A claw or hand or talon shoved through the greenery. Gunter stumbled back and his rifle raised to spit bursts of lead but already, the creature that owned the claw seemed to have retreated and now circled him. He tried to follow its trajectory but another one burst through the curtain of plant life.
Without hesitation, he turned and ran. First, he raced straight back—away from the monsters—but then bore left and tried to angle back in the direction he’d come. He had to rejoin his comrades and help them. No matter what, he would not become a deserter. Besides, if he tried to flee, these monstrosities would simply cut him off, isolate him, and hunt him anyway.
As he ran, however, it became difficult to discern exactly where the hell his comrades were. The sounds of the fight were explosively loud and yet distant. They seemed to be in the direction in which he was headed. But the noises also diffused outward and spread themselves around as if the column were moving again—pressing on without him—even as they fought. Or worse, as if they’d been divided and scattered by the attackers.
“Keep moving, Gunter,” he said to himself through his ragged breaths. He would find them momentarily. He merely had to keep going and not panic. Behind and to the side of him, he thought he could hear things moving lightly between the trees and amidst the underbrush. But there was at least a chance that he’d shaken the creatures following him. Maybe they had given up the chase and were heading back to where a larger group of more obvious prey awaited. If that were the case, then once he rejoined his team, all of them could annihilate these sons of bitches together.
As he stepped over a large curling root and ducked under a slimy, low-hanging branch, he saw, not far ahead, a patch of blue-violet fur. It stood perfectly still. He drew his breath in sharply and held it. He had come across one of the creatures at rest and perhaps even snuck up behind it.
Slowly, making as little noise as he could, he stepped forward and raised his gun. He could shoot it from where he was, probably, but it wasn’t a very clear shot and he’d have to expend a significant amount of ammo to ensure he killed it. More to the point, he wanted to see what it actually looked like. He drew a shallow breath and stepped forward once more, then again. The sounds of battle seemed even more distant now.
The outline of the creature began to come into view. He could not make out any real details, but it seemed to be about two and a half meters tall—larger than most men but not huge. Beneath and around the indigo-hued fur was scaly skin of a deep yellowish-brown. He aimed his rifle.
Something rustled to the right. His head snapped in that direction.
The other one had apparently remained hidden and waited to strike, while the first stood in plain sight to act as a decoy. Gunter swung his rifle and cursed himself for having fallen for the ruse and not opened fire immediately. He prepared himself mentally for the possibility of death even as his finger squeezed the trigger.
He wasn’t fast enough. A short, strangled cry cut off and the last thing he saw was the creature’s jaws closing around him.
Chapter Eleven
Laura constantly tapped her fingers on her side or ran them through her hair as she walked. They were old nervous gestures of hers that came back occasionally when she was either very excited about something or borderline terrified. At that moment, she experienced both of those emotions in fluctuating proportions, although excitement seemed to be the stronger.
“So, will this be your first time?” one of the soldiers asked in a thick German accent. She hadn’t really paid attention to anyone but she looked at him now. He was a young man in his early twenties, wolfish-looking and olive-complexioned, and wore a sly smirk on his lean face.
“Oh, yes, I’m afraid it will,” she replied. “I’ve just arrived in Africa, actually.”
“Well then,” the man returned, “we will tell Africa to be gentle with you.” He turned his face away from her and a couple of his friends chuckled around him.
Her mouth tightened in irritation, but she ignored the stupid comment for now. She was distracted. They’d crossed the grounds of the base and arrived at the huge, high-tech gate that separated Fort Archway from the open desert and beyond that, the Zoo itself. She could hardly wait to see it.
Hauptmann Shalwar was out in front and veered to the left toward a cubicle attached to the gate, where he met a tall, friendly-looking black man with a gun at his hip. The two spoke like old friends, but she noticed that the guard seemed alert and even cautious as he scanned the troops. His eyes focused briefly on her before they moved on.
“Another rescue mission, Coop,” Jan said in English. “This time, we go to rescue the rescuers. Klaus has gotten himself lost.”
The other man laughed quietly. “Well, I hope you find them and bring them all back.” His accent sounded Midlands-ish, probably Birmingham, but he spoke in an oddly formal way that made it difficult for her to be sure. He looked at her. “And who is this young lady? Civilian oversight?”
She waved, about to introduce herself, but Jan spoke first. “Our new scientific observer, Dr. Laura Curie,” he stated. “Director Roden personally introduced her to us so presumably, she knows what she’s doing.”
“Ah, good,” the man replied.
Laura took a few steps forward and extended her hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you,” she said. “Pardon the redundancy, but I’m Dr. Laura Curie.”
“Pleased to meet you, Laura. I’m Sergeant Gerald Cooper, but everyone calls me Coop. There are fewer syllables to deal with that way.”
“Ha, yes, true,” she agreed. “You military men and your efficiency. We wouldn’t want to waste excess syllables.”
He laughed but then his demeanor turned subtly and undeniably more serious. “Make sure you behave yourself in there and that all your credentials are up to date. The Zoo used to have some rather serious problems with bad people going in to do bad things. My duty is to make sure that none of those kinds of people get past this gate—from either side—or that any of the creatures out there get in.”
“Yes, very good, and I understand,” she agreed but her excitement now took another shift toward nervousness.
“We can’t delay,” Jan said and rescued her from the potential interrogation. “Everything else should be in order. As usual, Ferris and I have seen to it personally.”
“But of course,” Coop replied. He returned to his cubicle and operated the controls within. Laura looked at the gate and marveled at the thickness of the wall into which it was set.
The metal barrier appeared to be strong and it was large enough to drive a truck through. Turrets with unmanned machine guns were set to its right and left above the towering wall itself—she estimated about thirty meters, give or take—that spanned the full width overhead and continued on either side. The gate opened as a split down the middle, and each half disappeared with almost shocking speed into the structure to either side. Beyond lay a stretch of pale yellowish-brown sand beneath the bright blue sky and nothing else.
They filed into a small convoy of military trucks and she was pressed shoulder-to-shoulder between a couple of young men who had a fairly animated conversation in German, laughing as they completely ignored her. The ride was over soon enough, fortunately, and she took a deep breath. Nothing else really mattered because she was almost there.
She climbed down from the truck beside the others, looked around, and gasped. Beyond the last narrow strip of the desert lay a brooding mass of dark yet vivid greens. The Zoo. This was it, she realized. They had arrived.
While she had read about it and so had some idea of what to expect, actually seeing it in person was different. A moist jungle that teemed with alien life, full of mutated or unfamiliar plants, sprang abruptly from one of the most barren landscapes on the planet.
“Brilliant,” she said softly and shook her head in something close to awe. “Absolutely brilliant.”
“Ja, welcome to Fort Arschweg,” someone nearby mocked in a sarcastic tone.
Laura thought this was a
n odd way of pronouncing “Archway,” even for a German, but she paid it no heed. Instead, she secured the helmet on her head, thankful that they’d geared her up once it became clear that yes, she would go with them into the Zoo. The day had grown even hotter, and there was a fair amount of desert to march across before they reached the shade of the jungle.
As they set out across the Saharan waste, some of the other soldiers nearby conferred or joked together, mostly in German. Occasionally, one or other of their sergeants seemed to tell them to shut up. Jan and his right-hand woman, Ferris, also repeated various basic and obvious instructions about staying together, being careful, paying attention, and so forth. Now and then, these instructions were even issued in English, quite possibly for her benefit. She tried to internalize it all. Studying the most incredible environment on the planet would be more difficult if she constantly did stupid things and made these hard-assed soldiers angry at her.
Soon, the leafy entrance of the jungle—wide open but not exactly welcoming—stood before them, and the column of troops began to file in. Jan was near the front and Ferris a little farther back. Laura was more or less in the exact center to keep her protected and also ensure that she was penned in and unable to poke around in the jungle except when the Hauptmann determined it was safe to do so.
She stared forward, up, and to both sides, her jaw hanging open. It wasn’t only the Zoo’s improbable lushness that stunned her but the fact that the plant life was such a deep, dark, concentrated shade of green. Many of the trees and other vegetation gave the simultaneous impression of both alien strangeness and uncanny familiarity. These were mutated specimens of Earth species, she knew. The notes and reports compiled by Dr. Marie and Dr. Lin had waxed considerably on this subject.
“In we go,” a voice said. She recognized it as belonging to the wolfish fellow who’d spoken to her earlier. “Hard and deep.”
“Lovely,” she replied, too busy staring at her surroundings to pay him much heed.
Things were quiet as they traipsed in and walked perhaps half a kilometer into the humid and shadowy emerald gloom before Jan called a halt to examine the trail. Apparently, this was the point at which Klaus’s team had deviated from the usual path taken by German forces as part of their bid to rescue the missing Americans.
Things were quiet aside from the faint sound, almost like breathing, which seemed to collectively arise from the interaction of all the Zoo’s plants and still-hidden creatures.
“Chris Lin theorized that this whole place might, to some extent, be a single organism,” she mumbled as she looked around. “I can almost see how that might be the case.”
“Ja, well, still different plants that do different things,” said Wolf-Face as he sidled closer to her. The group had formed a rough circle when it stopped and Jan and a few others conferred near the front on which way to go.
“Well, of course,” Laura replied.
“Like that one,” the young man went on and pointed to a leafy plant that looked rather familiar. “That is powerful aphrodisiac. It would be almost unfair if I were to take it.”
A few other soldiers laughed—or tried not to laugh—and it seemed half the troop now watched the two of them.
She stared at him in surprise, then squinted at the plant. “No, it isn’t,” she retorted in a voice loud enough for the entire team to hear. “That’s licorice. Well, slightly mutated, perhaps, but definitely a licorice plant. It’s not native to Africa and is mostly found in southern Europe and India, so either the original American experiment included it, or some idiot littered a candy wrapper in here and the Zoo assimilated it. It’s actually been linked to erectile dysfunction when consumed in significant quantities as candy, so I’m sure the pure, undiluted variety from the original plant would only be that much more potent—or impotent—if you were to chew a leaf.”
Almost everyone dissolved into laughter. Snorts transformed into outright laughs. Wolf-Face half-smiled, half-grimaced, and seemed to fade imperceptibly into the pseudo-anonymity of the crowd.
Laura looked toward the front of the column. Jan, the commander, was watching her. She was entirely unsurprised to see that he was not laughing.
“Very humorous,” he said in an utterly flat tone of voice, his facial expression deadpan. “Gefreiter Schultz, do not harass or flirt with our guest scientist as I will be unable to protect you if you do. That goes for everyone else as well. And Dr. Curie, please do not undermine the morale of my troops even if they technically deserve it. We have a task at hand which we must accomplish. Now, let us focus on it, please.” He turned away.
She fumed internally. While she was glad he’d told the men not to pester her, between his condescending and humorless attitude now and his unwarranted bollocking of her earlier over the nonsense with the vehicles, she felt fully justified for the fact that she mostly hated this guy.
On the other hand, she felt as though the attitude of the troops had shifted regarding her. Their opinion of her had improved, at least a little, and on some level, she suspected that they resented Jan’s shutting down of their brief foray into actual fun. Even if they respected his abilities as an officer, they were still normal human beings with a sense of humor.
“What an arsehole,” she muttered under her breath as they began to move again. “Then again, he’s likely clenched his sphincter muscle so tight that ‘hole’ might not be an accurate summation. More like an arse-slit.”
“Kinky,” someone said behind her. “I think she’ll fit in just fine.”
Chapter Twelve
Jan examined the ground and the lower foliage in search of the trail. With him was Unteroffizier Albert Wenzel, their best tracker. He was a small, wiry man, quite young but very skilled, disciplined, and focused. His father had evidently been an avid hunter, and it showed.
“They very likely went that way, Hauptmann,” he said and gestured in the appropriate direction. “The Zoo seems to cover tracks much more quickly than a natural jungle would. Bent plants straighten themselves, footprints find the ground rises up to engulf them, and trampled grasses regrow in only a short time. Still, there are subtle signs of disturbance. Furthermore, the foliage is thinner here. Hautpmann Klaus always struck me as the type to take the route that is easiest to barge through quickly and with brute force.”
“Indeed,” the leader agreed. “Of course, you are never to speak ill of a superior officer where anyone else above your rank might hear or in front of the men.”
“Sorry, Hauptmann,” he apologized. “I had overhead you and Leutnant Ferris joking about—”
“This is the Bundeswehr.” He cut him off. “We as officers may say, ‘Do as we say, not as we do,’ and it is not hypocrisy because we are of higher rank. As far as you are concerned, that is all that matters.”
“Yes, Hauptmann,” the Unteroffizier said and his shoulders slumped a little.
“Of course, you are an excellent soldier and tracker, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself promoted again fairly soon. It may not be long until you are a commissioned officer yourself, at which point you too may be able to sample the fruits of rank privilege.”
“Yes, Hauptmann.”
“Good.” Jan turned to the column. “This way,” he said and waved his hand. The Bull and the various Feldwebels nodded and moved the men along. They trudged through the mud and undergrowth and brushed aside or broke branches in their progress down the path the young scout had indicated.
As they marched, Jan reflected on the Zoo’s relative quiet and peacefulness thus far. This meant nothing. They simply could not trust the jungle or anticipate what it would or wouldn’t do, at least in terms of how much resistance could be expected. Once the Zoo showed its hand, though, he would know how to react. That was all a person could do in a place of pure chaos.
Of course, it made the job of dealing with chaos much easier when he had a firm grasp on all the variables he was dealing with. Prior to the introduction of the ridiculous British woman, his grasp had been fi
rm. She complicated matters. Already, she’d clearly demonstrated that she was prone to shouting in return at anyone who gave her offense.
On the other hand, if Roden were to be believed, her credentials were sterling. If she could learn to follow his rules and manage not to get herself or anyone else killed, her scientific acuity and intelligence might actually end up as a boon to their overall operation. She could be of great benefit to Fort Archway in general and to all the human beings involved in containing the dangers of the Zoo.
During a rescue mission, however, in which she seemed to do little more than tag along… He wasn’t so sure about the wisdom of that.
Within a minute—perhaps as long as two minutes—of this thought entering his mind, Dr. Laura Currie herself proceeded to walk up to him. Which meant she had disregarded his earlier instructions that she should stay near the middle of the column for safety unless he had specifically given her permission to wander around.
“Mr…uh, Scheussen-something,” she said.
“Hauptmann Shalwar,” he corrected her. “Or, if that is difficult to remember, you may address me as Captain Shalwar.”
“Oh, Captain, yes,” she said and seemed to marvel at the notion that rank terminology would translate across languages. “And Shalwar. I shall try to remember that. It almost doesn’t sound German, though.”
“My father was from Pakistan,” he replied. “May I help you with something, Dr. Curie? You should stay in the center of the formation—”
“Pakistan. It makes sense now. Well, in any event, yes, I wondered…”
Jan frowned. If she merely wondered about something, it was unlikely to be anything remotely like an emergency. He had a missing team to track.
“Well, I wondered if you or any of your troops had ever collected samples of some of these plants on your various expeditions? Your team left so soon after I arrived that I didn’t have time to discuss the matter with Director Roden, I’m afraid, or speak to anyone in the research department.”
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