape. The further they climbed, the more picturesque the view became. The danger dissipated into peace. Fear turned to wonder. He was glad to leave it behind.

  He cast a quick glance down at the clearing as they hurtled away.

  “Goodbye, Sam,” he said. “Thanks for everything.”

  His stomach lurched as the nose dipped and the Super Stallion accelerated toward Iquitos. Jake would remember the events of the past week for the rest of his life. Already, he was struggling to recall memories from his past. Everything back then had been so … bland. His entire life had been turned on its head in the space of a couple of months. He would never be the same person again.

  There had been barely enough time down in the rainforest to stop and draw breath. Now, finally, he could reflect. He rewound his mind back to the start. Touching down in Iquitos, with the daunting pressure of an impossible mission hanging over their heads. The stomach drop as the special forces agents stormed onto the plane. The daring breakout from the police station. Saying goodbye to Zo…

  Zoe.

  The world went quiet. She was down there, somewhere, as slayers tore the city apart. Was she alive?

  She was all he could think about.

  He needed to know if she was okay.

  He approached the cockpit. There was an array of hundreds of levers and buttons spread out in front of Irene. She was flicking switches and touching screens seemingly at random. Flying a helicopter, especially one the size of this, was clearly a complicated affair.

  “Irene,” Jake said.

  “Hey,” she said. “I didn’t catch your name before.”

  “Jake.”

  “Jake. You look awfully young to be mixed up in something like this.”

  “Tell me about it. You’d feel worse, though. At least I know what we’re dealing with, right?”

  “You bet.” She paused. “It’s not my job to be scared though. I let it out for a minute or two, back there in the clearing. No more of that.”

  “You’re braver than me,” Jake said.

  “I’m not sure about that. I have no earthly idea what you boys have been through, but I can see it’s been hell. You okay?”

  He nodded. “I can’t think about it right now. Later, maybe. Look, Irene, I have a friend, down there in Iquitos. I need to know if she’s alright. Do you have a satellite phone?”

  She nodded. Reached up and detached a black brick from the roof. Tossed it to Jake.

  “All choppers need one,” she said. “Safety protocol.”

  “Thank you.”

  He stepped back into the fuselage and sat down on an empty seat.

  Crank let out a piercing scream. Jake’s curiosity got the better of him and he looked up, briefly. Thorn had unwound the bandage and begun to rub antiseptic cream over the ragged stump. It was grisly. Jake’s stomach squ
irmed and he cast his eyes down.

  Wolfe came over. “You okay, kid?”

  “Is he?”

  “He’s an amputee. But he’ll live. Thorn got a tourniquet around his leg within a minute of the incident. He lost some blood, but it wasn’t a fatal amount.”

  “So what happens to him now?”

  “As soon as this is over, we’ll get him to a hospital. They’ll need to even the bone down and sew the leg up. Not much else they can do.”

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” Jake said. “Sam’s…”

  “Don’t talk about Sam right now,” Wolfe said, sitting down. For a moment, the superhuman calm he usually gave off wavered. “Please. I’ve pushed that down. I’m trying to concentrate on what we can do about Washington. Just … I can deal with it later, okay?”

  “Alright. Sorry, buddy. What happened between you and Archfiend?”

  “I don’t remember much.”

  “Don’t want to talk about it?”

  “I don’t want to talk about anything right now, Jake. So much has happened. Like I said. Later.”

  “Yeah.”

  Crank let out another scream and Wolfe stood up to assist, leaving Jake alone again. Jake reached down and zipped open one of his pants pockets. The piece of paper that Zoe had given him was still there. But there was nothing on it. With a sigh of frustration, he realised the ink had been washed off during his time in the Napo River. It was nothing but a crumpled, yellowing scrap now.

  He could try from memory. The number had been a long row of digits, far longer than a normal mobile phone number. He had glanced at it a few times that first day of hiking. He didn't know why. Maybe he was in love. Maybe not. He certainly felt something towards her. He finished entering the number and raised the satellite phone to his ear, almost certain he had got something wrong.

  She picked up after the second ring.

  “Jake?” she said.

  “Zoe!” he said, almost shouting in surprise. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, for now,” she said. Her voice was shaky. “There’s these monsters everywhere. I’m holed up in an alleyway. Safe for the minute. But they’ll find me, Jake.”