by Michael Todd
“He’s never missed. That’s one thing about the guys. They take their gifts seriously. None of them fucks up majorly, ever. That’s why they’ve been my team for so long.”
Joe opened the door and held it for Gabrielle. “Well, at least I got to go out with the famous Sarge a few times before she retired. Never thought I would retire. Figured I’d go down fighting in the Zoo.”
Gabrielle stopped and looked into his eyes. “That is never going to happen. You are going to die old and drunk, standing behind our bar, in the middle of yelling at Trout for dancing on the pool table.”
Joe laughed. “Sounds like heaven.”
Chapter Nine
The buzz was deafening. The white noise sound filled the air and did not die.
Trout was down on one knee, scanning the area through his gun sight. Alvarez hunkered down a few yards away, but his voice came across the com channel. “Keep it together, Trout. We are all here. We got this.”
Trout whimpered. “You know how much I hate fucking bugs. Fucking bugs. Fucking buzzing.”
Gabrielle took a deep breath and motioned for Marcus to move closer to Trout. She didn’t need him prematurely pulling the trigger. Marcus nodded and hurried to him. He put a steady hand on Trout’s shoulder, and the other man lowered his gun. Joe squatted nearby, his weapon ready and his eyes peeled. It was only the afternoon of the first day, and they were already dealing with a locust attack. Something told Gabrielle that this trip wasn’t going to be an easy one.
The buzzing grew louder as a swarm of iridescent black bugs blocked out the sun. They flew on crisp wings, a cloud of cat-sized insects hovering darkly over the team. Gabrielle readied herself but kept her finger from the trigger. “Easy. Don’t shoot until they attack. They might be on the move, and we don’t want to draw them into a fight if they aren’t interested in one.”
Alvarez blinked. He was watching one locust in particular. It flew low, almost like it was scouting the ground for its waiting troops. Its bulging compound eyes glittered at him. He couldn’t explain it, but they almost looked angry. With no warning the gross thing course changed and dived toward Alvarez, its long legs moving wildly. Alvarez held steady for as long as he could. Before the thing could touch him, he swung his gun up and pulled the trigger. The bug’s compound eyes were vaporized, but the headless body kept moving. Its wings shivered as it sailed past him and smacked against a tree.
The buzzing became a roar as the swarm descending on the crew. Everyone including Trout opened fire, shredding wings and burst fat bodies. Trout kept his finger on the trigger until his firing pin struck empty air, then he grabbed the hot barrel and swung his rifle like it was a baseball bat, knocking the locusts to the ground. Every time he struck one there was a thick, wet crunch like he was smashing a thin layer of ice on a frozen pond.
He stood over a fallen bug and beat it until his hands and face were splattered with black blood and bits of carapace. “I. Fucking. Hate. Bugs.”
The thing screeched as it died. The whole swarm of locusts turned as one and descended onto Trout. He threw his gun down and fumbled at his web belt. “Smoke grenade!”
Trout pulled the pin and lobbed it into the center of the swarm. The thing ticked for a second then burst, sending plumes of thick smoke into the air.
Gabrielle crawled along the ground, using her HUD’s heat sensors to find each member of her team. She guided her crew away from the locusts and the cloud and waited for the smoke to clear.
Trout tilted his head to one side. “Listen. The buzzing is going away.”
Gabrielle held her breath and focused. Sure enough, the sounds of the bugs faded. When a strong breeze broke the smoke, they saw the locusts were gone. Every single one, even the bodies of the dead had been taken. Gabrielle wasn’t sure if they were regenerating or if the swarm had taken their dead. All she knew was that the bugs were gone and the fighting was over, at least for the time being.
Gabrielle grabbed Trout by the back of his suit and pulled him to his feet. “Everyone still in one piece?”
Everyone checked in, and Gabrielle put the map on her HUD. “I wanted to get closer to the Pitas before we camped, but I say we get the hell away from here and set up camp. We don’t have many hours of daylight left, and I don’t want to fuck around with any more animals. They seem restless.”
The team agreed. They hiked for two more miles through brush and creeping vines. when they came to a clearing, a low-lying area they set up their campsite. Motion detectors were placed and spotlights were situated, pointing both out and in. They weren’t taking any chances.
When they were done, they ate a meal of granola bars and MREs and talked about life outside of the Zoo. Trout took a big bite of his MRE. “You know, these things have actually gotten better. I used to have to eat the military ones, but now they have these just-add-water joints. This lasagna is like my grandma made.”
Alvarez chuckled. “Your grandma made lasagna like freeze-dried camp food? Man, I think you were a victim of child abuse.”
Trout chuckled. “I’m sorry they don’t have freeze-dried tacos, bro. I know you’re hurt.”
Alvarez chucked a piece of granola at Trout, and the group laughed. Marcus finished his meal and stowed the trash in his bag.
“My ma used to make this peach cobbler. Holy hell, it was good. I actually been thinking about opening up an old-school diner out here. How many of these momma’s boys wouldn’t love to come get a real Southern meal? They’re living on shit-on-a-shingle and bar food, which ain’t much better. I could even fly in my momma to keep a handle on things.”
Joe lifted an eyebrow. “You’d bring your mother out here?”
Marcus scoffed. “Man, please. My momma grew up in Brooklyn. She don’t give a fuck what size, shape, or color you is. She will grab you by the ear and lead your ass right out into the street, even if you are a mutated-ass dinosaur-looking motherfucker. She will not deal with the fucking shenanigans.”
Everyone chuckled. Gabrielle stood and stretched. “Well, I’m going to call it a night. We need our rest if it’s still World War Three out here when we wake up. Get me when it’s my turn for watch.”
Trout waved. “Night, Sarge. Don’t let the vines, cougars, locusts, and strange flowers bite.”
Gabrielle chuckled and glanced back at Joe. She gave him a big smile and disappeared into her tent. She was actually tired. She couldn’t ever remember being tired inside the Zoo. Either she really put herself through the wringer today, or she was starting to feel at home in the place, which was not a good thing. Mistakes were easy to make when you got too comfortable in the Zoo. She crawled into her sleeping bag and zipped it up, pulling the hood over her head. The warmth and silence of it caught her off guard, and before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.
Her dreams were complicated that night. She woke from her sleep covered in sweat. She picked up her wrist and tried to shake off the fog in her mind. Then she realized her bracelet was vibrating. A feature of the suits was an alert bracelet. It was never to be removed and would warn the wearer of incoming bogies when they were out of their full HUD. Her bracelet was shaking so hard her hand was going numb.
She jumped up from her sleeping bag and pulled on her suit, grabbed her gun and left the safety of her tent for the wilderness of the Zoo.
She snapped her HUD into place, and the jungle bloomed in front of her. Marcus and Joe stood in the center of camp, each with a fist up. A signal for quiet. She glanced around the perimeter, but everything was pitch black. She opened a channel and whispered, “Where are the lights?”
Joe breathed heavily. “Something took them out. Heat signatures show at least one larger beast just outside of camp. I’m standing in front of him. Big fucker is about fifty yards out.”
Gabrielle switched on her heat signature, and sure enough there it was, crouched like a jaguar. It was something like the thing that had taken out Trinidad, all those missions ago. As she studied it, the beast’s heat signature flickered and
died. “What happened? I don’t see it anymore.”
Joe took a careful step forward, narrowing his eyes at the shadows of the jungle. “He’s still there, the bastard. They learned how to turn off their heat signatures, somehow. Maybe they can lower their body temperatures? They have evolved to protect themselves, and they do it faster than we can kill them. How do you like that?”
Trout walked up to Gabrielle. “Oh yeah, gripping information. How about we kill the sonofabitch, then we can discuss the science of it all later?”
Joe took a cautious step forward. “Wait. I think it’s leaving.”
Gabrielle peered closely at the edge of the clearing. She could see a large set of sharpened antlers pulling back into the brush. Joe lowered his weapon. “Huh. I guess he wasn’t down for a fight this late at night. Creatures are getting lazy around here, Sarge.”
As Joe turned to grin at Gabrielle, the beast jumped from the trees on his left side. It must have circled the camp with unbelievable stealth. Joe’s weapon was torn from his hands as the animal fell on top of him. The beast lowered its head and jammed its antlers through his thigh. Joe yelled and yanked the antlers to one side, trying to pull them from his leg.
Gabrielle’s whole world seemed to slow down. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Fury began to burn in her belly as she watched the animal attempt to drag Joe back toward the tree line. She pulled her pistol and fired at the back end of the beast. A harsh, grating roar came from the beast’s mouth, but it didn’t stop trying to kill Joe.
Gabrielle took off at full speed, pistol out, blasting holes in the beast’s side. She fired until her guns were empty. She lashed out with one heavily armored boot, kicking the thing in the ribs. “You can lick my ass before you take another one of my lovers, fucker!”
The beast swayed slightly. The team ran forward, grabbed Joe by the arms and began pulling him away from the animal. The beast ripped its antlers free of Joe’s leg, and he screamed. The beast didn’t back off. It swung its head and howled. Somehow, it had hooked its antlers into the underside of Joe’s armor. He was stuck, and the crew was in a literal tug of war for Joe’s life.
Gabrielle came eye to eye with the animal. “Not today, fucker. Not today. Find someone else.”
She slammed another clip into her weapon and shoved it at the beast’s skull. As she pulled the trigger, the thing shook its malformed head, knocking her sideways. The bullet only grazed the beast’s skull. It didn’t kill the creature but was enough to force it to let Joe go. The guys dragged Joe back as Gabrielle pulled herself to her feet, scrambling between the team and the beast.
She sneered and fired again. The creature’s leg twisted and spurted blood, forcing it to buck and pull back. “Get out of here. I will kill you and leave you here for your precious jungle to eat.”
The beast snorted, blowing snot from its nose. It seemed to think the team was too much trouble. Slowly, it backed away from her. With a grunt, the creature turned from Gabrielle and limped into the darkness. Trout walked up next to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s like it understood you. That’s impossible.”
Gabrielle shook her head. “It was smart enough to take out our lights. It knew how to trick the heat sensors. At this point, the fucking thing could put on a dress and sing the National Anthem and I wouldn’t bat an eye.”
“The Zoo on Broadway, staring Sarge and her merry band of misfits. With hairy panther-elk beast as the villain.” Trout whistled. “We’ll make millions.”
Gabrielle chuckled until she heard Alvarez over the com. “Sarge. We need you over here. Joe has some deep lacerations to his leg. We need to stop the bleeding and get him sewn up.”
Gabrielle found him on the ground, arguing with Alvarez. “I’m fine.”
“Bullshit.”
She took off her helmet and caught his eye. He smiled sheepishly. “Fucker tricked me. You believe that?”
Gabrielle chuckled and opened a med kit. She cleaned the wound as best she could. “Yeah, he was a sneaky spiked-tooth beast. You can put that one in your journal.”
She examined the wound, then called Alvarez over. “This is deep. Just sewing it won’t work. Grab the vial from the front of my pack.”
Alvarez looked at her for a moment. He looked like he was about to say something, then thought better of it. He went to get her pack.
Joe raised an eyebrow. “You putting me down already, Doc?”
Gabrielle pushed on his wound. “Nope. Learned a trick from an old friend back in the day. Not necessarily legal and we don’t know the full side effects, but I keep it for emergencies.”
Alvarez came back with a blue syringe of goop and saline. She motioned for him to hold Joe’s hands.
Joe frowned. “What’s that?”
Gabrielle straddled him and smiled. “Come get your medicine.”
Alvarez gripped his wrists.
“This is gonna burn.”
Before Joe could say anything, she stuck the needle into his wound and pressed the plunger. The goop rushed into his leg. Joe struggled, his face full of panic and fear. Trout quickly stabbed him in the thigh with some morphine. The panic left his face, and Joe went limp.
Gabrielle emptied the syringe and removed it from his leg. “Sew him up, Alvarez. Joe, you are going to be fine. Just deal with the pain a little longer.”
Joe smiled through the pain. “Yes, ma’am. Thanks. You really showed that beast who was boss.”
Gabrielle smiled at him and stood up. She waved at Marcus, and they began walking a perimeter. Her helmet was off, but she still had her armor on. She was thankful as she peered into the jungle. She wasn’t losing another one. Then she heard a snap from a stand of bushes. She grabbed her pistol.
She saw the yellow of the beast’s eyes. “Oh, you came back for another taste, huh? And it looks like you brought some friends. Heads up, guys. We got company.”
JB swallowed and looked at his hands.
“She fought her ass off. They all did. Even Joe, torn up and doped up, he fought like hell. But it was Gabrielle that fought the original beast, the big fucker. It slashed at her and she fired back, and they went toe to toe in the jungle. Hell, she punched the thing in its damn face. The team was firing at who knows what. So many of ‘em. In the flashes of all those gunshots, it sort of looked like an old movie. Flickering. That big fucker with the horns charged Gabrielle and impaled her. A whole spread of antlers in her stomach and out her back. Blood like you wouldn’t believe. Pain you can’t imagine. And still, she manages to look at Joe. To catch his eye. And flash a smile. She got her gun up and dug it into the thing’s eye. Pulled the trigger. Bullet went straight through the beast’s head and it collapsed on top of her. She dropped the gun, but her eyes never left Joe’s.”
Holly shook her head. “She died.”
JB nodded, his eyes lost in the past. “She died right there with the thing dead on top of her. She died protecting Joe because she knew that big bastard had a taste and liked it, and he’d brought his friends back for more. She died protecting herself and the person she loved. She damn sure wasn’t going to let the Zoo take anything else from her.”
Holly put her glass down. “So it took her, instead.”
Chapter Ten
Dan finished his whiskey and sighed. “Man, that story never gets easier to hear. She was a legend in this place. Still is. I guess in a way, it was fitting that she was taken down by the Zoo. I feel like part of her belonged to it.”
JB nodded. “That’s for damn sure. Part of it belonged to her, too.”
Holly studied JB’s face for a moment. “What about the guys? And Joe?”
JB took a deep breath. “Trout, Marcus, and Alvarez never made it. They became part of the jungle with the rest of them. Stories say Joe sat there, fending the fucker’s off until the last round was fired. They left him there alive.”
“Alive?”
“Don’t ask me to figure out the ways of the fucking Zoo. I don’t have the temperament for it.�
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Holly was shocked. “But he was injured.”
JB nodded. “He was. He sewed himself up and camped there for the night. Shit, he couldn’t do much else. When he woke up in the morning, it seemed the goop had worked. He wasn’t all healed by any means, but he could put weight on his leg. When he went back to start collecting ammunition and supplies, his team was gone. Bodies, gear, everything. It looked like nothing had ever happened there. He made his way back to the Staging Area. Don’t know how long it took, but he made it, the lucky fuck. Collapsed right there as another team was getting ready to go. They rushed him to a doctor. When he woke up, he was all alone.”
Holly blinked. “What happened to him?”
Dan shrugged. “He retired, we assume. The story is never quite the same. It changes with the telling. The Death Dogs don’t talk about it much, and the ones that do story change the names. Joe has become somewhat of a legend in his own right for us non-DDs.”
Holly shook her head. “I bet that really fucked him up. I mean, he watched everyone die. And he was the only one left. Oh, God, it was all right before he was supposed to retire with her and start their dream. Good Jesus, that shit is fucking sad. God dammit, JB.”
She threw a napkin at him, and he chuckled. “We don’t do fairytales out here in the Zoo, little lady. This is as fairytale as it gets. Wishing and hoping for a happy future. Making it out of the Zoo and staying out. One thing is for sure, though. It doesn’t matter who you are or how many times you make it out, you leave something behind. Some people call it a piece of the soul, others call it your will, but whatever it is, you become part of the Zoo when you go in. Even if you make it out, maybe you never really make it out.”
Holly wrinkled her nose. “That sounds terrifying, but amazing at the same time. Wait. When I came in, I didn’t see any Death Dogs in gear. I didn’t see any in the streets, getting ready to go out. Am I missing them?”