Genizyz

by Dan Decker

  If I get out of this, I swore silently, I am never returning to the amazon.

  The male lizard sniffed the air, looked at me, but turned his attention to Sharon. He came several steps closer, making Sharon go whiter than I had ever seen.

  Strangely, the other two zeroed in on her as well.

  I slid away as they focused only on her, before long I was ten feet away.

  “Who’s the coward now?” Sharon’s voice was hoarse, she was angry, but she was even more afraid.

  The zombies still blocked my way forward, so rather than go down the trail, I slid into the undergrowth, checking every couple moments to make sure a lizard had not followed me. The last I saw Sharon, one of the females sniffed her backpack as the male lizard’s open jaw approached her head.

  46

  I ran, aiming for the direction the trail had been taking us, but staying as far from it as possible, hoping I would not lose my way. The tree branches cut my face and arms as I moved.

  A snake came at me from the undergrowth, dangling over a branch. I was gone too quick for it to catch me. As I ran I held up my machete, prepared to attack anything that moved.

  When I heard an explosion I only ran faster. I did not have a reason to believe Sharon had caused the explosion, but it was the most likely explanation.

  When I came to a fallen tree I almost tripped as I jumped over, surprising a large tarantula that chose to retreat rather than attack. I was gone in the next moment and surprised at my luck.

  First, the lizards, then a snake, and now a spider.

  After that I slowed down, figuring my luck was about out and that it was time to make a plan for what came next. My sides heaved as I struggled to catch my breath.

  The leaves in front of me parted.

  Sandy looked right at me.

  “Not you again.”

  She lunged as I swung with the machete, using the flat side to knock her off balance. It worked, but another zombie came out.

  Jen.

  I used both hammer and machete to knock it over as well.

  Max came from behind. I spun with my hammer, hitting it in the side of the head and wincing at the sickening sound of my blunt weapon making contact.

  Sandy was up by that point, but I was already running. She lashed out and grabbed my ankle far faster than I would have expected, sending me to the ground.

  Pushing up with my weapons, I was on my feet, but so were the others.

  I jumped towards them as if to attack, hoping to startle them, but none of the monsters retreated from my ploy. Sandy grabbed my arm.

  I brought down my hammer, there was a sickening crunch when it made contact with her elbow. She roared but I did not think it was from pain. Perhaps she still felt things, but the emotion only manifested as a throaty bellow.

  I kicked Max between the legs and received no reaction before following it through with a shove from my hammer, pushing him back into Jill. I swung my hammer flatwise into Sandy’s head, cringing as I knocked loose several teeth from what had once been a beautiful smile, before running.

  47

  When I arrived at the clearing we used as the extraction point, Sharon showed up right afterward. I looked at her without bothering to hide my shock. Even with the explosion I had not expected she would escape.

  “Don’t look so happy to see me,” she said with a sarcastic grin.

  “How did you get away?”

  “A girl never tells her secrets.”

  “What was the explosion?”

  She did not answer and her smile only grew.

  “Do you have grenades?” I asked.

  No answer.

  I looked her up and down, surprised she did not even have a scratch. This mystery was too much.

  She had accused me of holding back information vital to the success and survival of our mission, but she had much she had not revealed.

  “Are the lizards dead?”

  “I’ll never tell.” She spoke with a singsong voice that made me growl.

  Moving so I could keep an eye on her, I turned my attention to the tree line, focusing on the direction she had just come from. I did not know how long we had, but I was certain the zombies would catch up.

  I assumed she had used a grenade to either kill or scare off the lizards.

  My eyes zeroed in on movement in the trees. Judging by the way it appeared nothing was there, I decided it was a lizard.

  I pointed. “If you want to survive, now is your opportunity to handle that.”

  Sharon looked at her watch and I could tell she was thinking of making a break for it but she appeared to reconsider. We had twenty minutes before the helicopter was supposed to arrive.

  I doubted it would land if we were fighting these strange creatures. We needed to deal with the monsters as quick as possible.

  Sharon carefully unslung her pack, opened it just a touch and pushed a hand inside. When she pulled out a grenade, I shook my head but remained silent.

  It would do no good to chastise her further. I should have been glad she had something but I could not help but wonder what else she had.

  And she accused me of withholding.

  As she held it up I turned my attention back to the dinosaurs, while taking a step closer. The safest course was to make sure she would be hit by shrapnel too if she tried to kill me.

  She smiled as if she knew what I was doing. There was more movement ten feet down from the place where I had just seen the first, and then a few feet down from that as well.

  “You did not kill a single one. All three are here.”

  “Perhaps if you had stayed you might have used that infinite wisdom to kill all of them.” She laughed, it was dark and sent shivers down my back. “You abandoned a damsel in distress, so some hero you are.”

  Damsel?

  I regretted nothing, but there was no point in saying that.

  “What I wouldn’t give for a rifle,” I muttered. Sharon made a face. I wondered if she had heard me, it was difficult to read her expression, but perhaps she had similar thoughts as well.

  “You have any more?” I asked.

  Sharon started to shake her head, but after a moment of consideration changed course and opened her bag, sliding the zipper back only a few inches before reaching inside and pulling out another grenade.

  After a long moment she tossed it to me. I caught it and did not relax until I saw the pin was in place.

  Sharon let out a wicked laugh when she heard my sigh. I ground my teeth. I had almost had a heart attack.

  I had dropped my hammer and machete to catch it with both hands, so I now slid the hammer in between my belt. I kept the machete in hand as I wanted to have something ready after I tossed the grenade.

  Sharon and I both studied the tree line with an intensity that made me worry something might attack from behind. When I looked back, the rest of the clearing was quiet.

  “Why did they want you and why didn’t they attack?”

  I did not mean for the question to be addressed to Sharon, I had just been thinking aloud, but Sharon bristled as if taking offense.

  “I have no idea.”

  Her response was said with such indignation, that I assumed she did know.

  I should have counted the eggs.

  I had assumed they were all in the soft cooler, but perhaps Sharon had removed one for safekeeping. Perhaps she had a living specimen after all.

  I had been comforted when liquid had oozed out. A lot had been going on, but I should have stopped to verify.

  A sneaking suspicion started to come into my mind that the reason why these monsters were after Sharon and had also spared her life was because she had an egg.

  They wanted it back.

  If that did not say high intelligence, I did not know what did.

  I looked at her through slitted eyes. Just as I was about to voice my suspicions, the male lizard came out of the jungle. He stopped when he was twenty feet away.

  He studied Sharon with an intellige
nce that was at odds with his appearance. If he really did have command of the zombies, the other two lizards, and had known where we would go, we were dealing with a creature of incredible intelligence.

  The other two came out from the undergrowth as well, appearing to respond to a short barking call from the first. They barked in response.

  “It’s like they are communicating.” Sharon spoke with a reverent curiosity, the only time I had ever seen anything like that sentiment coming from her. “I wish I was recording this. I bet we could translate it. Wouldn’t it be something to talk to them?”

  I slipped the pin out from my grenade but kept my fingers tightened around the lever. Twenty feet was not a hard throw but I feared what the frag grenade might do to us.

  It was them or us, using the grenade was a risk we had to take.

  The other two lizards were further back, perhaps by thirty feet. I would still be able to throw with some accuracy and it seemed safer to aim for one of the females and hope the noise would scare away the male.

  “Wait for my signal,” Sharon said.

  I ignored her as I shifted my machete to the other hand and readied the grenade for launch. Just as I was about to throw, I noticed the lizard I was aiming for was the smallest, the one that had spared my life at the spaceship. At the last moment I aimed for the other.

  The male lizard bellowed as I let my missile fly.

  I did not watch my grenade land, but heard its thud as I shifted my machete back to my right hand and grabbed my hammer with the other. The male charged. Seeing no other option but also feeling like a madman, I stood my ground.

  Turning to run would have only exposed my back, at least if I faced it, I had the opportunity to defend myself, however feeble that might be.

  There was movement at its feet.

  Sharon’s grenade.

  I dove just as mine exploded. A moment later Sharon’s did as well.

  I pushed off the ground.

  My arm bled, as did my leg, but miraculously that was it. Neither looked like they needed immediate attention.

  Sharon was not hurt, I thought as I ground my teeth.

  The male lizard had been torn apart. The one I had aimed for was missing part of its leg and forearms, it had a big gash down its middle, but it still lived.

  The other I had spared was gone.

  48

  “We have to get rid of them,” Sharon said as she stood over the twisted remains of the largest lizard.

  There were three primary chunks of the male creature, and while I was tempted to make a sarcastic reply, her actions had saved my life and her words made sense, even if we were at odds with each other on the significance of this discovery and how to handle it.

  I did not doubt that a hefty dose of self-preservation motivated her to throw the grenade, but I could give credit where it was owed, even if only grudgingly.

  Pulling off my backpack, I reached in for a shirt that I then used to grab a hindquarter of the torn-up beast. It was heavier than I expected so rather than carry it, I pulled it toward the forest.

  As I approached the jungle, I kept a careful eye out for number three. Eventually the zombies would catch up but I hoped we had some time before that happened.

  How did the zombies find us?

  The only answer I could come up with was one I did not like. I did not want to believe the lizards were smart enough to predict our actions and communicate that to the zombies, but it seemed a plausible explanation.

  There was probably some truth to Sharon’s supposition that they had just cut across the jungle. Even though that seemed unlikely, we were dealing with zombies and dinosaurs, impossibilities in and of themselves.

  It was time to reexamine what I thought possible.

  After I dragged the leg into the trees, going back far enough that it would not be visible from the helicopter, I returned and fetched another piece and did the same. By that time Sharon was moving the third.

  Afterward, I approached the creature I had taken down with the grenade. I slowed, even though it looked like it had died.

  I studied its chest but it was not breathing.

  Returning to the jungle, I used my machete to cut off a seven-foot branch.

  I poked the lizard in the head.

  When I got no response, I pushed harder.

  It reared up on its single good leg and snapped at the stick.

  That could have been my arm. I swallowed when I thought of how close I had come to dying.

  I was not certain what made me pause, but I was glad I had listened to my instincts.

  “What now?” Sharon asked.

  I did not answer as I took off my pack and pulled out my roll of rope. After tying a loop, I looked at Sharon. “You any good at throwing a lasso?”

  When she did not answer I tried tossing the rope, but did not get close. It took me ten tries before I was able to get the loop around its neck.

  The creature roared as I pulled it tight and headed for the trees, dragging it behind me while hoping the thin cord would hold. When I looked back it was trying to bite the rope but did not have the right angle.

  Five feet later it succeeded.

  “We are running out of time!” Sharon said looking at her watch.

  Why don’t you help?

  As I dropped the cord I realized I needed a new approach.

  I settled on using my machete to sever a bunch of branches from a palm tree that I carefully used to cover the dying creature, all while Sharon watched from a safe distance.

  Who stopped Jill? Certainly, it wasn’t Sharon.

  After I had covered the creature enough so it was hopefully not visible from the helicopter, it knocked free a branch I had put on its head. I waited a moment and kicked it back. It wiggled and loosened the branch again.

  I decided to just leave it.

  Hopefully the helicopter would land without noticing. Sharon approached, my hackles went up and it was difficult to not reach for my weapons that I had slid behind my belt.

  “What are the chances of severing that thing’s head and taking it back with us?”

  “None.”

  “It would be fascinating to have such a specimen.” She motioned towards the forest where we had taken the dead dinosaur. “We could take the dead one.”

  “If we had half an hour before the chopper arrived, perhaps, but it’s minutes away. We don’t have time. Not to mention, the zombies are going to show up at any moment.”

  Sharon nodded, but I could tell from her eyes she did not agree with my assessment of the situation as she continued to stare at the place we had taken the dead lizard.

  “Be my guest,” I said, “but I’m not going to help you.”

  I walked to the side of the clearing so there was a place for the helicopter to land. Sharon joined me a moment later.

  As we waited I wondered what she had inside her bag.

  49

  When I heard rotors cutting the air I finally dared believe we might get out of the jungle. When Sharon shifted her feet and drew my attention, it was difficult to not glare at the abrasive woman but somehow, I kept from doing so. We had passed the intervening time in silence and I had not yet seen inside her bag.

  Little things about our interactions the last twelve hours came back to me, the primary one being that she had not been as upset as she should have been when she found that the eggs had been destroyed.

  She should have been far angrier, in retrospect it looked like she had put on a show.

  The more I considered it, the more certain I became she had an egg or two in her bag.

  I should have checked the stupid cooler before I stomped it.

  Turning from the sound, I surveyed the edge of the rainforest. I would not relax until we were in the air. It was impossible to describe how much I was looking forward to putting this madness behind me.

  The tree line was quiet and the next few minutes seemed to take forever.

  I heard a groan just when it sounded like the chopp
er was about to come into view.

  “Was that you?” I asked Sharon as I looked over my shoulder, knowing the answer before I saw the zombie.

  Sandy stumbled into the clearing. She was followed by Max, David, Bill, Erik, and Jen. Six monsters came toward us, moving as if they had a common sense of purpose.

  “Any ideas?” Sharon asked.

  “How about you hide in your tent while I handle this?”

  My words should have cut but they did not bother her.

  She just rolled her eyes. “As usual, you can’t bother to come up with something useful.”

  The helicopter appeared above the clearing just as I brought up my hammer. I was about to pull out my machete when Sharon grabbed my hand.

  “Don’t do it,” she hissed without looking back at the zombies, instead with her other hand she waved at the helicopter and smiled. “As far as he knows they are just here to see us off. If he thinks something is wrong, he won’t land and our way out will be gone forever.”

  I saw her point, but it was difficult to lower the hammer while the zombies approached. Sharon waved again and pointed at a nearby location before giving a thumbs up, signaling he was all clear to land.

  “Face the bird,” Sharon said through clenched teeth that probably looked like a smile from above. “Nothing is wrong, remember?”

  I gauged the distance between us and the zombies at just over one hundred feet. The monsters could cover that in less than a minute if they wanted but they stared at the sky. It was the first time I had ever seen something draw their attention that was not human.

  It just took a flying metal behemoth.

  Fearing it was a mistake, but not knowing what else I could do, I faced the helicopter while putting my back to the monsters, trying my best to wipe the fear from my face, if not my heart.

  The chopper descended, slowly.

  The pilot looked at the zombies with squinted eyes, he appeared to think something was wrong and his descent stopped when he was only ten feet from the ground.

  “Crap,” Sharon muttered, “he’s not buying it.” She turned and motioned for the zombies to come towards us before giving the helicopter the universal sign that everything was okay.