Hawkins had seen enough. He looked back to ask Drake for his knife when a large rock went soaring over his head. Joliet grunted from the effort.
The hurled stone collided with the side of Kaiju’s head. The monster grunted and turned to face them as it batted the puffy-haired chimera away with its tail. Kaiju stared at them, heaving from exertion. Blood dripped from its arm where Lilly had bitten down, but the creature didn’t attack.
Bennett peeked out from behind the trunk of a palm tree. He’d been hiding from the fight between mother and children. He looked them over, paying attention to their hands. He’s looking for weapons, Hawkins thought.
Bennett grinned and then stepped out into the open, but much of his maniacal confidence had leeched away. He flinched with each shout, gunshot, and explosion.
“Got more than you bargained for?” Hawkins asked. He didn’t think taunting Bennett was wise, but he didn’t see how it could hurt.
Bennett glanced toward the battle. Draco-snakes flew past overhead, converging with the conflagration, but the soldiers were still winning, pushing the fight closer by the second. “Exciting, isn’t it? Just wait until we reach the mainland. We will have such fun!”
Hawkins noticed a backpack over Bennett’s shoulder and remembered the bottle labeled “active” he’d taken from the lab. If he had just one bottle of water tainted with those fast-growing chimeric blastocysts, the North American continent would be swarmed. The only thing that would save the rest of the world were the oceans and Panama Canal. If the creatures survived the cold, they might even be able to cross the Arctic ice to Greenland, Europe, and Russia. They would eventually burn through their food supply, overpopulate the northern hemisphere, and die out. Humanity might survive, but every country accessible by land or ice would be scoured clean.
Bennett has to be stopped, Hawkins thought.
Suddenly, the fuzzy chimera leapt from the ground, reaching its claws toward Kaiju’s eyes. But the small chimera never made it. The monster opened its jaws, caught the smaller creature by the back of its neck, and bit down. Death was quick.
Was Kaiju killing the children quickly on purpose? Was it being merciful?
“No!” Joliet shouted, stepping forward. “They’re your children! Don’t you remember that?”
“Her children?” Bennett said. He turned to Kaiju. “Old girl, you’ve been keeping secrets.”
Hawkins saw Lilly stir in a patch of grass. Without a second thought, he ran to her and knelt down. Bennett was distracted for the moment.
He looked into the yellow eyes. She bared her teeth and hissed. Hawkins nearly retreated, but then her features softened and a slight smile formed. “You came,” she said.
“Sorry about what I said. About everything,” Hawkins whispered. “I didn’t understand.”
She looked into his eyes, squinting, and then nodded. “Okay.”
Hawkins reached down and picked the girl up. She was covered in dense but soft fur, black as night, but she had the body of a human five year old. Hawkins grunted as he lifted her. She was heavier than a human. The girl clung to him as he hustled back to the others. He handed Lilly toward Drake. Man and chimera-girl looked at each other, uncertain. But when she reached out for him, Drake took her, his muscles holding her weight better than Hawkins’s. In exchange, Hawkins took the knife.
“Please tell me you didn’t come here for them?” Bennett said. A bullet pinged off the cement by his foot, making him jump.
The battle was close; just one hundred feet away, separated by a thin smattering of palms and a shrinking army of chimeras. Hawkins noticed that no more draco-snakes were coming out of the jungle. The reinforcements had run out. Of course, neither side of the conflict knew that a third, far more overwhelming force would soon arrive. Hawkins glanced uphill. The spiders had yet to crest the top.
“Kam asked me to,” Hawkins said, but he didn’t speak to Bennett. He spoke to Kaiju. “You hid them from Bennett because you cared about them. And Kam cared about them. Called them brothers and sisters. Saving them was his last—”
“Kill them!” Bennett shouted.
Kaiju charged.
Hawkins turned to the others. “Get to the boat. I’ll meet you there!”
“Mark, no,” Joliet said.
“Bray, take her!”
Bray wrapped a big arm around Joliet’s waist and hoisted her up. Drake led the trio toward the jungle and ocean beyond, following a diagonal path away from Bennett, but closer to the fighting soldiers. Joliet kicked and screamed. Lilly just clung to Drake, staring back at Hawkins with sad eyes that revealed she believed she’d never see him again. When he saw her eyes widen with fear, he knew he’d watched them too long.