Volume 8: Telophase

Issue 6: Search and Rescue

Jannette Adrian Churchwell

By Nova

The world seemed to fall away from under my feet as a wave of dizziness washed over me. I stared at Archean. “S-say that again?” I stammered.

“Well…” He paused. Even as he glanced at Ripple, my eyes didn't waver from him. He continued, “The T-rex exhibit… is probably where this person would have ended up.”

“T-T-rex…” My insides dropped like a rock. Archean didn't have to say anything else. I didn’t know much about dinosaurs, but a T-rex didn't need any introduction. If Holly had stumbled into the exhibit of those monsters…

“Hey,” Archean said, a strange mixture of wariness and reassurance in his voice. “It’s just a theory. For all we know she turned around and went the other way as soon as those kids left the gift shop.”

I nodded slowly. Yet, the possibility that we had no idea where she was didn’t make me feel much better. “It… It’s a start,” I said. “I need to get there as soon as poss-”

“Hang on.” Archean raised a hand. “There’s a system here. We’re sweeping Hell Creek for survivors as methodically as possible. We haven’t reached the Tyrannosaurus exhibit just yet.”

“What? How long-” I started, but Archean cut me off.

“I can’t be sure, but I’d guess… a few hours, at least.”

The world spun around me: people moving between tents, helicopters roaring above, a discord of voices—all melting together. Then there were my patients in the tent, alone with Miasma… It seemed farther and farther away as my heart pounded in my chest. “A-a few hours?” I gasped.

Archean nodded. He didn't say anything else; a silence I wasn't sure how to interpret.

A part of me knew that a few hours wouldn’t change much… That Holly had already spent days lost in Hell Creek.

But a lot could happen in a few hours…

I stumbled over to Ripple. “Please,” I murmured. I grabbed her arm, not really certain if I needed to keep my balance or make sure she could hear me. “Can you get me over there?”

Ripple looked down at me. Her helmet concealed most of her face, only revealing her pursed lips.

“I’m sorry, Stitch…” Archean said. “But we have a system. Disrupting it will only prolong the search and rescue efforts. Maybe it doesn't seem fast enough in the moment, but it's better for everyone in the long run.”

Ripple sighed, pulling her arm away from mine. She stepped close to Archean, and—over the sounds of the camp around us—I could just make out her muttering to him, “Vincent, please… It would mean a lot to her.”

Archean stared, stoically, at her for a few moments. “Lin…” I heard him begin, but she cut him off.

“I know this violates protocol… But it will just be me and her,” Ripple murmured. “Cover for us?”

Archean fidgeted with his hands for a few moments. Then, finally, he nodded. “Alright,” he said. He cleared his throat and turned to face me. “I don’t know why you want to find her so badly, but… be quick about it.”

Ripple smiled. “Thanks,” she said. “I mean it.”

I nodded vigorously beside her. “Y-yes, thank you!”

“Where do we need to go?” Ripple asked.

“Northeast, from here,” Archean said, “about four miles away. From above, you should see a small lake. The northwest shore is where the exhibit’s southern border was.”

“Northeast, four miles, lake… Got it,” Ripple said.

“And please, try not to kill the animals…”

Ripple sighed, but nodded. “Alright. Unless we need to, I won’t lay a finger on them.”

Genuine relief seeped into Archean's voice. “Thank you,” he said.

“How long-” I began to ask, but Ripple interrupted me.

“We’ll get there in a minute,” she said. “Don’t worry.” She offered her hand to me, and I took it. “As soon as we find her, we’ll be back,” she added, looking at Archean now. “And we’ll join the rest on their sweep.”

He had turned toward a box near the medics’ tent and started to dig through it. “Before you go, you’ll need this,” he said, and pulled out two silver, wristwatch-like devices. “Take them. Short-range radios… The only thing that works in Hell Creek since the First Way took out our internal comms network.”

Ripple took them, handing one to me. I clasped it around my wrist, and its little latch clicked as it closed shut.

Archean glanced between the two of us. For a moment, he was quiet—as if deliberating something with himself. Then, at last, he simply said, “Good luck.”

Ripple just nodded, but I felt her hand tighten around mine.

“Thank you,” I muttered to Archean.

“Ready?” Ripple asked me.

“Let’s go,” I answered.

Then, with a crack that left a cloud of dust beneath us, we rocketed into the sky. The swamp next to the camp shrunk below us as we hurtled over the prehistoric landscape. In moments, we had passed over the treeline, where thick forested hills rose out of the jungle. Little trails twisted and meandered across the woodlands, and I wondered if they marked where the exhibits would have been…

As we rose even higher, I began to discern a pattern to it all. Hell Creek appeared to be roughly circular in shape. Rings of wooded hills surrounded one particularly tall hill in the center, capped with a building too far away for me to see in any detail. Everything about the landscape seemed carefully planned. Between the hills, wide clearings nestled inside valleys, with little clusters of tiny structures and buildings. However, some of the buildings lay in ruins—as if something had torn through them.

“There it is!” Ripple shouted over the wind, pointing at something on the ground ahead of us. Tracing her finger with my gaze, I spotted a shining blue blotch; a small lake sitting in the base of one of the wider valleys. “Northwest shore, right?”

“Y-yep!” I shouted, a sudden nervousness overtaking me. What if we got there, and there was no sign of her?

What if she was dead?

I shook my head, as if to clear the thoughts from my brain. I had to be focused. I had to. I couldn’t afford to get distracted, not now when I was so close to finding her...

Holly was somewhere in the prehistoric jungle below us, and I was going to find her.

We plummeted downward, crashing through the forest’s canopy to the ground below. We hit the ground with a loud crash, splashing mud onto the trees around us. However, thanks to Ripple’s powers, it barely translated to me—the kinetic energy of our landing entirely absorbed.

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I didn’t waste any time. “Come on,” I said. I pulled out of Ripple’s grasp and marched toward the prehistoric woods. “Let’s find her.”

“Wait,” Ripple said, grabbing my shoulder.

“What?” I turned to face her.

While I couldn’t see her eyes, her mouth was creased in a frown. “Are you…” She paused. “...ready for what we might find?” She said it slowly and deliberately, as if carefully choosing each word.

“We’ll find her,” I said. “We have to-”

“Would you ever promise a patient’s family that you will save them?” Ripple interjected.

I groaned. “I usually can,” I said.

“What about before you got your powers?”

I was silent for a moment. “I know what-” I started, but Ripple cut me off again.

“What about if you were standing in front of a burning building, and someone standing outside begged you to save someone trapped in there… Would you promise that person-”

“Ripple, I know what you’re doing…”

“Then you should also know that this applies to us, too. Don’t make a promise to yourself you can’t keep.”

I stared, unblinking, into Ripple’s glossy black helmet. My own, faint reflection stared back at me. “Please, Lin…” I said.

Ripple sighed. “I… I just want you to be prepared for what we might find.”

“I’m not a kid,” I muttered, although I hated how small my voice sounded when I said it. I continued, “I know what we might find… and I know the longer we wait the more likely it is that something happens.”

Ripple took a step back from me. “Just… be careful,” she said. “I’m going to move up a half mile north, come from a different direction. Might speed things up.”

“Makes sense,” I said.

Ripple nodded and kneeled down. “See you soon, hopefully,” she said. “Radio me if anything happens.” Then, she rocketed upwards with a loud crack, ripping another hole through the canopy above. Once she was gone, it became strangely quiet around me.

Alone, I turned to survey my surroundings. I’d never been to any jungle before, but I had to imagine that most jungles today looked something like the prehistoric one that now surrounded me. A thick undergrowth of ferns covered the ground, and the trees above had large, broad leaves that looked somehow familiar… yet not quite recognizable.

But I didn’t see any signs that anything remotely human had been through recently. There was no trash lying around, no discarded objects, and—while the mud was spotted with odd, tridactyl footprints—I didn’t see anything that resembled a human foot or shoe.

That meant I needed to resort to less professional methods.

“Holly!” I shouted as loudly as I could, hands cupped around my mouth. The massive jungle immediately swallowed my voice. Despite the eerie stillness which now surrounded me, I didn’t hear as much as an echo in return.

“Damnit,” I muttered. I headed deeper into the forest, struggling through the dense thickets of ferns. My shoes sunk deep into the mud as I pushed forward, and I found myself cursing my own lack of foresight in my costume design. I could run down city streets and alleyways all day in these shoes, but as mud seeped through them I found myself wishing I packed a good pair of boots instead.

“Holly!” I shouted again, struggling to make my voice heard over the impenetrable jungle around me.

Leaves rustled in the canopy above me, and—while I couldn’t find its source—I thought I saw flashes of brown feathers between the branches. I was undoubtedly catching the attention of the local wildlife, if you could call IMAGO’s test tube-born monstrosities “wildlife” in the first place.

I wasn’t too concerned if something decided to follow me. My powers could handle it. But, then, a shot of panic rushed through me as I realized that—if those monsters were this close to me—how close would they have gotten to Holly?

I doubled my pace, struggling through the undergrowth while shouting Holly’s name as loud as I could. But the forest remained frustratingly silent around me. Suspiciously silent, even.

The forest absorbed my voice like foam. The few chirps and animal calls that echoed through the canopy seemed distant—maybe even miles away. In movies, jungles were alive with animals and activity… But aside from a glimpse of feathers, I hadn't seen any sign of IMAGO's creations. Were they steering clear because this was the T–rex exhibit?

As if to confirm my thoughts, a foul scent washed over me. “Ugh,” I gagged. It was a stench like rotting meat and literal shit.

Pushing aside a large fern, I emerged into a small clearing. The noontime sun cut through the gap in the trees above. On the other side of the clearing sat a massive pile of what I could only assume to be dinosaur shit, surrounded by a halo of buzzing flies.

I waffled on the edge of the clearing, not quite sure how to proceed. I had no idea what Tyrannosaurus poop looked like, but if I had to guess I was looking right at it. And, judging by the smell, it seemed pretty fresh. Was the dinosaur still nearby?

“H-Holly!” I shouted again, choking on the stench. Even if the T–rex was still around, I didn’t really have any better ideas. I had to find Holly as quickly as possible, especially if there was a dinosaur lurking about.

There was a moment of silence, before something echoed through the clearing. Something faint and almost inaudible.

“Holly?” I shouted again.

I heard that sound again—barely a suggestion over the sound of branches quivering in the breeze.

I gulped. I couldn’t be sure this sound was anything… It could just be some dinosaur or whatever chirping in the distance…

But something about it… It sounded human.

I pushed onwards, toward the sound, back into the forest. “Holly!” I called. I heard the sound again—clearer, more distinct. More like a voice.

“Holly!” I shouted. That faint, light sound came from the distance. It was definitely a voice responding to me, definitely human. I started running, scrambling through the slick ferns and slipping on the muddy jungle floor. But I didn't care about that as I pressed on, through the thick growths. “Holly!”

“...here!” I managed to make out this time. I recognized that voice… My heart raced as blood rushed to my head.

Holly.

She was alive.

“I’m coming!” I shouted, charging through the undergrowth as fast as I could. Ferns lashed at my legs and arms as I pushed forward, towards the source of her voice.

“I’m here!” Holly called out again, this time more clearly than before. I still couldn't see her, but she had to be close. Really close.

My feet slipped on mud as I quickened my pace, and my muscles screamed in protest as I pushed them beyond human limits. The forest blurred around me while my powers incessantly repaired the damages to my body. I charged onwards—ignoring the branches that whipped my face—hurrying toward Holly's voice.

I burst out of the undergrowth and slid on the mud to a stop beneath one massive, gnarled tree. It looked ancient, impossibly so considering that IMAGO couldn’t have started growing it more than a few years ago.

“Holly!” I cried. Had I lost track of her?

“J-Jan?” I heard a voice above me. I looked up and saw—peering down from one of the branches of that gnarled tree—a face I’d missed too much; a physical ache ran through me. Holly gazed down at me, her mouth slightly agape in surprise, her dark hair mottled with spots of dirt.

I nearly collapsed in relief, seeing her alive and unhurt—best I could tell. She didn’t look well though… Her cheeks were gaunt, her skin unusually pale. I had a sudden urge to rush up the tree and take her into my arms, fixing whatever might hurt. While a little—and, more logical—voice in the back of my head told me that she was probably just dehydrated and malnourished, I needed to make sure she was safe.

“Jan… Is that you?” Holly asked.

I blinked, the question shaking me back into reality. “I-I…” I hadn’t expected her to see through my costume this easily, although Miasma’s mockery of my face mask rose to the front of my mind. A part of me wanted to confirm what Holly was, undoubtedly, thinking.

A bigger, older part of me wanted to furiously deny it. Being a superhero had been my secret for so long I didn’t even know how to share it with someone outside the business.

“I… I….” I started, my nervousness so severe I almost didn’t feel the slight shake in the earth underneath my feet.

Almost.

“Wha-” I began, but Holly interrupted me.

“Behind you!” she screamed.

I spun around, just in time to see a massive form rushing out from between two trees—scattering ferns and branches everywhere in its wake. It was colossal, and covered in brownish scales that nearly blended into the pattern of dappled sunlight on the tree trunks from which it emerged. Long, yellowish fangs flashed as its huge maw opened. It emitted a deep, low growl—while remaining otherwise silent. Eerily so.

The T-rex had found me after all.