Rogue Element

Suryei approached carefully and bent over him. He groaned again. He was lying on ground that had been cleared of leaf litter. The man was conscious enough to open his eyes but evidently had trouble focusing them. Eventually his bloodshot eyes met hers but there was not a shred of recognition in them. He was no longer a soldier. The snake’s venom had reduced him to a basic level of consciousness. His lips were black and cracked; a track of dried spittle ran away from the lower corner of his mouth. The man’s tongue, dry like the head of a lizard, moved over them continuously.

Suryei signalled to Joe. He was reluctant to step into the open, away from the protective cloak of the jungle. He made his way nervously over towards them.

‘Water. He’ll die otherwise,’ said Suryei going for one of the bottles in Joe’s rucksack. Fortunately, they had only just refilled them and the water was still cool.

‘Cobra venom dehydrates,’ Suryei said quietly. She dripped some water on the man’s tongue as it flicked out, cracked and swollen. He responded, groaning a dry, hoarse sound. She poured a little more water into the man’s mouth. His Adam’s apple moved up and down then spasmed as he coughed weakly. The coughing stopped. More water. The lizard came out again to drink.

‘He’s in a bad way,’ Suryei said. ‘We should leave some water and go.’

‘Go, yes. Good idea,’ said Joe, anxious to be far away from this place.

A sound came from behind them. It was a metallic sound. The jungle didn’t make noises like that. Joe and Suryei both glanced over their shoulders. A man stood in the clearing, smiling. Joe looked down the barrel of a gun for the third time in as many days. He was still failing to find the experience a pleasant one.

The soldier gestured at them with the weapon to move away from his comrade on the ground. They moved slowly. Joe realised that both their hands were raised in the air. It had been an automatic reaction. They shuffled step by step off to one side, presenting their armpits to their captor.

The soldier with the gun nervously took their place beside the cocoon. He glanced down quickly and noted the plastic water bottle on the ground at his feet. He picked it up and said something in Indonesian. ‘He wants the rucksack, ’said Suryei. The soldier shouted and aimed his weapon, the point between Suryei’s eyes the target. Suryei turned her head away and dropped her hands in front of her face to protect it. He yelled again. Her hands went up quickly. Joe slowly took the rucksack off his shoulder and tossed it at the soldier’s feet. The man kicked it. Several bottles fell out along with Joe’s axe. The soldier picked it up and tossed it out of the clearing. Joe heard it thud against a tree and drop to the ground. Several birds flew up screeching, marking its landing place.

The soldier then turned the muzzle of his automatic towards Joe and carelessly fired a round from the hip. The bullet spun Joe around as if he’d been hit a glancing blow by a car. He was on the ground, his mouth full of leaves and moss, before he realised that he had been shot. He couldn’t move, shock rendering his muscles useless. The soldier then turned the weapon towards Suryei, daring her to move. She didn’t.

Joe found it difficult to breathe. A rib had fractured close to his spine, the slug breaking it off cleanly as if a hammer and cold chisel had clouted it. The bullet had been deflected slightly by the collision. It drilled under his right lung and tore an exit hole in his back the size of a punnet of strawberries. Blood oozed out both holes and pooled under his belly. It felt warm, as if he’d pissed himself. He would have made a joke about it if he could have found the breath, which he couldn’t. There wasn’t any pain yet, but he knew it was there. Oddly, he could see it, building up like water behind a logjam. Soon he knew he would hurt like he’d never hurt before. The world went from full colour to grey and white and Joe slipped away into a little black box in his head.

The soldier toed Joe’s shoulder but the body on the ground was inert. He considered putting another bullet into it anyway to make sure, but something caught his eye. From the side he could see one of Suryei’s breasts inside her shirt. He wondered what it would feel like cupped in his hand. The urge to do exactly that distracted him. Oddly, he looked around the clearing in case anyone could see him taking advantage of the situation but it was empty except for the two bodies lying on the ground and this woman in front of him. He smiled. He could do whatever he wanted with her and no one would stop him.

Keeping his weapon trained on her head, the soldier slipped his free hand inside her shirt. She was breathing heavily and he managed to delude himself that it was excitement induced by his touch that had made her nipples hard.