by Elin Wyn
“This job is a joke,” I snort. “No one lets me do anything. I can’t even enter the tents. I’m the best geoscientist around, remember? Wouldn’t that mean I get to analyze what we find? Correction, what you find. I haven’t been allowed to look for anything so it stands to reason that I haven’t found anything.”
“Are you finished?” Tovin had the nerve to look bored.
“No.” I narrowed my eyes. “How did that sample from yesterday turn out? The condensation should’ve compromised anything worth analyzing by now. You’ll have to collect a new sample if you want to test chemical levels.”
“We aren’t testing chemical levels,” Tovin said. “We’re testing soil composition and understanding the interconnectedness of all the flora.”
“What did you say your background was?” I asked. “If your testing soil, you’re looking at it’s make up. That involves testing chemical levels.”
“Gee, you really are the best,” he snapped.
“I’m going to get started on my work.” I tried to step past him but he wouldn’t move.
“Where are you going?”
“You won’t tell me anything. Why would I tell you anything?” I challenged.
“There have been reports of a sinkhole about half a click east of here,” he said. “Just don’t go over there. I don’t want to be liable for you doing something reckless.”
“I’m pretty good at avoiding sinkholes.” I pushed past him and stepped back into the clearing.
Not surprisingly, I ran right into Lorrva.
“Can I help you?” She looked at me like she’d just caught me stealing.
“No, I’m the one who’s supposed to help you. What do you want me to do today?”
“Don’t interfere.” She stepped around me and entered the tent. She closed the entrance flap. I heard something click into place. Figured that these people would know how to lock a tent.
Ridiculous.
With nothing to do, I felt restlessness creeping up on me. I wasn’t up for another day of standing around and being ignored.
I looked to the east and a wicked smile spread across my mouth.
Did I want to walk half a click to the east just to spite Tovin?
Yes, I did.
Taking the bike would have been too noticeable despite the silence. I’d have to walk. I could take samples from the sinkhole as well. I’d come across dozens of sinkholes in my day. I knew how to be safe around them.
I walked over to my bike and grabbed my pack. It had supplies for collecting samples, a harness, and a few lengths of rope.
If anything, I could tie myself off on a tree while I poked around the edges of the sinkhole. Maybe I could make a day of it. It’s not like I was needed around here.
I grabbed my comm unit too. Once I was out of earshot, I planned on calling Dr. Band. He needed to know the kind of crap I was putting up with. With any luck, he’d think the odd trio was as weird as I thought and he’d pull me off the assignment.
I walked west at first. If Lorrva or the others decided to look for me, they’d see my tracks going in the opposite direction of where they told me not to go.
Once I believed I was out of earshot, I called Dr. Band.
“How’s it going?” He asked when he answered.
“Weird,” I told him. “I’m barely doing anything. They’re strange and secretive. I caught a peek at their lab equipment, which I’m not allowed to look at by the way, and they aren’t set up to do the kind of work they told us they were doing.”
“Strange.” I could practically hear Dr. Band nodding and rubbing his beard on the other end.
“Yes, it’s strange and it’s a waste of my time. Can’t you pull me out?”
“I’ll do some digging and get back to you. Call if things get weirder.”
True to Dr. Band fashion, he hung up before I could say anything else.
I looked around the snowy jungle in confusion. I’d walked more than half a click while I talked.
Even accounting for the wide half-circle I had to make, I should’ve seen signs of a sinkhole by now. I knelt down where I stood, looking for signs of any sort of disturbance in the earth.
It looked, felt, and smelled the same as the soil in the area. None of the foliage bore signs of a recent disturbance.
Why would Tovin tell me not to come here if there was no sinkhole?
A branch snapped on my left. I turned to look just as a humanoid shape darted out from between the trees. Another one followed just behind it.
“What the hell?” I cried out and leapt backward.
The human-creature-thing stood up and looked at me. It clicked to the other one. They shrieked and howled.
As I slowly backed away from them, I pulled out my comm unit and called Dr. Band.
“Maki, you haven’t been there long enough to be bored yet,” he answered.
The creature’s eyes darted to the comm unit. They both shrieked in outrage. More came out of the trees to my right.
“What the hell was that sound?” Suddenly, he was taking the call seriously.
“I need an extraction right now!” I shouted and took off in the only direction that wasn’t blocked off.
“I’m tracking your comm. Hold tight. Help is on the way.”
It was difficult, but somehow, I managed to send my location without falling or dropping my comm unit.
“I’m running southwest from the last location at a full sprint,” I shouted. “Please hurry.”
If Dr. Band said anything back, I didn’t hear him.
I risked a glance over my shoulder.
Half a dozen creatures followed me. They were eerily like the hybrids the Xathi made when they attacked cities.
Only they were different.
Whereas Xathi hybrids had crystalline skin, these creatures did not.
They looked human enough, but their movements were strange and jerky. Almost as if they weren’t in complete control over their bodies.
Like they were possessed.
These creatures would chase me until either I died or they died.
I would know.
Once, I was almost one of them.
Tyehn
After I left Keith at the detention center, I sort of wandered off into the streets of Nyheim. I had refused to let Evie patch me up. Her full attention needed to be on Keith.
I had instead used some medi gel I kept in my gear. While the damage was fixed, I still looked like srell. My nose was swollen, but at least it had stopped bleeding.
Bruises covered me from head to toe, and the spot where the weight bounced off my shoulder ached terribly, but I was functional.
I was considering heading into a tavern for a stiff drink, despite the fact that I was on call.
Because what else were you supposed to do when your buddy lost his mind?
That’s when my comm unit squawked, informing me that I was being called in for duty. I heaved a heavy sigh and dutifully jogged to the armory.
Dax was on duty, probably because he’d volunteered for it.
Daxion was like that, always trying to shoulder a little more of the burden for his team. His trademark crossbow was slung across his back.
He really didn’t need it in a secure building like the armory, but given all the civil unrest going on lately, I didn’t blame him for wanting to be armed.
His face scrunched up with worry as I entered the armory.
“Damn, Tyehn, what the srell happened to you? You look like a Xathi gave you the once over.”
“Yeah, you should see the other guy.” I heaved my heavy body up to the counter and leaned on it. “I’m getting deployed to Sauma. Can you hook me up?”
Dax rubbed his palms together and grinned.
“Oh, can I ever. You want to go heavy?”
“Always. I’m the point man, after all.”
“Didn’t you used to be a proctologist or something?”
“Hydrologist.”
He arched an eyebrow as my surly tone.
“Something wrong? Other than getting beaten, I mean.”
I filled him in on the situation with Keith.
Dax knew Keith as well, and he was just as shocked as I was at his sudden, violent personality change.
“I hope he’s going to be alright.”
“Me, too. But what new weapons do you have for me today, Daxion?”
Dax disappeared behind the secure wall and returned a moment later with a two handed, drum fed assault rifle. My whistle of appreciation made him chuckle. Dax was not a small guy, but he had to struggle a bit to get the heavy weapon up on the counter.
“Heavy machine gun, with variable ammunition drum.”
“Variable ammunition?”
“Yes. I call it the Predator.”
“I’ll take two.”
“You’ll take one and be grateful for the opportunity to wield it. It’s a prototype, so try not to bust it with you ham hands.”
I shouldered the rifle, feeling a lot better about things.
Maybe being a soldier had rubbed off on me over the years.
Dax gave me a half dozen extra ammo drums which I loaded into my backpack.
“I’ve got a side arm for you as well. Not as fancy as the predator, but you can drag it through the mud or sea and it’ll still fire. And, I have one more final present.”
“You honor me.”
“I just feel sorry for you about the whole thing with Keith.”
Dax grunted with the effort of lifting a long metal bar with a handle onto the counter. After further examination I realized it was some sort of melee weapon in a sheath.
“Is that a sword? You’re giving me a sword?”
“Sword doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Dax unsheathed the weapon, and plucked a hair from his own scalp with a wince of pain.
“You’re just lucky you’re bald or I’d be doing this to you. Now watch.”
He turned the blade so the sharp edge was up, and then dropped the hair. It was split neatly in two as soon as it hit the edge.
“This blade is an experimental alloy that should, given enough force behind it, cut through near anything. The sword has been sharpened to a single molecule in width, making it ridiculously sharp, so be extra careful.”
“Nice.”
I managed to talk Dax out of a bandoleer of hand grenades as well before we parted ways.
At that point I was running late so I ran the rest of the way to the airfield. Sk’lar was waiting for me on the ramp, the shuttle’s engines already humming.
“Move it, Tyehn, we’re running late—what the hell happened to you?”
“Long story. I look like srell but I’m fit to fight.”
Sk’lar seemed like he was about to argue, but it was hard to tell with those beady black eyes of his. After a moment he nodded and moved aside so I could get strapped in.
“Good. We’ve got an extraction request for a group of scientists out by Sauma.”
The rest of Team Three noticed my bruises, but they also noticed I was in a black mood, and they didn’t pry.
Which was just as well. I spent the flight to Sauma lost in thought, reliving the attack at the gym over and over in my mind.
I couldn’t remember any odd smells or signs that Keith had been drugged.
Nothing.
Soon the shuttle settled in for a landing in the clearing the scientists had set up.
There were several tents there, and tons of equipment, some of which I recognized. But we didn’t see anyone. The place was deserted.
“Fan out, do a quick recon of the perimeter.”
We spread out as Sk’lar instructed.
I set the Predator to semi auto, and swept the barrel around in search of trouble, but didn’t find any.
Cazak knelt on the snow covered jungle floor and took notice of numerous tracks.
“There’s signs of at least a dozen bipeds, Commander, heading off in every direction.”
“Any indications of conflict?”
“Negative. But a lot of the tracks are spread out wide, like they were running. Fast.”
“Hmm.” Sk’lar got that look on his face that said he was tapping in to one of his cybernetic implants, probably one that gave him enhanced vision.
A moment later he jerked around and pointed his weapon into the jungle.
“Look alive, team. We got incoming.”
A moment later the unenhanced among us could also hear the approach.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t bothering with stealth. We all relaxed when a human woman came through the foliage, her face oddly calm with facing off against a fully armed fire strike team.
“What’s going on?” Her voice was calm, as well, but her eyes seemed wary.
“I’m Commander Sk’lar.” He strode forward, but didn’t offer a handshake, meaning he was feeling as wary as the rest of us. Something was out of place. “We received a distress call from your location. Is everything alright? Where is the rest of your team?”
“I’m Dr. Lorrva, the head scientist here. Everyone is out working in the jungle. I’m sorry, Commander, but I think there’s been a major misunderstanding. As you can see, there’s no crisis other than too much to do and not enough manpower to do it.”
Sk’lar grunted and turned his back on her.
“Hang tight for a minute, Doctor. I need to speak to my team.”
Sk’lar gestured for us to huddle up in a circle, our backs to Lorrva. I realized that he didn’t want the scientist to hear our discussion.
“Thoughts?”
“I don’t like it, Commander.” Jalok shook his head and peered over at the scientist. “Something’s not right here. I feel like we’re being swindled, but I can’t put a finger on it.”
“I feel it too.” Navat pursed his lips and glanced at Lorrva. “I don’t trust this female.”
Sk’lar spoke in an even lower tone.
“Using one of my implants, I can read the biorhythmic signature on her skin. There’s something off about it, but I can’t figure out what. I think she’s lying, but she’s damn good at it. Her heart rate didn’t increase at all when she spoke.”
“What are we gonna do, Commander? Bug out of here?”
“Negative. I’m going to put in a call to Sauma and see what’s up. Navat, Tyehn, and Jalok, you keep an eye on the perimeter. Don’t let anything sneak up on us.”
“Don’t you mean anyone?”
“I meant what I said. Cazak, keep a watch on our scientist friend here. If she does anything out of the ordinary, knock her down and cuff her.”
“You got it, Commander.”
Sk’lar put in the call to Sauma.
He made it a conference call so the rest of us could pick it up on our comm units as we spread through the camp.
“Sauma, this is Sk’lar, do you read?”
“Read you loud and clear commander.”
“What was the crisis here? Everything seems—seems normal.”
He cast a suspicious glance at Lorrva when he spoke.
The comm crackled, then our contact in Sauma responded.“Commander, be on high alert. Dr. Hotaru reports that she is running for base camp, being pursued by,” he paused, “possessed hybrids.”
“Hybrids?”
Team three and I exchanged glances.
As humans would say…the shit just hit the fan, in a big, nasty way.
Mika
They were still behind me.
I didn’t know how many. I couldn’t risk taking my eyes off the forest in front of me to look.
The snow made everything harder to navigate. It disguised pitfalls, thick roots, and it was so difficult to see if there was a layer of frost or not.
My boots kept skidding on ground that looked stable but was really slippery.
“This jungle doesn’t make any sense!” I groaned as I slipped once more.
This time, I slammed right into a snow-covered tree trunk. Bioluminescent frost coated my right side. It made my skin tingle bu
t I had no time to brush it off.
Xathi hybrids were fast, inhumanly so.
I remembered.
If those creatures were some kind of variant horde that had avoided detection for all these months, I had no choice but to keep running.
My lungs burned each time I sucked in a breath. I was in damn good shape but this was pushing my limits.
My calf started cramping. Little lightning bolts of pain shot up my leg. I clenched my teeth and pushed through it.
Behind me, the creatures wailed to one another.
They flanked me.
If they caught up to me, they could close in and I didn’t have any way to defend myself.
I wouldn’t have the strength to fight them off bare handed after running like this.
There was something on the ground up ahead, a ripple in the snow.
As I got closer, I realized it was a sharp stone. Risking a break in my pace, I bent down and scooped it up. Thankfully, it wasn’t buried in the ground.
I clutched it in my hand and waited for the creatures to cry to each other once more.
A howl sounded on my left, almost parallel to me.
There wasn’t a matching one on the right. If I was correct, that meant only one of the creatures had caught up with me.
The rest couldn’t be too far behind. I waited for another shriek, just to confirm my suspicions.
This time, the shriek was closer.
“Shit!”
I launched the rock without taking my eyes off the path in front of me. I heard the thump of impact and an anguished shriek.
The other creatures howled back. I heard rustling behind me. Ignoring the searing pain in my legs and lungs, I pushed myself to run faster.
The shrieks faded into the forest. The creatures must’ve stopped to assist their fallen member, an oddly human gesture.
Maybe they weren’t Xathi hybrids, but what were they?
I took advantage and veered off the whisper-thin trail.
Almost instantly, I tripped over a log concealed by powdery snow deep enough to completely engulf me. It filled my mouth and clogged my throat. I coughed and sputtered, fighting to stick my head above the fluff.
Shrieks echoed through the forest. The creatures must’ve sorted themselves out and were hunting me once more.
