Chapter 131: Break Contact
The nearest wolf lunged.
It exploded from the darkness.
One moment it was standing twenty meters away.
The next, it was charging uphill like a black missile.
Its massive paws tore through leaves and dirt while its jaws opened wide enough to crush a man’s head.
"Contact front!" Tomas shouted.
The silence of the forest shattered.
Every Atlas soldier snapped into action.
M4 carbines rose.
Safety selectors clicked.
And then—
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Muzzle flashes erupted across the ridge.
The first burst of 5.56×45 mm rounds slammed into the charging wolf.
The creature stumbled.
But it didn’t stop.
More rounds struck.
One hit the shoulder.
Another tore into its neck.
A third impacted its chest.
Only then did the beast collapse, tumbling forward until its body rolled to a stop barely ten meters from the observation post.
Silence lasted less than a second.
Because the other wolves reacted immediately.
A chorus of snarls erupted throughout the forest.
Then they charged.
"Jesus Christ!" Rolf yelled.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The ridge exploded with gunfire.
Tracers ripped through the darkness.
Another wolf was hit in the head and collapsed instantly.
A third took several rounds to the torso before falling.
But the remaining creatures kept coming.
Fast.
Far too fast.
Inside the command center, alarms rang.
The Predator feed showed chaos.
The wolves surged toward the ridge while nearly a hundred humanoid contacts advanced behind them.
Marcus grabbed the radio.
"Raven One, break contact immediately!"
"Working on it!" Tomas shouted over the gunfire.
A wolf suddenly leaped.
The creature covered nearly six meters in a single bound.
An infantryman fired instinctively.
CRACK!
The round struck the beast in the jaw.
It twisted midair and crashed into a tree.
Another wolf reached the edge of the observation post.
Rolf swung his rifle.
THUD!
The stock smashed into the creature’s snout.
The beast recoiled.
Then Tomas fired three rounds into its face.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Blood sprayed.
The creature collapsed.
"Move! Move!" Tomas shouted.
The team immediately abandoned the observation post.
Camouflage nets were thrown aside.
Equipment bags were grabbed.
No time existed for proper cleanup.
No time for stealth.
Their position was compromised.
The mission had shifted from reconnaissance to survival.
The six men sprinted downhill.
Behind them, howls erupted throughout the forest.
The humanoid creatures were shouting now.
Their voices echoed through the darkness.
Deep.
Harsh.
Almost like a language.
Marcus heard it through the radio.
The entire command center heard it.
Nobody spoke.
Because those weren’t animal noises.
Those were commands.
Orders.
The hidden civilization was mobilizing.
"Predator, track the team!" Marcus ordered.
"Already tracking!"
The thermal display updated.
Blue markers represented Tomas’s team.
Red markers represented the enemy.
The numbers continued increasing.
Ninety became a hundred.
Then one hundred and twenty.
The settlement itself was reacting.
More patrols.
More movement.
The enemy was flooding toward the ridge.
Elaina looked horrified.
"They’re sending reinforcements."
Marcus nodded.
"Yeah."
This was no longer a search patrol.
This was a response force.
The enemy clearly understood something important had happened.
---
Inside the forest, Tomas’s team ran.
Branches whipped against their uniforms.
Roots threatened to trip them.
The terrain was terrible.
Dense forest.
Poor visibility.
Uneven ground.
The perfect place for an ambush.
And the wolves knew it.
A howl erupted to their left.
Then another.
Then another.
They weren’t simply chasing.
They were communicating.
Rolf looked over his shoulder.
"I hate this forest!"
Nobody disagreed.
One of the infantrymen suddenly yelled.
"Right side!"
A wolf burst from the undergrowth.
Its jaws snapped shut inches from the soldier’s face.
CRACK!
Rolf fired instinctively.
The round struck the creature in the eye.
It collapsed immediately.
But another appeared.
Then another.
The beasts weren’t charging directly anymore.
They were attacking from different directions.
Flanking.
Herding.
The realization hit Tomas.
The wolves weren’t just animals.
They had been trained.
"Keep moving!" he shouted.
The team pushed forward.
The radio suddenly crackled.
"Raven One, this is Atlas Actual."
"Go."
"Black Hawk is launching."
Relief briefly flashed across Tomas’s face.
Good.
They needed it.
Badly.
The distance to the landing zone still measured over fifteen kilometers.
Too far.
Especially with the enemy already surrounding the area.
They needed extraction.
Now.
---
Back at Atlas Base, the standby Black Hawk was already lifting off.
WHUMP.
WHUMP.
WHUMP.
The rotor blades cut through the night.
The aircraft climbed rapidly.
Inside sat a rescue team of eight infantrymen.
Both M134 Miniguns were loaded.
Ammunition cans filled with thousands of rounds sat beside the door gunners.
The pilot’s voice came through the radio.
"Rescue One airborne."
Marcus immediately answered.
"Proceed direct to Raven One."
"Copy."
The helicopter accelerated.
The nose dipped slightly.
Then the aircraft disappeared into the darkness.
Its engines roared across Atlas Base.
Everyone inside the command center watched the tracking display.
The Black Hawk moved toward the forest.
Fast.
But perhaps not fast enough.
---
The chase continued.
The wolves remained relentless.
Another howled.
Then another.
The sounds echoed everywhere.
Tomas hated it.
Because he couldn’t determine their positions.
The forest distorted sound.
The enemy could be anywhere.
Then—
THUD!
An infantryman suddenly crashed to the ground.
"Shit!"
The soldier had tripped over a root.
Immediately, two wolves burst from nearby bushes.
CRACK! CRACK!
The nearest beast dropped.
The second lunged.
Its jaws snapped shut around the soldier’s backpack.
The man screamed.
Rolf reacted instantly.
He stepped forward and emptied half a magazine.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The wolf’s head erupted.
Its body collapsed.
The soldier scrambled to his feet.
"Go! Go!"
Nobody needed encouragement.
They ran again.
Then the first arrow struck.
THUNK.
It embedded itself into a tree.
Everyone froze.
Arrow?
Another came.
Then another.
THUNK.
THUNK.
THUNK.
Arrows slammed into trees around them.
The humanoid creatures had caught up.
And they had ranged weapons.
"Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!" Rolf yelled.
More arrows came.
The enemy wasn’t accurate.
Not in darkness.
But volume compensated.
One infantryman cried out.
An arrow struck his shoulder.
He stumbled.
Tomas grabbed him.
"Can you run?"
The soldier nodded through clenched teeth.
"Then move!"
The team continued.
The forest had become a nightmare.
Wolves.
Archers.
Darkness.
Pursuit.
And somewhere behind them, over a hundred hostiles.
Then the radio crackled.
"Rescue One to Raven One."
Every member of the team nearly cheered.
Tomas immediately grabbed the handset.
"This is Raven One!"
"We’re five minutes out."
Five minutes.
It sounded both close and impossibly far.
Because five minutes during combat could last forever.
Then something enormous moved in the darkness.
The ground actually trembled.
Every man stopped.
Even the wolves went quiet.
Another step.
THUD.
Another.
THUD.
The sound came from behind them.
From the direction of the settlement.
Branches snapped.
Trees moved.
Something large was approaching.
Very large.
Tomas slowly turned.
The thermal display on his handheld device updated.
A new contact appeared.
Then everyone went silent.
Because the thing wasn’t three meters tall.
Or four.
The estimated height read over five meters.
Massive.
Humanoid.
Moving toward them.
Slowly.
Purposefully.
Rolf looked at the display.
Then looked again.
"No."
Nobody spoke.
Because nobody had words.
The giant from the settlement had come.
Or perhaps another giant.
At this point, nobody knew.
The enormous heat signature continued approaching.
One step.
Then another.
The wolves moved aside.
The humanoid contacts slowed.
Even they seemed to respect whatever was coming.
The implication terrified Tomas.
Because it meant hierarchy.
Authority.
Again.
The giant finally emerged from the darkness.
And every Atlas soldier froze.
It was enormous.
Nearly five and a half meters tall.
Twice the height of a man.
Its body looked like a combination of an ape and a human.
Dark fur covered most of its skin.
Bone armor protected its chest and shoulders.
A massive club rested in one hand.
The weapon looked like an entire tree trunk.
The creature’s eyes reflected faintly in the moonlight.
Then it looked directly at the six men.
And smiled.
Not an animal grin.
Not a snarl.
A smile.
Recognition.
Intelligence.
The entire world seemed to stop.
Because that smile confirmed the worst possibility.
The giant understood exactly what they were.
Visitors.
Intruders.
Enemies.
The creature raised its club.
Then roared.
The sound shook the forest.
Birds exploded from distant trees.
Wolves howled.
The humanoid creatures screamed in response.
The entire hidden civilization seemed to awaken.
And somewhere above the clouds, the approaching Black Hawk continued racing toward the forest.
Five minutes away.
Perhaps less.
But for Tomas and his team, it suddenly felt like an eternity.
Because standing before them wasn’t a monster.
It wasn’t an animal.
It wasn’t a beast.
It was a commander.
And the commander of the hidden civilization had personally come to hunt them.
The giant’s roar slowly faded.
Yet nobody moved.
Nobody even breathed.
The creature simply stood there, its yellow eyes fixed on the six men.
Then it took another step.
THUD.
The ground trembled again.
A second step followed.
THUD.
The giant wasn’t charging.
It wasn’t rushing.
It was advancing calmly.
Confidently.
As though it knew there was nowhere for them to run.
Around it, the wolves spread out once more.
The humanoid warriors tightened their encirclement.
Spears lowered.
Bows raised.
One hundred and twenty hostiles.
Against six men.
Then, faintly in the distance, a familiar sound reached Tomas’s ears.
WHUMP.
WHUMP.
WHUMP.
The rhythmic beat of helicopter rotors.
Rescue One was coming.
And for the first time in several minutes, the giant’s smile slowly disappeared.
