The Extinct

CHAPTER

63





Eric and Jalani sat at the dining room table and gorged themselves on what food they could find and water from the kitchen faucet. The groceries in the fridge had rotted but the cupboards had plenty of dry cereal and crackers and other packaged goods. White clouds were scattered across the blue Indian sky with the sun bright at its apex.

They could hear the hyenas howling in the basement below, the occasional thud as one of their bodies fell back to the cement floor from a failed jump. The window downstairs was shattered at some point but it wasn’t large enough for any of them to crawl through. Eric had checked on them and saw that the stairs had been burnt to a crisp. They were little more than plywood and most of them had already collapsed. The house was filled with smoke and they had to open every window and door to keep from suffocating.

The hyenas were trapped, and in the days ahead, after the strongest killed and ate the other two, it would die of starvation.

“What are we going to do now?” Jalani said.

“I’m leaving Andhra Pradesh.” She looked away, sadness in her eyes as she stared at the sky. “I want you to come with me,” Eric added.

Her face brightened, white teeth underneath caramel lips in a small smile. “Where would we go?”

“Anywhere I guess. I’ve always liked France.”

She reached across the table and caressed his hand. He took her hand in his. At this moment, there was no one else in the world he could imagine being with.

“I think Thomas . . . is gone. He had money,” she said. “Very much money. In accounts in Hyderabad. I think I can get it out.”

Eric nodded, looking out the window. “I’ll be right back,” he said. He’d forgotten completely about Thomas.

He walked outside, nervously glancing around before walking out to Thomas’s clothing. They were torn and stained with dark blood. There was no chance he could be alive.

Eric walked out onto a soft patch of earth in the grass and got on his knees. He dug a hole with his hands, deep enough to fit the shirt and boots. He placed them inside and covered the hole. Standing up, he wiped at the dirt on himself, looking down at the makeshift grave. Whatever else he may have done, Thomas saved his life. He deserved something for that.

Eric stood for some time, watching the grass sway in a light breeze around the grave, and then walked back inside. Jalani was lying on the couch, half-asleep. Her body would jolt whenever one of the hyenas roared and she would wake.

Eric sat next to her, running his hands through her hair. He leaned down and kissed her passionately, their lips still wet from the water they’d drunk.

Eventually, Eric pulled away, caressing her cheek, and said, “We need to go.”

“I know.”

They took the rifle and all the food they could find, dumped out a rotten gallon of milk and filled the container with water, and headed out to the jeeps.

The breeze was cool and flocks of birds chirped their songs in the trees. A jet flew high overhead, leaving a white streak across the sky. The plains were alive with sound and motion.

There wasn’t much left in the jeeps. All the food had been taken by whatever animals had crossed its path and the water jugs were either torn apart or gone. Eric walked to the jeep where Douglas’ corpse had been. The animals had left little of that too.

With Eric on the end and Jalani pushing on the hood, the metal of the jeep groaned as it was forced back to a horizontal position, landing hard on its tires and kicking up clouds of dirt. Eric examined the tires and they all looked okay. The keys were in the ignition and the jeep started on the second try. Jalani climbed into the passenger seat and leaned back.

The matriarch hyena vaulted out of the grass and landed next to the jeep, her colossal weight making the vehicle tremble. Jalani screamed and twisted her body away as the creature snapped at her and its teeth dug into the seat, tearing out a chunk as it pulled back.

The massive jaws lunged and bit into the metal frame of the jeep which groaned as her teeth bent the metal and tore a piece away.

Eric grabbed the rifle and shoved the barrel into the creature’s mouth as it came in for another bite. The hyena bit down on the barrel as he pulled the trigger inside its mouth and the hyena stumbled backward, the gun still in its teeth.

The tires dug into the earth as Eric floored the accelerator. The hyena bit through the gun, shattering it into pieces, and started after them.

Clouds of dirt were kicking up behind the jeep, making it difficult to see, but the outline of the massive creature was still visible. It was larger than anything Eric could’ve imagined. The size of an elephant with thick musculature and fangs the size of kitchen knives.

Eric glanced down and saw he only had an eighth of a tank of gas. There were no more jugs of fuel left. Thomas had told him about hyenas. Their hearts were twice the size of a lion’s. They couldn’t run fast, but they could run for miles and miles. The gas would eventually run out.

He pressed down on the accelerator as far as it would go, the jeep thrashing about on the uneven road. It got far enough away from the beast that he had some time. “When I stop the jeep you need to run.”

“No,” Jalani said.



“Just run when I tell you to!” He waited another minute, and then slammed on the brakes. “Run!”



Jalani hesitated, and then jumped out. She ran to the jungle and waited for him.



“Go! Don’t wait for me.”



Jalani, unsure, ran.



Eric climbed out of the jeep and took off his shirt, tearing it into pieces. He went to the back of the jeep and unscrewed the gas cap. He rolled up the shirt and pushed it down as far as it would go. Pulling it back out he saw it had a little bit of gasoline on the tip.

The hyena was almost on him, only a few dozen feet away. It didn’t stop to consider its prey; it just charged.

Eric took out some matches and lit the shirt, the tip lighting immediately and beginning to work its way down the cloth. He shoved the shirt as far into the gas tank as it would go. He climbed up onto the hood, taking out his hunting knife.

The beast was enormous as its girth barreled down on him. It stood nearly as tall as a basketball rim and was thickly muscled, its jaws bulging underneath thin gray fur. It galloped like a horse but because of its size its gait was awkward and slow. Eric crouched low on the hood of the jeep, sweat rolling down his scalp and stinging his eyes.

The great beast leapt into the air and slammed into the jeep, knocking Eric onto his back and flattening two of the tires of the vehicle. It pressed its face down on Eric and he shoved the knife into its mouth vertically, keeping it from being able to close. The animal pulled away, the knife jabbing into its tongue and upper jaw, and bit down. The blade bent and the handle shattered.

Eric looked at the cloth; it was burned down past where he could see. The hyena lunged for him and he rolled off the jeep and onto the ground. He managed to get to his feet as the hyena bent low to spring.

The explosion threw Eric forward and his back screamed as the skin was charred. The animal howled in pain, its soft skin burning in flames and melting off its body. It fell off the jeep and roared, blinded from the blast, its eyes liquefied. It snapped wildly at the air, trying to bite down on anything, and then darted in one direction, smashing into a tree and knocking it to the ground. It went in another direction, dazed, and collapsed with a groan.

Eric crawled away and lay on the dirt, the pain in his back and legs nearly making him pass out. He watched as the creature’s immense body burned like an inferno in the dirt, black smoke rising into the air and whirling into the breeze. The creature was spasming and violently thrashing from side-to-side. It slowed as the fire burned. It moved one last time, a paw gently scratching in the ground, its savagery having been eaten away in the fire. Its breathing stopped as the flames suffocated it, and consumed what was left.

After a few minutes he heard a rustle behind him and turned to see Jalani.

As she helped him up, he felt the softness of her skin and could feel her heart beating against him. The sun had painted the sky a glowing crimson in its retreat, and lions were roaring somewhere. Beauty and death, like Thomas had said. But Eric realized that Thomas had been mistaken about something. He didn’t realize that the difference wasn’t in the plains; it was in us.

The plains were indifferent.