Mega 3: When Giants Collide (Mega Series) (26 page)

“Yes, I always do,” Ballantine said. “Let’s just hope the modifications have been made that will shield it from any EMP we might encounter.”

“Oh, yes, let us hope for that,” Ronald said.

***

“No!” Cougher yelled at Carlos. “Not that one! The other one! Have you ever been in an engine room, you fucking moron?”

“Do not yell at me!” Carlos shouted. “I have more advanced degrees than you could even imagine!”

“Lot of good they did you considering how totally fucked up these engines are!” Cougher replied. “You never thought that the shielding would absorb energy from what it was designed to protect? How many degrees did it take to fuck that up?”

“I have been under a lot of stress!” Carlos said. “I don’t have the luxury of sitting down here and dealing with equipment that was invented over a century ago! I am busy inventing new equipment that keeps us all from dying!”

He stopped and looked about the engine room.

“What?” Cougher asked. “What are you looking for?”

“Don’t dismantle the shielding,” Carlos barked. “That isn’t the issue. The engines themselves are the issue. I’m so stupid. How did I not think of this first?”

He started moving about the engine room in an almost random pattern.

“What the hell are you looking for?” Cougher shouted. “Just fucking tell me!”

“The modifications, where are they?” Carlos asked.

“Right there,” Cougher said as he pointed to an already unshielded portion of the engines.

Carlos rushed over to the equipment and reached for a large, bright orange tube that rested against the engine.

“Whoa, dude!” Cougher shouted. “Moshi said not to touch that! Ever!”

“She said that?” Carlos asked.

“Well, she didn’t really say it, but I sure got the impression that touching it would not be a good idea.”

“We need Moshi,” Carlos said as he looked at Cougher.

“Yeah, okay,” Cougher replied.

“Go get her,” Carlos said.

“Me? Oh, fuck that,” Cougher said. “Where’d I put that wrench? Now I am going to crack your fucking skull open.”

“Fine,” Carlos snarled as he jogged towards the door. “I’ll go get her. Don’t touch that tube!”

“I was the one that told you not to touch it!” Cougher yelled after the man. “Asshole!”

***

The giant whale’s teeth ground down on the equally as giant shark’s dorsal fin. The shark turned on its side and went for the whale’s belly, but the ocean mammal was too fast and it rolled with the shark, keeping the serrated teeth from ripping into its flesh.

The impossible shark thrashed and tried to free its fin from the clamp of the whale’s jaw, but all it did was tear more of itself. Blood poured from the wound and the shark became incensed at the smell of it. Despite the blood coming from its own body, the scent built the shark’s hunger and rage higher and higher until, in a frenzy of violence, the shark ripped free of the whale.

The severed dorsal fin fell from the whale’s mouth and floated down to the bottom of the lagoon. Without the monster in its grip, the whale was forced to dive quickly in order to avoid the shark’s lunging attack. Pain ripped through the whale’s body as the shark turned the tables and bit through one of its fins.

The warm, heavy mammal blood filled the shark’s mouth and it drew strength in the fury that the liquid produced. A bloodlust beyond anything it had felt before overtook it and was so intense that even the whale could smell the difference in chemicals the shark excreted into the crystal blue water.

The tide had turned for the whale and it pumped its tale in order to get free of the shark, but the other beast was too focused, too driven to be put off. There was no escaping the shark. The whale knew it, felt it, and believed it. It had to hold its position and fight or it would certainly lose. Fleeing was no longer an option.

The whale sacrificed its right fin and let the shark swallow it down in one gulp. That one motion was enough distraction for the whale to flips its entire body around, sending its tail rocketing towards the shark’s head.

The collision shattered part of the shark’s jaw, shoving teeth out through the flesh of its mouth. As it thrashed its head, the now external teeth tore strips off the whale’s tail, flaying it open like a choice cut of meat.

Both wounded, the giants swam apart then turned almost as one and faced each other. There was a moment of hesitation, a brief respite from the carnage and brutality. That respite could not last, not with the natures of the beasts modified, warped, and amped up to levels that made them the most deadly and dangerous creatures in the water.

They came at each other, jaws wide, wounds just as wide, and blood spilling everywhere.

***

Gunnar opened fire with the M4, strafing the beach wildly as the kick of the carbine nearly ripped it out of his hands.

“Fucking A, Gun!” Shane yelled as he dove, rolled, and came up next to the doctor. He grabbed the carbine and tore it from Gunnar’s grip. “You nearly killed everyone!”

“I suck with rifles!” Gunnar snapped. “That’s why I’m a knife guy!”

“Then here,” Darren said as he took a heavy blade from a dead man’s belt and tossed it to Gunnar, “use this.”

Gunnar caught it easily and smiled at the blade. “Now we’re talking.”

“Down!” Shane yelled as he shoved Gunnar to the sand.

Bullets flew around them as a group of men came running from the shadows of the jungle. Slaps was in the lead, despite his foot.

“Where the fuck did they come from?” Mike yelled as he knelt, aimed, and opened fire.

“Fuck if I care!” Darren replied, kneeling as well.

They made short order of the men, but Slaps made it through and lunged for Shane, a knife aimed right for the sniper’s remaining eye. Shane ducked and twisted his body, letting the knife slice past him then he stomped down as hard as he could on Slaps’ foot. The man screamed in pain and tried to correct his body, but the momentum from the knife attack plus the stomp to the foot was too much physics for the hairy man to overcome.

He fell to the sand and immediately flipped himself over, but he wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way of the rifle butt to the face that hammered down on him again and again. In second, Slaps’ head was pulp almost as fine as the sand it was melding with.

“Fuck and you,” Shane said and smiled at everyone else as they got to their feet. Then he gasped. “Oh, shit! Lucy!”

Gunnar pushed up from the sand and looked over his shoulder. “Oh, fuck!”

Lucy sat on the beach, her hands against the spreading red stain on her belly.

“Ow,” she said as Gunnar got up and ran to her. “That fucking hurt.”

Gunnar nearly fell on her as he dropped to his knees and took her hands in his.

“Let me see,” he said. “Lucy? Let go and let me see.”

Lucy reluctantly let go of her stomach and the blood gushed freely.

“Fuck!” Gunnar said as he put Lucy’s hands back in place. “Press down as hard as you can!”

Shane stood over them as he turned from target to target; expertly putting the remaining men down before they could get shots off.

“Almost clear, Gun,” Shane said. “Should we move her inside? They have to have medical supplies in that place!”

“I’m afraid if we move her she’ll bleed out,” Gunnar said. He pressed his hands on Lucy’s and she gasped. “Sorry.”

“We’ll find what you need,” Darren said as he came up to them, his eyes and carbine sweeping back and forth, ready for the next attack.

“You have to save Kins,” Gunnar said.

“We can do both,” Darren said as he risked a glance away from the jungle and down at Lucy. The sand around her was coated in dark blood. “Looks like we have too.”

“What about her compression suit?” Mike asked. “Can’t it be set to press in and stop the bleeding?”

“If I could figure out how to alter and control it,” Gunnar said, “or get Ingrid to do it remotely, but I don’t know how it works and we have no com with the ship.”

“We’ll make it work,” Darren said. “Shane? You stay here and cover them. Got it?”

“Got it,” Shane nodded. “You two going to be alright?”

“We’ll handle this,” Darren said then looked at Mike. “Right, frogman?”

“Right,” Mike nodded. “Hooyah.”

“Hooyah,” Darren and Shane said together in response.

“Fucking hooyah,” Lucy groaned. “Now go. Kill some bad guys and get our people.”

“And get you help,” Darren said as he and Mike ran off.

Shane looked down at Gunnar and they both shared a look that said they knew the reality of Lucy getting the help she needed in time.

***

Dr. Morganton marveled at the sight of all the exotic, and thought to be extinct, creatures that filled the cells as she, Ballantine, Boris, and Ronald made their way through the Menagerie and towards the exit. Ronald not only carried the backups in his arms, but he had Kinsey thrown over his huge, hairy shoulder.

“Last atrium,” Boris said. “Phew. I always forget how large this facility is. I rarely have to go from bottom to top and then one end to the other in a single day. I could use a rest, if you all do not mind.”

“We don’t have time to rest,” Ballantine said. “We need to get clear of this island as fast as possible. Every second will count as we race to be free of the blast radius.”

They made it to the end of the atrium and Boris opened the door to the corridor that would lead them outside.

“What about these creatures?” Dr. Morganton asked. “We can’t leave them.”

“We must,” Ronald said. “It is sad, and my heart is heavy because of it, but there is no way to bring them with us.” He looked down at the backups he carried. “We can begin again.”

“How can you say that?” Dr. Morganton asked. “How would you feel if it was you in there? These creatures are living, breathing animals that have every right to live as you do!”

“They are creations, not born of nature,” Ronald said. “Whereas I am born of nature. I should exist and they should not. There was a moral element ignored when they were created and that means there is a moral element ignored as they face destruction.”

“Born of nature?” Dr. Morganton asked, looking at Ballantine. “You didn’t have him made?”

“Me? Oh, God no,” Ballantine laughed. “Not that we didn’t try to create more of his kind. Unfortunately, gigantopithecus is not an easily reproducible species. The few we managed to clone went mad within weeks of their awakening.”

“It takes time to develop minds as deep and keen as my species are known for,” Ronald said. “I mean, we have kept ourselves hidden for centuries while remaining close to heavily populated areas all across North America and other parts of the world. You don’t just recreate that kind of intelligence.”

“Not if sanity and stability is your goal,” Boris said as the door clicked open. “Oh, dear me!”

Darren and Mike burst through the door, their carbines swinging left to right, right to left.

“Down! Down! Down!” Darren yelled. “Put your weapons down!”

Nobody got down or put their weapons down.

“Darren,” Ballantine nodded, “it is good to see you.”

Darren and Mike stared at Ronald, their jaws dropping.

“Uh, why does that thing have Kinsey over its shoulder?” Darren asked.

“Thing?” Ronald frowned. “How rude.”

“Oh, fuck me running,” Mike whispered.

“Darren Chambers, Mike Pearlman? This is Ronald,” Ballantine said. “Please do not refer to him as a thing.”

“It is nice to meet you,” Ronald nodded. “I’d shake hands, but they are occupied.”

“Uh...okay,” Darren said then looked at Ballantine. “We’ll talk later?”

“Will we?” Ballantine smirked. “I can’t see why.”

Darren glared at Ballantine for a second then scanned the atrium. He lowered his M4. “Where the fuck are the assholes?”

“They have been dealt with,” Ballantine said. “Except for one. You didn’t happen to encounter Gil, did you?” Ballantine looked over his shoulder then about the Atrium. “We seem to have misplaced a foe.”

“Great,” Darren said. “That’s just what I want to hear.”

“Lucy,” Mike said, “we need medical supplies for her.”

“What has happened to Lucy?” Dr. Morganton asked.

“Gut shot,” Darren said. “She’s bleeding out quickly.”

“I thought we could use her compression suit to stop the bleeding, but none of us know how to work it,” Mike said.

“Compression suit?” Ronald asked. “Oh, I am a wiz with those. I am sure I can assist with saving this Lucy’s life. If you’ll please move, I should hurry.”

“Want me to take that?” Mike asked as he reached for the backups.

“That would not be wise,” Ballantine said. “Ronald is more equipped to carry the backups.”

“Show me to your wounded comrade,” Ronald said to Darren.