Path of Ranger: Volume 1

by RJ

  “Really, man? Everyone knows that smoking is a disgusting and harmful habit,” Tina looked at Steve skeptically.

  “Of course, it’s harmful, I agree. But what about the psychological effect? I’ve learned a lot in those years of serving in U.S. Army. But the most important thing I’ve learned on my trips to hot spots. A man does dumb things mostly when there is nothing else he can do.”

  “How’s that?” El asked. She looked at Tina. The brunette got interested too.

  “For example, imagine a young fellow, which applies to the armed forces. Lots of them do. They already have families, loved ones, friends. Not many of them are ready to leave everything behind to focus on the present. Most of the young soldiers hold on to the past, to everything they had before their military service. Unfortunately, they have to experience that life keeps moving without them. Girlfriends don’t stay for long, friends change. A soldier feels that others gradually leave him out. Often they blame the army, or themselves. And that’s not even speaking about the war,” Wash got far-reaching, he tried to keep eye contact with both listeners to maintain their interest. He took a short pause. “It’s all about the pressure, you know. But once you pull out a cigarette, light it up, and take a drag, everything gets better. Of course, the problems stay, but your attitude changes. It gives an illusion of control, a small one, but still… That’s a psychological effect.”

  Steven finished his long monologue. None of the girls looked very convinced about the goodness of smoking itself. Still, they wouldn’t want to argue. The colonel’s eyes were shining with sincerity, and he looked so passionate about the speech. They didn’t wish to take that from him. So no one spoke after. All three of them just looked at the fire enjoying the night.

  Terrifying noise and trembling took over El’s mind. She was lost. Soon the blond realized that it was just a dream. The noise was coming from the camp, it magnified through her sleep to create a hyper real feeling of fear. When opening her eyes, she found herself alone on that part of the beach. The fire was almost out. She couldn’t even recall when exactly she had fallen asleep. However, how can one remember such a thing?

  El stood up to look at the camp, which was in viewing distance from where she was. The girl looked scared and confused. She automatically threw some wood in the fire and ran to the camp.

  Despite the fact that it was deep night, the entire group gathered up. They had surrounded a few, and everyone was staring at those in the middle. Most of them were stunned in horror. All attention was paid to Vladimir, whose body was covered in blood, from head to toe. Skyman and Ellison sat near him.

  “What happened?” El asked.

  She stood there, with others, keeping a safe distance.

  “Guys have brought him like that from the jungle. When they shouted for help, the doc was the first here,” someone from the crowd explained.

  Steven kept close as well. He held the crowd away, making sure that the doctor wasn’t distracted.

  Firstly, Ellison carefully scanned the teenager's torso. She looked at each of the wounds. His whole body was full of cuts, deep ones, it looked like a pride of wild cats tried to tear him apart. His breathing was so frequent that it almost seemed like a seizure. His eyes were glassed-up, staring straight in front with no movement whatsoever. And the most unpleasant thing for others was a constant bloody coughing. The view shocked.

  After a close look at the patient, Ellison turned to the captain.

  “We need to move him to my tent. Bring all of the medicine there, and lots of fresh water.”

  “Yes, got it. What else?” Skyman asked.

  “Now,” Ellison said, already looking at the boy again.

  Soon as Josh got up to run for everything that doctor asked for, Steve brought Alex and Fred to relocate their friend. All four of them picked up Vladimir and moved on.

  For the whole time Ellison kept herself at hand, never stalled, never gave out a shred of doubt. But despite her experience in surgery, she had never been in such a situation. The boy’s life depended on her, and there were absolutely no suited conditions to save him. The woman knew how thin his chances were. Suddenly, she lost it. She felt a heavy pressure on her chest, she started to suffocate. Her hands went shivering and her fingers got cold. The doctor realized how bad it was.

  Guys brought Vladimir into the tent, but when they looked around, the doctor wasn’t with them. Steve went outside. Ellison stayed in few feet away from the tent. She was stunned. Wash instantly knew what was happening, he had seen such looks before. The colonel came closer to the doctor. Then he softly placed his palms on her shoulders and lowered down a bit to establish eye contact on the same level. From serving for such a long time, Wash had seen lots of young doctors being stunned on the field. He had to help her to snap out of that state.

  “Ellison, are you alright?” Steven said quietly.

  “I… I…” she went muttering. In a second her eyes went live again. “Yes… Where is Skyman? I need what I’ve asked for.”

  “I’m going to find him, okay?”

  Seeing as she got better, Wash went on to find the captain.

  “Hey, Steve,” she called for him. He turned around. “I also need all flashlights that we have. The more light, the better.”

  Wash nodded and ran for the captain. Ellison went into the tent to start doing her job.

  As soon as the doctor got everything she asked for, she commanded others to clear the room. Only Steve stayed there to assist. Vladimir lay on the bed made from the cushions in the middle of the tent. The medicine that was saved from the plane was stored in two plastic containers nearby. The lights were fixed to the bamboo framing of the tent, right above the bed. Overall, the conditions were terrible for such responsible process, but they made the best of it. A human’s life is always worth of trying for.

  The doctor began the procedure with cleaning the wounds. She didn’t have a chance to ask in-depth about the nature of those cuts, because of the rush. Nevertheless, she had a good guess, judging by that time. There was a pattern of three or four parallel swipes that were covering entire torso. It seemed like the clutches of the wild animal, a tiger or a panther. But it was improbable that such an animal would attack a man when he was in a group. Soon Ellison found that there were no straight hits that might damage the inner organs. Mostly there were surface cuts, non-lethal. Vladimir had accelerated breathing, his pupils were wide and he didn’t look conscious overall. The doctor tested his eyes with the flashlight, the pupil reacted. Then she pricked the tip of his finger. The hand flinched, just like it was supposed to.

  The facts were all there for the doctor. She already had a good idea about what had happened, now it was time to ask others for more details. Thinking about the situation, she tried to imagine different scenarios, each time the conclusion was that a wild animal did that. The wounds were on the surface, made fast and precise. In that time, the beast could kill a man for sure. But it looked like play rather than a predatory assault. Ellison’s skin shivered when she tried to imagine the kind of monster that attacked because of a joy for violence, and not for necessity. Meanwhile, the woman kept patching up Vladimir. She was confident that the worst part was behind.

  On the other side of the camp, Skyman didn’t waste his time either. He gathered everyone who went on that run to get some clarity. They were at the camp’s square. The captain sat down on the log, near the fire, the guys sat in front of him. Alex, Eugene, Fred, and Vitaliy were there. All of the others stayed in a circle around them, keeping some distance. When Skyman made sure that everyone was ready, he started.

  “So, boys, walk me through. Tell in detail what happened there.”

  The pilot tried to hide his anxiety and to look confident, but his eyes couldn’t lie. He worried no less than others.

  “Hey, what did we do? It came out of nowhere… It happened too fast…” Fred panicked. He couldn’t finish any sentence, or speak calmly. He looked terrified only from his memories.

  “Easy,
no one is blaming you. Tell me everything from the very start. What happened? What were you doing there at all?” the captain asked one more time.

  “We went for a search run in the morning. The goal was to find the plane's wreckage, as usual,” Alex took the initiative.

  “Alright… And in what direction did you go?”

  “All of the southwest area, up to the fuselage, we had searched already. So for the last few days we were coming to the west. It was fine till today.”

  Alex was interrupted by Skyman.

  “What? You went to the unexplored part of the island without my notice. Do you even realize how could that end?”

  “It has already…” Vitaliy said, staring at fire lifelessly. “We thought that, maybe, if we changed the direction we would find her…”

  Everyone got quiet for a second knowing that Vitaliy was talking about Mia, whose search had been never fulfilled.

  “It was fine, actually,” Alex took back the word. “It all happened not far from here. About two kilometers or so, right when we were passing the stream. We were walking in a chain, one after another. Vova was in the middle of us. Then that shadow flashed nearby, a dark silhouette of about a man’s size. All we heard then was a scream. It moved away from us. That was when I saw that Vova wasn’t around anymore. It dragged him through the stream into the jungle. We ran after it instantly. But in about hundred meters ahead we saw that it tried to pull him on the tree.”

  “What was that?” Skyman asked.

  “I don’t know. It really didn’t look like anything that I’ve seen before. Seemed like a gorilla mutant or something. It was furious. Vova was dragged by it for that distance in a matter of seconds. Only a climb stopped it. If not that, we wouldn’t have brought him back.”

  “Why did it stop?”

  “I’m not sure. I think it had an arm wound because it screamed painfully the first time it tried to draw itself up. When it fell on the ground, we lit up a few signal flares that we had found in the wreckage. The beast ran away after it saw the flares. If it weren't for that, I think, it would’ve attacked us too.”

  “I see,” the captain responded. “Tell me the exact place of attack, once again.”

  “On the spot where we take the fresh water. Two kilometers from here,” Alex resumed.

  Skyman sat up straight, put his palms on his knees and became even more acute. He looked directly into Alex’s eyes before talking. His right hand went up preparing to underline every upcoming word to emphasize the importance.

  “Try to remember everything in detail, what was Vova doing right before the attack?”

  Alex shrugged.

  “Nothing unusual, really. He was just walking, like the rest of us.”

  “How can you be so sure, if you were in the lead? You couldn’t see everything, right?” Skyman implied.

  “There was something, actually,” Fred spoke. “He walked right in front of me. Everything looked good. But after we came to those huge shrubs, Vova stopped. He stood still there for a few seconds, swinging his torch from side to side. It looked like he was searching for something. Right after that he turned around and prepared to toss the torch across the stream. Then it happened – the beast attacked him.”

  “Did the animal came from across the stream?” Skyman asked for clarification.

  “No, it came from behind. Out of the shrubs that were near us.”

  “Maybe Vova heard something, that’s why he acted that strange?” Vitaliy suggested.

  With those words were said, Josh jumped up to look at the crowd around them. Then he climbed on the log, on which he was sitting before. Taking a higher position, he got to watching the jungle behind the camp. Others started looking there too. They gained a fair share of confusion by the leader’s odd behavior.

  “What’s wrong, Captain?” Kate asked standing right next to him.

  The captain turned to her. Then he got down from the log and looked at the crowd.

  “We all need to remain calm now, okay?” Skyman himself didn’t look calm at all, though. His hands were dancing in front of him, showing via his open palms that it was alright. “Our lives depend on it.”

  “What is going on?!” a disturbed male voice sounded from the crowd.

  “Yeah!”

  “I don’t think that it was random,” Skyman started explaining. “Who is the best hunter among us?”

  “Vova. We all know it,” Fred said.

  “Exactly. We know it, same as them.”

  “Them? Who are ‘them?’” Kate asked trembling.

  “The creatures which were following us. It seems that Vladimir noticed it, that’s why he wanted to toss a torch there. To make them reveal themselves.”

  “So you think it wasn’t alone?” Alex asked.

  “If everything was like you said, I’m sure of that,” Skyman took a deep breath to ease out a bit. “They took out our best hunter first. Smart move if you plan a bigger assault.”

  “If it’s true, then why didn’t others attack the rest of us?” Eugene still was skeptical about the captain’s theory.

  “Hm… That’s a good question,” the captain muttered. But such doubts were the last of his worries that moment.

  “Why would they attack us at all? Have we wronged them somehow?” Eugene came out with a new question.

  “I think that’s the worst part,” Skyman started thoughtfully. “Those creatures most likely were here before us, we have intruded upon their territory. I think now they are ready to restore a natural order.”

  “What? You think they are going to come here?” Tina responded.

  “Yes, I think so…”

  “But there are more of us here. They can’t attack us!”

  “More of us? Are you sure? If there is one of them, there have to be others. They are on us. We have to mobilize quickly to defend ourselves.”

  “You’re all crazy! All of you!” screaming in full voice Kate stepped out of the crowd.

  She kept backing up in panic. Her eyes were full of terror, her hands shook and her stuttering wouldn’t let her talk anymore. The woman was scared to death. She turned around to march across the camp towards her tent. Everyone was so shocked by her behavior that no one came after her at once.

  In a few seconds, Skyman snapped back, just he attempted to catch up with her, something came up. His side vision noticed a movement, it was not far, behind the trees. The captain didn’t even have time to take a good look at it when a dark silhouette came out of the shadows to attack the stewardess. With a single hit, it swiped her from the ground and dragged her about thirty feet away. The hit was so fast and strong she didn’t have a chance to scream. Two shadows were mixed in one, hers and the monster’s. The whole crowd hadn’t seen it yet when the captain had been already stunned by the view. The blurry dark spot, what that action looked like at first, was gaining more and more clarity. Skyman watched as the monster removed its bloody jaws from the neck of that poor woman. He realized that she was dead, and he kept watching as that evil look of the monster turned on him.

  The beast took its time. It slowly overstepped the corpse with all of its four limbs. The blood was dripping from its canine teeth. The creature was massive, in some way it remained a gorilla with the wide back and thick limbs, especially the upper ones. The hands were too large, completely disproportionate to the arms. There were four sharp claws coming from each of the fingers. The head looked like a mutant werewolf with huge teeth and a long, broad neck. The outer ears were not there. Instead, there were two funnels for inner ears. It wasn’t hairy, the skin looked dense and had small scales. Its color was darkish green or even gray.

  The crowd was spectating a perfect killing machine. Two and a half hundred pounds of fury stood in front of them. It howled with ultrasonic waves and the people were crushed completely. Right after the cry, the creature’s breathing went faster, it was preparing to attack again. No one had any idea how to fight it. The monster looked directly into the captain’s eyes, it clenche
d its jaws, showing those big teeth. Josh realized how powerless he was at that moment. He prepared to face the end of his life.

  The monster went somewhat lower on its elbows and knees. The claws clung deeply in the ground. It braced itself for a jump. Suddenly, just before the leap, something else pounced on it. Another beast of some kind flashed from out the jungle to sweep the monster away. It all happened in a blink of an eye. Both creatures rolled for a dozen feet over the sand till one of the tents stopped them. The structure was instantly destroyed and its wreckage blocked the view. No one rushed to come closer, it kept quiet for a few seconds. People were too terrified to watch, but they couldn’t look away either.

  A slight movement emerged in the debris. A dark silhouette that rose above those palm leaves. When it fully got on its feet, the crowd saw that it was a man. A mysterious hunter. He bent down to pull the knife out of the monster’s neck. A thin stream of blood ran from the blade’s tip to let others know that the beast was defeated. The man was enormously huge, at least he seemed to them that way. High and strong. His head was bold and a black bandage wound his eyes, tight in a knot at the nape. The hunter wore a dirty sleeveless shirt and thick pants of dark color. His face and feet were still hidden in the shadow. Yet, in his overall look was something familiar. When the monster was finished, the stranger stepped into the light and removed his eye cover. It was JB.

  Just as he walked a few steps towards the people, Ellison came out of the tent. The big guy stopped. The doctor looked at him, then at the dead woman near him, and at the bloody knife in his hand. She paled out, her face changed from concerned to horrified. She and Steve had to hear some noise from outside, but they couldn’t know what was happening for sure, because they were busy treating the wounded boy. In a second after realizing what had happened she cried and her hands covered her face.

  Ellison didn’t see the monster, which lay aside. In that darkness, she didn’t recognize JB’s face either. It was natural for her to take the stranger for a killer. Not even seeing the full picture, the doctor squeezed the razor tightly, which was her scalpel replacement, and selflessly threw herself at him. The thug instinctively disarmed her with one hit, then grabbed Ellison by the throat. No pain was inflicted; he just needed her to stop. She did stop. JB froze in that state. In a few seconds a flash of weakness rolled through the woman’s body, her knees weakened out and her breathing slowed down.