Surviving Demon Island Part 27

'Just like I thought they would,' Derek said, a smug smile on his face as he looked over Lou's shoulder at the swarm of red blotches on the screen. 'We're heading west,' he said to all of them.

Geared up, she'd been standing around waiting over two hours since dusk for this, feeding off everyone else's impatience. Anxious and eager to go, they hustled into the jungle. Gina was primed and ready for a fight, having cast aside her doldrums over the night before.

This was her job now. She was going to kill demons. If it took the rest of her life, she was going to obliterate every single d.a.m.n one of them.

'We've got another mess of demons up ahead,' Dalton commed.

Derek and Dalton led the way. Derek wanted them all close tonight, so they stayed in a tight formation.

'Don't spread out until I tell you to start firing. Then I want you in groups of three like we talked about earlier.'

She'd be with Derek and Dalton tonight, sandwiched between two of the big, muscled he-men of the group. She smiled at the thought. And also felt safe.

There wasn't anything wrong with feeling safe. Especially knowing what was coming. Then again, once the fighting started, they'd all be battling their own demons and it wouldn't matter how the teams were broken out.

Once again, the flash of demons could be seen, like lightning streaking horizontally throughout the jungle grounds.

'Why are they coming at us with so much warning, approaching from so far away?' Gina asked.

Derek shrugged. 'Who the h.e.l.l knows? f.u.c.king with our heads, no doubt. They like to do that. They want to show us their numbers, scare the s.h.i.+t out of us.'

'It's working,' she whispered.

'They're close enough now,' Derek said. 'Spread out into groups and get into position.'

Their group was on the left, with Derek on the outside and Dalton on the inside, her in the middle. She moved forward and drew her weapon, tracking the demons as they approached.

d.a.m.n, they were fast. She blinked, trying to focus as they zipped back and forth across her field of vision.

'They're coming in fast,' Derek said. 'Be prepared for anything.'

She prepared to fire, but she got the idea they were going to come in too quick for her to sight them. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and pulled her guns out of the holsters.

One was coming right at her, seemingly h.e.l.l-bent in her direction. She swallowed hard and pushed aside her fear, aiming and firing one of the sonic bullets at it. It flew into the air and immediately began to swell, screaming in pain. She couldn't stop to watch because another came at her and she fired at it, too.

All around her the demons attacked. Fast, swirling.

'How many?' she shouted, though she didn't even know who she was asking.

'Too many! Fight them back any way you can,' was Derek's only reply.

Now they were close enough to touch!a danger zone. But they weren't attacking with claws and fangs. Why?

Gina's pulse raced, adrenaline at high speed. There weren't as many of the demons, but they were engaged hand-to-hand with these things. She felt them all around her, the air vibrating, the high-pitched whine of their nearly invisible movements causing her to pivot three hundred sixty degrees.

She was firing constantly, reloading and firing again, making herself dizzy with turns and attempts to focus on first one, then another.

She felt an icy cold hand on her wrist and dropped her guns. She jerked, tried to pull it away, but it was like a steel shackle had clamped down on her. Something was dragging her away.

'No!' she screamed. 'Derek!'

But in the melee surrounding her, no one responded.

'Get the h.e.l.l off me!' She kicked at them, but they had her pinned, surrounding her with their icy bodies like an arctic blanket. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move.

Oh, G.o.d, no. Not like this. 'Derek! Help me!'

More cold hands held her now, and she was falling, helplessly falling as the ground opened underneath her feet and oblivion took over.

Derek, help me!

Derek shot a demon, then another, pivoting around to search for Gina as her cry for help reached his ear comm.

s.h.i.+t. Where the h.e.l.l was she?

'Gina!' He looked to his right, but she wasn't in position. Only Dalton. 'Dalton, where's Gina?' he commed.

He sighted Dalton to his right, but he didn't answer, too busy battling back his own horde of demons.

Too d.a.m.n many of them again. His hunters were gaining the upper hand, though. He twisted and searched the area, firing his laser with one hand and the sonic gun with the other, obliterating demons in his path.

Where was Gina? Panic gripped him and he swiveled, determined to find her. He took one step and d.a.m.n near tripped over a hole in the ground.

A hole that was rapidly closing up.

'Dalton, Linc, need you here now!' he commed. 'Straight south, twenty yards. I need backup!'

Dropping to the ground, he felt the spot with his hand.

Hot to the touch. He closed his eyes and breathed in, swearing he could pick up Gina's scent.

She'd been here. Just now. She had screamed his name, begged him for help.

G.o.ddammit, they had taken her.

'What?' Dalton asked. 'We've got them beat. They're gone.'

'They f.u.c.king disappeared, man,' Linc said. 'What are you doing?'

'They took Gina. Right here.'

'You saw it?' Dalton asked.

'No. But I know it happened.'

'How do you know?' Punk asked.

His gaze shot to Punk. 'I just know!' He couldn't explain that he'd heard her, felt her, still felt her right at this spot.

He looked up. The others a.s.sembled around him, their faces covered in dirt, sweat, some bloodied from the battle.

'Anyone scratched or bitten by the demons? Any paralysis? Rafe, you and Mandy do a count and check for injuries.'

'And what are you going to do?' Dalton asked.

Derek was already on his feet. He reached into his pack and took out a flare, marking the spot where she disappeared. 'Let's head back to base.'

'What do you mean you're going in after her?' Lou asked, a concerned frown on his face.

As soon as Derek had returned to base, he took the launch to the s.h.i.+p, packed up his explosives, and headed back to the beach, where Lou stood waiting for him.

'I'm going to get Gina.'

'How?'

'I'm blowing the portal.'

'Again, how?'

Derek placed the items he'd need into a bag and zipped it up, tossing it over his shoulder, then reloaded his weapons, packing extra ammo. 'Explosives. I'm blowing it down and then I'm going in after her.'

Lou clasped his hands behind his back. 'Alone.'

'Yeah.'

'How do you even know you can explode the hole and reveal anything? We've tried it before.'

'I just know it'll work.'

'Becoming psychic like me?'

His gaze shot to Lou's. 'Gina and I are connected. I know where she is.'

Lou studied him for a few seconds, then said, 'Take some of the others with you.'

'No. I'm not compromising anyone else on the team. It's me and me alone.'

'How are you going to face all those demons by yourself?'

Hearing Lou say it, it sounded like a no-win situation. He was still going. 'I'll figure it out. You know me, Lou. I always win.'

'I can't afford to lose you, Derek.'

And he couldn't afford to lose Gina. 'You're not going to. I'm coming back, and I'm bringing Gina with me.'

Lou let out a forceful sigh, then stepped back. 'I have never stood in your way, and I'm not going to start now.'

'You think I'm making a mistake.'

'I didn't say that.'

'You didn't have to.' He started to turn away, then paused. 'I'll find her. And I'm coming back.'

'You'd better. The Realm needs you. So do I.'

He nodded and headed back to the spot where Gina had disappeared.

Moving fast, he dug a well in the spot, then took a brick of explosive, poked a hole in it, and gently slid the blasting cap in, squeezing the brick to close it back up. Then he carefully laid it in the hole and unwound the wire back to the remote.

He muttered a fervent prayer this would work. Theory was great, but all the stuff he'd worked out in his head didn't mean squat if he ended up with just a hole in the ground and no way to get to Gina.

The sun had risen, beating down through the open spots in the trees, sweat pooling in his eyes. He swiped it away and continued working, using instinct as a guide.

Getting to their portals this way had never worked before. But this time it had had to. to.

He positioned himself behind a wall of thick trees and pushed the b.u.t.ton.

The explosion wasn't noisy, but the ground shook like an earthquake. Mounds of dirt flew up like a geyser, then outward toward him, soil flying in all directions. Derek crouched down, covering his head from the scattered debris.

He waited a few seconds while the air cleared of the remnants of smoke and dirt, then moved over to the hole.

Sweet. Just as he'd planned, the opening left behind after the explosion was huge, a rounded-out sh.e.l.l that looked as if a ma.s.sive excavation crew had just come in and dug it out.

Grabbing his shovel and gear, he slid down the steep slope. He walked the perimeter, stomping the ground to feel for anything that might signal an entry into their tunnels.

Nothing. s.h.i.+t.

This had to work. If he had to dig with his hands until he reached her, he was going to find Gina. He dug in and started shoveling, scooping up dirt and tossing it over his shoulder.

But then he felt it. A rumbling under his feet, like an earthquake. He wobbled, struggling to maintain his balance. A strange energy surrounded him as the earth shook.

He knew what was happening. He dropped the shovel and grabbed his gear, trying to maintain his balance.

The ground opened up underneath him like a chute and he went sliding under.

Chapter Twenty.

I t was like an instantaneous trip to the coldest zone in the universe, an icy chill filling Derek's body as he zoomed through nothing but wintry darkness. Dizziness rolled his stomach as he fell, but mercifully the fall was short and he landed feet first into a pile ofsomething sticky. t was like an instantaneous trip to the coldest zone in the universe, an icy chill filling Derek's body as he zoomed through nothing but wintry darkness. Dizziness rolled his stomach as he fell, but mercifully the fall was short and he landed feet first into a pile ofsomething sticky.