Surviving Skull

Chapter 12

A Pain Like No Other

They made it to the other side and regrouped. Lena looked around, a sense of familiarity filling her. She knew this place.

She couldn't focus on it though as Slivko was still leaning heavily on Conrad. She took the soldier from the man with a soft smile of reassurance and led him away from the group to sit down. 

"I'm okay," Slivko tried to argue.

"Humor me," she huffed, putting her hands on her hips.

He sighed but nodded and let her check him over. He had a few burns and some light bruising on the side of his body that had been closest to the explosion. She noticed he'd been favoring his right leg but didn't want to risk removing his boot in case they couldn't get it back on.

"Scale of 1-10, your foot?" 

"'bout a two."

She gave him a look.

"Four..." he admitted.

"Lemme see you walk on it."

She helped him to stand then stepped back. He took a few steps. If he was in pain, he was hiding it rather well much to her surprise. Still, his stride was strong enough that she wasn't too worried.

"Alright," she sighed, "I think you're all clear. Any dizziness?"

"Nope."

"Alright," she nodded and they headed back to the group.

"Now I've been here a hell of a lot longer than any of you, and I'm telling you that thing that just shredded us is only the first of them," Marlow was arguing with Packard. "Now we're on their turf and we need to turn back. Toot-sweet!"

Mason shot Slivko a questioning look as they rejoined them. He gave her a thumbs' up to show that he was fine and she nodded.

"Long as Chapman's still out there," Packard snapped.

"Chapman's gone," Conrad said, holding up a set of dog tags.

Lena's heart stopped. She stared at the gleaming, bent tags.

"What..."

Conrad turned to her, his eyes softening. "I'm sorry. A skull crawler got him."

He slowly placed the tags in her hand. She stared at them, her breathing growing ragged as tears stung her eyes. Her vision began to blur.

He was gone.

"Doesn't matter. We're still going to that crash site," Packard snapped.

Confusion filled everyone's features.

"What's at that crash site that you want so badly?" Conrad questioned, a frown forming on his face.

It was starting to become clear to him that this was never about saving Chapman.

"Weapons!" Packard exclaimed as if it were obvious. "There are enough munitions on that Sea Stallion to kill that bastard."

"Kong didn't kill Chapman," Conrad argued.

"But he did kill these men." Packard held up the bunch of dog tags from the soldiers they'd lost. "My men."

Marlow let out a laugh of disbelief. "You can't kill Kong. Kong is god on this island. He's the only thing keeping those lizard things in the ground!"

"He's right, Colonel," Brooks jumped in nodding, "That other creature? That's the threat. And there are more of them down there. You take a species' natural competition, they'll proliferate out of control."