by P. J. Day
“Milton?” I yelled down the slope. The man looked in every direction, finally focusing on me at the top of the trail.
“Jack?” Milton yelled back. “Have you found anything?”
“No,” I said, lifting my visor and yelling loudly. “I’m going to head to the waterfall.”
“Jack, we’ll go to the western trail,” Lucretius yelled. “Meet us here in an hour.”
I waved at Milton, Lucretius and Kai and continued my trek.
The water hissed as it dropped down to the gray stones below. Five-fingered ferns hung over the water and dropped spray from their green fronds. The water rushed down a thirty-foot drop as if the mountain used gravity as a way to expel its innermost secrets. I noticed a pair of green suede Puma sneakers resting on a large rock in the gorge below. Ted wore the same exact type of shoes.
I rushed down the muddy slope toward the pristine pool. My feet collapsed into ankle-deep sludge with every step I took. I almost fell face first into the large stones on the ground as I caught my foot on an upended root. I safely arrived at the shoes and I picked one up to look inside. It was a size 10. Ted wore a size 10. I immediately looked around the area of the waterfall, hoping for further signs of Ted’s presence. All I saw were trees, vines, and gorgeous flowers; some red, others pink, and hanging orchids, but no sign of anyone.
“Ted!” I cried out. “Where are you? It’s me, Jack.”
Nothing. Just the sound of the waterfall and songs from the birds in the trees.
As soon as I put the shoes back down onto the rocks, my nose picked up a rancid smell. It came from a thick grove of trees up above on a bluff to the right of the waterfall. I climbed up the rocks next to the waterfall so I could reach the grove. I reached for the top of the small cliff and began feeling around with my right hand, trying to find something I could grab onto to lift myself on the top of the cliff. I found a thick root that was sticking up from the ground and used it to lift myself. As my head reached the top of the escarpment, the putrid smell of what was waiting for me on the bluff overtook my senses. I closed my eyes and began coughing. I felt instantly nauseous. The smell was so strong it seeped into my helmet and began to burn my eyes. I lifted my entire body and rolled onto the ground. I laid on my back and closed my mouth and nose. I gingerly stood up, slowly opened my eyes. A woman’s decomposing body was up against one of the trees surrounded by flies. Her haunting, lifeless eyes stared straight at me, which felt eerily familiar. It was Jenny. She had an arrow straight through her chest, which had impaled her up against the tree.
I immediately pulled the arrow from her chest. Her body sagged down the trunk of the tree, finally resting over my shoulder. I slowly put her limp body onto the ground and placed my fingertips over her eyelids as I brought them down over her eyes.
I stared at the arrow’s tip. The way the metal absorbed the sunlight meant only one thing: it was made of fine silver. My eyes quickly darted around the area, trying to pick up the slightest movement or a shadow of a dead body. I looked at all the trees within the vicinity, seeing if there were other bodies stuck against them. To my relief, there were none. There was still hope that Holly and Ted were still alive.
I knelt next to Jenny’s body. I caressed her cheek with my right hand and whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Chapter Fifteen
An hour and ten minutes passed.
I stood impatiently in the barren parking lot, tapping my foot on the muddy ground, but Milton, Lucretius, and Kai didn’t come to meet me as promised. The pale sun was beginning to burn through the afternoon haze and began to irritate my skin, as the black leather that covered my body was losing its skills as a buffer. A cool wind blew in from the north as I sat up against the scooter and continued to examine the arrow that took Jenny’s life; its shaft was the darkest of black and made of the highest-end, industrial-strength graphite. Only a well-funded marksman could afford such weaponry.
I placed the arrow into one of the scooter’s pouches and ran toward the western trail, which led straight into a small, lush forest ravine which was covered in huge ferns, trees lathered in parasitic orchids, and hanging cascades of moss. I took off my helmet when I entered the lush vegetation and let out a deep sigh of relief from the heat inside the constricting plastic.
Removing my helmet also made it so I was sure that Lucretius would be able to communicate with me without the obstruction of plastic covering my head. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my thin, black cotton ski mask and tied it around my mouth and nose. I looked like a Chechen rebel, but it was the best I could do if I were to remain unscathed in the daylight. I stopped and bent down on one knee, hoping to hear Lucretius’ voice. Noises typical of a forest, like chirps and the rustling of branches, were at first the only sounds that entered my ear. I closed my eyes, bowed my head and calmed my breathing—this time Lucretius finally broke through.
Meet us by the river. Turn right at the temple sign. Go up the hill. Look down once at the crest of the hill; we’ll be below. Be silent. It is not safe, his voice said, echoing through my sinuses like the flutter of hummingbird wings.
Lucretius’ words elicited the urge to run. I wanted to meet them as quickly as I could since discovering Jenny’s putrescent body and immediately becoming a paranoid pessimist. I kicked up my legs and sprinted up the trail. I saw a brown wooden sign with a white arrow ahead of me. As perspiration bubbled up through the fibers of my mask, I noticed the sign had a faded drawing of Buddha and the word Temple written across the wooden placement in large white letters. I immediately ran to the right of the trail, cutting across tall grass before I reached the hill. I climbed a few meters, feeling a rubbery strain riding up the center of my calves. When I reached the top, I peeked over the crest and immediately focused on the muddy bank below. As expected, the Jiang-Shi were on their backs and bellies, resting behind a large piece of porous driftwood. Lucretius was on his back and motioned to me, with his gloved hand, to hit the ground. I ducked into the tall grass on the hill and quickly noticed two military jeeps across the river. The slender, well-dressed man standing in front of the jeep had an unmistakable hitch in his step as he walked over to a portly fellow who had his hands tied behind his back and awkwardly rested against one of the jeep’s fenders.
I left my bike helmet on the grassy knoll and yanked down on my black mask, making sure it was snug and secured. I slithered down the hill on my belly. Rocks and twigs stabbed at my midsection. I rolled and tumbled the last few feet, finally resting up against Kai’s black, hard-soled boots. Lucretius’ neck slumped and curled against an indentation on the large log like an amateur contortionist.
He looked at me and whispered, “They have them across the river, but there’s still no sign of Jenny.”
I stared down at the floor and looked up with a moment of brief silence.
“She’s dead,” I said, my voice cracking. Milton pulled his attention away from the scene across the river and looked at me with an empty stare.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I found her body, shot in the chest by an arrow, impaled to a tree.”
Everyone looked downward for a moment as there was no time to reflect. I peered over the top edge of the mushroomed log, trying to snipe a closer look. The slender man with the familiar lift in his hip was Yi and the captured man in front of the jeep was Ted, whose face was dotted with bruises and cuts. His lower lip looked as if it was in need of stitches, as bloody drool dripped onto his collared shirt. I looked into the backseat of the jeep Ted was resting against, and Holly was sitting with her hands tied behind her back while her mouth was gagged with a white cloth. Havens Ling, dressed in a traditional Chinese army uniform, stepped out of the passenger seat of the other jeep. Alan and a young soldier were sitting in the front, parked right next to the river. Havens cleaned his crossbow with a red rag, while glaring at Ted with protruding eyes and flaring nostrils.
“What’s the plan?” I asked in a low murmur.
“We need to split up,” said Milt
on, wearing the same style of black mask I had on. He pointed at me and said, “You come with me. We’ll crawl downstream, cross the river and approach the jeeps from behind.”
“What about Lucretius and Kai?”
“They will be fine... there is no time to explain. They know what they’re doing; let’s go.”
Milton and I crawled downstream unnoticed like serpents in the grass. The river’s muddy water rushed with violence. No human could traverse its rapids, but a vampire, that was a different story. We swam through the rushing river with ease. Milton reached the other side of the river first and held out his arm as he reached for my hand. I gripped his arm at his wrist and he pulled me in with amazing strength. We clung to the stones and rocks that jutted out from the muddy bank and muscled ourselves upstream, hidden from the activity on dry ground. We managed to position ourselves right next to the jeeps as the current battered us with branches, rocks, and whatever else the Li River contained within its bowels.
We snuggled against muddy banks. Milton placed two of his fingers against his eyes, telling me to look out for the activity above. He tugged himself downstream along the muddy bank. I remained completely still in the river as I overheard Yi interrogate Ted in his Napoleonic cadence, “Where are the fucking vampires?”
“I already told you; I don’t frickin’ know...”
Yi yelled at a man who was getting some supplies from the back of the other jeep.
“Alan, inject this fool. Get him loopy so he can talk.”
“Havens, can you help me restrain Ted?” Alan said.
Havens walked over and grabbed Ted by the throat. His hand wrapped around Ted’s whole neck, and Ted by no means had a pencil neck. Alan tapped the silvery needle of a syringe, which glinted in the sunlight, and injected a squirming Ted as he hung from Havens’ iron-tight grip. Ted screamed, spittle projected from his mouth as Alan slowly and carefully slipped the needle into his vein. I felt like jumping up from the river and pouncing on the group, but Milton, who was 30 yards downstream, sensed my anger, held his hand up and told me to wait. As Milton braved the screaming current, he threw two small blocks onto the main road, which looked completely coated in silvery adhesive. As soon as he was done, he grappled his way downstream to where I waited.
I stared across the river. Kai—dressed in black—scurried low along the riverbank. He threw more of the same small gray cubes Milton just threw on the road downstream, a few meters upstream. Once he finished, he hustled back and joined Lucretius behind the log.
Milton gave me an alert gaze and whispered, “As soon as you hear the signal from Lucretius, jump onto the shore, grab Ted and get him inside the jeep. Do you understand me?”
I nodded.
“How does that feel?” Yi asked Ted, as I noticed his eyelids beginning to sag at their sides. Yi placed his finger underneath Ted’s chin and slowly lifted his head.
“I am going to ask one last time; where is Jack? Where are the Jiang-Shi?”
Ted mumbled incoherently.
Yi squeezed both of Ted’s cheeks with his left hand. “Come on, spit it out.”
“Inside... the tall... mountain,” Ted said, groggier than the drunkest drunk.
“Fuck,” Milton mouthed. He looked across the river. He watched Lucretius and Kai’s heads bobbing left to right behind the log. “Come on, Lucretius, dammit. Where is the fucking signal?”
Milton closed his eyes tightly and waited for the signal to come. I continued to helplessly watch the activity above.
Yi grabbed a yellow radio he had holstered onto his belt and lipped into it, “The Jiang-Shi are at Yaoshan. Mobilize everyone now.” He re-holstered his radio and walked over to Ted, giving him a slight pat on his swollen cheek. “Thank you.”
Milton again looked across the river and shook his head at his brethren with contempt. Their delay had given Yi plenty of time to discover where the Jiang-Shi compound was located.
After a mysterious pause in the operation, Lucretius’ signal finally came and filtered through our heads in a single, brief word: Move.
We pushed ourselves up from the muddy banks as if the tendons in our elbows and arms were coiled springs. Simultaneously, a roaring boom with an accompanying shockwave rippled across the river like a mini-tsunami, shooting mud, water, rocks and silt through the air toward the group that was standing on the edge of the river.
Milton quickly jumped into the driver’s seat of the jeep and turned the ignition while I grabbed Ted by the shoulder and threw him into the passenger seat. Havens, Yi and Alan were crouching next to the other jeep as the debris rained down on them like one of Moses’ plagues.
Milton mashed the gas pedal to the floor. The tires spun, spewing mud like a broken hydrant. Milton narrowly missed the back of the other Jeep while Yi and Havens lunged out of the way of Milton’s attempt at vehicular manslaughter. As we sped off onto the dirt road, I looked into the rearview mirror and Havens quickly pointed his crossbow straight at our back window. I turned around and grabbed Holly by her shoulder and yelled at her in the backseat, “Get down!”
She fell to her side and I jumped into the backseat, covering her with my entire body. I heard the back window shatter as I was face first into Holly’s cheek. Suddenly, the jeep jerked to the left and I felt two large thuds, which propelled Holly and me up into the jeep’s ceiling. The jeep hit an embankment and fell nose-first into the Li River. Mud and water splashed onto the cracked windshield. I pulled myself up from the backseat using Milton’s right shoulder. I looped around his head and looked at him. He had blood coming out through his nose and mouth. Havens’ arrow had punctured the back of the driver’s seat and gone through the middle of his back, narrowly missing my head as I lay on top of Holly.
“Milton, hold on, buddy,” I yelled, as water slowly seeped into the jeep.
I hurriedly took Holly’s gag off.
“Jack, it’s filling up with water—please untie my hands,” she screamed.
“Turn around, hurry,” I said. Holly quickly twisted her torso.
I cut the plastic tie she had on her wrists with my dagger. I felt the water rushing up my leg. Ted’s head was lying up against Milton’s bloody torso and his drugged body, in between the seat and my stomach. He was streaming in and out of consciousness.
“Holly, can you kick out the window?”
She nodded her head and leaned back in her seat. She winded her hips and thighs and stomped out the window with the soles of her shoes. “Help me get Ted out,” I said to Holly. I pushed Ted’s limp body over the edge of the back seat. He plopped onto her lap like a two-hundred-plus-pound fish.
I looked into her eyes as the water began to creep up to my waist. “Can you do it?” I asked.
She nodded her head and grabbed Ted by his arm and shoulder and began pushing him out the window with all of her strength.
The passenger window in the front seat was blocked by the mud wall of the riverbank. Realizing that I couldn’t get Milton out through the passenger window, I leaned over his wounded body and rolled down his window. Water rushed in and the jeep was now being inundated at twice the rate. As I began pushing Milton through the window, I heard a loud clank. I looked up and the silver tip of an arrow pierced through the jeep’s steel roof and stared at me a couple inches from my face. I quickly looked out the passenger window and Havens was standing on the edge of the river, his crossbow aimed squarely at us as we struggled inside the vehicle.
I immediately looked at Holly.
“Stop trying to get him out through that window,” I yelled. I poked my head through the driver’s side window.
“Kai... Lucretius!” I yelled. I looked downstream, but they were no longer behind the large log. I pulled my head in and looked at Holly again.
“The water is rising up my chest, Jack. Ted is barely breathing,” she said in a panic.
“Can you roll down the window behind you?” I asked.
Holly reached back and began to look for the handle. She immediately found it
and began rolling it down furiously.
“Get ready to swim into the river. Don’t let go of Ted,” I yelled, as the jeep began to completely submerge.
“Hold your breath,” I told Milton as I lowered my body in the jeep’s cabin and swam through the window. I put both my arms underneath his armpits and pulled him up and out of the jeep. As I reached the surface of the river, I felt the swoosh of an arrow whiz right by my ear.
I quickly dove into the water again and grabbed Holly’s waist while I hooked onto Milton’s right shoulder with my left arm. I pulled Ted and Holly out from the vehicle, while Holly had her arms and legs grappled around Ted. We were immediately swept downriver by the brown, muddy rapids. “Keep his head above water,” I yelled at Holly. “Keep kicking your legs. Don’t swallow the water.”
I managed to grip Holly and Milton at the same time as we were propelled downriver by the impetuous muddy flow. I looked back and Havens was shooting arrow after arrow at us.
“Stay afloat,” I yelled at Holly. “Once we see a large sandbar, we’ll veer left, okay?”
“Okay,” she said, swallowing water and gulping for air.
Luckily for us, the Li River was composed mostly of silt, rather than an abundance of rocks. I noticed a large sand bar up ahead. I tightened my grip on Holly and Milton and kicked my legs furiously to the left. “Kick, dammit!” I yelled at Holly.
We managed to safely get up onto the sandbar. Holly stood up and dragged Ted onto the shore. I put Milton on my back and followed close behind. I turned my head and stared downriver at the group. Havens, Yi, and Alan climbed into the jeep that the soldier already had running. He accelerated the vehicle downstream at full speed, heading straight toward us as we struggled out of the river. As the jeep neared its approach, an explosion tore through its undercarriage, sending the jeep flying twenty feet into the air. The jeep bounced a few times, like an overgrown tin can, finally resting upside down, thirty meters in front of us. The inside cabin of the jeep was on fire. Bloodcurdling screams began to crow out from the wreckage. Alan crawled from out the window. He was on fire. He rolled around the mud, screaming for help, he eventually slithered head first into the water and was swallowed whole by the Li River. Yi’s head and neck were twisted in an L-shape against the roof of the jeep as it remained upside down. The nameless soldier’s mangled upper body spilled out through the broken windshield, like a flesh-covered crash-test dummy. I squinted my eyes through the heavy flames and noticed Havens’ right arm laying lifeless outside the rear window.
