The colonel climbed out of the second humvee and walked over to Major Lee. An aide followed closely behind. Lee was surveying the damage as if he had never seen anything like it before. And he probably hadn’t: Chaney hadn’t, that was for sure. He doubted many of the men had.
Corporal Nakai remained sitting in the middle of the street, staring at where the monster had gone, shaking his head from side to side. Nakai didn’t look frightened like the rest of the men. He just looked pissed.
Chaney let out a sigh. He wasn’t far from the colonel or the major, so he made sure the sigh was a small one.
“I see you encountered the target,” the colonel said.
“Yes, sir,” Major Lee said.
“I sure hope those buildings are evacuated. It’s action like this that gets civilians killed.”
“The target got one,” Lee said, pointing at the wrecked car and the head on the nearby sidewalk. “We saved another.”
The colonel turned to look. His lips tightened when he saw the head. Chaney had seen the other head, near that cold campfire, but it hadn’t been the same as seeing a monster actuallly rip the head off a living human being. The guy hadn’t even had time to scream.
The colonel opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Major Lee turned to two men nearby. “You two help that man out of the car, get him evacuated. You men scout out those buildings for any civilian casualties.” The major pointed at three others and then at the hole in the front of the hardware store. “Get some water on those small fires in there before we burn down the entire town.”
The seven men sprang into action and Chaney stepped closer, waiting for his instructions. It seemed for the moment there wouldn’t be any.
The colonel stepped up in front of Major Lee. “Give me the rundown on what happened here.”
It took the major just thirty seconds to cover the details of the fight with the creature. The colonel clasped his hands behind his back and listened. Once he glanced at Nakai, who was still staring in the distance like a child who was waiting for his father to come home.
“It seems like Nakai underestimated this thing,” the colonel said almost under his breath.
But apparently Lee caught the sentence, just as Chaney had. “Yes, sir. I was well aware of that only a few moments before, sir.”
The colonel pivoted slightly and faced his aide. “Get me thirty more men airlifted in here, full battle gear, ready for night action. And I’m going to set up a field camp right here on this street.”
“Yes, sir,” the aide said, spun, and headed for the humvee.
The colonel turned back to Major Lee. “I want you and three others to figure out which direction this creature headed, but don’t follow until I give the word. We’re going after this thing with enough men to make sure we stop it.”
“Understand, sir,” Major Lee said. He turned. “Nakai, Mayhew, and Chaney, come with me.”
Chaney started at the sound of his own name. He had been expecting an order, but not one that had him alongside Major Lee. Chaney was so surprised, he almost missed the colonel’s next sentence.
“Not Nakai,” the colonel said. “I want him here, with me, for the moment.”
The major only nodded, then shouted, “Corales, you’re with me.”
Chaney again forced himself to take deep breaths of the thin air. He could feel the fear in his stomach pounding upward, wanting to get out. But somehow he forced it back down. Lee tossed them all industrial-strength flashlights. They had more lights in their gear, but when the major handed out specific lighting, you used it. The major just held his, without turning it on, and the others did the same. Lee gave them the signal, and they all fell in beside him as they headed toward the destroyed hardware store.
Chaney peered at it. The blast from the missile launcher had ruined the facade. Inside, the automatic fluorescents still glowed, showing debris all over the floor. Nuts, bolts, nails were scattered across the tile like spilled rice.
The buildings next to it also took damage, but not as much. The bullet holes would probably show up better in the daylight.
And then, because he couldn’t help it, he looked up.
Part of him had hoped that the buildings were shorter than normal, that the creature had topped them because they were easy to jump over. But they weren’t. No human could jump over them in a single bound. Not without jets attached to his feet.
The major turned down a side street. Chaney followed, glad to be beyond the destruction. The litter that covered the town was still present here, but there was no more dirt on this side street than there was in the back alleys of South Boston.
That soothed him just enough.
The desert was surprisingly close. One moment Lee, Chaney, and the others were in Agate. The next, they were in the desert. There were still scattered buildings, but very few. Outside one was a dog chain, with a dog collar at the end of it. Chaney didn’t get close enough to see if there was any blood.
Lee switched on his flashlight and pointed it at the ground. The others did the same. The monster had to land somewhere, and wherever that was, he would leave a trail.
It took Major Lee and Chaney less than five minutes to pick up the creature’s tracks. They were large and had ridges. Boots. The thing wore boots. Somehow, even though Chaney had seen it and its armor, he had thought that armor a part of the creature, just like an ant’s armor was part of its body. The idea that this thing could remove its protection made it just a bit too intelligent for Chaney. He didn’t mind fighting. In fact, he had itched for it just a few months before. But he really didn’t want to fight something that was smart, ruthless, and unpredictable.
Chaney’s light caught something green beside the footprints. Drops, like blood drops. He pointed his light at it, and Lee nodded.
“It’s hurt,” Lee said.
Maybe Nakai’s blast had hurt it, or even one of Chaney’s shots had found its mark. For some reason that calmed Chaney’s nerves a little. If the creature could bleed, they stood a chance against it.
Lee shut off his flashlight. The others did the same. They stood for a moment in the dark. Chaney’s heart was pounding. He felt curiously vulnerable, as though even the stars had eyes.
“Night goggles,” Major Lee ordered as he snapped his into place. As he did, he checked his rifle, making sure he had a full clip.
Chaney did the same, managing to keep his hands from shaking too badly.
“We’re only going along this trail for a few hundred yards,” Major Lee said. “We want to make sure it didn’t double back into the town. Chaney, go twenty meters to the left, Mayhew, twenty to the right. Corales, you and I will stay on the trail.”
Without a word the four split up, moving off through the desert like ghosts. The night goggles lit up the desert, giving everything a flat green tint. Chaney had trained a number of times in the goggles, but always hated it. The last thing he wanted was to get into a fight with them on. But in the dark, it was better to have them than not to have them.
He moved right, away from the major, alternately watching the ground and the horizon ahead.
Chaney found his path moving him along the right side of a ridge as Major Lee and Corales followed the creature’s trail up a ravine. Within fifty paces he couldn’t see the other men and he had to force himself to stay calm and breathe the warm night air. Yet even focusing on that, he found himself holding his breath and listening.
After about two hundred paces along the ridge, he started across a flat, sandy area. In front of him was a shallow puddle of the monster’s green blood. Instantly Chaney scanned both left and right, his finger on the trigger ready to open fire.
Nothing but the clear desert night greeted him.
“Chaney, the trail is headed your way,” Major Lee’s voice echoed through the night air.
Chaney cursed silently. They hadn’t said they would be quiet, but he had assumed they would. If the thing was nearby, it had to hear them.
Nonetheless, the major expected
an answer.
“I found the trail, sir,” Chaney managed to yell back.
Suddenly the creature seemed to spring from the desert sand like a snake from a pit, towering over the private. Under the helmet Chaney could see razor-sharp teeth, and thick strands of hair.
The suddenness of it froze him in his tracks, his gun across his waist. He was looking up at a creature at least seven feet tall.
The creature reached out with one clawed hand and yanked the weapon from Chaney’s grasp like a parent taking away a toy from a child. The motion snapped Chaney forward, toward the monster, into the thick smell of death that now filled the night air.
Chaney opened his mouth to scream. He had never felt so much terror in his life. He was going to die, and he wasn’t ready. But at the hands of this creature, he had no choice.
The last thing he clearly saw was the creature’s mouth saliva-dripping. Then, with one swipe, the creature severed Chaney’s head, and his body bounced on the sand.
The predator held Chaney’s head by its night goggles and raised its other fist in silent triumph. Then it attached the head to the rest of its trophies, and continued its hunt in the dark.
19
My brother has learned of monsters, monster slayers, and tradition, but he has not yet recognized himself as part of the legend. And he is running out of time.
Grandfather feels my brother must be reminded again. He must understand his place.
The small town of Agate was almost completely dark. Except for the streetlights, and the store lighting that was still on automatically, the place looked like a ghost town. Which, Nakai supposed, it was.
Nakai looked over his shoulder at a place where he had spent a lot of time. He knew that most of the people had left, but he also knew it was the way of things that a lot of people would stay. If he went into some of these old, familiar buildings, how many bodies would he find? How many more of his friends would he see, ripped and shredded by a creature that he would never have believed could exist a week before?
Nakai made himself turn back to the colonel. He stood at ease, waiting for the colonel to finish with assignments. He had been waiting for some time now. The colonel had called him aside especially, and Nakai was not pleased about it. He had felt that he belonged with Major Lee, in the desert, finding the tracks of the creature. Yet the colonel had stopped that order for a reason Nakai had yet to understand. With luck, the understanding would come soon. It would be better not to let the trail of the creature grow too cold.
Nakai still wasn’t quite sure how the creature got past him. Even knowing that the thing was powerful hadn’t been enough; Nakai had overestimated his own abilities, his own strengths. He had thought it would take a single concentrated attack to bring the thing down.
He was wrong.
He needed to focus, to come up with a better plan. And he wasn’t sure how to do that. He had a feeling, though, that the colonel’s plan was too orderly, too structured. This creature, for all its monstrous looks, had courage and intelligence. It had outsmarted humans at every turn, almost as if it had known what to expect.
“Corporal,” the colonel said, turning to Nakai, almost as an afterthought, “you and Tilden patrol the town to the west.”
The colonel started to turn away, but Nakai stopped him. “Begging the colonel’s pardon, sir,” he said.
The colonel turned, his eyes cold. Nakai suppressed a sigh. What was it about him that angered every officer he ever worked with? He had pointed this guy to the creature; he had set up the attack. Now the colonel was turning him away as if he had done something wrong. Nakai didn’t care. He needed to be in the desert, going after that creature.
“Shouldn’t I,” Nakai continued, “be helping track the monster?”
“No, son,” the colonel said, “you shouldn’t.” He took a deep breath and his face softened slightly. “I imagine you lost quite a few friends when your base was destroyed. Firing that missile into that building lets me understand that you want revenge just a little too much for all our good. It’s understandable, but it’s my policy to have men with personal vendettas removed from active duty.”
The colonel took a step closer, and softened his voice even more so that the others couldn’t hear. “I can’t remove you from duty, son. Hell, you’ve done a lot for us. Getting us this close to the menace is medal country, in my opinion. But now I’ve got to stop you from ruining your own good work. I want you here, in town with me. Understood?”
Nakai didn’t understand. He started to object, but he could see in the colonel’s eyes that to do so would only make things worse. “Yes, sir,” he said.
“Good,” the colonel said. “Now, you and Tilden take up your positions. We don’t know if that thing is going to circle back or not.”
It was a bit of a gift, a way of saying that Nakai’s job wasn’t as unimportant as it seemed. But both men knew it wasn’t true. That monster was done with Agate. It was looking for fresh blood.
Nakai managed not to say another word as he saluted, snapped around, and headed west down the main street. Private Tilden dropped in beside him.
They walked the length of the main part of town in silence. Agate was empty, completely empty. Nakai had always wondered why people stayed in this godforsaken place, but now that they were gone, he felt bad, almost as if he personally had suffered a loss. He hadn’t realized he was so attached to this place.
When they reached the abandoned railway warehouse that marked the edge of this part of town, Tilden spoke. Nakai, who had been lost in his own thoughts, had to turn, frown, and concentrate.
“What?” he asked.
Tilden smiled. “I was just saying you shouldn’t take it so bad, Corporal. After all, you led us to that thing. You did your duty.”
Nakai rolled his eyes, glad that Tilden couldn’t see their expression in the darkness. Why was it that every time he had a setback, people told him he had done enough? His duty was the last thing at the moment he cared about. All he wanted to do was stop that monster.
“Let Major Lee and his boys do the rest,” Tilden said. “I hear the colonel is flying in Major Amblin and his elite combat unit to go after the final kill.”
“Great,” was all Nakai could say. He jumped up on the loading dock, the old wood creaking under his feet. He scanned the surrounding area, finding exactly what he had expected: nothing. The night was still warm and the streetlights cast long shadows along the road. Just paces from where they stood, the desert stretched off into the distance, black under the star-filled night sky. The darkness was like an invitation. He could easily move out into that blackness and disappear. But he couldn’t, because he would have to live with himself.
“Say,” Tilden said, climbing up on the dock, “isn’t Nakai a Navajo name?”
“Yeah,” Nakai said, still scanning the darkness.
“Finally, a red brother,” Tilden said.
“What?” Nakai turned to face the other man.
“Well, not exactly brothers,” Tilden said, laughing at Nakai’s fierce expression. “I’m Zuni.”
Nakai nodded, relaxing a little. “My girlfriend’s Zuni.”
“Small world,” Tilden said. “For Natives anyway.”
“Yeah.” Nakai held his rifle across his chest and leaned against the rough wood of the old warehouse, facing out over the desert.
“Not many of us in the army,” Tilden went on. “Though that’s no surprise. My dad hit the roof when I told him I was joining up. How’d your folks take it?”
“I was raised by my grandfather,” Nakai said.
“Damn, that must have been worse.” Tilden shook his head. “Older folks really don’t understand.”
Nakai nodded, looking off into the darkness, remembering the day he had told his grandfather he was joining the army. It was three years before, almost exactly to the day.
The day had been hot, even for the desert. Grandfather had been in his medicine tent. The temperature inside had to be ten degrees hot
ter than outside, but Grandfather didn’t seem to notice. The old man never seemed to notice either the heat of the summer or the bitter cold of the winter.
Nakai had ducked inside, standing for a moment with his back to the entrance, letting his eyes adjust to the dark. Grandfather was sitting on the floor, a drawing in the dirt in front of him. By Nakai’s tribe, Grandfather was considered Yataali, the medicine man. He supposedly had great power, but Nakai had never seen any of it actually help them.
“Grandfather,” Nakai had said. “I have something to tell you. It’s important.”
“And I would like to tell you something,” Grandfather replied. “Do you see this figure here?” He pointed at a figure inside a triangle inside a larger circle.
Nakai only nodded. He was familiar with the drawing. It was the symbolic drawing of Nayenezgani, the monster slayer. Nakai had seen the drawing hundreds of times.
Grandfather pointed to another drawing in the larger circle. “Tobadjischini, another of the hero twins,” he said. “Nayenezgani’s twin brother. They both play an important part in the night way.”
Nakai had heard it all before. “Grandfather, please, I must tell you something.”
But Grandfather seemed to ignore him. “Without both twins, the evil cannot be banished. One must distract the monster while the other kills it.”
Nakai shook his head and decided to just press on. “Grandfather, before I went down to the recruitment office, I gave a lot of thought to what you said, you know, about how being Navajo wasn’t just in your blood, but in your heart and the way you acted.”
Grandfather simply chanted softly over the drawing.
“I just want you to know,” Nakai continued, “that no matter what you think, in my heart I will always be Navajo.”
“I am Yataali,” Grandfather said. “My people need my help to fight the evil, just as I need the help of the hero twins. Nayenezgani must help me or none of us will succeed.”
“Grandfather,” Nakai said, his voice almost pleading. “Please stop and listen to me. I know what you are saying. I have heard it before. I understand.”
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