by Jonah Buck
There was a crunch like the world’s largest potato chip, and then the lizard tore its jaws back with a savage jerk. The front part of Shinzo’s head came away in the monster’s fangs. Blood, teeth, and shredded flesh sprayed in every direction.
Shinzo wasn’t quite dead yet. The lizard had taken his lower jaw with it, and Denise could see what was left of the man’s tongue flopping in the red hole where his mouth used to be. His arms flailed to where his eyes had been and touched the gummy mess of blood and crushed bone. A small streamer of pulped brain matter leaked out of Shinzo’s shattered skull. Some wet gurgling sounds emanated from Shinzo’s dripping mouth hole.
Then the lizard leaned forward and closed its jaws around Shinzo’s throat. With a single twist of its jaws, the creature nearly tore what was left of Shinzo’s head off his shoulders. A few strands of sinew and gristle prevented the head from falling off completely as blood jetted up into the night. However, Shinzo’s partially decapitated head flopped off to the side, faceless and unrecognizable.
Most of the hunters had already unloaded their side arms into the horrible thing, leaving the air thick with the scent of spent cordite. A .357 magnum round caught it in the side of the chest and temporarily knocked it off balance.
Instead of dropping dead in a heap as any sensible creature would do, the lizard whipped around and hissed. Its long, sinuous tail slammed into Gail and knocked her down. Heaving Shinzo’s body away like he didn’t weigh more than a dead kitten, the lizard rounded on Gail.
Still moving awkwardly on its hind legs like some sort of drunk Australopithecus, the lizard walked closer to Gail. Even hunched and gnarled into its unnatural stance, the lizard loomed over her.
“Bollocks. Let’s get out of here,” Creighton said as his pistol ran dry.
“Creighton, wait,” Silas said, but the other Englishman was already gone, moving toward the beach. Silas took one glance back at Gail and then fled, too.
Dr. Marlow looked around with blind panic in his eyes. Nothing had even slowed the lizard down. When he broke and ran, Jubal went with him.
That left just Denise, Harrison, Gail, and Balthazar to deal with the lizard. However, Denise had one last hope. While the lizard was tearing Shinzo apart, she ducked back to the cabin.
Grabbing up her Nitro Express, she aimed it at the lizard and fired. The recoil from the .600 caliber rounds nearly threw her to the ground. If the rifle’s roar was like the end of the world, then the kick felt like the end of the solar system.
A couple of rounds the size and shape of chili peppers blew across the clearing at over two thousand feet per second. When they struck the lizard a split second later, they struck with enough force to pierce the armor of a small tank. The rounds were intended for much larger targets.
The lizard all but flew apart. Its midsection exploded in every conceivable direction, spraying gobbets of viscera and shredded organs against the nearby stone statue and Gail. Spinning through the air, the head landed almost thirty feet away, still snapping its jaws. Fragments of bone went every which way like sprinklings of stardust.
Gail scrambled backward on her knees as the remainder of the lizard collapsed in front of her. Clotted blood stuck in her hair, and the front of her shirt was dripping with crimson back splatter. She was alive, though.
There was no guarantee any of them would be for long, though. The jungle was alive with the cries of thousands of mutated beasts. It was as if everything on the island was simply waiting for the full moon in order to shed their skin and reveal the monsters beneath.
Denise didn’t have nearly enough ammunition to deal with everything on the island. The eight remaining hunters combined didn’t have nearly enough ammunition to deal with this situation. Malheur Island had flipped the tables on them. Suddenly, they were the smallest, weakest prey animals around.
Pieces of the lizard continued to twitch and writhe on the ground, but it showed no signs of healing again. It was well and truly dead after shrugging off dozens of direct hits from pistols and revolvers.
Denise felt her stomach twist into a knot. She knew fear. She’d seen rhinos charge at her jeep and lions pounce out of the grass at her. Fear was nothing new. Every expedition was an exercise in fear versus knowledge and experience. She could counter fear. Finding herself suddenly on the bottom of Malheur Island’s new food chain was terrifying, but it was a familiar sort of fear, and she could already feel her inner resources chewing over their best survival strategies. She was born to overcome this sort of fear.
No, the feeling that punched her in the gut when she looked at the dead lizard was something else. She’d killed again; she’d killed something unique and never before seen. This was a mixture of black regret and blood-red triumph.
The emotions fought inside her. She’d killed the lizard because it was about to slaughter her friend. That was good, but that wasn’t the whole feeling. It felt good to pit herself against something and come out on top. She used to relish that feeling after a successful hunt, only to come to hate it. Her mind conjured up that baby elephant again, one ear blown off as it tried to nudge its mother back to life.
That was a horrible moment, but it was also a moment of clarity, a realization that this wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life. She wanted to add things to the world, not just help to wipe out some of its most magnificent wonders.
She would do what she needed to do to protect herself and her friends on this island, but Denise hoped she wouldn’t surrender to that savage triumph again. There would be a lot more spilled blood tonight, and a tiny sliver of her was looking forward to it. She hated that part. Trying to kill it with drink hadn’t worked these last few months, and now it was back and stronger than ever.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t overtake the rest of her by the time this night was over. Hopefully.
First, she had to actually survive the night, though. As she offered Gail a hand and pulled her to her feet, Denise could hear movement in the night. Noise and the smell of blood had attracted more creatures.
FIFTEEN
BATS OUT OF HELL
“We need to get back to our camp,” Denise said. “Maybe we can use the radio to contact some passing ship. I’m not sure we’ll make it if we’re stuck on Malheur Island.” As if to underscore her point, the noises in the jungle were coming closer and closer. Growls, grunts, and snarls sounded throughout the darkness.
“Right, hopefully we can make a stand there,” Harrison said, already moving.
Gail didn’t say anything, but she grabbed her rifle from the cabin. Her hands left bloody prints on the stock.
They moved through the jungle as quickly as they dared. Their view was already limited by the tangles of creepers and warring plant life. Factoring in the darkness made the trek of identifying what lay ahead of them that much harder. There was only the cold light of the moon to guide them.
“What the hell happened back there?” Harrison asked. “I mean, what was that thing? It started out as a lizard, and then it was just…a monster. Son of a bitch. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“It didn’t happen until the moon came out,” Denise said. “Everything was fine until then.”
“It was fine last night, too.”
“Yeah, but tonight’s a full moon,” Gail said.
“What, you mean everything on this island is like a loup garou?”
“A what?”
“It’s sort of a French legend imported to Louisiana. Like a bayou werewolf.”
“Maybe. There’s apparently a large concentration of moon rock on this island. Maybe it worked its way into the ecosystem. Time weathered some of the rocks down into the soil, plants took in the nutrients, animals ate the plants, and now the animals are affected by moonlight.”
“I have no idea. After seeing what happened back there, I’m ready to go ahead and just label the place cursed. That wasn’t any kind of natural back there.” Harrison shook his head.
“What do we do if we can’t reac
h anyone on the radio?” Gail asked. “Even if we can, it might take them all night to reach us.”
Denise hadn’t thought of that. They might be able to hold off the freakish fauna that had overrun Malheur Island for a little while, but they’d be in deep trouble if too many monsters attacked at once. From what Denise could hear behind them, there were a lot of monsters out there, too.
“The village,” Harrison said, snapping his fingers. “Maybe they’ll let us in. It seemed weird to me that they had that wall when they were the only people on the island. I think we know why now.”
He had a point, but Denise wasn’t sure it would work. “What if they don’t let us in? There’s no guarantee they’d be eager to open their doors at night, especially if we have something hot on our heels.”
“Better ideas?”
“Maybe. What about the cave system I was in earlier? Some of the passages are too small for anything as large as that lizard to fit through, and it’s blocked from the moonlight. Maybe things are still normal down there.”
“Our normal was pretty screwed up before, but I’ll take it,” Harrison said a second before something huge and hairy lunged out of the darkness and knocked him down.
Everyone screamed in surprise. The man-sized spider clacked its mandibles together in response.
Harrison tried to beat at the huge arachnid, but it had one of his arms pinned beneath its six-inch-long tarsal claws. Its many, many black, emotionless eyes reflected the light of the moon like little white pupils. Thick, sharp bristles sprang off its exoskeleton in every direction.
Denise lifted her Nitro Express, but she didn’t have a clear shot. The chattering monstrosity was directly on top of Harrison. Any shot that hit it would likely also hit him.
Pincer-like chelicerae snapped at Harrison’s face. He cursed and drew his machete with his free arm and started hacking at the spider’s face. Ichor sprayed out with each strike, but the opening in the spider’s exoskeleton sealed back up with barely a groove almost as soon as the blade withdrew.
“Try to roll out of the way,” Denise shouted. But Harrison was pinned underneath its hideous bulk. There was no escaping.
Suddenly, a screeching noise erupted, and a shadow crossed over the moon. Denise felt a rush of wind as something swept past her. She instinctually ducked, but the shape was already past her, talons gleaming.
The ahool zoomed past on great, leathery wings. Denise only caught a glimpse of huge sickle claws, massive ears the size of trash can lids, and slavering teeth before the enormous bat was off again, the beating of its wings raising a short windstorm.
Each flap of its wings took it higher and farther into the night until Denise lost sight of it beyond the jungle canopy, the flailing spider still caught in its claws. She’d seen the skeleton of an ahool, but the full-sized living specimen was even larger and more alarming.
Apparently, the island’s bats were just as affected by the full moon as anything else on the island. Ahools never existed, not really. There was never a distinct species of giant bats. They were just the regular bats of Malheur Island grown to titanic proportions under the light of the moon. The legends spread because bats from the island sometimes wandered off and were seen elsewhere in the Dutch East Indies. They were the only animals on the island capable of easily reaching any other stretch of land. If lizards or spiders had wings, there would be legends of giant lizards or spiders instead.
Harrison got up and brushed himself off as best he could. There was a long cut on his arm from the spider’s tarsal claws, but it wasn’t too serious. He shuddered in revulsion.
“Are you alright?” Gail asked.
“That thing isn’t slurping out my innards like a smoothie right now, so yeah, I’m pretty alright. It’s hard not to feel alright when that’s the alternative, I guess. On the other hand, it’s going to be a long time before I feel okay about anything again.” He put his hands on his face as if to make sure it was all still there.
Denise nodded. Harrison looked shaken, but he was still mostly in one piece. “Let’s get out of here before another bat comes by and decides we look tasty, too,” she said.
Harrison picked his rifle up off the ground and stuck his machete back in its sheath. If they could just make it down the rest of the way to the beach, they’d be able to get to their base and the radio. Then maybe, hopefully, there was someone out there who could rescue them.
Denise could hear shooting in the distance, the heavy roar of more big game rifles. At least some of the other hunters were still alive, although she didn’t know which ones or where they were. Most of them were probably retreating toward their own base camps and their stockpiles of firepower.
She wondered if any of them would make it through the night.
SIXTEEN
REACHING OUT
They reached the cavern inside the coastal cliff a few minutes later. One at a time, they ran from the edge of the jungle to the cave entrance while the others covered them. The open stretch across the sand was short, and Denise couldn’t see anything roaming the beach, but they would be totally exposed as they ran. If there was something waiting for a shot at them, the beach would be its best chance.
Gail went first. She sprinted out of the underbrush, sand kicking up behind her. Denise watched the skies.
High up, seemingly close enough to touch the stars, dark shapes cavorted across the sky. They flitted and swooped, occasionally diving into the trees to scoop up some smaller creature.
As she watched, an ahool emerged from the ground cover maybe a mile down the beach, carrying something in its claws. The shape struggled and squirmed until the ahool brought its claws up to its fangs and took a massive bite. Then the shape went still.
Two other ahools saw their companion with its prize and took off after it. The first bat flapped away, but the others caught up to it. They fought with fangs and claws, zipping through the air in a twisting dogfight.
Finally, one of the other two ahools managed to wrest the food away and started to fly away with it. The process started all over again as the robbed ahool immediately joined with the other to pursue the food thief.
Gail slipped around the ahool netting they’d strung up around the cave entrance and disappeared inside. She poked her head out a moment later and beckoned to Harrison and Denise.
Harrison went next. He moved fast and low, trying to make himself as tiny a target as possible. Presumably, the ahools didn’t have great eyesight if they were relying on echolocation to navigate, but the ahools weren’t the only things out there tonight.
There was something tromping through the underbrush behind Denise. It wasn’t too close yet, but it was getting closer all the time. Sometimes, the steady rustle of grass and foliage would stop, and she could hear a loud snorting noise, like the creature was following a scent trail.
Denise didn’t care for that idea one bit. Gail was covered in lizard blood. Harrison had a cut on his arm. And they no doubt all reeked of fear and adrenaline. Anything with a sensitive nose would be able to track them.
Another loud snort came from somewhere behind Denise. She risked a glance backward, but she couldn’t see anything amidst the black jungle. The footsteps resumed again, zeroing in on her.
She forced herself to look forward again to cover the last few steps of Harrison’s dash across the sand. The ahools continued to swoop and circle overhead, chittering and screeching.
A few seconds later, Harrison too ducked around the netting in front of their cave. He and Gail both gave the all clear sign for Denise to go. They had their long rifles ready to cover her as she made her way across the sand.
The footsteps behind her stopped. Gail and Harrison’s expressions both changed from encouragement to something radically different at the same time. They were no longer looking at her. They were looking behind her.
Denise didn’t need to guess what that meant. She took off running at full speed without a glance back.
In response, something bellowed like a
freight train in mating season. The noise was all fury and power.
Thunderous footfalls started up behind her, each one causing the ground beneath her feet to tremble. Huffing-chuffing breaths grew louder and louder until she couldn’t even hear the sound of her own hard breathing.
A smell hit Denise that made her want to double over and gag right there. Her brain reached for a comparison, and the best she could come up with was if someone filled the zoo monkey house with sewage and cigarette butts and then set the whole thing on fire.
Her legs pumping, her feet struggled to gain traction in the soft sand. Swinging her elephant gun in front of her as she moved, Denise felt like she was trapped in one of those nightmares where no matter how fast she ran, it was never fast enough.
Ahead of her, Gail leveled her own elephant rifle. A blast of sound smote Denise’s ears, and a wind like a passing truck blew past her.
Behind her, a blood-curdling wail filled the night. It was even louder than the blast of Gail’s elephant gun. Whatever the creature was, it must have lungs the size of small cars to make a noise like that.
She didn’t look back, though. Looking back would slow her down. Even if the huge bullet killed the thing behind her, she didn’t want to slow down.
The rifle blast might stop the thing behind her, but it would only attract more attention from elsewhere. Up above her head, dozens of creatures with amazingly sophisticated ears and senses of direction were circling Malheur Island.
If even one of them swept down and grabbed her by the shoulders to carry her off, she was toast. No, scratch that. She wasn’t even toast. She’d be burnt crumbs at the bottom of the toaster.
Another roar sounded behind her, but the footsteps tapered off. Somehow, the elephant gun hadn’t killed whatever was back there. Good grief. An elephant gun could fire through a brick wall, pass through a military vehicle’s engine block, and then kill an elephant. What the hell was back there?