Recon Marines III: The Marine's Doctor (14 page)

He handed the AI to Pender and set his
rifle against the wall where it would be within reach. “Don’t be
heroic. If it gets by me shoot to kill. If it doesn’t go down,
retreat. Don’t let it get close.”

Mak jogged across the street and gave
the same orders to the surly corporal.

“
Shouldn’t we wait for it
here?” Box whispered.

“
He’s acting wary and
probably caught our scents when he circled the lab on his way in,”
Mak answered. “He might not come in and then we’ll either have to
hunt him down in that damned forest or wait for him to come again.
Don’t shoot me by accident. Or on purpose.”

The night welcomed Mak beneath the
trees. He trusted his camouflage to match the landscape and provide
him with invisibility. Moving quietly had been drilled into him
during years of harsh training. Not a breath of wind moved between
the trees so even a simple rattle of a dried leaf could give him
away. Or give away his prey to him. He moved from the cover of one
tree to the next and then the next, pausing long enough to listen.
He caught its odor before he heard it or saw it. Unwashed human
overlaying a hint of carrion. It wasn’t time to speculate on how it
lived or why it returned to the village again and again. That was
for scientists, not for a soldier.

Mak ghosted a few yards deeper into
the forest so he would approach it from behind. It crouched, a dark
presence between the black trunks, facing the village and making an
occasional sniffing noise. It edged forward, still in a crouch. He
couldn’t tell how tall the monster stood but it had to twist
slightly to get its broad shoulders between the trees. The silence
of its stalking added to its menace. If the villagers had ever seen
it, they would have left the planet on any transport that would
take them.

The monster turned sideways, ruining
any chance of a heart shot. Mak didn’t want to wound it and cause
it to go berserk. Or it could run off, forcing them to track it
through its home turf. Was anything more dangerous than a wounded
wild thing? The way it hunkered in the shadows made a head shot
unsure. He should have brought the rifle with its infrared scope.
Mak took another silent step and then another so one less tree
separated him from the monster. Its stench filled his
nose.

With a loud huff, the monster sprang
forward. It leaned and hunched its shoulders so its hands hung
below its knees. Seeing its speed on the AI hadn’t prepared Mak to
witness it close up. It dodged trees with a smooth agility that
ruined Mak’s aim. His shot struck its side with a dull
thud.

It growled and twisted, slapping at
the wound. Mak ran after it, gaining on it despite its fleet feet.
His next shot hit it mid-mass, but the thing didn’t drop as it
should have. Again it absorbed the strike with little more than a
grunt of discomfort. As it cleared the trees and entered the
starlit street, Mak saw why. Monster or man, the thing wore some
type of body armor. He shot at its legs.

It screamed and stumbled, finally
stopping and turning to face Mak. The light fell on a craggy face
sporting a tangled beard. It barred its teeth as him and growled.
“Who?”

Mak hesitated, shocked at hearing it
speak. Perhaps he should capture it so Molly could learn from it.
If it could speak, perhaps it could be reasoned with. “Lieutenant.
Stand down, soldier.”

Footsteps pounded toward them from the
center of town. The man-thing tensed, muscles bulging across its
wide form. Its mass would make three of him, yet it moved lightly
on its feet.

“
Kill it!” Box shouted. He
walked around the man-thing’s right and Pender swung around on the
left.

“
Stay back,” Mak ordered.
Too late.

It leaped sideways, swinging a massive
fist at Box. The corporal flew into the front of the nearest house.
His scream cut off with a crunch of bones.

Mak shot it again and nicked its ear.
He ran toward the monster, shooting it again and again. It turned
its back, hunching down and hiding its head. Blood dripped from its
other wounds but none slowed it.

It reached for the unconscious or dead
Box, its large hand spreading wide to grab his neck. Mak got there
first, wrapping his hand around its thick thumb and throwing his
weight back. The monster spun toward him and lifted Mak off his
feet in an awful display of strength.

Mak released its thumb and dropped to
the ground, ducking and rolling to avoid the barefooted kick
zooming toward him. He pulled his knife as he came to his feet,
darting under the next blow from a big fist and cutting at a dirt
encrusted ankle. It bellowed and kicked at him. Its amazing swift
kick caught his shoulder and sent him tumbling away. Mak lifted his
pistol and shot it in the head.

It howled and blood spurted from its
forehead. But instead of collapsing, it turned and ran down the
middle of the street.

Pender sprinted across the road to
Box’s side. Mak watched the man-thing disappear into the trees
before joining them.

Box groaned and tried to sit up. He
fell back with a gasp. “I think my ribs are broken.”

“
Get the doctors, Pender,”
Mak ordered. “Lie still, corporal.”

“
I’m sorry I left my post,
sir,” Box gasped.

Mak didn’t say anything. He wouldn’t
excuse the man but there was no need to reprimand him now that his
pain punished him with every breath.

Pender had dropped the AI beside Box.
Mak picked it up, seeing the glowing outline of the creature
nearing the outer boundary of the sensors.

“
Why didn’t it go down
when you shot it, sir?” Box asked.

“
It had some kind of body
armor on. I don’t know why my last shot to its head didn’t kill it.
Stop talking and save your breath.”

Molly led the rush as Pender brought
the doctors over. Her gaze swept over Mak before she knelt beside
Box. “How are you doing, Andy?”

Mak pulled Pender aside a few steps
and thrust the AI into his hands. “As soon as you can move him get
everyone inside. You stay in the middle of the street and don’t
take your eyes off of this. If it comes back on screen you call me.
Then you get inside and wait for my all clear. You will not engage
it unless it tries to break into one of the houses before I get
back.”

“
Back? Where are you
going, sir?”

“
I’m going after
it.”

“
In the dark?” Pender’s
voice shook. “By yourself?”

“
Do you understand your
orders, Pender?” Mak took off as soon as the young man nodded. He
snatched up his rifle from where he’d left it. Molly called out
behind him, but he didn’t pause.

Blood splatters marked the trail into
the trees. The monster’s path Mak had seen on the AI was etched in
his brain. He barely slowed as he dodged trees, catching glimpses
off glistening blood on a tree trunk now and then. In the still air
of the forest the stench of his prey led as surely as his memory of
its route did. He neared what he estimated was the reach of the
sensors before slowing.

The length of the monster’s strides,
judged by disturbances in the leaf litter and occasional marks on
bare ground, indicated it wasn’t wounded enough to inhibit its
strength and stamina. Mak slowed to give his ears and nose a better
chance to help his eyes spot an ambush. If the monster was clever
enough to wear armor, speak and run from guns, it would know how to
set a trap.

The monster had more than five minutes
head start but if it lived close enough to the village to notice
the arrival of ships its lair should be nearby. A distant tinkle of
falling water slowed Mak even more. Anything of human origin needed
water to live. The stench hung all around him now, useless to guide
him in any one direction.

Mak took cover behind a tree and
stilled his own breathing to silence. Beyond a stream cutting
through the trees, he heard something else. He edged closer and
distinguished mumbling and soft growling.

Mak hopped over the stream and land
with a faint thump. The sounds stopped. A soft scoffing of a foot
and then nothing. It knew.

Taking care where he set his feet, Mak
drifted closer. He angled toward the source of the previous sounds.
Among the deeper shadows beneath the trees a pile of twisted
branches rose to head height. Another step closer and he realized
it was a rough shelter of sorts. A ring of stones sat between him
and the shelter though no scent of burning lingered. It used fire,
built a shelter and spoke. He’d hesitated earlier when it spoke to
him, his failure leading to Box’s injuries. No matter how human the
monster seemed it had killed people.

He didn’t go closer to its home, its
den. Too many shadows where his prey might lurk. Moving carefully
so he didn’t scrape it against his clothing, Mak unslung his rifle
and readied it. He hadn’t brought armor piercing ammunition, never
having expected the monster to be wearing such equipment. That it
had survived the pistol shot to its head mystified him. A rifle
slug could penetrate the hull of a ship. Living bone would give
before it.

Minutes passed, the forest air heavy
with the dark presence of the monster. The night wore on while Mak
held his position. He’d stood without moving for longer periods of
time while spying on the enemy or waiting to flush out prey.
Somewhere on the other side of the shelter something shifted.
Something heavy. It sniffed at the air.

Mak’s rifle was the same camouflage as
his clothing. As long as he didn’t move the monster wouldn’t spot
him. It might be bigger, stronger and faster than him but it didn’t
have his training, experience or patience. It rose slowly from
behind its hovel, a blacker shadow against the dark. It held its
head in its usual fashion, hunched between its broad shoulders and
making a brain shot more difficult. Mak suspected the bone across
its brow was extra thick and that had turned the pistol shot aside.
He needed an eye, ear or at worst a temple shot to kill
it.

It swung its head around, twisting at
the torso as if its neck couldn’t rotate. As it turned toward Mak a
shaft of starlight glinted in its eyes. Almost as if fate itself
had offered its hand. Mak took the shot.

The powerful round knocked it
backwards. The monster caromed off a tree and then fell against
another. Air gusted from its dead lungs as it slid down the thick
trunk to the ground.

Mak jerked the thin light tube from
his belt and held it against the side of his rifle as he moved
forward. Tremors ran through the thick slabs of muscles in the
monster’s legs, sending its bare feet to twitching.

As Mak passed by the entrance to the
hovel the odor made his stomach roll. He watched the monster from
six feet away until its limbs stilled. Its chest didn’t move, and
no sound of breathing broke the forest’s heavy quiet. He didn’t
want to touch it, but he checked for a pulse on its short thick
neck. None.

Mak stood up and slung his rifle
across his back again. He would have to bring the doctors out here.
They would want their samples, pictures and would make notes. The
poor bastard would continue to be nothing but a failed experiment,
dead without ever having a real life. No glory. No honor. But at
least he would no longer suffer from whatever drove him to the
village. Mak slapped his fist to his heart. “Sorry,
brother.”

****

“
You decide,” Mak snapped,
the closest thing to a show of temper Molly had seen in the Recon
Marine. He walked over to Box, asking him how he was
doing.

Daylight fought through the thick
forest of trunks surrounding the village and gave everything a gray
look. But enough light for Molly to see the determination in her
colleagues’ eyes.

Mak had ordered one doctor to remain
behind and escort Andy to the ship. The corporal suffered from a
minor concussion and two cracked ribs. Pender would remain behind
in the village to fix the solar cells the village relied on for
their power. The people had received their order of new storage
batteries for the old-fashioned sun-catchers months before, but the
old connections wouldn’t couple with the new batteries.

Molly sighed, dreading making the
decision. Mak’s plan made sense. They didn’t have the supplies with
them to heal Andy’s head injury and it needed to be done. “I’m
sorry, Helen, but you have more experience treating actual
injuries. I would feel better if you helped Andy.”

Helen pressed her lips together and
gave a short nod. She unslung her pack and took out bottles and
tubes to hand to Hector. “Get lots of pictures for me. Hair
samples, blood, skin and stomach contents.”

“
We’ll get everything,”
Hector said, looking relieved and guilty at the same
time.

Mak helped Andy to his feet and then
walked over to join them. He nodded at Helen. “Thank you for taking
care of my man, doctor.”

“
Part of my job,
lieutenant.” Helen strode off with Andy, her short quick strides
indicative of her anger.

“
You will stay behind me
until we get to the camp. It’s about four miles.” Mak set off at a
brisk walking pace.

Molly fell in behind him with Hector
taking up the rear. The light seemed more like twilight beneath the
trees, but it was bright enough for her to study Mak’s back. His
camouflage uniform fit him a little too well, emphasizing his lean
hips and small waist. She could have used him as a model to teach
first year medical students muscle anatomy. Every muscle that
bunched and stretched beneath his skin looked tensed and ready for
battle. “Do you expect trouble, Mak?”