by Michael Todd
As if it knew, the beast stilled and emitted a sharp string of whistle-like sounds.
“It’s over, bitch,” Ava said as she pulled the trigger.
She pushed away as the creature sagged and fell, but there was no sense of triumph. An odd numbness seeped into her and her mind seemed as blank as the enshrouding darkness.
Manny stood a little way off, his mouth slack but already starting to form into a grin like a kid caught spying on his mom kicking her deadbeat boyfriend out the house. He jumped up and down and bounded toward Ava like they’d won the lottery instead of barely managing to save their own lives.
“Did you plan that shit? Fucking incredible! Clutch with the crutch! Played with the blade! That was a stupid fucking move if I ever saw one. I loved it!”
“I couldn’t let that son of a bitch control me,” she responded, her tongue thick and the words somehow distant. “Life’s too short to die by someone else’s rules. Live wild.”
She saw his smile spread before pain from the poison overwhelmed her and she blacked out.
Chapter Nineteen
The next thing Ava saw was the moon overhead. It scared her shitless. At first, two milky orbs hung in the sky and she thought the bat had come back from the dead—a vampire instead of a demon—but when her eyes focused, the two moons resolved into one.
“Where are we?” she said and gasped as her head smacked the sand.
“Ava! Ava, you’re all right! Ava, stay with me!” Manny shouted. She realized he’d been dragging her but had dropped her on the sand when she’d spoken. Even that gentle blow was too much in her current state. She could feel herself slide back into the calm embrace of unconsciousness. Manny slapped her across the face.
“I’m telling you…like a girl,” she managed before everything faded to black again.
When she next came to, the first thing she noticed was her fingers dragging in the sand. The sensation made her want to pee. Considering how much her body hurt, thinking about having to pee was kind of funny.
Manny didn’t notice her wake up this time. Instead, he talked to himself.
“Motherfucking bitches always leave this to ol’ Manny. Filching assholes think they’re being gold as piss. Go on, Manny, save the hot-twat girl from the deadly poison that’s sure to kill her. Manny, leave yer un-fucking-funny arsehole friends to get eaten by a bunch of gob-swallowing bugs in the bloody Zoo. Surviving is worth it, Manny. Fucking dicks.”
She laughed, more at having to pee than at what he actually said. Mostly, she was surprised that he’d told the truth. He really had held his tongue around her.
“Potty humor working for ya? Well, keep laughing you shit-eating bat-killer. And I do mean shit-eating. Working for Brad-lee couldn’t be described as anything else. But hold the fuck on. We’re gonna get there if it kills me.”
Ava tried to say that he needed to go on without her. Someone had to survive and tell people what the Surge looked like—to tell the scientists that the Zoo would continue to grow deeper and deeper into the desert sand, that it could make rivers, and that bat demons fucking sucked. But she only laughed again when she thought about what Manny would say if she told him to remember her. He’d probably cuss her out. Her eyes found the moon, lower in the sky than it had been, and she passed out again, laughing at the thought and crying from the pain.
This time, when she awoke, Manny was cursing at her.
“If you needed to stop, you could’ve said so, Ava! For fuck’s sake, you done ruined the upholstery!”
“What are you talking about?” she said. She felt warm from the waist down and realized she’d peed herself.
“We don’t have much farther now. You gotta hold on. The old Manny-mobile will get you there. But don’t pass out again. You gotta stay awake, Ava. You’re not looking so good, and this coming from a guy whose dingo parents used to have to smell his ass to recognize him as it was better than looking in his face.”
“Where’d you get a car?” Ava asked and felt beside her to her left and right. She was in some sort of sled and could hear the sand rasping underneath her. Whatever it was, it was well made. The material was strong and smelled of leather, and Manny had two big handles to pull her with.
“That bat-wolf wasn’t using his flappies anymore, so I lightened his load and my own all at once.”
“So…you’re saying that smell is bat armpit?”
“Technically, its Ava-pee mixed with bat armpit and a little bit of Manny’s cold terror-sweats thrown in there for good measure.”
Ava laughed at that, so hard she could feel her sides ache over the poison.
He told her to calm down, to hold on, and to stay with him, but she couldn’t. She blacked out yet again. If she didn’t wake up again it wouldn’t be so bad. She considered herself something of an expert on death now, and it seemed a good way to go—laughing to death.
When she awoke again, she could no longer see the moon. In place of the shining orb were banks and banks of lights. They shone into the desert to bleach the sand and made everything but the sky and the ground seem invisible to her, lost in the glare. Ava heard the sounds of machinery, of engines, and of tires carrying people back and forth over the sand. She heard men bark orders and soldiers hasten to obey. Above it all, she heard Manny.
“You better fucking believe we came out of the Zoo! Where the fuck else am I going to get an eight-foot bat-wing? Follow the trail back to its corpse if you don’t believe me.”
Ava pushed herself up onto her elbows. Even that tiny bit of motion made her head pound, her stomach reel, and knots spasm through her muscles. She knew she didn’t have much longer and hoped that Gunnar survived. If she died now, this close to Wall Two, the soldier would appreciate the irony.
She followed the sound of Manny’s voice—as difficult as that was—and spotted him standing face to face with a man who wore military fatigues and held an assault rifle like a shield between them. He didn’t aim it at Manny, not yet, but Ava hoped the pilot hadn’t made any promises while she’d been unconscious. Surely he had better persuasive skills than he’d demonstrated with Bradley
He didn’t.
“For fuck’s sake, don’t you pricks understand Australian?” he yelled. “She. Needs. Medicine!” He pointed at Ava, then mimed using a syringe in one hand and gestured to his crotch. Wow, Ava thought, Manny really sucked at charades.
The man said something in response, not as loudly but much more firmly. Ava couldn’t make out his words. Either he spoke another language or the poison had finally reached her brain, but even in her delirium, she could tell the man was losing his patience. She hoped he didn’t raise his gun, but whether for his own sake or Manny’s, she didn’t know.
The pilot pointed at Ava again. “She’s gonna die, you fucktard!” He pantomimed strangling his own neck and pointed at Ava.
The man yelled a reply. He was pissed. Apparently, “fucktard” transcended languages.
“I don’t give a shit about anything but her, now get the fuck out of my way!” Manny shoved the man backward. Obviously, his fatigues weren’t merely for show because the man caught himself before he fell and aimed his gun at Manny. He yelled in earnest now—intimidating with the gun and all, but Ava thought Bradley was much more frightening.
Her friend seemed to agree, for as soon as the barrel of the gun aimed at him, he lunged forward and decked the man hard enough to knock him out. Manny looked past him, seemed to spot what he was looking for, and ran back for Ava.
“Not much longer before we trade in this old bat-skin jalopy for a newer model,” he said before a group of men jumped him. He managed to knock the first man off but a rifle butt to his stomach doubled him over and the others dog-piled the pissed-off Australian.
“You pricks don’t recognize a hero when you see one? If you can’t pin me for three you gotta get off! Hey, fuckers, get off!”
Ava laughed. Manny. She was glad to have a met a man like that before…well…before she died. She smiled and let he
rself slip into unconsciousness for the last time. He would make a good story out of her death, she was sure of it. She only hoped he’d be able to tell it.
Chapter Twenty
The first thing Ava felt was surprise.
She was alive.
Cautiously, she took a few deep breaths and relished the smells of sand, canvas—presumably from the tent walls around her—and the slightly harsh tang of disinfectant. She found that smell strangely nostalgic. It took her back to college, back when the only monster she’d feared was a hangover and the assholes she’d known weren’t her boss. Good times.
She looked around, shocked at the sensation in her body. She still hurt, but not like she had—not anything like she had. Her sides ached, as did her legs, especially her left, but not unduly so. She felt like she’d run a marathon or maybe competed on one those ninja obstacle course shows that every channel seemed to produce these days. She supposed she had, when she thought about. Running, climbing, crossing spinning logs, hurdling boulders… Compared to all that, a little prick from a plant didn’t seem that bad.
Ava checked her arm. She found an IV hooked up to a bag hung above her head. Ah. Painkillers. That explained it.
“Good, you’re awake,” a man said and approached her from across the room, a clipboard in hand. He wore a doctor’s coat, a bushy mustache, and a few days of stubble. He looked about as tired as she felt. “I’m Dr. Gamal. You’re very lucky to be alive.”
He proceeded to check her vitals. Take a deep breath, hold it, say ah, stethoscope on the chest, and cursory questions about her various scrapes and bruises that had all been cleaned and some even bandaged. After the pell-mell sprint through the Zoo, this routine examination was as jarring as anything, a crash course back to the real world.
“I need to check the wound, please.”
Ava sighed and raised the sheet up so he could see her thigh. Dr. Gamal nodded once and maintained the disinterested look of professional curiosity that only the best doctors managed.
“Will I be all right?”
“The redness should be gone soon,” he said and pointed to her leg.
Ava looked at the bright red lines that spread out from the where she’d been wounded like hungry growths of mold, but she knew them for what they were—the forerunners of infection. Fortunately, these were on the retreat.
“We’ll keep you on the intravenous antidote for the next twelve hours, then a week of another antibiotic, but that’s mostly for your scrapes. I’ve never seen so many. Why did you wear a skirt out there?”
He was a little hard to understand because of his accent. Ava couldn’t place it. Odder still was that he commented on her dress code like she’d planned to crash in a helicopter and take a nice stroll through the most dangerous place on earth. The doctor seemed to notice her confusion. “I’m Egyptian,” he said as if that explained what she was doing alive in a canvas tent.
But she didn’t ask any of that, not after she looked around and saw other people in worse shape than her. People with more bandages. Or fewer limbs.
“And you’re sure I’ll be okay?”
“There should be no long-term effects. We understand those plants well. If the poison does not reach your heart or brain, you should be fine. Do not do any drinking of alcohol, understood?”
Ava nodded. That was a bummer. A glass of wine sounded amazing right about now.
“You have no more questions,” the doctor said and implied a question although he didn’t actually ask one.
“Nope,” Ava said. Dr. Gamal was obviously busy and there was no need to bother him. She was sure she’d get more than enough chatter before the day was up. That was if the Egyptian army hadn’t defeated Manny.
After maybe a half an hour and an actual, honest-to-God nap, Ava awoke as Manny swaggered into the triage tent.
“Look who woke up. It’s sleeping beauty. Except for the beauty part. That thing must’ve hit your face. You’re either bruised up or its ugly was contagious.”
“Are you sure I didn’t catch it from you?”
He smiled. God, it was good to see him smile. She had given up on seeing that again. “Naw, if you caught it from me, that bat demon of yours wouldn’t have tried so hard to kiss you.” He paused, something she hadn’t known he was capable of. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. The doctor says there shouldn’t be long term side effects. But I can’t drink for a week.”
“Fucking asshole, what kind of a dick runs this place?”
“I didn’t see you pining after a drink out in the Zoo.”
“You didn’t see me writing a letter to my mommy either, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t miss her.”
It was Ava’s turn to smile. “What happened out there?”
“You mean after you killed that monster like a fucking boss? Let’s see…well, first I chopped off the fucker’s legs and used its nasty nut-sack wings to drag you maybe a hundred miles. I told some good stories too. You’ll have to let me know if I ever repeat ʼem. I’ll have to make sure to keep the details straight.”
“All I remember from that was the moon and you cussing like a sailor.”
“Yeah, well, I was stressed, so pardon me for not minding my fucks and pricks. Don’t forget that you peed yourself. I know I won’t. You need to drink more water. Ava pee mixed with dead bat monster is not a good smell.”
“I almost died and you remind me that I peed myself?”
“Hey, I’m only repeating what the doctor said. Apparently, your little accident slowed the poison. If you had shown some self-restraint, we wouldn’t have this conversation. Or you wouldn’t. I’d probably be tasked with giving your eulogy on account of my impressive skill with the Australian language.”
Ava rolled her eyes. “Speaking of eulogies, how did you get past the guards? The last thing I remember was you decking some poor man who pointed a gun at you, then you were tackled by what looked like a whole platoon.”
“That’s exactly right and I appreciate you committing such important details to memory.”
She waited. By now, she knew that Manny didn’t do well with a silence of any length.
“It turns out that I had to ask nicely. We came into the Algerian part of the Wall and not one of them fuckers spoke Australian, so I had to wait until someone did. An Egyptian fella. I politely explained the details of your ailment—”
“From the bottom of the dog-pile?”
“Let’s say I extricated myself from the situation and leave it at that.”
“How did I end up in a tent, though? I thought Gunnar said this place was a technological marvel.”
Manny shrugged. “That was my doing. I told you I’ve never been in a hospital—bad luck. When I found out there was a triage tent for everyone coming outta the Zoo, I requested your transfer.”
“Gee, thanks. Was this before or after you hit the guy with the gun? Is that a nervous tic you got from your dingo parents or something?”
He chuckled. “Now that’s the most ridiculous thing I ever hard. Dingoes can’t throw punches. They don’t have fists, Ava, a peculiarity of their biology. I learned how to punch from kangaroos, and you’re right in thinking that those blokes are not a fan of firearms.”
Ava let him tell a story in which he and a band of kangaroos disarmed some Taiwanese smugglers by knocking the weapons out of their hands and challenging their leader to a boxing match. It was fairly believable too until he got to the part about a hidden bomb in the joey’s pouch. Ava saw the end coming a mile away but still, it made for an explosive punchline.
When he finally stopped laughing at his own joke, she asked, “So what will you do next?”
Manny rolled his eyes like he might be trying to force them out of their sockets. “Some jackass, limp-dick, chicken-shit military commander says they’re in desperate need of a pilot to help run rescue missions. The asshole says it’s too fucking dangerous to go in on foot. Troops don’t wanna get eaten, blah, blah, blah.”
“Language
, Manny. I’m conscious again.”
He snorted. “Americans. You bitches are the best. You literally killed the biggest fucking monster I’ve ever seen with a tree branch and you still get all bothered by a good mouthful of swear words.”
“I can’t help it. My grandmother made me go to church every week when I was a kid.”
“Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted. This fairly rude commander says a bunch of unfortunate, uh, soldiers are trapped out there in that fucking shithole. Damn. I thought I was doing pretty good there. Anyway, none of the pilots want to do it. They’re scared, believe it or not.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told that wanker that the Zoo is flat-out the most dangerous place for a pilot in the entire world. You’d have to be fucking stupid to accept a job like that.”
Ava released a breath of air she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Good.”
“Alone,” he said and tried to keep a grin off his face. He failed miserably.
“What do you mean, alone?” she said, but the painkillers weren’t that strong. Her mind was already racing. He couldn’t be that crazy—no one could be that crazy.
He looked directly at her, his eyes as crazy as ever. “I said you’d have to be fucking stupid to accept a job like that alone. You’d need a topnotch medic. Someone with real balls who has survived every kind of threat the Zoo can throw at them—someone with the Zoo pumping in their damn veins. I told them you’d do it with me. You were unconscious at the time, but I figured you wouldn’t mind.”