by RB Schalin
Chapter 32
The centipede eventually leaves and Kerry and Taku go back to watch the women below them. Through sign language they agree to an attack and move away silently, close to the ground.
Kerry is close to the woman furthest away from the river and he aims his bamboo tube and sends the dart on its way. A couple of seconds later the woman is on the ground. She twitches a little and then she is still. Taku has done the same and the two of them hoist one of the women each up on to their shoulders and begin the two day march back to the underground village.
The first time Kerry was invited to cut the first long incision he was terrified. He had watched it being done on a few occasions, but doing it himself made him shake with terror. Not because he was afraid of death or killing, he was afraid he would make a mistake and damage the skin.
The old man invited him up onto the bench and gave him the knife, and a smile. Kerry looked around the body of the young woman he had brought the previous day and below him, he could see his tribe, his family and his friends look up at him. Taku is standing in the front row and gave him a reassuring smile. The others nod their heads as the drums began and soon the room was filled with their beats.
The woman before him can’t be more than a teenager; the other is most likely her mother since they look alike. She will be scarified the next evening. The one hanging has gone quiet now, after screaming and crying since she was hung.
Kerry took a hold of the skin in the nape of her neck and pulls it upwards making it tight against the flesh. Then he placed the point of the knife under his hand and pressed hard until the knife penetrated the skin. The young woman gasped as the first trickle of blood rolled down her back. Kerry took a deep breath and in one movement using all his strengths and weight he cuts her open all the way down to her buttocks.
The crowd cheered and the drums increased the speed of their rhythm. The old man patted him on the back and together they began to flay the girl. Kerry pulled at the skin while the other man made short or long cuts depending on what was needed. It didn't take long before the skin of her torso and arms were hanging around her waist. Kerry and the old man stepped down from the bench and continued their work until the girl has been stripped of her skin and is hanging as a bloody lump of meat from the ropes.
That night Taku presented his sister to Kerry, saying that she is his to have. She is a gift that Kerry has earned, and he gladly took the young woman to bed with him that night.
Life among the tribe was good, he and Taku continued to go out on hunting missions going further and further away from the safety of the underground town. Sometimes they went as far as a week to find suitable prey to bring back.
On one of these missions they happened on a group of white men and women. They were on a boat on a river almost ten days walking from the underground town. Taku saw them first and signaled to Kerry to hide. They watched the group for a while and then began to move in closer, inch by inch they crawled along the jungle floor.
When they were just a few feet from the water they stopped and continued to watch for almost an hour. The boat was anchored about fifty yards out and they could see the people on board drinking and eating. There were three men and three women, and their white skin was turning pink under the sun. A few of them jumped into the river and Kerry wondered if they knew there were water snakes in the area. He hoped there was no-one around because he wanted this prey.
When Taku signaled him, they moved into the water and began to swim out to the boat, keeping just their heads above the surface. When they were ten yards away, they split up, Kerry swam to the stern and Taku to the bow.
Kerry pulled himself up and took a quick look around and saw the people were still busy drinking, they hadn't noticed him yet. He lined up his blowgun and when he shot the first dart he saw how the young woman in a bikini slaps at it as it hit her in the neck, thinking it was an insect. He shot two more darts and watched as the first woman sat down, saying something to the others. They walked over to her, but when they got to her, she had already slipped down in the chair. Her friends dropped one by one, and Kerry moved in closer.
Taku had shot the other three from the bow and they got a closer look at their prey.
Two of the women seemed to be in their early thirty's, but the third is much younger, maybe in her late teens. The three men are middle-aged, overweight and one of them was wearing glasses.
As they began to move the young girl closer to the railing Taku lifts his head and listens. Kerry heard it too, the sound of people moving through the jungle, white people he figured, by the noise they were making.
"Hey! What are you doing?" shouted a voice further down the riverbank.
Kerry turned his head and saw a dark skinned man with a hat on his head. He was waving a rifle over his head. Where did he come from?
Taku grabbed the young girl and was about to throw her over the railing when the first shot rang out and Kerry felt the bullet passing close to his head.
He grabbed Taku and was ready to jump in when the second bullet struck him in the head and he fell into the water.
Taku grabbed his friend and tried to swim to the opposite bank, but when he got to the middle of the river the current was too strong and with an anguished scream he watched as Kerry was pulled along and away from him.
He turned his head back to the boat and now the man with the rifle and his friends were on it. A shot rang out and the bullet hit the water dangerously close to Taku. He dove under and swam as hard as he could and surfaced only a few yards from the riverbank. He climbed up and ran into the jungle.
"Did you see that?" asked Mike and lowered his rifle.
"Yeah, I have never seen anyone swim so fast before," said Danny leaning against the railing.
"Hey, we need to go back, they are all unconscious," said Mark, kneeling by the people lying on deck.
"I could swear the guy I hit was white," said Mike, looking downriver, but he couldn’t see the body.
"Really? A white man?" asked Mark, now standing up.
"I think so, or maybe the light was playing games with me." He turned around and went to the wheelhouse where he started the engine.
The boat slowly glided away on the water as Taku watched from the jungle. He had tears in his eyes, and had no idea how to tell his grandfather Kerry was gone.
