James Moore - SNAFU - Hunters

“Hey Nathan,” Donaldson said. “The boatman wants somethin’.”

“He wants a fix,” Nathan said.

“I don’t think so.”

Nathan stopped and turned. Hiro had a wide-eyed expression. He spoke urgently, fear in his voice, and motioned to the trees.

“What’s up with him?”

“Prob’ly just freakin’ out from the drugs.”

“Probably not,” the Professor said. “Heroin has a calming effect.”

“You think he knows something we don’t?” Donaldson’s voice wavered.

“Nah,” Leon shook his head. “He’s just a junkie.”

Nathan wasn’t so sure. Fear crept along his skin, like the forest was watching him. “Keep your eyes open,” he ordered. His heart beat hard in his chest, and he wiped a bead of sweat from his temple. “Something’s out there.”

“He’s pointing at something,” Donaldson said.

Hiro gesticulated towards the forest, an angle halfway between Nathan and Leon.

“What do you see?” Nathan squinted as he stared into the forest. A shape resolved, nearly imperceptible against leafy backdrop. A tall, slender creature stood just two dozen paces away, nearly invisible, seemingly made of glass. Its outline was only visible from the creature’s gentle, hypnotic sway.

“Squad,” Nathan said just loud enough to be heard. “Rapid, on my signal.” He levelled his rifle. The creature cocked its head to the side then leapt into the trees. Nathan fired, bullets tracing the movement of the thing into the leaves. A hail of fire followed from his squadmates; bursts from Deacon and Leon, shots from Donaldson and the professor.

“Ceasefire!” Nathan ordered.

“Did we get it?” Leon asked.

“I don’t think so.” Professor shook his head. “No body.”

“There was just one right?” Donaldson asked.

The men scanned the forest, listening intently. It was deathly quiet. No motion, except for the swaying of leaves in the wind.

“It was standing right in front of us. Shit, man, did you see that?” Leon’s voice wavered.

“It was almost fuckin’ invisible,” Donaldson said.

“My question is,” Nathan said, “how did he know it was there?”

The men glanced briefly at Hiro.

“Is it still around?” Nathan asked Hiro, waving towards the forest. “Is it still out there?”

Hiro seemed to understand. He squinted, ran his eyes over the forest, took a deep breath then pointed. Nathan looked towards the spot but saw only waving leaves.

“Ready,” Nathan said, and the squad aimed their weapons.

“I don’t see shit,” Deacon muttered.

Leon frowned as he peered at the spot. “Where is it?”

“Grenades,” Nathan ordered. Deacon popped a high-frag round into his XM-148, and Nathan loaded a high-explosive. “Fire.”

The team unloaded. Two grenade rounds exploded in the distance, one blasting a sphere of destruction, the other sending a hail of fragmentation through the trees. They emptied their magazines into the forest.

“Ceasefire.”

It was quiet, except for the reloading of weapons. Nathan plugged a canister into his 40mm attachment when something dropped from the trees. It landed forty paces away, crashed flat to the ground.

Nathan signalled to move, pointed to the spot, and the squad advanced in formation. Nathan reached it first, and saw a giant green body splayed on the ground. “We got it,” he said over his shoulder, keeping his weapon trained on the motionless body. The others rushed forward; circled around the fallen creature.

“The hell is that thing?” Donaldson said, disgust thickening his voice.

“Whatever it is,” Leon said, “we really fucked it up.”

There were more than a dozen holes blasted through the creature’s body. Its right arm was severed near the shoulder, and other limbs hung by strands of flesh. Pieces of the creature were scattered around where it fell, and the whole mess sat in a puddle of green liquid and innards.

“Looks like it’s got scales,” the Professor said. “Like a fish.”

“That’s not a fucking fish,” Leon scoffed.

“No shit.”

The Professor bent to examine the creature. He probed with the barrel of his SKS, running it against a series of large open slits on the creature’s mangled torso. “It’s got gills, too.”

The creature twitched.

A flash of movement.

The Professor’s eyes went wide, his jaw dropped open. The creature’s remaining arm had plunged through the Professor’s gut, emerging blood-soaked from the other side. The appendage withdrew, and the man slumped to the ground.

“Professor,” Deacon yelled. He pulled his squadmate close as Donaldson and Leon unloaded into what was left of the green carcass, shredding it into sloppy chunks.

The Professor coughed up blood. “Shit,” he managed, through heaving breaths. “Must’ve been a reflex… Defence mechanism for the gills…”

“Take it easy, Professor,” Nathan said. “We’ll get you back to base.”

“Bullshit,” the Professor said. He was leaking badly from both sides of the wound.

“Guys,” Donaldson said. “What the fuck is that?” He motioned with his M1 towards the butchered green monster. The pieces were vibrating. Minced remains of the creature, shreds of flesh and innards, oozed together, coalesced.

“Jesus,” Leon said. “Is it still alive?”

“Is it… Is it putting itself together?” Donaldson said, staring in disbelief.

The creature slowly took form. It was a skeleton of goo first, oozing up from the ground, joined by pieces of green carcass.

Hiro shouted something and pointed to the bag in Nathan’s hands.

“Now’s not the fucking time,” Leon shouted.

Hiro shouted back, insistent, pointing alternately to the bag and the monster.

“Maybe he knows how to stop it,” Donaldson said.

Nathan opened the bag to Hiro, who reached in and rifled through the contents. He pulled out an ornate knife with engraved symbols along the blade.

Hiro made his way to the reanimating creature, took aim at the head, and thrust the knife. It entered the skull with a sickly crunch, and what remained of the creature turned instantly to dirt.

Hiro pulled the knife from a roughly head shaped mound of earth. “Iron,” he said, with a thick Vietnamese accent. “Iron kills demon.”

“Jesus Christ,” Leon said.

“That thing,” Donaldson started, “that thing really is a demon.”

“Holy Christ, a fucking demon.”

“Ngu’Tinh,” Hiro said. “Yeow kwai.”

The men looked to the Professor: eyes open, unblinking, silent.

“Goddamn.”

“So this fucker knew along how to kill it,” Leon said. He took a few aggressive paces towards Hiro. “Anything else you didn’t tell us?”

Hiro put up his hands, stepped back, said something calmly.

“No use,” Nathan said. “Can’t understand each other anyway. Not without Bao.”

“So now what?” Leon said.

“We get back.” Nathan nodded decisively “Before any more of those things show up.”

“How many you think are out there?” Leon said, peering into the trees.

“We saw two in the river. One in the trees,” Nathan said. “So at least three.”

“We should ask him,” Donaldson said, pointing to Hiro. “He knows some English.”

“You’re right.” Nathan turned to Hiro, and began to pantomime. “One.” He pointed to the mound of dirt that used to be the demon. “Two, three…” He pointed backwards, from where the others had come then held up three fingers. “How many?” Nathan shrugged his shoulders, turned up his palms.

Hiro looked Nathan in the eyes, nodded. “Two more yeow kwai.”

“You think he understood?” Donaldson asked.

“I don’t know,” Nathan said. “Let’s go,” he ordered. “Column formation. Deacon’s on point. Leon, you’re on rear. Keep your eye on Hiro. Donaldson, just get in line and keep your eyes open.”