Satisfied he was far enough in, Conn let Ambie out of his sack to do his business and then feed him. Opening the zip, Conn almost puked. The stench from the rancid arm was becoming too much to bear. So he disposed of it, but only after grudgingly tearing a few more strips of flesh from it, swallowing back vomit as he did so. He would have to find Ambie a new source of nutrition soon, it seemed.
But what?
Sitting with his back up against the base of a gigantic redwood trunk, Conn tossed the strips of meat to the white-skinned raptor. Ambie caught them as they sailed through the air like a well-trained dog. It was rather impressive watching the burgeoning predator go to work, its instinct taking over.
“You’re a quick learner,” Conn smiled. “I’ll give you that much.”
Ambie quickly went through the last of his rations, and not before long he was pestering Conn for more. When Ambie finally realized that there was none left- Conn tried to emphasis this fact by showing him his empty hands- the dinosaur began hopping about catching dragonflies and other winged insects in mid-flight. Conn laughed as the little beast’s jaws crunched down on its banquet of bugs, its big red eyes wide and full of life. Conn, on the other hand, felt like the living dead. All he wanted to do was sleep. Every bone in his body ached. A coma was what he needed. Conn knew he shouldn’t, but he was just so tired, so the young man laid his head back against the redwood, closing his eyes.
Conn wasn’t sure how long he had been out for, when he awoke to the sound of Lex yelling in his general direction.
“What- the hell- is that!”
Conn awoke up to find Lex standing in front of him, pointing at his lap, a look of sheer shock on her face. Somewhat confused, the young man looked down to find Ambie, curled up between his legs, jaws bared wide and hissing like a some kind of viper. Jumping to his feet, Conn held out his hands towards Lex, palms up.
“Calm down,” he tried to reassure her.
Ambie scuttled round behind one of Conn’s legs, clutching the man’s muscular shank with both its little forelimbs, watching Lex warily, growling savagely at her. The dinosaur was like a kid hiding behind the couch during a scary movie.
“It’s just Ambie!” Conn told her innocently.
“You named it!” Lex said in disbelief.
“It thinks I’m its parent,” Conn tried to explain.
Lex didn’t reply right away. Instead, she titled her head to the side, a look of complete astonishment washing over her face. “Are you fucking serious?” Lex finally asked him.
“Yes!” Conn hissed. “I’m fucking serious!”
Taking his cue from Conn, Ambie leaned forward snarling at Lex, flashing its barb-like teeth, spitting particles of salivate. On instinct, Lex went to boot the dinosaur, when Conn stepped forward grabbing her.
“Don’t you dare!” Conn stared into her eyes.
“Get off of me!” Lex swatted at Conn, sliding out of his grip.
Conn stepped back towards Ambie, checking to see if he was all right. The terrified reptile’s spiny proto-feathers were on end similar to a dog’s hackles when threatened. Truly, Ambie looked vicious.
“C’mon, pal,” Conn scooped the raptor up.
Ambie scampered up Conn’s arm, moving around the back of his head, to sit on the young man’s shoulder, wrapping its wormy tail around Conn’s thick neck for support. Wide with fright, Ambie didn’t take its scarlet eyes off Lex, even for a second.
Watching the two of them, Lex was reminded of a pirate with his pet parrot. For a while, she said nothing, completely dumbstruck. Instead, she just took in Conn and his alabaster pet, shocked to her core. The young woman was completely overwhelmed.
“Where did it come from?” Lex finally spoke.
“Brookeborough.” Conn answered, rather shortly.
“And why do you have it?” Lex continued with her interrogation.
“I orphaned it,” Conn’s eyes darkened with guilt as he made this admission. “I killed its parents, down in the hospital’s basement. And then I found their nest. Out of five eggs, it was the only viable one. I couldn’t leave it to die. It didn’t seem right.” He averted his gaze to the ground.
Lex didn’t say anything, she just stared, unable to tear her eyes from the diminutive bone-white beast. Breathing in deep she tried to calm herself. The raptor, for its part, had its lips curled back in a malicious sneer.
“What have you been feeding it?” Lex suddenly asked.
“No comment,” Conn kept his eyes to the ground.
“You have to get rid of it,” Lex eyed Conn, trying to ignore Ambie’s scowls.
“Not a chance.” Conn answered flatly, looking up at her.
“Well, you can’t take it back to Havenfort,” Lex said matter-of-factly.
“Watch me,” Conn picked up his duffel bag, and made for the tree line, Ambie clinging tightly to him, craning its neck around to keep a suspicious eye on Lex. The little dinosaur was as sharp as a hawk, that’s for sure.
“You can’t be serious!” Lex grabbed Conn’s arm, trying to stop him.
Interpreting her action as a threat, Ambie lashed out with its claws, hissing and swiping at Lex, who jumped back in fright, throwing her hands up. Done with the conversation, Conn kept moving towards the roadside, trying to soothe the rattled reptile as he walked.
“Just what do you think you are gonna do with it?” Lex’s dark eyes were wide.
Conn turned to look at her, “I don’t know.”
23.
Staring through the grimy windshield, Conn could make out a forest in the distance, located on their right. Although rather far off at this point, it was growing closer. On their left, was an expansive sheet of water; a glittering, swirling mixture of azure and sapphire shades, intermingling with one another, underneath a sweltering afternoon sun. The landscape had a familiar feel to it, but Conn was too preoccupied to pay this inkling much heed.
Lex hadn’t spoken to him since they got back on the road. Her gaze was fixed firmly on the horizon ahead, her eyes now nothing more than dark, angry slits. The young woman’s knuckles were pressed white as she gripped the steering wheel. She honestly didn’t know what to think at this point.
Ambie was curled up in Conn’s lap, fighting to stay awake. On the face of it, the raptor was scared to fall asleep in Lex’s presence, still viewing her as a possible threat. The raptor’s white eyelids were constantly opening and closing, the animal’s peculiar rose-coloured eyes that sat behind them, almost stupefied.
Brett was in the back, falling in and out of consciousness. At times, he was completely silently, save for the rhythmic sound of his breathing. During other moments, he was groaning, clearly in pain and mumbling incoherently. By far the worst was when he would scream, terrifying Ambie and putting both Lex and Conn on edge. It was during one of these more violent episodes that all hell broke loose inside the confines of the truck’s cabin.
“My head!” Brett screamed suddenly, sitting upright and clutching at his temples. “The… pressure!”
Conn spun in his seat to look at Brett. The man’s eyes were bloodshot, tears leaking down his pallid cheeks. It was like looking at a man possessed or one caught in the throes of insanity.
“It’s okay buddy,” Conn tried to reassure him, “we’re almost home. Just one more day to go.”
“Argh!” he cried out, leaning up against the back of Conn’s seat, biting into the fabric, letting out muffled screams. “It’s… on fire!”
“Not long now,” Lex chimed in, not taking her eyes off the road.
As if responding to her voice, Brett leaned his head against the side of her seat. He rested his lolling cranium for a second, panting hard with his eyelids closed over. Then, his watery, enflamed eyes snapped open, giving him a frenzied visage. They went wider still when they spotted Ambie sitting in Conn’s lap.
“What is that!” Brett reached out, grabbing at the tiny dinosaur with his big hands. “What the fuck’s a dinosaur doing in here?”
�
��Brett, relax!” Conn grabbed his arms, shoving back hard, trying to keep Brett in the back of the pick-up’s cabin. “Ambie’s not dangerous!” He tried to reason with his hysterical teammate.
Brett slammed into Lex as he leaned into the front, trying to get at Conn and Ambie. Dogmatic as ever, Conn fought back, refusing to give an inch. The two men wrestled, exchanging blows, shouting and swearing at one another as they did battle. Then Lex, angered by their antics, added her voice to the chaos.
“Stop it!” she yelled at them. “What are you doing?”
They paid her no mind, which quickly became apparent as the two men continued to assault one another. Snatching a glance, Lex saw Ambie jumping up and down, lunging and trying to bite Brett’s exposed arms in an effort to help Conn, the baby raptor screeching excitedly, the whole time. The image of the dinosaur disappeared as Brett fell into her.
Conn felt his stomach lurch, as Lex swerved the vehicle. She was struggling to keep control of it as the two men tussled, Brett repeatedly battering into her as Conn kept him back. As Conn finally got some better leverage, he pushed back on Brett, trying to force him back into the rear of the cabin. The big man fell towards the rear, his elbow cracking Lex across the temple. She yelped, crying out in pain, her head spinning dizzily.
“Are you okay?” Conn asked Lex, distracted by her cry, forgetting about his battle with Brett momentarily.
If she answered him, Conn didn’t hear it. Instead, his brain was preoccupied with stars dancing in front of his eyes and bells ringing behind his ears, as Brett landed a hard punch across the side of his head that shook his skull. Recoiling backwards, moving himself out of harm’s way, Conn repositioned himself, preparing to strike back, only to find Brett pointing a small pistol right at him. Conn didn’t have time to ask himself where Brett had procured the pistol. He had to act, or else he was most likely dead. He grabbed Brett’s wrist with one hand, and using the other, tried to hyperextend his teammate’s arm-
-the gun went off inside the cabin, the force of the accompanying bang! shattering the windows, and deafening everyone inside. A nanosecond later, a single bullet tore harmlessly through the roof, disappearing outside somewhere at the same time Lex pumped the breaks. The pick-up’s rear end swung out, tyres smoking and screeching as it glided along the tarmac, before the bulky vehicle came to an abrupt stop.
Conn didn’t waste any time. On his feet in seconds, he flew out of the passenger-side door, a petrified Ambie scrambling up his back, holding onto him for dear life. Stepping onto the road, ears still ringing, he reached for the pistol tucked into the back of his cargo pants as Brett came stumbling out the back of the truck, pistol gripped as well. The two men rounded on one another, weapons raised.
Neither fired on the other. They just watched one another, eyes locked.
Out the corner of his eye, Conn saw Lex emerge gingerly from the pick-up. Moving around the bonnet of the truck with her AR-15 raised, she looked down the sight, sweeping the gun back and forth, shifting between him and Brett; apparently unsure as to who was the bigger threat.
“What are you doing with that thing?” Brett demanded, holding his aching head with one hand, gun in the other.
Unsure of his next move, Conn appraised his deranged teammate, trying desperately to formulate a plan in his head. Brett looked like hell, his tall, battered frame silhouetted against the jade-coloured forest landscape behind him, the same forest that Conn had spotted earlier during their drive. Distracted by the chaos inside the pick-up, Conn wasn’t actually aware they had travelled that far along the highway. A fleeting sensation of déjà vu came over him, but he was forced to ignore it in the face of such danger.
“Ambie is-” Conn didn’t get to finish his reply to Brett’s question.
“A fucking raptor, is what it is!” Brett drooled, wavering faintly on the spot, cutting Conn off.
“Yes, Ambie’s a raptor,” Conn watched Brett swirl, barely able to keep his gun levelled. “Shrewd observation.”
“Those things are the reason for all of this!” Brett used his free hand to signal at the world around him, before placing it back against his throbbing skull. “And now you’re going make one your pet!”
“You’re not thinking straight,” Conn’s voice was low but firm, “you’re in pain.”
“I am thinking straight!” Brett raged. “Audrey! Reilly! Ben! Your own fucking parents for Christ’s sake! All killed by beasts just like that little fucker!” Brett jabbed the pistol in Conn’s general direction, causing the latter to tense, almost causing him to fire off a round of his own.
“Ambie didn’t cause the Flux! None of the beasts that came with it did!” Conn reasoned. “Ambie, and the rest of them, are a symptom of it! Trying to survive- just like us!”
Brett rubbed his head, not answering for a second, his eyes seeming to cloud over. Conn was hoping one of Brett’s migraines would hit and take the guy out for him. It would save him and Lex a lot of trouble.
“It’s a killer!” Brett eye’s bugged, after a few moments of staring blankly into space. “Just like all the rest of them!”
“I told you,” Conn kept his tone level. “Ambie’s not dangerous. Ambie’s different.”
“You can’t tame a fucking raptor,” Brett scoffed, massaging the back of his head. “When that thing grows up, it’ll kill all of us!”
Lex hovered at the margins of the argument, unsure what to do or say. She crept closer, edging away from the grey pick-up. Part of her agreed with Brett, but another part of her was afraid of what he might do. He was too unstable.
“It can’t be trusted!” Brett told him.
“Can’t be trusted?” Conn almost laughed. “You want to talk about trust? How about you tell us where you got that pistol of yours?” Conn eyed the weapon. Up closer now, he could tell it was a PPK, or at least of a similar design; small and very easy to conceal. Brett had probably had it with him the whole time.
Brett didn’t answer him right away. This blatant omission confirmed Conn’s suspicions. After all, Brett could have quite easily claimed to have stolen it from a reiver, like Conn actually did with Chuck’s Beretta. Even so, he remained silent.
“Williams refused to issue us with pistols,” Conn reminded him. “Not enough ammo, remember?”
“You can call it managerial privileges,” Brett sneered. “This is my squad, my mission, my rules, my fucking weapon.”
“You’re not a leader- you fucking coward!” Conn accused. “If it hadn’t been for Lex and I, you would have turned us around before we even made it to Brookeborough!”
“Guys!” Lex interrupted.
They weren’t listening to her. The two men continued to bicker, not paying the young woman any attention, guns still pointed at one another, exchanging insults.
“Guys!” she tried again, a little louder.
Still no luck.
“Guys!” Lex finally snapped. Raising her voice, it came out high and shrill, like her mother’s used to. “We’ve got company!”
In unison, Conn and Brett looked at her, forgetting about one another and subconsciously lowering their guns. They found Lex was looking past them, back up the highway, the way they had come. In the distance, a gargantuan burgundy beast cantered towards them, moving at a steady pace, tail swaying almost nonchalantly behind it. It was the G-Rex, Conn suddenly realized with a great degree of astonishment. The monster must have been stalking them since Brookeborough.
“No way!” Conn breathed. “It can’t be real.”
In fact, it was very real, and what’s more Conn knew it was, he just didn’t want to admit it. The G-Rex was there for his big blue eyes to see: the gigantic predator moving at a leisurely stride, no doubt lining up its next victim… or rather victims.
Hovering by Conn’s ear, Ambie all of a sudden hissed at something. Looking to the ivory raptor perched on his shoulder, Conn followed the agitated dinosaur’s gaze. The snarling reptile was watching four other figures approaching from the left. Spread ou
t in a line, the quartet of dull grey shapes moved on all-fours, stalking closer. Conn noted the bristling, Mohawk-like strips of hair, running down the backs of the canine’s short necks.
“Please, someone tell me this isn’t happening,” Conn whimpered, watching the pack of direwolves approach.
Have they been lying in wait for us all this time?
The other two followed Conn’s gaze, shock crashing over them instantly.
“See what you’ve done!” Brett levelled his PPK at Conn, shoving it in his face.
“Me?” Conn shrank backwards, unable to raise his Beretta in time. “How do you figure that?”
Ambie rasped at Brett, aware of the danger the man posed to him and his keeper.
Lex stepped up from the periphery of Conn’s vision, AR-15 levelled at the side of Brett’s head. “Put down the pistol, now!” Lex ordered. “We’re all on the same team.”
Conn and Brett watched each other, hatred burning in their eyes, neither saying a word.
“C’mon, Brett,” Lex urged through clenched teeth. “Once we get you back to Havenfort, we can get you some help for your headaches. You aren’t thinking straight.”
“I don’t need any help!” Brett cried. “I’m not crazy! He’s the one with a killer for a pet!”
Conn could hear the G-Rex’s footsteps thundering closer, each one sending tremors through the ground. He peeked back towards the direwolf pack, who continued their slow, methodical advance. The dinosaur was closer, and therefore the more imminent threat, if one excluded Brett and his migraine-induced mood swings, that was. Still, it wouldn’t be long before the wolves were on top of them.
They had to act, before it was too late.
Lex kept the AR trained on Brett, while he kept his PPK pointed at Conn. Although, he was slowly backing away, edging in the direction of the emerald forest behind him, lining the highway’s southern flank. It was like he was trying to put some distance between himself, and his teammates. Nervously looking from one to the other, Brett grimaced at Conn and Lex, whether in pain or disgust, or a combination of both, Conn did not know.
Flux Page 15