Apocalyptic Pirates 5, page 12
“There’s still no rain,” Ally pointed out. “It might just be thunder and no rain.”
“God, I just want something to break this humidity.” Shannon fanned herself with one of Ally’s magazines.
“Screw this.” Dia leaped to her feet again. “I’m going back on deck. It can’t be any worse than it is down here, and at least out there I can watch the sky.”
She charged up the steps, out of the hatch, and back on to the deck.
We looked at each other and then rose as one to follow her up the steps.
It actually was less oppressive on deck than it had been below, and I sighed in relief as the cooler air hit the still damp skin of my face and sent a delicious chill down my spine.
Dia spun around in the middle of the deck with her arms out.
“You’re just going to make yourself even hotter,” Ally scolded.
“Don’t care!” Dia announced gleefully. “It’s cooler! I can feel a breeze!”
At that moment, lightning suddenly flashed across the leaden gray sky.
Ally jumped, and Dia abruptly stopped her spinning and came to a halt with her arms back down by her sides.
Thunder rumbled out again, and a faint pattering of rain drops thumped down on the deck.
“Rain!” Letty cried.
But no more drops followed that initial shower. Instead, lightning lit up the sky with a brilliant white flash and turned the shoreline starkly black with the outline of the treetops emblazoned on the back of my eyeballs.
Then came the thunder, and with it, a sudden commotion in the trees on the west shore.
A weird grunting, hooting noise filled the air, and the tree leaves shook and rustled as something suddenly charged through the branches.
“Guys,” I called in warning and reached for the knife at my belt.
The trees shook and bowed, and suddenly a troupe of monkeys burst out of the heavy foliage and rushed down onto the shore.
They were long-limbed, black, furry things, and they were all making that weird hooting sound. They ran to the shore, and while one or two of them hesitated at the water’s edge, the rest of them were completely fearless and hurled themselves straight into the Canal.
“Oh, my god,” Ally squealed. “Monkeys!”
I couldn’t tell if she meant that as a positive or negative comment, but I couldn’t worry about that too much.
Because the monkeys were clearly making a beeline right for the yacht.
Chapter 8
“Oh, shit!” I looked frantically around the deck for the spears.
They were leaning against the cockpit where I’d left them. I lunged for them and snatched them up.
“Ally,” I ordered. “Raise the sail and get us the hell out of here!”
Ally ran for the cockpit and started working the controls.
“Drew,” Shannon called.
I tossed one of the spears to her, and she caught it effortlessly out of the air.
“Wait, wait!” Letty waved her hands in the air. “Are they dangerous? We can’t kill them if they’re not dangerous.”
“Yeah, they’re just monkeys,” Dia said with her eyes wide open.
“Monkeys can be deadly,” Shannon insisted. “What about those baboons that skin you alive?”
“What?” Dia’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s not a thing, you made that up.”
“Do you want to find out?” Shannon retorted.
Dia snatched her knife from her belt and took up one of the spears with a mulish expression on her face.
“Better safe than sorry,” she muttered.
“Oh, my god,” Letty cried.
I whirled around to remind her that we still had to try to keep the noise levels down. But then I saw what she’d already spotted, and I couldn’t blame her for crying out.
There was a crocodile swimming after the monkeys.
“Jesus Christ, this place is fucking feral,” I groaned.
The primates were swimming like their lives depended on it. Their black heads were bobbing just above the surface of the water, and we could see their thrashing limbs as they paddled frantically forward. They must have been running from something terrifying in the jungle, but the water wasn’t turning out to be much safer.
“Oh, no,” Letty breathed.
The crocodile glided through the water with smooth, unhurried movements. It seemed almost lazy as it pursued the terrified monkeys. The low sunlight gleamed dully on its gray-green scales.
In that moment, I felt as though I was witnessing the whole recent events of the apocalypse from a distance. One reptilian apex predator stalking the terrified, outmatched primates with ruthless hunting instincts and pure brute force beyond anything the primates could hope to achieve.
The troupe of monkeys were fueled by adrenaline, but they were no match for the crocodile’s strength and power.
There was a splash, and one of the monkeys let out a terrible, hoarse scream as blood filled the water. Then its scream was cut off as the crocodile dragged it down below the water.
Letty pressed her hand over her mouth in horror.
I wanted to comfort her, but there wasn’t the time. The sail was unfurled, the anchor was up, but we weren’t moving.
I ran into the cockpit where Ally was jabbing on the buttons on the dashboard.
“Ally!” I demanded. “Why aren’t we moving?”
“There’s no wind,” she replied in desperation. “We can’t move if there’s nothing to fill the sails. We’re becalmed.”
“Shit,” I hissed.
We hadn’t been using the engine because we had no idea when we’d be able to refuel again, and we were trying desperately to conserve. Also, we wanted to avoid it in case it attracted more animals– or worse, brought the fucking dragons out of the jungle– so the sail was the only option we had. And now with that gone, there was nothing to do but prepare to defend the yacht.
The death of their friend had spurred the monkeys on, and as I dashed out of the cockpit, the first of them started to climb aboard the boat. They were big guys about the length of a small cocker spaniel, with solid, compact bodies, and a shaggy, mane-like, beard of black hair around their faces. Their rope-like tails were almost as long as their bodies, and I guessed they must use them for support and balance when they were climbing in the tall trees. They didn’t look particularly dangerous, but then again I wasn’t a monkey expert.
“Everyone, keep your distance,” I ordered. “Be prepared to use your spears.”
But thankfully the monkeys were too preoccupied with getting out of the water to bother with us. They hauled themselves over the railing, ran across the deck, and headed straight for the mast. They scampered up the rigging with water dripping from their soaked, dark fur and climbed to the very top of the mast where they clung to each other as though celebrating their journey to safety.
They eagerly waited for the last of the group to join them, and then they huddled together and released a furious stream of their strange grunting hoots. Their cries seemed to be directed at the spot where the crocodile had killed their friend, but the Canal water was still and silent now without even a bubble on the surface to signify what had just happened.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Dia commented. “They’re not interested in us at all.”
“For now,” I warned. “We don’t know what might happen when they calm down.”
“You know, I’m pretty sure I recognize these guys from a nature documentary.” Letty craned her neck to peer up at the monkeys, who were still grunting among themselves and looking around anxiously at their surroundings from their new vantage point. “I think they’re howler monkeys.”
“Oh, yeah,” Dia said. “That’s the weird noise they’re making.”
“It’s not much of a howl,” Shannon observed. “They sound more like weird pigs.”
“Maybe the name ‘grunting monkeys’ was already taken?” I suggested.
“You know, they are kinda cute,” Ally noted. “They look cuddly.”
“I’m pretty sure they’re not dangerous, either,” Letty confirmed.
“Well, that’s reassuring,” I said in relief. “One less thing to worry about.”
Suddenly, the monkeys fell quiet.
I peered up at them through the gathering shadows. They were crouched together in a frightened huddle, and their little faces were fixed on the shoreline that they’d just swam from.
I followed their gaze, and I instantly ducked into a crouch as I saw just what the monkeys had been running from.
“Get down, get down,” I hissed in a frantic whisper.
The women obeyed without question, and their eyes widened when they saw the cause of the commotion.
There was a dragon emerging out of the treeline.
It felt like a weirdly long time since we’d actually seen a dragon. We’d been hearing them all along the Canal, but now that we were seeing one again for the first time in a few days, it looked even more out of place among the lush foliage. We’d seen jaguars, crocodiles, tropical birds, and now howler monkeys in this place, and it was an odd moment to see a mythical space monster here. A jaguar might be exotic, but it was still expected, and it looked like it belonged here because it did.
Not at all like a dragon.
The monster’s scales were a dull gray, and it must have been about sixteen feet long. Its eyes were an intense, neon light-blue. It moved slowly, almost thoughtfully, and it raised its head and seemed to be sniffing the air.
The monkeys were dead silent. No one on the yacht moved a muscle. Everyone on board– human and monkey– was keeping their eyes fixed on the dragon on the shoreline.
Its big, ugly head swung around, and its luminous eyes pierced through the fading light. It let out a grunt and shook itself, and its wings snapped open as it gave a full-body stretch with its eyes closed and its thick, serpentine tail lashing against the muddy Canal bank.
We were too far from the shore for it to easily reach us. It wasn’t going to swim to the yacht, and if it attempted to fly, it would have to come out from underneath the cover of the trees, which would mean stepping into the water. Which hopefully it wouldn’t want to do.
My breath was tight in my throat. I didn’t dare to look around at the others in case the move alerted the dragon to our presence. If we kept still enough, it might not realize that there was a boat full of tasty snacks so close by.
I could hear the ragged sound of my own breath, but beyond that, I couldn’t make out any sounds except the blood pounding in my skull. My fingers were wrapped tightly around the spear shaft.
Suddenly, a crocodile exploded out of the water and snapped its jaws shut on the dragon’s front leg.
The dragon roared in pain and surprise. Its head ducked down, and it lunged at the crocodile’s head. The crocodile hung on ruthlessly while the dragon splashed and roared in its efforts to shake it loose. A cloud of dark blood started to spread away through the water, but it was impossible to tell whether it was the crocodile’s, the dragon’s, or a mixture of both.
The dragon flapped its wings for leverage and reared up on its hind legs, which dragged the crocodile up out of the water. The dragon’s jaws snapped closed on the crocodile’s torso, and it finally released its hold on the dragon’s leg.
The dragon tried to shake the crocodile like a dog with a bone, but the two predators were pretty evenly matched in strength, and the crocodile writhed free from the dragon’s jaws and backed away into the water again with a venomous hiss.
I thought that was going to be the end of it, but the dragon rushed after the crocodile, only to be brought up short as the Canal water swirled around its ankles. It was limping, with one of its front clawed feet curled up underneath its body, and it paused in the shallow water as its blood streamed away into the Canal.
The crocodile hadn’t retreated. It used the dragon’s hesitation to launch another attack, and it propelled itself out of the water and lunged for the dragon’s throat. It was bleeding from a huge gash on its back and side, but its fury and determination was unbounded, and its deadly jaws sank into the dragon’s neck.
But its grip wasn’t secure enough. The dragon let out a gurgling roar and reared up like a horse. The motion was so sudden that it dislodged the crocodile’s grip and sent it tumbling back into the water. The dragon lunged. Its teeth sank into the crocodile’s snout.
The crocodile thrashed wildly as blood poured out of its face. Its limbs kicked and scrambled for purchase, and its tail lashed the water into a red foam as it desperately tried to break the dragon’s grip.
But with its ferocious jaws disabled, the crocodile had no weapons left. The dragon backed up and dragged the crocodile out of the water, and then threw it from side to side, with its teeth still firmly embedded in the croc’s jaws.
Blood splattered all over the dragon’s gray scales. It splashed down into the muddy Canal bank and pattered against the surrounding trees like rain.
The crocodile’s feet paddled uselessly in the air. Then one final shake of the dragon’s neck snapped something inside the crocodile’s body, and the dragon dropped it to the ground where it laid limp and broken.
The dragon threw back its head and bugled out a triumphant roar into the forest.
Then it lowered its head and surveyed its fallen opponent for a moment before clamping its jaws on the crocodile’s tail and dragging it with some difficulty back into the treeline.
The trees and bushes shook with its passing, but then they stilled.
For a long, long moment, everything was silent.
Then some of the monkeys above us began to grunt quietly to each other, and I finally dared to look around at the others.
They were all pale-faced and wide-eyed.
“Oh, my god,” Dia breathed.
“That was so horrible.” Ally shuddered.
“Can we go down below now?” Letty wrapped her arms around herself as though she was cold.
“Yeah, come on, let’s settle down.” I put my arm around her shoulders.
“Even facing the heat is better than seeing something like that again,” Dia declared with a grimace.
Ally and I stayed on deck for a moment longer to drop anchor and haul in the sail again, and then we joined the others down below.
Everyone was pretty shaken by the scene we’d just witnessed, and it was quickly decided that it was time for bed. Letty volunteered to see the first watch through with me, so after getting a drink of water, we both went back up on deck to take our positions while the others tried to get some sleep.
The crocodile’s blood had dissipated through the water by now, but there was still a telltale stain on the muddy bank, and dark spots on the trees and bushes.
The monkeys were still huddled together on top of the mast. They looked pretty comfortable, and some of them looked like they were grooming each other. There probably wasn’t much difference in their minds between the top of a mast and the top of a tree.
Letty went to stand by the railing and stared for a long moment at the spot where the fight had happened.
“Are you okay?” I asked her in a low voice as I went to stand by her side.
“Yeah.” She sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“It’s okay to feel upset about it,” I told her.
“Yeah, but that’s it,” she replied. “Why do I feel upset about it?”
“Well, it was a pretty violent thing to witness,” I said. “That kind of thing would upset anyone.”
“Did it upset you?” She turned to me.
I looked down into her beautiful face. Her dark brown eyes were gleaming, and there was a faint sheen of sweat on her smooth brown forehead.
I thought of the monkeys paddling helplessly through the water, and driven to desperation by the pursuing crocodile. I didn’t know anything about crocodiles, but in that moment, it had really seemed like they could be as closely related to dragons as we were to the howler monkeys. And there was something very sobering in that realization and seeing that little tableau play out in front of me, like a snapshot of everything we were currently going through.
So really I should have been pumped when the crocodile got taken out. But instead I just felt very tired.
Letty was still looking up at me and waiting for my answer.
I pushed one of her tight black ringlets away from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear.
“Yeah,” I said in a soft voice. “It did upset me. And it surprised me that it did. I feel like I should be used to seeing this kind of violence. Hell, we’ve seen all kinds of things by now. But this felt different.”
“Yes.” Letty nodded. “I don’t know why, but it felt so much more brutal than anything else we’ve witnessed. And I know we’ve seen some things…”
“Maybe because it’s purely nature on nature,” I mused. “Predator vs predator.”
“Now that’s a movie I’d watch.” Letty gave a weak chuckle and rested her cheek against my chest. “I feel dumb for being upset about the crocodile. Like, it literally ate one of the monkeys right before our eyes, and I was upset about that. So why aren’t I happy that the crocodile is now dead?”
“Things aren’t as simple as that,” I replied. “In the moment, your sympathies are with the victim. It doesn’t matter what they were doing a few minutes ago.”
“Well, maybe with a human I’d take things like previous behavior into account.” Letty sighed. “It’s different with animals. It feels like it should be simpler, but it’s not.”
“You know the phrase ‘Nature red in tooth and claw’?” I asked. “Sammy had to memorize part of the poem it’s from for her English class. I always remembered that because I thought it was a pretty fucking powerful statement. Especially coming from a poem written over a hundred years ago.”
“I know the phrase, but I didn’t know it was from a poem,” Letty replied.
“Yeah.” I tried to remember what Sammy had said about it. “It was an elegy to the poet’s friend who had died very young.”
“Really?” Letty sighed. “That’s sad.”
