Blind Sighted: Navigator Book Two

by SD Tanner

The young man had died and they’d called for backup, which thankfully arrived while they engaged in a firefight with the enemy. If he hadn’t stepped up, he would have lost his first command to a fierce opponent holding a grudge.

  “They’ve taken everything,” he said hollowly.

  Unlike his tours, where home was always waiting, this was where he’d lived and it was gone. There was nowhere left to go other than CaliTech, and he didn’t consider that place to be his home.

  “There’s no one left,” he added with a deep sigh.

  His parents had lived in Seattle, but given the level of radiation, they were gone too. No one would have survived the nuclear blast or the subsequent fallout. He had to accept everyone he’d ever cared about was dead, and he was homeless in a world gone hostile.

  Lexie moved until she was standing directly in front of him and she flicked her visor up, showing him her silver-orbed eyes. “We all lose people, Leon. That’s how life goes, but other people move into the gap. It’s not the same, but we’re never alone unless we want to be.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “My sister died and then I met Ark, Donna and Tank. They’re my family now.” Blindly holding out the romper suit to him, she added decisively, “And so are you.”

  Despite his sadness, he felt a wan smile cross his face. He was learning Lexie appeared to live life in the shallow end, but she had an irrepressible spirit. Having watched her always adapt to their plans with an ease that still surprised him, he supposed she was right. He’d lost one family and found another. Amelia had been gone from the moment the critters had arrived, and he guessed he’d always known that, but he hadn’t wanted to believe it. There was nothing he could do other than mourn his loss, but now was not the time to let those feelings lead him. As a soldier, he’d learned to compartmentalize, and he briefly closed his eyes while he set his feelings aside.

  When he opened his eyes again, he took the suit from her and tucked it inside a pocket on his ammo belt. Taking one last look at the disheveled room, he said clearly, “Move out.” As an afterthought, he added sternly, “Lexie, don’t flip your visor up in a nuclear fallout area.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: Hybrid (Dayton)

  “We should remove the arm.”

  “I want to do a bit more investigation before we cripple the poor girl for life.”

  Under the bright theater lights, he gently prodded the mottled forearm with his scalpel. The skin was so hard and shriveled it seemed unlikely there was any chance that it could be saved. What he didn’t understand was why she hadn’t died of blood poisoning. The rubber tourniquet was tied just above her elbow, and the skin was puckered and bulging on either side. Even with it so tightly bound, a little of the tainted blood was bound to have seeped through.

  Her brother Ben had said a woman called Rhona was a nurse, and she’d applied the tourniquet as soon as Cassie was touched by the goo. Leon’s squad had brought the woman back for them to study, and he was surprised she was still alive. They’d immediately attached an IV of fluids, and shackled her to a hospital bed just in case she turned into a critter. Now they were trying to work out what to do next. Should they remove her arm and wait for her to wake up? Should they remove the tourniquet and risk infecting her whole body with the goo?

  He moved to her blotchy looking fingers and gently tried to move one. It was stiff as if rigor mortis had settled in, but it had only affected her hand. Returning to the top of the bed, he studied her sleeping face. Even wearing the mask feeding her oxygen, he could see she was not even out of her teens. It was always hard to know what to do with a young patient. He didn’t want to leave her permanently damaged when she had so much more life to live, but being conservative with her treatment wouldn’t help if she died.

  Any which way he looked at the problem, the woman was infected with the goo and he needed to get rid of it. Deciding the goo was much like an MRSA infection, he said, “Hand me the saw.”

  The buzzing of the surgical saw always set his teeth on edge. It was an irritating noise, but more importantly, it was only ever used to cause serious damage to the human body. While One-of-One secured another tourniquet on the woman’s bicep, he adjusted the weight of the saw in his hand, making sure it was steady enough to cut through the woman’s arm.

  Holding out her hand to take the saw from him, One-of-One said blandly, “Let me try something.”

  Eyeing her suspiciously, he asked, “What are you gonna do?”

  One-of-One gave him a blank look, which he knew coming from her was the equivalent of showing irritation. Handing it to her across Cassie’s body, she adjusted her goggles and then started the saw. It buzzed angrily and she placed the spinning circular blade against Cassie’s forearm, just below the elbow. The saw failed to bite, and it slid down the arm tearing at the flesh, but not penetrating. The skin buckled and fragments of it spat across the table.

  “Turn it off,” he shouted over the noise.

  Her attempt to cut Cassie’s infected arm had scraped the flesh from what he could now see was a blackened, rubbery limb. Using his gloved hand, he rubbed away the dead flesh, revealing the typically skinny rubbery arm found on a critter. With both hands, he pulled the flesh down the arm and it peeled away.

  Sounding as disappointed as he felt, he said, “Dammit. She’s turned. I didn’t think the goo could do that.”

  “Given we know nothing about it, I don’t think we can make any assumptions about what it can or can’t do,” One-of-One replied bluntly.

  “What do think will happen if we remove the tourniquet? Will the goo infect the rest of her?”

  “Like I just said, we don’t know enough to know.”

  Now he had an even more difficult decision to make. If he removed the critter arm then she would lose the limb, but she might live. If he left the arm attached and removed the tourniquet, it could infect her entire body. The safest course of action would be to remove the critter limb, and yet it hadn’t killed her, making him wonder if there was a third option.

  “Do you think she can live as part critter and part human?”

  One-of-One raised a single eyebrow. “Interesting. If she survived, she might give us valuable insight into how the critters function.”

  “Can we really do that? I mean, isn’t our first obligation the quality of life for our patient?”

  “We need information and she might have it. Of course, if we remove the tourniquet, we would need to keep her secured until we know what happens, otherwise she could fully turn.”

  This wasn’t a decision he thought he could make without consulting with her family. Cassie had arrived with her younger brother, Ben, and he was sitting in one of the offices waiting to hear the outcome of her surgery.

  “I should really talk to her brother.”

  “Why? He’s very young and this isn’t a hospital. It’s a research facility. She’s a unique case study that we can’t afford to lose.”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “We secure her and then remove the tourniquet.”

  “What if she never wakes up?”

  “Then we know a human can’t be a hybrid with a critter.”

  “What if she fully turns?”

  “Then she will need to be destroyed and we can study her remains.”

  “What if she wakes up and doesn’t fully turn?”

  One-of-One gave him one of her rare smiles. “That’s the optimum result. Then we can talk to her and study the fusion between human and critter. It’s an opportunity to learn so much more than we know now.”

  The scientist in One-of-One wanted access to the information Cassie could give them, whereas he saw a young and injured woman who needed to be healed. Under the circumstances they were both right, and yet he couldn’t ignore the fact Cassie was a person who deserved the best life they could give her.

  Stepping back from the operating table, he said, “I need to talk to her brother.”

  Leaving the theater and finding Ben slumped in a
padded chair behind a desk, he walked into the room. Ben gave him an anxious look. “Is she dead?”

  “No, but her arm is…well, it’s infected and it looks like a critter limb.”

  “Is she conscious?”

  “No, she’s not regained consciousness since she’s been here.”

  The young man looked forlorn and he felt sorry for him. He was only sixteen years old and it was a lot to absorb. Sitting in the chair next to him, he said, “We need to make a decision. If we remove the damaged part of the limb, it might stop the goo from spreading and turning her whole body into a critter. If we remove the tourniquet without removing the limb then she might not turn any further. There’s a chance she could regain consciousness and we could talk to her.”

  “Yeah, I got that.”

  “As her only family, I need to know what you would want us to do.”

  Ben seemed to disappear into his own thoughts. After studying the floor for a moment, he looked up again. “Cassie has always been the bravest person I’ve ever known. She never takes any shit from anyone. When the kids at school were picking on me, it was Cassie who taught me how to give as good as I got. She’s cool, you know.”

  Leaving the young man to gather his thoughts again, he patiently waited for him to continue. “Cassie hated the critters. She said they were nasty fuckers. All she wanted to do was fight back, but we didn’t have guns ‘n stuff so there was nothing she could do. It pissed her off real bad.”

  When he nodded, Ben added somberly, “If she loses her arm then she won’t be able to fight, and she wouldn’t like that. She’d want her arm even if it killed her. And anyway, knowing Cassie, she wouldn’t let the critter goo turn her. She’s tough. I mean, she’s still alive now, right?”

  Ben had just given him a decision, and for very different reasons, he was of the same opinion as One-of-One. Nodding to Ben, he said, “Okay, I’m going to return to the theater now. Just in case she turns, we’ll need to secure her before we remove the tourniquet.”

  “I wanna be there when you do it. I don’t want her to be alone if she dies.”

  It took another hour for them to move her from the theater to another room and chain her to the bed. Ben stood patiently while he watched him snip away the tourniquet. When he was done, he stood back and waited to see what would happen.

  Cassie didn’t move, but the heart rate monitor attached to her chest began to beat faster. The wires attached to her head were monitoring her brain activity, and the screen was showing clear signs of increased activity.

  “What do you think?” He asked One-of-One.

  “I think she’s waking up.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: Old dog with fleas (Tank)

  Driving along the wide road strewn with vehicles, he scanned the area around them. As a tank, he didn’t have advanced vision, but his view was bordered by a screen, and Ark was sending them background data about their location. He’d landed in CaliTech more by mistake than intent. After his wife, Jada, had died, he’d been at a loose end about what to do next. Her illness had been long and hard, and he’d quit his job in the army to take care of her. He still had to work, but found a job nearby as a car mechanic in a local dealership.

  The end of the world didn’t mean a lot to him, it had already come to a halt well before the critters had arrived. Jada’s death had shocked him more than the tens of millions who’d died at the hands of their enemy. He was only thirty-eight years old, and he should have been a father with a wife and mortgage, but instead he’d been drifting along waiting for something to change. This wasn’t the change he’d been expecting, but it had set his direction for him.

  The army had been his life for as long as he could remember, but before she’d died, Jada had asked him not to re-up once she was gone. She’d worried he would have a death wish, but there was never any chance he’d kill himself intentionally or otherwise. Despite knowing he wouldn’t be reckless, he took his promises seriously and he hadn’t rejoined the Rangers, even though they’d offered to let him return as a Sergeant First Class.

  Lexie was right about new people filling the gap. He liked her a lot. Underneath her snappiness was someone who never walked away when the going got tough. Watching her rise to the challenge of the critters amused him, and she was giving them a run for their money. Leon was a solid commander and he had no problem lending his weight to their missions. Sitting on top of the truck, heavily armed and surveying the region for risks, he felt at home. This was what he was born to do and he’d always done it well.

  “Oh, that’s not good,” Lexie said unhappily.

  Leaving the others to question her, he listened to Ark ask, “What is that?”

  “It’s way too much green.”

  The engine in their truck labored as it climbed the low hill, and he strained his eyes trying to understand what they were seeing. Seattle city was spread out in front of him, but it didn’t look anything like the pictures Ark had shown him. The skyline should have been composed of the clean lines of modern buildings, with the Space Needle as the central landmark. Now there was no Space Needle and the buildings were half-formed, blackened and broken.

  “Why are there so many of them in the city?” Leon asked.

  The radiation level was two hundred rem, and Leon didn’t want them venturing into the epicenter of the explosion. Dunk had said the suits would protect them and he was inclined to believe the man. Although Dunk had irritated him before the critters destroyed the country, even he could see the strengths he brought to their new world. The chaos caused by the critters merely reflected his own belief that the world had gone to hell. He’d always assumed the planet was on a collision course to disaster, but he’d expected a nuclear war or a virus would kill most of the population. When Dunk had invented the Navigator gear and invested in a weapons facility, he’d been well ahead of the game. He had a grudging respect for the man, even if he did want to kill him whenever he had to spend too much time in his company.

  “Lexie, stop here,” Leon said.

  They were on Holgate Street Bridge and it offered a panoramic view of the whole of Seattle. The waterways snaked their way around the city, with Lake Washington Ship Canal cutting it in half. Ark had said there were well over half a million people in the city center, and four million in the greater area. With an estimated twenty-five percent chance of survival, he guessed that number was less than a million now. It was an enormous loss of life and he mourned them in a vague way. When he’d lost Jada it was deeply personal, but he couldn’t say he felt the same way about faceless people he’d never known. Too many people faked their emotions so they could appear to care, whereas he preferred to say nothing rather than lie about anything.

  The city was ruined. A hole had been blasted out of its center, and judging by the blackened remains, there’d been a lot fires that had long since burned out. Even only using reality viewing, there was an obvious sea of vibrating movement on the ground. The roads and surrounding land appeared to be alive. Moving like a black carpet, from a distance, it reminded him of ants picking over a corpse. Their spiky movement was making the ground jerk endlessly in all directions at once.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Leon asked in disgust.

  “If you’re thinking its millions of critters, then yeah,” Lexie replied.

  “What are they doing?”

  “Buzzing about like a swarm of pissed off flies.”

  “Why would they be doing that?”

  “Maybe the radiation agrees with them,” Ark replied.

  The suggestion made him snort quietly to himself. He’d read that scientists believed the only survivors of a nuclear holocaust would be insects, and it looked like they were right. Not only would the little monsters survive, they would thrive until they were all that was left. Fighting overgrown insects would be easy, but the critters were something else yet again. An insect operated on instinct, whereas the critters had a strategy. While he’d watched Jada die, he’d hated cancer with a deep fury he couldn�
�t use. He only knew how to fight an enemy with a form, and hadn’t known where to place his anger. Looking at the critters now, they gave cancer a body he could beat down. To him, the critters were a disease, and they’d finally given him somewhere to dump his restless frustration.

  “They look kinda small though, don’t you think, Ark?” Lexie asked.

  “Hang on, we’re running some measurements.”

  “Do you need us to take a closer look?” Leon asked.

  “Yeah, we’re getting numbers suggesting they’re about a fifth of the size of a regular critter.”

  “Okay, let’s turn the truck around ready for a fast extract and head in on foot,” Leon ordered.

  Dropping from the top of the truck, even with the hydraulics, his three hundred pounds of gear strained his knees. Lexie complained about their kit, but he liked it. He’d known a few good men who’d still be alive if they’d had access to this type of gear. There would have been no hidden IEDs, surprise attacks, or so-called civilians concealing weapons. Knowing what was in a room before they’d gone in would have changed many of his previous missions for the better.

  Falling into formation, Leon ordered him and his heavy weapons to the front. Being able to fire four hundred rounds per minute might run through his ammo, but nothing would survive him. The earth was well churned and he guessed the critters had been through the area like a swarm of locusts. There was no way anyone could have survived the bombing, making him wonder if the critters were hungry. If they were traveling further afield to eat then that would explain the condition of Leon’s home. They must have swept through the surrounding areas looking for food, destroying the houses while they hunted for their victims.

  Watching Leon accept the loss of his wife and unborn son had brought back memories of losing Jada, and he felt a growing kinship with him. They both had a high need for control, and he knew from his own experience that the death of their loved ones made them feel powerless. Under his steady demeanor, Leon must be hurting badly, and he respected him for keeping his shit together.