The Extinct

CHAPTER

35





Eric floated from a mound of grass to a cloud that sat next to him. The cloud moved purposefully, turning at an angle to fit perfectly between him and the grass. He moved toward the sky and the sun was bright on his face.

“Son?”

Eric was in the backseat of a car. In the passenger seat was Jeff, staring at the road before them. His father was driving and turned back to Eric. “Son?”

“Yeah, dad.”

“You have to make sure there’s no water in your shoes. You can’t get trenchfoot. Wear your boots without socks and stop every hour and dry your feet. It worked when you were in Vietnam. Your grandpa saw you there.”

“I will dad.”



“There’s the dam.”



A large dam sat in the middle of the road, water leaking from millions of little crevices.



“Looks like it’s going to burst,” his father said.



“Yeah,” Eric said. He looked to Jeff. On his head was a clear bowl of water with a scorpion floating inside.



“Son?”



“Yeah.”



“We needed to take a detour.”



“Yeah.”



Eric felt a sharp pain in his head and it spread over his face, down his neck, over his chest and legs to his feet.



He awoke in a cold sweat, Jalani sitting by his cot applying a wet rag to the wound on his head. The side of his face ached and he felt the stickiness of dried blood running down his neck.

“Don’t get up,” Jalani said. “Dr. Said gave you some antibiotics. You will be fine, it is just a scratch.”

Eric thought back and remembered motion and warmth and slight pain in his head. He couldn’t slow the image down enough to see anything more than a blur.

“Where’s the tracker?” Eric said.



“Gone.”



Eric reached up and touched his head. “What happened?”



Jalani hesitated. “You were . . . you were bit, Eric.”



Eric saw a flash in his mind’s eye. The red and brown of a tongue, and the sharp angles of yellowed teeth scraping his face.