Primal Link Read online

  “Do we have scans this far out?” Sergeant Lupita asked while raising his arm to look at his screen.

  “Our current coverage cuts off just past the Zodiak,” I replied.

  “And you think that’s good enough intel to start our search?”

  “Well, no, but…”

  “No buts, Corporal. We need information to make informed decisions, so we don’t send Marines off to die. Make it happen.”

  “Right away, Sergeant Lupita.” I wanted to argue the point and remind him of the animal sounds that seemed to erupt in response to the scans. Lupita was not only a physically intimidating person, but his overpowering personality scared me as much as the thought of the hulking man beating me with his massive fists. That wasn’t how the Marine Corps operated. However, who could say what happened to a guy the platoon Sergeant didn’t like on some backwater world in the middle of nowhere?

  “Soon as the non-aug has our maps updated, we’re moving. I want a wide coverage area, so no bunching up. Be sure to stay in visual range, though. And keep tabs on the Marine to your right or left,” Sergeant Lupita issued his orders as he turned away from me.

  The drones followed the commands I fed them through my wrist screen and moved into position. A moment after Lupita stopped speaking, an inaudible pulse rang out.

  The animals responded with various sounds, one so close it seemed to be on top of us. All of that was nothing compared to the high-pitched screech of a man in crippling pain that tore through the air.

  4

  Marines sprang into action as chaos descended.

  Someone grabbed my armor from behind and pulled me away from danger.

  “Stay clear,” Standish’s gruff voice came from behind me. “Lupita would be pissed if we let you get yourself killed.”

  Jones moved up to my side with her rifle up. “Let’s pull back to the Zodiak and wait for this shit to get sorted. We can use the hatch as a bottleneck and obliterate anything that comes knocking.” A wicked grin split her face, and a gleam came to her eyes that sent a shiver down my spine.

  “Good call,” Kopf said as he stepped in and moved to the side where he wouldn’t be in the way but could shoot out.

  Standish pulled me in while Jones backed in and took up a position opposite Kopf in the doorway. Once Standish let me go, I spun to face the door, expecting some nightmare alien creature from a Hollywood holo to jump in and wreck us.

  That didn’t happen. Bursts of weapons fire sounded from beyond our view along with meaty thuds and the occasional scream. A Marine ran by so quick he was almost a blur. His weapon pointed behind him, and he let lead fly as he ran. A gray streak waist-high shot after him.

  “What the fuck was that?” Jones asked.

  “How the hell should I know?” Kopf replied.

  “We should go after them and help,” she suggested.

  “Agreed,” I shouted as I dashed out. Marines were in trouble while we stood around with our thumbs in our asses. There was also a good chance I could prove my worth and get augs if I played my cards right. Time to put up or shut up.

  “Hey!” Standish’s shout was followed by the sound of feet pounding on metal. “Get back here and wait in the ship! I already told you, Lupita will kill me if you get yourself killed, then resurrect your ass and kill you for the second time!”

  “Screw that!” Kopf shouted. “Let’s bring the hurt!”

  “That’s what I’m talking about!” Jones roared.

  The thought of having these battle-hardened Marines at my back brought a smile to my lips. They were the safety net keeping me from getting in too far over my head while also witnessing my actions. Kopf was right, it was time to bring the hurt.

  “Goshawk!” someone behind me screamed. The sound was too shrill to determine who it came from.

  I started to turn and see what the hell was so important that it warranted screaming at the top of their lungs. A gray blur clipped my leg, causing me to stumble, then fall. My fireteam was there as soon as I hit the deck, surrounding me and pointing their weapons outboard.

  “Get up, Goshawk. This ain’t the time for lying around,” Kopf said.

  I started to rise as the gray blur reappeared, accompanied by rustling from the brush. Before my feet were under me, it knocked Jones to her ass. That same ass landed on me, driving the air from my lungs as it slammed me back down.

  “Holy fuck,” I wheezed. “So heavy.”

  “Fuck you,” Jones snapped. “Augs add a lot of weight, okay? I’m not fucking fat.”

  “I…” The sharp report from Standish’s rifle drowned out my words.

  Jones put her hand on my face and pushed up, causing a very undignified and unmanly squeal of pain. Before she was upright, her rifle sent rounds in the direction that the blur moved.

  “What the hell is that thing?” I asked as I rose to my feet.

  “That thing is a good enough reason to stay someplace safe, dumbass,” Standish snapped. “These things took out trained Navy SEALs. What do you think you can do against them?”

  “Stop bumping your gums and move!” Lupita shouted from close by. We looked to see him charging at us with half the platoon on his heels. The forest behind him moved in unnatural jerky movements signaling the passage of something giving chase. A lot of somethings.

  “Shit,” my team all said in unison. We spun and ran with Jones, who was quickly outpacing us. Then Kopf outpaced me and maintained the distance between himself and Jones. Standish took up a position to my right and matched my pace. There was no chance in hell of me ever being able to match the pace of an aug.

  After a few seconds of balls-to-the-walls running, Sergeant Lupita passed by followed by the Marines following him. The one hard and fast rule of surviving the zombie apocalypse came to mind. Be faster than the other guy, so the zombies get him instead. I was that other guy in this case.

  “Can’t. Get. Away,” I said between puffs of breath.

  “No shit,” Standish replied. He spoke in a tone that made me think he hadn’t yet warmed up. “We need to do something other than run away, or we’ll get stomped. Ideas, Corporal?”

  “We go with Plan B,” a Marine I didn’t recognize said as he slowed so we could catch up. “Lupita sent me back. All that jazz about not leaving Marines behind.”

  Another Marine joined him, and I saw Lupita sprinting away to get in the front of his Marines. The second Marine slowed until we passed. My head swiveled to follow. He dropped behind, then picked up the pace to get behind me. A bad feeling hit me in the gut.

  “Tater sack,” the rear Marine shouted.

  Standish giggled like a schoolgirl while taking hold of my arm. The Marine to my left grabbed my other arm as the one behind ducked low and hit my legs. I fell back, but the Marines on my arms kept me from hitting the ground. The third Marine’s head popped up between my legs as he pushed me horizontal then grabbed my ankles and held my knees on his shoulders.

  The reference made sense now that I was being carried through the dense jungle as if I were a sack of potatoes. I can’t say for sure if I was more pissed at being carried or the fact that we were moving a lot faster than I would have been able to manage under my power.

  Because they used my arms to support me, I couldn’t access my pad and do something useful like have the drones use sonar to determine where the threat was and possibly, what they were. All I could do was dangle and flop.

  “Shit!”

  “Ah, hell!”

  “What the…”

  Marines ahead of me shouted all manner of expletives. The trio carrying me slowed then came to a stop and set me back on my feet.

  “Why are we stopping?” I asked.

  “Because they did,” Standish said as he pointed to the Marines ahead of us.

  “Watch it,” Jones shouted. She ran at us and leaped.

  What I saw was the reason I wanted to be like them. Jones cleared our heads with a good five feet between her and us. While she was in the air, she spun, bringing her r
ight foot around. Armor clad combat boot connected with a gray blur and a shower of sparks exploded from the point of impact. Jones was thrown back the way she came, and the blur went the opposite direction.

  I spun to get a look at what was attacking us. Where I expected to see the thing was bushes and trees. My head swiveled around as I scanned the area for it. The thing had to be there. The explosion that sent Jones flying must have resulted from damage. So where…?

  In the shadows cast by the tree canopy, a spark shot up. A dark silhouette moved away from the area. It wasn’t like before though.

  “We need to move.” Standish clapped his hand down on my shoulder, but I ignored the spike of pain.

  “You’re right! Come on!”

  Three distinct voices cursed behind me as I charged into the dense forest. Tree branches slapped my chest, arms, and face, while low brush tried to trip me. I plowed on with every ounce of grit and guts I could muster.

  A sound came from the right. Rustling. I turned. Another sound came from the left. More rustling.

  “Shit,” I hissed. “There’s more than one.”

  “Ya think?” Jones ran alongside me giving me the sideways stink eye. “You really think a platoon of battle-hardened Marines was running from only one assailant? Maybe you try some thinking before you act, yeah?”

  “Sorry,” I said, mind in a daze, adrenaline pumping. I looked at the super Marine, ready to expand on my heartfelt apology, but motion caught my eye. “Down!”

  I leaped to tackle Jones. We rolled through the brush with her landing on top of me. A point jabbed into my abdomen, knocking all the air from me.

  I gasped, getting enough air for a word. “Heavy.”

  “Fuck you again, Goshawk. I told you once already, I’m not fat.” Jones rose, poking me in the gut again with her elbow as she did. Then she offered me a hand and almost tore my arm from the socket when she jerked me to my feet.

  “Ouch,” I whimpered while rubbing my arm and giving her a dirty look.

  “Suck it up, Marine.” Standish chuckled as he passed by. His rifle pointed in the direction the thing had gone when it missed Jones. “It’s fast, but I think I see a trail where it went. We can catch it and finally see what the hell these things are.”

  “On your six,” Jones said as she raised her rifle to the ready position.

  Kopf looked at me, nodded, then followed their lead, so I did likewise. Standish set a mild pace, occasionally stopping to inspect the ground or a bush. As we made our way forward, nothing jumped out to strike. I was ready, though, with my muscles tensed to jump like a coiled spring under tension.

  The first sign of something passing through I could see was a dark red wet patch in the dirt. Standish saw it before I did. He knelt and gingerly touched the liquid. After rubbing his wet gloved fingers together, he brought it to his nose. My movie fueled imagination pictured all the ways him sticking that stuff close to his face could go wrong. After he sniffed it, then wiped the goop off on the ground, I let out a relieved breath.

  “It’s oil,” Standish said. He looked back with a puzzled expression. “Oil?”

  “I think answers come when we find it,” I said. “Let’s move.”

  Standish rose, and we followed him again until the roar of rushing water drowned out all other sounds. I was tempted to send drones to scan with another pulse but thought better of it. There had been too many reactions to the pulses to be a coincidence. A quick check showed me the rest of the platoon gathered at the edge of my screen with most of the area we occupied being unmapped.

  “Where the hell are you, Goshawk?” Lupita asked over the comms.

  “Following a thing that Jones injured,” I replied in a low tone. “About a quarter-mile west of your position.”

  “Oh good, as long as you’re not rushing into danger when I’m responsible for keeping you safe. Get your ass back here, Goshawk,” he snarled.

  Kopf turned to look at me. Every one of my fireteam heard the transmission. While being watched, I shut off my comms. Kopf raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and turned back around. We continued toward the sound of rushing water.

  5

  The forest gave way to a large clearing and the most beautiful scene I’d ever witnessed. Green grass with blue tips spread out for a hundred yards before butting up to rocky shores. A waterfall fell from our left into a wide pool which snaked away into a narrow river. Cliffs we couldn’t see through the forest dominated the left side of the landscape.

  The field continued beyond the river for a quarter mile or more where the forest picked up again. The woods met with the river farther down to our right and seemed thicker by the water than where we were. Made sense, considering there was plenty of water there for the trees and underbrush.

  “There,” Standish said, pulling me from my trance and bringing me back to the task at hand—finding the creature. Standish pointed to the ground a few feet in front of himself. A patch of grass was matted with that strange, dark red oil. “We’re on the trail.”

  He continued to lead us after our attacker. Patches of the dark fluid were spread evenly, making it look as if the thing was jumping. It made for an easy trek up to the waterfall pool.

  “Where to now?” Jones asked.

  “If only we had a bloodhound,” Kopf said.

  “How would that help?” I asked. I was never into pets or animals, so my knowledge was limited to the few bits I remembered from school as a kid.

  “Bloodhounds can follow a trail even if it leads to water then beyond,” Standish said. “That would be nice, but you have something better.”

  “What’s that?” Jones cocked her hip to the side and put her fist against it, letting the muzzle of her weapon drop and point down.

  “You’ve got a Standish.” He looked over his shoulder with a big shit-eating grin. “And the Standish knows where it went.”

  “Where?” I asked.

  “So dumb,” Jones mumbled.

  “It went that way,” Kopf said as he pointed to the waterfall.

  “Way to ruin it, dick. But yeah, it did. See.” Standish pointed to the water rushing by. To be more specific, he pointed to the rainbow-like smear running from the waterfall downriver. “Must be a cave behind the fall. We going in?” He turned to look my way.

  “Um… Yeah?”

  “That a question, or an answer?” Jones asked.

  “Answer,” I said with a confidence I didn’t feel.

  “In, it is.” Standish moved before he finished speaking.

  Jones and Kopf spread out, so they were on either side of Standish while keeping back a few feet. I stayed behind Standish but farther back than the other two. I wasn’t sure if this was the place the fourth man should occupy, but no one said to do differently. Right before walking under the water, I did a check behind us, but all I saw was the stunning landscape.

  Unsure of what we would find, I decided to turn my radio back on. There was a chance Lupita would try to radio us, but I thought it worth the risk. If we were separated, I wanted to hear from my team.

  The water was cool, but not too chilled. If the situation were different, it would have been a great place to hang out and relax. To bring a beautiful girl and both swim in the pool and play in the fall. Back home, there had been a waterfall I’d enjoyed hiking to when I needed a moment to myself, and had often imagined bringing a date up there, getting lost in the moment. But, those days were gone. My rifle was all the reminder I needed that this was no pleasure cruise.

  Blinking the water from my eyes, I saw my fireteam moving farther into a cave that narrowed like a funnel. Standish stopped and examined a dark spot I figured had to be more of the oil. After touching it, he stood and wiped his gloved hand on his trousers then continued walking.

  The tight space required we move back into a line to fit down the corridor. Kopf stopped and waved me ahead, but I shook my head. I could handle being in the rear, and I didn’t need a babysitter. He shrugged and followed Jones. After waiting a second,
I followed Kopf.

  A couple of sharp turns later, the cave opened into a vast cavern. There were the usual suspects in the form of stalactites and stalagmites, making me think of massive teeth, but that wasn’t all. The framework of a structure filled most of the space reaching up five stories or more. By the look of it, it was old. Time wore the top of it down to bare rusted beams, but the farther down my eyes traveled, the better shape it was in. Not that the first floor was pristine, by any stretch of the imagination. The exterior was devoid of windows, and small silver spots ruined the rust coverage. Holes looked like they’d been punched through.

  “Hey,” Jones hissed, and shouldered me back. “Watch where you’re going.”

  “Sorry. What do you think it is?” I asked.

  “It’s home to whatever attacked us,” Standish said. He turned and faced me with a somber expression. It was the first time I’d seen him look so serious. Until that moment, he’d carried himself with an effortless swagger that projected confidence and indifference. I already missed the old him.

  “I don’t like it,” Kopf said, giving voice to the objection I felt but didn’t express.

  There was a darkness in the cavern that seems preternatural. I don’t mean the absence of light, which there was plenty of, but a gut feeling of… of… doom. I wanted to turn back, but not as bad as I wanted to become augmented. Getting information about this threat could go a long way toward achieving that goal.

  “I’m taking point. Spread out and cover each other’s ass,” I said as I raised my weapon and started moving.

  The three augs shared a look as I walked by, but I paid it no mind. To make sure I received no objections, I slowed and looked them in the eye. Kopf shrugged his usual response, but Standish grimaced. Jones gave me a toothy grin and raised her weapon to her shoulder. Having the most badass warfighter on our team backing me felt great.

  With my confidence refreshed, I led the way. My head stayed in motion like it was swivel-mounted. Where my eyes looked was where the business end of my rifle pointed. I was the meanest, worst, deadliest creature in the cave, or so I told myself. It helped.