Apocalyptic Pirates 5, page 22
The dragon was built like a fucking tank, and it was out for blood.
I’d never seen one so big before. It was easily as long as two tanker trucks, and its body was grotesquely huge with slabs of muscle like carved marble. Its legs and neck were as thick as tree trunks, and its head was the size of a small car. Its scales were a dull bronze color, its eyes were an almost neon yellow, and it lunged after the second Jeep like a dog chasing a ball.
The driver was throwing the vehicle this way and that way to try and dodge its attacks, and the Jeep doors were open and swinging wildly on their hinges as the soldiers hung out of the doors and attempted to fire at the enormous monster.
“Wait!” I yelled.
I dashed back to the Jeep, grabbed my gun from the back, ran back to the edge of the gully and began climbing up back to the road.
The others followed me. I grabbed handfuls of ferns and grasses, and my hands were filthy from clawing at the damp earth, but we quickly made it to the top and stumbled breathlessly out onto the track.
The dragon was so huge, it completely straddled the road. Its head lunged forward on its snakelike neck as it aimed for the Jeep, but then it recoiled back as gunfire cracked through the air.
“Wait!” I yelled again and started to run toward the dragon.
“Drew!” Sergeant Rodriguez grabbed my arm and dragged me back.
“That sound is going to bring every predator down on our heads!” I shouted. “This thing is so huge, it’s got no maneuverability in the trees, we can outpace it!”
“It’s too late,” he shouted back. “They’re not going to hear you.”
The sergeant was right.
Just the sound alone was enough to show what a step up these guns were from our old rifles. The noise of each bullet smashed through the air and set my ears ringing. And as huge as the dragon was, it was already faltering under the onslaught.
It took an unsteady step back, and underneath its enormous body, I had a clear sight of the Jeep screeching to a halt and the soldiers spilling out of it with their guns blazing in full force.
The dragon roared, and then its head jerked up as a bullet crashed into its skull. Blood spurted out from the bullet wound and spattered down on the earth. More shots rang out and smacked with deadly force into the dragon’s head. Its lower jaw shattered under the impact, and blood poured out of its throat and gushed down its neck. Splinters of teeth and bone pinged everywhere, and my hand flew to my face as a tiny shard whizzed past me and opened a thin slice on my cheek.
The dragon gurgled out an agonized cry. Another shot shattered its front leg, and it sank to its knee. Then it collapsed, and its enormous body fell to the ground with an earth-shaking thud.
The soldiers let out a cheer that echoed through the trees.
“Oh, god, no,” Shannon gasped.
“Silencio!” Sergeant Rodriguez barked.
But it was too late.
If the gunshots weren’t enough, then the sound of human triumph were guaranteed to bring the rest of the dragons out of the jungle, and I whirled around as a guttural roar sounded behind us.
Two more dragons burst out of the trees and landed on the track with a thud. One was red, and the other was a weird, milky-gray color. They were smaller than the gigantic monster we’d just faced, but they were just as fierce, and their smaller size meant they could maneuver through the forest more easily than their giant counterpart.
I barely had time to raise my gun before they were charging straight for us.
I fired, and was momentarily deafened by the roar of the gun. That, combined with some leftover dizziness from the crash meant that my aim was off, and I didn’t even see where my bullet went. The only thing that mattered was that it had completely missed both dragons, and there were more of the fuckers crawling out of the forest.
The red and milky-gray dragons charged forward, but then Shannon stepped up. In one smooth motion, she fitted the rifle into her shoulder and unleashed a storm of carefully aimed bullets at the attacking creatures.
Her bullets ripped through their necks and heads, and the red dragon coughed out a surprised shriek before it stumbled and fell to the ground. Blood sprang out on the pale dragon’s chest in shockingly bright smears, and it veered off the track and skidded down through the ferns and bushes. It left a trail of smashed and broken vegetation in its wake, and I leveled my gun at it and sent a bullet straight through the back of its neck.
It crashed without a sound into the ground and laid still.
But there were more dragons on the way, and now they were coming at us from all sides. They swarmed out of the trees and crashed through the undergrowth with their huge heavy bodies snapping trees and breaking bushes in their furious charge up to the road.
I spun around and counted five, six, more than eight dragons coming from all directions.
I was aware of the women and Sergeant Rodriguez nearby. They were all firing steadily at the dragons rushing at us out of the trees, and behind the huge fallen corpse of the dragon, I heard gunfire that implied that the rest of the team were dealing with dragons from that side as well.
“They’re fucking everywhere!” Dia panted.
“Every shot we fire just draws more of them in!” Shannon yelled.
“Keep firing!” I bellowed. “We’ve got to keep them at bay.”
A hoarse scream rang out from behind the dragon corpse.
Sergeant Rodriguez whirled around with his face set.
“Can you handle yourselves here?” he demanded.
“Go on, we’ve got this,” I shouted.
The Sergeant sprayed out a final hail of bullets and then ran back along the road, vaulting over the fallen dragon’s sprawled tail to reach the rest of the soldiers.
Another scream ripped through the air behind us.
I hoped it wasn’t the Sergeant, but I couldn’t think about anything beyond the weight of the gun in my arms, the pressure of my finger on the trigger, and the kick against my shoulder as I sent more bullets crashing into the oncoming dragons.
A small yellow dragon with green eyes suddenly lunged up at me from out of the greenery on the side of the road. It was tiny enough to hide in the ferns, and it had snuck up to the track without my noticing.
I skipped back out of reach of its gaping jaws, sent a bullet smashing between its eyes, and its entire head just fucking exploded.
Blood and brains splattered over the dirt. Red drops of blood and fluid smacked against my boots and hit the front of my jacket, and I swore I felt some hit my face. The last thing I wanted was to have any of that fucking dragon blood on me, but there wasn’t any time to scrub it away, because just then I looked up and saw more horrors whirling out of the trees.
“Watch out, guys!” I hollered. “More of those fucking babies!”
“Oh, shit,” Dia shouted.
“I hate these fucking things!” Shannon sent a bullet into a dark green dragon that was running at the path and opened a gushing red hole in its throat. It stumbled, fell, and skidded through the ferns while plowing a furrow through the earth in its wake.
Then Shannon was at my side, and we both launched a hail of bullets at the swarm of baby dragons that was rushing toward us out of the forest.
The tiny shitheads were just as fucking terrifying and annoying as I remembered.
They wheeled about in the air above our heads as they made their hideous chittering cries, and then they dive-bombed us with their claws and fangs bared.
They were moving so fast that it was difficult to aim, especially with a heavier gun, and I kept fucking missing the little brats. But then I just clipped one in the shoulder, and where one of our old bullets would just have left a graze wound, this new ammo practically ripped the little fucker’s wing off.
It plummeted to the ground with a piercing squeal, and I finished it off seconds after its body thudded against the dirt.
But we couldn’t keep looking up at the sky to fend off the babies while we were also having to constantly look around to fire at the adults that were still coming at us out of the trees.
Another agonized scream rang out behind us, and I knew we were running out of time and out of men.
“We can’t carry on like this!” I shouted to the women. “There are just too many dragons for us to shoot them all!”
“As soon as we take down one, two more take its place,” Shannon yelled back in agreement.
“What do we do, Drew?” Ally yelled.
“We need to get the Jeep back upright,” I shouted. “If we can get it back up on four wheels, we can drive it out of here.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Shannon yelled.
“Okay!” I threw a quick glance over my shoulder to check that the way back was clear. “If we retreat back to the dragon carcass, then you guys can use it as cover while I check on Sergeant Rodriguez.”
“Got it!” Shannon took out another baby that was diving on us out of the sky, and her bullet took the fucking thing’s head clean off, which showered all of us in a smattering of dragon blood.
“Oh, Lord, it’s in my hair,” Letty wailed.
“Who the fuck cares about your hair!” Dia retorted. “Fucking shoot the fucking things!”
“Come on!” I yelled. “Follow me!”
I ran along the road back to the dragon carcass. Its huge bronze body loomed up in front of me like a damn mountain, and as I ran into its shadow, the smell of blood and viscera oozing from its massive carcass was overpowering. The stench of it filled my nostrils, and I was briefly dizzied by it. But my body was moving on autopilot, and as the women pressed their backs against the huge, scaled mountain and unleashed cover fire, I leaped over the dragon’s tree trunk of a tail and landed on the other side of the road.
It was a grim sight on this side.
The Jeep was still upright, and the soldiers were crouching behind it and trying to use it as a shield against the swarm of baby dragons that were attacking them.
Even as I landed, one of the tiny bastards dived in past their fire and raked its claws down one soldier’s face. He fell with a scream that echoed in my ears as blood poured out of the wreck of his face, and the baby buried its teeth in his neck and ripped out his throat.
My rifle was up and my finger was on the trigger before I had time to think.
The baby was too distracted with its prey to look out for threats, and my bullets blew open a line of ragged red wounds in its chest and neck. It fell with a gurgle.
I rushed over to the fallen soldier, but Sergeant Rodriguez was there first.
He frantically kicked away the baby dragon’s body and yelled the soldier’s name.
But the man’s eyes were glassy as marbles, and there was no coming back from the horrific wounds on his face and neck.
“There are too many of them.” The Sergeant’s face was smeared with blood, and there was a livid, gory scratch down one cheek that disappeared into the ripped neck of his jacket. “We’re getting slaughtered out here.”
“I know,” I shouted. “We’re going to have to run for it. We have to get the other Jeep back on its wheels, otherwise we’re not going to make it out of here alive.”
“Are the women okay?” the Sergeant shouted.
“Yeah, they’re okay, and they can provide us cover fire while we get the Jeep back up.” I looked around quickly at the remaining soldiers. “Are you wounded? Can you still shoot?”
“I’m fine, but Ramirez is hurt. He can help with cover fire.” The Sergeant raised his voice and yelled some commands in Spanish to the rest of the soldiers. “Go tell the women to cover us, and we’ll make for the Jeep.”
I vaulted back over the dragon’s tail.
The women were pressed against the carcass and systematically firing at every dragon that tried to rush down the road. With four of them each taking a different direction, and with the dragon’s fallen body providing a shield for their backs, the method seemed to be working.
“We’re going to try to tip the Jeep over,” I shouted. “But we need you guys to cover us.”
Another soldier had followed me over the tail, presumably on the Sergeant’s command. He was limping, and his uniform was stained with blood.
“Ramirez?” I questioned.
“Si.” He nodded. “I’m here for cover fire.”
“Okay,” Shannon yelled. “Go for it, we’ve got you guys.”
Ramirez took up a position along with the other women and opened fire as I ran to the edge of the road and peered down into the gully where the Jeep laid.
A dragon suddenly roared, and my head snapped up to see a bright red fucker rushing at me from out of the trees.
But then a rain of bullets sang out overhead from the women behind me, and the dragon’s head snapped back under the impact of the bullets smacking into its skull. It fell with a weird groaning sound.
Sergeant Rodriguez and the other soldiers had joined me, and we slid down the gully into the ferns and ran toward the Jeep.
Being so close to it and seeing what a sturdy vehicle it was, I had to fight a moment’s doubt that we’d actually be able to manage to move this thing at all.
But the Sergeant barked a few commands, and the soldiers instantly divided into two teams, one to push and one to pull. Rodriguez gestured for me to join him on the pushing side, and I threw my shoulder against the hood and shoved with all my might.
The Jeep didn’t move an inch.
“Rock it,” the Sergeant grunted. “We’ve got to rock it and use the momentum to push it over.”
I threw my weight forward when he did, and the soldiers on the other side of the vehicle coordinated their efforts and heaved.
The Jeep rocked.
A dragon roared somewhere nearby, but I couldn’t look around to see where it came from.
Gunfire cracked out from the women back on the road. There was a shriek from a dragon, and then a chittering gurgle that had to have come from one of the babies.
The Jeep groaned.
Sweat was pouring down my face. My muscles were screaming in agony, and my feet kept slipping in the torn-up dirt.
The Jeep rocked some more, and the soldiers on the other side let out a triumphant groan as the vehicle teetered on its side.
“Push,” the Sergeant grunted. “Empujar. Push!”
“Jalar!” the soldiers groaned.
I set my teeth and pushed with every ounce of strength I had.
The Jeep swayed, and with an almighty groan, it rocked over and came down on all four wheels with a crash.
I felt like cheering, but there wasn’t any time.
Sergeant Rodriguez was instantly behind the wheel. He started the engine, and it kicked into life without a falter.
“Get in, Drew!” he yelled. “Todos los demás, regresen al otro Jeep!”
I leaped into the passenger seat beside him. The soldiers began to climb back up the gully to get back to the first Jeep.
“Will this thing make it back up there?” I shouted.
“You bet it will.” The Sergeant spun the wheel and punched the gas.
The Jeep roared and lurched forward. Its tires bit into the wet earth and it strained up the side of the gully. For a second at the top it seemed to waver, and I was sure that we were going to plummet back down again into the gully, but its tires caught and held, and we crashed back onto the road next to the other Jeep.
I leaped out and ran back to the dragon carcass.
“Guys!” I yelled. “Let’s go, let’s go!”
The women and Ramirez threw themselves over the dragon’s tail and ran for the Jeep, but Ramirez stumbled almost instantly and nearly fell.
I grabbed him and threw his arm over my shoulder.
“Thanks,” he panted.
“No problem,” I gasped, and I half-dragged, half-supported him back to the Jeep, and pulled him into one of the seats at the back.
Shannon was in the front passenger seat next to the Sergeant, and she leaned out of the passenger window and unleashed a round of bullets at the dragons that were already charging around and leaping over the giant carcass in pursuit.
I slammed the door shut, the Sergeant hit the gas, and the vehicle lurched forward after the first Jeep which was already roaring down the track.
The movement jolted Shannon back into her seat, but Ramirez reached above our heads and drew back a catch that opened a hatch in the roof. He clambered awkwardly onto the seat next to me, propped himself against the headrest of the middle row of seats, and began firing at the dragons.
More gunfire sounded from outside, and I saw that the other Jeep had also popped open its roof and had a gunman firing at the dragons that were still pursuing us.
“These guys don’t know when to quit, do they?” Sergeant Rodriguez grunted.
“You know, I think we’re leaving them behind,” Shannon said in excited tones.
I craned my neck around to see behind us, and realized that Shannon was right. The bigger dragons must have been running out of steam, or they weren’t bothering to chase after such difficult prey when the forest must have been full of much easier options.
There was a small, dark blue fucker that was still chasing after us, but Ramirez leveled his rifle and aimed between its livid red eyes and dropped it like a stone.
“Yes!” Shannon whooped. “Go on!”
“Did you see the size of that brown one?” Ally gasped with her eyes wide. “I’ve never seen one that big before, it was gigantic.”
“We’ve never seen one in a habitat like this before,” I said grimly. “This must be what they look like when they’re able to free range in a place where they’re at the top of the food chain.”
“Yeah,” Letty agreed. “I mean, when you think about it, we’ve never encountered dragons that have survived this long in an environment that’s so perfect for them. Before, they’ve been on islands or near cities, but this is a jungle. And if that brown dragon landed here during the meteorite storm, it’s had weeks and weeks to just grow and eat and thrive without any interruptions.”
“That’s fucking scary,” Dia said. “To think that that’s how big these fuckers can get that fast. How big would that thing have gotten if we hadn’t shot it?”
