Quest

Chapter 21

Cy felt like a bumper car as he careened from tree-to-tree in his mad dash for safety. He had emptied his rifle and hadn’t had time to reload before being forced to abandon it. His pistol was gone, dropped in the midst of hand-to-hand fighting with those freakish, silent natives that had swarmed their camp.

They won’t die!

He had put bullets in a half-dozen of them at least, and stabbed one in the gut, but they kept coming! What were these things? Zombies? Couldn’t be, but he had no explanation for how a man could take a bullet in the chest and keep coming. He had seen Kennedy blow the leg off of one and it kept on crawling forward like it hadn’t felt a thing. That’s when Cy panicked and ran.

He could hear the sound of the waterfall somewhere up ahead. His only hope was that Tam had been correct in her assertion that the final landmark would be found somewhere in its vicinity. If he could find it, maybe he could get away from these… things.

A limb smacked him across the face and he reflexively covered his eyes. He stumbled a few steps, and then the ground went out from under his feet. He had only a moment to cry out in surprise before he was enveloped in cold darkness.

Water filled his mouth and nose, and he choked. His feet hit the slimy bottom and he pushed up. He emerged gasping and coughing. He vomited a stream of water, and then blew out through each nostril, clearing them.

Eyes burning, he looked around to see he was in a dark waterway surrounded on all sides by thick vegetation. The channel was straight and narrow, obviously man-made, and he could see that it cut a straight path to the waterfall! His feeling of relief was cut short by a rustling in the foliage.

The jungle growth parted, revealing two of the natives armed with primitive stone axes. They were broad-shouldered with glossy black hair and weird orange body paint with black spots, like a giraffe. What made them frightening were the blank, inhuman eyes that gazed down on him as if he were no more than a fly to be swatted. He heard a sound behind him and whirled to see another of the zombie-like warriors emerge, pointing a spear at Cy’s chest.

Cy slowly raised his hands above his head. There was no fighting, no running, only the hope of surrender.

“Please.” He was so frightened that he didn’t know if he had said the word aloud or not. The native pressed the tip of his spear against Cy’s throat, and Cy felt his bladder release.

Excruciating pain, the like of which he had never imagined was possible, erupted not in his throat, but his groin. He screamed in pain and staggered back, clutching his burning genitals.

Perhaps taken by surprise, the native drew back his spear, leaned down for a closer look at him, and then looked at his companions. Was it possible that a ghost of a smile played across his stony face?

A fragment of a memory flashed through Cy’s mind as his body crumpled down into the water in sheer agony. Something he had learned about the Amazon and its native fish.

Candiru.

Enters the urethra.

Locks its spines in place.

Agonizing death.

He screamed again, staggered backward, and found himself facing the two club-bearing warriors. “Please,” he wailed. This time he was not begging for his life, but for release from this agony.

Still staring at him with empty eyes, one of them raised his club and brought it down in a swift motion. The world fled, and with it, the pain.

Tam ducked down in the shadow of a thick shrub, her Makarov at the ready. Kennedy crouched beside her, his eyes gleaming with the thrill of battle. How had she gotten stuck with him? This would be a good time to put a cap in him, but she probably needed all the allies she could get against this swarm of seemingly-unstoppable natives. Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate. They’d killed several, but they were nigh-impossible to bring down, and didn’t seem to feel pain the way a normal human being would.

“See if you can raise ScanoGen on the sat phone,” Kennedy barked. “Maybe they can get a read on our position and send help.” The tone of his voice said it was futile, but they were in a desperate situation.

“Already did,” Tam lied. “They said they’d do what they could for us, but it would take some time.”

“That’s not very promising.” Kennedy scowled, still searching the surroundings for the natives.

“It is what it is. We can’t count on anyone but ourselves to get out of this.” She bit her lip. How was she not only going to get out of this situation alive, but then get away from Kennedy?

“Have you figured out the final landmark yet?” he snapped. “That would help.”

“Yes!” Sudden inspiration struck her and she forced down a smile. “It’s that rock formation up there.” She pointed to a nondescript outcropping.

“How can you tell?” Kennedy tilted his head to the side and squinted. “It doesn’t look like a skull.”

“You have to see it from the other side. I was trying to work my way to it when these… things blocked my way, and I had to double-back. That’s it though, I’m sure of it. Think we should make a break for it?”

“Why not?” Kennedy sneered. “Even if you’re wrong, I’d rather be doing something than hiding here like a scared woman.”

Tam didn’t know if that last comment was meant as an insult to her, or was simply a reflection of his misogyny. She was just happy to see Kennedy take off at a dead sprint in the direction she had indicated. Scared woman? How about gullible man? Hopefully, he’d get himself killed. If not, she had bought herself enough time to get to the waterfall and see whether or not her theory was correct. She raised her Makarov and took a deep breath.

Time to roll the dice.