Ballistic: Icarus Series, Book Two (10 page)

“Jesus,” Zander said attempting to shake the thing free.

Its teeth held firm, sunken deep into the charred flesh of Zander’s forearm. Its body flailed about as it scratched and clawed at the muddled skin. Everyone backed away as he wrestled to pull the thing free but it clearly did not intend to let go. Frustrated, Zander slammed his fist against the wall crushing the creature against the thick metal walls of the vault’s interior.

It fell to the ground with a sickening thud. The creature’s legs twitched, and its teeth clacked together. The thing kept biting at nothing and thrashing its skeletal head about as it struggled to right itself. Eventually, its broken body finally gave out, and it went completely still, its beady black eyes staring blankly up at us.

* * *

“You okay, Ry?” I asked.

“Not really,” she said clutching her knees close to her chest. “But it’s not like I have a choice, right?”

After the incident in the stairwell the night that Icarus hit I knew exactly how Riley felt about small spaces. There was panic in her eyes as she rocked in the corner of the vault. Her opinion had not changed much on the subject since then. I felt horrible, but there was little I could do to make this better for her.

“I’m so sorry,” I said crouching in front of her as she swayed gently in place. “I wish there was another way.”

“I’ll be fine, Liv,” she said patting my hand without looking up. “As much as I hate every freaking minute of this, I’d still rather be in here than out there with those…
things
.”

“I’ll be right back, Ry.” I rose to my feet and nudged Falisha. “Stay with her?”

She nodded and sat down next to Riley. I spun on my heel and made my way over to the alien autopsy happening on the opposite side of the vault. I spanned the distance in three strides. The vault was approximately the same size as the bathroom had been at the high school (and smelled just as lovely). Ty and Christa were hovering over Eli and Jake, who were hunched over the creatures limp body.

“Well?” I asked, adding my light to the collection of beams. “What’s the diagnosis doc?”

“This thing is incredible,” Jake said looking up at me.

“Yeah, incredibly nasty,” Christa scowled. “What the heck is it anyway?”

“The GRS virus appears to have completely altered the creature’s DNA,” Eli mused. He poked the thing with his penlight. “To be quite honest with you, I am not even sure exactly what this little guy used to be. A bird, perhaps, or maybe a small rodent of some sort?”

“Whatever it is, it’s super gross,” Christa chimed in.

“Indeed,” Eli smirked as he picked the animal up in his gloved hand. “These claws here are sharp enough to slice through glass. They are at least as hard as carbide, maybe even diamond. I can only imagine the amount of pressure, let alone the carbon influx it would have required just to create that one small adaptation. This thing is truly remarkable in its evolution.”

“The scritter,” Christa said.

“I’m sorry, the what?” Eli said confused.

“It’s called a
scritter
,” she said firmly. “That’s what Ty called it. I think it’s pretty perfect.”

“Yeah, about that.” Ty rubbed nervously at the back of his neck, his face heating. “See, I wasn’t tryin’ to…that is, I meant to say
scary critter
, but my words got all jumbled up on accounta’ that thing scarin’ the holy bejeezus outta me.”

“Scritter, huh?” Eli smiled, and Jake snorted and bit his bottom lip.

“Scritter,” Christa said nodding resolutely.

“Well, there you go,” Jake laughed.

“Scritter it is,” Falisha said, patting Ty on the back.

“Aww, hell,” Ty laughed shaking his head. “It’s a wonder I have any teeth left with how often I’m puttin’ my foot in my mouth.”

“Better your mouth than his,” Eli said prying the creature’s jaws open with Falisha’s steak knife. “You see this little node here behind the front teeth? That is a venom gland. It’s probably some sort of neurotoxin if I had to guess.”

“That sounds bad,” Ty said.

“It is,” Jake said. “A neurotoxin attacks the central nervous system. Depending on how powerful the stuff is, it can cause anaphylaxis, intoxication, dementia, paralysis, and even death.”

“Dang,” Ty said crouching down to get a closer look. “Is there some kind of medicine for that?”

“You mean anti-venom?” Jake asked.

“Exactly,” Ty nodded. “We never went anywhere on my daddy’s ranch without our bite kit. Last year, at the Fourth of July hog roast, my little sister Sadie got bit by a baby copperhead. Wasn’t but a minute later and her leg was swelled up like a stuck pig. My daddy had to jab this needle in her leg to stop the poison from spreadin’. I swear on a stack it took her the whole dang summer before that leg looked right again.”

“Unfortunately, there is no way to know for sure what kind of toxin we are dealing with, so I couldn’t even venture a guess as to what anti-toxin would combat it if someone were to get bitten,” Eli said laying the creature back on the floor. “Anyone got a rubber band?”

“Will this work?” Christa held out one of the brightly colored hair ties she wore on her wrist. “I don’t like the yellow one, anyway.”

“Good enough,” Eli shrugged as he wound the elastic around the creature’s mouth. “Better safe than sorry.”

“If that thing used to be a bird, or whatever, then what are those,” I asked shining the beam of my flashlight on the creature’s skull. There were deep slits that started by the animal’s jaw and stopped at the base of its neck.

“Curious.” Eli leaned in closer and focused his penlight on the scritter’s neck. He wedged the end of his tweezers into the slit and pried it apart. He tilted his head to get a better angle. He sat back up his brows furrowed and shook his head in confusion.

“What is it,” Jake asked.

“I wonder.” Eli trailed off and placed the penlight back between his teeth.

He picked the animal up by its midsection to get a closer look. Its head flopped lifelessly against its chest as he raised it to eye level. Christa groaned in disgust. Eli grabbed its front leg and stretched it out to the side until the vestigial flap of skin behind the elbow was stretched as far as it would go. He cocked his head to the side again and moved the penlight close enough that his face was just inches from the creatures. His light shined straight through the translucent tissue.

He turned the creature over onto its back and inspected its abdomen, lifting each of its legs and pressing at the junctures where limbs met the creature’s trunk. After a few more moments of complete silence, Eli set the creature back down and took the penlight from his mouth.

“We are in trouble,” Eli said wiping the sweat from his brow on his shirtsleeve.

“What is it?” Jake asked.

“Our carnivorous little friend here has a fully developed set of gills,” Eli said. “Stranger still is the fact that aside from mammaries, it doesn’t appear to have any visible sex organs. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say it is most likely internally hermaphroditic. If it’s a true amphibian, it could also be regenerative.”

“Great,” Jake said sinking back onto his heels. “Just freaking great!”

“It’s really quite impressive, from a scientific standpoint.” Eli stared at the creature in awe.

“Sorry?” Ty shook his head in confusion. “I think I missed something.”

“He’s saying that in addition to being venomous and having razor-sharp teeth and claws, our precious little scritter can also breathe on land or under water,” Jake said in a huff. “As an added bonus they seem to hunt in swarms. Even if we did manage to separate them, there’s a good chance they can reproduce on their own. Hell, if they’re amphibious, they can probably regenerate lost body parts, too.”

“And let’s not forget the fact that they are apparently prone to frenzy,” Eli added.

“In other words, we are screwed,” I said.

“Basically, yeah,” Jake said.

Chapter 8

Blame Game

After his examination, Eli stuffed the scritter into a plastic shopping bag from Jake’s pack, tied it shut and shoved it into the corner closest to the door. None of us wanted to be any closer to the thing than necessary. Its presence in our unfortunate sanctuary reminded us that there were hundreds of them on the other side of the vault door waiting to tear us apart.

Time quickly lost all meaning. Minutes melted into hours. Eventually, exhaustion set in. With a little help from a valium from the med kit, Riley was sleeping soundly in her corner of the room, her head on Falisha’s shoulder. Jake and Christa had each claimed a spot on opposite sides of the vault. As much as the two of them fought, I couldn’t help but laugh when I noticed they had both fallen asleep in the same position; flat on their backs with their right arms over their faces.

Eli had been the last of the group to fall asleep. The sound of him snoring was not exactly music, but it was a welcome reprieve from his constant battery of questions. As soon as he had discovered the scritter’s odd adaptations, the inquisition began. The list of queries he directed at Zander and me had been endless and overwhelming, but I had done my best to remain patient and answer to the best of my ability.

That is until he ventured into the territory of reproduction. I was forced to make a hard line in the sand. I had no idea how much time we would have to spend in that vault. I refused to spend a single minute of it having “the talk” with Dr. Elias Given.

Bella was asleep at my side with her head draped across my lap. Her front paw twitched, and she yipped softly in her sleep. I slowly stroked the soft fur behind her ears. Her sleek coat felt like silk against my dry, cracked hands. Sliding my fingers through it calmed me. I only wished there was something I could do to help Zander.

For reasons we did not yet understand, the scritters presence had an adverse effect on Zander’s body. The closer they were to him, the more hypersensitive and agitated he got. Though his eyes had lost their inky glaze, he was still on edge and anxious; desperately climbing out of his own skin and shying away from all contact.

Ultimately, Eli had recommended the same treatment he had given Riley. After a bit of persuading on my part, Zander had finally relented. It killed me to see him in pain and not be able to comfort him. At the moment, my touch would only cause more pain. Bella lay between us, a living, breathing buffer to span the distance that had been growing between us since we arrived here.

“Can’t sleep, neither, huh?” Ty’s voice was dry and gravelly.

“Not so much,” I said handing him a bottle of water. “How’s the leg?”

“Just fine, I reckon.” He took a drink and handed it back to me. “That’s all thanks to you, I hear. Jake told me what you did for me. You gave me your blood. I can’t thank you enough for that, Liv.”

“Please don’t do that, Ty.” I shook my head and took a swig from the bottle before capping it and stashing it back in my bag. “You wouldn’t have even needed the blood to begin with if it hadn’t been for my stupidity. You took a bullet because I acted without thinking. If anything, you should be pissed off at me, not
thanking
me.”

“You kiddin’ me?” Ty narrowed his eyes at me and laughed. “Liv, that crazy guy with the sawed-off was the one who shot me, not you. You was just tryin’ to stop that bastard from hurtin’ anybody was all. Here you are actin’ like you was the one who pulled the dang trigger? Naw, that ain’t how it works darlin’.”

“How what works?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“The world— life, however you wanna put it.” Ty shrugged and scooted closer along the wall. “My gran always used to say that people take blame that don’t belong to them because it’s easier than admittin’ that some stuff is outta their control. You ain’t the one that shot me, and you sure as heck didn’t shove in front of that bullet, Liv. You just wanna be mad at something so you up and picked yourself.”

“I don’t know, maybe.” I slid Bella’s ear between my fingers and let it flop back against her head. “That’s surprisingly poignant, Ty.”

“I have my moments,” he smiled proudly. “I know I ain’t the sharpest pitchfork in the hay, but if there’s one thing I get, it’s wantin’ to change things I ain’t got no control over.”

Ty’s eyes glinted in the faint light of the single torch that was lit between us. He got this far-away look on his face and fidgeted with the frayed edge of what was left of his blood-soaked blue jeans. Eli had sliced straight up his pant leg during his impromptu surgery. Between Ty’s near-death experience and the scritter attack, wardrobe changes had not been high on the list of priorities.

“There’s a pair of cargos in Zan’s bag that should fit you,” I offered pointing to the gray pack by my feet. “I’m sure he won’t mind. Besides, everyone else is asleep, so now’s your chance.”

“Thanks,” he nodded and reached for the bag. The shorts were right on top, so he slid them free, closed the bag, and rose to his feet slowly. He reached for the button on his jeans and undid it, then froze where he stood. “Oh, hey. Would ya mind?”

“Right, sorry.” I covered my eyes and turned away feeling my face heat. Crap! Had I been staring? Suddenly self-conscious, I blurted the first thing that popped into my head. “So…Tennessee, huh?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Ty laughed softly. “My family owns the Ramblin’ Rose Ranch down there in Cold Creek. The Triple R, my daddy calls it.”

“What’s it like there?” I heard his jeans drop to the floor and squeezed my eyes shut.

“You’d love it there, Liv. It’s real pretty, and the weather is just perfect,” Ty whispered as he wrestled into the shorts. “Our ranch is set in the valley and surrounded by fields and forests far as the eye can see. You can look now.”

“Sounds nice,” I said, turning toward him as he fastened the snap on the shorts. I tried not to notice how tightly they fit him. “So, what on Earth made you come to Illinois, of all places?”