I’d wholly underestimated their lack of intelligence; these men were absolute imbeciles.
I paused, studying a piece of dark hair belonging to some type of primate stuck to the low branch of a tree. “This way,” I said with a jerk of my head.
Four men had come along while the other two stayed back at camp to guard their captures. They flanked us, constantly vigilant and wary of each move we made.
We still needed to lead them into some kind of danger. Somewhere they’d be so distracted we could run. So I continued to bide our time until the opportunity presented itself.
“This is taking forever,” a man with greasy black hair said.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Jungle cats are very difficult to track. They’re elusive. The moment they catch wind of our scent, they’ll likely flee.”
“Elusive? Stop using your fancy education words,” another man said, shoving me.
I stumbled forward, trying to stay calm. “What I mean is they’re shy. Secretive. And very good at avoiding humans.”
“Well, you’d better figure out how to find one. Her life depends on it,” he replied.
I resisted the urge to glance over my shoulder at Cerise behind me, trying to ignore the threat. They’d been doing that all day. Threatening to kill one of us if the other didn’t cooperate.
So we did. We cooperated. And until we could find some trap for them, that’s what we would have to do.
“I’m trying my best to keep us downwind so they won’t scent us,” I encouraged.
He grunted. “Well, do it faster.”
“We can’t control how fast we locate the cat,”Cerise spoke up. “They’re unpredictable wild animals. If you would just untie us, we could examine the tracks better and look for more signs of them.”
“Shut the fuck up,” the leader said. “You talk way too much.”
I heard Cerise gasp behind me and I whipped around. The leader was squeezing her arm. Hard.
“Let go of her,” I urged. “We’re getting close. I promise.”
He released her and glared at me. “How do you know we’re close?”
A breeze wound its way through the trees, tousling my hair. I pretended to sniff the air and feigned surprise. “Because I just scented them.”
Cerise looked at me like I’d grown an extra head, but the men didn’t notice. They were suddenly enraptured by my words.
“You scented them? What are you, some type of fucking dog?”
This time, I did roll my eyes as if their lack of knowledge frustrated me. “No. The females release a very subtle scent to ward off other jungle cats. It’s a way they keep their young safe. I just smelled it.”
“I don’t smell anything,” one of them said.
“That’s because you aren’t trained,” I replied, stifling the urge to laugh. These men really were idiots.
The leader narrowed his eyes with suspicion as if he was trying to gauge the truth of my words. I was lying of course.
But my fabrication paid off as he gestured ahead of us. “Lead the way.”
I stepped over a cluster of rocks, leading the poachers deeper into the jungle, scanning our surroundings for something we could use.
When Cerise and I had deliberated until they came and pulled us from the tent, we had listed each and every danger present in the thick rainforest. Venomous insects and snakes; floods; quicksand; poisonous plants; cliffs. These were all potential pitfalls we could face, but we had to figure out how to leadthem to one while ensuring we did not get caught up in the hazard ourselves.
And hope they were as dumb as they’d proven thus far.
Another half hour into our journey and I paused, my eyes catching on something on the ground.
