Z. Apocalypse

by Steve Cole

  ‘Keera?’

  ‘My name for her. Well, Dr Marrs says she’s been adapted from the species Ornithocheirus . . .’

  ‘You know Dr Marrs?’

  ‘Sure, him and mum go way back. Science stuff, yada, yada.’

  ‘And you also know how to pronounce that crazy pterosaur word . . .?’

  ‘Or-nee-tho-KEER-as.’ She shrugged. ‘The “keera” bit sounds best, right?’

  Adam nodded. ‘Beats calling her Z. dactyl the whole time. Anyway, as for why I’m back, it’s a long story. And since my dad and your mum are going to be ages and ages putting their gadgets and gizmos together, maybe I could tell you some of it?’

  Zoe seemed to consider. ‘Is it going to give me nightmares?’

  ‘If you’ve seen inside the heads of these creatures, you can’t scare easily.’

  ‘Ha!’ She turned and steered her wheelchair towards the exit. ‘Let’s get out of here. I need some fresh air.’

  As he followed her, Adam glanced back over his shoulder at the captured pterosaur. One of her huge eyes had flickered open, watching him go. Dark, accusing.

  And maybe, he thought, a little afraid.

  Zoe set the pace for Adam, her electric wheelchair trundling along a track through the peaceful countryside. Normally the refuge was open to tourists, school trips, all manner of visitors. But today Patuxent was closed and the two of them had the whole wildlife reserve to themselves – aside from the entourage of soldiers assigned to make sure they stayed safe.

  Adam found himself talking and talking, telling Zoe all of his terrifying adventures. How his dad had been kidnapped . . . how he’d wound up befriending Zed, crossing the Atlantic on the dinosaur’s back . . . How not once but twice he’d confronted the maniacs who’d made these monsters; first in the bowels of a nuclear shelter in Edinburgh, then in a fight for survival on an island of warring raptors . . .

  Finally he told her about his insane flight over DC last night. She made a good audience, letting him ramble on, making all the right noises to show she was listening and interested.

  ‘I can’t believe we’re talking about it so normally. You know – dinosaurs and mad scientists and stuff.’ Zoe shook her head. ‘You must’ve had a great view of the end of the White House, up in the air.’

  ‘It was horrible.’

  ‘Uh-huh. But maybe that’s why Keera associates you with the sky. You know, she flew you all around . . .’ Zoe took a deep breath of fresh air that turned into an almighty yawn. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘I knew I was boring you,’ said Adam. Then he yawned too and they laughed.

  ‘I’m the one who feels boring.’ Zoe stopped her chair at the end of the track, looking out over a lake fringed with heather. ‘You’ve been caught up in all that crazy stuff, while I was sat on my butt in New Jersey, missing Auckland, getting a lousy home education and working with CIA sniffer dogs.’

  ‘Were you looking inside the dogs’ heads?’

  ‘That’s classified.’ She smiled. ‘Y’know, dogs love me. At least until they want to go for a run – pulling me along slows them down.’

  Feeling awkward, Adam tried to change the subject. ‘You’ve come from Auckland to New Jersey to Maryland. Do you travel a lot?’

  ‘I grease up the wheels on this chair, lasso a car’s towbar and hang on tight.’ Zoe smiled ruefully. ‘Sorry, I should let you off the hook. Uncomfortable, much? People always are.’ She paused. ‘You know, all you need to do is ask me why I look like I do and I’ll tell you.’

  Adam sat down on a bank of grass beside the track, so he was more at her eye level. ‘I’m sorry. I guess I wasn’t sure if you want to talk about it.’

  ‘Thing is, people are so busy worrying about offending me, they mostly don’t talk to me at all. I weird them out and they don’t know how to handle that.’ She pulled her hair down over her twisted neck again, vulnerability now in her blue eyes. ‘It’s called Proteus syndrome. It’s double rare, especially in girls. Basically, some bits of your body grow too much. Out of proportion, you know? Bones, skin . . .’ She shrugged, looked back out across the lake. ‘“Sporadic overgrowth”, the doctors call it. You don’t want to know what I call it.’

  ‘It’s unfair,’ Adam mumbled.

  ‘Yeah, well. Is it fair that you fell into this whole mad dinosaur business, and that you’ve been tied up with it ever since?’ Zoe shrugged. ‘That’s just how it is. You play with the cards you’re dealt, right? That’s what Mum says.’

  ‘What about your dad?’

  ‘He left. Started another family. What about your mum?’

  ‘She died. Car accident.’

  Zoe screwed up her nose. ‘I think I liked the conversation better when there were more dinosaurs in it.’

  ‘And sniffer dogs,’ said Adam, forcing a smile. ‘Sniffer dogs are cool.’

  ‘Secret agent dogs are even cooler.’ Zoe smiled slyly. ‘Me and Mum were testing how dogs recognize their owners, how much of it is scent, how much is visual. When the CIA heard we’d got images of the dogs’ owners out of their little puppy brains and onto a computer, they started thinking . . .’

  ‘Send a dog out to spy for them and no one would suspect.’

  ‘Precisely! Except then Keera showed up and we were shipped out here in one heck of a hurry . . .’

  ‘How did you get into this talking-to-animals stuff?’ Adam wondered.

  ‘I got the right mum.’ Zoe smiled. ‘She studied animal behaviour and psychology at university, and got kind of obsessed with the way animals can hear and see and sense stuff that we can’t. And maybe it’s in the genes, ’cause right from being a little kid I found I could . . . you know, understand animals. Empathize, I guess you’d call it. Mum thought I was just playing at first, but when I knew our pet dog had something bad in her gut way before her tumour showed up, she started to get interested. Took me in after school to the lab where she works.’

  Adam pulled a sympathetic face. ‘Yeah, I’ve been part of that routine with my dad. Getting you involved—’

  ‘– so they don’t feel so bad about spending the whole time working,’ Zoe concluded. They both laughed knowingly.

  ‘And they figure we don’t know what they’re doing,’ said Adam.

  ‘It has been cool though.’ Zoe had become confident and animated now. ‘I know Mum’s set-up looks crazy, but there’s been so much tinkering with it over the years, trying to integrate my own brainwaves with the translation systems . . . we’re both scared to death it won’t work if she ever updates it.’

  ‘Her technology has boosted what you can do naturally,’ said Adam. ‘I’ll bet the military have offered to take it apart and find out exactly how it works.’

  ‘Just one or two hundred times since they got us into this,’ Zoe agreed. ‘Mum’s kept them off so far . . .’ She sighed. ‘I hate the thought of having all this taken away from me. When Mum captures an image, or words, from inside an animal’s head it’s like . . . proof.’

  Adam thought he understood. ‘Proof that your mum’s not crazy?’

  Zoe shook her head. ‘Proof that I can do something most other people can’t. That Zoe Halsall is more than just a medical condition. You can’t believe how important that is to me.’ She shrugged. ‘I was ready to hate you for steaming in here to “help us out”.’

  Adam stiffened. ‘Not exactly my choice.’

  ‘I know. And if Keera didn’t have so much tech in her head to keep her feelings and instincts in, I could handle her all by myself.’

  ‘I’m not trying to take anything away from you,’ Adam told her.

  ‘Bit too late for that!’ Her smile showed she was teasing. ‘I mean, you say you’ve actually talked with animals! To properly talk to something that’s not human and have it talk back to you . . . That’s awesome. Respect to you. Awe to you.’

  ‘It’s crazy.’ Adam shivered. ‘Scary and weird. I can’t tell you how weird it is.’

  ‘I did kind of notice. I mean, like, making a dinos
aur wasn’t impressive enough for these Geneflow guys – they had to make it speak too?’

  ‘Right . . .’ Adam paused, distracted by some distant noise of movement in the trees that bordered this part of the park. ‘I guess because Zed was an early experiment, able to think for himself, Geneflow thought he should be able to explain his actions.’ He thought of the huge animal with whom he’d shared so many frightening, desperate days and felt a pang of loneliness. Zed had protected him, tried to keep him safe before departing for who knew where. But now . . .

  Wish you were here, big feller, he thought.

  ‘You OK?’ Zoe asked him.

  Adam was about to nod when he heard a sudden rustling in the reeds over on the other side of the lake. The soldiers jerked into life, clicks and rattles hurled into the quiet as they cocked their weapons and took aim.

  A moorhen or something flapped from out of the reeds and swam busily into the middle of the water. Zoe and Adam swapped relieved looks. Then Adam spotted further movement in the leafy brush around the lake’s edge. Some shy animal was edging towards them.

  The soldiers kept careful aim. Pass-card Man tossed a grin to his mate. ‘Fancy crispy duck for dinner tonight?’

  ‘Not with your bullet up its crispy butt,’ drawled his friend, to some laughter.

  Suddenly something broke cover, darting from the reeds and heather, making straight for the soldiers. It was moving so fast, but the world seemed to slow around Adam. The creature was small and feathered, the size of a collie but running on its hind legs. Its arms were long, its hands a mass of claws, its face sharp and toothy like a baby crocodile’s. Vicious barbed hooks curled up from its ankles.

  What the—? Oh my God, it’s some kind of raptor . . .

  ‘Kids, get out of here!’ yelled Pass-card Man, his shout drowned out by the hollow stammer of assault rifles as he and his friends opened fire.

  On automatic, Adam started away like a sprinter – before realizing Zoe couldn’t run; she was trapped in her chair, hardly designed for speed. He stopped and turned back, saw her trundling towards him looking absolutely terrified. She couldn’t see what he could see – the raptor, small but sinewy and strong, shrugging off the spray of bullets. It hurled itself into the soldiers, slashing and tearing out at their legs, bringing them down. Jaws frothing, it bit at their wrists, swiped the guns from their hands with its coiling tail.

  ‘Come on, Zoe,’ Adam urged her. ‘Come on!’

  Face and body bloodied, the raptor turned its black bright eyes onto Adam and Zoe.

  Then, with a gurgling hiss, it bolted towards them.

  Chapter 8: The Second Target

  ADAM STUMBLED BACKWARDS, terrified and defenceless, convinced he would be ripped to pieces within seconds. The raptor’s pace slowed for a moment, its wild eyes darting between him and Zoe as if weighing up which was the easier prey.

  Then with a sudden jerk of its body it darted straight at the girl.

  Adam watched in horror as its blood-soaked jaws clamped down on Zoe’s ankle, pulling at it in a frenzied attempt to wrestle her from the wheelchair. Zoe’s piercing screams jolted Adam into action and he looked frantically around for anything that might drive off the creature.

  But it was too late.

  Adam screamed as loud as Zoe did as the raptor tore her leg away, shaking it wildly in its jaws. But as he stared at the severed limb in horror, Adam suddenly realized – no blood. The leg was artificial.

  His sense of relief was fleeting; the creature was rapidly losing interest in the prosthetic limb and he knew it would resume its attack any second. Got to do something. He caught sight of the fallen soldiers by the lake, moaning and writhing in pain from their injuries. It’s OK, Zoe, he wanted to yell bravely, I’ll draw it off! But fear had robbed him of words. He grabbed pebbles from the muddy ground at his feet, chucked them at the raptor, then turned and pelted towards the soldiers. He sensed a sudden movement in the grass behind him as the raptor gave chase.

  ‘Adam, no!’ Zoe sounded close to tears. ‘It’ll kill you!’

  I know. God, I know. Adam snatched up Pass-card Man’s fallen rifle and whirled round to face his attacker, wielding the weapon like a club.

  The raptor was already scuttling towards him, claws outstretched. Adam leaped back, swung the rifle butt at the beast’s head with all his strength. Metal struck bone with a satisfying crack; the creature seemed momentarily stunned, a dark red trickle oozing from its jaws. He swung at it again, but this time it was too quick, dodging backwards, hissing and snarling.

  Adam managed a third attempt before the raptor’s claws tore into the back of his hand. He cried out in pain as the rifle dropped from his bloodied fingers. ‘No!’ he shouted helplessly, as the creature readied itself to pounce.

  But then more bullets pounded into its body, rounds spraying upwards into its face. One eye burst open and sharp teeth shattered. Turning in disgust, Adam saw four more soldiers racing towards them. With an angry screech the raptor turned and bounded away at incredible speed, vanishing into the undergrowth.

  Adam was still staring after it, terrified that it would double back, when the men reached him. ‘We heard shots fired, came running,’ one began. ‘What was that thing?’

  ‘Raptor. It . . . it hurt the guards,’ Adam stammered.

  ‘It hurt you,’ the soldier noted.

  Adam saw that his whole hand was covered in blood. He clutched at the dark, sticky mess and his guts turned with nausea. ‘What about Zoe? It got her leg . . .’

  ‘Don’t worry. We’ll check it out.’ Two of the soldiers pelted away.

  Adam’s legs could no longer support him, and he sank to his knees on the grass, his hand stinging viciously. He couldn’t believe how quickly the attack had come, how close to death he’d been. What was that raptor doing here? he thought. Where did it come from?

  ‘Easy, kid.’ One of the soldiers put a hand on Adam’s shoulder. ‘We’re going to get you to an ambulance, OK? You’ll be all right.’

  Adam nodded, still staring into the undergrowth. He knew he’d survived today by chance, dumb luck.

  They can get at us any time. And anywhere.

  Adam stirred slowly, crawling back into consciousness from black, dreamless sleep. As he opened his eyes, his heart began to pump; Where am I? Then he remembered being taken to a private room in the nearest hospital, escorted by a crowd of men in uniform. The doctor had given him something to calm him down. Since it was now night through the window, he must have gone out like a light.

  The door opened suddenly and a young soldier peered in, gun at the ready. ‘Heard you move. Everything OK?’

  ‘Fine.’ Adam almost held his hands up – then saw that the one on the left was heavily bandaged, and winced. ‘Uh, how long have I been sleeping?’

  The soldier smiled. ‘Most of the day, you lazy tyke. You’ve got a visitor here been waiting to see you.’

  ‘Before you get too excited, it’s only me.’ Zoe steered her wheelchair into the room, a blanket over her lap. As the soldier stepped back outside and closed the door, she watched Adam from the foot of the bed. ‘How you doing? How’s that hand?’

  ‘Not so bad.’ Adam flexed it, winced, and sat up in bed. ‘How are you doing?’

  ‘I’m fine. The soldiers that thing attacked will be OK too, once the stitches come out.’

  ‘Did they catch it?’

  ‘No. It vanished.’

  ‘Great. It could be anywhere.’ Adam shuddered. ‘When I saw it had your leg . . .’

  Zoe looked away. ‘Aren’t I lucky, getting one amputated when I was twelve ’cause of all that pain I was in, huh?’

  ‘I had no idea you . . .’ Adam trailed off awkwardly. ‘Well, I guess we owe a lot to that missing leg. It bought us time. Probably saved our lives . . .’

  ‘Destiny! I knew I developed this incredibly rare medical condition for a reason.’

  ‘All right, fine, I give up. Sorry.’ Adam slumped back crossly against his hard pillow.
‘I’m just trying to say thank you.’

  Zoe bit her lip. ‘I know. I try to joke about the Proteus to stop people feeling uncomfortable around me. I guess sometimes I try too hard.’ She looked at him. ‘I also find it hard to thank people, you know? Like to think I can take care of myself. But . . . Thank you for leading that thing away from me. Are you OK?’

  ‘Right now I’m not sure what I am,’ Adam admitted. ‘Have you been here for the last ten hours too?’

  ‘Just for observation – and to be fitted for a new prosthetic. Who knows when that’s going to come.’ She shrugged. ‘Anyway, since you’re being guarded by half an army, Mum decided that here was the safest place for me while she works on with your dad. Oldman won’t let either of them leave the lab to visit us, says it’s not safe.’ She paused. ‘You know, they think that raptor thing was gathering information. Or that maybe it attacked us because it knew we were going to try to talk with Keera – and someone didn’t want that.’

  ‘Makes sense, I guess.’ He looked out anxiously at the night past the curtains. ‘But like Oldman says, we don’t know what Geneflow’s up to. How long will we be kept here, do you think?’

  ‘That’s what I came to tell you. Me and Mum are being moved into Fort Meade next to you and your dad. Oldman said he’d send a car to get us when our parents are done for the day – should be here in half an hour.’

  ‘Makes sense I suppose,’ said Adam. ‘They can guard us all together.’

  Zoe nodded sullenly. ‘Well . . . I’ll see you later, when they bring the car for us.’ Adam made to get up to open the door for her, but she shook her head. With only a little difficulty, she wheeled herself parallel to the door, opened it while pushing herself backwards out of its way, then glided quickly outside before it could swing shut on her.

  Adam sank back against the pillow and sighed. Almost at once, he heard agitated voices from further along the corridor: ‘Oh my God, have you seen . . .?’

  ‘I heard it on the news.’