Gregg Hurwitz - Minutes to Burn

Derek stumbled from his tent, holding the larva along the length of his arms. "Set it down!" Rex barked. "Don't handle it."

Derek placed the larva hastily on the grass, and Diego examined its soft underside. "It appears to be unharmed," Diego finally said.

An aftershock caused them to brace themselves, but it quickly passed. Savage reached over, wiping a smudge of mud roughly from Szabla's cheek.

"Well, that's a fucking relief," he said.

Derek sat silently on a log, holding the larva in his lap and gazing at its glassy eyes as the others reassembled the camp, doing their best to ignore him. The scorching sun had finally begun to work its way to the water.

Justin helped Szabla get the tent straightened out and they ran a sup-plies check. Tank and Savage strained to get the log back in line with the others around the fire, and Cameron helped Rex and Diego test their equipment.

The mantid body sprawled in the grass, attracting insects and birds. After Rex and Diego examined it, taking copious notes, Tank and Savage dragged the body a few hundred yards east of the camp and built a small pyre around it, using firewood and leaves. It took a few tries to get the body ignited, but once it got going, it burned quickly, crackling like a fly in a bug zapper. The fire rose like a teepee, a cone of light fighting off the dusk. They came back, rinsed with water from the canteen, and rubbed gel into their hands.

Derek's transmitter vibrated four times before he took note. Lethargi-cally, he tilted his head to his shoulder. "Mitchell. Public." The others gathered around quickly.

"Mitchell, it's Mako here." If Mako was waiting for a response, he didn't get one. "I just got a call from a colonel at Fort Detrick. Strickland. Do you know the name?"

Derek shook his head.

"No," Cameron said into her transmitter. "We don't."

"They're getting heavy into the science over there. Some kind of virus you guys are exposed to. Said it had to do with the mutated animal you were describing. That Denton fellow from the New Center's been leaning on Strickland and our old friend the Secretary of the Navy to get you guys extracted. Said you're in grave danger."

"Deja fuckin' vu," Savage growled.

"Problem is, that little rumble you kids just felt originated off the coast of Colombia. A significant number of our air assets were on the ground in Bogota. We sustained heavy damages; they're still sorting through the wreckage. I've been on the phone this last hour trying to find anything to pull you guys off that rock, but looks like we're snake eyes for the time being. The good news is, I managed to block out a Blackhawk and a C-130 for 2200 on the thirty-first. We'll have you out in fifty-two hours."

"We might be insect shit in fifty-two hours," Justin grumbled.

Derek and Mako stood off in silence, each waiting for the other to speak next.

"I'm sorry, soldier," Mako finally said. "It's the best we can do." He clicked out.

The others sat quietly for a few moments. Szabla rose and went to her tent.

Cameron walked over to Derek, stopping with one boot on the log beside him. "I'm gonna go check on the Estradas again, make sure they're all right," she said.

"Are you asking or telling me?" Derek said, his eyes not leaving the larva.

"Derek," Cameron said. "She's six months pregnant. I'm gonna go check on them."

Derek studied her for a few moments. "I'm not going with you. Grab a buddy."

Cameron signaled Justin with a flick of her head, and he followed her across the field to the road. They walked side by side, the watchtower looming ahead. In a few places, the ground had buckled up in scarps, four- to five-inch lips in the road.

"Derek is not Derek," Justin said after a few moments. "We might need to think about doing something."

Cameron did not respond.

They reached the bloque house and Cameron called out, anxious to see the couple. There was no answer. The air around them took on another shade of gray as the sun dipped out of sight behind a row of plantain trees.

Cameron called out again, noticing the strain in her voice.

They passed beneath the window and turned the corner. Cameron stepped through the doorway into the house. She stopped dead in her tracks, momentarily blocking Justin's view. He stepped around her, then also froze.

Ramon's body dangled from the ceiling near the fireplace, his face a deep blue above the noose. The chair lay on its side beneath his feet. The wall near the bed was splattered with crimson. Floreana lay on the mat-tress, draped in a bloody sheet. On the floor near the foot of the mat-tress was a gnarled little creature. Cameron looked at its still-moist head, the small broken claw curled up at the end of a stumpy limb.

She felt her stomach rising in her gullet. Justin leaned over, hands on his knees, sucking air until he regained control. He and Cameron stood beside each other for what must have been fifteen minutes, staring at the three bodies, stilling their emotions, sweating in the thick air.

Finally, Cameron crossed to the mattress. Justin reached after her and said her name once, but she did not slow. She reached down and grabbed a clean part of the sheet. Slowly, she pulled it off Floreana, revealing her lower body.

Cameron emitted a small, almost animal sound, a cry deep in her throat that rose sharp and faded quickly. She raised a hand to her face where it hovered, unsure of what to do. She looked down and saw that her other hand was clutching her belly.

She backed slowly away from the bed, refusing to lower her eyes to the baby-corpse on the floor. Justin watched her as she walked to the fireplace. She righted the chair, stood on it, and freed Ramon. His body flopped over her broad shoulders, bloodless arms dangling over her back. Justin stayed where he was. She was grateful to him for not offering to help. She carried Ramon to the bed and laid him beside his wife. Noticing the newly healed cut on his index finger, she wondered if that was the route by which the Darwin virus had entered his body. Or maybe it had reached Floreana directly. Cameron's feet felt numb beneath her legs, insensate blocks.

Her face felt hot, burning beneath the skin. She rarely became emotional, but when she did, she carried the signs clearly on her face. Blood-shot eyes, flushed cheeks, a redness along the bridge of her nose. Her mother had always said that it was her one tender trait.

Without a word, she turned and passed Justin, heading out into the twilight. After a moment, Justin followed her. He walked a few paces behind her back to the camp. Tank had started the fire up again; Cameron could see it from the road. She approached it slowly, the logs coming into view, then the soldiers.

Cameron reached the camp first. "We're killing them," she said.

Derek's head snapped up. "Excuse me?"

"Whatever's carrying this virus."

"What are you… what are you talking about?"

"It can spread to humans. Floreana gave birth to a… thing. It killed her. Ramon hanged himself. If you'd seen it." Cameron inhaled sharply, her nostrils flaring. Her mind raced with more thoughts than she could grab hold of.

Diego took a step back and sat down heavily. Derek's fingers fluttered once, then formed themselves into fists. Cameron felt Szabla's eyes on her, steady and hard.

"We need to shift our objectives," Cameron continued. "We need to contain the virus. I'm not leaving this island until we exterminate all car-riers."

"That's not the mission," Derek said. "Those aren't your orders."

"Fuck the mission," Cameron said. "Fuck my orders."

Derek set the larva aside and stood, glowering. He came at her in a charge, but Tank and Justin stepped in his way, and then Savage and Szabla were up, both of them flanking Cameron protectively. Savage swung the heavy freezer bolt casually, whistling a couple bars of a melody.