Feral

by Vesper Brooks

  Her face darkened. “I know what my job is.”

  “I’m not saying you don’t, Jasmyne. I’m questioning why the change. Explain it to me. Please.” I righted a chair before taking a seat and staring at her patiently.

  She sighed and seemed to hesitate a moment. “They never hired security. When I came, things kept happening. I’m trying to put it all together.”

  “What kind of things?” I signed back without speaking. Something about this conversation felt like it needed to be kept private.

  “The other handlers? They didn’t quit. They died.”

  My jaw dropped at her admission and I signed my question without verbalizing. “How?”

  “From being bit by Daxel. Like you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  I kept my mouth tightly sealed when Evans arrived after Jasmyne’s confession. My blood didn’t know whether to boil or run ice cold. People died because of these animals, and I’d waltzed right into an enclosure, falsely optimistic on lies both blatant and omissive.

  Phillip Evans sent in a cleanup crew to sweep up the mess and take inventory of destroyed food items. The table disappeared to be promptly replaced by a twin. The hustle and bustle only took an hour, while the PR head spent the hour explaining to us that all geds remained in their enclosure. Nothing to see here, folks.

  When they left, the sun still remained below the horizon. Jaxx walked with me to my room before slumping on to my bed. Her posture appeared defeated, and I found myself placing a hand on her shoulder.

  “Jaxx, you know you can trust me, right? What’s going on? Why didn’t you tell me about the other handlers sooner?” I asked as I knelt before her.

  Her dark gaze lifted to search me out and she gave me a tight smile. I moved my hand from her shoulder to her knee as she lifted hers to talk to me.

  “I never expected him to bite you. They’ve only bitten when trainers are aggressive. We can’t trust CGC. They erased the print. I thought of something too. Something that scares me.”

  “What?” I asked.

  She turned her head to regard the wall for a moment, as if gathering her bearings to drop something on me. I knew without a doubt, whatever she prepared to say, I wouldn’t like it. I waited patiently, knowing Jasmyne wasn’t the type to play head games.

  “The dog broke the window to get out in a panic. How did it get in?”

  I could feel the blood drain from my face at her logic. “Either someone let it in on purpose or…”

  “Or it came here for a reason.”

  I flopped down to sit on my butt as I mulled the scenarios over. The creatures were smart. Way smarter than people seemed to give them credit for. Or maybe it wasn’t a lack of credit so much as a downplay. The idea of downplaying to keep everyone blissfully working without fear carried Evans’ signature all over it.

  Obviously, some people had to be putting two and two together, though. The cleanup crew knew to destroy the pawprint. Problem was, Evans made a great PR head because he could cleverly manipulate people into a false sense of security, but the man didn’t even bother trying to lie. Tonight, he spent time reassuring us the geds remained in their enclosure, yet he never once supplied an alternative suspect.

  I slammed my fist into the floor, overwhelmed with all the pieces of some horrifying puzzle spread out before me, but no clear way to connect them into a picture. And, truth be told, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

  “Jasmyne, let’s leave. We came, we saw, we said our piece. Let’s get on a chopper and get the fuck out of here.” I placed both my hands in her lap as I stared up at her, begging her to forsake her sense of duty.

  She shook her head slowly, and a sad smile turned the curve of her lips. I wasn’t the least surprised that she declined, but I knew I’d never sleep again if I left her alone here in this hellish place. I’d be a coward in her eyes and mine, and I couldn’t live with that.

  “Okay,” I said, patting her gently on the thigh. “I understand. We’ll see this through. But that means we tighten our defenses with the people we trust and watch each other’s backs. Because shit is going to hit the fan…soon.”

  “I know. I will call a team meeting in the morning. There’s a quiet spot by the beach we can go. No people. No risk of video cameras. Okay?”

  I nodded. “Okay. I trust O’Malley and the vet, Mal. I haven’t really met anyone else, but I know whoever you vouch for is reliable.”

  “We should go to bed,” she responded with a glance at my pillows. “Want me to sleep with you?”

  As childish as it sounded, I did want her with me. Not just as protection from the geds, but protection from the invisible bad guys I’d decided were out to get me. Maybe they weren’t. Maybe one of the geds felt like going on a midnight excursion moonlighting as a giant racoon.

  We climbed into bed together, still clothed, and snuggled. Jaxx spooned me from behind, and I tried desperately to relax in her arms. I’d slept in so many rugged, dangerous places at risk from predators before, but never had I felt so exposed and hunted as I did now.

  Her confession didn’t help matters any. From being bit by Daxel. Like you. The words played in my head over and over, making my stomach sick with worry.

  Is that why she rushed to examine me when I first came back to the guest quarters? Is that why Xander’s face turned pale and he obeyed me? They all thought they were looking at a dead woman walking. It explained too why Evans personally attended the bedside while Mal dressed my wounds, and if he wanted to keep it hush hush, why he took me to the vet instead of the actual staff doctor.

  I fought the urge to go beat on Mal’s door again. He knew more than he’d initially told me, yet I didn’t hold it against him. I wanted to know how the people died from a bite. Did they expire from compound damage, or something else? Everyone’s reaction to my minor bite led me to believe the “something else” probably felt more accurate.

  For now, I listened to Jaxx as her breathing evened out. She spent years in the military, fighting in war zone after war zone. Surprisingly, her inability to vocalize never kept her from the frontlines. I took heart in her belief that, at least for now, we remained safe enough she could let her guard down.

  To help my body decompress, I did the one thing I excelled at. I made mental lists. I prepped myself for who I needed to drag to the beach tomorrow morning. I compiled questions to pepper Mal with once we could talk shop. I reminded myself I still needed to show O’Malley the video clip I’d stashed away for safekeeping from my encounter with the geds.

  Last but not least, I prepared myself with the knowledge that tomorrow, Xander would probably die. That the same corporation that hired me to come in and give advice disregarded what I had to say the minute it infringed on how they ran things. So tomorrow, the handler would go in with his little buzz stick and unleash hell.

  All I could hope is that Jasmyne and her team didn’t get caught in the crossfire.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I walked into Mal’s clinic when the first rays of sunlight pierced the sky. My eyes felt swollen from my lack of sleep, but until I obtained answers, I knew seeking sleep would prove futile. When I walked in, Mal stood near his computer, staring at the screen with an expression that screamed frustration. He still wore his pajamas.

  I couldn’t help but envy Mal for his appearance. He looked well-rested despite the fact he stayed up all night too. As I raised a brow at his fuzzy slippers, he glanced down.

  “Right. I suppose I better change. Can’t have bigwigs coming in here and realizing something’s up that easily, now can we?” He flashed a grin at me before disappearing into his sleeping quarters.

  I peered at the information he left up on the computer screen, but I couldn’t quite piece together what the results meant. I never specialized in chemical biology and didn’t have a good head for it to begin with. By the time Mal came back out, I’d nearly paced a rut in his sick bay.

  “Can you fucking believe it?” he asked, gesturing at the computer.

>   “I can’t tell you yet because I couldn’t understand it,” I admitted. “Can I get the highlights?”

  He perched on the stool in front of his computer and tapped the screen. “Long story short, Daxel transferred the antibiotics I’d given him a few hours before into your bloodstream. Now, I’m sure you’ve heard rumors that Daxel’s bites are usually…nasty. So, why were you different?”

  “I may or may not have been informed there’s been a series of deaths related to his bite.” I crossed my arms and leaned against a counter. “After I was bitten, of course. And yes, I’ve spent most of last night wondering why I healed instead of dying. I’m imagining, from the look on your face, you’ve studied that angle and discovered something.”

  He nodded enthusiastically. “Indeed. Check this out!” Mal turned to his computer and brought up a different screen. When I stared blankly, he issued a sheepish grin. “Right. Sorry. To sum it up, every time Daxel bit someone in the past, he’d just been injected with tranquilizers. Usually to crate him for movement or exams.”

  “Tranquilizers?” I felt the blood drain from my face. “His body enhanced them so instead of sedation, they experienced outright euthanasia. Oh my fucking God. Jasmyne!”

  I bolted out the door at a dead run for the large pen they kept the geds in. Evans demanded the training with the cattle prod happen first thing in the morning, which pushed back our meeting we planned. I’d told Jasmyne to be sure her whole team kept tranqs locked and ready to fire for when shit hit the fan. I knew one shock from the prod would probably send Daxel into a full-out frenzy, and that meant a good chance the other geds would follow and lash out too.

  When I skidded through the employee door and into the pen, Xander stood before the geds, an arrogant smile on his face. All three geds sat, attention riveted on the man. Sensee’s nose wriggled as she tried to place a new scent. Radia kept her head slightly tilted, as if maintaining a view of her packmate. Daxel’s posture remained deceptively calm. I realized that somehow, they knew something changed and were compiling and sharing information.

  I glanced at the camera that recorded the interior of the closure and made a mental note that the light remained on. I need to have O’Malley check the audio for high frequency communication. They’re talking at levels they’ve realized we can’t hear.

  I knew how crazy it sounded that I suspected that much intelligence from these creatures, but I couldn’t shake the feeling something deeper and more sinister was going on. Something that didn’t quite rely on human guidance or intervention.

  “Wait!” I yelled as I burst into the center of the group, inserting myself between the geds and Xander. The role felt too familiar, and I steeled my savior complex to accept that this time, if the handler ignored me, I would let him reap the consequences of his own actions. I wasn’t getting bit for his ass again.

  “What’s going on?” Lee asked, though I wasn’t sure he asked out of his own curiosity or in his role as Jaxx’s interpreter.

  “Don’t use that on these animals. You don’t understand the chain reaction you’ll set off.” I turned my head to address the security officers. “And don’t fire those tranqs. Especially not at Daxel.”

  “Doctor Poole, what is the meaning of this?” Evans strode in and for the first time, he looked ruffled.

  “We got us one of those bleeding-heart animal huggers,” Xander said, gesturing at me with the cattle prod. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jasmyne grip the handle of her personal firearm and knew if the handler fucked up and attacked me, he wouldn’t live through the bad decision.

  Evans stopped a few feet away from us, though I didn’t know if it was out of disdain of coming closer to the geds or from fear of inserting himself in the center of a hostile and unstable situation. “Doctor Poole, why don’t we go somewhere and talk about this? These people have work to do. I’m sure you understand.”

  His words set something off deep inside of me, and I leveled a glare at him. “No, I don’t understand. Why the hell did you bring me here if you were going to do the exact opposite of every suggestion I’ve given? Your decisions and allowance of outright abuse are creating the catalyst for a situation far more dangerous than you seem to understand.”

  “My fucking God. Move, bitch.” Xander shoved me so hard I stumbled as he pushed past me and extended the hand with the cattle prod. It beeped as he toggled it on, and my stomach dropped like a rollercoaster flung me down the steepest drop.

  “They haven’t even done anything,” I protested.

  “And they’ll learn never to cross me,” he sneered.

  Before I could say anything, a strange whistling coo pierced the air. I turned my gaze to Sensee, who tilted her head back, lilting out the strangely mournful noise.

  “What is she doing?” Lee asked, eyes riveted on Jaxx as she signed the question with frantic fingers.

  “Sounding the war call,” I replied as the geds launched forward.

  Despite their huge sizes, they moved with a grace and speed I’d seen so many times on the savannah from animals that hunted to survive. Radia reached Xander first and her short jaws clamped down on his forearm so hard, the crunch of bone resounded through the air seconds before his scream. He dropped the cattle prod as the nerves in his hand seemed to spasm from her grip.

  Sensee darted in, grabbing him by the shin and ripping sideways so she literally jerked his leg out from under him. He went down as gunfire peppered my ears with short bursts. Darts blossomed across the black and red hides of the two geds.

  “No, don’t!” I screamed, throwing an arm out at Jaxx’s team.

  She signed at them frantically to cease fire, but it was too late. All three geds sported the colorful feathered tips that indicated darts. Xander’s muffled sobs filled the silence as Radia and Sensee released him and stepped back, their movements clumsy from the fast-acting tranqs. Daxel, however, advanced, demeanor nonchalant as he picked up the prod in the same fashion he’d picked up the baton.

  We watched in fascination as he placed a paw on Xander’s chest, and the man gasped and choked, scrambling at the sudden weight with twisted limbs. This time, Daxel leveled his gaze at Evans instead of me.

  “Fuck this,” he said, voice slightly muffled from the prod he gripped in his muzzle. “Fuck…you.”

  With a sharp gesture, he turned his head sideways, plunging the metal forked tip of the prod into Xander’s eye. The man screamed, writhing in agony. I had no idea if the tool still produced a current, or if he screamed from the way his eyeball exploded across his cheek in a mixture of blood and viscous materials that made me gag. Daxel wobbled on his feet as he backed up off the handler and, with frightening precision, tore the man’s throat out, silencing the litany of screams.

  When the beast collapsed, I pressed my knuckles to my mouth, stifling a sob at the scene before me. The completely preventable scene I’d tried in vain to stop. Hands settled on my shoulders, and I looked up to find Jasmyne standing above me. The sorrow in her eyes conveyed her grief, and we both knew that the worst remained yet to come.

  Cleanup never came easy—especially when lives were lost.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I sat at the kitchen table in the guest house, face in my palms, as I waited for Jasmyne to come back. Evans called an emergency security meeting that he’d promptly kicked me out of, citing my lack of security experience. I may not have experience, but even I knew things reached a whole new level with these creatures. Daxel didn’t just blame Xander for his abuse; somehow, he knew the power lay with Evans. Not only that, for the first time, Radia and Sensee displayed aggression in a coordinated attack to disable the enemy. An enemy Daxel not only finished off, but used to make a point.

  The geds had enough of their abuse and neglect. Not just Daxel, but all of them.

  O’Malley came through the door, and I stared up at him, trying to remember what I’d meant to tell him. Something important. Something that needed to be said or shared.

  “I heard someone h
ad a shitty day,” he said as he pulled up a chair beside me. “I got the email you sent, by the way, of the video file of Daxel speaking after he bit you. That’s heavy stuff. No doubt in my mind now they can use human language in context. What are they going to do with the geds?”

  “I…I don’t know. Jasmyne is in a meeting with Evans now. I’m sure she’s pushing for them to be euthanized. Now that they are deliberately killing, especially as a pack, they’ll present a safety hazard at all times.” I slammed my palms on the smooth surface of the table. “You know what’s absolute bullshit? It could have been completely different. They are smart, capable creatures with the ability to perform complex thinking and communication. If they’d been treated right from the beginning, with enrichment and with respect, things could have been so different. They don’t deserve to die. Evans does.”

  My shoulders slumped as I ended my rant. I wanted out on the first helicopter or ship I could find room on. I didn’t care if I had to sit in a crate for days. I needed this island of death and pain as far behind me as physically possible, and then maybe I could work on the mental healing process.

  “I’d say they communicate with complexity if I could make heads or tails of it,” Wulphgang said he as stood and grabbed an energy drink from the fridge. “I keep feeling like I’m missing something…”

  “I can probably snag you today’s video,” I muttered. “But, other than some basic body language, there’s not much to see… That’s it!”

  My chair hit the floor with a clatter as I sprang up and raced to my room. My laptop rested where I’d left it, and it didn’t look like anyone had tampered with it. With how busy everyone was cleaning up Xander’s body, vacating the pen before the geds woke up, and meeting to figure out what to do, I doubted they had time to delete the video from today yet.

  When I brought my computer to the table, O’Malley raised a brow. “So, what’s it?”