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moving. Period. He was still cursing Janice s sense of play under his breath when Colby
burst through the treeline like a rampaging bull.
He was covered in blood from the top of his head to the tips of his shoes, and his
eyes had a weird, not-quite-sane look to them. He whispered something that sounded like
Thank God, then spent a few seconds looking around the camp. His lunatic eyes settled
on Moretz, and he snapped the barrel upward and pointed it right at the scientist s chest.
Great, Moretz thought. Fucking fantastic.
Open your shirt, Colby said.
What? What the hell is wrong with
I said, open your fucking shirt, Moretz. Colby slammed the rifle s slide home
and gestured with the barrel. I won t ask again.
Moretz glared at him, but couldn t think of anything else to say. When a man
covered in blood points a gun at your head and tells you to unbutton your shirt, it s best to
unbutton your shirt. So he dropped the ice pack, yanked his shirt out of his pants, and
loosened the buttons from his collar to his belly. When he was done, he looked back at
Colby. His groin protested the loss of the ice pack immediately, and he fought the urge to
pick it back up.
Happy? Moretz asked.
Open it up, Colby said.
Moretz did. Colby stared holes into his chest for a count of about thirty, then
seemed to relax. He lowered the rifle and smiled, which scared Moretz almost as much as
the rifle had. What s with the ice pack?
None of your damn business.
Fair enough. Is everyone here?
Everyone but you guys. Moretz said, buttoning his shirt.
Good. Go and get the rest of them and have them meet me by my tent, Colby
started walking to the water tank. We have to talk.
Where are Bock and Harper? Moretz asked.
Colby laughed, but it didn t have an ounce of humor in it. The sound sent an icy
shiver up Moretz s spine.
Don t worry, Colby said. They re coming.
Chapter Nine
Colby faced the remaining scientists: Allen, Edison, Moretz, Steinman, and
Janice. As with Moretz, he d forced them to open their shirts so he could check for
Grubs. He d thought Janice might fuss, but she simply lifted her T-shirt over her head and
waited for him to check her over, a slight look of disappointment on her face, as if she felt
betrayed by his mistrust. But then, she hadn t seen the things he had. If the situation
hadn t been so dire he might have tried to soften the question, might have tried to make it
a little less urgent for all of them, but he didn t have time, and they didn t need him
coddling them right now.
Once he verified they were all clean, he filled them in on what he d found of
Jared, and what had become of Bock and Harper. Several times, Janice gasped aloud.
More than once Edison snorted in derision. The other three looked at him like they
couldn t figure out if he was crazy or pulling their leg, but Colby pressed on, ending with
his mad, injured run through the woods from the bear carcass to the camp.
So that s the story, he concluded. Any questions?
Did you bring back a sample of the grubs? Allen asked.
Colby looked at Allen, a little taken aback. He d expected to hear questions like
When are we leaving? or What do we do now? But Allen s calm query about samples
surprised him. Then he remembered that, unlike Harper, Allen was an entomologist.
Yeah, he replied. Glad you asked. I almost forgot. Colby was only too glad to hand
him the small bag with the hand and grubs in it. Allen took it without even looking at
Colby, then turned and vanished into his tent, never taking his eyes off the bag.
I think you just made his year, Steinman said.
Colby nodded. Probably, but that doesn t help the rest of us.
So what did you mean when you said Harper and Bock would be coming soon?
Moretz asked. If those grubs got them, don t you think they re dead by now?
Someone followed me here. I could hear them behind me. I stopped and tried to
shoot them a few times, but I could never spot them. Those woods out there, Colby
spread his hand behind him in a sweeping line, are fucking dense. They could be twenty
feet away and we wouldn t be able to see them.
Moretz looked doubtful, if a bit afraid. So did the rest of the group (except for
Allen, of course, who could be heard exclaiming about his new find from inside his tent).
That was good. Colby wanted them a little afraid; fear sharpens the senses. The trick was
not to let them panic.
Harper might be long gone by now, he said. But not Bock. Bock is almost
certainly still alive.
Are you sure? Janice asked.
Colby remembered how Bock had only a few grubs on him, and those didn t
seem to be feeding. If that hadn t changed, then oh, yes& he was sure. In fact, Bock was
probably watching them all right now, Colby would have bet his left nut on it. But how
would he explain all that to her without scaring the living shit out of her?
I m sure, he said simply.
Ok, Sarge Edison said. So what s the plan? What do we do?
Just the question Colby had been dreading. I don t know.
They all stared at him. His status as their guide made him the group leader in
their eyes, and now they wanted him to lead them to safety. But they were hundreds of
miles away from anything at all, with no means of communicating back to Anzer, and
there wouldn t even be a supply helicopter for another week. That didn t leave a lot of
options. In fact, it only left one.
There s not much we can do, is there? Janice asked. It s too far to hike back,
and we couldn t carry enough food to make it, anyway. We ll just have to wait until
Monday.
Colby looked at her and nodded, impressed that she d reasoned it out so quickly.
Her face was flushed, and her pale blue eyes sparkled with a mixture of fear and
adrenaline. Yet her mind was sharp as always, and he found himself thinking about the
hours ahead. He wondered if, during the upcoming mess, they would be able to find time
for themselves. Probably not. The nights of sneaking into the woods were long over. He
felt a twinge of loss at that, but it couldn t be helped.
Three of his charges were dead or dying. He didn t intend to lose any more.
That s about right, he said. We ll sleep in shifts. Someone needs to be up and
on their guard at all hours.
What about our work? This from Edison. We still have a lot to do here.
Colby wanted to slap the man, but managed to hold himself in check. Two
people have died, and a third one is probably dying. Once that chopper gets here, I plan to
get on it and get the fuck home. If you want to stay behind and finish your work here, be
my guest, but you ll be doing it without me.
Around the group, every head nodded. No one wanted to stay behind after
knowing what happened to Jared, Harper, and Bock. Even Edison seemed to accept the
idea.
All right, then, Colby said. Now that that s settled, who s hungry?
***
Twenty feet from the edge of the science team s campsite, Bock and Harper, or
what was left of him, watched from the concealment of the brush. He couldn t hear what
they were saying, but he could guess it readily enough.
They re going to post a guard tonight, he said.
Harper nodded, and a small group of grubs fell from his half-eaten face and
landed on the ground. They quickly loped and crawled their way back to Harper, and
began feasting on the remains of his toes. Soon Harper would be nothing but a pile of
bones, just like Jared, and then Bock would be alone. He would have to make his move
soon, before Harper rotted away and left him without any backup. Harper probably had
another six hours before his muscles and flesh were so far gone as to render him
completely immobile. Six hours, maybe eight.
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