Julie and the Monkey Queen

Chapter 4

Though she was not knocked out, Unaki did zone out. "It's all my fault," she said to herself over and over again like a mantra. She kept thinking about the carnage that had nearly destroyed the Teo tribe. And she knew her own aunt far too well to know that she was using Manti as leverage to get her to come back to her.

But what could she do? She looked out into the night. The sun had already set and the last vestiges of light peeked out over the horizon. But she could barely see the warriors being taken back into the village to be healed or disposed of.

To the Teo, a warrior's death was something to be mourned and celebrated, not unlike the Vikings. They had two afterlives; a lower afterlife and an upper afterlife. Your average Joe Teo would go to the lower afterlife. Warriors and great people would go to the upper afterlife. Again, this is not unlike the Vikings.

That didn't mean that these weren't fathers, husbands and sons who had died. And the sound of mourners reverberated in the jungle.

Julie and Kaitan walked among the remaining dead, both human and simian. They'd removed the tape from their feet, leaving them bare. Kaitan walked over to one warrior who lay with... well, he's not quite the man he used to be. He looked away from the warrior, but held his hand to him (while not touching him) and whispered a Teo blessing to him. Julie walked up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

When he was done, he stood and the two embraced. Kaitan, who was not much taller than Julie, laid his chin on her shoulder while Julie buried her face in her shoulder. The two whispered reassurances to each other, remaining that way for a few minutes.

That is, until the light shone on them.

They had to shield their eyes. Some very bright lights moved into the area, and when they heard the sound of engines being killed, they knew who was here. "What happened here?" A woman with a New Zealand accent asked.

"Thanks for coming, Gina," said Julie. She looked around. While Gina wanted to get her to talk, she could tell that she was looking for the right thing to say. "The village was attacked by... monkeys."

"Monkeys?"

"Yeah, monkeys," said Julie. She pointed at some of the dead bodies.

"At least you have evidence," said Gina. "And it's not the strangest thing that's happened." This caused Julie to laugh sheepishly.

"How'd you—"

"We could hear the screams and shouts all the way at the camp," said Gina. "We thought there might be trouble so we hopped in our cars and came over here."

"Good, because we could use some medics," said Kaitan.

"I can see that," said Gina. Gina, a researcher at the University of Auckland, was one of the leaders of the research team that Julie came with. She pushed her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose and ran her hand through black hair. "Oh, Julie, you're bleeding!"

"Oh, no," Julie said, looking at her arm.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it," said Gina. "Wait, Julie, what's wrong?"

"Kaitan, is Unaki still over there?" Julie asked.

"She hasn't moved in a while," said Kaitan.

"Then let's get her," said Julie. "Sorry Gina, I just need to help someone!"

Unaki had been sitting against a tree at the edge of the clearing for some time. She didn't even move an inch when Julie walked up to her and tried to jostle her awake. Eventually, Julie succeeded and Unaki looked up at her. Her forehead was bleeding and she had a few cuts and bruises all over her. "Julie?" she asked.