strength. Without it, they would’ve collapsed.” William scooted back underneath a large branch, trying to keep the downpour off his head. “So what was your father like, Eric? You never talk about him.”
“He was a good man. I don’t think he was ever happy but he always treated me good. What about yours?”
“I don’t remember my father. My mother said he was in World War II, but I don’t even know if that’s true. One of my uncles got drunk one night and told me she had a one night stand and never saw the guy again.” William looked off into the ravine. “Weird feeling, to hate your father though you’ve never met him.” He leaned forward, over the edge. “Hey, look at this.”
Eric leaned over the edge. Two small balls of fur were bouncing around on a ledge. They were a golden color with black spots; leopards. They couldn’t have been more than a few months old.
“Cute little bastards,” William said.
There was a barking coming from across the ravine and Eric’s heart jumped. He looked over, his eyes trying to focus while rain poured over him. A troop of baboons were making their way toward the ravine. The large males were in the front and back with the females and young in the center. A particularly large male stopped at the edge of the ravine and looked in.
“Duck low,” William said. “I don’t want to have to shoot them.”
But the baboon wasn’t looking at them. He was glancing down about twenty meters at the leopard cubs. The baboon began looking for a way down. He saw a small trail that led to the bottom of the ravine and started making his way; the troop staying behind.
The cubs’ instinct kicked in and they began looking for a place to hide. Their bellies stayed low to the ground, almost rubbing against it, and they found a small hole to climb into.
The baboon came directly to where the cubs were. He stopped a few feet from the hole and stood staring in. Finally, he came closer and began sticking his hand in to get the cubs.
Eric began to ask William to hand him the rifle-
But it was too late. The cubs made no noise as life was crushed out of them. The baboon began to make his way back up to the troop, two little limp bodies in its hands. The male kept one of the cubs for himself and gave the other one to the troop to share.
A roar thundered as the mother leopard sprinted for the troop. A cacophony of barks and howls rose up from the troop as the females and young retreated and the males held their ground.
Two young males circled around the leopard, barking and hollering loudly to draw its attention. The leopard roared and showed her teeth, spinning around every time a young male would nip at her or pull her tail. The large male baboon stood in front of her, staring into her eyes. Animals always stare in the eyes to fight.
The leopard lunged and the baboon darted to the side as the leopard’s teeth clamped down on its hind leg. The baboon let out a scream and the younger males jumped on the leopard, biting her legs and belly and coming away with bloody chunks of fur and tissue.
The leopard wouldn’t let go, even as the two younger males began tearing at her open belly. She shook her head violently and managed to snap off the older male’s leg. The two males tore open her belly further and her organs were exposed. She refused to die. She spun around and bit down onto one of the baboons’ arm. The other younger male, his two compatriots injured, decided to retreat and ran off through the grass.
The leopard did not let go of the baboon, even as the blood loss began to make life leave her. The baboon was still alive but wasn’t able to remove the vicious jaws from its arm. It lay screaming on the ground as the leopard died on top of it. The older baboon collapsed without a leg and stopped moving as the younger one screamed for help. The troop simply began to move on.
“My God,” William gasped. He looked to Eric who was staring unblinkingly at the sight of the leopard, frozen with death on top of the writhing ape. “Let’s get going,” William said.
CHAPTER
47
The rain cleared up as quickly as it had come and the clouds seemed to vanish. The sun began pounding the earth again and within hours the plains were dry once more. It was odd how quickly the weather changed out here and it was something Eric was certain he could never have gotten used to. Life was unstable and unpredictable enough without the environment being the same way.
They walked through a particularly thick patch of grass and came out the other side onto a narrow dirt road. William looked one way, and then the other.
“It’s gotta lead somewhere,” Eric said.
“Yeah, but which way?”
The road went on in both directions well past the limits of vision. Eric examined it more carefully. It wasn’t a road built intentionally; it was a path that had been beaten down through the grass.
“Why would so many people come through here?”
“Tourists probably. Maybe there’s a government facility here somewhere, who knows?” William looked both ways again and then said, “Well, what do you think?”
Laughter behind them.
They both turned and looked into the grass, unable to see anything. There was some movement far off and William raised his rifle, but didn’t fire.
“Either one is as good as the other,” William said.
“Yeah,” Eric said, not taking his eyes off the grass.
Neither of them could concentrate as they walked, each glancing over their shoulder. Whenever they’d hear the slightest noise they would stop and raise their guns. They’d wait half a minute before walking again. “Eric, I want you to know something. I think there’s a good chance we could die out here.” “I know,” he said. “If you got anything you want to get off your chest, anything you want to tell me, you should say it now.” “I don’t, Will.”
They saw something in the distance as they walked. It was a dark speck at first but as they approached they saw the square outline of a building. It was made of dark red brick and was about the size of a large house. The front door was open.
William walked up some steps to the door and peeked in. It was a reception area. There was garbage strewn all over the floor and a single desk took up half the space of the room. The place looked like it’d just been ransacked. “Hello?” he said. He looked back to Eric and shrugged before walking in.
The air was stale even though the door had been open. A slight breeze was blowing and causing some of the papers to rustle. Eric could see a half-eaten lunch on the desk. William walked to the desk and flipped through some of the papers.
“It’s a medical facility,” William said.
“Then where is everyone?”
“I don’t know.” There were some metal drawers against the wall and William opened each one, examining the contents before closing the drawer he was on and going to the next one. “Some of this stuff’s in English.” He stood up and looked around. “They’ve got to have a bathroom somewhere, which means they have to have water.”
Eric followed William down a narrow hallway and into the first room on the right. It looked like an office, but there was no furniture; only garbage thrown around everywhere. One of the windows was broken and sunlight reflected off the little pieces of glass on the floor.
They walked to the next room. It was a medical examining room. William found some band-aids and antiseptic in one of the cupboards and he stuffed as many as he could into his pockets.
Eric searched the room but found neither food nor water. There were tongue depressors, thermometers, stethoscopes and even an X-ray machine, but no food or water. They walked out of the room and to the last door at the end of the hallway. William checked that his rifle was chambered.
The room smelled of feces. They looked in and could see black spatters of blood all over the walls, baked into the paint from the heat. Two bodies were on the floor, a male and female. Stab wounds covered her flesh and her
