Atonement: Lincoln Clay

Episode 18: Thought it was a nightmare (Part 2)

A/N: Big shoutout to my good buddy Wombag for the assist on this chapter! Couldn't have done this chapter without his help!


[Monster King: Yes.]

[Disabled-doctor: Also yes!]

[Gamelover41592: Thanks.]

[Jetjedi: Huh?]


-HOURS LATER: VIETNAM JUNGLE-

Within the darkness of the jungle American soldiers sat around their camp fire, each of them felt tired from their battles earlier in the night but they knew in their guts the rest time wouldn't last. Nearby some of the men were patrolling to keep an eye out for any lingering enemy forces. For the time being their orders from command were to search the area as they had been before, it seemed to the NCOs among the unit that command was just giving them orders for the sake of something to do. At the very least they could keep themselves sane by taking time to think, even if it was in the middle of an eerily deserted battlefield.

Dead corpses of the NVA and some uncollected remains of other US troops filled the air with a rancid a stench on top of the cursed stink of mud in the jungle. Mud caked the uniforms of the US soldiers that had survived the battle, they lived and breathed the muck for which they fought, but it wasn't theirs. They knew that all too well, but it was they kept it to themselves lest they regret it later somehow.

Lincoln watched over his fellow troops with a calm eye, like it or not this was his situation. He twitched slightly at the sounds of night in the wilderness, the constant sounds of creatures that participated in the circle of life kept him on edge. Feelings of tension welled up within him as he scanned the trees for the slightest movement, death could come from almost anywhere in this hell he knew as the jungle. Idle chat from the men did little to calm his nerves, but a cigarette would help with that problem if he had some to light. An itch crawled down Lincoln's spine when he heard a crackle of branches in the trees behind him.

Suddenly there was a loud scream of pain and sounds of gunfire in the same direction of branch crackles. "GAAAAAGGHHH I DON'T WANNA DIE!" Screamed one of the men that had been on patrol beyond the clearing.

"NO NO NO NO!"

At that instant all the men ceased their conversations and jumped to alert with their rifles ready for battle. Several long bursts of automatic fire cracked amongst the trees for a few seconds until there was nothing but silence.

"Holy shit! Contact! Anyone see it?! Lucas, you see anything?" Shouted one of the troops.

"I got nothing, Evans!" Another squadmate replied.

"Who the fuck is out there?!" Lincoln barked to his comrades.

"Faulk and Meyers! They took the guard shift!" Said a private that was a few feet behind Lincoln.

"Damn it, I don't need this shit right now." Lincoln cursed quietly as he cocked his M16 rifle. "Everyone, form up on me!" The corporal ordered to the other troopers, and like a well-oiled machine the battered soldiers grouped into formation. With all the troops in line to move, Lincoln signaled head towards the screams of the other troopers. "Move out, double time!" All of the men broke into a sprint to reach the location of the two men who'd been shooting at the possible hostile.

Above the group of US Soldiers, a shadowy figure observed as the troops combed the area for their comrades. It studied their movements carefully, as if it was waiting for the perfect moment to claim another one of their lives. Each of the men grouped into pairs while they searched, scanning the surrounding area for anything out of the ordinary. The hidden figure took its time in studying the soldiers on the ground, among them were several heavy weapons. One soldier was carrying an M60 machine gun and he was positioned to the rear of the force, but some men were behind him to provide cover. A short distance ahead of the man with M60 was a soldier with an M72 LAW on his shoulder, the rocket tube was all but ready to shot at whatever the soldier would point his weapon at.

For several minutes the men kept up their search for the missing troopers, unaware of what had befallen their comrades. Under the cover of darkness, they trudged through the mud, stepping lightly to avoid any possible traps that might have been missed in earlier sweeps of the area. Even they'd been as thorough as possible to sweep for traps earlier, no one could find everything under the cursed mud. Not a single man wanted to die because of their own stupidity, which included stepping on a landmine that hadn't spotted earlier.

Some men had begun scanning the trees for contacts, unaware that the threat they'd been looking for had anticipated that. What they sought for could not be seen so easily, despite their best instincts telling them something was lurking nearby, and they'd need to drill it with lead whenever it showed. Jumpy members of the group kept checking behind the unit as they marched further from their rally point at the clearing. Fear of death was a justifiable reason in their heads to keep looking back even if it seemed clear. For all they knew, death was only an inch away and seeing it was a way to prevent it.

"Hey! I got em! Or…. What's left of them." Said a soldier who found the bodies of SGT Heller and PVT Meyers. The soldier blew a quick whistle at the sight of how the two men had been ripped apart by something that clearly wasn't human. He did make a note some wiring or vines that had been left all over the corpses and kneeled down to pick at the "They're all snarled up on some THINNNG!"

BANG!

"AMBUSH!" Bodies were blown to bits from the resulting explosion, painting a small area in the blast radius with blood and gore. An unlucky trooper landed in crude device that functioned similar to a bear trap, the steel jaw bit straight into his torso, which killed him instantly. In all the commotion the remaining soldiers began to fire their guns randomly into the brush. Their waste of ammunition and panic was the perfect distraction for the hunter that lurked in the shadows above them. One by one the panicked troops began to disappear in frightening pace, some managed to scream in fear or agony before their demise as they were picked off by their unseen foe.

At least two troopers managed to get a few shots on the enemy that had attacked them, but their effort was unsuccessful in killing the creature. One of the two men pulled the pin on his grenade just as he was disintegrated by a bolt of blue plasma that exploded on contact. The other trooper was caught in the blast and subsequently died from ensuing explosion. Another US soldier came in behind the hunter as moved to leap away and he fired a burst from his M16 rifle, several bullets tore through the torso of the hunter, and a cry of pain came from its position. It turned back to the human and fired the plasma gun again just before he could reload his weapon to finish it off.

Lincoln's men were dropping like flies, he tried in vain to get his troops back under control before they would be wiped out by whatever was stalking them through the jungle. He was responsible for bringing these men home, he couldn't afford to let them all die like animals in this godforsaken jungle. Rage burned in the soldier's mind as he worked to rally his men for a counterattack against their foe, otherwise they would all be slaughtered for sport.

In a fit of rage Lincoln looked madly around for any signs of the creature, any indication at all as to where it was. He would kill it, but first he had to track it down in all the chaos of the battle. As his eyes moved about the jungle with screams of dying men, bullets flying, and death rattles gargling their last, Lincoln spotted something fuzzy. It was hard to see in the dark, but it was almost like a blur. Holding his M16 to his hip, he unloaded half his clip towards the blur. All but one missed. That last one hit right below the thigh, whatever was hunting them, it still felt pain and was bleeding a horrific green substance.

"Can't hide from me you son of bitch!" Lincoln screams out as he pulls a pin on a grenade and lobs it on over to the invisible monster that had killed most of his men.

The grenade exploded with a loud bang and shrapnel scattering for several feet, but after that explosion only silence filled the air. After a few moments the remaining soldiers left their hiding spots and approached Lincoln. Weapons held tight and their fingers waiting to unleash a hail of gun fire on the bastard that had butchered two thirds of their entire platoon. After a few uncomfortable moments of silence, a young private spoke up.

"… is it… is it dead?" The young soldier asked nervously as his eyes trace the explosion.

"Course it's dead. Charlies can't survive nades." One southern U.S. accented soldier remarked.

"Since when did the NVA or the Vietcong have invisibility shit?" A fourth soldier remarks with fright in his eyes, the name on his uniform was Wellesley

"Or bleed green." Lincoln interrupts as he looks down at a trace of blood on the grass. Least he hoped it was blood. Substance glowed a bright green, like it was radioactive sludge from some cheesy horror movie.

As Lincoln carefully took a look, he noticed that there was a trail leading into the jungle. Now that his mind was settled on the decision, he stood up straight, loading a fresh clip into his M16 as he walked towards the jungle. Before he could move deeper into the heart of the jungle, he was stopped by the one of his fellow soldiers, Klebitz.

"The hell you think you're doing?" Klebitz asked with his southern accent as Lincoln looked to him.

"Finishing it off, whatever it is." Lincoln coldly replied.

"What the fuck? You have a death wish, Clay?" Klebitz shot Lincoln a look of disbelief.

"W-We should wait for back up. Call in choppers to get us a ride on out of here." Breslin, the youngest of the surviving soldiers stated.

"Damn thing wiped all but us out in thirty minutes. If we don't kill it then we'll be dead by sun rise." Lincoln explained. The soldiers all looked at each other, not a single one of them wanted to go further out into the jungle, much less after a monster. Sighing heavily, Lincoln turned back to the soldier and removed his tags before handing them to him. "If I don't make it back. Make sure my folks get this."

Klebitz gives a hesitant nod before taking them. They all wished him luck as Lincoln entered the jungle alone, armed with nothing but his knife, 1911, and an M16. One of the most dangerous men, going up against the most dangerous game.

Little did Lincoln know that his opponent was not very far away, it watched the other men retreat from the area as fast as their legs could move. For now, the fleeing whelps did not matter to the hunter, a challenge had been made and it would be answered. Leaping from tree to tree, the creature followed its target into the deeper areas of the jungle, stalking his every move with careful precision.

Though it tried to give no indication as to what it was doing, this prey was far more clever than most of what it killed during the night. If the human knew of the hunter's presence in the thick brush of the jungle, he did not show it. Following the trail of the human warrior lasted for a short time until the man had stopped at a large clearing in the dense brush. Within the confines of the clearing old scorch marks could bee seen, as well as old debris from shattered rocks and craters that had been made in the ground. The site had clearly been where a large bomb had dropped by a bomber plane, most likely by the U.S. Air Force.

Lincoln sighed in determination; the time had come to face the monster one on one. If he was going to end here, then it would be in a blaze of glory. He listened to the rhythm of the jungle in his calmest state of mind that he could achieve. One thing he'd come to know during his time fighting in the jungle, was how sloppy even the best hunter could be in the dark. He whipped around fired his rifle straight at the spot where he'd determined the creature to be, riddling the tree with led from his M16 rifle.

A quick snap of a large branch signaled the movement of the creature from one tree to another. In the faint moonlight Lincoln could make out the shimmer of something moving among the trees. Still, he did not let go of the trigger until the rifle's magazine clicked empty from the sustained burst. Blue light came from the tree where the creature had supposedly jumped to, and Lincoln noticed three red dots on his chest.

Realization struck the soldier with the force of a loaded truck, he jumped aside just as a bolt of searing hot plasma flew towards his position. The ground erupted with a small crater of rock and dirt flying in various directions. Lincoln rolled to the side, whipping his colt M1911 out to fire at the creature before it could move again to ambush him. Success came after his quick burst of gunfire, blood dripped from the creature as it moved to the next perch to fire at Lincoln again. It vanished into the darkness of the trees, but Lincoln knew his opponent would slink away in defeat, this was a battle to death. Their battle could only end with one of them dead, it was the one thing that made sense to Lincoln about the whole night.

To Lincoln's surprise, the monster reappeared right behind him, delivering a slash to his back. Shocks rippled throughout his nervous system, which meant sever agony for the soldier as he tried to stay on his feet. However, this only fueled the blood rage burning in Lincoln's heart even more rather than putting on the ground to writhe like an animal. He truly did want to spasm around in agony, but that would have to wait until his enemy was dead. Grabbing the M16 by the barrel, Lincoln landed a heavy smack to the hunter's head. But the creature retaliated by stabbing Lincoln through the torso with two razor sharp metal blades that sprung from a device on its wrist. Blood splattered from Lincoln's mouth as the blades were driven into his sternum, slicing up parts of his insides into deli meat.

Blocking out the pain was truly a mountainous challenge for the soldier, the desire to stay alive flooded his mind. Nothing mattered except staying on his feet and killing the creature that peered into his eyes, its eyes covered with soulless black lenses. With a primal scream Lincoln raised his fist, clenching It around the hunter's throat while the other reached for a grenade on his belt. His face twisted into a look of madness when the pin was pulled from the explosive. Quickly the creature jumped back from Lincoln right before the explosive went off, a huge bang and flash flared to life where Lincoln stood. Blinding white light engulfed the clearing around the dueling warriors.

"Surprise motherfucker!" Lincoln charged forward with his shoulder braced for an impact, knocking the creature backwards upon contact. Slashes from Lincoln's knife came next as the soldier pulled out his knife and began digging into the beast's torso. It mattered little though to the hunter, the creature then batted Lincoln aside with one of its arms.

Several bones in Lincoln's ribcage cracked in response to the force of the strike from the hunter as threw him backwards. Lincoln grunted in pain when he landed flat on his back in the mud of the jungle floor. Slowly the U.S. soldier tried to stand back up on his own two feet but the hunter jumped on top of him to go in for the kill. Razor sharp blades stopped mere inches from Lincoln's since he reacted just in time to hold off the creature from killing him with the wrist mounted blades. He pushed desperately to back the offending weapons out of his face but the hunter's arm hardly budged at all. Death, Victory, Glory, such things were merely an afterthought, neither the human or the creature would back down in this struggle to prove the oldest law in existence, survival of the fittest.

After much trying, Lincoln managed to get the arm back just far enough to kick his legs out and shove the creature away from himself. He scrambled for his rifle which he'd dropped a moment earlier, then jammed a clip into the magazine in the hope that the gun would not jam up. He prayed to god above that the weapon would fire true as he squeezed the trigger down. Lead burst from the barrel with a quick rattle from the M16 as it tore holes straight through the mysterious creature from head to toe.

Once again Lincoln held the trigger down util the weapon could sputter no more of its ammunition at the target to which it had been aimed. When the shooting was over, Lincoln watched as the creature slowly fell limp onto its back. He sighed in relief when the sound of the meat slapping the muddy ground rang through his ears like a sweet melody. He stood up one more time, hoping the adrenaline would not wear off before he could finally return to base and rest. But just as Lincoln managed to stand tall over the defeated hunter, he was greeted by a deep, throaty laugh that came from his foe. His eye wandered to the beast's wrist as it pressed some buttons on the strange device. Suddenly bright red lights glowed on the wrist device and a loud beeping could be heard from it as the red lights steadily formed different shapes …. Not unlike a countdown timer.

Lincoln turned and hobbled away from the creature while the clock ticked down to its inevitable end. The laughter from the beast continued as the soldier kept trying to move out oof whatever blast radius the explosion would have. He commanded his aching body to move, just putting in the effort to keep moving his legs was on his mind now. Pounding came from the man's heart while blood dripped from his wounds as he fled for his life. Unfortunately for Lincoln, the alien counter reached the end of its time. With a final loud beep the device and every other piece of technology attached to the hunter exploded into a huge ball f fire. Lincoln was thrown clear by the force of the blast, his world going black.

-PRESENT DAY-

"And that's what happened. I woke up later to find a bunch guys in hazmat suits combing the area, picking up bodies and gear from the area. They found me barely breathing, my face half buried in mud." Lincoln explained.

"Holy shit that was insane." Donovan puffed his cigarette in surprise at the spectacle of his partner's tale.

A smirk crossed Lincoln's face. "It's all true, every word."

"Well, just proves you're a survivor. But then I already knew that a long time ago."

Outside on a tree branch, the crow from earlier ruffled its feathers at the weight of the revelations in the story of Lincoln Clay. Shaking its tail feathers, the bird hopped off the branch and flew back to where it had come from. A certain old wizard would be hearing a few words about this later on that night.

-END CHAPTER-