Arctic Snare, page 14
part #1 of Cryptid Force Six Series
Silence ticked away. Seconds turned to minutes.
“Think they gave up?” Benny asked.
Pressing his throat mic, Cujo shook his head. “Just keep your eyes open.”
“It’s been almost an hour, Boss.”
“I said, keep your—”
To his left, on the other side of the living room, a massive crash bludgeoned the silence to oblivion. He spun, moving Reece behind him. The far wall of the living room buckled in, a huge hand pulling away chunks of drywall and wood.
Realization clicked.
“They found our blind spots,” he whispered.
“What was that, Pops?” Maze shouted.
Cujo pressed his mic. “They found our blind spots.”
“Our blind sp—” Benny began when, yet another crash exploded.
Above, the chattering of gunfire beat into his ears. His heart trip-hammered.
The creature digging its way through the far wall growled.
Maze skidded to a stop beside him. “Oh…holy shit.”
“Yeah,” he said. “As soon as we have a clear shot, tear into the bastard. Take out its knees first. Then its head.”
“Easier said than done with these things.”
He nodded, focusing on the monster, and lifted his M16. Maze knelt, aiming her M4. They should have been given higher caliber weapons.
What the hell was the General thinking? Cujo blew out a long breath, finger already squeezing the trigger.
“Hold,” he said.
The massive yeti tore through the wall, and stumbled into the house. It was so big, it needed to hunch over in order to enter the room. The floorboards groaned in protest of its weight. Its face was almost ape-like, only…grotesquely misshapen. Silvery eyes glared out from a hooded brow. Its upper lip curled, revealing long fangs and jagged teeth. And when its gaze finally fixed on Cujo, all he could do was gape at the creature. This was the first time really seeing one up close and personal. The thing was frightening in every way, stabbing spears of terror into his very soul. All he could do was stare, frozen in place.
Then Maze shouted, “Fuck ’em,” and opened fire.
Her bullets cut into the yeti’s bent knees. Blood misted the air and spattered the floor, the walls. Maze worked on one knee for a couple of seconds before switching to the other. Back and forth, like a lumberjack chopping down a massive tree. The yeti yelped, staggering backward, thumped into the remaining wall, before finally slipping in its own blood.
When it fell, the entire floor quaked under Cujo’s boots. Surprisingly, it didn’t fall through to the basement.
With shrill cries, it pulled itself closer to Cujo.
“The shit you just standin’ there, Pops?” Maze shouted. “Unload on the bastard!”
Cujo blinked, head clearing. He aimed his gun at the yeti’s head, right between the eyes, and squeezed the trigger. Together they turned the creature’s head into red pulp within seconds. With the flickering light of the gas fireplace, something else stood out.
“Dr. Reece,” Cujo said. “You might want to look at this.”
She stepped in between Cujo and Maze. There she froze.
“Is that…” Maze said.
“The spores,” Reece finished for her. “Get your masks on.”
“Wait, what?” Maze asked.
“Get your masks on. Now!”
All three pulled their masks down.
Through her facemask, Reece said, “I’m not sure if they’re airborne.”
The mess of the yeti’s head oozed onto the floor, though mingling with all that red and gray matter of the brain, were swirls of bright yellow. Most of it clung to the pulverized brain itself. Even as Cujo watched, the yellow stuff pulsed and moved around the brain.
“Burn it,” Reece said out of nowhere.
“How?” Cujo asked. “We don’t have flamethrowers.”
“I don’t know. But if any of that gets on us…it’s game over.”
“Could see about breaking a gas hose and aiming it at the thing,” Maze said.
Cujo eyed the shifting, symbiotic, yellow substance. “That could blow us all up.”
“Well, what the hell else do you suggest, Pops?”
“Let’s help the others. If that stuff is contagious, it’ll be down here.”
“If airborne,” Reece said, “it won’t matter either way.”
A damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. He hated those odds but had been stacked against them before. Still, he wasn’t about to burn the house down. Or, if something went wrong, blow them all up.
While the yellow goop coiled around the monster’s partial brain, Cujo led Reece and Maze upstairs into the haze of gun smoke. Down the hall, most of the wall was a ragged hole. Positioned in rooms across from each other were Wade and Luna. Wade manned his M4 while Luna held her bazooka ready. From what Cujo could tell through the gun smoke, it appeared Wade was trying to get the yeti into position for Luna to get a clear shot.
In the master bedroom, Benny lay prone, staring through the scope, and slowly sweeping it back and forth. He sighed. “How are Wade and Luna doing over there?”
“Looks like a standstill,” Cujo said. “We have another problem.”
Benny chuckled humorlessly. “Oh, goody. Let me get the ever-growing list of problems out. What now?”
“We must’ve missed it before, but those spores take up residence in their brains. More like a parasite, they’re controlling the creatures.” He glanced at Reece to make sure he got it right. She gave a single nod and visibly sighed. “Anyway,” he continued, “I’m not sure if they’re airborne contagious or you get infected by making physical contact.”
“So,” Benny said. “Don’t let the yellow shit get on you. Gotcha.”
“Right,” Cujo said and pressed his throat mic. “Everyone. Listen up. Once the brain is exposed, there’s a yellow substance. It’s what’s controlling these things. Do not, I repeat, do not let any of it get on you.”
“The blood too,” Reece said.
He nodded. “Stay clear of any bodily fluids, as well. Blood, piss, whatever. Shoot them from a reasonable distance.”
“Got it. One outside disappeared,” Luna said. “They might be regrouping for another attack.”
“We have a dead one on the first floor,” Cujo said.
“Great,” Benny spouted. “Now you pissed’em off again. I swear, you have dementia or some—Jesus shit!”
“What…?” Cujo turned toward Benny, and his blood instantly chilled.
“Oh…” Maze said. “Oh shit.”
“It’s her,” Reece said, nearly breathless.
A deep growl rattled the window in its frame. Silver tinted eyes glowered at Cujo, shifting slowly back and forth in dark sockets. Yellow veins snaked through whites. Its thin nostrils, merely slits, opened and closed with every massive breath, fogging the window up briefly with every exhale. A long, pink scar twisted down the right side of its face.
Cujo’s heart stammered. Reece was right. It was her. The giant female yeti Dr. Brown described in his video journal meant to be transmitted directly to General Kyle. She was their leader. The largest of them.
Their alpha…
And, right now, she looked utterly pissed off.
All Cujo could see of her was the upper part of her face. Top of the head in all its white fur covered glory, forehead, eyes, and nostrils. He couldn’t see her mouth, and he was kind of grateful for that.
His gaze drifted, lowered to Benny. The kid gaped at the monster glaring in at him. His rifle was pointed right between its flaring nostrils.
“Fire,” Cujo whispered.
Benny didn’t move. Hell, he didn’t even appear to be breathing.
“Benny,” Cujo whispered, retuning his sight to the monster. “Take the shot.”
And those silvery, yellow veined eyes rolled in Cujo’s direction. Pinning him in place, mouth parted to tell Benny to shoot his goddamn gun. That glare, however, ripped all the strength out of him. It was as though…she heard and understood, what he told Benny.
“Shoot it,” Maze whispered in his place. “Now.”
Cujo didn’t dare glance at Benny now. The beast held him in sway. To look at Benny might give it away. That’s if the kid was preparing to shoot or not. Mind reeling, hand on his M16, Cujo found himself at a standstill.
“Cujo?” Luna asked through his ear pod. “We lost the yeti. Want us to wait and see if it comes back?”
He didn’t answer. He couldn’t answer. But he needed to do something to keep the monster’s focus on him. He needed—
“Cujo? Did you…oh, hell…” Luna said somewhere behind him.
The alpha’s glare snapped over Cujo’s shoulder to Luna.
“Stay put,” Cujo managed. “It’s the alpha.”
“Guys,” Maze said in a low voice, barely a whisper. “What if she’s the distraction? Like a decoy.”
Cujo blinked. A razor of fear slashed through him. What the hell was going on? What was the alpha planning?
He watched her watch him. His eyes widened with a possible attack. Her shelved brow furrowed, as though she could read his thoughts. Shit, for all he knew, she could see into his very soul. Or would that be the spores?
“What are we going to do, then?” Luna whispered.
Christ, he didn’t know. It took all his will not to look at Benny. The kid was their only hope right now. One shot and the alpha would be dead. Merely inches away. Frustration beat at Cujo’s mind. It clawed and sank its teeth in. He could shoot the thing right now with his gun. But an M16 wouldn’t do much compared to Benny’s high caliber sniper rifle. He took out four (or was it five? Or six?) so far with a single head shot. This close, it’d destroy the alpha’s head. Without the alpha, what would the others do? Could there be a second in command? A beta just waiting for the opportunity?
Cujo mentally shrugged all that off. He focused solely on the huge yeti glaring at him through the double windows of the master bedroom. Its focus still remained on him and, maybe, even Luna. Regardless, she was all about that side of the room, rather than even glancing at Benny or Reece.
He took it as either ignorance…or a warning. Either or didn’t sit well with him.
The DNA samples were locked in a case in his Snow Beast. No matter how much Dr. Reece pined for a living sample, he couldn’t provide it. The yetis were just too strong and dangerous.
They needed to be eliminated. If not for the physical risks, but the very likely infection of the spores controlling the monsters. If the spores managed to infect one of his team and travel around…yeah that could end up horribly.
Then Benny said, “Dead-bang,” And the window shattered in a spree of tiny shards.
It all happened in what felt like slow-motion. The alpha snapped her head back due to the impact from Benny’s shot. Blood lightly spattered the windows…and Benny. He cried out, leapt to his feet and wiped his face with the blanket from the bed.
A kill, though he hoped there wasn’t a prominent beta lurking somewhere out there just waiting for the chance…
The alpha gave a few thick growls before her eyes rolled up and she dropped away from the windows.
No more than ten seconds later, a shriek cut through the night.
Cold air blew through the shattered windows. It whistled over the jagged glass poking out of the frame and swirled into the room. So cold, Cujo felt it through his gear. Which was a good sign. It meant the temperature dropped some more.
He carefully glanced down. Blood dripped from the glass shards still stuck in the frame. And below…
The moonlight gave her thick, white fur an almost ethereal glow. Like fairy light, or something likewise fantastical.
A long howl rose on the frigid air. A deep, sorrowful howl. Too deep to be a wolf. The howl was soon joined by others until the night filled up with noise.
“Gah,” Benny said. “Shoot it, they said. It’ll be okay, they said. Well, if I have those yellow fuckers all over me now, I know who I’m tearing apart first when I’m a twenty-foot mega dude.”
Cujo turned, tapped the flashlight and shined the beam at Benny.
The kid squinted. “Say it isn’t so, Boss.”
Cujo ignored him, carefully studying every inch of Benny’s face, hair and upper body. Reece and Luna quickly joined in to take a look.
A couple minutes later, with the beasts still howling outside, Reece said, “I don’t see anything. So, unless they already found a way inside, I think you’re okay.”
“I’m willing to bet most of it got blown out the back of its head with that close of a shot,” Maze said.
Cujo tapped the flashlight off and moved toward the doorway. “We need to get out of here.”
“God,” Ellen said. “They’re so loud.”
“Why won’t they stop?” Wade asked. “Shouldn’t they stop?”
“I don’t know,” Cujo said. “Let’s regroup somewhere else. They’ll be coming for their alpha and I don’t want us anywhere close to this house when they do.”
They gathered up their weapons and followed Cujo out of the house.
Their last stand didn’t happen. The creatures were too smart, found the blind spots and…well, it was all a damn shit show.
The alpha was dead.
Whether the others walked away or attacked…that remained to be seen.
The night roared with all the maddening howls.
Cujo pushed on through the short string of homes.
They needed a plan. This defend and run, defend and run shit wasn’t getting them anywhere.
As he eyed a large structure ahead, he made the decision.
Time to go on the offense.
Time to end it, one way or the other.
EIGHTEEN
The large structure ended up being a bank, gas station and grocery store all smooshed into one. A one stop shop, with a little banking on the side.
Being this far north and isolated, it made sense, he guessed.
By the time the doors were shut and locked, the yetis stopped howling.
“This place better have a…oh thank the gods,” Benny said and turned on a gas fireplace located in the bank area.
Cujo was so cold, even with all the gear on, he couldn’t feel the heat blasting out of the long vent at the top of the fake fireplace.
Soon enough, however, the area got warm enough to finally feel his face again. It tingled a bit.
They all pulled up their masks and stood huddled around the gas fireplace.
“New plan,” Cujo said once his teeth stopped chattering. “We go after them.”
Silence hung like a thick, wet blanket between him and his team.
Finally, Maze broke the silence. “How the hell are we gonna do that, Pops? There’s, what? Seven left? They’re smarter and faster than we thought. How are gonna get the drop on ’em?”
“This is the perfect time,” he said. “They’re at a loss with their alpha dead. Until they find a new alpha, they won’t have any structure.”
“Yeah, well,” Benny said. “Sounds like a suicide, man. It’s beyond extremely cold out there and, unless I can get a headshot, those things won’t be easy to kill.”
“That’s why I’m sending you to the second story of this place. I want you to take them out when they come. Or what you can.”
Benny frowned. “What the hell are you planning…?”
Cujo smiled.
***
“That’s your plan?” Benny shouted. “Jesus Christ, man. It’s crazy. No, it’s insane.”
“For once,” Maze said, “I agree with Sniper Boy over here. The plan is insane. And not to mention reckless.”
“I…I don’t even think it’s a plan,” Wade said.
“I’m not going back out there,” Ellen said and shivered.
“Let’s do it.” Luna grinned. “I’ve been waiting for you to be the badass I’ve read about.”
Cujo shook his head. “This isn’t badass. This is the only way I think we can stop them. This whole, wait and see and run shit isn’t working. It’s time we take matters into our own hands. Yes, they’re big and scary, but this is the job we were assembled to do. Running is not our job. This is Project Arctic Snare. So…let’s snare the bastards and go home.”
Luna gave him a smile and nod. Eventually, Wade, and Ellen followed suit. Maze and Benny, however, shook their heads. They might as well have been twins right then with their identical expressions.
“You’re not going out there as bait, man,” Benny said.
“What if they kill you and realize where we are?” Maze asked. “I mean, we might be able to take them out, but as fast as they are…”
“This is the plan,” Cujo said, stamping it in stone. “I need you all to trust me now.”
Benny puffed out his cheeks. Glanced away. “Whatever, man. You’re the boss.”
Maze, however, stared at Cujo for a moment before responding. “You really think this’ll work, Pops?”
Cujo nodded. “It has to.”
She lowered her head. “Then let’s do it.”
A few minutes later, Cujo stood at the doors, switching out the old clip for a fresh one. He made sure the M16 was easily accessible.
“They’re very fast,” Reece said, making sure he was all zipped and seal up. “Faster than you can run.”
“I know,” he said.
“Then you know I don’t agree with what you’re going to do. It can’t be the only way. Maybe we should sit down and think up something different.”
“This is something we should’ve done right away. Those three on our way to Brundle? I should’ve killed them all.”
She stepped away from him. Form the flickering light of the fake fireplace, he noted tears sparkling in her eyes. “It’s all my fault. I stopped you from killing them.”
“I stopped myself,” he said. “Only one at fault here, is me.” He shot her a smile. “We’ll get through this.” He spun, opened the door and ran into the icy cold of an Arctic night.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her he was playing everything by ear. The plan was okay, but it wasn’t solid. He liked the wiggle room with an iffy plan. Restricting the mind and thinking one must do this or that and go from point A to point B never worked. Many leaders went by the book. Some were successful. Others failed miserably. He learned early on it was best to have a rough plan and just make shit up as you go, feeding your team or platoon just enough info so they didn’t get confused. Not letting them know everything kept them alert. Not saying he liked doing it that way, but it worked best from his experience.
