The First Bird: Omnibus Edition

by Greig Beck

  “We need to find it,” said Matt.

  Carla joined Kurt at the jungle’s edge and grasped his upper arm. “Not now, not tonight. We all need some rest.”

  The big man nodded. “Okay. Let’s think about it tomorrow with clear heads. I’m beat.” He walked back to the pool and sat down beside it, staring into its depths.

  Megan snorted. “Sleep? Yeah, sure.”

  *****

  Carla woke early, the scratching sounds coming from the bird’s cage intruding on a beautiful dream of cool clean sheets, pastries, and coffee. She sat up blinking, momentarily disoriented, before the depressing reality sunk in.

  She crawled across to the cage, lifted back the shirt that had been draped across the box, and peered in. The strange creature cocked its small reptilian head, red eyes gleaming, then opened and shut its toothed beak with an audible clack.

  “A lot of people died for you … and now … we don’t need you.” She smiled crookedly at the strange animal. “Besides, I think you’d like our world about as much as we like yours.”

  She let the shirt drop back over the cage. Kurt was up and about; gathering sticks for the fire from the clearing’s edge. Carla wandered over.

  “Morning. How’d you sleep?”

  He grinned. “Like a log … and a petrified one at that. You?”

  “Okay.” She shrugged. “What’s the plan?”

  He pursed his lips. “Plan A is to quickly scout the surrounding area. I think Matt’s right; if Max did hide the pack, he was too lazy to do a good job of it. He’d have hidden it close by. If that fails, Plan B – I’m going back to the spider’s nest.”

  Carla could see that he meant it. She didn’t want him to attempt it, but could see that it had to be considered. She nodded. “Okay then, quick search, then we meet back here for coffee and see about Plan B.” She smiled up at him. “Here’s hoping we don’t need it.”

  *****

  After weak coffee and the few remaining scraps of meat, they agreed that Carla and John would wait by the pool to guard their belongings while Kurt, Joop, Matt, and Megan would grid-search the fifty feet of jungle around their camp.

  Kurt stood with his hands on his hips, looking along the line of dense red jungle. “No way Max would have had the time or patience to bury the masks. Gotta be close by. So …” He turned to the group. “… look for anything covered in leaves, under logs, or even thrown up into a tree.”

  They nodded and Kurt continued. “Stay close; within earshot of each other. We’ll use a crisscross pattern in our search. If we find nothing in the first allotted grid, just move on to the next.” He paused, then turned to the jungle. “Let’s do it.”

  Matt had found a slim, six-foot branch, which he used to push shrubbery out of the way and lever logs up to peek underneath. Though they were still close to the thorn wall and animal life was sparse, he still didn’t fancy using his hands to flip a log back only to have some fanged or poison-spitting horror spring at him.

  The sun was just coming up over the crater rim and the light was slowly reaching the twilight level that was constant in the crater basin. With the sun came the heat. Steam lifted from the moisture that had settled on the leaves and fronds throughout the evening, and soon the oppressive daytime humidity would crush down on them again. Matt stopped to lift an arm and wipe his brow.

  “Alright over there?” Megan was out of sight, but her voice carried through the steam – she couldn’t have been more than fifty feet away.

  “All good – nothing yet. You?”

  “Nada,” she responded.

  Matt moved into the jungle another ten feet, knowing he’d soon be turning and making his sweep back to the camp before starting in on his next assigned grid. He looked up at the branches overhead – nothing, other than that ever-present feeling of being watched. He hoped they’d find something – and not just for the obvious reasons. He knew he wouldn’t be able to let Kurt go back into the jungle by himself. Their luck could only be stretched so far.

  He pushed his stick into some ferns and lifted the tongue-like fronds, then frowned. There was something there – small, brown, and hairy. He squinted, lifted the fronds out of the way, and went down on one knee.

  “Wha…?” He didn’t understand the shape … it looked like … toes. Still bent on one knee, he let his gaze travel upward, reaching into the fern and parting its branches. A small face stared back at him.

  “Jesus.” He fell back on his ass.

  Large brown eyes stared out from under a ridged brow, regarding him with interest. She came out slowly and he noticed that one hand held a large hunting knife with a silver pommel, engraved with the letters “M.S.”.

  “Uh, hello.” He held up a hand and got up on one knee, not wanting to startle her by getting to his full height.

  She came out from behind the ferns, not showing any fear at all. Matt couldn’t help staring. The small being was the size of a child – ape-like, hairy, but with the small hanging breasts of a woman.

  He kept his eye on the knife – a formidable weapon, even in her small hands. She kept coming toward him, and reached out to take a length of his hair and run it through her fingers. Then she patted his head, stroking the long hair.

  She grunted softly and pointed at his head, then down at his body, and then back to his hair. More sounds emanated from her throat, but they were impossible for Matt to decipher.

  He touched his head. “My hair?”

  She pointed again at his hair and then at his body. “Is it on my body as well?” He shook his head. “No.” Then he shrugged and smiled. “Well, only in some places.”

  The small female frowned and stepped forward, reaching for his chest. Two slim brown fingers went in between his shirt buttons and scraped at his bare chest. Matt felt their roughness, like tree bark – these hands had seen a lot of use.

  She pulled her hand out and sniffed at her fingers. Matt pointed at the knife. Shrugging, and holding out his hands flat, he tried to engineer a look of inquiry, mouthing, where?

  She lifted the weapon and slashed it back and forth, demonstrating her mastery, or perhaps her ownership. She nodded, and tapped her chest.

  “Yes, yours … now. But where?” He made a sweeping gesture out at the jungle, then shrugged again.

  She motioned him in closer, and he leaned toward her, trying to keep the knife in his field of vision. She reached up to touch his head again, then let more of his hair run through her fingers, making a soft noise in her throat. She took Matt’s hand and lifted it to the top of her own head. The short hair, or fur, was thick and coarse, more like fibers. No wonder she was so curious about his locks.

  He stood slowly and dropped his hand to her shoulder, letting it travel down her arm to her hand.

  “Come.” He started to lead her but she dug her heels into the soil. He let go of her hand and knelt again. She immediately grabbed a lock of his hair.

  “I get it, you like my hair.” He reached around her, resting his arm behind her legs, and lifted her. She was surprisingly heavy – solid muscle, he assumed. As he carried her back to the camp, the small ape-girl inspected his hair, leaning forward occasionally to sniff at it.

  Matt called out as he came in. “Megan, call in Kurt – I’ve found something … or rather, someone.’

  *****

  The small female cowered behind Matt, who was kneeling, all bravado disappearing in the presence of more of the giants. She displayed no real interest in the other team members, or in the objects scattered about. Only when the bird hissed and rattled in its cage did her dark eyes flick momentarily to the creature, before returning almost immediately to Matt.

  John and Joop crouched beside her, studying her cranial symmetry. Occasionally, John reached out to try to touch her ear or chin, or turn her head for a better view. She’d slap at his hand, or bare her formidable teeth in his direction.

  He shook his head, sitting back on his haunches. “Amazing. Possibly Australopithecus – boisei, I think.”r />
  Joop nodded. “My thoughts exactly … but more like Australopithecus robustus, or even afarensis. We’d need to see a male to confirm it, but the size, morphology, cranium – she could be the embodiment of Mary Leakey’s Lucy.”

  “Three million years and counting.” John examined her head again. “Magnificent bone structure – look at that brow ridge.”

  Matt carefully looked sideways at the doctor. “Sorry John, but this one’s still using her skull.”

  He laughed. “I don’t care; I’ve just beheld a wonder of the world.” He looked over his shoulder. “Anyone now want to hazard a guess as to how the Ndege looked so retrogressive?” He looked back, trying once again to turn the woman’s face toward him. “I think a few night-time dates with one of these sirens might have done it.” She slapped at him again.

  “Erk, dirty buggers.” Kurt pulled a face.

  John ignored him.

  “Do you think we can communicate with her, Matt?” Megan edged forward, waving and smiling at the woman.

  “I’m not sure. It’s not really a discernible language she uses. She vocalizes and uses a few hand gestures, but whether it’s words, impressions, or emotive expression, I can’t tell.” He shrugged. “Give me a few weeks, then maybe.”

  Kurt snorted. “That we don’t have. She’s got Max’s knife. My bet is she took it from the camp, or his body. I’m also betting she knows where his pack and the masks are. We need to find out … one way or another.”

  Megan turned and pulled a face. “What, we torture it out of her? Welcome to Modern Man, now let me pull your fingernails out.”

  “No.” He turned to Matt. “You know what I mean … we just can’t afford to be wasting time.” Kurt sighed. “Anyway, we should continue our search; at least tie off that avenue for getting out of here.”

  Matt nodded. “Sure, but I need Megan; she has a good ear for linguistic consistencies and repetitions. We’ll do our best; she might be our best lead to the masks.”

  Kurt shrugged and walked away, calling Joop and John with him. Matt turned to Carla. “Let’s try and jog her memory with a prop. I can use your face mask – a picture’s worth a thousand words and all that.” Matt reached around to disentangle the small woman’s hand from his hair, and moved in front of her.

  “Communication 101.” He tapped his chest. “Matt.” He nodded.

  She looked into his eyes, her brown orbs almost black, they were so dark. He repeated the gesture. “Matt.” He tapped again. This time, he slowly brought his hand over to her chest, and tapped it. He opened his hands and raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner.

  The small being reached out and tapped his chest with two small brown fingers, but made no sound. She reached out to his hair again, then ran fingers lightly over his face.

  Megan moved beside Matt, and tapped her own chest. “Me-gan.”

  The small woman kept her eyes on Matt. Megan moved in closer to Matt and tapped her chest again. “Me-gan.” Then she reached across to tap Matt’s chest. “Ma—”

  In a blur of movement, the small ape woman bared her teeth and screamed. She pummeled at Megan, who fell back, before darting back in behind Matt again.

  “Are you okay?” Matt knelt beside Megan.

  “Yeah, sure; she just took me by surprise.” She grinned. “Something tells me she likes you.”

  Matt laughed, but shook his head in disappointment. “Those sounds she made didn’t even sound like a contextual language. Maybe they don’t even have speech.” He looked down at the knife still in the female’s hand.

  “I’m going to call her Eve.” He tapped his chest. “Matt.” Then hers. “Eve.” The large eyes never left his. She lifted the hand holding the knife and tapped her own chest. Matt waited, but no words came, just a momentary shift of the eyes to Megan, then back to his own.

  He shrugged, and then looked down at the large blade. “Better de-fang her just in case.” He grasped the hand holding the knife, and she let him take it from her. He held it up, pretending to cut himself, and pulling a face. “Bad – dan-ger-ous, dan-ger-ous.” He shook his head and put the knife down. She kept her large brown eyes on his face, and he waited. Her lips were twitching, a word coming … almost, and then her eyes slid away as Carla approached.

  “Here we are.” Carla held out the remaining face mask.

  Matt reached up to take it, but the mask was already gone. Like a wisp of smoke the small woman had leapt to her feet, snatched the face mask from Carla’s hand, and sprung into the jungle.

  “Shit.” Matt leapt after her, with Megan and Carla close behind. But as soon as he entered the first line of jungle he knew it was hopeless, as he watched her go from the ground to the trees in a single leap. In another instant, she was gone.

  He charged on for another dozen feet in vain, but after a few moments he came back into the clearing, where Megan and Carla stood waiting for him. He stopped with his hands on his hips, head down, groaning. “Great, I can just imagine what Kurt’s gonna say.”

  “What’s Kurt gonna say?” Kurt stepped out of the jungle with Joop and John.

  Matt exhaled and grimaced. “She, ah, took the mask.”

  Kurt stared, his face going from sweaty pink to boiling red. “Are you for fucking real? And this is a surprise to you? Haven’t you seen the signs at the zoo about letting the monkeys reach out to you? They steal things.”

  “I knew you were going to say that.” Matt shuffled. “She wasn’t a monkey.”

  “Well, Professor, she wasn’t a supermodel either. But she was smarter than you.” Kurt walked away a few steps, and then turned.

  “And now we’re all fucked.”

  *****

  The next half hour was spent in a stony awkward silence. Carla came back from the jungle’s edge with an armful of wood for the fire. Matt and Megan were talking quietly together, while near the pond, Joop, John, and Kurt stood, arms folded, looking as though they were discussing fantastical ways to pass through several hundred feet of underwater tunnels.

  Carla dropped the wood near the still-smoldering fire, then walked over to the bird’s cage. She got down and peered in between the bars.

  “You know, I think at least one of us should be allowed to get away.” She lifted the cage, carried it to the southern edge of the clearing and flipped open the door, then stood back half a dozen paces, watching. The bird’s bald-looking head came out and it peered around the edge of the cage, first back at Carla, then toward the thorn wall, before fixing its gaze on the jungle. It bobbled out and then stopped, rigid almost, the way some birds freeze in the presence of prey.

  “Go on.” Carla waved her hands at the strange animal. It moved away another few steps, then paused again, staring out at the jungle but seeming hesitant to enter the red-hued fronds.

  “What’s up with you?” Carla shook her head as Matt and Megan joined her.

  “Perhaps he’s grown attached to you … or the free meals.” Megan crouched down and rubbed her finger and thumb together, as though coaxing a puppy.

  “Food’s gone. If he stays, the next free meal is going to be him. And I think he’s been through enough.” Carla waved her arms. “Shoo!”

  It ran a few more steps, lizard-like, in the quick, darting motion of a reptile on a hot surface. One of its wings was held out, angling down from its body.

  “It’s still hurt, no wonder it’s not flying away,” Megan said.

  “It should be okay, it was only a sprain.” Joop had joined them. He flapped his hands at the small animal and began to chase it toward the jungle. It squawk-hissed at him, hopped once, then did a sharp U-turn, heading back toward the crater wall.

  Joop followed in a crouching run. “Not there, you stupid thing, you’ll poison yourself.”

  The bird ran fast. Its clawed muscular legs, usually used for climbing, were powerful enough to get some good speed up, and its cornering ability left Joop well behind. The reptilian bird jinked again, then started to head parallel to the wall. It went under
a fallen tree, around a boulder, and then, as if on a string, darted in toward the wall, disappearing through a dark opening at the farthest point of the clearing.

  They pulled up short and peered in through the branches. The vine canes were brown, as if dying back, or awaiting new growth, and they looked brittle, with the smaller spines having dropped off and been blown away.

  Carla got down low, pulled out her flashlight and held it up. “Hey, there’s a break in the wall here … it’s a cave. You don’t think …?”

  “What is it?” Kurt had seen the commotion, and now threw himself down on his belly beside her.

  She turned. “Maybe another way out?”

  He shook his head slowly. “I doubt it; if it was, there’d be more weird creatures out there. More likely a dead end.”

  Megan held her light high above everyone’s heads, allowing the beam to move around the interior from a different angle. Something metallic glinted.

  “There’s something there – I think it’s the masks.”

  *****

  Kurt got to his feet. “Oh please God, let it be true.”

  Megan started to bob and weave at the entrance. Matt knew exactly what she was doing – looking for the best way in. “Oh, no you don’t; you’ve already had one heart attack from this stuff.”

  She shook her head. “We either go in and have a look, or we grow gills.” She turned. “Unless you’ve got any better ideas?”

  He shook his head and grimaced. He knew she was right. “Look, just … give me a minute.”

  He backed up and turned, jogging to the edge of the jungle and scouting along the ground. In a few minutes, he found what he was looking for. Coming back, large stick in hand, he stood in front of the opening.

  “Stand back.” He needed more room for what he had planned.

  Matt commenced knocking the dried edges of the vines away from the wall. The desiccated stems broke away easily and fell like needle-sharp snow. In just a few minutes he had cleared a good-sized hole, exposing the deep cave within. He used the other end of the branch, where leaves still clung to it, and swept the shards away from the opening. The thorns may not be lethal now that they had dried, but there was no way to safely test the hypothesis.