Savage Jungle

by Shea, Hunter

  “What we now call the Orang Pendek,” Natalie said.

  “Exactly. Many believe that they never left the great, conquered city. Oh, some stray, which is why there have been sightings around the island for hundreds of years, but by and large, they stay within the confines of the once mighty Gadang Ur. The island’s inhabitants greatly fear the Orang Pendek. That’s why Surya had to find men from the other islands. Locals would never have agreed to come.”

  The porters were busy getting wood for a fire and erecting their tents. Natalie marveled at their energy. She could barely lift her hands to her face.

  “That is the single craziest story I ever heard, and if anyone but you or Austin told it to me, I would call the guys with the big butterfly nets. But now, being out here, I can imagine almost anything surviving without fear of ever being seen.”

  He leaned close to her, his hand on her knee in a completely platonic, tender gesture. She wasn’t sure what Henrik’s deal was, but she knew he considered her a kind of sister, even though they’d known each other only a few months. Going to hell and back had a tendency to do that to a person. “I want you to keep imagining that. I really feel that a door has been opened since Loch Ness. Almost as if humanity’s third eye has been opened. We’re no longer limited by our blindness.”

  She patted his hand. “If you ever decide to become a preacher, you’re going to have one hell of a congregation. You’ve got me testifying.”

  Austin, who had been finding stones for the fire pit, stopped dead in his tracks. “You guys feel that?”

  “Feel what?” Natalie said.

  Henrik took a small step to the nearest tree, laying his palm flat on the bark.

  “It’s almost like there’s a generator under our feet,” Austin said.

  Then Natalie felt it, too. A deep, distant rumble that could only be felt, not heard.

  They were out where the power lines didn’t run, so that couldn’t be it.

  “What the hell is that?” she said.

  Henrik looked to Oscar, who looked to Surya. All three men wore faces as grave as an undertaker.

  “Shit,” Oscar grumbled. “Goddamn elephants!”

  Chapter Ten

  “Elephants are better than tigers or rhinos, right?” Natalie said, rising to her feet.

  “Not when they’re stampeding,” Oscar grunted, prying the lid off one of the crates. He pulled out a gun that looked like a bazooka.

  “I didn’t come across that one in the notes you gave me,” Austin said to Henrik.

  “You never saw an elephant gun before?” Oscar said, loading bullets larger than a man’s hand. “They’re a bit outdated, but I’m a sucker for the classics.”

  Surya’s men were in a panic.

  Safe to assume elephant stampedes don’t happen often out here, Natalie thought.

  She said, “So what do we do? Climb a tree? Dig a hole? I don’t want to hang around and get turned into a pancake.”

  “Something has them very, very frightened, I am sure,” Surya said, arming himself with a high caliber rifle as well.

  “That’s the understatement of the year,” Oscar barked.

  Austin handed Natalie a gun. She couldn’t remember what kind it was, but it was heavy and looked deadly. He said to Oscar, “Do we just stay here and mow them down?”

  “Heavens no,” Henrik said, calmly slamming a cartridge home in his assault weapon of choice. “We’d never survive. The hope is that our guns frighten them enough to veer them away from our position.”

  Natalie shrugged her shoulders. “Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  The ground shook as they came crashing closer. Their terrified bellows echoed throughout the jungle. Hearing them, feeling them, but not being able to see where they were coming from was absolutely terrifying.

  Oscar said, “Just be ready to run. If we get split up, we meet back here.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Austin said, the muscles in his neck bulging like ropes. “I have no freaking clue where here is.”

  Henrik coolly added, “Just follow the path the elephants are sure to make. They’re better and fast than bulldozers.”

  Natalie’s knees nearly buckled. She wasn’t sure if it was from exhaustion, fear or the rumbling of the earth, which was making it hard to keep her footing.

  Please take a detour. Please take a detour. Nothing to see here. No need to trample the Orang Pendek hunters.

  She hadn’t noticed the porters taking their machetes to the brush behind them, clearing a bit of a path for their escape. At least it gave them some room to step back and see which way the elephants were going. Bambang handed his machete over to her.

  “No, you keep it,” she said.

  He shook his head, refusing to let her give it back to him.

  “They’re definitely headed straight for us,” Oscar said, taking a blind shot with the elephant gun. The report was deafening. Henrik fired off a few rounds as well. Then Austin joined in.

  “Is it doing anything?”

  The look Oscar flashed her didn’t ease her fears.

  They all stepped back as far as they could go, until their backs were against the endless wall of vegetation. Natalie almost tripped over an exposed root as thick as her calf. Austin reached out and grabbed her by her shirt.

  “I’m shitting myself. Is anyone else shitting themselves?” she asked.

  “I think it’s safe to say we’re all going to need a change of pants,” her brother said, eyes locked dead ahead.

  There came a great crashing of branches and trees, centuries old oaks snapping like dry toothpicks. The jungle tableau swayed back and forth in anticipation of the runaway freight train of excited pachyderms.

  Now, even Natalie joined in their desperate attempt to scare them off with firepower. The gun’s kickback smashed the stock into her ribs. She didn’t feel a thing. Abject fear had made her numb.

  When the first elephant broke through, rearing its trunk with an ear splitting roar, she could only stare with mute horror. Everyone had stopped firing their weapons.

  She felt a hand at her collar, someone tugging her backwards.

  Natalie couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

  A second, third, fourth and so many more elephants came crashing into view, their eyes wild not with terror but unadulterated menace.

  Because they weren’t alone.

  Riding atop each wild elephant was a small, orange-haired being that looked like a cross between an orangutan and a man.

  The Orang Pendek rode the elephant herd right at them, crying out with beastly wails that turned her bowels to water.

  Austin was screaming in her ear. “Run, Nat, run!”

  His voice jerked her from her paralysis. She noticed everyone in their party taking off in different directions, machetes whistling insanely as they fought to penetrate the dense jungle.

  An elephant trumpeted, and was quickly answered by the rest of the pack. They didn’t sound happy.

  With Austin pushing her forward, Natalie slipped between two evergreens, leaping over a huge boulder that had settled into the ground millennia ago. Austin’s gun blurted a hail of cover fire as they ran. Low hanging vines slashed her face and arms as she fought to run deeper, ever deeper, the Orang Pendek and their elephants close behind, carving an impossibly loud and deadly path through the rain forest to get them.

  “What…the fuck…is going on!” she blurted, panting and slashing, eyes looking everywhere but seeing nothing, which was a good thing. Any flash of gray flesh or orange fur meant they were in imminent danger of cashing everything in.

  “Did you see that? Did you fucking see that?”

  Austin was using controlled bursts to keep the elephants at bay, or at least slow them down. She heard more shots in the fading distance, along with a man’s horrid scream. She didn’t need to see to know it was the sound of a man dying.

  They ran for their lives. What was at their backs was almost too impossible to conceive, and that’s a
fter they had battled a writhing mass of Loch Ness Monsters!

  Henrik said the Orang Pendek were intelligent. But smart enough to tame elephants, turning them into goddamn tanks?

  “We’re not going to die out here,” she shouted, skidding around a tree and finding a small break in the vegetation they could squirt through. “No freaking way.”

  Austin remained silent, obviously not feeling quite as optimistic.

  Her lungs burned. It felt like she’d swallowed a lit bowl of gasoline.

  Austin grabbed her arm, stopping her.

  “You hear that?” he said, chest heaving.

  “Hear what?”

  “Exactly.”

  The thundering sounds of the elephants and the trees they were toppling had ceased. She also couldn’t hear gunshots or men screaming.

  “Where did they go?” she whispered, terrified to break the sudden, unsettling silence.

  “Damned if I know.”

  Austin scanned the surrounding jungle, his gun at the ready. Natalie did the same.

  Then the mumbling started.

  Low. Guttural. Nonsense words being barked…no, coughed, all around them. It was like being surrounded by a crowd of people speaking a foreign language, albeit one that was pretty rough around the edges, like a garbled German.

  “Okay, now what the hell is that?” Natalie said, feeling her stomach crawl somewhere near her esophagus.

  “Who’s there?”

  “Nuuughhhk, Oot. Gunuuuhh hut!”

  The voices were everywhere. If Natalie didn’t know any better, she’d swear they were surrounded.

  Elephants didn’t talk. Not in the sense of the way humans talk.

  Was she hearing the language of the Orang Pendek?

  Most of all, what the hell were they saying?

  Her finger slipped over the trigger, ready to blast anything that came near. In fact, why wait for whatever was around them to come to them? Why not give them a mighty big incentive to make themselves scarce?

  “Let’s just shoot in a circle,” she said. “I’ll take this side, you take that. If those things are off their elephants, they’re vulnerable. Just aim low, if everything Henrik has told us is true.”

  “I’m game. Just give a countdown.”

  They moved close to one another until they were back to back.

  Natalie said through clenched teeth, “On three. One….two…”

  The jungle came alive with the sounds of furious hooting and hollering, the branches of the trees above them shaking madly.

  Austin looked up, taking a few quick shots. “Good thing we didn’t aim low!”

  There was nothing to do but run. Natalie traded her gun for the machete, once again slicing a path for them to escape.

  But escape to where?

  They sprinted as fast as the forest would allow, the creatures never far behind, now above them as well. Austin even tossed a couple of grenades. Sure, they made a big bang, but there was no way to tell if they downed any of their intended targets.

  Natalie nearly wept with relief when they spilled out into an open clearing.

  But her relief was short-lived.

  BACK TO NOW

  Chapter Eleven

  What emerged from the forest should not be there.

  No. In no uncertain terms should the sight before Austin McQueen be possible.

  He instinctively pulled Natalie behind him. She was muttering but none of it made any sense. Like him, the wiring of her brain was misfiring like the engine of an old Chevy Chevette.

  He hefted one of the grenades, his hand slick with sweat. The creature was too far away for him to throw it with any accuracy. And he certainly didn’t want to miss. If he did, they were dead.

  “Is…is that what I think it is?” Natalie said.

  “Unless you think it’s Barney, yes, it is. What is this place? Skull Island?”

  The beast stopped just as it broke through the line of trees, sniffing the air. It stood on its powerful hind legs at over twenty feet, with a massive head that tapered to a wide mouth filled with the biggest, sharpest teeth he’d ever seen. Its thick hide was rust colored, with irregular dark stripes running along its back and tail.

  Like all boys, Austin had grown up enthralled by dinosaurs. There was a period when he couldn’t get enough of them, memorizing as many facts as he could, taking in new theories as to their coloring, plumage, and even demise like a sponge as soon as they came out. Some things you never forget.

  “Were T. Rexes fast?” Natalie asked.

  Austin knew his mouth was wide open. His body had gone numb. “That’s not a T. Rex. It’s a Majungasaurus. At least I think it is. They were prime predators. Nothing stood a chance against them. And because they were smaller than a T. Rex, they’re supposed to be even faster.”

  She looked behind them, to the space where they’d emerged from the jungle. “Well, now we know why those Orang Pendek didn’t follow us out here. Do you think we can make it back without big and bitey catching up to us?”

  “I have no frigging idea. No one has ever seen a Majungasaurus hunt their prey. Everything we know about dinosaurs comes from fossils and theories. I would hazard a guess and say that we’re pretty much screwed.”

  Natalie hefted her gun, aiming at the not too distant Majungasaurus.

  “So it’s safe to say that big guy has never seen the likes of us before…or these.” She rattled her gun.

  “I’d put good money on it, yes.”

  “Well then, maybe we have a bit of an advantage. Were dinosaurs smart?”

  He shook his head. “They were animals of instinct. Even the big ones like him had brains the size of a bird’s.”

  “Then this should be easy as shooting Majungasauruses in a barrel.”

  Before he could stop her, she took three shots at the dinosaur. It flinched as the bullets hit home. The prehistoric beast roared in pain, anger, frustration, or a combination of all three. Austin had no idea of knowing which. Paleontology was pretty short on dinosaur sounds and the emotions they conveyed. Pretty short meaning they had zilch.

  The dinosaur stepped back into the trees, crouching and letting out a chest-rattling cry.

  Natalie took aim and pulled the trigger again. Austin saw a tree right next to the dinosaur’s head splinter. It plunged even deeper, until only its snout was visible.

  Natalie turned to him with a triumphant grin.

  “Now he’s more scared of us than we are of him.”

  “You’re out of your mind, Nat. You could have only provoked it.”

  “You know me. I hate overthinking things. So, where to now?”

  Austin considered their options. They couldn’t go north, not with the wounded and unhappy Majungasaurus lying in wait for them. East and west was more unexplored jungle. They had no provisions. Just guns and the couple of grenades Austin had snatched out of one of the crates when he saw the Orang Pendek driven elephants break through their camp. Delving deeper into the unknown would just lead to a slower death.

  “If there’s one Majungasaurus, there have to be more,” he said, more to himself. “They could be anywhere.”

  “We did agree to meet back at camp,” Natalie reminded him.

  Austin deflated. “One, since they stopped riding the elephants, we don’t have a clear path back. And two, those Orang Pendek could still be there, waiting for us.”

  Natalie started walking back to where they’d come. “Or three, those hairy orange bastards were herding us so we could be a quick snack for big and ugly out there. They may have assumed we were dead the moment we stepped into that clearing and just headed on home.”

  Austin didn’t move. His brain was on overload, while his body was sending out warnings that the reserves in the tank were running low.

  “We’re dead no matter which way we choose,” he said.

  “I’d rather take my chances and go back to where there’s food and water and shelter. I told you, we’re not dying out here.”

  He walk
ed with her back into the jungle, pausing to listen for any of that weird chattering. All they heard were birds and monkeys chirping and chittering away.

  “I could really go for a beer right now,” he said. They took it slowly, neither of them having the strength to jog, much less run. Every now and then, they saw evidence of their mad dash, so he knew they were on the right track.

  “Check with Oscar. He looks like the kind of guy who has a stash of booze somewhere,” Natalie said.

  Twenty minutes later, they came upon several newly downed trees. The ground vegetation was pressed flat. “Guess we found where the elephants stopped and circled back,” he said. His chest felt a little lighter, hope buoying his spirits. It was impossible to miss the trail of destruction.

  By the time they found the camp, it was almost nightfall. At one point, they heard the growl of what sounded like a tiger to their left. It didn’t sound close, but it also didn’t sound far away enough for comfort.

  With the heavy tree cover, it was nearly impossible to see in the gloom. But it was hard to miss what awaited them.

  Natalie pulled back, her hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp.

  Austin felt all of that hope deflate in an instant.

  “Goddamn.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Henrik awoke with an intense headache. He tried to open his eyes, but even the meager light that seeped through his cracked lids was too much to bear.

  He tried to move his hands to cradle his head but found they wouldn’t budge.

  In fact, he couldn’t move any part of his body.

  Forget the pain!

  He opened his eyes wide, almost wishing he were unconscious again.

  A large, flat rock had been placed over his body, its weight just enough to pin him down without crushing him. The only parts sticking out from under the rock were his head and feet. The porous rock at his back had innumerable sharp edges. He felt like a butterfly pinned to a corkboard.

  How had he gotten here?

  Henrik struggled, but it was to no avail. He was wedged in good. There was no way to wriggle free.