by Michael Todd
“Could it be a stretcher?” Cort sounded hopeful. “Maybe they have injured who aren’t that bad and they’re taking turns dragging them and resting.”
“It could be,” Ava said, but she stole a glance at her companions. They seemed as dubious as she was. If that was the case, whatever had slid through the mud would go with the human tracks, not across them. She couldn’t really be sure, though, and the ever-approaching sound of the hyenamites’ laughter made it hard to think.
“Just when it couldn’t get any stranger.” Manny gestured for the others to join him.
As she moved forward, she steeled herself for more carnage or some dead Zoo creature perhaps, but instead, she found toes. Well, not proper toes. Toe-prints.
“One of them is barefoot?” Gunnar said, incredulous.
“No, more than one. Look, here’s another.” Manny paced and pointed out a few other footprints. “I should’ve looked closer. I don’t know if someone lost a boot or they’ve been barefoot for a while. We could double back to check.” He grinned.
No one thought that was funny.
“Just keep an eye out for more,” Gunnar instructed and signaled for them to keep moving.
They reached a place that seemed to have been rooted through that was all mud. Here, the footprints were so plain that even she could read them. More than one person was barefoot. More than a couple.
Manny dropped down, heedless of the mud. “They stumbled or ran all crazy-like. Do you see how the edges of the prints have deeper ridges sometimes on the inside and sometimes the outside? It means they constantly changed direction like they’d had a pint too many.”
Ava didn’t know what to make of it. Obviously, the people hadn’t been drinking, but the idea of them removing their shoes in the Zoo made even less sense. She shuddered as the hyenamites emitted another peal of laughter. “I hate those things.”
“I dunno.” Manny shrugged. “It's a bit like being on a sitcom. Our own personal laugh track.”
They pushed on. Before too long, the trail opened into a small clearing filled with low-growing vines covered in red berries.
“Let me guess. If we pop one of those berries, it’ll release a poison gas that will make us vomit our lungs as they turn into pink goo.”
Gunnar shot Peppy a smile. “You’re slipping, Peppy. Pink goo? I expect more from you.”
“I wanted to say they might turn our lungs into a mixture of snot, puss, and blood so vile that even the hynemites wouldn’t eat it, but that seemed in poor taste.”
“You guys, look.” Ava pointed across the tangle of vines.
In the middle of the clearing, under a single large, thickly leaved tree, sat a soldier. She looked at them, unmoving.
“She must be hurt,” Ava said.
Manny took a cautious step forward and crushed a few berries as he did so. When no poisoned gas escaped, they all rushed forward to the woman.
Peppy and Gunnar made a tiny perimeter around Ava and the soldier. Cort, to his credit, scanned the perimeter so fast Ava didn’t think anything would get past him. He really did make her think of a meerkat. Manny fell into his investigative stork routine. Ava sincerely hoped he didn’t try to sniff around on all fours again.
“Are you okay?” she asked the soldier.
The woman wasn’t exactly conscious. Although her eyes were closed, she babbled like she suffered from fever dreams. Ava checked for wounds. She was covered in tattoos so at first, it was hard to tell fresh wounds from ink or dried blood. When Ava toucher her chest, she winced, possibly from a broken rib, and one knee was swollen aside from an abundance of cuts and bruises. It was a small miracle she was alive. “What’s your name?”
“Hungry…hungry. Fucking hungry. Jump, jump, jump…then so hungry…fuck,” the soldier rambled.
“She’s delirious,” Ava told Gunnar and Peppy. She took a cloth from her pack and tried to clean the woman’s face. It was covered in blood—wait…no, it wasn’t. The liquid looked like dried blood or was that same color anyway, but it wasn’t as thick. It also didn’t come off like blood would. It was some sort of stain. She checked the soldier again. Her hands were stained too. Whatever the stuff was, it was nearly impossible to remove. Ava checked her jacket.
“Guys, we have a problem,” Manny said.
“Abbott? Is that your name?”
That snapped the soldier’s eyes open. Her eyes darted around wildly and slowly focused on Ava. Her pupils were huge, and the whites were bloodshot.
“Fuck!” Abbott screamed and lunged at Ava.
The woman’s strength was profound. She tried to stop her, but the soldier tackled her and drove her backward. She crawled forward on top of her and pinned Ava’s arms down with her knees.
“A little help here,” Ava said.
Gunnar grabbed Abbott by the shoulder, but she shoved him off, using Ava’s body underneath her for leverage.
“That’s not what I was thinking!” Pain flared in Ava’s arm.
“Back off,” Peppy said and aimed her gun at the soldier’s head.
Abbott ignored the threat—or more likely didn’t even register it—and instead, grabbed a fistful of the berries. They ruptured in her grip to stain her hands even more with dark red juice. She brought them to Ava’s mouth.
She wanted to scream but knew that would be akin to asking to be poisoned so instead, she thrashed and tried to use her legs to push the soldier off her.
Abbott growled and smacked her captive’s face with her fistful of berries. Ava grunted. It hurt but she refused to open her mouth. The soldier grabbed her by the hair and yanked hard.
Ava screamed. She couldn’t help herself, and as soon as her mouth opened Abbott brought the berries close.
Gunnar and Peppy tackled the woman to knock her down and free Ava.
She pushed herself backward, away from the deranged soldier.
Her rescuers wrestled with Abbott and tried to keep her down, but she was inhumanly strong. She thrust her legs under Peppy and kicked her off, then headbutted Gunnar.
“Fuck!” Gunnar said as he rubbed his head and stumbled backward.
“Guys! We have a problem!” Manny shouted.
Cort helped Ava to her feet. She was shaking and thankful for his help.
“No shit we have a problem,” Peppy said and aimed her gun at Abbott. The soldier didn’t respond to the threat any more than she had the first time. Instead, she stood, gathered another fistful of berries, and screamed impossibly loudly.
Peppy and Gunnar exchanged a look and rushed the soldier as one. Peppy dropped low and with a spinning kick that would have been at home in a videogame, knocked the woman’s legs out from under her. Gunnar was ready and caught her arms behind her. She almost broke free, but Peppy grabbed one of her arms, and Abbott could only struggle ineffectually against them.
Manny seemed to have no interest in the crazed soldier. Instead, he looked up. Ava followed his gaze up into the tree that the soldier had leaned against.
A huge, reptilian face stared down at them. Manny had said hippo earlier, and the size was right, but this creature was far more fearsome. Its nose was long and came to point, and teeth protruded from both sides to give it a horrible rictus. It began to slide out of the tree.
“Shit. We have to go!” Manny ran.
Chapter Nine
Ava followed Manny and glanced over her shoulder at the giant reptile and at Peppy and Gunnar who still fought to restrain the soldier.
Naturally, because she wasn’t looking, she tripped and fell.
Cort was there to help her up.
Still, she didn’t run like she should have. She was hypnotized by the monster. It was big—so unbelievably big—with an impossibly long neck and a tiny pair of legs that didn’t seem like they could possibly help it crawl.
“Is that a crocodile?” she asked in disbelief. How could a crocodile get into a tree?
“It could be an alligator.” Cort tugged at her.
Its face could belong to
either creature, although the ridge of spikes behind its eyes looked like a signature freaky Zoo mutation, but its body was different. For one thing, it was too long. And how did it move? Did it have some weird rabbit legs or something? Its front legs weren’t anywhere close to big enough to support its massive weight. Frankly, Ava was surprised the tree could support its weight.
“Am I the only one who sees the wisdom of a timely exit?” Manny said from ahead of them.
Gunnar and Peppy still wrestled with the soldier and cursed at her to come with them for her own good. She paid no attention. Instead, her gaze was locked on the monster that unraveled sinuously from the tree. She didn’t seem afraid at all.
The crocodile continued its descent and its neck stretched longer and longer.
“It’s a snake,” Ava said, her voice hoarse and distant. She could hardly believe it. The monster looked big enough to eat a horse. And it was a snake? Its head reached the ground and the -tiny legs guided it forward before the long, sinuous body unwound from the tree. The monster slithered toward Gunnar, Peppy, and the deranged soldier.
The woman was slowing them down and the crocodile snake would outpace them.
Abbott broke free.
Before the other two could stop her, she ran directly toward the snake’s huge head and shrieked like a banshee the whole way. It opened its mouth, unhinged its jaw, and swallowed her whole.
“What the fuck?” Gunnar yelled.
Peppy was dumbstruck. She didn’t move until her teammate grabbed her by the shoulder. Then, she lifted her gun.
Both soldiers released a barrage into the crocodilian face. It closed its eyes, clearly annoyed at the bullets that peppered it, but the monster didn’t flee. It didn’t even seem injured. Thick scales seemed to block the bullets as well as human skin blocked bee stings. And, much like bee stings, the bullets really seemed to piss it off.
“I hate to sound like a broken record but let’s get the fuck out of here,” Manny shouted.
Gunnar and Peppy ran.
The crocodile-headed snake paused for a brief moment before it followed them. The massive body flexed as if it were constricting Abbott’s body inside it. Something snapped, the ghastly confirmation of broken bones. It must have been a horrible way to die. Why had Abbott done it to herself?
Ava decided she’d find time to ponder that later. Right now, the monster, its meal already beginning to digest, gave chase.
Manny led them back the way they’d come. He followed the open path and went in the opposite direction of the footprints. It was now painfully obvious what had flattened the tracks, and even how it had vanished and reappeared. The snake monster must have come down from the treetops to feed and gone back up.
“What is that thing?” Cort shouted as they ran.
“Some kind of alligator,” Gunnar said. He and Peppy sprinted hard to catch up. Behind them, the sinuous body of beast slithered in relentless pursuit.
“No, more like a crocodile,” Manny said. “A saltwater croc, I’d say. We had the biggest down under. I actually helped wrestle him to the surface, in fact, but this bloke would break all the records.”
“Is this really the time for this shit?” Peppy demanded.
“Constrictadile!” Ava said, careful to watch the terrain ahead of her as she ran. If she tripped now, she’d be swallowed in a heartbeat and not even slow the beast down.
“That’s fucking great. Did you just come up with that?” Manny asked.
“It obviously constricts its prey. And yeah, the head is definitely crocodile.”
“What about aliconda?” Gunnar suggested.
“Seriously?” Peppy said as she turned to shoot at the constrictadile.
It flinched when the bullets hit its face.
“This way.” Manny pointed toward an opening on the side of the trail they’d followed. The others followed.
It was smaller than the one they’d been on but still obviously used by something.
“Where are we going? What is this trail?” Ava asked between breaths.
“Rhinosaur track. Normally, I wouldn’t take one of these, but I’d welcome a cute little rhinosaur right about now,” Manny replied and continued with his crashing pace through the undergrowth.
Ava looked behind them. “I think we’re losing it. It can’t move through the jungle growth like we can, so it must have used the treetops to hunt those soldiers.”
“Are you’re saying it’ll drop on us from above?” Peppy said.
“No—no, I don’t think so,” Ava said and slowed a little. “That soldier—Abbott—she ran directly to it.”
“And you think we failed to notice that?” Gunnar said. They all slowed and listened for a moment. Nothing seemed to be in pursuit. Both the canopy and the jungle beneath it were still and they heard nothing but the drone of insects. For now, at least.
“But when she ran at it, did you see what it did?” Ava asked.
“How could we not? It snapped her up like she was a dog biscuit,” Manny replied.
“Exactly. I don’t think that thing hunts, at least not like we do.” Ava continued to scan the treetops, but it really did seem like they’d lost it. Of course, it was impossible to tell in the thick plant growth, but it was so big, they’d surely see it coming. “It’s a reptile, right? It must wait for its prey. Both snakes and crocodiles are ambush predators.”
“There is a difference between a lizard waiting for a fly to land before gobbling it up and a constrictadile hiding out in a berry bush convincing its dinner to fix breakfast,” Manny said.
“I still think aliconda works,” Gunnar huffed.
“Do you think those berries were significant?” Ava asked, although she already had her own answer to the question.
Before anyone could answer, screams echoed through the undergrowth.
“Are those hyenamites?” Cort asked quickly. “Maybe they work with the constrictadile.”
“No, mate.” Manny shook his head. “Those aren’t hyenamites. Look.”
A short distance ahead of them, a human stepped into the path. His uniform was ragged, his boots gone, his hair a mess, and his mouth and hands stained as dark as blood.
“Are you here to tell us you have a barbie fired up with shish-kabobs and a few cold ones?” Manny asked.
The man screamed, and ten more people stumbled from the jungle and onto the path behind him.
“I take it you blokes already ate all the kabobs.”
Bloodcurdling shrieks and howls were the only verbal response as the enraged group attacked.
Chapter Ten
The members of the frenzied mob all looked like they’d lived the same nightmare. Their numerous wounds, torn clothes, angry eyes, and dark stains on their hands and mouths told the same horrifying story.
The first man who’d alerted the others reached Manny, who promptly punched him in the face. The blow knocked him down, but he immediately bounded up as if the pain wasn’t an issue.
His companions surged past the pilot. Gunnar cracked one across the head with the butt of his gun, but despite the fact that the blow drew blood and sounded loud enough to crack bone, her assault barely slowed.
Ava thought they would be eaten or torn apart—or something equally as ghastly—but when one of a group of three tackled Peppy and pinned her down, he held up a fistful of berries. They had different motives than what she’d imagined, as bizarre as it seemed.
“Don’t let them feed you!” she yelled and ducked as an attacker leapt at her. He missed her but crashed into Cort. The lieutenant went down but immediately retaliated and barely managed to shove the man off.
His assailant screamed and punched a tree hard enough to crack it. His knuckles were injured, mangled by the blow, but he didn’t seem to care.
“Get off the path,” Manny bellowed and blundered into the jungle.
Ava followed—as did the demented mob.
She made it perhaps ten paces before one of the attackers crashed into her back and flung
her to the ground. He dragged her roughly onto her back and straddled her, holding a fistful of berries.
Gunnar burst from the thick undergrowth and dropkicked the man. Even that was hardly enough to disable him. Whatever made these people attack also made them oblivious to pain.
Ava pushed herself up and ran.
“Shit, shit shiiiiiit!” the pilot caterwauled from somewhere ahead.
She understood the panic in his tone as she careened out of the jungle and her legs pinwheeled into empty air. Manny had fallen into a ravine, and she was about to join him.
The ground squelched on impact. Thoroughly winded, she pushed herself up. Nothing was broken, thank God. The bottom of the ravine was filled with a trickle of a stream and thick mud. While she might ordinarily have an aversion to mud, she decided this particular puddle might be a good thing, too. Otherwise, her story might have ended rather abruptly.
“Heads up!” Manny yelled as Gunnar and Cort barreled from the underbrush. They glanced up and plummeted over the edge into the ravine.
“Heads up is a terrible thing to say when I should look down,” Gunnar complained as he shoved and slithered himself out of the muck.
Peppy plunged out of the jungle and her legs flailed out over the ravine. She managed to spin and clutch the edge, swung there for a moment, and worked her way carefully down to the others. They heaved a collective sigh as they examined themselves for injuries and found they’d all escaped unscathed.
The soldier held a finger up to her lips. “Shhh.” She pointed upstream and they began to inch their way along the ravine.
They had barely taken a few sliding steps before one of their attackers crashed into the ravine behind them, followed soon after by another, and another. As they had done previously, they showed no concern or even awareness of the injuries they sustained in the fall. A woman didn’t even glance at the shard of bone that protruded from her leg and Ava shuddered.