Minutes to Burn

Chapter 57

Moths floated on the outskirts of blossomed plants, fortuitously brushing against stamens and flower cups with their pollen-dusted proboscises. They scattered from Derek's footsteps as if in flight from a predator, zooming in paired figure eights. The larva felt leaden in Derek's arms, and it had grown more sluggish. It lazed across his straining forearms, head and posterior end dangling.

Eyes alert, back hunched, treading rotting fronds and beetle shells underfoot, Derek paused only to lap tears of rain from moist orchid blossoms. He found a brilliant white bud brimming with water and gen-tly plucked it from the bush. Raising the larva's head with a guiding touch beneath its chin, he placed the half-opened flower into its mouth.

Its mouth pulsed, sawing into the flower and moving it quickly down its throat. When it was done, it squirmed over itself, segments rotating, to look into his face.

Derek felt himself fill with something larger than himself, stirrings in the empty spaces of his heart. The vibration of his transmitter broke him from his thoughts. He'd reactivated his transmitter about twenty minutes ago, though he wasn't certain he wanted to speak to anyone yet. He thought for a few moments, then set the larva down, cleared his throat, and tilted his head to his shoulder. "Mitchell. Private. Obvi-ously."

The line hummed with silence.

"What?" he asked.

He realized he was surrounded by a tight ring of trees, and he began clearing the space within them of rocks and leaves, preparing a lay-up point. The exhaustion of the past week had overtaken him all at once, it seemed. Though he'd dozed a little last night, his head was still light with fatigue. He'd need to get some real sleep soon.

Cameron's voice filled the air around him, and he found its familiarity among the dirt and stones and trees soothing. "Derek," she said. "Cameron."

He took a moment to center himself, then spoke, impressed with the evenness of his voice. "Let me guess. You're huddled in my tent, proba-bly sitting on my Therm-a-Rest with the rest of my squad around you trying to see what you can squeeze out of me."

The grass was heavy with dew at the edge of the forest. Cameron stood in a tall patch that reached nearly to her knees, looking out at the ball of the sun. About fifty yards behind her, the others mustered in the shade of their tents, eating MREs. The fire had consumed most of the larva's body, leaving behind only a darkened husk.

"I'm sorry you think it's like that," she said, sounding more upset than she'd wanted to let on.

"Well, you'll have to excuse me. When your soldiers mutiny, it tends to make one a bit of a cynic."

She bit her lip to punish herself with the pain. "We're beyond that now." She almost called him "LT" but caught herself. "That thing is dan-gerous, and it's gonna metamorphose. We caught one weaving a cocoon earlier."

"What did you do to it?"

Cameron did not answer. His eyes closed and it felt so good that he almost dozed off right there on his feet. He swayed a touch, then forced his eyes open. The larva had inched its way around a tree trunk, its pro-legs clinging to the bark. "It's beautiful, Cam," he said. "We need to get it to safety."

"It's packing a deadly virus," she said, the words coming in a rush. "It needs to die." They both reeled a bit with the bluntness of her statement.

"I never would have guessed you'd betray me," he said slowly. "That you'd violate orders, violate my trust."

"It's about more than that," she said.

"Sounds like Savage got to you through osmosis," he said. "There are no rules anymore, huh?"

"New rules."

"Well, while you're enjoying your new rules, remember that you're all in violation of direct orders from a superior-orders that still stand. Whether you like them or not, my orders are my orders. I haven't cleared any of you to kill these animals. They need to be protected."

Cameron took a moment, trying to place her thoughts in words. "This isn't going to solve anything, you know. About what happened to you… your family."

His laugh was tight and nasty. "What the fuck do you know about my family?"

Cameron let out an agonized sigh, clenching her teeth. "There's more going on with you than you're admitting."

"With me? You're light-headed, distracted, and barfing in the mornings. It doesn't take Dr. Spock to figure out-"

"You're at the end of the line," Cameron said. "Get your ass back to base, or there's nothing I can do."

"Is that a threat? That you're planning to use force against me?"

"If we have to, yes." She was quiet as the grass waved across her pants. "I've been responsible for your life more times than I can count," she said softly.

Derek froze.

When she spoke again, her voice had little emotion. "When you die, I'm gonna feel like I failed you," she said. "But I'm also gonna be wrong."

The others took note of her expression as she headed back into camp. "I think we're gonna have another mantid on our hands," she said.

It took a few moments for her meaning to settle over them. Justin tapped his forehead with his curled knuckles.

"We should probably rinse off," Rex said. "More thoroughly."

"But there are two more out there," Cameron said. "We need a Plan B."

"I'm with Doc for once." Savage ran a finger across the back of his neck, pulling away grime and a strip of sunburnt skin. "My Plan B is to wash the fuck off."