Nasty Little F___ers-Kindle (6 page)

Chapter Five

Bock was supposed to wake him up two hours before sunrise so he could take another shift, but the next morning when Colby woke up, the biologist was nowhere to be seen. Colby glanced at his watch. 6:15 AM. Almost an hour past sunrise. He stepped out of the tent and checked the big rock where Bock pulled guard duty, then checked behind the tent. Finding nothing, he checked inside the tent to make sure Bock hadn’t snuck in last night and gone to sleep when he was supposed to be taking watch. In his hurry to get out of the tent, he could have missed him lying there. Unlikely, but not impossible. Yet there was no sign of him anywhere.

“Bock!” he yelled. “Bock, you there?”

“Yeah,” Bock’s voice came from the trees to the right. “Just had to take a leak.”

“You could have said something.”

“Sheesh, cut the umbilical, would you?”

“That’s not funny.”

Bock stepped through the brush and into the small clearing, zipping as he went. “I know, sorry. I’m just tired.”

“Why didn’t you wake me for my shift?”

Bock looked at his shoes, and didn’t answer right away.

“You fell asleep, didn’t you?” Colby asked.

Bock nodded.

“Damn it, what if Harper came back while you were out cold? Or worse, Jared?”

“I couldn’t help it. I was tired.”

“Shit.” Colby looked around the clearing. There wasn’t a grub in sight. In the firepit, some of the coals still glowed in the early morning light. “We were damn lucky. At least the fire didn’t go completely out.”

He looked back to the spot where Jared died, then out in the direction where Harper went to pee. Both gone, now. Men under his protection. One dead, the other…who knows? Colby looked at his boots, which still held bits of dried bug guts. His mind went back to Kuwait, to another time when he failed to protect people who counted on him. The constricting pain in his chest, which had mostly left him alone for the last five years or so, was back, and all too familiar. Two men gone, now. Not just one. God damn it, Anzer was going to shit a brick.

“Fuck him,” Colby said.

“Fuck who?” Bock asked.

Colby looked up, surprised to realize he’d spoken aloud. “Nothing. Let’s just get back to the others.”

“We’re not going to look for Harper?”

“You can look for him if you want, but I’m getting the hell out of here.” He started packing up the camp, wanting to move out as soon as possible.

“What about breakfast?” Bock asked.

Colby started to tell him where to stick breakfast, but a rumble from his belly reminded him that he hadn’t eaten yet, either. Not good. The first order of survival is sustenance. “All right,” he said. “Let’s have a quick bite and then get going.”

Bock nodded and sat in front of the fire. When he turned toward the fire and started poking the coals, Colby noticed something moving around on the man’s neck. He leaned over to get a better look and swore under his breath. A fucking grub!

“Hang on, Bock,” he said.

“What? What is it?”

Colby reached over and plucked the thing from Bock’s neck. Like before, it took a small piece of flesh with it.

“Hey,” Bock said. “What the hell was that?”

Colby showed him the grub, then squished it between his fingers. “This thing was chewing on your neck.”

Bock stared at the flatted grub. “Weird,” he said. “I didn’t feel a thing. They must have some sort of anesthetic properties in their saliva.”

“Must have.” At the time, it didn’t occur to Colby that one of those same grubs had bitten him the night before, and he certainly felt it. It hurt! Just one more little detail he probably shouldn’t have missed.

***

Janice crawled out of her tent, her bladder screaming. The travel clock next to her pillow read 5:45 AM. She’d just woken from a dream in which she and Colby were running for their lives, but she hadn’t known from what. All she could tell was in the dream, Colby’s bare chest looked huge and strong, like two steel plates over a washboard.

Even in my dreams, that man is hot
, she thought, smiling.

She walked to the temporary “bathroom,” which wasn’t much more than a Porta-Potty, in a bit of a hurry. Her need to pee had reached an almost painful level, and by the time she got in, slammed the door, and sat down she thought she would piss in her pants.

Now that’s sexy
, she thought.
Nothing like coming home to a woman with piss in her pants.
At least she made it out of the tent. They didn’t have the equipment to wash the sleeping bags out here, so she’d have had to either live with the smell of her own urine or drag the thing out to the stream and wash it by hand, which would of course have required some explaining.

Yeah, guys...I peed the bed.
Oh, that would go over well. Edison would never let her forget it.

She finished her business and opened the door to the potty. A dark figure stood in the doorway, looming over the entrance. Janice took in a breath, ready to scream, when the figure shifted and she saw it was Moretz. She let the breath out in one long, relieved sigh. Then she stomped forward and put her face right in front of his.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Moretz? You scared the shit out of mppph!”

Her tirade was interrupted by Moretz’s lips as they pressed against her own. For a moment her mind went blank. What was going on? Was Moretz really sticking his tongue in her mouth? Then she felt his hand on her breast and it snapped her out of her stupor. She slapped his hand away and pulled back.

“What the hell? What are you doing?”

“Shhhh,” he said. “It’s all right. The others are still asleep. It’s just you and me, there’s no need to pretend anymore.” He approached her again, reaching for her waist.

She stepped back. “Listen, Moretz, I don’t know what the hell you’re on, but you need to back off.”

Moretz smiled. “Oh, I get it. You like the game. Okay, then. If you insist.” he approached again, this time much faster, and she was not able to twist aside in time. Moretz wrapped his arms around her upper body, pinning her arms to her sides, and started to kiss her neck.

“Moretz,” Janice said. “This isn’t funny.” She struggled to break free, but he held on like a demon.

“Shhhhh,” he replied, and kissed her throat again. “You don’t want to wake the others.”

“I’m warning you, Moretz.”

“It’s okay, Janice. I know you want me.” He ran his tongue along the nape of her neck. “I want you, too. But we’ll play any game you want.” He nibbled her earlobe.

That does it
. She brought her knee up, hard into Moretz’s groin.

His grip tightened for a split second, then went slack. She shoved away from him, breaking his hold on her and stepping away, her leg ready for another shot if he came at her again. She needn’t have worried. Moretz didn’t come after her.

Groaning, his eyes clenched shut, Moretz slid to his knees, then toppled sideways into the dirt. His hands clutched his groin, and the veins on his neck stood out in sharp relief. He moaned and she thought she saw tears squeezing out of his eyes.

“That’s what you get,” she said. “Next time I say stop, you better fucking stop, asshole.” She stepped over him, giving him an extra kick in the side for good measure, and walked back to her tent.

This wasn’t good. She’d stopped Moretz this time, but what if he came at her again? He was bigger and stronger than her, and next time he’d be expecting the knee to the groin. She reached under her pillow and took out the hunting knife Colby had given her. It came with a sheath that tied around her thigh. She strapped it on now, feeling a little funny. A geekier, less hot version of Lara Croft.

But at least the knife would be handy if Moretz tried anything else.

Would
he try something else? Probably not. Moretz was a coward at heart. A bit obsessed, but her kick to his groin would probably calm him down for a while. Still, she considered telling the others, just in case. She thought about a confrontation between Moretz and the other scientists. Would they believe her?

Edison would. He’d jump at the chance to prove himself to her. But what about Allen and Steinman? Steinman was already wound tighter than a guitar string over Jared’s death. He’d probably faint if he found out anything else had gone wrong. Allen was useless. A complete academic trapped in a teenage hacker’s body. Neither of them would be much help. She decided not to tell her colleagues, they’d been through enough for one day.

Maybe she should tell Colby when he got back.

No
, she thought.
Colby would probably kill him.

Better to keep Moretz’s unwanted attention to herself. For now. She would keep her eye on him, though. She fingered the knife strapped to her leg, and if a time came when he needed another reminder to leave her alone, she’d damn sure give him one.

***

Moretz lay on the ground for a good fifteen minutes, trying to see past the stars swimming in his vision. Tears leaked out of his eyes, and his face burned.

That bitch!

He squeezed his eyes shut again, the throbbing in his testicles causing him to groan again.

That bitch!

She’d led him on, giving him all those looks and all that encouragement, all to kick him in the balls when he made his move. What kind of game was she playing? Now he was laying in the dirt holding on to his balls for dear life, certain that if he let go they would fall off. His eyes swam with pain, and he wondered if he’d ever be able to walk normally again, all because Janice wanted to keep playing her stupid game.

That fucking
bitch!

After a while, the pain subsided, and he was able to think more clearly. Then the truth of the situation came to him. This had something to do with Colby. That guy must have some weird kind of hold on her. Maybe he threatened her or something. Yeah, that had to be it. That jerk had her too afraid to do what she really wanted. What an asshole.

Footsteps at his back let him know someone was coming up behind him. Janice must have come back to apologize. Maybe she would offer to kiss his balls and make them feel better. He would refuse, at first. She would probably start begging him to let her. At that point, he would give in. Why be mean?

He lay with his back to her, waiting for her apology. But she didn’t say anything. He waited for a count of thirty, then he grunted and shifted his weight to let her know he was awake.

“Damn it, Moretz, you scared the crap out of me. What are you doing on the ground?”

Steinman.

“I don’t know if you remember or not, but Jared disappeared,” Steinman continued. “Did you miss the bloody foot the guys brought back? Want that to happen to you?”

Moretz shot to a sitting position and regretted it almost immediately. The pain in his groin had been sleeping, but it flared up again when he moved. He gritted his teeth through the haze of pain and managed to get to his feet. He shuffled past Steinman, who shook his head and muttered something under his breath, and made his way to his tent. He heard the potty door close as Steinman went inside to do his business.

That bitch
, he thought again as he reached his tent and crawled inside. He lay on top of his sleeping bag and mentally called Janice every name in the book. That bitch wouldn’t get away with kicking him in the balls. This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. He’d get her back, and that stupid pistol jockey, too.

He’d get them both back.

Chapter Six

Colby and Bock tromped through the woods, their bodies glistening with sweat in the stifling midday heat. The two had been walking since early that morning without a single break. Colby was eager to get back and so he set a breakneck pace. He had to give Bock credit; the man hadn’t complained once. Probably he was just as anxious to get back, but still. The guy was in good shape for someone who worked in a lab.

“How you holding up, Bock?” Colby called over his shoulder.

Bock grunted a reply, but Colby didn’t quite catch it.

“What was that?” he asked.

“I said, ‘My balls are in my throat, and I’m sweating from every crack I own, but other than that I’m fine.’”

Colby chuckled. “You hungry yet?”

“Starving.”

Colby picked out a small clearing just big enough for the two men to sit down, and took off his backpack. “Let’s eat.”

Bock stumbled in behind him and plopped down on the ground without removing his pack. He reached for his canteen, unscrewed it, and took a long pull. When he finished, he handed it to Colby, who drained the rest of it.

Lukewarm water. Dandy. “What? No Budweiser?”

The look Bock shot him across the small clearing would have made him laugh if he hadn’t been so hot and tired. He reached into his pack and pulled out a bag of jerky, which he opened and handed to Bock. “Here, the protein will do you good.”

Bock took the bag and shoved a handful of the stuff into his mouth. Then he grabbed another handful and handed the bag back to Colby, who watched the man chew the huge mouthful with a mixture of amusement and concern.