Minutes to Burn

The mantid moved past her to where Savage lay unconscious. Dip-ping her neck, she lowered her head until it was inches from his closed eyes. Blood glistened along his hairline.

She breathed his scent, waiting for a movement of any size.

Chapter 65

What in the fuck are we gonna do?" Justin said as they stumbled into Frank's camp. "Jesus fucking fuck what the fuck are we-"

Cameron grabbed him hard around the head, her thumbs pressed firmly into his cheeks. She pulled his head down so his eyes were level with hers. "Calm, baby. Calm down. Look at me." Justin's swearing fell into mumbling. His head relaxed in her hands and his lips stopped moving.

Cameron leaned back against the aluminum specimen freezer, feeling its coldness through her shirt. Pressing her hand tightly to her forehead, she tried to ease the throbbing in her head. Every time she tried to focus, an arrow of searing pain shot up from the base of her neck, disrupting her thoughts. She tapped the freezer door behind her with her knuckles, her stomach roiling. The sight of Szabla was the worst thing she'd ever seen. Thrashing around like that, still alive-alive to the very end. She shook off a shudder.

"Jesus Christ," Justin said. "Did you see Szabla?" Panic hid under his voice, waiting to erupt.

Cameron nodded solemnly, the image of Szabla's partially gnawed head still in her mind. She stepped into one of Frank's tents and started digging through the abandoned supplies to see if there was anything of use. There wasn't.

"We gotta get our hands on the explosives again," she called from the tent. "In the meantime, we have specimen hooks from the freezer, we have the spikes, we have canvas, four flares left-shit, just three, Derek had one-we have rope."

Cameron emerged from the tent, holding a battered underwater flashlight. She paused, chewing her lip. Tank and Justin watched her intently.

"If we just had some kind of a projectile." She bolted forward, snapping her fingers. "The speargun from Diego's boat. Rex knocked it over board-it's down in the water still."

Justin nodded tentatively. "If the currents didn't take it."

"Can you find it? Do you think you could find it in the night?"

"It'd be easier in the morning," Justin said.

Cameron tore a solar cell from Tank's shoulder and snapped it into the underwater flashlight. "We might not have till morning."

She clicked the switch on the flashlight and tapped it near the lens with her palm. A dim light flickered once, then stayed on. She handed the flashlight to Justin.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

Cameron jerked her head toward the vesicle. "Back for Savage."

"All right. I'll establish contact via transmitter as soon as I hit shore." He turned to go, but she caught him by the shoulder and spun him around. "What?" he asked gently.

"I don't…I don't know." She felt pressure along the bridge of her nose, tears pushing to get out, though she didn't know why. "Don't fuck up and let anything happen to you," she said.

His face softly lit in the moonlight, he reached out and moved her necklace clasp to the back. Beneath the line of her straight blond hair, her neck was bruised with dark purple blotches where Tank had grabbed her.

Justin turned and disappeared in the darkness.

Justin moved with excruciating slowness down to the coast, making his way through the clusters of transition zone trees until he passed the watchtower, then inching down the trail through the arid zone, past palo santo trees and cacti. Finally, he reached the cliffs above Punta Berlanga, careful not to startle any birds from the masked booby nesting grounds. He hiked down the thin trail cut into the hard walls.

Casting nervous glances up the beach, he made his way to the water and stripped to his boxers, laying his clothes in a neat pile. The breeze raised goose bumps on his arms.

The flashlight was tied to a thin braided rope that he looped over his shoulder. Though the rope was strong, he still gripped the flashlight by the handle.

He turned and faced the smooth dark bay. The water came up around him in a rush as he dipped beneath the surface. He dolphin-kicked underwater, heading toward the unbroken arc of the horizon.

When Cameron finished searching the biostation tent, she noticed Tank squatting, an elbow light on and swinging between his legs. She reached over immediately and turned it off. "No light," she said.

Tank nodded. He was holding his right arm tenderly, resting the elbow in the cup of his left hand.

"Lemme see," she said, crouching beside him. He shook his head. "C'mon, hero, you fucked it up rescuing me, the least I can do is take a look." She reached for his arm, but he pulled it away, so she slapped him lightly across the face. "Behave!"

She cuffed up his sleeve and saw that the flesh of his arm was swollen almost to the point of bursting. It was a deep bluish-black, bulging along the back of his forearm just beneath the elbow.

Tank read her face immediately.

"I think you've got a compound, kiddo," she said, trying not to sound concerned.