EXCERPT

[Ben]

Here's a brief excerpt from "Chupacabras on a Boat." It doesn't actually feature a boat, but it does have chupacabras, so, y'know... 50% ain't bad, right?

Rhymes gripped his M4 and stuck close to Columbus as they threaded their way around the staggered formation of buildings. Behind him, the hulking Erekson lugged his massive machine gun, and it looked like two squads of Mexican soldiers were backing them up.

Columbus took a knee at the next corner and held up a fist. The entire group stopped and waited. Columbus looked around the corner.

“McCollin...” he said.

Rhymes frowned. It had been three weeks, and these guys still wouldn’t call him Rhymes. Rhymes leaned around the corner a bit and saw Columbus’ worry. The main dormitory, a long two-story building, was swarming with creatures.

“That’s... a lot,” Rhymes said.

“Yeah,” Columbus said. “Base, we are severely outnumbered here. Our intel was crap.”

In both their ears, Peyton said, “The nest must extend underground. That’s the only way the satellite wouldn’t have picked up these kinds of numbers.”

“Like an ant hill,” Rhymes suggested.

“Exactly.”

“Well,” Columbus said, “that’s great. How do you suggest we kill this many of them?”

“Good question,” Kent cut in from across the base.

“We should have just bunker-busted this place from orbit,” Rhymes said.

“Satellite says there are still men in some of these buildings,” Peyton said. “The General won’t authorize an air strike until all survivors are accounted for.”

“Shit,” Kent muttered, still on the line.

One of the Mexican soldiers moved up to Columbus and Rhymes. “Why do we wait?” he asked. Columbus noted the man’s rank, and saw that he was probably in charge of this base now.

“Trying to decide what to do,” he replied. “We have to find a way to get your men out of there.”

“We will not leave without them,” the soldier said resolutely.

Columbus nodded and clapped him on the shoulder. “I know. Neither will we.” To Kent, he said, “Orders, sir?”

“Split up,” Kent came back. “One team causes distractions, the other does extractions. At your discretion.”

Columbus looked at Rhymes, who nodded. “Acknowledged,” Columbus said. “I’ll be the bait. McCollin, you take these six here and you get those men out of the dorm when we draw them off.”

“Got it.”

Columbus and Erekson took several of the soldiers with them and scurried off into the darkness.

Rhymes took up Columbus’ position at the corner, motioning for his team to wait. They looked exhausted, wounded, but eager. He knew the feeling.
A moment later he heard the guttural pounding of Erekson’s machine gun and looked around the corner toward the barracks. Columbus and the others were firing at the creatures skittering along the walls, running toward the dorm’s shortest wall. As he ran, Columbus pulled the pins on two grenades and hurled them through the dorm’s windows. A moment later, there was a flash and a loud cracking.

“Flash-bangs,” Rhymes said to the soldier, who gave him a quizzical look. “Stun grenades. Get ready!”

He stood, and the soldiers followed his lead. He looked back across at the dorm and saw creatures flooding out of the door and windows, howling and disoriented. Columbus and Erekson began to clean them up, blowing brains and guts all over the dirt. This place will be a nasty swamp when we’re done, Rhymes thought.

“Go, go, go!” he said and rushed out.

The soldiers followed him. He pressed himself up against the wall of the barracks by one of the doors, and the lead soldier raised his gun to cover him. Rhymes nodded, spun, and kicked in the door. Inside was dark, but his flashlight burned it away, revealing a horrific sight. Six men sat, frightened and huddled, in the center of the dorm’s largest room. Arrayed all around them were the corpses of their comrades, faces eaten off until their heads were merely openings down into their necks.

And there was no blood.