“Picked a hell of a time to get romantic!”
Jeremy jerked himself away from Dr. Rice, rolling to his feet as he did so. Lance Corporal Kate stood there, dried blood on her bare arm. There was no mistaking who she was or that she was a Marine from her stance or the rifle held in her hands, even though she was out of uniform. She wore a skintight pair of shorts that were torn in several places. A loose halter top kept her decent only thanks to the straps that crisscrossed her torso. Straps that held weapons or spare equipment.
“We weren’t being romantic,” Synnamon snapped. She wiped her face with her hands then rubbed them on her pants before trying, and failing, to rise. “Jeremy!”
He jumped and stepped over to help her up. They both looked down to her leg. “Sprained I think,” she said. “I can walk, but I’ll need help.”
“Great,” Kate snapped. She turned to look back, then shook her head. “Seems safe here, we need to round up the other survivors.”
“Other survivors?” Jeremy said.
“You don’t think you’re the only ones? Bunch of damned lab rats, the ones that didn’t curl into a ball and suck their thumbs are probably still running and pissing themselves!”
Jeremy cleared his throat and looked pointedly at the monster that had settled down as it roamed about the ruined compound. It would dip down occasionally the move on. It was too far to be certain but a queasy feeling in his stomach made him feel certain it was feasting on his former co-workers. He continued to watch it, nauseating as it was, because he didn’t want Fiona to see the flush of shame on his face. He’d been running and ready to piss himself.
“Dr. Rice, can we leave you here while we scout?”
“What? No! What if it comes after me? Or another one…or anything? We don’t know anything about this planet yet. At least nothing other than everything keeps trying to kill us!”
Jeremy saw the panic on her face. She stared at him, shaking her head slightly and squeezing his hand tightly. “Please,” she whispered. “I can make it, I’ll go with you. I won’t slow you down!”
“We’re not using you as bait!” Kate snapped at her. “Get a grip Doc!”
Jeremy looked at her again. He remembered her pulling him away from the building, saving him. He remembered the times she’d dropped protocol to cut him a break. The times she’d let his excuses slide about his past. He nodded. “I’m not leaving her.”
Kate swore. “You think anything’s going to be within a mile of that creature after the noise it’s been making?” She shook her head and swore again. She yanked off one of the weapons and tossed it at Jeremy, hard. “Here, protect yourself from the bugs. Nothing else to worry about,” she muttered before turning away.
“Wait!” He cried out, stopping her. “Where are you going?”
“Looking for survivors, remember?” She spat. “Stay here, I’ll be back. If I’m not, well, good luck.”
Jeremy turned to look at his boss. She looked back at him, her eyes wide and her pupils slightly dilated in spite of the bright sun. When Jeremy turned back the only sight of Lance Corporal Kate was a few of the grasses that were still swaying from her passage.
Chapter 9
Dr. Rice was quiet for several minutes, aside from the occasional shudder. Jeremy looked at her occasionally, but mostly he stared around. Looking at her left him feeling awkward, as though he should say something. She shifted, stifling a whimper.
“Take your weight off it,” He suggested, then helped her limp over to the base of one of the taller trees. She sat down and leaned against it, shifting to be in the shade provided by the bushy branches.
Jeremy remained standing and turned partially away, scanning the hills and the plain to watch for Fiona or some of the others. Or worse, he remembered with a twist of his stomach. He checked the rifle he’d been given, noting that the energy pack was already down more than ten percent. It was a newer weapon than he’d ever used before, but something that was supposed to be coming online as the main rifle of the Marines. He’d heard enough talk amongst the Marines when he spent time with Fiona to learn that it used supercharged ions. A quick study showed the model number on it, X-105.
Obviously even the latest state of the art weaponry the Marines could deliver couldn’t compete with old fashioned brute force. Especially when that brute force came packaged in something larger than any animal in recorded human history.
He looked back at Dr. Rice and saw her staring at the ground. Wet tracks of tears glistened on her cheeks. Jeremy looked away quickly. He wasn’t sure what was going on, just that he felt bad for her. That creature had scared him, scared him more than anything ever had, in fact. Even with that he was still moving and thinking. She just seemed to have checked out, and that wasn’t like her.
“It’ll be okay,” he offered, realizing even as he said it how shallow his words were.
She didn’t offer a smile or a snort. She just stared at the ground.
“Come on Dr. Rice — Synnamon — once that thing leaves we can head back and regroup. Not everybody’s,” he hesitated a moment too long, searching for the right word.
“Dead,” she whispered, finishing his sentence for him.
“I was going to say gone.”
She sniffed. “Tell me about your daughter.”
“Jasmine?”
“Yes, Jasmine. That’s such a pretty name. Flowers and wonderful scents. Tell me about her.”
Jeremy frowned. What was there to tell? He hadn’t seen her in nine years. Sure, he’d been asleep for most of it, but before that she’d been barely more than an infant. “She was a baby,” he finally managed. “Beautiful and helpless and so sick. There was something inside of her though, something you could see in her eyes. It doesn’t come through in the pictures but it’s there, I know it is. I knew she had to make it, no matter what the cost.”
“I checked, you know,” Synnamon said. “There’s no record in your file of you having a wife or a daughter.”
“Ex wife,” Jeremy let slip before he could stop himself. The thought of having another kid with Spartan’s had terrified Bleigh. That and what he’d done without consulting her. She’d never have understood though, and without it…well, without it Jasmine would only be a handful of pictures and a fading memory.
“Married or divorced,” she said. He met her gaze, wondering what she was getting at. Was she going to push him? Was it time for him to come clean or was she going to ruin everything. He’d already given up his life for his daughter, he couldn’t let that sacrifice be in vain. Jeremy’s hands tightened on the rifle. She looked away and missed the gesture, giving him the opportunity he needed.
“I don’t care,” she added, oblivious to how fragile her own life had suddenly become. “I just wanted you to know that it doesn’t add up. Before, yeah, maybe I cared. But now I don’t.”
“Why not?” Jeremy asked in a tightly controlled voice. He took a few casual steps, trying to move so that he was more to her side and, eventually, behind her. She glanced at him then looked away just as quickly.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Her tone was sharp. “A woman my age taking a position like this? I’m hardly in my prime, Mr. Sinclair. Maybe I’m not that old, but I’m set in my ways and no prize worth winning. No family waiting for me, real or imagined. No, I’m alone and nobody will know or care that I died on this forsaken rock.”
Jeremy shifted the rifle as he stepped fully behind her. The angle was just right, he had a clear shot unobstructed by the tree. Her head lifted up slightly, making him pause. “Scary planet,” Jeremy said in a rush, trying to keep her clueless. “Beautiful though. Not such a bad place to die.”
She sobbed. “Hurry up then and do it.”
Jeremy’s hands hesitated even as the rifle had been rising. How did she know?
“Jasmine’s real,” He said through clenched teeth. “She’s real and I won’t let anything stop me from providing whatever she needs. Anything.”
“I believe you,” Synnamon whispere
d.
The tense moment turned into several before he slung the X-105 over his shoulder. “We survive long enough and we can meet the next supply shuttle that comes down. Rebuild or maybe head back up to the ship. How’s your foot?”
Synnamon let loose a gasp of air. “What? My foot? Oh…uh, it’s broke. Big toe and probably some in the ball of my foot.”
“Thought it was your ankle.”
“I didn’t want to be left behind.”
Jeremy grunted. A broken foot was a lot more complicated. They could carry her he supposed, but it might be easier if she had a cane or a crutch. He looked at the tree behind her, wondering if he could make something useful out of it.
“So you’re not going to kill me and I’m not going to rat you out,” Dr. Rice said, distracting him. “Who are you really?”
Jeremy sighed. Maybe it was time for that talk after all.
Chapter 10
“You two can get cozy later.”
Jeremy jumped. He turned, looking past Synnamon to the person who stepped out from behind a bush. She held a stick in one hand with a string attached to either end of it. It was pulled back, another stuck connecting the string to the piece of wood held in her forward hand. He stared at it, stunned as he fumbled to remember what the archaic weapon was called. A bow and arrow?
Synnamon’s gasp drew his attention away from the strange weapon to the girl holding it. Not a girl, he realized quickly, but a full-fledged woman. More than that too, he supposed, given that she had a hardened look to her that spoke of both incredible physical and mental conditioning.
“Point that rifle at me and you’ll find out just how fast an arrow is,” she said.
Jeremy nodded, lowering the rifle slowly then slinging it behind his back as further proof he had no intentions of crossing her. The muscles in her body were flexed holding the bowstring taut. Each careful step she took showed muscles moving beneath her skin, muscles that Jeremy doubted he even had. She wasn’t grossly large by any stretch, just lean and very powerful looking. He found himself intimidated even as a small part of him was aroused.
“Are you one of the crash survivors?” Synnamon asked. The question shook Jeremy out of the fugue of admiration he’d fallen into.
“What gave it away?” She smirked.
“The authentic leather outfit.” It was authentic, Jeremy realized with a start. He’d been so focused on how well built the woman was he’d almost failed to realize her clothing — probably because she had so little of it. Just a short leather skirt, some sandals or boots that were tied just below her knees, and a loose fitting leather vest with laces in the front displaying her midriff and cleavage. Aside from that she had her bow, a leather sack across her back with more arrows in it, a knife tucked into one boot, and another knife tied to her waist.
She relaxed the tension on the string but left the arrow nocked. Glancing past them towards the clearing and the destroyed settlement she gave a brief nod. “I saw what happened. You pissed off a Megasaur. Biggest meat eater we’ve seen around here so far.”
“Megasaur? Like a dinosaur?” Jeremy blurted out.
She shrugged. “None of us know, but it sounds like the kind of stuff we’d heard about when Earth was still young and a nice place to live.”
“Who are you? Where are you from?” Dr. Rice asked
“I’m Kira. Through those mountains in a valley. Smaller animals there, but it’s jungle and not any safer. We set up camp inland from where we crashed and it turned out to be as good a place as anywhere.” She paused. “We can keep playing this question and answer game or we can get somewhere safer. I don’t know where the Megasaur went, it just kind of disappeared. Maybe your Marines hurt it enough that it died. There’ll be other predators sure to come. Scavengers mostly, but no less deadly.”
“Is there any place safe?” Jeremy asked. He glanced around, wondering if maybe the monster that had attacked them really was dead. It had seemed so large and so terrifying he wasn’t sure it could be killed.
“Safe? No, but you’ve been here long enough to feel the changes.”
“Changes?” Jeremy asked. He and Synnamon glanced at each other. He was glad to see she was as confused as he was.
“You feel better, don’t you? Sleep less, see clearer, things are easier to hear or smell? Not getting as tired from working as you used to? Injuries healing faster, even old scars and aches disappearing?”
Synnamon gasped. Jeremy glanced at her, then paused to consider Kira’s words. He’d just run a mile or so from the colony to where they were resting and he hadn’t felt winded at all. He looked down at himself and noticed, for the first time, that his own arms looked stronger than they had before. Maybe not bigger, but better defined.
“My foot doesn’t hurt as much as it did,” Synnamon said. She reached out to gently touch it, then sucked in some air quickly. “Okay, still broken though.”
Kira came forward and knelt down on one knee in front of her. Jeremy watched her take Synnamon’s foot in her hands and gently manipulate it. His boss hissed at the pain but otherwise stayed silent. He looked up just enough to feel his own breath catch in his throat. Kira’s very short skirt had risen up on her forward leg and showed an extremely inappropriate amount of skin. Not quite enough, from his angle. He considered kneeling down to offer some help in hopes of improving his line of sight.
Jeremy shifted nervously on his feet, glancing around quickly, then looked back in hopes of fulfilling his sudden voyeuristic desires. Kira shook her head and glanced up at Dr. Rice. “A break’s a break. This place is incredible, but it’s not magic.”
She nodded and Kira rose up, then offered her hand to her to help her to her feet. Synnamon rose up, favoring her good leg, and turned quickly to grab on to Jeremy to help her keep her balance. “Thank you. I’d like to come with you, but I need to go back. I have projects I need to see. Supplies maybe – that Megasaur can’t have destroyed everything. And survivors, there must be other survivors! Corporal Kate, she was here with us, did you see her? She went to look for others—“
“Lance Corporal Kate.” He felt annoyed at himself even as he corrected her. Did it really matter whether she had the right rank or not? It mattered to Fiona, he supposed, and because Fiona had trusted him and become his friend, it mattered to him. “And I agree, there must be supplies we can take. We need to contact the Explorer, let them know what happened. They can send down help. You guys can be rescued!”
Kira’s eyes narrowed. She looked up at the sky, squinting to protect them from the bright light. “We need to be quick. What are your names? We’ll have to carry her. And whatever happens, you do what I tell you to, okay?”
Jeremy and Synnamon looked at each other before returning their gaze to her. They nodded. “I’m Jeremy, this is Synnamon.”
“Synnamon?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes.” Jeremy failed to fight the smirk that curled his lip up. Kira’s tone had the same implication that had entered his own thoughts when he’d first met Dr. Rice.
“Spicy, I like it,” Kira said. She winked at the wounded doctor and stepped past them to stare across the grassy plane. “Think you can carry her, Jeremy?”
Jeremy nodded. He wasn’t sure how, but now that Kira had brought attention to how much better he felt, it seemed like nothing was impossible. “Climb on my back.”
“Oh, and one more thing,” Kira said. She turned her head to stare at them. He realized Kira was looking at him specifically even as Synnamon was wrapping her arms around his neck and preparing to wrap her legs around his waist. “The longer you’re here the more refined things get. Take me, I can smell things you wouldn’t imagine. I know Dr. Rice is having her cycle right now, for example. And I can even smell pheromones. You know, physical signs of emotions like fear or happiness or… lust.”
Chapter 11
Jeremy’s back ached and his lungs felt like he’d tried breathing on the sun by the time they reached the ruins. He let Synnamon climb down and, after
a staggering step, collapsed. Groaning, he pulled himself into a sitting position and gasped for several long moments.
“You know how to make a lady feel good about her weight,” Dr. Rice quipped.
He thought about giving her finger, then decided against it. There was too much at stake and raising his arm would take too much effort. Instead he shook his head and offered a grunt.
“You’ve been eating rations, haven’t you?” Kira asked.
Jeremy grunted again. He knew he couldn’t speak coherently so he didn’t want to bother trying. Synammon came to his rescue. “Yes, why? We’ve been running tests on the local flora and fauna and it seems safe, but there are many unidentified compounds in it. I—”
“It changes you,” Kira interrupted. “Something about this place gets inside of you and makes you different. Better. More alive. The water seems to do the most, but maybe that’s because water’s in everything and it passes through our bodies the fastest.” She shrugged. “Whatever it is, once you start you can’t stop.”
“It’s an addiction?” Jeremy looked up to see the alarmed look on Dr. Rice’s face after she asked her question.
“Sort of,” Kira said. She looked around, studying them compound, then turned back to them. “I don’t know what it is or how it works, I just know how I feel. That and after we saved some other people who crashed after we did, they brought a bunch of their food from their ship. Some of us tried it and it made us sick. Everything on this planet is built to survive, even the planet itself.”
Dr. Rice frowned. “Hurry up Jer, I need to get to my lab.”
“You’re lab looks a little flat right now,” Jeremy pointed to the building with the science labs in it. The megasaur had stepped on it or done something to cave in a few walls and a roof here and there.
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