“You volunteered for this mission, remember?”
“I didn’t volunteer for this soup sandwich.”
“Now you sound like Hayes.”
She barked a laugh. “Hayes. He’s a bag of hot wind. Hope the bastard is still alive.”
Michael said nothing. He hoped Nathan and Elena were still alive, but he knew the odds. Chances were none of them would escape from the place with their lives. No one but him. He’d survived an Aberration before. He planned to do it again.
“All right. Let’s find a way into that thing.”
They picked their way down the slippery gorge until they made it to the bottom. The pulsing throb emitting from the obelisk was nearly overpowering. Michael forced himself to focus, ignoring the darkness, the whispers of madness in his mind.
His concentration was so intense that he didn’t even see the figure that pushed through the dripping brush until he was seized and pulled down to the sopping ground. He thrashed in a panicked frenzy before recognizing his steely-muscled captor. It was Guy. His eyes were dark as a raven’s, his voice a carefully leveled whisper.
“Better be glad I saw you. You were walking into a trap. A troglodyte guards the entrance.”
Michael followed his pointing finger. Something was barely visible in the billowing mist — a willowy, sentient shadow. Taller and thinner than any man could be, it moved like a scarecrow in the wind, its pale face tilted to the side as if listening to voices in the storm. The gaunt creature paused, only yards away from where the group huddled behind thick green shoots and the humid steam of their own rising fear. Its sallow face was like the Others; barely registered bone against gelatinous, vein-riddled membrane.
Michael looked at Guy, who shook his head in warning. Michael ignored him. He was tired of hiding. Tired of the filthy fog that shrouded his mind. Tired of being afraid of nightmares spawned from the hazy darkness.
He stood. The startled exclamations from the others were muted sounds in the distance. He spread out his arms in challenge to the troglodyte.
“Looking for me?”
The troglodyte whipped back as if startled by the bold display, hissing like a den of disturbed adders. But in the same flow of fluid movement, it rushed at Michael, unfurling gangly arms that blurred as they morphed into multiple, shadowy whips. Its bellowing scream cast away the rain before it, drowning out the sound of the storm.
A searing conflagration flared across Michael’s mind. The heat enveloped him, threatened to consume flesh and bone, reduce him to cinders. His teeth clamped together, blistering blood fanned from his nostrils and dripped over his lips.
He lifted his hand.
The troglodyte screamed.
Chapter 16: Lusus Naturae
The water was cold as death. The foamy waves bullied Nathan, slamming into him with bruising force, pulling him under and choking him. He fought to keep his head above the surface, all the while shoved about with brutal repetitiveness. He tried to look around, peering through waterlogged lashes, his vision more blurred than he had led the others to believe. Without his glasses, everything outside his immediate vicinity was slightly hazed, conjuring disturbing interpretations of the many obscure shapes that swept by.
“Elena!”
His voice volleyed across the water, but the only answer was the roar from the raging stream. His limbs felt numb, lifeless. It had taken all of his energy to simply stay afloat, but his strength was fading quickly. He knew he had to reach the shore, but the river refused to release him. The current was monstrous, keeping him trapped in its ruthless embrace.
A large shape came out of seemingly nowhere, emerging from the dark waters in front of Nathan, who desperately tried to alter his route. But the waters forced him forward, into the body of the massive figure. Stony limbs encircled him, tried to force him under…
“Stop struggling!” Ariki’s familiar voice shouted in Nathan’s ear. “It’s going to be hard enough dragging you out of here.”
Nathan sagged in relief, allowing Ariki to pull him toward the shore. The hulking soldier proved a greater match for the raging river, cutting across diagonally to finally reach the shadows. Nathan staggered forward on wobbly legs, never so grateful to feel his feet on solid ground. He placed his hands on his knees, spitting water.
“Thanks for pulling me out.”
Ariki shrugged with a grin. “You guys would do the same for me.”
“Anyone else?”
Ariki’s face quickly grew solemn. “Not yet. We’re not giving up. Figure they drifted further down. We better look for them.”
“Give me a sec.”
“Don’t have a sec. I lost my rifle in the river. Just down to my revolver now. Looks like you are too. We’re nearly butt naked out here. Gotta keep moving before something shows up.”
Nathan nodded. “Right.”
There was only the slightest tug to warn him before he was snatched backward with sudden, horrific force.
Somehow, he didn’t lose himself to panic. He recognized the sticky strands that had latched onto his fatigues, and already had his pistols drawn by the time he turned. His feet glided above the choppy water, his entire body sailing toward the spider creature that emerged from the river like a mythological demon.
Two of its elongated limbs were bent the wrong way, but it still skittered over the water like oil across a greased surface. Its two front legs yanked Nathan toward the massive head, where bristly feelers waggled like ravenous fingers. The eyes glimmered as if in anticipation of the kill.
Nathan unloaded his pistol directly into the creature’s face.
The spider jerked back with every shot, shrieking with a voice nearly human. Nathan fell into the shallows, but kept firing until his magazine was spent. He unholstered a second pistol and continued shooting. He screamed, enraged that the monster still hunted them. Furious that it didn’t die from the fall.
Ariki was in the water as well, a machete in hand. He hacked at the bristly limbs, each vicious swipe cleaving an appendage in two. Black blood painted the water like spilled oil. The spider finally collapsed in a jerky, twitching heap of severed legs and erupting viscera. The river seized it, pulling the massive corpse away.
Ariki’s massive chest heaved. He gave Nathan an approving nod. “That’s what I’m talking about.” Nathan answered with a quivery grin.
“Over here!”
They turned. Elena stumbled toward them, supporting a half-conscious Hayes.
Something was devouring his face.
The leech was nearly as long as Nathan’s arm. Pale and glistening, it bloomed red from glutting on Hayes’ blood. Ariki secured a tight grip on the slippery membrane of the creature, preventing it from moving. Half of Hayes’ face was covered by the large sucker on one end of the leech. The other end was attached to his arm at the elbow.
Elena’s eyes were tight, her hands over her mouth. Nathan understood the revulsion, finding it hard to even swallow. They had positioned Hayes with his back against a large rock. His eyes were wide and his muscles knotted from the effort of restraining his panic. He spoke from between clenched teeth.
“Anyone have a lighter? Maybe we can burn it off.”
Ariki frowned. “That’s a bad idea, Private. It’ll come off, but leeches tend to vomit into the wound when you try a stunt like that. Don’t think you want that. Not with something this big.”
Hayes squeezed his eyes shut. “Just get it off me, all right? Just get it off!”
“Calm down. Be still.” Ariki spoke softly while he probed the thick, gelatinous flesh of the creature. “Going to need some help here.”
Nathan took a quivering breath, but Elena was quicker. She knelt beside Ariki despite the disgust on her face.