“Nah . . . Here, look at my new tattoo.” The Samoan presented his left forearm for her to see.
Logan stepped closer to get a look. The tattoo looked like the exact picture of Natasha with a rose in her hair that Meat had drawn the day they arrived in Patagonia. His skin was a bit red around the tattoo’s edge, but the image itself was one of the clearest and most detailed he’d ever seen.
“It’s . . . It’s me. Wow. Clint, what made you do that? Why’d you put me on your arm?” Natasha asked, surprised, but sounding more honored than creeped out.
Logan was creeped out.
“The other day after our talk about Shiva destroying so that Brahma can create, and how you told me our bodies are made up of dead stars, it . . . it gave me a new way to think about life. That meant something to me. So, I wanted to have a picture of you with me at all times—for inspiration. To remind me that the basics of life are wondrous and how I need to look beyond only what my eyes can see,” Meat said.
“I’m so glad we had the talk, then. And, I’m honored by your tattoo,” Natasha said.
“You folks about ready?” Caveman walked up behind Logan.
“Y’all go ahead. I’ll catch up.” Matt had his canteen out and was in the process of filling it. He still needed to don his backpack.
“Come on,” Caveman said. “I’m ready to see some more of them critters.”
Logan didn’t feel good about leaving without Matt, and thought it seemed like Matt was purposely delaying departure. Then he saw Matt remove a small tube of toothpaste from his pocket, put some on his finger, and rub it across his teeth. Natasha certainly wasn’t without her admirers this trip.
Logan shook his head and followed after Meat and Natasha.
“Hey,” Caveman said as he walked by Logan’s side. “You heard what they called the first gay dinosaur?”
Okay, here we go. Was this cretin trying to get under his skin or was he in his own way trying to make friends? “No, I don’t know what they called the first gay dinosaur. But I’m afraid I’m about to.”
“Ha, well, the first gay dinosaur . . . they called it, the Mega-sore-ass.” Caveman barely finished the sentence before breaking out in laughter. “Get it? Sore-ass.”
“Oh yes, I got it,” Logan said, thinking the joke would be popular with preteens.
“How about the first lesbian dinosaur?” Caveman asked.
“Uh, do we have—”
“It was called the Lick-a-lota-puss.” Caveman giggled uncontrollably and turned a slight shade of pink.
Logan didn’t really find the jokes offensive and didn’t think Caveman had any malicious intent behind them. The mercenary’s laughter was particularly infectious. Logan started giggling, too.
Chapter 14
“So then, we’re about halfway to the creek according to the GPS, when I hear something rustling the grass.” Matt downed a slug of water and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I freeze and motion for Caveman, who was bringing up the rear, to be ready.”
Open MRE bags littered the table. Most everyone had finished eating. Matt, though, still had half his entrée left. He had been too excited to finish his food before recounting the morning’s adventure.
“I made sure Natasha was behind me. You know, in case we were attacked. I had my pistol out, so did Logan, and Natasha was ready to shoot whatever it was with her camera. Finally, this thing comes from around a clump of trees so we can see it. At first, I thought it was a pig,” Matt said.
“If it were a pig we’d be eating ham sandwiches for lunch,” Caveman said.
Alex closed his eyes and shook his head. Matt realized the professor was doing his best to keep the peace and ignore the mercenary.
Caveman must have noticed Alex’s reaction, because he said, “What? I ain’t supposed to kill dinosaurs. Nobody said nothing about killing an ordinary pig.”
Alex grabbed his MRE bag and crumpled it in his hand. He must have felt the bag wasn’t empty and opened it back up. A small packet of food had remained, and whatever it was, Alex thought it valuable enough to save for later. He put the packet in his front pocket.
“Yeah, well, I don’t think we’ll be seeing any pigs on this trip. Anyway, this thing is the size of a small pig—around three feet. It’s eating plants and doesn’t seem to know we’re around. It’s gray in color, and in reality, it looked more like a hippo than a pig.” Matt jabbed a meatball with his spork, brought it to his mouth, and bit half of it off. He chewed quickly, and continued, “Natasha shot a few pictures before it caught wind of us and trotted off. I looked it up on my satellite phone. It’s called a Phosphatherium. Turns out, it’s an ancestor of the elephant, not hippos or pigs.”
“Elephant, the other white meat…” Caveman said. The pun hung in the air without comment.
“That was a cool thing to see.” Matt finished the other half of the meatball. “There was more. A lot more. Not everything would get close enough to give us a good look.”
“Yeah, there were tons of pterosaurs hiding in the trees. It was hard to notice them at first,” Logan said. “The smaller ones migrate to the lower branches. I saw one eating insects, and it was just a little larger than my hand.”
“I read all pterosaurs eat insects, in the early stages of life. The larger ones move up to small reptiles and fish. They’ll even eat carrion,” Alex said.
“The small pterosaur looked like a toy,” Logan continued. “They varied in shapes, sizes, and colors—nothing exotic, mind you. We didn’t see anything larger than an emu, which was scary large enough. I think humans might be too big of a threat for the ones we encountered.”
“Right before we got to the creek, I heard something really large in the woods,” Natasha said. “Clint had his rifle ready when the thing lumbered into view. It must have been eight feet long and around three feet high. It reminded me of a cross between a toad and a lizard. I don’t think it was very smart. Its skin looked thick, like some type of armor. It passed a few feet from us and never bothered to even look our way.”
“I looked it up later and found out it’s an Ankylosaur—but get this. This species is called a minmi,” Matt said.
“Mini-Me?” Ben said. He raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips, slowly bringing his little finger up to the bottom of his mouth. “Did Doctor E-vil offer you . . . one million dollars for the Mini-me?”
“Not Mini-Me, goofball. Minmi. Named after a location where its fossils were found,” Matt said, thinking it had been a while since Ben had acted his usual clown self with the crew. Ben had been spending more time with the Redwater men. Now that his audience was cut in half, he had to go back to his old ways to get attention.
“What about the creek?” Susan asked.
“The creek is beautiful. It’s only about twenty feet wide and has the clearest water I’ve ever seen. The bank is rocky, and you can walk on rocks into the creek a little ways. I doubt the deepest part is over your head. Not sure of the temperature, but it was warm to the touch. Even if it’s a spring feed creek the magma is so close to the Earth’s surface it’d warm it up,” Matt said.
“Did you see much wildlife? Any fish?” Susan asked.
“Saw several small theropods by the water’s edge when we got there. They scattered. There were minnow sized fish in the area, so I guess they were fishing. On the other side of the bank, a Protoceratops and family came down for a drink. But I guess the most unique creature we saw was this four footed mammal that reminded me a lot of a medium sized dog. It had fur, and its face was longer than a canine’s. Get this, it’s called a Pakicetus, and it’s the ancestor to modern whales,” Matt said.
“Bullshit,” Caveman voiced in a mock sneeze. “There ain’t no way I’m ever gonna believe that something the size of a dog lived on land and growed flippers and swole up to the size of an eighteen wheeler. What proof is there for scientists to think that?”
“I read that the inner ear of the Pakicetus is similar to that of whales. Beyond that, I don’t kno
w,” Matt said.
“That’s all they got? The inner ear? I might have been born at night, but I wasn’t born last night.” Caveman rose from his chair, and said, “Shit’s getting deep in here,” and then stormed off.
“I don’t know about the shit getting deep, but I’m tired of hearing about all the stuff you saw. I’m ready to head out and see some stuff for myself,” Ben said.
“All right then, Ron and I’ll get our guns and—” Chief started.
“I’ve got the water backpacks and most of our stuff right over there—ready to go.” Ben popped up from his seat and headed to the pile of equipment off to the side.
“I’ll get our cameras and hats,” Alex said and rose from the table, and then headed into the front cabin.
He returned a couple of minutes later with his hands full. He went over and gave Susan her things, and said, “I’m going to fill up the canteen.” Alex turned and left.
The day was bright, but the perpetual vapor cloud overhead played tricks with the lighting at times. It reminded Alex of the wintertime when the Earth shifted on its axis—deflecting the sun’s rays. He could see just fine, but it was as if his eyes hungered for a bit more light.
Another day would come and go, and another day he would miss Natasha’s sweet embrace. A time or two at lunch he felt a compulsion just to stand, pull Natasha up by the hand, and take her in his arms in front of everyone—right in the middle of Matt droning on and on about what they saw earlier. He tried to imagine the surprised expression on the associate professor’s face had he done that. Susan’s reaction, too, for that matter. Fuck Matt. Fuck Susan. Fuck Caveman and everyone else on this goddamned trip.
Alex reached the rear cabin and twisted off the canteen’s top. The remainder of the water was warm, but he felt too guilty to pour it out. So he drank what was left in the canteen and filled it back with chilled water from the reservoir. From his front pocket, Alex pulled out the food pack that he’d saved from lunch. He opened the top and shook out a few peanuts into his hand. A good amount of salt fell out with the peanuts. He popped them in his mouth and ate them. Funny, peanuts weren’t nuts at all. Peanuts were legumes and grew underground—not like true nuts. Nuts grow on trees and are contained in a hard shell.
Susan wasn’t allergic to any other legume, or anything else, for that matter. Alex ate a few more nuts and drank from his canteen. It would have truly been a shame if Alex had been allergic to peanuts. Peanuts were about his favorite snack.
Alex brushed the salt from his hands and worked a piece of nut from between his teeth with is tongue. Then, he emptied the pack of nuts, and stuck the package in his shirt pocket.
*
The group of five had traveled just out of sight of the Warthog. Chief took the lead, and Ron brought up the rear. Ben had drifted away from Alex and Susan, and finally walked along side of Ron.
So far, Alex had only spotted a pterosaur resting in a tree. Now he wondered if the earlier group had frightened the wildlife away.
Susan basically acted like he wasn’t there. Twenty years of marriage and right now he hardly even seemed to know who she was. It was a saddening thought. Two people that had once been so much in love they couldn’t stand a minute apart, now couldn’t stand a minute together. At least she wasn’t making this trip worse by being mean to him. Of course, if she did have any interest in Chief, which Alex thought he gave more credence to than the reality of the situation, she wouldn’t want to taint her image in front of him.
Susan came to a stop, raised her binoculars, and then headed toward a low-lying branch of a nearby tree.
She had obviously found something. Alex followed her and then looked and saw that Chief had come to a stop and was checking out the area. Ben was pointing up to a treetop, and Ron craned his head as if to see.
Susan snapped a couple of pictures of the tree trunk. She backed away when Alex arrived, and he saw what caught her eye. A tiny flower of some sort grew between the tree trunk and where the limb branched off. She stared at it like she was mesmerized by a precious jewel.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “So tiny in a savage world of giants.”
In that instant Susan transformed in Alex’s eyes back to when they had first met—the carefree young woman who still believed in the magic of life—untainted by harsh cruelties of the world and the disappointments from the people who she loved. She was pretty back then, and she was almost that pretty now. Only the enchantment of youth was missing.
“Where did we go wrong, Susan?” Alex asked.
The serene expression disappeared from Susan’s face as she narrowed her eyes toward him. “Really, you pick now to talk about something like this?”
“I just—”
“Spare me. This whole trip you haven’t engaged me in two sentences of personal conversation—just like at home. We’re out here to sightsee and get water. If you want to talk we can do that later on tonight. I’m around. I’m always around. You always find some excuse not to spend time with me.”
The nostalgia of better times popped like a soap bubble. Would making the effort to save his marriage actually work? To do that, he’d have to break up with Natasha for good. He’d have to give up his passion for Cryptozoology—essentially killing the special things that gave him reasons to live now.
Alex nodded and saw that Chief was on the move again.
They had been gone nearly a half hour before Alex heard the mirth of the running creek. So far, if it hadn’t been for pterosaurs nesting in trees, this excursion would have been a total bust for sightseeing. As it was, he was jaded to the winged reptiles by now.
Chief walked up to the side of the creek and scanned the area. He then removed his water backpack to begin filling it.
“Susan, stay with me a minute,” Alex said, and grabbed Susan’s hand.
She looked at him, her brow furrowing.
Alex waited for Ron and Ben to pass and reach the creek’s bank, which was about ten yards away, before he continued to speak. “I just want to say this. I really did love you—back in the beginning. I still held on to that love as I pursued my passion for Cryptozoology, and you did everything you could to kill my dreams. I want you to know that I harbor the same type of love now as I did then. I want to be happy, and I want you to be happy. I am going to do what it takes to make sure we both find that happiness in life.” Alex wrapped his arms around Susan and gave her a big hug. He looked over and saw the other three filling their water backpacks.
Ben looked back and gave him a sly smile and a nod.
Alex gave Susan a long kiss and released his embrace.
“Alex . . . I wasn’t expecting that,” she said, a little out of breath. Her mouth hung slightly open, and then her lips formed a shy smile.
Alex winked and removed his canteen from his belt, opened the top, and drank. He handed Susan the canteen.
She brushed the hair away from the side of her face and took a swallow. Her nose scrunched in obvious disgust. “This tastes salty.”
Alex shrugged his shoulders and took the canteen.
“Come on. I need to fill my backpack.” Alex turned and took a few steps before he heard Susan gag, but didn’t stop.
Then he heard a loud gasp as she struggled to breathe. The raspy sound was loud enough for Chief and the others by the creek to look his way.
Alex turned in time to see his wife’s mouth contorted in a silent scream as she fell to the ground, her body flailing.
“Susan!” Alex hollered. He let the backpack drop from his shoulders and rushed to her side. “Susan! Susan! Help!”
Chief was the first to arrive and slid down beside her. “What is it? What’s happening?”
“I don’t know! She can’t breathe! She’s having a seizure!” Alex said in a panic.
Susan frothed at the mouth, and her lips were swollen. Her face began to lose color and then it bloomed soft lavender.
Chief immediately started CPR, having no luck forcing a breath into her lungs.
> “Her Epi-Pen! It’s in the front cabin!” Alex stood as if to retrieve it.
“Stay here! I’ll get it!” Ben shouted as he turned and ran for the Warthog.
“Oh, my God, Susan!” Alex hyperventilated.
Ron laid his hand on Alex’s should. “Chief’s got her. It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.”
Chief frantically did everything he could to save Susan from dying. The end came quickly. Her body stopped shaking as if she was being electrocuted and the power had been suddenly shut off.
The field medic continued CPR far longer than Alex thought necessary. In the frenzy, he heard some of Susan’s ribs crack during chest compressions.
Exhausted, Chief fell on his back and struggled to fill his lungs with air.
Alex leaned over Susan, pressing his cheek to hers, and cried uncontrollably.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Ron said in a whisper, patting the grieving man on the back.
*
“Natasha, what happened to your arm?” Matt said, pointing to her left forearm.
She raised her arm and peered down. “Yeah, I scraped it on a tree on the trip this morning. I had forgotten about it. It’s okay.”
“Yeah, but we shouldn’t take any chances,” Matt said, and then headed into the front cabin. “Who knows what kind of bacteria we’re dealing with out here,” he spoke loud enough for her to hear.
“You’re right,” Natasha said.
Matt stepped out of the front cabin, carrying an alcohol wipe and an adhesive bandage. He ripped the antiseptic open using his teeth to hold the package in place and pulled out the wipe. “This might sting a bit.”
“I’m a big girl. It’ll be okay,” Natasha said.
“Yeah, too bad I don’t have a sucker to give you afterward.” Matt gently wiped the wound.
Logan walked in under the canopy. He stopped and bit his lower lip. “What’s going on?”
“The great huntress has an owie,” Matt said.
“Is it bad?” Logan asked.
“It’s just a scratch. Nothing to worry about,” Natasha said.
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