Stripes of Gehenna

by Lara Hues

  "Why are you here then?" Shar asked. "If you aren’t a threat, what are you doing?"

  "I was alone. I thought maybe Kat could help her dad see that I shouldn’t be killed. I dunno. I just want to get out of here like you. Where did you get the gun?" Bryce grabbed at his stomach again.

  "A hunter was shot near us. He didn’t need it anymore so I took it."

  "Smart move," Bryce complimented.

  "Kathryn can’t convince Richy of anything. She's in this as deep as we are," Shar said, not exactly revealing my secret.

  "I also came because I thought Kat could help others even if she doesn’t want to help me." He was right. I didn’t feel incredibly amiable towards him.

  "Kathryn," Shar corrected.

  "Okay, Kathryn. Here’s the truth. Richy has my brother. He has Drake." His chin twitched. The corners of his lips were drawn down. "If I don’t bring you back, he’ll kill him." I said nothing. "Even if you don’t want to do it for me, do it for the others.”

  “You probably just want more GH10. Stop the withdrawals,” I said, less sympathetically than I felt.

  Bryce shut his eyes and shook his head. “No,” he coughed. “No, it’s not about that. You see, the tigers aren’t killing and eating the people. They're toying with them. They bring them to the field in front of the observatory and play with them. Right in front of your dad."

  "So, Richy isn’t trying to stop his tigers." I refused to call him dad. Or uncle.

  "He doesn’t seem to value anyone’s life but yours. I just thought, maybe if you were out there, he’d have no choice but to kill the tigers before they end up killing everyone."

  Imagining the people in the field made me sick, but picturing Richy watch them in peril from the safety of his observatory without helping or interfering made me even sicker.

  Bryce looked me in the eyes and moved closer, his massive body overshadowing mine. "You have the chance to really help here. You have the chance to be a hero and a savior for them. If you get back to the door and you go in, Richy has no reason to help anyone else."

  I shook my head, not because I was refusing to assist, but because I couldn’t believe the situation. I dug my feet into the ground and bit my lip. I had never been the hero. Winning science fairs didn’t really compare to saving a life.

  "I…" I wasn’t sure I was going to make it out. "I want to help."

  "Good," Bryce said "Then-"

  "But I don’t think I can," I continued to say. "I don’t think I will be able to stop Richy. I think if I were to go there, to the tigers, it would be suicide."

  "What do you mean?" Bryce’s raucous voice frightened me. He took half a step in my direction and I scrambled backwards.

  "Step back," Shar jabbed him with the gun. "You heard her answer." Shar nearly barked the command.

  "You’d let people die?" Bryce scoffed, though he stepped back. "You’d go back to the comfort of your tower and watch as innocent men die at the hands of your father? I suppose that shouldn’t surprise me. No heroics in your genes. No compassion for others. Like father, like daughter. What would you say, Shar? The apple doesn’t fall far from the-"

  "Enough!" Shar yelled, ramming the gun into Bryce as he spoke this time, forcing Bryce backwards several steps. "She isn’t his daughter! She was brought here to be used just like you and I were. You don’t know everything, so shut your mouth and get out of here. I am taking her to the back door, and we're not wasting any more time here talking to you and arguing about details and deceptions you know nothing about!"

  My face burned. My hands shook. "I’ll try," I croaked.

  "What?" Bryce and Shar said simultaneously.

  "I’ll try to help. I don’t want to live my life wondering and regretting not having tried to help." I inhaled through my nose attempting to mask my fright. "I need to try."

  Shar didn’t protest. Bryce looked pleased.

  "Let’s get going then," I said, knowing that if we didn’t move soon, I might become unable to help anyone.

  In my mind, I played the scene I imagined would unfold, and despite my efforts to focus strictly on what I could say to Richy or how I could approach him and bring out kindness and sympathy, my mind could only play one image on repeat; my body, beaten and bloodied and bruised, lying lifeless on the jungle floor as the shadow of a massive tiger covered me and left me in darkness.

  "What is your plan?" Shar said to Bryce after three minutes or so of silence.

  "It’s very simple really--I am taking us to the field where the tigers and their captives are. Richy will see Kat in the field-"

  "Kathryn," Shar interjected.

  "Okay, Richy will see Kathryn in the field, and fearing for her safety he will shoot down the tigers using the control panel at his fingertips."

  I swallowed hard, realizing that the power to save people was literally as Bryce had said "at his fingertips" and still Richy didn’t act. What proof did I have that he would choose me over his tigers? There were no pictures of me on this island. If this really was Gehenna, and he really was my father, he'd brought me here as a sacrifice. Heck, there weren’t any pictures of his own daughter. Inside were only pictures and drawings and renditions of his beloved tigers--his real children.

  The reason I’d been brought here was to help vouch for the alleged lack of birth defect side effects of the GH10. If Richy still needed me for that, then his greed in the promise of extraordinary future profits may outweigh his love/obsession with his tigers. If he didn’t need me, then he would have a lot of explaining to do to my mother. I could hear sounds in the distance that seemed to belong to tigers and people, but what was happening was indistinguishable.

  Shar began to hum, and I imagined it was to distract his mind from imagining all of the worse things over the horizon. Shar stopped walking and bit his lip for a few seconds before finally speaking.

  "Kathryn, I am going to the door and see if I can get in. Do you feel safe enough with Bryce to continue on? I want to do all that I can to be inside if Richy hesitates with the controls."

  "But your leg," I protested.

  "I’m fine. People get shot every day."

  Truth be told, I didn’t feel safe anywhere. There were hunters with guns wandering the jungle, steroid-infused animals lurking behind every branch and beneath the water, and we were walking towards dinosaur-sized tigers intentionally. It only made sense that my guide into this death-trap would be the man who had dangled me from the cable car and threatened to take my life only days prior.

  "Safe enough?" I looked to Bryce and realized that there is only so much fear that the mind can take before it becomes passive. I was frightened of Bryce, but I was frightened of everything, and I didn’t care anymore. But besides that, Bryce looked half-dead. Shaky. Nauseated. He seemed partially delirious.

  "I’ll be safe enough. But you…" I pulled the keycard from my pocket. Shar had little hope of getting in without my all access pass. "You need this," I said, handing it over. With it, I gave him my complete trust.

  Bryce lifted his eyebrows at my reply, but he didn’t say anything. It was better that he didn’t. The sounds in the distance continued, and I was sure someone was screaming. I had to get there soon, or my suicide mission wouldn’t save anyone.

  Despite the brambles in my hair, scratches on my face, watery eyes, and sweaty everything else, Shar bent his neck and kissed my lips.

  For that moment, my pain disappeared. For that moment, my heart felt like helium. For that moment, I shut my eyes, and shut out the world, and tasted the warmth of his lips. I lifted a hand to rest on his cheek, but then he pulled back. He wheeled around and limped away through the trees.

  "Are you guys," Bryce began, and I cut him off curtly.

  "No!"

  My heart pounded in surprise. I don't know if I should jump in and call it love. That word seems fake. It seems so flexible because it's used to suit all sorts of purposes. But what I felt had to be some sort of love. It was all too possible that our feelings were compou
nded by the state of fear we had been living in. It was indeed very possible that we only loved the companionship and lack of complete loneliness in our solitude. It was quite possible that the extraordinary circumstances inspired love where love may not have otherwise been. Anything was possible and yet, the love that I felt for him and the pain I felt when he disappeared from my view were both more real than any emotion I had ever felt. The love in contrast to the fear was so powerful that like a light in the darkness, most of the fear was abandoned; pushed out; deserted.

  Bryce remained silent as we walked, and I didn’t mind his presence. If Richy didn’t stop the tigers, I had full faith that Shar would. He would if he could.

  “What do you see in him, anyway?” Bryce asked.

  I said the only thing that came to mind. “Value isn’t always visible.”

  “Hmm,” Bryce mused. “A match made in heaven.”

  As suddenly as the drop of the cable car, we were out of the trees and standing at the edge of a field--the same field I had viewed so comfortably from the observatory. The grass was much taller than I realized from above. Standing, the blades grew as tall as my knees, and I was reminded of trudging through deep snow as my legs strained with every step.

  Whines, moans, and pining came from different places in the tall grass, and while I ached to get to the injured people in distress, I was grateful that they were hidden from my view. Still, I could picture teeth marks, scratches, even maiming, and I gagged as untimely cries went up from somewhere in the grass nearby.

  "There." Bryce pointed up to the window, and though I couldn’t see Richy inside, I felt that I was being watched.

  Bryce must have seen something because he began waving his arms frantically and pointing to me in large gestures. A crackle and then Richy’s voice came over the speaker in a terse tone.

  "Some nerve you have!" A bullet whizzed through the grass missing both of us by only a few feet. Bryce hit the ground and crawled like a snake away from me. Already I was being shot at by Richy; his pride was more important than my safety, and I knew that coming to this field was a mistake.

  "Help!" I yelled. "Get me out of here before-"

  The ground shook, and though I had never been in an earthquake, news footage of such natural disasters and science lessons taught me that what I was experiencing was not much different from one. The waves weren’t coming from tectonic plates. They came from the huge, padding of great, clawed, feline feet as the tigers bounded across the field towards me.

  I opened my mouth to scream, and no noise came out. I was being strangled by my own fear. I couldn’t look to anyone for help. I was paralyzed in place and struck by the beauty of death as the cat leapt towards me. The fur shone in the sunlight, and the details in the pattern on the coat amazed me. Beneath the coat I could see the muscles tighten and relax and tighten again.

  The white whiskers were pink with fresh blood, and the huge paws were stained brown from dried blood.

  Richy yelled on the intercom now. He scolded the cat how a dog owner would shout when their dog was peeing in an unfortunate location. This wasn’t a dog, and he wasn’t about to soil a rug.

  The cat was almost to me when I remembered something that Shar had said. I fell to my back and became limp, exposing my belly up. My eyes were shut tight to seal in the tears and to attempt to minimize any pain that I would feel during the impending attack.

  I had never been hit--not by a younger sibling or a car or anything other than a misaimed baseball. The force that smacked my side and sent me rolling was nothing like that. I was a paper boat in a riptide while thousands of gallons of water pounded down on me. The paw must have been angled well when the tiger hit me the first time.

  Without warning I was slammed again from the other side, and I rolled at least five times to the left likely leaving a trail of blood in the tall grass. I don’t know if I was sliced open or just had crushed ribs. The tiger was toying with me though. Its claws were in. I was batted again and fairly sure that my ribs were broken. I wanted to stop breathing as the pain inside began to settle in. One more and you’ll be dead, I reassured myself as a way to cope with the throbbing throughout my body.

  I may have been right. One more may have killed me, but as Shar had told me, the tiger was bored with my lack of a fight. The tiger was sick of my game and it left. It left me to die a slow, painful death, but more importantly, Richy had left me to die.

  From across the field I saw the huge silhouette of Richy running towards me, scolding the tiger, but he was unarmed. He wouldn’t risk hurting the tigers. I saw Richy grab hold of the tail.

  "Bad Amar! You know better!" he shouted. His giant hands pulled at the tail in a game of tug of war.

  From where I lay, I saw a flash of black and white stripes. Amar wheeled on him, snarling. Richy's eyes widened, he dropped the tail, and drew his elbows into his sides. Though he had his fists raised, his face drained of all color. When I saw the blind terror in his eyes, I gasped. The tiger leaped at Richy, snaring and spearing his right arm. The crunch was like a tree branch snapping as his arm bent backwards and then Amar shook his head. Richy, now a ragdoll, screamed in agony as the tiger shook him until the skin tore around his shoulder. Only a few flaps of skin and muscle connected Richy to his arm. Then Amar snarled again, tore his arm clean off and threw it across the grass, raining blood as it flew. Amar snarled again and sprung onto Richy.

  Whether from the sight of blood, or my own blood loss, I blacked out. I saw nothing.

  No Richy. No stripes.

  Nothing.

  Chapter Sixteen: The Stripes of Gehenna

  The rhythmic beeping was one of the last things I anticipated hearing when I finally came to myself. My body hurt in a dull, achy throbbing that seemed in sync with the beeping. Opening my eyes, I saw what I’d feared.

  White ceiling tiles and bright fluorescent lights forced my lids shut again. What was the point of all this pain? What was the reason for saving me? Was this some horribly twisted way of fate telling me to listen to my mother? What was I supposed to learn from this awful hurt?

  I heard voices nearby, but they weren’t speaking in English. I was in some other country’s hospital, and I still didn't know if I was going to die. But Richy was right about one thing; I came from a line of fighters. I wouldn't let myself die.

  If I was still on an island it was possible that they didn’t possess the medications that I needed to make it out alive. I couldn’t move my legs. That could be permanent or temporary. I was able to wiggle my fingers on my right hand, but any other movements made me wince. I felt abandoned. Not even the tiger had the decency to finish me.

  Fading in and out of consciousness, I cursed each time I realized that I was still alone. A frantic voice, albeit in another language, drew my attention, and though unable to move my neck, my eyes focused on the door.

  The machine monitoring my pulse chirped louder as my heartbeat accelerated upon seeing a familiar face.

  Shar’s eye and cheeks were bruised from an apparent physical fight, but he was cheerful, and his smile forced me to grin.

  "Kathryn," he said quietly. I tried to speak but my body was too tired and sore. "The medicine should begin working soon and that will ease your pain significantly."

  I had so many questions and though it hurt to speak, I had to know.

  "Richy?" I whispered.

  "Richy left the observatory after his shots missed Bryce. He ran out the door to try and stop Amar and Amala himself. Once he came through the back door, I slipped inside and made my way to the controls in the observatory."

  When he said he made his way, I knew he meant that he met opposition- GH10 injected opposition.

  "I shot the tiger nearest you first. By the time I got the other one," he paused. "Honestly I don’t know what this news will mean to you."

  "He died, didn't he?" I said and the words brought back the gruesome images of watching him get mauled. His arm…I winced.

  "They found his arm…" Shar
stopped, just in case I didn’t understand. But I did.

  "I brought you to Alec, and he used the helicopter to get us and the rest of the survivors off the island. He was doing it because he still was under the impression that you are Richy’s daughter. He hopes that Richy left everything to you in his will. Alec wants the rights to GH10."

  I must have made a face because Shar quickly apologized. "Sorry, I have said too much. I’m overwhelming you with information."

  "No," I was able to whisper. The medicine must have begun working. "I just…I didn’t want Richy to die. I wanted him to learn. I wanted him to change. I…wanted him to be who I thought he was."

  "There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self."

  Again, Shar was quoting proverbs to me, and yet, I found it somehow comforting.

  "Am I changed? Do I have a new self?" I tried to think of it in an emotional way rather than the permanent physical changes that I feared.

  He gestured to bandages around my torso. "You can't go through hell and come out the same person."

  "Gehenna?" I asked.

  He tried to smile at me, but his watery eyes betrayed his true feelings. He reached up and tucked my hair behind my ear.

  “What I meant though, was am I paralyzed?” My throat hurt just asking.

  “No,” Shar said. “No, you’re going to get through this. You’re going to be okay.”

  I nodded, silent tears on my cheeks.

  "That which was hard to bear is sweet to remember." Shar used his proverb-voice.

  Bitterness welled up as tears in my eyes. My body ached but now in a different way. I wanted to be held. I wanted to cry this terrible experience away. I wanted to sleep. I wanted a lot of things.

  Shar hadn’t abandoned me. Even when he had left me alone with Bryce to face the tigers, he’d given me the tools I needed to survive. It was because of him that I was alive and rather than curse life, Shar’s presence inspired me to embrace it.

  "Yes," I said. My mouth was dry and I struggled to keep my eyes open, but I wasn’t done talking yet. I squeezed his hand like I would never let it go. "Shar?"