Feral

by Vesper Brooks

  “We can talk about that later,” Lily snapped, cutting him off. “Would have, should have, could have doesn’t affect here and now. What is the most direct way to safety now?”

  “I’ll have a ship route to you immediately, but it probably can’t get there until tomorrow,” Carborton responded. “Save as many people as you can. If you have to—if you can—kill the geds. We’ll worry about retrieving data and their bodies later.”

  “If I may, what was the point in all this? You’ve as much as admitted these creatures were actually created for killing. Why do you suddenly care now if people die? Weren’t we all just sacrificial from the beginning?” I asked despite Lily pressing a finger to her lips to shush me.

  “Ah…Doctor Poole, correct?”

  “Yes, it’s me. The woman who warned your head man multiple times that continued mistreatment of these animals would result in them purposefully hurting someone. The woman whose warnings were blatantly disregarded. I want to know why.”

  The distinct sound of papers shuffling filtered through the line before he sighed. “The deaths were calculated. All the handlers were inmates from international prisons willing to trade off sentences for service. They all signed disclaimers agreeing we would not be held liable for their deaths and the high risk of this project. No one beyond them were supposed to be put in danger. The instant the geds grew aggressive and escaped, I enacted the retrieval protocol, but it’s not working. Yes, we deliberately baited them into attacking, to see if they could. If they would. If they did, how and why. It’s been fascinating research that sadly has grown out of hand. All I can ask now is that you and the others hole up here in this bunker and evacuate as soon as the ship shows up. For safety measures, I’ll have the ship wait away from the docks and send rescue boats to ferry all employees to the main ship.”

  I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself over what he just divulged. Murdering inmates as part of a skewed justice system trade-off seemed illegal as fuck, but we’d deal with that later.

  “Why wasn’t I given the order to evacuate with Phil?” Lily demanded, her cold demeanor finally showing a crack.

  “I never gave him the order to leave. He cut and ran on his own, and I, for one, am glad you weren’t on that helicopter with him given the circumstances. Lily, believe me, none of you were ever supposed to be harmed. This is against the policies and beliefs CGC stands for.”

  “But creating killer dogs isn’t?” I snarked, rolling my eyes.

  “Originally, they were supposed to be assistance animals. Future generations absolutely will be further engineered for that purpose. But I took what we had and found a worth for them too. Sometimes, even companies with the best intentions will endorse military technological research. Now, to the matter at hand—evacuate everyone you can to the bunkers down there. I will call as soon as I know a ship is en route, then will maintain contact to coordinate with the ship. Be safe.” With that, Carborton hung up, effectively ending the conversation.

  “Motherfucker!” Lily kicked the desk before replacing the phone in its cradle. “All right. All we can do at this point is trust him. I believe him when he says he didn’t authorize Phillip to evacuate. There’s more bunkers like this one stretched down the hall. Let’s start funneling people in as best we can.”

  “I have to find Jasmyne,” I said, looking over my shoulder at the door. “She’s out there with those things, and I need to let her know to no longer engage. Is there a walkie talkie tucked anywhere in here?”

  “No. We didn’t keep those as the signal doesn’t penetrate the walls. The only communication in or out is this private line.” Lily offered me a sad smile. “If you want to risk yourself, you can attempt to find her or a walkie talkie elsewhere while Wulph and I start moving people down here. I need to reach the other buildings too.”

  “I’m absolutely willing to risk it,” I responded. “No way in hell am I leaving Jasmyne out there in danger.”

  I just hoped I wasn’t already too late.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Okay, people. Can you all listen to me for a moment?” Lily clapped her hands as she faced the group milling around the door.

  No one paid her any attention.

  I flinched as a shrill whistle pierced the air and watched as everyone in the room quieted and turned toward us. Wulphgang crossed his arms over his chest as he glowered at them. “That’s better,” he said. “Please give Miss Preston your undivided attention.”

  Obediently, all eyes fell on the woman at his side.

  “Thank you.” She cleared her throat before lifting her chin. I could clearly see her using the tactic in a courtroom, and her presence seemed to increase tenfold. “I just spoke with Roger Carborton. He has urged me to evacuate everyone to a set of shelters until a ship can arrive to take us to safety. Please, I need a few volunteers willing to reach the other buildings to urge remaining staff to come here.”

  No one responded. I let my gaze sweep over them and knew from the way they studied their shoes and shifted their feet that no one would willingly walk out those doors.

  “I’ll do it,” I said as resignation loosened my shoulders. “I’m going out there anyway to find Jaxx. I’ll get the word out to as many people as I can.”

  Lily offered me a tight smile. “Any of you who live in the dorms here, I suggest calmly going upstairs and fetching any personal items that are irreplaceable. Please take only what you can carry and understand there’s a chance it might get lost in the chaos. Let’s make teams to cut down on chaos. Doctor O’Malley, if you could help me direct teams and perhaps do a quick sweep for items in the kitchen or stock room, that could be useful, please.”

  She continued to talk, directing the group like a true leader. Like Evans should have done instead of fleeing. It baffled me how, when the chips were down, he fled. I’d never expected it of him.

  I approached the door, threading my way through people who shuffled toward Lily and the safety she offered. As I reached out to open the door, a hand wrapped around my wrist. I looked up and found Destry from maintenance standing there. His lips pressed in a thin line.

  “They’re still out there,” he said.

  “So is Jasmyne and her team,” I reminded him. “If I throw my hands in the air and call them a loss, what kind of person does that make me?”

  My words seemed to satisfy him. He nodded before releasing me. “I’ll go with you.”

  I thought about protesting, about claiming I was a big girl and didn’t need a man to back me. But a glance at the downed helicopter caused the words to die on my tongue. Instead, I offered him a nod.

  “Where did you want to go first?” he asked. “Do you have any idea where she is?”

  “I don’t know where she is, but I know someone who has a walkie talkie that I can reach her and her team through.” I pointed across the way at the guest house where Lee remained. “Right over there. I’m swinging by the building in between to grab the veterinarian first.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  I angled to see out the small window as far as possible on either side. “Where did the geds go?”

  “After Radia tore a hole in the helicopter, she and Daxel dragged a body out and pulled it off into the woods. We aren’t sure who, and since the body wasn’t moving, we assumed they were dead. They’re probably eating the poor guy right now.”

  I grimaced at the thought while also wondering when they last ate a meal. Were the geds hunting out of necessity instead of vengeance, as I first assumed? It could be a possible scenario, and if so, sad as it was, Evans and the pilot’s deaths bought the rest of us some leeway.

  With slow, fluid movements, I opened the door and stepped out into the fading light. When did it get so late? A glance at my watch proved several hours passed since Wulphgang woke me in the late afternoon, but it felt like only minutes. They say time flies when you’re having fun. Apparently, it flies faster when you’re in danger. Or in shock. Probably both.

  Destry fo
llowed me as we hugged the wall and made our way toward the vet clinic. The shadows provided by the buildings made me feel safe, though I knew predators like the geds wouldn’t have trouble spotting us. We froze when a soft cooing filled the air, and I knew without a doubt Sensee spotted us. I’d yet to see her, but that sound… Oh God, that sound would haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life.

  “We’re all going to need some intense therapy when this is over,” I whispered.

  Destry nodded, though he didn’t look as amused as I felt over my dark humor. When no geds exploded into view, I continued toward Mal’s with the maintenance worker close behind. I thought about asking him where Cindy was, just to fill the silence with some conversation. The longer we walked, the more I thought better of it. No reason to make ourselves more obvious than we already were.

  When I pushed the door to the clinic open, the distinct clang of a dart being loaded into a tranq gun met us. I threw up my hands as I searched the shadows for Mal.

  “Whoa, Doc, it’s me. It’s Cossondra. Don’t knock my ass out.”

  He stepped from the shadows, eyes wide and hands shaking. “I thought they’d finally come for me. You can’t tell me, after all the shots, all the blood draws, that they don’t have me on their checklist.”

  “You saw?” I asked, reaching for the gun.

  The cool metal met my fingertips as he handed it over without a complaint. “Yes. They’re hunting. The attack was too planned. Too coordinated. They knew a helicopter would come, and they’ve watched it come and go so much, Radia didn’t even hesitate. She just…” He trailed off as he shook his head.

  With a sigh, I placed the gun down on the exam table I sat on only a couple of days ago. No sense bringing the gun. Even if it did knock one out, the rest would kill whoever pulled the trigger. So far, the geds seemed to only go after people who actively harmed them.

  “Miss Preston is evacuating people to a bunker system that’s supposed to be secure. You can either go straight to the cafeteria where she’s gathering people, or you can stick with us while I try to gather survivors and reach Jaxx,” I said, glancing around the room. “Maybe grab a triage kit if you have one, just to be safe. I’m not sure what all is in the bunker.”

  “Okay. Okay. I can do that.” He busied himself fluttering around the clinic, opening drawers and tossing items into a backpack.

  Destry and I watched him, though I noticed the maintenance worker stationed himself by the door and kept dividing his attention between the vet and outside. His common sense strengthened my faith that I made the right decision in letting him accompany me.

  Finally, Mal swung the backpack onto his shoulders and approached us. “Ready,” he said. His voice quavered less than before.

  Again, we checked the window before sidling outside. We would have to cross a stretch of open area between the clinic and the nearest guest house where Lee probably hunkered, but this time Sensee didn’t call out as we made our way quietly. I hoped she’d either lost interest in us, or she’d joined the others in the woods, though that brought a whole new slew of images I didn’t want to entertain.

  The door to the guest house sat open, and the pit of my stomach dropped at the sight. I crept forward, straining for any sounds of distress or the distinct rustling of a large creature looting. When a peek inside revealed an intact kitchen, I frowned.

  “Maybe he grew so scared at the sight of the crash, he rushed in to barricade himself again,” Mal offered. “He’s very flighty.”

  “True.” Boldened by his words, I entered the guest house. The building, once so comfortable in its size, now felt too big with so many places for a ged to pop out and too small to effectively escape in all at once.

  We passed the other doors without checking the rooms as I led them straight to Lee’s. I knocked on the door, hoping he’d respond. Geds didn’t know about polite knocking, right? Just keypads and helicopters and cattle prods. When a muffled voice answered on the other side, I relaxed slightly.

  “Lee, it’s Cossondra. I need your walkie talkie and we’re being evacuated.”

  I waited as the groaning scrape of a dresser being moved again met my words. When he opened the door, he regarded me with a level of suspicion that caused my hairs to stand on end.

  “I’ll come, but you can’t have my walkie talkie.”

  I held out my hand. “Then just let me borrow it. I need to talk to Jaxx.”

  He clutched it to his chest as he marched past us toward the guest house doorway. I followed, indignation growing with every step. The other two men trailed behind us, neither getting involved in the argument brewing between myself and the dickhead of a translator.

  “Lee, give me the fucking walkie talkie. Right now!” I used the sternest voice I could project—one that made wolves back down before—as the man paused outside the doorway to glower at me.

  “You can’t tell me what to do! You’re a bitch, just like Jaxx. Well, fuck you both because I don’t have to do what you say anymore. I quit!” he yelled.

  Just before the wet, warmth of his blood splattered across my face and chest.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I blinked, shocked by the speed and surprise of the attack. I could hear Lee screaming, pleading, begging for his life. I stepped outside, intending on trying to save him, but my hopes dimmed at the sight of him.

  Too much blood. How is he still alive?

  Sensee jerked her head as she tore his arm free and tossed it to the side. Lee spasmed, mewling in pain, and the gurgle of blood filling his lungs oddly gave me some solace. At least his suffering wouldn’t last much longer.

  The creature whirled, facing me, and a wheezing vibration emitted from her—a warning growl or the best one she could emulate. I backed up, palms out facing her.

  “Easy, girl. Easy. Calm down, Sensee,” I murmured, sickened that I spoke as if a man didn’t lay dying only a few feet away from me. “Guys, slowly, calmly walk behind me. Heads down, eyes on the ground. Do not look. Do not speak. Head toward the cafeteria,” I instructed in a sing-song voice meant to confuse and soothe the ged.

  A shuffling sound came from behind me, but I didn’t take my eyes off the animal in front of me. Her chest muscles flexed, and she bared her teeth that dripped with saliva and Lee’s blood. I chanced a glance at the man, relieved to see he lay still now. I didn’t like him, but I never wanted anyone to die like he did. Never thought anyone should suffer the pain he experienced the last few seconds of his life that probably felt like an eternity.

  The walkie talkie rested near my feet from where he’d dropped it when she attacked him. I debated grabbing it, worried I would meet the same end as him. But the fear of Jasmyne being left behind or dying when she could have sat safely in the bunker with the rest of us drove me to at least try.

  Calmly, with slow movements, I eased downward, never breaking eye contact with the ged. To do so now, without her breaking it first, could mean forfeiting my life. It proved me weaker; more submissive. Prey. I hoped and prayed that Sensee wouldn’t attack. My hopes shattered as she issued her war cry before launching at me.

  I don’t know who screamed—me or the men behind me. One second, the creature arced through the air as she hurled herself at me, the next she landed nearby, snarling and bucking as something clung to her back and neck. When Jasmyne sat upright, locking her legs around the ged’s throat, my legs nearly gave out from a mixture of relief at not dying and fear for my lover.

  The first bullet Jaxx fired ricocheted off Sensee’s shoulder and embedded into the building next to us. The second, point blank in the middle of her skull, left a red line across Jasmyne’s cheek as it pinged upward.

  “She hardens her skin!” I yelled, hoping she could hear me over the wild howling of the ged. “It won’t work!”

  Without missing a beat, she rolled with the ged, wrapping an arm under Sensee’s throat to maintain her hold as the creature attempted to dislodge her. When they came back up, Jaxx clung sideways, her face uncomfortab
ly close to the beast’s snapping mouth. The gun tip disappeared into the sharp, broad fan of Sensee’s ear seconds before blood and other bits ejected out.

  Jasmyne waited until the body stopped twitching before she rose to her feet, wiping her gun on the corpse. She pulled her glove off, grimaced then tossed it down as well. I considered protesting her leaving an object with her scent next to the body, but to be fair, Sensee’s corpse had to be covered in Jaxx’s scent at this point. The glove made little difference.

  “Are you okay?” she signed at me.

  When I nodded, she lifted my arms, turned my face this way and that, and patted down my legs. I stood mutely, unable to find the words to express my shock at her intervention, or my relief at seeing her alive. A part of me, terrified of the pain of losing her, already declared her dead when the geds took the helicopter down. To see her alive and well sent my system into a whole new level of shock.

  “I’m not badass enough for this. I want to go home,” I said as I hugged myself against the rising panic in me.

  She smiled at me in understanding, but it didn’t reach her eyes. We both turned to Sensee’s body and, out of morbid curiosity, I walked over and touched her skin. Soft, pliable tissue met my prodding.

  “She could do it at will. But why did she try to attack me? It doesn’t fit the pattern,” I said, thinking aloud.

  Jaxx tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned my attention to her. Her hands danced through the air as she spoke. “We need to get moving. The other two won’t take this well. They remember and hold grudges. I don’t know why she attacked you either. We can talk about that later.”

  “You’re right. Where’s the rest of your team?” I asked.

  “Kat and David are patrolling the labs to send people to the cafeteria. Lawyer told me you were out looking for me.” Her features tightened into a grimace. “I knew you would go to Lee for the walkie talkie.”