Everyone who was alive or didn’t run away smiled as they watched the wrecked armoured car erupt in napalm flames. They did it! They did the impossible! Every last one of them believed they had finally killed the monster they had been hunting for months. Nothing could’ve survived being showered in napalm. A grenade gifted by ProTech with the belief that the reptile could easily be dispatched. To Mark, it seemed the strange war crime of a weapon was what was needed to put a monster down.
‘That’s fucking right, asshole! Suck it!’ Jackie swore before rushing up to Mark to hug him. Cheering loudly with the other mercs before Mark had to push him off to get some distance. Celebrating the death of a target was one thing, even more so as the heavy armaments hadn’t arrived yet. However, Mark wanted to keep things professional until they got their payment.
Jackie lowered his weapon and walked outside to face everyone involved in the battle. ‘We are going to be rich!’ He screamed, grinning like an idiot while oblivious to the world around him. One could conclude that even though he walked around a battlefield covered in the dead, the feeling of victory was the most enticing and overpowering of them all. But at the same time, they were hunting Jackson for months, and they were all glad it was finally over.
Then, the tipped armoured car moved. Jackie flinched, but he stayed in one place like a deer looking directly at headlights. Unsure of what he had heard. The nightmare wasn’t over like they thought. The napalm wasn’t the weapon to put down the monster like they were promised.
Everyone held their breath, their eyes wide with the sudden, frightening realisation. The target could be alive. Everyone except Jackie quickly reloaded their weapons to insert a fresh magazine. Their grips tightened as the loud pop came from the car, like something was being ripped off its hinges. Flames moved independently, as if something was emerging from the lowest pits of Hell.
Like the devil being welcomed into the land of the living. Jackson walked out of the wreckage with an armoured car door in one hand and a knife in the other. Covered in flaming jelly, his green scales radiated a green glow as if a rod of iron had been left in a furnace to heat up. Besides being hurt, the reptile seemed annoyed as his clothes erupted in flames and turned to ash. As gel slid off the reptile’s bill like water sliding off a duck’s back. Mark looked in horror as Jackson’s cold blue eyes stared back. Emotionless, but ready to slaughter everyone in his wake.
Before Jackie could turn away, Jackson threw a knife at the back of his head and split it in half. Seeing that the monster was alive and well, Mark and every other merc fired at the reptile. In retaliation, Jackson raised the armoured door to shield himself from the barrage of bullets and a hail of grenades aimed at him from their underslung grenade launchers. It kept him in place, holding the reptile at bay as people kept shooting and shooting. Almost being able to knock Jackson off balance with every detonation of a 40mm.
However, Mark knew it was only a delay tactic. Sensing something was going to happen, he turned and ran away from the area to reach the stairs. Just in time, for as soon as everyone had emptied the entirety of their first magazine, it was the reptile’s turn to strike back. He threw the door at the second floor, crashing through reinforced concrete to slice one of the mercs in half.
Then, he leapt into action. Running into the nearest merc group on the first floor with a hammer in hand. At frightening speeds, a young man tried to shoot at Jackson to kill him. They managed to hit Jackson’s stomach, but it wasn’t enough to bring the charging monster down. In seconds, Jackson picked up the young mercenary from under his vest and slammed him into the wall headfirst. Compressing his spine to make it so that it looked like he only had 5 of the 33 vertebrae.
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Blood splattered everywhere, evaporating as soon as it came in contact with the napalm still clinging to Jackson’s scarred scales. A second merc spun to face Jackson, their brain unable to process how fast the reptile moved and killed their comrade with ease. However, there was nothing they could do. Not when the reptile reached for his hammer and struck the merc from under their chin. This causes the merc’s head to come clean off their body and embed into the roof.
A third merc came out from the corner with a shotgun at the ready, bravely charging in to take the fight to the reptile. But bravado was met with an unnecessary amount of force and violence. So Jackson didn’t give the merc a quick death. Instead, he struck the underside of his chest with a hammer, snapping the handle in the process. Hitting the exact point with the right amount of force to break a rib and have it puncture into his lung and slice open his liver. In excruciating pain, the merc collapsed to the ground, gasping and crying. To die a slow and painful death, alone in a pool of his own tears and regretful thoughts. Just what Jackson wanted.
Fortunately for Mark, he made it to the second floor. Rushing to the nearest improvised machine gun nest to get some cover. ‘This mission is fucked beyond repair!’ Mark hastily said to the guys manning the station. ‘How the hell is that crocodile-looking ass not fucking dead!?’
‘We got the bastard to bleed at least.’ Recognising the voice, Mark looked up to see the man who replied had red hair. The same guy he had met months ago, who had refused to have Mark in his group and beaten him up in a fistfight. Now, they were both stuck together. Forced to fight a monster that would take both of their lives without thought or care.
‘Yeah, bleeding. At least we know that we could kill it.’ Mark responded, trying to find reassurance. Doing his best to think of anything positive in the situation and a way for him to survive.
Everyone on the second floor took up defensive positions, aiming their rifles at the stairs or any possible point of entry. They saw how easily Jackson jumped over a 2 metre fence. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine that he could jump onto their floor to repeat the vicious cycle of violence and slaughtering them to the man.
Mark whispered to one of the mercs. ‘Any news about ProTech? How long until they fucking get here?’
‘Hell if I know, mate.’ She responded with a thick Australian accent. ‘30 minutes, give or take. Bastards are taking their bloody time.’
‘You don’t say,’ he responded while looking around for a possible escape route. The tight space and corridors made everyone comfortable, invincible, as they had the advantage. But Mark wasn’t so certain. He knew they were all in a death trap, and he needed to get out of there as soon as possible. The only problem, there was no safe way to escape.
While everyone was trying to keep an eye out for Jackson, Mark hopped up and slowly backed away from the stairs to the third floor. A fight was coming, and he preferred not to be there when it inevitably broke out.
