Up From The Deep Vaughn Jackson (book club suggestions TXT) 📖

flinging him against the wall. He slid down into the grey water, soaking halfway up his chest.

Raymond stood away from the action, his revolver aimed carefully at the creature. “Face it this way and then hold still.”

Arnett opened fire on the creature as it stalked towards Brannigan. It turned to face him, teeth bared malevolently. “Well, it’s facing you now,” he said. “And I’m definitely sitting still for a bit.”

The burst of noise from the revolver echoed throughout the sewer like thunder. An inhuman shriek of pain followed. The creature reared back on its hind legs, scratching at its face before toppling over backwards and slamming into the ground. It twitched a few more times before finally falling still. Brannigan saw the gaping wound where its left eye had once been, now pouring purple blood to the already slick surface below. He looked at Raymond who had lowered the gun and was now staring at the dead creature.

“The eye was the first time we hurt the mother. I assume her size and complete healing ability is why it didn’t make contact with the brain and kill her. Apparently, it works on these.” He stepped around the body and offered a hand to Brannigan, helping him up.

“Could’ve used that information a little sooner,” the captain said, rubbing his side. “But I’m not bitter, that’s one demon down.”

“Demon?” Raymond asked.

“The kid named the one back at base Akuma. It’s Japanese for demon. So I call these little bastards demons.”

“I suppose that make sense,” Raymond said.

“What, everyone else gets to name a monster, but the minute I do, I get shit for it?”

Chaplin chimed in. “I think no one would have expected you to care what we called these things. You know, more of a ‘doesn’t matter what we call them ‘cause they’re going to be real dead real soon’ kind of guy,” he said, slipping into an impression of Brannigan in the process.

Raymond nodded, doing his best to stifle a smirk. “I do like the sentiment though. These are lesser demons compared to our Akuma. You put a lot of thought into that?”

“Alright, fuck you guys,” Brannigan said, “let’s just try and wrap up this mission without me putting bullets through your eyes.”

“I think we should discuss something important,” Chaplin said, changing the subject. “There are a hundred of these things crawling around here. His revolver has six—”

“Five,” Raymond corrected.

“Five shots left.” He let the statement stand as its own question.

“We’re going to do a whole lot of suffocation,” Brannigan said setting his pack down on the ground. He pulled out several explosives and set them on the ground next to several unmarked containers.

“Drown them? But they can survive underwater.”

“Nope,” Brannigan said. “The dy-nerd-mic duo said that the gills on the side of their head only kind of work. They’re more like dolphins. Limited underwater breathing with a need to resurface for air. The little demons take after their father it seems. He didn’t like the water much either.”

“So we’re gonna blow the retaining wall and all possible escape routes with bombs to fill the nest with water,” Arnett said. “So what’s in those containers?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Brannigan said, tossing one at the other man. “Glue bombs!”

Arnett fumbled with and dropped the container into the murk. “What the hell, man? What if it went off on me?”

“It’s more likely to go off from hitting the ground,” Brannigan said.

Arnett stepped warily away from the container which rested on a thick film on the surface of the sludge. “So, glue bombs.”

“Effectively, they’re grenades that, instead of shrapnel, coat the surrounding area in a quick drying cement,” Brannigan explained. “Dries almost instantly.”

“I didn’t think we had anything like that,” Chaplin said. “You raid someone’s secret stash?”

“I made them,” Brannigan said. He walked over to where Arnett dropped the adhesive bomb and knelt down to pick it up and put it in his pack.

“You made them?”

“Well not the cement solution, I outsourced for that but the combining that with the exploding stuff, yeah, that was me.” He realized that the other three men had gone completely silent and looked up to see them all staring at him. “What? I like tinkering.”

“That’s brilliant, man,” Arnett said, clapping him on the shoulder in excitement.

“Thanks. I can’t wait to test them.”

Arnett’s face dropped. “What?”

“No test like a field test,” Brannigan said, strapping the pack on his back and setting off in the direction they needed to go. “Keep up.”

Arnett looked at the other two men. “Is he always like this?”

Jet shrugged and jogged after Brannigan.

“While I don’t generally approve of recklessness,” Raymond said, “his often seems to pay off.”

“There’s a reason he’s one of the top soldiers,” Chaplin said. “And to think, he was supposed to be here on vacation, and he hasn’t complained about it once.”

“Vacation?” Arnett asked.

“Supposedly he just got back from a tour in the Middle East. California was his rest spot before the next one.”

Raymond made sure to keep a measured distance, so Brannigan couldn’t hear their conversation. “He never said so much as a word about it.”

“Not his style, I guess.” Chaplin shrugged. “He makes his jokes, but he takes his job seriously.”

“Respect,” Arnett said.

“You four better not be hanging back in hopes that I get attacked first,” Brannigan called back.

“We’re right on your ass,” Arnett said. “Don’t worry.”

“I could only hope,” came Brannigan’s reply.

They walked in a loose formation, checking corners and darkened tunnels for any signs of life. Eventually they began to hear the roar of rushing water and came upon a massive drain. A wireframe bridge stretched across the gap, leading out from the sludge channel from which they emerged. All around, mud-colored water poured from openings, and rushed down into the darkness below.

“So I just looked down,” Arnett said, “and I really wish I hadn’t.”

Brannigan scoffed. “If you can’t see the bottom, at least you can be sure you’ll die on impact.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“The alternative is hitting the bottom, breaking everything, and literally wallowing