Kong (A James Conrad Love Story)

Do You Hear That?

When I reached camp again, everyone was awake and chewing on these horrible canned foods. They looked like skull crawler vomit, not a sight I would recommend for the faint of heart. Conrad looked up from his prowling around the camp keeping watch. Wordlessly, I pulled a gigantic bunch of bananas from my bag. Everyone crowed around me, and I handed out all the fruit. It was exponentially better than the vomit stuff.

Once everyone was eating, I sat down next to Conrad on the shore of the lagoon. I handed him an orange and bit into my own papaya. We sat in silence as some egrets started flocking about two klicks west. I stood, straining my ears for the sound of ants. There was none, only silence. I stood abruptly. "Do you hear that?"

Conrad looked up inquisitively. I don't hear anything." It took him a second before he realized what he said. Standing and pulling out his gun, he called to the others. "I think it's best if we move." When everyone groaned and started packing slowly, he added, "Quickly." That one word was enough to send everyone into a mild panic. We were out of our spot like a bat out of hell. Once we were a safe distance upstream, I whistled loudly, replicating the ant whistles. Conrad clapped his hand over my mouth, trying to cover our trail, I suppose. After a moment, a lone ant whistled back.

Skull crawler, it called out to anyone who would listen. Then a few seconds later, the all clear. Kong must have dealt with it, because I was sure nobody else could. I sighed in relief and pried Conrad's callused palm from my mouth.

"It's okay, we're good. But we should get a move on if we want to make it to the camp by dark."

"What was that?" Conrad asked. Not in fear, more in fascination.

"A monster."

"Aren't these all monsters, technically?" I shook my head. The real monsters didn't live on the surface, they lived below.

"But it's dead now. I could see it on your face."

"There's always more where it came from."