Matt Archer: Monster Hunter (Matt Archer #1) (10 page)

“Not today,” I whispered.

Everything around me slowed down and came into sharp focus.
My heart rate slowed; I felt steady, ready. I made my way behind the monster,
then unsheathed the knife.

The thing lunged at Mike, growling in rage, and swiped at
his head. Mike ducked, but not fast enough. Its claws cuffed his ear. Mike went
down with blood streaming from the side of his head.

The sight pissed me off. Forgetting all my training, I flew
out of the brush with a bloodcurdling yell.

The monster whirled around.

Johnson’s voice growled instructions in my head.
Just wait. Make it come to you.
Patience, Matt, patience.
I bent my knees in the defensive
position Johnson had taught me. I needed to stay on my feet and move at the
last possible second.

The Bear ran my direction…maybe because it sensed easier
prey. I was the weaker one. Or so it thought.

Not today.

It flung its arms wide, like it planned to wrap me up in a
big hug and snap my spine.

Don’t
hesitate. Use its momentum. Kill it before it kills you.
I
chanted Johnson’s orders, waiting for the monster’s rush. No matter what, I
wasn’t going out cowering like a kid. Tonight, I was a Green Beret.

I pulled my arms up to chest level, elbows turned out, my
right palm wrapped around the bone handle, and my left palm flat, pressed
against my right fist for added resistance.

It took a final bound, leapt at me with a shriek.

I braced my feet.

The monster realized, too late, that it had brought about
its own death. It couldn’t stop when I sidestepped underneath its arm. I
twisted my shoulders, rotating the knife upward for the only blow I knew I’d
have. Missing wasn’t an option.

And I didn’t.

Will threw up a second time and wiped his mouth with the
back of his hand. His breath came in rasps. I’d pulled him up and dragged him
away after I took out the Bear. Now he sat against a massive juniper twenty
yards from the carcass. He closed his eyes, wheezing harder, pulling at his
hair while he rocked back and forth. Each time he did, his back banged against
the tree trunk. He was so messed up, I didn’t have time to think about what I’d
just done.

I knelt next to him, worried he’d hyperventilate. “Dude,
calm down. Everything’s gonna be okay now. It’s dead. I killed it.”

Will’s eyes flew open. He scrambled away from me and threw
up again. I rocked back into a squat. “Major, he looks pretty bad. We need to
get him out of here.”

Mike came over to squat with me, bringing the first-aid kit.
He pulled the first piece of gauze off his ear without saying anything. The
gash had cut a jagged tear through his earlobe. Had to hurt like heck, but Mike
slapped a fresh piece of gauze against it without flinching.

“Maybe,” he said. He watched Will for a moment, then his
face went from concerned to cast-iron. “Will, get your butt off the ground.
Matt, you, too. We have work to do.”

At the sound of the “Fort Carson bark,” I jumped up. “Sir,
yes, sir.”

Will shrank lower, shaking his head. Mike stood and jerked
him to his feet. “The only way to get over a shock like this is to get busy.
Now can you walk, or are you a total pansy?”

Will cringed and threw me a horrified look. It hurt me to do
it, but I met his gaze and snapped, “Do as the major says. Move it.”

He swallowed hard. “Okay. Where are we going?”

I strode into the woods without looking back. “To get rid of
the body.”

* * *

We stood over the dead beast, listening to the pine trees
whip in the breeze. The monster lay in a pool of blood with one arm flung
askew. Its eyes were bugged out, as if it still couldn’t believe it had been
stabbed. I’d done that. My knees shook. I’d felt so brave in the heat of the
moment, but now that it was all over, I couldn’t believe it was real. I had to
keep it together, though; I couldn’t freak. If I was going to do this job, it
meant focusing on the task at hand without thinking too much about it.

Mike moved us upwind, because the thing reeked. “Let’s find
a ditch or a dense clump of brush. It’ll take some effort, but you’ve got to
hide the body well enough that it won’t be found.” He punched Will in the
shoulder. “You with me, Cruessan? Once it’s hidden, Matt knows what to do.”

“I call Colonel Black and they send a team out for retrieval
and disposal,” I said. “We have to make sure it’s hidden because it might be a
few days before he can get enough personnel assembled to make the trip from
Colorado. And I need to mark down the GPS coordinates of the dump site, so the
team can find the body.”

“Retrieval….and disposal?” Will stared at me like he’d never
seen me before. A stranger—who he’d known since first grade. “Who are you people?”

“I’m your best friend, Matt.” I glanced at Mike to see if I
could say more. He gave me a brief nod. “Remember when I asked about weight
training and you wondered why? Well,
this
is why. I’m a monster-hunter.” I
gave Will a once over; he still looked like crap. “I’m betting you wish you
hadn’t followed us, huh?”

Will jerked nervously. “Oh, yeah.”

“Why
did
you follow us?” Mike asked, with a hint of a growl.

“I thought I saw a man sneaking around the property and went
to check it out,” Will said. “When I got close enough, I heard you both
talking, then Mike said something about smoking being stupid. I wondered what
was up.” Shaking his head, he followed my lead and took his place on the other
side of the Bear.

Moving that three-hundred pound carcass was a big, messy,
exhausting job. Dark smears of blood streaked the leaves and the ground along
our trail. We huffed and puffed, dragging the body by its arms until black
spots danced in front of my eyes. Legs strained, shoulders ached. Mike pitched
in some, but made me figure it out for myself most of the time.

After half an hour, we’d moved the body thirty yards through
the trees to a small ditch filled with decaying leaves. Will was white in the
face and muttered to himself the entire time. I didn’t bug him. It had taken me
days to get used to the idea that monsters were real. He needed some time, too.

We heaved the body over and rolled it down the little hill.
I threw leaves, branches and dirt on top of it until I’d totally covered
everything. When I was done, I unbuttoned my camo jacket to cool off. I was
covered in dirt and had the Bear’s blood splattered all over my arms, hands and
pants. No telling how freaky I looked. I wished I could wear gloves when I
hunted, but the knife didn’t respond unless it had skin-to-handle contact. The
blood wasn’t toxic; I’d just have to get over the gross factor.

Will sat slumped on the pine-needle-covered ground, staring
into space. Every once in a while he’d wipe his hands on his jeans or tug at
the collar of his ski jacket, muttering something about death. Mike knelt next
to him. Without warning, he slapped Will’s face. Will’s head wobbled on his
neck and he cried out in surprise. I winced in sympathy, but it had to be done.

Mike put his hands on Will’s shoulders to steady him.
“Cruessan, I know you’re freaked out and sick and tired and wondering why you
aren’t dead.” Mike’s voice softened. “When you get home, it’d be understandable
if you hid under your bed and didn’t come back out. But, we need your help. You
have to keep quiet about what you saw. You’re Matt’s best friend. Can I trust
you to keep his secret?”

Will nodded and whispered, “I won’t tell. I’ll cover for
you.”

I smiled a little. Will had my back; I could always count on
him. Always. Will always had my back…a light bulb went on in my head.

I plopped down next to Mike and shook his arm. “I have an
idea. You haven’t found me a partner. What about Will? He’s strong as an ox and
he has a four-wheeler. His house would make a great base of operation, too.
It’s the perfect arrangement.”

Mike raised his eyebrows. “Matt, I’m not sure about
this…it’s too dangerous. It’s bad enough that you have to—”

“I’d much rather work with him than some random lieutenant
from Fort Carson,” I said.

“I’m sitting right here, you know,” Will mumbled.

I turned to him, willing to beg if necessary. “Dude, you’ve
hiked these woods your whole life; no one knows them better. Having your help
would be huge.”

Will blinked rapidly, looking confused, flattered and
terrified all at the same time. He took a deep breath. “Maybe you should tell
me exactly what I’d be getting into, first.”

I launched into the story. Will’s jaw hung slack throughout
most of explanation.

“Monsters?” he asked. “Really?”

“That thing wasn’t the tooth fairy, man.” I rolled my eyes.
“Look, since the knife chose me, I’m the only one able to hunt them down and
I’m gonna need help.” After a loaded silence, I squeezed his shoulder. “I’d
trust you with my life.”

Will thought about it. Eventually a hard smile spread across
his face. “Hell, yeah, I’ll do it.”

Mike looked alarmed by Will’s sudden enthusiasm. “Cruessan,
you sure about this? I definitely prefer Matt working with someone he knows,
but we’re not talking about paintball, here. Maybe you ought to sleep on it,
just to be sure.”

“Uncle Mike, he gets it,” I said. “He’s not taking it
lightly. Will just makes decisions quicker than I do. He’s always been that
way.”

Will got to his feet, standing only a few inches shorter
than Mike. “These things invaded my backyard. I want to help kick them out.”

“Good,” I said, before Mike could protest. “Can we go home,
now? I’m tired.”

“Me, too,” Will said.

We hiked back to the Cruessan’s house, and made sure Will
got inside okay. Then Mike and I headed to the rental SUV, ready for some rest.
Mike kept his jaw clenched and didn’t say much on the drive downtown to his
loft.

“What is it?” I asked.

He pulled into the garage at his apartment building and
parked before answering me. “I hate this.”

Mike sounded bitter; wrecked in a way I’d never heard before.
I sat up straighter. “Whoa. What’s the deal?”

“You’re not even fifteen, Matt! You’re a kid, Will’s a kid.
And I’m sending you out into the woods with a knife to kill eight-foot tall
Wookiees.” Mike pounded on the steering wheel. “I just slapped a fourteen-year-old
to get him over battle shock. What in the world am I thinking? What’s the Army
thinking? We’re out of our minds!”

Watching him melt down rocked the thin resolve I’d manage to
build over the last week. “Uncle Mike, if we don’t do it, who will? The knife
passed over a colonel and a bunch of Green Berets for
me.
You said this stuff happens for a
reason, that it
picked me
for
a reason.”

“I know I did. And I meant it,” Matt said, strangling the
steering wheel in his hands. I scrunched down in my seat, horrified to see him
so frustrated and pissed. “But now Will, too? This is pure insanity. If
something happens to you boys out there, I won’t be able to live with myself.”

“You can’t worry about me. You have to worry about keeping
yourself safe in Afghanistan.” The steel in my voice surprised me. I sounded
like Major Tannen. “I can’t do my job if I’m worried about you worrying about
me. Besides, now that Will knows, nothing will stop him from helping me, so you
need to get used to the idea.”

Mike pinched the bridge of his nose. “I hope nothing goes
wrong.”

Wiping my face free of any fear, I said, “It won’t. I trust
Will. Heck, I can practically read his mind. We’ll make a great team. You’ll
see.” I popped open my door. “I’m starving. Please tell me you have more than
chili and cocktail onions in the apartment.”

Mike laughed sadly. “How about we order a pizza?”

After eating two-thirds of a large pepperoni pizza, I slept
like the dead. We got up at nine and spent most of Saturday morning discussing
tactics. Mike had calmed down overnight, and was now in full planning mode. I
had the instructions down as well as I could without getting more actual hunt
experience, so he started pounding me with a long list of training exercises
for Will. Most of it involved teaching him to be more quiet in the woods. Uncle
Mike’s list for me included as much weight training as my body could stand, in
addition to eating protein four times a day.

I agreed to all of it, but in my mind, the bigger issue was
Mom.

“Keeping this from Mom is gonna be pretty hard, you know.
Mamie’ll be worse.” I poured Cap’n Crunch into one of the two bowls Mike owned.
“At least you got me some cereal.”

“Only because I’m feeling guilty. Starting tomorrow, cereal
is no longer part of your diet.” Mike sighed and scratched at his unshaven
face. There were more gray flecks in his beard than just a few weeks ago. “I
know it’ll be hard. But if Dani finds out, she won’t allow you to hunt and the
Bears will continue to prowl. Most moms are like that; they don’t care if a
hundred strangers die as long as their own kids stay safe. So you’ll need to
get better at cover stories and learn how to sneak out of the house.”

“I’ve been working up a plan,” I said.

“Good,” he said. “Matt, there’s something else. Next time,
do
not
yell
and rush the monster. No doubt it was effective, but when I came around after
getting my bell rung, I heard that scream of yours and about had a stroke when
the Bear ran at you. All of this–sneaking out, finding your prey on the quiet,
mounting a surprise attack–it’s really important. You need to limit your
exposure.”

I nodded. “I wasn’t thinking. Next time, I’ll sneak up and
get it from behind. I’ll oil my backpack’s zipper, too, so it won’t stick.”

“Good. Okay, tell me how you’ll be getting out of the
house.”

* * *

“My goodness, kiddo, look at you!”

Mom gave me a stunned grin as Mike and I returned from our
“rappelling trip” on Sunday afternoon and found her in the kitchen, cooking
dinner. The smell of spaghetti sauce made my stomach growl. I thought seriously
about diving into the pot and going for a swim.

She wiped her hands on a dishtowel. “Did you grow two inches
while you were gone? I swear, you look like you’ve aged.” Mom put a hand on my
head and ran it level to her nose, like she was trying to measure my height.

“You were the one who said I was growing when I ate all that
meatloaf a few weeks ago. Guess you were right,” I said. She wasn’t though; I
might be a little taller, but not much. Mom saw something else, and I didn’t
think it had anything to do with how tall I was.

Mike shot me a sly look. “Fresh air, exercise and as many
scrambled eggs as he could hold. That’s the secret.”

Mom shook herself and snapped out of “welcome home” mode.
“Hmm. I know another secret.”

Uh oh. That was her “you’re grounded” voice.

She must’ve seen the guilt on my face, because she said,
“That’s right. Were you planning to tell me about the fight or the two weeks’
detention? Mrs. Stevens called but you were already on the road.”

I kicked at the tile floor. “Mike said he called you.”

“That’s not the same as
you
calling me, young man.” Mom glared
first at me, then at Mike. “Michael, even if you did discuss it with Matt, a
week’s worth of fun wasn’t exactly what I had in mind after the principal
called.”

If Mom only knew; Fort Carson hadn’t been fun and games.
Honestly, I thought I’d been punished pretty well in Colorado.