Demon Trackers: The Anointed

part fourteen

This was the best hunt ever! Okay, the waiting sucked, but as gremlin upon gremlin showed up, Jake’s excitement grew. He imagined turning the valve on his propane torch and flaming every last one of them. Because even though they could be shot or knifed, their vital organs were too small and difficult to get to, plus they healed too fast for normal weapons to slow them down much, so the optimal way to put them down for good was fire.

“Change in plan.” His dad pulled a couple of sticks of dynamite from the duffle bag.

Or that could work.

The explosion would be cool, but not nearly as fun as hand-frying the suckers. “We’re just going to lob one of those in there?”

One of Henry’s eyebrows quirked. Obviously Jake hadn’t kept the displeasure out of his tone very well. After the confrontation with Gregor and then Cal's confession, Jake itched to torch something the good old-fashioned way.

“This is a last resort.” Henry shook his head, frowning. The old man was worried. “There were more of the critters than I expected and we need to get every last one of them. You boys understand? Every last one.”

Cal shuffled up beside Jake. “Yessir,” they said together.

“We’ll go inside the cave as originally planned…” Henry passed a small headlamp to Jake and strapped the other one to his own forehead. Cal frowned, disappointment evident that he didn’t get one of the two headlamps. Jake shrugged, winking at the kid. Cal looked away in annoyance.

The boys followed their father down the slope like obedient pups made to heel. The entrance to the cave lay low and long at the bottom of the ravine and slope, a slash barely as high as their knees. It’d be a tight squeeze crawling in and Jake only hoped the interior opened up. Fighting gremlins while belly-crawling on his stomach just wasn’t appealing.

They set the explosives at each end of the entrance, and then trailed the fuse lines several yards out.

Crouched down at the cave, Henry pulled the small propane torches from the duffle, passing one to each of his sons and keeping the third for himself. Cal let out a barely audible huff, staring at the much thinner propane bottle he had been assigned. Jake was completely attuned to his dad, ready to obey every order because this is when it mattered. His adrenaline was kicking in, tracker instincts adjusting into a calm focus.

Their dad zipped up the duffle. “Jake, you follow me. Cal, you have the rear and charge of the bag.”

“Yessir,” they answered again in unison just before Henry rolled onto his stomach and wriggled inside lengthwise much like he would scoot under a barely opened garage door.

They waited until they heard their dad’s muffled “clear” and then Jake scrambled in after him. He did not like the closed in feeling of the rock around him, but fortunately the entrance was only a couple yards in when the ceiling sloped upward, high enough that while standing they had several feet of clearance above their heads.

The headlamp beams scissored across the walls as Jake and Henry looked around. The cavern was more like a tunnel, close walls and stretching out into a darkness ahead that their lights couldn’t penetrate. There wasn’t a gremlin in sight, but the air reeked of them, a putrid mix of rotting meat and wet animal.

At the scrape sounding behind them, Jake turned and dragged the duffle from the low entrance that Cal was pushing ahead of him. Squatting down, Jake watched the kid’s hands emerge first, one fist tight around his slender propane bottle while he elbow-crawled his way through. Jake smiled, waiting for Cal’s face to screw up as the odor assaulted him. Yep, there it was. Classic bleh-face, nose scrunched up. That never got old.

“You mind?” Cal squinted, lightly smacking Jake away to get the headlamp beam out of his eyes. Jake looked to the side, removing the direct light from his brother. He knew better than to limit someone’s ability to adjust to a darker environment on a hunt. The headlamps were a new addition to Jake's personal gear and he’d have to get used to them.

“All right, boys,” Henry spoke quietly. “Stay sharp. Jake, you torch anything on the left. I’ll take the right. And Cal, you take anything that gets past us.”

“Yeah,” Jake teased. “Just don’t aim your baby flame-thrower in our direction.” Didn’t matter because no gremlin was getting past him.

“Afraid your fart gases will ignite and flame up your—“

“Cal!” It amazed Jake how his dad’s whisper could still sound like a shout. Cal shut up, but looked far from repentant. Jake pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. He had to admit that was a good one. Cal looked over and must have noticed Jake’s mouth curling because his own tugged up in a pleased grin.

Cal hefted the duffle over his shoulder and they started out. Another light clicked on. Jake looked back to see Cal had brought out his flashlight.