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ISLA UTGARD, ARGENTINA
10 MARCH, 1943
(1:35 A.M./UTC-3)

* * * * *

The Waffen-SS guards, while initially surprised by the blackout, did not remain so for long. Their immediate commanding officers quickly rallied some of the remaining storm troopers into firing Very pistol flares skyward. As a result, total illumination was restored. Or, at least, a sufficient enough amount of it to make killing off the rest of the chigoe mutants much less difficult.

But, while the latter were being cremated by the troopers with the flamethrowers, a new source of peril arose.

Kaikala had reawakened, in the operating theater of Laboratory A, ten minutes earlier. Prior to that, she had been having a dream. Or, more precisely, another dream about the "goddess" Ina!

"It is to awaken, my child. Awaken...and avenge yourself."

Consequently, before Dr. Santapietro could utter one syllable of alarm, the beauteous Easter Islander concentrated on expanding...and did so. Instantly growing to ten feet tall! And, thereby, becoming muscular enough to break free of the steel-buckled leather straps. Ten seconds later, she was thirty feet tall. And, thereby, strong enough to brace her back against the ceiling of the operating theater...and break through it. After that, she burst through the roof of Lab A with a scream of defiance that only someone who was stone-deaf would have been able to ignore.

And she did all this while having achieved her maximum height, of one hundred feet, in less time than it takes to tell.

Wolfgang Keller--who had come down from the roof of the research building to inspect the aftermath of the Battle of the Bugs--took one look at Kaikala's face and knew for certain there would be no recapturing her alive, this time. This time, it was either her or them. So, he quickly turned towards the surviving storm troopers and shouted:

"Open feuer! Schnell! Schnell!"

Meanwhile, in Laboratory B, Vasco Gonsalves came to the window that Kraus had shown off the view through, with such sadistic glee, earlier that night. He then planted one of the confiscated potato-mashers at the base of the window, before going down the hall way a dozen or so paces. Upon doing so, he pulled the detonator cord on a second potato-masher...and threw it back towards the first one.

"Fuego en el hoyo!" he exclaimed, while putting his index fingers in his ears.*

BA-DA-BOOM!

The ensuing explosion not only shattered the window's bulletproof glass and surrounding segments of wall (as he had hoped). It also startled some of the mutated vampire bats into falling off their stalagmite perches and into the pool of leeches below them! The latter quickly--and ironically-exsanguinating the former. Gonsalves then ran back to the hole in the wall. There, he removed all the remaining potato-mashers. Using the leather bandoliers they had been attached to bind them together!

All before removing just one detonator cord and throwing the whole bundle into the pool beyond.

This time, when ran back down the hall a couple dozen paces, he threw himself on the ground, entirely. Face-first, and using his fully-extended hands to cover both ears. And, this time, the vampire bats who had managed to remain aloft (albeit, fluttering around in confusion) did not do so. Those not killed by the second round of grenade explosions fell into the pool, severely wounded. There, the leeches not already dead made short work of them.

Gonsalves saw this for himself when he staggered up to the hole to inspect his handiwork. His ears still ringing from the explosions, despite the protective measures he had taken. Thus, the subsequent shouting of his surname, that made him turn around, sounded more like a half-whisper.

"Gonsalves!!!!!!!!!"

It was Klaus Kraus. His salt-and-pepper hair disheveled. His pince-nez spectacles gone. His face and smock now stained with matching gunpowder burns. And his right hand now occupied by a Luger, pointed right at the Portuguese bounty hunter's head!

"Y-Y-You...have ruined...everything!!! But, you...shall not live...to boast about it. That...I...promAAAAAAGH!"

One of the condor-sized bats from the room beyond the hole suddenly sprang out of the blood-soaked water. A mutated leech virtually riding it piggy-back! And, as the odd coupling landed atop the German biochemist, the bat (half-maddened with pain) sank its fangs into Kraus' jugular vein.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

It was only after first making sure that Kraus was dead that Gonsalves emptied one of the Schmeisser burp-guns into the two mutated lab animals. Thereby putting them out of their misery.


tbc
Chapter End Notes:
*Spanish for "Fire in the hole!"
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