Island 731

she stopped. She inspected the wound with the long finger of her aye-aye hand. When the talon poked through the hole and found flesh, she winced, staggered back, and leveled her eyes at Hawkins.

He barely noticed as he reloaded his last compressed charge into the bolt stunner.

But when she let out a roar that was both high and low pitched, like two voices conjoined, he noticed. And nearly dropped the charge. But he got it in place and snapped the weapon closed.

She slapped her hands hard against the ground, pulled her hind legs in tight, and then propelled herself forward with all of her unnatural strength. Hawkins dove again, this time in the direction of the machete.

He missed being struck by the monster’s bulk, but a backhand from the polar bear claw as she passed sent him sprawling. Pain shot down his leg from his thigh where he’d been struck.

When Hawkins heard Joliet cry out with concern, his core filled with rage. So far he’d been on the defensive. Reacting instead of acting. He’d gotten in a lucky blow, but it would be his last if he didn’t at least try to alter the outcome of this fight. He climbed to his feet with an angry shout.

The monster had just finished its charge and turned to face him.

This time, he attacked.

The creature seemed taken aback by this small man screaming and running at it.

So he ran faster. Straight ahead. With the bolt stunner ready to go, he planned to leap right at the thing, get inside its reach, and get the bolt stunner against its head. At the very least, the beast would be knocked unconscious, at best, it would be dead. Kam wouldn’t have wanted it, but it had to be done.

Hawkins dove, leaping high to reach the creature’s forehead. He nearly made it when he was batted aside. The strike was almost casual, though it felt like a truck had struck him in the side. He got back to his feet with a grunt. Most of the fight had been taken out of him with the one blow.

But the creature didn’t press the attack. It just circled him slowly. Is it toying with me? he wondered. It did have feline attributes, but wasn’t sure if that was the case. Doesn’t matter, he decided, and charged again.

This time he never even got to lunge. The creature swiped its polar bear claws across his chest. The caked mud covering the paw and five sharp claws formed a dusty cloud at the point of impact.

Hawkins stumbled back.

The pain felt familiar. Dull at first. Then a sharp sting. Then a systemic reaction set all of his nerves on fire. All of this was followed by shock, which helped dull the pain, but also dulled his mind. He looked down slowly. His shirt was shredded and lay open, exposing his chest and stomach. Five red lines stretched diagonally across his torso intersecting the similar scars running in the other direction. Through the pain, he felt warmth spread down his chest. Blood. A lot of it.

But it could have been worse. The creature had sliced open his skin, but not fully. It could have easily cut through his rib cage, or removed his arm, or eviscerated him. Instead, it had decided to stun him, no doubt on purpose. Hawkins realized too late that he wasn’t just fighting a predator; he was fighting a predator with a human, or at least near-human, intelligence. And it wanted him to know it.

She’s evil, he thought. As much as she may have cared for Kam, she’s as tainted by this island as Bennett.

The revelation came too late to do any good. The long, black chameleon tail whipped around the thing’s body and wrapped around Hawkins’s legs. The creature yanked his feet out from under him. He hit the ground hard and started coughing. He could hear Joliet shouting, but couldn’t make out the words. The blurry shape of the monster hovered over him, raising its claws to strike.

He wondered if it would take off his head or open up his gut. Would it be a slow death? Or drawn out?

Then something new entered his vision. A body leaping over him toward the creature. For a moment he thought it was Joliet, but it was too large. And the shouting voice too deep. He saw a glint of metal. Then a second. The new arrival was armed! And swinging.

Hawkins pushed himself up as a surge of adrenaline cleared his mind. And then he saw him: Drake, swinging two butcher knives like a madman. He was covered in grime and dried blood. He was shirtless and his muscles glistened with sweat. It was like watching a vengeful spirit back from the dead.

Only Drake was far from dead. “Get up, Ranger!” the captain shouted.

Hawkins pushed himself up with a shout of pain, never taking his eyes off the action. The beast was on the defensive, shifting from side to side and stepping back. Hawkins saw blood dripping from the bear claw. Drake had wounded it and hadn’t backed down from the first moment.

“Thirty seconds!” Drake shouted.

Thirty seconds? Until what?

The creature let loose a pain-fueled roar. A long, slender digit spiraled through the air, landing at Hawkins’s feet. Drake had severed one of the aye-aye fingers!

And then he was flying through the air. Where the creature had been playing with Hawkins, he had no doubt it would now quickly rend them limb from limb as easily as he would a rotisserie chicken.

Hawkins turned to run, but a gun aimed at his chest stopped him.

Pulse, pulse.

Hawkins felt hot breath on his back. The creature stood right behind him, mere inches away from killing him, but stopped at Bennett’s command. Drake got to his feet, clutching his ribs, his knives gone. He stood next to Hawkins.

“To reward your bravery,” Bennett said, “I’ll allow you to choose how you’re all going to die.”

“Fuck you,” Drake growled.

“I was talking to Hawkins,” Bennett said. “So, what will it be? Should I let this little skirmish conclude and keep Joliet alive until I get bored of her? Or should I put a bullet in each of your heads right now, starting with Joliet and finishing with you?”

The answer was a simple one. Hawkins would rather them all die now, and quickly, than allow Bennett the chance to torture and mutilate Joliet. He’d only have to live with the pain of seeing her die for a few moments before he joined her. He was about to say as much when Drake clutched his arm. Hawkins looked into the captain’s angry and still confident eyes.

“I saw Bray,” the captain said, not quite a whisper, but still not loud enough for Bennett to hear.

“What was that?” Bennett asked, sounding annoyed.

Drake held Hawkins’s gaze, ignoring the threat. “You ready, Ranger?”

Bennett put the gun to Joliet’s head. “Answer now, or I’ll decide for you.”

“Give me five more seconds,” Hawkins said.

Bennett looked flabbergasted. “Five seconds? What do you need five—”

A bullet tore through his shoulder, spinning him away from Joliet.

Hell followed in the single round’s wake.

47.

Between the rotor wash and the thunderous chop of the Blackhawk helicopter that had arrived just fifty feet overhead, it felt like a tropical storm had rolled in. Only it wasn’t rain falling from the sky, it was bullets. A single soldier, dressed in black Special Ops gear, leaned out of the open helicopter’s side door. He fired a blaze of gunfire from an assault rifle that just barely shook his shoulder.

The only thing that kept Hawkins, Drake, Joliet, and Bennett from being cut down was the fact that the soldier had seen Kaiju after taking the shot that clipped Bennett’s shoulder. Seeing the greater threat, he’d adjusted his aim and opened fire. But the monster was faster than the man expected and the rounds chewed up the earth behind its feet.

Bennett, eyes wide and on the helicopter, barely noticed Joliet climb to her feet and run to Hawkins. He clutched her in a tight, protective hug.

Five more helicopters surged past overhead. The Doppler wave of rotor chop was nearly deafening. Two split to the left, coming to a stop over the research building. Two more continued on course and a third arced to the right, heading for the farm. This is an island-wide invasion, Hawkins thought.