Emma slipped and Ben caught her.
“Thanks,” she said and wiped her greasy boot.
Ben looked down. There were crushed plants at their feet, still oozing slippery sap, and looking as though they’d been run over by tractor tires. He crouched, and Steve, Emma, and Jenny peered over his shoulder while Koenig kept his eyes on the jungle. Bellakov continued to stare up at the strange spinning cloud cover.
Ben saw that the tracks cut across their trail and kept going. He put his hands in the indentations. “What the hell makes a track like this?”
Koenig briefly looked down and over his shoulder. “Nothing I know. I would have said something lay down here, but I can see it was moving, and kept moving.” He flicked on his flashlight and followed the depressions in the grasses and mud, until they vanished… just stopped and then vanished. “Never seen it before.”
“I know.” Jenny also crouched, and then looked up, her eyes round. “And you do too, Ben. Remember when we were down by the river and you found those tracks?”
Ben nodded and his head snapped back down. “You’re shitting me?”
“I’ve been on trapping expeditions in the Amazon for the zoo. We hunted the giant green anaconda; they leave tracks like this, but on a much smaller scale.” She rose to her feet.
But frowned. “But you said the tracks of the one we found by the river was big, and they didn’t get much bigger.” He pointed at the ground. “This thing is five times bigger.”
“They don’t get much bigger… in our time,” Jenny said softly.
“I’ve also hunted anaconda,” Koenig said. “They can be mean suckers — crush a full grown man down to mush. One that big?” He shrugged. “I don’t want to meet it.”
“We already did, once.” Ben looked to Jenny.
“In the cave we climbed up in; one took Bourke. So big it filled the place.” Her lips pressed together for a moment. “I hope it was the same one.”
“And now dead.” Ben looked up at her as silver light broke through the clouds.
“At last, we can…” Bellakov stopped talking and his brows snapped together as the setting moon was revealed.
Ben looked up. “That moon.”
“Yeah, that’s some moon.” Steve gaped up at it.
“So big. I mean it looks like we could almost reach out and touch it.” Bellakov shook his head. “Fuck I hate this place.”
The moon vanished behind the clouds and threw them back into darkness. Jenny shone her light on the tracks again. “I think we need to get out of here.”
“If it is another one, you think it might still be hanging around?” Koenig gripped his rifle a little tighter.
“Hanging around is right,” Jenny said. “Look; the tracks on the ground disappear.” She turned to the group. “Because I think it took to the trees.”
“This gets better and better.” Ben looked up, now feeling like they were being watched. “Let’s keep moving… and everyone keep their eyes open.”
They continued to press on, weaving through the jungle as the light began to increase. Ben was sure this was the way they’d come, but still hadn’t seen a single blaze mark he’d previously made. He was about to wave Koenig closer when he spotted the mouth of the stream.
“Thank God,” he whispered.
“Self-doubt is a terrible thing.” Koenig winked.
“Curse of the humble.” Ben grinned and stepped out into the shallow water.
The stream cut a path through the dense jungle, and with the canopy roof, also created a dark cave. Ben paused, just letting his eyes run over everything. He then lifted his gaze to the canopy. The light was still weak, and the treetops knitted together in an unbroken ceiling of green. But thankfully, there was nothing that looked like a giant snake — not that he’d ever seen one before.
They’d been travelling now for a couple of hours, and the humidity was still energy-sapping. The clouds had dropped, so even as the light rose, the clouds had become a low-lying fog that twisted through the jungle like smoke.
He called the group in. “Let’s take five.”
He stepped out of the stream and felt a pang of hunger stab at his gut. He ignored it. They were out of food, and by rights, he should have been hunting. But hunting meant shooting, and he definitely didn’t want that when silence probably meant their survival.
However, they needed to keep their energy levels up, so he might have to ask Koenig to use his hunting skills and see if he could either trap something or catch and kill it just with his knife. He looked down at the stream; he also remembered in some of the pools he had seen a few silver shapes dart back and forth, so fish wasn’t off the menu either.
“Walt, let’s scout ahead. The rest of you stay on guard.”
“You got it,” Koenig replied, shouldering his rifle.
Ben saw Bellakov stare hard at them.
“Back in five minutes.” He saw that the mercenary continued to stare.“Scouts honor.”
He and Walt Koenig then headed down along the edge of the streambed, walking for a few moments until he was sure he was out of earshot. Ben turned.
“That friend of yours, Bellakov; what’s his number?” he asked.
Koenig’s mouth turned down as he shook his head. “Don’t really know him. Barlow brought us together. The guy was a mercenary and hunted everything from lions to people. He trusts no one, not even me.” He shrugged. “Barlow kept him on a leash, but now he’s gone, well…” he glanced at Ben. “I wouldn’t turn my back on him.”
“Didn’t plan on it,” Ben said. “And thanks.”
They continued for another few minutes along the stream edge, and there were no more tracks or obvious dangers. A few small animals covered in fur or bristles that might have been primitive feathers, squealed and darted back into the jungle at their approach. It was a good sign — if there was game around, then there probably wasn’t too many predators.
“We’ll need to catch one of those soon,” Ben said. “Without guns if possible.”
Koenig nodded. “No problem. Just tell me when.”
Ben crouched down at the edge of the stream. “This isn’t good.”
There were flattened areas all along the stream bank, three feet wide, and with odd markings that looked like something had been dragged.
Walt crouched, put his hand in them, and then lifted them to his nose. He looked up momentarily into the tree canopy. “One of those snake things.” He turned to Ben. “You believe in coincidences?”
Ben snorted. “No.” He turned. “So we both think it was following us before.”
“Maybe, or maybe there’s another one.” Walt wiped his fingers on his pants. “Or maybe there’s a lot of them.”
“And that just makes me feel a hellova lot worse.” Ben got to his feet.
Walt nodded. “Then you’re gonna love this bit; it’s almost impossible to hide from a big snake.” He looked up. “They can see your body heat.”
Ben exhaled and looked up at the dense overhead canopy. He could feel the damp fronds brushing his back and neck.
“Yep.” Walt nodded. “The big guys like boas, pythons, anacondas and even vipers have these tiny holes on their faces called pit organs. They’re used to detect infrared radiation.” He smiled without mirth. “To them, we’re just moving, hot sacks of food.”
“Thank you, Walt; I feel much better now.” Ben began to turn away. “Let’s head ba…”
“Hey…” Walt quickly held up a hand. “Don’t. Move. A muscle.”
Ben froze, staring over his shoulder at the man’s face. He could see both alarm and fascination.
“What… what?” Ben said, trying to only move his lips.