* * * *
Neesha emerged at the top of the hill and looked down on a pit-like area where sand and water lay in a fetid pool that reeked of dying vegetation. Near the edge of the water lay the Komodo dragon everyone had been hunting. She had finally cornered it.
The hunt had taken her days—weeks, perhaps—she didn’t know. She and killed at least a dozen of the creatures and had encountered the carcasses of many more. It seemed Ali and Sylvester had been killing their share of the monsters. Needless to say, the population of the Komodo dragons had been severely reduced. Each time she had been forced to kill one of the other dragons, her transmitter had gone offline for 24 hours. That had been annoying, but at last she was here.
She stared at the beast below. It hissed at her and began pacing the edge of the small pool of water. She wondered why it had gone down there. To date, the wily creature had avoided any place where it could be cornered or trapped. The water down there was no good, so it hadn’t gone there to drink. So why?
She slipped her single remaining arrow out of her pack and nocked it to her bow. She paused. Her aim wasn’t nearly good enough to risk a shot from this height. She would need to get closer and to do that, she would have to go down into the pit. Her heart began to beat. She didn’t relish getting any closer to the animal than this, but if she missed, she would have nothing to kill it with.
This was her best chance. She had to take it. Still, she hesitated. Now that the deed was upon her she really didn’t want to kill it. In her mind the Komodo dragon was a victim in all of this as much as she was. Oh, the animal had certainly killed that human boy, but the beast was still simply an animal. It was acting on its instincts, not out of a malevolent desire to kill humans.
Neesha fingered her arrow, uncertain what she should do. She knew that if she didn’t kill it and either Sty or Ali did, they would kill her. Steeling her resolve, she took a step down the steep slope of the pit, leaning far back to keep her balance.
Just then someone crested the pit’s edge from the other side. Neesha froze when she saw Sty standing directly across from her. She hadn’t seen him since the helicopter ride to the mainland, so she was somewhat shocked at his appearance. The boy looked emaciated. His gaunt cheeks blew in and out with each breath, and his hollow eyes stared at her as if she was some sort of apparition. He didn’t look like he was getting much sleep. He glanced from her to the dragon below, and she could see his lips tighten.
He still had three arrows, but no bow. He drew two of the arrows out and held them in his hands.
“Wait!” she yelled. “Don’t kill it!”
Sty looked at her in incomprehension. “If I don’t, you will and then they will kill me.” He said it matter-of-factly, as if it really didn’t make any difference to him either way.
She licked her parched lips and shook her head. “Neither of us has to kill it. As long as it is alive and we are still out here, we all stay alive.”
“I want off this island,” Sty said. His voice sounded strange, almost resigned. “One way or another, I want off. I don’t want to live like this anymore.”
“Why can’t we work together?” Neesha proposed. She began edging around the perimeter of the pit towards him. He noticed and took a defensive stand, eyeing her warily. “Easy,” she said softly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Sty snorted. “And pigs fly. Neesha, you’ve been trying to hurt me ever since we first met.”
That stopped Neesha. She considered it. She thought of the number of times she had attempted to hit him, call him names, or humiliate him. She could very easily see, from his perspective, how she might have it in for him.
She gestured around her. “This place changes you. I was mad at everyone—the whole world, but being here—in this place—knowing that the whole world is watching, waiting for you to die or kill.” Neesha felt her cheeks flush. “I just don’t want to give them the satisfaction. Know what I mean?”
Sty looked at her strangely. “I never thought I would hear such words from you.” He looked down at the Komodo dragon that paced the edge of the pool of water restlessly, hissing and swaying its head from side to side to keep both of them in sight. “What do you propose?”
That took Neesha back. “I—I guess I don’t know. I just don’t want to kill it, that’s all. I want it to live. I want us to live.”
Sty slumped down to sit on the edge of the sand pit. A ragged beard had covered most of his chin and face. He would need a few more years to grow it out properly. “I’m so tired,” he muttered. Even from where she stood, she could see the tears flow down his cheeks. “I don’t really care what happens.”
“But they do,” another voice suddenly spoke from Neesha’s right.
She jumped in fright, whirling around to bring her arrow to bear on Ali. He regarded her strangely, his eyes looking somehow alive. “How did you get here?” she demanded shrilly. The last time she had met Ali, the man had tried to kill her—or was going to.
“I followed your trail.” His eyes narrowed speculatively. “Strange that. I’ve not seen anything of you until just now.” He frowned as if encountering something unexpected. “As if…” he trailed off. Turning to Sty who regarded Ali with indifference, he said, “You may not care, but they do. The whole world is watching. They don’t care about us, but they do care about their money and entertainment. It’s about their money and profits. We won’t be able to leave here alive. They won’t permit it.”
“You mean even if we kill the dragon—or one of us does—they aren’t going to let us go free?” Neesha demanded.
“They may keep you alive for a time, but I guess they’ll just throw you back into another one of these absurd games.”
Neesha had to work through what Ali said. She was somewhat surprised at how refined his English was. She had expected something else, and her brief conversation with him last time didn’t amount to much. When she worked through it, she sighed as the truth hit her. “I guess you’re right. We are condemned.”
Frustrated and angered beyond anything she had ever before felt, she spun around and looked into the surrounding jungle. She couldn’t see the cameras, but she knew they were there, watching her. “Have your little fun, you stupid apes!” she yelled. “I’m not playing anymore! I’m not going to be your entertainment. To blazes with all of you!”
Ali and Sty stared at her as if she were a Komodo dragon herself. She kicked at the loose sand pit in a fit of anger and lost her footing. With a startled yelp, she rolled down the slick side of the sand pit. She tried to arrest her momentum, but there was nothing but loose sand to grab onto. She sucked in her breath knowing she was heading for the pool of water at the bottom.
Something grabbed her leg. She cried out again as her momentum forced her upper body to keep moving even as her leg remained stationary. She came to a stop, upside down and staring at the open sky. Neesha raised her head to see what had grabbed her and was shocked to see a brown hand wrapped around her ankle. The rest of it was buried in the sand.
She wanted to scream as the sand around the hand shifted like a crab emerging from a sandy beach. An arm, shoulders, and then the face of a man appeared. Terrified, Neesha just watched as the apparition took shape above her. The man put a finger to his lips and then glanced up at Ali and Sty. He motioned for them to be quiet and then beckoned them to him. It took a moment, but she finally recognized him.
“John,” she breathed.
He nodded, motioning her to be quiet. She did, but she wondered how to quiet the thumping of her heart was. Seconds later, Ali and Sty joined them near the bottom of the sand pit. The Komodo dragon hissed and spit from the other side of the pool, but he didn’t try to climb out. Neesha thought that odd.
“What are you doing out here?” Ali demanded. Sty didn’t even look curious. He had turned towards the dragon, a wistful expression on his face.
John kept his voice low as he helped Neesha to her feet. “You’re in trouble,” he stated flatly. Neesha
wanted to snap back at him, but something about his demeanor kept her mouth shut. He noticed and nodded to her. “Everyone has grown impatient with you. They either want you to kill the dragon or to kill each other.”
“It was you,” Neesha said softly. “You’re the one who has been helping me.”
Sty turned then and frowned at John. “Are you the one that saved me from those natives?”
Again, John nodded. “Yes. I’ve been doing everything in my power to keep you three alive.” He turned hard eyes on Ali and Sty. “Sometimes you made it almost blasted impossible.”
Neesha blinked in surprise when Ali actually looked embarrassed.
“I’m over that,” Ali said.
“Are you sure?” John asked. “If you three are going to make it out of here alive, you will need each other.”
“I understand,” Ali mumbled.
“Good. The cameras can’t see down here, but as long as Billy is down here too, I’m hoping they’ll think you are trying to kill him.”
“Billy?” Sty asked.
John pointed to the dragon with his chin. “It’s what I’ve named him. I’ve had to keep him alive too. Listen you three. You may not realize it, but you have been out here for nearly two months. No one thought you would live out a week, and as a result, many people have become impatient. I have just received word that the Mob plans to send a kill squad in to finish the job. The bets have changed. It is who will be the last one standing.”
Neesha shifted nervously. “The last one doesn’t get to go free?”
“Hardly. You have embarrassed a lot of people by not dying quickly. They want all three of you dead now.”
“What do we do?” Sty asked. The prospect of being hunted by trained killers had galvanized him some.
“You will work together to stay alive. First thing’s first. You will need to leave your trackers here—except for one of you. One of you needs to run out of here like the devil himself is on your tail. Some of the cameras will follow your flight, and that will give us a window of opportunity for the rest of us to slip out into the camera blind spots. We’ll need to move carefully, but if we do this right we can get to a place where you will be safe.”
“What about the one who has to run?”
John looked at Sty. “Sylvester, you are the most physically fit of the three at the moment. The other two have sustained injuries that will slow them down. Think you can run?”
Sty bit his lip and ran his hand through his scraggly beard. “Guess so. Where do I go?”
With a knife, John drew a map on the edge of the sandy slope. “You need to go here.” John marked a spot by the southern shore. “It is close to one of the native villages and cameras weren’t installed there. On the way, Sty, you must accidently drop your tracker. It needs to look like an accident, but if you don’t get rid of it, they’ll be able to find you with or without the cameras.”
“What do I do when I get here then?”
“Someone will meet you. I trust him, but he’s not very enthusiastic about putting his neck on the line for a bunch of would-be murderers. So be polite to him.”
All three bristled at John’s statement, but calmed down instantly. John nodded.
“Good. You’re learning wisdom. The rest of us will make our way to a hut where you should be safe. This will only buy us a few hours. Right now the assassins are on standby. Everyone wants to see the result of all three of you going into the sand pit after Billy. But they will be coming very soon. It won’t take them long to realize something isn’t right.”
Billy the dragon hissed at them again. Neesha frowned at it. “Hush,” she scolded it. “Why is it down here? Why doesn’t it run away?”
“Her nest is there. She won’t leave it, and if you get too close, she’ll probably try to kill you.”
“Her? Nest?” Neesha sputtered.
“Chose the wrong name,” John mumbled. “Her eggs are buried in the sand.”
“Oh.”
“It’s why I led you here.”
“Did she really kill that kid?”
“Yeah. She was hungry and pregnant. Bad combination. The poor kid was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” John turned to Sty. “You need to go now. Any questions?”
“No.”
“Get going then.”
Sty nodded and scrambled up the slope. He disappeared over the edge. John pulled out a handheld computer and was studying the screen. After a moment, he nodded. “We have our window. Leave your tracker here, Neesha, and follow me.”
Neesha dropped her tracker in the sand and followed John and Ali up the sand pit. Behind them, Billy hissed one more time in their direction for good measure. Good riddance, she thought as they left the sand pit behind.
They flitted from shadow to shadow, stopping often at John’s command. He kept regarding the screen on his device before pointing them in a specific direction. “We must hurry,” he whispered. “We must get to our destination by nightfall, or the thermal cameras will begin registering your heat signatures.”
They nodded their understanding and followed as John led them away. They traveled for four hours, and just as the sun began to set, John called a halt. “Okay, we’re clear of the cameras for the moment.”
It was at that moment that pain shot through Neesha’s head that caused her to cry out sharply in pain. She never even realized she had fallen to the ground where she writhed in agony. She clenched her teeth in pain and curled up as best she could. Her head felt as if it was on fire.
Dimly she heard someone ask, “What is wrong with her?”
“Not sure. I have my suspicions though.”
Then she blacked out.