The Extinct (24 page)

“I don’t think we’re going in the right direction, Will.”

“Me neither. But there’s got to be people somewhere around here.”

“We could go back to the village.”

William hesitated. “No, those people have Satan in their souls.”

“You don’t really believe that do you?”

“Of course I do. They have no regard for human life.”

“That doesn’t mean they’re possessed by Satan. I’ve done evil things, am I possessed?”

“No, you’re confused. But they’re evil.”

Eric had never seen this side of William and he didn’t like it. He didn’t really want to go back to the village either, but to think they were possessed by the devil was madness. In a way, Eric could see Thomas’s point; they did what they had to to survive. An uneasy feeling came over him and he wasn’t sure why.

CHAPTER

46

It had started pouring rain. It was rain unlike Eric had ever seen, as if the sky were bleeding water. It poured in thick, heavy sheets and stung the skin on his face when it spattered against him. Off in the distance he could see lightening brighten the sky and thunder would crackle a few seconds later. The ground turned to mud and eventually large puddles formed. They kept walking, stopping only when evening fell.

They approached a large ravine. There was a small stream running across the bottom and the sides were coated in long green weeds. They sat down under a large tree and William took his boots off. His socks were wet and he stripped them off, revealing white blistered feet.

“Damn it,” he said. “Who would’ve thought you’d have to worry about trench-foot in a hundred and ten degree weather.” He stripped off his socks and threw them over the edge of the ravine, slipping his boots back on over his feet. “Little tactic I picked up from a Vietnam vet,” William said. “You stop every hour and air your feet out . . . Eric? You okay?”

“Fine. Who’d you know that was in Vietnam?”

“One of the homeless men that came to the church for the free Sunday dinner. A lotta homeless were in that war.” He shook his head. “Damn fine waste of good men.”

“You don’t believe in stopping communism?”

“Communism was nothing. People jumped to conclusions but there was nothing behind it, no substance. They never could’ve taken over the world, never. They’re only justification for existing was our fear. Our fear gave them strength. Without it, they would’ve collapsed.” William scooted back underneath a large branch, trying to keep the downpour off his head. “So what was your father like, Eric? You never talk about him.”

“He was a good man. I don’t think he was ever happy but he always treated me good. What about yours?”

“I don’t remember my father. My mother said he was in World War II, but I don’t even know if that’s true. One of my uncles got drunk one night and told me she had a one night stand and never saw the guy again.” William looked off into the ravine. “Weird feeling, to hate your father though you’ve never met him.” He leaned forward, over the edge. “Hey, look at this.”

Eric leaned over the edge. Two small balls of fur were bouncing around on a ledge. They were a golden color with black spots; leopards. They couldn’t have been more than a few months old.

“Cute little bastards,” William said.

There was a barking coming from across the ravine and Eric’s heart jumped. He looked over, his eyes trying to focus while rain poured over him. A troop of baboons were making their way toward the ravine. The large males were in the front and back with the females and young in the center. A particularly large male stopped at the edge of the ravine and looked in.

“Duck low,” William said. “I don’t want to have to shoot them.”

But the baboon wasn’t looking at them. He was glancing down about twenty meters at the leopard cubs. The baboon began looking for a way down. He saw a small trail that led to the bottom of the ravine and started making his way; the troop staying behind.

The cubs’ instinct kicked in and they began looking for a place to hide. Their bellies stayed low to the ground, almost rubbing against it, and they found a small hole to climb into.

The baboon came directly to where the cubs were. He stopped a few feet from the hole and stood staring in. Finally, he came closer and began sticking his hand in to get the cubs.

Eric began to ask William to hand him the rifle—

But it was too late. The cubs made no noise as life was crushed out of them. The baboon began to make his way back up to the troop, two little limp bodies in its hands. The male kept one of the cubs for himself and gave the other one to the troop to share.

A roar thundered as the mother leopard sprinted for the troop. A cacophony of barks and howls rose up from the troop as the females and young retreated and the males held their ground.

Two young males circled around the leopard, barking and hollering loudly to draw its attention. The leopard roared and showed her teeth, spinning around every time a young male would nip at her or pull her tail. The large male baboon stood in front of her, staring into her eyes. Animals always stare in the eyes to fight.

The leopard lunged and the baboon darted to the side as the leopard’s teeth clamped down on its hind leg. The baboon let out a scream and the younger males jumped on the leopard, biting her legs and belly and coming away with bloody chunks of fur and tissue.

The leopard wouldn’t let go, even as the two younger males began tearing at her open belly. She shook her head violently and managed to snap off the older male’s leg. The two males tore open her belly further and her organs were exposed. She refused to die. She spun around and bit down onto one of the baboons’ arm. The other younger male, his two compatriots injured, decided to retreat and ran off through the grass.

The leopard did not let go of the baboon, even as the blood loss began to make life leave her. The baboon was still alive but wasn’t able to remove the vicious jaws from its arm. It lay screaming on the ground as the leopard died on top of it. The older baboon collapsed without a leg and stopped moving as the younger one screamed for help. The troop simply began to move on.

“My God,” William gasped. He looked to Eric who was staring unblinkingly at the sight of the leopard, frozen with death on top of the writhing ape. “Let’s get going,” William said.

CHAPTER

47

The rain cleared up as quickly as it had come and the clouds seemed to vanish. The sun began pounding the earth again and within hours the plains were dry once more. It was odd how quickly the weather changed out here and it was something Eric was certain he could never have gotten used to. Life was unstable and unpredictable enough without the environment being the same way.

They walked through a particularly thick patch of grass and came out the other side onto a narrow dirt road. William looked one way, and then the other.

“It’s gotta lead somewhere,” Eric said.

“Yeah, but which way?”

The road went on in both directions well past the limits of vision. Eric examined it more carefully. It wasn’t a road built intentionally; it was a path that had been beaten down through the grass.

“Why would so many people come through here?”

“Tourists probably. Maybe there’s a government facility here somewhere, who knows?” William looked both ways again and then said, “Well, what do you think?”

Laughter behind them.

They both turned and looked into the grass, unable to see anything. There was some movement far off and William raised his rifle, but didn’t fire.

“Either one is as good as the other,” William said.

“Yeah,” Eric said, not taking his eyes off the grass.

Neither of them could concentrate as they walked, each glancing over their shoulder. Whenever they’d hear the slightest noise they would stop and raise their guns. They’d wait half a minute before walking again.

“Eric, I want you to know something. I think there’s a good chance we could die out here.”

“I know,” he said.

“If you got anything you want to get off your chest, anything you want to tell me, you should say it now.”

“I don’t, Will.”

They saw something in the distance as they walked. It was a dark speck at first but as they approached they saw the square outline of a building. It was made of dark red brick and was about the size of a large house. The front door was open.

William walked up some steps to the door and peeked in. It was a reception area. There was garbage strewn all over the floor and a single desk took up half the space of the room. The place looked like it’d just been ransacked. “Hello?” he said. He looked back to Eric and shrugged before walking in.

The air was stale even though the door had been open. A slight breeze was blowing and causing some of the papers to rustle. Eric could see a half-eaten lunch on the desk. William walked to the desk and flipped through some of the papers.

“It’s a medical facility,” William said.

“Then where is everyone?”

“I don’t know.” There were some metal drawers against the wall and William opened each one, examining the contents before closing the drawer he was on and going to the next one. “Some of this stuff’s in English.” He stood up and looked around. “They’ve got to have a bathroom somewhere, which means they have to have water.”

Eric followed William down a narrow hallway and into the first room on the right. It looked like an office, but there was no furniture; only garbage thrown around everywhere. One of the windows was broken and sunlight reflected off the little pieces of glass on the floor.

They walked to the next room. It was a medical examining room. William found some band-aids and antiseptic in one of the cupboards and he stuffed as many as he could into his pockets.

Eric searched the room but found neither food nor water. There were tongue depressors, thermometers, stethoscopes and even an X-ray machine, but no food or water. They walked out of the room and to the last door at the end of the hallway. William checked that his rifle was chambered.

The room smelled of feces. They looked in and could see black spatters of blood all over the walls, baked into the paint from the heat. Two bodies were on the floor, a male and female. Stab wounds covered her flesh and her head had a large fracture. The man had been decapitated, his head placed on a desk against the wall. The woman had lost control of her bowels.

“God almighty,” William said. He said a silent prayer and covered his nose with his shirt to keep out the stench.

Eric had to get out of the room. He leaned against the wall in the hallway and looked out a window on the far side of the reception area. He tried snorting a few times to try and get the stink out of his nostrils. He felt the acid in his throat and couldn’t swallow in time to keep the vomit down. What little hydration he had spewed out of him and over the wall.

William walked out to him and leaned against the opposite wall. “Thuggees,” he said. “They have roving gangs all over this valley that do things like this.”

“Why would they do this? There’s nothing here for them to steal.”

“That woman’s been severely abused. They probably did it just for that. The doctor just happened to be here.” William stood up straight. “I need your help Eric, we need to bury them.”

“Why? The animals’ll just get to ‘em either way.”

“Please, it won’t take long.”

Eric had to breathe out of his mouth from the stench. They tore down some curtains and rolled the corpses onto them, dragging them outside and leaving large smears of blood on the floor. A small ditch was dug in the soft dirt using the metal drawers from a filing cabinet. They dragged the bodies to the edge of the ditch and rolled them in, then covered them back up with dirt. William said a prayer.

“I hate this fucking place,” Eric said, tears welling up in his eyes. He was beginning to shake. “I fucking hate it.”

William grabbed his shoulders. “Calm down Eric,” he said softly.

“No! There’s nothing here but fucking death. Everything’s dying. This is hell, Will! We’re in fucking hell!”

“Eric,” William said sternly, “keep it together.”

“I fucking hate it,” Eric said, sobbing. “Everything’s black.” He burst into tears, his body convulsing. He collapsed on to the ground on his knees.

William wrapped his arms around him in a tight embrace. “It’s okay, I’m here for you, Eric. God’s here for you,” he whispered. “We’ll survive. We’ll live to see another day; you just need to hang on.”

Eric wiped at his tears, pulling away from William. He looked and saw William’s soft eyes and it comforted him. “I’m sorry,” he said, regaining control.

“No need,” William said. “God won’t abandon you Eric, even in a place like this.” He looked over to the structure. “I think we should stay the night here. Would you be okay with that?”

“Yeah,” Eric said. “Yeah, I’ll be okay.”

*****

Night came quickly as they sat in the reception room, staring out the windows. William tried to pass the time by reading some of the medical documents he’d found and cleaning his rifle. Eric just sat silently, unmoving. They’d found some candles and had them set up around the room, providing a warm glow in the darkness.

“These people suffered so much,” William said, flipping through some papers. “It seems like everyone was dying of things that could be cured in the states with a prescription.”

There was barking outside. William looked to Eric and dropped the papers. He picked up his rifle and made his way to the door. Eric didn’t want to move, but he forced himself up. He walked behind William and stared out into the darkness.

The moon provided some illumination and they could make out the shapes of animals running around in front of the building. They were hyenas, about six or seven of them. They were no bigger than dogs but they struck a fearsome shape in the dark.