The soldiers split into two groups. Ecks, who seemed to be in charge of logistics, lead the second. Daniel and Sam tagged along. They had eight soldiers in black gas masks, including Ecks. One of them, a thin woman the others called "France" for reasons unknown was getting a drone in the air.
Sam almost spoke up, but Daniel nudged her. They waited until Ms. Henderson's group had vanished to the east before speaking.
"Now that the monster is in the open air, we can get you close" Daniel said. France frowned at him, then the drone, then Ecks.
"Get it up anyway. Don't never hurt to have more information."
On his own, Ecks took on a new demeanor. He spoke with a broad accent somewhere south of Carolina and projected an air of casual comfort. Daniel could see it relaxing the men and women around him.
Ecks knew that Daniel could have mentioned that earlier but knew better than to ask why he didn't. Either he knew, or he knew enough to know that knowing wasn't going to help anyone. A good second in command for Bennet to have.
"How close can you get us?" French asked. She was sharp edged and exasperated. It had been a long day walking around the most boring town in the mid-west. It was going to be a long night.
"If it's still outside, Daniel can lead us right to it" Sam said.
The creature had not remained outside. Daniel got them to the northwest of town before the pop and crackle magic became too suffused to identify a direction. Something magical had come this way and spent time here. Maybe it was still here, maybe it had been here.
They stood at the edge of a derelict farm. An overgrown yard loomed behind a chain link fence. Somewhere, behind the bushes and vines, the white facade of a wooden house loomed out of the gathering darkness.
"In there?" Ecks asked.
"Near here." Daniel said. "If it was still outside, I'd probably be able to get us closer."
"Are there any other buildings on the property, French?"
French squinted at her tablet, it was blinding in the night. There were no streetlights this far from the center of town. Daniel did his best not to look. He needed his night vision intact for what came next.
"There's a large shed behind the main property."
Several of the soldiers cursed.
"Night vision" Ecks said. The soldiers flicked accessories down over their masks, giving them an ethereal appearance. Transforming the soldiers into many-eyed monsters of their own.
"It dislikes the light." Daniel reminded them. "If you get caught, drop a flash grenade, light a flare."
"Anything else?" Ecks asked. Daniel felt that smile creeping onto his face again. He'd worked with some of these soldiers for years without knowing their names, without ever giving them advice directly. Being so directly valued felt… Good.
"It'll try to pick of stragglers. This thing's Tier III. It's smart. Treat it like a human opponent."
"Lovely." French muttered.
"Silver will kill it eventually. It stopped when I blew it's brain out." He paused. "Of course, it got up about thirty seconds later. So don't stop shooting."
He really hoped he was right about the silver.
A soldier cut the fence with a pair of bolt cutters, and they filed in. Sam, close behind Daniel. She didn't, he realized, have night vision. He had it, due to his trace, and the soldiers were operating on technology. He reached back and put her hand up on his shoulder.
She didn't say anything, but her grip was almost uncomfortably tight.
Daniel felt that too. Both in his shoulder and his throat. As they moved through the yard, magic filled the air like a fog. The soldiers moved through it professionally, unseeing. Daniel tried to match their confidence.
When they reached the house, Ecks clicked twice, which was apparently the signal to stop. Two soldiers approached the front door while the rest covered, and kicked it in.
The house had been abandoned for a while. There was a thick layer of dust on all surfaces. Nonetheless, Daniel could hear the hum of the electrical current in the walls. Good to know, maybe the lights would work if he needed them.
The black masks moved perfectly. Their breathing stifled and shallow, their footsteps almost silent. Three broke off and went up the stairs. Three waited outside the front, covering the yard. Three advanced across the living room with Daniel and Sam.
There was a photograph of some kind on a bookshelf empty of books. The face was down, so Daniel couldn't see what was on it. A glass cabinet had once displayed something valuable but had long since been broken.
Sam's breathing was ragged and rattling.
Daniel froze.
Sam's breathing was in his ear. Quiet, shallow, and sharp.
The soldiers' calm footsteps and measured breaths advanced in front of them.
Something else rattled and panted its way through the hall behind them.
He spun around, drawing his gun. Sam made a choked squeaking almost chirping noise that pulled Ecks' attention. Which was good, he saw just enough of what Daniel saw to freeze and raise his gun.
A spined, slithering, weaving tail vanishing behind the door they'd just come from.
He clicked sharply, and the other two soldiers spun as well.
"Wait." Daniel hissed.
They did, once Ecks held up a hand.
"I heard it."
"So?" He whispered back.
"It's hunting us. It snuck up on me before. If I heard it, it wanted me to."
Ecks' eyes narrowed. He tapped the radio on the side of his helmet and muttered into it. "Target sighted, first floor."
Then he turned to Daniel expectantly. "What do we do then?"
Daniel's mind raced, the adrenaline pushing him into overdrive, more thoughts faster than ever, none of them obviously connected. He felt Sam squeeze his shoulder hard and forced himself to take a breath. Connect the thoughts.
At the theater he'd made the mistake of thinking he could hunt it like an animal. It had dropped the curtain, maybe that'd been its plan all along. They had to stop thinking about it as a hunt. This was a fight, and they'd walked into the creature's lair, by the smell of it. The whole place reeked of magic. Maybe this was where the source was. It knew about guns, it knew where the soldiers were, because it could move through this house silently. It knew Daniel could hear it because he'd fallen for the lure in the theater.
Why had it chosen to show itself? Especially on the first floor, in-between each team.
He was still making the same mistake. It wasn't picking off the weak. It was hunting. It was hunting the person who'd hurt it before, who'd been able to follow it before.
He felt the smile returning to the side of his face. It was almost becoming a habit.
"It's hunting me." Daniel said. "It wants to lure you towards the landing, separate you from me and Sam."
Sam's grip grew tighter still on his shoulder. Daniel thought back to the overhead view of the house on French's drone screen.
"If it had pulled you into the landing, it could have approached from behind me by cutting through the kitchen. You wouldn't have been able to shoot past us."
Ecks' face fell. "It's a clever bastard."
"We didn't take the bait, so it'll try something else to lure—."
He hadn't finished the sentence when a burst of gunfire sounded upstairs.
BANG BANG BANG. Two assault rifles blaring. A stray round cut through the plaster ceiling and slammed into the glass case.
The three soldiers surged forward, towards the stairs. Daniel stopped Sam from following. They were going to have to solve this before anyone else got hurt.
The gunfire went silent, though someone was screaming in pain. Something rattled and scraped in the dark. The walls of the house. It was in the insulation.
Daniel pressed Sam's hand up against the plaster. "Sam," he said closing his eyes and listening. It was planning to pounce, jump through the thing board. He could hear it slowly scraping between supports. Struggling to fit.
It had underestimated him this time.
"8 feet in front, two feet up."
Sam took her second hand off his shoulder and pushed something through the wood. It rippled like water, bent like leaves in the wind, and then shattered. Daniel took a step back and flicked on the old electric light. It hummed, clicked. Something in the cloud of dust and darkness screamed in pain. Daniel shot at it three times, hearing a wet, yowling report each time. When the light finally clicked on, it was lumbering out of the wall. The spines near its mouth glistened with blood. Its many teeth shone in the flicker of the kitchen's solitary working lightbulb, but its flank dripped black blood. A syrupy gore poured from a mess of bullet holes and shattered spines. The soldiers upstairs had done their work. Daniel fired into the wound. It staggered and then lunged. Daniel could see it this time, and he was almost quick enough to dodge. Its great black paw caught the edge of his shoulder and tore a deep groove. Some kind of talon ripped through the Kevlar he wore underneath his white shirt. It was his left though, so he kept shooting. The creature hadn't expected him to dodge, and even better, he'd stayed on the wounded side.
Shots eight, nine, and ten all connected. Daniel flipped the mag release and wrestled his injured arm to his waist where ten more silver bullets waited. It took too long. The thing was limping, but it turned towards him inexorably. All too quickly. The black syrup was coming out of its mouth now, clearly his efforts had resulted in some kind of internal bleeding. Chunks of black syrup dripped between the creature's teeth as they squared off.
A burst of gunfire sprung from the landing. Two tight alternating sequences. Ecks had returned with one of the Black Masks from upstairs, French.
The creature twisted and fell, great masses of flesh peeling off under the sustained barrage. The soldiers abandoned the sequences and just fired until they ran out of ammunition. It was deafening. It was all Daniel could do to back away from the stream of bullets. Behind the creature, opposite him, he caught sight of Sam— standing.
What was she trying to do? The soldiers ran out of ammunition, and before they could even reload, the creature, missing half its flesh, was twitching. French swore loudly. Sam darted in, right up to its still gnashing jaw, and pressed her hand against it.
"GREEN" Daniel yelled. "Don't shoot!" The soldiers froze, halfway through raising their weapons.
The creature's exposed bones rippled.
"Green! Green! Green! Don't shoot!" he screamed again.
Its flesh boiled and writhed. It screamed— oh it screamed. The cat screamed like a person. Like a flesh and blood human in pain like he'd never heard. Then it shattered, detonated, exploded. A tidal wave of black mulch, hot and chunky, and wet flew in all directions. Enough to paint the room.
Daniel pushed forward, wiping it from his eyes and found Sam covered in the stuff, almost unrecognizable. The creature had vanished— or more accurately, been redistributed across two rooms and the landing. Sam was only recognizable by the glints of red hair visible beneath the layer of blood. That, and a fierce grin that suddenly joined them. A shock of white teeth, and a twisting turning smile that made its way up to her eyes.
Daniel recognized it, and she wore his smile well. He pulled her up and into a squelchy hug.