When it turned its squat head to them, its face was all wrong. It looked like it had been terribly injured, cratered in the middle, its surrounding flesh shredded into stubby red tentacles. They vibrated hungrily, and Petra wasn’t sure if the weird yelping sound came from the tentacles themselves or the dark hole in their center, which had to be the mouth. If there were eyes, she couldn’t see them.
“Is this the baby?” Petra said, voice shaking. She didn’t know which terrified her more, the claws or the tentacles—or the fact that if this was the baby, there must be a mother.
“Kill it,” Pearson told his soldiers over the headset.
They blasted it with pesticide. The spray coated the creature’s head and torso. It cowered and made a weird sound that might have been coughing, then collapsed.
But it was only rolling around, scraping its face against the earth, cleaning itself. Its tentacles licked away the last of the pesticide on its head. It stood with an energetic hop that, in any other animal on Earth, might have seemed playful.
“The stuff doesn’t work!” Petra gasped. “Why doesn’t it work?”
“It wasn’t designed for mammals,” Dr. Weber said.
Petra slowly stepped backward, unable to rip her eyes away from the creature. Why had they come out here without more soldiers, without proper weapons? Were they insane?
It wasn’t her knees trembling; it was the ground. From the trees came a diabolical trumpeting. In an explosion of branches and undergrowth, another creature burst into view.
Mama, Petra thought, her heart racing so quickly, she worried she’d pass out.
It was the size of a rhinoceros, its blunt head a writhing nest of tentacles. Each of its claws was like the Grim Reaper’s scythe.
“Go!” Pearson shouted. “Get inside!”
Petra ran. Over her headset the colonel barked orders for an airborne weapons unit. She heard the gasping breaths of Anaya and the others as they pelted for safety. Anaya was fastest, way in the lead. She reached the trailer first, swung the door open, and turned to urge everyone on.
From the corner of her eye Petra saw the two soldiers running, shrugging off their heavy pesticide canisters, and then suddenly there was only one soldier. She didn’t stop, didn’t look back. She reached the trailer and piled inside with Dr. Weber. Pearson brought up the rear, dragging the remaining soldier after him.
“Where’s Fischer?” the soldier was shouting. “What happened to Fischer?”
Colonel Pearson slammed the door and shot the bolt, which Petra didn’t think would be very useful at all. She rushed to the windows.
The hulking creature stood, its flanks heaving, about twenty meters from the trailer. Its tentacles writhed, shoving something into the dark crater of its mouth. Petra caught a glimpse of a boot disappearing.
“It just swallowed Fischer whole!” the surviving solider said.
Petra started unzipping herself from her hazmat suit.
“What’re you doing?” snapped Pearson.
“I want to be able to use my tail.”
“And I want my claws,” Anaya said, taking off her own suit. “If we need to run again, I don’t want this thing slowing me down.”
“Can’t see properly in it anyway,” said the soldier, removing his helmet.
“Where’s my helicopter?” Pearson barked at the radio operator.
“ETA two minutes.”
“Should’ve brought weapons,” Pearson muttered.
Outside, the baby creature butted against its mother impatiently. The mother regurgitated a molten hunk of food, and the baby eagerly bent its head to it.
“Oh my God,” murmured Petra.
The mother creature stood tall on its rear legs, head turning. Was it tasting the air with its tentacles? Petra had the eerie feeling it was looking right at them, even though it had no eyes.
“Stay away from the windows,” Dr. Weber said.
From the dark crater of the creature’s mouth, Petra caught a bright flash. The trailer’s plexiglass window exploded into crystals, and something struck her face, blinding her. It seeped over her eyes, her nose, her mouth, stifling her scream of horror. Her entire head and shoulders were now encased in this warm, wet, living thing. A pulse beat through it. A tongue! This whole thing was an enormous tongue! Her hands flew up and tried to peel it off. The flesh hardened suddenly, then tensed.
“Petra!” she heard Anaya shout, and felt her friend’s arms wrap tightly around her waist.
But she was wrenched away, dragged headfirst out the window. She sailed through the air and hit the earth. Her head still encased in slimy goo, she was dragged fast. Even though she couldn’t see, she knew exactly where she was headed. The hole in the center of that cratered face.
She clawed at the tongue, like digging her hands into an endless block of modeling clay.
“Petra!” Anaya must be running alongside her. “Sting it with your tail!”
In her terror she’d forgotten her own weapon. Instantly her tail was alive. She whipped it toward the creature’s tongue, struck, and felt the venom pumping in.
Almost right away she stopped being dragged. Anaya jostled against her, helping peel the tongue off her body. Petra tore it away from her face and could suddenly see again. Blinking, she scrambled to her feet.
She was stunned by how close they were to the rhino creature. Another ten feet and she would’ve been inside its mouth. The long, pale tongue lay paralyzed on the ground. It was thick as her leg. The tip, the part that had engulfed her head, was the fattest bit of all, marbled with veins.
The creature made a number of jerking coughs, as if trying to pull its tongue back into its mouth. It wouldn’t budge.
As Petra watched in horror, the creature clamped down with its black-hole mouth, severing its own tongue, leaving it lying in the dirt. Then it charged on its six legs, its long claws splayed. Without a doubt, Petra knew it would run her down before she reached the trailer.
Anaya was already streaking on ahead, but she glanced back to check on her and faltered.
“Go!” Petra shouted. “Keep going!”
But Anaya turned and ran toward her, then right past her, and straight at the creature. With an awesome leap, she soared over the creature’s head and onto its armored back. The creature bucked, trying to throw her off, but Anaya crouched and grabbed a handful of its bristly hair and kicked her clawed feet into its hide for better purchase.
—You have any venom left? Anaya asked her.
—Not sure!
—Sting it!
Even if she had any venom left, would it be enough to drop this thing?
The creature reared and turned, but somehow Anaya held fast. From the side, Petra saw her chance and rushed in to strike, but the baby lunged from between its mother’s legs. Its narrow tongue slapped against Petra and yanked her off balance.
She didn’t want to waste venom on the baby. She managed to yank its tongue off with her hands. The baby came at her, its butcher-knife claws clumsily slashing. Petra scrambled away, but a claw cut across her leg. Her tail struck. She felt the venom pumping out of her. The baby gave a shiver of surprise, then froze.
The mother roared so loudly that Petra clamped her hands over her ears. The creature rounded on her. She raised her tail, hoping there was something left.
Suddenly, like a mirage, Seth stood beside her.
She couldn’t even say his name, only stare in incomprehension. His gaze was locked on the creature’s head. He spread his arms. His feathers blazed with color. The creature faltered, as if mesmerized. Its tentacles curled up, and its head dropped. It writhed, clearly in agony. Anaya vaulted off its back and landed in a crouch as the creature toppled over, shaking the earth.
Petra turned to Seth. “Did you kill it with sound?”
He gave a nod and lowered himself to the ground, trembling violently.
“Seth! You okay?”
His face was pale and dewed with sweat. He dry-heaved twice, then wrapped his arms arou
nd his legs, like he was trying to stop himself from shaking apart. His teeth chattered.
“I’m okay,” he panted. “That thing was just . . . so freakin’ big.”
She threw her arms around him, squeezing tight, wanting to warm him up, wanting to convince herself he was really, finally here.
HIS HEAD THROBBED WITH the fast beat of his heart. The bug on the train had been hard to kill, but this thing had taken all his strength. He felt Petra’s arms around him, and then another set of arms that he knew must be Anaya’s. He relaxed into them for a moment, then warily drew back to look them in the eyes. The last time he’d seen them had been on the hill outside the bunker’s antenna farm, just before the helicopters created a tornado of noise and dust and confusion.
He was still out of breath, and he knew that if he spoke aloud, his voice would shake.
—You left without me.
—No! Pearson made us! Petra said. And he wouldn’t go back! I asked so many times!
—It’s true, Anaya said.
In his mind, their silent replies blazed with raw grief. He believed them. He’d tried to tell himself the same kind of stories over the past days, to explain how and why he got left behind. It wasn’t Petra’s fault, or Anaya’s. He still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t Dr. Weber’s.
—I tried to reach you every day, Petra said. Did you hear me?
He nodded. I’m sorry about your mother.
She pushed his shoulder hard. You heard me? Why didn’t you say anything?
The sound of rotor blades made him flinch, and he looked up to see a helicopter flying low. Its underbelly bristled with a rocket launcher, and soldiers leaned from the open doorways. All his muscles tensed for flight.
—It’s okay! Anaya said. They’re not going to hurt you. You’re safe.
“Seth!”
Dr. Weber was rushing toward him in an orange hazmat suit without its hood. He felt a pressure behind his breastbone. He wasn’t sure if it was joy or grief.
“Let me have a look at you,” she said, and peppered him with medical questions while she checked his eyes, made him follow her finger, took his pulse. Then she hugged him. He hung his head and let himself be embraced. He didn’t know what he felt.
He watched as the helicopter landed on the field and soldiers sprang out, warily circling the rhino creature, making sure it was dead. Seth saw some of them glance at him, his feathered arms, and their expressions ranged from amazement to hostility.
“You know that we didn’t leave you behind on purpose,” Dr. Weber told him.
Her eyes were wet, but Seth wasn’t sure he trusted her. With telepathy it was easier to tell if people were lying. Aloud, it was harder. He wanted to believe her, but that was as far as he could go right now.
“What about Pearson?” he asked, looking over her shoulder as the colonel walked toward them from a trailer. He, too, was in a hazmat suit, his gaunt head uncovered.
“He okayed the rescue mission, Seth,” Dr. Weber told him. “Once he found out what Ritter was doing, he sent those two helicopters. We got as many kids as we could. I’m so, so sorry you weren’t one of them.”
There were tears on her cheeks now, and he was afraid he might cry, too. He had so much inside him, feelings and thoughts flapping through his head like crazed bats. He was dimly aware of Pearson chewing out the helicopter team for their slow response. Telling them a bunch of kids had done their work for them.
“Seth,” the colonel was saying to him, “you killed this thing with sound?”
Seth nodded.
“Impressive. Glad to have you back, son.”
If Pearson felt guilty for sending him to an underground bunker run by a maniac, he didn’t show it.
“What is that thing?” Seth asked, nodding at the creature he’d killed.
“Another charming addition to our planet,” Anaya said. “How did you even get here, Seth? Who else is with you?”
“No one.”
He told them the bare bones of his journey: the train, the superstore, the bridge, the kids lost on the way. He felt so heavy, telling it. The boat, the fight with Darren, and then Esta being kidnapped.
He looked at Colonel Pearson. “We need to find her.”
“We need to find all of them!” Petra said.
“This is a discussion for later,” the colonel said. “We have more pressing matters at hand.”
Seth’s mind boiled with sudden anger. “Like what?”
He felt Anaya touch his shoulder. “They’re going to land. Three of the cryptogens.”
“What?”
It was his turn to listen now. Anaya told him about Terra and the cryptogen rebels who wanted to overthrow the flyers. He remembered how, in the bunker, Anaya had figured the flyers were brutally forcing the other cryptogens to work for them. Now it seemed they were being used to fight in the upcoming invasion. She told him how Terra had sent the formula for a medicine to save her mom and cure the mosquito bird plague. And how Terra and the rebels needed something in her blood—all the hybrids’ blood—to create a weapon.
“To kill the flyers?” he said dully.
“We don’t know how it works yet,” Dr. Weber said.
“And me?” he asked. “Is it supposed to kill me, too?”
Anaya looked horrified. “No! Of course not!”
“Even if it worked on you, we’d never let that happen!” Dr. Weber said.
Seth wasn’t in a hurry to trust humans again. He realized he’d put himself in another category. Maybe Ritter had that right all along. Seth wasn’t human. He was something else. All the hybrids were. Esta was smarter than him and had already accepted it. He was only starting to.
“And these three rebels,” he asked, “they’re coming now?”
He wanted to see them, he knew instantly. Face to face. Wanted them inside his head, like Terra had been inside Anaya’s.
“I’m having my doubts they’re coming at all,” said Pearson. He pointed at the rhino creature being dragged off the field by soldiers. “I’m wondering if it was a trap.”
“How could it be?” said Anaya.
“Are you serious, Anaya?” Petra said. “It’s like that thing was waiting for us! Maybe we got sent here to die!”
“It’s an animal!” Anaya protested. “The cryptogens can’t control stuff like that.”
“Right. Like the bug attack on the base?” Petra said bitterly.
Doggedly Anaya said, “A coincidence!”
“I’m tired of coincidences,” Pearson said. To his soldiers he shouted, “Get the chopper up and back off, but keep eyes on us.”
“I promised them no weapons!” Anaya protested.
“I don’t care anymore.”
“They won’t come if they don’t feel safe!”
Dr. Weber said, “Are you sure it’s a good idea to antagonize them, Colonel?”
“We will not fire the first shot,” Pearson promised. “But if they do, we won’t be empty-handed.”
Seth was too bewildered to know what to think. He felt like he’d been given a puzzle with too many pieces missing. He saw Anaya, close to tears, turn to Dr. Weber.
“Do you think this was all a trap?” she asked. “Was I tricked?”
“I don’t know, Anaya. I hope not.”
“We can’t trust any of them!” Petra said savagely. “We need to kill them all!”
“So that’s why you really came?” Anaya demanded.
“They killed my mom, and they’ll kill all of us unless we stop them!”
Thunder spanned the sky, and Seth glanced up at the dark-bellied clouds. Another great crack came from directly overhead and echoed off the North Shore Mountains.
“No lightning,” murmured Dr. Weber.
She was right, but Seth felt an electrical current travel over his skin.
“It’s them,” he said.
“They’re coming now,” Anaya said quietly, a faraway look on her face.
He knew instinctively that someone had just spoken si
lently to her. He wished someone would talk to him, too. Explain things. Tell him what to do.
“Hazmat suits back on!” Pearson shouted.
“No time,” Anaya said.
Seth followed her gaze. A shape threaded itself in and out of the clouds. Shielding his eyes, he guessed it was the size of a small jet, though a completely different shape. It looked like some kind of complicated seashell. Suddenly it was lower, and making a wide circle of the park. Maybe making sure it was safe to land. It passed right overhead, plowing so much air before it that Seth was blown off his feet, along with everyone around him.
It banked sharply over the inlet and came back, lower still.
He heard a searing crackle and looked over his shoulder to glimpse a missile shooting from the helicopter. It struck the cryptogen ship. Flame enveloped it.
“No!” Anaya screamed.
Trailing smoke, the cryptogens’ ship hit the field and cut a deep furrow, spraying earth ahead of it as it came to a smoldering standstill.
“Why’d you do that!” Anaya shouted at Pearson. “They didn’t do anything!”
Pearson ignored her and was shouting into his headset. “I gave no order! Stand down! Whoever fired that missile, arrest them! No order was given!”
The colonel looked genuinely stricken. “Someone acted alone. I did not tell them to open fire.”
Anaya started to run for the crashed ship, but Seth caught her arm and held her back.
“They’re going to think we attacked them!” he told her.
“We did attack them!” she said through her tears.
“They’re going to be angry,” Petra said, looking terrified.
“Terra’s in there!” Anaya cried, wrenching herself free from Seth’s grip. “She might be hurt. We need to help her!”
Seth was startled by her anguish and realized how deeply his friend cared for this cryptogen.
“Anaya! Wait!” cried Dr. Weber.
The ship was not on fire. Only one part of it was dented and scorched by the missile. It was hard to know which was the front or back, it was so oddly shaped. There was nothing that looked obviously like an engine or a cockpit. But suddenly he saw an opening that hadn’t been there before.
“There’s a hatch!” Pearson shouted. “Stay back!”
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