by Shea, Hunter
“And I used to think getting eaten by a Loch Ness Monster would be my worst nightmare.”
At least with the dinosaur, the end would come quickly.
Her legs wanted to run, run as fast and far as they could, but her brain knew that would only end with a quick sprint to a wall, the dinosaur chomping at her back.
Neither moved.
Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance it was full and had no use for her. If she remained perfectly still, would it eventually forget her? But then what? How long could she stand there like a frozen mime?
Her legs started to shake.
She was tired and weak and terrified.
So no, she wouldn’t be able to play the statue for long.
Sniffing the air, the dinosaur jerked its head in her direction. One of its hind legs scratched at the mud, almost like a bull before it charged. It craned its head back to the pile of its recent kills.
Go on, Dino, finish your dinner. Maybe choke on a bone while you’re at it.
As if it could read her mind, it stomped over to the gory mess and resumed pulling stray bits of nastiness, tipping its head back to swallow them whole.
The horrid stench of offal was carried by a rare breeze, assaulting her nose. It put her fear in overdrive, thinking that’s exactly how she smelled inside and how soon she’d be joining the aromatic parade.
Unable to control it, she peed for the second time today, great rivers twisting down her thighs.
The dinosaur’s head snapped up, the top of a skull flipping off its snout.
It slowly turned to look at her, nostrils flaring, captivated by the scent of her urine.
“Please, no…I’m not here. That’s not me you’re smelling.”
It roared.
Natalie almost fainted. The moment it sprang into a jog, she turned and ran. With nowhere to go, she was just delaying the inevitable.
It was better than facing the beast as it devoured her bit by bit.
Chapter Thirty
“Looks like he shot Lucille in the arm,” Oscar said, careful not to get too close to the ape woman.
“Lucille?” Austin said.
Henrik scowled. “Yes. He’s given them names.”
Austin kept the two male Orang Pendeks in his sights. Henrik was right about one thing. If he tried to shoot them, he’d only end up shooting a weeping Surya. However, if they decided to rip him in half, Austin would have dibs on taking them down.
His German friend locked his eyes on the Orang Pendeks, slowly crouching next to the female on the ground. It made a low groaning noise, hairy hand clamped over the wound.
“I’m just going to take a look and see what we’re dealing with here,” Henrik said in his calmest, most soothing tone.
When he tried to touch its hand – Lucille’s hand – she moved away, baring her teeth at him. The two holding Surya must have applied more pressure to his arms because he let out a scream just a pitch under a dog whistle. His porters looked ready to spring onto the Orang Pendeks, even Hengki who desperately needed a hospital bed.
Oscar motioned for everyone to remain cool.
“Let’s let Henrik work it out,” he said.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I only want to help,” Henrik said, keeping up a steady flow of chatter. It was almost as if he were trying to hypnotize her.
Austin was pretty sure he hadn’t drawn a breath in over a minute. He desperately wanted to get back on Natalie’s trail, but there was no rushing this pivotal moment. There was no doubt the humans would be the ones to walk away if there was a battle, but he didn’t want it to cost anyone’s life.
“What did you name the other ones?” he asked Oscar.
“Luke and Dragline.”
“Where the hell did you get those names?”
“Cool Hand Luke.”
“Never heard of it.”
Oscar grimaced. “I weep for your generation.”
Henrik had somehow gotten Lucille to show him the wound. The man was an Orang Pendek whisperer. Then again, he seemed to be able to talk anyone into anything. They were all here in the middle of madness, weren’t they?
“It looks like the bullet grazed her arm. Do we have any bandages?”
Austin reluctantly put his gun down, unslinging his pack from his shoulders. “How about disinfectant?”
Hernik shook his head sharply. “I don’t want to hurt her any worse. Perhaps some water instead, just to clean it out a bit.”
Austin warily stepped toward the wounded Lucille, the two Orang Pendeks sneering at him. Surya mumbled something that sounded like a prayer, sweat streaming down his face.
He handed a roll of gauze and canteen to Henrik. “Thank you.”
Backing away, he kept his eyes on Luke and Dragline.
Lucille hissed when Henrik poured water on the neat slice in her arm, but didn’t pull his arm out of the socket. That was a good sign. She even let him wrap the gauze around her arm. When he was done, he stood up, offering his hand to help her do the same. She sniffed his hand, then stood up on her own.
Instantly, her companions let Surya go. He crumpled to the ground in tears. Ridwan and Saharto rushed over to pull him away.
“I think as long as we agree not to shoot at them again, we should be all right,” Henrik said.
In fact, the trio of Orang Pendeks resumed their steady march through the jungle.
“Keep your finger on the trigger guard,” Oscar said to Austin. “I don’t think we’ll get so lucky the second time.”
“Look, all I saw was them before. How the hell was I supposed to know they were your friends?”
“I wouldn’t exactly call us friends.”
Surya, recovered a bit and massaging his shoulders, said, “Friends do not try to break their arms.”
Henrik reminded him, “They could have easily done so and didn’t. It shows a level of trust, even though we had shot one of them.”
Ridwan gave Surya a canteen, which he drank deeply from.
This shit just keeps getting stranger and stranger, Austin thought. First they have Orang Pendeks trying to stomp them out with elephants, then they snatch Natalie away, and now they were letting them lead them to where?
“Surya, ask your men if they’re still on the same trail we were following before.”
The guide spoke rapidly to his men. “They say yes.”
They say yes.
“Have you wondered why they’re helping us?” Austin asked Henrik.
“It’s his winning smile,” Oscar joked.
“I’m wondering many, many things,” Henrik said. “And I’m having to rethink my entire approach to avenging my father’s death. It’s a struggle not to be overwhelmed by it all.”
Austin knew Henrik enough to realize it was best to let him be and piece everything together without interruption. Henrik was a fascinating person, possessing a mind that was often five steps ahead of most. Being behind the eight ball out here must be quite the shock to his system.
The rain didn’t return, but the temperature had to have risen above triple digits, even her, under the shade of the trees and cloudy skies above them. Even so, Austin didn’t pay it much attention. He only had one thing on his mind – Natalie.
“Please be all right.”
“What was that?” Oscar said.
“Nothing. Just talking out loud.”
They walked for hours, though the Orang Pendeks did find the easier way of getting through the rain forest. Their machetes had less and less to do, the further they traveled.
The one Oscar called Luke suddenly started chattering, running ahead of his comrades.
“Good news or bad?” Austin asked.
Ridwan put a hand on his shoulder, as if to tell him to keep quiet. Even when Henrik replied, he did so at a whisper. “Pray for good, prepare for bad.”
Austin held his rifle in one hand, the strap over his right shoulder, and a grenade in the other. He noticed Oscar went with the rifle, bowie knife combo. He looked like a ha
nd-to-hand combat kind of guy.
Lucille approached Henrik as if beckoning him to follow, which he did. She kept looking back to make sure he was right behind her. Dragline pulled up right behind Henrik as they plunged to wherever Luke had disappeared.
“I don’t like this,” Oscar hissed. “They’ve got Henrik pinned in tight. It’s almost like they know we won’t attack them with him so close.”
Austin hurried to follow them. “They’re a hell of a lot smarter than we’re giving them credit for.”
They brushed past what appeared to be a garden of massive rafflesia, reddish plants, some of them three feet in diameter. To Austin, they looked like small beds. Natalie had been obsessed with them when she was studying up on the Sumatran rain forest. They were some of the biggest plants in the world.
But they also reeked of rotting meat. The men coughed and gagged, eager to get away from them.
Breaking through the tree line, they found Henrik standing on a cliff, flanked by the Orang Pendeks.
“It’s…it’s amazing,” Henrik said.
Laid out before them was a sprawling, ancient city, stone structures covered in moss and vines.
“Is that…” Austin said, gaping.
Henrik nodded. “Yes, I believe that is Gadang Ur.”
Austin was speechless. A part of him had thought there was no such thing. Gadang Ur was a fantasy, very much like Atlantis. Who the hell would build a city in the middle of a rain forest?
And it wasn’t an empty city.
They could plainly see a gathering of shapes, too small to make out from here, on the outskirts of the city. Luke got anxious again, gesturing toward the crowd that was standing around a giant ring.
“I believe that’s what they brought us here for,” Henrik said, eyes glittering like a child’s on Christmas morning.
“What, to be swarmed by a horde of them?” Oscar said, heaving a glob of phlegm on the ground.
“I…don’t…know.”
The Orang Pendeks began scrabbling down the hill. Henrik blindly followed. Oscar grabbed Austin by the ammo belt over his chest.
“Keep a close eye out…for anything.”
“I just want to find my sister and get the hell out. I don’t give a damn about Gadang Ur or killing Orang Pendeks at this point.”
He was surprised to find Surya and his men behind them. It would be far easier for them to remain on the hill and wait for their return, if they could return. If not, they could trace their way back to the camp and get the hell out.
“Surya, you don’t have to,” Austin said.
Surya said, “I said the same thing, but the men believe in Henrik. They think there is something different about him, I am sure. Almost like magic. It’s why the Orang Pendek have made him one of their own.”
Oscar laughed. “Henrik magic? That’s a laugh.”
Austin was glad for their company. They all had guns and he’d need their help.
Natalie had to be there. Now it was a matter of finding her and forcing their way out.
Hang on, Nat. We’re almost there.
Chapter Thirty-One
Natalie ran as hard as she could, stealing glances behind her just to be sure that the dinosaur was still hot on her heels and a hair away from making her dessert. As if it was simply going to stop and let her go. Tears streamed down her face as she pushed her legs to the limit. She may as well empty the tank because there was no more tomorrow after this.
She turned forward a second before she smacked face-first into the steep pit wall. The blow knocked her backward. It felt as if she’d been dealt an uppercut by the heavyweight champion of the universe. Natalie hit the mud, the breath exploding from her lungs a second before the charging dinosaur made a final leap for her fleeing form.
It sailed over her and smashed the top of its head into the wall with a bone crunching crash. She cringed as the massive body fell, just missing her. It was her first lucky break of the day, for if it had collapsed on her, she would have been flattened in an instant. Coughing and gasping for breath, she rolled away as quickly as she could. On her knees, she watched in mute enthrallment as the dinosaur twitched, blood leaking from the tiny earhole on the side of its head.
Holy mother, it just brained itself!
She couldn’t believe it.
The dinosaur was down for the count. It rasped deeply, each breath getting more and more shallow until its chest practically caved in on itself.
Now on her feet, she backed as far away from the creature as she could. She looked up. The Orang Pendeks watching above her were utterly and eerily silent.
I think I just ruined their fun.
Natalie looked at their faces but could detect nothing. There was no sense whether they would cry out in anger or cheer for the conquering human or swarm into the pit and do for themselves what they’d sent their little pet to accomplish.
Something squished beneath her foot. She had stepped into the edge of gore of the savaged Orang Pendeks, a flayed flap of hairy skin now stuck to her heel. Gagging, she jerked her leg madly until the skin flicked off.
To her utter shock, and this was becoming a common occurrence, the Orang Pendeks along the pit simply turned away from the spectacle and disappeared one by one. The jolt of adrenaline that had flushed through her system was bleeding off quickly. Her whole body shook as if she were standing naked in the Arctic. Head reeling, she made sure she was well clear of the pile of dead Orang Pendeks and sat down with her back against the pit wall.
How long before the Orang Pendeks came back with another prehistoric creature that wanted nothing more than to grind her up into mincemeat? Or they could shove an angry rhino into the pit. Or maybe even one of those rare Sumatran tigers. Anything was possible at this point.
Everything but the hope of getting out of here alive. Even if Austin was able to find her, what hope did they have of getting out of Gadang Ur and finding their way back to civilization?
The odds were slimmer than a runway model’s waistline.
“I’m not even going to get a decent last meal.”
Maybe, just maybe, this was karma setting things right. She’d spent her entire life burning to avenge her parents’ death at the hand of a legendary cryptid. According to Henrik, their bringing the mythic to the cold light of reality had changed things, making finding the elusive Orang Pendeks seem almost too easy. Was this the world’s way of getting her back for setting a course that should never have been set?
She scratched at the mud, gathering it into a ball and throwing it as hard as she could over the lip of the pit.
“I hope I hit one of you,” she said softly, the strength to talk above a whisper more than she could muster.
Maybe John Lennon was right. Instant karma is gonna get you.
The sky grumbled but there was no rain. Above was a solid wall of gray, with no discernable black storm clouds. Even the sun avoided this place.
One thing was certain. They would be back. What surprise they would bring with them was anyone’s guess. She couldn’t get out of the pit, but she had to find some way to defend herself.
“You’re not going to get so lucky a second time.” She stared at the dead dinosaur, thanking the universe that it was so blind with hunger that it had killed itself.
The breeze shifted. She was downwind from the mess of dead Orang Pendeks. Pinching her nose, she struggled to get up to find her way upwind. If she threw up, she’d really have nothing in the tank.
And that’s when she saw them.
Underneath a coating of flies, some of them big enough for a saddle, were the exposed and jagged bones of the Orang Pendeks.
No! Don’t even think it!
Naturally, they were not the clean, de-fleshed bones in a museum. Great bits of connective tissue and meat still clung to them.
But the leg bones, especially the thighs, would make a good weapon. Well, the best she was going to get down here.
She fought with herself, taking a step toward the miasma, then
back again, chewing on her lip so hard, she was sure she was shredding it. Finally, she crouched down, shaking fingers brushing against a thick, exposed bone. She shrank back at the hot wetness.
“OhGodohGodohGodohGod,” she said, flapping her hand.
An Orang Pendek poked its head over the edge of the pit, possibly curious by her cries to a maker who seemed to have forgotten all about her. Its upper lip curled back to what was a very convincing sneer. It then turned its back on her and walked away.
“Fuck it!”
Using both hands, she extracted what she was pretty sure was a thigh bone with a slight tearing, as it was still partially connected to something under the pile of horrid badness. When it did pop free, she catapulted backwards, landing on her tailbone, strips of meat on the thigh bone smacking her across the chest.
There was no holding back the tide of nausea now.
Crouched on all fours, the bone right next to her, Natalie emptied the contents of what felt like her stomach, liver, spleen and pancreas.
Her limbs locked, stomach dry heaving, she didn’t notice the Orang Pendeks that jumped into the pit, slowly circling about her.
Chapter Thirty-Two
They traversed a well-worn path down the hill to the wooded outskirts of the once mighty city. Henrik had made a decision to place his faith in the three Orang Pendeks, having taken them this far. He heard Oscar and Austin mention more than once that they were being led into a trap.
Yes, that was a possibility, but he gave it smaller and smaller odds as they made their cautious approach. They stopped behind the remains of a wall, great stones scattered about their feet, but still enough of the structure left to hide behind. Even the Orang Pendeks crouched low.
“Now what?” Austin hissed into Henrik’s ear.
“We wait.”
“Wait for what?”
“You would have to ask them.”
The female, Lucille, gingerly touched the bandage on her arm, then looked to them. There was no malice in those deep dark eyes. It was quite amazing, considering the man who had wounded her was within striking distance. Her head swiveled back to the area beyond the wall.