One Crazy Set Of Stories (Apocalypse Paused Book 12) by Michael Todd & Michael Anderle

Author:Michael Todd & Michael Anderle [Todd, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642022797
Publisher: LMPBN Publishing
Published: 2019-05-13T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The night passed without incident, which Ava considered a wonderful thing. She woke as the sun began to lessen the gloom of the jungle beyond the pile of boulders. Already, the more open canyon looked like morning. It was amazing how thick the canopy in most of the Zoo was.

She sat up and retrieved food from her pack and ate quickly and without ceremony before she woke Manny and Peppy. Apparently, the two soldiers had switched places at some point during the night. Ava was vaguely aware that she and Manny had insisted on taking shifts as well but their teammates had obviously failed to wake them. Not that she would complain.

“So,” she said to Gunnar. “Did you have any brilliant breakthroughs last night?”

“Do you mean did I have an idea besides backtracking deeper into the Zoo? Nope. Kessler’s right. These suits won’t make it out of here. We really do need to get to the chopper.”

“Right, well, there’s no time like the present,” she said briskly. Gunnar nodded and returned to watching their perimeter while she woke the camp. Manny stood and sniffed the air like he always did. He obviously didn’t smell any enemies because he went off to water a tree without comment.

She approached Peppy quietly but apparently, her near-silent footsteps were enough to alert the sleeping soldier. She sat up and drew a pistol in one motion. It spoke to how dangerous she was that she didn’t aim it at her, though. She had enough control, even upon waking, to properly assess threats.

Finally, Ava took special pleasure in waking Kessler. She kicked him in the foot, which earned much grumbling from the doctor.

They all ate in relative silence before they packed up and set off for the Bastard.

She hated staying in one place in the Zoo. It felt like inviting attack—as if for every minute they slept, the creatures would sniff out exactly where they were and begin to converge on that spot. Moving felt much better like they could at least outpace the thousands of predators that wanted an easy meal.

Peppy and Gunnar seemed to agree. As soon as they got in their suits and began walking along the trail, they fell into their old pattern.

“We have some poisonous plants up ahead, Peppy. Make sure to crash into them. I know you haven’t had a cup of coffee this morning and are therefore functionally useless.”

“Just because those plants are lethal doesn’t mean you should smoke them, Gunnar,” she replied.

They continued to follow the path Ava and Manny had taken through the Zoo.

“Manny, I gotta say, your trail is so obvious that even I could follow it,” Gunnar said.

“That’s because you crashed through here with your damn walking tin cans.”

“That we could follow you from inside these things means you’re not nearly as sneaky as you think you are,” Peppy snarked. “I’ve literally seen enormous crocodile-anaconda mutants that leave less of a trail than you did.”

“You know, if we were in the Outback or even the damn Sahara, we wouldn’t have this stupid conversation.

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