by Michael Todd
“Then stop barking about it, Mr. Big Dog,” she said before she turned and moved forward again. He fell easily and naturally into position behind her
“Big Dog?” Sal lifted his eyebrows. He actually found it difficult to say it out loud.
“Yeah, I’ve tried to figure out a nickname that would fit you,” she explained. “All things considered, something cutesy doesn’t cut it for me. It has to be something big and aggressive.”
“Well, keep thinking, Madie,” he said and took a hasty step back in anticipation that she would lash out at him for using that nickname for her. “Big Dog…seriously?”
“Shut up,” she snapped. “Fine, we’ll wait until we get back to the base, and then you’d better give me five.”
Sal smirked. “That sounds like something I can do. You may consider the game on, girl.”
Kennedy didn’t respond to the challenge and merely raised her weapon as the pack of hyenas that had followed them from afar seemed to decide that easier prey could be found elsewhere. They broke their pursuit and headed deeper into the Zoo and away from them. She hesitated, her weapon still raised, when she noticed that something else now moved into view. It was smaller than the previous predators, traveled alone, and seemed set on an intercept course.
Sal tilted his head and readied his rifle as what looked like an odd variant of the locusts they had dealt with from the beginning stepped into view. It was six-legged and had the same height and build of the other insects. That, however, was where the resemblance ended. As it approached, he realized that it had a segmented tail—much like a scorpion’s—that swung freely rather than curved like an arachnid’s would be. The locust seemed to use it like a mammal would a tail—for balance and movement—and blue fur covered the armored exoskeleton.
“Well, that’s creepy,” Kennedy griped and automatically aimed for a killing shot, but Sal stopped her.
“That’s an entirely new species of creature,” he pointed out and stepped in front of her. “And since it’s alone, I think it’s safe to say that it’s one of the first of its kind. This is an opportunity to be the first person to study one of these creatures—that’s like Christmas come early for a guy like me—but also, the money we’d get for the whitepaper on this baby will be fucking crazy.”
“Fine, but don’t get too close.” She shrugged her acquiescence. “I’d hate to have to drag your sorry ass out of here because you were stung in your glistening buttocks.”
“I don’t think that’s likely to happen,” he pointed out as he took a few steps closer.
“Why?” she asked, definitely sarcastic now. “Does that creature love your ass as much as you do?”
“I’d leave the loving of my ass to you, personally,” Sal responded in the detached voice that told her that his mouth acted without too much interference from his brain. “But the point is, if you look closer, that tail doesn’t have a stinger. It’s only the segments, but no barb. Besides, it seems to use it for balance or something— Oh, shit!”
He lurched a few steps back and his foot caught on a root that jutted out, which landed him on his back as the creature lunged forward, hissing, and tried to attack. Kennedy’s reflexes were on point, however, and a couple of rounds burst from her rifle almost before his ass hit the ground. The heavy rounds tore through the carapace like it was made of paper and erupted out the other side in a gory show of blue blood and viscera.
“Hey, Sal?” she said as she coolly replaced the rounds she’d used. “Maybe next time I tell you not to get too close to the dangerous Zoo creature, you’ll fucking listen.”
“Shut up,” he retorted as he scrambled to his feet. “I was distracted by something. There was something strange about this one’s jaw structure, and…well, as it got closer than I would have liked, I realized that it actually had a jaw instead of mandibles, and…fucking teeth. Check this out.”
“I’m fine over here, thanks,” she said with a firm nod.
“I’m serious, come on.” Sal activated the specialist functions in his suit as he crouched beside the animal and retrieved a syringe, a scalpel, and a couple of clear plastic baggies in which they stored samples. He used the scalpel to open the creature’s jaw and display a line of teeth within.
“That’s weird,” he mused. “That tooth and jaw structure is… Well…actually, very reminiscent of a piscine kind of animal. I’d say a…piranha’s, or a shark’s? More piranha than shark, now that I look at it.”
“One second, you were about to blow a load,” Kennedy pointed out, “and the next, you’re all science geek and talking about fish teeth.”
“Teeth that are sharp and pointy are never an aphrodisiac, Kennedy,” he said, still focused on the task to carefully take a variety of samples from the bone, the carapace with fur, and viscera. Finally, he filled a syringe with the bluish blood, sealed everything, and placed his collection in an organized stack in his pack before he closed it. After however many months he’d spent out there, his process of collecting data was almost automatic. He had recorded the animal alive—and dead, as well. He would simply have to edit out the parts where he almost pissed himself when the creature tried to attack him.
“Good to go?” Sal asked finally when he noticed her looking at him in what might be fascination.
“I’ll never get over how quickly you can go from goofy nerd to professional scientist,” Kennedy pointed out as they set off through the jungle again. “I have to say, it’s kind of hot in a weird…you sort of way.”
“You know, I’ll never tire of hearing that,” he admitted with a grin and adjusted the settings in his suit into combat mode before he resumed his position behind her.
They pushed through the Zoo for another couple of hours before they finally reached the coordinates Anderson had given them. After a search of the area, they encountered what appeared to be the remains of another suit. The design was similar to the leg they’d recovered but more advanced. Like the other sample, it had been severely damaged and most of the electronics already stripped away. Thankfully, there wasn’t much in the way of the suit’s previous occupant, which meant that they wouldn’t need to worry about cleaning it out.
“I feel like we’ve been here before,” Kennedy said and scanned the jungle, unable to settle the feeling that the rest of the Zoo watched them in much the same way it did when people messed around with the Pita plants.
“How do you mean?” Sal asked as he prepared the pieces of the suit for transport back to their Hammerhead.
“I’m not rightly sure, actually.” She shrugged but her frown revealed her concern. “I guess I’m starting to wonder if these tech caches that Anderson has aren’t people who died while testing these suits. I mean…that’s what they are, right? People who died testing these suits? The design definitely isn’t in common use at any of the bases, and it’s not like they’re simply dropped in here for us to pick up.”
“That is a good point.” He worked methodically to separate the larger pieces into more manageable chunks. “What do you make of Anderson, though? I know you said you liked him, but that merely seemed like you respected him as a soldier. What do you make of the man? Do you think we can trust him?”
“I say we hold off on trusting anyone who doesn’t work for Heavy Metal,” she stated flatly. “That said…no, I don’t trust him per se, but I think he’s one of the more trustworthy people around here. I actually considered talking to him about extending our little arrangement after we’ve done everything he needs us for. We have all kinds of tech that we can probably sell. Our Pita plant tracking tech, for one thing, among others. A man like him is bound to have connections who wouldn’t mind paying top dollar for a way to accurately track those expensive plants down.”
Sal looked up from his work. “I know we’ll have to make a decision on the Pita tracking software soon. That aside, I thought you and I agreed that we should only sell our stuff to the others when we felt ready to leave this place behind and head back to the States with some golde
n eggs in our nest—or something like that, anyway. Is that what you’re saying? Do you want to throw in the towel and get out of here?”
“Not really.” Kennedy sounded thoughtful but uncertain. “Heavy Metal is something that extends past only the two of us, you know? We have Gutierrez and Anja—both people we can trust—making the compound a secure place to run operations from. I know finding people for our little operation has been a little hit and miss, but we can still look. Who knows, if we find gunners and specialists to work with us, we won’t need to make the runs ourselves. We might not even have to run the operation from here. We could head back to the States. I have a couple of things that I’d like to resolve back home, and you probably want to get your doctorate out of the way. You know, so people can start calling you doctor without you having to correct them.”
Her words left him a little uncomfortable, although he wasn’t sure why. “I guess you’re right,” he said finally, but it was a reluctant admission.
“And we wouldn’t need to give up on the life entirely. I know how you can go crazy and start to actually miss risking your life here in the Zoo. It…grows on you like that. But we can be those bosses who occasionally join the action when we want to, but not always, and still profit off what might be our idea.”
“But wouldn’t we want to keep the Pita plant tracking technology in-house?” Sal asked. “You know, a trade secrets sort of deal that lets our company make money while leaving everyone else in the dust?”
Kennedy nodded. “That’s a good point, I’ll concede. But we still need to look into that and confirm whether or not those mercs who had a map actually had access to the software before we decide. Anyway, that aside, maybe Anderson could be the person who puts us in contact with people whom we can trust enough to hire for the team later on. Again, the guy probably has all kinds of connections. With his referrals, we could fill the ranks in no time.”
“You really want to work with him, don’t you?” He grinned and arranged the last of the pieces in his pack. “Should I be jealous? Well, no, not jealous, but should we plan a schedule or something?”
“Shut it, asshole.” She punched him lightly in the shoulder—or probably meant it to be light, anyway. Hopefully. Either way, it made him stagger before he recovered his balance.
“You do seem to want to work with him an awful lot,” he insisted in a more serious tone.
“Again, the man has all kinds of connections.” She shrugged as if the benefits were self-evident. “You read his file. Black ops all over the world, working in the Pentagon, dealing with all the high-level stuff like defense contracts and the like. He’s connected almost everywhere. To have him owe us a favor like this has to be the kind of advantage we shouldn’t waste. It’s a game-changer. We’ve done freelance work all this time, but we know that the real money comes from the…I hate to say it, but the government contracts.”
“Fair enough.” He had more jokes to make about the situation but had to push them aside when his HUD alerted him that someone had opened communications on one of the emergency lines. Over the past couple of months, a lot of work had gone into setting lines up that would allow people to call for help through the heavy interference caused by the Zoo. They had some success, mainly because they’d created comm lines that allowed for limited communication—voice and text only—that also provided a location ping whenever someone accessed the line. Sal didn’t doubt that other comm lines had been opened and kept secure for the use of the black ops teams that left bodies behind.
“It’s a distress call,” Kennedy said and glanced at her partner. “They’ve offered a reward to anyone who shows up to help.”
“We have what we came here for,” Sal pointed out, “and more besides. I don’t think anyone would blame us if we simply walked away.”
They exchanged meaningful glances in the short silence that followed. It was a great fantasy that they might one day be able to put their own survival first, but they both knew they wouldn’t leave the call for help unattended.
“Five klicks to the west,” he said finally. “Let’s get going.”
“Look at that,” she cooed with a grin. “We offer to help and then get the notice for payment. All brownie points today!”
Chapter Eight
The duo didn’t even need to get too close to know that the call for help would be an absolute clusterfuck. They could hear it a full klick away. Angry animals shrieked and roared above the gunfire that peppered the morning. Sal shifted his weapon into position and threw Kennedy a hasty look as they picked up their pace.
“What do you think?” she asked. “They killed a big dino thing or plucked a Pita plant?”
“It doesn’t always take one of those things to whip our hostile friends around here into a frenzy,” he pointed out. “Sometimes, the sound of gunfire is enough to draw them close and the smell of blood and watching humans gun them down triggers aggression. That said, my money is on a Pita plant. Someone got greedy and decided to try it and is now trying to dig themselves out of that particular hole.”
“Yeah, same here,” she agreed, immediately alert as a pair of hyenas launched out of the underbrush. The animals barely noticed the humans before they were gunned down with quick, precise shots from both Sal and Kennedy.
“That’s how you do it,” he stated briskly as they proceeded to wade into the thick of it and eliminate those animals that seemed to be otherwise distracted by their attack on the other party. “Get your point across with a couple of bodies and always keep moving. These guys probably saw what was coming and tried to set up some defensive positions. They’ll be picked off one by one until they realize that the animals in the Zoo outnumber them by a factor of thousands and try to run, but it’ll be too late.”
“You’re preaching to your own choir here, Jacobs.”
The partners assumed their usual formation with her at the front to bulldoze their momentum forward with her superior armor and firepower. As always, he provided support from the back and picked off the few animals that could attack them from within range, like the acid-spitting lizards or those that tried to outflank them. Neither was an easy task, but they had grown accustomed to a pattern that worked well for them.
“Key mic,” Kennedy advised and added her own comm link to the emergency line. “Alpha team Forty-Seven, this is Heavy Metal One, do you copy?”
“How come you get to be Heavy Metal One?” Sal asked in exasperation.
“Heavy Metal One is our team’s designation, dumbass,” she retorted. “But since I’m the gunner and will be the one they see first, I’ll always be one and you’ll be two.”
“That sounds like bullshit,” he muttered and obliterated a couple of locusts with scorpion tails. These didn’t have any fur and definitely had stingers that they seemed determined to use. More to the point, they had tried to ride the coattails of a group of hyenas that charged in an effort to flank them. The creatures all met his barrage of bullets instead.
“Do you want to take point here?” she asked as she waited for her armor to reload the rifle in her hand.
“Nope.”
“Then shut up, Heavy Metal Two.” Her grin was pure mischief.
“Oh…eat a dick.”
“I thought we’d decided to save that for when we get back to base.” Kennedy paused as the emergency comm line came on in response to her message.
“We read you, Heavy Metal One.” The man’s voice wavered a little with the static. “We have trouble here and could really use your support. But if it’s only two of you, there might be a limit to how much help you can be.”
“What do you mean?” she asked and sounded annoyed.
“Well,” he explained, clearly uncertain about what he tried to say, “two teams have already responded to our distress signal, and there have been enormous casualties. Of course, any help will be gratefully accepted, but I’m not really sure how much two people can do in the middle of this.”
“Can you believe this guy?” Sal asked.
She nodded in agreement, then shook her head to indicate that now was not the time to talk about it and activated her comm link again.
“Well, we’ll head in your direction and eliminate the animals we run into,” she informed him and managed to keep her annoyance to herself. “The heading is roughly…south, southwest, so if you could avoid shooting us when we get in close, we’d appreciate it.”
“Understood,” the man said and sounded harried. “Good luck, Heavy Metal.”
“He’s not sure how much two people can do?” Kennedy hissed as she killed the connection. “Come on, Jacobs, let’s give this fucker a lesson in exactly how useful two people can be in this kind of situation.”
“I’m right behind you, Kennedy,” he replied, a little stirred up by the lack of confidence as well. It was a shame that these rifles didn’t have a cocking action that you could pull before firing. No, the chambering of rounds—even when a new magazine was put in—was all automatic. Of course, it was a good thing given that the time saved could actually mean the difference between life and death, but it lacked the dramatic quality of being able to end a sentence like that with the satisfying click-clack of a weapon ready to serve out some death and mayhem.
They moved cautiously forward again and took advantage of the fact that the animals they encountered seemed distracted by the other men. After a relatively easy running skirmish, they cleared a path all the way to the besieged group and made sure to announce themselves as they entered the small area cleared of all underbrush to provide a clean line of fire.
“Defensive positions,” Sal said with a shake of his head. “What did I say?”
“Yeah, I know,” she responded and kept their conversation on a private channel for the moment. “But you have to understand that almost everything military people were taught relies on holding and maintaining a position of strength when encountering superior numbers. You’ll see almost everyone—except for the special forces people—doing exactly this.”