Island 731 (40 page)

“You’re still feverish, aren’t you?” Joliet said.

“Feel like shit,” Drake confirmed. His body shivered in response to the acknowledgment. “But I think I got off easy compared to you. A lot easier than most of the people under my command.”

They walked in silence for a moment, the loss of their crewmembers weighing heavily.

“How did they die?” Drake asked.

No one wanted to answer that question. Drake had seen what happened to Blok. The shot he took to the head, while horrible, was quick and more painless a death than the others. “I don’t think—”

Drake chopped at a low-hanging branch and yanked it away. He paused and looked back at Hawkins. “
How
did they die?”

“Not well,” Hawkins said. “We don’t have time for this.”

“Ranger, I need to know.”

Hawkins was more concerned about how Drake would react than the few moments it would take to relate the details. The captain was still feverish, and if he pushed too hard, he could relapse into another delusional state, which could be a bad thing, given the blood covering his body and the butcher knife in his hand.

Bray had no such concerns. “Bennett stabbed Kam in the chest. DeWinter and Jones were incubators for the BFSs—the spiders. They died when the things came out. Jim and Ray were both experimented on. Ray died on the operating table. Jim became … a monster. Tried to kill us. Hawkins…”

Drake glared at Bray. “Hawkins what?”

Bray looked uncomfortable. It was a point Hawkins wanted to avoid, too. For now, at least.

Drake turned to Hawkins. “You
what
?”

Hawkins sighed. Time really was becoming an issue now. “I killed him. Quickly.”

Drake just stared at him for a moment and then said, “Then we’re not leaving anyone behind?”

“No, sir,” Hawkins said.

Drake gave a nod. “Couldn’t have been easy, doing what you did. Thank you.” Then he was off and moving again.

They covered the next mile of mostly level jungle without incident or conversation. Gunfire and screams occasionally filtered through the trees, but never nearby. They paused at the base of a hill. Hawkins looked up. The rise was steep and covered with outcrops of black, volcanic rock that would have to be scaled, but it wasn’t impassable. What he didn’t like was that the rough terrain held fewer trees. He could hear helicopters circling the island. If they were spotted on the hillside, they’d make an easy target for a minigun. An even easier target for a hellfire missile. But if they made it to the top, they’d be close to their goal.

“Catch your breath for a minute,” he said. “We’re going to have to do this quick.”

Bray stretched and winced. “Are we almost there? God, I sound like one of my students.”

Hawkins closed his eyes and pictured the island as he’d seen it from the top of the pillbox. They were approaching the south shore between the western shore and the lagoon. He remembered the hill. Once they reached the top, it would be a straight, downhill slope all the way to the shoreline and, hopefully, salvation. “Half mile more, tops.”

“What about the kids?” Bray asked. “I haven’t seen anyone.”

“Kids?” Drake asked.

Joliet looked mortified. “There are
children
on this island?”

Hawkins realized he hadn’t explained Kam’s involvement or his request to save the litter to Joliet or Drake. “I’m going to give you the short version for now,” he said, and then broke down the story into bite-size, nearly impossible to believe morsels.

When he was done, Drake looked wounded. “Bennett
and
Kam?” He shook his head.

“If it helps,” Hawkins said, “Kam’s involvement seems mostly forced. He was trying to protect his family.”

“And now that includes these children?” Drake asked. “His brothers and sisters?”

“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Bray said. “They’re chimeras, just like the others on this island. They could be dangerous.”

“I’m inclined to agree,” Drake said.

“But what if he was telling the truth?” Joliet asked. “What if they’re more human than animal and they’re just children who had nothing to do with the horrible things done on this island? We can’t just leave them.”

Hawkins looked up the tall hill. His energy had yet to return, but he didn’t think waiting any longer would be wise. Who was to say the mercenaries wouldn’t decide to cut their losses, evacuate the island, and carpet bomb the place? “Here’s how we’re going to do it. Once we get to the top of this hill, we’re hauling ass all the way to the coast.”

Joliet raised a hand in objection. “But—”

“Kam didn’t give us any instruction on how to find the children. Searching for them could—well, we all know how that could turn out. He said they would find us. If they don’t, they don’t. If they do, we’ll revaluate when the time comes. Now, move your asses.”

Hawkins led the ascent. While the going was slow, the many ridges and crags made the climb easy. Halfway up, Hawkins paused to look at a fern atop a ledge. The leaves were tangled oddly. Ten feet farther up, he found a leaf pushed into the damp soil. Toward the top of the rise, he took hold of a vine and gave it a yank, testing its strength. It would hold if they climbed one at a time. But that’s not all he learned—halfway up, the brown vine held a five-inch-long darker splotch of color.

“What is it?” Joliet asked. “I haven’t figured out what you’re looking at yet, but I know you found something.”

They stood on a five-foot outcrop of stone, just ten feet from the top of the hill. The vine rose up over a moss-covered stone, which now held Hawkins’s attention. The moss had been indented in several spots. “Bennett came this way. He’s heading for the boat. He’s going to beat us to it.”

“Then let’s go!” Bray said.

“But that’s not all.” Hawkins pointed to a tree that grew out over a twenty-foot drop. “Halfway up the trunk.” He’d spotted the grooves in the bark just before he saw the blood. The lighter color of the tree’s exposed flesh made it easy to spot. “Kaiju is with him.”

Drake took hold of the vine. “Don’t see as we have any choice.”

Hawkins nodded and, one by one, they climbed the vine. The first thing Hawkins noticed at the top of the hill was the noise. The hill had acted as a natural barrier, blocking the cacophony of sound from reaching them. But here, just feet from the crest, he could hear the sharp report of automatic gunfire, the shrieks of draco-snakes, the cries of seagulls, the screams of men, and the monotonous
whup
of helicopter blades. Lots of them.

Lying on their stomachs, they climbed to the peak and looked over the edge. The battle for Island 731 had followed Bennett and was being fought below. The trees beyond the hill were sparse, as much of the land was either volcanic stone or covered in slabs of concrete that had once been helicopter landing pads, a use for which they were being used once again. Three helicopters had touched down. Two had unloaded their payload of eleven fully armed mercenary squads already and were lifting off. A third unloaded just four men whose gear looked bulky. When streams of fire burst from their weapons, Hawkins knew why. Flamethrowers seemed morbidly appropriate, given how much they’d been used in clearing Japanese bunkers during World War II. Only now they were being used to fend off the armies of draco-snakes and seagulls closing in on the soldiers like a living hurricane. To the left of the battle, Hawkins saw what looked like a concrete airplane hangar emerging from the base of a hillside.

The bunker
, he thought.
This is where the children live
.

And then he saw them. Five little bodies standing before a giant and its master. Bennett was no doubt confused by their existence and he wasn’t sure if Kaiju would recognize them or not. Kam thought she might very well kill them.

Hawkins looked past the chaos. The jungle grew thick again, perhaps one hundred yards from beginning to end. Beyond that, he saw the coast. Their only means of escape lay on the other side of a battlefield.

“I think we should skirt around behind the bunker,” Hawkins said. It was the slowest, but safest route. If their enemies occupied each other long enough, they might make it past. Of course, there were still the children to consider, but they would handle that debate when they got closer.

“Sounds good to me,” Bray said.

Hawkins didn’t hear Joliet or Drake agree with the plan. His sensitive ears had picked up a new noise. Mixed with the din of battle, it didn’t sound like much. The problem was that it came from behind. He took a few steps back and looked over the steep rise they’d just climbed. At first glance, everything looked fine. Then he noticed that the dark soil of the jungle below wasn’t soil at all. The ground was alive.

The spiders had multiplied, using men and cattle to spawn more young.

Hundreds
of them.

Hawkins backed away from the edge as the first of the spiders began scrambling up the hillside. “Change of plans.” The others peeked over the edge and saw the advancing army of killer chimeras.

“Run,” Hawkins said. “Straight through. Run.”

49.

At first, the plan worked great. Preoccupied by the deadly swarms, the soldiers paid them no attention, and Bray’s bell kept the chimeras from targeting their small group. But the flamethrowers were turning the tide against the airborne monsters and for every man that fell to a draco-snake bite, five of the small creatures were either cut down by the constant 9mm bullet spray or were set on fire. It was the former that slowed their progress.

“Ahh!” Bray shouted. He kept running, but now limped.

Hawkins slowed to help him. “You’re hit?”

“In the calf,” Bray said, wincing with every step. “But I can still move.”

As more and more chimeras poured from the jungle to their left, the soldiers to their right advanced. And while the bell still worked its magic, the mercenaries would soon notice their chaotic charge through the clearing. And when that happened, it wouldn’t be stray bullets coming their way, it would be a barrage. There was no choice but to head for Kaiju, Bennett, and the children.

Hawkins veered left toward the bunker. A palm tree to his right took a round. He glanced back at the baseball-size indentation in the bark. If the tree hadn’t been there, it would have struck his head. He glanced toward the soldiers and saw two of them tracking their dash. “Duck!”

Hawkins obeyed his own command just as a three-round burst rang out and zinged over his head. He angled farther left, putting more trees and distance between them and the soldiers. More bullets shattered the trees around them as the two soldiers switched to full automatic and held down the triggers. Hawkins covered his head with his hands as he crouch-ran. He glanced up for just a moment and saw movement ahead, but he didn’t slow. Couldn’t. He just kept his head down and did his best not to collide with a palm trunk.

He glanced back and saw the others still with him, running low. The incoming gunfire had stopped, too. He could still see the soldiers, but they were dealing with a swarm of seagulls. The frenzied birds never stopped attacking. Even when the sky filled with the feathers of the dead, they continued fighting.

Hawkins realized why. Over the chop of helicopters, the crack of gunfire, and the keening wail of dying people and animals, there was a constant
pulse, pulse, pulse
. Bennett had either hit some kind of emergency button that repeated the signal around the island, or he was pressing his finger down on that remote.

No longer fearing a bullet to the side of the head, Hawkins stood and resumed his run. A shriek nearly toppled him over. He looked ahead and saw a second battle.

Kaiju was there. Roaring and twisting. The monster swung out with its arms and tail, fighting a far more agile enemy. There were three of them—the children—leaping around, striking with their small claws. One looked familiar. Lilly, the panther-girl. Another had a more reptilian body with a crocodilian snout. The third was mammalian, but Hawkins couldn’t ID any specific species on account of the puffy, black hair.

Kam said there were five
, Hawkins remembered. And then he saw them. Two small, limp bodies lay in a patch of grass. Had the litter attacked? Or had Bennett ordered Kaiju to kill them?

The reptilian chimera was suddenly caught in Kaiju’s oversize aye-aye hand, which, even lacking its long finger, was still deadly. The small creature let out a high-pitched scream before it was silenced with a crack. Lilly and the other chimera cried out and pressed the attack. Lilly clamped on to Kaiju’s arm with her catlike teeth. The behemoth roared in pain, shaking its arm, and finally swiped Lilly and sent her flying.

Hawkins had seen enough. He looked back to ask Drake for his knife when a large rock went soaring over his head. Joliet grunted from the effort.

The hurled stone collided with the side of Kaiju’s head. The monster grunted and turned to face them as it batted the puffy-haired chimera away with its tail. Kaiju stared at them, heaving from exertion. Blood dripped from its arm where Lilly had bitten down, but the creature didn’t attack.

Bennett peeked out from behind the trunk of a palm tree. He’d been hiding from the fight between mother and children. He looked them over, paying attention to their hands.
He’s looking for weapons
, Hawkins thought.

Bennett grinned and then stepped out into the open, but much of his maniacal confidence had leeched away. He flinched with each shout, gunshot, and explosion.

“Got more than you bargained for?” Hawkins asked. He didn’t think taunting Bennett was wise, but he didn’t see how it could hurt.

Bennett glanced toward the battle. Draco-snakes flew past overhead, converging with the conflagration, but the soldiers were still winning, pushing the fight closer by the second. “Exciting, isn’t it? Just wait until we reach the mainland. We will have such fun!”

Hawkins noticed a backpack over Bennett’s shoulder and remembered the bottle labeled “active” he’d taken from the lab. If he had just one bottle of water tainted with those fast-growing chimeric blastocysts, the North American continent would be swarmed. The only thing that would save the rest of the world were the oceans and Panama Canal. If the creatures survived the cold, they might even be able to cross the Arctic ice to Greenland, Europe, and Russia. They would eventually burn through their food supply, overpopulate the northern hemisphere, and die out. Humanity might survive, but every country accessible by land or ice would be scoured clean.