The First Bird: Omnibus Edition

by Greig Beck

  “What are you doing? I mean, seriously… something is not right? Everything about this place is not right.” Matt turned and went to continue.

  “Professor Kearns, you won’t help your friends by getting killed.” Joop took a few more steps. “Look, just look at the clearing. What do you see?”

  Kurt had stopped to listen, and Matt turned to look out across the open ground. There was nothing save for a few massive tree trunks and some slight lumps in the grasses, a little like baseball pitcher mounds.

  “Nothing,” he said.

  “In a jungle there is always something.” Joop picked up a couple of fist-sized stones from the clearing edge, and tossed one. It landed on the ground and bounced a couple of times before rolling to a stop. He took the next and threw it, obviously using the first as a distance guide. This time the rock flew a little farther and landed near one of the mounds, bouncing and then rolling in front of it. Almost faster than the eye could follow, a black shape launched itself from the mound, grabbed at the stone, assessed it as inedible, released it, and disappeared under the trapdoor it had lifted.

  “Holy fuck!” Matt stepped back into the foliage.

  “Jesus Christ, that was one of those spiders, except bigger.” Kurt had his gun up and was retreating hastily.

  “Yes, I thought as much,” said Joop. “The Mesothelae were ground hunters, not web spinners. And fossil evidence indicated the spider species liked burrows – open ground is their favorite nesting site. They will have a radial mesh of trip-wire all around their lair – when their prey steps on one they can be out and on top of it in a second.”

  “Megan and …”

  Joop shook his head, waving his hand. “No, I think they’re okay. If the large beast is still following them, they must have somehow managed to pass through.”

  Matt nodded. “Good. Then so will we … how?”

  Kurt started out, gun at the ready. “We follow this big fucker’s tracks. I reckon he’s flattened or buried anything in front of him. Be ready to fend off any sneak attacks.” He looked up at the canopy ceiling. “We’re running out of light, so let’s pick it up.”

  As they stepped out of the tangle of vines and ferns, the atmosphere immediately felt cooler against their skin. With every step, they seemed to leave the raucous sounds of the jungle behind. Matt became conscious of his own breathing – raspy and dry. He took a sip of his remaining water, purposely doing little more than wetting his lips and tongue. It needed to last until they got back … if they got back.

  They now had a clear path – the land leviathan they followed had gouged the ground before them, crushing or burying anything dangerous. However, they would need to pass by several of the three-foot wide trapdoors, death lurking beneath each one.

  The four men moved like a single creature – Kurt at the front with the gun, Matt to the right, John at the left, and Joop bringing up the rear, facing backward as he walked. All except Kurt had sharpened sticks pointed outward.

  When they were within twenty feet of a mound, Kurt aimed and fired. It was almost imperceptible, but they all saw it – the lid closed a fraction. The thing that had been peeking out either pulled back from the noise or was hit.

  Kurt grunted his approval. “Shoot first, no need to ask questions later.”

  “I hear that.” Matt kept his long stake pointed at the mound as they passed.

  Joop gave the group a shove. “We need to hurry; I think I can see movement.” He backed into them harder, pushing them forward.

  Kurt fired at another mound, with the same effect. “Don’t like that, do you boys?” He laughed cruelly, and was about to turn when Joop yelled and banged into them hard.

  “It’s out … it’s coming.”

  Matt turned and saw the large spider racing across the open ground. Its long black legs were a blur of motion. Immediately, three long pikes swiveled in its direction, with Joop trying to wrestle his way in amongst them. He screamed, his voice getting higher with his rising panic.

  “Shoot, shoot!”

  “I can’t … it’s moving … too fast,” Kurt replied jerkily over their heads.

  In another second the spider was on them, leaping at the closest human – Joop. However, instead of meeting soft flesh, its softer underbelly was impaled on his stake. He fell back, the thing continuing to slide toward him as its weight pushed it down the length of the wood. Matt and John stabbed at it, their pikes barely piercing the leathery hide of its back.

  Oddly, Matt smelt bread, the large lumpen body giving off an odor of warm dough. Matt was sure the expressionless eyes were fixed on him as he continued to stab at its long abdomen. Underneath, its fangs were extended, dripping milky venom. Joop screamed again as the thing used its sharp, pointed legs to try and draw him closer to its mouthparts.

  The boom in their ears made Matt’s heart skip a beat and his ears ring like an air-raid siren. The smell of cordite was sharp in his nostrils, obliterating any trace of the warm bready odor. Kurt had reached between their fighting bodies and fired point-blank into the thing’s eyes. It shuddered, and curled into a large ball, still impaled on Joop’s spear. He heaved the monster aside and Matt and John helped him stand.

  “My spear …”

  Kurt checked his gun and turned away. “Leave it. Let’s go – double time.”

  They ran, Kurt firing at anything resembling a mound. He ran hard, his long legs powering him ahead of the group. He spoke without turning. “Nearly there.”

  Matt watched his side of the clearing carefully, but nothing made a move. As he looked ahead, something amongst the grasses caught his eye. He veered out from the group.

  “What? What the fuck are you doing, Kearns?” Kurt’s voice was both disbelieving and furious. “Get back!”

  Matt darted to the object, snatched it up, and sprinted back toward them. Kurt pointed the gun at him and fired. The bullet whistled over his shoulder. He didn’t look back. It might have panicked him even more if he did.

  Once he was back with the group, he looked at his prize. It was Megan’s shirt – ripped and punctured, but unmistakable.

  “Oh no.” His heart sank.

  John reached over to grab one corner and spread it out. “No blood.” He looked hard into Matt’s face. “Decoy, maybe? Probably how they managed to cross safely.”

  Or one of them did, Matt thought miserably. He pushed the thought away and tucked the shirt into his pocket. “I hope to God you’re right John, I really do.”

  Together they passed into the jungle again, the path made by the beast still wide and clear.

  *****

  The sound of a tree coming down somewhere behind them in the swirling mists jarred Carla and Megan from their indecision.

  “Right, going back is not an option.” Carla took a few steps out into the water. Megan rested her hand on her shoulder and waded out with her.

  Megan could feel the silty mud squelch under her boots, and small things bumping into her calves. She now envied Carla’s choice of longer pants. Plus, Carla was still fully clothed, while all Megan had left was sodden shorts and a filthy bra. Perfect jungle attire … if you’re in a porn movie, she thought.

  They waded out until the water was up to their waists, still amongst alien-looking trees with massive trunks on stilts that were heavily coated in moss. There was the sound of swirling water from somewhere farther out, and both women froze.

  “Shit, I don’t like the sound of that,” Megan said.

  “I don’t like the sound of it, I don’t like the feel of it, and I’m sure if I could see it, I wouldn’t like the look of it,” Carla responded.

  Megan’s head whipped around at the sound of heavy movement from back along the dry shoreline. “And I definitely don’t like the sound of that.” She took a few more steps. “Rock or hard place?” A small wave lapped up against them, and then continued on, splashing against the muddy shoreline. “I wish we could see something.”

  More waves pushed against them – larger now, an
d more forceful.

  Carla’s voice was urgent. “That’s a bow wave. Something’s coming ashore – something big.”

  “Fuck it. I’m not going in any farther.” Megan looked back, left, and right – and then upward. “Up.”

  The huge mangrove-like tree was a difficult climb. Other creatures huddled against the feeder roots for protection and wriggled against their legs when they got in close. The tree was over forty feet high. Its huge branches meant they might be able to climb high enough to be well clear of the water, and also clear of the thing that was approaching along the shore.

  Megan pushed Carla’s bottom as she climbed. “Keep going – it won’t be able to track us into the water. Let’s get up above it. Quickly.” Carla’s boots scraped against the slime-covered wood, trying to find purchase. Megan kept pushing.

  In five minutes they had made it two dozen feet into the air. Jockey-like, Megan started to edge along a limb, moving farther out over the water. She’d seen where the branches interwove with one another, and was hoping they could cross to the next tree, farther from the bank, without getting wet.

  Carla was behind her. Two-thirds of the way along, their combined weight was causing the branch to dip a few feet. By the time they got to the end, their branch would be hanging below the next. They’d need to go one at a time.

  Megan turned. “We’re too heavy. Back up.”

  “Shhh.” Carla was peering intently at the shoreline. Megan followed her gaze.

  The huge shape that meandered along the bank, head to the ground, sniffing like a giant skinless dog, was a mountain of green-gray muscle. The upper head was all horns and weird protrusions, and underneath seemed to be nothing but teeth and jaws. The hot breath from its cavernous mouth blew the mist out of its path.

  It stopped at the water’s edge and lifted its snout, sniffing the air. Megan could see that its eyes, sitting on the sides of its head, were tiny in relation to its massive skull. She hoped that meant its eyesight would be weak.

  They were just a few feet above its head – if it chose to rear up they’d be easily in reach of its jaws. Megan looked up above her – there was nothing. She’d have to edge back to the trunk. She pointed and mouthed to Carla: higher.

  Carla shook her head, held up a hand and mouthed: wait.

  The huge beast turned and wandered a few dozen feet back along the water’s edge, then spun back, as though its nose was caught on a wire. The scent of the women was still lingering in the air, even if it wasn’t on the wet ground. The creature came back toward them, passing by the spot where they had entered the lake. Megan grimaced and held her breath.

  It didn’t work. The thing stopped and returned. Small, pig-like eyes stared out over the mist-covered lake. It snorted, then took a step into the water.

  “Ah, shit,” Megan whispered.

  It waded out, quickly reaching the trunk of their tree, then leaned forward to sniff at the scuff marks Carla’s boots had made on the slimy bark. Its head tilted back, following the scent, and then turning side-on. One small, piggish eye fixed on Carla, and its mouth dropped open. A noise like the roar of an approaching train exploded up at them.

  One huge forelimb came out of the water to rest against the trunk. Mighty talons raked downward, ripping hundred-pound slabs of the soft bark from the tree. The forelimb came up again … higher this time.

  “Climb, climb!” Megan hopped back along her limb as Carla started upward, the tree shaking now, raining leaves and huge drops of red water down on their heads. Megan prayed neither of them slipped – they saw what had happened to Jian.

  Carla was surprisingly spry, and was two branches ahead of Megan in a flash. Megan wrapped her arms around the next branch and levered herself up, balancing on the slippery limb, then reached up again, just as the enormous beast reared up on its back legs and thumped against the trunk. It was like a massive bear trying to dislodge a piece of fruit.

  The tree tilted in the soft underwater mud and Megan slipped, her arms pinwheeling in space for a few seconds. Her eyes were on Carla. She saw the woman’s mouth open, but shock had shut out all sound. It was like being in a momentary vacuum without sensation as Carla swung down and grabbed at her.

  The CDC woman locked her legs around a limb and hung on as the giant animal crashed into them again. Megan screamed and swung, pendulum-like, as the tree started to topple, gathering speed as it went. Both women were flung another fifty feet out from the bank. They surfaced in deep water, and paddled quickly back toward the branches of the fallen tree, the half-submerged limbs acting like a cage against the huge creature that now advanced to meet them.

  *****

  Matt’s head swung toward the sound. “That was Megan.” He didn’t think, just ran. As he sprinted past Kurt, the big man reached out for him, but he was too slow.

  Matt dodged and weaved through the jungle, leaping over crushed plant debris and slapping vines out of his path, all sense of self-preservation gone. Megan was only here because of him. He’d seen what was left of Jian, and he wasn’t going to lose her to the same fate.

  “Megan!” Matt screamed her name, flinging the word from his lips even as his brain told him that silence was the smarter option right now. “I’m coming!”

  He burst from the broken tangle of jungle onto the muddy shore of a riverbank and paused to get his bearings, sucking in gulps of stinking swamp gas.

  Matt tried to make sense of the shapes on the glassy body of water, but the mist swirled and dipped, a thousand wraiths tumbling over each other. There was no smaller vegetation here, only giant trees that looked like a cross between a mangrove and a banyan. Nothing small had seemed to survive in the oxygen-poor silt. He looked down to the ground, tracking back and forward until he once again found the deep indentations made by something that was probably larger than a bull elephant.

  He followed them to his right along the bank, and started to run again, trying to calm his breathing and listen for Megan’s voice. Up ahead there was splashing, and the ground under his feet was becoming squashy and waterlogged. The massive beast’s footprints were now individual pools filled with brackish water.

  A grunt – or was it a voice? He paused and turned his head to listen – more noises, but from behind him now. Kurt, Joop, and John, most likely. Louder sounds came from farther away in the mist – a crash, water falling onto water, and a distant sound, like a cough. He started to run again, splashing through shallow water.

  Before he knew it, the water had gone from ankle deep to knee deep. Somewhere, the shoreline had simply finished, and he was beginning to wade. He could make out shapes farther out in the water – they coalesced and formed into something massive, hunched shoulders with a huge horned and lumpy head trying to reach in amongst the branches of a fallen tree.

  He could see its objective now. Small heads and shoulders were ducking down and moving away – Megan and Carla. The branches made it difficult for the monstrous animal to snap them up, but it stood on its hind legs, towering over them. If it fell forward it would be in amongst the branches and at its prey.

  “Hey!” Matt fought against the water. “Hey, get away from them.” He looked around for something to throw – anything – but there was nothing floating, and beneath his feet, just a silken ooze.

  “Matt!” Kurt and the others had arrived. Kurt and John splashed out, and all Matt could do was point, his voice high and strangled with frustration.

  “Shoot, shoot goddammit.”

  Kurt raised the gun, but paused, frowning. “I can’t get a—”

  “Just fucking shoot!” Matt roared.

  Kurt let loose three quick rounds at the huge animal. With the distance and heavy mist, it was impossible to tell what struck and what missed, but the sound alone made the beast swing around toward them.

  It still stood on its hind legs, like a massive grizzly bear, one small piggish eye fixed on the shoreline. It was doubtful it could see them at all. After another few seconds it gave up and once again turned b
ack to the women. It leaned forward and started to rip branches out of its path, preparing to leap on top of the sheltering humans.

  “No!” Matt turned to Kurt, frantic now. “Shoot again.”

  Kurt fired one more time, then shook his head. “I’m wasting ammunition; there’s no effect from here.”

  “Give me …” Matt charged back at the big bodyguard and grabbed the gun. Kurt released it without a struggle. Matt turned and waded back out, having to keep hopping up off the sediment to stop himself from going under.

  “Megan!” He fired the gun over and over, until he heard the clicking of an empty chamber. The ooze beneath his feet had fallen away and he was treading water now. He let go of the gun and started to swim out, with no plan or objective other than to get to Megan.

  The massive animal fell forward, its weight causing the partially submerged branches to disappear, leaving some floating twigs, some frantically paddling arboreal creatures, and two floundering women.

  One of them screamed, and Matt swam, thrashing at the water, fast closing on them. He lifted his head and saw that Carla was closest, and seconds away from being seized by jaws that would crush her down to the same mess that Jian had become. As he trod water, momentarily transfixed, he saw Megan swim toward the CDC woman.

  A hand alighted on his shoulder, making him spin in the water. It was John, his face pale in the gloom of the darkening mist. Matt’s mouth worked, but no words came. He could only turn and watch, impotent, useless, spectator to a grisly primordial feast.

  “What’s that?” John’s head whipped around, and Matt followed his gaze. A lump appeared in the water, no more than fifty feet out from the gigantic creature.

  The beast ignored sharp branches and dipped its head toward Carla, who dove, reappearing six feet away. The huge animal’s assault had pushed the tree farther out in the lake, and with its sizeable bulk, it was now having trouble staying above the water line. It dipped again – bobbing for human apples, its mouth open, trying to scoop one of the flailing bodies up, but the women kept diving.