by Michael Todd
“I mean,” Sal said, anxious to ease her expression of horror, “I can make some more with the other ruined set. It’s not like we’ll miss the six grand, right?”
She nodded. “Especially after the taxes.”
“The what now?”
“You’ll learn,” Kennedy said with a small, rueful smile. “Anyway, yeah, you can whip some more up, right?”
Sal nodded. “Yeah. If I inject it deeper into the wound, it might heal the torn muscles enough that you can move around under your own power. Probably not with the full armor, though.”
She nodded. “It’s not like I have a full suit of armor left anyway.”
Sal nodded. “I’ll get right on it.”
Chapter Nineteen
Addams looked up from inspecting Kennedy’s wound. He looked impressed. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s still a gunshot, and it’s still fairly serious, but it looks like it’s been healing for two or three weeks.”
“Do you think I can walk on it?” she asked as she pulled the bandage over the wound.
“Well, that’s up to you, I guess,” Addams said and replaced his equipment in his pouch. “If it’s not too painful, I’d say yes, but try not to run or put too much weight on it. And maybe without your armor?”
“That was what I suggested,” Sal agreed.
“Which brings me to my next question,” Addams said. He had been on the final watch, so he was understandably irritable. “Do you want to tell me why the fuck your leg looks like it’s been healing for a few weeks when I can say on good authority that it’s only been one night?” He paused and accessed his HUD. “Yep. My calendar says it’s only been one night. So…what gives, Sarge?”
“It’s a little serum Jacobs worked up,” Kennedy said.
“I used what I could press from a couple of the ruined flower sets and added saline solution,” Sal explained. “I tested it first on the surrounding lesions and wounds. There was some limited success, so I decided to try it in the muscle as well.”
Addams nodded. “Lynch won’t be happy about that.”
“He wanted to leave me out here to die on my own,” Kennedy retorted and scowled. “Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.”
“Be that as it may,” Addams said, “he’s still a member of this squad, and he has a say, technically, in how the samples we acquire are used.”
“Look,” Sal interjected, “we wouldn’t get much from those flowers anyway. It was a valuable test, and now we know that these flowers can be used for some emergency first aid.”
Addams nodded. “We still need to bring it up with Cortez and Lynch.”
“Bring what up with us?” Cortez asked as he and Lynch returned from refilling the canteens at another water source they had found.
“Well, there’s no time like the present,” Addams said.
Sal sighed as Lynch and Cortez stared at him. “Look, I was bored last night—”
“Well, this is off to a great start,” Lynch muttered and put the canteens he’d refilled on the ground.
“Shut it, Lynch,” Kennedy commanded. She still had a bone to pick with the man.
The specialist continued once there was silence again. “I ran a few tests on the flowers that we had collected—the ones that were bruised. I made them into a serum that went a long way to heal the gunshot in Kennedy’s thigh.”
“How long a way?” Cortez asked.
Kennedy stood, walked in a circle, and sat once again.
“Huh,” Cortez grunted. “I’ve never seen people recover from wounds that quickly. And I’ve seen a lot of people get shot.”
“Who the fuck cares?” Lynch interjected. “You didn’t bring it up with the squad before you used our paycheck to heal the princess’ boo-boos. Ya shouldn’t ha’e done that, rookie.” Lynch pointed accusingly at Sal, who jutted his chin out in defiance.
“He’s got a point,” Addams said. “So, since Jacobs didn’t bring it up with the squad last night, we’ll hold a vote. Who thinks Jacobs did the right thing when he used the ruined petals to make Kennedy mobile again?”
Addams raised his hand, and Kennedy did too. After a few moments of thought, Cortez raised his hand as well.
“If it keeps us mobile and we don’t have to carry Kennedy,” he explained, “I think it was a good call. Provided that he only used the ruined ones, not the one still viable for the full price.”
Sal withdrew the sealed packet of flower petals. They were all still a pristine blue.
“So, we’re agreed?” Kennedy looked pointedly at Lynch, who scowled and shook his head.
“Keep that money packet safe, rookie,” he finally conceded.
“Excellent,” Kennedy said. “On to the next order of business. If Jacobs’ little addition to my sat phone can be believed, there is another collection of Pita plants about ten klicks north of here. That’s deeper into the Zoo than any of the other expeditions have been. At least, from what has been reported by those that actually got back. We can collect what’s there and head back to regroup with the other squad. Thoughts?”
Nobody had anything to add and a few seconds of awkward silence hung over the group as Lynch folded his arms across his chest.
“Excellent,” Kennedy said. “Let’s pack the camp up and move in ten minutes.”
The group agreed and moved quickly. Addams joined Cortez to collect the motion sensors outside and left the others to pack the heating lamps. Lynch was unusually quiet as he went about his work. Sal could understand, of course. He felt jilted by the squad. Sure, he’d been an asshole, but Sal could think of a lot of times where he’d been an asshole too. He’d never been as openly excluded as Lynch had, but he understood the feeling.
Empathy, if not sympathy. Still, he was afraid Lynch would try something stupid to prove he was better than the others—something stupid that would get them all killed. Sal couldn’t imagine the man would actually kill a squad member, but what did he know about it? He honestly thought it beyond the comradery soldiers shared to leave someone behind, and Lynch had proven him wrong there.
They finished quickly, and the group gathered around Kennedy, who was out of her armor. The massive rifle intended to be handled with the metal arm of her suit looked enormous in her hands.
“You got that, Sarge?” Cortez asked.
“Yep,” she responded.
Sal took most of the packs that Kennedy was supposed to carry in her suit, and she’d given him her pistol. They headed deeper into the Zoo, where the creatures were known to be more hostile. Now was the time to have as many armed people out there as they could.
He was still a little sore from their fight the previous day and wasn’t sure how long he could carry the extra weight. His suit was more of a hazmat design with extra perks and lacked the mobility upgrades of the combat suits. He could manage the weight itself, but stamina was the issue.
They moved cautiously through the dense jungle. The trees grew in greater numbers and closer together. That made it a little bit easier since fewer plants grew on the ground. The downside was that roots jutted dangerously, and in the limited light, it was difficult to see and avoid them.
Still, they made much better time than they had the day before. Ten klicks were covered fairly quickly, even though Sal struggled under the weight of his new responsibilities.
The squad proceeded toward the coordinates on Kennedy’s map. After what they’d been through the day before, it was difficult to believe that there wasn’t something out there that waited for the right moment to attack.
Did they have some sort of revenge plot ready? Were they merely waiting for the squad to lower their guard? Did the animals actually have a concept of revenge? Sal wasn’t sure anything would surprise him at this point. He wouldn’t have batted an eyelid if one of the panthers came up to him for a discussion about how humans invaded their forest and stole the plants that were somehow sacred to them. In his daydream, the animals could now understand the concept of religion and language.
Okay, yes
, that would surprise him. Sal chuckled softly as he pulled his thoughts from the ridiculous and back to reality.
“What?” Kennedy asked.
“I wonder how deep these mutations go,” he said. “They seem to adapt to us being here. We have armor, so they get animals that spit armor-melting acid. We get flame-throwers, and they develop a flame-retardant something that makes them immune. They should realize by this point that one of the most effective ways to put the US military out of business is to simply develop speech and start talking. Can you imagine the uproar that would cause? The Staging Area and the wall-building crews would be out of here in a week, maybe less.”
Kennedy chuckled, too, and shouldered her rifle. “Well, yeah, you do have a point. But that’s not exactly how evolution works.”
“Nothing around here works by our rules. That’s what I’m saying,” Sal said. “Pushing the borders of what’s possible is exactly what biology isn’t supposed to be. It’s literally the most boring field of science there is. We merely watch grass grow. Are you really surprised that biologists are part-horrified and part-excited by all this?”
“Well, from my perspective, biology has been a pretty exciting field, all things considered. Lots of trying to kill me, lots of advances, and lots of money too.”
Sal nodded. “There have been substantial strides made in the field over the past few years. You wouldn’t know it, but about five years ago, the most exciting thing to ever happen to us was when some doctoral candidate went off into Borneo or someplace and found a new and interesting green frog that resembles one living in the Amazon but has a reddish spot on its back instead of a bluish spot.”
Kennedy chuckled. “Yeah, I can see how that would get a little tedious for a guy like you.”
“A guy like me?” Sal asked and tilted his head in query. “I don’t know if I’ve given you the wrong impression, but I don’t actually do this stuff much. This is mostly to pay for my career as an impressionist painter.”
“I know the feeling. I’m trying to get through stripper school.”
Sal chuckled. “You’ll need to give me the address to the school. I might go there to paint a few of my impressionist paintings.”
“I’m sure you’ll be a hit in the place,” Kennedy said. She stopped suddenly when he froze. “What? What’s the matter?”
Sal inclined his head to show her what he’d seen. The creature moved out from behind the tree and was visible mostly because it was blue against the dark brown and green background. Of the six legs, the two at the back were a lot longer than the four in front. Antennae jutted from the head, and it stared curiously at the squad.
“Maybe this time, don’t shoot it, Lynch?” Cortez said.
“Shut up,” Lynch growled. He shook his head and looked away.
“Come on,” Sal said softly. “I want to take a closer look.”
“Well, yeah, we have nothing but time over here,” Kennedy said and rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I have a gaping wound in my leg that needs tending.”
“Tending by me,” Sal said. He raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Although I’m sure that Addams could probably mix the serum up for you. It’s only the flowers and a little saline. Anyway, what I mean is wait up; this’ll only take a couple minutes.”
The rest of the squad grumbled, but Kennedy looked like she needed a short break. Despite the positive effects of the flower serum, there was little they could do about the amount of blood she’d lost the day before. Sal wasn’t a doctor, but he could tell that she was sluggish and moved much slower than normal. He knew that Addams noticed it too. The gunner threw the specialist a relieved look and nodded.
Sal shrugged. He liked to think that he did it for Kennedy, but he actually did want a proper shot of the locust. If that helped Kennedy, then so much the better.
He grinned, set his packs down, and primed his HUD for the shot as he squatted beside it. When the creature mimicked his motions and moved closer. Sal decided to go with video instead of simply a single shot. Even in the shadows, he could tell it would be good footage.
This locust was bigger than the first one. They had run into a few that actually tried to attack them. While they could possibly have tried to get their attention, it felt like an attack. The first one had been about the size of a basset hound, but this one was closer to a small Labrador.
The antennae shifted toward him, and as it stepped closer, Sal touched them tentatively with the HUD still recording. They were a lot more firm and tighter than he’d expected, like a pair of guitar strings. They tapped his gloved hand in quick succession. Sal eased his hand closer and skimmed his fingers over the head, careful not to touch the multiple eyes that stared intently at him. It was cold and hard but mobile at the same time, like actual plate armor that could move by itself.
“Huh.” He grunted softly, and the antennae vibrated in response.
“Jacobs, are you finished?” Cortez snapped, and the locust scuttled backward. When it saw the others approach, it bounded away quickly. Sal imagined that it weighed a lot more than animals of similar size, but he felt no vibrations from the ground when it jumped and disappeared into the trees.
“Yeah,” he grumbled and looked at Cortez with annoyance as he snatched his pack up. It was the first interaction with anything in this forest that was at least as interested in them as they were in it. Almost everything had either looked cautiously, ignored them completely, or been openly hostile, so it felt like a special moment. He replayed the video and nodded. Few videos in the database covered human interaction with any of these new species that wasn’t violent, so he had to imagine that this would be a big hit.
He hoped it would be, anyway. Fighting for your life was one thing, but it would be interesting to see how these animals would coexist with humans.
“I saw you close and cuddly with the insect,” Addams teased with a small grin. “Are you thinking about adopting?”
Sal nodded and played along. “Oh, yeah. What do you call a giant blue locust anyway? Buttons?”
Addams shrugged. “Maybe Antzy? You know, like Andy?”
Sal narrowed his eyes. “But he’s not an ant. I thought something like…Luke Treewalker.”
Kennedy turned around. “What if it was a female locust?”
Sal shrugged. “Leia Treewalker.”
Chapter Twenty
“So, Jacobs,” Addams said, “when you were all cuddly with that locust, did you do anything to it? Imprint it or something?”
Sal looked up from his attempt to settle his load more comfortably. “What do you mean?”
“Well, don’t take this the wrong way, but didn’t your parents ever tell you not to pet strange animals?” Addams said with a grin.
“Well, no offense,” Sal replied and grunted softly, “but I think I’m in a place in my life where I can do stupid shit without having to listen to what my parents have to say. Make my own mistakes. Get…eaten or something.” They were about seven klicks into the hike, and Sal wasn’t sure he would get through this without a break of some kind. His thighs burned, and he was absolutely certain that his suit would have a smell that could only be described as the absolute funkiest.
Addams shrugged. “My folks never let me have a pet. Dad said he was allergic to dog hair, but I found out it was actually because my mom had a real animal phobia. Like all animals. Even ducklings gave her the creeps. Ever since, I’ve wanted a pet, but they don’t allow them in the barracks. So, once I have enough from this gig, I’ll go to a pet store and get like…fifteen dogs.”
Sal pulled a face of mock-horror. “I love dogs, but you should probably start with one to get the hang of it. You should also probably get some of those ‘pet training for dummies’ books.”
Addams laughed. “Yeah, I know. I doubt I’ll be any good at it anyway. I’ll end up giving him too many treats and he’ll die of liver failure or something.”
“You might want to start out with a female,” Sal said with a nod. “The males have a tendency
to hump everything if they’re not properly trained.”
Addams nodded. “How do you know about this stuff?”
“I considered becoming a vet when I was in high school, so when I was twelve, I bought a bunch of books about animals. Most of them were about raising pets, so I soaked in a lot of knowledge. Besides, my parents let me have pets.”
“Well,” Addams said with a chuckle, “now I know who to call when my dog pisses all over the place.”
“I’ll give you my card. You know, when we’re out of all this,” Sal said and gestured vaguely at the Zoo. “I’ll probably need to get a card first, I guess.”
Addams laughed, but any retort he had planned was forestalled by Kennedy, who looked paler than usual.
“I don’t suppose…” she said, out of breath as she leaned on her knees. “I don’t suppose we could stop for a breather? And maybe some lunch? I’m fucking starving over here.”
Addams broke away to check on her. Sal couldn’t help a small twinge of jealousy before he remembered that whatever it was that his overactive imagination conjured about the two of them, Kennedy was Addams’ patient first.
He really hated the petty jealousy. It was idiotic. It also wasn’t the first time his mind had created this kind of shit to make his life miserable.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lynch snarked. “Is the tough going making the princess—”
“Shut it, Lynch,” Kennedy responded acidly. The squad decided to do as she’d instructed and took a break. Sal tried not to sigh too loudly when he eased the pack from his back. The conversation with Addams had helped to keep his mind off it, but now that he dropped the extra weight, his legs felt like lead. He also felt a lot lighter than before. The odd combination of sensations made him carry the pack up to where Kennedy ate a couple of supplements the medic had given her. Addams and Cortez sat together and chatted quietly while Lynch stood off by himself, apparently still angry at everything and everyone.
“He’s like a petulant child,” Kennedy grumbled when Sal came within earshot. He assumed that she meant Lynch.