The Alpha let out a satisfied grunt. If he could not have the two-legged things inside of the stupid beast, he would have the two now fleeing from him.
He jumped down and began to move in their direction. They were quick, but he would eventually run them to ground. There was no doubt in his mind of that.
Just as he began to put on speed, something else caught his attention, though. Sound, loud enough to cause the Alpha to cry out in pain, washed over him. Again and again it thundered, nearly driving him to his knees by its intensity. Finally, after what seemed to him an eternity of pain, it ended. Flickers of memory stirred in the Alpha’s damaged mind. He knew that sound. It was the noise the fire sticks of the two-legged things made. The two-legged things used them to kill. They were fighting back ... they were challenging him.
He turned in the direction the challenge had issued from, the rage burning stronger than ever in him. He forgot the small running things. The challenger, perhaps the alpha of the two-legged things, needed to be dealt with. The Alpha would hunt it down. He would find it, and it would die screaming at his hands.
♦ ♦ ♦
“What now?” Francis asked as the group stepped away from the bar.
“I’ll tell you what we do now,” Harrison said. “We try to get back to the motel. Danni, Rob, and the rest are all back there.”
“Screw this!” Kate spat. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you people, but I’m gonna call the police.”
“Enough!” Derek barked, momentarily silencing them all. He turned to her. “You aren’t going anywhere, at least not until we know it’s safe.” Then to the rest, he said, “We’ll find your friends, Harrison, but first we need to get to the trucks. Most of our gear is there. Once we’re loaded up, then we can help the others.”
“How are we gonna get there? It sounds like there’s more than one of those things.”
“What things!?” Kate cried, her frustration boiling over.
Derek ignored her. He opened his jacket, revealing a shoulder holster. The gun he pulled out was like nothing Harrison had ever seen. It was a large handgun with a ridiculously short muzzle. Derek smiled at him. “Ruger Alaskan, snub-nosed 454. Never leave home without it.”
Francis gave a thumbs up, but Harrison wasn’t quite convinced, “You have enough bullets?”
Almost as if on cue, the front door of the bar burst open. Smoke and flame escaped from the open maw, but that wasn’t the worst of it.
“What the hell is that!?” Kate shrieked, instinctively stepping behind the others.
Even to Derek, who had seen his fair share of the weird, it was like something that had stepped straight from the gates of Hades. All four of them were momentarily stunned as eight and a half feet of angry man-ape pushed through the doorway. Its arms and torso were ablaze, but it either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
It growled at them and curled its lips back to reveal blood-soaked teeth. Foamy drool dripped from its mouth and began to sizzle as it made contact with the flames. Red eyes widened as it took them in. Derek usually wasn’t one to assign human traits to animals, but he could have sworn the look was one of insane glee.
The creature screamed and charged them. For something so large, it was inhumanly fast. This close up, it was as if a freight train made of fire were advancing upon them.
Harrison and Kate both shouted, “Kill it!” as Derek raised the gun. There was no time to aim. He emptied the Ruger point blank into its torso, pulling the trigger over and over again – not even feeling the recoil as the heavy slugs flew from the barrel and hit home deep in the creature’s flesh.
The high caliber bullets met the beast head-on and cancelled out its momentum. For a second, it seemed to stand still, flames rising from its body and blood dripping from half-a-dozen fist-sized holes in its chest.
Then, just as the sound of the last shot was beginning to fade, the creature toppled over and fell into the dirt, the fire continuing to claim its body.
There were two more clicks as Derek continued to squeeze the trigger of the now empty gun, then he took a deep breath and lowered it.
“Holy shit,” Francis said.
“You can say that again,” Harrison agreed.
Kate wasn’t impressed nearly as much, as she was edging closer to outright terror. It was as if a nightmare had taken on life and stepped right out of her dreams. “Was that...” she managed to sputter.
Derek turned to her. “Well, it was almost certainly not a man in a gorilla suit.”
“You mean it’s real?”
“Was real,” Francis said. “That one, anyway.”
“Exactly. Unfortunately, it sounds like he brought his buddies to the party.” Derek holstered the gun. “Let’s get moving and make sure we have some noise makers waiting for them.”
He began walking down the street, closely followed by the others, but hadn’t gone more than ten paces when he stopped again. Before anyone could say a word, a howl of pure rage rose up from the darkness ahead of them.
“I think we’re gonna need to find a detour.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Emerging from the shadows in front of them was another of the beasts, even larger than the last. It didn’t look anywhere remotely close to calm. It stopped as soon as it saw them and bared its teeth as if in challenge.
“I don’t suppose you have any bullets left, boss?” Francis asked.
“All out, sadly. I didn’t quite expect this place to turn into the O.K. Corral tonight. You packing?”
“Nope. I don’t carry when I’m drinking. Bad combo ... under most circumstances.”
Derek sighed as he continued to face the creature. It seemed that they were locked in a Mexican standoff of sorts.
“If we can get to my store, I might have some ammo that’ll fit your gun,” Kate chimed in. The General Mart was about halfway between the bar and the B&B ... putting it just slightly beyond where the thing in front of them was standing.
“That’s a mighty big ‘if,’” Derek said, eyes still on the creature. The tension appeared to be rising in their battle of wills. He didn’t have faith it would last more than a few seconds longer. When it finally broke, he wasn’t sure what would...
“Just do me a favor, and save my sister,” Harrison said, a tone of determination in his voice. Before anyone could question what he meant, he broke from the group and sprinted across the street. He started jumping up and down, waving his arms at the creature. “Hey! Yeah you, you ugly motherfucker!”
Both Derek and the beast turned toward him.
“Get back here, you stupid...” But his protest was cut short by the angry sasquatch. It let loose with a high-pitched scream and charged the young man.
Harrison stood his ground for a moment longer, then took off down an alleyway.
For a second, Derek thought the distraction might be all for naught. The creature paused in its pursuit, as if momentarily at odds as to what to do. It appeared to actually be considering its options, then it gave one last snarl in his direction, turned, and took off after Harrison.
“Oh my God!” gasped Kate. “That thing’ll tear him apart.”
Derek looked her in the eye. “Not if I have anything to say about it. Come on! That kid gave us a chance, and we’re gonna make good use of it.”
“What’s the plan, boss?” asked Francis.
“The plan?” he replied, starting again in the direction of their vehicles. “The plan is to get all the guns we can carry, then kill each and every one of those goddamned things.”
Chapter 27
The pounding had stopped. Thank God, too, Mitchell noted, because the sides of the van were damn close to caving in. He and Rob were already wedged in pretty tight. Much more, and they’d be crushed like bugs between the two walls of computer equipment.
“I think I know how a sandwich feels,” Rob said. It was gallows humor, but Mitchell uttered a laugh anyway. Considering the circumstances, it seemed that their choices were either to laugh or scr
eam. He had a sinking sensation that if the screaming started, it wouldn’t end until either their tormentor broke in or they were pounded into paste.
“What do you think it’s doing?” Rob asked.
“That’s the sixty-four thousand dollar question. I don’t hear it anymore, though.”
“Do you think it’s maybe waiting to see what we’ll do?”
“I don’t know. Under normal circumstances, these things are all about stealth. But there was nothing subtle about the way it attacked this van. If I were a betting man – and my bookie in Vegas says I am – I’d say this one was infected, too. If that’s the case, then it’s probably not even remotely sane enough to consider a trap.”
“You’re sure it’s a different one, right? I mean, you guys are certain you killed it?”
“Trust me, it was dead. Since I’m not quite ready to start believing in zombie sasquatches, I’d say we have another one on our hands.”
Amazingly, Rob started laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
“You are! Lake monsters, dinosaurs, giant bats, et cetera. You guys have no problem believing any of that on the show, but now you’re turning your nose up at a zombie bigfoot?” He started laughing again. After a few seconds, the medic joined him.
After the laughter, which had a bit of a hysterical quality to it, died down, Mitchell said, “Okay, maybe you have a point there.”
“So how many do you think are out there?” Rob asked, serious once more.
“At least one more than I’d prefer. No idea, sadly. If the whole clan is infected, then we could be dealing with anywhere from three to a dozen.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to hope it’s closer to three.”
“Me too.”
“So, what do we do?”
Mitchell had been waiting for that one. He wished he had a good answer for the kid. Unfortunately, he didn’t. “You’re not gonna like this, but right now I see two choices: get out and try to run for it, or stay here and get smashed like sardines.”
“I was afraid you were gonna say that. Are there any guns in here?”
“There’s a rack with a shotgun behind the driver’s seat, but...” In the darkness, Rob heard movement from the other man’s position. “No good. The door up front is crushed. You probably don’t want to hear this, kid, but you’re gonna have to try the back.”
He was right: Rob didn’t want to hear that. He could envision the creature standing out there, waiting for them. The second he pushed open the double doors, it would reach in and tear him apart.
That unpleasant imagery kept him frozen in place for several seconds. Then he remembered who else was out there. He softly whispered to himself, “Dr. Jenner wouldn’t hesitate. The Crypto Hunter would go out there and kick some ass.”
“Kid? You okay?”
“Sorry, just thinking out loud.” He crawled to the back of the van and grasped for the handle in the dark.
“Okay. As soon as it’s open, you bolt,” Mitchell said. “Don’t worry about me. Just run in whatever direction you don’t see a squatch looking back at you from.”
“Got it,” Rob answered. “On three. One ... Two ...” He turned the handle and shoved. The door moved maybe half an inch, then no more. He pushed again, and this time there was no give. “Shit!” he cried into the darkness. “It’s stuck.”
“I was afraid of that,” Mitchell replied. “They make these damn things bulletproof, but nobody takes into account an attack by a half-ton monster when they’re drawing up the blueprints.”
“So, what now?”
“Now? Now we sit tight, wait, and hope that Derek gets here before that thing comes back.”
♦ ♦ ♦
“Slow down!” whispered Allison from a few paces back. Though Danni had been the second on the ground, she had quickly passed her friend. Both girls were in good shape, but she had run track in high school and still jogged whenever she had the chance.
Though every instinct in her body was telling her to push on as fast as she could, she had no intention of leaving yet another friend behind. Danni slowed a little and let her friend catch up. She looked around, saw nothing behind them, then slowed further to a more even trot, – figuring there was no point in exhausting themselves now, in case they ran into another of those things later.
After leaping from the second story window of the B&B, the girls had turned down a series of side streets so as to try to throw off any pursuit. As they ran, they could hear the sounds of the creatures roaring and screaming into the night. Earlier, they had also heard what they thought might be gunfire, but it had been so brief that they weren’t hopeful about it. Regardless, so far they’d been lucky and not seen another of the beasts. In the back of Danni’s mind, though, she was wondering how long that luck would last.
Still running, she said, “We shouldn’t have left Paula.”
“That thing didn’t give us a choice.”
“Do you think there’s any chance it didn’t find her?”
“Maybe,” Allison replied solemnly.
“Do you really believe that?”
There was no answer. Danni wasn’t surprised. She didn’t believe it either. She felt the sting of tears in her eyes, but wiped them away with the back of her hand. She couldn’t afford the luxury of crying right now. Any lapse in their attention could get them both killed if another of those monsters was out there stalking them.
“What about the others?”
“Huh?” Danni asked.
“The others. Do you think anyone else made it out?”
Thoughts of her brother immediately weighed upon Danni, bringing fresh twinges of guilt to her gut. She hadn’t given him a single thought since they had fled from the creature. God, what a selfish bitch I am. On the other hand, it wasn’t like she was equipped to do much to help him. For now, all she could do was hope.
“My brother’s a survivor,” she said, praying she could believe that long enough to hold herself together.
Allison nodded and didn’t mention it again. Unfortunately, neither had grabbed their cell phones in the chaos of running for their lives. For all they knew, help could be on its way right now, or they could be the last ones left alive for miles in every direction. They didn’t know, and worrying about it wouldn’t help their situation.
“So, what do we do?” Allison asked. “We can’t keep running forever. At least, I can’t.”
Danni thought for a few moments, then replied, “You’re right. We need to find some place to hole up until either morning or someone finds us.” She left unspoken the possibility of something else finding them first.
Before either of them could ponder that latter scenario, a shape began to take form out of the darkness in front of them. It was a small house.
“There!” said Danni. “Let’s take a look and see if anyone’s home.”
♦ ♦ ♦
“Where the hell are you going?” Chuck asked, following Kurt as he zigged back and forth through the trees. He’d taken an instant dislike to the man. He reminded Chuck of the local rednecks from when he’d been stationed down in Louisiana. Those men had lived all their lives deep in the bayou. If you ever got lost in the swamp, there was no better person to be with, but that was the end of their usefulness. Overall, he had found them to be an inbred, ignorant, and intolerant people. The dumb bastard who was leading him through a dense copse of trees could have fit right in with them.
Bigfoot Hunters (Tales of the Crypto-Hunter Book 1) Page 24
