The first floor kitchen had beige floor tiling and white walls. There was a calendar up on the fridge and it had some writing on it. On the far side of the room was a door. He walked to it, ducking below a window over the sink, and opened it. There were wooden stairs leading down to a basement.
Eric softly closed the door behind him. It was dark but there was some light coming through a ground level window. He opened the plastic container of gasoline and began pouring it over the steps, one at a time as he made his way down. He coated every step twice until it was dripping with gasoline and poured the last of it on the beams that supported the stairs.
The basement was just as cluttered as the attic but had larger items. There was an old lawnmower, tools, iron shelves filled with electrical replacement parts and… and a rifle hanging up over a workbench. He ran to it and checked the chamber. It was empty and he searched the shelves until he found a box of ammunition. The rifle was just a. 22 caliber, hardly enough to pierce the flesh of those things but enough to get their attention.
Eric ran up the steps and into the kitchen. He looked out the window over the sink and saw the hyenas worked up to a frenzy, the debris Jalani had thrown dotting the ground around them. He smashed the butt of his rifle through the glass and the animals stopped their display and turned toward the sound. Eric took aim and fired a shot into the chest of the largest one, causing him to roar with anger. The other two sprinted for the house and Eric ran in front of the basement door.
The two animals ran through the living room and stood in the hallway, watching Eric. The hyena he’d shot came in and spotted him, its mouth opening and revealing steak knife-sized fangs. It darted for him.
Eric got off two shots, one missing and one hitting its mark in the snout. The hyena roared and fell into a wall, causing a large hole as the other two hopped over him.
Eric ran into the basement and shut the door. He jumped down the stairs and sprinted to the back of the large space, behind a metal shelf packed with tools. The door burst open; raining splinters on the floor below. The three hyenas leapt down the stairs. Their anger had caused them to go into a fury and they would nip at each other and bare their teeth. They stood sniffing the air and then began searching the basement.
Two began rummaging through a stack of cardboard boxes but the large one stood in the center of the room, looking from one item to the next. It held its head up, the muscles in its neck straining, and inhaled deeply through its nostrils. It walked to the side of the room Eric was on.
The hyena carefully scanned the space in front of it. It searched from top to bottom and took a few paces back. A chill went up Eric’s back as its eyes scanned over where he was, and kept going. The hyena smelled the air again and turned away.
Suddenly it spun and dashed for the shelf. Its head thrust in between two shelves and into Eric’s ribs, scraping the flesh as its teeth clamped down and tore through his shirt. The other two hyenas pounced and began tearing at the shelf, trying to bite through the metal.
Eric saw that the shelf was attached to the wall by two metal bars bolted to each side. He kicked at one and it bent. He kicked again and it broke away, the bolt clinking as it hit the gray cement of the basement floor. He broke the other one and began to push.
The hyenas had almost forced their way through now, one of their heads snapping at Eric’s leg. Eric put his legs up against the shelf and pushed. The shelf tipped and fell on two of the animals with a thunderous crash.
Eric ran for the stairs as the hyenas shook off the pain and started for him. The large one leapt at him with its jaws wide and he ducked, causing it to hit the wall snout first and land hard on the floor.
Eric climbed the steps and took out a matchbook. He struck one, and it didn’t light.
The hyena was climbing to its feet.
Eric struck again and again and finally it lit. He threw it on the stairs-still wet with gasoline-and they burst in a high flame. The fire was spreading quickly and Eric had to bolt for the kitchen as the heat burned his feet and caught his clothes on fire.
The hyena ran at him just as the fire began and flames caught its face, singeing its sensitive eyes and snout. The hyena howled and jumped backward, blinded by the fire. The other two ran over, staying clear of the heat. One looked up and saw Eric running out the door. It leapt at him in an act of rage and desperation, crashing into the center of the stairs. It’d soaked up the gasoline in its fur and the fire spread over its soft belly and eventually its face, causing it to fall from the stairs and dart around the room, crashing into everything in its path from pain.
Eric slammed the door behind him and stood against it, out of breath, his legs starting to sting from the flames. He looked down to his ribs and saw blood. Taking off his shirt, he wrapped it around the wound tightly and walked to the bedroom upstairs.
CHAPTER
63
Eric and Jalani sat at the dining room table and gorged themselves on what food they could find and water from the kitchen faucet. The groceries in the fridge had rotted but the cupboards had plenty of dry cereal and crackers and other packaged goods. White clouds were scattered across the blue Indian sky with the sun bright at its apex.
They could hear the hyenas howling in the basement below, the occasional thud as one of their bodies fell back to the cement floor from a failed jump. The window downstairs was shattered at some point but it wasn’t large enough for any of them to crawl through. Eric had checked on them and saw that the stairs had been burnt to a crisp. They were little more than plywood and most of them had already collapsed. The house was filled with smoke and they had to open every window and door to keep from suffocating.
The hyenas were trapped, and in the days ahead, after the strongest killed and ate the other two, it would die of starvation.
“What are we going to do now?” Jalani said.
“I’m leaving Andhra Pradesh.” She looked away, sadness in her eyes as she stared at the sky. “I want you to come with me,” Eric added.
Her face brightened, white teeth underneath caramel lips in a small smile. “Where would we go?”
“Anywhere I guess. I’ve always liked France.”
She reached across the table and caressed his hand. He took her hand in his. At this moment, there was no one else in the world he could imagine being with.
“I think Thomas… is gone. He had money,” she said. “Very much money. In accounts in Hyderabad. I think I can get it out.”
Eric nodded, looking out the window. “I’ll be right back,” he said. He’d forgotten completely about Thomas.
He walked outside, nervously glancing around before walking out to Thomas’s clothing. They were torn and stained with dark blood. There was no chance he could be alive.
Eric walked out onto a soft patch of earth in the grass and got on his knees. He dug a hole with his hands, deep enough to fit the shirt and boots. He placed them inside and covered the hole. Standing up, he wiped at the dirt on himself, looking down at the makeshift grave. Whatever else he may have done, Thomas saved his life. He deserved something for that.
Eric stood for some time, watching the grass sway in a light breeze around the grave, and then walked back inside. Jalani was lying on the couch, half-asleep. Her body would jolt whenever one of the hyenas roared and she would wake.
Eric sat next to her, running his hands through her hair. He leaned down and kissed her passionately, their lips still wet from the water they’d drunk.
Eventually, Eric pulled away, caressing her cheek, and said, “We need to go.”