by Michael Todd
Kennedy didn’t complain as he injected the stuff. It was still relatively thick, so he felt resistance to his finger pressed on the plunger. He stopped when he saw a blue glow inside the wound, wiped any excess quickly with his bare hand, and replaced the bandage.
Addams noticed her changed expression.
“What do you feel?” he asked.
She shook her head from side to side. “It stings like it did the last time but stronger and more distracting.”
Sal nodded. “The last batch was from the ruined flowers. I assume the petals lose potency when they are bruised. That’s why they lose their value to the clients that have a standing bounty on them, I guess.”
“So, there’s no telling what this stuff could do to her?” Addams asked. He still looked skeptical.
Sal replaced the syringe in his pack. “I’m not sure, but there could always be a different effect. I don’t think so, though. If it feels different, it’s probably a problem with how much of the goop there is. This dose contained slightly more.”
“There are problems with that too, you know,” Addams growled. “They must have covered this in whatever teenage school you went to. Different sizes in doses have different effects on the human body. You could make things worse.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Sal allowed his irritation to show through. “I gave her a half-dose this time, just in case. We’ll have to wait and see.”
“Wait and see?” Addams snapped, but Kennedy raised her hand to stop him.
“It’s okay, Addams,” she said. “I agreed to this, and I trust Jacobs to know what he’s doing.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Sal mumbled under his breath.
If she heard him, she didn’t react. “Besides, the sting is more intense this time, but it’s not to the point of distraction. I can still walk.” She demonstrated by standing up and took a few steps in a circle and spun in place. “See?”
Sal nodded, though it might be due to the treatment she’d received the night before.
Addams seemed capable of putting his fears behind him for the moment, at least. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I mean, if there were any ill-effects, we would have seen them already, right?”
Sal stood. “Right. Though we should probably still keep an eye out for…side…effects…” He was distracted as he moved to where he’d left his pack and his gun but picked the latter up slowly. The squad seemed equally intent. The animals moved into the clearing, but not with the same coordination that he’d seen before. They shifted closer, but now, their eyes were on Kennedy. It was odd, but they didn’t look tense—more like they were curious like the locust had been before.
“That’s…odd.” Cortez tightened his grip on his weapon.
“You can say that again,” Addams hissed.
“Fuck this shit,” Sal heard Lynch say. He turned to look at the man who yanked his helmet on. It didn’t quite cover the part of his jaw that was bruised and swollen. Aside from that, he had the look of a man about to do something very stupid.
“Lynch, don’t do it,” Sal said softly.
“Shove off, you annoying prick,” Lynch hissed. He snatched his gun and chambered a round. “None of you seem interested enough to look out for my interests or my well-being, so it’s down to me to do it on my own. Fuck you all. Have a nice life.”
“Lynch, stop,” Sal called and drew the attention of the squad away from the approaching animals. The creatures seemed to sense the tension again, but this time, they backed away and looked confused. Some even looked scared. Sal wasn’t sure how he could tell, but he could.
Lynch ignored him. The animals’ approach had unnerved him, and it seemed he’d reached the breaking point after a few days of what he saw as the squad’s disrespect for him and his decisions. He turned, strode to the Pita plants, and knelt beside one of the smaller ones.
“Lynch, don’t you fucking dare,” Kennedy shouted.
The man was beyond reason at that point, and he dragged the plant from the ground with a single tug.
Sal could feel the immediate difference in the air around him. The first change was the pungent smell that permeated the air in seconds. The tension snapped, and even the trees seemed to react to the removal of the plant. Sal felt his mouth go dry and his heartbeat quicken as he looked around. It could be a reaction to the pheromones in his own system. He remembered feeling a similar reaction in his body when he pulled his own plant, but this was much, much stronger. Something that felt like terror infused the air and made it difficult to breathe.
And yet through all that, Sal still couldn’t pin down what the pervasive odor smelled like. It was something like mint, but more tart and acrid. He’d spent years in labs and encountered odd sights, sounds, and smells from all sorts of origins, yet he couldn’t define a single scent although it smelt oddly familiar.
Lynch, for his part, didn’t notice or didn’t care and pushed the plant quickly into a containment unit. He looked manic like he would shoot anyone who tried to stop him. Once it was safely stowed, he grabbed all the sealed flowers they’d already collected and headed out of the clearing.
Sal wasn’t sure when the reaction began to take effect. The entire environment seemed in a state of shock thanks to the pheromones that filled the air like the world’s most terrifying alarm system. A pair of panthers launched from the jungle and charged at Lynch, but he raised his weapon and gunned them down.
“See you later, suckers,” he yelled over his shoulder. The arrogant comment was almost drowned by the growing sounds of anger and terror from the jungle. “I’ll tell the folks at the Staging Area that you all died bravely to get me out with my retirement plan.”
“Fucking cunt.” Sal raised his weapon. The previous videos made it clear that no mercy had been shown to other people until the plant was restored. These animals were whipped into a frenzy and would kill all the humans, no matter whether they had been involved in removing the plant or not.
“Shit.” Kennedy raised her pistol and shot a couple of the panthers that bounded into the attack. The animals no longer seemed curious or terrified. They were angry. Sal couldn’t tell how he knew, but he did, and he was terrified instead.
He raised his own weapon as the creatures converged on the center of the clearing toward the Pita plants and the humans that surrounded them.
“Kennedy,” Sal called over the din of the gunfire and the enraged animals. “This is a worst-case scenario! Time to use that smoke grenade Davis gave you.”
“Oh, right.” She’d completely forgotten about it. Since it was a recent addition to their inventory, Sal wondered if Kennedy hadn’t wanted to be the one to test it. But this was a worst-case scenario, and if ever there was a time to test new stuff that could save their lives, it was now.
She maintained fire with one hand as she dropped her pack to the ground and rummaged through the various items she’d had to peel off her ruined armor. Her magazine ran empty, and she looked through the pack with both hands. Sal moved to cover her. He might help a little, although his aim was random. He missed as many shots as he landed, but the successful ones had enough power to drop an elephant.
He narrowed his eyes at Kennedy as he reloaded with his last magazine. “Any time now, Kennedy.”
“I’m…shut it,” she shouted in response. He needed to conserve ammo. Unlike the other two members of what was left of their squad, he didn’t have a sidearm to fall back on once his rifle was empty.
The animals around them didn’t initiate a concerted attack. They moved in one by one and backed away when one or two went down as if reminded of the danger of attacking humans with guns. Once they got a whiff of the pheromones again, they immediately lost their minds and charged. Sal was sure it was an incredibly interesting phenomenon that should be studied later, but for now, it was all he could do to stand his ground while the sergeant took her sweet fucking time to find the damned smoke lifesaver.
“Got it!” She raised her hand, pulled the pin
with her teeth, and tossed the grenade ahead of the squad.
It took a few seconds to work, but when it did, it filled the air with thick, gray smoke. It was dense enough to block out most of the light, and Sal realized quickly that if the animals could find them through the smoke, they were thoroughly fucked since they wouldn’t be able to see them in time to protect themselves.
Trusting untested technology. Sal felt humanity would be doomed to make that mistake until it finally made them extinct. Hopefully, they wouldn’t prove the point.
Kennedy grabbed him by the suit and dragged him toward the others. They had enough problems to deal with without accidentally shooting each other. Sal tried to see as much as he could through the smoke.
Suddenly, a massive shadow towered over them and blocked most of the light in the clearing.
He turned and gulped hard. Vibrations accompanied massive footsteps close enough to them that they’d be squashed if it drew nearer. Sal wondered why it hadn’t done so yet, and then he remembered that they had backed up into the Pita plants. It might want to avoid stomping on the plants while it took care of the pesky humans.
Enormous footstep followed enormous footstep. Whatever it was, it seemed to move into the jungle in the direction Lynch had taken, which made sense. But the sheer size of the thing terrified Sal. He couldn’t see it, but he could make a rough estimate based on how heavy it would have to be to shake the ground as it walked and how tall to block the sunlight.
The smoke hadn’t cleared, but he could see the shadow cast. It looked vaguely bipedal, which fitted the consecutive footsteps. Whatever it was, it had two feet. Massive jaws parted, and a smell like rotten meat and decay filled the air.
It was quickly followed by an earsplitting roar that made Sal’s head ache. His hearing hadn’t recovered from the loud gunshots, and now, he felt completely deaf. Nothing in the world could be that big, he reasoned in an effort to keep a firm grasp on reality. The physics wasn’t there. It wasn’t possible.
And yet, there it was.
Kennedy dragged him to the ground. The Pita plant pressed into his back as he fell on his ass and accidentally dropped the rifle. He wanted to tear his helmet off, even though it was the only thing keeping the thick, probably carcinogenic smoke from his lungs. He wanted to cover his ears and close his eyes, reject the reality, and pretend he would wake up anytime now. This would all go away, and the most life-threatening part of his day would be driving to work in the insane LA traffic.
It wasn’t realistic, he knew, but at this point, a dream was the more preferable option.
He gripped Kennedy’s hand. The shadow had gone, probably to hunt something else to terrify. Sal felt he should have already soiled himself at this point, but he hadn’t. Kudos to him. The smoke was thick enough that he couldn’t even see Kennedy, and she was less than an arm’s length away from him. His hearing was almost non-existent for the moment, so aside from the world’s most dangerous game of blind man’s bluff, there was no way to tell if she’d found the rest of the squad in time. They might be dead by now for all he knew. Hell, it might not even be Kennedy holding onto him.
“Hey, Jacobs!”
Sal snapped out of his panicked state when his comms came alive. Okay, so maybe his hearing wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it was. The massive monster’s roar had possibly simply impacted the speaker system in his helmet.
“Jacobs, snap out of it, or so help me God—” He heard Kennedy’s voice. His HUD told him that it was a private channel and kept their voices isolated from what could be thousands of blood-hungry animals still out there. He drew in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and ran his hand over his helmet.
“I’m good, I’m good,” Sal said quickly. “Holy…fuck. Shit. What the hell was that?”
“Hell if I know,” he heard Cortez say.
“Bigger than anything we’ve ever seen around here before,” Addams rasped.
“It was probably a trick of the light,” Kennedy said, her voice calm.
The minutes ticked by. They couldn’t think of anything else to say. What else was there to say? They’d been betrayed by one of their own squad and, against all odds, an untested grenade had actually worked in the nick of time.
A soft breeze seeped into the clearing and eased the smoke away. Inch by inch, Sal was able to see more and more. He saw Kennedy, then Cortez, and finally, Addams. There was no sign of Lynch, obviously. Sal wasn’t sure if he was terrified or relieved by that fact.
As more of the clearing came into view, Sal pushed himself to his feet.
They were alone. Even the bodies of the animals they’d shot were gone.
“Oh, God,” Kennedy whispered.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sal gripped his gun as he looked at the ground. He supposed that it was possible for the creatures they’d shot to have recovered enough to drag themselves out of the clearing, but it no longer seemed like a viable theory. It was still in contention, of course, but when it came down to it, the thought that other creatures might drag their comrades away to either be eaten or heal in private seemed more and more likely.
He sat beside Kennedy, who rubbed distractedly at her leg. It still bothered her, but it no longer seemed like pain. She was mature enough to know where to draw the line between keeping a brave face and idiocy since it was an untried treatment that she had received.
Still, it couldn’t hurt to check.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Well, my squad imploded,” Kennedy answered. “One of the members decided to head out on his own and get himself killed by his desire to be the sole beneficiary of a millionaire bounty. I can’t help but feel it’s kind of my fault, you know? Like I might have pushed him too hard or expected too much from a corporate stooge like Lynch. It seemed like he snapped, and I wonder if I’m to blame.”
Sal nodded. “The man tried to turn the squad against you, tried to make us leave you behind to fend for yourself with a gaping leg wound, and when that failed, tried to mutiny against you. When that failed, he tried to withhold treatment for your leg, and when that failed, ran off like an idiot into a forest that wanted its damn plant back. But no, definitely, you’re the one to blame. You know, I think you should hunt him down and apologize sincerely for hurting his feelings. And his jaw.”
Kennedy laughed and punched him lightly in the shoulder. “Thanks, I needed that. I can’t help but feel that since I’m squad leader, I’m the one to blame if something goes wrong.”
“Lynch was the one who left the reservation,” Sal said with a shrug. “All you did was try to get him back…on the reservation, I mean. Someone might say you were a bit harsh on him, but I can’t personally think of any way that you might have done it better. The guy wouldn’t respond to a soft touch.”
She nodded. “I agree.”
“On the other hand, I’ve never been that great with human interaction, so I can’t really say you should have done one thing or another, or that you could have said something to calm him down. I mean, the best my school could come up with was to sit me and any kid I got into an argument with down and try to make us talk it out with a mediator. But that never did any good. One time, I even got the mediator that they called in all emotional.”
“Really?” Kennedy asked and her head in silent query. “How did you manage that?”
Sal smirked. “I say mediator, but it turned out to be a senior I was in class with, and I had some pretty pointed things to say about her, even though the kid I was in mediation with was the same age but three years behind me.”
Kennedy rolled her eyes. “There’s no need to show off, you know. Not all of us finished high school at…whenever it was that you finished it.”
“I know,” Sal said. “I wasn’t showing off. Besides, I think it’s a lot more impressive to be a badass special forces type. You know, running and gunning, spreading democracy to the folks in faraway lands. Brains of a surgeon with the body and skills of an Olympian.”
The s
ergeant smiled and leaned back against the tree. “Yeah, well, I’m paid less than either, though that would change if I decided to retire and go into the private sector. There are plenty of folks out there more than willing to pay me a good amount to sit at a desk and not work for their competition.”
“That sounds boring,” Sal grumbled.
“It would be,” Kennedy said with a nod. “Which is why I’ve avoided retirement. They prefer people with connections in the military since most of the money that goes into the security companies is from government contracts. They want their numbers of ex-military employees up to make it look good, but they also want those employees to help bring in the big bucks from the government however they can.”
“A lot of ass-kissing. Like you’d have to go to cocktail parties and make speeches for one politician or make another’s ego and campaign funds grow three sizes in one night. I don’t think I’d be able to do that. Certainly not well, anyway. I’m smart, but I suck at keeping my sarcasm in check.”
Kennedy smirked and nodded. “I think you’re right. And I think I’d be the same. That’s why I took this gig, you know. I needed a way to make some serious money while still in the service, so I don’t have to bow and scrape for a decent wage once I get out.”
Sal shook his head. “Why don’t you stay in the military? Get some promotions, become the kind of person the guys have to bow and scrape to?”
“You have to be more political than I tend to be to get a job like that.” Kennedy scratched at her thigh again. “Otherwise, NCO is as high on the ladder as I’ll get. Military pensions are going down the shitter, so I want mine out beforehand.”
Sal nodded, but he didn’t have anything to add. For all his genius, he didn’t know much about the problems she talked about. Military pensions and politicizing military positions seemed a foreign concept to him. He didn’t want to seem stupid by presenting his opinions on something that he knew nothing about.