OF MAN AND MONSTER

*****'*****

Bailey looked back with horror as her ex-boyfriend Cody was impaled with a spear but she did not stop running. Her heart pounded in her ears and grief tightened her gut but she knew she couldn't stop running.

Zack cried out his brother's name in anguish, turning back to face their pursuers.

Woody grabbed Zack by the back of his shirt and pulled, "Come on, man! We can't help him now! He's dead. Run!"

"Let's go!" Bailey called out as she charged forward through the lush jungle and dragging Zack's attention back to their flight. The machete in her hands had already tasted blood today, but she had no wish for it to do so again which would surely happen if they didn't keep moving.

She slashed at hanging vines, clearing a path as quickly as her cleaving arm would allow and ran. Leaping fallen logs and ducking hanging branches. The others followed in her wake as they sped through the dense growth.

Thwok!

Bailey came up short as a dart impaled the branch in front of her, "Horsefeathers!"

"Ah!" A painful cry reached her ears and she turned her head to see another of her friends fall to the ground.

"Woody's down!" Zack shouted, kneeling beside the larger boy. His hand reached out to check for a pulse and pulled back as he shook his head.

Bailey's eyes squeezed shut, tears threatening to fall, "Keep moving," she said hoarsely while turning to do just that.

Zack caught Bailey's arm and said worriedly, "There's no way they've caught up to us yet. That must have been a trap. We'll have to be more careful."

Bailey nodded and turned to take the lead again. Her eyes were peeled for any signs of traps and she carefully probed ahead with her machete. They still moved quickly, keeping low, desperate to escape these flesh maddened islanders.

***'***

Four Hours Ago

The S.S. Tipton had docked on a quiet little island for some peace and relaxation. It was Halloween back in the states and everyone wanted to celebrate, but not with costumes and candy. Instead they wanted a party and this little island was the perfect spot for it.

The staff and most of the passengers had immediately spread out on the beach while locals welcomed them with a feast and entertainment.

Bailey, Cody, Zack, and Woody had opted to explore the island and taken up one local's offer of a guided tour. They had asked London along but she had scoffed and stretched out on her beach chair, clearly choosing tanning over adventure.

The guide showed them many local landmarks; waterfalls, strangely shaped boulders, massive trees, and some marks of wildlife. It had all been very interesting for Bailey and Cody, each scientifically minded individuals and very keen on learning more about this environment and debating which species had left this scat pile or that footprint.

But Zack and Woody had quickly grown bored. They had struck off on their own down a path the guide had told them was expressly forbidden. Cody and Bailey were forced to follow them to drag them back, but the guide would not go with them. He had shook with fear and turned ashen pale as he recounted a tale of demons and death, about how those that took that path never returned. He handed Cody his machete and fled back to his village and the safety of his people.

Cody had looked at the blade in his hands and scoffed, "Demons, yeah right. Probably just some wild animals got unprepared travelers." He tossed the machete on the ground and went after his brother and Woody. Bailey stared after him for a moment. He had just mentioned wild animals attacking humans and he threw his only weapon away? Either he was extremely confident or extremely stupid and Bailey wasn't sure which one would be worse in this situation.

With an odd sense of foreboding she took up the machete and followed after him. She didn't like the feel of the jungle here. It had been different closer to the village, lighter and more pleasant. But as she stepped further down this path the jungle seemed to change. It grew darker, and there were no animal sounds…not even crickets chirped. As a raised hunter, taught by her father and uncles, she knew that silence is not a good sign. It either means predators are in the area, which she supposed their presence could be, or there were no animals around to make the noise. She didn't like either option.

Still, they couldn't leave Zack and Woody to their own devices in an unfamiliar jungle. They could get themselves killed.

Somehow Woody and Zack had disappeared completely from view. Cody stood in the middle of the path with a perplexed look on his face, "We should have caught up to them by now. They weren't that far ahead of us."

Bailey stepped beyond him and turned her eyes to the path and its sides, looking for any tracks. "Look," she pointed to some depressions in the ground, "They came this far, at least. Let's keep going."

Cody ceded Bailey the lead position. With no tracking skills to speak of he knew he wouldn't be much use in front.

Bailey tread forward cautiously, the machete held in front of her and her eyes checking the trail for tracks and the jungle for movement. They were silent as they walked, the oppressive atmosphere building nervous tension in them.

"RAAH!" A thing jumped out of the bushes before them.

Cody shrieked and Bailey swung her weapon, reacting instinctively, just barely managing to stop her swing before striking as she realized it was Woody in front of her. He held up his hands, his eyes wide as the blade stopped just beside his neck.

Zack popped out from behind Woody laughing, "Oh man! You should have seen your faces!" He walked up to his brother and slapped him on the back, "Nice screaming there, Codes, real manly."

"You almost killed me!" Woody squeaked.

Bailey lowered the weapon in her hand and said, "Well you shouldn't have surprised me like that!"

"Did you see that?" Woody looked to the twins, "She almost killed me!"

Zack grinned, looking Bailey up and down with approval, "I like you better every day."

"Hey!" Woody protested, "Not nice."

Bailey felt her lip curl as she rolled her eyes. Zack's playful come-ons had gotten more frequent lately, a certain freedom being given his tongue now that Bailey wasn't his brother's girlfriend, but Bailey was not interested. She'd dated one Martin and was not eager to try her luck with the other, no matter how charming he thought himself. "Ugh, whatever. Let's just go."

"No way!" Zack said, "Look around! There's so much to see. We can't go back yet!" He argued persuasively, "You know there's got to be something good back here if visitors are told to stay away."

Woody nodded his agreement. Cody looked thoughtful, "The guide did say that there were demons down this way. No doubt a cautionary tale told to children to keep them from wandering off or traveling this path."

"He also said that people disappeared never to be heard from again," Bailey pointed out.

"Nonsense," Cody dismissed, "Demons don't exist. Disappearing people are just part of the myth. Like the boogieman. I say we keep going. Find whatever it is they don't want us to find."

"Yeah," Zack said, "There's probably gold and jewels and stuff in a cave. Let's go!"

He charged up the path with Woody hot on his heels and Cody following sedately after. Cody paused to look back at her, "You coming?"

Bailey briefly considered leaving them and going back and if they got themselves killed it was their own fault for being stupid. But she was the only person with a weapon in case they got into trouble and she didn't want to see any of them hurt so she reluctantly nodded and followed along. She kept a tight grip on the machete at all times.

***'***

They walked for a long time. The path twisted in on itself several times and became confusing. Almost like the jungle was rearranging itself around them. Bailey wasn't the only one who noticed. Zack's enthusiasm for this adventure had waned and now he was watching their path and the trees as carefully as Bailey was. Cody and Woody didn't appear to know anything was amiss.

"Hold up, guys," Zack said. He paced ahead of their group and studied the ground. "Bailey, come look at this."

She went over to him and knelt, eyes scanning the earth. "These are our tracks," she said quietly, worry creeping into her tone, "but we haven't been going in circles. I've been marking the trees. Look," she gestured around them, "there are no marks."

Zack peered at a tree nearby. He went up to it and examined the bark. His fingers reached out and plucked out a notch of bark, "Held on with sap or something. We've been led in circles."

All four of them drew closer together and looked around the suddenly ominous trees. There was something…someone out there playing with them.

"So," Cody said full of bluster, "We just go back." He marched back the way they'd come but was halted by the appearance of grim faced men emerging all around them, primitive spears pointing in their direction. Their camouflage had been excellent, mud smeared haphazardly on their bodies, leaves tied to their heads and limbs; they'd blended perfectly into the jungle. Zack and Bailey had never seen them, never heard them, and somehow they'd managed to silently surround the group.

One of the mud men jutted his chin and pointed his spear, and obvious indication that they were to continue down the path.

The teens were marched along in the center of a ring of spears. It didn't take long before they were in the center of a village of huts. They looked around frightened, none of them had missed the skulls on pikes arranged around the perimeter or that many of the village people wore bones dangling from their bodies…there was even a young man gnawing on what Cody and Bailey recognized as a human femur.

Cannibals.

They'd been captured by cannibals. Bailey felt revulsion and she shuddered, every hair on her body stood on end and she gripped the weapon in her hand more tightly. They had to escape. If they didn't make a break for it soon they'd be too far into the village to do so and they'd be dead.

She looked to Zack who caught her eyes and nodded just slightly. He was thinking the same thing.

All of her muscles tensed and adrenalin flooded her system as she ruthlessly forced back her panic. They'd only have one shot at this.

Suddenly she and Zack turned at the same time, roaring defiance at their captors. Zack tackled one man while Bailey lifted her machete and brought it down on the head of a shocked guard, splitting him open and killing him instantly. As he fell he made a space for the others to run through and run they did. Bailey leapt over the freshly made corpse and the boys followed swiftly. Zack had wrested a spear from the man he'd tackled and used it to brutally bash the men to either side.

They fled into the jungle, running as fast as their legs would carry them.

Bailey was in front with Zack immediately behind her. Woody and Cody brought up the rear, neither of them being particularly athletic they were slowly falling behind. Though their adrenaline certainly helped them along it wouldn't be long before they couldn't sustain this pace.

Cody flagged first, pausing to catch his breath. The others slowed but didn't fully stop. Zack looked back, "Cody!" and he was about to yell for his brother to hurry up when a spear came sailing through the air and struck Cody crunching through his sternum and pinning him to the tree he was leaning against.

"CODY!" Zack screamed, the cry so chilling it momentarily stopped Bailey's heart. But she didn't stop running, she glanced back to confirm their loss and kept moving. Stopping meant death.

She heard Woody collect Zack and called out "Let's go!" She gripped her machete a little tighter and decided to deviate from the path to make it harder on their pursuers.

She hacked and slashed as she ran, clearing just enough space for herself and the boys to follow.

She ducked to avoid a low hanging branch when she was stopped short by a dart striking the limb in front of her face. "Horsefeathers!," she cursed and quickly knelt to make a smaller target.

"Ah!"

"Woody's down!" Zack called out. Bailey looked back to see Woody on the ground, darts peppering the side of his neck, and Zack checking his pulse and shaking his head.

Zack crept forward to Bailey's side as she shut her eyes and forced back her sorrow, "Keep moving."

He caught her arm, "There's no way they've caught up to us yet. That must have been a trap. We'll have to be more careful."

Bailey nodded and continued her machete checking their way as they cautiously wove through the jungle. They could hear the sounds of pursuit, frustrated shouts and rustling bushes, for quite a while as they sneakily crawled away.

***'***

"Hey, hey wait," Zack said, reaching out once more to grab Bailey and halt their progress. "Listen." He was silent as he turned his head all around. There was absolutely no noise. "They aren't following us anymore. I wonder why."

Cautiously they rose, standing to look around. There was something different about this part of the jungle. There were no paths, no signs of human passage, no animal sounds. Confused but still full of adrenaline and unwilling to relax they moved a little ways apart, checking things out.

"What is this? It stinks!" Zack plugged his nose and backed away from a large mound, poking it with the spear he still held.

Bailey approached and swiftly identified the pile, "This is scat."

"Like poop?" Zack asked, eyes wide as he took in the three foot tall pile again.

"From something big." Bailey confirmed, "Something big that eats meat. It looks just like cougar scat."

"No cougar made a pile of shit that big!" Zack said incredulously.

"No," Bailey confirmed, "but something like one did. And judging from this pile it's definitely a big animal. We should be careful."

"Because we were being so reckless before." Zack said sarcastically.

"Says the boy who went down the forbidden path hoping for treasure," Bailey riposted caustically, regretting it immediately as Zack's eyes darkened and both their thoughts turned to Woody and Cody. "Sorry."

Zack shook his head, "No. You're right. This is all my fault."

"Zack," Bailey put her hand on Zack's shoulder, "It's not. You didn't kill them."

"No," Zack whispered, "But I dragged us all out here and right into that trap and now Cody and Woody are dead! All because of me! Because I got bored!"

"Stop it!" Bailey slapped his face once, lightly. "Cody and Woody followed you because they wanted to, you didn't force them. We were all warned and we all ignored that warning. It's not your fault there are crazy cannibals out here."

Zack shook his head and shrugged off Bailey's hand, "Yeah, whatever. Doesn't bring either of them back." He stalked away deeper into the jungle.

Bailey kicked at a bush, frustrated and scared. She was sure Zack was just as frightened as she was, but his guilt was making him careless and separating was an enormously bad idea. Particularly when only one had a weapon. "Idiot," Bailey cursed and stomped her foot just once before following after him.

She broke into a run when she heard a shout and the crash of a falling tree, "Zack?"

Zack ran right into her and they both tumbled to the ground, their heads knocking together.

"I think I know why the cannibals didn't follow us and what made that giant shit pile," he said as he swiftly pushed himself up.

"What?" Bailey's bell had been rung when Zack's skull had collided with her own, she just barely caught what Zack had said.

"That!" Zack pointed to where a massive panther, one the size of a house, came growling out of the jungle. Its eyes locked on the two humans and it roared and pounced.

Zack and Bailey scrambled out of its way, breaking to either side. The jungle cat was momentarily confused as its prey split in two directions. It chose to follow Bailey, its attention drawn by her hair waving like a flag behind her.

"Hey ugly!" Zack's shout made the beast turn its head, only to catch a spear through its eye. "Yes!" Zack shouted as the giant cat reared up yowling, its paws scratching at its face. It drove the spear in deeper, broke the end off, and released another piecing yowl.

Mad with pain the beast lashed out. Its claws raked in front of it lightning fast. It caught both teens off-guard. Zack was slammed by the meat of the paw and sent flying to crash with a sickening snap against a tree. Bailey was further away and still scrambling with her back to the creature and its claws tore at her, leaving three large gashes across her back.

She forced herself upright as the animal swung its head wildly and pawed at its damaged eye. She made it to Zack's side and found him dead, his neck obviously broken but a strangely serene smile on his face.

It was too much for her to bear. She'd seen three of her friends die right before her eyes, slain brutally for no good reason. Two, she knew, would become meals for grotesque and twisted people. And this last one had given everything he had to protect her. Bailey felt something break within her. She went hot all over and her body shook with rage and grief. She clutched the machete in her hand a little tighter and rose up. She turned to face the beast, the one thing she could actually take revenge on, and her whole being vibrated with energy fueled by her fear, her grief, and her fury.

With an animalistic scream that echoed through the jungle and pierced through the wounded beast's pain Bailey charged. She came at the animal from its blind side, it never saw her coming. She leapt, her machete out and poised to strike, and caught the monster in the neck. The beast reared and twisted, trying to dislodge Bailey, but she clung to its fur grimly lost in her berserker frenzy. She drove her weapon deeper, as deep as she could make it go, and forced it to slice through thick muscle and skin. Her emotions must have given her the strength of many as she was actually able to slash through the beast's neck, severing its artery and forcing it to collapse on top of her.

The creature lay in the circle of destruction its thrashing had caused, the light in its eyes fading as death claimed it.

For a time nothing moved.

Then, like some demented hell beast, Bailey clawed her way from beneath the creature covered in its blood and still gripping her blade.

She crawled over its lolling head and dropped to the ground with a heavy thump. She scrambled a few feet from the giant corpse and wretched. She heaved and groaned and heaved some more as she emptied her belly, made sick by the events of the day.

When she was finished and her heaves were clear of even bile she stood and wiped a bloody hand across her mouth.

Then she started walking.

She knew that behind her were the cannibals, the dead beast, and the corpses of her friends. Before her, she was certain, must lay the S.S. Tipton and what remained of the people she knew. And she wanted off this island of death, away from the scenes of horror, away from the monster she herself had become to survive.

***'***

Darkness fell and she walked on, determined to make it back to the ship.

She walked blindly, stumbling over roots and tripping into hollows.

Suddenly she saw a light, the reassuring beam of a flashlight and heard people calling for her and for her fallen friends. She rushed towards whoever held that flashlight and knew she was close to her salvation.

When she stumbled from the undergrowth and directly into the shaft of light she heard a startled cry. She looked up, beyond the beam of the light, searching for the face of its bearer.

"Bailey?" she recognized that voice, Miss Tutweiller. Teacher. Friend. "Bailey, is that you? What happened? We've been searching for you all for hours!"

Bailey looked at the weapon in her hand and saw it covered in blood and dirt. She looked down at herself and saw she was an even bigger mess than the machete. There were tears in her clothes, cuts and scrapes that were bleeding and she could feel the burn of the wounds on her back, she was covered in dirt and bits of leaves. But she was alive.

"They're all dead," she whispered, her voice rough from yelling, from dryness, from grief.

"Here, drink this," Miss Tutweiller gave her a canteen of water, "I can't understand what you're saying."

Bailey chugged the water so quickly it spilled from her mouth and down the skin of her throat, washing away some of the blood and grime. While she was doing that Miss Tutweiller spoke into a hand held radio to report finding Bailey. When she had her fill she pulled the canteen away and gasped, she said with a hysterical edge, "They're dead. The boys are dead. Zack, Cody, Woody, all dead."

"What?" Miss Tutweiller asked, shocked, "How?"

Bailey slowly collapsed to her knees and sobbed. Miss Tutweiller followed her down and gently cradled her in her arms, shushing her and trying to soothe her. "We were on a trail, one the guide told us not to go on but you know Zack," her breath hitched, no one would know Zack again.

She related the whole harrowing tale to her stunned teacher and when she reached the end she clung tightly to the older woman hoping some of the grief and pain she was feeling would lift. Hoping to find the sense of comfort she so desperately needed.

Miss Tutweiller gripped Bailey just as tightly, for not so different reasons. Her tale had terrified the older woman, who now felt as if monsters were behind every bush and tree. She was devastated by knowing the fate of three of her students and further distressed over Bailey's condition. She knew the girl was not alright either physically or mentally and didn't know whether the young woman would ever be able to recover from this. She held Bailey and murmured comforting nothings to the teen as they waited for more searchers to arrive and help them back to the ship.

***'***

When help came and they were ushered back to the ship everyone was shocked at Bailey's appearance and at her story.

The staff and passengers got a bigger shock when a deckhand had tried to take the machete away from Bailey. The usually kind and polite girl had bared her teeth, snarled, and shoved the man away while the weapon had come up defensively in front of her and she had crouched, looking like a trapped wild animal. She growled fiercely at anyone who came too near.

"Bailey," Mr. Moseby had tried to reason with her, "It is ship policy that there are to be no weapons aboard the S.S. Tipton. Give that knife to the nice man here and then we can get you cleaned up."

Bailey had just slipped out of reach of the deckhand and stood facing them boldly.

Miss Tutweiller had snuck up beside her and gently taken Bailey's wrist in a light hold, "Bailey," she said softly.

Bailey's eyes had locked with her teacher's, and Miss Tutweiller was taken aback by the wide eyed wild look. Bailey looked feral, but she was entirely calm as she said "Miss Tutweiller, I saw my friends murdered today and the only thing that kept me from being another victim was this," she turned the blade so it caught the light, then she glared out defiantly at Mr. Moseby and the deckhands, "I'm not letting go of the one thing that kept me alive. Ship policy be damned."

When it looked as though Moseby and the sailors would step forward to take the weapon by force Miss Tutweiller held up a quelling hand and gave Moseby a look when he would have protested. She stroked Bailey's wrist with her thumb and said, "Okay. You can keep it. Now let's get you cleaned up. You've had a long day and need to rest."

Bailey had meekly followed where Miss Tutweiller led, her weapon dangling uselessly from the hand her teacher had control of. The crowd parted before them and they passed by unchallenged again.

***'***

Mr. Moseby called in special forces maintained on Mr. Tipton's dime to retrieve the remains of the boys…it was understood in what their orders didn't say that if they had to slaughter a few cannibals to recover the remains, well, no one would be looking too hard at their mission reports or ammunition logs.

Come morning they had three body bags stowed in a freezer below deck, each containing one of the former students, and Mr. Tipton's special forces were gone.

Laid out on the beach was the mammoth form of the dead panther surrounded by stunned and jubilant villagers. Ship passengers all around her kept looking between the dead beast and her silent form, wondering that she could have survived an attack from it and kill it.

Bailey watched their celebrations from the deck of the S.S. Tipton, her machete sheathed at her side, and was sickened remembering the events of yesterday. Her friends were dead. She'd killed that beast. She'd killed a man.

She couldn't bring herself to feel remorseful over killing the cannibal, he'd have done the same to her, but she regretted the necessity of killing the panther. It had been a magnificent creature, possibly the only one of its kind, and it had only been doing what came naturally. The stitches on her back itched, a mere taste of what the animal had been capable of. The panther would have killed her too if it could have. She'd done the right thing.

She felt a warm hand low on her back, "You alright?"

Bailey turned her head just barely to the side to see Miss Tutweiller's concerned visage. The corner of her mouth tilted up just barely, humorlessly, and she said, "No."

They said nothing else as the S.S. Tipton pulled away from the tiny island that had held such terrors, en route for the states to deliver the bodies of Bailey's friends to their families.

THE END

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A/N: That was fun. I hope you all enjoyed it. Please review.