Hell had ascended from the swamp’s depths.
“Die, you piece of shit!” Dominic screamed. The rock had fallen out of his hand, and he repeatedly punched the skunk ape between the eyes. Its face was a red, pulpy mess.
The other skunk ape reappeared and grabbed Dominic’s wrist before he could land another blow. Liz heard the crack of Jack’s gun and felt the bullet whiz past her shoulder. It winged the skunk ape high in the shoulder. It wasn’t enough to stop it from pulling Dominic’s arm all the way back until it cracked. Dominic howled in agony. The skunk ape gave another quick tug, and Dominic’s arm pulled free from his body.
Liz fired, cursing when she saw the bullet kick up water inches from the beast.
Blood pumped out of Dominic’s side like a garden hose set to high. The one that he had been beating saw its chance at retribution and lunged forward, taking a bite out of his neck.
The skunk apes dove under the water, this time with Dominic.
Everyone watched in horror as the water rippled with the skunk apes’ escape, heading to the west with the speed of a dolphin. Dominic’s blood rested on the surface like an oil slick.
Rooster shouted, “Fuuuuuck!”
Liz heard Mick groan, and she rushed to his side. She almost gagged when she saw his exposed rib cage.
“Did you get it?” he wheezed.
Her eyes burned from tears. “Just…just stay still. I’ll pull you onto the shore.”
Rooster, Maddie and Jack were now beside them. Maddie was sobbing and Rooster’s eyes were glazed over.
Jack helped Liz keep Mick propped up, and they headed for the island.
No one was prepared for the third skunk ape when it catapulted out of the shallow water, heading straight for Maddie.
“Noooooooooooo!” Liz screamed.
The skunk ape, the female of the clan, dropped over Maddie like a one-ton net. The girl didn’t even have time to react or scream. One second she was by Rooster’s side; the next, both she and the creature were gone.
Jack started shooting at the water, until Liz hammered his arm down.
“Stop it! You might hit my sister!” Tears streaked down her face.
Rooster felt numb. The throbbing pain in his chest faded. All that mattered was finding Maddie.
The water was placid. Not even a bubble to give him a direction to go in. The machete was weightless in his hand. All of the blood in his body felt like it was pooling in his arm, delivering the strength he’d need to hack the fucking ape into a million pieces.
“Maddie! Maddie!” Liz wailed. She trudged in circles through the water, desperately looking for a sign that her sister was nearby.
Jack held on to Mick, who was bleeding out fast and mumbling incoherently.
Liz and Rooster shouted for Maddie, but their cries were met with silence.
It wasn’t until ten minutes had passed that he put an arm around Liz and said, “She’s gone.”
Liz smacked his hand away. “Don’t fucking touch me! She’s not gone! She’s not!”
“Jack, can you get Mick to land?”
Jack nodded, pulling Mick along by his shoulders.
Rooster stayed close to Liz, letting her cry, giving her all the time she needed before hope ran out. It was quite a while before she stopped, closed her eyes and crashed into his chest, sobbing. He picked her up and carried her the rest of the way, laying her gently down among fallen palm leaves.
“Rooster.”
Mick had gone deathly pale. Blood seeped out of his chest and formed a pool around his sides.
“Yeah,” Rooster said, the effort of talking almost too much to bear.
“We at your place? I hope that radio works. Call the goddamn army, have them smoke those hairy assholes out.” He laughed, and thick, dark mucous spluttered from his lips.
Rooster put a hand on Mick’s leg. “We made it. I’ll personally make sure the army gets every last one of them.”
Mick closed his eyes. “Good. I think I might need a doctor.” His breath came out in hitching gasps. “Might take a nap until he gets here, though. I’m beat.”
He squeezed his leg. “You do that, brother. You earned it.”
Mick’s chest heaved once, and deflated slowly, the air gurgling in his throat.
Jack pushed two fingers against Mick’s neck. “He’s gone.”
Rooster buried his head in his hands. Liz whimpered beside him.
It
took Maddie! I was right there, and it took her without a struggle.
He pictured Dominic getting the better part of that fucker, replayed his arm being torn off. He looked at Mick’s savaged corpse, at Liz’s defeated gaze, at Jack’s paralyzing fear.
Something in Rooster snapped.
He wasn’t tired, or scared, or hurt.
He was mad.
So fucking mad, he wanted to tear the world in half.
And he knew just where to start.
Part Three
Fight
Chapter Nineteen
Rooster lifted Liz to her feet. She had gone so slack, it felt as if her bones had turned to putty. He knew it had to be devastating to lose a sister, but a twin? Well, that had to be almost too much to bear. It must have been like losing half of yourself. She was crying so much, she had started to hyperventilate.
“Get over here, Jack,” he said. The little man had been staring at Mick’s ravaged body, transfixed. He snapped to with a shake of his head and held Liz’s arm.
The dark clouds were rolling in, seeping into the corners of Rooster’s mind. Just like at Cheech’s apartment, he was going to let them come, unhindered. He needed this to be the motherfucker of all storms, something that would quake and slash with ceaseless abandon. It had to last long enough for him to put an end to the fucking madness.
It had been two days since he’d taken his meds, and the dull buzz they cocooned him within was gone, leaving him free to feel and hate and act.
The first thing he had to do was get Liz back. She and her sister were the toughest chicks he’d ever come across, from clocking him out on the boat, to knowing how to shoot and survive, to not complaining for a single moment as they fled the murderous Bigfoots. He needed her strength and resolve. Which meant he had to force her into the storm.
He placed his hands on either side of her face and drew her gaze to his own. Her pupils were dilated, and she had the look of someone who had seen the end of the world and lived to suffer with the images.
“Liz, I need you to come back to me,” he said softly, yet sternly. “If you want those bastards to pay for what they did to Maddie, I’m going to need you with me. Take a deep breath. That’s it. Okay, now another, but try to hold it in for a bit. There. Keep doing that until you feel yourself settle.”
Clarity seeped across her face like a slow-moving lava flow. It took several minutes, but the crying stopped, and all that was left was to wipe away the tears.
He looked over at Jack, expecting to see a rabbit preparing to run. To his surprise, Jack looked ready for anything.
“How far do you think your safe house is?” Jack asked.
Rooster scratched the coarse stubble on his chin. “Could be a couple of miles, if we’re heading the right way. But we’re not going there.”
Jack stepped back, looking like Rooster had slapped him.
“What do you mean we’re not going there? That’s where the radio is so we can call for help! And why aren’t there any search parties? I keep waiting to hear helicopters or at least a damn boat! It’s like we fell into a
Twilight Zone
episode. I keep thinking, did we die when the boat wrecked? Is this hell?”
That gave Rooster pause. True, it felt like they were in the fiery depths, and you could definitely consider those monsters demons. He wasn’t a religious man, but Jack’s words gave him a moment of doubt.
“Do you know how big the Glades are? You might never hear that copter or boat. There are over ten thousand islands out here. This place is as remote and desolate as it was during the days of Columbus. And we are far off the tourist-beaten path. Out here, most times, the missing stay missing.
“We’re not going to the cabin until we finish this shit. I’m tired of running; tired of being picked off like clay pigeons. You’re going to fucking do what I fucking say, and when I say we’re ready, then we can head to the cabin. You hear me?”
Rooster’s chest heaved and he could feel the anger boiling over. He didn’t even notice when Liz grabbed his arm. “I’ll do whatever you say,” she said, her breath still hitching in her chest.
He looked at Jack with his coldest, deadest stare. It was a look that had broken men a hundred times tougher than him. Jack averted his gaze as best he could, looking down and mumbling, “Okay, I’m in.”
“Good. Let’s get into the trees more. I have an idea.”
“What about Mick?” Jack asked.
Rooster looked down at the pilot, wishing he was the one still on his feet. This was no time for pussies.
“Nothing we can do,” he said. “Circle of life.” He grabbed Jack by the collar. “Come on!”
The trees here were close together, with thick trunks and heavy leaves that blocked out the sun. As they walked, Rooster pulled out the last of their supplies and gave them out. “Might as well eat and drink what’s left now. You’re going to need your strength. We’ll worry about later if there is a later.”
He downed the bottle of soda and tore the cellophane off a cereal bar. The bar was gone in one bite.
Pointing down at the plastic case that Liz had somehow managed to cling to, he asked her to pop it open. Inside lay the waterlogged flare gun and three useless flares.
“Well, so much for that.” He sighed. They couldn’t catch a single break, and it was pissing him off mightily. For a moment, he had dared to dream of setting a flare off in one of their halitosis pie holes. He tossed the case over his shoulder.
Seeing that also made him become aware that he had left the money bag back in the water. He looked over the now-still surface and saw nothing.
Double fuck!
Now even if he did get out, he had zip to disappear with. Cortez would be on him like fat asses at a barbecue.
But this wasn’t just about him.
Every inch of Liz and Jack’s exposed skin was pocked with red bumps and welts from countless mosquito bites and scratches from bushes and tree branches. Seeing Liz like that was like seeing Maddie, which added to the intensity of his personal hurricane. They walked for ten minutes while he scanned the treetops. When he found what he was looking for, he said, “This will do.”
“Do you see something?” Liz asked. She had fully regained her composure, what he assumed was a temporary state so she could get to the business at hand. There would be plenty of time for grieving. At least he hoped there would be.
He pointed upward. “I sure do. See the way those limbs converge? That’s a perfect blind. You and I are going up there. Jack, you’re staying down here. I want you to lie on the ground and start hollering like you’re really hurt.”
“I
am
hurt,” Jack said.
“I mean hurt all to shit! I need you to sound desperate, weak, vulnerable.”
Jack shook his head. “I see where this is going. You want me to be bait!”
“You must have been the smartest kid in your class,” Rooster said with unrestrained sarcasm.
“No way. I’m not going to sit around waiting for one of those skunk apes to tear me apart while you play Tarzan with Jane over there. That’s suicide.”
Rooster’s jaw clenched so hard it felt like his molars would explode. He was about to tell Jack that he would be the one to hurt him when Liz jumped between them.
“Wait! I’ll do it as long as Jack gives me his gun. I want a backup in case things don’t turn out the way we planned.”
She held out her hand. Relieved, Jack was only too eager to hand his gun over.
Rooster laid a hand on her shoulder. “You sure about this? I can
make
him do it.” He shot a glance at Jack, who looked like he had just wet himself.
“I’m not afraid. Not anymore.”
She tucked the gun into the front of her jeans so it was nestled against her stomach.