Hulk by Peter David (e reader manga TXT) 📕

ground, crushing its body beneath his feet. There was a deafening snap and the creature let out such a cry of anguish that for an instant Betty actually felt sorry for it. But only for an instant. The other two dogs converged on the green monster, but he was already up and gone again.

Betty watched with a combination of horror and fascination as the crushed dog’s flesh began to steam and melt away. It was as if nature was anxious to dispose of this abomination. The remaining two terrifying animals circled with even greater agitation, for they had absolutely no idea where to focus their attention: upon the prey in the car, upon their obviously deceased fellow, or upon their airborne green tormentor, who might return at any time.

Suddenly one of the creatures darted quickly to the right, for no apparent reason that Betty could see, but then the reason became evident. The giant landed again with a resounding impact. This time, however, his target had sensed him at the last second and barely avoided meeting the same fate as the first.

Now the battle was truly joined. One of the dogs clamped onto the giant’s ankle. He let out a thunderous bellow that seemed capable, on its own, of leveling trees, and indeed it seemed to Betty that the redwoods were trembling as a result. He tried to shake the dog loose, and its fellow lunged straight at his neck.

Betty screamed. It was unthinkable how quickly everything had turned around. Less than a minute ago, she had regarded the bizarre green intruder as some sort of incredible threat ripped from the deepest recesses of her nightmares. Now she was seeing him as a defender, her only chance of getting out of this insane situation in one piece.

But it was hopeless. He was outnumbered by his inhuman attackers, and one of them had a death grip on his throat.

The giant staggered. With a snap of his leg he shook the one dog loose, then managed to pry apart the other dog’s jaws. Betty saw mangled flesh at the base of the giant’s neck, and green blood began oozing from it as the behemoth swung his arm around and sent the dog tumbling. He grabbed at his neck, probably feeling the pooling warmth, and looked in what was obvious surprise at the thick green liquid that collected in his palm.

The dog who had been at his ankle turned its attention to Betty, and she screamed once more. The giant tried to respond, but the other dog was blocking his path. He staggered back, his rage momentarily taking a backseat to his primal urge to survive, then vaulted backward, ricocheting from the top of the cabin to the top of a nearby tree.

The dogs quickly lost interest in their opponent, and circled the car. Betty shoved her hands into her pockets, looking for the keys . . . and spotted them outside, ten feet away, glistening mockingly on the ground where they’d fallen. “Oh, perfect,” she grated, realizing that her temporary haven was little more than a hunk of inanimate glass and metal that would fall very quickly to any concerted attack from these . . . these . . .

Gamma irradiated . . . displaying tremendous strength and resilience . . . they were manufactured somehow, similar to the experimentation we’ve been pursuing. If it was only possible to perform studies . . .

She was stunned at herself. Stunned, but also a little proud. Here she was, her life probably about to end, but she was going to go out thinking like a scientist. It was cold comfort, but it was better than nothing.

And suddenly she jumped, jammed back against the seat, as a huge paw thudded against the windshield. Then her view was entirely blocked by snarling fangs and a long, dangling tongue. Another paw joined the first, slamming against the glass and leaving long scratches with ear-splitting shrieks. The windshield began to crack, spiderweb designs ribboning across it.

Then there was a thump, and the dog’s face was mashed flat against the windshield, thick rivulets of blood dribbling everywhere. At first Betty couldn’t comprehend what had just happened, but then she saw it.

The behemoth hadn’t been running from the dogs at all; he had simply been seeking out a weapon that would prove effective against them. What he had chosen proved devastating in its simplicity: an uprooted redwood tree. He had swung it with the precision of a baseball player at the plate and mashed the attacking canine flat.

Straining to see through the streams of blood that were obscuring her view, Betty caught a quick glimpse of her protector looking around, clearly trying to see where the third dog had gotten off to. Then he found out as the mastiff leaped from behind, landing squarely on his back. The giant swung the tree around futilely, trying to reach the dog and having no luck. He tossed aside the lumber and instead tried grabbing at the dog. The beast eluded his questing hands, and so the giant simply threw himself backward, hoping to crush the dog by hitting the ground flat on his back.

It was good in theory but failed in execution as the dog scrambled around to the front just as he struck the ground. It tried to drive its massive jaws toward the giant’s throat once again, but the behemoth caught it just in time, and they rolled across the forest floor, a combination of howls and snarls and green-muscled fury locked in a deadly embrace, biting, mauling, choking.

And suddenly the dog that had been smeared to within an inch of its life on the windshield managed to retreat from that final inch. The light dying in its eyes stoked back to full fire. It smashed through the glass in a final, desperate lunge, and just as it did, Betty’s hand yanked on the seat release. The upper section of the seat slammed back and Betty fell flat as