Path of Ranger: Volume 1

by RJ

  Just as it was revealed to the captain that the beast was gone, he and all the others seemed to face another problem, and even bigger than the previous one. The stranger emerged out of the blue. For most of them he could be anyone, a psycho-killer, or worse.

  “J-j…” Ellison tried to speak, fighting the pressure on her throat. “JB, let me go.”

  That second Steven ran out of the doctor’s tent. He jumped JB at once, hitting him in the face with a heavy stick. The bat-sized tool was supposed to knock the brute out, but it only demolished into thousands of pieces. Steve’s hands were already shaking from the momentum, but seeing his opponent standing still felt even worse.

  Skyman rushed to them. He wasn’t sure how to act yet, his first instinct was to try to loosen up JB’s grip on Ellison’s neck. All three of them attempted to release her, it was worthless. Those hands were hard as a stone. And each following second of fighting him made them weaker. Anyone who touched JB had their strength gradually vanish.

  “JB, it’s me, Ellison. Let me go,” using the last breath she pushed out of her chest.

  Then Skyman tried something new, what he thought was a bit dangerous. He slapped JB on the face as hard as he could. Nothing happened. Most of all the pilot worried about the other hand of the stranger, being afraid of becoming the next victim of that knife.

  While the men tried to deal with the big guy using brute force, Ellison noticed something new in him. It was a soft blue incandescence in his eyes. Not getting too deep into thinking, she stopped trying to deal with his hand and jabbed him in both eyes with her fingers. The next moment the tension vanished. JB released the woman and stepped back, bending from the pain. It seemed pretty bad from aside, but soon he straightened up like it was nothing.

  “Hey, what’s happening?” he asked rubbing his eyes.

  “JB, do you recognize me?” Ellison asked catching her breath.

  Each one of those three tried to keep a distance. JB looked around. Seeing that the picture had changed, he realized that he was out for a while.

  “Damn you, Gibson,” he muttered scratching a pink spot on his neck. Then he noticed the people. “Why are you still here?”

  A moment after the gangster got stunned again. This time it lasted for a few seconds. The answer to that question didn’t interest him anymore. He left Ellison with her fellows to walk closer to the crowd. Not getting too close he turned to the fire where the light allowed everyone to take a good look at him. When there was enough illumination, he stopped. Some of the people recognized him. He had changed.

  “Jerry?” El addressed to him.

  “If you wanna live, do as I tell you,” he said softly in a raucous voice.

  “What?” being as shocked as others Eugene was desperate for the explanation. “What does all that mean?”

  “Take a look there,” JB nodded at the place where the monster lay. “I guess you have one more injured in that tent, right? You think it’s an accident? It was just a scout. Soon the hunters will arrive. That’s when the real fun starts.”

  A satisfied smile rose on his face when he noticed a dinner over the fire. A well-cooked carcass of a small animal was hanging on the rod. A bit of it was burned at the bottom, but most of it looked delicious with that golden crust.

  “Is that a cat?” JB asked.

  “A rabbit,” Skyman answered instantly. He was coming closer, thinking about how to start a conversation with the brute.

  JB cleaned the knife from the blood using that piece of fabric, which used to cover his eyes. Then he began to cut off slices of the meal.

  “Hold on, man, we haven’t been introduced yet. My name…” just as Skyman wanted to do a proper introduction JB interrupted him.

  “Josh Skyman, the pilot. I remember you from the plane, right before the crash. Thanks for that, by the way,” JB made a helpless gesture with an open palms pointing at the island around them. “Now what? You’re the leader of this lil’ tribe of yours? You got any salt?” the meal distracted him. “Oh, I wonder... How can an American pilot be employed by a Ukrainian airline? Is there something wrong with you?” once again JB flew away in his thoughts. Then, a second after, he returned to the previous dialog, like it was nothing. “So, what? Now you wanna tell me all about how hard it was for you to survive here? And that all of you can’t just leave, because it may be dangerous? And after all that chit-chat you would say that you won’t come anywhere with me before you know my story, right?”

  The captain’s face was showing that he had lots of things to respond with, but JB had bombed him with all that talk. Josh needed to choose the words carefully, he had never been so close to losing the authority in the eyes of his people. He looked at them. The tension loosened up a bit. People weren’t stunned anymore, a breath of life got back to the camp. Some of them went to take care of poor Kate, who was killed by the monster. But no one dared to come close to the beast. It was too soon yet. Most of them stayed near the fire to hear what JB had to say.

  Bridgers looked at the crowd. He walked briefly through each of them. It seemed to him that everyone was there, except for one person. He laid his eyes on Ellison.

  “Where is Mia?” JB asked.

  The memory of her child brought a shiver and chill to the woman’s body. She pursed her hands folded in against her chest, lingering with an answer.

  “She’s not here. We couldn’t find her,” pushing the words out Ellison replied.

  ‘Oh, right. She’s with us,” JB mumbled thoughtfully. “We are gonna catch up with her on the way.”

  The last words called for a wave of disturbance in the crowd. A whispering noise raised.

  “Yo! Dudes! Why are you standing here?! We gotta go!” JB made a sudden try to call for activity in people. “They don’t listen. Look, they just don’t listen,” he complained to Skyman as if this one were his best friend.

  Ellison came closer. She was carefully watching those exceptional eyes of JB’s. Along with that mysterious glowing bluishness, she noticed something else, a symptom that was well known to her.

  “Your pupils are widened. Are you under drug intoxication?”

  “It’s dark in here,” JB responded.

  “The darkness doesn’t cause blackouts.”

  “Fine, it’s LSD,” he confessed. “Or something that that dude calls ‘LSD.' Honestly, I’m not so sure of that much.”

  Taking all things into consideration, Ellison addressed JB once more.

  “And now you want us to follow you across the island to avoid a possible mass assault?”

  “Not that I ‘wanna’… Let’s just say, I’ve made a promise,” JB tried to explain as clear as he could.

  “And you do know where my daughter is? Are you sure that she’s alive?”

  “The dude and I found her about two weeks ago. She’s okay. Safe,” JB felt tired of answering questions. He decided to take over the initiative. “You wanna know more, I’ll tell you on the way there. We don’t have any more time to waste. We have to go!”

  “Okay, I’m going with you,” Ellison nodded.

  Everybody looked at Skyman, waiting for his resolution on the subject.

  “No, we still are not informed enough yet. Out there, in the dark, it may be much more dangerous than here,” the captain firmly insisted.

  “Look, Cap. Just no offense… You’ve done a good job here in organizing their survival. But now you have to make a choice. Don’t fool yourself if you think that I care for your lives much. And yet, I’m here to help. And in not more than ten minutes I’ll be gone, with you or without you. There ain’t gonna be another chance.”

  During the talk, JB was walking around, he almost never made a direct eye contact with anyone, just glanced at some of them occasionally. His hands were busy, though. All that time he was picking up some of the tools or handmade objects, studying them like all that was new and fascinating to him. In some way, JB acted like a child that night.

  “Okay, let’s say, we’re in. What do we do now?
” Skyman asked. He folded the hands against his chest.

  “Leave everything behind, and follow me across the island right away,” JB smirked.

  “So, we have to stand up right now and walk?” the captain asked with a bit of a suspicion.

  “Actually, I would rather have you running than walking. Plus, you’d better take along some supplies. Water at least. We have about twenty more minutes.”

  “What about Vladimir, he can’t walk.”

  “We’re gonna move fast. Whoever’s not healthy enough – dies. If anyone can’t handle it, don’t even try then. You can slow them down for a few minutes for us. A half-dead man is an obstacle. Besides, those things are smart. They can totally dig a sense of blood.”

  “We can’t leave him behind! Even if they are so smart, is there a way to confuse them?”

  “They hate water,” JB shrugged. “I think they can’t swim. We can wade along the shoreline while it’s dark, and on the dawn we return to the land.”

  “Won’t they attack us during the day?” El wondered.

  “Not while I’m around.”

  JB finished talking. He looked at the stopwatch that was on his wrist. The time was running out.

  The situation heated up. Those people weren’t nearly ready for such difficulties, and yet another test lay ahead of them. This time it was an entirely different level. They had to demonstrate their hardest character there, or death would take them all. It’s hard for a man to believe that he’s on the edge of life and death. Often when a situation makes such a call, it’s already too late. Those few minutes were the longest in Skyman’s life, he wasn’t prepared for that. And yet he was their leader, he had to make that call. Josh looked at the students who were familiar with Jerry before the crash. If someone could say something reliable in his regard, they were perfect candidates. Most of their faces were just scared like the others, it didn’t tell Josh anything. But then he looked at El. She changed that night. The pilot had been watching his people for months, he knew how each of them handled danger. El wasn’t a brave person. But in those minutes she looked like someone who had hope, a comfort even. Josh sensed it in her, she genuinely believed in JB.

  Okay. Please, don’t let me down…

  “We are doing this your way, boy,” the captain called JB a boy on purpose to highlight his superiority. “But we need to make some kind of transport to take Vladimir with us.”

  “Anything you want; you have eight minutes. Then I’m gone,” the hunter said carelessly. As for JB himself, he was preoccupied with studying the bottles with water leftovers against the firelight.

  JB had caught the captain’s drift about the superiority. Putting that ignorance on the table, he let Skyman know how meaningless his leadership was to him.

  After the terms had been talked through, the pilot didn’t waste any more time. He went on to gather up the people. Most of the others stayed close to him. They had a job to do. In a matter of minutes, there had to be a way found to transport, over a long distance, through the water, a wounded man who shouldn’t be moved at all.

  The young ones found a quick solution while Skyman was visiting the patient. During one of the runs, a search party had found another blow raft, a small one. It was perfect for their needs.

  JB waited around the fire, El and Tina stayed with him. They were eating him up with those stares, yet none of them knew how to start a conversation. Firstly, the big guy walked around for a while, cleaning his broad curly blade. After he had finished, his attention switched to the girls.

  “Haven’t you happened to see a ‘glowing forest’ around?” Still being half way in his delusions, JB asked.

  The girls exchanged those looks. An earlier confession about being intoxicated changed their perception of him. They took him as a difference biological species that had nothing in common with regular people.

  “So, are you going to tell us what’s happened to you?” Tina tried to start a normal conversation.

  She held that book of hers.

  “That is an awful one,” JB nodded at the book. “Leave it. There, where we’re going you’re gonna need both of ya hands.” Then JB took a short pause. “A long road ahead of us. There will be a time for horror stories.”

  With the last words, he shoved the knife behind his belt and walked away from the fire. Soon his silhouette vanished in the dark.

  The time of need made Skyman and Wash act fast. They both organized the group to lead the people towards the water. JB was waiting for them at the edge of the camp, near the signal fire spot.

  Four students carried the yellow raft with their friend inside. Ellison stayed close just in case.

  Seeing that people were ready, JB didn’t say a thing. He pushed a small handmade water container against the fire to put it out. The light was gone. The big guy raised his head to take a look at the jungle, behind the camp. He stayed still for about a half a minute, just observing, waiting for something to happen. The crowd held the breath along with him. Their eyes were adjusting to the dark. Looking at him for a while the guys noticed that dim glow in his eyes. The deeper the darkness was, the more saturated they were getting. None of them had seen anything like that before.

  When his observation was over, JB put a bandage back on his eyes. He didn’t say anything, just moved towards the water. The people kept quiet as well. They followed their temporary leader. JB made just a few steps into the water, when, suddenly, a howl sounded somewhere from the jungle. He stopped, so did everyone else. They all heard that. A common shivering caught them all, it still was hard to believe that it was happening. No one had any more doubts, they would follow him wherever.

  THE SECRET OF THE ISLAND

  Two months earlier…

  It was a dark night, the sky stayed black and no moon or stars shined with their presence. Jerry was running through a foggy jungle, conquering lots of obstacles on his way towards the top of the mountain. He ran for so long that he had lost track of time. There was no tiredness in his muscles. The speed lowered only when he occasionally needed to catch his breath. No peak was seen behind the trees, and no other clues were there except his intuition.

  JB’s path lay straight, at least he thought so. The angled uneven ground was not easy to go through, yet his hunch kept leading there. A bunch of dirt-puddles, thickets, rocks and cliffs were in his way. The old bamboo stick was obliterated by half, his clothes got dirty to the point of no return. One thing that brought JB comfort was that he was so stinky and filthy that no sane animal would want to attack him. His mind had gone far long ago, the instincts took over. Even the pain from upcoming cuts and bruises couldn’t stop him.

  The next morning, JB woke up surrounded by the high shrubs. He felt terrible, the pain was everywhere; in the skin, muscles, even in bones. The mist got even thicker than before. Jerry couldn’t recall how he had happened to get there. His mind deepened into blurriness just like the air. As soon as muscle ache was gone the gangster got up. He felt much better.

  There were not many memories left in his head about the night before, still, knowing his ways, he was sure that he had stopped there for some particular reason. JB opened up the last of the water-fruit. He stayed for a minute to have a look around while drinking.

  The first thing that drew his attention was a beehive built on one of the trees. There were a lot of bees flying around. A thought of having some honey struck JB’s head at once. But that wish instantly was overweighed by the risk of being stung. So JB took a few more sips of the juice and went on, out of the thicket.

  Most of all the big guy was interested in why he had stopped there. Had he seen something? Or had something made him stop? Or had he just passed out because of exhaustion? No obvious answer came to his mind. A couple minutes of wandering around changed nothing, it still was unclear. Half of the mountain’s altitude was left behind. JB had a great view from that place on the ocean. The vegetation was different there than on the lower ground, and the fog looked much thicker. Yet, the overall pictu
re seemed alike.

  After few more minutes of searching for some kind of clue, JB gave up on trying. It was time to move on. He chose the clearest path to walk on. But with the first step taken he tripped and fell down. It wasn’t a rock or a root that he tripped over. It felt soft. That moment he remembered falling down the night before. Just like that, he ran there and then something got in his way. So that was what had stopped him. The gangster lowered down to see what it was. He found a piece of red plastic glass, the kind in brake lights. This one was stamped in the dirt. It didn’t come from the plane.

  Exploring the spot further, JB noticed that it wasn’t just a random hole in the ground. It was a long canal, and another, a parallel one, lay nearby. Tire tracks. It looked like an old road that had been overgrown with the grass. There were no more doubts: that island had been populated once.

  His logic advised to take that as a good sign, but his hunch called only for suspicion. The roads meant infrastructure. Those who look for the most hidden corner of the world for their entrepreneurship usually don’t want to draw attention. The question was: what business did they have there?

  Not getting too deep into theories about the activity of that hypothetical organization, JB wanted to find out more. The obvious choice was to check out the road’s destination.

  It was an equal balance of choice between one way or the other since he didn’t know anything. The decision had to be made by the universe, JB thought. He took a half dollar coin from his pocket for a toss. Heads – west, tails – east. The coin showed heads, it meant his path changed towards the west.