Hulk by Peter David (e reader manga TXT) 📕

The tube fell end over end, and then struck the floor and shattered, creating a puddle of dark red liquid that oozed across the floor. He looked down, horrified, frozen, and was certain that he could hear his own heart pounding, getting faster and faster.

There was a sound in the hallway. The dogs? The janitor? Betty’s father? Talbot? Or maybe monsters lurching to darksome life, spat out from the shadows.

He ran into the hallway but found nothing and no one. Yet that fact wasn’t good enough for him. He sprinted through the deserted halls, around corners, looking, searching. He collided with an equipment cart and the knees, which he’d hurt earlier, flared with even more aggravated pain. But that didn’t stop him. He kept running, tripped, hit the wall, and bloodied his lip, and the world began tilting around him at a forty-five-degree angle.

He was losing all sense of who he was and where he was, and as he lifted himself up, an animal cry emerged from within him. The scream echoed in the halls, images cascading through his mind, the old man and the snarling dogs and Betty’s face, except it was twisted in contempt and suspicion, and there were army men with rifles aimed at him at the orders of a man Bruce had never met but instinctively knew was Betty’s father . . . and pouring copiously through all the images is blood, his blood, thick and viscous and red, except it’s glowing and shifting from red to a dark shade of green . . . and fury, huge, smashing, rending, through the wall, feel it collapse, feel resistance vanish beneath strength, fury pounding animal snarl muscles knotted power surging bottled up exploding release, yes, good smash pound smash smash smash . . .

. . . and high through the air outside the lab flew the gammasphere, ripped right out of its housing, propelled by animal fury and impossible strength. The gammasphere arced skyward for a moment, hung there as if trying to defy gravity, and then plummeted. It struck the roof of a parked security cruiser and crunched right through, causing the entire vehicle to sag on its springs. Miraculously the car’s alarm system was still functioning, and lights began to swirl as the car howled as if it were an injured living creature.

. . . smash walk no walk move faster stop man small man kill man kill smash man no yes no smash destroy rip rend tear no can’t no . . .

The eyes of the monster focused on the old man who stood at the far end of the lab, unblinking, unafraid. They froze there, predator and prey, except it wasn’t entirely evident at first which was which. The old man smiled in the face of certain death, didn’t waver under the glower of those frightening green eyes. He stepped forward, stretched out his hand

. . . rip hand smash break smash tear into pieces no no yes no no yes YES YES . . .

and the monster swiped at the hand, took a step forward, and the old man stumbled back, suddenly far less certain of his invincibility than he had been before. He tripped over his own feet, falling to the floor, and now the sirens could be heard approaching and they were

. . . Screaming noise screaming people screaming all around screaming noise make it stop go away go away GO AWAY . . .

getting closer and there were people shouting and calling out, coming closer, closer still, and the monster didn’t look the least bit like a trapped animal, but instead was clearly trying to decide whether it was worth his time and effort to annihilate everyone who was approaching him and

. . . bah . . .

when the decision came, it was capricious and random and could just as easily have gone the other way. But it didn’t. Instead, it was the monster that went the other way.

A security guard in the lead barely had time to react and catch a glimpse of a mountain of dark green before the frightening mass was suddenly gone, straight up, crashing through the ceiling and causing debris to rain down, driving everyone back.

There was stunned silence, then, as the light of the moon filtered through the hole in the roof that hadn’t been there moments ago. “What,” gasped out the security guard, “was that? It—it was some sort of . . .”

“Of hulking monster,” said the old man, and in the darkness of the shadows where he was lurking, no one could see the smile playing upon his lips. “A hulk. That’s what he was. Tell everyone”—he raised his voice—“that a monstrous hulk is out there.

“Well?” he prodded when the guard just stood there, staring upward in incredulity at the damage casually left behind by the creature. “What are you hanging around for? Go! Go!”

The guard broke out of his stunned stupor and ran, muttering, “A hulk,” urging others who were just arriving to stay the hell away from the scene of the crime, presuming he was able to figure out just what the crime was. And he left behind the old man who was feeling quite amused and exceedingly pleased with himself.

“I named him once,” said the old man to himself. “Who better to name him again?”

As the emergency vehicles arrived, the shadow of the figure merged into the trees of the Berkeley hillside

. . . leave leave leave . . .

and with deed matching thought, he leapt skyward. From time to time he landed, having no care about what damage he did whenever he struck the ground, and then off he would go again. Every so often people would spot him descending and mistake him for a falling satellite or a chunk of an airplane or a UFO, and they would run just as he hit and then stand there stupefied because suddenly the crashing object would just be gone again, and