Big Ape_Lawless Book Two

by James Maxey

  I stared at her, trying to figure out how any of this made sense to her.

  She smiled wistfully. “As a Legionnaire, I believe this is the moment where you say ‘you’ll never get away with this, you fiend.’”

  “You won’t, you know.”

  “But we will. We’ve already deployed the virus dispersers. I put the finishing touches on the virus within days of Technosaur liberating my research from those vampires on Wall Street. In hangars in airports in major metropolitan areas around the world, we have containers of mechanical mosquitoes designed by Technosaur to deliver the virus. Once it begins to spread, natural mosquitoes will complete the work. The virus may also be spread through bodily fluids. We only had to wait for your arrival and for the mosquitoes to reach their destinations. It’s important that the initial release happen all at once. If a nation had even a few hours of warning, it’s possible they might implement countermeasures. We’ll begin the release in four hours. In a few days, the earth will be an Eden once more.”

  “Just think,” said Sasha, touching the back of my hand gingerly. “In a few days, we can finally be together the way we were meant to be.”

  “Yes,” said Dr. Moreau. “Though not the way you mean it, child. Bobbie has told me of your transgression.”

  “Transgression?” asked Sasha, sounding confused.

  “Your unapproved coitus with Harry,” said Dr. Moreau.

  “I know I didn’t wait for your permission, but—”

  “Sasha, there was no permission to wait for,” said Dr. Moreau. “You’re not meant to mate with Harry.”

  “But… but… look at us,” she whispered.

  “I have looked at you,” said Dr. Moreau. “I’ve looked much deeper than your surface. You and Harry do possess certain genetic traits I’d like to promote, but not by breeding you with one another. You’ll first be bred with Billy.”

  “Billy?” said Sasha. “Not… not Billy.”

  “Who’s Billy?” I asked.

  Neither bothered to answer me.

  “I don’t think…” Sasha mumbled. “I mean, Billy isn’t very—”

  “You don’t find him attractive?” asked Dr. Moreau.

  “No.”

  “Then its fortunate you understand the importance of duty,” said Dr. Moreau. “You will produce offspring with Billy because the size of his offspring will necessitate a mother with a large birth canal. I can hardly breed him with Bobbie or Florence.”

  “But Harry’s offspring will also require a mother with a large birth canal,” protested Sasha.

  “Which is why he’ll mate with Beth.”

  “That cow?” asked Sasha, her voice dripping with disgust.

  “Was that an insult or an actual description of her species?” I asked.

  “Sasha,” said Dr. Moreau. “You sound agitated. I advise you to lower your voice.”

  “Of course I’m agitated!” said Sasha. “I love Harry! He loves me! You have to let us be together!”

  “All I have to do,” said Dr. Moreau, dropping her voice to a growl, “is send you to the House of Pain to freshen your memory of the value of obedience.”

  What happened next was so fast I almost couldn’t make sense of what I saw. Sasha was suddenly standing between me and Moreau, hunched over. Moreau let out a scream that ended abruptly. Sasha turned toward me, dropping Moreau’s limp form at her feet. Sasha’s teeth and chin were covered in blood as she said, “Nothing can come between us, my love!”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Nothing’s Ever Easy

  SASHA STEPPED FORWARD to hug me, a big, crazy smile breaking across her bloodied face. “Together!” she said, embracing me. “Forever!”

  I stood as still as a post, shocked by what she’d just done, terrified by what she might to next. After a moment, her hug slowly relaxed. She pulled away, a look of confusion spreading across her face.

  “Harry,” she said, softly. “Aren’t you happy with what I’ve done?”

  I struggled to think of an answer. She was a monster, a menace, and insanely dangerous. On the other hand, her particular dangerous insanity was targeted toward protecting me, and, terrible as I felt about leading her on, she was my best hope of getting out of this mess alive. I said, “It’s a lot to take in. I’m a little surprised.”

  “You shouldn’t be,” she said. “You know how I feel about you.”

  “I’ve a pretty clear idea of that now, yeah,” I said. “But, you should know there are some things about our current situation I’m not completely happy with.”

  “Like what?” she said, sounding worried.

  “For one thing, this whole virus release plan.”

  “Then we’ll stop it,” she said.

  “We will?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

  “With Mother dead, you’re our leader,” she said. “You’re the first born. Your will is our will!”

  “Then I’d also like you to take this zap collar off.”

  Her smile vanished. She had to be worried I was going to punch her again. But, she forced her smile back into place. With a touch of worry in her eyes, she reached out and snapped the collar open.

  “Your will is my will,” she said.

  “His will means nothing!”

  I turned to see who had shouted, though I was pretty sure I recognized the voice. Sure enough, it was Bobbie, walking toward the fountain. She was followed by at least a dozen animal men, some of them real bruisers, including a guy who was part elephant, and another who had to be mostly warthog.

  “Mother is dead!” Sasha shouted at Bobbie. “Harry is our leader now!”

  “Harry’s an outsider,” said the warthog guy, stepping forward. “He killed Mother! We must kill him!”

  “He didn’t kill Mother,” said Sasha, firmly. “I did.”

  A murmur ran through the assembled animal men. “Blood has been spilled! The law is broken! The law!”

  “Hold on, hold on!” I held up my bandaged hands, feeling desperate as even more animal men started pouring in from all sides to surround us. In seconds, there had to be a hundred, maybe more. Even if I’d been at full strength, these weren’t good odds. It was time to trust my wits.

  “Mother isn’t truly dead!” I said, trying to sound upbeat.

  “We see her corpse right there,” said Bobbie.

  “And your corpses will soon lie beside her!” cried the warthog guy, clenching his fists.

  “Take one step, Billy, and I’ll clobber you,” said Sasha.

  “Calm down!” I said. “Everyone take a deep breath. Mother’s not dead! She’s only… only evolved. To a being of pure energy! She’s still watching over all of us. Still talking to us. Can’t you hear her? I can hear her! And she’s saying that I’m in charge now.”

  “What kind of idiots do you think we are?” asked Bobbie, putting her hands on her hips. “We’ve all read the book.”

  “What book?” I asked.

  “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” she said. “When Moreau dies, Prentice tricks the animal men into serving him by pretending that Dr. Moreau is now watching them from the sky.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Hmm. I, uh, haven’t actually read the book.” I scratched the back of my neck. “Kind of wish I had.”

  “They’ve spilled blood!” Billy grunted. “They must pay the price! Blood for blood! Death to the law-breakers! Kill the—” His voice trailed off suddenly as he unclenched his fists, his eyes rising to something above me. Whatever he saw, the rest of the animal men saw it too, because they all craned their necks upward, eyes wide. A few fell to their knees.

  “It’s a t-rex, isn’t it?” I whispered to Sasha, not daring to look back. With the way my luck was going, getting devoured by a t-rex might be the best possible outcome I could hope for at this point.

  Sasha looked up. Her mouth opened wide. She dropped to her knees, tears rising, as she cried, “Mother!”

  I turned around. Even though Dr. Moreau’s body was still sprawled at my feet, I found a tran
slucent likeness of her made of golden light, thirty feet tall, standing over me. As I stood frozen, the image knelt, placed its hands on my cheeks, and leaned forward to kiss me. Not that I felt anything. Whatever I was seeing, it was completely intangible. Didn’t make a sound either. Almost like… hmm.

  Following the kiss, the image stood again, looked toward the sky, then became a pillar of light, beaming upward, before dissolving in a shower of sparks.

  I turned back to the animal men, my arms crossed over my chest. “I think Mother’s intentions are pretty clear. I’m in charge. My will is your will.”

  “Your will is our will,” said Sasha.

  “This is bullshit,” said Bobbie.

  As a reward for speaking out, Billy head-butted Bobbie. She fell backward, blood streaming from her nose.

  “His will is our will!” Billy cried, raising his fists over his head.

  “His will is our will!” the assembled animal men called out in chorus.

  “Groovy,” I said. “So, the first thing I want done is to call off the launch of the virus.”

  The animal men looked at one another, seemingly bewildered by the order.

  “I mean, you know, for a couple of days,” I said. “Killing off all of mankind is going to be logistical nightmare. I need some time to go over Mother’s notes before I jump in with both feet. Who here can stop the launch?”

  “None of us can,” said Billy. “Technosaur is handling the release.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Then I guess we should go talk to her.”

  “She’s already sealed her dome,” said Billy. “She’s begun the process of placing the eggs of her kin into incubators. No one may disturb her.”

  “If I want her disturbed, she gets disturbed,” I said. “You saw who Mother left in charge.”

  “Technosaur’s dome is defended by her robotic raptors,” said Sasha.

  “I took down three mechanoraptors single-handedly,” I said. “We aren’t afraid of a bunch of machines, are we?”

  “If you say we fight, we fight!” said Billy.

  “That’s the spirit,” I said. “New-men, assemble!”

  “Uh,” said Billy. “We’re already here.”

  “Then what are we waiting for? Billy, take point. Everyone else, follow Billy. Let’s go kick some Jurassic butt!”

  “Technosaur is actually from the Cretaceous period,” said Bobbie, holding her bleeding nose.

  “Let’s just go,” I said. “Charge!”

  Billy ran toward the eastern side of the dome and his zoo siblings followed him. I hung back, and so did Sasha.

  “You should go,” I said to her. “Break some dinosaurs for me.”

  “Aren’t you coming?” she asked.

  “I’ll be right behind,” I said. “I just want… to… uh, put Mother’s body in a safe spot.”

  “She’ll be fine right—”

  “Just go!” I said. “My will is your will, remember?”

  Her lower lip trembled. “Of course,” she whispered, then ran away.

  I waited until she was out of sight before sniffing around. I whispered, loudly, “Elsa?” There was no answer. With mother’s corpse still bleeding out right next to me, I couldn’t catch Elsa’s scent. She had to be near.

  I went to the back of the throne. “Elsa?” I called out, louder now.

  “D-down here,” a faint voice answered. I leapt from the terraced steps to the edge of the pool, tripping over something unseen, landing in the water with a splash. I rose, water lilies draped over my shoulders, and turned to the invisible obstacle.

  “How the hell are you still alive?” I whispered, groping my way forward. My hand fell on something cold as ice. I squeezed it. It had to be Elsa’s hand. As I held it, she faded into view. I grimaced. Her skin was ashen.

  “Sasha attacked the reverend f-first,” Elsa whispered. “I tried to hide m-myself, but there was no place to run in the elevator car. My Taser only… only made her m-mad. But when she bit my throat, I kept my w-wits enough that when she pulled away, I made her think I was nearly decapitated. She dropped me, certain I was dead.”

  “How the hell did you get here?” I asked.

  “I’m a Legionnaire, r-remember?” she said, her voice trailing off into wet coughs. “I… c-crawled here. To… to complete… complete the mission.”

  “You saved my ass,” I said. I saw that she still had her headset. “Hang tough. I’ll use your headset to call for help.”

  “I… I tried that,” she said. “J-Jenny didn’t answer. Bobbie and Sasha knew she was b-back in Texas…”

  “Mother might have sent a squad to take her out,” I said.

  “I’m… I’m s-sorry,” she whispered.

  “What do you have to apologize for?” I asked. “None of this is your fault. You’re a goddamn hero. Thanks to you, I’ve got an army to use against Technosaur.”

  “G-get her… for me,” she whispered, closing her eyes.

  “Elsa,” I said, squeezing her hand. “Stay with me.”

  She didn’t squeeze back. I couldn’t hear her breathing. I pressed my ear to her chest and listened for at least a minute, maybe two. Then I sat back, holding her hand, and took a long, slow breath.

  “Take ‘em, Teen Brigade,” I whispered, the words barely squeezing past the lump in my throat.

  I was still holding her lifeless hand when shouts and loud bangs echoed from the western edge of the dome. I carefully removed the radio from her head and jammed it into my ear. “Jenny? Jenny? Can you read me?”

  “Kind of busy at the moment,” she radioed back, panting hard.

  “What—”

  “Some kind of ninja panther man riding a robotic triceratops smashed into the reverend’s compound around the time the reverend’s team went into the elevator,” she said.

  “You still running from them?”

  “Worse,” she said. “I don’t know what kind of power source the robot was using, but when I lit him up he set off a pretty big explosion. Big enough that the Legion sent a squad to check it out. Atomahawk’s with them. I don’t think he’s—”

  Dead air. “Jenny?” I said. No answer. God damn it. The good news was, John wasn’t the vengeful type. If he did catch Jenny, he wasn’t going to administer vigilante justice for her stabbing him in the tongue. Still, if she was taken prisoner, I didn’t have a lot of resources at my disposal to find her and free her.

  Except, you know, my army of animal men. And Bobbie seemed handy with a computer. Okay, the first order of business was to make sure Bobbie didn’t get killed by Technosaur. No, wait, the first order of business was to make sure Technosaur didn’t release the virus. But keeping Bobbie handy was right up there too.

  The screams and crashes and clangs coming from the edge of the dome were getting louder. My army didn’t sound like it was doing all that hot. I fought killer robots two, maybe three times a week, but maybe my siblings didn’t have my mad robot battle skills. Time to make sure that they actually won this battle.

  I tore the bandages off my hands as I ran toward the action. My palms were blistered and raw, but the bandages kept me from balling up my fists. Making a tight fist hurt like crazy but, for me, pain has always signaled that it’s time to fight.

  Turns out that Technosaur had kept a robotic triceratops in reserve. Jenny hadn’t mentioned that the horns fired lightning bolts. The beast had mowed through at least half of the new-men, who were strewn all around the robot, some trampled, some stabbed, some exhaling smoke from where the lightning had fried their insides.

  When I got a few yards away, the triceratops turned its huge steel head toward me, the horns sparking as it prepared another blast. As it happened, I was running past a huge terracotta pot containing what looked like a banana tree. I grabbed the pot and held it before me. It turned out to be the perfect shield against a lighting blast. Then, because it was heavy as hell, I used it as a battering ram against the robot’s snout. It had about the same effect as smashing the blade of a bulldoze
r with a flower pot, but it got me close enough that I could see the robot’s glass eyes. With a shard of pot in each hand, I struck two simultaneous blows, smashing the eyes. I could hear a whining noise inside the head, like a turbine spinning, and sensed that the thing was about to let off another jolt of electricity. Big banana leaves were falling all around me, so I caught a couple and used them to insulate my hands as I grabbed two of the horns. I let out a loud growl as I tried to bend them. To my great satisfaction, instead of bending, the left one popped free, leaving me in possession of a four foot long metal spike. I leapt a few steps back from the blinded beast machine, studying the way its metal plates slipped over one another, looking for any vulnerability, quickly spotting gaps in the armor plating where its legs met its shoulders. I drove the rod deep into the machinery with both hands. There was a tremendous grinding sound, and the next thing I knew smoke poured out of the gaps. I jumped away as the creature fell on its side.

  I snapped off another of the horns and looked around. This isn’t very noble of me, but I wouldn’t have been completely disappointed to find Sasha among the corpses scattered around me. Alas, she wasn’t among the dead or dying, but Bobbie was. It looked as if the triceratops had disemboweled her.

  Only two beast men were still intact enough to stand. One was the lion man I’d fought earlier, bloodied up pretty badly on the left side of his face, but still looking strong enough to fight. The other was spikey, kind of runty, maybe a porcupine? A hedgehog? Was there any mammal mom hadn’t spliced into human DNA? Would I find a squirrel girl somewhere among my army?

  “Follow me,” I said, brandishing my iron spike, charging toward sounds of battle coming somewhere from further inside the dome. About thirty seconds after I started running, my lungs felt like they were being scoured with sandpaper. I’d forgotten about the extra CO2 in this dome. Nothing’s ever easy.

  I leapt over the body of a wolf girl that had been nearly torn in two by raptor claws. A still standing member of my army with a head like a rhino was head-butting a raptor next to the wolf girl’s corpse into a mound of sparking gears and scrap metal. Two more raptors stood ready to attack right in front of a double steel door that looked like it was protecting something important.