FICTION BY SHAWN P. MADISON

Shawn P. Madison, creator of the Guarder/UEN Universe, currently lives in the beautiful Garden State of New Jersey with his wife and a veritable cornucopia of kids. Although he has written in many different genres, he tends to write mostly science fiction and horror.

He has published more than ninety short stories in numerous magazines and anthologies, both electronic and print. His novels, Guarder Lore and The Guarder Factor were both reprinted by Writer’s Sanctum Publishing. His novellas Empire of the Iron Cross and Tales of the Player were both published by Cyberwit net Publishing and his collection of horror short stories, The Road to Darkness, was published by Double Dragon Publishing.

You can reach Shawn via email at: asm89@aol.com.

PRIMAL
by Shawn P. Madison

A wave of intense heat seared Dr. Ardian’s face as flames engulfed the inside of the small jet. He screamed as the doomed aircraft began a steep dive toward the canopy of trees far below.

The powerful explosion blew out a huge chunk of the forward fuselage and sucked his two assistants right out into Oregon’s early evening sky. It had happened so quickly that he could not completely grasp the situation, but their look of stark terror on the others’ faces as they slipped into the clouds sent his heart rate soaring. Ardian could smell burnt meat and hair, a stench that permeated the ruined cabin, and he realized that he himself was the source. He was being burned alive.

The fireball, though huge, was short-lived but devastating. He could barely hear the pilots fighting for control of the aircraft over the din of rushing air. The jet had bucked mightily when the explosion took place, the mass of flames charring his exposed flesh and clothing. Even now, flames fluttered on the tatters of his shirt.

Through it all, Alpha’s intense yellow eyes, a side effect of the enhancement serum, continued to stare at him with unlimited hatred. The huge primate appeared almost human in its rage.

“We’re going down, Doc!” the co-pilot shouted above the blaring of the cockpit alarms. “Brace for…”

His words were cut off by the first impact against the tops of thick trees. One wing sheared off and the sounds of tearing metal reverberated through Ardian’s skull. He felt his stomach lurch as the aircraft started to plummet, rolling over in the air. The seatbelt was crushing as it held him in place. Knowing his death was imminent, he cursed the top-secret military program that had led him here—to his last moments—with these abominations, three primate soldiers, enhanced and bred to hate and kill.

Alpha, the leader of the three huge monkeys, was standing tall and absolutely still in his cage despite the bucking of the doomed plane. His manlike hands gripped the bars in front of him tightly but he remained steady on his feet as the aircraft continued its slow roll.

Ardian flopped to the side but his eyes were glued to the three enhanced baboons in their cages. Gamma was screaming while Charlie stood just slightly less steady than Alpha in the cage next to his leader. With horror, Ardian realized that the circumstances of this flight’s doom had triggered the fail-safe program, injecting the fourth and final dose of the enhancement serum into all three monkeys. He prayed silently that the impending crash would kill all of them along with the pilots and himself.

All three sets of primate eyes, full of intense hatred and carnivorous wanderlust, now settled on his and, with death just seconds away, Ardian knew fear—a deep rooted fear—at what would be unleashed should the enhanced baboons survive. “Die…” he muttered as their angry stares bore into him. “Just die, all three of you!”

Because anything was better than these chemically and physically altered primates being unleashed into the world. His last thoughts were, What have I done?

*****

From his vantage point at the top of a very high hill, Ortiz watched the doomed plane slam into the thick canopy of trees, skid once along the treetops, roll over and then plummet beneath his line of sight. The huge fireball that had engulfed the jet once his shoulder-fired missile made impact was more than he could have hoped for. This had been the first time he’d fired a FIM-92 Stinger and it had performed as advertised, knocking the plane right out of the sky.

He dropped the disposable launcher and signaled to his three-man team to follow him. If he was able to salvage any of the equipment that had been on that plane, he would accomplish his mission. If he could capture any of the test subjects or the scientists that had also been aboard, that would mean a nice bonus.

A thin pillar of smoke was now visible over the ridge, indicating the plane’s final resting place.

“What if the pilots survived?” one of his men asked.

“Hopefully one of the scientists made it but the pilots, should we find them alive, will not survive that encounter,” Ortiz replied. “Those are your instructions.”

The men nodded in understanding, checking their weapons and gear. “I bet the plane is just a steaming pile of junk in the forest,” one of them said.

“Doesn’t matter,” Ortiz replied and started down the hill. “Either way, we get paid, because we brought the plane down per our instructions. Let’s find it and see what we’ve got.”

Ortiz led his men through the jungle—the thick canopy overhead created murky shadows, the steady wind sparking movement all around them. The woods were alive with animal sounds and the buzzing of insects, making his men jump with every scrape of a branch or drifting leaf. Growls emanated from nearly every point of their surroundings, some farther off, some seemingly close. Ortiz found himself sweating and caught the furtive glances of his men as their eyes panned the forest.

And there it was. The body of the plane suddenly came into view, lying in ruins spread out across a large clearing. Small fires burned in various spots, an engine smoldered in the grass and the fuselage was a shredded mess. A corpse was still strapped into a seat no longer connected to the plane, and Ortiz saw that the man’s neck was at an impossible angle and most of his face was burned off.

And then he heard a low moaning that came from an area close to where the remnants of the cockpit lay. One of his men took two steps toward a crumpled form in a pilot’s suit and Ortiz heard the report of a single rifle shot.

Looking into one of the larger pieces of the fuselage, Ortiz shook his head in disappointment. “The cages are all there,” he muttered, “and empty.”

“What were they holding?” One of his men asked.

Ortiz shrugged his shoulders. “Animals, that’s what I was told.”

“They had to be some big animals.”

Ortiz agreed—those were some very large cages.

“Look at the bars,” one of the men said.

Ortiz did so and saw several of the thick iron bars on each cage were bent and torn out of their frames. He stepped into the still smoking fuselage and felt his first inklings of doubt about this mission.

“Ortiz,” the man standing next to him said. “What were we supposed to bring back?”

“Animals!” Ortiz growled. “Three of them but they gave me no more information than that. Just that the tranquilizer I was given would be enough to subdue them.”

“Animals…” one of the men whispered. “Well, I don’t hear anything out here.”

“That’s just it, boss,” another said as silence settled over the forest. “It’s way too quiet. Why did the jungle suddenly become so quiet? When is this jungle ever quiet? Never. Until right now.”

Ortiz felt disgusted. “Are we men on a financial mission or are we cowards? You don’t want to feed your families?”

That changed the mood of the men. “I say we get anything that may still be inside that plane or scattered around out here and go back,” one of the others said. “We can get paid for that and not have to deal with some really big animals.”

“I think we should try for the animals,” Ortiz countered. “I have the tranquilizer gun so if we find any of the animals alive, I’ll shoot it. One animal will do. We don’t need them all. Let’s gather up anything that looks valuable first and look for the animals after.”

Manuel looked at him a second longer than Ortiz was comfortable with and said, “How do we know what animals to tranquilize when we don’t even know what kind of animals we are looking for? I mean, this is a jungle full of animals.”

A shriek tore through the forest and made them freeze where they were. It was followed by another and then by one louder than the rest. Ortiz looked at Manuel and said, “They sounded close. Do not shoot any of them if you see them.”

“Shoot what?” Manuel asked.

“Animals, Manuel, do not shoot any animals with your gun. If we see one, let me do the shooting with this,” he said and pulled a compact rifle fitted with tranquilizer darts out of his duffel bag.

“Are there only three darts?”

“Yes, Manuel, just three.”

“I hope you’re a good shot, then.”

*****

Alpha watched the three men who were stalking them. They were holding what looked like black sticks and he knew what those things could do. He’d seen them used on his former teammates, Beta and Delta, not so many days ago. He looked at the other two baboons and nodded. The cages were bad enough when inside buildings but on that flying thing, they were unbearable.

He’d been happy to twist the neck of the one who had put them in the cages when the flying thing crashed into the forest. Immediately following the explosion, he’d felt a sharp sting that boiled his blood and flushed his body with enormous power, making him feel invincible.

The cage bars had been no obstacle once they were on the ground. Knowing that they would now be hunted, all three made it to the cover of the thick trees to wait for what they knew would come. Men had made them fall out of the sky and crash into the ground and those same men would be coming for them.

Both of his companions had shrieked once they caught sight of the men with their weapons and Alpha had shrieked even louder at them to convey his disappointment—they had just lost the element of surprise.

Alpha bared his long sharp canines and they both lowered their heads in supplication. He studied the faces of the others. They had long, almost horse-like snouts with rounded, tufted fur sprouting from both sides of their heads. They had brow ridges directly above their eyes which shrouded them and gave them a Neanderthal appearance. They looked menacing, which they absolutely were.

 With quick hand gestures, Alpha sent the other two in different directions and then settled back down to wait.

*****

Ortiz was filling a bag with electronics and other items that looked like they might be valuable to his employer. A huge syringe lay broken in the grass, leaking a yellow viscous substance into the ground. He picked it up by the plunger end and stuck it in a thicker bag than the rest.

There were still no sounds of birds or insects coming from the trees that made a perimeter around the clearing. It was an eerie thing and he felt a compelling need to get back to their vehicle as soon as possible.

The sun was going down and the darkness was gathering quickly, and any remaining light was blocked by the many trees. Long shadows were thick and black and seemingly everywhere. Even though he knew the moon was appearing on the horizon, jungles didn’t have horizons. The moon would not help with lighting until it was directly above the trees.

“Are we done here, Ortiz?” Manuel asked and he turned to see his men standing in a group, all holding bulging bags of salvaged equipment. He nodded and raised his own bag to his shoulder. He wished he had been able to recover a specimen but the substance in the syringe was sure to make his employer happy.

“Let’s go,” Ortiz called and the men fell in behind him. “The military will definitely be here soon. Let’s be far gone when they arrive.”

Just a few steps later another of those terrible shrieks shattered the stillness of the brand new darkness. Ortiz dropped his duffel and brought up the tranquilizer gun, admonishing the others for brandishing their rifles. “No shooting, remember!” He said. “We can double our money if we capture alive whatever the hell is screaming.”

“Ortiz,” Manuel said. “We are not going to stand here and let some beast tear into us without fighting back. We should all have been given tranquilizer guns.”

“Well, too late for that!” Ortiz hissed and motioned for them to lower their weapons. He hated the thought that Manuel was right.

Another shriek ripped across the clearing, making Ortiz take an involuntary step backwards. Then another—even closer than the first two. The three men with him had instantly raised their rifles again and were whipping them back and forth, trying to see what was making such sounds.

Branches rustled seemingly just feet away and Manuel opened up with a burst of his rifle. The darkness was torn apart by muzzle blasts and then all was quiet again.

Ortiz could feel his heart pounding and noticed that he was covered in sweat despite the drop in temperature since the sun went down. “What the fuck are you doing! I told you not to shoot! We need these things alive.”

“Fuck that!” one of the others snapped back. “We’re being hunted out here!”

“We’re the ones with the guns,” Manuel said in that even tone of his. “That makes us the hunters, not the hunted.”

Ortiz wanted to switch out the tranquilizer gun for his pistol and end the man right now but that would have to wait until later.

“No shooting!” Ortiz said again. “Only me, only with this!” He raised the barrel of the tranquilizer gun and motioned for them to move forward again.

More tree rustling to the left, immediately followed by branches swinging on the right. Ortiz knew that he was breathing too heavily, too quickly, making too much noise, but at the moment he wasn’t thinking straight. All four men began running toward the forest and the cover of the trees.

Shrieks were all around them then, bouncing off tree trunks, seemingly surrounding them. The other three men all opened up with their rifles, bullets flying into the trees. The staccato bursts of rapid fire lit up the night.

Ortiz saw monsters in every shadow, heard growling from everywhere. He lost his nerve as he realized that tranquilizer guns were no match for monsters. He dropped his duffel bag and sprinted into the forest. It was full dark under the canopy of trees and he tripped multiple times on exposed roots, bounced off of smaller trunks and lost all sense of direction.

“Ortiz deserted us!” one of the men shouted and Manuel didn’t bother to answer. His focus was on the space between the trees and the horrors that were hiding there. He had no idea what was hunting them now but he knew that they weren’t simply animals.

A shriek sounded from behind him and Manuel turned to see one of his men swept off his feet, lifted straight up into the trees. The man’s scream ripped through Manuel’s brain and he felt a splash of something thick and wet slap him in the face. Clearing his eyes, he had to control his growing terror, knowing that it was blood from his former teammate.

The night lit up again as his other teammate fired into the darkness, the bullets thwacking through the forest, impacting trees and throwing up a flurry of debris. The sliver moon had climbed just a bit higher in the night sky, its blue light barely illuminating the forest.

Manuel moved then, motivated by his lizard brain’s will to survive and left his teammate to his fate. Another man shouted at him to wait but that was quickly cut off by a terrible ripping sound that, Manuel knew, ended that man’s life.

Manuel quickly decided that Ortiz had the right idea.

His footsteps sounded loud in his ears as he tore through the forest. He tripped several times and slid down a slight embankment but he was sure he was heading back toward their vehicle. He knew that Ortiz was moving in the wrong direction and, with a bit of luck, Manuel could beat him back to the truck. The keys were still inside, tucked into the driver’s side visor.

Running all out, he remembered that he had not reloaded after emptying his weapon and was now carrying what was basically a club. He should take the time to reload, he knew, but there was no way he was going to stop, not even for an instant.

*****

Alpha watched as Charlie and Gamma crunched on the bones of their kills. They had both cracked the skulls of the men with the black fire sticks and were feasting on the glistening jelly-like substance that had been inside their heads. Now gnawing on arms, he watched Charlie crunch down on two fingers at once and swallow them whole.

Let them eat and enjoy the spoils of battle, he thought. He would go after the other two men on his own. Those fire sticks were very loud and produced very bright lights but they only lasted a few seconds and then went dark again. The things that came out of those sticks were fast. One had hit Gamma in the leg and slowed him down just a bit but, for the most part, the hunters had been no challenge to them.

He could still smell the fear on the two men who had run off in different directions and one was closer than the other. He would find that one first. With a nod at the others he took off soundlessly into the forest. The hunt was on.

*****

Manuel was out of breath and climbing toward the hill where they had launched the missile at the plane. Their truck was parked down the incline close by so he knew he was almost there. Although he could hear rustling in the trees farther back he knew that he was well ahead of anything that might be following him. The silence, other than the occasional rustling of leaves and his rapid breathing, was eerie.

He had ditched the duffle bag somewhere along the way and only held the rifle now. He had made an attempt to reload while on the run but had stumbled on a tree root, sending the magazine skittering away into the leaves. He’d cursed and screamed at that point, his lungs on fire but he never slowed his pace. The truck was close by, he knew it, and once inside he would reload with his last remaining magazine.

A glint ahead through the trees brightened Manuel’s spirits. It was the truck sitting right where they’d left it. He slid his way toward the gravel roadway and skidded the last few feet, crashing into the side of the truck, grappling with the door handle. He threw his rifle through the open door, climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed the door closed.

The interior dome light bathed the steering wheel and console in a light bright enough to make him squint but went out as soon as he turned the key in the ignition. The thrumming of the engine felt good to Manuel as he threw the truck into gear. He was about to step on the gas when the truck lurched as if hit by a giant hammer and started shaking.

An enormous shape crashed down onto the hood, denting the metal and causing Manuel to flinch back in his seat. The moonlight was very dim and shadows ruled the night, making it difficult for Manuel to make out what had landed on the truck.

He fumbled across the seat for his rifle when the thing leapt on to the roof of the truck with a tremendous crash. Windows shattered, and tiny bits of glass clattered throughout the cab, peppering Manuel with a cascade of debris.

The thing attacking the truck shrieked again in the night, the sound wrapping itself around Manuel’s brain like a shroud, blocking out all thought but survival. He found the trigger of the rifle and pulled but nothing happened. He hadn’t yet reloaded the gun.

Cursing, Manuel reached into a pocket of his cargo pants for the last magazine but froze as he felt the fetid breath of the beast that had been hunting him on his neck. Sweat dripped down his face and Manuel was wild with terror. The thing was outside his window, less than a foot away. Broken shards of glass still framing the door were glittering in the scant moonlight but he could still see the thing out of the corner of his eye.

That’s when he remembered that his foot was still on the brake. Just as the beast reached in and raked its claws against his cheek, ripping through the edge of his mouth and splattering his blood through the interior of the truck, he hit the gas and the truck lurched forward.

The pain from his ripped mouth and cheek was intense as Manuel fought to see the road in front of him because of his panic. The headlights were bouncing off of trees and the gravel road ahead and seconds later the truck hit the road’s edge, pitched over the side and slid down to come to rest against a tree. The headlight on the driver’s side went out, leaving only the other to skew light through the thick forest.

Manuel tried to calm down and think defensively as he felt blood flowing freely from the shredded edge of his mouth and tasted copper on his tongue. The rifle was out of sight, most likely in the shadows of the floor on the passenger side. The driver’s door was wedged against a tree so he tried moving toward the passenger door.

As he was about to work the latch he felt the truck lurch under a heavy weight. Frantically, he reached down to the floorboards for the rifle but it was to no avail. He pitched himself out of the truck’s windowless passenger door, fell down to the loamy surface below, quickly scrambled to his feet and took off into the forest. His fear was now primal in its intensity—his only thought was to run from the unbelievable horror behind him.

Manual was hyper ventilating, out of breath, and his heart was pounding. He gasped for air but could find none. Tripping once and then again, he could hear the thing coming up behind him, closing the gap between them quickly. He found himself scrambling forward on his knees, trying to regain his footing but finding no success.

When the sounds of the thing’s approach stopped, so did Manuel. Now resigned to his fate, he pulled a knife from a sheath on his belt and swung it around in a quick arc, trying to take the beast by surprise but there was nothing there.

The forest was quiet again, all but the sounds of his gasping, and his eyes tried to take in what little light came from the sliver moon up above. Where was it? What was it?

These thoughts were his last as strong claws grabbed both his shoulders from behind and penetrated deeply into his flesh. Manuel screamed as he felt sharp teeth sink deeply into his neck, ripping through the arteries there, releasing his life’s blood to soak into the dark forest soil.

*****

Ortiz heard a scream pierce the night, ripping through the silence and causing him to stop in his tracks. He was breathing heavily, trying to claw as much air into his lungs as possible. He had never been so terrified. He had nothing left to give to his employer, ditching everything he had except the tranquilizer rifle along the way. He had heard what sounded like a crash from what he now knew was the direction of the truck a few moments ago but had kept going.

A sudden thrashing in the trees to his left got him moving again but the sounds followed him and seemed to be getting closer. “No nononono no…” he found himself muttering as the thrashing turned to grunts and heavy footsteps, almost on his heels. Ortiz couldn’t take the terror anymore and swung around toward the sounds following him, tranquilizer gun at the ready. 

Something huge jumped out of the trees and landed about ten feet from him, dark and ruddy in the slim moonlight. He activated the small flashlight attached to the gun and saw a monstrous head, covered in blood. It opened its mouth wide, impossibly long teeth glistening, and shrieked at him.

The sound hit him in the chest like a hammer and his finger automatically tightened on the trigger. The small gun in his hands launched a dart at the thing’s chest, causing it to stagger back a step or two, and then it abruptly dropped to the leafy forest floor.

Ortiz stood several seconds in shock before his feet began moving again, driving him further into the trees. More rustling behind followed by another brain bruising shriek told him that another of those things was closing in. He darted to the right and put his back against the closest tree he could find.

Dousing the flashlight, he tried to control his breathing but that was a lost cause. The creature moved toward him now, grunting and shoving through the brush as it worked its way toward his position. Slowly Ortiz slid down to the dirt under the tree, the tranquilizer gun shaking in front of him. He searched his memory for how many of these things he was told were on the plane…was it two or three…his mind couldn’t focus on the answer as his heart hammered away.

Suddenly the noises of the hunt stopped and all was silent. The light wind blowing through the treetops was the only sound Ortiz could hear over his own breathing. His eyes couldn’t see very well in the dark but he thought he could make out a large figure loping toward him.

His hands tightened on the small gun and he realized that he’d never reloaded another dart after shooting the other giant. Frantically he reached into the pocket of his vest, found one and loaded it into the tranquilizer gun as the thing burst toward him ferociously fast.

Ortiz raised the barrel toward the black shape, pulled the trigger and the thing crashed to the ground, sliding to a stop just feet away. Activating the small flashlight again, he could see the thing’s yellow eyes staring at nothing, its mouth full of blood-stained teeth. Slowly he stood and tried to catch his breath. He had one more dart…he reached into his vest pocket and pulled it out. Whatever they contained must pack a mighty punch.

Ortiz leaned his head back against the tree and turned off the flashlight. Relief flooded through him as he began to think that he might actually get out of this alive. Ortiz laughed once, twice, lurched to his feet, took one step and walked directly into the path of the largest of the beasts.

Alpha darted forward, mouth open wide and bit into both sides of Ortiz’s head. His strong jaws snapped closed and the man’s skull disintegrated under the onslaught. Alpha drank deep of the rich thick blood, munched on Ortiz’s brain and saw Gamma starting to stir. Suddenly, he heard a deep thwumpthwumpthwump echoing above the forest and knew that other men were coming in another flying machine, this time a rescue helicopter.

Alpha nodded to Gamma and the two ran off toward where Charlie, too, was most likely awake. They soon would have more hunting to do.

*****

Colonel Devers stood next to the helicopter as the rotors spun lazily, the smoking ruins of the jet just scant meters away with small fires still burning in the grass amongst the debris. He watched the team of five special operators melt into the darkness of the forest on their mission to eliminate the three enhanced primates who’d clearly survived the crash landing.

He’d given the men their kill orders and watched them load up with grenades and extra mags of ammo. In his gut, he knew it wasn’t going to be enough. He should have insisted on two helicopters, each loaded with ten man kill teams, but time had been of the essence.

Instead, the five soldiers he’d sent out into the darkness were headed toward a fight they could not comprehend against enemies that were stronger, faster: pure death machines.

He winced at the thought of finding their bodies torn apart and half eaten. Alpha and his two teammates should have never been created but the government loved their super soldier programs and this one had been the most promising. At least until the jet carrying them to their final training facility had been shot down.

In the end, his investigation of this debacle would most certainly uncover the responsible party but, in the meantime, he’d make the call to bring two more teams into this forest by daybreak and have two more on standby...just in case. It was going to be a long night and, from what he knew of this program, the forest would echo with the screams of the men he’d just sent to their deaths before very long.

At all costs, this mission needed to succeed, Devers knew. At all costs…or all hell would break loose in the world.