Part 33: Bad Omens

The flickering embers traveled up into the night sky. The moon hovered above almost lighting up the entire beach. The crew was assembled by their fire, enjoying the bottled water that McKay brought back. They were also eating the final remains of the cooked boar meat, coconuts and the last of the scavenged food. Marita managed to chop up most of the coconut and poured the milk into the coffee cups, which Eddie liked the most. Tony sat quietly munching on his boar meat. He raised his head to make sure McKay heard him. “McKay, how far did you say the waterfall was?”

“Hard to say by distance.” He said, swigging his water, “It’s four hours walk to and back.”

“Did you see any caves near it?”

“Fraid not, mate. Just a grey cliff wall covered in the vines.”

“Damn,” Tony grunted.

“What’s wrong, Tony?” asked John.

“It order for us to survive, we are going to need water,” Tony held up a bottle, “However, we take four hours to retrieve it and four hours to bring it back. That is almost not worth the effort. Unless we had more bottles to store water, it would have been better if we stayed next to the water source.”

“He’s got a point.” Yolanda whispered.

“But we have to stay on the beach,” Mandy said desperately, “How else will the rescue party find us?”

“It’s okay, Mandy, “ Tony assured her, “McKay said there were no caves, no decent shelter near the waterfall. We’ll just have to stay put for now anyway.”

“So what do we do about the water, Tony?” asked Marita.

“Someone’s going to have to go back on a daily basis. Refill every bottle that gets used.” Tony massaged his chin, “or maybe . . .is there anything we can turn into a barrel?”

“To hold water?” John smiled, “Hey, yeah. That would work for the rain too!”

“Then we can stay hydrated.” Eddie smiled.

Tony reached over and hugged the boy, happy he learned a valuable lesson. Martin handed his coconut to Kristy and sipped his water. “So we got shelter, we got water, “the young black said, “But eventually the food might run out. What do we do about that?”

“Well, there is that case that Calhoon had, “ McKay mentioned, “I know where he dropped it, I can probably go retrieve it.”

Taylor turned around in shock. She had been sitting in front of him. “McKay, you can’t,” she exclaimed, “That polar bear will kill you.”

“If we are lucky, luv, it’s already dead. Even though John didn’t kill it outright, he did hit it in some vital areas.”

“If I keep this up, I am going to have to know as the Great White Hunter.” John smirked.

Tony smiled at the joke too. He took another sip of the coconut milk and tilted his head toward McKay’s direction. “So Calhoon’s dead, huh?” he whispered.

“Yep, “ was McKay said on the matter.

“Are you sure he was dead?”

“Pretty sure,” McKay scratched his neck, “Grant I ain’t a doctor like you but . . .he ain’t got no head.”

“Ouch,:” Kristy gagged.

“Bastard got what he deserved,” Mandy muttered, “He was hoarding food.”

“Did that polar bear go for Calhoon’s food?” asked Martin.

“No, mate, he went straight for us.” McKay confessed.

“Interesting, “ the young black man thought.

“Does this bring up something your zookeeper dad taught you?” asked Kristy.

“Well, . . .there is no reason for the Polar bear to go after them. They are normally docile creatures. However, I can understand it would be violent causes it’s out of it’s element. But the fact that it didn’t stop for food it could obviously smell may unfortunately suggest only one thing.”

“Which is what?” asked Taylor.

“It suggests this bear is a man eater,” Martin sighed, “There are no humans in the polar climates on a daily basis. Polar bear thrive on fish. They don’t eat humans. If a bear, wolf or whatever eats a human, then they get the taste in their mouths. It makes them drunk. They can’t get enough of it.”

“Then let’s hope the big boy dies of the wounds I gave him,” John whispered.

“As long as it doesn’t come back, we’re okay, “ Tony tried to reassure everybody, “ Let’s just focus on what we need. Water, and food. We’ll worry about the rest later, and hope out till the rescue-“

Tony jerked his arms around, grunting. Marita was taken back by this sudden convulsive act. “Tony, are you all right?” she asked.

“Yeah, I am fine,” he shivered, “Just had a momentary chill run down my spine.”

Eddie then grabbed a nearby blanket and put it over him. The blind doctor just smiled at the boy’s kindness. “DOCTOR!” someone screamed.

The crew turned around toward the sound of the of the calling. It was one of the survivors, a young man named Seth Butler. He ran up the beach with his army jacket flapping in the wind as he ran. “Dr. Largo, Dr. Largo!” he called.

“Seth?” added Tony, “What’s wrong?”

“You have to come quick. It’s Mr. Underwood!” the young man pointed toward the rock formation near the water.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“I think . . .I think he’s dead.”

The group followed Seth toward the rock formation. John led the way for Tony, cause he insisted Eddie stay behind with Marita. The blind man felt the young boy had seen enough death. The crew then turned the corner of the rocks, and saw Underwood near the water. What was strange was his pants were down. McKay shined his flashlight toward him. He was indeed not moving.

The Australian and the archer led the doctor toward him. John grunted as he pulled up the fat man’s pants, allowing Underwood to shave some measure of dignity. “McKay, use your flashlight, “Tony directed, “John, search for vitals.”

John placed his ear down on the man’s chest. Then he felt of his neck. “No pulse,” John whispered.

“What was he doing out here?” asked Tony, “Why was his pants down?”

“He was probably trying to take a crap . . .sir,” Seth said.

“What?” asked Tony for him to repeat it.

“Mr. Underwood had been complaining for the past two days about being constipated and this is the rock where we all do our business,”

“That’s right, he was constipated.” Tony remembered, “And he had headaches. John, open one of his eyelids and look at the eye.”

John did as instructed. McKay shined the flashlight down.

“Is it dilated?” asked the blind doctor.

John looked close and was amazed Tony must have figured something out. “Geez, yeah, “ he said, “It’s almost as big as an eight ball.”

Tony sighed and then stood up, “Brain aneurysm.”

“Huh?” asked Marin.

“Brain aneurysm, Martin, “ Tony said, “This poor man had been complaining about headaches and he was also constipated. He was coming over here, straining to have a bowel movement and that pressure made a blood vessel in his brain explode. Terrible, terrible way to die.”

“So there was nothing you could have done for him?” asked Seth.

“Had he been drinking his water, “ the blind doctor began to walk away, “He might have lived long enough for the rescue party to get him to a proper hospital. Here? There wasn’t anything I could do.”

The mood of the group was almost festering into despair. Two of their party died in the same day. Both by almost strange means. No one knew what to make of it.

Some took it as a bad omen.