Jon Merz - Prey

“Why take Havel?”

“Was he reloading his gun then?” Mick looked serious. “If he was, then it makes sense. Grab him while he can’t shoot.”

“Which means the things that grabbed him were here,” said Julia. “But not in the numbers we thought they were.”

“And,” said Mick, “if they were waiting until someone reloaded, it might also mean they are vulnerable to our weapons. That’s good news. If they hadn’t waited but simply stormed in, I might be more concerned right now.”

“Cripes,” said Wilkins. “I changed mags twice. They could have grabbed me just as easily.”

“Me too,” said Nung.

“I had to change magazines as well,” said Kendall.

“We all did,” said Julia. “It could have happened to any of us. Or maybe they had their eye on Havel all the time. I don’t know. I don’t know what makes sense anymore.”

“I’m not sure anything does at this point,” said Mick.

“Well, I’m still concerned,” said Julia. “After all, they’ve still got Havel.”

“Yeah,” said Wilkins. “What the hell are we going to do about that?”

Julia looked down the tunnel at the darkness. “The only thing we can do,” she said. “We go and get him back.”

Mick wanted to leave immediately. “Better to hit them now while they think we’re recuperating from their pseudo-attack.”

Julia stopped him. “Does that really make a lot of sense? We’re not even sure how to get to wherever it is they came from. If we make a half-hearted stab at finding them now in the darkness, we might just wind up in some sort of nasty ambush.” She lowered her voice. “And I certainly don’t want to lose another man.”

Mick sighed, his breath spilling over her like a hot wave of steam. “You’re probably right. After that firefight, most of them will need some rest.”

“What about you?”

“I could use a few zzz’s myself.”

Julia looked around. “Are we safe here? I mean, now that they know where we are?”

“Not much of a choice otherwise. If we go back toward the mouth of the cave, we’ll have to deal with the colder air. That’ll make an uncomfortable sleep period for everyone.” He glanced around. “We can either stay here and take our chances or move back. It’s your call, of course.”

“But you vote we stay here.”

“It’ll be easier going when we do wake up if we’re already positioned closer to the spot of the light.”

“You think that’s where they’re coming from?”

Mick frowned. “Let’s just say I’m damned interested in prying up that rock and seeing where that light is coming from.”

“I’d expect we all are,” said Julia. “You want to handle posting the guards? You coordinate with Wilkins.”

“Sure.” He started to turn away and then stopped. “Hey.”

Julia looked at him. “What?”

“You did good back there.”

She grinned. “So, did you.”

His smile cut through the darkness. Julia watched him leave and then leaned back against the rocks closest to her. She was exhausted. The adrenaline spike had supercharged her for the firefight, but the dump was now coming over her like a heavy wet blanket. She felt like she’d just swum a river in all her clothes, dragged down by the extremes in her environment in so short a time.

Firefights with strange creatures weren’t on the programming schedule for this trip. She smirked, but then got serious. And neither were two missing men.

Not to mention the entire other crew of the station. What had happened to them? It would be easy to imagine they’d all wandered off into the barren ice and got swallowed by Mother Nature.

But this wasn’t Mother Nature. Not at all.

And damned if I know what it is, thought Julia.

Wilkins sat down beside her. “You okay, boss?”

She nodded. “Just tired.”

“Yeah, the after effects of being so jacked up on your body’s natural fight or flight response can really take the wind out of your sails. Had it happen to me a lot of times.”

“You’ve been in a lot of firefights, Wilkins?”

He shrugged. “Grew up in Boston. Dorchester neighborhood. Wasn’t exactly white picket fence suburbia. I lived on Corbett Street. You ever hear of it?”

“No.”

“Rough place. One of the worst gangs in Boston’s history took their name from that street. Bunch of drug dealing crazy ass kids who thought the world would cave to them if they waved a gun and a dimebag.”

“That sounds suspiciously like personal experience.”

He smiled. “Damned straight. I ran with ’em. Nearly lost my life more times than I care to remember. Got so bad, I lost five friends in the space of two weeks. Used to be a time in Boston when there were more kids dying under the age of sixteen than anyone else. It was a horrible waste of life. But we didn’t know any better.”

“Most kids don’t.”

“It took a drive-by outside of my house — with me getting about five rounds pumped into my legs, stomach, and back, for me to finally realize there had to be a better way to make a living.”

“Jesus Christ.”

Wilkins smiled. “Well, sure, he helped. I prayed to him every night while I lay in that hospital wishing for a second chance. He gave me one, too, and I never forgot that. I went to live with my aunt and uncle out in Minnesota. Talk about a change in scenery. Whatever. It worked. I got my nose straight, got into the books, and headed to college on a full scholarship.”

“That where you met your wife?”

“Brenda? Yeah. Helluva woman. She’d have to be to put up with me going thousands of miles away from her.” He grinned. “Maybe I don’t deserve it, but I like to think it’s God’s way of patting me on the back for getting straight.”

Julia smiled. “Not bad, Wilkins.”

“Not bad at all. And here I am at the bottom of the world. On what could be a damned important mission.”

“Pretty good for an inner city kid.”

“Yeah, not bad. The problem is, that now I’ve almost come full circle.”

“How do you figure that?”

Wilkins gestured around them. “Look at us. We’re holed up in some cave while a blizzard buries our transportation outside. In here, we’re possibly easy pickings for some kind of creature. And once again — worst of all — I’m holding a gun.”

Julia shook her head. “There’s a difference now.”

“Is there?”

She nodded. “You’ve got a gun in your hand for protection. You’ll use it to save the life of yourself and your teammates.”

“Same as before.”

“No,” said Julia. “It’s not. Before you would have used a gun offensively. You would have taken out someone before they became a threat.”

Wilkins jaw tightened. “Yeah. But you know what? If I had the chance to do these things before they came at us again, I sure would. That doesn’t make me any different than before.”

“You really think you’re being fair with yourself right now?”

He grinned. “Probably not. This cave is depressing the hell out of me.”

“Get some sleep,” said Julia. “We’ll sort this all out when we wake up and figure out our next move.”

Wilkins smiled. “G’nite.”

“Good night.” She watched him scramble over to the other side of the path. He rested his rifle against the rock close by and worked his hand through the strap so it would be within easy reach.

Julia leaned back, feeling the countless bumps press into her back. It felt like a prehistoric shiatsu treatment. Who would have thought she’d be leading such a group like this?

Life sure has a funny way of dealing out the cards, she decided.

She looked up at the top of the cave and let her eyes close. The lantern still cast enough light for them all to see, but Julia preferred listening to the surrounding noises. She felt her body slacken. Her muscles seemed desperate to throw off the last vestiges of the stress of the earlier firefight.