The Butterfly Forest

FORTY-FOUR

Luke Palmer scrambled down the muddy bank sloping to the St. Johns River. He could hear the posse coming closer. In minutes, they’d be charging through the brush. The only possible escape was directly in front of him — the river.

The water was flat, but the river was wide. He remembered learning to swim in a river, the Mississippi, where he’d spent a summer living with his grandmother after his mother was arrested for drug possession and prostitution for the third time. Palmer took off his shoes. Stepped to the edge of the water, the river slapping his toes.

SWIM! Just do it. You can do it. Not too damn old. GO!

Palmer ran out into the water until he couldn’t touch bottom. He swam. The river water was warm. Sky a deep blue. It’s all about pacing. Steady strokes. Dogs will be here soon. Cops. Can’t spend any more time in a cell. SWIM!

I drove my jeep through the bog, looking for patches of dry land, weaving around cypress trees and fallen limbs. We caught up with the sheriff and his posse following the dogs. Deputy Rodriguez opened the side door before I could stop. He jumped out with his rifle and ran, sloshing through knee-deep, tea-colored water to catch up with the others.

I saw him go down.

He looked back at me, the sun through my windshield splintering the pain and absolute horror on his face. I ran to him. He grabbed his calve and then fired a shot at something moving. I saw the snake’s body jump more than a foot in the air, the bullet tearing through its thick, dark olive midsection.

The sheriff and a dozen men stopped. They turned and looked toward us.

“Snake bite!” shouted Rodriguez.

“Holy shit…” said the sheriff, shaking his head and running toward Rodriguez. The officers and Detective Sandberg followed.

“It’s a cottonmouth moccasin,” said Sandberg, looking at the dying snake.

The sheriff motioned to one of his men. “Bobby, call for an air-vac chopper with paramedics who know their shit about snake poison.”

Bo Watson said, “I have a snakebite kit in the truck. I’ll call my son.”

Rodriguez sat down on a fallen log and rested his leg. I used my pocketknife to cut through his jeans. Two puncture holes in his leg oozed blood. I used my belt to tie off the circulation. “Look at me.” His frightened eyes attempted to find mine. “Try to keep you heart rate slow… stay calm as you can. You will be okay, understand?”

Rodriguez nodded. I said, “My Jeep is fifty yards to the west. Somebody can take it and get this man to a clearing so the chopper can land.”

“Where’re you going?” asked Sheriff Clayton.

I lifted the rifle from the stump where Rodriguez had set it down. “I’m going with you. I was a shooter — a sniper in the Special Forces.”

“You’re not a sworn officer.”

“Used to be. You can deputize me, Sheriff. Sounds like the dogs have come to an impasse. My guess is they’re at the river’s edge. We’d better move.”

Palmer was now almost half way across the river. He swam using a sidestroke. He looked behind him and saw the dogs at the shore, one dog stepping in the river and running back to the bank. Then Palmer looked towards the opposite shore.

He stopped swimming.

An alligator, wide as a kayak, slipped down from sunning on the bank and started toward Palmer. A smaller alligator, at least seven feet long, followed the larger one.

Palmer looked toward the dogs. The cops were there now. He saw the wink of the sun against handcuffs, badges and guns. He could see his life back at San Quentin. No damn choice, he thought. Gotta swim toward the cops or get ripped apart by gators.

Palmer turned around and swam with all the strength he had left. His arms ached. His head pounded. He churned the water. Arms moving in powerful strokes. Legs kicking. He swallowed a mouthful of river water. He glanced back over his right shoulder and could see the alligators coming closer. Ma Barker’s money must be cursed. Gotta be something wicked about it. SWIM!

“He’s coming back this way!” said the sheriff.

Bo Watson said, “And look at what the hell’s following him. No man, I don’t care what he’s done, deserves to be eaten alive.” He hushed the dogs. All of the deputies and Detective Sandberg stood on the embankment, no one sure what to do.

The sheriff said, “Let’s call in the chopper. Have ‘em hover over that guy. Might scare the damn gators off.”

“No time,” I said, climbing the highest outcropping of rock. “I’ll try for the gators.” I opened the two metal stands that supported the rifle, stretched out and reclined flat on my stomach. I fit the stock against my shoulder, loaded a bullet into the chamber and sighted the man through the scope. I looked at the river’s surface for a sign of wind direction. Looked up at a cypress tree. Wind from the northeast — three miles an hour.

“That’s a shot of over a hundred yards,” said Detective Sandberg.

The sheriff said, “Radio for a boat outta Hontoon Marina to get up here fast as possible.”

“The big gator’s twenty feet away from the subject!” one deputy shouted.

“The other gator’s gaining fast!” another man said.

The dogs whined, the drone of the chopper coming.

Palmer looked toward the shore. Never gonna make it. Too tired.

He saw the flash of sunlight reflecting from something a man held sprawled on an embankment.

A man with a rifle.

Must be a scope on the gun reflecting light. Too tired to think straight.

Palmer swam and prayed that the man was aiming for the gators swimming closer to his kicking legs.

I blocked everything out. Heard nothing. Focused all though the scope. I saw the panic on the man’s face, the fatigue in his sloppy strokes, the twin V ripples caused by the approaching gators. At this angle, I’d have to shoot left of the man’s head, four inches over his moving shoulder, to hit the largest gator coming up behind him.

Focus. Hold the breathing. I moved the glass away from the man’s head and found the closest alligator. It pushed its tail harder. Quickly gaining on the fledging man. Less than ten feet away. I had one chance. One shot each. I sighted the crosshairs, positioned them right between the wide, knobby eyes of the biggest gator. I squeezed the trigger. I moved the glass to the second animal and squeezed the trigger. Both gators went down, heads exploding, leaving a trail of blood and brain matter.

“Hot damn!” shouted the sheriff. “You hit both of ‘em in less than three seconds. Where the hell did you learn to shoot like that?”