Up a Tree (p.16)
Jute snapped up his rifle, both Trelwins turned to stare intently at him, Amy jumped forward and shoved the rifle up, twisting it out of Jute’s hands. “No!”
“But he killed my uncle!” Jute yelled, despondently. There were tears in the gentle man’s eyes.
“We don’t know that, Jute.” the Doctor said calmly. He came forward and laid a hand on the taller man’s shoulder. “We came looking for him, he might be able to tell us how to cure your uncle.” His voice was nearly hypnotic in its timbre. Jute stared at him, almost mesmerized.
Nelda dropped down into the clearing beside them. She looked up at Jute. She cocked her head. She took one of his hands and held it tightly, like a child offering reassurance.
Jute swallowed and used his other hand to wipe the tears out of his eyes.
The Doctor waved a hand at the rest of the hunters, motioning them to lower their weapons. If any of them thought about it, they might have been surprised that they did.
Erik walked up. “What are you up to?”
The Doctor looked at him. The Trelwins had relaxed. “I need to talk to Zeke. I think he can tell me what’s been going on,” the Doctor said.
“Right,” Erik said, reasserting his authority. He turned, “Brian, fetch a net!”
“No,” the Doctor said.
Erik turned and scowled at him. “We need to capture him to be sure he hasn’t transmitted anything to Aaron.”
The Doctor looked at him calmly, completely unintimidated by the buffaloish man. “Nelda helped cure Amy, Chitchi just saved Rory’s life, and they’ve all obviously been following us for days,” he pointed out, reasonably. “If they’d intended to harm anyone they’ve had ample opportunity. On the contrary, they seem to be intent on helping us. Bit rude throwing a net around a guy when he’s trying to help.”
Erik scowled at him. “This isn’t the time for jokes, Doctor.”
“I’m not joking,” the Doctor said in that implacable voice that could be so startling. “Let me talk to him. Nelda can translate. You’ve got more than enough guns around to ensure he doesn’t try anything,” the Doctor said reasonably.
Erik looked up at the old Trelwin in the tree, his speckled gray hide marking him out against the green jungle.
“What if he doesn’t come down?” Erik asked.
The Doctor rocked on his heels. “I think he will. If he does, do I have your word that you won’t shoot or try to capture him?”
“You ask a lot, Doctor.”
“I’m offering a lot, Erik.” The Doctor gave him a level look, it wasn’t the look of the scruffy, ebullient young fop.
Erik sighed. “Fine. So far you’re the only one who’s stayed out of trouble. But if he makes any aggressive move...”
“Understood.” The Doctor nodded.
Erik nodded back. “Pickles!” he yelled over his shoulder to the level-headed cook. “You keep an eye on them.” Pickles nodded and jumped down from his supply cart, slinging his rifle over his shoulder as he landed. “Everyone else,” Erik yelled, sweeping the rest with his eyes, “As you were.”
-----
The Doctor went back over to Nelda, Chitchi and Rory. He signed something to Nelda, they signed back and forth for a bit, then Nelda looked up into the tree and a complex array of smells started coming from the Trelwins.
Amy and Rory backed away, waving their hands in front of their noses. Zeke slowly swung down out of the tree. The Doctor and the Trelwins retired to the back edge of the stony camp, where it met the forest, and hunkered down. Pickles took up a guard position and kept an eye on them. The Doctor ignored him, his attention focused completely on the Trelwins.
When the elder Trelwin failed to do anything aggressive, the rest of the hunters lost interest and went back to their own concerns.
Darcy, Kevin, and Jonas finished their interrupted bath, taking a few moments to toss a couple dozen stunned fish up onto shore for dinner.
Amy volunteered to help Brian with the cooking, and Rory volunteered to help clean the fish. Janet was apparently taking some scientific readings of the area, making notations in a notepad she’d brought along. Erik and the rest stood guard, trading places in rotation with Darcy, Kevin, and Jonas when they finished their bath, so everyone had a chance to get clean.
Silas and Shale used the flats of their machetes to roll the grub carcass into the river, where it was carried away by the fast moving stream. They washed away the blood with bowls of water. It wasn’t good to leave carrion in camp, it attracted too many scavengers.
After a while, Chitchi apparently got tired of the talks between the Doctor and the other Trelwins and came over to help Rory, dragging the fish up from the river.
-----
The sun got lower, shadows lengthened. Erik kept a wary eye on the Doctor, but didn’t interrupt. He came over to mooch some of the berries Amy had taken out of the harvested stores to add for dinner. She slapped his hand. He glared at her and ate them anyway.
“How’s it going, Brian?” he asked.
The assistant cook looked up with a less glowering look than usual (it was the eyebrows). He almost smiled. “We’ll eat good tonight. We’ve got enough fish for everyone, and Kevin found a whole clutch of those sweet tubers everyone likes. We’ve had to build more fires to cook it all. Jonas and Silas went to get more firewood.”
Erik halted with a berry halfway to his mouth. “Together?”
-----
The first batch of fish was almost done, it smelled amazing, everyone started gravitating toward the cookfires, salivating, looking forward to their first fresh meal, while clean, and under a nice breeze.
The Doctor stood up from where he'd been crouching with the Trelwins, talking for the last hour. He stretched and his head zeroed in on the luscious smell of fresh flaky fish.
Chitchi helped Rory roll a log over to the firepits for a seat. From the cuts on the log it was obvious the clearing had been used as a camp before.
Suddenly Chitchi's head snapped up. He stared into the jungle. Beyond him, Rory saw Nelda and Zeke's heads snap up too, they were all staring in the same direction.
The hunters noticed and instantly caught the mood, their weapons came up. Everything was still for one tense, silent minute. Then all three Trelwins shot off toward the jungle, loping flat out.
Before the Trelwins even got halfway across the clearing, there was a sudden cry of rage from the jungle. It abruptly cut off.
All of the hunters dropped what they were doing and ran. Erik, the Doctor and Rory were in the lead as they followed the Trelwins.
They spotted the men before the Trelwins did, passing the primates as the Trelwins slowed, and stopped before the scene.
Jonas and Silas were down. The Doctor and Rory scanned the area, looking for danger, but there was nothing. Just the two men, lying face down in the ferny undergrowth.
The Doctor and Rory rolled them over. Both men were holding knives. Not the machetes most of the hunters carried, but the smaller, lethal boot knifes, like the one Rory had filleted the fish with.
It looked like the men had been facing each other.
Rory quickly examined them for injuries as the other hunters arrived and formed a protective perimeter.
They weren't breathing.
Janet arrived and took one look. "Medpack!" she turned to Shale, he nodded and ran back to camp, the fastest of them all.
Janet knelt down to start CPR on Jonas, Rory was already working on Silas.
Amy ran up, crowding behind the Doctor to see. The Trelwins sat aside, out of the way, all three were rocking with grief.
Shale ran back and dumped the emergency medpack beside Janet, he took over CPR while she rummaged. She pulled out two of the triangular life support modules and quickly calibrated them. She handed one to Shale, who attached it to Jonas.
Janet shuffled sideways and tore open Silas' shirt. She checked his carotid artery for a pulse, shook her head and attached the life support device. Silas' chest rose and fell. Rory felt for the pulse and could feel it beating, slowly but steadily, with mechanical regularity. He nodded.
He and Janet checked both men. From their positions it looked like they'd pulled their knives on each other. But neither men had any cuts.
“They don’t have head injuries, “ Rory said, sitting back on his heels after feeling Silas' skull. He looked at Janet, she nodded and shrugged. "And there aren't any Trelwin bites."
“No,” the Doctor said, plucking at his lip. “I didn't expect there would be. Aaron collapsed before Zeke bit him, remember? Before he hit his head.”
Amy scowled. “Then what is it? Something airborne? Some kind of pollen?” She looked around at the almost insanely verdant forest.
“I think," the Doctor said carefully. "I think whatever it is. It’s spreading.”
He turned to look at the three Trelwins, huddled together, staring at the fallen men. "Nelda?"
She looked up and signed something to him. Even Amy recognized that sign.
"Monster."
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