Night of the Sasquatch

by Eric S. Brown

  “I told you exactly who we are, Sergeant,” Joe reminded him. “Now the way I see it, you’ve got two choices: get up off your butt and help us or I can slit your throat right here and now. It’s up to you.”

  “I’ll help!” Roy held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I’ll help with whatever you need!”

  “Good.” Joe nodded. “Then get up from there and stand at attention until you’re given orders.”

  “Yes, sir,” Roy barked as he got to his feet.

  Lieutenant Wagner came around the corner of the large crate. “Marcus is shot back there. You two know anything about that?” he asked and then realized they weren’t alone. “Who’s that guy?”

  “An army sergeant,” Joe said. “His name is Roy. Thought we were looters and he took a few shots at us defending this place.”

  “Yeah…look, I’m real sorry about that.” Roy frowned. “She said the kid I hit was going to live though so no harm done, right?”

  “I’m Lieutenant Wagner and the ranking officer of the party dispatched here in order to secure supplies for the city of Cedarmark,” Wagner told the old man. “Are you alone here?”

  Roy nodded frantically. “Yeah. Just me. My buddy Gerald died two weeks ago. We were all that was left of the platoon assigned to protect this building.”

  “I see.” Lieutenant Wagner looked Roy over. “Sergeant, it is imperative that we get those trucks in the lot out there loaded up with everything we can as soon as possible. Can you assist with that?”

  “Wow.” Roy shook his head in disbelief. “You guys really are for real, aren’t you?”

  Lieutenant Wagner shot a look at Joe.

  Joe just shrugged.

  “Okay then, Sergeant, I assume you know exactly what’s here and where it’s kept. Karen here will escort you outside and you’re going to tell a guy out there by the name of Kennedy everything you know and answer any questions he has. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Crystal, sir.” Roy was beginning to come around to the reality of his situation. The folks he had thought were looters were actually about to become his rescuers. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you guys, sir.”

  “Just get moving,” Lieutenant Wagner urged the old man. Karen followed after Roy, keeping her rifle ready and a sharp eye on the old man.

  “Guess we caught us some luck, huh?” Lieutenant Wagner smiled. “That guy is going to make finding the stuff we need here a lot easier.”

  “Somebody needs to carry your man Marcus out of here,” Joe grunted. “He’s not going to be able to walk. The round Roy put in him fragged up his leg bad.”

  Lieutenant Wagner blinked. “I’m in command here, Joe. I think that makes it your job to carry him out.”

  “Don’t push me, Lieutenant,” Joe warned. “I’m not one of your men and you really don’t want to make me any angrier than I already am.”

  “Roger that,” Lieutenant Wagner squeaked. “I’ll get one of the others to tend to Marcus.”

  Joe turned away from him and started walking out of the storeroom.

  “Whoa, where are you going?” Lieutenant Wagner asked.

  “Outside,” Joe grunted his answer. “Someone needs to stand watch while your people get the trucks loaded up and I’m the best person for the job.”

  Lieutenant Wagner couldn’t argue with Joe on that one.

  ****

  Joe watched the soldiers and militiamen from Cedarmark loading up the trucks from the tree he was in. He had left them to their work, seeking out a spot where he could keep an eye out for any signs of the Sasquatch approaching the armory. So far, everything appeared to be clear. Lieutenant Wagner was overseeing the last of the armory’s supplies being piled into the rear of a fourth transport truck. They would be moving out soon. Joe leaped down from the tree he was in landing with the grace and agility of a cat. He could see Karen coming through the trees toward his position. Joe still couldn’t figure out why she had such an effect on him. He had heard stories about love at first sight but things like that happened to … other people, not cold-blood killing machines like himself, didn’t they?

  “Hey, Joe!” Karen called out to him as she entered the small clearing he was in.

  Joe stared at her at a loss for words.

  “That’s your name, isn’t it?” Karen asked.

  He nodded.

  “I’ve heard you talk. I know that you can,” Karen snapped at him. “What’s the deal?”

  “I don’t know,” Joe said honestly.

  Karen stopped where she was staring at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Joe shrugged and then said, “We should be heading back. The convoy will be leaving soon.”

  “Don’t you even want to know why I came after you?” Karen asked.

  “I assume it’s to tell me that Lieutenant Wagner needs me back at the armory,” Joe said.

  “Well that too,” Karen admitted. “But I asked to be the one to come and get you. I wanted to say thank you for helping me out that mess in the armory.”

  “You are most welcome.” Joe blushed.

  “But I also want to know how the frag you just walked through that guy’s bullets?” Karen said. “No human being should be able to pull that crap like you did with your sword back there.”

  “Practice,” Joe answered, starting to walk by her. Karen reached out to stop him, putting a hand on his chest. Joe felt his muscles clench up as if for a fight as she touched him.

  “Uh uh,” Karen said. “I’m not buying that. Who are you, Joe?”

  “A lot more and less than what you think,” Joe confessed.

  “What does that even mean?” Karen kept her hand on his chest to keep him from moving.

  “I’m not what you would call … human,” Joe said in a voice no louder than a whisper. Karen heard him though.

  “You’re not human?” Karen was beginning to get angry. He could hear the pace of her heart increasing beneath her breasts. “You look pretty dang human to me, Joe.”

  “Have you ever heard of Project Ares?” Joe asked.

  Karen shook her head. “No. What’s that?”

  “It was a highly classified military attempt to create a perfect soldier,” Joe said. “I am what they created. I was born just before the fall of man. The Sasquatch attacked the base I was born on. They wiped out everyone there. I killed them in turn afterward when I woke up and found a great man of the beasts still there.”

  Karen was staring at him as if he was utterly insane.

  “I have heard some crazy stories from people since the fall, Joe, but that one takes the cake. Do I really look that stupid?” Karen snarled at him.

  “Your knife …” Joe said, extending a hand toward her.

  Karen frowned. “What? Why?”

  “Give it to me,” Joe ordered her.

  Karen reached down and took her knife out of the sheath on the side of her boot. She flipped it over to place its hilt in Joe’s palm. He took the knife and sliced open a long gash across the palm of his right hand. Karen watched as his blood started to flow. It wasn’t red. It was green. One of her hands rose to cover her mouth as she staggered away from him in shock.

  A second later, the cut had already sealed itself up, leaving only scar tissue in place of the wound he had inflicted upon himself.

  “Do you believe me now?” Joe asked, his voice as gentle and non-threatening as he could make it.

  Karen was shaking her head, apparently not wanting to believe what she had just seen. Joe took a step toward her.

  “Stay back,” she warned him, leveling the barrel of her .30-06 at his chest. “You just stay right where you are.”

  “The others …” Joe said, “they can’t know about this, Karen. You are the only person I have told.”

  “Yeah, well … I wish you hadn’t,” Karen snapped.

  “You asked,” Joe said in defense of what he had shared with her. “You can’t tell them, Karen. They would never understand. I would be just as much a mons
ter to them as the Sasquatch are.”

  “Then I guess you should have kept your mouth shut, huh, Joe?” Karen raged at him. “How the frag can you honestly expect me not to tell them?”

  “You are special to me, Karen,” Joe told her. “I don’t know why but you are.”

  Joe tried to take a step toward her again.

  “Don’t,” Karen warned. “I will put a hole in you, Joe.”

  “I have no intention of harming you or any of the others in Cedarmark, Karen.” Joe stood his ground. “I wanted no part of your city but I met a boy named Chris and couldn’t stand by and watch his passion be destroyed by his brother. Somehow from that, I ended up here, on this operation with you and Wagner.”

  “I don’t care, Joe,” Karen sobbed. Tears had welled up in her eyes and were now running down along the curves of her cheeks. “And to think that I … I …”

  “You are attracted to me as well?” Joe asked, cocking his head sideways like an animal would as he studied her closely.

  “Yes, Joe, I was! You’re the first man that I have had any interest in since the world went to hell.” Karen laughed darkly through her tears. “Man, I really know how to pick ’em huh?”

  “You can’t tell the others, Karen,” Joe said again. “Please. If they turn on me now, none of you will ever make it back to the city. The beasts are on their way here, Karen. I can hear them coming.”

  “Why should I believe you, Joe?” Karen asked.

  “Because you know I am telling you the truth. I have lied about nothing to you,” Joe said.

  “Fine,” Karen spat. “I will keep your secret for now, Joe. But when we get back … if we make it back, I am going to tell the colonel then. You can bet your life, if you really have one, on it.”

  “I can live with that.” Joe nodded. “Now we must go. The Sasquatch are drawing closer and we must reach the trucks to warn the others before they get there.”

  ****

  Joe and Karen raced through the trees. He knew he could easily outpace her but Joe wasn’t about to leave Karen’s side. Whatever it was about her that moved him so deeply still had its claws buried inside of him. He wasn’t going to risk leaving her alone in the woods with the Sasquatch on their way. Joe could hear the beasts gaining ground on them as they ran.

  Gunfire erupted up ahead of them. Joe cringed. He knew that it meant more of the beasts, coming in from another direction, had already reached the armory. As he and Karen reached the edge of the woods, he grabbed her. She wasn’t happy about that. Not after what he had shared with her. Karen struggled against him until she saw why he had done it.

  Outside the armory, Lieutenant Wagner and the others were engaged with several packs of Sasquatch that had crept up on them. Kennedy’s M-16 chattered as he fired a burst into one of the beasts. The bullets pounded into the monster’s chest. They drew blood but lacked the power to truly get penetration through the thick muscles there. Lieutenant Wagner was running for the APC. There was a gunner already aboard it. The APC’s .50 caliber roared to life, cutting down a trio of Sasquatch approaching from the west. Its heavy rounds shredded their flesh, filling the air with a wet, red mist. The old man from the armory, Roy, had gone berserk. He was firing an AK-47 wildly at the Sasquatch, switching from one target to another at random, screaming a shrill battle cry.

  A Sasquatch came charging into the side of one of the loaded transport trucks. The monster rammed into it with enough to lift the two wheels on that side up from the ground. The truck slammed back down, hard, as the Sasquatch staggered away from it. The impact had to have hurt the Sasquatch too because it had mangled the side of the truck where the monster had struck it. Even Sasquatch bones weren’t as tough as metal. Another Sasquatch, the hair covering its body slicked with blood from multiple wounds, stood amid a group of soldiers who were continuing to pour fire into it. One of its arms swung in a mighty arc to bring its balled-up fist down onto one of them. It caved in his skull, the man’s head bursting apart like an overripe melon. The Sasquatch finally fell as a woman with a pump-action shotgun put another round into the creature’s guts.

  There was chaos everywhere. Some of the members of the expedition party were scrambling to get into their assigned vehicles and get them moving but most were just fighting to survive as the beasts closed on them. The .50 caliber blew apart the upper torso of a Sasquatch that came bounding toward the APC. The gunner’s attention was so fixed on that monster that he didn’t see the other one coming up on the APC from behind his position. The Sasquatch leaped onto the top of the APC. The metal of the roof dented inward from the monster’s weight as it landed. The gunner screamed, trying to jerk the .50 caliber around at the monster but couldn’t. Its over-sized hands grabbed hold of the .50 caliber and ripped it free from its mount. The Sasquatch hurled the damaged, heavy weapon away as it roared in anger, unleashing its fury. The man was desperately trying to drop down into the APC and close the gunner’s hatch. The Sasquatch caught him though. Its fingers sunk into the flesh of his shoulders as the beast took hold of him and yanked him up and out of the gunner emplacement. It flung the man from the APC. He landed on the ground near it as more of the Sasquatch were beginning to surrounded the armored vehicle. One of them stepped on his chest, intentionally or merely because he had the bad luck to land in its path. The man’s ribs folded inward as blood flew out of his mouth like vomit.

  Lieutenant Wagner had made it into the APC and gotten its side door closed. As he tried to make it to the driver’s seat, the APC rocked, jostling him about, as dozens of Sasquatch fists hammered into the vehicle’s armored sides. A cunning Sasquatch came directly at the front of the APC. It stopped at the vehicle’s forward window and reared back a fist to strike at it. The Sasquatch put all its strength and weight behind the blow. The APC’s window cracked as the monster slammed its fist into it. The Sasquatch wasn’t giving up. It struck the window twice more with heavy blows that finally completely shattered it. Lieutenant Wagner stared at the monster through the broken window in utter horror. He jerked up the AK-47 in his hands and squeezed its trigger. A barrage of fully automatic fire cut a trail of red along the Sasquatch’s chest, sending the monster reeling backward away from the smashed-in forward window. Lieutenant Wagner sprang forward, knowing that he might not get another chance to get the APC moving. He sure as frag didn’t want to give the beast a chance to get into the APC with him. Lieutenant Wagner slid into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine. He shoved the APC’s gear shift into reverse and hit the gas. The heavy vehicle lurched backward. Lieutenant Wagner spun the steering wheel, turning the APC as it went. It came about facing toward the main road as he shifted gears again. Just as the APC clicked into drive, a Sasquatch that had come running toward it from the vehicle’s right side threw itself at the broken window. One of its hands caught hold of the window’s edge as the monster plunged its other hand into the vehicle at Lieutenant Wagner. He ducked sideways in the driver’s seat, trying to avoid the blow. The bulk of its force slammed into the seat he was in, tearing off its back, but even so, the blow still grazed his back. Lieutenant Wagner grunted in pain as he toppled to the floor of the APC. It had stopped moving with his foot no longer on the gas. The Sasquatch clinging to the broken window above him began to pull itself inside the vehicle. Lieutenant Wagner fired up at the monster from where he laid on the floor. His AK-47 rattled as its bullet blew chunks of flesh away from the Sasquatch’s arm that reached for him. It was enough to drive the monster back. Lieutenant Wagner, crawling on his hands and knees, moved away from the forward window as fast as he could. The APC was still shaking from where the other Sasquatch outside it were trying to hammer their way inside. Lieutenant Wagner saw its side door finally give just enough for some of the creatures to get their fingers inside it. Together, several of the beasts pulled the door away from the APC. Lieutenant Wagner screamed in defiance of them as they came lunging into the APC after him. His bullets hurt them, drawing blood, and making them pay for each step they took u
ntil his rifle clicked empty and they overran him. One of the Sasquatch lifted him up from the floor with a hair-covered, over-sized hand and smashed his head against the APC’s ceiling. Lieutenant Wagner’s skull flattened across its top as the force of the impact popped his eyes out of their sockets in sprays of red. His eyes dangled by thin strands of sinew as his body fell to the floor and lay there twitching. The Sasquatch inside the APC closed around it, fighting over the best bits of him, as they tore away entire handfuls of his flesh, cramming it into their hungry mouths.

  Roy was yelling like a madman. Maybe his mind had fully snapped or maybe he was just scared to death. It was impossible to tell. His AK-47 had clicked empty and he was hurriedly trying to eject his spent magazine as one of the Sasquatch plowed into him. Its shoulder caught the middle of his body and the impact tossed him through the air. Roy landed on his back, looking up into a mass of snarling faces. The clawed fingers of numerous Sasquatch sunk into him, pulling his body apart, limb by limb.

  By now, half of the party was dead. Their bodies were sprawled out on the ground around the trucks of the convoy amid the corpses of the Sasquatch they had managed to take with them. Joe knew joining the battle would be pointless. He had arrived too late. The damage was done. He held Karen tight to him and waited for the vehicles of the convoy that could to get moving. A few of them were. Two transport trucks made it clear of the Sasquatch rumbling across the armory’s parking lot, heading for the main road.

  “That’s our chance,” Joe told Karen. “Run for the trucks!”

  A third truck had started trying to move but was brought to a crashing halt as a Sasquatch came up beside it and tore away its driver’s side door. The monster reached into the vehicle and yanked the driver out. It flung the woman onto the ground in front of it and proceeded to smash her head into a bloody smear on the ground, stomping her over and over again in a fit of animal rage.

  Joe shoved Karen on ahead of him toward the trucks as he drew his katana. She ran for the lead truck as it passed by where they were along the side of the road. Joe watched her catch hold of its side. Kennedy was driving the truck. Joe was glad to see that he had made it out alive. Kennedy kicked the passenger door open so that Karen could climb inside the truck’s cab with him. A Sasquatch was closing on the truck fast, coming directly at where Karen was struggling to get into it. Joe ran to meet the monster. A swipe of his katana’s blade removed the thing’s hand that had been reaching for Karen at the wrist. The monster recoiled, exposing its throat as it shrieked in pain. Joe seized the moment and opened up the Sasquatch’s throat from one side to the other. The Sasquatch didn’t seem to realize that it was dead yet though. It took a swing at Joe with its other hand. There was no chance for Joe to recover enough from the attack he had just delivered in time to bring his sword into play again. Left with no other choice, he parried the blow with his left forearm. He grunted, gritting his teeth as the bone inside it broke beneath the power of the dying Sasquatch’s strike. The Sasquatch sunk to its knees, blood pouring out from its slashed throat to run down over the brown hair of its chest as Joe whirled away from the monster. Pushing himself to his limits, Joe raced after the departing truck with Kennedy and Karen aboard it. Joe knew he didn’t have long until its speed would begin putting too much distance between him and the moving vehicle. He made a desperate leap toward its rear. Joe flew through the folds of the tarp hanging down over the truck’s rear and landed with another pained grunt amid the crates there.