The Tide (Book 5): Iron Wind

by Anthony J Melchiorri

  “Good,” Meredith said. “Because I’m more than ready to meet the asshole who set me up with Kinsey and Lawson. Whoever started this mess is getting my boot in their ass.”

  A humid wind whipped around the lifeboat. Despite the warmth of the African jungle, Dom couldn’t help the shiver tracing over his skin. Water still soaked his fatigues, and the humidity prevented them from drying. His crew was in equally bad shape. And as the bubbles streamed and popped from the sunken ferry, Dom pictured the bags of ammunition, food, and fresh water they had been forced to leave behind in their desperate escape. Somewhere below the surface, a happy school of fish would discover enough MREs and ammunition to conquer the other river-dwellers.

  Dom almost laughed. He gave himself a mental shake. This was no time for jokes.

  “Chao, any updates on Frank’s position?” he asked, clinging to the hope that their pilot might be able to drop by with some much-needed supplies.

  “Good news, Captain. He’s in the air now. Unfortunately, he’s got to make at least two pit stops on his way to us.”

  “Glad to hear he made it out of Maryland safely. Wish him Godspeed and good luck from us, will you?”

  “You got it, Captain.”

  Dom looked to Meredith. Even in the dim moonlight, he saw the flush in her cheeks and the grimace on her face. Each stroke took them farther from the capsized ferry and the Titan, but the effort was taking its toll on her. It was the subtle way the corners of her lips twitched and the furrows in her forehead. He remembered that same look from when she had twisted her ankle during a half marathon they had run together almost two decades ago. She had refused to give up at the ten-mile mark, instead pushing on to the finish—and making her injury all the worse for wear.

  “Hey, Mere?” he asked hesitantly. “Might be good to let Terrence row, if only to reserve your strength for later. What’ll happen when I need you to save my ass but you’re too exhausted to fight?”

  She seemed ready to say no, her mouth forming an O and her brows pinching tighter together, but then she let the oar go and motioned for Terrence to take her spot. The man did so, putting his back into each stroke. Meredith let out a sigh as she shouldered her rifle and scanned the horizon.

  A loud crack splintered the air overhead. The Hunters immediately spun to face the potential threat. Instead, they were greeted with lightning cutting across the darkness. A storm had taken them. Another blast of thunder sounded, and the river and trees lit up like day had broken.

  In the flash of light, Dom saw something that chilled him to the core.

  The Titan was no longer watching the river. Instead, its eyes locked on the lifeboat.

  And the monster, which had previously seemed almost bored, now looked furious.

  Damned furious.

  It pushed through the waist-high water. Its arms hung at its sides, claws clinking with each step. The rattle of its massively oversized plates sounded like concrete slabs slamming together. Its mouth was open, and a rope of saliva twisted out, thicker than the vines in the nearby trees. Each monstrous tooth was large enough to make a Goliath piss its tattered pants. Dom imagined the number of living creatures that had been ground between that set of fangs.

  The monster’s tongue licked across its cracked white lips. It was more snakelike than the flat shovelhead of a tongue most primates had. Yet another anomaly in this abominable creature. But Dom didn’t have time to dwell on the observation. The Titan’s jaw opened wider, and it let loose a bellow. The roar shook the leaves, and Dom swore he could see ripples in the water, moving with the force of wind and noise belching from the monster.

  It had taken the Hunters ten minutes of intense paddling to make it this far down the river. But in less than a minute of relentless bellowing and stomping through the river, the Titan had already made it half the distance the Hunters had rowed.

  There would be no outrunning it in the open water.

  “To shore!” Dom yelled.

  If the Skulls hadn’t heard the commotion of the attack on the ferry, they would be bounding from miles away toward the action now. All the uncanny calmness of the Titan had been replaced by a creature hell-bent on catching the Hunters.

  Good God, he thought. Had the thing thought they’d gone down with the ship before? Had that been why it was so calm?

  The idea that this thing might be thinking and feeling any emotions beyond a normal Skull’s capacity for hunger and hate almost frightened him as much as the sight of the Titan bearing down on them now. Almost.

  “Open fire!” Dom yelled.

  The Hunters who weren’t rowing let loose a barrage of armor-piercing rounds directly into the monster’s face. It shielded its eyes with one clawed hand. Bullets ricocheted and smashed against the hard bone. The beast churned forward, but the gunfire had slowed it down just enough that Dom thought they could at least make it to the shore.

  Another crash of lightning burst overhead. This one scorched a tree not more than twenty yards from the lifeboat as the Hunters neared the shore.

  The Titan was within two or three arms’ length from the lifeboat. They wouldn’t make it in time.

  “Abandon ship!” Dom yelled for the second time in the hour. The group splashed into the water. Rain pounded all around them as they swam. The Titan raised its car-sized hands, readying an overhead swing. Its fists flew down and crushed the lifeboat.

  A few broken shards of wood bobbed up as the Titan’s eyes roved the shore. Already, the Hunters were scrambling through the muddy banks toward the shelter of the trees. They turned when they reached the bank, shouldering their rifles to cover Dom and Meredith.

  A fierce salvo of rounds flew from their rifles, peppering the Titan’s face. It swatted at the bullets like it was warding off a swarm of gnats. Its eyes squinted, cracked eyelids blinking over the strange golden irises. More bullets cleaved into its palm, and it let out another bellow that rivaled the cracking thunder. The sound almost bowled Dom over as he and Meredith scrambled up the bank.

  Dom felt the movement of air before the Titan’s fist struck. He moved on instinct more than thought, rolling himself and Meredith to the side. Wet dirt and wood sprayed his face from the blow. If he hadn’t moved, they would have both been dead. Another frustrated roar screamed against his eardrums, threatening to burst them. He could barely hear the spray of rounds flying from the other Hunters’ weapons.

  Then the creature’s roar cracked into a gurgling whimper. Dom glanced up as he and Meredith ran for the snarled roots where the others waited for them. He turned to see the creature pressing one palm to its face. Blood streamed between its fingers.

  “Yes!” Jenna yelled. “Got its fucking eye!”

  The Titan bent over as if reeling in pain. Water splashed against its shins, and it made pitiful sniveling sounds. Dom wasted no time in sympathy. He urged the Hunters on. There was no time to celebrate this small victory as the group pushed into the jungle.

  “Miguel, take point! Half a kilometer inland, then we travel east. Follow the river!”

  “On it, Chief!” Miguel charged ahead. He leapt over a fallen tree and landed in a bush. He rolled back to his feet as the others hurdled over the trunk. Past whipping vines and low-lying branches, they ran for their lives.

  Dom bounded beside Meredith. As they ducked under tree branches and hurdled over ruts, he saw a wince of pain cross her face with each loping step. Whatever had happened to her fighting those Imps on the ferry, it was coming back to bite her now.

  “You okay?” Dom asked between breaths.

  “Sure,” she said, not sounding at all convincing.

  They had no time to argue. The cover of the jungle canopy and the torrential rain hid them from the monster—at least, that was what Dom hoped. It also meant they couldn’t quite see where the Titan was. The only reason Dom knew the behemoth was moving again was because of the trembling ground. Ripples formed in stagnant puddles, and tree limbs shook, rattling leaves together more fiercely than if a monsoon were t
earing through.

  The beast was drawing closer. The footsteps stopped every once in a while as though the monster were reassessing its route. But invariably, it somehow knew where they were. Branches fell and crashed through the canopy. Birds took flight. Animal cries filled the air, warning each other of the threat.

  The trees barely slowed the Titan. It barged through them, bending trunks like stalks of corn. Claws scythed through the air like oversized machetes, leaving a clear-cut trail of destruction in its wake.

  Dom risked a glance over his shoulder, past Glenn and Terrence. The Titan’s face was visible for a moment. It had ducked low, bounding forward in a hunched pose. Blood dribbled from its right eye. Rage shone out of its left.

  Once again, that demonic eye caught Dom’s. The Titan lunged and pulled a tree from the ground. It cocked back its arm and then flung the missile as if it were playing fetch with Cerberus. The tree shed dirt, leaves, and branches as it flew.

  “Miguel, look out!” Meredith boomed as she and Dom ducked.

  Miguel twisted to hide behind a bulkier tree as the Titan’s makeshift spear blasted past the Hunter. The thrown tree broke, splitting into two pieces that slammed through the forest and then skidded through mud and underbrush. The Titan was not deterred. It snagged another tree and threw it with one arm, and as everyone dove to dodge that one, it lobbed another.

  Dom rolled to the side as yet another tree crashed through the forest. He picked himself up barely in time to avoid a rotting trunk exploding to his right and lost sight of the others in the resulting spray of saplings, soft wood, and dirt. A rush of air pummeled him as a trunk speared the ground to his left. Gasping and zigzagging between the trees for cover, he doubted they could play this game for long. Sooner or later, the Titan would score a direct hit.

  And if running wasn’t going to work, there was only one other option.

  -36-

  Meredith squinted through the darkness. She brushed off wet debris from her face. Rain dripped through the leaves, splashing her skin. Her shoulder screamed, fighting every move she made. Even when she kept her arm still, the pain burned through it. She’d probably dislocated it. It was functional for now, but just barely so.

  Somewhere amid the Titan’s volley of trees, Dom’s voice broke through her comm link. “Blind that asshole!”

  Gunfire burst in muffled flashes and growls. Meredith tried to lift her rifle, but her left arm couldn’t bear the weight.

  “Shit,” she muttered. Definitely dislocated.

  She ran sideways, keeping an eye on the Titan’s looming form and watching for the next lobbed projectile. Fumbling with her rifle, she pressed the stock to her left shoulder and tightened her fingers around the grip. It had been years since she had trained to shoot from her weaker side, but she hoped it was like riding a bicycle. Peering through the optics was awkward on that side. She tried to sight the Titan’s eye, but the monster whipped its head about as if it knew what the Hunters were trying to do. Unlike other Skulls, which seemed to relentlessly attack even when missing eyes or limbs, this one seemed to understand and protect its vulnerabilities.

  Another tree flew past Meredith and impaled the ground. She could barely make out the other shapes flitting through the forest. Gunfire exploded from one spot, then a Hunter would run and reappear somewhere. She prayed no other Skulls or monsters made it to their location before they escaped the Titan. A pack of Skulls would make short work of the Hunters, spread out as they were.

  Another roar blasted from the Titan’s cave-like mouth. It used a hand to shield its eye as more gunfire spat from the Hunters’ weapons, and the bullets caught bone and flesh instead. The beast continued forward. Every step it took closer to them, the risk that it would lash out with those terrifyingly large claws and rip one of them in two increased.

  “New tactic!” Meredith said, trying not to stumble over vines lying across her path.

  More gunfire split the air.

  “Agreed,” Dom said. “Hunters, on my position.”

  The Hunters’ salvos continued to beat at the Titan. The beast truly was an apex predator—and it could think critically. Tentatively, its hand inched down as if it was testing whether it was safe to leave its eye unshielded. Meredith fired another burst into the monster’s face to show it was not. The beast’s hand returned to its eye, and it stumbled on, crashing through the trees.

  “On my mark,” Dom’s voice came over the comm link again. “Check your smartwatch!”

  Meredith twisted her left wrist and saw at once where Dom was. She backed toward his position.

  “Meredith!” he called. This time his voice didn’t come over the comm link. She saw him in her periphery and ran to him. He covered her with a blast of gunfire.

  “Changing!” Jenna yelled out. The click of her magazine preceded another burst from Glenn and Terrence. As the group regained sightlines on each other, they continued battering the monster with gunfire.

  “Nobody run again without knowing where at least one other Hunter is,” Dom said. “Andris, Meredith, I want you to flank the bastard. Hold your fire. We’ll distract it and keep it facing this way. You blast its eye when I tell you.”

  “Understood,” Meredith said. She was ready to end this game. Her shoulder burned, but she bit back the agony. Sweat beaded on her forehead and dripped into her eyes, stinging. She hoped the Titan felt as much pain as she did. Dom directed the others farther into the forest, and off she ran again, this time with Andris by her side.

  “We have to stop meeting like this,” Meredith said.

  “We make a good team, yes?” Andris leapt over a log like a goddamned gazelle. He appeared to be coping with the crazed running and jumping much better than she was. “Every time we go on a mission together, we kick some Skull ass.”

  “So far,” Meredith said. “But let’s not jinx it.”

  “No jinxing here,” Andris said. “Only squeezing of triggers.”

  If it was a joke, Meredith had a hard time laughing right now. The pain in her shoulder was spreading, and her chest felt tight. It was difficult to keep her right hand around the rifle because her fingers had gone numb and gotten clumsy.

  They slowed to a trot, and Meredith struggled to catch her breath. Her lungs still burned as she gulped down air. Dom’s group took potshots at the monster, drawing it forward. In a few moments, it would pass by Andris and Meredith. They would have only seconds to sight up its good eye while its focus remained on attacking Dom and the others.

  “Here we go,” Andris said, his sniper rifle, steady and straight, pressed against his shoulder.

  Meredith tried to support her weapon, but her left arm still shook. She had trouble keeping her optics lined up with the monster’s eye.

  The others are relying on you, she thought. Dom is relying on you. Kick this bastard’s ass.

  The Titan took another step. The resulting earthquake threatened to worsen Meredith’s already shaky aim, but she refused to let anything come between her and her target.

  The other Hunters opened fire, and the Titan briefly dropped its hand to reach for another arboreal missile. It hadn’t noticed her or Andris yet. She squeezed the trigger. Beside her, Andris’s rifle bucked as he took a shot. But then something happened that neither of them had expected.

  The creature was falling, but Meredith didn’t think she or Andris had landed a killing blow. She couldn’t believe their good fortune. Maybe the earlier shot to its eye had injured its brain, but for whatever reason, the Titan was down.

  “What’s going on?” Andris said, following the Titan with his rifle, ready to shoot.

  Meredith pointed to the thick vines wrapped around its ankle. “How could it blow past trees and a goddamned vine trip it up?”

  Meredith zoomed in on the creature’s entangled legs. It wasn’t vines, but a net made of chain links. Where the hell had that come from?

  She didn’t have long to consider the absurdity of it. The Titan started to push itself up. Meredith’s pu
lse thumped in her ears, and for that brief moment, all other thoughts fell to the back of her mind. There was nothing else in the world except Meredith, her gun, and the Titan.

  Her finger rocked the trigger. The stock bucked against her shoulder, and bullets flew from the rifle. Time seemed to slow. A brief glimmer of surprise flickered in the Titan’s single working eye. Its mouth opened to bellow—not in anger, she thought, but protest. Its cry seemed to say, “This isn’t how it was supposed to go.” An uncannily human look crossed its hideously deformed face.

  And then a massive ball of fire erupted all around the creature. The resulting flash of light rivaled that of the lightning bursting overhead. The concussion hit Meredith next, throwing her backward. Her helmet snapped against a tree trunk, and Andris flew beside her, his rifle catching his strap. The two fell in a tangled mess. Meredith pushed herself to a kneeling position. Her vision was still blurred, and her ears rang, but she scanned the forest, still trying to locate the source of the explosives.

  When Andris recovered, she asked, “Did you do that?”

  Andris rubbed a knuckle in his ear. His voice sounded muddled in her ringing hearing, but she could read his lips well enough to get the idea. He was as surprised as she.

  Slowly, her hearing returned. Flames licked the body of the Titan. The fire crackled and sizzled as rain dripped through the forest canopy. Tendrils of smoke wound from cracks in the Titan’s armor, and the odor of charred flesh stung Meredith’s nostrils. It made her stomach turn, but she shakily kept her rifle trained on the monster.

  “Count off!” Dom yelled through the comm link. Meredith waited anxiously as one by one, the Hunters reported in. Everyone was accounted for. She breathed a sigh of relief before Dom demanded, “Who the hell is responsible for the explosives?”

  No one answered. Dom led the others as they circled around the Titan. Uncertainty was painted on their faces. Like her, Meredith guessed they were wondering if the thing could really be dead. She studied the monster’s body. Its fingers twitched, and she expected the giant to spring back up, still smoking, to start its unforgiving assault on them once more.