Alligator (38 page)

The alligator turned with him, keeping him in his line of sight, riveting Lee to him with eyes that flashed yellow, red, and brown, and in the center a hollow black.

Lee feinted to the right; the alligator whirled right. Quickly Lee swung back and came at the alligator's head with his hands. He grabbed the alligator's jaws, clamping them closed.

The alligator hissed. He whipped the water with his tail, violently straining to get at Lee, beating the water, the air, the grass with furious blows. But he was powerless. His strong jaw muscles worked well only one way, and he could neither open his mouth nor reach Lee with his tail.

Lee clung to the alligator's jaws, throwing all of his weight over his arms, until he was almost lying across the snout. The alligator lurched up in the water and bucked back and forth, trying to wrench Lee from him. Lee clamped the jaws even tighter, allowing the rest of his body to move with the alligator, riding the alligator, trying to sap his strength.

After several minutes, the muscles in the alligator's body went limp, and he lay in the water practically motionless. Lee began to allow himself to hope. But just as he began to relax, the alligator lashed his head back violently, and Lee's hold snapped. The impact of the alligator's thrust threw Lee backward into the churning water.

There was a moment of giddiness before fear crushed in on Lee. He knew he was trapped. There was nothing more that he could do, nothing except wait out the last few seconds before death. The massive alligator towered above him; he seemed almost to stand on his tail. Lee glimpsed the soft underbelly flashing pale yellow in front of him, and suddenly realized that the alligator had been thrown off balance.

Lee forced himself into action. Without thought, he thrust his body toward the smooth belly and sank his knife deep into it.

Shrieking in agony, the alligator threw all his weight forward, falling back onto Lee. Lee sank down low into the water. Instantly he pushed up again and stabbed the soft, spongy belly. He felt the undulating bowels shrink and convulse violently as the blade pierced them.

The alligator recoiled, howling in agony, then flipped over onto his back. Lee leaped on top of him, clamping his jaws shut again.

The alligator tried to strike out at Lee by thrashing his tail and limbs. He inched closer and closer, but always he fell short and whipped the water impotently.

Suddenly the pain returned to Lee. His cracked, splintered ribs burned his chest. Each breath cut into his lungs, searing the soft pink tissue, making him feel the terrible gaping wound in his center. Still he held on to the alligator.

Below him, the soft underbelly of the alligator lay exposed; the tender skin was split open, spilling blood and exposing organs. If Lee could reach the belly and widen the wound, he might have a chance. But it was impossible—his knife was trapped in his hand, and the only way he could reach the belly would be to let go of the jaws. He doubted he could even get close before they closed around him.

The alligator began to sense Lee's exhaustion, and strained against him even more. His terrible yellow eyes watched Lee. They were brutal eyes that seemed even worse than the enormous black body and powerful jaws.

Lee knew he couldn't hold out much longer; it was taking all his strength just to keep the alligator in a stalemate. He'd have to chance letting go. If he didn't, he would tire long before the alligator. Then, When he could hold no more, when the alligator sensed that he had won, the giant tail would whip across his body, crashing him out into the water, and the jaws would clamp onto him and carry him under. He knew he would have to chance letting go, even though he only had a split second.

Fighting the pain and fatigue, Lee lunged for the belly. His knife flashed as it ripped into the spongy skin, slitting the alligator's stomach into a gaping hole of gore.

The alligator shrieked, an unearthly, horrifying cry of death. A convulsion ran through his massive body as he tried to strike out at Lee. But the alligator's muscles weren't responding. All they did was twitch violently, uselessly, under his thick armor.

Screaming to urge himself on, Lee lunged again, thrusting his knife deep into the alligator's throat. He pulled down hard on the knife until he had opened up his throat.

As the alligator's life spilled out around him, he howled in pain and fear. Again Lee plunged the knife into his throat. Blood spurted into the air, carrying with it the possibility of sound. The alligator's entrails began to fall out of the enormous stomach wound, unraveling in the swirling water, floating all around him.

Lee gripped the knife tightly and thrust at the brain. He pushed it deeper, until he was lying on top of his head. Underneath him, he felt the alligator shudder violently, then go limp and he knew that finally he was dead.

Slowly, Lee got up and started to back away. Suddenly the alligator twitched. Holding his knife tightly, Lee moved forward cautiously.

Again the alligator went limp, and Lee knew it had only been a reflex. The killer that had taken on the entire swamps now lay quiet, his life spilling into the water around him.

Lee stood still, unable to grasp what had happened or why he was holding a knife which was caked and encrusted with blood. He bent down and washed his face and hands. There was blood on them, too. He cupped his hands and brought water to his lips; it tasted strongly of salt.

Great evening shadows stretched out from the hummock and cooled him. Clouds stained blood-red from the setting sun raced across the surface of the water, tinting everything a rosy pink. It was evening.

A few feet away from Lee, the black, lifeless body of the alligator floated free, rippling with the water. At first he felt a stab of sadness and regret, but relief as warm as the water quickly followed.

Far in the distance, Lee noticed some strange gray shapes. At first they looked like clumps of trees, but as he continued to gaze at them, he thought he saw smoke rising from them. He realized that they weren't trees but the smokestacks of a factory. The salty taste of the water was from the ocean spilling back into the swamps. That meant that the ocean couldn't be more than ten miles away, and where there was the ocean, there was a good chance a city was nearby.

He turned back to the alligator, floating in the water next to him. Suddenly everything that had happened came back to him. It hit him with a force that almost knocked him off his feet, a force that grew and grew until he almost reeled with its power and beauty.

A strange, convulsive laughter built in him, making him smile, then even laugh, as he turned and walked away. He moved faster and faster, until he broke out in a run and cried out in joy, "I'm alive! I'm alive! I'm alive!"