They were ripping the body apart and eating it.
Oh, it wasn’t enough for them to be freaky underground mutants, but they had to be cannibals too. Lovely.
I couldn’t get a very clear picture through the pine trees, but it seemed there wasn’t much ceremony involved. They just ripped the little guy limb from limb and started cramming meat in their mouths. There were at least four or five of them feasting. It was savage. Within seconds, the white skin was stained red, and their guts were bulging with fresh meat. They couldn’t possibly consume it all that fast, but they’d probably pack the rest out to use as a picnic later. I thought about lighting them up. I could probably kill most of the visible ones before they even knew I was here, only I didn’t know if they had brought friends.
Then a really big one ran up to the bloody crowd. It had to be a good seven feet tall. The other little ones cowered, subservient, as it began barking orders at them. The abnormally deep voice matched the first call I’d heard. That had to be the patrol’s leader. Blowing his brains out was super tempting.
Then my scope blacked out as something moved right in front of it.
Instinct told me to hold perfectly still. There were more Asakku dead ahead, less than twenty feet away. I hadn’t seen them because they’d come from below, and were moving right past me to converge on the others. These were keeping really silent. Not all of them had called out an answer to their summons. If I’d kept running I would have blundered straight into them.
They were creeping along, slow and predatory. There were three visible, all armed with similar rough muskets. Their physical features varied wildly, with misshapen heads, or uneven limbs. Their see through skin was decorated with chains and bone piercings. I lay there in the mud, ready to shoot, but praying that they’d keep moving.
The last one in line froze.
Shit.
I hadn’t made a sound. It slowly turned in my direction, giant eyes heavy lidded, as it raised its crooked nose. Nostrils flared as it inhaled. My scent had been caught.
Shit. Shit.
That Asakku let out a low growl. The other two stopped where they were. One of them drew back the hammer on its musket with a metallic click. The one who had smelled me took a step in my direction.
I shot all three of them.
They never even saw what was coming. I was so close I just tilted Cazador, aimed down the side sights, and thump, thump, thump. Less than a second elapsed from first to last. Two dropped clean, the middle one wobbled, so I shifted back, thump, and put a hole through its forehead. It twitched and jerked the trigger. The flint lock discharged into the ground.
Throughout the forest around me, Asakku roared. It was on now, might as well even up the odds. It wasn’t very far for this set up, and there was no wind to throw me off. I went back to the scope, saw the white skin stained red, and interrupted their feast. The big one had moved out of sight, so I aimed at another little one who had just looked up from the arm it had been gnawing on, and fired. It tumbled from view. The rest scattered like roaches.
Time to go. I resisted the urge to stand up and bolt. Making myself a big obvious target would draw their attention for sure. Hopefully, my suppressor was keeping them from zeroing in on my position. I rolled over, and slid on my butt down the slope, toward where I’d left my pack.
There was a flash of white as more Asakku charged from the trees.
Still on my back, I shot one, but before I could swing my rifle over to the next, it was on me. It shrieked and clawed at my eyes. I got one hand up and grabbed it around the throat, keeping its gnarly snapping teeth away from my face. It was shockingly strong and stank of rotting meat. I squeezed hard, crushing the creature’s windpipe. Then I jerked its face down into the log. When it bounced off, teeth were still embedded in the bark.
Black powder roared as another creature fired. The log next to my head exploded in a cloud of splinters. That one immediately lifted its empty weapon, roared a battle cry, and charged. I barely rolled out of the way just as the musket’s stock bounced off the ground where I’d been lying. I kicked out, sweeping that Asakku’s legs out from under it.
It hit the ground and instantly scrambled toward me, pulling a wickedly curved knife from its belt. There wasn’t room to maneuver my rifle, so I yanked my pistol from its holster, and started firing before I could even line up the sights. It jerked as a .45 bullet pierced its shoulder, then stopped as I found the front sight and put the next round through the top of its skull.
The one I’d knocked the teeth out of was still twitching and straining for air, so it shot it too, right through the temple. The coast was clear, so I holstered my STI, got to my feet, hoisted up my pack, and started running. I managed to get the straps over my shoulders without tripping and breaking my neck.
Shots rang out. Giant bullets whizzed through the trees. Luckily the Asakku’s smooth bores weren’t that accurate or they really were blind in the light. Only there were a surprising number of them shooting at me, and volume can make up for inaccuracy. A puff of white smoke erupted through the bushes ahead. I didn’t even slow down as I cranked off several rounds from Cazador. A creature fell through the leaves and crashed into the dirt.
After all that climbing, now I was heading downhill. It wasn’t a conscious decision so much as that was the direction opposite the bellowing and gunshots. Big dudes can make excellent time downhill, provided you don’t head butt a tree trunk or fall off a cliff. It was taking everything I had to keep my footing. If I tripped, by the time I stopped rolling, the monsters would be on me.
I risked a look back. There were a lot of white bodies coming down the mountain. I hadn’t blundered into a little patrol. This was more like a war party. And they were gaining on me.
There were too many to stand and fight, but it was time to put some fear into these things. Hopefully they felt fear. I skidded to a stop, searching for a target. I was hoping to drop the leader, but there was no sign of the tall one. Instead I picked a creature in the open about a hundred and seventy yards away and gaining rapidly. I wanted the others to see this one die.
My pounding heart was making the rifle shake, but at this distance I might as well be shooting a laser beam. The trigger was damned near telepathic. The bullet hit that Asakku in the abdomen. Momentum carried it forward as it spilled down the rocks.
Many of them must have seen my demonstration, because they veered off behind deeper cover or dropped prone. Good. That ought to slow them down a bit. A few snapped off quick shots in retaliation as I started running again.
I was making great time, but had no idea towards where. The further I went down the hill, the more I lost sight of the weird patchwork universe above. I was glad when that view was hidden by the clouds again. But then, because this dimension blows, it started raining again. Hopefully it would get my pursuer’s gun powder wet enough to cause misfires. The underbrush was getting thicker. Branches tore at my face as I lowered my head and plowed through.
The forest here was darker. It was getting hard to see. The perpetual light above hadn’t changed, there was just less getting through. Everything was covered in moss. Which I quickly discovered was slicker than snot, when I jumped down on a patch and my feet flew out from under me. I hit hard, then slid and rolled about twenty feet down a muddy slope. I tried to protect my scope and my head, in that order. The impact sucked, but nothing broken, I struggled back up and carried on.
My boots splashed through a stream. Desperation grew as I realized I’d run into a ravine. It would take too long to climb out. I couldn’t backtrack. There was only one way I could go, but with only one route to choose from, the Asakku could figure out where I was heading and get there first. All I could do was run my ass off in the hopes I found a way out of this fatal funnel before they got there.
A leg burning half a mile later, and I was still following that damned stream. If anything, the sides had gotten even higher and steeper. I wondered if the Nightmare Realm was just messing with me now.
I hadn’t seen an Asakku for a few minutes, but I could still hear them behind and above me. There was no noise ahead of me, and that was too convenient. It was like I was being herded, but toward what, I didn’t know. There’s that old saying about when the hunter becomes the hunted, but let me tell you firsthand, it sucks ass.
Ahead, the slopes leveled out. It appeared to be a grassy clearing. It was one of the few open spaces I’d seen in this claustrophobic forest. If the creatures were clever, they’d be waiting there
Winded and nervous, I shouldered Cazador and slowed to a cautious walk. My boots were sodden and heavy. I was simultaneously overheated and freezing. This was it. I could feel it. There wasn’t much cover along the stream, but I stuck close to one side so as to not expose myself to the whole clearing at once.
Sure enough, some Asakku were waiting for me. One of them jumped gun and fired its musket. There was a flash and shower of sparks through the trees on the other side. I cringed and waited for more shots, but that one had been firing in the opposite direction.
Suddenly, one of the white creatures broke from the tree line, running for its life. Before I could fire, another musket roared and the Asakku was flung forward as a massive bullet punched through its back. What the hell? But I wasn’t going to complain about the distraction. More of the creatures rose up from where they’d been waiting to ambush me, to turn and meet their new threat.
I came out shooting. If it looked like a methed-out space alien, I put a bullet in it. I emptied my mag, dropped the spent one in the stream, and slammed in another without thinking about it.
“Come on!” someone shouted from inside the tree line. I’d never been happier to hear another human voice before. He was even speaking English, so either I’d found my Hunters, or the Nightmare Realm was really screwing with my head.
The Asakku ambushers were pulling back, so I ran toward the voice.
“Over here!” I couldn’t make out the speaker at first, since he was so camouflaged he looked like a bush, with leaves and twigs tied through his clothing and his face covered in mud. He was running a ramrod down a bore, reloading one of the monster muskets. “Which one of you got out—Pitt?” It took me a moment to recognize the big man. He had lost a ton of weight and had grown out a huge beard and had a strip of cloth for an eye patch. Jason Lococo just stared at me stunned, then he blinked his good eye a few times in disbelief. “Are you really here?”
“Yeah, Lococo. It’s me.” I’d found them. I’d done it. I’d actually pulled off the impossible. “I’m here to rescue you.”
A bullet flew past me and thudded into a nearby tree. I looked over my shoulder and saw a mess of Asakku swarming out of the ravine.
“Some rescue.”
“It’s what you get! Run!”
CHAPTER 20
The two of us took off. Lococo was in the lead, homemade ghillie suit bouncing. Judging from how gracefully he maneuvered his bulk between the trees, he’d gotten a lot of practice fleeing from things. “I know a spot we can lose them. Hopefully it’s still there.”
“Hopefully it’s still there? I hate this dimension!”
“Try surviving here a couple months!” He shouted back.
A couple? I had some bad news to give him, if we lived that long.
“Down here.” He gestured with the musket. The path was so covered that I wouldn’t have seen it without help. We moved quickly. The path turned into a ravine, which turned into a rocky, moss covered crevasse. It kept getting narrower and narrower. The only light was a narrow strip directly above. Water was cascading down the interior. The water would mask our smell. The trickling would dampen the noise. Lococo must have learned some hard lessons about how to stay alive here.
He kept glancing back to make sure I was there, like he was expecting me to vanish, a figment of his imagination. At one point I started to say something, but he shook his head in the negative, then pointed at the sky. There could be Asakku directly overhead.
The water level got higher, until we were wading in it, hip deep. It was freezing cold. I was soaked. The gap above got smaller, until the sky was nothing but a tantalizing sliver of light streaming in. It was so dark Lococo was just a hulking shape ahead of me, laboring through the water. I felt that the Nightmare Realm’s disembodied denizens were in there with us, plucking away at our sanity. They did their best work in the dark. I really wanted to turn on a flashlight to chase them away, but that would just bring the physical monsters down on our heads.
I don’t know how long we continued on in silence, through that crack in the rock, when a grey light began to grow ahead of us. There was a growing roar. The stream we were wading through ended with a waterfall.
It was a great feeling, getting out into the light, even this half-assed, not real, perpetual pseudo-sunlight. We came out on a flat rocky shelf. Ahead of us was a steep drop off, behind us was a moss cliff face. Somewhere up above were the monsters.
“I think we lost them,” Lococo said. “We should be safe for now.”
I walked to the edge and looked over. The water fell for hundreds of feet, terminating in a misty valley far below. There was forest on the other side, but that mist almost felt more like another hole in the fabric of this world than a river. If we needed to bail out again, it was also the only exit I could see. “Where’s that go?”
“Don’t know. None of that was down there the last time I was here…You said rescue. Where’s everybody else?”
“I’m it,” I said, exhausted and shivering.
“How? Never mind.” He took that pathetic revelation surprisingly well. When you’ve been in a hopeless situation so long, anything was a big step up. “Okay. It don’t matter as long as you got a way back to the real world. You have a way out right?”
“Probably.”
“Home…” Lococo was even bigger and uglier than me, but when that idea finally sank in, he looked like he was about to cry. It was as if he’d been so focused on just existing he’d forgotten there was anything after that. Even after being alone all this time, the man was still hard as nails, and turned away before openly displaying any emotion.
“It’s going to be okay, man.”
His shoulders were shaking like he was trying not to sob. His voice cracked as he spoke. “I never thought I’d make it home.”
I couldn’t begin to imagine what he’d gone through to survive here, but I’m not good at comforting people. “I’ve got a way out. There’s a whole army of Hunters waiting for us.”
“Sorry. I…It’s been a while since I’ve had anybody to talk to. The quiet eats at you.” He wiped his face with the back of his filthy hand, turned around, gritted his teeth, and gave me a determined nod. It was hard to judge someone’s emotional state when you could barely see their face through the mud, but I think he was on the hysterical border between relieved and stunned. “I’ll be fine.”
“I can still find my way back to the portal I came through, and if not, I’ve got an artifact that is supposed to show the way. I can take you there now.”
That seemed to surprise him. “No! I mean, I can’t leave yet. I didn’t get here alone, I don’t want to leave that way. I know where some others are being held captive. I’ll need help to get them out.”
Earl had been right about the guy. Lococo was hard core. Even after everything he’d been through, he was still putting others first. “That’s fine. I’m all in. I’m not leaving anybody.” I regretted saying that as soon as the words left my mouth. I’d already left him behind once. “Not again. We’re bringing them all home.”
Lococo could have let me have it then, and I would have deserved it, but he only nodded slowly. “Good. Okay, I’ll have to get you up to speed first. Come on, Pitt. I’ve got another hiding spot nearby where we can make a fire. You got a lighter?”
“Yeah. I carried one of everything up this friggin’ mountain.”
“Thank, God. I’m so tired of rubbing sticks on each other.”
* * *
The hiding spot wasn’t what I had expected at all. “How’d a school bus end up here?”
It was an old, rusty hulk now, sunken into the ground, wedged between two giant redwoods, with only the front end sticking out. There was moss growing over much of the metal, but there were still spots where I could clearly see the faded yellow paint. The bus was an antique, but I didn’t know enough about cars to guess an age. 1960s maybe? It had been here a really long time.
“I don’t know.” Lococo said as he climbed up the bus steps. The door had fallen off a long time ago. “This place is messed up. I once saw what I think was an old German U-boat wrecked way up on the side of a mountain.”
I followed him in. Both of us had to duck not to hit our heads. All the windows were long since broken. Most of the seats were still here. I didn’t know what I’d been expecting, but I was really glad there were no little kid skeletons sitting in them. The floor was rusted, but still solid enough that even two really big dudes didn’t fall through it. Lococo leaned his musket against a wall and began gathering some kindling that had been previously piled out of the rain to dry out. He went to the back to the hole where the emergency exit had been, and hopped down. There was a sunken spot between the trunks of the great trees with a fire pit of stacked stones.
Lococo began arranging the kindling. “It’s dry and warm air gets trapped in the bus. Smoke goes up between the branches, so you can’t see it for very far. This place is like a palace. Give me that lighter,” he said.
It felt so good to drop my pack. I had the back ache from hell. I found one of the lighters and tossed it to him.
Lococo caught it and went to work. “I never could find a path to that submarine. I tried. The mountain wouldn’t let me. Paths kept disappearing. It’ll mess with your sense of direction if you let it. I kept imagining that there would be some old German guns inside of it. Better than that smoke pole I stole off a dead skinny. I’ve been running around with that thing like I’m the last of the Mohicans. My guns didn’t last too long. By the time I learned how to live here I’d either lost them or ran out of ammo. I figured at least an old Nazi gun would shoot straight. That skinny piece of trash can’t hit the broad side of a barn, but they’re half blind anyway, so they don’t care. They just toss a bunch of lead your way and hope for the best.” It took him several fumbling tries to get the lighter struck with his shaking fingers.
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