by Dan Decker
“Are you okay?” I asked, approaching as I wiped my knife on some leaves, closed it, and put it back in my pocket. Even with its head cut off, I did not trust the lizard to stop attacking, but a glance showed my concerns were unfounded. Its tail flicked and the severed head worked its jaw, but the little menace was dead.
Sandy shook her head. “I’ll be okay, they might be small but they sting.”
I examined them. They each had barely scratched the surface, she bled but it was not bad.
“Are you feeling woozy?” I asked going back to the lizard and turning the head with my boot to look at its mouth. “It might be poisonous.” Its little teeth were razor sharp.
“It’s going to be okay. They aren’t deep, they just sting, that’s all. They’ll soon heal.
I bit my lip and nodded, thinking it was best to not state my concerns aloud. There was no way to know that Sandy was going to be okay until sufficient time passed. I pulled out my first aid kit from my pack while wondering if the capybaras had been bitten too.
“Want me to bandage those for you?”
3
Once I had Sandy squared away, I knew we still had hours before the others returned so I took a quick circuit around the clearing to make sure there were not any other lizards or weird acting capybaras. I had my machete so if I found another lizard, I had a way of easily dealing with it.
I fixed a large tree in mind as I went on patrol. Our situation struck me as odd. The others had gone out, searching for new life, when all we had to do was wait.
It had found us.
There was something wrong with this picture though I could not pinpoint what that was.
While we were in the Amazon rainforest, a place where new creatures were sometimes discovered, the serendipity was strange. Particularly since we had waited in a place that had been used as a camp by a previous expedition.
I was only a third of the way through my circuit when a capybara walked out in front of me. It was one of the babies I had seen before, I could tell by its pattern of sores. It now foamed at the mouth in addition to making erratic movements.
It lumbered toward me so I took a step back.
“Where did your siblings go?” I asked wondering if it had rabies and thinking that was why it was acting weird. Just like before, it continued to come towards me without the slightest hesitation.
It moaned, just like Sandy had a few minutes before.
I stepped backward, looking for something I could use to fend off the animal. If I did not move it would soon be at my feet.
It made me wish I had my stool to keep it at bay. I pulled up my machete, but made no move to attack. I envisioned getting blood on my hand and decided that was not the best approach. I had used rubbing alcohol to clean my pocketknife, just in case.
Instead of heading back to the clearing I went the opposite direction, making sure to keep the tree in view as the capybara followed.
“Could you hurry it up?” I was starting to become concerned for Sandy, afraid I would find her moaning and covered in sores when I returned. The capybara groaned again, foam dripping from its mouth.
I could not shake the fear she would soon be moving like the capybara and have the same glassy stare. I took as long as I dared to lead it away.
Finally, I marked the position of the tall tree and pushed ahead before going around the long way and returning to the clearing, using my compass to make sure I was on course.
Sandy was back on the stool, drawing in her book, the dead lizard laid out on a piece of paper in front of her.
“It’s quite the find.” She looked up. “I think we should call it Sandicus-Vinceraptor.”
I nodded but did not smile while studying her exposed skin, the words barely registering. “How are you feeling?”
“Never better.”
“Does the skin around the bites hurt?”
“Of course.”
“Is there swelling?”
Sandy growled. “Leave off, okay. I feel fine.” She gestured toward the bandage on her arm. “A small price for the discovery of the century. I think we just found a living dinosaur. This little guy looks like he stepped right out of a movie.”
“Have you heard of a dinosaur with four nostrils?”
“It’s not like anybody has ever seen one, right? Maybe all dinos had four.”
I normally found her enthusiasm inspiring, but at the moment it was getting in the way.
“Perhaps,” I said, more to end the conversation then to register agreement.
While there were striking similarities, I had trouble believing we had stumbled onto a creature like this that had been hiding in the Amazon all this time.
It should have been found long before now.
4
The others were gaping at our find when Sharon and Bill returned. I could not help but feel satisfied that Sandy and I had made the discovery, not Sharon. Especially when she had come here looking for a lizard.
The others did not bother to hide their jealousy. While I sympathized with them because they had been working in the jungle while Sandy and I had sat around, I could not help but take momentary pleasure in Sharon’s troubled face.
She approached with a thin line on her lips as she loomed over the lizard carcass in the fading light.
“Why is it dead?” She asked, looking at me. “We have plenty of crates where you could have put this creature. Alive. There was no reason to kill it.”
“It bit Sandy four times,” I said evenly. “It kept coming when it had the opportunity to leave.” I spat. “I would kill it again.”
Sharon shook her head and studied Sandy. “She seems fine. Better you get bitten bloody than lose a valuable specimen.”
My heartbeat raced so I took several breaths to calm myself. I had planned to mention my encounter with the moaning capybaras and my suspicion about their connection to the lizard, but decided now against it. Sharon was not happy about our find. I did not need to make it worse by presenting theories she would dismiss as wild.
What do I really have besides supposition and some sick rodents?
“Next time you find something unique,” Sharon said as she pulled out a pen and began to prod the dead animal, “I prefer you die than it.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said.
No chance of that.
The others spent far more time hovering around the creature than necessary, we only had a few hours of daylight left and I hoped we would head back for the night instead of staying put.
By the time Sharon finally packed up the specimen I was on the verge of a panic attack, though I did my best to keep the others from knowing by biting my tongue and not speaking as they argued about staying or going.
We finally decided to go because Sharon wanted to put the carcass on ice.
I was last in line as we filed out so I could keep an eye on Sandy who was just in front of me. If she started to develop sores like the anteater or capybaras, I was going to tell the others about my suspicions.
They won’t believe me but at least I won’t have a guilty conscience.
The sun was setting as we trudged out of the valley. I never wanted to see another zombie capybara again.
I am going to stay at camp if Sharon wants to return.
5
It was dark and I was having a hard time focusing on the ground because I stared at Sandy’s back as we walked, the light from my headlamp keeping her fully lit in front of me. I kept checking her neck for sores, but so far it was clear.
The four lanterns that were set around the perimeter of our camp were lit as we trudged in.
Jill stood from a chair where she had been reading and greeted us with a smile.
“Dinner has been done for hours. Mike, Harold, and the others even managed to leave some for the rest of you.”
“How’s Erik?” Sharon asked. She almost looked like she cared, but I could not forget her disdain from earlier.
“He is fine,” Harold said, stepping out of Erik’s tent
. “He is resting. He’ll be fine in the morning though he will be stuck in camp the rest of this trip.”
I let out a sigh of relief as I went inside my tent, slung off my pack and set it on my cot. I pulled off my wet shirt and shrugged into a dry one as quick as I could. The shirt stuck to my skin because my torso was still damp and it was only with considerable effort I was able to pull it all the way on.
By the time I joined the others, Jill was ladling stew from a large pot into dishes.
Sharon had set the plastic container with the specimen on the only table, carelessly setting a large plate of bread onto the ground so she could open the box and spread out the dead lizard’s body.
“Hush, you’ll see why,” Sharon had said when Jill started to complain. “This is more important.”
Bill raised an eyebrow but did not make a comment as he accepted a bowl from Jill and blew on a spoonful of stew. He was the only one that was about the same age as Sharon. He was the opposite of her in many ways. She was outgoing, he was quiet and reserved. She jumped to conclusions; he took time before getting there.
I looked around for Sandy but did not see her.
Sharon talked as if she were the one who had discovered creature, nobody else in the group bothered to correct her. At first I cringed, but I decided I did not care if she stole credit.
I was more worried about what would happen to Sandy. The soundtrack of the moaning capybara had accompanied me while we hiked. I had been jumpy, turning many times at nothing, but being in the back of the group meant that nobody else had noticed.
While the others looked on I waited in a camp chair where I had a good view of Sandy’s tent. I kept expecting her to come out, smiling and energetic like she had almost every night before, but she did not, even after waiting more than fifteen minutes.
I finally approached her tent.
“Sandy, are you in there?”
My heart jumped into my ears when I heard a groan.
“Are you okay?” It was difficult to keep the panic from showing in my voice, I formed a fist, afraid I would have to tell the others what I suspected. My fear only intensified when she groaned again.
“Can I get you anything? There’s still some stew, I can bring it to you.”
“Yeah, how about you get me a can of shut-the-heck-up and go away?” She groaned again.
My pulse slowed and I let out a small sigh as I honored her request, thinking she was just tired and in need of rest, and tried not to think much of her words.
I was unsettled, though.
This was the first time she had ever been rude.
6
The others were up late into the night examining the lizard while they kept it cold on wrapped dry ice. Sharon had carelessly tossed food onto the ground when commandeering the ice, leaving Jill to restock it into another cooler. When I had seen her plight I had gone to help but she had already finished picking up the contents.
“Thanks,” she said.
“Should have got here sooner, sorry.”
While Jill was the official cook for our team, the rest tried to do our part. All except for Sharon. When I saw Jill cleaning the dinner dishes a few minutes later, I helped out. The hot soapy water felt good against my hands.
Several were about to start dissection of the lizard until Sharon intervened and insisted it wait until we arrived at a proper facility. In another situation I might have been glad for Sharon’s stubborn adherence to protocol—one of the only things upon which we agreed—but I could only think about Sandy. I was not at all comforted that I had gotten her to speak to me from the tent.
The groans reminded me of zombie capybaras.
Am I making a connection where there isn’t one to make?
I did not know.
My brain told me that all I had were a few correlations that could easily be unrelated. She could just be having a hard time dealing with the bites.
I did not know that the lizard had exerted control over the capybara babies, but it was obvious that the capybaras had not been afraid of the lizard. While it seemed they had responded to the lizard’s chittered order, I could not ignore my mental state at the time. I had been on high alert and might have misread the situation.
I mumbled goodnight to the others but nobody seemed to notice as they were too busy studying photos of the creature—the carcass had been vacuum sealed and carefully stored in a cooler—and arguing about its significance.
If their analysis was to be believed it would not be long before Genizyz sent back a much larger team with better resources to turn this area of the Amazon jungle upside down.
That did not seem a good idea to me but I did not argue the point. I needed to know what was going to happen to Sandy. My tent was dark when I entered and I shined a light into every nook and cranny looking for a lizard, even though I knew it unlikely I would find one.
While we had been on the move it had been easier to not let my fears of the unknown affect my actions, at least to the extent others might notice. But it was another story now that I was alone in my dark tent. I opened my backpack and carefully unpacked it, setting all the contents on my cot as I did.
Perhaps it was a little paranoid but it was not unreasonable to think a lizard could have stowed away when I was not looking. It also made sense to air out my bag since it had rained so heavily.
“I must be losing my mind,” I muttered under my breath as I rocked back on my heels and surveyed the contents.
The encounter had been real. The aggressiveness of the little monster had been real. The only explanation I could come up with was that we had set up in the lizard’s territory and that it had felt the need to defend itself.
Was its bite venomous? Was that how it turned the baby capybaras into zombies?
After examining the inside of my pack and finding it empty and dry, I slowly repacked my bag and set it in a corner, putting the small coil of rope on top as I usually did. I had not had occasion to use it yet, but that was one thing I made sure to always have easily accessible.
I went over every inch of my tent, tossing my sleeping bag, turning over my cot, and shaking out my clothes.
By the time I was done I should have felt relieved but I did not. My anxiety was only heightened.
Relax, I tried to tell myself, we found that little guy miles from here, and given how predatory it was, the Amazon should be overrun with the creatures but it isn’t.
I bit my lip so hard I became afraid I might have drawn blood and sure enough, a moment later I tasted it.
I could not shake the feeling that something was wrong with our discovery.
If we had been in another part of the rainforest, perhaps, but Genizyz had been coming here for years, somebody should have discovered it long ago.
Maybe there were natural predators that maintained the lizard population, keeping them from spreading.
I stepped out of my tent, careful to zip it shut so that nothing could get in. Everybody, other than Sandy, still sat under the awning, looking at blown up pictures of the lizard on their tablets or exchanging theories about what it was and how Genizyz would respond to the find. Sharon had taken thorough photographs and shared the pictures using a USB drive. I’d overheard one of the others mention that there were more than three hundred.
I shook my head as I turned my back towards them and walked into the dark, thinking that the muffled hum of the generator was going to run all night.
It was a poor waste of resource.
The next supply drop would not be for a few days. At the rate they burned the fuel we would be sitting in the dark on the last night.
When I was outside of camp, it seemed the whole world had changed. The sounds of my groupmates were still there, but I could hear the noise of the forest. The call of a monkey. The growl of a jaguar somewhere in the distance. And the constant shuffling of leaves rubbing up against one another.
Some of it was probably the breeze, some was no doubt caused by wandering animals.
I
shook my head as I pulled out my headlamp from a pocket and slowly surveyed the surrounding area, half expecting to see a dozen little capybara eyes shining back at me.
There was nothing.
The more I waited, listening to the constant sounds of the rainforest, the antsier I became.
When a particularly large gust of wind caused the branches to stir above my head, I jumped and looked up, only to see a bird I did not recognize fly away.
I clicked off the light and sat in silence for almost half an hour before returning to camp. The others were still going strong but I was happy to see they had switched off the generator and were now relying on battery powered equipment.
As I stepped into my tent I growled when remembered that I had forgotten to charge my phone. I pulled it out as I slipped inside and sat on my cot.
It was still at over sixty percent battery, if I turned it off for the night I would have plenty of power to get through the next day.
Just as I was about to shut it down I remembered that I had made a video of the lizard.
Sharon will be angry when she learns of this, I thought thinking of the others staring at pictures of the dead creature. I was glad I had evidence to bolster my claim should I decide to push the issue. I would not reveal it until I made my official report.
The others would be mad I had withheld, but when I was the only source of the video, there would be no doubt who had made the find.
I plugged in a set of earbuds and watched the recording. As the creature came on screen I could not get over how much it looked like a miniature dinosaur.
When the capybaras appeared several moments later a feeling deep inside my gut told me my analysis was correct though I really did not have a logical rationale to explain it.
These large rodents had been under the control of the lizard.
It did not make any sense and I would be hard-pressed to prove it without tangible evidence or experimentation, but I would never doubt again.
The lizard chirped and the capybaras focused on me. The video continued for only a little longer before I slipped the phone into my pocket as I left the clearing, cutting off the picture but not the sound. When I paused the video, I realized it went on for several hours.
