Verita

by Tracy Rozzlynn

  “Hi, Brett. I’m glad to see you’re feeling better,” Molly greets me.

  “Thanks,” I answer, curious about her wording.

  “Ryan told us how you had gotten sick. Stomach bugs are the worst,” Molly consoles.

  “Oh,” I breathe. Relief courses through me. “I’m feeling fine now though.” I look over at Ryan. He half smiles back at me and then returns to his work. I’m momentarily overwhelmed with gratitude. As much as we grated on each other’s nerves, I’m touched that he kept my privacy. I walk over to his station in pretense of observing what he was doing.

  “Thanks,” I whisper.

  “I gave you a hard enough time the last few days.” He pauses, then adds, “Just don’t do anything like that to me again.” He lets a dry laugh escape.

  “Do what?” I’m confused by his warning.

  “Frighten me like that.”

  “Oh. It wasn’t intentional, you know.” My voice carries an edge of sarcasm.

  “Well still, you did. You were so out of it when I first saw you, and by the time I got you to the hospital, you had started to swell up and could hardly breathe.” He continues to work, not looking at me, but from the corners of his eyes I can tell that they are moist.

  “Sorry. And again, thanks,” I say softly.

  “Just be more careful where you leave your drink; next time I might not be there.” He finally glances at me, and he looks angry, which makes me angry.

  “I see you’ve been talking to Andi. For your information, I never left my drink. Excuse me for not looking over my shoulder every time I speak to someone. He must have had a partner waiting to slip it in when he tried to get me to dance. I guess I should assume everyone in this world has an ulterior motive.” I spat in whispered anger. How dare he be mad at me?

  “Overcautious is better than dead, or worse.” He glared back at me.

  “What’s worse than dead?” I snap.

  “Whatever the creeps that spiked your drink were planning to do.” He shudders and looks away from me. “I wouldn’t want anything like that to happen to you.” His voice is barely a whisper now.

  “Oh.” His anger isn’t for me after all. “I’ll be more careful.” I rest my hand on his shoulder and try to communicate my sincerity with a squeeze.

  The next month flies by as we continue to explore and study our square mile of field. As time moves on, I can’t help but be grateful for how well everything has worked out. Ryan’s fright over me worked to my advantage. He’s forgotten our previous arguments over the grass, and he is acting normal around me again. While he starts cultivating various ground covers in the bio-domes, he allows me to help him catalog some of his findings on the grasses. He actually admits he’s tired of looking at the dusty ground too. Once again, we find that we work quite well together, and we fall into a comfortable work relationship. I’m relieved to have our team whole again; almost losing it to a silly misunderstanding makes me value it that much more.

  Suddenly a gust of wind blows across the field, whirling itself around us, stirring up the wondrous scents from the fields. Impulsively I close my eyes, throw my head back, and inhale deeply as I slowly turn in a circle to capture every delicious sensation I can get: the warm sun on my face, the fresh summer grass, the delicate perfume of the flowers, and even the sweet, earthy smell of decay, as nature breaks down the old to bring about new growth. I feel young again, brought back to a childhood memory of picking wildflowers with my family. A wide grin breaks across my face.

  A warm harmony of laughter breaks through my trance. “So you do have a less serious side after all,” Dean says, and I open my eyes to my group’s bemused expressions.

  I feel my cheeks flush over my sudden lack of inhibition, and I give an uncomfortable smile. “I’m not always serious,” I admit with a shrug.

  “Since when?” Jake teases, but I look at him, hurt.

  “Is that what you all think?” I ask, abashed. Everyone suddenly looks uncomfortable, and I notice that no one denies it.

  In an attempt to lighten the mood, Jake adds, “Hey, we get it, one of us has to be the responsible one, and it’s certainly not me.” Then he delivers a playful jab to my ribs.

  Over my shoulder, I hear a whisper. “It’s just nice to see you smile for a change,” Ryan says softly, but then quickly adds, “Look at the time: we should head out before it gets too late.”

  I nod my agreement, thankful for the change of topic, but also making a mental note to lighten up a bit.

  Chapter 11

  I don’t get to see much of Brody anymore. With us both working in the field now, there aren’t many days when we are both on the base at the same time. Surprisingly, the amount of time we spend apart isn’t a problem for Brody and I. In fact, it seems to bring us closer. When he’s on base and I’m away, he spends his time with his buddies. When I’m on base and he’s away, I spend my time with Andi and the rest of our friends. When we are both on base at the same time, we spend it together. It doesn’t happen often, but that makes our time together more precious.

  Now that I’ve stopped worrying about our differences, when I am with Brody it’s easy to forget that anything else exists. The only problem is, I can tell he’s getting frustrated with just kissing, and my self-control isn’t at its best around him. I’m just not ready for anything more, despite how my body reacts. In fact, recently I’ve started considering waiting for marriage. I wasn’t brought up believing that, but somehow here it just seems like the right thing to do. I can’t explain why, even to myself, so how am I supposed to explain it to Brody?

  “Come on; it will be fun,” Andi insists.

  “Yeah I had so much fun the last time I was on the dance floor,” I remind her.

  “That was different. This time you’ll be surrounded by friends. If you recognize the construction worker while you’re there, I’ll personally help pummel him.” Andi crosses her heart and raises her pinky for a pinky-promise.

  I suppress a laugh. “I can see it now. He wouldn’t stand a chance against you when you’re angry.”

  “Damn straight. Besides, you need to show yourself that the construction worker is not going to control what you do. Plus, the laundry center is going to provide dresses. Can you remember the last time you got to dress up in something besides these uniforms? I’ll do your hair and make-up if you want.” Seeing the reluctance in my eyes, she adds, “Besides, it does us all some good to get gussied up now and then.”

  I burst out with a giant belly-laugh. “Gussied? Did you really just say ‘gussied up’? Who uses those words? Are you like eighty or something?” I pant between my fits of laughter.

  “Well I do. And I’m about 316. Thank you very much.” She stamps her foot and pretends to be insulted. “So you’re gonna go, right?”

  “I just don’t have the energy to argue with you, Andi. I’ll go.” I throw up my hands in surrender.

  “Yay! I promise you’ll have fun. Why don’t you invite your team? The more the merrier.” Andi bounces up and down in excitement.

  “Fine, I’ll ask them.” I roll my eyes. Andi always manages to get her way when she makes up her mind.

  I swing by the base lab to grab my reading pad. I’m not surprised to find it empty; we all tend to favor the field lab to work in. Overall, I’m feeling a lot more confident as team leader than I had thought I ever would. Since Ryan decided to get along with me, our team works so well together; there’s an ease between us all. Everybody willingly hears out each other’s ideas without dismissing them. Instead of everyone being territorial of their specialty, collaboration is the norm. I can’t take any of the credit – it had just happened on its own – but I certainly can enjoy the results.

  When I finally arrive at the field lab, I am surprised to find it’s also empty. It’s not like any of them to be late, let alone all of them. I look around for a note or something to explain their absence. Finding nothing, I head out to the only other place they might be, the bio-dome. Sure enough, as soon as I e
nter the dome, I see the three of them huddled around in a little circle talking excitedly.

  “Finally,” Jake exclaims in an exasperated tone.

  Ignoring Jake, I ask, “So what’s up?” My curiosity is piqued.

  “A lawn.” Ryan has his Cheshire cat smile on his face.

  “Well let’s stop wasting time and see what it looks like.” Molly and Jake stare at me, confused by the overly bubbly tone of my response. “Sorry, I was around Andi at breakfast; her enthusiasm can be contagious.” They both nod their heads and smile; they know what Andi can be like from our few dinners together. “By the way, she asked me to invite all of you to the Fourth of July dance on Monday.”

  “Sure, it’ll be fun. We even get to dress up,” Molly giggles.

  “Why not? I haven’t got any other plans.” Jake leans back against the wall and crosses his arms, trying to look too cool for a dance.

  “Try to contain your enthusiasm, Jake; you don’t want to seem too excited.” I playfully jab him in the ribs.

  Ryan loudly clears his throat. “Um, the grass.”

  “Sorry,” I apologize, and quickly put on a more serious expression. “So, you decided which specimen will work best on the base?” I ask, making sure it’s obvious he has my full undivided attention.

  “Yes; none of them.” He has the most devilish grin on his face now.

  “Okay, now you’ve got my interest. What did you do?” I ask warily.

  “Well, all the original samples were a failure. Either they were too invasive and sent out runners in every direction, or they were delicate and slow-growing. So I started experimenting, crossing the different grasses. Most of the crosses were complete failures. I got grasses that were ultra-invasive or so delicate a strong wind would destroy them. But I finally got the right cross and came up with a grass that seeds readily, has no runners, and is super resilient. I’ve germinated several generations of seeds to make sure I have a pure sample, without any unexpected mutations. But I finally think it’s ready. I wanted to get everyone’s opinion on it before we present it to Dr. Brant.” If I didn’t know better, I’d think Ryan had spent the morning letting Andi rub off on him. He is all but bouncing now with his enthusiasm, and it’s definitely contagious.

  “We’ll gladly give you our opinions, but it’s your work; you should present it to Dr. Brant,” I insist.

  “Nah, we’re a team; we’ll present it together.” He crosses his arms and shakes his head in an attempt to let me know his decision is final. “Besides, that way if this stuff decides to devour the base, we’ll all take the blame.” He rolls his eyes and snickers at me.

  “Well in that case I’ll be extra thorough reviewing your research. So where is the final sample anyway?” I look around to see if I can spot it.

  Ryan points his thumb to the opposite side of the bio-dome. He has a ten-by-ten foot patch of the most beautiful lawn I’ve ever seen. It’s thick and lush, with a rich, dark blue-green hue. I notice it has black plastic edging it. None of the grass has grown beyond the border. But what draws my attention the most is in the center – a small tree with creamy white bark that looks paper-thin in the areas where it peels away from itself. The thin black striations that pepper the trunk give the tree a fragile weathered look. The tree is covered in tiny light green leaves, but there are no longer any delicate flowers anywhere in sight. It’s one of the trees from the grove I noticed on our first field visit. I raise an eyebrow in a silent question to Ryan.

  He smiles at me, but ignores my look, saying, “As long as the grass is trimmed before it goes to seed, it doesn’t spread. I’ve actually been letting this patch go to seed and collecting the seed before it gets dispersed.” Ryan’s Cheshire cat smile is back on his face, and I know he’s just waiting for me to ask about the tree.

  Thankfully Molly’s curiosity saves me. “So what’s with the tree?”

  Ryan answers in a bad impression of a snobby designer from one of those makeover reality shoes. “Well if I’m going to be responsible for our landscaping, I might as well do it right. All grass and no trees would be pretty boring. So, I’ve been studying this little tree to see if it’s a good match. I still need a little more time, but so far so good.” He’s not that funny, but I have to laugh, especially when I think about all the grief that was caused because of this project.

  We spend the rest of the day reviewing the research Ryan has complied, and we are all in agreement. Tomorrow we will present the findings to Dr. Brant. We’re all heading back to the base when I pause and say, “Hey, Ryan, you never did give me an answer about the Fourth of July dance. What should I tell Andi?”

  “Sure. It might be fun. Besides, Kelly will be away in the field. Tell Andi thanks for asking.” He grabs the door out of my hand and holds it open for me.

  “No problem.” I walk through the door, and we all head back to the field lab.

  “It’ll be nice to see everyone out of uniform for a change. Do you even remember what a dress looks like?” he teases.

  “Yeah, of course, though I might not recognize you in one.” I laugh and tussle his hair. He groans and quickly straightens it. I laugh again. I know it annoys him, but that makes it more fun. From the field lab, I head back to the base to arrange our appointment with Dr. Brant.

  Unfortunately, Dr. Brant is unavailable until Monday afternoon.

  The weekend and Monday morning goes by very slowly. We all try to busy ourselves with other work, but the waiting makes it hard to concentrate. We’re all excited and nervous to see what she thinks, and to see if she’ll allow us to plant it on the base. I feel like a little kid on Christmas morning, just watching the clock until it’s late enough to wake my parents and run downstairs to see what’s been left under the tree. I’m only half paying attention to the video I’m screening, when I catch a black shape blur across the screen. I quickly sit up in my chair and rewind the footage.

  Ryan had seen it from over my shoulder. “What the hell was that?”

  Everyone gathers around me as I replay the footage at normal speed. We see an enux run past first – a large, flightless bird that resembles an oversized turkey with long muscular, legs and the speed of a roadrunner. Then we see the black blur. Whatever it is, it’s enormous, fast, and after the enux. Anxiously, I rewind it again and play it in slow motion to see if I can get a better view, but it doesn’t help.

  “Shit!” I look to confirm the time and location and of the camera. “Anything large enough to take down an enux is large enough to hunt us.” Alarmed, I start barking orders. “Jake, pull up the video from camera six, 2238 hours, June thirty-fifth. There might be a better shot of the animal on that camera. I’m going to see if I can slow this down more and clean up the image better. Ryan, grab camera five – Molly, grab camera eight’s video. They’re both long shots, but they could have caught something.”

  We spend the rest of the morning carefully screening through the videos. Molly finds a black tail swishing across her screen, but nothing else. Jake just finds black: the animal had rubbed against his camera and knocked it out of position, so it’s now pointed to the ground. Ryan finds absolutely nothing on his camera.

  I finally manage to slow down and clean up my video. Everyone gathers back around me as I play it back. It’s still blurry, but we can make out an elongated snout like that of a dog or wolf, and there are plenty of sharp, jagged teeth lining the creature’s mouth. Its body resembles a panther, but it appears to be moving even faster than a panther can, and from what we can tell it’s quite a bit larger.

  “Shit,” is all I manage to say.

  “Miss Bradbury, I expect better language from my team leads.” We all jump and turn around. Dr. Brant had entered the lab without any of us noticing.

  “I’m sorry, Dr. Brant. I’m usually not one for profanity.” Out of the corner of my eye I see everyone nodding in agreement, and I’m thankful for their support. “But if you take a look at our video, you may understand why I slipped.” I gesture toward the monitor. She n
ods and sits down in the seat I offer her.

  “Hmm,” she says after it’s over, and turns back to face us. “This is a problem, but not really a surprise. We all knew eventually we’d find a predator capable of causing us harm. It’s much better to find it this way than face to face. Any suggestions on what we do now?” I’m awed by her ability to turn a crisis into a teaching opportunity.

  Everyone looks to me, and I feel compelled to answer. “First, I’d suggest putting up more cameras in the area. We need to find out if it’s territorial or if it’s just passing through. It was caught on the infrared, hunting at night, so there’s a good chance it’s nocturnal. I suggest sending extra guard out with us just in case it’s not. Once we’ve been able to determine if it’s territorial, and still in the area, we should attempt to trap it.” In my peripheral vision, I can see the rest of the group agreeing with me. Dr. Brant nods, urging me to continue. “Maybe set up a remote controlled dart gun to drug it. Then we can study it more thoroughly, tag it, and release it, so it can lead us back to its pride, if it has one. Once we have more information about it, we can determine if we need to do anything more about the animal or not.” I look around to see if anyone has anything else to add.

  “Very good,” Dr. Brant says, patting my shoulder. “I will arrange the extra guard to go out with you tomorrow, and I’ll inform the supply store to provide you with all the cameras you need.” She walks over to the other side of the room to use her radio. She speaks softly, so I can’t hear what she’s saying.

  “Should we have the nearby search grids pull out of the field for now?” I ask when she returns.

  “No; I’ve just arranged for extra guard protection to join them. Now, I assume you called me out here for another reason.” She looks at me, but I look to Ryan. He may want to share with the team, but I’m still determined to give him the credit he’s due.