by Hunter Shea
One of the skunk apes bellowed. It must have sensed the kill.
“On twist,” Liz commanded.
“One.”
Her right knee almost buckled and she stumbled, quickly regaining her stride.
“Two.”
She could hear Rooster’s labored breathing, could almost feel it on the back of her neck.
“Twist!”
Liz and Maddie stopped, dropping to a knee and spinning so they were facing the oncoming skunk apes. Rooster was taken by surprise and tripped over Maddie’s leg, crashing to his chest with a mighty whump.
Maddie screamed, “Shout!”
They started shooting, the flare from the nozzles lighting up the area around them, cordite burning the stench of the skunk apes out of their noses.
The skunk apes, startled and finding themselves hopelessly exposed, roared and tried to swat the bullets away like they were bees from a split hive. Three of them scrambled left and right, shock visible in their wide, red eyes that cut through the pitch like lasers.
The fourth one had hung back a bit and reared its head back to let out the mother of all howls. It must have been a call to retreat, because all four darted back from where they had come, their footfalls like thunder.
“What…was…that?” Rooster wheezed.
“That’s called buying us some time,” Liz answered. Now it was her turn to reach out and help him up. “We better take advantage of it.”
It was just before dawn when they stopped running (barely jogging was more like it), and came to the end of the island. They were going to have to swim over to the next one. Dominic felt something burning on his ankle and looked down to see two long, deep scratches carved into his skin. They were so deep, he thought he could see the off-white of bone beneath the tattered flesh.
“Looks like that bastard did get a piece of me,” he said through shallow breaths. Everyone had collapsed around him, too tired to take another step, much less swim.
Liz looked through the remaining two supply bags and cursed. “We left the one with the first aid kit back at the tree.”
Jack added wearily, “And the one with most of the food. All we have left is a couple of bottles of water and a soda” He had pulled his pants leg up and was massaging a purple golf ball in the center of his calf. One of the alligators had landed on his leg while he slept. He was lucky his leg wasn’t snapped in half.
Rooster punched the ground. “We can’t catch a goddamn break! Might as well pass that water around, save the rest for later when the sun gets back to baking us.”
Dominic took his share and lay flat on his back. His heart was beating crazily and he couldn’t get it to calm down. He’d watched three people die today. Angelo was gone. They’d known each other since freshman year in high school. Angelo had been the ultimate wing man and a true friend.
But they ripped his friggin’ head off.
Mick said, “I don’t think we should get in that water until light. It could only make a bad situation worse.”
“Agreed,” Rooster said. “Try to rest up for the next hour or so.”
There were two loud splashes. Rooster had tossed the girls’ guns in the water. They made no effort to protest.
“No bullets, no sense carrying them around,” he said, offering Maddie his own. She held it in her lap and leaned into her sister.
Dominic reached into his pocket and tossed his over to Liz. Rooster gave him a look that, through the exhaustion, seemed a little like pride. He nodded back, then closed his eyes. He prayed for a chance at payback, even if it meant only taking one of those skunk apes straight to hell.
Chapter Seventeen
Several quiet hours later, Mick came awake with a mouthful of mosquitoes. He spit them out with contempt, wiping and smashing their fragile bodies across the corners of his mouth and cheeks. The sun was back and he felt like he’d been sitting outside a blast furnace.
Everyone else was still asleep. Exhaustion had won out over fear. He tried to replay the events of the past twenty-four hours, but his brain wouldn’t allow him to linger too long on the horrific images. The running and the terror and the heat all coalesced into a tight buzzing just under his skin. He hadn’t run this much since he was a kid, and he didn’t know how long his much worse-for-wear body could hold out.
Spying the bag he’d been carrying by his leg, he pulled open the clasp and silently moved next to Rooster. The big guy was propped up against a mound of sand and dirt peppered with sprouts of cattail. One of the girls—it was impossible to tell who was who—lay beside him with her arm draped across his chest.
He got close to Rooster’s ear and whispered his name.
Rooster’s eyes snapped open, alert, cold, dangerous. Mick swallowed hard.
“I want to show you something,” he said, motioning to a spot away from the group. Rooster delicately removed the girl’s arm and extricated himself. He looked remarkably refreshed, though he did wince when he tried to stretch.
“Good thing you woke me up,” he said. “Time to hit the water anyway. Least it’ll get these damn bugs off us for a few minutes.”
“You got that right. Look, seeing as I already have a gun, I thought you should have this.”
Mick pulled out a honed, shining machete and carefully handed it over.
“Where did you get this?” Rooster asked, running his thumb along the edge. A bright-red slash opened up, but he didn’t react.
“I had it on the boat. I use it to hack any weeds and crap that get caught around the boat.”
“Why didn’t you tell us you had it?”
This was the hard part. But they were all in hell together, so there was no sense playing coy. And if he was going to be honest with himself, Mick had a strong feeling if anyone made it out of this, he wasn’t going to be the one holding that winning lottery ticket. If the creatures stalking them didn’t do it, dehydration would. He’d never put much stock in the saying that your body was a temple. That was sure biting him in the ass now.
He answered, “I hid it away in case I got the chance to use it on you. Before all this stuff with the skunk apes, I thought the best way out of this was to put you down. Recent events have changed my mind.”
Rooster nodded. “I had you pegged for a tough guy. Truth be told, I’d have done the same thing in your shoes.” He hefted it in each hand before stabbing it into the ground. “Thanks. With any luck, I’ll get a chance to put it to good use.”
When Jack felt a nudge in his side, he thought for sure it was one of the skunk apes and awoke scrambling, falling backward over Liz’s outstretched legs. Rooster and Mick stood over him laughing. The commotion woke the others up.
“Didn’t mean to make you shit yourself,” Rooster said. He shook his head and tried to stifle a laugh.
“Can you blame me?” he said, more to the girls, hoping for a sympathetic ear. It seemed like everyone was amused by his overreaction. It wasn’t long before he joined in the laughter. It didn’t feel right to all be standing around guffawing like yokels at a Hee Haw convention, but he had to admit, it kinda felt good.
Mick went ankle deep in the water and splashed some on his face. “Time to get cracking. We should make it to the next island in under ten minutes. The ground is soft, so it’ll be slow going.”
Dominic prowled about with his head down. He grunted with primeval satisfaction when he found a palm-sized rock with a sharp point. It looked like an Indian arrowhead, if the arrow were the size of a cantaloupe.
“I wanna take point,” Dominic said to Rooster.
Rooster eyed the formidable rock in his hand, then turned to Mick and said, “You mind taking point with him, since you have a gun?”
Mick nodded. Rooster said, “Jack and I will keep the girls between us. Okay, let’s go.”
Jack had to swallow down a yelp when he spied the ugly, fat toads that littered the edge of the water. He’d hated frogs ever since his big brother had put one in his pants at an aquarium when they were real small. Brothe
rs had a way of instilling all kinds of lifelong fears and dislikes. He was grateful to see the toads scatter when Mick and Dominic splashed into the water.
Maddie shushed them. “Guys, try to keep it down. We don’t want to give away our position.”
Dominic backhanded Mick’s meaty bicep. “She’s right. Better take it slow.”
Within five steps, the water was already up to Jack’s crotch. His sac shriveled at its cool caress. Everyone walked calmly and with deliberate strides. They tried to disturb the water as little as possible. Jack’s foot landed on something that quickly scrambled out from under it, and he jumped back with a loud splash.
“Come on, man,” Rooster admonished him.
“Something moved under my foot. Excuse me for not being well versed in trekking through swamps.”
“It was probably a turtle,” Liz said. “Be glad you didn’t step near its mouth.”
Jack blushed. After everything they’d been through, and he couldn’t imagine anyone in history having the day they’d had, he was still freaking out because a fish or a turtle or whatever was underfoot. Stop being such a pussy, man, he told himself.
The swamp was unnaturally quiet. It sounded and felt like all of the air had been vacuumed out. Even the ever-present mosquitoes had taken a break. It was odd not to have them caterwauling in his ears. He kept his hand with the gun above his head, not daring to get a drop of water on it. His hand trembled, as much from exhaustion as fear.
And sure enough, he stumbled into one of the gator holes. His head went under fast, but he had the presence of mind to pedal his legs and keep afloat. In seconds, he was back on squishy footing.
“Ho,” Mick huffed, holding up his arm to call everyone to a stop.
“You see something?” Rooster said.
“Thought I saw bubbles coming up. Might be a gator.”
All eyes were on the water ahead of Mick, waiting for the slightest disturbance on the surface. Jack realized he was holding his breath and exhaled in a head spinning rush.
No one moved.
In fact, nothing moved. Even the sky was free from passing hawks, herons or ospreys.
Jack’s stomach cramped into a tight ball. Something was coming.
He leaned toward Rooster and whispered, “This isn’t good.”
Rooster flexed his grip on the machete, his eyes dead-set on the water’s surface. “I know. Just be ready.”
He didn’t need to explain what Jack had to be ready for. Only one thing in this godforsaken swamp could make the abundant wildlife run for cover. He looked back to the island, saw the shoreline was empty. Maddie and Liz each cocked their guns. It seemed like a good idea, so Jack pulled the hammer back with his thumb and waited.
They stayed like that for several interminable minutes. The sun felt like it was sitting directly on top of his head.
The first thing to return was the chittering of the bugs. Not far behind was the cry of a bird, somewhere unseen in the trees ahead. He could see everyone’s shoulders dip ever so slightly, a tiny bit of tension being released like steam from a radiator that was about to blow.
“I think we’re clear,” Dominic said.
Mick nodded in agreement.
They took a few, tentative steps, stopped, and when nothing happened, resumed their underwater march.
“That was weird,” Maddie said.
“There had to be a predator nearby to get everything to stop like that,” Jack said, an expert thanks to Animal Planet. “Something had to scare them off.”
“Maybe it’s us,” Liz said. “We are the top of the food chain, and we’re all carrying weapons.”
Jack didn’t want to remind her that the skunk apes had proven themselves to be a notch above humans on the old food-chain paradigm, and that animals and insects had no idea what guns and machetes were, hence they couldn’t fear their presence. Liz’s theory seemed to make her happy, and that was good enough.
He stepped into a section of mud that sucked him down until it was up to his knee. It was a struggle to extricate his leg.
“Uh, Rooster, you think you could lend me a hand? Feels like I’m caught in quicksand.”
Rooster rolled his eyes and grabbed his hand, pulling so hard he thought his shoulder would pop out of its socket.
And then the world exploded.
Chapter Eighteen
The first skunk ape burst out of the water inches from Mick, emitting a roar that was loud enough to deafen anyone near. Its hairy arms were extended outward as if to gather Mick and Dominic in a killing embrace. The little they could see of its face—exaggerated, human features that held nary a shred of humanity—was locked in a grimace of pure malevolence.
Liz brought her gun down to take a shot, but the guys were in the way.
The skunk ape took a swipe at Mick, catching him across the chest, sending him spinning. An arc of blood cascaded from his chest. She saw three horrific slashes open up from his neck down to his ribcage.
“Mick!” Dominic screamed.
He didn’t give the skunk ape time to turn its attention on him, instead lunging at it with the sharp rock and smashing it into the side of its skull. The skunk ape shrieked and staggered backward.
“Dominic, get out of the way!” Rooster shouted.
Liz, Maddie and Jack were at the ready. They just needed a clear shot.
Dominic continued his assault, bringing the rock down in frenzied jabs on the skunk ape’s head and shoulders. “You piece of shit! You wanna fuck with me? Come on, motherfucker!”
Mick had recovered and, though bleeding heavily, fired his gun. He missed badly, and Liz saw the grimace of pain on his face. The recoil must have brought waves of fire to his shredded chest.
Rooster churned up the murky water in a dash to help Dominic. The kid and the skunk ape had locked into one writhing mass.
Liz nudged Maddie. “Come on. If we get closer, we can take a shot.”
Jack trailed behind them, his hand shaking like he was standing stark naked at the tip of the North Pole.
Dominic continued to whale on the skunk ape, loosing a string of epithets that were close to historic in their abandon. Rooster charged with the machete high above his head, ready to cleave the skunk ape in two.
The second skunk ape must have been lying in wait. It came up and planted a shoulder in Rooster’s chest like he was a tackle dummy in football practice. Rooster was airborne, landing on his back with a tremendous splash a good ten feet from where the skunk ape hit him.
“Now!” Liz screamed, and she and Maddie each fired on it. It dove back into the water with reflexes impossible to comprehend.
“Did you hit it?” Jack shouted.
Liz didn’t have time to answer. Dominic was still in hand-to-hand combat, and winning. She had to help him!
Mick floated on his back, unconscious. Maddie had gone to help Rooster, who was up and holding his chest.
Hell had ascended from the swamp’s depths.
“Die, you piece of shit!” Dominic screamed. The rock had fallen out of his hand, and he repeatedly punched the skunk ape between the eyes. Its face was a red, pulpy mess.
The other skunk ape reappeared and grabbed Dominic’s wrist before he could land another blow. Liz heard the crack of Jack’s gun and felt the bullet whiz past her shoulder. It winged the skunk ape high in the shoulder. It wasn’t enough to stop it from pulling Dominic’s arm all the way back until it cracked. Dominic howled in agony. The skunk ape gave another quick tug, and Dominic’s arm pulled free from his body.
Liz fired, cursing when she saw the bullet kick up water inches from the beast.
Blood pumped out of Dominic’s side like a garden hose set to high. The one that he had been beating saw its chance at retribution and lunged forward, taking a bite out of his neck.
The skunk apes dove under the water, this time with Dominic.
Everyone watched in horror as the water rippled with the skunk apes’ escape, heading to the west with the speed of a dolphin. Domi
nic’s blood rested on the surface like an oil slick.
Rooster shouted, “Fuuuuuck!”
Liz heard Mick groan, and she rushed to his side. She almost gagged when she saw his exposed rib cage.
“Did you get it?” he wheezed.
Her eyes burned from tears. “Just…just stay still. I’ll pull you onto the shore.”
Rooster, Maddie and Jack were now beside them. Maddie was sobbing and Rooster’s eyes were glazed over.
Jack helped Liz keep Mick propped up, and they headed for the island.
No one was prepared for the third skunk ape when it catapulted out of the shallow water, heading straight for Maddie.
“Noooooooooooo!” Liz screamed.
The skunk ape, the female of the clan, dropped over Maddie like a one-ton net. The girl didn’t even have time to react or scream. One second she was by Rooster’s side; the next, both she and the creature were gone.
Jack started shooting at the water, until Liz hammered his arm down.
“Stop it! You might hit my sister!” Tears streaked down her face.
Rooster felt numb. The throbbing pain in his chest faded. All that mattered was finding Maddie.
The water was placid. Not even a bubble to give him a direction to go in. The machete was weightless in his hand. All of the blood in his body felt like it was pooling in his arm, delivering the strength he’d need to hack the fucking ape into a million pieces.
“Maddie! Maddie!” Liz wailed. She trudged in circles through the water, desperately looking for a sign that her sister was nearby.
Jack held on to Mick, who was bleeding out fast and mumbling incoherently.
Liz and Rooster shouted for Maddie, but their cries were met with silence.
It wasn’t until ten minutes had passed that he put an arm around Liz and said, “She’s gone.”