Path of Ranger: Volume 1 (30 page)

“You better listen more carefully. And put that knife down!” Gibson got a bit worried about his comrade’s childish attitude. “To solve that time issue, I’ve designed a precise plan, according to which, the operation is divided into phases. So you, along with the beach group, have to move with one speed, the planned one. You’ll have one hour to get to the beach. When you’re there, you have to gather everyone and get on the way immediately. You need to wade through the water. Considering speed and time for breaks, you’ll need about eighteen hours to get to the rendezvous point. So in nineteen hours I expect you to be there. I’ll do my part by that time. In ten minutes after I’ll make the hole, the patrol is going to be there. Anything may happen then…”

“Do I get a gun?” Mia asked.

“Have you ever used a gun?” JB asked in return.

“No.”

“So there’s your answer.”

“Come on, man! Are you serious?” she protested. “There’s gonna be monsters, mercs, and everything…”

“Yeah, right! All we need is guns in inexperienced hands,” JB insisted. “You’re staying with Gibson. Hide behind his mech, if anything.”

“Behind the mech? Are you kidding?”

“Do I? You tell me.”

Meanwhile, Gibson remembered that he had already thought that problem through. So he took a spray that he had prepared for Mia.

“Here, Mia. Take this,” he gladly handed the can.

“What? Pepper spray? Are you kidding me? This stuff is useless!”

“No, it’s not!” the doctor objected.

“Yeah, it is!”

“No, it’s not!” Gibson went again, even more recklessly. “Here, look!”

His next action was spraying JB’s eyes, who was beside them. The pain made the mutant twisting and squirm, and it was just growing.

“Are you fucking nuts?! Why?!” Bridgers shouted.

“What did you expect, man? I’m on drugs!” Doc made an excuse.

“I can’t see, damn you!”

“You see? I told you,” Mark turned to Mia. “It works.”

Now Mia accepted the weapon and looked at the suffering mutant once more.

“So, it’s not pepper spray inside?” she wondered.

“Well… More or less…”

“What about him?” Mia nodded at JB.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s not his first time.”

The scientist handed Jerry his old blindfold, which the mutant whipped away when looking in other direction.

“You know, Doc,” JB started, putting the blindfold on. “When this is over, me and you are gonna have a long talk.”

Everything was ready. According to the plan, Mark and Mia were supposed to go in sixteen and a half hours after JB. As a time syncing measure they took two exact timers with preset hours until the end of the mission. Just as the start button was pushed JB’s inner switch went on with it. He focused fully on the mission. Not even using the stairs, he ran for the window and leaped through it.

A seven story fall ended with a soft landing on the feet, going into a tumble after. Not losing any speed, JB braced himself and ran on, straight into the jungle.

The rainforest changed in the twilight. Like it came from another reality. The plants gained new appearance, the sky went dark. There was no light in it. On the ground, though, everything looked different. The leaves glowed with a slight incandescence. JB had seen it before, that night when he saw an evil beast for the first time. That night was hot too, but not as hot. The evening of their escape was nothing like any night before, the temperature turned the air into the furnace. Perhaps that was a trigger for such a reaction from the local vegetation. They glowed when it was hot.

The jungle turned into a colorful exposure. Exotic illuminating flowers were everywhere. Some of them were big and lush, others like vines crawling around the trees. There were spiral-formed ones, which had cyan coloration inside and bright-yellow on the outside. The ones that grew from the vines had a bell shape and glowed with purple light. Even the grass and moss had its luminance. This one was much dimmer, but the quantity of it compensated for the brightness. When looking up, it seemed as if there was no sky, nothing, just this place.

That picture couldn’t be seen from outside. The trees’ dense foliage hid it very well. At least, JB thought so, according to his previous experience.

The life thrived in the jungle that night. Animals were everywhere, from small ones to big, and the air was full of flying insects. These beasts didn’t look like the ones that JB been used to. Their skin looked more like scales, no fur. Some animals had it smooth and colorful, others – dark, but sharp as spikes. They seemed to be thermophilic, it was the heat that made them come out and play. JB wondered if they awakened just now, in such a temperature, what might be there when the real summer came?

A bit later JB saw some animals and insects that had their own luminosity like plants, not as bright, maybe, but still noticeable. Most of them had light dots or stripes. Their eyes were glowing in the dark, the retinas had their unique pearly shade with a silver shine in it. Most of those creatures looked structurally similar; they had large rib cages, thick necks, big eyes, and nostrils. Also, they had long tails with a bare bone at the end. It seemed like a good instrument for defense and balancing while climbing. Overall most of the creatures looked like cat-lizard hybrids or something.

The further JB ran, the more interested he was getting into studying those details. It was obvious that to live in such darkness, the animals had to have adjusted eyes, but they seemed to have special hearing as well. The ears were small on those hybrids. Mostly there was just a short outer part around the pinna, not bigger than a half inch or so. Those were predators.

Herbivores, on the other hand, had excellent hearing. Their ears were enormous, the skin was thick and the legs – strong. They could hear JB from long distance, he thought so, since he barely could catch a glance at them before they ran off. The mutant had seen a lot of different creatures on his run. Yet, not a single one of them tried to attack him. It felt good being around all that life.

Only when the halfway mark of the trip stayed behind did the doubts start to show up. It happened after Bridgers got hooked over a twig with his blindfold. It reminded him that his eyes were tightened during all that time. For a moment, JB realized that there might not be any self-illuminated forest at all. It was his own inner representation boosted up by a substantial dose of the drug that Gibson called LSD. The big guy took off the blindfold to open his eyes. The pepper spray still hurt. What he saw there confused him even more. He did stand around the glowing jungle, and everything was exactly as he imagined it.

JB got confused altogether. He had no idea how he could see all that without actual vision. In case of blindly moving around the research center, the rooms were represented as made-up models in his mind, more intuitive, but certainly not visual. That moment the mutant realized what a dilemma was in front of him. Either his mutation kept developing and his inner vision got so precise that it duplicated the real one or Gibson’s drug was more powerful than he could imagine. Neither of those options was to his liking. But there was no time for philosophy, he had to keep running. JB put the blindfold back on and went back in motion.

Being charmed by the surroundings the hunter rushed through the thicket. He didn’t need a bamboo stick to clean up the path anymore. He learned how to run without hurting the forest. JB acted very confidently, he avoided the twigs, skipped over shrubs, and did many sophisticated moves to pass the obstacles and not lose his speed. In some of the areas he had to go close to the canopy, above the ground. He didn’t like intruding there, but using hanging vines and tightened branches was a good way to move fast. The mutant wasn’t afraid to fall anymore. His skin, muscles, and bones were so strong that going from up to down and vice versa was a game to him. His intuitive vision became a scanner that searched for the most efficient path to follow.

His perception changed. He felt every living thing around him. Every animal, every plant, their pain, intentions, living energy. Everything mixed together into one global force, where each being was a part of it. And JB was a part of it. He passed a pack of wolf-like beasts. Those predators were fierce and deadly, the mutant felt it, but he knew that they wouldn’t attack him. He was one of them, men couldn’t understand that. It was an animal thing.

Along with that new harmony with nature, the mutant felt something else – an alertness. Local flora was balanced perfectly. But there was something disturbing that balance. As a black ink stain on a white piece of paper. It polluted that small world, a pure madness. The monsters. They were artificial, made by men. They didn’t have that unique connection to the rainforest, which the rest of the beings there had. They were aliens there, evil and destructive.

Each following minute made JB feel better, his body had adjusted. The air wasn’t that thick anymore, and the heat stopped being a problem. He became a part of that small world. He wished the whole world would be like that jungle.

A half hour afterwards JB almost reached his destination. He could feel a fresh ocean breeze there already. The closer the end of the jungle was, the more it changed. The trees were shorter there and there was a lot less light. No illumination coming from the plants, which were just a few miles back. It felt like an entirely different place, no more of that powerful life force.

The other survivors’ camp was just a couple miles away. JB climbed the highest tree in the area to look around. He removed the blindfold. It was dark in there. Everything got dim and lost its coloration, yet he still could define the objects with his enhanced vision. The forest looked as usual, so once again JB couldn’t tell if this land was just different or the drug had lost its power.

The mutant kept looking straight forward, in the camp’s direction. He was ready to jump from the branch and to go on running. When, suddenly, something hit a tree that he sat on. It climbed the trunk from below.

Looking carefully JB noticed a movement on the lower branches. It was one of the monsters. It had a dark gray coloration, massive limbs, with the long sharp claws instead of fingers. After the first one, he saw another few on the nearby trees and on the ground. They seemed excited, but not because of him. The first instinct of his was to wait for them to pass, then to keep on moving.

But the presence of those creatures felt more and more precise with the passing of time. In case of the forest, JB sensed something ancient, pure, refreshing. Now it was a scent of monstrosity, danger, and madness. He could see clearly their intentions. They were planning an attack on the camp.

Keeping that leaned position, JB raised a bit in the knees and released the branch. He took out the knife slowly. The monster was right below him. He could see it. The hunter put the blindfold back on. Then he stepped back, straight into the air. There was no rustle or any kind of sound. Just a silent fall.

The branch, which held the beast, was halfway toward the ground. JB flew along the trunk, time quickened for him. His right hand made an arcing stab in the air, but right when it reached its peak, the monster’s head was under the blade. It was quiet, a wisp, maybe. Affected by the speed of the fall and the force that was put into the strike, the knife cut straight through the creature's skull.

Most of JB’s attention, though, was focused on a vine, which hung down from that very branch. Right after killing the beast, the hunter grabbed that vine with his left hand and redirected the fall, arcing back in the air.

The body of the dead monster hadn’t even touched the ground yet when JB was flying for the next one, which sat on the nearby tree. The massive carcass fell down, making a crunching sound of its breaking neck. It was the first loud enough sound for other monsters to be alerted. The one that JB was aiming at turned its head towards him. But all he could see was a tip of the blade coming to his eye. The mutant put a knife in the skull straight to the handle. He knocked the creature down with his feet, still holding the knife inside. They both fell from the branch. Having that body close was essential to Bridgers, it fulfilled the role of a cushion.

Other monsters caught up soon. They charged an attack. JB sensed about five of them around. On the first touch to the ground, he rolled forward, taking the knife out in the process. There was one beast coming from the front, two from the sides and two behind him. The killer, still keeping his speed, fiercely ran for his enemy. Being several feet away, the monster leaped forward, planning to hit the man from above. JB’s hand automatically changed the knife grip to set the blade pointing down. Just he had seen that leap’s intention, the hunter changed his trajectory accordingly. He came from the side and jumped in the air too, but turned his back towards the ground. This way JB was able to make a strike with his knife underneath the creature when they got close. The beast had its whole front cut open. It kept flying, then fell in speed, rolling over the ground with its insides scattering around. The dead body stopped right at another monster’s feet.

As for the hunter, he fell pretty hard, but in a matter of moments he was already in a combat position. The grip on the bloody knife tightened. He marched straight at the beasts streaming at him without a second thought. Finally, he had a chance to try out his strength. It was titanic, he felt it. They had no chance against it.

On the next attempt on him, he bent down dodging the swipe and stabbed an upcoming creature in the neck. Then JB instantly evaded a new hit from another one, and stabbed it under the jaw, upwards. The last swipe went really close, almost cut the mutant’s face.

There were just two left. They kept behind others, so the hunter had some distance to go before getting to them. He sped up and used a rock in front of him as a ramp to leap up. Taking a hit from above, he hit the next creature in the head, from top to bottom. Avoiding an upcoming hit from the last one right away, JB instinctively stabbed it in the arm, somewhere around the humerus. The beast lost its coordination, then fell down tumbling. Just he was going to strike, JB outstripped him cutting off half of his left arm. The blood was everywhere, it flooded a half of JB’s face and made the knife’s handle slippery. So the mutant grabbed the creature by its neck to strangle it. The monster resisted for a few seconds, but soon he noticeably weakened and exhaled his last breath.

The adrenaline went pumping. JB knew there was no one else to kill, but his body couldn’t stop. The muscles were tensed, his position still kept that braced manner, and his hand was squeezing the knife. The last kill felt different from the others. It had something to do with the touch. As if the mutant didn’t strangle the beast to death, but more absorbed its life, making him weak. The feeling was new and frustrating, some part of JB was afraid of it.

After taking a few deep breaths, Bridgers cleaned the blade using the grass and put it away. He looked at the timer: fifty-one minutes passed since he had left the base. There was not much time left. But the worst part was that JB felt even more danger after killing that pack. Others were coming. He had to get to the beach as soon as possible.

On arrival at the beach, JB didn’t rush to show up. He wanted to watch the camp first. To make sure it was still safe there.

Something was going on. A fuss of some kind. People gathered in a circle around someone. It looked like that person was hurt. The mutant stayed quiet, he took his time to walk around the camp.

Shortly after the wounded guy was put into one of the tents, the hunter got closer to where other had gathered. JB froze in listening, he tried to find out what had happened. The man stood in the middle of the crowd, they called him ‘Captain.’ JB recognized him from the flight. Then he saw a few other familiar people, the ones from Kiev.

Being absolutely still the mutant fully deepened into the situation in the camp. Suddenly, he heard a rustle to the side. He removed the blindfold to look at the spot where the sound had come from. There was nothing. Then he looked higher to see as a monster was climbing on one of the palms. It seemed to be alone. JB wanted to get closer and kill it before others came.

Dropping the watch, he went around the nearest thicket to that tree. His steps were slow and silent, he scanned the ground carefully to not accidently step on some twig or rock that might reveal him. After most of the path was done, JB took out the knife and got ready to launch. Suddenly, a woman’s shouting came from the camp. The mutant looked there. He had seen her before; it was a stewardess that he had flirted with. She walked away from the others and fell into hysterics. JB heard everything, but he didn’t care about the content. When he turned his head back to the monster, it had already leaped from the tree ahead, right after that woman. JB chased him right away.