SNAFU: Hunters

“Head,” Hiro said, pointing to his own. Then he scoured the area. Nathan joined in the search, brushing aside leaves, and the others followed his lead.

“Got it.” Donaldson shouted, and kicked the green demon skull like a soccer ball. It rolled to Hiro, who promptly knelt and stabbed it. The head gave way with a crunch then turned to dirt.

Hiro stood, stared at Nathan. “One more.”

Nathan nodded then pointed across the river.

“Wait a minute,” Deacon said. “We’re not really goin’ after it?”

“There’s one left, and we know where it is.” Nathan pointed to the tracker. “I’m done being hunted. We’re doing the hunting now.”

“Opium.” Hiro pointed to sac on Nathan’s shoulders.

“Sure,” Nathan said, opening the bag. “Go ahead.”

“Now? But we’re about to go after that thing,” Deacon said.

“Better for him to be relaxed than itching.”

Hiro heated the spoon, prepared the syringe then injected the liquid into his arm. He held out the needle to Nathan.

“No thanks. I’m working.”

Hiro pushed the needle forwards, insistent. “Ngu’Tinh,” he said. “No eyes.”

“No eyes?” Deacon raised an eyebrow. “The hell does that mean?”

“I don’t know. Doesn’t matter.” Nathan took the drug paraphernalia from Hiro, then put it in the bag and swung it over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Hunt or be hunted. Nathan marched into the river, trudging through knee-deep water. Cool wetness soaked up into his clothes, a welcome relief from the humid air. He was gripped suddenly with fear of what might be lurking in the dark water. But he had a monster to kill. Nathan pushed forward, deeper into the river. Hunt or be hunted.

“Shit.” Deacon edged into the water. “We’re really doin’ this?”

“Yep,” Nathan said.

The ground dropped out below, and Nathan started treading. Donaldson was spitting up water, struggling to keep his head above. “How you fuckin’ swim like this?” he shouted. “My shit’s weighing me down”.

“We’re SEALs,” Nathan said. “It’s what we do.” In training they’d tied his hands behind his back and threw him in a swimming pool, blindfolded, weights on his ankles. He made it through that hour-long test, so this river crossing would be a breeze. Unless any of those creatures came back.

Hiro reached the bank first, then climbed up and headed towards the bay.

“Slow down,” Nathan called out. “You don’t even know where it is.”

Nathan felt the river bottom with his foot, then stood, dripping wet, and rushed to catch up with Hiro. He hopped into the bay alongside the man, and the two of them stood in the placid, waist-deep water. The top was caked with algae, and the pool was littered with moss-covered boulders, oddly round.

Hiro moved to one of the boulders with the ornate iron knife in hand.

“What’s he doin’?” Deacon asked as he joined Nathan.

“I don’t know.”

Hiro thrust the knife and punctured the boulder. There was a hiss of air followed by a green cloud of gas. Hiro turned his head and closed his eyes, then reached his hands into the gash and pulled it apart, groaning from the effort.

“Egg,” Hiro said to Nathan.

“Holy shit.” Nathan looked again at the bay, littered with dozens of the mossy eggs. “It’s a nest.”

Donaldson caught up and hopped into the bay with a splash. “Jesus. There must be a hundred of ‘em.”

“Let’s just hope their mom doesn’t come back.”

Hiro had torn the shell open wide enough to see inside. Nathan eyed the contents with horror and disgust. A creature was curled up inside, wrapped in what looked like a bag of snot. Hiro dug into the goo, clutched the head with one hand, and thrust his knife. The whole mess turned to dirt, which dissolved into the bay. Then Hiro walked to the next closest egg and punched a hole with his knife.

“So what do we do?” Deacon asked.

“We help.” Nathan drew his KA-BAR combat knife.

The four of them worked their way through the nest. Donaldson spearing the eggs with his M-series bayonet, Nathan and Deacon hacking with their KA-BARs, tearing open the shells, and Hiro delivering the killing stroke with his iron knife. They were halfway through the nest when Nathan stopped suddenly. Something didn’t feel right.

“Stop,” he yelled. “You feel that?”

The algae was vibrating, the water subtly sloshing, the eggs shaking. A crack formed on one of the shells, and a green limb emerged.

“They’re hatching,” Nathan shouted. “Hurry.”

Hiro moved quickly, splashing through the water, slashing the embryotic mantis-things as they pushed free from the eggs. But the dog-sized demons were popping out faster than Hiro could catch them. The bay was quickly teeming with the demons, and the water erupted into splashing as they thrashed and swarmed.

“They’re comin’ straight for us,” Deacon shouted. Nathan and Deacon sprayed on full-auto, sweeping left and right across the hatchling demons, but the swarm closed on them.

Deacon let out a scream as serrated arms ripped through his legs. Nathan grabbed Deacon by his shoulders, felt the body go limp as Deacon’s legs gave out.