Clickers III (23 page)

The jungle teemed with Dark Ones and Clickers. Clark, Tony and the Black Lodge agents mounted a strong offensive against the swarming hordes as they ran through the jungle in their tight formation, heading toward the ominous Mount Rigiri. It had been a few years since Clark had held an M16 and the weapon felt right in his hands, like a natural part of himself. Beside him, Tony let loose with a barrage of gunfire at a trio of Dark Ones who burst at them from a grove of trees, dropping them instantly. No doubt, the M16 was a weapon of choice for Tony, too.

“Got any more of these iguana fucks?” Tony called out. “Bring ‘em on!”

“Stay focused,” Clark cautioned him.

“I
am
focused.” Grinning, Tony stared down at the corpses. “Look at those fuckers bleed.”

Onyx urged them forward. “Let’s keep moving, gentlemen.”

They began moving again as Diamond drew a bead on a fast-moving Clicker, and unleashed a barrage, cutting it down. The creature thrashed in its death throes, spraying blood and venom.

“I don’t get it,” Tony shouted. “Last time I fought these things, they were damn near bullet-proof. Oh, the Dark Ones were easy enough, but to cap a Clicker, you almost had to have a lucky shot. So why are our guns working? Magic M16’s?”

“No,” Amethyst panted, “magic bullets.”

Tony and Clark laughed, but Amethyst’s expression remained serious. The younger man looked tired—drained. His complexion was pale and strained, and a sheen of sweat covered his forehead.

“You okay?” Clark asked him.

“I’m fine. Just a headache is all. It will pass.”

Clark nodded. “I’ve got one, too.”

“Same here,” Tony said. “What the fuck is causing it?”

“Our proximity to the portal,” Ruby said. “The closer we get

to it, and the closer Dagon comes to breaching the gap between our worlds, the worse it will be. It’s psychic backlash. And this is just the beginning. Should he enter our reality…”

She shuddered, unable to complete the sentence.

Tony frowned. “What?”

“Imagine tossing a stone into a pond,” Diamond said. “Imagine the concentric ripples spreading out in wider and wider patterns. If Dagon were to cross into our world, there would be a manifestation of psychic energy very similar to those concentric rings. They would spread across the planet, driving many insane.”

“Shit,” Tony said, “humanity’s pretty fucking insane already. Doesn’t sound so bad.”

Diamond paused as a small Dark One lunged out of the foliage. The young creature slashed at him with its claws, but the agent sidestepped the attack and clubbed the creature in the face with the butt of his rifle. As it collapsed, he raised his hand and made a few quick finger movements over its body, as if drawing a symbol in the air. The Dark One began to jitter. Its eyes rolled up into its head. Foam formed on its mouth.

“What did you just do?” Clark asked.

Diamond ignored the question. “It would be worse than you can imagine, Mr. Genova. The psychic damage to humanity pales in comparison to the devastation Dagon’s arrival would cause to our ecosystem. Imagine what would happen if it suddenly started raining all over the world at the same time—and if the rain didn’t stop.”

Tony nodded, clearly cowed. “That would be pretty fucked up.”

“How much farther to Mount Rigiri?” Clark asked.

“Another mile,” Onyx said.

“Do we get to take a break once we get to Mount Ri-whatever-the-fuck?” Tony asked.

“No breaks, Tony,” Onyx growled. “We’re on a tight schedule.”

“Please pay attention,” Amethyst snapped. “We have no time for foolishness.”

Tony clicked his tongue. “That’s no way to speak to one of the seven most important people in the world.”

Amethyst glared at him but didn’t respond. Clark couldn’t be sure, but he thought he glimpsed Ruby grinning.

They ran on, pausing only to slay any Dark Ones or Clickers that crossed their path. After a few more minutes, they came to a clearing and stopped briefly. Diamond and Onyx checked the perimeter and determined they were clear. Catching his breath, Clark ruminated on their dash across the island. Since departing from the landing strip, they’d run through the jungle in straight formation, taking down several dozen Clickers and Dark Ones in the process. Clark was proud to have Tony on his side in this mission; the man was a hell of a shot and his reflexes were quick. He’d wondered what it would take to convince the ex-wise guy to join sides and fight the good fight on the right side of the law for once, but then he quickly dismissed the thought. Tony would never hear of it. He was who he was and that’s all there was to it.

Clark turned to Tony. He quickly ejected the magazine from his M16 and slapped in a fresh one from the belt of ammunition Onyx had given him back at the landing strip. “Not to be blunt, but maybe we should follow Onyx’s and Amethyst’s advice.”

“What’s that?” Tony’s face hardened.

“These fucking lizard-things and their gigantic crab mutant friends are our main concern now. We need to stay focused. Our mission is to avoid being lunch and get to Mount Rigiri to extract Dr. Wasco and her team.”

“You telling me what to do now?” Tony’s expression turned menacing, like he was ready to throw down with Clark in the middle of the jungle.

Jesus,
Clark thought.
After joking around with this guy on the plane, I’d almost forgotten his history. He’s a mass-murderer. That charm and sense of humor masks a fucking psychopath. I need to remember that.

“Just giving you a word of advice. When we get out of this shit hole, I’ll be happy to join you in pounding the shit out of these Black Lodge sons-of-bitches for kidnapping us and getting us into this mess. But for right now, I need your strength, your cunning, and your expertise, and you need mine. So let’s not fuck around, okay?”

“You serious about wanting to kick their ass?”

“Sure.”

Tony grinned. “Hear that Onyx? When this shit’s over, you better watch your ass.”

“There will be nothing of the sort,” Diamond said. He and Amethyst regarded Clark and Tony with disapproval. “You are one of The Seven. Once this is over, more will be revealed. Until then—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Tony said, waving a dismissive hand at Diamond. “I’m special, I’m one of the seven most important people of the world and Mr. Arroyo here is the luckiest fuck on the planet. But you gotta understand, he and I are a team now. When this shit’s

over, he and I are to be flown to a nice exotic location for some chill out time. After that, we go our separate ways and you will ensure Mr. Arroyo stays alive and healthy from here on out. Capice? And you don’t have to do one of those Jedi mind tricks to know that I mean it.”

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Amethyst said. “For now, we must move forward so we can prevent Dagon’s entry into our world.”

“And save Jennifer,” Tony added.

“Yes,” Amethyst agreed, “of course.”

They resumed forward, moving through the lush foliage. Ruby and Onyx took the lead. Clark and Tony followed them, while Amethyst and Diamond brought up the rear. The humidity was stifling. Sweat ran down their faces and necks in streams. Birds flew overhead, unseen in the darkness but squawking in fear. There was a rustle in the brush as something small—a rodent perhaps—scurried past them. Clark gripped his M16. His muscles tensed. Beside him, Tony held his weapon, ready to shoot.

“There’s an entrance two hundred yards away to the left,” Ruby said, pointing.

“There is?” Clark risked a glance back. “I thought we had another mile to go.”

“Another mile to reach Mount Rigiri,” Ruby said. “But there are entrances to the catacombs scattered all over the island. The quicker we reach the tunnels, the better off we’ll be.” She indicated a flurry of approaching activity. “We’re about to have company.”

Clark and Tony whirled toward the direction Ruby indicated. Off in the distance, Clark could hear the sound he’d come to dread: crashing trees and other debris and that loud sound he’d heard back in Washington DC that had started this nightmare.

CLICK-CLICK! CLICK-CLICK! CLICK-CLICK!

“Fuck,” Clark muttered. “That sounds like a
lot
of them.”

“They’re approaching too fast,” Tony said. “Form a circle. Watch each other’s backs.”

“If we move fast, we might make it,” Ruby urged. “Let’s go!”

They ran. Heading away from the approaching carnage, they ran through the jungle, leaping over fallen logs and branches. Insects flew about their faces and Clark ran on, paying them no heed. The hot sun beat down between the thick overhang of trees that shadowed the jungle floor, keeping the island hot and moist. Clark could see the mountain in the distance; it really wasn’t that far off, and it wasn’t very big. From this distance, Clark judged it to be about three thousand feet, fairly small for a mountain. But if something lived beneath it…

The crashing and clicking grew closer but it was also moving away from them, heading toward the shore. They were moving at a diagonal direction and would barely miss them. But if one of the Dark Ones or Clickers managed to stray out of their path, things would turn ugly very quickly.

“We’re almost there,” Ruby panted.

“How will we know we’re there?” Tony asked.

“I’ll know!” Ruby called out.

Tony seemed unsatisfied with her answer. “What the fuck are we looking for?”

“Leave that to me.”

“Women,” Tony said. “Can’t live with them, and you can’t kill them when you want to.”

“On the contrary, Mr. Genova,” Ruby said. “You’ve killed fourteen women over the course of your career and you’ve managed to maintain live-in relationships with six women.”

“Will you please stop reading my fucking mind?”

Clark’s senses were on full alert as he ran through the jungle. He felt a raspy taste of smoke in the back of his throat and looked to his right in the direction of the approaching Clickers and Dark Ones. Plumes of black smoke rose from a few miles farther back. Probably from the fires they’d flown over on their descent. His heart raced as they drew closer to Mount Rigiri. Something didn’t feel right. Something—

“Snakes,” Tony yelled.

The ex-hitman stopped abruptly. Clark almost ran into him. He moved his finger away from the M16’s trigger. Onyx and Ruby slid to a halt in front of them and turned around.

“Come on,” Onyx ordered. “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”

“Fuck that,” Tony said. “I ain’t—”

“Quiet,” Amethyst muttered. “Listen.”

In the darkness, a tree crashed to the ground some-where nearby.

CLICK-CLICK! CLICK-CLICK! CLICK-CLICK! CLICK-CLICK!

“Come on,” Onyx urged again. “They’re catching up to us.”

The group stood at the edge of a small clearing, their weapons at the ready. Clark scanned the area and saw what had startled Tony. A long black snake was retreating into a knothole in a tree.

“It’s just a rat snake,” Ruby said. “It’s perfectly harmless. Naranu

does not have venomous snakes, or any large constrictors.”

“No, but they have
that
.” Clark motioned toward a stand of trees ahead of them. Tony, and the agents directed their gaze toward the clearing. The male agents said nothing, but Clark heard Ruby draw in a breath.

“Holy fucking shit, look at that thing!” Tony’s voice was a mix of awe and fear.

Sitting in a web that spanned the length of the trees— about eighteen feet—was a spider the size of a small dog. If Tony hadn’t seen the snake and suddenly stopped, they would have run right into its web.

“Spiders aren’t supposed to get that big,” Clark said.

“You mean, spiders
shouldn’t
be that big,” Tony said.

“That too.”

“We’re getting closer,” Ruby said. “This particular specimen, genus
Nephila
, only grows to the size of a dinner plate. This one has mutated due to its close proximity to R’lyeh.”

Tony blinked. “The fuck did you just say?”

“What’s Rala whatever?” Clark asked.

Ruby sidestepped the question. “The closer we get to Mount Rigiri—ancient R’lyeh—the stronger the power of the portal is. Think of it this way—the portal between dimensions is powered by an enormous energy source. We call that source the Labyrinth.”

Tony frowned. “You mean that movie with David Bowie?”

Ruby ignored him. “This portal is damaged. Some of that energy has been leaking out. It is a corrupting power. It distorts things, makes electrical impulses go haywire, affects molecular structures and growth rates. It has no doubt also affected the native wildlife.”

“Is it radioactive or something?” Clark asked.

“Not at all. This is a different kind of energy.”

“Then why didn’t the snake mutate, too?”

Ruby shrugged. “Perhaps it was originally from a different part of the island. Maybe it’s fleeing the Clickers.”

“I hope we don’t run across any giant worms while we’re in here,” Tony said.

“Regardless of how this thing got so big, bullets should still take it down.” Clark raised his M16 and took aim. Tony did the same. Clark met his gaze and nodded. “On three.”

“One, two, three!” Twin blasts of automatic gunfire took the giant spider down in a spray of goo that splattered everywhere. Clark caught a brief glimpse of giant, long spider legs fly apart and disappear in the spray of gunk. The giant web was torn to pieces, leaving ragged strips behind. A recent meal thumped against the trunk of a tree, wrapped in thick silk. It looked like it might have been the remains of a small primate. Tony was right. Spiders shouldn’t get that big.

They forged ahead, Onyx and Ruby taking the lead once more, cautiously stepping past the area where the mutant spider had built its web.

“I hope that fucking thing didn’t have any friends,” Tony quipped.

“Not likely,” Ruby said.

“But,” Amethyst said, “now the two of you have let everything else in the jungle know our position.”

“Don’t thank us,” Clark muttered, growing tired of the man’s attitude. “What would you have suggested instead?”

“We had other ways of dealing with it. Ways that wouldn’t have caused as much…commotion.”

Clark thought back to Diamond’s earlier confrontation with the small Dark One, and decided that maybe Amethyst was right.

“Sorry.”

Amethyst waved his hand. “Don’t apologize. Just keep going.”

Once past the clearing they hit their steady pace again, moving stealthily and quickly through the jungle. Clark kept his eyes peeled for anything else that might trip them up—giant spiders, millipedes, rats, snakes, anything that crawled or slithered along jungle floors. A mosquito the size of a carrier pigeon zoomed past them. Tony swiveled around, yelled “
What the fuck!
” and vaporized it with a single shot.

A large, cow-sized Clicker burst from the periphery of the jungle, and charged at them, pincers scissoring in the air. Tony and Clark raised their weapons and fired indiscriminately at the creature. It went down in a spray of pulped crabmeat.

CLICK-CLICK! CLICK-CLICK! CLICK-CLICK!

The running battle continued. As the team tried to make headway toward their goal, their paths with the marauding Clickers and Dark Ones began converging. Dark Ones and Clickers alike came within their periphery, a few times purposefully charging them. Each time, the agents, as well as Tony and Clark, took them down with expert shots. Clark felt his weapon grow hot in his hands during the firefight. He ejected a spent magazine and slapped in a fresh one as Tony covered for him, mowing down a stream of Dark Ones and Clickers heading straight for them. Tony laughed maniacally as Clickers and Dark Ones alike were taken down in a spray of crustacean flesh and shell and scaly flesh.

Tony laughed. “This is like playing Asteroids the way they’re