“…You lost Tank?” Cortez actually looked a little sad at the news of the cow’s very sudden, very violent death.

“Were you listening? The fucking thing nearly got me. Screw the cow.”

Cortez shot him an annoyed look.

Summers sat on his ass, trying to catch his breath while the others were on high alert. Seeing something that big, that close to him was not an experience he looked to repeat. The only reason he could stay calm was his certainty the monster he’d found wouldn’t have been able to fit in their small cave.

Nowak had already posted up at the cave’s entrance, looking out into the rainy night.

“You’re absolutely sure it isn’t heading this way?”

“Pretty sure.” Summers gasped between words. “No way it saw me at least. Don’t think it can sniff us out through the rain either.”

Nowak took one last look outside, then moved to the Humvee. He flipped through his book, looking at some notes.

“You said it was a lizard? Had a big mouth on it?”

“Yeah…”

“Some of the traders warned me about something like that, forgot the name they had for them.”

“The fucking elves deal with these things? How?” Summers looked at Asle.

She started to mime throwing something.

“Fire. Very effective.”

“Napalm more like, or something close to it. You just burn it and hope it doesn’t catch up to you before it dies. Or bleeds out.”

“Sounds fun.” Cortez was watching the entrance, her hand on a trigger Summers was almost certain would atomize anything that came close.

“Wait, you knew that thing was here? The hell were you thinking? It’s the size of a small fucking building.”

Nowak glanced back at Summers, concern on his face.

“Didn’t know they were that big, and it’s not like I had a lot of time to look into it.” Nowak flipped through the book a little too fast, his nerves were on edge. “Worse news, that’s not the only one. Every time I brought it up, they used the word for uh, herd? That right Asle?”

“They said there’s lots of them.” Asle agreed.

“Great…”

The Humvee rolled slowly forward. The windows were down, just in case something big tried to announce itself. Cortez was on the roof with her small arsenal, just waiting for the worst to come.

There was only one problem.

They were burning the incense that was supposed to keep most of the wildlife away. And it smelled. Bad. Frankly it was the foulest thing Summers had ever had the displeasure of experiencing in his life. It was as if someone had concentrated the essence of a poorly cleaned, heavily used amusement park bathroom, aged it for flavor, and tossed in some rotten meat for good measure.

Summers repressed the urge to gag. He was doing his best to keep his face neutral. From what he could tell, the others weren’t having any issues.

“We still good on gas?” Nowak asked from the passenger seat.

Summers checked the gauge. He’d probably need to top them off at the next stop. “For now, might get us to the coast. Might not.”

“After the main road, if we get to the other side of the canyon, we might be able to just coast down in neutral.”

“Sure…” Summers tried to clear his throat. The damn smell was killing him.

“The hell is the matter with you?” Nowak looked at Summers with concern.

“Nothing.” Summers lied.

Nowak just kept staring.

“Summers tell me what is going on.”

“It’s no-“

“It’s not nothing or I wouldn’t be asking.” Nowak interrupted. He stared at Summers for a long moment before he relented.

“I think the fog screwed with my sense of smell.”

“…How?”

“…I – it’s a lot stronger. And right now, those sticks you lit are making me want to get as far away from this Humvee as possible. If this is what it’s like for the animals, I don’t think anything’s coming close to us.”

Nowak sniffed the air.

“You can smell it?”

“I can fucking taste it. I feel like this is what dogs deal with.”

There was some silence as Nowak watched him.

He didn’t blame the guy, if Summers hadn’t had kept this secret, maybe they would have seen what happened with Adams coming.

“Any reason that we’re only hearing about this now?” Logan asked from the back.

“…I was hoping it would wear off… After what happened with Adams, I don’t think that’s likely.”

There was an awkward silence after that, broken when Summers felt a face close beside his.

“That’s creepy as hell.” Cortez had her head poked in through the driver’s side window. She was hanging upside down, leaning in from the rooftop. “What do I smell like?”

Summers pulled back a few inches, still trying to keep his eyes on the road. “I can sort of tell you guys apart I guess but it’s not like I can relate it to anything.”

“Anything else?” Nowak was looking at Summers, there was something he was leaving unsaid.

“...My hands are still kinda fucked up, least when it comes to fine motor stuff. But anything that’s muscle memory is almost better.” Summers thought. “And adrenaline is more… mental than it should be.”

“Like how?”

“Like I get pissed off in a fight pretty easily…”

He let that hang in the air, Nowak didn’t ask him to clarify. They’d already been in more than one fight since he went off the deep end. They knew he could hold it together. At least, he thought they knew.

Summers threw the Humvee in park. They’d hit a crossroads and Nowak wanted to double check their bearing. Every so often they’d come across a dirt path the map didn’t account for, some of them were game trails and others were just new trade routes the maps didn’t seem to account for. They could just as likely find a shortcut as some hick town’s driveway.

Summers unslung one of the gas cannisters from the back and started the arduous process of topping themselves off.

Then he smelled something, even through the barely tolerable smog the Humvee was putting out. Summers immediately scanned the horizon and saw another one of those small lizards.

It only just occurred to Summers that it was a baby version of the monster he’d seen. At the same time one twice its size rose up in the distance. Then another. And another.

“Guys…”

Nowak must have heard the worry in his voice because his head snapped to where Summers was looking. There were about a dozen dog sized lizards eyeing them. And more were starting to show themselves through the thick forest.

“Cortez, get on the Humvee!”

The lizards began moving in towards them.

“Screw it!”

Summers abandoned the mostly empty cannister, piling in with the others.

“The incense still burning?!” Nowak looked up to the rooftop.

“Yeah, we got more from the south.” Cortez called down.

Summers shifted the Humvee to drive.

“Stay slow, if they’re keeping a distance –“

As Nowak spoke Summers saw the lizards edging closer, through the smoke.

“Sarge, I don’t think this shit’s working.”

“Cortez!”

Summers gunned it just as gunfire from up top erupted. Then a lizard twenty feet in front of them exploded into a fine red mist.

As if on cue a cluster of lizards rushed in from behind. Summers jammed the accelerator in response, unfortunately with all the crap they’d piled on, their Humvee wasn’t as mobile as Summers would have liked.

“Shit!” Nowak blurted while readying his gun. He angled the barrel out the window, firing into anything that got too close.

Then it appeared in front of them, a thirty-five-foot-tall monster Summers could only assume was the alpha of the pack. No doubt it was the same he’d run into earlier. And they were heading right for it.

It roared and the other beasts surged forward. Only vaguely Summers realized they were herding them towards it.

“Cortez!”

“I fucking see it!”

Summers heard the thump of one of their MAAWS, followed by an explosion that resounded in his teeth. The monster rocked back, but still managed to stay on its feet. It was distracted just long enough for Summers to blow past it.

Not fast enough as it turned out, some of the lizards must have caught up, Summers could feel something tear loose. One of the smaller creatures managed to cling to the window frame with its teeth, Logan fired, killing it and leaving a hole in their previously pristine Humvee.

And now Summers was having a hard time hearing over the ringing in his ears.

Vaguely he saw Nowak gesturing, he took the risk of turning his head only to see a minivan sized lizard charging in from their right. It wasn’t as big as the first one, but he was certain it could fuck up their day just as easily.

Summers jammed the brakes just before the creature would have slammed into them, then saw Cortez flip head over heels onto the hood.

“You fucking asshole!”

“Less yelling, more shooting!” Nowak responded.

Cortez flipped onto her back and finished priming the rocket in her hands.

Thump. Boom!

The backblast cracked the windshield as the creature took the hit in its head, it fell to the ground with a resounding crash, then lay unmoving. Cortez was already crawling up to the roof again as Summers accelerated, ignoring the damage to their already run-down Humvee.

Cortez fired another rocket, considering what was behind him Summers was hoping it hit its mark. He swerved around a cluster of lizards, then saw where they were headed. A road wound around a mountain pass. It seemed to be the only way through the steep cliffs up ahead. Hopefully, it would probably bottleneck anything that tried to follow them.

Cortez fired from the roof almost nonstop. They were getting some distance between the creatures now, just as an odd sputtering noise resounded from the engine.

Summers was halfway up the first stretch of the mountain pass when he realized they were running out of gas.

“It’s not going to make it up the hill!”

Summers didn’t waste time fighting with the machine, he grabbed his gun and stepped outside, helping cull the first wave of lizards that charge up the hill after them. What was with these things?!

“Are you serious?!” Cortez yelled from the roof.

“Buy me enough time to gas it up!” Summers was already heading to the back when he saw the claw marks where their last full cannister was supposed to be. “We’re out of gas.”

“What?!” Nowak responded.

“We’re not moving!” Summers yelled.

Nowak glanced at the empty spot beside Summers. It didn’t take him long to catch up.

Then another roar interrupted their conversation. The big one was back. It had a huge chunk taken out of its side, but it was looking more pissed than hurt.

Summers saw Cortez lining up a shot with her final rocket, then fire.

The creature charged, avoiding the rocket with an agility that belayed its enormous size. It splashed harmlessly on the cliff beside it.

“Shit…”

They had nothing else that could kill something that big. Nothing Summers could think of. Grenades? No. The C-4? There wasn’t enough time to rig it up.

They needed time.

“I’ll try to lead it away!” Summers yelled. He only took a second to grab something from the back. The Humvee would block the creature’s charge, at least long enough for them to get some distance, maybe set up a trap. They just needed someone to distract it.

Summers fired his weapon, charging at the still approaching creature. It didn’t even seem to register the gunfire, or it was too pissed to care.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!” Summers watched as the creature barreled closer, far faster than he would have assumed it capable of.

It didn’t pause for Summers. It didn’t even try to attack him. From the monster’s perspective, Summers would either be trampled underfoot, or killed by the growing horde behind it. That’s why Summers had grabbed the jar of fog. As it approached, Summers fired a 4mm grenade towards its head. As it hit the creature stumbled, and Summers tossed the jar at its face. As it shattered, the creature stopped.

To Summers’ surprise, the monster made to move to stop him as he sprinted by, much like his own experience its entire body seemed to seize, if only for one brief moment. Summers reloaded and took the chance to look back at the top of the road.

His friends hadn’t run.

They hadn’t even moved. From what he could tell they were trying to push down the crap on top of the Humvee.

Then the creature turned on him. He could already see the fog taking effect as it looked down on him hungrily.

This might not have been the best idea.

He’d hoped one of the bigger lizards would have followed this thing, then this bastard would have a target other than him. But so far nothing had made its way up the road.

It roared and changed directions, at least he’d bought his friends a few seconds. As the creature was nearly on top of him, he fired another grenade into its head, it reeled back only for a moment, slamming its head into the canyon wall, shattering a good chunk of rock. He had no doubt it would recover fast.

Then he heard a horn.

Summers turned to see the Humvee rolling downhill, directly towards him. Cortez bailed from the driver's side, detonator in hand. Summers immediately understood what was about to happen.

The Humvee slammed into the creature, then exploded.

It was a good thing Summers was on the other side of the monster’s enormous mass, because otherwise he might not have survived. The creature was lifted off its feet from the blast and tossed back. As it fell, Summers saw the hood of the Humvee lodged into a gaping hole in its chest.

Even with most of its head and chest caved in, it was still struggling for two minutes before he saw it finally lay still.

The rest of the lizards were a shooting gallery for Summers, nothing big enough that he couldn’t handle alone. They must have realized what had happened to their alpha, because most didn’t bother making the attempt.

When he was done Summers stood among the wreckage, before them were the bodies of the dead lizards, the smoldering corpse of the big one, and burning wreckage of their Humvee that seemed to stretch on for miles.

Summers was breathing hard, trying to comprehend how he was still alive.

“Son of a bitch…”

His gaze finally landed on all the cargo Cortez and the others had managed to save. It stood in a neat pile at the side of the winding path. Months of food, clothing, and supplies. Not to mention their ammunition. And they had no way of moving it up the mountain.

Cortez stood beside the assortment of crap, looking annoyed.

“Would be nice if we had a cow, don't you think?”