Free Matt Archer: Monster Summer by Kendra C. Highley

 
     
    Part One
     
     
    Great Victoria Desert, Australian Outback
    July
     
    The wake-up call came early. It always did.
    “Yo, sunshine, time to get up,” Master Sergeant Schmitz
called from the tent’s entrance. “No more sleeping in.”
    I groaned and rolled over on my cot, wincing at the bruises
I’d racked up the day before. A quick glance at my watch turned my groan to a
growl. “It’s oh-six-hundred. That doesn’t count as sleeping in.”
    “Does in this man’s army,” Schmitz said. His grin looked
wolfish in the thin sunlight shining through the canvas walls. “Major wants to
see you in twenty. Consider yourself warned, Archer.”
    I stood slowly. Schmitz was tiny compared to the rest of the
team—only about five-eight and wiry with crazy-short hair to match. After my
last growth spurt, I’d hit six feet and I probably outweighed him by at least
twenty pounds. I wondered briefly if I could drop kick him for being so full of
energy this early in the morning but, short or not, the guy was a Green
Beret. And I was only fifteen. Chances were good I’d find myself flat on my
back with a boot planted on my stomach for my trouble.
    So instead I said, “Yes, Master Sergeant. On my way.”
    That didn’t mean I had to be cheerful about it, though.
After Schmitz let the tent flap close, I glanced my best friend’s cot. It was
empty and neatly made. Will must’ve left, or been summoned, long before I had.
    I pulled on my BDUs, which were stiff with dirt and carried
a funk that I could only describe as Gym Locker Cologne. In the eight days we’d
been on the ground there hadn’t been time to do laundry. The monster
infestation in the Outback was worse than expected, and sleeping whenever I had
a spare minute was more important than smelling good.
    When I finally made it outside, a chill wind blew straight
through my camo jacket and I hunched my shoulders against the cold. Our camp
backed up to a large bluff; it provided us with good cover but also created a
wind tunnel between the tents. Shouted commands rang out in the distance.
Someone was being run through drills—so that’s where Will was. I’d been through
a modified boot camp before we came here, but Will had to pull double duty. He
trained whenever we had downtime and watched my back when we didn’t. I glanced
across the plain of reddish dirt just in time to see him drop and start a set
of pushups. Schmitz was counting them off. He got to twenty, with no sign of
stopping, by the time I reached the command tent.
    I paused before entering. Last time, I barged in without
thinking and caught Major Tannen—aka my Uncle Mike—macking on his fiancée,
Julie, who also happened to be second-in-command for our team. How they
convinced the general to station them together was anyone’s guess, but the list
of people on a “need to know” basis about the monster program was very short,
so the general probably didn’t have much choice.
    I pushed down a twinge of annoyance just the same. I’d kind
of wanted to spend some time with Mike on this trip, especially since he’d just
gotten back from Afghanistan, but with Julie here…well, there wasn’t enough
time to go around.
    Yeah, so far I wasn’t doing such a good job of squashing
that thought. I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, willing myself to act like
a soldier and not some kid vying for attention. I’d told Mike for years he
needed to find a girlfriend, partly because his fridge was a disaster, but
mainly because the dude was thirty-eight and seemed a little old to be alone. I
should be happy for him and, besides, whiners didn’t last long in the Army.
    Deciding I better report for duty before they wondered if
I’d gotten lost during the forty-yard walk from my tent to command, I shook off
my funk and tried to make my expression as bland as possible. Just another day
at the office, right?
    To avoid accidently walking in on another make-out session,
I cleared my throat loudly and said,