Jungle Stakes (SHORTLIST Open Novella Contest II)

Chapter 7

Helena landed and rolled to absorb the impact from the twelve foot drop. She crouched and scanned the area, but the surroundings were quiet and still.

She scrambled across Javier who lay on his back, motionless, in the dirt. His skin had an unnatural tinge of grey.

"Javier! Can you hear me?" Her hands hovered over him as she did a visual check for injuries.

She didn't know why, but this felt like her fault somehow. He'd been so scared when she kissed him.

His shirt had been partially torn off, showing deep slashes angling towards the centre from both sides. It looked like an animal had tried to knock him down, but he stepped back and instead the claws raked over him. Blood ran freely down his sides to soak into the dirt under him. It was clotting in a few spots at least. She ripped off her shirt and pressed it to the worst of the wounds.

His left shoulder had a large bulge on the front where it was probably dislocated. Fitzy would be putting his field medic training to use to reset it.

She snatched up Javier's discarded walkie that lay nearby and screamed, "Fitzy! Fitzy! Do you copy? Over."

She sagged briefly in relief when he immediately responded, "I'm here. What's wrong? Over."

"Javier's been attacked. Some kind of animal. It was gone when I got here, but I heard him screaming, so it hasn't gone far. Bring the medical kit, Fitzy. He's bleeding, and I think his shoulder is dislocated. Over."

Fitzy sounded winded as if he was running when he replied, "I'm on my way. I'll bring help. Over."

"You stay with me, Javier. Do you hear me?" she yelled at him. Releasing one hand from the pressure on his side, she pressed two fingers to the pulse at the base of his throat just to reassure herself.

Javier's eyes fluttered open. It took several moments for him to focus on her face. His mouth moved, so she put her ear close to his mouth to hear. He breathed, "I will not let the spider take your head."

She pulled back and looked at him, stunned and terrified. He gave a weak smile, then lapsed into unconsciousness again.

"Helena!" Fitzy came hurrying up the path with Javier's mother and two others on his heels. He dropped down beside her and opened the medical kit. He hissed when Helena removed the shirt she'd been pressing to Javier's side. "The bleeding has slowed, but some of these gashes are deep. He's going to have some good scars."

Helena felt eyes on her. Her throat tightened at the look of raw fury Javier's mother was directing down at her from where she stood lording over the scene. The old woman made a sound at the back of her throat, looked briefly at Javier, then turned her attention to the doorway.

Helena's skin prickled uncomfortably when she followed the woman's gaze to the black hole that lead to the crypt. It was possible that whatever had attacked Javier had run down there.

"Fitzy, do you need me?"

"Yes. I'll disinfect and stitch up the wounds back at camp. We need to reset his shoulder before we can move him. You need to translate into Spanish what I need the others to do."

She nodded and looked back at the doorway. The skin on her scalp prickled, and when she turned back, Javier's mother was once again staring at her.

She held the old woman's gaze for several long moments, then moved to sit by Javier's head. The old woman barked something in Quechua, and the two men who came with Fitzy backed up a step.

Helena looked hard at the old woman, who tipped her chin up slightly and looked down her nose. In Spanish, Helena said, "Pedro, tell Javier's mother if she wants a son who has a working arm and is alive, then you need to help us."

Pedro looked back and forth between them. He ducked his head towards Javier's mother and spoke quietly in Quechua.

The old woman ground her jaw back and forth, but didn't break eye contact. Finally she said one word in Quechua and the two men knelt on either side of Javier, looking expectantly at Fitzy.

Fitzy sat back on his heels, his jaw tight. With quiet, firm commands, he directed them how to hold Javier's body while he reset the shoulder. "He probably won't wake up, but let's be ready in case he does."

Javier's mother moved to the mouth of the doorway, her back to the group. Helena strained to hear over Fitzy's talking. The old woman was speaking in a continuous stream, perhaps praying.

Helena looked over her shoulder. The woman had her arms raised up in offering. Then, more rapidly than it seemed possible for someone so old, she jerked down to her knees. The woman bent forward, hands stretched out in front of her. As if she was trying to appeal to whatever mountain god she thought lived here to spare her son.

Fitzy tapped her arm to bring her attention back. Javier's face relaxed as soon as the bone went back into place with a slight pop. "Right, let's get it bandaged. Can you ask them to go get a table that we can lay Javier on to carry him back to camp?"

She nodded and relayed the request. The two men took off running, taking surreptitious glances at Javier's mother who still knelt, face pressed to the earth and arms stretched forward on the ground.

Standing up she brushed dust off her knees. "Fitzy, we need to make sure whatever attacked Javier didn't run into the tomb."

He nodded and looked at the old woman. "I was thinking the same. You stay with him. I'll go look." Javier's mother's fingertips dug into the ground when he went by her, and didn't relax even after he'd gone down and returned shaking his head that he'd found nothing.

Helena stepped close and whispered, "Fitzy, there's something else. I found three bodies of our hired help in the jungle. They've been there for a few days, torn up as if an animal has been at them. Javier didn't report them missing to me. Did he say anything to you?" Fitzy shook his head. She shook her head. "I doubt he said anything to Jake, either. But why not?"

"I didn't even realise anyone was missing," Fitzy said.

"We've never had a group this big. At least half the people are new."

"You're sure they were ours?"

She rubbed her forehead. "Yeah. They all had on those shirts the professor handed out."

"We'll need to do a head count. See if anyone else is missing. After we take care of Javier, let's go out so you can show me the site. Helena," Fitzy huffed out a breath and fisted his hands on his hips. "Did you get a good look at the cuts on Javier's sides?"

The angry red gashes weren't something she'd forget anytime soon. "Good enough, I guess. Why?"

"Did you happen to count how many there were?" The blood drained from her face. "There were five cuts on each side. Definitely made by claws of some kind and in only one swipe, not multiple attacks. There's always some mutant animal being reported, so it's possible it was a five-clawed cat, but with the bodies you found, maybe we need to worry about some psycho lurking around instead." Fitzy scuffed the ground with one foot. "We'll have to alert the authorities. The professor is going to have a hissy fit."

"Yeah, considering how he's been over not finding help with the translations, he's going to go supernova. It took a lot of work to get permission to the original site we were supposed to be working on. Even if it is a psycho and not his fault, the government will not be happy about dead bodies. They might shut down the whole operation."

She looked at the doorway, and the old woman laying before it. It didn't make sense for her mind to go there, but even though that guy was a corpse, her gut told her he was linked in somehow. She sighed. With everything else, she might as well lay all her cards on the table and tell Fitzy about the skin changes, even if just to have someone verify she wasn't imagining it. She opened her mouth just as the men came running into the clearing with a table. It would have to wait.

With Fitzy's direction they got Javier on the table with a minimum of jostling. They all took a corner and Fitzy said, "All right, lift on one, two, three!" Once their holds were secure, they started back to camp.

Javier's mother didn't move as they exited the clearing, and Helena resisted the urge to look into the dark stairwell.