Tim Lebbon - Kong - Skull Island

“Cole!” Mills shouted. “Whatcha doing, man? Fall back!” Conrad paused and looked back at the soldiers, only to see Cole standing on dry land and facing down the charging monster.

Cole looked back and locked eyes with Mills. “Live your life,” he said. He turned back and hefted the grenade launcher from his shoulder, crouching and firing in a single movement.

Conrad allowed himself a moment of hope as the grenade smoked towards the advancing beast. One in the mouth would be lucky. One in the eye would be even better. Such an impact might not kill it, but could give them a chance to escape, and might even deter the Skull Devil from attempting to attack them again.

The grenade exploded against the creature’s chest. It reared up, shook its head, then fell onto its front feet again, the foot-long claws sinking into the ground and splashing stinking marsh water into the air.

It roared. Its breath reached them all, stinking like rotten meat and death.

“Come and get me, you bastard!” Cole shouted. He pulled two grenades from his belt, bit out the pins, and ran towards the Skull Devil as it came for him. His aggressive attack brought the monster up short, and for a moment it seemed to pause in puzzlement at this tiny enemy charging it down. Then it lunged for Cole.

It opened its mouth to bite him in half as the first grenade exploded. Cole was blasted to pieces, his head and part of his torso spinning to the right. When the Skull Devil flinched away from the blast and instinctively snapped at the flying piece of meat, the second grenade clasped in the dead man’s hand detonated.

This time Conrad saw the blast light up the monster’s mouth, smoke enveloping its head and shrapnel tearing chunks from its teeth and gums. It roared in agony, but even its mighty voice could not drown out Mills’s shout of despair.

“Noooooo!”

Conrad grabbed him by the shoulder, squeezing hard. They had to take every chance Cole had given them.

“Come on!” he shouted. “We have to move!” They ran across the marsh, finding fewer areas of dry land, moving slower, but still putting distance between themselves and the stunned Skull Devil. As they splashed up to their knees in foul-smelling water, their feet released clouds of stinking methane from the rotting vegetation beneath the water’s surface. At any moment Conrad expected to go in up to his waist or deeper, and then that would be the end of him.

Conrad kept firing. He’d seen a hundred men die in explosions, and he’d been close enough to death—had dealt it himself, many times—to wonder at the moment between being and not being. Seeing Cole blown apart had only made him wonder more.

He turned to face the attacking monster just as it made its killing lunge. The face in his mind at the moment of death was Jenny, not lying dead with her brains blown out, but crying as she reached for him, as if she had lost him and not the other way around.

A boulder smashed into the Skull Devil’s head, knocking it sideways and sending it sprawling into the marsh.

Conrad gasped and stepped back, saved from falling by Marlow who caught him under the arms.

“Look!” the pilot shouted. “ Look! ” He pointed to their left as Kong thundered from the jungle. The ape ran on all fours, one giant fist clasped around another huge rock. His fur was still smouldering in places, and here and there it was burned away entirely, revealing raw, open flesh. The wounds did not seem to have lessened him at all.

Kong’s face was filled with rage.

He reached the Skull Devil as it was finding its feet, raised the other boulder above his head, and brought it down into the monster’s side with sickening force. Thick hide split and spewed dark blood. The creature howled, high and piercing.

As Kong raised the rock a second time, the Skull Devil twisted its huge snake-like body, whipping its tail around and slamming it across the ape’s chest. Kong staggered back and tripped, falling back into the tree line and releasing the rock. The ground shook as he fell.

The attacker roared in triumph and advanced on the fallen giant.

Conrad knew that he and the others should be using this opportunity to flee. Yet the fight was both awful and fascinating, and he couldn’t help but watch. His feet were rooted to the spot.

Kong grasped a huge tree and hauled himself upright, grabbing the trunk in both hands and tugging it from the ground. He used his momentum to swing the uprooted tree around and smashed it across the Skull Devil’s head. Leaves and mud flew, branches splintered. It fell again, more dazed than before, clawing with its huge feet to drag itself away from Kong and along the shoreline.

Conrad searched for Weaver. She had reached the top of the rocky spit of land, and she did not hesitate for a moment. She pulled the flare gun and fired, launching a bright red light high on a column smoke.

“Come on!” he shouted. “While we can, come on !” The soldiers and Marlow followed him out across the marsh, running parallel to the rocky promontory where Weaver now stood. Conrad could not help glancing back over his shoulder with every few steps, because the balance had changed. He allowed himself hope once again.

Kong was winning. Still grasping the uprooted tree, he was beating the Skull Devil across the head and back, slamming the trunk into its body and driving it further across the marsh with every blow. He took a step between each impact, kicking at the writhing body and pushing it closer and closer to the old shipwreck. Bloody and filthy water surged across the marsh and splashed down like rain. The trunk splintered, turning from a massive club to a deadly spear in the giant’s hands.

“Go on!” Conrad shouted, and it was strange feeling a moment of elation amongst such horror. For the first time he recognised the true wonder in this magnificent beast—a brutal, furious, primeval wonder that he had never witnessed before. He hoped that if they did escape he would never see its like again, but knowing Kong was here would perhaps open up his mind to the world and its stunning potential. Discovering King Kong must be like finding God.

But the devil was here also, and though beaten and bloodied, he was far from down.

The Skull Devil righted itself and rushed Kong, slamming its head into his chest and driving him back and down, both bodies crushing the shipwreck’s remains in a scream of tortured metal and roars of animal pain.

Oh, no , Conrad thought. The monster reared up over the fallen Kong, lifting its tail and poising it above its head like a scorpion’s stinger. Kong tried to roll, but the Skull Devil butted him again, slamming him back down into the shipwreck.

The monster’s tail was long, strong, and tipped with a cruel ivory barb the length of Marlow’s boat. Smashing it down into Kong’s face would surely provide the killing blow.

Machine-gun fire shattered the scene, and .50 cal rounds strafed across the Skull Devil’s midsection, blood flowers bursting from its hide. It shrieked and fell aside, crawling behind the shipwreck and the fallen ape to shield itself from the fusillade of bullets.

Marlow’s boat powered along the coast, San at the helm, Brooks propped behind the mounted .50 cal gun. Conrad didn’t think he had ever been so glad to see anyone.

“Come on!” he shouted. “Get to the water!” He looked up at Weaver and waved, but she was already starting to climb down from the rocks.

“It’s back up!” Mills said.

The Skull Devil was on its feet again, and preparing to rush them. Weaver’s rock was now between it and the boat, so even though Brooks still manned the gun, he didn’t have a clear line of fire.

As the monster took its first step, Kong grabbed its tail and hauled it back. He stood again, letting go and backing away as the Skull Devil turned on him one more time. For a few seconds they circled, sizing each other up and readying themselves for the fight they both had to continue.