Emilio continued, “He thought he saw the thing take off under the church. If it’s there, maybe we can catch it sleeping.”
You don’t live with someone for twenty-two years without having some of their bad habits rub off on you, and John’s wife’s love of gossip had certainly rubbed off on him. With a sly grin, John leaned forward in his seat and asked, “Who was down here parking? Was it Sherry Tice’s daughter?”
This time it was Bill’s turn to be thinking on his feet. “They didn’t leave their name.”
“Oh,” John replied somewhat sullenly. Satisfied but not happy with the answer, he leaned back in his seat and became silent.
They continued slowly down the muddy dirt road for about a half a mile further before Emilio put his rifle across his lap and said, “It’s right around this curve.”
As they started around the next curve, James could make out a steeple piercing through the tops of the trees. The steeple had been white at one time, but years without a fresh coat of paint had left it an ugly color that was somewhere between light grey and tan. For some reason this steeple looked foreboding; it looked like it was peering through the trees, watching them. Sort of a scout for the hellish beast that had taken up residence there.
A chill raced up and down James’ spine.
The beast awoke. It could hear something in the distance.
It made its way to the opening in the skirt around the church, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. However, the sound of something approaching was unmistakable.
It sniffed the air. The scent was familiar. It smelled like one of the vehicles the beast’s favorite prey transported themselves in.
Though its vision was poor in the daylight, the beast could make out something slowly making its way through the underbrush. The beast saw a metallic reflection coming from the same direction as the sound. The reflection came again. It seemed to be heading this way. Then the large object became even clearer and something large and green could definitely be seen between the trees.
The beast crawled out from under the house and ran for the woods.
As the SUV came around the corner, the small, white, one-roomed church came into view.
James saw something dart from the side of the building. “Look!” he said, pointing at the dark shape.
But Emilio was a step ahead of him. He had already opened the door and was stepping out of the slow moving truck. He brought the AR-15 to his shoulder. The beast was well over one hundred yards away and moving quickly toward the trees. Emilio had only about one second to aim and fire before the beast disappeared from sight. This single shot was followed by a series of seven more shots fired blindly into the area where the beast had entered the woods.
Emilio raced ahead with the rifle still to his shoulder and pointing in the direction where the beast had entered the woods.
Bill passed in front of the truck, followed closely by John, both with their pistols out.
James followed their example. He stepped out of the car and drew his own pistol. He set off after Emilio.
They crashed through the brush and saplings until they finally caught up with Emilio. He had stopped about thirty yards from the edge of the woods. His rifle was still at his shoulder and leveled toward where the beast had last been seen.
Out of breath, John gasped a couple of times before blurting out, “Did you get it?”
“Hush!” Emilio snapped.
They stood there with only the sound of John’s gasping breath breaking the silence, as Emilio listened for any movement.
“I’m not sure, but I think I hit it,” Emilio said in a quiet voice that was almost, but not quite, a whisper. “We still need to be careful. It may not be dead, and I don’t want to blunder into that thing while it’s wounded.”
Emilio craned his neck, trying to see over the brush and high grass, then, without turning his eyes from the woods before them, he said, “I’m going to move in. We need to spread out, but not far. Bill, I need you and James to stay about ten feet on either side of me and advance as I do. I’ve got the firepower, so I’ll cover all three of us. You two worry about covering yourselves and me should it catch me off guard. John, I want you to follow behind us at about twenty feet. If that thing should get through and take one of us down, it’s your job to kill it before it kills us.”
John’s job would be all but impossible should it become necessary, and they all knew it. They had all seen how fast that thing was and how quickly it could kill. If it got through to someone, that someone was going to die.
They all spread out, and once Emilio saw they were in place he started moving slowly forward.
The tall grass and brush was just over waist deep. Emilio told the others to spread out a little more so the beast couldn’t bowl them all over in one quick rush, but James feared it would take advantage of the tall grass and come in low, taking one of them out, then turning on the others.
James’ heart was pounding so loud he was certain that if they were to stop and listen they would all be able to hear it. He held his pistol tightly in his hand and his eyes constantly swept the woods before him. It wasn’t hot, but sweat was beginning to trickle off his forehead.
Just past the edge of the woods, Emilio stopped. Keeping the AR-15 aimed at the woods, he slowly dropped to one knee. He took his left hand from the gun’s forearm and reached down to the ground. His head stayed up, only his eyes looked down.
“It fell here.” His hand moved some more pine straw and twigs. A smile creased his lips. “Blood.”
“You hit it?” John asked, between pants. James suddenly found John’s labored breathing immensely irritating. The police chief was overweight, but there was little doubt that he should have gotten his wind back by now.
“Think so,” Emilio answered. He got back to his feet. “But I doubt I killed it. Not enough blood.”
They continued slowly into the woods, but they didn’t go much further. James could tell there wasn’t enough blood on the trail for the creature to be mortally wounded, and like Emilio said earlier, he didn’t want to blunder into the beast while it was wounded.
There was a loud bang, then a sharp pain ripped through the beast’s shoulder as the.223 bullet tore its way through, entering on the outside rear and passing out the front, grazing the upper part of the beast’s shoulder bone as it passed through. The shot caught the beast in mid-stride, and, when its weight came down on its arms, a numbness shot through its right shoulder and on down its arm, causing it to fall headlong at the edge of the woods. The fall may very well have saved the beast’s life, however, since just as it fell there were seven more loud bangs, and the beast could hear a series of crisp popping noises above it as the bullets passed just overhead at supersonic speeds.
The beast had an extremely high pain threshold. As a result, it had never really felt pain. Even when Chelsea had knocked it to the ground, the horse hadn’t done so with enough force to actually hurt the beast. Now, the beast felt pain for the first time. Although a bullet tearing through a shoulder would have been much more painful to any other creature, it was a new and entirely alien feeling. The beast was scared at first — another new feeling — then it burned with an intense hatred for the creature that had caused this pain.
The beast scrambled to its feet, and, with its right arm drawn into its chest, it lurched off.
After it traveled another fifty yards away from its attackers, the beast ascended a small rise. It placed itself behind a tree, and peered through the woods at the approaching four figures. It raised its snout and sniffed the air. One of the four, the one walking behind the others, was unfamiliar; the beast assumed this one was unimportant. But, the other three were very familiar, one very much so. It had smelled all three of them when it occasionally returned to areas where it had made kills.