B008IFNJZM EBOK (31 page)

             
“Chelsea is right.  Either save him or lose him forever.”

             
Hadiya looked at Elizabeth.

             
“Your friends are right… his pulse is...”

             
“Alright...”

             
Hadiya gently laid his head down and she bit him on his neck.  She took only enough to begin the process.  She looked up at Chelsea who then bites him from the other side.  As soon as she looked up Hadiya, Hadiya administered the third and final bite just seconds before Shawn’s heart stopped.

             
Elizabeth tried to squeeze her hands inside and stimulate the heart but there was no reaction.

             
Over the headset Iolana’s voice came across.

             
“Did you do it?”

             
“Yes.  I think we did it in time.”

             
“We will know for sure tomorrow night.”

             
Chelsea hugged her friend.

             
“I am sure he will be saved as one of us.  Go gather up his bed.”

             
Elizabeth looked at the women.

             
“His bed?”

             
“Yes.  If tomorrow he comes back to us, he will need soil for daytime rest periods.”

             
Hadiya got up and Elizabeth ripped open a package.

             
“Wait a minute Hadiya.”

             
Chelsea smiled and shot back out of sight to rejoin the others.

             
Elizabeth cleaned the blood off of the top and backside of Hadiya and wrapped her exposed chest to form a top for Hadiya.

             
Hadiya kept looking down at Shawn.

             
“Did we do the right thing?”

             
Elizabeth could tell she cared about the youngest of the professional guides.

             
“If that would have been my brother instead of Shawn, I would have wanted you to do the same thing.  I would rather be able to see my brother every night rather than never seeing him again.  I am sure he will understand tomorrow evening and say the same thing.  Elizabeth could see that the entire side of Hadiya’s boot was missing.  Only the band at the top remained.

             
“Now let me look at that leg…”

             
“If you please just wrap me up.  We heal very quickly.  It has already started to repair itself… the only problem I have is a strong desire to feed again… What time is it above the ground?”

             
“I think the sun is already up by now.”

             
“Oh…”

             
“Can you take some of my blood without turning me and have enough to satisfy your urge?”

             
“Oh I can’t do that.”

             
Elizabeth cocked her head.

             
“Please… you are going to have to be strong enough to dead man carry him up to your semi once the sun goes down.”

             
Chelsea interrupted the silence as the others awaited the second wave of the Bunyips.

             
“There is a cooler up there with three pints.  Take one of those.  Iolana and I can share the other two pints.  That should get us through today.”

             
Hadiya smiled at Elizabeth and gently straightened out her head.

             
“Thank you for the offer.  I really mean that.”

             
Elizabeth smiled and knelt back down to wipe more of her blood off of her boot.

             
The headset conversation was now all Derricks.

             
They are coming faster and faster toward you.”

             
Jerrick’s voice came over.

             
“Does it look like we are lined up right?”

             
“Yes it looks like they are all traveling close together and coming right down the center of your ‘V’.”

             
Each shooter of each roller cage was now up on top because of Shawn’s example while their partners steadied their portable structures.  By listening to Shawn and his comments, each roller cage was also pointed into the lane the creatures were charging toward.  Not one of them thought about pointing the razor fronts toward the attackers until they overheard Shawn’s conversation over his open mic to Hadiya.  The young lad was right.  If one of these enormous cats were going to claw at them, the sharp wire fronts might just slow them down.

             
Derrick came over the headset.

             
“Sixty feet and still in the lane… thirty feet…”

             
The tops of the grass began to move and Willie and Henry fired at the outside pair of Bunyips.  The problem was that the other two on the inside of the group were shielded by the others.  One reared up and then the other but the two remaining animals only sped up.  The others opened up and another one went down.  The alpha male sprung up at Tom at the point of the cage and Tom fired.  At the same instant of time, both Platt and Berdy Hahn fired from the sides.  The animal fell onto the point of Tom’s roller cage and collapsed still on the front and in the razor wire.  His huge size lifted the back of Tom’s cage off the ground and smashed part of it down.  The creature moaning then rolled off and fell to one side of the cage on wheels.  Tom lost his balance and fell onto the top of the Alpha male.  In a shot, Iolana was out of the enclosure and picked up Tom and set him aside.  She then turned and picked up the head by his saber tooth type fangs and dragged him away from the front of their cage.  The others coming up to the animal were impressed with this woman’s ability to drag over a ton of cat around by his teeth.

             
Crosley came over the radio.

             
“Derrick, are we clear?”

             
“For the moment...”

             
Jerrick was ready with a new clip of darts.

             
“Gentlemen, we can examine these animals later.  Right now we need some of you to ‘hog tie’ these creatures and others to cover them.  We have no idea how long these sedatives are going to keep them out.”

             
Jerrick directed some of the men to Shawn’s cat to insure that he too, would be tied up.  Jerrick and Crosley supervised the men until all the cats were secure.

             
“Alright, we need you to stand guard over them.  If they even as much as breathe heavy, shoot them with another dart.”

             
Jerrick and Crosley went back to their cages and they along with the body guards continued to the opposite side of the grass field and to the entrance of the next section of cave.   Derrick broke in over the headset.

             
“Man that Meeratt is mad!  He is pounding his fist into the side of the cave...  he went back into his elevated cave.”

             
“Oh well, that might make negotiations with them a tad bit harder.”

             
Chelsea turned to leave.

             
“I am going back to help Hadiya fill a bucket with dirt for Shawn and also retrieve her home dirt knapsack.  I think she left it behind when she took Shawn up to the ledge.”

             
Crosley smiled.

             
“Hurry back dear and be careful.”

             
“Oh I will… and Iolana, I will bring us some nourishment back.”

             
“Thanks.”

             
The two mercenaries laid out all their remaining clips and took inventory.  Crosley and Jerrick did the same.  Tom moved farther into the entrance of the next section of passage.  He could see light far ahead that looked like the same type of light used in the first valley.  Crosley came over and handed Tom four banana clips.

             
“Here, we each have four clips now.”

             
Tom ejected the clip on his rifle and pushed in a full one.  He cocked it and pointed down the shaft.

             
“See that?  It could be another valley...  What do you think we should do?”

             
Crosley looked at his watch.

             
“Well we have been down here seven hours…  I say we go down to the end of this tunnel and see what we are up against.  If everything is peaceful we’ll post a couple of guards and get a little shut eye.  If not, we will go to plan ‘B’.”

             
“What’s plan B?”

             
“I have no idea my friend.”

             
Chelsea finished tying her shoe and shot out of the cave entrance.

             
Crosley turned to the others and using hand signals started his group down the passage toward the light at the end of the tunnel.  Platt looked at Berdy Hahn.

             
“I wonder if Dodo tastes like chicken…”

             
“Another forty-eight hours down here and I suspect we will have to find that out.”

             
Iolana handed Tom her dirt knapsack and took the lead.  She was followed by a guard and a guide.  Tom was in the middle and the rear was brought up by the other guard and guide.

             
She turned back to the group.

             
“This is too easy.  This section is only a city block or two long and it just doesn’t feel right.”

             
Crosley used his headset and everyone stopped.

             
“Derrick can you still hear me?”

             
“Yes.”

             
“What is everybody doing?”

             
“Some are watching the males and others are lining up all the roller cages at the entrance to your tunnel nose first for your return.”

             
“Answer me this Derrick.  Could that Bigfoot climb up to that higher ledge he was viewing our men from?”

             
There was a slight pause.

             
“Yes, I could see a way he could climb up there, why?”

             
“That’s all I wanted to know… thanks.”

             
Crosley turned to the others.

             
“Iolana is right.  This is too easy.”

             
Iolana started to again move toward the light but much slower as the group followed.

***

             
Chelsea found Hadiya filling a bucket with dirt for Shawn’s resting place and also for building him a backpack like the other women are wearing.

             
Hadiya would run each handful through her fingers and letting only a fine powder fall to the bucket.  She was removing lumps and stones as she worked.  Chelsea set down Hadiya’s back pack next to her.

             
“Oh thanks, I forgot all about it.”

             
“My Crosley says we have been down here over seven hours… I guess that would make it dark in our camp.  What are we going to use for his resting place?”

             
“For now, I was thinking of using one of the wooden coffin crates.”

             
Once the two women had a bucket full of dirt, they stood up.

             
“I am going to try to see if it is dark and if it is, take this bucket to the semi to prepare a resting place for him.”

             
“Okay, while you do that, I’ll take a pint back to Iolana, then I will meet you back here and help you take Shawn up and into our semi.”

             
“Sounds good… Chelsea, do you think Shawn will hate me for transforming him?”

             
“No… I really think you may have found a partner for life.”

             
“I hope so.”