The Last Hunter - Collected Edition (76 page)

19

I don’t move. I can’t. The realization that my sixth clone is a three-faced, four-armed giant is staggering enough, but the faces and voices, are recognizable versions of myself. The tone. The emotion. The
concern
. This creature might be different from me in almost every physical way, but I sense its core personality is very similar to mine. With the exception of Luca, this monster might be the clone most similar to me.

When it turns to me and says, “Remember. The. Baseball. Card. Bully,” I under-stand why. Somehow, beyond my understanding, my sixth clone ended up with my childhood memories.

It was 1988, just months before I came to Antarctica. I was thirteen. My cousin, Shawn, who was twice my size and an avid baseball card collector, had come to visit. Shawn, Justin and I walked to Fred’s Baseball Card Shop. Shawn bought six packs of cards, chewing the cardboard flavored bubble-gum sticks all at once. Justin picked up an equal amount of Garbage Pail Kids cards. And I thumbed through the box of comic books at the back of the store.

The place was frequented by a lot of kids, so I didn’t think much of it when some other boys my age started looking around at the back of the store. When I caught one of them looking at me, I smiled, said, “hi,” and went about my business.

Upon leaving the store, the boy who’d been staring at me, confronted me. Using expletives, some of which I had never heard before, the boy claimed that I had been his second grade nemesis at Beatle School. I denied this, of course, claiming to have attended Cove School on the other side of town, which was true, but that was third grade. In second grade, I did indeed go to Beatle School. I imagined the boy younger and recognized him as Rick Carson, the boy who had tortured
me
in second grade. Funny that he remembered me as the antagonist.

But my lie, backed up by Justin, who knew to lie as well, was convincing. Rather than just beating me on the spot, Rick offered me a five-second head start. It was generous, but I wasn’t a very physical person. I knew I couldn’t escape. And while Justin was much more athletic than me, I knew he wasn’t a fighter. But we had a trump card that day. Shawn. He casually stood between me and Rick, looked back at me and said, “Go ahead. I’ll see you at home.”

And I ran. Justin rode his bike next to me. We fled the scene, out of breath, but unharmed. Half way home, we stopped and looked back. Rick was nowhere to be found. So we waited and ten minutes later, Shawn walked into view like nothing had happened. He simply held up a Mark McGwire baseball card and said, “Got a McGwire.”

The memory comes and goes in a flash. Cerberus is filling the role of Shawn. I trusted that my cousin would be okay handling the bully. He’s asking me to do the same with him. This isn’t quite the same situation, but there is little choice. Every second I wait, Nephil gets closer to retrieving the Jericho shofar first, and I have no doubt he’ll destroy it if he does.

“Thank you,” I say and leave my new ally behind. I round the pillar to which Hades is bound and find three Nephilim warriors blocking my path. It’s not good, but it’s better odds than what Cerberus is facing. A battle cry pulls my head around and I see Cerberus charge. His arms move like blurs, the blades flashing in the dull light provided by the crystals embedded in the ceiling high above. With uncommon grace and power he launches himself into the Nephilim, combating several of them at once and holding his own.

Inspired by my clone’s bravery in the face of certain death, I mimic his battle cry and charge the warriors blocking my path.

But the warriors don’t back down or even flinch. They shout right back at me and charge.

“Em,” I say as she runs by my side. “Aim for the center warrior.”

She nods and aims the large knife retrieved from the hunter’s body. I ignore the red blood staining the blade and focus on my enemy. I harness the wind, bringing it down from above, over my head and straight for the head of the central warrior. Then I bend it up and pour on the speed.

The giant’s hair whips up as the blast of condensed air strikes. His head snaps back as though punched. But my intended target—the gold crown protecting its weak spot—remains unaffected.

What the—

“Solomon,” Em says, sounding worried as the distance closes between us and the warriors.

“It’s not coming off,” I say, and then I see why. Twin streaks of purple blood trickle down the sides of the Nephilim’s forehead and cheeks before getting lost in the deep red beard. The golden crown has two circular indentations, just above the beast’s eyes.

They nailed the rings to their heads!
Removing them won’t be so easy anymore. If the Nephilim topside have made the same change, then the human forces, including our band of escaped prisoners, are in a lot of trouble. I’m a little surprised they didn’t think of it sooner. The pain must be excruciating—just the way they like it.

Wind, bullets and physical strength can no longer remove the rings, but I have other options. Unnatural options.

“All of you,” I say to Kainda, Em and Kat, who come to a stop with me. “Be ready!”

I close my eyes and reach out toward the Nephilim. I feel the air and the building pressure in it as the three massive warriors push through. I feel their leathers, tailored from the skin of their feeder young. And I feel the metal bands, forged from iron and gold—metals pulled out of Antarktos—my continent.

The ground shakes beneath me as the giants close in.

I ignore their approach and focus on the atoms of gold and iron, pushing them apart. The metal resists my unnatural urge. With a shout, I shove them apart, changing the density of the metal to something more closely resembling chocolate syrup.

Confused grunts open my eyes and I see the rings oozing down over the Nephilims’ faces. Their charge comes to an abrupt halt as they paw at the sticky metal now covering their eyes.

“Now!” I say.

Kainda throws her hammer. Em lets her knife fly. And Kat squeezes off three silenced rounds.

All three women find their targets.

All three Nephilim drop, their existences from this world and any other, extinguished forever.

While Em and Kainda rush to retrieve their weapons, a shout of pain catches my attention, mostly because it’s my voice. Cerberus is surrounded. I count six Nephilim warriors lying dead, and there are still forty more closing in around him. But the source of his pain isn’t from one of the warriors, it is from the other two clones.

The bigger of the two has severed one of Cerberus’s arms with an ax. Blood—red blood—flows from the wound. Cerberus falls to one knee, clutching the wound with one hand, still brandishing swords with the other two.

But he is done. He can see it as well as I can.

One of his faces looks up at me. For a moment, I’m lost in his gaze. It’s like looking in a mirror. Then he smiles, gives a faint nod and stands, swinging around in a wide arc. The speed of the attack catches the larger, ax-wielding clone by surprise. His arms are raised high, ready to strike, when the long sword strikes his waist and cleaves him in two.

The bold attack is effective, but flawed. And Cerberus knew this. By turning to face the ax-wielder, he left his back open to attack. And the wiry clone, the one using the original Whipsnap, leaps into the air and drives the spear tip deep into Cerberus’s core. The blade emerges from his chest, right where his heart should be. It’s a killing blow.

Without a sound, Cerberus closes all six eyes and falls to the ground. Once again, I feel an intense sense of loss for something that should terrify me. Cerberus was an abomination—a combination of my stolen genetic material merged with that of ancient Gigantes, which were lab created to begin with, thousands of years before modern labs existed. But his heart was good. His blood, human. And he gave his life, willingly, to save me and all of mankind. Once I got past the strangeness of his appearance and the fact that we share thirteen years of memories, I think we would have been friends. More than friends. Like Luca and Xin, we would have been brothers.

I shake my head, anger welling up again. The body count on my side of this conflict is rising far too quickly. People die in war. I understand that. But I can’t accept the idea that people I’ve never met will die for me.

The wiry clone yanks Whipsnap from Cerberus’s back, unfazed by the fact that it is now coated in red blood, and charges toward me. He’s followed by the warriors, who take to the air.

“To the far wall,” I tell the others, pointing the way. “Go!”

“I won’t leave you,” Kainda says.

“I don’t intend to stay long.”

After just a moment’s hesitation, Kainda acquiesces and runs with the others—straight toward a solid wall of stone.

20

I stand and wait.

The creature’s bare feet slap over the stone floor.

Its oval head bobs with each step. The frizzy red hair growing in splotches all over its body, like on a young feeder, bounces. Muscles beneath its dirty, green skin tense, as it raises the original Whipsnap, ready to strike.

The creature is fast and outpaces the flying Nephilim, giving me about thirty seconds to exact revenge on Cerberus’s behalf.

It strikes, swinging the blade end down toward my head. But it has failed to utilize the power of the flexible staff, and I easily block the blow. Though the clone isn’t a skilled fighter, it stands a good three feet taller than me.

“You are unworthy,” the thing hisses. “I am the best of us.”

I quickly realize that the “us” in “best of us” refers to the six clones and me. His boast serves only to increase my anger.

“You are the least,” I say, and I release the flexed mace the moronic clone hadn’t yet noticed. The metal, spiked ball snaps forward, striking and destroying the thing’s knees. It shrieks in pain, hopping back.

But then it grins, taking pleasure in the pain, like the warriors, and it begins laughing when the wound quickly heals.

“As I said,” the clone taunts, “I am—”

Krack!
The clone is crushed to oblivion beneath the immense weight of the stone pillar to which Hades was bound. While the beast was distracted, I severed the pillar and tilted it toward us. After a quick calculation of the column’s size, I met him precisely at the spot where he would be crushed and I would be spared. The end of the severed column is just two feet away. Purple blood gushes out from under its girth. I step back to avoid getting any on my feet and catch sight of the first Whipsnap.

I won’t leave you behind, old friend.
I quickly pick up the weapon, forgetting that it’s covered in Cerberus’s blood. I look down at the red for a moment, then catch a shadow shifting overhead in the cloud of dust kicked up by the crashing pillar. With a gust of wind, I toss the dust higher, obscuring the flying warriors’ view.

After attaching the bone and stone Whipsnap to my belt, I make for the far wall, sprinting through the obscuring layer of dust. When I clear the cloud, I see that I’ve miscalculated the speed and intention of the warriors. Several of them are nearly upon Kainda, Em and Kat.

I will my legs to move faster, but my muscles have limits. So I leap and the wind carries me up. I’m not flying. Not this time. I simply shoot myself across the chamber and allow the laws of physics to keep me in motion and arc me toward the floor and my friends. I might be able to move faster with a constant wind propelling me, but I don’t want to risk running out of energy before I attempt my ridiculous plan.

Gravity takes hold and pulls me down. I use the wind to adjust my trajectory twice and then fall, like a cannonball toward the far wall where it meets the floor.

“Keep running!” I shout as loud as I can.

Em glances back, and then up. Her eyes widen when she sees me descending.

I’m sure all three women are questioning my plan. I have them running toward a solid wall of stone. But there is a fissure in the rock running vertically from the floor for ten feet. It’s far too small to pass through. You’d only see it from a few feet away. But it’s a weakness I can exploit.

However, I’m not the only one dropping toward them. One of the Nephilim has sprung its attack.

I surge forward with another gust of wind, directing myself at the warrior like a demon-seeking missile. As I streak beneath its extended wing, I stab up with Whipsnap’s sharp metal blade and shred the wing. It will heal quickly, but the momentary lack of control throws the monster off course and slows its descent.

With just seconds before I pancake on the stone floor, and before my three friends run into a solid wall, I turn my attention to the natural fissure. I raise my hands like I’m parting window curtains and the stone wall opens up just as easily.

Without missing a beat, Kainda, Em and Kat dash through the fresh opening. The effort tires me some, but I made sure only to open the space twenty feet in. Any more and I might risk passing out before I hit the ground.

I’m moving so fast that it takes a strong burst of wind in the opposite direction to slow me down. The torrent twists me, and I stumble when I hit the ground. But I turn the fall into a roll and get back to my feet long enough to dive into the cave, just before the pursuing giant with the now healed wing, pounds the stone floor behind me. His bones crack loudly from the missed blow, but his attack continues. Even as the six broken fingers reform, the giant reaches in.

“Kid, look out!” Kat shouts.

I jump back, just out of reach and bring my hands together. The stone walls close together, returning to their original state, fusing the Nephilim’s arm with the wall. I have no doubt the giant will simply sever his arm and grow a new one, but we are out of its reach.

“They cannot follow us here,” I say, out of breath.

The wall shakes. The warriors are pounding on the stone.

“Someone should tell that to them,” Kat says.

The small stone tunnel glows yellow, green and blue as Kat takes out her glowing crystal. “Just call me Rainbow Bright.”

Kat’s change in attitude confuses me, but then I remember who she is. An assassin. A trained killer. Unlike Kainda, Em and me, she chose a life of daring escapes, close calls and, let’s be honest, killing. “You enjoyed that,” I say to her.

Kat looks at me, a half smile still on her face. “Yeah, I did.”

“Why?” I ask.

She stops, thinks and says, “Because it showed we could win. You’ve got more tricks up your sleeve than David Copperfield.”

It’s a good answer and not the one I expected.

“Plus it was kind of fun.”

There it is. Her honesty brings a smile to my face.

“Sorry about the big guy,” she adds, her face going serious. “I saw his face. I know what he was. That couldn’t have been easy.”

“He gave his life to save ours,” Kainda says. “It was a good death.”

“Yes,” Kat says, nodding. “It was.”

I’m pretty sure that Kat is thinking of Wright now, not Cerberus, but I don’t mention it. What matters is that their sacrifices aren’t for nothing. And that means pushing forward, or in this case, downward.

I place a hand on the stone, tune out the shaking and pounding from the warriors trying to reach us and feel the subterranean realm around me, searching for some sign of Nephil. After nearly a minute, I open my eyes.

“I can’t find him,” I say.

“Who?” Kat asks.

“Ophion,” I say. “Nephil.”

“You feel vibrations,” Em says, “right?”

“Yeah,” I reply and see what she’s getting at. “He must be moving on those tendrils.”

“So he could be anywhere,” Kainda says, growing frustrated.

“No,” I say. “I know where he’s going. Down. And there is only one way.”

I focus on the rock and it parts with a
crack
. I keep the tunnel small, three feet wide, six feet tall, just big enough for us to fit down single file. I push it as far as I can, stopping just twenty feet from our destination. The Low River. It passes through the giant cavern and then drops down again. The laboratory is there, where I killed the thinker clone, but we’re going far beyond that, to another cavern, more massive than the one we’ve just left behind, where ceaseless vibrations tell of abundant life.

With the tunnel complete, I drop to a knee, catching my breath.

“Should you rest?” Em asks. More than anyone, she knows my limits and that I’m well beyond them now.

She also knows my determination to expand those limits, so she doesn’t argue when I pull myself back up and say, “No.”

I take the lead in the tunnel, walking with Whipsnap for a crutch. We’re not moving fast, but the fastest route between two spots is a straight line and Nephil is following the winding path of a river.

A river...

I pause and place my hand on the stone again. There is water all around us, flowing through the underworld like blood through veins. I pull it to us. Water leaks from the floor at my feet.

“What are you doing?” Kainda asks.

I don’t have time to answer. The water is coming. I bend down and touch the floor of my tunnel, stretching my thoughts out along its surface, curving and polishing it with my mind. The effort is harder than I thought it would be, but it will speed our progress and provide some respite.

Kat sits on the floor and answers Kainda’s question. “What? Never been to Water Country?”

Kainda just looks confused. “Should...I sit?”

I sit down in the lead spot and say, “Probably a good idea.”

Kainda and Em quickly sit and wait. Water flows from the walls around us, leaking through cracks and holes. Soon there is a stream of water all around us, running downward faster than we could ever move. The pressure builds on my back and I keep myself in place by bracing my feet on the wall.

“Just go with the flow,” I say, and let go.

My homemade waterslide launches me downward. Memories of
The Goonies
and at least twenty different 80’s action-adventure movies featuring a surprise water slide fill my mind. I can’t help but smile. I glance back. Kainda and Em look serious. To them, this is an express ride to a battle with Nephil, and that’s it.

But Kat sees me and grins. “You know how cliché this is, right?” she shouts over the roar of the water.

I smile back at her, but can’t reply. The grade steepens and the speed picks up to the point where my stomach lurches. The discomfort wipes the smile off my face and the nostalgia from my thoughts, which is probably a good thing. Even the smallest distraction could get one of us killed.

Twenty minutes later, or at least what
feels
like twenty minutes—we might have been sliding for an entire topside day for all I know—we splash into the large Low River, ending our long slide.  After drifting in the current for a few more minutes, and seeing no sign of Nephil’s passing, I find myself distracted once again, perhaps more distracted than I’ve ever been in my life.