Primal Nature

by Monique Singleton

  During the war, his small part of the jungle had been spared because of its location. It was too far from anything remotely of value to the government, and not in the vicinity of the highways that transported the troops. Laying low, not attracting any attention—either from the government or the rebels—he had continued to help the local people and build his small but effective business.

  Enrique was not the party animal, he rarely attended festivities with the exception of the town carnival. There was no avoiding that and he enjoyed the dance, music and fun. It was there that they had met. Tonal was visiting an old friend from the resistance who had settled in the small town. The coincidence with carnival not entirely by chance. She also enjoyed the fun. During the exuberant festivities she had observed the big quiet man seated on the fringe of the crowd. She didn’t have the impression that he wasn’t enjoying himself, he was just the quiet type. Her friend informed her that he was one of the landowners involved in the conservation of the jungle—her home.

  They were introduced and hit it off straight away. Two days later she left his farm to go back to the jungle. Though they had never discussed their relationship, it was clearly how they both wanted it. No commitments, no obligations, just a lot of fun.

  Observing this beautiful creature, he was struck by the revelation that he knew so little about her. She was obviously not local to this or any other Latin American country. Where she came from was anyone’s guess, along with her age and occupation for that matter. She just materialised out of the forest, into his arms. The thought of taking the relationship to another level had crossed his mind but was discarded because he was afraid he would lose her wildness, her mystery. She was an anomaly, mystical and secretive. That was part of the attraction. He was fully aware of the fact that she would not stay with him, that she belonged somewhere else. Maybe even with someone else. So, he focused on the time they had together and enjoyed it to the max.

  Later that night—their passion momentarily spent—they lay in the bed and talked. Enrique was one of her links to what was happening in the world outside of the cocoon she and Dulce had chosen for themselves. The village was reasonably screened off from what happened in the world. News was not frequent and definitely not complete.

  ‘There is unrest.’ Enrique told her. ‘The new laws are not popular. People compare them with the tyranny before the revolution. There are also disappearances.’

  Her skin began to crawl with a sense of déjà vu, she had to know more. ‘What kind of disappearances?’

  ‘Not really organised, some of the opposition have left the country. Or that is what the stories say. But some of them cannot be contacted anymore. They seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth. It makes us uneasy.’ He got up to pour a glass of wine for both of them, then continued. ‘Jesus Valdez left the government, officially he retired, but there are rumours that he and the President no longer see eye to eye.’

  Tonal accepted the wine and joined him at the window where she asked; ‘where did he go to?’

  ‘He has a holding on the coast.’ Observing her face in the soft light of the moon, he detected worry. ‘Do you know Jesus?’ She left the answer floating in the night sky. It had to do with the private part of her life that he was not party to. He left it at that, even though he was becoming more and more curious about this mysterious woman he shared his bed with.

  ‘The government and the President have more frequent run-ins’ he continued. ‘Some of the bills that Alex wants to pass are not popular with the ministers. He also replaced one of the ministers with an old military man. A man with a history. He fought on Esposito’s side in the civil war. I know we should not judge a man only by his past, but I find it difficult to believe that he has changed so much that he embraces the democracy.’

  They spoke until deep in the night. Enrique was surprised by the knowledge she had of the revolution and the fact that she recognised many of the names. Finally, they went back to bed and tried to sleep.

  Listening to his deep breaths, Tonal reviewed the news. None of it was good.

  As she had expected Salina had a massive influence on Alex. His trusted advisors—like Jesus, Dulce and herself—had left and the void was filled with people that were dubious to say the least. Enrique had explained the new laws, the higher taxes and the effect they had on the country’s people. The United Latin countries were slowly falling apart. Unrest was brewing, Alex was losing his hold on the government and the inhabitants. No longer able to rule on the basis of his heroic revolutionary history, he had reverted to more stringent and less democratic measures. The military was called in to quell demonstrations. Large numbers of people were arrested and sentenced to a miserable incarceration in the overflowing prisons in mock trials. Opposition groups were tolerated, as long as they did not cross the line and openly call for Alex’s abdication.

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE

  Salina was having a ball by the sound of it. Regular trips abroad to luxurious resorts and immensely expensive shopping sprees filled her life. She was the queen-bee and loved it. When she was in the country she spent her time cajoling and manipulating Alex into passing new measures that would ensure her lasting wealth. In the times she was gone Alex was depressed and mood—not tolerating opposition or discussion. When she was there he was distracted and ecstatic. All in all, he hardly ever attended to his country or his political and Presidential responsibilities. This was exactly as the new members of the government wanted it to be. They had full opportunity to manipulate the cabinet and push their objectives to the foreground. Slowly but surely, the democracy was being hollowed out from within.

  Tonal hated to be right in this case. Secretly she’d hoped that Alex would be able to handle Salina and stick to his own ideals and goals. But he was like a child, sick with longing any time she was gone. He had lost interest in his tasks as President, preferring to spend as much time as possible with his wife. More and more, he accompanied her aboard and left the running of the country to his minions.

  Salina had contradicting emotions about Alex accompanying her. On the one hand it proved her total power over the man, on the other it cramped her style. She was accustomed to enjoying the company of young and virile men during her trips. Alex’s presence didn’t stop her from these amorous trysts, it just made them all the more complicated.

  Her love life was the subject of many scandals. Frequent streams and articles in tabloids screamed the woman’s infidelity. Still Alex chose to ignore the news and rumour and desperately held on to his sanity and the pitiful remnants of self-respect that remained.

  In the past months Salina had tired of the game and openly flirted with anyone who took her fancy. She was still young, and Alex bored her. She needed new young men to satisfy her. Relishing in the pain she inflicted on her husband, Salina became more open in her extra-marital relationships. Even turning up at official banquets with the lover of the moment.

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

  The situation was becoming intolerable. Alex slipped into a deep depression and had bursts of rage. The country was without its ruler and corruption blossomed. Slowly, it sank back into the dark and murky past they had all fought so hard to get out of. They would have to see what the future brought. In their village Dulce and Tonal were isolated from the rest of the country. Blissfully unaware of the extent of the struggle, except when the sporadic news reached the community. They held on to their peace and quiet persistently. But how long they would be able to keep that up was the question.

  Finally sinking into a troubled sleep in the early hours of the morning, Tonal dreamt of Alex. She stayed with Enrique for another day, shorter than normal, but the tension she felt about Alex was building. She felt uneasy and Enrique naturally picked up on it.

  A last lingering kiss and she was back on her way to the jungle.

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE

  They came in the night.

  Seven mercenaries stormed into the village, firing indiscriminately at anything they saw.
The first shots and screams alerted the villagers and they fled their beds and armed themselves where possible. Three of the mercenaries targeted Dulce and Hector’s house. They broke down the front door and stormed through the rooms in search of the inhabitants. Dulce’s dogs attacked the intruders and bought precious time for their owners. Despite the relative quiet of the past years, her training kicked in immediately and Dulce reverted to fight mode. Hector grabbed one of the shotguns standing against the bedroom wall and tried to barricade himself with her behind the door. The walls were thick so shooting through them was not an option for the mercenaries. But they had brought explosives and sent a grenade into the door opening. The resulting blast knocked out all the windows and part of the bedroom ceiling came down. Dulce and Hector had been able to duck and reach some form of cover before the explosion. Hector was wounded by shrapnel, but not critically. Both had been knocked over by the blast and were disoriented when the mercenaries came storming into the remnants of the room. Dulce managed to shoot one of them in the chest and grazed another on the arm but was soon overpowered. They were dragged out of the bedroom into the living space, where yet another mercenary waited. Obviously the leader of the gang, he smiled at the bounty.

  ‘Well, look who we have here.’ The cigar in the side of his mouth was so cliché that Dulce almost laughed. He walked over to Hector and viciously kicked him in the ribs. Hector doubled over. Screaming at him, Dulce attempted to free herself from the mercenary who was holding her.

  ‘Still quite the feisty one, aren’t you?’ the leader turned his attention to her. ‘Not bad either, considering your age.’ He ripped the nightgown off her body. ‘We should have some fun before we kill you. Salina only wants your head. What we do with the rest is our prerogative.’ The mercenary holding Dulce responded to the idea by cruelly pinching her breast, laughing at her resistance and Hector’s angry calls.

  Their fun was shattered by an enormous roar at the door to the house. The leader turned just in time to see the gigantic cat pounce with outstretched claws and open jaws sporting immense fangs. Tonal closed her teeth on his head, relishing in the pleasing crunch when his skull split open. Releasing him instantly, she spun around and went for the nearest mercenary. Dulce stomped the flabbergasted merc holding her in the balls with her foot and freed herself. Grabbing his discarded gun, she shot him in the head. Tonal had made short work of the other man and stood over the body.

  Dulce sped to Hector who was still on the ground bleeding from a number of what turned out to be shallow wounds. The only wound that was of real concern was in his left leg where a piece of shrapnel protruded from his thigh. It had missed the arteries and with a quick pull he dislodged it and threw it away. Dulce steeped the blood flow with the remnants of her nightgown pressed onto the wound.

  ‘I am all right Dulce. You both should help the others.’ Sounds of fighting continued from outside. There were more soldiers than the dead bodies here. Tonal turned and bounded out into the fray. Dulce grabbed a shirt, threw it on and followed her friend brandishing a submachine gun she had retrieved from one of the fallen soldiers.

  Within minutes the villagers and Tonal had dispatched the remaining three mercenaries. Taking stock, the villagers had lost two of their own, a further twelve people were wounded in different manners and with varying severity. Both of Dulce’s dogs had been killed. One of the homes was partially on fire, but the damage to it was not extensive. All in all, the result was not as bad as it had seemed, although more than enough. The attack had been a complete surprise and only the presence of Tonal had been able to sway the odds. It was obvious that the mercenaries had not expected any real resistance and definitely nothing like her. They had failed to take precautions and been overly confident that two women and a few peasants would not pose a threat to them.

  The wounded villagers were taken care of by a doctor who arrived from a nearby village to stitch the wounds and help the more critically wounded. A group of men from the village—led by Dulce and Tona—went out into the jungle to make sure that there were no additional mercenaries waiting for the return of their comrades. In their arrogance the mercenaries hadn’t left any sentries or additional forces to protect their vehicles. The whole party had been in on the raid. The villagers found the two vehicles at the beginning of the road leading to the village. They were driven back and left near Dulce’s house.

  Tonal accompanied the group in her feline form. The villagers were party to her secret and felt safe in her presence. The enormous feline had been their protector for some years now. Most of them had been brought up with the legends of the shape-changing guardian angel.

  The villagers finally retired back to their homes to rest and recuperate, in the early hours of the dawn. Hector was in the spare bedroom seeing as this was the only space that had survived the blast reasonably well.

  Tonal stationed herself before her friend’s house and stayed alert.

  The next day Dulce, Hector, Tonal and the village elders discussed what had happened. ‘The leader said that Salina wanted my head.’ Dulce started the meeting. ‘This was personal. It seems that she wants to get rid of us, maybe views us as a potential risk—although I have no idea why. We haven’t had any contact with Alex or Salina for about six or seven years. Not since we left.’

  One of the elders remarked; ‘there is wide spread unrest about the government and especially about the Presidential pair. The rich are once again becoming richer and the poor suffer and die.’

  Dulce lowered her head while the elders spoke about Alex and the mismanagement of the country. She had heard rumours of laws that had been passed and of disappearances. Some even hinted at assassinations and murders. Dismissing the rumours as impossible she had pushed the unsettling thoughts to the back of her mind. The attack on the village made it impossible to ignore anymore what was staring her in the face. Still she didn’t believe that Alex had had anything to do with the murder spree—she couldn’t. That was just too much to grasp. She was still his sister, and family was everything to Alex. At least it had been. She could not imagine that his morals would deteriorate so much as to sanction this. Salina, now that was a different discussion all together. Dulce shared her friend’s impression about the power-hungry bitch that had Alex dancing to her every whim.

  Almost reading her mind, Tonal joined the discussion. ‘This has to be something that Salina initiated. I cannot believe that Alex would condone the killing of his sister.’

  ‘Alex is not the man you knew.’ The elder continued ‘He has changed. I knew him as a boy, and later as a man. He was a good man. Honest and compassionate. I voted for him to be our President. But now I hardly recognise him. Not in person and definitely not in his actions.’

  Hector took centre stage. ‘Alex has surrounded himself with the worst kind of people. His government is made up of many of the old powers. The same people he fought just seven years ago. Most of the old revolutionary figures have left—either voluntarily or by force. Some have disappeared. Even Jesus chose to go. Officially to retire, but we know that he couldn’t resign himself to the politics and what Alex was doing.’ Tonal had heard the news from Enrique. She was less surprised by the aggregation of bad news than Dulce, but still it hurt. She had seen the influence that Salina had on Alex, even tried to make him open his eyes. To no avail. The bitch was working her magic and had corrupted him down to the bone.

  ‘There are rumours that the old resistance has been reinstated.’ Hector continued. ‘That some of the old fighters have started to regroup and are going to take up arms again. Now against Alex. That is probably why Salina targeted you two. She must be afraid that you would join the opposition and that would be a real threat. You are heroes of the resistance and think of the effect it would have on Alex if you were on the opposing team. I agree that Alex probably had no knowledge of this murder attempt. But that doesn’t exempt him from all the other things he has done and is still doing.’

  Softly the elder added. ‘He is becoming the
tyrant that he fought to overcome.’

  The words cut to the bone. But both Dulce and Tonal knew that the elder was right. The rumours were too consistent, too clear, too frequent and detailed not to be right. Alex had sunk further than they liked to consider. The attack on the village consummated the terrible conclusion. The time had come for armed resistance, once again.

  ‘If she wanted to stop us from intervening, she has achieved exactly the opposite.’ Dulce said softly

  ‘We have to go. She has brought the conflict to us.’ Tonal nodded. It was inevitable. They would have to react now. Salina would wait for the return of the mercenaries, when that didn’t happen she would definitely try again, in the knowledge that her adversaries had been warned.

  The village needed to be protected while Dulce and Tonal were gone because it was in the direct line of fire, unless Salina was sure that het targets were no longer there. That meant going out in the open. Plans were made to fortify the village and to work with other settlements close by to protect the people and homes.