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Pure willpower. The only fuel Abby needed to push forward. She at least knew enough to ignore what the blue-haired girl had told her. Now up the hill and into the woods, she felt confident she’d gone the right way. Scuff marks in the ground. Smashed foliage. The devil had come this way. Now it was just a matter of staying conscious long enough to find and kill it.
The gun seemed heavier than she remembered, but she put her faith in adrenaline and muscle memory. She knew now that errant shots wouldn’t bring the thing down. She needed better aim. The head. She had to go for the head, then hope its skull wasn’t too thick to penetrate. If she missed, perhaps she’d die. But what did she have to live for anyway? The oozing blood from her arm and the ache of her every joint, made her ready to cross the threshold of death.
Everything aligned when she heard rustling ahead. Ducking behind a tree, Abby watched as Macy crept towards a wall of vines and trunks, dropped to her hands and knees and crawled into a portal that Abby would have never seen on her own. Curious. If Abby couldn’t have found it, neither could Macy, which meant that something had revealed the way.
Abby shimmied out of her pack and dropped it to the forest floor, checked her gun, carefully, slowly. For extra protection, she detached the pistol from the side of her bag and slid it into the back of her waistband. She took multiple deep breaths. She knew this was it. Her last chance. Either she or her prey would be taken out of the fight after this next encounter. Abby only had strength for one more push.
After she collected herself, she crept forward, looking down and choosing each step to avoid anything that might crack or creak. She didn’t know how thick the wall of foliage was, and she didn’t want to give away her position sooner than she had to. She channeled all her experience into each deliberate movement, her body sidelining the pain in service to the purpose that she’d spent years preparing for.
When she arrived at the tiny portal that Macy had crawled through, Abby crouched and listened. Macy’s southern drawl floated out as she talked to someone, or something, but Abby couldn’t make out the words. Crawling through would make her the most vulnerable, so Abby either had to be quick or quiet. She opted for the latter, moving to her hands and knees and squeezing through, surprised at how big the hole was. She moved in relative silence—at least to her human ears.
Partway through, she heard Macy’s voice clearly: “What is it, boy? What’s wrong?”
Abby took that the only way she could. Her position had been compromised by superior devil hearing. She sped up, caring less about the sound she made and hoping that she’d gotten close enough.
Feet shuffled by as she approached the exit of the tunnel, two of them clearly Macy’s, and more of them the devil. Or devils. She couldn’t be sure. She also didn’t like her chances at fighting more than one, but she had no time for calculating the odds.
She stopped moving, leveled her rifle, aimed at one of the giant otter feet, and fired.
Scrambling and roaring ensued, but Abby didn’t wait to sort it out. She surged forward again, confident that she’d landed a hit that could have potentially hobbled her prey. Something deep inside her nagged that she’d acted recklessly but she ignored it. She came out the other side of the hole just in time to see the cubs and smaller of the two devils dive into a pool of water across a small grove. The larger one remained, teeth bared, blood pouring from its leg where she’d already landed a hit.
It was ready for a fight.
Abby leveled the gun at the devil’s head. It could charge if it wanted, but it wouldn’t make it before taking a lethal shot. The devil made its move. Abby exhaled, squeezed the trigger, then flew sideways as something hit her.
Macy.
Abby quickly and easily pushed Macy aside, scrambled back up and jerked the muzzle up to meet her prey, but Macy had bought the thing time. Too much time. Before she could even get a solid aim, the warm wet mouth of the devil wrapped around her leg and upset the balance she’d just regained. She gripped hard to the gun. It was her only escape. As the devil dragged her across the ground, she tried to twist to find a shot, but didn’t manage the maneuver before she heard a splash, before the coldness of the lake consumed her.
The teeth of the devil tore into the flesh of her leg, but she could hardly feel it. The freezing cold water of the lake almost immediately numbed any pain, or any feeling at all.
She tried to find something to hold onto with her free hand, but found only mud. She took a deep breath just as the devil dragged her under, muting her senses even further as she fought to escape. She couldn’t do it. She had no leverage. But she held onto the gun. She had to. No matter the cost.
The devil kept her underwater for what felt like an eternity. Her mind raced, adrenaline keeping it hyper-focused even as she began losing air. She could hardly feel the bottom anymore, her fingers swiping right through mud. Her speed through the water increased. Was this thing smart enough to know that it could drown her? Surely it could hold its breath far longer than she.
She twisted and spun, trying to get a good bead, but the murky water prevented her from seeing anything at all, her eyes immediately burning from the detritus in the water.
Just when she thought she’d pass out, her direction changed suddenly. Up, she thought. Confirmed when she breached the water and flew into the air. She gasped for breath, her leg finally free. The gun threatened to slip from her hand, but she held firmly. Below her, she saw the back of the devil briefly before it disappeared beneath the surface. They were on its turf now, and Abby’s disadvantages vastly outweighed any advantage her more advanced human brain may have granted her.
When she smashed back into the water, she scrambled to the surface, looking frantically for any sign of the devil upon her. Nothing. Other than the ripples caused by her own entrance, she saw nothing. It waited, though. She knew it did. Possibly two of them. They could rip her in half if they worked together. She needed to even the odds as best she could, and that meant breaking for the shore.
Slinging the gun across her shoulder, she dropped into a perfect form. Her legs offered what strength they could.
The lake was big. Too big. She only made it halfway before feeling water swish by her leg. Jaws crunched down on her midsection and dragged her under, as she held whatever breath she could. Again, she thrashed under the water, striking the jaws that gripped her. The teeth sank further into her skin. She begged silently for relief—begged herself to give up. Yet she couldn’t. She wouldn’t.
For Ben.
For Beatty.
She owed them every last ounce of her strength.
She tried for the gun, but couldn’t get it untangled from her shoulder, and possibly the devil’s teeth. Instead, she punched as hard as she could against its snout, the water lessening her momentum.
Then, once again, her direction changed, up, up and out of the water, flying through the air until she landed with a splash at least ten feet away from her exit. She gasped for air, fumbled the gun back into her hands, and waited. Clearly, it wouldn’t let her make it to the shore. It came faster this time, jerking at her ankle and dragging her back under. She felt her bones crunching this time as its bite closed with more force. It must have been tempering its strength before. Playing with her.
Abby would’ve cried if not for her immersion in the cold lake. Even her legendary stoicism couldn’t shake the pain she now felt. As she flowed through the water, though, she wormed her way around, trying to do enough of a sit up to aim the gun at the amorphous blob that she hoped was the devil’s head. Water wouldn’t slow the bullet down enough to prevent its lethality.
She took the shot.
Immediately, the pressure on her leg relented and she burst to the surface. Shaking her head to get the water from her eyes, she pulled the muzzle of the gun above the water, readying for another attack. But none came. Instead, she heard a plop as a dark mass floated to the surface of the water, still and unmoving. Had she done it? Had she really done it?
She watched carefully for any sign of movement. She saw no sign of life. Holy hell. She’d actually done it. The adrenaline keeping her alive still pulsed, but faltered, her head spinning. She had to get to shore before she passed out. Her victory would be hollow if she drowned.
Nothing stopped her from moving forward in the water. No movement. No splashes. No noises. She climbed onto the mud and grass and rolled to her back, gasping for breath.
She leaned forward to see what she’d wrought. The mass only floated. Still no movement. She couldn’t believe it, though. After all that, the last shot had been too easy. Too quick.
A ripple of water lapped against the mud at her feet, drawing her eyes across the lake to a writhing, slinking form, moving towards the dead devil. It stopped there, though, making no movement towards Abby. She saw the giant otter-head pop out of the water, then turn the carcass over until it faced upward. She knew then that she had succeeded. She knew the face of the dead when she saw it.
The smaller devil let out a piercing howl that shook Abby to her core. Though a different species from one another, she had no doubt the meaning of that sound. Abby had made the same sound the night Ben had died.
Now they were even.
Taking another deep breath, Abby forced herself to her feet, wincing at the pain and careful to not make any more noise than she had to. Though the smaller devil seemed content to mourn, that sorrow would soon enough turn to rage.
Pop.
A gunshot. Abby fell back to the ground. Waited for another.
Only one, though. She glanced about the lake, spotted Miriam tackling the blue-haired girl to the ground. An unlikely ally, but Abby was all too happy for any help she could get. She had no quarrel with the scientists here to find the devil. Abby’s job was done. The mission complete. Her life of hell avenged.
She stood back up, neither of the girls looking at her as they quarreled with one another. Abby reached for her radio, surprised to find it and then called in for the extraction. One more trek out to the airfield. Then it would be over, and she’d never have to return to this god forsaken forest ever again.
