by Michael Todd
A sudden beeping from her helmet drew her attention back to the present. The entire team had accompanied her this time, and everyone paused to search the underbrush in an attempt to identify the source. Trigger cleared his throat. “I don’t know where this is but it looks like it’s right on top of us. Does anyone see anything?”
The whole team turned full circle, their weapons out. Misha shook her head. “Not a damn thing.”
Alvin looked at Aki, who shrugged. “Nothing back here.”
Adisa stepped forward into the clearing and his eyes narrowed. Without warning, a long-necked, pelican-like bird swooped from the canopy and barely missed his head. Its talons were out but they weren’t sharp and lethal like most of the animals in the Zoo. The creature actually seemed quite harmless with its long wings spread wide to reveal vibrant colors that cascaded through its feathers.
The other team members stepped in behind Adisa and chuckled as it swooped repeatedly. Alvin slung his rifle on his back. “It looks like you have a friend.”
Adisa grimaced. “Just what I need, this fucker ripping a hole in my suit or calling the other bigger teeth to come find us.”
Misha put her hands on her hips and ducked as it dove again. “That’s what they call a pele. They haven’t ever hurt anyone, but they can be a nuisance. From what I know, they give away positions and royally fuck with people until they’ve had enough.”
“I’ve had enough.” Adisa ducked yet again.
Alvin chuckled. “I don’t know, I think the two of you could become good pals. He could sit on your shoulder like a parrot and you could teach him words.”
“Birds are the creatures of Satan,” the other man retorted. “They come in here with their big, hard beaks, claws, and giant wings. They are descendants of dinosaurs and they haven’t gotten the fucking memo that they aren’t on the top of the food chain. A fucking tiny-ass one will attack the same as the big ones.”
The team watched as he grew more and more irritated. As the bird swept toward him once more, Adisa snatched it by the neck and tossed it to the ground. He put a foot on its body and ripped the head off, then threw it into the bushes. The whole team stood in shocked silence for a moment before everyone broke out into laughter.
Trigger smirked and waved them forward. “Come on. We need to go a little farther until we find a good spot for Holly to collect plants. With Adisa beheading birds over here, we might have alerted the rest of the Zoo to our presence.”
Alvin shook his head and fell into step behind Adisa. “Not one of your finer moments.”
“Bird’s dead so all is right with the world,” the other man retorted
They headed farther into the jungle and finally found a good area to stop and stand guard. Holly gathered her sample pouches and moved into the underbrush while the team circled and kept watch on all sides. She moved through the plants and pushed past the more boring ones but tried to keep her foraging to those she knew about. Finally, she found the flowering vine plants—three different species, all seemingly growing from the same base. One by one, she plucked the blossoms from the vines, careful to keep an eye out for anything lurking in the tall grasses around her. It was hard to see through them, and beneath them, there was no visibility at all.
All three plants were ones Holly had experience with. They were some of the first flowering plants she had studied. Even before she went into the Zoo, she had seen some information on them in the system. Intrigued because they were such vibrant and beautiful flowers, she’d studied what had been discovered to that point. When she had a chance to go into the Zoo for herself, she had picked a few and taken them back for further tests. She wasn’t sure if they would help her, but she wanted to know more about them.
From what she remembered from the research, if used in the right manner and combined with the correct ingredients, they might actually be useful to the health of the human body. She hadn’t put a ton of research into it because it was more complicated and needed the use of human cells to study. Holly knew she would need a second PhD in order to understand and fully research that realm of possibilities. The plant’s uses would be much narrower than the goop. Although she wanted to figure it out herself, she decided it would provide a good taste for the company. It would give them something to sink their teeth into when she turned her research over.
The flowers themselves—the petals, that is—were interesting in their own right. After several days of study on them in the past, Holly had realized that there was nothing in their composition known to be harmful. Encouraged by this, she’d created an elixir of sorts and tasted the sap. It was sweet but light and almost airy. She could imagine it being a flavor of something whipped on a fancy dish at a five-star restaurant. In large quantities, it might actually be perfect for a drink.
As she continued to bag her samples, the team stood on the other side and constantly scanned their surroundings. A single small blinking light on their screen began to multiply and the cluster moved quickly toward them. Alvin swung his gun into position. “I don’t know what the fuck this is but there is a fuck-ton of them.”
The group all drew together, facing the direction from which the small dots were coming. Within minutes, the bushes rustled with furious activity and a horde of small furry animals raced through. The creatures had long snouts like elephants and tiny little claws but oddly, there were absolutely no eyeballs visible at all. Misha bent with her hands on her knees as they hurtled between the team’s legs. “What in the hell?”
Adisa smiled. “Now those are freaking cute, not like the winged things. Aww, look, he’s sniffing my boot.”
Suddenly, the small animal emitted an alarmed squeak. It raised onto its hind legs and bit into the man’s leg. He howled loudly and jumped up and down. “Not cute. Not cute. I fucking take it back.”
The group of furry creatures shifted in unison and barreled directly for the team. Alvin aimed his rifle and began to pick them off right and left. “I needed some target practice today. Take that, you filthy vermin. Biting our big guy like that. You should be ashamed.”
Trigger swung in a back and forth motion with his short sword and sliced through the rows of attackers. The animals scattered but constantly ran into each other. “They look like you guys when you’ve had too much to drink.”
Alvin looked up. “Do they backflip off bar tables like Aki?”
The man in question rolled his eyes and used his sword to good effect on the creatures. “Ha-ha. Very funny. I will never live that fucking shit down. I want to see one of you take a chance every once in a while.”
Misha giggled as she stabbed one after the other with her long blade and at one point, queued them on like shish kabobs. “We take chances every day. We simply don’t do backflips off bar tables in front of a huge crowd of people. Then have to get dragged out of the bar, leaving a trail of salsa that fell on your head.”
Aki grimaced. “I still smell like fucking salsa. I hate salsa.”
Trigger scowled, drew his pistol, and fired into the chaotic pile of animals. “Who hates salsa? Seriously? It’s like a universal fucking dip. Spicy if you want, not spicy if you want, and perfect for tortilla chips. Besides nachos, what the fuck would you do with a tortilla chip without salsa?”
Alvin reloaded and dragged in a deep breath. “Ah, the Great Salsa Debate. I wondered if we would ever have one. What better time than when we are being attacked by little sharp-toothed rabid rodents?”
Misha rolled her eyes. “Oh, relax. They are starting to scurry off. Honestly, they probably took one look at you and figured we were too stupid to fight.”
The last of the strange animals scuttled off as Holly pushed through the bushes. “I got my sam—what the fuck happened here?”
The team looked at one another and groaned. Trigger chuckled. “All right, gang. Why don’t we make camp? Get rid of the rat carcasses—heave them as far into the jungle as you can before you start, though.”
Holly chuckled and examined the long-nosed cr
eatures. “They’re cute.”
Adisa snorted as he unpacked his bag. “Until one bites you in the shin.”
The crew went to work to set up the lighting, motion sensors, and camping spots for each of them. Once they were settled in, they sat in a group and ate their meals for the night. Some had MREs while others stuck with granola and jerky.
Holly walked out of her tent with a bowl of oatmeal and sat beside Trigger on the edge of the clearing. “Are you okay over here?”
He smiled. “Yeah. Sometimes, when I sit here at night, I can see how this place can be really beautiful. Peaceful—almost archaic in a way.”
“Except it’s more advanced in every way than any human civilization we have ever had. With the exception of physical technology, I suppose. But theirs seems to be built in somehow.” She took a mouthful of food.
Trigger nodded. “True. I don’t know. I guess I think about the family I left behind, too. No wife or children or anything like that. But I had three brothers, a mom, a dad—a big family. None of them really understood why I wanted to stay out here. But the Zoo, probably even after the first time, turned into my life. I couldn’t walk away from it. And it is nights like this, moments like this, that reinforce that choice.”
Holly smiled. “I thought about that the other day. I wondered if I would ever be able to leave and go back to the life I had in New York. My condo is there, my friends are there, and my family is in the States too. I wondered if I could actually get on that plane and fly away from here knowing I would never be back.”
He popped a piece of jerky in his mouth. “It’s tough on both sides. But I don’t have any regrets. Everything in my life has been reasonably good up to this point. I mean, hell, I have a badass team…”
They turned and looked at the others. Misha and Alvin played cards with their headlamps on and gave each other a hard time. Aki and Adisa sat side by side in silence and sharpened their daggers and swords. Trigger shrugged. “I have a family here too. And the Zoo—it feels like home to me. And most of the time, more than my own place does.”
Holly breathed deeply and rinsed her bowl out. “Sometimes, you find your home in the weirdest of places. Anyway, I think I’ll head to my tent and try to get a little sleep. I always struggle to really fall asleep out here.”
Trigger smiled at her. “Thanks for the dinner company.”
She tapped him on the shoulder as she turned to walk away. “Anytime. We’re family.”
Once she’d said goodnight to the others, she ducked into her tent and closed the front behind her. She set her helmet aside, put the earpiece in, and made sure it was connected to the comms. Comfortably seated on the floor of the tent, she went through her samples one last time, satisfied with what she had collected. Normally, she would already be working on them, but for the first time since she had started coming to the jungle, she actually felt tired. She zipped her bag and lay on her sleeping bag with her arms folded under her head. The top of her tent was transparent, and she could see the stars twinkle now and again through the canopy above her.
Thoughts of New York moved through her mind like a soft breeze. Stars were impossible to see with all the light pollution there. Oddly enough, the absence of car horns and police sirens had been the hardest thing for her to get used to when she first arrived at the Zoo. Every day back home, she would wake up, have her first cup of coffee, and prepare for the day. She would do her morning yoga on the terrace and eat her low-carb, gluten-free, no-sugar oatmeal and a bowl of fresh berries from the market down the street. Then she would shower and get ready for her first meeting of the day.
Everywhere else she had gone in the world made her want to be back in New York. She’d accepted that she would never feel at home anywhere else in the world. Everything in her was drawn to the spas, the people, the fashion, and the luxury of it all. But there she was in a tent in the middle of an alien environment, actually relaxed as she watched the limbs of the trees above her sway back and forth with the breathing of the jungle.
The sounds of laughter outside of her tent brought her attention back to the here and now. Holly turned her head to the side and watched the shadows of her team dance across the front of her tent. A smile pulled at her lips when she thought about what Trigger had said—how these people were his family, and she realized that she had begun to feel that way as well. Of course, that included Billie, Amanda, Paula, and JB, but that merely meant more to love about the life she had accidentally fallen into.
She hadn’t wanted to think about it until that moment and hadn’t wanted to admit to herself that she could be lost in the merc life out there. But now, she wondered if she would actually ever go back to the life that felt like it had existed eons ago. A life that didn’t feel like it had ever truly been real.
Chapter Eight
The team sat around their usual table. Trigger read the paper, Adisa seemed half asleep, and Alvin bickered with Misha as usual. Aki had his eyes closed and whispered what seemed like some sort of prayer under his breath. Holly reached out and touched his knee when he was done. “What are you doing?”
He breathed deeply. “Saying a prayer to my ancestors. There was a dark shadow over the moon last night. It was there the last night we stayed in the Zoo, too, a few days ago. It means death is on the horizon, but for whom, I do not know.”
Holly raised both eyebrows. “Well, that’s reassuring. Thanks.”
Trigger chuckled and put the paper on the table. “Don’t listen to Aki. He is very ceremonial and superstitious. How about we talk about something a little more upbeat? Like what we’ll all do with this last huge chunk of the money from the company? Personally, I’ve put a lot of thought into it. We work so hard in and out of the Zoo on a regular basis. We want to get stronger, faster, and more indestructible.”
Alvin pointed at him. “You’re buying robots, aren’t you?”
He laughed. “No, not quite. I figured that by this point, our training center should need a good upgrade. So, I’ll take my money and redo it.”
Misha smiled. “Personally, I think it’s time I updated my wardrobe. I have nothing but tank tops and cargo pants. A girl needs to feel beautiful every once in a while. And to make me feel even more beautiful, I will also import a bottle or twelve of my favorite vodka from Russia. There will be no more drinking the bottom of the barrel America crap.”
Adisa nodded, his eyes shut. “I’ll do what I always do with my money. Put it in my savings account and watch the numbers grow.”
Alvin sighed. “You know what? I don’t understand your whole save every dime thing. There is a huge likelihood every time we go in the Zoo that we won’t come back. You need to fucking live a little. I don’t know—get a girl, buy a shot. Fuck, buy a hooker for all I care but have a little fun. You won’t be able to take the money with you when you die.”
Aki shook his head. “I send mine to my family. I have everything I need here with my sword.”
Holly smiled at everyone and deliberately skirted the question. “Well, let’s get this over with, shall we? The sooner we get back, the sooner we can collect our paychecks. And then, drinks are on me. All night.”
The whole team cheered, raised their coffee cups to the center, and clinked them together. “Let’s kick ass and spit on their jungle-ass graves!”
Holly shook her head and glanced at JB, who watched with an expression of anxiety.
The team stood in a circle, shoulder to shoulder, and peered into the underbrush around them. Small, gleaming orbs of light reflected back and seemed to blink as the sounds of snarls and hisses echoed through the jungle. Everyone was silent, caught in a situation none of them had been in before. One minute they were guarding Holly, and the next, she had run out and yelled at them to get into formation to prepare for the worst of it. For the final trip into the Zoo, it sure had turned out to be one giant pile of dog shit.
Trigger swallowed hard and held his pistols in his hands. “Well, this looks like a party that we weren’t invited to
.”
Alvin snorted. “Yeah, if you walk into a party set up by bloodthirsty aliens in a jungle that wants to devour you in every way possible.”
Holly’s gaze moved from creature to creature as their stats appeared on her screen. There were jags, duo bears, and creatures she had never faced before. To her right were animals nicknamed the demon heads. They were red and scaled, walked on two legs, and attacked with sharp claws and teeth. To her left were three humpbacked animals, all capable of spitting toxic venom up to three hundred feet. Below the bushes, the rats and rodents waited for a nibble of whatever fell. Above them, the monkeys and the locusts all hovered quietly and watched for any kind of action to begin.
She breathed deeply through her nose and felt the nerves bubble up in her stomach. “I don’t understand. There aren’t even any Pita around here.”
Aki shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. We are in an area of the Zoo not many mercs come to because of the lack of Pita. The animals find sanctuary here from our guns. We are basically standing in their town square, ready to kill anything that moves.”
Misha shifted into a loose but ready stance. “They will all charge at any moment. We have to be ready for them. There is no room for fear.”
Trigger nodded. “That’s right. No room for fear. You pull your weapons and you keep swinging or shooting or whatever. We will have to be head-down badasses in order to survive this. Keep your eyes open, your backs clear, and watch your team the best way you can. And if the worst happens—”