Z. Apocalypse

by Steve Cole

  Snarling and shrieking, the two flying monsters locked together in deadly combat.

  Got to take a chance – or die. With fierce determination, Adam managed to lift Zoe over his shoulder, ready to make a dash for the exit. Straining under her weight, Adam staggered across the hangar. Halfway to the doors, he chanced a look behind. Keera was trying to tear herself away from her attacker, biting at its wings.

  Then he realized with a lurch that the one-eyed Z. rex had seen them. It rose up, brows locked together in a hateful glare, teeth as big as stalactites gleaming. With a blood-blistering roar it snaked out its neck, jaws opening wide to devour them. Adam didn’t even have time to scream . . .

  Before a rush of air almost knocked him off his feet and he and Zoe were snatched away by Keera’s butcher’s-hook claws. He gasped with pain as the pterosaur’s grip crushed Zoe hard against him, choked on dust in the dizzying rush of flight. He saw the hole in the roof zoom closer – and then in a gale of noise and debris Keera tore straight through into her treasured sky.

  Dangling with Zoe, helpless in Keera’s claws, Adam let loose a howl of terror as the pterosaur banked to the right. The fourth of the monsters had smashed its way outside and was taking on a big-time military retaliation. Its skin was scorched and blackened and blood ran from huge wounds in its side – but from the scattered corpses and tanks stamped into the ground, Adam could tell the Z. rex was giving as good as it got. Dad, where are you? Adam saw no sign of him, or Eve or Colonel Oldman. But the laboratory looked to be on fire.

  ‘Dad!’ he bellowed.

  And somehow, the embattled Z. rex seemed to hear. It twisted its long neck to look straight up at him. Instantly it flicked out its gruesome, sticky wings and threw itself through the air towards them. As Keera sped away over the grounds of the wildlife refuge, Adam swore as the other three monsters, two of them wounded, rose up from the shattered hangar, their eerie stealth shields shimmering.

  Keera descended sharply. Adam was almost sick, clutching onto Zoe, his stomach jammed in his throat. She’s going to crash and kill us—

  But at the last moment she levelled out barely a metre from the long grass and let Adam and Zoe drop. They both fell like dead weights and Adam gasped, winded, as Zoe landed on top of him. He saw Keera fly on. She’s leaving us. Hope torched in his chest for a moment. She knows it’s her that those things are after, not us, so she’s . . .

  She’s coming back.

  Adam struggled up with Zoe in his arms. Keera circled and landed beside them, with incredible lightness for a beast so big. Her mauled jaws cranked open, her eyes wide and bright. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, impatient or uneasy, and made deep chittering sounds in the back of her throat, her gaze meeting his. Adam had the unmistakable feeling she was trying to communicate something.

  Adam looked behind him. A blood-soaked shine low over the landscape told that the four Godzillas were coming for them. And there’s nowhere we can go, there’s . . .

  Keera opened her jaws still wider, her wings at full-stretch, corded muscles there twitching. Was she trying to show him something? Adam remembered Zed had stored stuff for a mission, like explosives, in a fleshy compartment inside his mouth; did Keera have something similar? With Zoe still in his arms, he took a step closer . . .

  And Keera curled one wing around them both, sweeping them into her giant jaws. ‘No!’ Adam shouted as he stumbled into the dark, slippery space. She’s gonna eat us, gonna swallow us. He landed on top of Zoe in a sticky hollow beneath Keera’s rasping tongue. It felt like wet rubber and smelled like . . .

  Adam was almost sick with the stench of putrefying flesh. Keera’s mouth was a narrow, glistening cave, its undulating walls dripping with gobs of blood and saliva. Gooey strands of half-chewed meat clogged the gaps between her reddened teeth. Adam covered his mouth with his hand, tried to get back out.

  But then the huge jaws slammed shut and Keera’s scythe-like teeth knitted tightly together, plunging the damp cave into darkness. An eerie rushing, pounding sound filled the darkness; Adam realized it must be the pterosaur’s heartbeat.

  ‘Zoe?’ he reached out and his hand brushed against her arm. Then he heard the muffled beating of vast wings and felt a sickening lurch as Keera took to the air. Oh my God, we’re gonna die . . .

  The massive, fleshy slab of Keera’s tongue flopped down on top of him and Zoe, wedging them inside the cavity. He was both repulsed and relieved – at least it might keep them from disappearing down her throat and ending up as another meal. But the stink of it . . . He clung on to Zoe, not knowing if he wanted her to wake up or stay blissfully oblivious to what was happening.

  Keera’s body spasmed wildly, a rumble building somewhere in her guts. Her tongue flicked upwards, as she opened her jaws wide to release a terrifying roar of anger.

  She’s getting her voice back. Jamming his hands over his ears, Adam let Zoe go and peered over the side of the compartment. A rush of air billowed into the cavity, like they were in a rollercoaster bursting from out of a tunnel – and a bloodied, battered Z. rex filled Adam’s vision. He yelled as he saw it swooping down towards them at incredible speed, claws outstretched, mouth open, its yellow eyes burning with fury. At the last moment, Keera rolled sharply to the left to avoid the attack and Adam was flung backwards into the cavity.

  Rubbing his bruised back, Adam crouched low next to Zoe, hanging on to her again as Keera’s tongue flapped down and scraped over them once more. It felt disgusting, rasping and rubbery, soaking his skin with a sharp, stinking fluid. He sensed a rapid succession of body blows jolting the creature from side to side. Those things are never going to give up, he thought desperately. They’re going to knock her out of the sky.

  But it seemed Keera wasn’t about to give up either. She swooped and dived, answering each vicious assault with a choking screech of defiance.

  Adam’s stomach lurched. It’s like we’re living a videogame and God-knows-who has got the controls.

  Every few seconds he was afforded a fleeting view of Keera’s attackers through her half-open mouth. From what he could make out, at least three of the Z. rexes were circling her in some kind of formation, taking it in turns to attack.

  Another jolt, harder this time. Adam’s internal organs swapped places as Keera suddenly plummeted downwards. Dizziness overwhelmed him. Going to crash . . . He hung on to Zoe, crushed up against her in the darkness. We hardly even know each other, and now . . . Keera’s tongue flapped wildly overhead. Adam gasped as an ice-cold gale from outside whipped about his face, before the great mouth slammed shut once more and he waited for the inevitable collision . . .

  But it didn’t come. At least, not in the way he expected. Keera hit something – but the impact was almost cushioned. Adam sensed Keera’s body rolling gently from side to side. The steady pumping of her heartbeat signalled she was still alive and in one piece.

  As the seconds passed, Adam allowed himself to believe the attack was over. But how? Why had the creatures given up like that? His ears popped, as if the pressure was changing around him, and he swallowed hard to clear it. What next? With a sinking feeling, Adam realized he was entirely out of options, literally along for the ride. The dark, cramped space was making him feel claustrophobic and the stench from Keera’s mouth threatened to overwhelm him. What is that goo plastered all over her tongue? he wondered. Please, don’t let it be something that makes us easier to digest . . .

  Then Adam felt a sharp elbow jab him in his chest. Zoe was stirring at last.

  ‘What the . . .?’ Zoe’s voice rose as she started to come round. ‘Adam, is that you? Where are we?’ She went rigid. ‘Ugh, that stink!’

  Adam held her by the shoulders and shushed her, trying to calm her down. ‘It’s all right, we’re . . . we’re inside Keera.’

  ‘She’s eaten us?’

  ‘No!’ Adam said quickly. ‘In her jaws. I think she’s taking us away somewhere.’

  ‘But what happened?’ Zoe sounded distraught.
‘It’s all so hazy. I was seeing something in Keera’s mind . . . a place with snow . . . and then – it was like I was actually inside there.’

  ‘The place with snow?’

  ‘No.’ Zoe sounded husky, hesitant. ‘I mean . . . inside Keera’s mind. It’s like . . . we touched.’

  ‘Well, now you’ve been swallowed.’ Adam frowned. ‘Do you remember the Z. rexes, those dinosaur monsters that attacked us?’

  ‘Kind of . . .’

  ‘I don’t understand why they tried to kill her.’ He paused, feeling dizzy and disorientated in the absolute dark. ‘I mean, if they wanted to stop her talking to us, why not just set her free so she could escape with them?’

  ‘Because Keera’s not on their side any more.’ Zoe sounded fervent. ‘I’m sure she’s not. She . . . she doesn’t want to be owned by anyone.’

  ‘So why did she shove us in her mouth and fly off with us?’

  ‘To save us,’ said Zoe. ‘Why else?’

  ‘I can think of one reason.’ Adam sighed. ‘Keera snatched me out of nowhere back in DC, then had her fit. Maybe her programming is making her pick up where she left off. This compartment under her tongue could’ve been made for carrying people—’

  ‘Shhh. Wait.’

  Adam heard her shiver in the clammy darkness. ‘What?’

  ‘It’s getting colder. And listen . . .’

  Adam heard a quiet gurgling noise. Keera’s guts or . . .? No. Oh, no way.

  ‘Adam,’ Zoe breathed, ‘I think we’re underwater. That’s how she got away from those things.’

  In the dark, disturbing near-silence Adam remembered Dr Marrs’ words back at the Pentagon: ‘Z. rexes can fly huge distances – so why bother to create Z. “dactyls” . . .?’

  Perhaps because Z. dactyls aren’t just creatures of the air – they can swim too.

  ‘This is crazy.’ Zoe grabbed Adam’s arm, making him jump. ‘Totally crazy. I mean, she’s a flying reptile, not a swimming one! How can she do this?’

  ‘Because Geneflow must have some reason to make her that way. What I don’t get is, why aren’t we drowning right now?’

  ‘Keera’s jaws must be airtight. Which means . . .’ Zoe groaned quietly. ‘Which means the oxygen in here will be running out.’

  ‘We’ll suffocate.’ Fear prickled through his body. ‘Hey!’ he shouted. ‘Keera, we need air in here! Surface! Come on!’

  ‘Stop it,’ Zoe urged him. ‘You’ll only use up the air faster.’

  ‘Well, you try! You’re the one who’s meant to be so close to her . . .’ He trailed off, his anger blowing out as quickly as it had ignited. ‘I’m sorry, Zoe.’

  ‘Like it matters.’ She found his fingers and squeezed them. ‘I’m sorry too. I really felt that Keera wouldn’t hurt us. Guess I was wrong.’

  ‘She’s an animal. Why should it occur to her that we need air?’ Adam shrugged helplessly in the blackness. ‘Anyway. I guess she’s got to come up sometime to breathe again.’

  ‘But if she doesn’t anytime soon . . .’

  Zoe left the thought hanging. Saving her breath, Adam supposed. Already he was feeling kind of woozy – imagination, or the first fingers of suffocation at his throat? If Keera didn’t surface then it would all be over for them just as surely as if one of the Z. rexes had caught them. The pointlessness of it all crashed down on Adam, and his mood became black as the prison of flesh all around. He felt strangely tired; he wasn’t sure if it was the shifting movement of Keera’s body beneath him, but there was a spinning sensation building inside his head, he was starting to lose all sensation in his body.

  He searched out Zoe’s fingers, tried to focus on the feeling. But it was no use. Adam slumped back, his last thoughts melting away as consciousness fled and left him to the darkness.

  Chapter 12: Number Not Available

  ADAM AWOKE WITH an aching stomach.

  He blinked. His mouth was dry and he felt starving hungry. His body was warm, but the air was icy on his face.

  Memories flooded back.

  He realized that he was staring not at Keera’s bloodstained mouth, but instead at a high corrugated metal ceiling. The sun’s feeble rays shone through a cracked skylight. I’m alive!

  Sitting bolt upright, Adam found he’d been half-buried beneath sleeping bags still in their torn plastic packaging. Zoe was curled up next to him, asleep and similarly swamped with sleeping bags. A shedload of groceries – from tins and packets to fresh and frozen meat – lay littered around them in the middle of a huge, derelict warehouse.

  It’s like a nest, thought Adam. He grabbed a dented tin of peaches and yanked hard on the ring pull; his bandaged hand felt much better.

  As he slurped down the juice and slithery segments inside, he looked about him more closely. The writing on the cartons and packets was in a funny language he didn’t recognize. Behind him were two enormous wooden doors, one of which was hanging off its hinges. It looked as if Keera had made a dramatic entrance.

  Where is she?

  A movement in the corner of his eye made Adam turn to the other end of the cavernous warehouse. Crouched in one corner, half-hidden in shadow, was Keera. The wounds around her head and jaws seemed almost healed, and she was feeding on the remains of an animal, ravenously ripping the creature’s flesh from its bones. You didn’t pick that thing up at the local store, thought Adam; he glimpsed ragged patches of white fur spattered with blood, and a grisly pile of discarded skin and bones.

  Adam swallowed hard. Judging by the size of her victim, it looked like Keera was devouring a polar bear. Had she raided a zoo as well as the local Seven-Eleven? Where were they? He fumbled for another tin, apricot halves this time, and quickly downed them, almost choking in his haste. He wiped his sticky mouth, mind racing. If he ran now could he escape to fetch help – or would the Z. dactyl come after him . . .?

  He was distracted by a whimper. Zoe was stirring in her sleep, her only leg lashing out at some invisible attacker. She’s having nightmares. Uncertainly, Adam leaned over and shook her. Zoe’s eyes suddenly snapped open, her features twisting in fear as she gasped for breath.

  ‘Zoe, it’s OK, we’re safe.’ He pushed aside some bottles of cooking oil to get at a carton of drink, and passed it to her. ‘I don’t know how, but we made it . . .’

  While Zoe tore the cardboard open and drank deeply, Adam found some more peaches and opened them up. Zoe dropped the carton and snatched the tin from his hands, scooping the fruit into her mouth. ‘Where are we?’ she mumbled through a sticky mouthful. ‘Why’s it so cold?’

  ‘Ask the polar bear.’ Adam nodded to Keera’s bloodthirsty feast in the shadows. ‘I guess Keera must’ve surfaced for air after all. I blacked out, I don’t know how long for . . .’ He frowned, started patting his pockets. ‘But if I can find my phone, that’ll tell us, right?’

  Zoe finished the peaches, wiped her hands on a sleeping bag and pulled her own phone from her jeans pocket. ‘Mine’s out of battery. Weird, I thought I had plenty of charge.’

  Scanning the screen, Adam saw his own battery was almost flat – then did a double take as he saw the date on the scuffed screen. ‘No way. That’s got to be wrong, it’s . . .’ He showed Zoe the screen. ‘It’s two days since we were in the hangar.’

  ‘Two days?’

  ‘Seven o’clock in the morning, that’s almost forty-eight hours.’ He sniffed himself and grimaced. ‘Guess that explains one or two things.’ He tugged at the bandages on his hand, and saw that the cut was now healing well.

  Zoe looked at him wildly. ‘Mum will be freaking. She hates to let me out of her sight. Has your dad called?’

  ‘My phone’s been in flight mode since we went into the hangar – you can’t make or take calls.’ He disabled the setting and waited, praying he would get a signal.

  ‘How were we out for all that time?’ Zoe was opening a tin of corned beef now with the little metal key. ‘Last I remember we were running out of air. I got so dizzy . . .’

&nb
sp; ‘And sleepy,’ Adam agreed thoughtfully. ‘How could we sleep for two days unless—’ He remembered the chemical stink on Keera’s tongue. ‘Unless we were helped. Maybe there was something in her saliva that made us sleep.’

  ‘Like an anaesthetic, you mean?’ Zoe finished opening the tin and bit a big chunk from the pressed meat inside. ‘Why would there be?’

  ‘Dr Marrs told me and Dad how a load of scientific genius types had been kidnapped by Geneflow, with creatures heard overhead around the same time.’ Adam took his own mouthful of the salty, freezing meat, thinking hard. ‘And Keera opened her jaws for us to get inside like it was the most natural thing in the world.’

  Zoe’s eyes widened. ‘You think Z. dactyls did the kidnapping?’

  ‘Well, they’re well designed for it. Just tuck the victim under your tongue, out of the way, stop them struggling with some drugged spit, then slip into stealth mode – or vanish into water. Gone without a trace.’ Adam ate some more and kept staring at the phone, willing a signal to appear in the top left corner. ‘When Keera took me the first time she only grabbed me round the ribs, she didn’t put me in her mouth, so I didn’t get sleepy . . .’

  ‘She wasn’t trying to kidnap you.’ Zoe swigged some more from the carton. ‘In the hangar when she was talking about her creator, I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean anyone at Geneflow. She was talking about you.’

  Adam finally looked up from his phone. ‘Me?’

  ‘That part of her that doesn’t want anyone telling her what to do, that wants to be free – she associates it with you. Or whatever bit of you got left behind in those Think-Send brainwaves.’ Zoe ripped open a half-crushed box of biscuits. ‘I think a part of you’s been haunting her head from the day she was born. Maybe she sensed you were near, back in DC, and just had to find you.’