by Michael Todd
“What?” Kennedy asked. She’d already learned to trust her partner’s gut in these things.
“My motion sensors picked up on something,” he said. That much was true, but the fact was that he’d noticed that his senses had adjusted a lot more to the darkness around them. He would have to figure out later whether it was one of the effects of the blue stuff that he took or if it was simply him now used to not being an apex predator around there. For now, he was sure that something was following them. If his experience counted for anything, it was something that wanted them eaten, dead, or hurt. In the Zoo, things either ran away from you or stalked you. There didn’t seem to be any room for coexistence with the humans who came inside.
Sal raised his rifle, his eyes narrowed as he looked for what moved in the darkness. He couldn’t help a smile when four eyes turned toward him, reflecting what little light there was in the Zoo, and stared at him from up in the branches. He tagged the familiar creature with his HUD to alert Kennedy and the others to its location.
It seemed to sense this and bounded down from the trees with enough force to make the ground shake. It was smaller than the one they’d encountered before. That wasn’t saying much, though, and in this light, it was still large enough to be terrifying. It stood almost as tall as a horse at the shoulder and slithered like a lizard, with massive jaws more than willing to tear into armor and a lightning-quick tail that could rip a man’s head clean off.
Good times.
Sal opened fire first and tracked the creature with the combat protocols in his suit. It moved quickly, which made the soft target of the eyes almost impossible to catch. Even so, as it ducked and rolled, the bullets didn’t ricochet but seemed to be absorbed into its skin. Its body stiffened and Sal flung himself quickly to the side. He brought Kennedy down with him as the tail whipped and deflected across one of the Russians. The power of the strike flung him to the ground with a chunk of his chest armor missing. Sal didn’t have time to check if he was wounded but scrambled up hastily and maintained a steady stream of fire until his rifle clicked empty.
“Fucking…useless…suit,” he complained and reloaded manually while the creature circled the group. Orders were shouted in Russian, and while he couldn’t understand them at all, it was easy to deduce that Volkov had told his men to form a perimeter against the attacking beast.
“Yeah,” Sal snarked as he dragged the slider on his rifle back to chamber a round. “This time, you have to deal with a whole shitload of us, you ugly motherfucker. Do you think you can handle that? I didn’t think so!”
“Do you still harbor some resentment from the last time we ran into one of these critters?” Kennedy asked.
“It’s probably not fair to hold a grudge against an entire species for what one of them did to me,” he conceded, “but yeah, kind of. I hate these guys. With a burning passion.”
“Come on, Jacobs. When it was only the two of us, I think we were lucky to get out of that situation alive.”
“Of course you’d say that,” he grumbled. “You got to shoot that one in its face.”
“You really do get grumpy without your morning coffee, don’t you?” She grinned. The gunfire continued, but as Sal looked around, he couldn’t see where the creature had vanished to. The motion sensors went crazy but nothing moved out there.
“Yeah, the coffee is what’s making me grumpy,” he said and glanced at Volkov, who had called out an order, presumably to cease firing.
“What the hell was that?” the man asked once they were on the move again.
“We don’t really have a scientific name for it,” Sal said. “But, since I was the first person to write up a whitepaper on it, do you think that it would be overly egotistical to name it after myself?”
“What, like Salingerious Rex?” Kennedy asked and chuckled. “I think the monster would hunt you down simply for trying to paste your name onto it.”
The Russian shook his head. Gregor had warned him that the two liked to bicker and fight about nothing in particular. Honestly, if it was something they did to keep their morale up out there, he was all for it, but when it interfered with his ability to have a conversation with them, it would be a problem.
Sal shook his head and turned back to Volkov. “The basics. In terms of behavior, that critter’s pretty damn unique. I won’t go into the details, but any attempt to anticipate what it does next would be nearly impossible.”
“Right.” Volkov clearly did not like that news. “What would you say about…I don’t know, how do we fight it? What do we do to kill it?”
“The last time we had an encounter with one of those beasties, virtually nothing we did could bring it down,” Kennedy said with a shrug. “That tail is perfectly capable of cutting into armor, though, and the claws too. It left this one in the hospital for a few days and almost killed him until I put a couple of bullets through the eye.”
“So, the eye is…what you call soft target, yes?” Volkov asked.
“Right,” she agreed. “And I don’t think I need to tell you how difficult it is to get that shot in, although it’s something to aim for.”
Volkov nodded, apparently not too keen to be involved in their particular brand of banter as he turned and headed back to his men and communicated the news of what they were supposed to do if the creature returned.
“What kind of name did you have in mind for it?” Kennedy asked as they pushed forward through the jungle again.
“What, you mean Salingerious Rex doesn’t do it for you?” Sal asked and grinned. “Come on, it’s not a dinosaur. It’s not even in the same species.”
“Ugh, fine,” she groaned. “What were you thinking about, then?”
“I thought…Varanus Jacobis,” he said with a small grin.
“Huh…that’s actually not too bad,” she replied. “Where does it come from?”
“Well, it shares a lot of physical characteristics with a Komodo dragon, and so it seemed fitting to put it in with the same family, right?” Sal asked.
“Look at who you’re talking to, buddy.” She chuckled. “Anyway, I think that’s a pretty good name. I don’t suppose you have anything else out here with your name on it?”
“That would be the first,” he confirmed with a nod.
“Still, it’s a pretty good choice. Besides, considering that it’s a creature you got to study while it actively tried to kill you, I’m reasonably sure that no one else will try to get their names in first.”
He nodded but paused when the rest of the team stopped suddenly. The conversation would have to wait, he realized as they moved closer to the scientists still in the lead. It wasn’t difficult to make out what they were saying, even though they chattered in Russian. Context was everything, and the context of their obvious confusion was that the tracks had essentially disappeared.
“These scientists don’t know much about the Zoo,” Volkov explained. “And they are not sure how a creature of that size carrying something that heavy could have simply disappeared.”
“Well, the fact would be that the…uh, whatever the hell it is that you guys call it would have looked for a new location to set up camp, right?” Sal asked and studied their surroundings.
The Russian nodded and the scientists fell silent and leaned in closer to listen. Sal had the feeling that they were too arrogant to ask for help themselves but wouldn’t be above taking advice that was freely given.
“The fact that everything has gone and the tracks disappeared would indicate that our hundred-legged buddy found a place to nest again,” Kennedy said. “Somewhere that it would feel safe. Arthropods tend to prefer nests in the ground, right?”
“Right,” Sal said. “But when they feel endangered, they aren’t against setting up camp in the trees. And since this is the Zoo, you should note that a lot of the creatures use the trees for cover. So, if what we’re after isn’t anywhere on the ground, our best course of action is to probably look up.”
Sal could hear the moment of terrified
silence from the group as everyone froze. There were more than enough monsters out there, but there seemed to be something about having to look for their predators above them that genetically terrified humans. Before he could say anything further, he heard something move in the high reaches of the jungle. Instantly alert, he hefted his rifle and aimed it upward.
The motion detectors identified something large slithering through the branches, but by all appearances, it hadn’t noticed them yet.
“I don’t suppose we could…um, ignore that?” Kennedy asked.
“Most certainly, no,” Gregor replied. “And it doesn’t look like it will ignore us either, so—”
The odd riffling sound as needle-like legs dug into the wood of the tree trunks around them yanked their attention to the reality of their predicament. It was likely that every member of the team now realized that the creature above them had all but destroyed another group of men in suits of armor like theirs. The soft click of mandibles warned them that the break they had taken was not appreciated by a creature that guarded her young against the invaders who wanted to take it away.
Sal could appreciate that. Protecting their young was one of the most vital roles of any mother out in the wild, and he had all kinds of respect for that.
At the same time, there wasn’t much he wasn’t willing to do at the moment to ensure that those mandibles and venom-soaked legs never got anywhere near him. He raised his weapon as Kennedy obviously came to the same conclusion as he had at almost the same time. She aimed her weapon in tandem with him.
He pulled the trigger first, though, and kept his rifle set to three-round bursts. The first three hit the creature dead center on one of the carapaces and dislodged it slightly from its grip on the tree with a loud, high-pitched whine that hurt his ears even through the sound filter. He could feel it in his bones in a way that made him want to turn away and run as fast as possible.
His partner’s aim was a lot more accurate and she delivered a couple of rounds in a semi-automatic setting on her rifle to the head of the beast. Another blood-curdling screech issued into the split second of silence before the Russians followed suit. They opened fire as one at the creature as the scientists, inexplicably unarmed, cowered behind the gunners.
Not that it would have mattered, Sal mused while he reloaded as quickly as his hands could move. That thing was large enough to be tangled around all the trees above them. If it fell, it would probably crush them all… Oh, that’s a good point.
“Keep formation!” he called and motioned with his free hand as the power arm continued a steady barrage of fire at the creature that now circled down toward them. “Back up! Back up!”
Kennedy fell in behind him and adjusted her shooting pattern to cover for him as he reloaded. A cloud of locusts and hyenas now also approached, but they seemed to have the good sense to know that they were no match for the massive centipede and backed rapidly away into the darkness. The Russians followed the Heavy Metal duo without hesitation. They were new to the Zoo, that much was apparent, but other than the scientists who had to be dragged into formation, they all looked like they had some experience in combat situations. The men moved quickly and precisely and followed orders without question. In addition, they maintained ongoing pressure on the creature with a constant stream of accurate fire.
Unfortunately, none of the bullets seemed to be able to pierce its armor. Like they had with the lizard they’d encountered earlier, the bullets seemed to sink a few inches into the carapaces and go no further. Worse, they served only to enrage it further. It reached the ground. The body was almost as thick across as Sal’s torso and what looked like hundreds of spindly legs worked feverishly and in coordination to propel the beast—about six or seven meters long—forward. It was hard to tell exactly how long it was, though, since it coiled around trees to take cover against the bullets. It became extremely difficult to continue to fire at it while still moving backward step by step to avoid it.
It was only a few meters away when Sal decided to take matters into his own hands. He was accustomed to that personal idiosyncrasy by now. While he wasn’t usually in a leadership position when it came to the gunfights—that was Kennedy’s job—he liked to think that he brought some creative thinking to their little mix. It was his turn to initiate something innovative.
He motioned sharply for them to split up. Kennedy took half the gunners and one of the scientists to the right and Sal led his group in the opposite direction. Gregor was a part of his team, while Volkov joined Kennedy as they circled. The left was closer to the centipede-like monster, which was what Sal had in mind while he fired without ceasing until his mag was empty. He was now close enough that he didn’t need his suit’s sensors to see the mandibles snapping at his throat.
“This is a bad idea!” he screamed to amp himself up as he dropped his rifle, drew his sidearm, and charged forward past the vicious jaws. He gripped one of the legs as it moved forward to impale him and squeezed the trigger on the pistol a few times. He couldn’t make any eyes out, unfortunately, and the carapace extended over the head too, which meant that the slugs did little damage. The creature powered forward, knocked him onto his back at least a meter away, and hurtled forward again for the killing strike.
Out of pure instinct, Sal twisted his body and shoved his power arm forward to hammer the reinforced fist into the creature’s armor. The carapace cracked and the centipede emitted another fearsome scream. Undeterred, he scrambled to his feet as the beast fell back a few steps, fisted his power arm, and punched his adversary again. Its armor broke this time and the resultant hole exposed a massive section of soft flesh which Sal quickly took advantage of. He aimed the pistol still gripped in his hand to shoot through the hole until the sidearm clicked empty.
Quickly, he yanked a spare magazine from his belt and slapped it in, but it wasn’t needed. Not for the centipede monster, anyway. The mandibles had gone still although the rest of the body seemed to have a hard time accepting its end as it thrashed around in violent death throes.
Sal looked at the blue blood that coated his power arm and made a face.
“That will never wash out,” he hissed in disgust and shook his arm with little result.
“Come on, do you really want to get rid of the blood of your vanquished foe that quickly?” Kennedy asked as she slapped his shoulder playfully.
“Yes,” he said firmly. “I can tell that this stuff smells pretty horrible and that’s not something I want to greet me when I get out of my armor.”
She nodded. “Agreed. That was some quick thinking out there. It seems that thing’s armor was made to take bullets better than a punch to the face, right?”
“Yeah,” he grunted and still tried to dislodge the blue gunk from his power arm. “That’s what I was doing when the thing charged me with venomous mandibles and legs. Thinking.”
She grinned but he blocked her attempt at a response with a sharp wave when one of the scientists moved toward the now completely still dead body.
“Give it a second, Doc,” he said with a knowing smile.
“What are you talking about?” the man said with an intriguing mixture of Russian and British accents. “We must take samples as quickly as possible.”
“The man said to give it a sec,” Kennedy interjected. “I suggest you do as he says.”
Sal’s hesitation was rewarded with the sound of straining and cracking wood. The way the creature had climbed had weakened the trees and they were no longer able to support what looked like a massive weight elevated high in the canopy. The group backed away hurriedly as the noisy evidence of distressed timber increased. Broken branches crashed haphazardly into others and added to the damage as they fell.
Before anyone could react, the structure now visible in the treetops succumbed to the pull of gravity, along with a large portion of the vegetation. A solid burst of sunlight streamed in its wake as everything landed with a thunderous whump that came close to a roar. The creature had definitely set its
nest up in the trees above, and all the shooting and the needle-sharp legs had weakened the already strained vegetation.
“See what I mean?” Sal said and grinned smugly at the scientist, who rolled his eyes and shrugged disdainfully. He didn’t mind the silent rebuff as he’d managed to pull off the impossible. The nest was down and unprotected by the very dead mother. He couldn’t see if any of the eggs had survived the fall, but he imagined that even if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t be enough to stop them from gathering specimens.
“You know,” he said as the scientists brushed him aside as if to make sure that he didn’t steal any of their specimens. “I know there’s a movie or TV series that highlights the dangers of bringing the young of some super powered evil insect monsters back to civilization, but I can’t think of any right now. Should my geek card be revoked?”
Kennedy grinned at him. “First of all, that thing was an arthropod, not an insect and…I think Arachnid had a plot like that? Maybe Arachnid Two?”
Sal nodded. “Maybe, but I never paid attention when I watched those movies.”
“Yeah, they were basically drinking game movies for me too,” Kennedy agreed. “But watch a movie for drinks enough times and you seem to figure the plot out by the fourth or fifth time.”
He gestured to Kennedy that Gregor was walking over to them.
“Well, orders have come in for us,” he said when he came into earshot. “We are to collect the specimens and leave immediately. The commandant doesn’t want us to risk any of what we collect now by moving deeper into the jungle.”
She looked at the man and scowled. “Wait a minute, Gregor. That wasn’t part of our deal. We agreed to be paid half the standard salary you guys get because we would have time to hunt for more of the Pita plants. That was the deal.”
“It has changed,” the Russian replied with an apologetic shrug. “You will receive the full payment, of course, plus more for helping us get the specimens back.”
Kennedy smirked. “Hell no. We agreed to this deal for a reason. We make more money with the plants than with the salaries anyway. That’s why we schlepped all the way over here to help you guys out with this.”