Jonathan Maberry - SNAFU - An Anthology of Military Horror

”Look, look.” He turned and grabbed her sleeve as he crouched down, pulling her toward him.

“Ow.” Doris pulled her arm away from his grasp. He’d thought his girlfriend had been slightly interested in entering the cave. He couldn’t count the times she had seemed to sit spellbound as he had recounted his many spelunking adventures over the past few months. Perhaps her interest had been feigned, or perhaps her interest only extended to hearing about caves — entering them was a whole different ballgame.

“I don’t see anything.” She looked away and down into the interior of the cave. “It’s too dark.”

Klaus muttered in annoyance and tugged her sleeve again. “Here… don’t look at the rock, look into it. It’s called a limestone flow, and it’s rather like solidified dishwater… cloudy but you can still see through it.”

She had folded her arms, leaned forward and craned her neck. But after a few seconds she slowly shook her head. “Nope, nothing.”

Klaus started to groan in frustration and then had a thought. He held up a finger and then fumbled under his jacket for his water bottle, uncapped it, and splashed the liquid onto the cave wall. The smooth limestone revealed looked like glistening wax. He smiled and sat back on his haunches. “It’s the result of tens of thousands of years of water dripping down to coat everything in micro-mineral particles that hardens to a semi clear covering. It’s the geological equivalent of capturing flies in amber.” Klaus changed the angle of his light beam once again.

“Oh yeah, I can see inside — yuck — that thing looks weird.” Doris wrinkled her nose, but crouched beside him.

“Looks beautiful to me.” Klaus tipped some more water over it.

“Is it a man? He looks deformed or something.” Doris got to her feet, but also kept her flashlight trained on the wet stone.

“You mean, was. And no, I don’t think he was deformed. Judging by the depth of mineral coverage, I’d say he’s been trapped in there for about at least forty thousand years, maybe even sixty thousand.” Klaus leaned in, his nose almost touching the slick stone. “Not deformed, more like proto-human… probably Neanderthal.”

He shone his torch at the cave wall and ceiling, before letting it rest on her face. “The sink hole we entered only opened the cave a few days back, and so far the emergency services have kept everyone well away. We’re probably the first people to set foot here for tens of thousands of years.” He raised his eyebrows theatrically, but she just nodded without enthusiasm.

Klaus shrugged, still feeling the tingle of excitement ripple through him. He leaned in close again, inhaling the smell of the ancient stone. From behind there came the sound of a metallic flicking, followed by a spark of light.

He spun. “Doris… are you shitting me… you’re smoking?”

She pointed the cigarette at him like the barrel of a small glowing gun. “I’m nervous. You know I smoke when I’m nervous. I’m nervous, cold, hungry… and horny.” She tilted her nose in the air, but looked back at him out of the corner of her eye.

Klaus snorted. He knew when she threw in the horny angle she wanted him to do something. Normally she got her way, but this time, his focus remained firmly above his waistline.

“You smoke when you’re nervous, drunk, happy, sad… face it Doris, you smoke all the time. Show some respect; this cave probably hasn’t seen people for about fifty thousand years… and do you mind not dropping ash everywhere?”

She wobbled her head. “I’ve seen you smoke too, Mr. High-n-mighty. Besides, who’s going to complain … him?” She jerked her thumb at the lump in the wall, jammed the cigarette between her pursed lips, and flashed a quick glance at the blue Seiko dive watch on her slim wrist.

Klaus ignored her, and looked back at the encased body. “Maybe… and for the record, it might be a her. We need to dig it out — looks really old and if it’s a good quality fossil, which I think it is, it could be worth thousands.” He half turned. “And the smoke could damage it.”

“Thousands.” Klaus heard her softly repeat the word, and then came the sound of a foot grinding something into the cave floor.

He nodded sagely. “Sure, collectors pay a fortune for this stuff. They’ll even pay for pieces of it. We need to get some tools, and cut it out before anyone else finds this cave.”

Doris crowded in beside him squinting. “Good idea.” She pointed. “Hey, I think there’s a light in there.”

He followed her finger. “Hmm, might be a reflection — or an opal. Could make it even more valuable.”

Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.” Jax slapped each soldier on the back as they jogged past — twenty of the best — combat professionals and genetically bred to be big, tough and fearless. Zone-Cleaners, ass-kickers, terminators; call them whatever you wanted, but they got the job done, the harder and dirtier the better. He had his war party, and they were ready to kick ass.

The portal flared as they all lined up to one side, awaiting his final inspection. Nano-body armor over iron-hard muscles, fusion bombs, magnetic kill-darts, and burners with enough power to fry a city block. He walked along the line, nodding to each, their eyes straight ahead. He balled his fists and faced them.

“We are the hammer, and they are the nail. When we strike, they fall. We will not fail… we can not fail.” He raised a fist, his jaw jutting. “Anything gets in our way, it’s dead.” Jax began to turn away, but paused, his head tilting. He spun back and roared. “I can’t… fucking… hear you.”

As one, the squad yelled in return: “Anything in our way is dead.”

The squad leader grinned without humor. “Damned right.” He turned to the glowing portal. “Let’s go and burn some Gimps.”

He turned his back on them and waited for the portal to open fully and settle itself. The zone they were about to enter was dangerous. The Gimps had evolved, changed, become clever and far more deadly.

Jax was the senior officer in charge of the top cleanup crew, and he was fearless. He knew his men would follow him to hell if need be… and that was good, because where they were going, there were devils. The Gimps, prehistoric monsters that defied belief.

He breathed deeply and cast his mind back to how they had got to this point. His lips moved in a silent curse; damn science officers and their weak-willed approach to everything. He was sick of hearing their advice to command: we don’t need to take Cleaners on jumps; the Gimps fear us more than we fear them;we must hold out the hand of peace. Ha , he thought with a little vindication, hold out the hand of peace and you’d fucking lose it . As the science team had just found out… yet again.

He snorted as he checked his burner’s power cells. Gilbred, that worm, and his know-it-all colleague Hindoy… now deceased. He remembered when the puny excuse for a man had returned from his expedition, shaking like a leaf.

He glanced at the chronometer. The portal’s synchronizers had identified their destination and started the countdown.

Thirty… twenty-nine… twenty-eight… twenty-seven…

There’d been too many trips now. They had burned, interrogated and tortured their way across a lot of the primordial hellhole to get to this point. Now, it all came down to this last zone jump.

As he waited for the portal to stabilize, he let his mind wander over the events of the past few days. Back to Gilbred and when he had first returned.

Jax lunged forward and yelled into the seated science officer’s face. “You fucking lost it? You get attacked by dumb Gimps, let them creep right up on you and spear your companion. Then you let them take his damn burner?” Jax paced, his jaw clenched. He spun back. “You’d upbraid my soldiers for stepping on a single bug, but in a blind panic you fry ten Gimps.” Jax rushed back, getting in close to the cowering scientist. “Do you have any idea what sort of problems this will cause?” He brought his face so close their foreheads almost touched. “Well?”