Evolve, p.18
Evolve, page 18
part #2 of Logan Reed Series
“Let’s go,” Fitz whispered.
“Roger that,” Zeus replied, getting the team going again.
As they moved off, the sounds of battle quieted down. Then, they altogether stopped. Between the increasing breeze and the widening distance, they’d ventured too far to hear anything.
“You think they’ll make it?” CJ asked.
Fitz snorted a laugh. “Have you seen them fight? They’ll be fine.” A subtle scraping resonated through the stone corridor, pausing them again as they listened. “Us on the other hand…”
Without needing to be told, Zeus and Ares turned and took off at a slight jog. “Stay single file and keep moving,” Zeus said from the front of the pack.
Fitz bit his lip and accessed their current positioning, not liking what he saw. “We need more firepower back here,” he said. “Plus, I still can't see much past my nose.”
“On it,” Ares replied, falling back and taking over the duty of guarding their backs.
But as they continued, so did the scratching noise. Whatever was behind them was undeniably still following them, maybe even gaining ground. But would the hybrid lizards only chase them and not attack like they did to Fitz before, or would they pounce once they got close enough?
Hopefully, it's the former, Fitz thought, trying his damnedest to peer through the pitch. It’s not that he didn't trust Ares with his current role in covering their asses, no, far from it. Fitz trusted Ares—and Zeus—like they were truly part of the team.
Just a little nervous is all, he thought, not wanting to admit the truth to himself. Gray Fitzpatrick was scared shitless. Bastard…
“We’re coming up on something,” Zeus said, slowing some. “Looks like an exit is just ahead.”
“See anything else?” Fitz asked.
“Negative,” Zeus replied, “only darkness ahead. Looks like the next chamber is pretty big too.”
Fucking great, Fitz thought. “Doesn't matter. Keep us moving.”
As they began their egress, another cacophony began building up ahead of them. Zeus slid to a stop and fell on his ass, just as another Nsanga youth leapt out of nowhere. It was about to land on him but was knocked out of the air by two quick shots from Ares as he laid into it, fitting the rounds between everyone standing in the way. Zeus quickly ducked and covered his head as another form jumped into motion, but it wasn't a second lizard…it was a person.
He watched from the ground as Kiani went airborne and immediately started hacking at the injured creature, not giving it time to recover and retaliate.
Kiani’s lethality was something to behold. She just kept slashing and chopping, all the while gritting her teeth in anger. Zeus wasn’t sure, but she may have even been foaming at the mouth like a rabid animal.
The beast’s head was detached before Zeus could get to his feet.
“Damn, woman,” he said, impressed. But that’s where the compliments stopped. More scratching sounds took the place of the deceased Nsanga’s, promptly making their way closer to them. The lizards weren't on top of the team yet but they would be soon.
“What do we do?” CJ asked, realizing they were trapped. If Fayng and Baird had any trouble with their own baddies, they’d have a second horde of Nsanga closing in from behind at any moment.
“Rock and a hard place,” Fitz mumbled, sighing. He expelled his rifle’s mag, checked it, and nodded, satisfied with what was left. Then he ground his teeth, knitting his eyebrows in laser-like focus, and slammed it home, blowing out hard, ridding himself of any, and all, nerves. It was time to soldier.
No time for that shit now, he thought.
“Tighten up and pick a target.” Fitz turned to Kiani. “If you want to join in, go ahead. No need to conserve our eardrums if we’re dead.”
“There’s an opening up here!” Zeus shouted down the corridor.
“Okay, everyone,” Fitz said, moving quickly to it. “Sit tight and reload. CJ and I will take our rears. The rest of you face forward and do what you do.”
Following his own orders, Fitz knelt at the tunnel opening, shouldering his rifle in the process. Unlike the others, he’d have to wait for the enemy to get closer to properly see them. It would be a disadvantage and a nuisance—a handicapping of epic proportions. It’s why he elected to take the tight confines of the tunnel. The creatures would have to bunch up to attack them, giving him an easier target.
His eyes widened as he formulated a new strategy.
“Kill the green and toss out whatever flares and glow sticks you’ve got,” he said, standing. “I want to see these things out in the open.”
“You sure?” Zeus asked.
Fitz nodded, but CJ answered.
“It might work,” she said. “The Nsanga don’t seem to see well and the added light source might actually confuse them enough for us to take advantage of it. It could give us an edge.”
Zeus stood, as did everyone else. They all then tipped up their devices and started cracking glow sticks and popping flares, tossing them as far as they could. Fitz tossed whatever glow sticks he had down the tunnel and smiled as it lit up orange. Next, he handed Ares his flares, which were quickly added to the ones out in front of the opening. In just a few seconds, they built a semicircle of light surrounding the tunnel exit too. With luck, it would buy them just enough time for them to successfully rid themselves of the next wave of Nsanga.
Here we go.
24
Logan led the twelve Ru’kan captives forward, weary of a potential attack. He trusted in his own training and his abilities resulting from it, but not in his new friends. If they’d been of Ru’kan blood, he’d have no doubt of their competence in a fight.
I ‘am’ a soldier, Logan thought, recalling Kiani’s rebuttal from earlier. Everyone who calls the Congo home is. We have no choice in the matter. He glanced at the two women flanking him and decided not to underestimate them entirely. If they’d survived this long, then they could probably take care of themselves better than most.
So far the language barrier wasn’t an issue either. Her basic understanding of Swahili was a blessing right then. If communication was going to be a problem as he’d originally assumed, Logan would’ve been up shit creek without a paddle.
“I meant to ask earlier… How did you learn Swahili?”
“Taught…” the medic replied, stopping Logan with a strong hand. She tilted her head, listening for something—just as a form came tumbling out of a shaft forty feet up the adjacent wall. Whoever it was, took the fall the best they could, crashing through the trees and other brush lining that side of the cave, “…by her.”
The group of women waded across the deepening stream and headed towards the newcomer. Now, the chilling water was up to Logan’s chest and that of the women’s necks. He looked around and saw that some of the younger ones had to swim across since their feet didn't touch the bottom.
Logan raised his Glock, intent on meeting the standing figure with force but was stopped by the nurse. “Friend.” He nodded but kept the weapon at the low ready. It wasn’t until the battered and bleeding stranger stood that Logan recognized her. She wasn’t a stranger after all.
“Fayng?”
On hands and knees, the older woman snapped her head towards Logan and sighed. It was definitely her, but she looked terrible. She was covered in claw and bite marks and also a massive amount of blood—some her own.
“What happened?” Logan asked, rushing to her side. “Where are the others?”
She shook her head, trying to catch her breath. “Unknown… Lost them in the tunnels… After you were swept away… Attacked.”
“By what?”
“More Nsanga.”
“Bollocks,” he replied, kneading his forehead. He quickly holstered his gun and helped her up.
As Fayng stood fully upright, she saw the group behind him, her eyes widening. She moved past Logan and went to the medic, hugging the woman hard. But as she did, she winced and dropped to one knee, getting the others moving fast.
“What’s wrong?” Logan ask.
“Poison,” the medic replied. “Like you.” She then opened her arms out wide. Logan got the gist of it. It was the same poison that ravaged his body but a shit ton more.
The two women that had saved Logan’s life were now doing the same for Fayng. There was a prior relationship here that both concerned and impressed him. If Fayng knew about the captives, why hadn’t she freed them already?
Fayng answered the question for him while getting medical attention. “I did my best to train and educate them, Logan. I know what you’re thinking. You are doing what I have dreamed of—freeing them. Baird and I were just waiting for them to grow stronger, but by the looks of it, you see them as more than capable.”
“How long have you known about them?”
“Not long, only a few years.”
“Years?” he asked, floored.
“It's not as simple as you think,” Fayng replied, looking up at him from the ground. The medic and nurse were tending to some pretty deep wounds on her back and shoulder. “Where would they go once they reached the surface? Where could they go that the hunters wouldn’t find them first? How long did it take you to become the fighter you are today, Logan?”
“Years…”
He knew she was right. If the women actually made it to the surface, then what? Logan had lost four Delta operators so far, what could these twelve do better than they?
“Fine,” he said, not happy about it but accepting the situation nevertheless. Fayng was scared for their lives and being cautious. She would survive, like he, but these innocents wouldn’t if things were rushed.
Like now. Had he just signed their death warrants?
“Where’s Baird?” he asked, needing to figure out the next move. Having Fayng’s son here would make this lost cause seem not so impossible.
“I’m not sure,” she said, gritting her teeth. The medic had moved to her chest and shoulders, making the otherwise collected woman sneer. “We got separated. This was the first exit tunnel I could find. We were trying to buy your friends some more time so they could make it to the next cavern.”
“The next cavern?” he asked, perking up. Maybe they were close.
But the look on Fayng’s face wasn’t one of hope. Instead, it was one of dread. “I'm sorry, Logan, but your friends are entering the realm of the Nsanga queen.”
“What?” He shouted, startling a few of those surrounding him. “I thought we just left that place?”
She shook her head and groaned, getting to her feet. “No, that was only the Ka village. The female’s nesting grounds are up ahead. I didn’t want to tell your friends for fear of crushing their spirits. They are honorable people, Logan.” She stepped up to him. “I am truly sorry.”
* * *
“Here they come!” Ares shouted from below. Zeus and he were kneeling just inside the mouth of the worn tunnel, fingers hovering just over their respective triggers. Fitz was standing directly behind them, SCAR assault rifle at the ready. The three of them would supply the team with the main source of firepower while Kiani and CJ would continue to guard their rears. Fitz had only just switched positions with Kiani after seeing the cavern light up enough to see by. Now they had three sharpshooters ready to do some serious damage.
Kiani could feel the pockets of her cargo pants bulging with the added ammunition given to her by everyone. She had a full clip in her weapon, CJ’s Glock, along with a dozen extra. Kiani’s pistol was almost out of ammo, and of a different make, so CJ gave up her sidearm which would easily interchange clips with the other team members’ identical weapons. The only thing that would hold her back from killing as many of these things as she could, was the time it would take to reload. Bullets weren’t the problem, time was.
Unlike the four SDF agents, Kiani wasn’t armed with a high-tech assault rifle. She didn’t even have her shotgun anymore. No, all she had was a duo of handguns and her trusted machete.
She turned and watched the steady barrels of the men’s rifles. Neither one wavered in the slightest. Glancing next to her, Kiani noticed that even CJ was keeping her aim true thanks to a slightly smaller variant of rifle. If she’d been carrying a larger weapon like the others, she surely would’ve shown her exhaustion with having to hold it at the ready for so long.
“Um…” Ares commented, confused.
The attack didn’t come as quick as they’d originally thought. They could see movement just outside their light’s reach, though. A horde of Nsanga was there for sure, but they didn’t advance any further. Either the combination of glow sticks and flares were keeping them at bay, or the creatures were waiting for them to wink out.
No, Kiani thought, no animal is ‘that’ smart. She knew they had to be waiting for something else. She again turned and tried to see what on Earth it could be.
A screeching roar answered the call.
Not ‘on Earth,’ she thought, under it.
“Cass,” Fitz whispered, “forget our rears and face forward.”
She did as the entire team collectively gasped. The trodden but still alive Nsanga queen limped into view. As its face entered the ring of illumination, Kiani saw it was missing its right eye.
Startling everyone, a secondary roar answered the call of the female as Baird dropped from a hidden alcove above the tunnel occupying the team. As he landed, he fell and rolled, coming to a stop in a heap on the ground. Green blood poured from several gigantic wounds on his chest and back. He grunted and stood, turning and facing the others. Baird’s face was shredded too. He was in bad shape and not knowing what a Ru’kan warrior the size of him could handle, none of them knew how much longer the big guy would be around.
He flinched as he tried to stand straight but ended up looking like Quasimodo instead, hunched and gnarled. He nodded his respect to the humans and turned back towards the Nsanga female.
“Wait!” Kiani shouted, slipping between the others. She calmly walked up to Baird and unsheathed her machete, flipping it around so the hand grip was facing him. Baird looked down at the weapon and took it, looking it over.
“Fayng,” he said with a look of sorrow.
Kiani nodded. She would look after the woman for him. Stepping back towards her teammates, she continued watching Baird, in awe over the selfless act the loincloth wearing Hercules was displaying. He was comfortable with dying, especially when it came to defeating a creature such as this.
“We need to cover him,” she said, looking back at the others. “We need to give him a chance to kill it.”
No one argued with her logic. They needed the large female dead in order to survive the day. Hopefully, with any luck, the younglings would scatter with their mother’s death.
“Right,” Fitz said, “but if this goes tits up we fall back into the tunnels and try another way.”
Everyone agreed.
Fitz stood and joined Kiani outside the opening, surveying the grounds. Baird slowly made his way towards the Nsanga queen, Kiani’s machete in hand. His left hand was clutching his bleeding side as he leaned heavily towards it. The smaller creatures were still outside the range of the flares and glow sticks, twitching with anticipation. Fitz could only see shadows dancing back and forth…or maybe it was just the light playing tricks on his exhausted eyes. Either way, he doubted Baird was going to survive.
He looked over his team and saw a uniform look of uncertainty stitched across their faces. Even Zeus and Ares were having trouble keeping their emotions in check. They, like Fitz, knew when they were dealt a bad hand. This was one of those times.
The normally jovial, but clearheaded, Fitz faced forward again, still thinking of this teammates while desperately trying to come up with a better plan. Not only was Baird’s life in danger, but so were theirs.
Could really use Logan and Fayng right about now.
25
“What can we expect once we get there?” Logan asked, trying his best to gather whatever intel he could before storming into hell itself. If the last cave—the cliffs, really—weren’t the Nsanga’s home, then where was it?
“Few have ventured inside,” Fayng replied, still favoring her side and right shoulder. She was healing before his eyes, but not as quickly as Logan would’ve thought or liked. She would be an asset in the next fight and he needed her at full strength.
“But you have, haven’t you?”
She nodded. “Once, years ago. I haven’t come up with a good enough reason to return. It is truly a nightmarish place filled with the bones of the dead.”
“Well,” Logan added, “you’re in luck. I excel in nightmares.”
She didn’t react. “The female is the matriarch as you’re aware, but she isn’t the only big one. They aren’t as sizeable as she but they’re still formidable. The sole purpose of the largest males is to protect the nests.”
“Nests, right. Forgot about those,” Logan said, stopping and leaning against a wall. He rubbed his eyes hard, seeing spots when he was done. “Any idea how many?”
Fayng shook her head and also stopped, leaning against the adjacent wall of the outlet tunnel. She had assured Logan it would take them where they needed to go.
The settlement’s rectangular cave ended with a tunnel that turned downward into a vertical drop of almost twenty feet. Fayng had ensured him that the Nsanga couldn’t climb the smooth walls, creating a natural buffer zone. The queen was too large to fit too.
Getting down wasn’t as easy as it should’ve been if Fayng was healthy. One of the girls pulled a long homemade rope from her pack and attached it to the foot of the closest hut. From there they each scaled the shaft one at a time, leaving the rope to dangle and be used as an emergency exit.
As they briefly paused their search for the others, the medic quickly started looking over Fayng’s wounds again, changing the bandages on her right shoulder. They were the worst, deep and ragged, oozing the same yellow poison as Logan’s forearm earlier. Except, he watched as her inhuman green blood sizzled as it mixed with the lizard’s venom. From the looks of it, her blood was either trying to fight the Nsanga’s venom off or the toxin was trying to kill her blood off.
