The thing lunged at us, slavering and cackling, but the trap jerked it back.

Williams reloaded his 9mm and started taking rapid, methodical shots at the creature. It didn’t try to dodge, but the rounds seemed to have no effect. By the time he’d emptied his clip, the big man was swearing under his breath.

I glanced at Graham.

“It’s holding a barrier,” he said, “deflecting the bullets back at us.”

The green man grinned up at us, swaying back and forth in its crouch, hissing softly.

“I can’t break that barrier,” Williams said. “It’s too strong.” He scooped up the deer and started backing off. “Come on. Stay together.”

We all followed him, clustered in a bunch. The green man began jumping around in a frenzy, jerking and pulling against the trap. We got a couple hundred feet away before it calmed down and bent over to examine the trap’s mechanism. After a few seconds, I heard the sound of rusty metal scraping.

Williams dropped the deer and grabbed my hand.

I understood. He wanted to use my strength.

The green man or Williams? It should’ve been no contest. Nevertheless, fear surged through me. I fought the urge to struggle and tried to calm myself.

I felt him reach into me somehow. It was like I was a dog-food can, and a big, filthy mutt was sticking its tongue way down inside to get the last bits at the bottom. It was horrible. I held my breath and tried not to fight it. I felt him drag something out of me. Whatever it was didn’t want to go. It hurt tremendously, like he was ripping part of my insides out.

His fingers twitched. This time, I could feel the barrier. It materialized around us, a sphere of compressed, densely packed charged particles. It was both a defense and a weapon. I’d never perceived anything so extraordinary.

A second later, the green man launched into the barrier and rebounded explosively. Through Williams, I could feel the impact as physical pain, though I couldn’t tell what part of me hurt. But the barrier held. The green man landed about twenty feet back and lay there, motionless. It must’ve gotten a huge electrical shock.

I bent over, feeling sick.

Williams jerked on my hand. “Offer it. Don’t make me drag it out.”

“I don’t know how!”

“Let me,” Zion said.

“You don’t have enough.”

“I’ll do it,” Graham said.

There was a heavy pause, as we all considered. Graham wasn’t safe from the green man. Otherwise his luck wouldn’t have come to bear, and it surely had — the leg-hold trap had to be him. He also wasn’t strong enough to defeat it alone. The failed lightning strikes had to be him, too. Therefore, he needed us.