by Michael Todd
“I feel like we’ve been here before,” Kennedy said and scanned the jungle, unable to settle the feeling that the rest of the Zoo watched them in much the same way it did when people messed around with the Pita plants.
“How do you mean?” Sal asked as he prepared the pieces of the suit for transport back to their Hammerhead.
“I’m not rightly sure, actually.” She shrugged but her frown revealed her concern. “I guess I’m starting to wonder if these tech caches that Anderson has aren’t people who died while testing these suits. I mean…that’s what they are, right? People who died testing these suits? The design definitely isn’t in common use at any of the bases, and it’s not like they’re simply dropped in here for us to pick up.”
“That is a good point.” He worked methodically to separate the larger pieces into more manageable chunks. “What do you make of Anderson, though? I know you said you liked him, but that merely seemed like you respected him as a soldier. What do you make of the man? Do you think we can trust him?”
“I say we hold off on trusting anyone who doesn’t work for Heavy Metal,” she stated flatly. “That said…no, I don’t trust him per se, but I think he’s one of the more trustworthy people around here. I actually considered talking to him about extending our little arrangement after we’ve done everything he needs us for. We have all kinds of tech that we can probably sell. Our Pita plant tracking tech, for one thing, among others. A man like him is bound to have connections who wouldn’t mind paying top dollar for a way to accurately track those expensive plants down.”
Sal looked up from his work. “I know we’ll have to make a decision on the Pita tracking software soon. That aside, I thought you and I agreed that we should only sell our stuff to the others when we felt ready to leave this place behind and head back to the States with some golden eggs in our nest—or something like that, anyway. Is that what you’re saying? Do you want to throw in the towel and get out of here?”
“Not really.” Kennedy sounded thoughtful but uncertain. “Heavy Metal is something that extends past only the two of us, you know? We have Gutierrez and Anja—both people we can trust—making the compound a secure place to run operations from. I know finding people for our little operation has been a little hit and miss, but we can still look. Who knows, if we find gunners and specialists to work with us, we won’t need to make the runs ourselves. We might not even have to run the operation from here. We could head back to the States. I have a couple of things that I’d like to resolve back home, and you probably want to get your doctorate out of the way. You know, so people can start calling you doctor without you having to correct them.”
Her words left him a little uncomfortable, although he wasn’t sure why. “I guess you’re right,” he said finally, but it was a reluctant admission.
“And we wouldn’t need to give up on the life entirely. I know how you can go crazy and start to actually miss risking your life here in the Zoo. It…grows on you like that. But we can be those bosses who occasionally join the action when we want to, but not always, and still profit off what might be our idea.”
“But wouldn’t we want to keep the Pita plant tracking technology in-house?” Sal asked. “You know, a trade secrets sort of deal that lets our company make money while leaving everyone else in the dust?”
Kennedy nodded. “That’s a good point, I’ll concede. But we still need to look into that and confirm whether or not those mercs who had a map actually had access to the software before we decide. Anyway, that aside, maybe Anderson could be the person who puts us in contact with people whom we can trust enough to hire for the team later on. Again, the guy probably has all kinds of connections. With his referrals, we could fill the ranks in no time.”
“You really want to work with him, don’t you?” He grinned and arranged the last of the pieces in his pack. “Should I be jealous? Well, no, not jealous, but should we plan a schedule or something?”
“Shut it, asshole.” She punched him lightly in the shoulder—or probably meant it to be light, anyway. Hopefully. Either way, it made him stagger before he recovered his balance.
“You do seem to want to work with him an awful lot,” he insisted in a more serious tone.
“Again, the man has all kinds of connections.” She shrugged as if the benefits were self-evident. “You read his file. Black ops all over the world, working in the Pentagon, dealing with all the high-level stuff like defense contracts and the like. He’s connected almost everywhere. To have him owe us a favor like this has to be the kind of advantage we shouldn’t waste. It’s a game-changer. We’ve done freelance work all this time, but we know that the real money comes from the…I hate to say it, but the government contracts.”
“Fair enough.” He had more jokes to make about the situation but had to push them aside when his HUD alerted him that someone had opened communications on one of the emergency lines. Over the past couple of months, a lot of work had gone into setting lines up that would allow people to call for help through the heavy interference caused by the Zoo. They had some success, mainly because they’d created comm lines that allowed for limited communication—voice and text only—that also provided a location ping whenever someone accessed the line. Sal didn’t doubt that other comm lines had been opened and kept secure for the use of the black ops teams that left bodies behind.
“It’s a distress call,” Kennedy said and glanced at her partner. “They’ve offered a reward to anyone who shows up to help.”
“We have what we came here for,” Sal pointed out, “and more besides. I don’t think anyone would blame us if we simply walked away.”
They exchanged meaningful glances in the short silence that followed. It was a great fantasy that they might one day be able to put their own survival first, but they both knew they wouldn’t leave the call for help unattended.
“Five klicks to the west,” he said finally. “Let’s get going.”
“Look at that,” she cooed with a grin. “We offer to help and then get the notice for payment. All brownie points today!”
Chapter Eight
The duo didn’t even need to get too close to know that the call for help would be an absolute clusterfuck. They could hear it a full klick away. Angry animals shrieked and roared above the gunfire that peppered the morning. Sal shifted his weapon into position and threw Kennedy a hasty look as they picked up their pace.
“What do you think?” she asked. “They killed a big dino thing or plucked a Pita plant?”
“It doesn’t always take one of those things to whip our hostile friends around here into a frenzy,” he pointed out. “Sometimes, the sound of gunfire is enough to draw them close and the smell of blood and watching humans gun them down triggers aggression. That said, my money is on a Pita plant. Someone got greedy and decided to try it and is now trying to dig themselves out of that particular hole.”
“Yeah, same here,” she agreed, immediately alert as a pair of hyenas launched out of the underbrush. The animals barely noticed the humans before they were gunned down with quick, precise shots from both Sal and Kennedy.
“That’s how you do it,” he stated briskly as they proceeded to wade into the thick of it and eliminate those animals that seemed to be otherwise distracted by their attack on the other party. “Get your point across with a couple of bodies and always keep moving. These guys probably saw what was coming and tried to set up some defensive positions. They’ll be picked off one by one until they realize that the animals in the Zoo outnumber them by a factor of thousands and try to run, but it’ll be too late.”
“You’re preaching to your own choir here, Jacobs.”
The partners assumed their usual formation with her at the front to bulldoze their momentum forward with her superior armor and firepower. As always, he provided support from the back and picked off the few animals that could attack them from within range, like the acid-spitting lizards or those that tried to outflank them. Neither was an easy task, but they had grown a
ccustomed to a pattern that worked well for them.
“Key mic,” Kennedy advised and added her own comm link to the emergency line. “Alpha team Forty-Seven, this is Heavy Metal One, do you copy?”
“How come you get to be Heavy Metal One?” Sal asked in exasperation.
“Heavy Metal One is our team’s designation, dumbass,” she retorted. “But since I’m the gunner and will be the one they see first, I’ll always be one and you’ll be two.”
“That sounds like bullshit,” he muttered and obliterated a couple of locusts with scorpion tails. These didn’t have any fur and definitely had stingers that they seemed determined to use. More to the point, they had tried to ride the coattails of a group of hyenas that charged in an effort to flank them. The creatures all met his barrage of bullets instead.
“Do you want to take point here?” she asked as she waited for her armor to reload the rifle in her hand.
“Nope.”
“Then shut up, Heavy Metal Two.” Her grin was pure mischief.
“Oh…eat a dick.”
“I thought we’d decided to save that for when we get back to base.” Kennedy paused as the emergency comm line came on in response to her message.
“We read you, Heavy Metal One.” The man’s voice wavered a little with the static. “We have trouble here and could really use your support. But if it’s only two of you, there might be a limit to how much help you can be.”
“What do you mean?” she asked and sounded annoyed.
“Well,” he explained, clearly uncertain about what he tried to say, “two teams have already responded to our distress signal, and there have been enormous casualties. Of course, any help will be gratefully accepted, but I’m not really sure how much two people can do in the middle of this.”
“Can you believe this guy?” Sal asked. She nodded in agreement, then shook her head to indicate that now was not the time to talk about it and activated her comm link again.
“Well, we’ll head in your direction and eliminate the animals we run into,” she informed him and managed to keep her annoyance to herself. “The heading is roughly…south, southwest, so if you could avoid shooting us when we get in close, we’d appreciate it.”
“Understood,” the man said and sounded harried. “Good luck, Heavy Metal.”
“He’s not sure how much two people can do?” Kennedy hissed as she killed the connection. “Come on, Jacobs, let’s give this fucker a lesson in exactly how useful two people can be in this kind of situation.”
“I’m right behind you, Kennedy,” he replied, a little stirred up by the lack of confidence as well. It was a shame that these rifles didn’t have a cocking action that you could pull before firing. No, the chambering of rounds—even when a new magazine was put in—was all automatic. Of course, it was a good thing given that the time saved could actually mean the difference between life and death, but it lacked the dramatic quality of being able to end a sentence like that with the satisfying click-clack of a weapon ready to serve out some death and mayhem.
They moved cautiously forward again and took advantage of the fact that the animals they encountered seemed distracted by the other men. After a relatively easy running skirmish, they cleared a path all the way to the besieged group and made sure to announce themselves as they entered the small area cleared of all underbrush to provide a clean line of fire.
“Defensive positions,” Sal said with a shake of his head. “What did I say?”
“Yeah, I know,” she responded and kept their conversation on a private channel for the moment. “But you have to understand that almost everything military people were taught relies on holding and maintaining a position of strength when encountering superior numbers. You’ll see almost everyone—except for the special forces people—doing exactly this.”
“And getting shredded as a result,” he muttered quietly before he took their conversation to open comms when he noticed one of the men break away from the formation to approach them. They’d formed a circle around a small hill which gave them a clear view of the death on legs—and wings—that was inevitable once the animals decided that their reprieve had lasted long enough. Five wounded members lay in the center of the circle with no one to assist them. At that point, everyone who could aim a gun helped to hold the line.
“Heavy Metal, I presume?” the man asked. “I’m Lieutenant Alberts, the highest-ranking officer here.”
“A pleasure, Lieutenant,” Kennedy replied. “I’m Kennedy, and this is my associate Jacobs. We’re Heavy Metal. What’s the situation here? What are your casualties and why aren’t you guys heading out of the damn Zoo right now?”
“I—” The lieutenant started to speak, obviously accustomed to obeying orders when they were voiced in that tone, but quickly remembered that he was supposed to be the person in command. “Look, I’m the officer in charge of this mission, and if you join us, you’ll need to obey my instructions at all times.”
“I’m not here to measure dicks with you, Lieutenant.” She opened a private comm line that included only her, Sal, and the man in charge. “That said, to stay here and wait for the animals to continue their attack will merely condemn your squad to a long, drawn-out death. It’s time to change that.”
The man didn’t answer for a moment, and Sal realized that he had taken control of a situation that was well beyond his capabilities and simply did the best he could with what he had. He felt bad for the man but the soldier quickly realized that he now talked to someone who was not only a good deal more experienced in this kind of situation than he was but was also willing to move them out without completely emasculating him in the process.
“What do you suggest, Kennedy?” the lieutenant asked in a soft voice.
“Get your men to form up in double file,” Kennedy said. “Sandwich the wounded and those helping them in the middle and keep moving. Where are your extraction vehicles stationed?”
“About…ten klicks southeast,” the man replied.
“Okay, get them moving.” She closed the private line and moved away to scout the perimeter. Sal followed her.
“That was a classy move on your part,” he said as the lieutenant shouted orders. “I can’t say I would help the man keep his dignity in front of his soldiers after he doubted us like that.”
Kennedy shrugged. “Satisfying a grudge isn’t worth getting everyone here killed. Besides, it doesn’t seem like he meant any harm by what he said. He’s a newbie. This is probably his first time dealing with a situation like this, so there’s no real need to lay into him. He’ll learn his lesson and maybe next time, he’ll make the right decisions and get his team out without needing to pay us for the trouble.”
“Aren’t you feeling optimistic today?” he teased as the men formed up and began the retreat toward their vehicles.
She grinned and shrugged, retrieved a couple of smoke grenades from her pouch, and handed him one. “I’m a regular Mother Teresa out here. If she made her living gunning down alien animals for profit, that is.”
“I have to say, I’d watch that movie,” Sal said as they pulled the pins on the grenades. The animals noticed that the group had begun a hasty retreat and gathered quickly to push toward them again. The duo threw their grenades within seconds of one another. His arced out to the little hill where the group had previously taken a stand and where it would hopefully cover their tracks, while Kennedy waited for barely a second and dropped hers at her feet. The air was almost instantly filled with a heavy white fog of smoke and the team pushed on as rapidly as they could. The Heavy Metal team took position at the back of the line to protect the flanks and gunned down any of the creatures that tried to attack them from behind.
“So, Lieutenant,” Kennedy said and opened a line to the man whom she could only see through her motion sensors, “you never did get around to telling me about the casualty situation. Or how you guys were caught up in here in the first place.”
“Right,” he said and it sounded like he helped
to carry one of the wounded men. “We started out as a team of seven on a standard run looking for the Pita flowers. A couple of panthers attacked and we had two men dead and another wounded before we were able to kill them. We stuck around and tried to get our bearings, but they continued to come in waves. At that point, we sent out the distress call, and a couple of other teams in the area tried to help us. They took heavy losses too.”
“Give me a headcount,” she demanded.
“All three teams?” The man took a moment to gather himself. “We had twenty-five total, all stated.”
She looked around and made a quick headcount. There were thirteen left, plus the five wounded.
“Shit,” Sal muttered and sounded almost awed. “And they say we have a body count.”
“Let it go, Jacobs,” she cautioned. The animals attacked in a constant ebb and flow now, which forced the two of them to walk backward to retreat with the rest of the team and keep the rear and flanks covered. The Zoo beasts took heavy losses, but a seemingly endless tide swept in and around them. They were a mixed bunch too—locusts, hyenas, and many other insect-like creatures. A couple of the panthers used the advantage of their ability to stay up in the trees and swooped down for an easy kill whenever they sensed a weakness in the line.
It was difficult to shoot them as they descended, but the precision of their strikes made it a kill or be killed situation. Sal found himself on the former side of that logic five times out of five jumpers.
He couldn’t help but remember the first time he’d trudged his way out of the jungle. Back then, he’d been fitted with one of those useless government-issued specialist suits with no weapons other than what he’d scrounged from the dead. Worse, he’d carried a pack almost as heavy as he was—that was how it had felt, anyway—as he ran for his life. He’d been sore for days afterward and while still in the Zoo, spent the whole time wondering exactly how he would survive. That raw focus and a sheer need to live despite everything had never returned in all his future visits. While that was a good thing, there was a small part of him that wondered if he would ever be faced with those kinds of odds again.
