Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Gomez!” a Headhunter shouted. Several sets of footsteps pounded through the woods toward the clearing. The thrashing of heavy bodies tearing through underbrush filled the silent forest. “Where are you? What’s wrong? Gomez! Answer, damn it!”
“I’m fine!” Gomez yelled. “I’m okay. I think, anyway.”
Raven shrank back into the shadows, hiding deeper among the trees, ensuring she was well hidden. She lowered her rifle. Much as she wanted to attempt it, she couldn’t take out several Headhunters at once. Her best ploy was to remain undetected.
As Raven peered between branches, Gomez shoved the dead wolf from atop his body and climbed weakly to his feet. With a pained shudder, he shrugged off his jacket and slung it over his injured arm, hiding the bite.
He stepped forward, so the bent, matted, blood-slick ferns lay behind him, along with Suki’s corpse.
Two Headhunters emerged into the clearing. The first one was Cobb. The burly man gripped a semi-automatic in both hands. “Did it get you?”
“Nah, man,” Gomez said shakily. “I’m good.”
Raven recognized the second Headhunter, too. Scorpio, the one with the tattooed neck. He nudged Suki’s body with his boot and gave a contemptuous snort. “It’s infected. You’re lucky. One bite is all it takes. Just like those damn infected feral dogs.”
“I shot it before it got near me.” Gomez leaned against the nearest tree, feigning nonchalance. The Headhunters didn’t appear to notice the tremor in his legs or the faint, red stain seeping through his jacket. Raven saw it all.
Scorpio turned slowly, scanning the wood, his eyes glittering with a cunning intelligence. He was one of the dangerous ones.
“Good thing,” he drawled. “Seeing as Diaz and Cooper both got themselves shot.”
“That girl got them?” Gomez’s face was growing pale. Sweat beaded his forehead. He swiped at his face with a surreptitious movement, knocking his brown fishing hat askew. “That little girl really got them?”
Cobb nodded. “Diaz is dead. Cooper might as well be. Martin took one to the shoulder, and O’Reilly got nailed just below his ass.”
“Their own stupidity, if you ask me. Only pansy-ass wusses let a little girl get the best of ‘em.” Scorpio turned his back on the woods. He stood less than five yards from Raven’s hidden location. “Dekker be damned. If I find her first, I’ll kill her myself.”
“To hell with Dekker.” Cobb slapped at a mosquito and cursed. “And to hell with that damn girl. Enough of those damned woods! I’m starving. There’s plenty of loot back at the zoo, and we’ve barely enjoyed a thing. Dekker wants this chick so bad? Let him freeze his balls off out here. I’m out.”
“I’m with you,” Scorpio said. “I could eat one of those monkeys raw right about now. Or hell, this damn wolf.”
“Vaughn ordered everyone back to the zoo,” Cobb said. “For food and to bandage up the idiots who got themselves shot. And to bury Diaz.”
Cobb and Scorpio headed for the perimeter of the clearing. Scorpio paused over the wolf’s body. He glanced at Gomez. “You gonna pitch a tent out here or what?”
“Nah—I’ll stay out a bit longer.” Gomez lifted his gun with a trembling hand. “Found some more tracks. Gonna bag me that lynx.”
“Suit yourself,” Cobb said. “No one’s saving grub for you.”
Gomez nodded shakily. “I’m good.”
Scorpio gestured at Suki’s body. “I’m claiming this one. It’ll make a damn fine pelt.”
“It’s yours,” Gomez said, though Raven doubted he had a choice. If Scorpio wanted something, he seemed the type to take it.
Scorpio bent, hefted the limp body of the wolf, and slung the corpse over his shoulders. Cobb followed at his heels. Gomez watched the Headhunters depart with glazed eyes. Sweat soaked his hairline. His face was waxen.
Once his companions were out of sight, Gomez sank to the ground. His breath came in loud pants. Still crouched within the trees, Raven watched as he unwrapped his bloody jacket and examined his arm.
Fresh blood oozed from several ugly gashes across his forearm. Suki’s jaws had torn his flesh to shreds.
Gomez bowed his head. He let out a raw, guttural sob.
Raven’s fingers tightened on the rifle, but she didn’t lift it. One bite is all it takes, Cobb had said. Gomez must be infected, now. He was a dead man walking, and he knew it.
The Hydra Virus could spread between animals and humans. It affected animals differently, making them more aggressive, like rabies. An image of Zachariah seizing her arm flashed through her mind. At the end stages, humans became combative and threatening, too.
Would it happen to her, too? It had been four days since she’d been exposed.
There was a disconcerting scratch in the back of her throat, though she’d had far too little to drink, and thirst made her parched.
She’d coughed a few times. With her free hand, she felt her forehead.
Her skin was warm, but not hot. No fever had set in. Yet.
The Headhunters were gathering their wounded and regrouping at the lodge. They’d be back on the hunt soon.
For now, she had a short reprieve. She needed a place to rest and regroup, to make her next move, whatever that might be, whether it was time to run or to fight again.
Gomez remained in the clearing, stained with blood and quietly sobbing. She considered shooting him but decided to save her ammunition instead. He still held his pistol in his lap. Perhaps he’d take care of things himself.
Stealthily, Raven rose and backed away. Her stomach roiled. She was sick and tired of everything, of disease and death and violence. Sick of the constant fear, of the grief always hot on her heels, ready to sink claws of despair into her the moment she stopped running.
The unfairness of it all made her want to destroy something. Suki had been meek and gentle. She hadn’t deserved that kind of death. She should have lived.
The late afternoon sun was slanting into evening as she entered a thick copse of birch trees. The back of her neck prickled. A sigh in the wind, a flicker in the shadows. Instinct made her pause and look down.
Sunken into the dirt, surrounded by scattered leaves, was a single, perfect paw print. A pad and four toes, spanning over five inches wide.
Only one animal could make that large, distinctive mark.
The tiger.