by Michael Todd
“Now for the fun part,” Ava said and brandished a needle and thread, ready to close the wound.
“I fucking hate needles,” the woman said.
“And I hate cutting off infected arms…and closing the stump with an even bigger needle.”
“Funny, Doc,” the Zookeeper said, but she didn’t sound amused.
“It’s Ava, and I’m not a doctor. How’s the work coming on?” she asked as an attempt to distract her from the stitches.
“Poorly,” she responded and winced. “We still have a lot of sand between here and Wall Two, but at the rate the Zoo’s growing, it’ll reach there in months. I’m Jen, by the way.”
“Which is way sooner than Wall Two will be finished. Nice to meet you, Jen.”
“Yeah. That’s why they keep sending us out. These fire bases are the only things that work. Can’t you give me some painkillers or something? Shit.”
“We’re almost done,” Ava said. “I have to save the painkillers for the people who’ll die without my help.” That normally shut up a complainer. Despite the fact that she’d only been near the Zoo for a week, she’d already helped a lot of wounded people. “What about the pesticides?”
“The weedkillers? They work for a day or two before the fucking Zoo adapts and we have to try something new. For once, I’m not jealous of the lab guys,” Jen gritted her teeth. Maybe Ava should’ve given her painkillers, but it was too late now. She was almost done.
“That’s why you use the flamethrowers?”
The woman nodded. “Fire’s the only thing that consistently slows its growth, but the damn Zoo figured that out too. It’s sent different animals at us—or whatever you call the fucking mutants it mixes up. I swear this shit’s alien. It must be. And how the fuck does it get the blueprints for these things? Rhinos don’t live in the Sahara Desert. How does it know about them? Let alone dinosaurs?”
Ava nodded. She didn’t know exactly what the Zoo was or exactly how it operated, either. No one did. Theories abounded—aliens, a super virus spawned by a vindictive Mother Earth, some kind of bioterrorism, God’s wrath…the theories were endless. The one thing that those who’d tangled with it firsthand agreed on was that it wasn’t merely some random mix of plants and animals. It was an it, an entity, with goals of its own and if not plans, then certainly mechanizations. Ava had seen it spawn rivers to fuel its growth, and she had no doubt that it was capable of sending waves of animals to stop the Zookeepers.
To think otherwise was to ignore the facts.
“All right, Jen. You’re all done,” she said, bound the wound in a bandage, and sent the woman on her way.
Jen thanked her and ducked out of the tent, then cursed. “The fucking captain’s here. Shit—Lieutenant Cort, too. He never likes it when his plans don’t work. The captain’s gonna have my ass.”
Ava didn’t think so. It sounded like Captain Taylor already had his hands full.
“I don’t know how they do things down under, but when you are working with my troops, you will follow my orders, is that understood?”
“Is what understood, mate?” Even from inside the tent, Ava could tell it was Manny who had earned the captain’s ire. He often played up his Australian accent when talking to someone he didn’t particularly like.
“You will address me as sir, you pathetic excuse for a pilot. Do you understand that we’ve lost an entire base and it’s your fault? You destroyed a tanker and almost crashed a helicopter.”
“The herbicide’s been destroyed,” Lieutenant Cort said and somehow managed to fit the comment between his superior officer’s tirade.
Captain Taylor continued like he’d planned on the micro-briefing all along. “And you didn’t even manage to save our braniacs’ herbicide? You’re an embarrassment. Your little foray into the field will set us back weeks. You’re a disgrace to your country and your parents. I don’t want to see your face until this mess is all resolved, which—after all the damage you caused—might be never. Until such a time as this outpost is operational, you will not fly another bird. Consider that a promise.”
Ava stormed out of the tent to find Captain Taylor with his finger almost buried in Manny’s chest. Despite the Australian being nearly a foot taller than the diminutive captain, the man showed no signs of intimidation, only pure rage. His face was red, his black line of a mustache quivered, and his other hand—the one that didn’t jab into Manny’s chest like he wanted to squash a bug—was clenched into a fist.
The pilot grinned, as always, but Ava recognized the tightness in his neck, the way one of his feet constantly tapped, and that the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “A promise. Is that right?” he asked with actual space between the words instead of the usual non-stop babble.
“Do I need to extend my pinky to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation?” Captain Taylor roared and somehow turned even redder.
“How about an olive branch?” Ava said and pushed herself between the two men. Both took a step back. Most men wouldn’t hit a girl, not without provocation anyway. She was ready to see how far she could push that particular social taboo.
“Excuse me?” Captain Taylor demanded. His eyes went from looking beyond Ava to boring into her like laser beams.
“I think you owe us a little respect. None of these people would be here if it weren’t for us. Our orders were to rescue as many people as possible. Look around. There were three casualities—three! For the Zoo, that’s practically a slap on the wrist. In exchange, Manny drove off a herd of rhinosaurs by riding on one’s back.”
“Like a boss, I might add,” Gunnar quipped. Ava didn’t know when he’d approached but she was glad he was there.
“But he didn’t simply chase them away. He destroyed them,” she continued, determined not to give Captain Taylor a chance to speak. He looked like he’d know what to do with it. “That means they won’t come back and kill any more people, and more importantly, they won’t drag the three deceased back into the jungle and use them as fertilizer to grow more mutants to kill us.”
“You’re telling me that not only did this man fail to protect our base, but he gave one of my troops control of a helicopter despite lacking any formal training?”
Gunnar took a step forward to answer. “No, sir. Peppy and I manned the guns, as ordered. It was Ava who flew the helicopter during the final assault. It was fine, though. I’ve heard Manny coach her before, sir.”
Ava flushed. Manny had coached her before, true, as in a half an hour before when he’d coached her from the back of a charging rhinosaur. There was no reason to betray that small detail to the captain, though.
“Are you done?” the officer asked, his voice now steel instead of fire.
“Sir! Look.” Lieutenant Cort pointed toward the jungle.
A flare rocketed up out of the Zoo, red against the blue sky, then arced slowly into a lazy descent.
“That’s an American,” Peppy said.
“We need a team in the air, ASAP,” Captain Taylor yelled as if this whole argument had never happened.
A man worked the radio for a minute, then looked at the commanding officer. The soldier didn’t look happy, especially given the captain’s current state of mind.
“Sir, we don’t have anyone prepared to fly that kind of mission. With the pilots we have, well… Sir, you told me to be frank, sir…it would be a suicide mission.”
Captain Taylor sighed heavily, retrieved a handkerchief, and dabbed his sweating face. After a moment, he looked at Manny.
The Australian smiled even more broadly than before. His eyes twinkled in amusement.
“How soon until you’re ready to fly my bird?” Captain Taylor asked.
“I thought you made a promise to this disgrace of a pilot and embarrassment to dingoes everywhere—something about never flying a bird again?”
“We never actually shook on that…”
Chapter Three
Manny was back in the pilot’s seat, thank God, but he’d asked Ava to join
him as copilot. “I’ll count that first touchdown as a small crash landing.”
“What? No way. We’re about to fly again, aren’t we?” Ava protested. “How was that a crash?”
“You took me all wrong. I meant that as a compliment. Knowing how to make a good crash landing is what separates a good pilot from a terrible one. During my first two years of flying, I didn’t do anything but crash. I flew seaplanes back then, so they weren’t too bad as crashes go, plus I learned how to get dolphins to help fend off shark attacks.”
“You’re not making us feel a whole lot better back here,” Gunnar yelled over the comms.
“I don’t know. This is about what I expected,” Peppy said.
“How do you get dolphins to fend off shark attacks?” Ava couldn’t help herself.
Manny winked. “I simply had to explain who was eating all their fish. Reasonable blokes, dolphins. They know their priorities.”
She bit her next question back. He could do this all day—lead her down stories within stories, never actually answer anything, and definitely never prove whether a word that he said was true. One thing was certain, though. He knew how to fly.
“So, what first. Pull back on the collective?”
“Oh, well, would you look at that? Little chickadee crash-lands one time, and she thinks she knows all there is to know about helicopters. The first thing you do is check your instrumentation and bring the engine up to speed.”
“Which we’ve already done.”
“Right. Then you pull back on the collective. Nice and slow now, like you’re trying to stretch out in the middle of the game and don’t want your mates to know you’re about to take a doze in case they draw all over your face with markers.”
“Somehow, I don’t think dingoes did all that,” Ava said.
“I told you that story in confidence,” Gunnar protested.
“We have company,” Peppy interjected.
Something banged on the back of the helicopter.
“That’s funny,” Manny said. “We normally don’t take on new passengers until we’ve already taken off. Go see who it is.”
Ava removed her headset and went to the back of the helicopter.
“Lieutenant Cort, reporting for duty!” He had to yell over the noise of the chopper. “Captain Taylor’s orders.” He looked extremely displeased to be there.
“Make yourself at home,” Ava said and pointed to a seat. He took it, buckled up, tightened his straps, wiggled a little in place, and tightened the straps again. Finally, he gave her a thumbs-up. It was the least confident thumbs-up she’d ever seen. Prior to seeing it, she hadn’t even realized a hand gesture could convey confidence but apparently, most did. This one was obviously the exception that proved the rule.
It matched Cort, though. The man was taller than tiny Captain Taylor, but not by much, with wispy blond hair and a uniform that seemed far too baggy. Confidence didn’t seem to be his thing.
Ava gestured for him to put on a headset so he could hear them and returned to the cockpit, donned her own, and said, “Everyone, hold on. This is only my second flight and first time taking off.”
Cort’s gasp over the headset was well worth it. Gunnar chuckled, and even Peppy managed a single snort. Ava smiled and looked at Manny, whose hand was on the collective, ready to adjust any mistakes she made. He put his hand over the microphone on his headset so only Ava would hear him. “It feels good not to be the virgin, huh?”
She grinned. “Here we go!” After a deep breath, she guided the helicopter into the air.
As they flew out, Manny described a few of what he called “essential” maneuvers. She gathered that at some point—when they didn’t have people to rescue—she’d have to practice moving from side to side while they were in motion and raising and lowering the helicopter. He went on about the importance of barrel rolls, and Ava tried—and failed—to tell herself he was joking.
A swarm of locusts burst out of the canopy.
“Time for our next lesson,” Manny said. Thankfully, he grabbed the controls.
“How to turn back and a lose a swarm of giant angry bugs?” she asked.
“Never surrender. Never give up,” he corrected. “Or something like that. That one I pinched from a movie. Anyway, hold onto your harness. Gunnar and Peppy?”
“We’re on it,” the soldier replied amidst the sudden barrage of gunfire. Ava looked out her window to the right of the helicopter. Dozens of the insects converged on the aircraft. Even though she could hear Gunnar’s gun and even see some of the locusts burst and fall from the sky after being hit, a hollow pit gnawed in her stomach.
There were too many of them.
“I think I need a bigger gun,” Peppy said. Ava couldn’t see her side of the helicopter, but she saw Manny look out his window and grimace.
“They’re pissed that we’re in their living room, is all. I get it. I was never happy when some crocodile showed up in our pond. My folks would bark and bark until the damn thing wandered back to the ocean.”
He raised the collective and the chopper rose higher above the canopy below them.
The locusts followed. There were so many that Ava could hear their angry buzzing over the thump of the rotors.
“All right, then, nose dive. Hold on tight.” Manny pushed the cyclic forward and dropped the collective down. He must’ve done something else too, because the nose of the helicopter plunged, now aimed toward the jungle before them. Ava gripped her seat and instinctively pushed back like she could somehow avoid the ground if they crashed.
A blood-curdling scream reminded her that they had another passenger.
The pilot laughed. “Are you all right, Lieutenant Cort, sir?”
“Protocol says to disengage and come back once they’ve settled,” the lieutenant managed, his voice little more than a croak.
“They’ll never leave us alone. These bitches hate helicopters. They’re jealous of my exquisite maneuverability.” He leaned back in his seat and pulled on the cyclic and the collective with all his might. The helicopter evened out, but not before its landing gear brushed against the tops of the trees and rustled them further.
“Manny, there is a clearing up ahead. Eleven o’clock, not far. Close to where the flare was,” Ava said. She marveled at even making such a suggestion. A week ago, she would have been in tears and simply prayed that they’d survive long enough to get out of the Zoo. Yet now, she’d actually suggested landing.
“I didn’t see a clearing,” Cort protested, terror in his voice.
“Eyes open.” Manny glanced in both directions, grimaced again, raised the helicopter a few feet, and dropped it once more.
At the top of the maneuver, Gunnar and Peppy’s weapons filled the sky with bullets.
The locusts continued their attack.
One of them smashed into the window in front of Ava, its body big enough to crack the glass. She relished watching its whitish blood smear across the windshield, but the bug came to and clawed at her. She screamed instinctively, unable to help herself.
The insect’s strange clawed hands found the tiny seam that joined the windshield to the armored plates that protected the aircraft. Its five eyes looked angry as its pincers snapped at the metal. Ava flipped it off. Tough as the monster was, there was no way it could break through an armored helicopter.
Or so she had thought.
Another pair of mouthparts emerged from between the pincers. Some sort of mandible? Whatever it was, one side of it jammed beneath the shield that protected the helicopter and pulled. A piece of the metal popped up and the creature began to chew. The metal shredded like autumn leaves.
Ava didn’t scream this time. “We have a passenger,” she said and fought to remain calm.
Cort still screamed enough for all of them.
“I can’t get an angle,” Gunnar said.
“On it,” Peppy said. A few seconds later, the locust exploded into a mess of white goo.
“Not a moment too soon. We’v
e reached the landing pad,” the pilot said.
“There’s no way you can land in there,” Cort objected hoarsely.
“Oh, I do love a challenge!” Manny pushed the controls and the helicopter dove into the jungle.
Chapter Four
Ava didn’t know if plunging through the jungle into a clearing nearly the same size as the helicopter was better or worse than trying to out-fly a swarm of murderous giant bugs.
One of the blades struck a branch and shredded the tree, and the aircraft shuddered. Her stomach dropped. Worse than the bugs, she decided. Maybe they should’ve followed protocol like Lieutenant Cort had suggested.
She peered awkwardly above them as one of the locusts divebombed them and was shredded in the rotors. Guts and shell sprayed everywhere. It was almost satisfying enough to make the impossible landing seem bearable.
“Is there anything you can do about that branch?” Manny yelled over his shoulder.
Someone immediately obliged with a volley of firepower, and a thick branch that protruded into the clearing below them shredded into mulch.
Gunnar whooped, proud of his handiwork.
“You didn’t tell me you were into landscaping,” Peppy said.
“If it can be done with a gun, Gunnar can do it,” the soldier replied smugly.
“Are you referring to yourself in the third person? Peppy’s not amused.”
The helicopter thudded to the ground.
“All right, time for me to take a nap. Gunnar and Peppy, this is you,” Manny said and kicked his feet up on the dash as locusts descended through the hole in the canopy.
Ava unbuckled quickly and went to the back of the helicopter. She found Cort still buckled in. He looked wildly back and forth and seemed lost for words.
Gunnar and Peppy raced in opposite directions from the chopper. They cleared its blades and fired to eliminate locusts that attacked from above. The mangled bodies impacted around the soldiers with loud crunches and splatters of goo.