Bing Gananda 18

12 Now We Are Blood


The sun was already behind the mountain when Isaac and the others finally made their way back to the sea. They found themselves on a deserted shore. The Brig was nowhere to be seen. They followed the shoreline back to the cove. By now they were carrying Morris. It was dark by the time they made it back to their boats. Roper and Hull met them there. There was a fire on the beach.
"Where the hell have you been?" Hull demanded.
Then they saw the wounded man. Roper asked,
"Where's Grinder?"
The men looked away. Nobody wanted to speak. Finally Isaac told them.
"Dead," he said flatly.

"Dead?" asked Roper in confusion. "How the hell..."
"Just dead," Isaac said. As Roper looked at the men, he realized that no more would be said. He also saw that Isaac now had a brace of pistols.
Then Hull asked in a shocked voice.
"What the hell happened to Morris?"
"The bloody lion," answered one of the men.
"What lion?" he asked, and then remembered what Jackson and Tindor had reported the day before. He looked nervously at the nearby trees.
Hull examined Morris's arm. It was obvious that he would lose it. He looked away. Now he wondered if there would be enough of them left to man the brig. He told two of the sailors,
"Take him out to the ship and see if Jones can help him."
The old cook had served on warships most of his life. He was the closest thing to a surgeon they had now with Tindor gone.
As the sailors pushed off to the brig, Isaac took Hull aside.
"We found Mr. Jackson and Mr. Tindor," he said. "Jackson is dead. Tindor is out there somewhere." He pointed toward the darkening jungle.