by Michael Todd
Ava pushed herself to move but it was hard and she was exhausted. It was late in the afternoon, so the rocks were hot. Every time she stumbled and caught herself, her hands burned from the heat. She wanted to take her jacket off and leave it, but she glanced instinctively at Bradley. He probably already tried to look up her skirt and it was better not let him see any more skin, so she kept it on.
Up and up she went. She pushed off a particularly large rock and it tumbled away from beneath her feet.
“For fuck’s sake, Ava!” her boss yelled like she had intended to send the rock tumbling at him.
She sighed and turned back toward the slope in front of her only to see a stunted poison quill plant, one of its flowers puckered and ready to shoot. It was directly ahead of her. If she hadn’t turned back to look, it would have shot her already.
Carefully, she backed down and dislodged more rocks that careened down the slope and earned herself another curse from Bradley in the process. Once at a safe distance, she worked around the plant, careful to keep an eye on the flower. It seemed to follow her as she moved but she decided that had to be an effect of the growing shadows.
When she finally made her way around and above the plant, she lifted the largest rock she could find and dropped it on the bloom. It squished with a satisfying squelch, but the rock knocked others loose and triggered a small avalanche.
“I’ll fucking have your ass for that!” Bradley yelled as he scurried out of the way of the falling debris.
“Damn it,” Ava muttered and shook her head. She’d crushed the plant because she hadn’t wanted the man to fall victim to its poison needles and doubted that he’d recognized it, despite her showing him pictures. It seemed she’d only earned his ire.
“Nice move,” Manny said and gave her a hand to pull her up onto a landing, “I thought your aim was good. He’s a jittery little wanker, though, isn’t he?”
She shook her head but smiled anyway. “There was one of those poison quill plants. I didn’t want him to get pricked.”
“But that would have been so perfect. Think of what the papers would say—prick with a tiny prick gets pricked! Can you imagine it?”
“Ha-ha,” she said.
“What’s the deal with you two, anyway?”
“Are we playing a game again?”
“Me? A game?” Manny put his hand to his chest in mock horror. “I never play games. Not since losing a ruby as big as your fist in a game of Chinese checkers. I never lose when there are six players. But we only had five and a chimpanzee. That damn monkey still has my ruby.”
“Ape.”
“I thought you didn’t want to talk about Brad.”
Ava laughed and Manny’s smile lit up.
“There’s nothing to tell. I realized my dreams were too wild and had to find myself a decent job. It is a good job too. Or it’s okay—good enough. It would be fine if it wasn’t for Bradley.”
“You know, that’s the first time you didn’t call him ‘Mr.’” Manny said.
“Yeah, well, he scares me shitless.”
“It doesn’t seem worth giving up your dreams over. Life’s too short to live by someone else’s rules. Live wild.”
She smiled. “Maybe you’re right.”
The pilot picked up a rock. “Do you think I can brain him from here?”
“What? No!” Ava said, but she laughed once again. She knew the man was joking.
“Pfft. You’re no fun. Here, toss him this,” he said and handed her a vine. “We’ll tell him it was your idea to help pull him up. Maybe that’ll calm the prick down.”
Chapter Nine
They stuck together for the last leg of the climb. Ava appreciated that Manny didn’t rush ahead. He pointed out sturdier stones for her to use and kept Bradley from insulting her any further.
They made it to the top of the outcropping without too many more mishaps. The pilot climbed up first, took his pack off, and reached back for Ava. Then, he waited for Bradley.
“Do you need a hand there, mate?” he said and grinned like an idiot.
Bradley scowled but he took the proffered hand.
Ava took in their surroundings. The top of the outcropping was a huge stone, lower on the side where they had climbed up and higher on the other. It stood above the canopy of trees but not by much. Plants still grew here and there in cracks in the rock and little eroded puddles, but thankfully, she didn’t immediately see any of the flowers with projectile needles. Still, it paid to be careful. She used the last of the day’s sunlight to carefully explore the top of the outcropping. It would be the worst luck to survive a locust attack, cat-sharks, and a bat demon, only to be assaulted by a plant in her sleep and never wake up.
Manny unpacked his radio.
“Are you hoping to catch a soccer match?” Bradley asked with a sneer.
“I’m trying to save our lives, mate, an’ I don’t go in for sports. Only kangaroo wrestling.”
To Ava, it looked like the pilot was about to launch into another of his impossible to believe stories, but feedback blared from the radio and he fiddled with the knobs until it quieted.
His brow furrowed as he scanned the airwaves and listened for something—anything. Her heart pounded. If they made it all the way there only to find they were out of range, she’d—
A voice crackled from the radio.
“There we go!” Manny said triumphantly and adjusted the dial to clarify the sound.
“Pinned down. Two miles from Wall Two. Locusts. Repeat.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Bradley said.
“It means the sonsofbitches need help, mate—or they did,” Manny said as the message replayed. “Some tricky little wombat recorded a loop.”
He made a note of the frequency and changed the channel.
“Trees from nowhere. Lost visual. Please respond.”
Manny changed the channel once more.
“Chimeras now close. Air support requested.”
He changed the channel again.
“Our medic’s down, poisoned. Need an antidote ASAP.”
And again.
“Position compromised.”
And again, and again, and again.
“What the fuck is going on?” Bradley demanded belligerently.
Ava stepped away. She didn’t want to hear this—she couldn’t hear this.
To escape, she walked toward the higher end of the stone that rested on the rocky outcropping. Manny constantly changed channels while Bradley proceeded to curse vociferously.
There was some distance between her and the canopy of trees, so she could see over the edge and all the way down to the ground below them. They’d actually climbed a long way. On three sides of the rock was a sheer drop. If they’d approached from another direction, they’d have only made it halfway before they were forced to traverse the hill laterally—not an easy task. It was lucky they’d come up on the only side with reasonably easy access.
On the other side of the rock, Bradley grew louder. Ava tried to ignore him and looked out over the Zoo. A sea of green stretched in every direction and undulated slightly with the landscape hidden below. In the distance, other rock formations protruded, but they all felt so far away. Beyond those, on the horizon, the desert shone red in the setting sun. Everything felt so far away. The Zoo was bigger than she’d thought—way bigger—and they weren’t close to the edge at all. She could see the clearing with the helicopter where they had come from. It had taken hours to get there and it would take days to get out.
Ava sighed. So much for Manny’s hopes of getting out of there tonight. She started back down the slanted rock to tell the men.
Bradley paced back and forth, up and down the rock, the gun in one hand.
“This is fucking ridiculous. Fucking! Ridiculous!” he said and aimed the gun at the sky.
“Look, mate. We’ll be all right in the morning. I’m sure they’ll prioritize our rescue, having an important lawyer in our party an’ all.”
&
nbsp; That stopped the other man. “You better fucking hope they do! If we don’t get out of here tomorrow, my lawsuit will be so far up your ass you’ll…you’ll fucking taste it!”
“Clever, mate. Did you come up with that yourself?”
Ava took a step toward her boss, her hands raised. “I don’t think we’ll get out here tomorrow. We’re really far away from the edge.”
“Bullshit. That’s bullshit! We had barely passed it. That fucker Chandler said so.”
“Do you think she’s lying to make you feel worse?”
He glared at Manny, then at Ava, and back at the pilot. His scowl deepened and he lunged up the rock toward Ava and snatched her by the wrist.
“Mr. Bradley!”
“I’ll get you out of here, Ava. I’ll save you from this fucking animal.” He punctuated his words by gestures with the pistol. She had to dodge to avoid being struck in the head.
“Let me go! You’re not thinking clearly.”
Bradley yanked her backward, away from Manny and closer to the edge of the rock. “Do you think I don’t know what’s going on? He fucking knocked me out and you got all wet for the alpha dog. I know there wasn’t any monster. Do you think I’m fucking stupid?”
“Yeah, mate. A wanker too,” Manny said as he straightened from his focus on the radio.
“Oh, go fuck yourself. I see your little game. Bring us up here. Kill me. Fuck her. You wanna play Adam and Eve? Well, you forgot one thing. I’m the fucking boss and I have a fucking gun.”
Manny stepped forward. The other man stepped back and pulled Ava with him. They were close to the edge now. She looked down and caught her breath. It was a sheer drop on this side.
The pilot took another step. “Let the girl go, mate.” There was steel in his voice.
“Fuck you.” Bradley spat in Manny’s face but he only managed to hit his chest. “Now go back to the fucking radio and get us some fucking aerial support, or I’ll put a God damn bullet between your eyes.” With a vicious grin, he aimed the gun in the other man’s face.
Before Ava could blink, the Australian had ducked, lunged forward, and thrown a shoulder into his adversary.
The gun fired.
Bradley fell and yanked Ava over the side of the cliff.
He released her an instant later and flailed at the cliff face, but he was too far away and plummeted. Ava, who hadn’t been pushed as violently, fell closer to the rock. She struck the edge with her side but her momentum was too great. Frantically, she scrabbled at the rock to save herself but it did nothing to slow her fall and only hurt her fingernails. That she could even notice something so minor before she fell to her death was shocking.
Manny grabbed her by the sleeve of her jacket.
Ava looked up at him but he peered past her and over the edge of the cliff.
She looked, too, in time to see Bradley strike a rock on his way down that spun his body but did nothing to hinder his descent. He struck the stones at the bottom where the jungle growth petered out and didn’t move at all. She looked away as blood pooled around his corpse.
Her rescuer grabbed her other sleeve. “Think like a spider and use your legs. Otherwise, you’re gonna get scraped up.”
Ava complied and climbed up awkwardly as Manny pulled her.
“What was that? I could’ve died,” Ava said when her feet were both firmly planted on the solid surface of the rock.
The pilot simply shrugged. “I keep my promises. And besides, that’s a well-stitched jacket. I knew you’d be all right. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“You risked my life on the stitching of my jacket?” Ava exclaimed.
Manny grinned. “I thought you’d be happy. Brad-lee was a real twit.”
“That doesn’t mean I wanted you to push us off a cliff.”
He shrugged once more, a casual gesture as the sun set behind him. Ava couldn’t read his expression in the growing darkness. “I caught you, didn’t I? You have no reason to be upset. I told you I was a wrestler for a while, right? It’s exactly like this one time Hulk Hogan didn’t want to drop from the cage and I had to push him, even though—”
“I don’t give a shit about Hulk Hogan. You could’ve killed me!”
The man grinned when Ava said “shit.” He really was ridiculous. She intended to tell him as much but then she saw something that made her mouth go dry.
The color drained from her face. In the same place where they’d climbed up, the bat demon now appeared. Its milky eyes stared sightlessly at her and almost seemed to glow in the dark. The creature’s ears twitched this way and that as it clambered onto the rock with them. It seemed to be able to hear her breathing and was huge—far bigger than she had realized. Folds of skin hung between its legs. Its wings, she realized. The claws on its feet clung easily to the stone and looked quite capable of ripping her guts out. Demon really was a good word for the thing.
“It heard the dinner bell,” Manny commented.
Ava couldn’t even nod. She was transfixed by the monster. It worked its toothy maw and emitted chirps and whistles that made her think of radio static. Then, it howled. That sounded far more familiar—the hunting call of a wolf.
It hissed and leapt toward them and the powerful haunches made short work of the distance.
She couldn’t move but Manny reacted immediately. He pushed her away from the edge and ran in the other direction as he clapped his hands. “Hey, big ugly. I have another mushroom pie for you. Right here. Mushrooms! Come and get ʼem!” he yelled at the monster as he clapped his hands and stamped his feet.
For a moment, the milky eyes remained transfixed on Ava but its ears twitched every time he spoke or clapped his hands. After a long moment, it turned to pursue the crazy pilot.
The chase didn’t last long. The bat leapt, caught air in the folds of skin between its legs, and soared toward Manny. It was supremely unnatural to see a creature so large glide so soundlessly.
Even worse was when it crashed into the man and its claws raked his chest to leave bloody gashes.
“Those aren’t mushrooms, you yobbo,” he yelled and rolled backward. The bat demon howled again and surged after its prey. It landed in front of him and reared up like it planned to crush his chest with its claws.
“Run, Ava! I’ll handle this milk-faced mongrel.”
She almost turned to run but she didn’t. Where would she go? And besides, she owed the pilot her life four times now. Or was it five? She looked around desperately for some kind of a weapon.
The gun had gone over the edge with Bradley. If Manny had a knife, it wasn’t in the pack with the radio. She could…throw the radio at him?
No, that was stupid, she thought and shook her head. Her hand found a rock.
Ava threw it at the creature. It was better to stand and fight than watch a friend get eaten. And definitely better to stand and fight than be eaten herself.
The rock struck the bat’s back. It flinched and came down awkwardly on Manny, who grunted. She had no doubt that a direct hit would have collapsed his lungs and killed him. The beast reared up again.
Adrenaline kicked in and she knew she had to act fast. That thing would smash the man like a bug.
She sprinted up the slope of the rock a few paces and snatched another rock, which she aimed at the bat’s huge, veiny ear. The projectile struck solidly and the beast screeched. It was not a pleasant sound.
“Hey,” she shouted as her fingers already grasped for another rock. “I have your mushrooms over here.”
It turned on her, its bat ears twitching.
Ava took a step backward and her foot slipped on a patch of loose rocks. They clattered off the edge of the stone behind her. The bat’s ears zeroed in on the sound and it approached.
She swallowed when she realized she had nowhere else to go. While she could try to run to the right or left, the thing would inevitably catch her. If she retreated any farther, she would fall to her doom. But she didn’t want to go like that. It was better to die f
ighting. She threw another rock and it struck the creature in its milky eye to elicit another screech. Great. She’d pissed it off.
The bat demon jumped and closed the distance as it glided on its folds of skin.
It landed in front of her and in one smooth motion, reared up on its hind legs. It very clearly intended to crush her. Her last act of life would be a desperate gesture to try to save a new friend. She felt a tiny flame of pride at the thought and decided that was way better than dying like Bradley had—unnecessarily.
“Piledriver!” Manny yelled and crashed into the creature.
He wrapped his arms around it, and his momentum carried them both off the edge of the cliff. Ava spun and saw them vanish into the gloom where Bradley’s body had fallen. She scrambled to peer over but it was too dark she couldn’t see any of them.
With a sense of defeat, she hugged her knees and wept.
Chapter Ten
Ava didn’t cry long. Her mom had taught her that tears were cathartic but that they had a time and a place too. She decided that now wasn’t exactly the time. Although maybe it was since she was alone up there with nothing to do and no one to talk to. Well, that wasn’t exactly true.
She went to the radio and after she’d turned the volume down as low as possible, dialed through the channels again. It was all the same. People gave their position and asked for assistance. They counted the living and the dead. There were less people talking than there had been earlier. She told herself it was because most people were asleep and hadn’t been clever enough to set up a recording, but after her time in the Zoo, she couldn’t delude herself into thinking that everyone would be all right.
A shudder raced through her when she thought of all the death she’d seen. Of Dervin and Billings. Of Chandler, and even the pathetic Bradley. She was a little surprised to find she vaguely missed her boss, even after the deaths he’d caused and the way he treated her. It was merely that he was such a constant presence, like a flea bite or an infected wound. Ava remembered her sister saying she’d missed her cast when her leg finally healed. Maybe it was like that. But still, one thing was certain. No tears were shed for Trevor Bradley.