The Lost Treasure Map Series (96 page)

Hanks had transformed into something else
and now looked like a professional jockey, and not the soldier that
he knew, and he even wondered what he was up to! Why had he not
just found a professional place to work for? Was he really a good
jockey?

He studied the weight of the jockeys and
their horses trying to see if he noticed anything, and they were
the same, and Hanks was not overweight from all the beer he had
consumed, and he wondered what the conclusion would be.

Hanks looked determined and determined to do
his job!

He had questioned him more intensely on his
knowledge of racing as much as he could, checking if it was a good
investment, and for the fun of finding the truth.

Willy seemed to have deep determination and
perhaps a plan and he was sure it could be more determined to win,
and at the start line it gave vicious looks at the other horses and
as though they were different and inferior, and he was surprised to
see the others react like it was something, but he could not quite
grasp what, and he realized the other horses thought it was a
predator!

He stood astonished and wondered how a horse
could possibly treat and think of other horses as it did! It ate
grass and had the basic horse body, and he wondered if it had been
Hanks all along that had done something to it, which had altered it
to something else, and that he had trained it to attack them!

The argument
over its name occasionally still emerged, as at different angles
they could not imagine a horse with such a name could become a
leading racehorse! Some places seemed to choose horses by their
names! But Hanks had insisted that it was a great horse name and he
had given examples!

Willy looked a monster, especially at night,
and people avoided going near where it was kept, and while sober he
still looked twice at it when he had not seen it for a long time,
and he was surprised that experienced people at the racecourse gave
strange reactions and many stood staring at it and some recalled
its appearance in the newspapers, and some he was sure recalled it
at the last racecourse, and there were still the occasional people
that thought they were up to something.

As he moved over to the starting line he
wondered over and over if it could be a winner and what the outcome
of the race would be, and wondered if racehorses did make it
anymore and if it was a fantasy and thing of the past.

He spotted how prepared and determined for
the race the other jockeys had become and that their horses looked
more trained now, and he realized that Hanks might not have trained
it enough and tried to recall how much he had been away visiting
it.

At the starting line he went beside Fogler
and Simpson, at the front of the audience, and they watched Hanks
preparing himself for action and he wondered again why he was so
keen.

When the starting gun blasted he was
surprised at the speed the other horses raced away at, but Willy
seemed to be left behind for some reason and he studied Hanks
checking if it had been him all along that had gone at the back of
the race and had made Willy accelerate at the right time, but he
never saw anything that indicated that it was, and he was sure that
he had not, and he was sure the horse was deliberately at the back
of the horses for some reason that he could not determine other
than to surprise the other horses near the finishing line.

Hanks went crazy trying to get the
beast to move on before it was too late, and Cameron saw what
looked like a glint of satisfaction on the horse
’
s face, but he also saw
something in its posture and eyes that grasped his attention and
that it was eyeing up the other horses like it was chasing them
like a predator.

Fogler at one point looked furious and
clenched his fist and started shouting at Hanks to move it and had
to calm himself!

Cameron saw something in
Willy
’
s
expression again and watched it speed up and leap forward and grab
another horse
’
s leg in its mouth, sending the horse
crashing to the ground, and Hanks fell off its back onto the
ground, and it leapt on the other horse
’
s back and started wildly biting the
back of its neck like a beast.

Cameron stood gasping with the others around
him, silenced and gaping at what happened, and he wondered if they
would have to pay for the damage!

It was incredible the horse was trying
to kill the other horse and it clearly did not have enough power in
its jaws to do any damage to it and the other horse eventually
rolled over and got up from the ground and rushed away, while Willy
fell over the ground, and his eyes changed from being bloodthirsty
to deep disappointment, and they watched the front horses race
passed the finishing line, and Willy attacked Hanks and accelerated
away into the audience and
burst into life, releasing
its
colossal inner strength, and
ran furiously into people and crazily knocked them down!

The audience
stampeded away from it, all around it, as it ran after them
attacking, and it charged out the racecourse like an angry bull and
rushed into a busy high street and jumped through a supermarket
window, and ran through it biting, bucking, and smashing everything
in its path, jumping on handbags, seats, and anything, and chased
people everywhere, as they leapt out of its way, and it leapt on
shelves of food sending everything smashing over the floor, and it
chased a security guard into a side room and he rushed out and shut
the door behind him, and trapped it there!

Chapter 19

The Morning After

The next day Cameron realized it had been a
bigger disaster than he had imagined and just about every newspaper
around had the story somewhere, and he gasped when he watched it on
television and wondered if they were going to get it!

The main headline on a major newspaper had
been: MONSTER WILLY ON THE RAMPAGE, with photos of the horse going
crazy, and the others were basically the same, and he examined it
and with some satisfaction that it had come up as funny rather than
a danger to civilization.

He pondered over why they had thought it was
some form of ass, and asked the other soldiers at the army camp it
that morning and they had just laughed over the event!

The most depressed was Hanks and they
mostly felt sorry for him and Cameron wondered if
they
’
d have
the horse destroyed!

Simpson, Fogler, Hanks, and Cameron decided
early in the morning to remain out of the way until the incident
blew over! The damage could have been great, and far higher if they
decided to take action over horse attacking people!

H
e was sure they were still interested in the horse racing
but he could not imagine the horse winning anything now! It was
crazy and he was sure that they had only allowed it back as it was
a special event and occasion! The place got a great advert for
future events, but he did not want anything to do with future
events as the horse would do something lethal somewhere!

He heard, what
he was sure was a rumor, that Malone was so upset by the bad
publicity that he was going to order them to have the horse
destroyed! Even though he was sure that they could sell it for at
least the same price they bought it for, after having been in all
the media!

Cameron dreamily rested against his bed when
a soldier marched in the tent and told Simpson, Fogler, Hanks, and
Cameron that Malone wanted to see them immediately at his tent and
they all stood, and Simpson started discussing the incident and the
racehorse and what to do if different situations were brought up,
and they made an agreement.

Cameron watched the soldier march away and
realized he had done something again already and he grabbed a
bottle of whisky from the side of his bed and downed three large
gulps to wake him, and shifted after the others out the tent,
wondering what would happen next!

Once in Malone
’
s tent they all stood frigid
and Cameron realized that Malone was only slightly annoyed this
time, and he examined his face and saw he was trying not to look
surprised about something, and he suddenly poured a drink to his
surprise, and Malone examined his face from the side of his eyes
and gasped, and Cameron realized that he was also controlling his
temper and that he would do whatever he intended.

“
Sit down!
”
Malone ordered, clearly more
annoyed now, and they all took seats and sat about his
table.

“
Cameron!
”
he eventually whispered,
annoyed.
“
Are you behind this?
”

He stared deeply at Cameron disappointedly,
almost jokingly.

“
Are you drunk,
Cameron?
”
he moaned, examining his eyes.

All the three other soldiers argued
and showed their disapproval of his methods, but he continued and
asked,
“
Well, are you?
”

“
I had one drink!
”
he moaned back.

“
Well you sinned! Your not supposed
to!
”

“
I have
thinned!” he replied.

“
You’ve
thinned?” he hollered.

“
Yes!”
he argued, loudly. “I won top prize for drinking the most alcohol
than anyone else in the camp at a wild party!”

“
I’ll
handle your corruption! After this meeting you’ll go straight to
the kitchen and squeeze the juice out of five strong citric lemons
into a glass and pour in a full bottle of castor oil and add strong
chili powder and drink it!”

“
Will
that wash away me thins?” he muttered, wondering what the hell it
meant away, and realized he might have some old religious
believes.

“
No!” he
shrieked. “It’ll stop you being a bloody drunken brainless twit,
and someday maybe help you run things the right way!”

His reply stunned him, and he stopped
replying, wondering what he meant by it!

“
Have I done something
...
”
he
whispered, mainly to himself, not knowing what it was he
meant.

“
There has been a complaint about you
all!
”
Malone announced loudly, studying them again seeing if they
would react.
“
This time it
’
s authentic!
”

Simpson burst out laughing, at Malone and
his ways of doing things, and Cameron realized Malone might be more
of a drinker than he realized, which could explain his strange
reactions.

“
What about?
”
Simpson joked.
“
We haven
’
t met anyone to complain
about us!

“
Some people don
’
t like you lot! They
complain everywhere about things you do!
”

Simpson sarcastically gave an
expression of being humiliated by it and tried to get what he was
going on about, and asked,
“
You should send them to us for us to resolve
their complaints!
”

“
People should stop complaining about
nothing!
”
Fogler quickly replied, backing him up.
“
They should save it for all
the real things!
”

“
The people of this country could do
without you all!
”
he muttered, staring at Cameron.
“
It
’
s over a reported racing
horse!
”

“
What horse is that?
”
Fogler
continued.

He stared deeply at his eyes again, and
looked away.

“
Well, don
’
t let it happen
again!
”
he
replied, tired of beating about the bush.
“
You were lucky this
time!
”

“
Yeah!
”
Simpson replied, realizing they had
got away with it.

They had a future problem, as they were all
wanting to continue racing, as Cameron could not see how they were
going to solve the problem of it going crazy.

He wondered why the hell they never just got
something to put on the horse to stop it at the finishing line and
if it attempted to go crazy and charge into the audience.

“
Cameron
there was another complaint from the disabled pensioner you dragged
out the bar and rolled about ...” Malone stated. “I think you
should apologize to him!”

“
Apologize!” he replied, gasping at having to meet him again,
and decided just to avoid it.

Chapter 20

The Accident

The next they decided to start properly
training the horse as it had to be fitter, and though it went along
with the idea it soon started doing the opposite and even started
not running and they tried forcing it and had to stop before they
damaged it!

While driving back it went crazy and started
smashing the back of the truck and Hanks accidentally crashed into
a tree!