by Michael Todd
The thing was at least seven feet long with the thickest part of its body easily as wide as her thigh. Black, shiny spikes protruded all the way down its back and the rings around its body changed hue depending on what area of the forest it moved through. She had never seen anything change color so quickly. It was almost impossible to track the thing, except for the huge white fangs it flashed every time she tried to move.
Holly pulled the species up in her HUD. Rare species of the Zoo, non-venomous. Kills its prey by squeezing them to death and ingesting it whole like a regular Earth snake. Can whip the end of its tail quickly to incapacitate the victim.
Slowly, she raised her eyes and searched for the tail. Her gaze followed the brightly colored rings through the vivid flowers around it. The thing was huge, and the only reason she could track it with her eyes was the way its scales shimmered as it attempted to move closer to her. The lithe body curved around and she turned and froze, face to face with the tail she’d searched for.
As reality sank in, she lurched to the right to avoid both the swing of the tail and the lunge of the fangs. She drew her daggers and swung to slash the end of the tail off as it moved back toward her. The tip fell but the rest of the body rippled and surged forward to wind around her. Holly fell and managed to free one arm before the coils tightened. Within seconds, she struggled to breathe as the large, sinewy body moved up her torso.
She ceased her struggle when the snake’s mouth disjointed and moved toward her. With only seconds to spare, she gripped her dagger and swung desperately to slice cleanly through behind the neck and sever it completely. It flew off and landed in the brush while the body writhed and convulsed before it slackened and released her from its grasp. She scooted hastily back on her ass, thankful to still be alive.
As Holly sat there trying to catch her breath, the body of the snake slowed and serpentined away to slither off into the Zoo as if the head didn’t matter to the body in the least. She couldn’t help but wonder if it would grow a new one like lizards regrew tails—an answer she would happily pass on finding out at that point.
Finally, she cleared her throat and pulled herself to her feet to continue with her collection. The snake had been enough for her and she was ready to get the hell out of there. She picked the last of the samples and secured them in her bag, zipped it up, and slung it on her back. That done, she grasped her dagger firmly, all too familiar with the vines that could snatch someone from out of nowhere and drop them into rows of jagged floral teeth in a matter of moments.
She pushed through the brush and into the clearing. Her team all looked disheveled. Several mantis bodies were strewn at their feet and one looked as if it had been pulverized.
Holly stepped over a pair of mantis mandibles and shook her head. “Seriously, I leave you guys alone for two seconds and you summon a plague of mantises and literally punch them to death.”
They all chuckled. Alvin nodded at her. “Did you get what you needed?”
She patted her shoulder strap. “Sure did. Now we can get the hell out of Dodge.”
The team headed out on a more direct approach to the Staging Area. As they walked, Adisa noticed the dirt and grass on her back. “Did you fall down?”
Holly looked over her shoulder. “Oh. I had a fight with a large snake, no biggie. It’s now slithering around without a head somewhere.”
Alvin cut in on comms. “Hey, there’s a little Pita patch ahead. It won’t make us rich, but it’ll be a nice bonus for our efforts.”
She smiled. “Then let’s get it and get out. I’ll take watch.”
The team hurried to collect the Pita as none of them wanted to face any more of the Zoo’s freakish creations that day. They were too close to the end of their mission to deal with more shit. Holly stood watch and circled them with her rifle ready. She kept her sensors on and flipped through the different species of animals that had recently been cataloged. There was some shit in there she didn’t think she would see in her nightmares and sure as hell hoped she never encountered face to face.
Misha zipped her bag up and the three came up to Holly. “All right. Stuff’s collected.”
Holly nodded. “Right on. Let’s get out of here. I could use a fucking beer right about now.”
Alvin sighed. “You’re telling me. I just smashed a mantis with the butt of my gun.”
Misha gasped. “But fuck, Adisa straight-punched a bitch in the head.”
“Always stealing my motherfucking thunder,” Alvin grumbled.
Chapter Six
The Jeep pulled up in front of their team training area. They unloaded their equipment while Alvin still went on and on about how he’d pulled the mantis limb from limb. Misha, as always, gave him a hard time and Trigger laughed as they passed him.
He stepped beside Holly and patted her on the back. “Sounds like it was an interesting trip.”
She chuckled. “A few mantises and a big-ass snake but nothing too wild. They got some Pita for their troubles and the company will send payment through as soon as I get this information into the system.”
Trigger raised an eyebrow. “Not going to the bar?”
Holly shrugged. “I’ll be over there soon. I know all the info on these plants so it shouldn’t take too long to type everything up.”
He nodded. “Sounds good. Don’t be too long or these assholes will be too drunk to know who you are.”
She laughed and watched him walk away before she wandered into town and toward the apartment. When she entered and closed the door behind her, she glanced around her home and wondered briefly where Billie was. Whatever she was doing, she hadn’t come back yet, but Holly had learned not to worry. She pulled the plants out and set them up on her desk. While she knew there were no earth-shattering discoveries among the species she had collected, she hoped there would be something in the data that would pique her company’s interest and keep them off her case.
It didn’t take too long to pull the data up on her regular computer and highlight the areas she would need to include in her report. She was glad all of it was already done. The research would have taken days and it would have been as boring as fuck. The company wouldn’t have any idea that it wasn’t earth-shattering information. There was one plant, though, that she had very little information on. She took it to the counter and began to slice it up and pull both the goopy sap and the physical parts of the plants off for examination.
Holly studied them extensively under the scope and jotted down the similarities between them and the plants on Earth. Oddly enough, she found the plant to be similar in composition to the Arabica coffee plant, although it didn’t have any red cherries to study. she wasn’t sure if it didn’t bloom because it was so young or because that species simply didn’t bloom in the Zoo. Either way, the compounds were eerily similar.
In the end, though, the most fascinating piece of information she found was the fact that it contained not much more than a small boost of caffeine. She wondered if it were something that could be ingested by mercs in the field but figured that kind of testing would take forever—and besides, if done right, it would be the property of the company. It was a simple decision to let it go.
She tapped her foot and tried to decide whether the plant was even worth the trouble of writing up. After a moment’s thought, she grabbed her camera and snapped some pictures before uploading them to her computer. She figured any information she could give the company was a plus. The more interesting it was, the more they would consider her time out there in the field worth the amount of money they paid. She knew that eventually, they would ask for Pita, but until they asked, she wouldn’t voluntarily hand it over.
The Pita contained the rarest form of the goop. It was the lifeblood of everything and the last thing she wanted was to put it in the wrong hands. Who knew? They could end up adding it to a drink and turn a race of people into flying mantises.
Once she’d determined exactly how much information she needed to send them, Holly pulled her forms
up and began to type her summarized report to submit to Rod. She knew that no one would actually understand the information she sent them, but it wasn’t for them to understand. They had a team of scientists standing by to receive the info. Until they came up with some sort of courier service, though, the samples would remain with her. She liked that better, anyway. The truth was that she hadn’t put much into it and didn’t want some lab scientist to show her up at all. She still had her badass reputation to consider.
“Annnd finished,” she said as she attached the data to the email and pressed send.
She closed the laptop and shook her head before she stowed everything in the fridge. Her clothes were dirty and dusty from the drive back after their excursion in the Zoo so she grabbed a pair of shorts, a tank top, and her boots and changed. She stood in front of the mirror, wiped a smudge of dirt off her cheek, and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. Holly chuckled at her appearance when she recalled how, in the past, she wouldn’t have even gone to the gym looking that natural. But now, it almost seemed ridiculous to put any makeup on. It would merely sweat off and everyone would stare at her.
Holly locked her door and heard Amanda below. It sounded like she shuffled through papers at the counter. She meandered to the bottom of the steps and leaned against the wall. The armorer hurried through her paperwork, stuffed it haphazardly in envelopes, and tossed it to the side. It was obvious she was hustling her ass off to get out of there.
She looked up to see Holly watching her. “What up? You look bright and cheerful today.”
“More like worn out but ready for a big-ass drink.”
Amanda raised her eyebrow as she shoved things into her bag. “In the jungle today?”
Holly nodded. “Yeah, but not for too long. In and out today.”
The armorer smiled. “It’s always good when it’s in and out, although preferably on repeat.”
She laughed. “Why do you look like you are practicing for the Great American Race? I feel like you’ll hurt yourself.”
Amanda grinned as she cinched her bag. “You know how I told you there were two girls and I had been out with one of them?”
Holly smirked. “Mm-hmm.”
The other woman’s grin widened. “Well, the other one came in here today, all fucking sexy like, waving her tits in the air.”
She wrinkled her nose. “That’s creepy.”
Amanda sighed. “No, not literally. She was only being sexy. Anyway, she asked me out and told me not to be late. We are having dinner at her place. Hopefully, she’s fucking naked.”
Holly giggled. “Is that a thing around here?”
“I don’t know but it fucking should be.” Amanda shrugged. “Hell, we only live once, and some of us not for too long. Just cut to the core of it all. Come on, walk with me. I’m going past FUBAR.”
She followed the woman out and stood aside as she closed the shop. They walked along the street and Amanda swished her hair around her. “Do I look okay? I went home, showered, changed, did a little crunch, crunch with the hair—you know, trying but not too hard.”
They both stopped outside FUBAR and Holly laughed. “You look fabulous.”
Amanda leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Wish me luck. I need to get laid something bad before this shit starts to shrivel up and break off.”
Holly tilted her head to the side as she puzzled over that. “How would that even work? You know what? Never mind. Good luck.”
She stood, slightly perplexed, and watched the armorer hurry off down the street. A car going past broke her trance and she headed inside the bar. Adisa’s voice echoed from the back, and Misha stood on her chair to reenact the fist-punch to the mantis head. The Russian waved at her and grinned. She nodded at the team and turned toward the bar, ready for the sweet and relaxing taste of liquor on her lips.
To her surprise, JB stood behind the counter and leaned on the top with his arms folded. It was reminiscent of the first time she’d seen him back there, only this time, he somehow looked younger. She was about to protest when she saw Paula hustling and pouring drinks. It was obvious the man was only there to escape his apartment for a while.
Holly walked up to her usual bar stool, pulled it out, and sat. JB stared at her for a moment and grabbed the bar towel to swing it around in a circle. “Well, look at this young lady strolling up to the bar. What can I get for you this time?”
She smiled. “Well, since I haven’t been served by you in a long time, why don’t you make me one of my special drinks for old time’s sake?”
JB pursed his lips. “Oh, yes. The Holly. I think I can whip one of those up.”
Holly laughed. “You named it the Holly?”
He nodded toward the board. “Pretty damn popular too.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Oh yeah? And what exactly does a person have to do to get a drink named after them? I don’t see any others up there.”
JB began to pour the drink and chuckled. “Well, it’s actually a funny thing that you asked that. When you walked in, do you know what I thought?”
“What’s that?”
He poured grenadine into the glass. “I thought to myself, that young lady looks like she is in the mood for a really good fucking story. Apparently, the folks around here think I’m fairly good at telling them.”
Holly took the drink from him. “Oh yeah? Did you have one in mind?”
JB tapped his fingers on the bar. “As a matter of a fact, I did. The only thing is, it’s a pretty popular story. You might have heard it already.”
She took a sip of her drink and smiled as she instantly recalled the first time she had tasted it. “Well, I haven’t heard a story in what seems like forever, so I doubt I’ve heard this one. Why don’t you tell me the short version and if I’ve missed it, you can lay it out for me?”
He whistled. “Oh man, you are in for a treat. This story is short but it has all the makings of one of them pictures up there on the wall.”
Holly grimaced. “Poor sap, whoever it is.”
JB laughed loudly and tilted his head back. “It’s about this big city girl who came to the Zoo. She was all kinds of fancy in her suit and was here for research purposes only. Well, at least she thought she was. It turns out in the end—or the middle, I might say—she ended up a complete badass. I’m talking slaying animals and saving lives all at the same time.”
She smiled broadly and shook her head. “Just living the dream, JB. Living the dream. But she sounds like she’s pretty hot too.”
The guy beside her whistled. “Smoking hot, if it’s who I think he’s talking about.”
JB threw a peanut at the guy. “Go back to your drink. You don’t even know what day it is.”
Holly giggled and shook her head, then looked to her side as a hand touched her shoulder. She smiled warmly when she realized it was Dan. “Mind if I sit next to you?”
She nodded. “Of course. It’s your assigned seat at FUBAR. Here or the dark corner I sometimes see you hiding out in.”
Dan chuckled. “Yeah. Sometimes, when you aren’t here, I like to stay out of the light. It’s nice and quiet and no one bothers me.”
Holly raised her glass. “I hear you.”
He took a seat and smiled at Paula as she put his usual down in front of him. “How is everything going with the lab? You are still more than welcome to use the big one. You simply have to let me know and I’ll schedule it.”
She thought about it for a second. “I might actually take you up on that eventually. I am doing a side job for the company I do contract work for and they have me pulling samples and analyzing them before I send them reports.”
“So, you finally decided to take the contract, huh?”
“It seemed like a waste if I didn’t.” Holly shrugged. “I’m already going into the Zoo. And I know what to pull for them and what not to. I won’t hand them anything good at this point, trust me. But the larger lab might help things move a little faster.”
Holly wasn’t worried a
bout the lab being bugged when she used it for the company. Anyone watching what she worked on would already have that information. It would merely be regular plants on the list for them, at least until she could figure out the truth behind what they were doing. Then again, at that point, she didn’t really care. She had other things like her company to focus on.
Misha walked up and tapped her on the arm. “We ordered a bunch of food. Come sit with us.”
She nodded. “For sure. Dan, I’ll catch up with you later.”
Dan chuckled. “Have fun, but not too much.”
Holly laughed as she headed over to their regular table which was now strewn with fried foods and sandwiches. Holly grabbed a pretzel, sat in the empty chair, and focused on Adisa who was talking. “There I was, face to face with one of those dinos. He snorted and huffed and he wanted a piece of this dark meat for dinner.”
Holly looked at Alvin, who was laughing. “He’s telling stories about before he joined us.”
Adisa continued. “So I dodged back and forth and threw anything I could get my hands on. Then, do you know what happened? Damned if that motherfucker didn’t trip over a log and slide right up to the butt of my gun. I laughed, kicked him square in the fucking nose, and blasted his head clean off his shoulders.”
He pointed to Alvin and the man grimaced. “And this motherfucker strutted out to tell me about some Jag he had killed when out of nowhere, chunks of blood and guts rushed at him. He looked like part of the fucking dino’s intestines, dripping from helmet to boot.”
Everyone laughed loudly. Holly looked at Alvin. “You worked with Adisa?”
He sighed. “Yeah. We worked together before here. And I gave that fucking jag a run for his money. But, like always, Adisa rolls along and steals my motherfucking thunder.”
Chapter Seven
Holly pushed a vine out of her face and studied her HUD map. They now delved deeper into the Zoo than on their last visit. It was trip number two, and she had received a positive response from the board at the company. She couldn’t help but almost laugh in their faces at how talented they thought she was. The information she had sent them had mostly been found years before but never released to the public. She had merely accessed it during her research for JB’s cure and double-checked everything the scientists in the government had done. Except for the plant that had qualities like coffee, of course, but even that was nothing special. They still hadn’t asked her for a Pita plant, though, which in some ways disappointed her. She wanted them to reveal themselves as the assholes she knew they were.