It was nearly midnight when Jackson waited in the middle of the town with his AA12 with a drum magazine. They stood there like a statue, he only moved his arm to fire a flare into the air.
Like last night, Ryan and Nick sat on the second floor. Ryan continued to share his dad jokes, even if it tested Nick’s patience. However, Jackson was forced to hear it as well through their earpieces. Jackson believed it was best to always have a clear line of communication. While Ryan and his team had them, the only reason they didn’t put them on was because they were operating in a small area. So an earpiece wasn’t necessary.
‘Hey, Jackson. Can I ask you a question?’ Jackson kept silent, but Ryan took his silence as a yes. ‘When we get back home, do you have someone to root?’ He emphasised the last part by imitating an Australian accent.
‘Language!’ Jackson replied, his answer startled Ryan as he never expected the reptile to reply.
‘Wait, you don’t like cussing?’
‘No.’
‘For someone of your reputation, I thought you wouldn’t mind a bit of vulgarity.’
Jackson turned around to face Ryan’s general direction. ‘Use proper language.’
‘Is that an order?’ Ryan asked, Jackson’s only response was a blank but piercing stare. Ryan gulped and accepted that it would be best to not test the reptile. ‘My apologies, sir.’
Jackson didn’t reply, instead, he turned back to his original spot.
Ryan kept quiet for the entire night, thinking he might’ve angered the reptile. Nick was happy at last to have some silence. He thought that Jackson either behaved that way because he knew it would work or because he was so socially awkward that people feared him. Perhaps I’ll never know.
As the crimson flames of the flare died, shrouding the land in darkness once more. Everyone waited in silence, their breaths the only thing they could hear. Ryan played with the safety switch, flicking it on and off. Nick scratched his left hand while he counted to ten in his head so he could stay calm.
Jackson shifted his body to the right, his shotgun steady by his shoulder as he blasted into the darkness. The bunyip leaped around the reptile, dodging their attacks till they could find an advantage point. The creature roared as it pounced at Jackson before its toxic claws could meet his flesh. Jackson threw his weapon at the beast's face to distract it as he rolled to the side.
The Bunyip tried to swipe at the reptile, but every blow was evaded. Further frustrating the beast as it tried to understand their strange but agile prey. Little did it know, the reptile was helping Ryan take aim.
Ryan fired his rifle and grazed the creature’s left leg. It hissed as it faced him. Ryan fired multiple shots as the creature ran to them, only for their advance to crawl to a halt as a grappling hook shot through its right hind leg. Jackson pulled onto the metal wire, dragging the creature towards them while the creature fought against his immense strength. Which forced the creature to be slow enough for Ryan to have a steady aim at the monster’s vital organs.
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Panicked and knowing no other option. The monster leaped towards Jackson. The reptile pressed a button on the device on his left hand with his thumb, activating the retractable buckler which the reptile used to smack the creature away with a thunderous clap. Energy spewed from the force of the magical device as the monster slammed into the building. Its white blood spilled on the left side of his face, causing deep chemical burns that ate his flesh and revealed Jackson’s jawbone. Yet he wiped the blood away with a medicinal cloth made for his physiology, while he did his best to ignore the pain.
‘Fire!’ Jackson ordered with a groan. Ryan fired as many shots as possible into the stunned creature until he ran out of rounds. The reptile threw a golf-sized grenade into the debris to finish off the creature.
As the dust cleared, Jackson took a step back and prepared himself for the creature to pounce again. To Nick’s surprise, the creature stumbled out of the wreckage, its white blood poured from its body. Ryan fired a few more shots at the creature until it finally collapsed to the ground. Jackson picked up their shotgun again and shot it until its stomach and head ruptured. The monster was finally slain.
Jackson holstered his weapon before he approached Nick and Ryan. ‘Mission accomplished,’ he unenthusiastically announced.
‘Is that the last of them?’ Ryan asked.
Jackson glanced back at the dead creature. ‘Should be, but they are different.’
‘How so?’ Nick said.
‘Doesn’t matter, it’s dead now.’ Jackson said while he began to bandage his exposed wound.
Ryan cheered, ‘fu… I mean that is great!’ Jackson stopped Ryan from rushing to the armoured car to call in the Clean-Up Crew and to give Dogma an operation report. But after he asked the most important question.
The reptile faced Nick, ‘you have a choice. Join us, or return to your normal life.’
‘It doesn’t sound like an option, to be honest.’
‘Choose.’ Jackson sharply replied. Nick could recgonise that the reptile didn’t care about how he felt, only that he needed an answer.
Nick learned a lot, he realised that if the bunyip was true then other creatures are true as well, and he didn’t want to live with that. ‘I want everything to go back to normal.’
Jackson gestured for Ryan to go to the armoured car, to make the final call. The bunyip was dead, the last of its kind. Or so Ryan and Nick believed at the time.
‘So, Jackson. What will you do after this?’ Nick questioned.
‘The same thing.’
‘Kill monsters?’
‘Yep.’
Nick smirked, amused by Jackson’s short and blunt answers. ‘Well, I suppose I should thank you both.’ He shook the reptile’s hand. Knowing that he would never remember this event, the monster, Jamie, perhaps even forget his life in Cue. It’s a better trade.