The Bone Hunter, page 8
“I think your ass grew back pretty well,” John said.
Allison brought her gaze up from the ground. She shouldered her weapon before she turned to face Mark. “I don’t see any of you dead, Sergeant. You have something in particular you are trying to tell me?”
Mark cut his gaze between the other men and back at Allison. “We’re supposed to be out here supporting the local rangers and preventing poaching. Not hunting things.”
Allison looked away at the ground, and back up at Mark, with her teeth showing. “Are you saying we should be protecting this monster and its habitat?”
Mark sighed. “I’m saying that hunting and killing anything—especially something like this—isn’t our mission. We’re ill-equipped for it. The Tanzanian army needs to be doing this, or the United Nations, even. We are not going to be able to bring this thing down.”
“It is literally cutting through women and children,” Allison said. “It is poaching people. The Tanzanian army is fighting warlords and the Masai militias in the west, so it is up to us, or we let this thing have the place. All of it. People, villages, animals, trees … everything. Mark, what do you think we should do? Give up?”
Allison thought about Huck in his hutch during the last days he had before they had to put him down to save the other animals. Allison was not going to take the time to explain that story to Mark.
“Regroup and make a plan,” Mark said.
“Why don’t you go see if you can regroup on your own? Try to raise the Tanzanian army on the radio and see if they’re busy. Maybe they can spare a few divisions to come hunt down the Bone Hunter for us.” Allison licked her lips and looked away.
The angry rattle of insects punctuated the pause between them.
“Maybe we should think through a plan before we mount a search and destroy?” Mposi said. “We are a bit outmatched by this thing.”
Allison held out both hands in front of her. “I saw it get hurt. It fled this way. I think it is vulnerable, but it heals fast. If we don’t press, I’m not sure where it strikes next. There are villages all around this lake and all across the plains. There is endangered wildlife, and this thing doesn’t discriminate once it latches onto a target. I’m going to keep going and anyone that is a part of my team is welcome to act like part of the team.”
“You think you can kill it?” Mark asked. “Or do you just want to?”
“What the hell are you getting at, soldier?”
John put a hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Easy, Sarg.”
Mark swatted John’s hand away. “We aren’t supposed to be hunting down anyone, Allison. This is about foiling poaching efforts, supporting the rangers, making arrests, and bringing to justice. Not cutting down the bad guys in cold blood.”
Allison shook her head. “Those camps and those bodies were cut apart by that monster, Mark. I could understand you having doubts when I first told the story, but you’ve seen it now, so what are you getting at?”
“The Bone Hunter cut down most of them, but he hasn’t been putting bullets into men’s heads for the last week.”
Brood sighed. “They shot at us, Sergeant Friday. They went for their weapons instead of surrendering.”
“And they threw damn grenades,” John said.
Allison shook her head. “Who the hell do you think you are coming at me like this when we have an enemy like this monster to deal with? What are you thinking, Mark?”
“Ever since you went viral on the Internet,” Mark said, “with all that talk about having to do whatever we have to do and human life matters, but Karma is a bitch, you have had a quick trigger finger. That photo shoot and all the social media publicity buzz has clouded the mission for you.”
Allison took a step toward him. “That was about raising awareness and funding our work here, which it did. I didn’t shoot anyone because I had a damn photo taken, you idiot.”
Mark sighed and looked down between his boots. “I feel like we are going off on half tilt here.”
“Your concerns are noted,” Allison said. “Now fall in line and follow orders, or go find somewhere to do all the regrouping you feel like you need to do, Mark. Most of the ranger stations near here have been shot up, burned down, or cut apart by an angry bony, bladed god. All the death and war going on around here right now is connected to that thing, by the way, so it needs to be dealt with. What’s your decision, Sergeant?”
Mark stared at the ground and chewed at the inside of his mouth, until John said, “Come on, Mark, make a choice. We have a job to do here.”
Brood turned away. “No wonder your Army has turned to women soldiers. They need someone willing to fight.”
A louder buzz from above overtook the sound of insects. Everyone turned their eyes upward and spotted a plane flying low over the trees toward them from the west.
Allison said, “Take cover.”
Everyone scrambled out onto the brush at the base of tree trunks.
Allison unshouldered her rifle and aimed up with the others. It was a double engine pontoon plane with floats underneath for landing on water. Its course would take it to Lake Eyasi and the decimated village. It was larger than a small passenger plane, but it was not a bomber.
“That’s not military,” Allison said.
“I don’t know those call numbers,” Mposi said. “It’s private, but no one we know or usually see.”
The plane passed over them with a Doppler effect from the engine and continued east.
“Are they bringing supplies to the village?” John asked.
“They may not find a friendly reception there whoever they are,” Brood said.
Allison heard the rocket before she saw it. It was surface to air and left a thin smoke trail behind the bright fire on its tail. She identified it as something from a shoulder mount launcher. It veered starboard, but then cut back over. The plane never reacted to evade. The rocket snapped through one wing—pitching the plane hard to the side and down. The engine tone changed to a note that was strained and struggling. After a few more seconds of climbing into the sky, the rocked exploded in a smoky burst.
Allison waited on another rocket to rise up after the plane, but the craft careened hard to the north and dropped like a stone into the forest. A burst of flame rolled up and out into the sky above the trees followed by dark smoke.
Allison thought about the smoke she had followed to the poachers’ camp.
“What should we do?” Mposi asked.
Allison licked her lips and tilted her head. “We should go see if we can help.”
“I’m not saying no,” Brood said, “but that was probably a Masai rocket. We don’t know whose plane that was, and the surviving Masai are probably moving toward it now, if they went to the trouble of shooting it down.”
Allison waved her hand through the air above her head, and said, “From the direction that rocket came, they will probably be passing over this spot to get there, so we need to move one way or the other. If we are tracking the Bone Hunter, it seems to be attracted to fire in the ground, so it will be as likely to show up at that crash as anywhere. If there is someone still alive, they’ll need help getting away from the monster and the Masai.”
Mark said, “Good enough for me. Lead the way.”
Allison nodded at him and turned north with the men behind her. She broke into a jog, and they kept pace behind her with weapons at the ready. As they started passing the downed tops of trees, she pulled up and scanned the scene looking for trouble in the form of a deadly, sharp monster. She looked up and saw the trees sheared off high above them. She looked out along the narrow path of destruction and saw smoke spreading out along the ground ahead of them.
She waved the team forward, and they stepped over burning leaves in the bed under their feet. They topped a ridge and saw a trail of burning ground and debris leading down to the hulk of the fuselage below. There was no sign of the monster or the Masai fighters at the moment. The wing that had not been knocked off by the rocket now set speared into the ground pointing into the air along the debris field leaving the tube of the plane without any. The pontoons from under the plane had torn free as well, but were nowhere in sight.
“Another body without its legs,” Allison said.
“What?” Mark said. “Where do you see a body?”
“Nowhere,” she said. “Let’s check quickly for survivors, and then get clear of the site before anyone else, human or otherwise, shows up.”
They descended the hill, and a door on the side of the plane burst open a few inches. Allison brought her gun up. Another kick from inside took the hatch off its hinges. Smoke billowed out, and a man staggered forth.
Allison circled out wide and waved her team the other direction. The man turned toward her while coughing up thick, foamy spit onto his chin. His eyes watered, smeared through the dark smudges on his cheek. He was a white man with blond hair and held a child in his arms.
The child’s eyes were open, and Allison watched for a blank death stare. The boy turned his head in the man’s arms and blinked at Allison.
The man asked, “Are you the ones that shot us down?”
“No,” she said, “but they are coming along with other trouble I don’t have time to explain.”
“I need to get my family out. My wife and daughter,” he said.
Allison shouldered her weapon and waved the men forward. Brood turned and kept aim up the hill. Mark took the boy from the man as he turned to go back into the plane, but Mposi stepped in front of him. “We’ve got it, sir.”
Allison and John covered their mouths. Allison wrapped her head cover over her face, while John used a blue bandana. The smoke filled the plane as they stepped inside.
Allison’s eyes burned, but she saw motion to her right. She climbed around a bench seat broken loose from its bolts in the floor. A dark-haired woman in jeans and a button up shirt helped a blonde, teenage girl up off the floor. The woman’s collar was torn showing the pale skin of her shoulder, but she looked otherwise unharmed.
She looked at Allison’s eyes and blinked. The woman coughed, and said, “Who are you?”
“U.S. military,” Allison said muffled through the material over her face. “We’re here to help. Come on.”
The half-truth of Allison’s identity was less complicated than the whole truth.
The woman and teenager made their way to the door. The blond man and Mposi reached in and guided the other survivors out.
Allison looked around. “John?”
John turned back from the twisted controls of the cockpit. He brought his hand away from the seat, and Allison saw the pilot shift sideways in his seat. John shook his head. “Pilot’s dead.”
“Did you feel for a pulse?” she asked.
“Most of his throat and face are missing, but, yes, I did,” John said. “No pulse. Let’s go.”
They exited the plane and uncovered their faces.
“There is one more man in there,” the blond man said.
“He’s dead,” Allison said. “We need to go.”
“He was part of our church,” the man said as his face twisted. “We need to recover his body.”
The woman took the boy from Mark, and hugged both the boy, and teen, to her chest.
“It will have to wait.” Allison put her hand on the man’s chest to stop him as he tried to pass her. “There is serious trouble coming, and if he could tell you anything, I’m sure that man would tell you to forget his body for now and get your family to safety. Am I wrong about your friend?”
“Not wrong,” the man said. “It doesn’t feel right to leave him, though.”
Allison nodded and took her hand off of him.
A bullet rang off the body of the plane behind her. Allison shouted. “Move them.”
Mark, John, and Mposi hustled the four survivors past the plane and down the hill. Brood returned fire toward the ridge they had descended. A couple of his bullets punched into the wing sticking out of the ground.
The Masai lined the high ground above them and fired down.
Brood bolted toward the cover of the trees away from the wreckage.
Allison turned and saw that her team was using the body of the plane for cover as they took the passengers toward the woods deeper north.
She rolled out and swung around across the front of the plane. The forward glass was cracked and popped out of the frame on two edges. Through the smoke huffing out of the opening, she saw the slumped body of the pilot. What remained of his face was obscured by smoke and blood.
Allison heard more bullets striking around the wreckage. She went prone on the other side of the fuselage and aimed up the slope around the side.
Brood reached the trees and slid to the ground. Bark ripped off the trees above him as the Masai concentrated fire on his position. He made eye contact with Allison and nodded. She nodded back.
Brood brought his weapon around and returned fire.
Allison heard gunfire behind her and turned to be sure they hadn’t flanked. The guns of her men and Mposi flashed as they fired at the ridge from the trees. She did not see the passengers, which meant they were probably safely hiding.
She turned her attention back on the ridge and took aim.
The ground rumbled, and she heard the shrill screech rise in the air. Allison forgot about the Masai warriors for a moment. She looked up in time to see the body of the burning plane rolling toward her.
Allison cursed and tumbled away from the tilting metal. She did not give much thought to the fact that she might be putting herself into the enemies’ line of fire as she tried to avoid being crushed. As the side of the fuselage landed where she had been, glass exploded out of the frames up into the, air, and flame licked out of each of the openings.
The plane kept coming as it rolled to its roof and to its side again toward her. Allison took to her feet and ran out away from it. Dark smoke swirled around her from the rolling plane. The creaking metal split and folded away from the seams with the same piercing tone she had thought was the monster again.
A gunshot tore at the ground in her path, and she dropped back to her stomach behind the rocking cabin of the plane teetering on its side again.
“Allison.”
She looked around over at Brood Kultha in the trees. He was waving frantically at her. The screech began behind her again, and she rolled to her back to see which way the plane was going. The craft ripped open in the center and lifted into the air at the break as the fire billowed out, climbing into the sky.
The smoke formed a whirlwind and parted to reveal the bright red hide of the Bone Hunter rising up with its bony spikes extended in every direction as it had done when the water had sizzled against its flesh. The spikes sliced through the remains of the plane like paper. The spines sent out sparks.
Brood, along with Allison’s men farther down the hill, fired on the beast from two directions. Holes opened in its flesh between the spines, but closed just as quickly with the misshapen, broken slugs falling out on the ground around her.
Gunfire from the ridge rang off the raised metal of the plane and off the ground on both sides of Allison.
“Let me up, for God’s sake,” she yelled.
Allison rolled up to her knees to fire on the monster, since she could not get out from under the Masai barrage of bullets. She glanced up the hill and saw the Masai were no longer aiming at her, but fired at the monster.
She felt a glimmer of hope.
Allison fled toward Brood’s position instead of taking any shots at it herself.
Brood pulled his gun aside as she drew close. He grabbed her forearm and pulled her down behind him.
The monster fell to its side, and the rear of the plane opened up like broken foil. The tail of the plane exploded into shrapnel under the whirling bone blades. The Bone Hunter cut a path up the hill. The Masai held their position and maintained fire.
“Brave or insane?” Allison whispered.
“A thin difference sometimes,” Brood said.
The monster whipped its tail around as it made a sharp turn short of the top of the ridge. Some of the Masai rolled away in time, but three of them took hooks into their chests and abdomens. As the beast spun away in its drilling motion of travel, the warriors were hurled into the air and opened up from crotch to throat, as they flew away behind the ridge in the air.
The remaining Masai fell back out of sight.
The Bone Hunter clipped the wing of the plane speared in the ground as it cut a diagonal path across the hill. The end of the wing sliced off and spun as it hurtled toward Brood and Allison. They hugged the ground as it hummed over them and embedded into the thick trunk of a tree behind them, protruding out the other side.
The creature raced into the trees to the west. The sight of treetops dropping away marked its path along the surface.
“You still want to follow it?” Brood asked.
“I want to stop it,” she said. “We have to.”
Brood stood, and they walked out into the scattered remains of the smoking plane. She saw an arm near the obliterated cockpit. She thought that might be part of the pilot. The ridge remained clear as the Masai did not return for them.
John, Mark, Mposi, and the survivors of the crash emerged from below.
“What now?” Mposi asked.
Allison chewed on her lip for a moment, and then said, “John, Mark, and Mposi, take them to the Hadazabe village.”
“Are you sure?” Mposi asked. “They are not too happy with outsiders right now.”
“Pastor Fatma is expecting us. We are missionaries assigned to help with her church,” the man said. “I’m David Gaskins. This is my wife, Molly, and my children, Susan and Bradley. We owe you our lives from whatever that was, but we are here to help the Hadazabe and we need to go there.”
“They need help,” Mark said, “but I’m not sure they are willing to take it. Things are tense.”
“Sometimes kindness is the only miracle we have to give,” Molly Gaskins said, “and sometimes it is enough.”
“And there is not much of a church building left after that monster visited,” John said.
“The Church is not a building. You didn’t have to come save us and put yourself at risk, but you did,” David said. “The Hadazabe need our help, and we are willing to take the risk of giving it.”
