Sym and Jenkins parted to allow West to backtrack down the trail to where Patrick knelt in front of Dunwoody and Ron, examining something in the dirt.
West whistled as he saw it and could sense the tension among them. "That"s one big footprint," he said, trying to put his men at ease.
"Fragger must be at least ten feet tall," Sym said, walking up behind him and glancing over his shoulder.
"Uh, boss?" Dunwoody asked. "Exactly how are we supposed to find these things?"
West laughed. "Don"t worry. The bra.s.s is counting on them to find us."
"Great." Sym grunted. "Just bleedin" great."
"Why aren"t they just using some Apaches? Ya know, fly over, pick "em out, and blast "em from the air?" Jenkins said.
"Too much tree cover in some areas for one," Ron offered.
"Dude, some of those birds got sensors that can find a needle in a haystack. I ain"t buying it," Patrick said, taking Jenkins" side.
"For all I know, there"s some kind of ore beneath these hills that makes the birds" sensors next to useless," West said. "Doesn"t matter. What matters, gentlemen, is that we are here and we have orders to carry out, understood?" A chorus of "Yes, sir" sounded off as West stared at them. "Now, if you"re done, let"s get moving. We need a place to camp that"s defensible before nightfall."
West and his men found a decent-sized clearing and opted to make it their campsite. The center of the clearing was a good distance from the tree line and West hoped it would lessen the chance of those things catching them with their pants down.
"Patrick, Rona"you guys got first watch," West said. "Dunwoody, get in touch with base camp and make sure they know exactly where we are. I want the air support they promised ready to go if we need it. Everybody else, get some rest while you can. We"ll be hiking all day again tomorrow."
Before West layed down to sleep on the cold ground, he had made sure Sym and Jenkins secured the perimeter with tripwires. The mountain air was chilly though the sky was clear. He lay on his back, staring up at the stars. He was used to spending a healthy amount of time outdoors. In fact, he preferred it to being cooped up inside. The night was so peaceful; it was easy to forget the monsters the bra.s.s thought were still roaming these woods.
West closed his eyes and sleep claimed him quickly.
What felt like moments later he awoke to the sound of live flares erupting skyward and a cacophony of booming mini-canons.
They were here.
The monsters had come for them just as they had hoped.
The whole clearing was lit up like broad daylight. West started in disbelief as he watched a ten-foot-tall ma.s.s of hair and muscle effortlessly lift Patrick into the air and smash him so hard into the dirt that blood gushed onto the gra.s.s from Patrick"s pulverized body.
West grabbed his weapon and rolled to his feet. A sasquatch came bounding toward him. Leveling the barrel of his mini-canon at the monster, he squeezed the trigger out of desperation, not even taking the time to properly aim. The recoil nearly shattered his shoulder as the gun blew a gaping hole in the monster"s ribs. West dodged, sidestepping the monster as its momentum carried its corpse past him before it finally fell. Its body landed in the dirt with a ma.s.sive thud and slid several feet before coming to a stop. His weapon thundered again as he blew a matching hole in its back. There was no point in taking chances. The mini-canon packed a clip of five super heavy rounds similar to those used in an elephant gun, so he still had plenty of firepower . . . or he would have if there weren"t three more of the beasts loose in the camp.
Dunwoody and Sym were down. At least West thought it was Dunwoody. The corpse laying a few feet from where he stood was missing its head, and had a pool of congealing blood underneath the stump of its mangled neck. Sym"s upper torso was intact but his legs and lower body were missing. He"d been ripped in half and left to die.
A sasquatch roared as Ron fired into its face. The thing"s head exploded like a rotten melon, sending bone and brain flying.
Jenkins was nowhere to be seen. The odds were even now: two against two.
Ron yelled, "Sir!"
The remaining two beasts had seemingly backed off for the moment after seeing their buddies die.
West used their hesitation to reach Ron. "We need to get the h.e.l.l out of here!" he shouted. "Something tells me these boys aren"t alone."
"Running is pointless, sir. You know how fast they"re supposed to be," Uno said.
Their reprieve ended as the monsters found their courage again. The bigger of the two took the lead and bounded toward them on legs so thick the forest floor shook from its footfalls. West gave a full-on battle cry, opening fire on it at the same time Ron did. The first round that hit the monster blew off an arm. Two more tore gaping wounds in its chest, and the final round took off its left leg at the knee. The monster dropped dead where the force of the impacts had stopped it cold in its tracks.
"I"m out!" Ron yelled as the last creature reached them. It grabbed his head and West saw its fingers sink into the private"s skull as it pulled the young man closer to it, as if winding up for a pitch. Ron was already dead before the monster hurled his limp body across the clearing with a flick of its mighty arm.
West was down to his final round with no time to use it wisely. He fired, clipping the beast"s side with his shot. Its entrails slipped from the large gash the bullet opened in its flesh and they slowly oozed onto the dirt. The monster howled in pain. West drew his sidearm, saying a silent, hurried prayer. The monster turned to him, its eyes blazing with anger. West emptied his whole clip into its eyes. Blood sprayed as the bullets found their target and blinded the beast. It threw its head back and roared with an unearthly cry. He hoped he truly managed to blind it as he turned tail, sprinting for the trees. His heart pounded in his chest as his legs pumped beneath him. The sound of something large and fast came at him from his left flank as the monster behind him continued to howl. Just then, a giant, hairy fist took off his face with a single swipe of its clawed fingers.
Back at the base camp inside Babble Creek, Kody tried to raise somebodya"anybodya"from West and his crew. "Patrol Alpha, are you there? Come in, Patrol Alpha."
Corporal Weber put a hand on his shoulder. "Let it go, son. They ain"t answering."
Kody nodded.
"Tell the men to load up, we"re moving out."
"But, sira"" Kody said.
"We"ve done enough here. There"s no way to know if we got all those things or not. Patrol Beta managed to bag two of them, though, and that"s enough. The brains back at HQ will be busy for months or longer studying them. If something like this happens again, next time we"ll be ready."
Kody stared at him. "But what about Patrol Alpha?"
"An acceptable loss, all things considered. Now let"s pack it up and get out of here before night falls."
Weber walked past Kody, leaving him alone.
So many people dead, Kody thought.
Footfalls rose behind him. Perhaps Weber had changed his mind.
Kody turned around.
Red eyes greeted him.
About the Author.
Eric S. Brown lives in North Carolina with his wife and son. He has been called "The King of the Zombies" by places like Dread Central and was featured in the book Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead as an expert on the genre.
His novel, The War of the Worlds Plus Blood Guts and Zombies, co-written with H.G. Wells, was picked up by Simon and Schuster and is slated for a new release in the not too distant future.
Some of his other books include s.p.a.ce Stations and Graveyards, Dying Days, Portals of Terror, Madmen"s Dreams, Cobble, The Queen, The Wave, Waking Nightmares, Unabridged Unabashed and Undead: The Best of Eric S Brown, Barren Earth, Season of Rot, World War of the Dead, Zombies II: Inhuman, and Tandem of Terror. He was the editor of the anthology Wolves of War from Library of Horror Press.
Some of his upcoming t.i.tles include How the West Went to h.e.l.l, The Human Experiment, Anti-Heroes (with David Dunwoody), The Weaponer, and Kinberra Down. His short fiction has been published hundreds of times. Some of his anthology appearances include Dead Worlds I,II, III, and V, The Blackest Death I & II, The Undead I & II, Dead History, Dead Science, Zombology I & II, The Zombist, and the upcoming Gentlemen of Horror 2010 to name only a few.
He also writes an ongoing column on the world of comic books for Abandoned Towers magazine (which recently won the Preditors and Editors" Award for Best Nonfiction in 2009).
Eric is also part of the giant collaborative zombie novel effort from Pill Hill Press ent.i.tled, Undead, Kansas.
Also by Eric S. Brown.
s.p.a.ce Stations and Graveyards.
Dying Days.
Portals of Terror.
Madmen"s Dreams.
Cobble.
The Queen.
The Wave.
Waking Nightmares.
Zombies II: Inhuman.
Unabridged Unabashed and Undead.
The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies (with H.G. Wells).
Season of Rot.
Barren Earth (with Stephen North)..
World War of the Dead.
How the West Went to h.e.l.l..
Bigfoot War.
Praise for Bigfoot War.
"Brutal and visceral, what was once the joke of the Cryptozoological world is now back where it belongs: at the top of the monster food-chain."
- Scott A. Johnson, author of City of Demons and Deadlands "Eric S. Brown breathes new life into the Bigfoot mythos. Grizzly, gritty . . . gripping, Brown pulls you in from page one and doesn"t let go until the very end. Even then, he still haunts your nightmares. Bigfoot War is not to be missed!"
- James Melzer, author of Escape: A Zombie Chronicles Novel "Find a big gun, and catch your breath when you can. The raging, relentless pace of this book will grip you until the last page. Mr. Brown has entered new territory and the residents are large, strong, intelligent, and very, very angry . . ."
- Stephen A. North, author of Dead Tide "Eric S. Brown trans.m.u.tes myth into horrifying reality. Through key people of Babble Creek, Bigfoot War instantly pulls the reader into a small town facing obliteration. A powerful, unique voice shines here, leaving you white-knuckled until you finish, thirsty for more."
- Ben Eads, dark fiction writer and host of The Dark Fiction Show The Coscom Entertainment Zombie, Monster, Mash Up and Superhero Books Please go to www.coscomentertainment.com for a plot synopsis and more information on the books.
Zombie Books: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim by Mark Twain and W. Bill Czolgosz Alice in Zombieland by Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook Axiom-man: The Dead Land by A.P. Fuchs Bits of the Dead edited by Keith Gouveia and ill.u.s.trated by Sean Simmans Blood of the Dead by A.P. Fuchs Dead Science edited by A.P. Fuchs Don of the Dead by Nick Cato Revolt of the Dead by Keith Gouveia R.I.P. by Harrison Howe Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers by Paul A. Freeman The Lifeless by Lorne Dixon The Undead World of Oz by L. Frank Baum and Ryan C. Thomas The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies by H.G. Wells and Eric S. Brown World War of the Dead by Eric S. Brown Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head edited by A.P. Fuchs Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead by A.P. Fuchs Zombifrieze by W. Bill Czolgosz and Sean Simmans Other Monster and Horror Books: Animal Behavior and Other Tales of Lycanthropy by Keith Gouveia Anna Karnivora: A Vampire Novel by W. Bill Czolgosz Bigfoot War by Eric S. Brown Dracula by Bram Stoker, Ill.u.s.trated by Sean Simmans with an Introduction by Nancy Kilpatrick Emma and the Werewolves by Jane Austen and Adam Rann Hound: The Curse of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lorne Dixon Snarl by Lorne Dixon The Summer I Died by Ryan C. Thomas Superhero Books: Axiom-man (The Axiom-man Saga, Book 1) by A.P. Fuchs First Night Out (The Axiom-man Saga, Episode No. 0) by A.P. Fuchs Doorway of Darkness (The Axiom-man Saga, Book 2) by A.P. Fuchs The Dead Land (The Axiom-man Saga, Episode No. 1) by A.P. Fuchs The Wraith by Frank Dirscherl Valley of Evil (The Wraith Series, Book 2) by Frank Dirscherl Cult of the d.a.m.ned (The Wraith Series, Book 3) by Frank Dirscherl Bookazines:.
Dry Ice Dreams (b.u.mper Sticker Shine No. 1) by A.P. Fuchs.
The Macro Mechanic"s Manifesto (b.u.mper Sticker Shine No. 2) by A.P. Fuchs.
end.