"Oh, he's cognizant, all right. First Perry Gwinn, suckering him in the way he did ... and now this."
"Give us again the location of the drop," said Stroud.
Cage did so. It was about a mile in the opposite direction. "That'll put us within good distance to the proposed pickup site," said Stroud.
"That was the general idea, Abe."
"Roger that, Lou. We're on our way."
Tully and Saylor agreed that the raw-meat drop was their next best move. If it drew Kerac, theoretically the bait would draw the others as well. It had been shown that Kerac could little resist such temptation, even if he knew the odds were high.
"Move out!" Saylor told his men, and once more they stalked their prey.
The search party was halfway to the drop when they heard a resounding, blood-chilling roar. At the same time, Lou Cage came over the radio from above. "Sighted Kerac and others, Abe! We've glimpsed them amid some rocks and trees--"
"Read you, but where in relation to our position?"
"You're dead on, Abe. Straight ahead of you."
"How far?"
"Two, maybe three hundred yards."
"Can you get in for a closer look?"
"Not without alerting them."
"Hold on that."
Stroud called Saylor and Tulley.
"I say we go in for a closer look," said Tulley. "Get a head count."
Saylor agreed. "We're downwind from them, and my people are the best, Stroud. Let us begin to earn our keep."
Anna More stared at Stroud, who considered this. He contacted Lou, who argued against getting too close, wanting to dust the trees with the gas first.
"We need a look first, Lou. But be ready with those gas bombs."
Stroud had to shut down the radio on Lou's protests. The party moved forward at a clip now, silent and steady and of one mind, like a single animal. Ahead of them, they heard more howls, bayings, cries of pain and torment.
"Christ," shouted Blue, "it's another attack on some poor slobs out camping!" Blue went charging far ahead.
In ten minutes, they were on their bellies amid an outcropping of stones that littered the otherwise lush landscape of the deep woods. They looked down on another gully that seemed a duplicate of the wash basin they'd first encountered so far behind them now. Stroud felt a sense of déjà vu about the place, except that here they saw flashes of the hairy beasts that they'd come to exterminate. All of the men and women looked down into the rocks and trees lining their vision, trying desperately to make out the silver and black shapes and movements of the living animals they were now trying to draw beads on. Their movie cameras sent back pictures to the men in the air as they scanned for the noisy but near-impossible-to-see creatures.
"There," said Priest, pointing, but then it was gone.
The roars came again. "Keep quiet," said Stroud. "They can hear at incredible range. Go to radio contact only."
All of them placed headphones from their necks to their heads and ears. Now they could communicate privately without fear of alerting the enemy to their presence.
"Careful of your footing, careful of this pack of shit we've got to carry on our backs, men," Saylor cautioned his people.
Tulley said, "We've got to get in closer. Can't see shit from here."
"Roger that," agreed Blue, who started over and down, remaining on his belly. He was followed by Nails. In each person's ears, even through the headphones, the roaring was becoming deafening. The werewolves were feasting on something, but this was not the drop location.
There were no human screams and for that Stroud and the others were thankful.
They moved in closer, following Joe Blue's lead. Priest tumbled down like a silent rock to a new position. Tulley and Saylor fanned out, widening the circle of fire they would open up on the enemy. Stroud and Anna remained close together, Stroud not wanting to lose sight of Anna.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
"Let's just get it over with."
Stroud thought of the slaughter of buffalo by hunters in America in the late 1800s. He wanted this slaughter over with quickly.
But as they gained their new positions, Stroud realized no one was opening fire, and that all the seasoned soldiers were staring in awe instead. Below them were hundreds of hairy humanoids, all roaring and stomping and jumping at the sight of two of their number locked in combat. It appeared a combat to the death. Dirt, dust, hair and blood commingled and flew all about the combatants. Stroud pulled forth his binoculars and magnified, zeroing in on the dueling pair. Amid the furor, he saw that one of the fighters had only one claw: it was Kerac.
The fighting between the two beasts was furious, and it held Saylor's people, Stroud and Anna in rapt attention. All round the dueling werewolves, others waved their arms and leapt up and down on the rocks and amid the trees. Stroud tried desperately to make an estimate of their numbers.
Flesh and hair were torn from Kerac by the other man-wolf, who was huge and powerfully built but older and silver-streaked over a third of his body where his hair was gray. It soon became apparent that the older one was the leader of the pack and that Kerac's sudden appearance among them had called his authority into question, resulting in the mauling Kerac was now taking. But suddenly, Kerac lifted a huge rock with his one good arm and pounded it into his opponent's head, bashing in the other's skull, sending the silver-backed one into a paroxysm of nervous twitching, and left him on his back as Kerac pounded first the air and then his chest with his only hand. The roar and din and screech from the males, females and children in the enormous pack sent up a shrill noise from the basin floor.
Suddenly, gunshots rang out and some of the creatures fell in response, dead of their wounds from Blue's and Nails' AK-47s. The instant Blue opened fire, the rest followed suit. Stroud had heard no order given to fire, but now there was little else to do. But no sooner had the first few of the creatures fallen to bullets than the others had simply disappeared.
"Where are they?" shouted Tulley through the com link.
"Everyone up!" ordered Saylor. "Full pursuit! Now!"
The soldiers tore over the ridge and careened down into the basin, their weapons at the ready.
Stroud shouted for caution, and he ordered them to place their gas masks on. As soon as everyone had the opportunity to cover their eyes, mouths and noses, Stroud ordered Lou to come in with the gas bombs. Each helicopter came in low and dropped a casing of the gas that would work its way into the nervous systems of the creatures.
With the cloud of gas masking their view, creeping over the entire scene before them, they came into the area where the monsters had frolicked at having seen their leader killed by Kerac. Except for the old man of the group, still alive and twitching, and those few brought down by Blue and Nails--all of whom were dead--there was not so much as a sign of the others. They had simply vanished.
Priest suddenly fired, tearing a tree trunk to ribbons, making the others laugh, until he hit one of the brown werewolves. It'd been camouflaged against the tree.
"How did you see it?" asked Tulley of Priest.
"I didn't."
Others suddenly appeared all around them, stepping from the brown background of trees and rocks, scurrying off, seeing they could be harmed by these strange intruders. Nails and Anna More opened fire, bringing down several more of the creatures.
Tulley and Saylor brought down several more who lifted straight off the earth, having blended in with the pine needle forest floor fifty yards distant. Stroud saw some unusual movement at the periphery of his vision overhead, and firing into the trees, two more of the werewolves fell dead to the earth.
"Wasting too damned much ammo!" shouted Saylor. "Hit what you shoot at, and no more scatter-gunning!"
"Silver's working," said Stroud.
Priest hadn't brought down a single creature. He'd fired several rounds, and he had hit several of the fleeing creatures, but they merely rushed on. Stroud went to him and said, "You didn't get your ammuni
tion doused, did you?"
"No ... I didn't."
"Didn't think it'd make any difference, did you?"
"Hell, bullets are bullets."
"Not anymore they aren't."
Something dropped from nowhere, atop Nails, slashing her across back and throat, her gun going off where she held it, sending Blue to the ground. A second creature jumped Blue. Saylor fired point-blank, hitting the creature on Nails' back between the eyes, killing it instantly. The gas floating down over Blue made Stroud hesitate while Tulley fired two shots into the thing on Blue, who tore away, screaming.
Anna More was the first to get to Nails, whose throat was spurting blood. Anna tore out a plastic bag holding some beef jerky, emptied it and pressed it firmly into the wound at Nails' throat. Nails was trying to breathe and talk at once, but nothing was coming out. Anna held her, feeling her life ebbing beneath her, shouting, "Get something to make a tourniquet, quickly! Quickly!"
Stroud rushed to Anna with a first-aid kit, tearing out the bandaging. Anna held firm to the plastic bag, stopping the blood flow as Nails was battling to stay conscious, her eyes bulging. Stroud looped the bandaging around and around Nails' neck, Anna regaining the pressure hold with each pass. She'd sunk the plastic in tightly against the wound, and now only time would tell. Nails' back was scarred terribly, too.
All the while, Lou Cage and the others skyborne were shouting over the communications link, pleading for information as to what had happened. They were aware that Nails' vital signs had fallen off with the loss of blood and shock.
Blue, bleeding also, but on his feet, had been saved by the camera on his back. The creature had ripped it to smithereens instead of Blue's helmeted head. Blue stood blubbering over Nails, pleading for her to pull through.
"Come on, Nails! Come on!"
"Jesus, Abe! I told you fools not to go in there!" Lou was shouting.
Nails was rasping, trying desperately for air, the sound making them all ill.
Tulley told Blue to regain his senses and keep his eyes open. Tulley and Saylor were watching for the next attack wave, but no one could see anything now that the gas fog had blanketed the entire area.
One of the werewolves stepped from the gas fog, lurching at Saylor, who fired several rounds into the thing's stomach before it fell over Saylor, who shoved it off and got up trembling. Priest had thrown down his weapon and grabbed Nails' and now he scanned the gray emptiness of the fog.
"They rip your mask off, you're dead that way," Tulley assured everyone.
"What do we do now?" begged Blue. "Goddammit, what do we do now? What, Saylor? Tulley? We just wait for the damned things to come get us?"
"Shut up, Joe! Just shut up!" shouted Saylor.
"We've got to backpedal," pleaded Priest. "Earl, we got no choice!"
"Just shut up! We don't move a muscle until we can see! Going back the way we came is crazy."
"This gas," said Tulley. "Thought it was supposed to slow the mothers down!"
"It doesn't work instantly," Stroud reminded them, "but it will."
"Meanwhile, we're fuckin' blind, man!" shouted Blue.
"That's enough, Blue!" said Saylor, rushing to Blue and shoving him hard. "Get hold of it, grunt!"
Tulley fired, causing everyone to jump. He'd just killed again the silver-haired one Kerac had defeated where he lay twitching on the ground.
"Goddammit, Warren! Waste no more of that ammo!" Saylor screamed.
"Hey, man! He was alive. Seen a lot of dead gooks get up and kill guys!"
"Let the gas do its work," Stroud tried to reason with Priest and Blue. "Before you got trigger-happy, I was trying to estimate their numbers."
"So, what's your guess, Doc?" asked Saylor.
"I think we've certainly got upwards of two hundred and fifty, maybe more."
"This damned gas better work, then."
"Give it time."
Blue rushed at Stroud, "And what about Nails, huh? How much time can she lie here like..."
Blue and everyone stared, somehow knowing what Anna More had known for some time now. Anna said sadly, "She's dead."
Blue went to his knees over his fallen comrade. The others fell silent. There was a quiet over the area that added to the eerie feel of the gas fog, making it seem a cemetery before dawn.
"Awwww, no, no!" Blue wailed.
Saylor indicated to Stroud they should talk, and the two stepped a little away from the others. "We go for the location Cage gave us, for the bait. We take out as many as we can there."
"You hold on to it, Blue," Tulley was advising the other man when they rejoined them.
"Appears they've cleared out," said Saylor. "Their noses should take them to where we want them to be. Cage and the others can drop on them anytime at that location--"
"Nails is dead, sir," Blue told his commanding officer like a small boy in shock.
"And we're going to avenge her, Joe."
Blue got to his feet, nodding, "Yes, sir ... but we can't just leave her here like this."
"You want to pack her, Joe?"
"Yes, sir."
Tulley started to object, but Saylor put up a firm hand to his second-in-command. "You go right ahead, Joe. Maybe lighten her up a bit. Just keep the gun belt and the canteen. All right, Joe? Priest, you take her weapon."
"We leave her here ... they'll come back ... feed on her," Joe Blue said. "I ain't going to let that happen to Nails, sir?"
"Course not, Joe. Your choice, Joe."
Joe went to her and removed the heavier objects from Nails' dead body. He hefted her, his eyes meeting Anna More's. "Thank you, ma'am, for what you tried to do," he said. "She was ... was one hell of a soldier."
Anna More, shaken to the core, lifted her hand to Blue, who took it. She squeezed Blue's hand and said, "You were good friends. I'm sorry."
"Let's move," said Saylor quietly.
Stroud uselessly informed Cage above that Nails was dead. Cage said, "Yeah, I watched her vital signs go."
"We did all we could, Lou."
"Don't be fools, Abe. Make for the rendezvous point now. Forget trying to combat these things on their own ground. It can't work."
"We've got to try, Lou. We've got to try."
"Until you're all dead?"
Around him, Stroud heard the standard commando hoopla designed to get soldiers to go into a place that meant almost certain death. It was a chorus of encouraging machismo.
"We've got the weapons! We've got the guts."
"And we got the power!"
"Let's waste 'em, Blue!"
"For Nails!"
"Let's do it for Nails!"
-18-
From where Louis Cage sat, everything was visible and everything was invisible. The fog created by the gas bombs dropped by the helicopters was clearly visible, yet it masked everything beneath it. There was no way to be sure in which direction the werewolf colony had migrated from Stroud and Saylor. Cage had only to look at his partitioned screens to see what was occurring at ground level. One of those screens had suddenly gone dead--Nells. The others now only recorded a dense soup of fog through which the company of soldiers, Stroud and Anna More traveled. Like the people on the ground, all that Cage could see was the few feet in front of them. When Blue and Nells were attacked, he'd lived vicariously and died vicariously with them; when Saylor was attacked, he'd been staring right at the fog and the thing that had come out of it seemed to materialize from nowhere.
Werewolf's Grief (Bloodscreams #2) Page 19
