Matt Archer Monster Summer by Kendra C. Highley

Author:Kendra C. Highley
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-10-04T07:00:00+00:00

*****

Twenty minutes later, we were speeding along the desert floor. Even though the ride was rough enough to bounce me out of my seat, Schmitz pushed the Humvee hard. We had to be doing at least fifty; scrubby brush, red sand and rock formations blurred together as we flew toward our destination. You had to hand it to the people who made Humvees; any other vehicle would’ve had four flat tires and a bent axle—or two—with this kind of abuse. Instead it motored on unfazed, while giving most of its passengers bruises.

I just hoped we got there in time.

Peace, the knife-spirit whispered. Then in contradiction to its command to chill, it flooded my bloodstream with a buzz of energy. I twitched hard in my seat and Will raised an eyebrow.

“You good?” he asked.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I said, “Yeah,” even though I wasn’t totally sure. My vision seemed off…but not in a bad way. In fact, it had sharpened. “That’s a little weird.”

“What?” Will asked.

“Huh?” Oh, wait, did I say that out loud? Crap. “Um, nothing.”

Uncle Mike didn’t even notice our conversation. He was staring out the window, an intense, almost ugly, expression on his face. Like he’d personally wring the neck of any monster who dared mess with his woman. I sucked in a breath. Was this what it took to reduce a guy to basic instinct? To turn him back into a caveman? I thought about the time I saved my girlfriend from a monster attack in the woods back home. Even though everything had turned out okay, rage coiled deep in my belly, like it was happening to her right now.

Yeah, this was all it took; Mike’s face told the whole story. If he lost Julie, I didn’t think I could stand to see what would happen to him. It was too horrible to even think about.

Fine, my part in all this would be very simple, then—I’d keep that pack of flea-ridden dogs from taking my future aunt away from Mike. End of story.

“We’ll get them back, sir,” I said, my voice low and strained with fury. “And we’ll finish this mission. Today.”

Uncle Mike’s eyes flicked my direction. “I’ll hold you to that, Chief.”

“We’re coming up on the drop-off point, sir,” Schmitz shouted from the front seat. The road noise made it nearly impossible to hear someone sitting more than two feet away. “I’ve found us a place to stop.”

On cue, we all peered out the windows. A large sand dune, rimmed with small trees and desert grass, was coming up on our right. Schmitz maneuvered the Humvee between the trees and the base of the dune. The tires skidded in the sand, but Schmitz fought it the whole way, keeping the vehicle on the move until he parked us deep in shadow.

The two enlisted guys Schmitz had recruited hopped out and started unloading gear. Will accepted a backpack with medical supplies, canteens and survival gear. Even though Uncle Mike offered him a pistol, Will refused to carry one, saying there wasn’t any point.

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