Amoeba (The Experiments) (62 page)

“The dense woods!” Cal called out
, veering off to her right and between two birds that leaped out.

Billy ran close, leaping over the broken splintered tree that Cal had just jumped over.

Cal shouted, “Keep going.” She held up her weapon, backing up slowly into the thick woods and firing at the bird who poked its head into the trees. She aimed at its eye, shooting directly at it, exploding it and causing the bird to fall over. She spun back around and ran to catch up to Billy.

Rickie heard the gunfire and shifted his direction.

Jake stopped the jeep cold, letting his ears zoom into the shots he just heard. Turning the wheel of the jeep, Jake left the road
, hoping that the jeep would handle what it was built to handle. He drove with haste into the woods, ducking his head at the tree branches that smacked down at him like hands.

Billy sped right by Cal, and after dismissing the possibility that he had picked up super human speed, he realized that she had stopped. “Cal. Come on.”

“No.” She caught her breath, grabbing on to her knees. “We’re
okay.” She took deep breaths in, releasing them out slowly.

“Cal?” Billy walked up to her. “Are you sure . . .”

“I’m fine.” She stood up. “They can’t see us or get into these trees.” Cal looked up. “Which is good. Now let’s just hope we ran in a semi-right direction.” She started looking.

“What are you looking for
?”

“The smoke fr
om the volcano. We just need to go away from it and it should get us to the cavern.”

“Then what?”

“It’s probably a three mile walk down to the beach, or at the very least, a mile or so until the cavern is safe enough for us to climb down.” She spotted the smoke, and it seemed thicker than a few minutes earlier. “Oh boy.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” She grabbed Billy’s hand. “This way.” She turned them and began to walk.

“Cal.” Billy stopped. “Do you feel that
? My feet tickle.”

Cal stopped moving
, too. Just as she started to feel what Billy meant, she heard a loud noise that sounded like a tractor trailer truck rolling their way. “Shit.”

“What?”

Boom! At almost an ear shattering decimal level, the loud explosion rang out through the woods causing the ground to immediately shake so violently that Cal and Billy were rocked off their feet. In their attempts to regain their stance through the vibrating ground, Cal and Billy kept on falling right back down. Rolling, standing, falling, rolling, until everything went silent again.

Cal
, a little dizzy from the nature’s roller coaster ride, stood up.

“Oh God, did it erupt?” Billy asked panicked.

Cal quickly looked around. “No. Well. Sort of.”

“No? Well? Sort of?” Billy’s voice took on a high pitch tone.”What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Billy,” Cal snapped at him. “Do I look like a fuckin geologist? No. I think it just spit out ash. I’m not sure. No. Just ash.” She spotted the volcano. “We’re good. Let’s go.”

“This is great.” Billy ran his hand through his sweaty hair as they started to walk
, and he began to ramble in a bitch mode. “This is just great. Grabbed by a bird. Flown hundreds of feet above the ground. Dropped not only on the other side of the island, but dropped in the middle of the nesting place for giant mutant birds, an earth quake, a volcano that’s ready to erupt. Is there anything else that can possibly happen to us?”

Snort.

They both stopped and turned their heads slowly. Through the woods, with a dingo in its mouth, they saw a wild boar that was about the size of a large truck. It had mutated just like the birds.

“You . . .” Cal swallowed and whispered. “Were saying?”

“Oh, God. And those things move fast.”

“Probably not since it’s mutated.”

“Wanna chance it?” Billy asked.

“No. But he doesn’t see us. Let’s just back up and . . .”

“Cal-Babe!” Rickie called out.

Cal cringed. Billy cringed. The bo
ar snorted loudly and looked up,.

Rickie stopped running when he reached them. “There you are . . . are . . . uh! Pig!”

With a violent twitch of his head, the boar flung the half eaten dingo off to the side, snorted loudly again, spotted Cal, Billy, and Rickie, and moved heavily toward them.

They took off running, and luckily for them, since
it had mutated, the boar didn’t move quite as fast.

Jake followed the screams. He screeched the jeep to a stop, and stood up holding his M-16 when he saw Cal, Billy, and Rickie charging through the woods with the world’s largest boar following after them. “Fuck!”

“Jake!” All three of them screamed
, running as fast as they could to the jeep.

Jake fired pas
t them hitting the boar, causing it to stumble but not killing it. It seemed as if the bullets merely bruised its leather-like skin. Jake stood stunned as they jumped in.

“Drive! Just drive!” Cal ordered.

Jake sat back down, saw the boar get up, tossed the jeep in gear, backed up, screeched the jeep around, and drove. The boar followed and picked up speed once they got out of the thick woods.

Billy and Rickie held on and sat in the back of the jeep watching the charging bo
ar come their way.

“Sarge! Drive faster!” Rickie ordered.

Billy looked over his shoulder at Jake. “What were you saying about Jurassic Park? Uh!” Billy screamed and ducked when the gunfire rang out above his head as Cal stood up backwards in her seat and fired at the boar.

“Sit down!” Jake yanked Cal back into her seat. “I don’t need you bouncing out.”

“Jake . . .”

“Sit!” Jake peered into the rearview mirror
at the boar, then looked straight ahead.

Cal huffed, folded her arms, looked pissed, then lifted her head up. “Oh my God.”

“Cal . . .”

“Jake
, the . . .”

“I know.” Jake hit the gas harder.

“You’re speeding up? Jake, the . . .”

“I know!” Jake yelled at her.

Billy and Rickie saw it at just about the same time that Cal gripped the jeep’s door. The wide open area before them. The cavern.

“Jake!” Cal screamed.

Jake shifted gears and hit the gas. Closer and closer the cavern drew. Billy and Rickie screamed long and loud in terror totally forgetting about the boar closing in. And just as it looked as if they were about to pull a failed Evel Knievel stunt, Jake slammed on the brakes, spinning the jeep to a sideways stop just at the edge of the cliff.

“Duck!” Jake yelled.

Everyone did, and the boare, in an attack mode and unable to stop the momentum of its run, leaped outward at them, over the jeep and into the deep cavern, squealing all the way down to the bottom and landing with a loud ‘Crack.’

Cal jumped up peering over the jeep. “Oh shit
, Jake.”

“Sarge
!” Rickie called out excitedly. “You’re the man.”

“Jake
,” Billy spoke in awe. “You are.”

Jake breathed heavily, calming his racing heart. He turned his head sideways to Cal with an ornery grin and kissed her. “Feel like
, uh . . .” He caught his breath, smiled, and kissed her again. “Hitting those hormones of yours?”

The participants stood around one table in the dining building watching Jake. They were joined by Richard, a thin, studious-looking black man who worked for the institute.

Jake’s hand smoothed across one of the pieces of paper. “All right
, as we can see from the faxes of satellite photos, this is where they are nesting. This is the spot Cal and Billy were dropped off. They estimated that there were about fifty or so birds, and we don’t know if there are anymore boars. So assuming there are . . .” Jake pulled out another sheet of paper. “Here. . . ” He pointed. Then he returned to the nesting photo. “. . .Here. And . . .” He grabbed another photo. “. . .here are the regions we’ll set the timed explosives that the institute gave us. Richard will be joining us for observation purposes. But what I want to do is sneak into the nesting area through the dense woods here, because Cal said they can’t get in. Then, we’ll open fire upon them, taking out as many as we can first. Then we book out to a safe area, let the timed explosives do their thing, and head back in to finish them off.” Jake gathered up the papers. “We’ll hit the control center first. Right, Richard?”

“Yes
,” Richard replied. “Caldwell will supply the fire power to do this.”

“Conveniently being helpful.” Jake shoved the pictures in his back pocket. “Judge
, you’re in charge of Reed. Rickie, Lou, Richard, let’s go.” Jake kissed Cal and laid his hand on her cheek. “I’ll see you in a little bit. I love you.” He kissed her again, and with Rickie, Lou, and Richard, he headed to the door.

Cal laughed, picked her M-16 up from the table
, and followed them out. “Jake, wait.”

“Cal
, I got to go.”

“Jake?” Cal moved closer to him. “I’m going
, right?”

“No.”

Cal laughed again. “Okay, enough is enough.” She saw Jake moving and she trotted to catch him. “Jake.”

“Cal.” He spun to her. “Stay here.”

“Jake. What the hell.” She began to get upset. “We’re a team. Not only husband and wife, but a team. United we stand, divided we fall. Ring a bell?”

“Yes
, but not his time. You stay here.” Jake walked on.

“Bullshit!” Cal called out. “I’m going.” Jake didn’t stop. “Jake. I’m going. Jake . . .”

“No!” Jake blasted her as he spun to face her. “You will stay right here! You hear me?”

“Fuck you!” She charged passed him to the jeep.

Jake grabbed her arm pulling her back. “Cal. Not this time! Stay here.”

“You can’t . . .” She pulled her arm away from him. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

“The hell I can’t. In this case I will.” Jake’s tone was strong.

“You have no right to hold me back from going.”

Jake’s face was red. “I have every right!”

“It’s my life!”

“Wrong!” Jake vocally slammed out. “Wrong! It’s not your life anymore, Cal! It’s not just your life at all. You have a child,
my
child involved. And when it comes to your health and that baby’s, I have to get my priorities straight. I have, and now so do you! Get your priorities straight, Cal.” He turned and started to walk away.

Cal pulled him back. “What the hell is that supposed to mean
? Where do you get off? I have to go and do this. Fighting these things is a priority, so my priorities are straight.”

“Are they? Huh! I don’t think so
,” Jake said angrily. “Not when you want to put yourself at such a risk. How can they be? Think of this baby, Cal, not yourself. So what if you want to go. So what. It’s not about you anymore. You have seen enough excitement for today. Our child has been through enough. And if I have to tie you up and lock you in a closet I will! But you will not, I repeat not, go with us. Clear?”

Cal just stared at him,
and she felt how hot her face was. “Clear, asshole.”

Jake said nothing further. The clenching of his jaw and stern look said enough of how he felt. He stepped back, rigidly spun
, and jumped into the awaiting jeep.

Like a lost child, arm
dangling holding her weapon, Cal stood there as the jeep drove away. She felt the hand lay upon her back, and she lifted her lowered head to see Billy.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to go
,” he told her.

Cal just nodded. “He’s never left me out. Ever.”

“Cal. I . . .” Billy closed his eyes then looked out to the disappearing jeep. “Never mind.”

“No
, go on. Say what you were going to say.”

“No.”

“Say it,” Cal ordered.

“Maybe . . . maybe Jake didn’t quite put it to you the way he should have, but you have
to think about the words he said. Look into the meaning of them instead of the deliverance of them, okay?” Billy moved away further with a slight fear of a Cal-blasting hitting him.

Cal blinked slowly and her mouth took on sort of a pout. It quivered some and silently, looking a bit humbled, she slowly walked away.

“They’re off.” Greg set down the phone in the control room and turned to Aldo who sat next to Barb.

Aldo looked at
the photographs. “When did these things hatch?”

“We think yesterday. We’re guessing because they were animals and not humans that is why they’re hatching earlier than anticipated.”

“How big?” Aldo asked.

“The birds
? Thermal-graphics is estimating them to be about ten feet high, twelve to fifteen feet long.”

Aldo whistled and shook his head. “I’d say your DNA mutating shit works.”

“Yep.” Greg peered at the photographs. “Unfortunately, this isn’t what we wanted it to work on.” He looked up to the screen. “And hopefully in a few hours, we can put an end to this and move on to the real portion of this experiment.” He looked back down to Aldo. “Hopefully.”