Hood forgot about everything else. All that mattered now was getting as far away from the blast as he could. But as he turned to head down the passage from which Vlad had come, he saw Mad Dog lying directly in his path. Barely slowing, he reached down and grabbed the shoulder strap of Mad Dog’s chest rig, and then started dragging him along. Rollie appeared an instant later, grabbed the other strap. They made it into the passage and another five meters or so before the world turned upside down.
The cavern walls protected them from the spray of molten shrapnel but did little to soften the effects of the overpressure wave. If anything, the close confines seemed to channel the explosive force like the barrel of a gun. Hood was knocked flat, and went skidding forward across the lichen covered cave floor.
Then, everything went black.
He knew he had not lost consciousness. Despite the protection afforded by his clothing and pro-mask, he could feel the flash of heat as the shockwave rolled over and through him. Something heavy struck his back. His body armor blunted the impact, but the object, presumably a chunk of the ceiling, stayed where it had landed. Smaller rocks struck him, and for a few seconds, he feared the entire cavern would collapse.
But then, stillness returned.
He reached up slowly, gingerly, to see if the glasses were still on his head. They were not, and he could only surmise that they had been knocked loose during his fall. He probed the rubble around him for a few seconds but was unable to locate them, so he instead flipped the NVGs down and activated them. After a second or two, the green displays lit up, but revealed little. The air around him was opaque with smoke and dust.
He raised his head cautiously and peered into the swirling dust cloud. He was, in that moment, grateful to have the pro-mask; without it he would probably not have been able to breathe at all.
Something stirred a few paces to his left. “Rollie? Still with me, brother?”
The shape moved again and then Rollie sat up abruptly, his pistol in hand. “Did it work? Are they dead?”
“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. He searched the rubble around him until he found the glasses, or rather what was left of them. Casting the pieces aside, he got to his feet and quickly checked the rest of his equipment, and then readied his weapon, just in case. Only then did he realize that someone was missing.
“Where’s Mad Dog? Do you see him?”
Rollie bounded up, his pistol ready, and turned a slow circle. “He was right here a second—”
Something erupted out of the darkness just beyond him. With Rollie in the way, all Hood could see was a flurry of motion as Rollie struggled with a barely glimpsed assailant. Rollie’s pistol boomed, then boomed again, the rounds sparking impotently against stone.
“Jesus!” Hood took an involuntary step back even as he braced his weapon and took aim. The targeting laser stabbed out into the darkness, zigzagging crazily in the air as Hood tried to zero in on the creature, but there was no way to shoot the monster without shooting Rollie.
Letting the rifle fall on its sling, Hood drew his .45 and rushed forward to join the melee, but before he could cross the distance, Rollie abruptly staggered backward and collapsed in Hood’s path. His hands were clamped around his neck, under the jawline of his pro-mask, but could not stem the cascade of blood pulsing out of the ragged wound in his throat.
Hood only glimpsed this from the corner of his eye. His attention was wholly focused on the monster crouching just beyond. He lined up the front sight on the creature’s exposed head and started to pull the trigger. As if sensing his intention, the monster raised its gore-streaked face to him and snarled.
It wasn’t Wolfman.
It wasn’t Sharky.
Hood staggered back. “Dale?”
Mad Dog snarled again and then, moving faster than a cat, snaked out one hand to seize Rollie’s left leg. Without taking his bulging eyes off Hood, he began backing away, dragging Rollie with him.
Hood gripped the pistol tightly in both hands, willing himself steady, and lined up the shot.
Do it, he told himself. You have to.
Kill or be killed.
Put him down like a...
Like a mad dog.
His arm quivered. He couldn’t seem to find the strength to break the trigger. After a few seconds, he abandoned the struggle, lowered the pistol.
“Dale,” he said again, desperately hoping that the name might break through the fog in his friend’s brain. “It’s me. Jeff. Dale. Let me help.”
Growling, Mad Dog kept retreating with his prize, shrinking into the shadows. Rollie’s hands had fallen away from his neck, arms outflung and flapping as he was dragged along. The pulse of blood from his ruptured throat had become a constant dribble; his life already drained away. A long, wet streak trailed after his body.
“Dale!”
But Mad Dog had disappeared from view. Rollie’s head and shoulders remained visible a few seconds longer, then he too was gone, swallowed up by the darkness.
Hood staggered sideways, falling against the wall of the passage, and then slid down to seated position with his back against hard stone, weeping into his mask.
He knew what he had to do. What he should have already done.
Kill Mad Dog.
Kill Dale.
If he pushed through his doubt, executed his best friend, he would have to live with that betrayal for the rest of his life. If he didn’t...
He had just squandered his best chance to end it quickly, mercifully. To put Dale out of his misery. Next time, he would be the prey. If he faltered, he would die, just like Rollie and Bender had died. Torn apart. Eaten.
Dale certainly wouldn’t hesitate.
“Just do it, soldier,” he rasped into his mask. “Don’t think. Do it. He’s not Dale. Not anymore. He’s a monst—”
He broke off, choked with emotion.
A monster.
If only I could see you the way you see me, he thought.
And then he realized that he could.
He set his weapons on the ground beside him. He switched off his NVGs, embracing the darkness once more, and removed his helmet, placing it with the guns. Then he removed the protective mask, savoring the feeling of cool air on his face.
He took a breath through his mouth, which helped him tolerate the rancid odor. After a minute or two of trying to breathe normally, the smell didn’t seem so bad.
After a few more minutes, he could distinguish the faint glow of luminescence all around him. Soon he would be able to see just fine. Better than fine. He would be able to see the subterranean environment as well as the creature that would soon be coming for him.
When it did, he would see only the beast.
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CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES
JAKE BIBLE is the author of 55+ novels, including the bestselling Roak: Galactic Bounty Hunter series of space crime novels, the bestselling Z-Burbia series set in Asheville, NC, the bestselling Salvage Merc One, and the MEGA series for Severed Press. He is also the author of the YA zombie novel, Little Dead Man, the Bram Stoker Award nominated Teen horror novel, Intentional Haunting, the middle grade ScareScapes series, and the Reign of Four series for Permuted Press. As well as Stone Cold Bastards and the Black Box, Inc novels for Bell Bridge Books. Jake hosts and produces a semi-weekly podcast, Writing In Suburbia, where he gives his take on being a full-time professional writer while also living a suburban life as a father and husband. Find Jake at jakebible.com. Join him on Twitter @jakebible and on Facebook.
KIRSTEN CROSS IS a Scandi-Cockney hybrid with an aversion to liquorice and a passionate love of motorbikes. She’s a laid-back horror and Sci-Fi writer who, because of a dubious internet search history that includes ballistic profiling of semi-automatic weapons and whether shooting pheasants with a longbow is still ‘
technically’ illegal in the UK, lives in perpetual fear of arrest. Occasionally, to try and avoid being classified as ‘shady as all heck’ by British Intelligence, she shouts “I’M JUST WRITING STORIES!” at the computer. When not blowing things up, documenting alien invasions or otherwise engaging in literary shenanigans, she writes web content for a living. She now lives in splendid isolation in glorious Devon with a biker husband and a lot of wildlife, some of which makes really weird noises at three in the morning. When not writing, she surfs, and is also an MIA Hall of Famer for her contribution to the advancement of women’s martial arts.
SEAN ELLIS IS a survival writer and action-adventure novelist. He has authored and co-authored more than two dozen action-adventure novels, including the Nick Kismet adventures, the Jack Sigler/Chess Team series with Jeremy Robinson, and the Jade Ihara adventures with David Wood. He served with the Army National Guard in Afghanistan, and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources Policy from Oregon State University. Sean is also a member of the International Thriller Writers organization. He currently resides in Arizona, where he divides his time between writing, adventure sports, and trying to figure out how to save the world.+
JONATHAN MABERRY IS a New York Times bestselling author, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, and comic book writer. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, is in production as a Netflix original series, starring Ian Somerhalder (LOST, VAMPIRE DIARIES) and will debut in early 2019. He writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include the Joe Ledger thrillers, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, Glimpse, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, Mars One, and many others. Several of his works are in development for film and TV. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, New Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, and others. His comics include Black Panther: DoomWar, The Punisher: Naked Kills and Bad Blood. He lives in Del Mar, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com
PAUL MANNERING IS an award-winning writer living in Wellington, New Zealand, where he lives with his wife Damaris and their two cats. Author of: The Tankbread/Deadland series (published by Permuted Press), Engines of Empathy and Pisces of Fate (published by IFWG), Hell’s Teeth, EAT, The Trench, and Hard Corps (published by Severed Press), numerous short stories and podcast audio dramas (produced at BrokenSea Audio).
RENA MASON IS the Bram Stoker Award® winning author of The Evolutionist and East End Girls, as well as a 2014 Stage 32 / The Blood List Presents: The Search for New Blood Screenwriting Contest Finalist. A longtime fan of horror, sci-fi, science, history, historical fiction, mysteries, and thrillers, she began writing to mash up those genres in stories revolving around everyday life. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, and The International Screenwriters’ Association. For more information about this author, check out her website: www.RenaMason.Ink
MICHAEL MCBRIDE WAS born in Colorado and still resides in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. He hates the snow but loves the Avalanche. He works with medical radiation, yet somehow managed to produce five children, none of whom, miraculously, have tails, third eyes, or other random mutations. He writes fiction that runs the gamut from thriller (Burial Ground, Vector Borne) to horror/science fiction (Subhuman, Forsaken)...and loves every minute of it. He’s a national bestseller and two-time winner of the DarkFuse Readers’ Choice Award. You can visit him at author.michaelmcbride.net.
JESSICA MCHUGH IS a novelist and internationally produced playwright running amok in the fields of horror, sci-fi, young adult, and wherever else her peculiar mind leads. She’s had twenty-three books published in ten years, including her bizarro romp, The Green Kangaroos, her Post Mortem Press bestseller, Rabbits in the Garden, and her YA series, The Darla Decker Diaries. More information on her published and forthcoming fiction can be found at JessicaMcHughBooks.com.
J.H. MONCRIEFF’S WORK has been described by reviewers as early Gillian Flynn with a little Ray Bradbury and Stephen King thrown in for good measure. She won Harlequin’s search for “the next Gillian Flynn” in 2016. Monsters in Our Wake, her deep-sea thriller with Severed Press, hit the Amazon Horror bestsellers list, beating King’s re-released It to the top spot. When not writing, she loves exploring the world’s most haunted places, advocating for animal rights, and summoning her inner ninja in muay thai class.
JAMES A MOORE is the bestselling and award-winning author of over forty novels, thrillers, dark fantasy and horror alike, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The Overtree, Blood Red, the Serenity Falls trilogy (featuring his recurring anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley) and his most recent novels, The Tides of War series (The Last Sacrifice, Fallen Gods and the forthcoming Gate of the Dead) and Avengers: Infinity. In addition to writing multiple short stories, he has also edited, with Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, the British Invasion anthology for Cemetery Dance Publications.
The author cut his teeth in the industry writing for Marvel Comics and authoring over twenty role-playing supplements for White Wolf Games, including Berlin by Night, Land of 1,000,000 Dreams and The Get of Fenris tribe book for Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, among others. He also penned the White Wolf novels Vampire: House of Secrets and Werewolf: Hellstorm.
Moore’s first short story collection, Slices, sold out before ever seeing print. His most recent novels include Predator: Hunters and Hunted and the forthcoming Gates of the Dead (Book Three in the Tides of War series) Along with Christopher Golden and Jonathan Maberry he is co-host of the Three Guys With Beards podcast. More information about the author can be found at his website: jamesamoorebooks.com.
S.D. PERRY HAS worked in shared universes for most of her career, including Aliens, Star Trek, Resident Evil, and Tomb Raider. She lives with her family in Portland, Oregon, and writes original horror in her spare time.
AARON STERNS IS the co-writer of Wolf Creek 2 (Best Screenplay, Madrid International Fantastic Film Festival), as well as author of the Australian Shadows Award-winning prequel novel Wolf Creek: Origin. Sterns is the author of various Aurealis Award-nominated and Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror recommended short stories, including ‘The Third Rail’ (which appeared in the seminal, World Fantasy Award-winning Dreaming Down-Under) and the dark werewolf-bouncer world of ‘Watchmen’ (the basis for his upcoming visceral and ultraviolent novel Blood). He is a former lecture in Gothic & Subversive Fiction, editor of the Journal of the Australian Horror Writers, and Ph.D. student in postmodern horror. He also served as a script-editor on Greg McLean’s Rogue and appeared in a little cameo as Bazza’s Mate in Wolf Creek. Sterns is currently working on another novel as well as numerous screenplays, including a film version of Blood, and dark thriller Daughter of the Vines – described as The Wicker Man in the Adelaide Hills. He lives in Melbourne, Australia. Official website: www.aaronsterns.com www.facebook.com/aaronsternsauthortwitter: @AaronSterns
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