[Project Nemesis] Jungle Fever (2 page)

            She loved the
hunt, the excitement of it, the thrill of the chase, it wasn´t about hurting
the animals, hell no, she loved all animals.  No, she liked the intensity of
the search, the capture, knowing that she´d bested some of Mother Nature´s
finest beasts, but afterwards, she´d always been able to release them either
back into the wild, or with a reliable wildlife preserve, a reputable
zoo—anything other than a research facility.

            It made her sick
to think of what might have been done to these creatures, and now she was a
part of it.  She’d have to learn to live with her decision later.

            She was going
against all of her principles, but unfortunately for Yvonne, she had no other
choice.  When the IRS comes a calling, and they tell you that you owe them
three hundred grand, then you´ve got to do what you´ve got to do.  She´d jumped
at the chance when one of her contacts had found her this job, especially when
she´d been told about her salary for successful completion of the mission. This
one job would clear not only the IRS debt, but it would also help her rebuild the
tatters of her old business.

            Blood money to
keep her mouth shut once she got off this damned island.

            She’d known from
the start that the project leader was holding some details back—this was top
secret government work.  It didn’t pay for her to go snooping around, and it
wasn’t part of her job.  As long as she didn’t end up dead or horribly mangled,
she’d keep her mouth shut and her mind on something else.

            All Yvonne wanted
to do was finish the assignment, get paid, and then get the hell out of here. 
That’s what she had to keep telling herself.

            Ears straining
for anything different, she sensed the jungle noises quieting down.  A welcome
breeze blew through the trees, making her skin feel cooler.  Her hair tickled
her nose and eyes.  She pushed it back under her cap, listening, waiting.  Her
breath caught in her chest, and she forced herself to remember to breathe.

            In Yvonne´s
experience, silence only deepened when something big was about to go down.  The
jungle knew.  It was equal to the hairs on the back of your neck standing up,
or suddenly having an attack of goose flesh, the hunter in you knew danger was
ahead, and it was prepping your body for the attack.  To this day, she still
used the techniques her foster father, David, had taught her when she´d been a
rebellious, resentful, teen aged brat.  He´d hunted all his life, as a boy he
fished and hunted with his Daddy, then he hunted men.  He´d fostered her after he´d
retired from his business--bounty hunting.  He´d taught her all he knew, and it
had not only helped calm the brat down, but it had enabled her to forge a
career out of his teachings as well.  She would never forget one word of his
lessons, too often she´d been caught in a sticky situation and she´d only
managed to escape thanks to David´s methods.  She was about to use one of them
now.  

            Breathing so
deeply that it almost hurt her lungs, she controlled her heartbeat, and calmed her
nerves simultaneously.  She always found that she could hear, see, and sense
more when she wasn´t focused on butterflies in her belly or the beat of her
heart, and this technique had never let her down.

            Her eyes
flickered over the valley, the traps she couldn’t see but knew were there, then
behind and further into the underbrush.  She scanned the jungle, constantly
searching for her quarry.  Her ears picked up the hunt, however, it was a soft
sound at first, unnoticeable to anyone who wasn´t listening out for it, and
then it came, a wildcat´s scream that ruptured through the air. Only experience
stopped her from flinching, the guy next to her jumped and swore under his
breath, within seconds she was prepared, and within seconds it attacked.

            Yvonne quickly
jumped up, braced her legs, and raised the tranquilizer gun to a comfortable
height as a panther quickly leapt through the trees, foam dripping from its
mouth like rabid dog.  It screeched angrily, foam spraying on the valley floor
as the panther growled and leveled his stare up at her.  She felt the hairs on
her neck react and quickly shot the beast before he could launch an attack.

            As she reloaded,
a sleek leopard darted into the clearing, its eyes wild as it dashed across the
valley floor, straight through the brush covering one of their pits.  His mournful
yowl rang out as he crashed to the bottom of the trap.  The floor of the cage
vibrated with the ferocity of the leopard’s growl.

            One of her men,
John, raced out of hiding to tranquilize it and shut the cage.  He kicked the
reeds back over the hole the cat had gone through instead of heading straight
back for cover.

            God damned fool,
giving himself away!  “Hold your positions!” she said into her unit, shooting
at a panther stalking John.  She felled the beast with one shot and felt
adrenaline surge through her.  The bastards were quick, but not quick enough to
outrun her shot.

            The brush rattled
with the sound of something massive disturbing the undergrowth … or several
somethings.  She turned her head, pin-pointing the direction the wind had
followed.  The pheromone must have worked its magic deep into the jungle, and
they had mere moments to prepare for their arrival.

            “John, quick
fucking around and get back up that ridge into your position.  Oh shit!  Behind
you!”

            He whirled just
in time to bring up his gun and take out a small jaguar that had ripped through
the underbrush.  The animal’s great body continued its forward momentum,
crashing into the tangled grass in an unconscious heap.

            She hadn’t
expected to draw this many of the creatures at once, or this fast.  If they had
many more to deal with, she wasn’t sure the men could hack it.  Their supplies
weren’t limitless, after all.

            A quick glance
around confirmed her worst fears and ripped the voice right out of her mouth. 
She swallowed, rallying her nerves for battle.  She sucked in a sharp breath,
taking aim.  “Hold steady, men,” she whispered, hoping they could hold their
shit together and didn’t lose their wits in a panic.

            The foliage
parted like a green curtain as the horde pressed through.  Jungle cats of every
variety poured into the valley, muscles flexed, ears pinned back, eyes wild but
intelligent and scanning for any movement.  A tiger leapt over the disturbed
pits, sniffing the area for prey.  Two jaguars followed closely on his heels. 
Behind them, more came.

            There were too
many of them.  At least a dozen on first count.  They hadn’t set enough cages
to handle this many cats at one time.  She only hoped the tightness of their
formation meant that more would go into the pits together.

            It was too much
to hope for.

            She watched the
scene unfold with horrified eyes as one of the team members began shooting at
the pack with his SMG until she heard the click of an empty cartridge in the
sudden silence.  The absence of any sound scared her more than the sheer size
of the pack.

            She knew what was
coming, and she wasn´t looking forward to it.  The chain reaction she´d envisaged
was worse than she´d first thought.  The great cats spun around to roar and
growl angrily at them, sidestepping the traps as though they knew the cages
were there all along and had only been waiting for their human trackers to
reveal themselves.  The thought was ludicrous until seen in action.

            They pounced at
the men approaching, who fired in self-defense.  Bullets ripped through
unstoppable feline flesh.  Blood scented the air, making the cats go mad with
bloodlust.

            Sickness churned
her stomach.  “Stand down.  Tranquilizers only.  We need these cats alive!” she
screamed into her comm. unit.  She was under strict instructions not to harm
the animals—they had an enormous price tag on their heads.  She had to get them
back to the experimental facility they´d been released from or all their
efforts would be in vain.

            The men ignored
her, panic setting in when John’s luck finally ran out as a tiger took him down. 
His screams echoed around them, curdling her blood in horror.  The five hundred
pound beast covered his body and locked onto his throat, cutting off his cries
and ripping out his throat before anyone could react.

            Mind-numbing
terror washed over her.  A split second felt like an eternity as her adrenaline
fused brain tried to cope with the scene unfolding before her.  Her ears rang
and her eyes dimmed, making her mind feel that wobbling sound that meant she
could easily black out if she’d just let herself go.

            And then probably
be eaten alive with the rest of the men.

            Yvonne shook her
head, aiming her gun.  She’d never get the men under control if they all went into
a panic.  She didn’t want to die any more than they did.  A scream lodged in
her throat, refusing to come out.  She fired at the man-eater, taking it down. 
It fell on the fallen man, asleep.

            She wanted to
blow its brains out.  The revulsion of the thought and what she’d seen the
animal do made her want to vomit.

            She choked back
the bile rising in her throat.  “Goddamn it!  They’re just animals!  Use your
brains,” she yelled, raising her gun and firing at the cats attacking her team.

            If they killed
all the damned cats, they wouldn’t get paid.  Some of the men ignored her and continued
to fire their guns.

            “Use the fucking tranq.
guns!  We need them alive, not dead, you fucking idiots.  Get a hold of
yourselves!” she screamed, trying to get through their thick skulls.

            She took a cat
down, and then another, and swore when she had to reload.  She ran behind one
of the trees to try to cover her back and fitted the cartridge as quickly as
she could.  Spinning to launch a tirade and make sure no one else got killed,
she pulled up short as something snagged her vest.  Her blood ran cold when she
felt the pressure of a paw and the edge of claws digging through the thick
material.

            The airspace was
so awash with the sounds of battle, she hadn’t heard the fucking thing come up
behind her.

            She twisted,
trying to get a shot off before he could rip a hole through her.  A great black
paw knocked the weapon from her hands—lightning fast, faster than she could ever
hope to react.  She lunged for the weapon, feeling the beast move in sync with
her.  He was right behind her, his hot fetid breath on the back of her neck.  Her
legs dragged, her mind slowed.  She couldn’t believe what was really happening,
and in the back of her mind, she knew she couldn’t stop moving or she’d be dead. 
His great weight landed on top of her, and dimly, she recognized the sounds of
shredding fabric as it clawed her vest.

            She ducked her
head into her chest, felt the beast squeezing her, crushing her into the
ground.  Through a fog, she registered that the pheromone was leaking onto her
chest—something on the canister had broken and its contents saturated her
clothing.  Her lungs couldn’t expand, she couldn’t breathe.  She couldn’t reach
her knife, her hands were trapped as the animal pushed her down.  Dirt filled
her nostrils, her mouth, preventing her from screaming for backup.  Any second
she’d feel teeth sink into her neck.  She prayed she wouldn’t feel it when the animal
ripped her spinal cord out.

            This was the end,
and she was powerless to stop it from happening.

Chapter Two

            A growl sounded
above Yvonne.  Suddenly, the great weight lifted, letting her lungs take a
desperate gasp of air.  She spat the dirt from her mouth and staggered to her
feet, watching as two cats fought each other for dominance or a happy meal. 
Yvonne scanned the dirt for her gun.  She couldn’t find it without a lengthy
search.  She checked her bearings and took off through the jungle, headed for
her men, wondering how many had been mangled or killed, if they’d taken out all
the cats or captured them.  They didn’t have any more fucking pheromone for a
second attempt at this, she’d wasted the rest of it on her chest.  And she
needed a weapon.  She hoped the scent wouldn’t drive the beasts straight to her!

            With that
thought, she peeled her clothes off down to her shirt.  Kneeling and scanning
the woods, she gathered a fistful of dirt and rubbed it over her shirt, hoping
that would mask any remaining pheromone that could be clinging to her skin. 
She sure as hell hoped it would keep them from catching up to her. 

            Her thoughts were
erratic.  She could feel hysteria creeping in on her as she lost the sound of
her men.  Was she going the wrong direction?  Everything looked the same, but
the compass on her watch was reading right.

            She forced
herself not to panic, but it wasn´t easy when she kept imagining stalkers
following her through the jungle, toying with her.  She needed to get to the
high side of the valley where they’d stowed extra ammunition and supplies.  It
should be far enough away from the warring cats that she stood a better chance
of not becoming catfood before she could procure another weapon.