Matthias

As soon as Jade went over the palisade, I took cover and saved my ammunition, waiting while the bullets came at me in an indiscriminate hail of fire. I flattened on my belly with my carbine at the ready. Wood splintered, shards exploded, bullets whizzed by. I pressed my cheek to the dirt and bid my time. For a guy who trained to avoid exactly this kind of sketchy situation, I was playing it close.

When the gunfire finally subsided, I pulled out one of the grenades I’d stolen from Kumbuyo’s cache and listened to the thugs’ cautious approach. The rustling of feet and the exchanges between the men revealed they were coming at me from all sides. They thought I was dead. Considering the amount of bullets they’d wasted, I ought to be.

Instead, I pulled the pin and pitched the grenade over the wood stack. The explosion shook the ground. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled a second grenade and hurled it in the opposite direction. As soon as the second grenade exploded, I dashed at a low crouch, not out of the splintered palisade, like a sensible man would’ve done, but rather along the inner rim of the palisade and toward the camp’s command center.

Taking advantage of the smoke, fire, and confusion, I took cover behind a smoldering hovel and peeked over it. Kumbuyo stalked among his men, shouting orders, barking commands. I had to give it to him. He was cool under duress.

He’d already divvied his forces into three groups. The first group formed a protective ring around Lamba and his guests, who hunkered against the far wall, looking shocked and scared. The second contingent moved toward the back of the camp, with orders to find and kill me. The third group mounted some of the modified, armed, pickup trucks. Two of the trucks sped out the gates, no doubt in the hunt for Jade and the girls.

I fingered the last grenade in my pocket. My number one objective was to buy time for Jade and the girls to make their getaway. My second objective entailed softening the camp’s defenses and inflicting as much damage as I could to pave the wave for Rem’s assault. My third objective was to kill Kumbuyo. Dodging my enraged pursuers, I sneaked north of the gates where, following Kumbuyo’s orders, more of his men were climbing into the vehicles to go after Jade. Fat chance I was gonna let them. I pulled the pin and hurled my last grenade.

The parking lot lit up like D.C. on the fourth of July. Fueled by the gasoline trail I’d left earlier, the flames spread into a raging inferno. I braved the fire and stole over to where I’d last seen Kumbuyo. I found him, hastily loading Lamba and his guests into one of the surviving Suburbans.

Got you.

I lifted my trusty M4 and aimed. He must’ve sensed my presence. He whirled to face me. His eyes widened as he recognized me, standing against a background of roaring flames. He lifted a hand in front of his face, as if it could shield him from the bullet I was gonna put into his head. I smirked and flexed my finger on the trigger.

Boom. The explosion that lifted me off my feet and hurled me at least a hundred feet also hit Kumbuyo. The Suburban blew up, taking Lamba and his friends in a ride straight to hell. I caught a glimpse of Kumbuyo’s body flying through the air before my head hit against something hard. I lost my grip on my gun and reeled. My drive to live spiked, pulling at my stunned senses. Get up. Get going. The roar of several helicopters buzzed over the camp. What the hell was going on?

It hit me as the next wave of bullets chased down and killed the rebels running away from the Black Hawks. Rem’s coalition forces had arrived. They came down on the camp with all the firepower he’d been able to assemble. Another explosion rocked the compound, this one even bigger than the others and much too close for comfort. Holy hell. Kumbuyo and his thugs hadn’t managed to kill me, but friendly fire could very well do the job.

I grabbed my weapon and scrambled for life, stepping over the dead and the dying, stumbling among the fires, and dodging bullets from friends and foes alike. I’d made a promise to Jade and I intended to keep it.

The smoke choked my lungs and obscured my progress. I was almost to the gates when the next attack wave hit. The earth roared beneath my feet before it spat me into the air. Pain hit me in a blinding jolt. And then nothing.

* * *

Jade

I dreamed of lions calling in the darkness, of rumbling echoing on the plains and red eyes that glinted in the darkness, measuring my primate’s puny defenses. When I opened my eyes, it was the dead of night and yet the world was alive with all sorts of intriguing sounds. The wind rustled through the grass, whispering the Serengeti’s secret: You have always been wild and to the wilderness you will always belong.

Not far from where I lay, only a few million years ago, the first hominids rose on their back legs and began to carve stones into tools. In evolutionary leaps, these creatures developed to walk out of Africa, populate the world and become us. Perhaps that’s why laying on the cold ground, sharing the same views of the Milky Way that beamed down on our distant ancestor, I felt, for the first time ever, intimately connected to the land, to my own species, to the human race.

I felt it then, the primal rhythms of existence, the urge to survive even as the pulse sputters, the pleasures of breathing even when it hurts, the miracle of life even though it springs from recycled death. It was strange. Sitting under the tree under the intermittent light of an unreliable moon, the feral creature in me—the one who’d been trapped just a few hours ago—unlocked her closet, ejected the darkness within, embraced her wild self, and freed her soul.

I thought of Matthias, who just had to be alive. I thought of the terrible truths he’d shared with me, of the pain he’d endured and the hope he’d brought to my life. And suddenly, I wanted to live, like the creatures of the Serengeti. I wanted to run wild and free, to thrive, to bring life to the world. I wanted to advance my genes, to have Matthias’s babies and to exist even after I was gone. Above all, I wanted to survive to love Matthias with the enormous force of my wild heart’s passion.

A low rumble startled me out of my thoughts. My hand tightened around the handle of the rusted machete. The night was not overly cold, but I shivered to the point that my teeth were clattering. My thigh had become swollen and tender to the touch. I’d always fashioned myself a predator, but tonight I was the perfect prey.

I caught a flicker of movement to my right. I could sense the hunt taking place around me. My little slice of the world had gone suddenly quiet, nature’s not-so-subtle warning. For an instant, the face of a lioness materialized from the shadows, a blur of tawny fur. Then she was gone. She’d be the decoy, I remembered from Matthias’s lesson, trying to distract me from the real attack.

I tried strengthening my grip on the machete. Instead, my fingers fumbled. For all I knew, the weapon weighed a ton. The rusted blade fell on my lap. Darkness whirled around me. Stay awake. Stay conscious. All I had to do was survive the night. But it didn’t seem so easy when the fever spiked and my bones ached as if they were crumbling, bursting in localized explosions, tearing me up from the inside out.

Pain. I was exhausted. So tired. But I couldn’t go to sleep. I had to fight. I had to keep fighting. That’s how I’d dealt with life. That’s how I’d deal with the spectrum of death. Besides, I’d promised Matthias that I would never, ever quit on him. He’d be so pissed if I broke my promise.

I must have drifted off. I woke up to a commotion. Roaring. Growling. Trumpeting. Trumpeting?

I forced my eyelids to lift. At first, I didn’t recognize the angle. I must have fallen over, because my cheek lay against the dirt. An enormous tubular foot stood next to my face. An expanse of cracked, gray canvas loomed above me. A tentacle groped over my face, taking in my scent with quivering nostrils.

I felt a gentle tug on my earlobe. The familiar weight of my remaining earring lifted for a moment, then dropped on the side of my face. I looked up. An elephant. A notch in her ear. A slash on her forehead. Bibi? Okay, now I was really delirious.

More feet. A forest of giant legs. A palisade of elephants encircled me. I wasn’t alone. I had a tribe around me. And it wasn’t just Bibi and her herd. When I closed my eyes, I saw Mom and Dad, Hannah, Sarah and Lara, all huddled around me, lending me strength and support even though they were far, far away. I saw Matthias too and my heart soared with the recognition that he was fundamental to my herd.

“You’re strong, Jade,” he murmured in my dreams. “You’re fierce. Hang on. Wherever you are, that’s where I’d want to be. I’m gonna love you forever.”

“Matthias.” I released his name to the wind and gave him to the Serengeti’s care. Then I surrendered my wild self back to the land that had unleashed the likes of me upon the earth.