B008IFNJZM EBOK (40 page)

             
Willie and Henry passed Miles and Reynolds.  Both were carrying males.  This was easy since the tall grass would slow the males down and they could barely run to begin with.  You just walked toward the bird population and picked up the first male you saw.  They passed other teams returning with pairs of males rather than just one and every man they saw had gotten rid of the net and they had their rifles shouldered.  They were grabbing these birds out two at a time.  Some were carrying males with one in each arm.  By the time that Willie found their males, the word came over the headset that they were getting the spare male backup bird. Henry looked at the bird in front of Willie.

             
“Well my friend you can have the honor of snagging the last one.”

             
Willie bent down and carefully placed his hands on the bird and began to rise up.  That is when he looked up and not more than a few inches in front of him was a dark brown female Bunyips growling at him.  The girls above them saw the tail now come over the top of the grass and began to squawk.  Henry now fired and the Bunyip lunged forward and took the bird and both of Willie’s arms in her mouth and snapped his arms off close to his elbows.  Henry kept firing as Willie screamed only now it was obvious that the females do not hunt alone.  Tails all over the grass began to pop up.  Platt got up and dropped the dart rifle and picked up the heavy fifty caliber weapon and opened up at any sign of a threatening Bunyip.  Reynolds and Miles dropped their birds and ran to their aide.  Platt hit one females and then another.  By the time the darts and bullets stopped firing, Miles, Reynolds, Willie and Henry were no longer visible.  The girls few back to the ledge and dropped down and changed back into their female forms.  Chelsea was mad.

             
“I had a feeling this was a bad idea!  We should have been the ones gathering the birds.  We cannot only heal our wounds but if we did come under attack, we could have transformed back into birds and flown our way out!”

             
Hadiya was upset as well.

             
“Or with a burst of speed we could have ran out!”

             
Crosley came over the headset.  He could see the two girls coming down the ropes from the ledge.

             
“What are you girls doing?”

             
“We will search for the missing men and then finish your bird collection.  Call you men out of the grass now before someone else gets attacked!”

             
Crosley did as Chelsea asked and the men passed the girls returning near the safety of the ledge.  Everyone now covered the two women as they scanned the grass for the missing men.  Six hours later, the women gave up and brought out the last of the males for the quota and the group traveled back to the ledge and up to the base camp.  There was no sign of the four men that perished in the attack.  Everyone was silent as they traveled back to the camp with their quarry.   Crosley walked behind the women pulling off leeches and ticks.

             
A production line was set up just outside of the Merat Cave.  A two bird cage was first covered with a straw base and then a male and female Dodo was placed in it along with a tray of water and a pair of cracked cantaloupes.  Until the first cage came up through the air opening in the top of the cave, the Sargent Major and his men had no idea why they had to bring fresh fruit and an empty five ton truck. Two of the Sargent Major’s men were assigned to keep the birds watered and to watch over the entire shipment until the truck reached zoo veterinarians waiting for the cargo in Canberra.

             
There, the birds would be broken into shipments for delivery to the list of zoos Crosley and Jerrick had arranged to receive the pairs for lucrative prices.  The girls were covered with blood from their searches for the missing four guides and from rubbing up against the blood soaked four last known tall grass positions of the men.  Once the cages were loaded the men went to attend a meeting in the command tent and as soon as the sun dropped down for the evening, the girls returned to their trailer for a shower and nourishment.

             
Nathan played the video recording of the mission to retrieve the Dodo birds.  He fast forwarded the tape on its first run.

             
“As you saw on the first run through, those on the ledge never saw the tails of the animals until the attack began.  There was no wave of grass folding over before the animals attacked either that might have indicated them running toward you.  It would appear that given the one killed and the other tranquilized, that all the attackers were female. This group seemed to have been searching for food for their young.”

             
One of the guides named Strom raised his hand.

             
“Excuse me sir, but were the cats there all the time and lying in wait for us?”

             
“Yes, we believe they were.  We think that during the time we were assembling the big cages and sending them down the side to the valley below, the animals moved in.  We also believe that when they saw the party come down the wall and move in the direction of the Dodo flock they planned a menu change.”

             
“That would indicate that these Bunyips are extremely intelligent.  We are talking about a coordinated attack plan thought out in advance.”

             
“Yes… and we believe that this also demonstrates another unusual characteristic for the creatures… The females waited for one of their own before the attack began.  We now believe that the females like the males, have somehow elected or appointed one as an alpha female.  That would explain why they all just laid in the grass until the biggest female struck first.  This leader did not start her attack as your men entered the valley and closed in on the flock.   She waited until the Dodo harvesting was nearing the end and somehow realized that the longer it stalled the initial attack, the more relaxed you would all become.  By the time you began removing the last of the birds, no one was even carrying a rifle in a ‘ready to shoot’ position.”

             
“What are we going to do now?”

             
“The two girls along with Shawn and our friends Platt and Berdy are going back to resume their search for the remains of the four missing men.  They will also pinpoint the two prides and if possible, set out motion detectors so when any cat leaves for the open valley, we will know.  Unfortunately, we do not expect that any of the four are still alive.  Meanwhile gentlemen, you will follow the convoy truck to the capital and begin traveling with our birds back to the zoos on the list.  Each list has been modified to add an additional stop to cover the shipments that would have been made by the four men we lost.  When all the shipments are complete, you will be able to return here.”

             
Couldn’t the women find a blood trail indicating where the men were taken?”

             
“Only until the tall grass ended.  Before then, they were dragging the men in the direction pointing to the far end of the valley.  This is a region we have never really explored before and that is where this party will begin to search.  The left end of this valley is much darker and not as well lit.  Platt and Berdy will have night vision equipment.  We figure the females and their young have food for at least four days and they will not be active again until then so we have to act now.”

             
“But what about the males?”

             
Platt entered the tent.

             
“If I see so much as a single thing moving, I will destroy it!”

***

             
Jerrick shot out of the tube and into a pond.  The water was so cold it felt like his entire body was enclosed in cactus.  He quickly paddled his way to shore and pulled himself up on the bank.  With a “whoosh’ sound behind him, Iolana came out of the tube and splashed down behind him.  There was very little light in the cave as Jerrick sought the direction the light was coming from.

             
“Stay here, I’m going find out if it is sunrise or sunset.”

             
Jerrick ran to the source and hoped for sunrise so that he might be able to warm back up.  He heard Cinnet shoot out into the water but never looked back.

             
Jerrick stepped out into the warm light.  It was definitely sunrise.  He leaned against a rock to break the mild breeze and started to dry off.  He found himself on the side of a mountain overlooking a downward sloping grass plain with scattered trees.  He tried to get some idea of where he was.  He saw a road at the base of the field in front of him and Cinnet came out of the entrance.  Cinnet indicated that just he and the Meeratt would gather the plants needed for Tom’s cure.  Jerrick took off his soaked shirt and slammed it against rocks and rang it out.  He then tied up the sleeves and made it into a bag for holding the Wolf’s Bane.  As he wrapped it around his neck, he followed the Bigfoot into the grassy field and down the slope.  As they came close to the road Jerrick walked over and looked at the writing.  The creature had taken them to Alaska alright.  The sign indicated that they were in Chugach State Park.  With the exception of his soggy feet, he was beginning to dry off as the pair cautiously crossed the road and into another section of forest.  The creature was being quite careful not to be seen but Jerrick saw no one who could report a sighting of a Bigfoot walking with a human.  It was nearing noon time by the position of the sun when they came to a clearing in the woods.  Cinnet pointed to a section of tall plants and Jerrick looked at the vegetation.  He looked up at his guide.

             
“These are purple in color, I thought Wolf’s Bane was bluer in color?”

             
The creature nodded and Jerrick began to reach for the plants but Cinnet caught his hand.  Through hand gestures he instructed Jerrick to hold the shirt open and that he would pull all that was needed from the field.  That is when Jerrick recalled that the plants could cause skin irritation on contact.  Jerrick poked holes by the collar and used part of his boot string to sew it shut.  He then watched his guide fill his shirt with the plants.  It was being careful to pull only the stems and the flowers and it packed the shirt to its capacity.  Jerrick added a few knots to hold in the plants and the pair began the journey back to the mountain cave.

             
By the side of the road the pair had to stay hidden until several adventurous tourist groups passed by.   By the time they returned to the cave, they decided to rest next to Iolana before beginning the return trip through the passages and traveling over eight thousand miles to return to Tom.

***

             
Shawn shot across the valley to the opposite wall.  It was the first time he had ever used his newly acquired talent since being turned into a vampire.  ON his back was a straw basket containing several sets of clothing and boots for the women.  He also carried rock climbing hooks, a combination stone hammer and pick as well as rope and spikes.  He then began to scale the wall near to the ledge from where once stood a Meeratt viewing their previous actions in the valley.  The team felt the view of the far left side of the valley was better from that spot.  Also they thought that the cave on that ledge might lead them to other viewing areas around the valley below.

             
Once Shawn came back over the headset, the women went down into the valley.  They wore only boots and fall away clothing just in case they had to transform in a hurry.  They shot near the site of the attack once again.  This time they wanted to view the pair of females that were dropped earlier.  The first large animal was dead and the women slowly approached the second.  They knew it had only been hit by tranquilizer darts and the wanted to confirm that it was still unconscious.  They parted the grass and peeked in at the huge animal.  It was easily a five hundred pound animal.  It was on its side and they could see it breathing.  Hadiya pointed to three darts.  Even with that much tranquilizer in its system, the drug used did not cause its heart to stop.  This animal would be waking up soon.

             
Hadiya fired another dart into the creature and the animal did not respond.  Chelsea then went over and stapled a location device in its back.  The Bunyip felt the staple puncture growled and then rolled over knocking Chelsea down against the tall grass.  The animal almost had Chelsea pinned underneath of its huge body.  Hadiya helped Chelsea back to her feet and the pair shot over to Shawn.

             
“We got her, she is tagged Nathan.”

             
There was a short pause.

             
“Yes I got a signal.”

             
The women could see Nathan waving to them as they reached the base of the other side.  Several animals from the mushroom side of the huge cavern growled as if in response to the female’s cry of the one that they had just tagged.