The Extinct (27 page)

“Let me ask you something doctor; why are you still here? You could go to Johannesburg or Cairo. Make lots of money and find a beautiful wife.”

“I could,” he said matter of factly, “but that is not what I want. When I see these people suffer, I suffer with them. No one, even their own government, cares about them. They are seen as parasites because they live on the land and do not give taxes to the cities. But they are not parasites. They live with the land, not off of it. In harmony. They respect this place.”

Jalani felt admiration. To turn down money was not something most men could do. She thought it was to fight against our very nature.

“Let me ask you something,” Namdi said. “You are a very beautiful girl. I’m certain any man would take you to wife. Why have you not married yet?”

“I do not know. I have not met anyone of worth.”

“Except Eric?”

Jalani looked to him, surprised at his perception.

“It is all right,” Namdi said with a smile. “I will not tell Thomas if that is what worries you.” He took a sip of tea. “He seems like a decent man.”

“He is. But he has much darkness in his soul.”

“Hm, we all do. It is part of who we are. Be careful in trying to heal him, Jalani. You may end up destroying the best part of him.”

She took her tea and finished it in one gulp before standing up. “I must go to bed now doctor, but I enjoyed our talk.”

“As did I. Tell me something Jalani, have you ever seen an animal do this? Kill so many people?”

“No doctor.” Jalani looked out into the darkness. “But I do not think this is an animal.”

CHAPTER

53

William and Eric did not stop to rest in the night. The sky was clear and the air was cool—a rarity during this time of year. To stop and wait for the heat of the morning would be foolish.

They made their way past the large valley and started to climb farther up into the lush highlands. The highlands were more a dense forest than what one would think of as Indian plains. The trees were thickly branched and the leaves ranged in colors from bright green to brown. Layers of cricket chirps and hoots from monkeys high up in the branches reverberated in the night.

“If I wasn’t so damn scared,” William said, “I might really be in awe of how beautiful this is.” He looked to Eric. He hadn’t spoken since the incident at the river. “You okay?”

“Fine.”

“You know, you haven’t told me exactly what you saw.”

“I wouldn’t know how to describe it.”

“Well, for starters, how big was it?”

“Maybe five or six feet high, ten feet long.”

“That’d be bigger than a bull.”

“Trust me, it wasn’t a bull.”

The forest grew dense and they had to push their way past thick foliage and bushes with long narrow thorns on every stem. Eric’s legs began to itch from the dozens of small cuts and scrapes he’d accumulated.

“You know,” Eric said, “when I was kid, I wasn’t that great with girls. I was awkward and shy and they never paid attention to me or were usually just mean to me. My dad used to take me to baseball games. We didn’t have a professional team, so we used to go to the college games. There was this girl there that worked at the food stand. She was blond and kinda skinny but had these gorgeous green eyes. I mean I was only like twelve at the time but I had a full out crush on her. I could never bring myself to talk to her, but she’d smile when she saw me and I’d smile back. I think she was the only girl at that time of my life that was nice to me.

“One of the games we went to she wasn’t there. She wasn’t at the next one either. She went to junior high school with one of my friends and I asked if he knew her and what happened. He said she was dead. Her father had come home drunk one night and thrown her down the stairs.” Eric glanced at William who was staring at the ground. “I never got to tell her how much those smiles meant to me. I still think about her sometimes but I don’t know why.”

“Regret’s a hard thing to deal with. They say it’s better to regret something you have done rather than something you haven’t, but I don’t know. I have so many regrets myself Eric, so many missed opportunities. I thank God I found Sandra but she wasn’t the first. There were others that I treated poorly and it went nowhere. But we’re learning creatures. We can’t expect to get things right the first time.”

A few minutes of silence passed, the crunching of vegetation underfoot filling the empty space.

“I killed someone,” Eric said, not looking at him.

William stopped in his tracks and Eric walked a few paces ahead but didn’t turn around. He stood motionless, watching the trees sway in the cool wind.

William stood silently watching.

Eric swallowed, his throat dry. “I killed my stepfather. I shot him in the chest.”

“Do you regret doing it?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t want to kill anybody, but at that time . . . I don’t know.”

“Why did you kill him?”

“He hurt my mother. I just wanted to scare him but it didn’t turn out that way.”

“And you thought you could protect her by taking his life?”

“No . . . I don’t know. I went over there to scare him but I think part of me knew it would end like it did.”

“You’ve committed a crime against God Eric, but your heart was in the thought of protecting your mother. God can forgive you; do you want to be forgiven?”

“Yes.”

“Then you must make up for the life you took, do you understand? You have to take a life with no hope and give it hope.” William got on his knees and forced Eric down with him.

“Repeat: O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all of my sins because of Your just punishments. Mostly because they offend You my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I will, with the help of Thy grace, sin no more. And I say these things, father, in the name of thy beloved son Jesus who is the Christ. Amen.”

Eric closed his eyes and repeated after him. William placed his hand on Eric’s shoulder. He embraced him before they began walking again.

*****

The sun seeped through the branches of the canopy above them at dawn. They’d walked the entire night without stopping. Now they were tired and hungry, thirst making their stomachs twist in pain.

They stopped near a large boulder in a clearing and sat down, their backs against the stone. A blanket of bird calls filled the forest and a colony of ants were busy at work on a tree stump in front of them.

Eric leaned back and closed his eyes. The heat felt wet in the forest and it soaked him in humidity and perspiration. He hardly noticed when a glob of drool spattered on his chest. Another strand leaked down over his face and he opened his eyes.

Above him on the boulder was a face from his nightmares. The creature’s eyes were drawn tight and its teeth were exposed. Eric couldn’t move. He stared into the creature’s eyes, watching its pupils dilate as its muscles tensed.

The creature lunged and Eric spun away on the ground, the horrible mouth snapping into air and missing his shoulder by a few inches. William jumped and grabbed the rifle but the creature spun around too quickly and knocked him off his feet. It turned back to Eric and let out an earsplitting roar. Eric took off into the forest and the creature went after him.

The forest was thick. Eric couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of him at a time. The branches were scratching his face as he dashed past them and the ground was uneven.

The creature pursued, adeptly moving through the density of the forest as if it were a bird. It ducked underneath low hanging branches and kept pace with its prey. Eric tried to zigzag but ended up losing ground. He glanced back once at the creature; it was certainly a hyena. It had the long forelegs and thick muscular build with the human-like eyes, but the size was unlike anything Eric had ever seen.

There was a tall tree with low branches in front of him and Eric leapt for the nearest branch, wrapping his arms around it and swinging his legs up. The beast flew into the air, its jaws wide, and snapped at Eric’s legs but missed and bit into the branch, tearing half of it down with a loud crunch. Eric climbed to his knees and then up another branch, and then another. He looked down to see the creature eyeing him. It had intelligent eyes that sent a chill up Eric’s back. You could tell it was thinking as it watched you.

The beast crouched and then vaulted onto the tree, its claws catching the bark as it climbed to the first branch. Eric watched in horror as it began climbing to the next branch.

Eric climbed higher, the bark cutting his hands. When he neared the top he looked down to see the beast’s face staring back at him. The tree was leaning to the side under its weight but still the creature climbed.

Eric got to the top and the hyena was right behind him. He pulled the handgun Jalani had given him and took aim. He fired once and missed but the second shot hit the animal right above its right shoulder blade. The beast was caught off balance and fell on the branch underneath him.

A thunderous crackling echoed in the air as the tree nearly splintered in half. The creature crashed through the branches and onto the ground. The violent swaying of the tree made Eric lose his grip and he hit the ground hard. He was next to the creature as it lay dazed. He stood up and pain shot through his ankle but he began to limp away as the hyena stood, a deep growl contorting its face with anger.

Eric came into a clearing and he darted for a precipice a couple dozen yards away. The beast was behind him, gaining on him with every second.

It was snarling wildly and drool sopped from its mouth. It almost had its prey now. The smell of its sweat was intoxicating and it opened its mouth, anticipating the warm flow of blood down its throat.

Eric flew off the edge of the small cliff and rolled down the steep side of the plateau. The gun flew out of his hand in the tumble and slid down a dozen feet before coming to a stop. As he rolled, his body absorbed the impact of rocks and stray logs but he saw the creature chasing after him, carefully managing its descent down the hill.

Eric crashed into the ground at the base of the hill, battered and in pain. He tried to rise, but his ankle gave out; it was strained and had already started to swell. He collapsed onto his stomach as the massive hyena stood over him, its mouth clamping down on his ribcage like a vice.

A shot tore through the air and the beast yelped as a bullet from William’s rifle pierced its back leg. Another shot missed and hit the dirt ahead. The beast turned and let out a deep roar, anger and hatred filling its eyes. Another round struck its paw and it roared violently before sprinting into some nearby grass.

William ran down the hill, sliding on his backside most of the way. He got down to where Eric was and bent over him. He put his hand on Eric and he screamed and batted it away, unsure what it was.

“It’s all right,” William said. “He’s—”

A roar and trembling in the ground as the hyena raced out of a thicket of long grass and leapt at William. He held up his rifle and the beast bit down, crunching the wood and steel as if it were biting through a twig.

Another gunshot, this one more heavily bassed. Then another and another. William flew off his feet and landed on his back, a gaping hole in his chest draining his body of blood. The hyena roared and lunged, but a series of shots filled the air and it collapsed on the ground not far from Eric.

Thomas walked toward the beast, four tribesmen with rifles behind him. He held the barrel of the rifle over the beast’s heart and pulled the trigger. Watching the blood flow into the dirt and stain it black. Eric saw William vomiting blood. He stood up and limped over to him, sharp pain shooting through his ankle and ribs.

“Will, come on. We’re gonna get you help,” He went to move him and William let out a scream of pain. “Come on Will,” Eric said, tears filling his eyes, “come on, you’re gonna be okay.”

William looked at him, a smile parting his bloodied lips. He reached up, touching Eric’s cheek and leaving a smear of blood before life drained from his eyes, and his gurgled breathing stopped.

“No!” Eric shouted. He went to pick him up but the weight was too much and he collapsed on the ground next to him. “No! Will, come on. You’re not gonna die, come on!”

“Let him go boy,” Thomas said.

Eric looked up to him, his eyes lit with rage. “You fucking killed him!”

“We were trying to shoot the beast.”

“You don’t miss, you fucking killed him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” He knelt down and picked Eric up by the arm, placing it over his neck to bear his weight. “People die here, Eric.” Thomas closed his eyes and said a quick prayer. He told the tribesmen to bury William and then said, “Come on, we’ll get you to a doctor.”

CHAPTER

54

Jalani had driven Douglas and Sandra to the village after one of the tribesman fetched them and told them the news. They came onto a village in celebration, the men that had hunted with Thomas being hailed as warriors.

Fires were lit and mountains of flesh were being cooked as a feast was anticipated, though many of the villagers would refuse to eat the meat. The hide of the beast hung on a vine tied between two trees and appeared as large as a tent. Its head was mounted on a post and children were throwing stones at it. The primitive music of the tribe—little more than plucked strings on handmade sitars and leather-bound tablas—was wailing in the late afternoon sun.

Eric sat with a primitive brace made of wood and rope around his ankle. The pain was soothed with a type of leaf the medicine man had given him to chew. It was dizzying and obviously a narcotic but it felt pleasant and made him feel warm in his gut. He watched Thomas tell Sandra, and her cold distant reaction. He watched Douglas sit next to a fire and pull out a bottle of liquor and begin passing it around to the hunters that had killed the great beast.