The Extinct (25 page)

They were digging up the corpses. Two of the larger animals were fighting over what looked like a leg. Another one held the woman’s corpse by the head and was dragging it up out of the ground.

Eric took out his handgun and fired, the bullet whizzing by William’s ear. He fired again and hit one of the larger hyenas in the leg. The pack, hollering with fear and anger, scattered.

William grabbed Eric’s arm and forced it down. “Don’t waste your ammunition. These aren’t the ones hunting us. They’re too small.”

William shut the front door and sat down against the wall. He watched Eric awhile. He’d known many boys like him. Confused and angry at their confusion. Hell, he had been like that most of his life. He wondered if there were certain principles that helped one overcome ruts like the one Eric was in? Or was all psychology just random and subjective? No, he decided. That’s too simple, and life is anything but simple.

As the hours passed the air grew so humid William was constantly damp and it was too uncomfortable to sleep, but he thought he would try anyway. “We’ll leave here in the morning,” he said.

Eric stared out the window at the moon. Outside he could hear barking again, and the sound of something being dragged away. Soon, there was just the darkness, distant laugher echoing through the valley.

CHAPTER

48

Morning came and they began their trek again. As they left the building they noticed the empty ditch where they’d buried the corpses and the drag marks leading into the nearby brush.

Though it was morning the heat had already reached into the hundreds and without water walking was becoming more difficult.

The first thing Eric noticed about severe dehydration was the numbness in his lips. They began to crack and sting whenever he licked them. Soon his legs began to feel sore and he couldn’t think clearly. After a few hours in the heat, the last of his body’s hydration leaked out onto his skin to try and offset the intense heat. His muscles began to cramp and he realized that he wouldn’t be able to walk for much longer.

A rustling behind some nearby trees.

William stopped and lifted his rifle. Eric took a step back and pulled out his gun, holding it low rather than waste the strength to point it.

There was a patch of gray fur spotted black in the thick shrubbery.

William pointed his rifle and fired, a swarm of birds leaping from the grass and taking flight. The crackle echoing across the valley.

The fur ducked low and was gone.

“What the hell was that?” Eric said.

William tried to spit on the ground and it spattered onto his boot. Dust and dirt were constantly swarming with the wind and it gave him a taste in his mouth like he had been sucking on sand all day. “It’s him,” he said.

“How do you know?”

“I just know.”

Another streak of fur, this time farther away and heading in the opposite direction. William took aim and fired and the fur ducked low again.

An icy chill went down Eric’s back. “Stop,” he said.

“What?”

“Don’t shoot anymore.”

“Why?”

“He’s doing it on purpose.”

“Doing what?”

“Making us waste our bullets.”

William stared at him a long while and then back out over the grass. The wind had died down and a breeze was rustling through the trees, an invisible hand stroking the leaves as gently as a mother running her fingers through the hair of her child.

“Let’s get moving,” William said solemnly.

Walking soon became torture and Eric had to break down his goals into smaller chunks. Finding civilization was reduced to finding a good road and then walking a hundred feet and then fifty, twenty . . . and then all he could do to keep his body in motion was to focus on the next step. One step, and then muster strength for one more. He kept his eyes on the tall grass surrounding him, his ears attuned to every sound. But he couldn’t help his eyes from falling to his feet, concentrating on each step so as not to fall. If he fell, he wasn’t sure he could get back up.

After two hours of scorching heat, pain and blistering skin, they reached a clearing. There was nothing to hide behind, no bushes or trees and all the life had to be out in the open, each animal sizing up the others. There was a carcass of a deer on the dirt road and William looked it over as they passed by. There were no signs of it being attacked.

“I think it died of heat,” William said.

“I need to rest,” Eric said.

They sat down on the dirt road as there was nowhere in sight that provided shade. William lay flat on his back with his arms and legs wide, trying to cool down. Eric began fanning himself with his shirt but the small amount of breeze created was hot and moist so he stopped and just wrapped the shirt around the top of his head to keep the sun off.

In the distance were a series of glimmers, like sunlight reflecting off water or metal. They watched the glimmers get larger for some time before they realized it was people moving toward them.

William stood up and began waving his arms to attract their attention. Eric sat motionless, too fatigued to move. William found he couldn’t wave his arms for long and eventually just sat down, exhausted. The people were moving toward them.

“Let’s hope they speak English,” William said.

As the group approached Eric could see they were two women and probably six or seven men. The glimmers they’d seen was sunlight reflecting off their weapons.

The men carried long staffs and a couple of them had older rifles. Their faces were tattooed with dark blue ink and their earlobes had been stretched down to the base of their necks. One of them had a necklace made from some big animal’s teeth. William guessed they were a small band of gypsies. Though rare in India, they did exist and led agrarian, almost hunter-gatherer lives. Moving from town to town and village to village.

William stood up, smiling, and nodded hello. The group watched him with curiosity but William didn’t detect any fear. He couldn’t decide if that was good or bad.

“We need water,” William said. He motioned up to his lips like he held an invisible glass. “Water,” he said again. They remained silent. William wiped at the small amount of sweat that had gathered on his brow and showed it to them before licking it. “Water.”

One of the men said something in a harsh, abrupt language and one of the women stepped forward. She took out a little leather pouch and laid it on the ground. William approached the pouch cautiously and picked it up; the contents swished. He took a sip; warm water.

William handed the water to Eric and let him drink before finishing it. He was surprised; he never imagined that water could taste so good. He laid the pouch on the ground and nodded again. “Thank you,” he said. He put his hand on his heart and bowed low. “Thank you.”

The group watched them a moment longer and then began moving away. The man that had allowed them water stayed behind and watched them a bit longer.

He patted his hand against his chest. “Tuu’.”

“Tuu’,” William said. He tapped his fist against his own chest. “Will.”

The man nodded. He waited a second and then spoke some words. Seeing that the men didn’t understand, Tuu’ motioned with his large spear in the universal gesture to follow and began walking away.

William looked around. “I wasn’t sure if bushmen like this existed in India. I can’t tell if they’re genuinely good people or just trying to get us to trust them, but there’s nothing out here. My vote is to follow them.”

Eric stood up, his legs burning and nearly buckling underneath him. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER

49

Eric walked next to William as they followed the group. They didn’t appear like the other tribe. They didn’t speak to each other, or sing, or look around at their surroundings. They were focused and serious. So much so that the intense heat didn’t seem to bother them.

The women were in the center of an oval with the men taking up the spaces outside. Eric noticed they had feet like leather, thick skin with thin sandals.

They navigated through the plains well. It was amazing that they knew where they were going at all, considering they barely glanced up from the ground. They seemed to have an innate sense of where they were.

“What tribe are they?” Eric whispered.

“I don’t know. I have a book on the different indigenous people and I don’t remember seeing a group like this other than gypsies. There is a Chenchu tribe out here that still hunts for subsistence and it could be them. But there’s apparently over a hundred languages spoken in India so I’m sure they’re from somewhere here.”

They walked until dusk and then stopped on a patch of lush green grass. The group sat down in a circle and Eric and William sat on the outside. The group made a space and Tuu’ motioned for them to sit. They moved up and sat next to him.

Some of the women took out a black liquid from little leather pouches and began applying it to the tips of the spears. The men sat cross-legged and closed their eyes. They began humming at first, a low rhythmic sound varying in pitch from high to low. They kept it up a few minutes then stood and began clapping their hands in rhythm. One of them let out a shout and a few others followed.

One of the men walked to the center of the circle and began speaking, describing a story with animated movements and facial expressions.

Each man took their turn in the center of the circle as the sun began to go down. They passed around a small bottle, each taking a sip before giving it to the man next to them. The climax of the ritual was prolonged yelling, nearly to the point of going hoarse. The women rose and walked next to them, kissing each one on both cheeks before stepping away and sitting back down. Some rifles were brought out and it looked like the men were given a choice between them and the spear. Each man chose the spear.

The men turned and began a slow jog to the north. Tuu’ motioned for them to follow again. They rose slowly and tried to keep pace.

“I can’t run,” Eric said.

“Just walk as fast as you can.”

The men galloped far ahead of Eric and William but because the land was so bare they never lost sight of each other. Eventually they came across a herd of deer and the men stopped and ducked low. By the time Eric and William had caught up, two of them were already crawling on their bellies toward the animals, spears held tightly in their left hands.

Tuu’ held his hand flat in the air with his palm facing down and lowered it until it touched the ground. The rest of the men silently got to their bellies and Eric and William followed.

The deer didn’t seem agitated though it’d be hard for Eric to tell. They grazed and let their young wander around without adults near them. A couple were neighing and butting their necks against each other, nipping at their bodies with dull teeth. Tuu’ pointed to one of them and the men rose and began going in that direction.

“Should we stay here?” Eric said.

“He didn’t ask us to follow. I think they only wanted us to come so we would be away from the women.”

The two men who had gone off on their own crawled in the opposite direction of the rest of the group. Eric could see that they were heading toward a young doe that was grazing by himself. The rest of the group slowly made their way across to the fighting males. The males were too distracted to notice the approaching hunters.

The two lone hunters slowly rose to their knees, both holding their spears over their shoulders. They looked over to the rest of the group and waited until they had done the same.

It seemed almost in unison when they threw their spears. They moved too fast to be anything but a blur and the animals reacted too slowly to move out of the way of the oncoming projectiles.

A high pitched squeal rang through the air as panic gripped the deer. The doe was wounded but was still running faster than the men who’d begun chasing him. One of the spears of the larger group had struck a full size buck, but the wound was superficial and the spear quickly dropped from its flesh as it sprinted away.

Eric watched as the doe became sluggish. It seemed disoriented and began running in a wide circle. The men were walking casually a few dozen yards behind it. The doe neighed and shook its head vigorously as it spun around, bucking and kicking. It stopped abruptly, watching the two men, and then fell to the ground with a loud squeal. The men approached and one took out a long blade. He grabbed the animal by the head and slit its throat. The blade was too dull to do it in one or two motions so he had to saw at the animal’s neck until blood began to pour into the dry earth.

The rest of the men gathered around the dying creature. Tuu’ brought out a small bowl from a pouch and held it underneath the stream of blood. He brought the bowl to his lips and tilted his head back, guzzling with obvious pleasure. He refilled the bowl and passed it around to the other men.

They drank their fill until the animal had died and then sat around him. Tuu’ closed his eyes and began a chant that Eric thought sounded like a prayer. The men appeared serene as they joined in, their faces calm with blood stained lips. Tuu’ began rocking back and forth as if in a trance. He opened his eyes suddenly and was looking directly at Eric. His eyes were distant and unwavering, like two gems set in his skull. He turned around as the other men chanted louder and slit the creature’s belly, thrusting the bowl into the wound and filling it once more with dark blood. He rose and walked over to Eric and William.

Tuu’ offered up the bowl to William first. William looked to Eric and then to the bowl. The blood wasn’t as thin as it was right after the kill. It was syrupy and almost a dark purple. William took the bowl with both hands, and put it to his lips. He lowered it after a second and handed it to Tuu’.

It was Eric’s turn next. He took the blood and looked down into the bowl. He could see his reflection, wavy and indistinct in the daylight. Bringing the bowl up, he took two deep swallows.