“They don’t leave much do they?” Koenig crouched down. “Ate everything edible. Right down to the bones.” He frowned. “Weird that they didn’t break the larger bones to get at the marrow.”
“Maybe a larger carnivore dragged it in here, and smaller animals then finished it off.” Jenny brows also knitted as she came closer. “And you’re right, the bones look… scoured, like they were rubbed over with a wire brush rather than gnawed.” She reached in to run her fingertips over a rib.
“Ouch.” She pulled her hand out.
“You okay?” Emma asked.
Jenny turned her hand over. There was a cut or abrasion on the meat of the thumb. “Yeah, must have caught it on a bone shard. Better throw some iodine on this.” She looked up. “And if anyone else has some cuts or scratches, be a good time to douse them. Not sure what sort of ancient germs are up here.”
Jenny sniffed her fingers and her eyebrows rose. “Odd; smells like… almonds or something.”
“I can smell it too,” Emma said. “Is it from the decomposition?”
Jenny continued to stare at her hand, and then sniffed it again. “Might be. Like who really knows what a rotting dinosaur is supposed to smell like.”
“Let’s get organized,” Ben said. “Koenig, scout this place out while I get some branches together so we can get a fire going. Don’t want anything else deciding to drag another carcass in here, or coming back to finish this one.”
“I heard that.” Koenig affixed his flashlight to the end of his rifle and headed off into the darkness of the cave’s interior.
“Emma, Jenny, push some stones together for a fire pit.” Ben turned to the cave mouth. “Be back in a few minutes.”
“Ben…”
He turned at the sound of Emma’s voice. She looked up round-eyed at him.
“…just be careful.” She shared a nervous smile.
“Count on it.” He saluted her and slipped outside.
Ben waited for a few moments. Even though it was a near impenetrable blackness outside now, the jungle was still alive with all manner of insects singing, whirring, and flinging themselves about in the dark. He could also hear crawling creatures rustling in the undergrowth. They needed the fire, and its smoke — the fire should keep inquisitive creatures at bay, and the smoke will dissuade flying insects from entering the cave — important if they were going to get some rest and not end up being turned into pin cushions.
Get on with it, he urged himself.
Ben moved quickly, darting, but pausing now and then to stop and simply listen. There was nothing he could detect, and in a few minutes had an armful of dry logs and some hair-like bark to use as tinder.
He was about to turn back to the cave when he heard the sound of branches being pushed aside. He froze, waiting. There was no doubt that something, or some things, were coming straight at him, not rushing, but creeping.
Ben lowered his pile of logs to the jungle floor and eased back upright. He carefully pulled his rifle from his shoulder. He hoped whatever it was would pass him by, but if not, he’d take the first one down and hope the rest might prefer the fresh kill instead of him.
Seconds ticked down, and he tried to calm himself and slow his breathing. The senses of these things were far in advance of his own and could probably smell his exhalations, his perspiration, and may even be able to detect his body heat.
He waited, his nerves stretching as the thing approached. A branch snapped, close, and then he heard something stumble and someone swear softly in the darkness.
“Jesus Christ, are you guys riding elephants?” Ben relaxed.
“Who’s there?” a voice shot back.
“Ben Cartwright; over here.”
The three men came forward, with Steve coming quickly to embrace him in a bear hug.
“Ben, Ben, thank God you’re okay.” Steve hugged him again. “Who’s with you?”
“Koenig, Emma, and Jenny. That’s it I’m afraid.” He looked over Steve’s shoulder. “And you?”
Janus Bellakov came out of the shadows. “Good to see you, Cartwright. Been a hellova trek.” He pointed with his chin. “You in the caves?”
Ben ignored him and grabbed Steve’s upper arms. “What happened?”
Steve exhaled and looked down at the ground. “We lost both Andrea and Dan — fucking monsters — it’s only myself, Janus, and Barlow I’m afraid.” The man’s face crumpled, and Ben hugged him again.
“It’s all right, buddy. We’ll get through this.” He held him back a step. “Let’s go and see the rest. They’ll be happy to see you.”
He turned to the other two men. “Help grab some branches so we can make a fire.” He crouched to gather up his logs again. “Hurry now.”
“We’re back…” Ben spoke softly. “…found a friend.”
They entered the cave and Bellakov stood in the entrance, looking over their faces. He nodded to Walt Koenig, with the man suddenly looking sullen in return.
Emma and Jenny got to their feet, their faces initially beaming, but then caught sight of Steve’s expression.
“Where’s… Daniel?” Jenny’s voice was small.
“And Andrea?” Emma took a couple of steps forward.
Steve continued to stare at the ground.
“No, no, no; not Dan and Andrea,” Emma agonized.
“Gone.” Steve wiped at his nose and still couldn’t meet their eyes.
“How… what happened?” Emma’s fists balled.
“We were attacked,” Bellakov said. “Lucky any of us are here.”
“But you are.” Emma’s chin jutted.
“Yep,” Bellakov replied, and Ben noticed the disbelieving look Koenig was giving him.
“How do you know they’re dead?” Emma persisted. “Did you…?”
“That’s enough.” Ben sighed. “This place killed them, not anyone here. Our job now is to make sure it doesn’t kill anyone else. There’s safety in numbers.”
Steve went and embraced both women, and just hung on for a while. Edward Barlow, who looked totally worn out, relaxed back into his avuncular self of old.
The logs were piled inside the ring of stones and in a few minutes the tinder caught, and then flames started to lick at the smaller sticks. Steve flicked off his cigarette lighter.
“Better than rubbing two sticks.” He sat back on his haunches, his face still haunted. “Does anyone even do that anymore?”
“Sure they do, and still do,” Ben said. “It’s not hard, but you’ve got to be prepared to lose a bit of skin off your palms. But if it’s the difference between being warm and dry or wet and cold, you make the effort.”
As the fire took hold, an orange glow filled the cave. An added bonus was that the smoke masked the odor of corruption from the animal carcass.
Edward Barlow pointed. “Is it a good idea to be in a cave that has the rancid odor of a dead animal?”
“No, it’s not,” Ben replied. “But it’s too big to drag outside. We might have to dissuade something from trying to take a look throughout the night — so we’ll be taking turns on guard duty.”
He looked at each of the group. “If anyone has any food bars, now is the time to share them around.” He noticed Barlow give Bellakov a furtive look and guessed there'd be no sharing of his goodies.
As the tongues of flame rose, the dark corners of the cave were pushed back. Emma first stared, and then got to her feet.
“What the…?”
She walked to one side of the cave where there was a flat wall and flicked on her flashlight, adding its luminance to the fire’s light.