Fireteam Delta Page 29

  Unfortunately, they’d only wanted two for the fight.

  The twins were all but smiling as they made their way out, raising their weapons to the sky and doing their best to encourage the crowd.

  “They seem to like it,” Asle responded, giving Nowak a small grin.

  The gate opposite the twins lifted, revealing a green-scaled creature the size of a wagon. Spines of white bone jutted from the monster’s back as it stalked toward the center of the arena.

  “Hold fire!” Nowak yelled in his best Nos. The twins listened, fighting their urge to unload on the creature from a distance.

  Once it was close enough, Nowak yelled again.

  “Fire! Fire! Fire!”

  The twins responded immediately, unloading an entire clip into the creature. It tried to run, but it was only a matter of seconds before it was torn apart by their concentrated fire. It twitched on the ground, still trying to get up. Even as it did, Asle watched Bard reload his rifle and empty a burst into its head.

  It didn’t move after that.

  The cheering had all but stopped after the first shot, the crowd stunned into silence.

  Then Viggo climbed to the head of the creature, striking a pose with his brother.

  All at once, the arena came to life again, manic screams drowning out all other noise.

  “This is the greatest day of our lives!” the brothers declared in unison.

  Asle smiled in earnest.

  It was the easiest coin Asle would ever make.

  <<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

  Summers leaned his back to the ship, his head in his hands. The sailors still on board had given him a decidedly wide berth.

  The drinking horn lay empty at his side.

  “Fuck it. I don’t care anymore.” Summers felt at the two very prominent horns on his head. They curved with his skull, forming a halo of sorts.

  His skin was taking on a bluish-gray hue and was incredibly tough, presumably like the monster itself. It made it hard to move around and had dulled his sense of touch pretty significantly, which was why it took a moment for him to realize Synel was holding one of his arms, probably trying to console him.

  “Summers?”

  Summers turned to find Cortez and Orvar on the dock, looking at him with wide eyes.

  He raised a hand to wave.

  “Still me. Just weirder,” he assured them.

  He saw Orvar was holding jars of something that looked like an internal organ.

  “Did you . . . manage to find something?” Summers eyed the jars, knowing the answer, but not looking forward to it.

  “Yeah. Some medicine shop was selling these as a cure for poison.” Cortez gestured and Orvar started to unload the jars onto the ship.

  “Does it really do that?” Summers looked to Synel.

  She shook her head.

  “The monster’s apparently known for being immune to any kind of sedative, poison, or whatever,” Cortez explained. “Might keep this junk from affecting you. Couldn’t remember if it was the kidneys or the liver that handled poison, so I got both. Or I think I did.” She gestured to the jars of strange, meaty shapes.

  “Wait . . .” Summers started. “How did you pay for those?”

  “Traded about thirty rounds for it. Told him it was a cure for, uh . . .” Cortez glanced away. “Bedroom problems.” She must have seen Summers’ expression. “Relax, it won’t kill them. Hell, the confidence boost might even fix it. Guy thought the casing was fancy packaging.”

  “And that . . . worked?” Summers watched the woman with a mix of confusion, horror, and a little bit of admiration. He turned to Orvar, speaking Nos. “Did he believe her?”

  “I’m not sure.” Orvar said. “But I believe he thinks he can convince others of it.”

  “See? No harm done. Got some pills for the boat ride out of the deal, too. For nausea, I mean.” Cortez gave him a weak smile, but she still looked at him with an odd expression.

  “That’s great.”

  In the distance, he could see Nowak and his group dragging something that looked like a giant lizard in a cart behind them. He took a deep breath.

  “I really appreciate everything you guys are doing for me. Seriously.” Summers did his best to sound sincere. He was, but his next question worried him too much to really put feeling into his words. “So . . . you have any idea what this thing looked like?”

  <<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

  “Yup, this is as bad as it gets.” Summers looked down at the claws on his hand, and small, bony protrusions on his back. “Well, screw it. If it’s this or brain damage, bring it on.”

  It had only taken a handful of hours for the changes to start. Summers wasn’t a vain man, but on a scale of one to ten, he was almost certainly a monstrosity the likes of which would be run out of town with pitchforks. If pitchforks were a thing here.

  “Think we should test the lizard?” Nowak looked to Summers.

  “Sure.” Summers held out a hand as Nowak produced a knife. Most of the day had passed since he’d eaten—or rather, choked down—what his friends had brought him.

  Nowak cut a clean line on Summers’ forearm, but it took him three tries. That at least confirmed that he was tougher than he used to be.

  Black blood leaked freely from the cut, but after a handful of minutes, it stopped.

  Useful, at least.

  The others still looked at him with worried eyes. He didn’t blame them, given his appearance. Somehow, the mishmash of creatures had left him looking almost demonic.

  “All right. One last test.” Summers looked up to the sky as he got up. It was getting dark. “I’ll see you guys in the morning.”

  <<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

  Asle sat in silence, Synel in a hammock beside her. She’d tried to sleep, but it had eluded her for most of the night. Every bit of movement she heard from outside woke her.

  It was almost dawn now, so she was sure they’d have an answer soon. She’d racked her brain trying to think of anything else that might help. Given what little she knew of monsters, that wasn’t much.

  It wasn’t long before she heard something shift in the next cabin over. Synel sat upright almost immediately, startling Asle for a moment.

  The woman made no move to speak. Instead, she walked to the doorway, looking out into the hall.

  They only heard a single word from the next cabin, even as the shuffle of bodies stirring became apparent.

  “Fuck.”

  <<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

  Summers sat in front of the large market, thinking. The others had followed him, Synel and Asle at his side. He’d changed to his old balaclava and a cloak, mostly to hide his new face.

  None of it had worked. He’d spent most of the morning writing in his journal, trying to retain some small piece of his past. Thankfully, he still hadn’t lost any of his friends. But that seemed to only be a matter of time, if what Nowak said of Adams was true.

  “I’m certainly no expert on exotic creatures,” Synel prompted. “I can reach out to some contacts, see if there is something I missed.”

  “We can stay in the city as long as we have to,” Nowak agreed. “Not like we got a timer on this thing.”

  “Look, guys. I appreciate it, but . . .” Summers stared at the market.

  He had trouble believing there was anything out there that could save him at this point.

  No, he couldn’t think like that. Something still rattled around in his head, telling him not to give up until the bitter end. The memory smelled like disinfectant and phenol, but he knew it was important. That hadn’t been taken away from him. At least, not yet.

  Summers took a deep breath.

  In an instant, he could smell the distinct, rotten-barbecue smell he’d noticed the day before, the same half-burned insects displayed in front of the stand.

  He could still picture their first steps into this world. The odd, shambling imitations of the dead walking around, controlled by whatev
er the hell was inside them.

  Actually, now that he thought about it, it was a lot like the hamr. It had taken the dead, too, and just used parts of them for its own means.

  In fact, that was all the hamr really was, as far as he could tell. Dead flesh.

  If that was true . . .

  “Asle . . .” Summers looked to the girl. “The, uh . . . the skeen.” He gestured to the stall. “Do you know how they work?”

  Chapter 34: Devil Within

  Summers sat below deck, watching one of the still living skeen in front of him. It had burrowed into the rest of the large lizard Nowak’s group had brought back. Most of its chest had been carved out, salted, and left aside for rations, but he figured it was whole enough to experiment with.

  The insect was as big as Summers’ head, with six long, thin legs that attached to a thorny carapace. Asle hadn’t known much about the creatures, let alone what allowed them to control the bodies of the dead like puppets. But the stories she’d heard in her youth led her to believe it had something to do with the soul. All in all, it wasn’t much help.

  It had been a few days now since he’d eaten his weight in the insects, which were surprisingly palatable given what they looked and smelled like.

  He’d assumed he’d gain some kind of control over the dead, like the creatures seemed to have. While nothing had happened yet, he was at least grateful that he hadn’t sprouted four extra arms.

  So, for the last few days, he’d been experimenting with the few still living creatures they’d brought along, trying to figure out just how exactly they worked.

  He watched as one of the dead lizard’s legs twitched once, and then again.

  Summers stood immediately, moving over to the partially burrowed insect, and grabbed it before it could react, pulling it from the lizard’s corpse.

  It chittered in response, and probably a touch of anger. As he began to move away, the insect’s legs suddenly contracted around his forearm.

  He felt something like a jolt, and his hand suddenly relaxed its grip.

  “Fuck!”

  The creature squirmed free, skittering halfway across the deck before Summers was able to grab it again. This time, he kept a firm grip on it as he carefully placed it back into a small wooden crate.

  He flexed the hand that had released the insect. It didn’t feel as if it were hurt. More like he’d just dropped the thing by accident. But it definitely seemed like something was wrong somehow.

  “Huh.”

  A sailor moved past him, looking more than a little nervous. Summers stroked one of the new horns on his head. After the changes had taken root, they’d decided to leave the city behind as fast as possible. He didn’t want to risk terrifying the local populace. Besides, given what everyone had done to buy up the parts he’d used, they didn’t need to chance any guards or pissed-off merchants coming to look for trouble.

  He sighed before moving to the lizard’s corpse, placing a hand on it.

  “Anything new?” Nowak stepped forward, leaning against the wall of the small stockroom he’d been using for testing.

  “Not sure . . .” Summers answered.

  He kept looking at his hand.

  If Summers could manage to move something like the bugs did, then logically, he might be able to move the hamr. Or at least, play tug-of-war with the bits of flesh the hamr was controlling. If he could do that, then he might be able to remove what was left in his body.

  Summers yawned.

  “Maybe you should get some sleep,” Nowak prodded.

  “In a second. I just . . . I wanted to try some things.” Summers focused on the lizard, trying to will it to move.

  Nothing happened.

  As he pulled his hand back, the creature’s scales seemed to stick to it for just a moment before they snapped back into place.

  “Huh.”

  Summers put a hand on the lizard again. It didn’t stick. But the resistance had felt familiar, like static electricity.

  “Summers . . .” Nowak started.

  “Hold on. Just give me a minute.”

  Summers poked his head inside the chest cavity of the lizard, looking at where the insect had been nesting. He realized it had made a small tunnel toward the creature’s spinal column.

  Summers considered that for a moment before he tentatively reached a hand in, wrapping it around the dead lizard’s spine.

  It was disgusting.

  He focused again, like before, and after a moment, he could feel something.

  Rather, he felt larger, as if his arm extended beyond his fingers.

  He released his grip, and his world seemed to shrink again.

  “Uh, having fun in there?” Nowak asked.

  “No. And stay here for a second. Tell me if something happens.”

  Summers grabbed the spine one more time, trying to focus on the feeling.

  Again, his body seemed to grow. He focused on the sensation, trying his best to memorize it. It felt worryingly natural to him, as if this was something that was supposed to happen. The oddest part was that he could sense some kind of disparity between his two bodies. While the lizard was more or less uniform, his own body felt like a tapestry of webs. But the moment he looked away, it seemed to fade into the background of his mind.

  Eventually, the lizard took on a more solid form, like a branch that extended away from him. He tried to pour his consciousness into the new form and will it to do something.

  “Holy shit!” Nowak edged away from the now kicking leg of the lizard. “Yeah, it’s moving.”

  Summers let out a small laugh.

  At least now, he knew it was working.

  <<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

  Apparently, contact with the creature helped, but wasn’t necessarily needed. Summers had managed to get a toe moving after a long hour of concentration, if only for a heartbeat.

  “So, it worked?” Cortez asked, staring down from the hammock in their cabin.

  “Yeah,” Summers answered, distracted.

  “And what are you doing now?”

  Summers’ hand hovered over his forearm, trying to sense it much in the same way he had when he’d been looking at the lizard.

  “Trying it on myself.”

  Of course, he knew his arm was already an extension of his body, but then, it wasn’t entirely his body anymore. Earlier, he’d sensed something more, something outside of his control. He was trying to connect to that.

  After a few minutes, it clicked.

  If his body was a dim light, then there was a small, thin membrane of blazing sun just under his skin. He hesitated, then drove a single finger into his forearm.

  “Jesus fuck, dude,” Cortez shouted, sitting up in her hammock.

  “It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt.”

  “Not the fucking point.”

  Summers ignored her for a moment as he continued to concentrate.

  He felt something in the membrane give, and he tried to pull out.

  It resisted.

  Summers tried to concentrate harder, willing the membrane to pool around his finger. Muscles in his forearms seemed to spasm and twitch as a lump pushed the skin up around his finger. He couldn’t help but notice the smell of burning flesh as the small bubble in his arm grew. Another few seconds, and it stopped.

  It almost felt as if it were trying to move away. He drove a second finger into the arm, pinching the strange mass.

  Then, he pulled.

  He tore loose a small clump of black, tumor-like flesh.

  “What the hell is that?” Cortez asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  Summers watched the thing in stunned silence before the black clump lunged for him.

  “What the shit?” Summers reeled back as the thing lurched for his face.

  He fell on his ass, trying to swat it away.

  All he succeeded in doing was flinging the black thing onto the wall beside Cortez.

  Wide-eyed, he watched as she slammed a foot into it—on
ce, twice. She kept going until he put a hand up to stop her. The shoe came back with long, sticky strands of black leading to a smear on the wall.

  “Summers?” Cortez looked at him. “If you throw a monster at my head again, I’m going to kill you.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Summers looked at what remained of the tumor on the wall and smiled.

  If that was what he thought it was, he might have a way to fix this.

  <<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

  “It’s not just me, right? This is fucked up.” Nowak cringed as Summers drove another finger into his arm.

  Almost immediately, he pulled out another slick, black lump of flesh—what he’d come to understand was the hamr. Or at least, a piece of it.

  “It’s not just you,” Summers said. “But this isn’t exactly fun for me, either.”

  In one swift, practiced motion, he tossed it into a small pot he had burning over a torch.

  He could hear the pop as the creature dissolved inside it.

  Throughout the day, he’d managed to free his arms from most of the alien tissue, as well as a few other places. Once he’d taken the black flesh out, most of the gray skin had begun tearing off of its own accord, though it had often left him bloodied for more than a few hours.

  It wasn’t the most elegant of solutions, but it worked.

  “Honestly, I kind of like the look.” Cortez watched with an equal mix of disgust and curiosity as Summers more or less dismantled himself.

  He’d had to take breaks for eating and drinking, more out of necessity than anything. But since that morning had rolled around, he was doing his best to reclaim just a little bit of his humanity.

  “Me, too,” Asle agreed.

  “Well, you two don’t get a vote,” Summers responded, taking a breath. He’d managed to remove most of the gray skin from his forearms, as well as, thankfully, the horns. But that wasn’t his true goal.

  This was practice.

  Summers leaned back, staring up at the morning sky.

  “I think this stuff is like glue. It’s keeping parts of the monster on me,” Summers explained. “If I can separate it like this, then I can probably take it out of other places. Like my brain.”

  “But you’re literally pulling it out of yourself. Physically,” Cortez pointed out. “You know you’re going to have to do that with your head too, right?”