by Michael Todd
“Uh,” he said tentatively, “how hard could it be? Wallace did show me how to fire one of the rifles.”
“If we need to do any shooting, leave it to me at first. That’s why I’ll keep the rifle. Only join in with the pistol if you absolutely must. Now, then.” She drew her handgun. “I’ll switch this magazine, which only has three rounds left, out for a fresh one, which holds fifteen. If you go through all fifteen, you’ll only have the other three left. Copy?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied. Eighteen pistol bullets. He thought back to the horde of locusts that had attacked the team yesterday. There had to be at least a few dozen of them. Eighteen hundred rounds would have been a lot better.
Kemp showed him how to load and eject the clip, how to work the safety, the chamber, and the trigger, and how to aim and fire. “The recoil isn’t too bad, and I have it sighted properly, but pistols are always less accurate than rifles, especially at any kind of range. The stopping power is good against a human, but not the best against a locust. Don’t bother unless one or two of those things gets within a few yards of you and has you cornered. Aim for the eyes.”
Chris nodded and accepted the pistol and its holster, which he strapped to his right side. He blushed. The getup made him feel like some sort of Hollywood Spaghetti Western actor. He’d never worn a gun before.
“Remember though. Do not draw and fire unless the situation gets desperate. At this point we don’t have the numbers or firepower to win any serious engagement. We are now on a stealth mission.”
She strode out toward the dome and he followed. The foliage thinned but only slightly. As they neared the dome its dimensions became more apparent. The structure stretched hundreds of feet in diameter and probably stood a good forty feet tall at its peak. A warped and rusted metal door stood about twenty feet to their right. It was closed but not very securely.
The lieutenant motioned to the left. They moved around the base of the dome in that direction. Chris assumed the actual base lay in the center of a triangle formed by the three domes, but he didn’t know for sure. It was strangely quiet there. The sounds of the forest seemed to have subsided at its center.
Something half-rushed, half hissed from the jungle to their left. Kemp held up a hand, tensed, and pushed Chris back and to the right, flattening both of them against the dome’s base.
Two familiar green shapes emerged from the undergrowth ahead. The locusts hopped around, seemingly at random. One of them moved farther down along the dome. The other took wing and buzzed off into the sky.
“Back,” Kemp said softly.
They stayed as close to the structure as possible and circled back the way they’d come. He took the lead with her right behind him. They didn’t dare risk changing positions lest they alert the creatures. They soon reached the metal door. He looked at her with a quizzical expression.
“If we can open the door without too much noise, we’ll go through the dome,” she agreed. “Try to open it. Gently and carefully. Stand aside as you do.” She took up a position on one knee a few feet back near the edge of the jungle. Her rifle was ready to fire at whatever might be inside.
Chris swallowed. He grasped the door’s metal handle and pulled. It squeaked faintly but moved on its hinges without any protest.
Silence greeted them again. Kemp waited a moment, then stood, still holding her gun at the ready but seemingly satisfied. She stepped through the door and he swung to fall in behind her. He shut the door gently behind them.
The interior was inlaid with mirrors and broken electric lights that were most likely sun lamps or perhaps regular lights to see when night fell. The remains of a sprinkler system of thin pipes could be seen near the fixtures. The researchers must have wanted to see how their specimens reacted under different conditions of light, darkness, moisture, and aridity. A clear skylight crowned the dome. Most interesting, though, were the specimens themselves.
There, contained within the odd cone of silence that had fallen upon the Zoo’s green heart, was a field filled with blue and red flowers—the goop plants. They all had vibrant emerald-colored stems and petals of alternating crimson and azure. Some were bigger and taller than others. A few of the largest were almost knee high. Most, however, were only a few inches tall. In almost all of them were twinkling droplets of the bright blue substance that had caused them so much trouble in the first place.
Kemp tensed up beside him. Chris saw her eyes sparkle. She was tense with excitement, not fear.
“We lost our sample back with the vehicle,” she said breathlessly. “I’ll take another one.” She dashed forward toward the flowers.
“Wait!” he interjected. He sprinted forward, almost leapt in front of her, and halted between her and the plants. “Stop!” he insisted and held out his hands. Judging by the look on her face, he suspected she was about to shove him aside. “When I plucked that thing yesterday, we were attacked by that locust swarm almost immediately. I’m certain there was a connection between the two.”
The lieutenant’s determined grimace softened a little, and she relaxed her posture. “What makes you think that?” she asked.
“Well, partially the one event happening right after the other,” he explained, “but not only that. I suspect the Zoo is somehow trying to protect these things.”
“How?” Kemp asked.
“When I uprooted the flower, it had a root system that was much longer and deeper than might be expected for such a small plant. The roots were almost like veins or something and I had to cut through them with a knife. I suspect that they may have been connected to the other plants and trees in the surrounding area, maybe even the whole damn Zoo, though it’s impossible to say.”
“Well, what does that have to do with the locusts?” she asked.
“Everything in this ecosystem is tightly connected and seems to work together as a unit. It would have to, in order to transform a stretch of barren desert into a forest this highly-developed. I think that maybe it isn’t only the plants working together with other plants. They might be working with the animals too. There are some plant species that release pheromones into the atmosphere when they’re threatened, which attract bugs that end up protecting them. It’s not like they have a conscious agreement the way humans do, but merely an adaptation where multiple species all act in mutually beneficial ways.”
Kemp nodded and motioned for him to continue.
“My guess is that cutting the root registered danger to the surrounding trees and vines, which in turn released something that triggered the locusts into swarming and attacking us.”
“Like white blood cells converging on a pathogen that’s invaded the body,” she mused.
“Exactly. I keep forgetting you’re a doctor. No offense.”
“Mm,” she grunted. She looked at the plants with a mixture of trepidation and longing.
“I agree that we should get a sample of one,” Chris said, “but not here and not now. It’s too risky. Let’s focus on getting Dr. Marie’s notes. They can tell us more about what we’re dealing with, anyway, and hopefully, they’ll authorize us to come back with a goddamn tank or something and pluck one of those flowers when we have real protection and a real escape plan.”
The lieutenant sighed regretfully. “Dr. Lin, though it pains me to admit it, your strategic analysis is correct. We’ll come back for a sample some other time. Right now, we need to get in and out.”
“We probably shouldn’t even hang around these things,” he added, gesturing to the plants. “For all we know, they might be able to sense our presence even if we don’t damage them.”
She nodded curtly and strode off toward the south side of the ruined dome to another already open doorway. Chris brought up the rear once again. They took a narrow path between the flowers.
No sooner had they begun than something darkened the sun.
“What the f—” Chris cut himself off and looked up.
A brown shape, at least as big as a human being, had crawled ove
r the skylight. The half-thumping, half-scurrying sounds of its movements worked their way down the opposite side of the dome and stopped in front of the warped metal door.
“Move it!” Kemp barked.
The door burst open.
Chapter Fifteen
In the split second before he broke into a run, Chris saw what had opened the door. His brain was simultaneously hit with impressions of a monkey, a possum, and a giant carnivorous rat leering and drooling hideously as it wiggled the fingers—yes, actual fingers—on its paws.
He bolted at top speed through the narrow pathway between the goop plants. Kemp outpaced him and pulled ahead. The open doorway was almost within reach.
It took a moment before the scurrying, thumping sounds resumed behind them. He glanced back and saw the huge brown shape climb around the base of the wall. It was avoiding the plants. He filed away the fact for future reference.
They burst out of the dome and found themselves in a relatively clear and open area where only a few trees grew amidst shin-high jade-green grass. Rusting barrels and smashed crates and boxes sprouted strange flowers in the sun and lumpy mushrooms in the shade.
Behind them, the dome shook and the scuttering sounds of the approaching monstrosity grew louder.
“There!” Kemp shouted and pointed toward a scaffolding molded around a staircase-like stack of crates. “Climb up!” She leapt onto the lowest crate and began to climb.
Chris hurled himself forward and landed hard atop the first crate. He spared a glance at their pursuer as he made ready to climb the second tier
The creature had already closed half the distance between them and the dome. Its face was a grotesque maw. Whatever species had been smashed together to produce this thing, they should never have been combined. Its eyes and drooling mouth conveyed a stupid and primitive nature that reminded him of a troll or an alligator. It most resembled a rat or possum, as he’d first guessed, but its hands and tail were simian, and something about its powerful hind legs resembled a kangaroo.
“Uh, Kemp,” he said, “I’m pretty sure that thing can jump high enough to—”
It could. The creature vaulted with stunning speed and crashed into the scaffolding aside the crates. The whole structure shook and almost toppled. The crate at the top of the stack fell from its perch to crash into the grass below.
“God dammit!” Kemp burst out. She aimed the rifle and prepared to fire. The monster had fallen off the scaffolding after crashing into it and now maneuvered around to where it could climb up the crates after them.
Chris tried to squeeze past the lieutenant. She let him and took point to be able to shoot the creature. Calmly, she lined it up as it approached the base of the stack.
“Eat shit!” she bellowed as she switched to full auto and opened fire. The gun roared in her hands and sparking streaks erupted from the barrel. The thing reared back. A few traces of blood shone on its pelt, but it was too fast to get many shots in. It shifted back around the scaffold before she could do much damage.
He drew his pistol. At this rate, he might need it… not that it would do much good against it.
Their attacker had moved around the side. The creature reverse-kicked the base of the pile with its powerful legs to unsettle the load. The stack collapsed, the scaffold bent down toward where the creature had fled, and the lower crates shot outwards as the upper ones fell against the scaffolding.
Chris felt and saw the world spin, and a crate missed his head by inches and crashed into the ground beside him,. He sprawled on the fallen lattice of metal bars and felt like he’d just tried to crawl backwards up a treadmill. Kemp was somewhere to his right. The pistol was no longer in his hand. Inanely, he thought of the stick-fight scene in First Strike where Jackie leapt onto a crate as it was tipped over and was disappointed at himself for failing to replicate it.
The grass rustled and the brown-furred rat-marsupial suddenly appeared. It reared up on its back legs with its clawed fingers spread wide and its loathsome mouth hanging open. Its tongue brushed its furry chest.
They were lunch. Chris looked to the left, hoping he might see the handgun lying within reach and at least give this thing a scar and a bad weekend to remember him by.
Instead, he saw a man standing about twenty feet away. A man holding a large black gun.
“Forget something?” Sergeant Erik Wallace asked and opened fire.
The gun did not crack. It boomed. The side of the creature’s abdomen exploded, spilling blood and viscera. Sensing a new threat and acting out of pain, it swung at Wallace. One of its claws lashed out and left a bloody laceration across his chest and arms, but he did not flinch. His weapon continued to fire. A sequence of booms resounded and blasted the creature to destroy one of its arms and blowing its head and neck to red mist and pinkish-white chunks. It fell on its back in the grass. The feet and one remaining hand wriggled madly as steam rose from the red crater between its shoulders.
Silence followed. Wallace took a step forward.
“Uhh…” Chris breathed. Breathing, yes, he had forgotten about that. He also swallowed some spit to keep from drooling on himself. “Uh, yeah. Thanks.” He got to his knees, then his feet, shaking all the while.
Kemp also stood and she and Wallace exchanged a hard stare. Both ignored Chris for the moment so he took advantage of the moment to examine the sergeant. The man was as intimidating as he remembered, but now he looked positively terrifying, especially with a day’s stubble on his jaw, his fatigues torn and muddy, and a trickle of blood running down his torso and left arm.
“Sergeant Wallace,” the lieutenant said and nodded. “We…ah, thought you were dead.”
“I’m not,” he stated. “No thanks to you.”
She broke eye contact. Was she actually experiencing shame? Chris would have been surprised if so, but then she had surprised him a few other times over the last few hours.
“Did anyone else make it?” the scientist asked.
Wallace glanced at him. “No,” he said. “No, they did not. I’ll tell you about it some other time. Say, in a year or two.” There was a darkness to his expression, but true to form, he had his emotions under tight control.
“I’m sorry,” Chris said, and looked down at his shoes.
“Why did you come all the way here and rescue us?” Kemp asked.
He gestured with his elbow toward the dark mass that lay beyond the dome in the direction Chris and Kemp had been heading. “The mission,” he answered.
She nodded. “How did you find us?”
“Like I said,” the sergeant replied, “the mission. I figured you’d come here. You took the ATV deeper toward the center, so you had a decent chance of making it. As long as anyone was still alive, there’s still the mission to accomplish.” His jaw tightened. Something unspoken passed between the soldiers.
Everything Chris knew about this man so far suggested that he meant it when he said that the mission was the most important thing. And yet, he was still human. Something between him and his superior had changed forever, and not for the better.
“We appreciate your diligence and commitment,” Kemp returned in a near-monotone. “Dr. Lin has proven more capable than I thought. He helped get us both across a river back there, and apparently killed a locust empty-handed.”
Wallace glanced at the scientist again with a slight raise of eyebrow. “Good,” he said.
“Umm,” Chris began, not sure how to reply to any of this, “what is that thing, anyway?” He pointed to the weapon the sergeant carried. It looked like a cross between a grenade launcher and an old Tommy gun with a circular drum magazine.
“Automatic shotgun,” he said. “I wish we’d brought more than one. It wreaks havoc at close range. In the jungle, we can’t see anything till it’s damn near on top of us anyway, so half our men should have been equipped with these from the beginning.”
Kemp frowned and waved her hand. “The boss,” she said. “You know how he is with the supplies budget.”
“No,” Kemp replied.
Wallace interjected before Chris could ask who she was referring to. “We’re almost there. Let’s get moving and then get the hell out of here. Lieutenant?”
“Yes,” she said. She took a moment to reload her rifle with a fresh magazine and Wallace refilled his shotgun’s drum with shells. It occurred to Chris that he didn’t know how much ammo either of them had but it couldn’t have been much.
“Sergeant,” Chris asked, “did you encounter any more of those…things?” He gestured toward the corpse of the monster the soldier had killed.
“No, that’s the first I’ve seen. Same for you?”
“Yup.” He shook his head. “I’m trying to figure out what in God’s name it could have even come from. It looks like a hybrid between rat, monkey, possum, and kangaroo, yet I don’t think any of those species are found in this region. The locusts were produced by an interaction of the AG with regular African grasshoppers. That at least makes some sense. That creature must have been…engineered, somehow.”
“We can speculate about this another time,” Kemp said.
He sighed. “Right,” he agreed.
They looked toward the very center of the Zoo. With the trees there being thinner, they could faintly make out the white outlines of the other two domes. Between them, however, was ground zero, the old base. Or what was left of it, in any event.
Originally, it had been a makeshift temporary building, smartly constructed but not really meant to last. It was smaller than the base at Wall Two but still of decent size. Now, however, it looked much larger. Two enormous green trees had sprouted somewhere within and grew through walls and ceiling to curve up and out like a great pair of horns. Leafy vines—not the squirmy sort, thank God—covered it and wove through its windows and under its walls. The two trees left it in shadow amidst the warm sunlight. It almost looked like some sort of temple.
“Nothing to do but go in,” Wallace said.