Ken Douglas - Gecko

“ Down!” Jim shoved Donna to the right and dove left as the beast came for them. She heard him fire off a round, saw the gecko jerk when it was hit as she slammed into the side of the bed that, until just moments ago she’d been tied to.

A bolt of pain blasted into her back when she struck and the fancy Beretta Cougar pistol that the doctor loved so much went flying from her hand. She gasped for breath, wrestling for air as she clawed for the gun.

Air, she needed air. Her stomach spasmed, muscles clenching out of control. She couldn’t see. Where was the gun? She scraped the varnished floor with her nails in a vain attempt to find it, sweeping her hand back and forth as she battled for breath.

The gecko screamed, a sound somewhere between a baby’s bawl and a wolf’s howl. A banshee cry. The sound was huge, deafening, a wailing screech that set her nerves afire and ice pricks stinging up her spine.

“ It’s under the bed!” Jim shouted.

“ What?”

“ The bed.”

The gecko roared, a lion’s sound now, an angry hunter’s roar that forced her eyes open and drew her in. The beast was mammoth, every bit the size of an African lion. Its eyes were radioactive yellow, its saber-toothed fangs gleamed as if they were brand new and its green, lizard like skin shined as bright as a palm frond in a brilliant equatorial rain, but it was dripping deep red blood over the brightly varnished deck and from Donna’s position, flat on the floor, she saw that the reptile had a deep slit along its underbelly, like the fish her father filleted.

It looked like it was in pain.

It had been in this life for only a short time and already it felt pain. More than it had ever known in its long history. It was bleeding, losing its insides all over this smooth and flat place and its right shoulder felt like it was on fire.

It glared at the prey with the loud pain stick in its hand and roared, but the prey didn’t show its back, didn’t flee. Again, as in the life it so recently left behind in that place across the ocean, it was faced with prey that was not prey. It was confused. How was it supposed to know the difference.

It turned toward the woman sprawled out only a short leap away. That was prey. It was getting weak. It had to feed. Instinctively it knew the woman had not been selected for nourishment. Ngaarara had other plans for her, but it needed to feed now.

“ It’s all right, my pet, you can have her.” It heard Ngaarara’s voice in its head, the way it always did.

“ No you can’t!” another thought voice. This had never happened before. Who, what, how could this be? It was even more confused now. “Go away!” the stranger’s thought voice again.

“ Take the woman!” Ngaarara screamed the thought.

“ No!” the stranger thought.

It turned toward the woman and it knew who the stranger was.

Something odd was going on and Jim wasn’t exactly sure what. Donna and the gecko were staring at each other as if they were communicating. For an instant it looked like the beast was going to spring at her, but now it was holding its ground.

He got up, got into the shooter’s position, legs wide, two hands on the weapon. The gun might be old, but he’d hit what he was aiming at while he and his target were on the move, he couldn’t miss now. He sighted on one of the beast’s large yellow eyes, the one on the left.

Every fiber in his being said, shoot. But Donna seemed to be staring the thing down. He didn’t know what to do.

“ Very interesting,” the doctor thought and Donna heard him the way she’d been hearing Jim. “You are strong.”

“ You should take your pet and go,” Donna thought as she smelled smoke.

“ But you know I won’t,” he thought.

“ Yes, I suppose I do.” And all of a sudden Donna was able to see through his eyes. She saw the rifle in his hand, saw the door she’d seen earlier, the door that led into the salon. He was just on the other side of it.

“ I’ve waited a long time for my revenge, I’ll not be cheated when I’m so close.”

“ Smell the fire.” Donna thought.

“ What?”

“ You’re afraid now. I feel it.”

“ Bitch.” Any second he was going to burst into the room, rifle blazing.

“ Shoot!” Donna shouted as she rolled under the bed.

Jim fired and took out the eye.

The beast screamed, the sound of pure torture, as it swung its single good eye toward him.

Jim fired again and took it out too.

The gecko wailed, a ghastly sound that chilled Jim’s spine. Then it charged, mouth agape, but Jim stepped aside and emptied the gun into its great head. It was blind, but still dangerous as it thrashed around the salon.

Kohler felt his pet’s pain, sensed its blindness, and for the first time in his long life, was afraid. There was fire ahead, he’d sensed it through the woman. His pet was blind and had been trapped. He couldn’t pass through the fire.

Neither could he.

Better to fight another day. He turned to flee the way he’d come, but all of a sudden there was smoke there. Someone had set fire to the front of the boat.

There was only one way out for him now and that was through the salon and out the rear hatchway or through the windows in the galley. Either way he had to go through that door and he had to do it now.

He kicked it open.

Donna grabbed the weapon as the doctor burst through the door, rolled back out from under the bed and started pulling the trigger.

The first shot hit the man who called himself Ngaarara square in the chest and sent him flying back into the corridor and somehow, despite the fact that she kept shooting, he managed to kick the door closed after himself. But she couldn’t stop, she kept firing, blasting round after round into the doorway until the gun was empty and then the salon was quiet, save for the heavy breathing of the gecko monster, now on its side in the galley, gurgling blood with every breath.

She grabbed onto the side of the bed, used it to steady herself, then got up off the floor, and all of a sudden she was conscious of the fact that she was nude.

“ The boat’s on fire,” Monday said. “We gotta go.”

They stared at each other for an instant, then she ran into his arms and he kissed her.

He pulled away.

“ Really,” he said, “we gotta go.”

The back hatchway, a doorway to the aft cockpit, was open, she saw the flames.

“ It’s through the fire,” he said, “but we’ll land in the water if we keep going.”

“ I’m gone.” She dashed through the doorway, felt the fire as she dove over the side and into the cold sea below.

The Maori men moved away from the galley after they set the fire. They were reluctant to leave the boat. They heard the screams and shooting from below, but these men were not old women, either the pakeha would save the girl, or he would not. They had done everything asked of them. It was in the pakeha’s hands now. Mohi was in agony, wondering if he’d done the right thing. The father in him wanted to rush through the flames and find his daughter, but Monday had convinced him not to do that. Monday was a pakeha, but he was Maori-brave and Mohi respected that.

He clenched his fists and tightened his jaw. Then he smiled as he saw Donna burst out the starboard companionway, dashing through the flames, and he grinned wider as Monday followed in her wake, leaping over the side into the cold sea below.

“ Quickly.” He jumped onto the pier, the three old men followed. “There’s a ladder over here,” he yelled to Monday, and the men silently congratulated themselves for a job well done as they helped the pakeha and Mohi’s daughter out of the sea. Two of the old men removed their coats and offered them to the shivering couple.