Forsaken World:Coming of Age (30 page)

“Would you think I was a punk-ass bitch if I suggested we head back?” Ian whispered.

“No,” Lance said, putting up his phone. “But we can’t. We can’t let dead stinkers attract living ones. If we don’t deal with them, they could easily overrun us.”

“I vote deal with the stinkers,” Ian said, looking down at Dino, and relaxed when he saw Dino panting.

Standing up, Lance looked over at Ian. “Enough could seal us inside the cabin,” he said.

“Fine, let’s go,” Ian huffed.

As Lance moved back down the ridge to the buggy, he pressed his squawk box. “Moving to buggy, and kitties have killed one stinker, ripped the neck out of another, and the last one they took his head clean off,” he called over the radio.

“Copy,” Jennifer called back. “Don’t bring the kitties home; the dogs won’t like it.”

“I’ll fucking leave if the kitties try to move in,” Ian muttered, walking sideways for a few yards then would turn around, walking sideways and looking the other way. “If the kitties kill the stinkers, they need to drag them off.”

“If they don’t attack us, I’m more than willing to clean up their mess,” Lance said over his shoulder.

Still walking sideways, Ian nodded. “Yeah, that is acceptable.”

When they got to the buggy, they played rock, paper, scissors to see who would drive. Lance groaned when Ian won. He climbed behind the steering wheel but kept his AR across his chest and his right hand on the pistol grip. Driving with his left hand, Lance drove to the other side of the area, stopping just out of camera view of the fence.

The motion detectors that went off were still hundreds of yards away, but they moved slowly toward them. “Time last one went off?” Lance called over the radio.

“Forty-nine minutes,” Jennifer called back. “Detector thirty-seven, six hundred yards to the southeast.”

“That’s near the field,” Ian whispered.

“As long as it’s not here, I don’t care,” Lance whispered back, moving around a trap.

When the breeze blew toward them, Ian pinched his nose. “They killed another one.”

“Fuck,” Lance said, almost wanting to pull out his gas mask. “Their sense of smell is stronger than ours; how can they take it?”

They kept moving ahead, and when Dino stopped to look down the ridge, Ian and Lance fought the desire to climb a tree. “Fuck this,” Ian said, putting his back to Lance’s again.

“If they are in the valley, let’s burn what’s ahead then get home,” Lance said, moving off.

“Slow down,” Ian said, almost walking backwards.

With the smell getting stronger, Lance stopped. “Mask,” he said, pulling out his gas mask and putting it on.

“You do realize I can’t see as much wearing this, right?” Ian said, putting his on after Lance finished.

“Bitch, let’s move,” Lance said, walking around another trap and noticed several paw prints around it. “I really want back inside the fence.”

Moving at a fast walk, they soon found the source of the smell. Lance saw arms, legs, and torsos scattered about. Searching, he finally saw a head then looked for more. “I’m counting four torsos, but I can only find three heads,” Lance said as he trotted over and started throwing the pieces in a pile. He looked at the body parts, and though they were ripped apart, none had been eaten from.

“Lance, we need to fucking go,” Ian said, running past him and grabbing a leg off the ground, tossing it on the pile.

“You better fucking keep on watch,” Lance snapped, tossing a head on the pile.

Ian grabbed Lance’s arm, spun him around, and pointed down the ridge. “That’s why so many stinkers came,” Ian said, pointing at a deer’s carcass. “The tigers were eating.”

About to say something, Lance’s mouth froze open as a tiger roared in the valley below them. “Guys, we see the tigers,” Jennifer said over the radio. “Ah, they’re attacking seven stinkers in the field.”

Ian dug in his pocket, pulling out a medicine bottle full of petroleum-jelly-soaked cotton balls. He pulled one out, dropping the bottle and pulling out his lighter. When the ball was lit, he tossed it at the pile, which exploded in blue flame before the cotton ball landed.

Lance just stared at the half-eaten deer carcass. “One full grown tiger could eat that doe, and we have two. Why is there anything left?”

“You want to solve fucking riddles?” Ian said, grabbing Lance’s arm and pulling him toward the buggy.

Yanking his arm out of Ian’s grasp, Lance stopped. “Ian, those stinkers in the valley are here because of this pile we’re burning. We have to go in the valley and burn those.”

“You can suck my nuts, buddy boy,” Ian said, spinning around. “The tigers are killing them, and when they are done, we can go clean up the mess.”

“And wait till the rest get here?”

Ian scanned around them. “You want to drive the buggy down to the field where we know for a fact the tigers are tearing apart stinkers?”

“No,” Lance said, and Ian relaxed. “I’m not driving that buggy through that cedar thicket for shit. Those tigers could be three feet away, and we wouldn’t know it until they jumped us. I’m talking about walking down the slope now.”

Thinking about riding through the cedar thicket, Ian felt his pulse quicken. “So you just want to walk down, run the tigers off, and torch the bodies?”

“You have a better plan that doesn’t allow for stinkers coming to the smell?”

“You got point,” Ian said, checking his AR for the thousandth time.

“Jennifer, can you still see the tigers?” Lance called over the radio.

“Yeah,” she said in a flat voice. “They ripped the seven apart and are lying down near the gate. One is giving the other a bath.”

“Where did they attack them at?”

“Fifty yards outside the gate,” Jennifer answered.

Looking over his shoulder, Lance said, “Moving,” and went down the slope in a quick walk.

“What about worrying about more kitties?” Ian said, following. “Hell, stinkers or gangs for that matter?”

“I’ll take them over mean pussies any day,” Lance said as Dino stepped in front of him. “I know, Dino,” Lance said, walking around Dino.

“When a dog the size of Dino is scared of a cat, you need to pay heed, Lance,” Ian said, glancing back.

“He’s a smart dog,” Lance said, moving quickly down the slope and grabbing his squawk box. “They still there?” he called out.

“Yeah, and Lance, they are fucking huge,” Jennifer said. “I know how tall that fence is. They have to be almost four feet at the shoulder and ten feet long.”

“That bitch needs to shut her fucking mouth,” Ian growled.

Seeing the valley through the trees, Lance slowed. “We should come out near the bodies here,” Lance whispered. “If they come near us, you shoot ‘em.”

Ian grabbed Lance’s arm. “You realize this fucking AR shoots a really small fucking bullet, and you want me to use it on tigers?”

“You shoot them more than once, dumbass,” Lance said. “You cover them while I burn the bodies.”

“Hey, the tigers are looking up at the trees,” Jennifer called over the radio.

“Yeah, they know the fucking idiots have showed up,” Ian said as Lance moved toward the valley.

When Lance stepped out of the tree line, Jennifer gasped, grabbing the microphone. “Are you fucking insane? They are right fucking there!” she screamed over the radio.

Ian grabbed his radio with his left hand, flipping it to voice. “Jennifer, you need to shut your fucking mouth,” he snapped over the radio then put his hand on the rifle, aiming it at the two huge tigers.

Everyone at the cabin watched as Lance, with Dino beside him, and Ian bringing up the rear crept closer toward the bodies of stinkers. “He told me to shut my fucking mouth,” Jennifer gasped, watching the monitor.

“Well, you do need to,” Carrie said, looking at the two tigers watching Ian and Lance.

Ian fought through the fear and the desire to run and followed Lance toward the bodies. He could see the tigers easily fifty yards away and had to admit Jennifer’s assumption on size was pretty damn close but seemed small when he looked at them with his own eyes. When Lance reached the bodies, he started dragging them in a pile, tossing ripped-off appendages on the pile. Dino moved just past the last body and stopped looking at the tigers.

The tigers stood up and started moving closer as Lance pulled another body to the pile. “Hey, kitties, you need to stop, or I’ll light your ass up,” Ian said, aiming at the biggest cat. The smaller cat rolled its head at him, exposing its teeth. “I don’t care how big your teeth are, bitch, I’ll light your ass up, and we’ll eat pussy tonight.” With his radio in talk, Jennifer couldn’t help but grin.

Lance tossed a head on the pile and glanced over his shoulder to see the tigers stopped twenty yards away. “They can close that pretty damn fast,” he said, tossing a leg on the pile.

“Little bullets, Lance,” Ian said, keeping the crosshairs on the big one’s head. When it took a step closer, Ian put his finger on the trigger. “You better lay down, fucker!” The big tiger just fell over on its side, and the smaller one sat down.

Lowering his muzzle, Ian looked at the big cat on its back with its legs in the air. “Did you see that shit?” he said, and Lance tossed the last body on the pile.

“Aim at them!” Lance said, pulling out a soaked cotton ball.

“I told it to lay down, and it did,” Ian said, slowly raising his rifle back up. The smaller one started to move closer, and Ian put his finger on the trigger. “You better go off and play!”

The smaller tiger pounced on the bigger tiger, and then the two started playing. Ian looked over his scope at the two playing. “What the fuck? They’re playing.”

“Let the pussies play. We are gone,” Lance said, tossing the flaming cotton ball on the pile. When it landed, Lance stepped back, brought his rifle up, and stopped, seeing the two tigers playing like kittens. Glancing at the pile, Lance saw the fire start to catch and spread. “Ian, I’m leaving. If you want to play with the pussies, you can stay.”

“Fuck that,” Ian said, backing up. Dino glanced back and saw them leaving. Looking back at the tigers, Dino backed up, never taking his eyes off them.

When they reached the tree line, the fire roared up, and the tigers stopped playing and looked at it. Looking where the boys entered the trees, the tigers looked at each other then bounced across the field into the bamboo thicket where the stream reached the valley.

Lance looked at the cedar thicket then across the valley at the bamboo. Looking at his watch, he said, “We have five hours till dark. Let’s go.”

When he started home, Dino moved in front of him. “Lance, did you see that shit?” Ian whispered, and Lance stopped. When Ian got beside him, Lance reached over, flipping his radio to push to talk.

“No, I was gathering bodies,” Lance said and moved off.

“I told the big one to lay down, and he did. Then, I told the other one to play, and it did,” Ian said with awe.

“Well, you got some big pussies to listen to you,” Lance said over his shoulder. “I suggest you keep an eye out in case those pussies want to play with us.”

They moved up the side of the draw slowly because of the number of traps. It was close to the road, and this would be the most likely avenue of attack. With the maze of pits and traps around them, it did give them a sense of security. When they were below where Lance thought they left the buggy, he headed up the slope.

Lance felt his phone vibrate and grabbed his squawk box, “Where?” he said.

“Motion detector one oh one at the top of the draw,” Jennifer said over the radio.

Not bothering to answer, Lance picked up the pace. When he saw the buggy, he fought the desire to break into a run and jump on it. “You’re driving,” Lance said over his shoulder. “I got us here.”

Ian just groaned as they neared the buggy. When they climbed on, Dino walked behind it, staring off up the draw. “Yeah, Dino, we are going home,” Ian said, turning the buggy around.

“Wait till we are at the gate before you open the outer gate,” Lance called over the radio. When he let his squawk box go, Lance turned to Ian. “I don’t want the tigers to see the ladybugs exposed. They’re little enough that I think they might try to take one.”

“You think we should’ve just shot them?”

“Nope, you’re right about the ARs shooting small bullets for big game,” Lance said. “Remember when Dad shot that lion on our safari?” he asked, and Ian nodded grimly. “He was using a 470, a bullet ten times bigger, and it still took two shots, and a tiger is bigger than a lion.”

“Let’s bring a bigger gun with us on the next sweep,” Ian said, finally reaching the small dirt road.

“I’ve been thinking, do we really want to kill them?” Lance said but was scanning the area around them hard. “They make great watchdogs. If we can clean up after them fast enough, they could help us.”

“Lance, I almost wet my pants when they started walking toward us.”

“I think I shit mine,” Lance mumbled, being serious. “We’re talking major skid marks.”

Ian looked over with a grin but didn’t comment about it. “I don’t know about letting big pussy roam free; it seems we are playing with some serious fire.”