Godfire: The Split Soul-Chapter 173: Monster’s Fear

The MRAP rolled over broken asphalt, causing all of them to jolt in their seats every time it hopped. When the vehicles reached a few meters away from the city square, another siren screamed.

Brann’s eyes reddened. "I watched Team Alpha leave before sunrise." He paused, exhaled deeply. "Seventy men moved out. Seventy. We all knew the odds were bad, but no one thought..."

He paused again, then swallowed hard. "No one thought it would go like that."

The soldier sitting next to him rubbed his face. "I heard the distress call myself. Team Alpha down. I repeat, Alpha down." He lowered his hand and stared blankly at the vehicle’s floor.

"By the time we arrived, half of what was left were bodies."

"And the Titanaboa was already dead," another soldier stated. "Dead with one clean cut."

"Not one cut," Brann corrected with a tight voice. "He fought it before that. You didn’t see the body. Its neck was torn up before the final strike."

The young soldier turned to Brann, eyes wide and face pale. "You saw it happen?"

Brann nodded once, then lowered his head. "He climbed that thing like it was nothing," he continued, staring at the shaking rifle on his lap.

"I saw him run on its tail. On the tail." A short, shocked laugh escaped him.

"Man, you can’t be serious." Jace brushed in with a giggle.

Brann looked at Jace with a straight face. "I swear over the corpse of my dead sister."

"Well, if you say so." Jace shook his head.

"The thing was tearing buildings apart, and that boy..." Brann squeezed his eyes shut. "He moved like the creature was too slow for him."

The neck-bandaged soldier leaned back against the cold steel wall behind him. "That’s impossible."

"It happened," Brann shot back, anger flashing through his exhausted voice.

The young soldier with a chipped tooth stated in a lowered voice, "Then maybe he really is one of those hidden Hunters."

"No." Brann shook his head. "I’ve seen Hunters. Powerful ones too. They don’t look like that."

"Like what?" the chipped-tooth soldier asked.

The memory of the sky over Lena’s estate flashed through Brann’s head as he hesitated. "Like the monsters were afraid of him," he finished with a dry voice.

Several soldiers shifted their eyes toward Brann, then shook their heads.

One soldier crossed himself out of old habit, then quickly lowered his hand the moment he noticed the others looking at him.

"Afraid?" Jace leaned forward. "You mean the creatures were drawn to him, not scared of him."

"That’s what I think too," another voice backed from the far end.

All of the soldiers, including Nally, turned toward the speaker.

The soldier whose forehead was wounded sat with both elbows on his knees, staring at the floor between his boots.

"The Second-in-Command was right to order the ceasefire," he whispered. "Didn’t you all see it? The creatures stopped fighting us and moved toward him."

The chipped-tooth soldier licked his lips. "So what are you saying?"

"I’m saying maybe they came because we brought him with us."

Nally’s fingers tightened around her rifle. Everyone’s attention fell on her when they heard the clink of metal against her rings.

"Choose your next words carefully." Her tone wasn’t loud, but the soldiers held her gaze for two seconds, then looked away.

"I’m only saying what everyone is already thinking." The wounded-forehead soldier clapped his hands together softly.

An older soldier gave a weak nod. "It makes sense. Everywhere that boy went today, death followed."

"You kind of have sense after all." The chipped-tooth soldier teased.

The older soldier gave the chipped tooth a side eye, then gave a short laugh, then continued.

"Team Alpha was wiped from their post. The Titanaboa appeared. Then the creatures swarmed the Nurses’ Estate. Merge the patterns."

Brann shoved himself halfway up from his seat, then stared at the older soldier. "A pattern? You think MJ died because of that kid? You think James got flattened because of him, too?"

"I think we don’t know what he is. Or why he nominated himself to join after hearing the distress call."

"Sit down, Collins," Nally ordered, gesturing at the older soldier.

Brann remained frozen for a second, then lowered himself back onto the bench. Collins also lowered himself on the bench but looked at Nally with fire in his eyes.

The rain thudded harder on the roof of the MRAP.

In the MRAP, Kai and Merlin sat in; the driver and co-driver exchanged uneasy glances through the protective mesh behind their seats, but kept their mouths shut.

Back in Nally’s MRAP, she leaned on the cold steel, then sighed. "What happened today is above all ranks."

She kept her gaze on the roof, then shifted it slightly toward the soldiers one after another. "None of you have enough understanding to start deciding whether the boy is a savior, a threat, or something else entirely."

The soldier with the wounded forehead exhaled through his nose. "But the Hunters will."

At that same time, the vehicles halted at the front of the RedBull military headquarters. From one of them, a communications officer got down and marched onto the street.

At the front of the parking lot, Lieutenant Wang stood there, one hand at his back, the other holding a half-burned cigarette that was blazing out.

Rain slid off the brim of the structure above him and fell in silver lines a few feet from where he stood.

The communications officer’s damp uniform shoulder stiffened as he halted in front of Wang.

"So let me understand this properly," Wang said in a voice that always made the soldiers uncomfortable. "Team Alpha was nearly erased?"

"Yes, sir."

"The Titanaboa was confirmed dead?"

"Yes, sir."

Wang lowered the cigarette and looked straight into the man’s brown eyes. "And survivors?"

The officer hesitated, lowering his gaze to Wang’s boots.

A faint smile crept onto Wang’s face, judging by the officer’s reaction.

"Sir, the transmissions were incomplete. Commander Merlin has already moved to lock the reports."

"Lock them?" Wang’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"Yes, sir."

’Now that is interesting. Exactly what I thought would happen.’ Wang thought, then looked away from the officer and into the dark base beyond the rain.

"What are the names of the survivors?" Wang’s tone tightened.

From the first to the sixth, the communications officer listed them. "That’s all the names, sir."

A short laugh escaped Wang. "Are you sure?"

The officer hesitated, staring at the last name.

"What about the seventh person?"

’Does he know there were seven?’ Thoughts rammed the officer’s head as he tried to maintain his composure.

"What is the name of the seventh person?" Wang asked, crushing the cigarette under his finger.

The officer looked around, then leaned in almost as if the rain itself might overhear.

"Yung Chin K, sir."

Wang said nothing, only laughed inwardly.

"So," the smile on his face tightened. "That little thing survived."

The officer’s throat tightened. "Sir?"

Wang flicked the cigarette into the rain and watched the ember die on the wet ground. "Nothing. Dismissed."

Relief lanced through the officer as he hurried away, sweat dripping down his chest.