Matt Archer: Monster Hunter (Matt Archer #1) (19 page)

“Dude…I saw the…monster run by and…then you went by, too….I
was…hiding off the trail….I can’t believe…she ran away! She didn’t even
stop…and I’m sure she smelled me.” Will sank down on the forest floor, laid
flat on his back, and stretched his arms over his head.

“I can’t believe it either. It was weird, man. She stared at
the knife, like she knew what it was, and just took off,” I said. “We need to
find her. Let’s go back to where the prints met up with the other monster’s. If
nothing else, we can look for it instead.”

Will grunted. “Only plan we got.”

We headed back to the original trail and picked up the
larger monster’s prints. After winding around the woods for an hour, we came to
the edge of the state park where I’d camped with Mike. This creature had
ventured into more populated areas, but we didn’t find the Bear or its resting
place.

“Think we need to call off the search, try again tomorrow?”
Will asked. He wandered to the side of the trail, examining the brush for
tracks.

I shrugged. “Maybe—”

There was a loud rustle to our right. With a roar, the
She-Bear vaulted out of another camouflaged hole in the ground. She hit the
ground running, coming for us. Swinging a giant forearm, she knocked Will off
his feet. He flew backward and crashed into a pile of dead leaves.

She straightened up, glancing at the knife like before. A
growl rattled in her throat. “Blade.”

So they knew what I carried. My knees trembled as I stood
ready for an assault. But she didn’t move. Neither did I. It was an impasse.

Wits,
decisiveness. That’s what it takes, Archer.

Yes, sir.

Without thinking, I ran right at her. She reached out to
grab me, but at the last minute I slid down on my hip like a base runner
stealing second. I hurtled under her arms and through her legs. Before she
could spin around, I stabbed the backs of her knees and butted her with my
shoulder. Rolling hard, I got away before she crashed down on top of me, then
finished her with a quick stab in the back.

Gasping, I staggered over to Will.

He sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “Man, that hurt.”

“You lose consciousness?” I asked, checking his eyes for a
dilated pupil with my penlight.

“No. Just had the wind knocked out of me and racked up a
dozen more bruises.” He took my offered hand and stood. “Can we call it a
night, finish this hunt tomorrow? We’re both pretty beat up.”

A woman’s screams pierced the air.

Will stiffened. “Guess not.”

“Sounds like we’ve found the big one,” I said, sheathing the
knife. “Which way?”

He pointed northwest. “Campgrounds are that way. We should
start there.”

We ran through the pines, fighting branches and pine
needles, to a campsite two-hundred yards away. Through the trees, I saw two
young women, bundled up in ski jackets and watch caps, huddled together in the
remains of a destroyed tent. Another monster, a big, solid-brown male, stood
over them.

A bright LED lantern swung wildly from a tree branch above
their heads, giving the scene a strobe effect. We’d never seen two monsters in
one night, and the sight of that Bear hunched over the girls reminded me way
too much of my camping trip with Mike. One girl crouched in front of the other
one, waving a cast-iron camp skillet.

A shudder ran through me as the beast sniffed at them. I was
surprised he hadn’t killed them yet. They screamed louder, acting too scared to
run. The first girl brandished her skillet. She got a good swing in, but the
monster batted it away like a fly. The pan flew across the clearing and crashed
into the bushes at the back of the campsite

Time to move.

As I started forward, Will grabbed my arm and spun me
around. He pulled my ski mask down over my face. “They can’t know who we are.”

“Dude, I can’t see well enough with this thing on,” I rolled
the mask back up. “I’ll distract them, lead him away. You get the girls and
run, okay? We’ll meet here after I kill him.”

“Put. Your. Mask. On,” Will snapped.

“Get a grip! We don’t have time for this” I said. The
monster circled the girls, laughing. Like he was playing with his food before
he ate it. I shifted through the trees. “Who cares if they see us? We gotta
go!”

“You sit behind her every single day and you don’t recognize
the crazy lime-green ski jacket she’s wearing?” Will pulled his mask over his
face. “That’s Ella, you moron!”

Ella!

Forgetting all my tactics, I slammed through the trees,
pulling my mask in place as I ran. I skidded into the clearing in a shower of
pine needles and ran straight for the monster.

“Hey, ugly,” I called, making my voice as deep and tough as
I could to disguise it. I yanked the knife from my thigh pocket. “You want to
play? Let’s see you pick on someone who likes a fight.”

The Bear took a few steps away, frowning when I came between
him and the girls.

“You coming after me, or what?” I asked. “I don’t have all
night.”

Ella squeaked, but I didn’t spare her a glance,
concentrating on the big beast. He watched me, too, staring at the knife.
Without warning, he pounced. Swiping a huge paw, he whacked me in the arm,
knocking me off-balance. I landed hard on my hip; the knife flew out of my
hand. The monster leapt my direction, claws extended.

Thunk!
The
sound of metal hitting bone. The lid from a cast-iron Dutch oven rolled by.

The Bear turned back to the girls with a roar. I scrabbled
in the dirt for the knife and pulled myself up, shoulders throbbing. Ella was
on her knees, clutching a metal roasting fork. The other girl, who must’ve been
Ella’s sister, crouched in front of Ella, holding the Dutch oven like she
planned to toss that, too. The sister’s hands were shaking; the handle of the
cook pot tapped an uneven rhythm against its side as it trembled.

Will’s masked face appeared at the edge of the clearing. He
gave me a quick nod. I took a deep breath, feeling the adrenaline take over.

“What, you’re not gonna try to kill the blade-wielder? I
know you know what this is.” I held up the knife. “I’m the one who’s been
taking care of your friends. I’d want revenge if I were you. But maybe you’re
chicken.”

The Bear’s roar was joined by shrill screams from the girls.
Will dove out of the bushes and reached for them. I ran into the trees as fast
as I could. From the sound of breaking branches and pine cone grenades flying
at my head, it was safe to assume the monster was giving chase. The trees grew
denser, the path smaller, until needles were snagging my ski mask from both
sides.

Just what I wanted.

I plowed ahead, ducking under as many branches as I could.
The monster had a harder time getting through the tight space. He became
tangled in the smaller, whip-like twigs while trying to shove his way through
using brute strength. But the thinner wood wouldn’t tear or crack—the twigs
bent instead. Too angry to quit, he thrashed on until he was stuck in a
spider-web of pine branches, the needles tangled in his fur.

After he stopped moving forward, I crawled on my belly and
forearms through the little space below the branches. I got several yards away
from the Bear, then lay flat on the ground, staring at his feet, to give my
heart time to slow down. The monster couldn’t move, sure, but I couldn’t get
close. The knife vibrated in my hand.

“I know, I know,” I whispered back. “But short of playing
darts and throwing you at him, we’re momentarily hosed.”

The knife shuddered violently.

I jumped. Was it responding to me or just excited for a
kill? “Um, play darts?”

A long buzz.

“But I suck at darts. You’ll probably end up lost.”

I paused as the monster roared, sounding more like a lion
than anything else. Whole trees swayed as he struggled to free himself.

An insistent buzz.

Maybe the knife knew more than I did. “Have it your way.”

I stood. When the monster saw my face, he howled and spit
and flailed about. “Kill mun! Et mun!”

“Nothing I haven’t heard before,” I shouted back. “Got
anything new?”

“Hut gul. Hut gul, bad!” He chuckled and licked his lips.
“Kill gul! Et gul, slow!”

Fury flooded my bloodstream. We’d see about him hurting
Ella. Not if I was still alive and kicking.

“That was the wrong thing to say.” I unsheathed the knife,
shaking with anger. The handle glowed with ice-blue fire and I gave it a
squeeze. “Hit your mark.”

I flung it, putting all my fear for Ella into the throw.
Like a heat-seeking missile, the knife danced through the branches, not
catching on a single pine needle and drove into the monster’s eye. There was a
green flash, then the knife was still. And the monster was dead, its good eye
dark and unseeing.

I dropped to the ground to catch my breath, wondering what
was up with my knife. I got that it was magic, but what else? Knives didn’t
have guidance systems, yet this one had flown into the Bear’s head like it was
magnetically attracted to it. The knife’s handle flickered blue, as if to
remind me that I needed to collect it. Wearily, I pushed myself up.

With the way the Bear was hanging in the branches, I had no
clue how we’d hide it. Heck, Colonel Black’s team might have to cut down the
trees to get it out. I crawled to the body and pulled the knife free,
shuddering at the sight of brain, blood, and eyeball staining the blade. I
cleaned it with some dried pine needles before heading for camp.

Making my way back to the clearing was harder than the trip
out without panic to speed me up. The little camp was empty, but the girls had
left firewood in the ring and I found a lighter in a pile of stuff that had
been dumped on the ground. There was no telling when Will would return from
taking Ella and her sister to safety. I was exhausted; a little rest sounded
good, so I made a campfire. I spied a bag of marshmallows, still unopened and
whole, and laughed. Kill a monster, have a s’more.

I found Ella’s discarded roasting fork, popped three puffs
onto the end and hung them over the flames. While they roasted, I pulled my ski
mask off, enjoying the fresh air on my sweaty head. The marshmallows turned
black and crusty and, with a contented sigh, I pulled one loose, stretching the
trails of goo still stuck to the metal. I crammed it into my mouth before it
cooled too much. When the goo hit my tongue, I groaned out loud. Sugar was
exactly what I needed.

Although, that also meant my teeth were stuck together when
Will called to me. I could see his shadow through the trees. He must’ve spotted
the fire—dead giveaway as to who won the fight. I pried my teeth apart to give
him crap about taking so long, when two shadows broke away from his.

“Uh, Ma-, um, we’re coming back,” Will shouted. “Is it
safe?”

He knew it was—he was warning me to put my stupid mask back
on. I turned around and pulled the wool over my sticky face. “Yeah, come on
up.”

Will led the two girls into the firelight. Ella had smudges
of dirt on her thick, green ski jacket and her jeans. She’d lost her watch cap
along the way. Auburn strings of hair hung in her face, having escaped her
ponytail, and her cheeks were scraped. I wanted to touch the scrapes, tell her
they’d get better. She was shaking so I led her to the campfire then eased her
to the ground. A sleeping bag had survived the rampage. I draped it around her
shoulders and tucked the ends under her legs.

“Thanks,” she murmured. “Are you hurt?”

She touched the hole in my coveralls where the She-Bear had
slashed my collarbone. Something like electric shock buzzed my body.

Trying not to react, I lowered my voice again and said, “Just
a scratch. Don’t even feel it.”

But if she wanted to kiss it and make it better…my mind
wandered and in a flash she grabbed the edge of my ski mask. Not quite as
hysterical as she acted. Fast, too.

“Nice try.” I jumped back. “No peeking.”

The older girl stepped closer to the fire. She was at least
twenty, tall and slim, with dark blonde hair in a tight braid and Ella’s green
eyes.

“We just got attacked by Bigfoot,” the sister said, “and two
teenagers dressed up like commandos came flying out of the bushes to rescue
us.” She crossed her arms. “I think we’re owed a few answers, don’t you?”

Ella snuggled deeper into her sleeping bag. “Alyssa, they
saved our lives, maybe we should cut them a break.” She smiled at me and it
felt like the ground shifted under my feet. “Don’t mind my sister. She gets mad
when she’s scared. The madder she gets, the closer she is to losing it. She
needs to take it easy.”

Alyssa, looking more than a little pale, crossed her arms
tighter. “I’m fine.”

“It’s perfectly normal to be upset,” Will said. “You’ve had
a big shock.”

Will kept using this deep, big-man voice, like we were
superheroes “Aw shucks-ing” the damsels. I held in a laugh and took over before
he got carried away. “We can’t let you know who we are. This is part of a military
operation…our identities have to stay secret.” I crouched down next to Ella.
“So do the monsters. If people find out, they’ll panic.”

But Alyssa wasn’t giving up so easily. “You don’t sound or
look old enough to be real soldiers. How old are you? Seventeen? “ Kind of
flattering that she thought we were seventeen, but when we didn’t answer her,
she threw up her hands. “Ella, grab your stuff, we’re leaving.”

Will stepped in front of Alyssa. “We’ll let you go. Just
don’t tell anyone what you saw.”

Alyssa snorted and gave Will a shove. She was only a few
inches shorter than he was, even if he outweighed her by forty or so pounds.
“How could you stop me?” she asked. “You don’t even know who we are.”

Thinking fast, I grabbed a backpack and pulled the name tag
off of it. “Ella Mitchell, 1153 Broadmoor Lane?”

Ella actually snickered as Alyssa stormed toward me and
yanked the tag out of my hands. “Cretin!”

Will glanced at me. I shrugged. There were some people you
couldn’t please, life-saving heroics or not. I rubbed the back of my neck,
really tired of the nonsense. “Look,” I said, “telling people would only put
lives in danger. Thrill-seekers would come hunting for the Bears. Help us out,
okay?”

Alyssa stared at me with her mouth open. Her face went from
pale to gray in the firelight.

“Bears? Wait – you called that…that…
thing
a bear?” Alyssa started to sound
hysterical. “And there are more of them?”

“That wasn’t the only one, no. And they look like mutated
grizzlies, so we code-named them Bears,” I answered. They already knew the
creatures existed, so I figured telling the rest wouldn’t hurt. “But you can
call it a monster, or Bigfoot. Whatever you want.”

With that, Alyssa fainted.

* * *

Heaving a long sigh, Ella spread the sleeping bag around her
sister. “Told you she was about to crack. She’s all action until the danger’s
over then, poof, she collapses.”

Alyssa didn’t stay unconscious long, but she wasn’t in any
shape to move yet. She sat crossed-legged, staring at the fire. Will, with more
finesse than I would’ve guessed, sat down and put an arm around her, murmuring
who knew what in her ear. Alyssa curled up against him and laid her head on his
chest. He winked at me, a half-smirk visible through the mouth hole of his
mask. I couldn’t get a date with a girl my own age, and there he was, cuddling
with a twenty-year-old. Nice.

Once everyone was settled, I wandered off to call the
colonel for some advice. “The She-Bear is hidden but the male’s tangled up and
so are we. I’m not sure what we need to do, other than send the girls on their
way.”

The colonel grunted. “That’s quite a situation, Archer.
You’re just a magnet for trouble, aren’t you?”

“Um…okay. Any ideas?” I asked.

“Sorry, son, I didn’t mean to make light of your
predicament. I’ll try to pull a crew together tonight. If we rush deployment, I
can have them there in six hours to cut the Bear down before anyone finds it.”

“Thank you, sir. And about the girls? I mean, we never set
protocol for meeting up with civilians.”

“For now, make sure they get back to their vehicle safely,”
he said. “I’ll send someone from Military Intelligence out to talk to the young
ladies either tomorrow or Sunday. M.I. will debrief them and help them
understand keeping the monsters secret is an issue of national security.”

“Yes, sir. Thanks for the help.” I ended the call and went
to tell everyone the plan.

Will and I let the girls rest while we packed up camp and
doused the fire. We salvaged what we could, but the tent was a total loss. Once
we loaded everything into their utility wagon, I dragged it while Will walked
Alyssa down the trail with his arm around her waist.

“She’s still wobbly—she needs a hand,” he’d said. I thought
he was stretching things, but let it slide.

Ella walked with me. The trail was barely wide enough for
the two-by-four wagon, so she stayed a few steps ahead and talked to me over
her shoulder. “We’re lucky you showed up. I thought we were dead.”

Her voice shook. I fought an urge to wrap her up in a big
hug. “I’m glad we got there in time.”

“How did you do it? How’d you get rid of the monster?” she
asked.

This wasn’t a conversation I wanted to start. “Um,
classified. Sorry. But you don’t have to worry. It won’t be coming back.”

“Why you guys, though? I mean, you’re both so young,” she
said. “The Army has tons of soldiers, adults, that can take care of this,
without leaving it to a pair of teenagers. I can’t believe they’d put you out
here alone.”

She stopped short to look at me and the cart banged into my
ankles when I pulled up to keep from plowing into her. Her concern was
touching, but the “adults” comment still stung.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I snapped and Ella’s
face fell.

Me and my big, fat, stupid mouth.

“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat up under my ski
mask. “I…didn’t mean to….The rest of the team is deployed elsewhere. Montana is
up to us, they can’t spare any more personnel. But, I shouldn’t have been rude.
I’m just tired, or something.”