by Matt James
They gave each other matching nervous looks and turned back to the tree line. Cautiously, they headed for the nearest break in the dense growth, still needing to find Mack and Nash. Ian stopped, getting a confused look from Babo who was a few strides ahead of him before he realized that Ian had paused.
“What is it?” Babo asked.
The thought of the burial itself still bothered Ian. He needed to talk out his hypothesis on people existing here too. “The bones… Why are they there?”
“What you mean?”
“In what ecosystem do all the creatures, big and small, bury the dead in a communal graveyard?”
Babo thought to himself and found the answer with a stunned look. “None… Man be here.”
“Exactly—look.” Ian rushed back to the pit just as another tremor shook the ground beneath their feet. Both men braced themselves and rode the quick, yet violent upheaval. A fissure cracked and broke loose somewhere in the darkness of the crypt. Then, a section of bones vanished from sight, dropping into the newly created opening.
Ian breathed in deeply. “The pit wasn’t always a pit…” His eyes opened wide. “Years ago, an earthquake similar to the one that forced us down here rocked this place. The pit was most likely some kind of primal gravesite for the kills of the people—or whatever they were—that lived here.”
“We find no evidence.”
Ian agreed. “Not yet, but I think we’ll find something soon. Just because we haven’t found their home doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. For all we know, these tunnels and caverns stretch throughout the entire island. They could’ve been nomadic too!”
Babo glanced at him. “That a lot to search.”
Ian’s shoulders slumped a little. “I know, Bob. At this point, I’m hoping that Mack and Nash find a way out for themselves.”
“We need to do same.”
He knew Babo was right. “Which way?”
Babo pointed off to their right, toward another opening in the trees. Ian nodded and turned, but not before Babo handed him back his grappling talons. Still having his protective vest on, Ian lashed the rope around his back, keeping the claws away from his skin. Together, they both drew their pistols and made their way back into the underground jungle.
“Here.” Ian handed Babo two of the three, dagger-like claws. The big man smiled and slipped them into the back of his belt like they were oversized throwing knives. Ian would love to see the giant tear a raptor apart with them.
Hopefully not, though. We can’t take much more of this.
Babo was already bleeding heavily even after administering his own first-aid. The worst of the wounds were covered and cleaned, but there were others that still seeped and dripped. The fact that he was still on his feet testified to the man’s inner will and physical strength.
With Babo’s vision severely compromised, Ian took the lead down the narrow path. It was similar to the one they traversed within the giant fossa’s den. They could’ve just as easily weaved in and out of the opening the drongo-croc created. While a much faster route, the fresh destruction was sure to draw the attention of the area’s closest residents.
Destruction in the wild usually meant death.
Death meant food.
Food meant a possible feeding frenzy.
No thanks.
20
Mack blinked awake. She had laid back while Nash rested and waited for his painkillers to kick in. Mack had rested too but didn’t intend on falling asleep. She had propped her pack up in a nook between two thick branches and curled into a ball. It’s then she must’ve nodded off.
“They’re everywhere,” a voice said.
Yawning she looked up and found Nash standing over her, pistol drawn. His eyes weren’t on Mack, though. They were on the thick canopy overhead. In the still of the cave, Mack could hear a soft murmur as well as the rustling of leaves.
“Lemurs,” she simply replied, smiling. She knew they were lemurs because they had already greeted her as soon as Nash had passed out.
Mack hadn’t seen any of them yet and wasn’t even sure they were really a threat. She was confident that they would be safe. If the animals had wanted to attack them, they would have done so the moment he and Mack stumbled into their domain.
“They’re moving in,” Nash whispered.
Mack chuckled. “They’re curious is all. You’re overreacting.” She slowly stood and pushed his gun down. “If they wanted to eat us, they would’ve done it while both of us were asleep.”
“I wasn’t asleep,” he countered, defiant.
Mack laughed again. “You were snoring like a grizzly, Nash. Besides, if they didn’t attack us when we crashed in here, they’re not going to now. I don’t think we need to worry.”
He frowned but lowered his sidearm nonetheless. He didn’t holster it, however, still on edge. A growl caught their attention, coming from somewhere below them. Looking over the side of their platform-like hideout, they could just barely see a large shape slowly circling the base of the large tree. Every few feet, it let out a gurgled growl.
“Bloody hell,” Nash mumbled, glancing down at his shoulder. “It can smell me—the blood, I mean.”
Mack was going to comment on both of their B.O. but kept her mouth shut. Nash was already in a bad mood, and she needed to keep him from going completely over the edge.
She looked down once more. Literally, in this case.
Nash sighed. “Now what? We can’t leave.”
Mack looked around and got a crazy idea. The trees all around them grew into one another, their branches entangling. Some of them even merged together, forming a single growth. If they could navigate through the treetops, like the lemurs do to stay safe, then they could leave whatever the hell was on ground level behind. Nash had left a pretty easy-to-follow blood trail before. If they kept to the trees, they might just be able to slip away unseen.
Un-smelled, in this case.
“Listen to those that know better.”
“Come again?”
Mack winked and started climbing higher. “The lemurs seem to be doing all right population-wise. I say we stay with them as long as we can.”
“Sorry, love, but I ain’t Tarzan.”
She stopped and looked down at him. “How about George of the Jungle, then?”
Nash rolled his eyes but gave in and holstered his pistol. Then, gingerly he grabbed the first branch he could and hoisted himself up. He was essentially scaling a tree with one arm, only being able to steady himself with the left. Still, it was better than nothing—better than he would’ve been had they not stopped to take care of it.
“How’s the shoulder?” Mack asked.
“Still hurts like a bitch,” he rotated it a little, “but it’s better… Thanks.”
Climbing higher Mack replied without looking back at him. “You’re welcome.” She saw a dense entanglement above her. She clicked on her small flashlight. “This way.”
In silence, they followed what Mack presumed to be the lemur’s highway in the sky. From what she could see, the thick branch’s bark looked worn and well-traveled. For a moment, she was tempted to shine it into the foliage surrounding her but decided against it. She had no idea how the creatures around her would respond. What if they reacted violently to the abusive illumination?
Can’t risk it.
So, instead, Mack kept the light’s beam pointed at her feet, keeping a close eye on what she would step on next. A fall from this height—easily a hundred feet—meant death. It was hard enough to travel through the trees as it were. She didn’t need to piss off the only docile species they’d come across too.
“I think it’s working.”
Nash’s voice was barely audible.
“What is?” Mack replied, whispering over her shoulder.
“Your plan. I don’t hear our friend anymore.”
Neither did Mack—which was great! The whole reason they were moving like lemurs was because of whatever was stalking them from below. The on
ly thing they didn’t consider was whether or not the unknown predator could climb trees and follow them.
Or whether there was a way down up ahead.
Oh, god, she thought.
If the predator could climb, the narrow path and precipitous fall would be on Mack and Nash’s side, though. They could open fire on it within the natural bottleneck the tree trail provided. At least they had that going for them. Their position would be easy to defend, even if it was Mack doing most of the heavy lifting. While better at killing, Nash was nowhere near full-strength. He needed more time to heal.
The thickest of the branches within the canopy stretched on farther than Mack could see. Even if she could, the dense, leafy growth was blocking her view. What she did know was that they were moving further and further away from the relative safety of the perch. She needed to trust her instincts—and right now they were telling her to continue on the lemur’s treetop path.
As the leaves thinned out, they started right up again. Mack pointed her light down and stopped, confirming that the branches of their tree, met the branches of the next. It seemed that the lemur trail was really just a series of naturally connecting bridges.
Careful, Mack continued forward, feeling the thinner ends of the branches give and sag a little beneath her weight. She and Nash undoubtedly weighed a lot more than the animals that usually used this path. While confident in the trail itself, Mack had never taken the time to question the durability of the branches based on a grown person’s weight.
No turning back now.
“Um, Mack?”
She stopped and looked back over her shoulder. “What?”
Slowly, Nash turned and looked back the other way. “Listen.”
Mack did and heard…something. Something was coming up behind them. The only reason they had heard anything at all was because the jungle had grown deathly quiet. That is, except for the creature’s claws scraping on the coarse tree bark—the animal that hunted them now.
“Shit,” she said, backpedaling. “We need to keep moving.”
“Then what?” Nash asked, not budging an inch. “If this thing climbed the tree, then it can probably navigate through them a lot easier than us. I bet that whatever it is feeds on lemurs with regularity.” He growled. “I should’ve never gone along with this asinine idea of yours. We should’ve stayed put and fought.”
“And I should’ve left you to bleed.” She turned around. “Do what you want, but I’m not waiting around a hundred feet off the ground to see what wants to eat me.”
Moving with purpose, Mack stormed off, uncaring of the noise she was making. Whichever predator was back there, it already knew where they were. Moving slowly and quietly didn’t matter anymore. Getting some distance between it and them was all she cared about now.
Nash… Shit…
As much as she wanted to leave the jackass behind, Mack still needed him. She hated to admit it, but it was the truth. She was out of her element in the worst way. Mack was a fighter for sure, just not it the same way Nash was. Her “fight” was more mental than anything. She could most definitely handle herself physically. But Nash’s fight… It was almost entirely physical.
The two of them actually made a pretty good duo because of it, she realized, bringing something different to the party. They were each an alpha in their own way, never butting heads on very much of anything. It wasn’t like Ian and Nash, two hardcore roosters, chests out and shoulders back. But unlike Nash, Ian had a little of Mack in him. There was more depth to him than the Brit.
“Fine,” she blurted, “but if you’re going to start a war, could you at least do so from somewhere with better footing?” Nash glanced at his feet and must’ve agreed with her, because he started moving again. “Plus, I don’t have a clear shot with you acting like a door.” With Nash blocking the way, that’s precisely what he was. He was a door, not a window.
Facing forward, Mack started up again, peeking over her shoulder every few steps, or whenever she heard something she didn’t like. Basically, she looked behind her after each and every step she took.
“It’s close,” Nash warned, stopping a few feet short of the next tree’s trunk. Mack climbed higher, enough that she could get a good look over Nash while he knelt. With their guns pointed back the way they’d come, Mack and Nash silently waited for their stalker to show itself.
The jungle was almost entirely still.
The only noise being emitted came from the ruckus they were causing as they climbed through the trees. As they stood still, there was literally no noise, and it spooked Mack so much that she shook.
Then, from out of the darkness came a low, hunched shadow. It moved remarkably slow but in a calculated, methodical way. It didn’t move like a sloth, slow because that’s the type of animal it was. The creature in front of them was on the hunt and moved this way to keep from being found out.
Too late, Mack thought, burying the rifle into her shoulder. Nash had explained what to expect from the weapon when it was fired, but until she pulled the trigger, Mack was nervous about what she’d actually feel.
A single, dark leg came into view, just inside her field of vision. The lighting within the canopy was significantly dimmer than it was before, but there was still enough of the glowing moss and algae to see just fine. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness too, giving her already strong night vision an almost superhuman ability. Mack knew it was going to be a painful experience when she saw daylight again.
If I see it again, that is.
Both behind and above them, the still unseen lemurs began chatting with one another. They were upset with the animal that had just entered their territory. Interestingly, they didn’t seem to mind her and Nash’s presence, though. It was just one more question that Mack didn’t have an answer to. She’d also foregone taking any pictures too. There wasn’t time to, and even if she did find that time, it didn’t seem right for her to do it under the circumstances.
While she’d seen plenty of “action” in the field, this was only the second time she’d been hunted by a primordial “something.” Bad people were one thing. They chose to do the terrible things that they did.
The creatures within Madagascar, however, they were just acting out as Mother Nature had programmed them. Mankind wasn’t meant to coexist with these things—that much was clear. When she, Ian, and the others embarked on their journey, they invaded a balanced ecosystem, disrupting what had been in perfect harmony for what must’ve been hundreds of thousands of years.
Maybe even millions of years.
What have we done?
21
“Well, fuck me sideways,” Nash muttered, steadying his aim. Even in this life-or-death moment, the Brit had a way of lightening the mood. A jet black, cat-like animal crept out of the gloom and into one of the random bright spots within the leaves.
“Fossa,” Mack whispered. She knew enough about the country to know of its most famous mammalian carnivore. “Big one too.”
“Bloody right it is.”
Ian was the real expert, not Mack, but what she did know was that fossae didn’t grow this big. Low to the ground, the feline-like mongoose stalked toward them, sniffing the air as it tipped its head. Right, then, left.
Nash didn’t wait for it to find them. He pulled the trigger of his Sig Sauer pistol with two quick successions. Either he missed, or the rounds did absolutely nothing when impacting the animal. Using its unmatched agility, the fossa leaped into the canopy above them, disappearing with an echoing, feral cry.
Both Mack and Nash turned their weapons up and waited for the fossa to show itself again. A rustling of leaves shook to Mack’s left, and she leveled the assault rifle at the spot but held her fire.
“What are you doing?” Nash hissed. “Shoot!”
She shook her head. “The lemurs.”
“The lemurs?” He snarled in frustration. “Who gives a flying fuck about the lemurs!”
Mack took her eyes off the canopy, burning with rage. S
he locked onto Nash, speaking through clenched teeth. “Because they are the only thing that hasn’t tried to rip us apart, you piece of shit! I’d like to keep it that way.”
He grinned. “No need for the pottymouth, love.”
More leaves rustled overhead, this time from behind Mack. She slowly turned, keeping the rifle aimed high. She’d yet to fire the weapon but was becoming more and more confident that she could hit her target from within such close proximity.
An additional noise came to her from her right—and then from her left. The fossa was toying with them, looking for the right opportunity to pounce. The lighting was dim inside the break in the canopy. Their surroundings were about the size of a two-car garage.
These trees really are humongou—
An explosion of branches announced the beast’s arrival, and it came from behind. Glancing over her shoulder, Mack took some of the debris in the face, opening a small cut above her right brow. The injury, as insignificant as it was, actually saved her life. She flinched from the blow, seeing a blur of movement pass just out of reach of her neck. The fossa would’ve connected had its entrance been less destructive.
A pair of shots echoed around them as Nash opened fire. This time, a few of his bullets impacted soft tissue. Their attacker reacted with another shrill cry, leaping back into the brush.
“You good?” Nash asked, checking the cut. It was just beneath her hairline and stung like hell as the wound was invaded by sweat and dirt.
“Fine, worry about it later.” A low growl told them that the panther-sized giant fossa wasn’t giving up so easily. “It’s still here.” She shouldered the rifle and returned her attention to the canopy.
A second explosion of leaves erupted, startling Mack as the fossa dove straight for her. Nash yelped, falling to the “ground” and disappearing from sight. Lifting the rifle, Mack couldn’t get it into position to fire. So, she used it as a shield instead and the creature rammed into the other side a split-second later.
Mack was thrown backward, spinning from the force. She fell into nothingness but had the wind driven out of her when her stomach found a thick branch. Trying to catch her breath, and now defenseless, Mack could just barely make out the cavern floor beneath her. If she fell…
