by Michael Todd
“Right,” Boulos said. “There was an override access code with the suit when I got it. I need to find it again. Hold on a sec.”
Sal nodded, but as he looked away from the blinking screens, he saw a couple of hyenas move closer.
“Shit.” He raised his pistol and aimed it at the creatures.
“What?” Boulos asked over the comms, sounding distracted.
Sal didn’t answer right away. The smell of the rotting corpse had probably attracted them. To scavengers that smell meant a free meal, and he was well aware that there wouldn’t only be three. The others would be pissed off if he shot their buddies. He didn’t want to fight a whole pack of these creatures dressed only in a ruined armor suit.
“What’s the matter, Jacobs?” Boulos asked.
“I have company here,” he whispered and kept his weapon raised as the creatures ventured closer and raised their elongated snouts.
“What kind of company?”
“The hungry kind.” They had caught sight and smell of him and shuffled forward. He heard more prowling the area, and Sal knew that the moment he opened fire, they’d hurtle out to avenge their fallen. Or eat them. They hadn’t been too picky about that the last time he’d had run into them in large numbers.
“Why me?” he wondered acidly as one padded closer, sniffed the suit, and snapped its massive jaws at him.
He reacted by lashing his foot out and caught the creature across the snout. It jumped back with a yelp and growled in pain, then clacked its jaws at him again.
“Fuck!” The hyena noticed his retreat and surged forward. The killer jaws tried to close around his neck.
Sal brought the pistol up, aimed at the creature, and pulled the trigger twice. Both shots struck home, and the creature dropped with a smoking hole in both the head and neck. It was dead before it hit the ground.
He had no time to celebrate his improved shooting skills as the rest of the pack immediately broke free of the underbrush and growled menacingly.
“Jacobs, you still there?” Boulos asked.
“Not for long,” Sal replied.
“Here’s the access code,” he said quickly. “Kilo-Alfa-Tango-Romeo-Niner-Seven-Three.”
Sal put in the code in quickly.
Code accepted. The suit closed around him. One of the beasts seemed to realize that their prey would escape, and hurtled forward to bite at the armored arms. It yanked and shook furiously in an attempt to break through the heavy combat suit.
Updates queued. Would you like to postpone? the suit’s HUD asked as it closed in around him.
“Yes please!” Sal shouted as he took control. He could feel the environmental vacuums kick in with a hiss and remove the outside contaminants. The smell decreased, but it still lingered as Sal pushed away from the tree and managed to dislodge the hyena from his arm.
The suit added about half a foot to his height. The extra weight moved smoothly as if with mechanical assistance. He knew he could do it but would tire fast. Even though he had worked out in his off time, only extreme training could have prepared him for this.
Adrenaline would work for now, though. He used the armored arm to draw the assault rifle from its holster on his back, and the specs immediately appeared on the HUD’s screen with details of a full mag and a clear line of shot. A targeting reticle appeared and followed his aim which certainly made shooting easier.
The enormous rifle kicked back hard, and the reticle jumped each time he pulled the trigger. A single bullet would be more than enough to kill the giant hyena that had tried to chew through his armor. As the pack charged, Sal swung his free hand and knocked the first wave into the second. He fired into the rest until his mag clicked empty.
Reload?
“Please do.” He watched as a mechanism in the arm ejected the empty mag and slapped a new one in a lot faster than he could have done.
He decided that being polite to the suit had worked out damn well for him thus far.
A dozen or more of the creatures were down and many wounded before the hyenas retreated, probably in search of an easier meal. A few dragged the bodies of their dead comrades away. Sal chased them, but there was little need to shoot them if they no longer attacked him. Not only was it a waste of bullets, but despite their aggression, he was still reluctant to kill without provocation.
Animals were animals. They were bound by instincts and the need to feed, and he couldn’t hold that against them.
“Jacobs?” he heard Boulos say into the comm. “Are you still there? Sound off if you’re alive.”
“I’m alive,” he said and cleared his throat. “Merely fighting off some hungry hyenas.”
“Oh, thank God,” the armorer said. “Call me back if you need more technical support, okay?”
“Will do. Thanks again.”
Sal released a long sigh of relief and removed the helmet. He’d pulled it over his so-called geek suit, and while it fit well enough, moving his head was complicated, especially with the broken facemask.
He tossed the damaged headgear away before he replaced the helmet. The armor had been made to fit someone else. It was too big with much space for muscles he didn’t have, and even the helmet sat way too loosely.
The suit he still wore helped to fill some of the space, but not by much. It might be too big for Kennedy too. Hopefully, Boulos could adjust it for her. He’d probably try to charge extra, but she was a good haggler and would negotiate to her benefit.
Sal slid the rifle in its holster and found somewhere to fit his pistol. He couldn’t hold it while in the power armor, but since this was something for Kennedy to wear, he’d need the handgun later.
He turned and searched for the way Kennedy might use to circle around to meet him.
The cliff he’d almost died on and that the previous owner of the suit had died on stretched for miles. It also didn’t appear in any of the topographical maps of the area, which meant it was new—and moving closer to the wall.
Could the goop cause that? Was it a way to get it around the wall? Did he really consider whether goop was smart enough to know that the best way breach a wall was to undermine it?
Those were problems for later, he decided. Kennedy would probably try to keep up with the rest of their squad and head east while she looked for a way to reach him.
He determined to follow the same course, shoved his discomfort aside, and simply put one foot in front of the other.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Sundown was only a few hours away, but Sal had found no end to the cliff. It seemed to follow the wall move for move. The more he saw of it, the more convinced he was it was intentional. He needed to warn the builders that a huge chasm headed toward their construction.
Sal kept moving and sweated hard with the exertion. The weight began to tell on him. Even though the power armor carried most of the weight, it was still heavier than what he was used to.
He wished that he could take the damn thing off and go home to a long, relaxing shower instead of having to camp out in the Zoo again.
“Is that you, Jacobs?” The voice broke and crackled over his comms.
“Kennedy?” Sal asked.
“Yeah.” He could hear her fiddle to set her device. “Jacobs, can you hear me? I’m trying to track you on the sat phone, but the connection is a little iffy.”
“Wait, how are you tracking me?” he asked. Not that it wasn’t a good thing that she knew where he was, but he didn’t want that to become a permanent thing.
“Boulos told me that you were in a jam and sent me the GPS on the suit,” she replied and sounded a little clearer. “Is everything okay?”
“Uh…yeah. I hope you don’t mind, but my suit was damaged in the fall, and I had to put this one on to fight a pack of hyenas.”
“That’s fine.”
“You should also know that it smells really badly of the last occupant so you’ll probably only want to wear it after Boulos has changed the air filters.”
“He’ll probably
charge us extra for that,” Kennedy grumbled. “Anyway, I see you going east, so I’m heading right toward you.”
“Did you find an end to the cliff?” Sal asked.
“No, the tree cover got thicker, so I managed to climb down easily. I think this cliff might stretch forever.”
“Yeah,” Sal said. “I have a bad feeling it might be the goop’s way to tell us that it doesn’t want a wall to block its path.”
“What, do you really think that it might be intentional?” She sounded incredulous. “Don’t you think that’s a little crazy?”
“Crazy or not, I don’t think we should rule it out,” Sal said. “Where are you, anyway?”
“I’m about five hundred meters ahead of you. Keep walking in the same direction and I’ll find you.”
He complied and finally heard another suit of armor in the distance. Sure enough, a few minutes later, he saw Kennedy moving closer.
“How are you doing?” she asked.
“A couple of bruised ribs from the fall but nothing serious. How are you?”
She shrugged that question off. “How’s the armor treating you?”
“It’s great in a fight. A big hyena couldn’t bite through it, so there’s that.”
“That’s more than I could say about this piece of shit,” Kennedy said and patted her own armor. She was right. Aside from the power arm, the rest was similar to Sal’s geek suit.
“It’s heavy though.” He raised his arm with some effort and let it drop. “But I’m sure you won’t mind that, being the badass you are.”
Kennedy laughed. “While I appreciate that you think I’m a badass, I’m sure that’s adjustable for the individual wearer to enable it to help more with movement and such. Boulos should be able to tweak that for me. It is still my armor, after all.”
“I don’t know,” Sal said as they headed east once more. “I feel like I can defend myself instead of having to rely on a gunner. If I have a suit like this, what do I need you for?”
Despite the barrier between them, Sal felt the punch she landed on his shoulder.
“Watch it, mister,” she protested good-naturedly. “I’m sure that many start-up businesses would be glad to have me. Keep pushing, and I’ll start looking.”
Sal grinned but didn’t respond. He really didn’t want her hunting for another job, not even as a joke.
“I’m kidding, you know,” Kennedy said after they’d walked for a while. “There actually aren’t that many people starting up businesses around here, and the ones willing to invest money aren’t the kind I’d want to work for. Present company excluded, of course.”
“Let’s not exclude people,” he said. “That’d be rude.”
“Well, you know me.” Kennedy chuckled. “I like to speak my mind, politeness be damned.”
Sal stopped, his eyes drawn to the cliff face.
“Is that where you climbed down?” he asked and pointed at a huge landslide that turned what had been a sheer drop into a very manageable incline.
“No. That wasn’t here when I came back, either. I climbed down a half-klick farther.”
“Then that’s very worrying,” Sal said. “Even if it makes our reaching the top a bit easier.”
“What do you mean?” she asked as they hiked through the loose dirt.
“Well, my geology is a little rusty, but collapses on the edge of a sinkhole usually mean that the sinkhole is spreading.”
“So, you think that—”
“Whether it’s intentional or not, that cliff is pushing toward the wall,” Sal completed for her. Either the suit had begun to adapt to its weaker occupant or Sal had adjusted to the added weight, but the climb seemed easier. Only a few minutes later, he reached the top and helped Kennedy up as well.
“These new armor suits,” she said once they were ready to move again, “are worth every penny, even though they cost…what was it again?”
“I think the lowest I saw on Boulos’ computer was north of thirty grand,” he said. “A bit cheaper for the used ones, although none of them were as cheap as this one.”
Kennedy nodded. “I look forward to protecting you while wearing it.”
Sal laughed. “We’ll see about that.” He looked around. “So how will we find the rest of the squad again?”
“The motion sensors they use now have GPS locators on them,” Kennedy said and raised her sat phone. “The higher-ups don’t want to keep replacing them, so they want to know where all the old ones disappear to. We can track them on my phone.”
“Does that phone have my little upgrade?” Sal asked.
“Yep. There are a couple of Pita plants on the way. We can hit them and still catch up with the squad.”
Sal suddenly realized why this section of the jungle seemed to have no animal life aside from the odd monkey that watched them like blue versions of Curious George. The cliff kept them away, or maybe the goop didn’t want its pets crushed under the weight of the walls falling down.
Sal clenched and unclenched the large armored fists. Kennedy looked at him strangely.
“You okay there, Jacobs?”
He shook his head. “I’ve always assumed that the wall would be enough to contain this. The thought that it might not be and that the rest of the world is in a lot of danger makes everything that we do here just…terrifyingly pointless. It doesn’t matter how many flowers we collect or how many walls we put up, there’ll always be something that we can’t understand or comprehend pushing forward to force us toward our inevitable doom.”
Kennedy narrowed her eyes as they continued in silence.
“Damn, man,” she finally said. “Way to bring the mood down.”
Sal shrugged. “The history of humans tells me that we’ll evolve past this. We’ll find a way to survive somehow, but it also tells me that whatever this is, it can evolve faster and can do more. Eventually, our planet will realize that this goop is the younger, hotter thing with bigger boobs, divorce us, and take our money and go and live on a boat with the goop.”
“Did that metaphor get away from you a little?” Kennedy asked and raised an eyebrow.
“A little, yeah. But my point stands. It seems able to manipulate the environment far better than we can, and it could possibly even out-think us eventually.”
“You’re the expert and the specialist and everything, but until this goop makes—I don’t know, the Earth divorce us, or whatever your metaphor was—we can still make a shit-ton of cash while trying to stop it, right?”
Sal sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“So instead of negativity, why don’t you see how much you can make by at least slowing this thing down?” She pointed. “There’s a Pita plant cluster barely three hundred meters from us. Let’s start there.”
It sounded suspiciously like she’d tried to cheer him up and he appreciated the sentiment, so he decided to focus on the positive. They reached the plants after a few minutes’ hike.
They found a good number of the flowers, and while not the biggest that they’d seen, there were enough to justify a trip into the Zoo—larger than their first post-Lynch haul.
“The sun’s about to set,” Sal noted. “Should we try to locate the squad again or give up on that?”
Kennedy shrugged and continued to pack their haul. “We can’t turn our noses up at money, even if it isn’t specialist money. If we track their last-placed motion sensor, we can find them from there. The last one isn’t even a full klick away, so we can probably do it.”
Sal nodded. “We haven’t run into the animals we’d need a full squad for, so maybe our next few trips could be only the two of us.”
Kennedy smirked as she hauled her pack onto her back. “There are more romantic places you can take a girl. I thought the Bahamas, personally. After this jungle, I could do with a nice long swim on a secluded beach and maybe drink some mojitos in the evening. I need a fucking vacation, man.”
He wasn’t sure how to respond. Only the panties he’d found after
ward reminded him that their little encounter hadn’t been a dream. She’d made no mention of it since, and they’d had the opportunity. He’d somehow expected a serious conversation about it, but…well, nothing. She didn’t seem to take romance that seriously, all things considered, so her comment about a romantic getaway put him in something of a bind. If she was joking about the romance and he took it seriously, that would complicate their smooth collaboration. If he didn’t take it seriously and she did mean it, the fallout would be similar.
Saying nothing seemed like the best option, and Kennedy didn’t seem to mind as they ventured on through Zoo.
They found the rest of their squad as the trio set up camp. They had managed to put one more motion sensor out and camped right beside it, making it easier for Sal and Kennedy to find them.
The first topic of discussion, of course, was the armor. The rest of the squad eyed him like they were seeing him for the first time. He wasn’t at all imposing in the geek suit, whereas he’d gained stature wearing the Mark Seventeen.
“So,” Xander said. “Y’all found what you were looking for then?”
Sal nodded. “Yeah. It was down a cliff and surrounded by carnivorous plants and giant hyenas, but yeah, we found it. No big deal.”
“You didn’t tell me about the carnivorous plants,” Kennedy interjected with a sharp look.
“I…yeah, well, I’m embarrassed because the facemask of my geek suit was destroyed and I couldn’t gather any intel on them.” It was a reasonable excuse since he’d forgotten about the vines dragging a corpse into the trees until now.
“Well, you’re welcome to join our little camp.” Xander indicated the other two, who were erecting the shelter tents. “We’d half-decided you had been eaten or had headed back to the Staging Area.”
“Thanks for the confidence, Xander,” she said with a grin and nudged the man in the shoulder with a fist. “But yeah, we got what we came for and decided that since we signed up with you there was no reason not to see the mission out. We might even be able to find a few Pita plants to make this mission more profitable for everyone, right?”