What in the hell are they?
Dirk walked over to his case(that he had thrown at the charging beast) and
picked it up. While the rest of the men regrouped, he headed back to the
monster with the blown out belly. He set his case down, opened it, and began to
unload a few of his "science things" to examine the corpse.
"What in the hell do you think you're doing over there?" barked Harris.
"Trying to figure out what we're up against." Dirk slowed down his speach,
"It's called s c i e n c e. It's partly why I'm here, remember?" Harris
grumbled but understood the importance. Dirk let loose a smile. He loved being
a bastard.
He took blood samples, tissue samples, epidermal samples, etc. until he was all
sampled out. Keto even helped him, though the thing smelled god awful. "Are
you done yet?" Harris was getting impatient.
"Almost. Finishing the analysis now." Dirk studied his display monitor. "A
good bit of primate DNA mixed with a little dash here and there of just about
everything else in the mammal family. Can release a extremely high dose of
adrenaline into the blood stream. Seems to be mostly nocturnal. Suffering from
a bit of malnutrition. And it has hepatitus."
Kayn looked confused. "Didn't you say that it was nocturnal. But it's still
daylight out."
"I know. And, I also said that it was suffering from malnutrition."
"So," one of the securtiy monkeys said. "What does that have to do with
anything?"
"Look around," Dirk began to explain. "We've been out here almost two days and,
besides these things, haven't seen anything larger than a chipmunck. Anything
large enough to sustain these things has been run off."
"But wouldn't the eco-system balance out itself?" Smegg asked.
"Smart thinking. But no. Not if my hunch is correct. I don't think they're
indigenous to this region." He bent over and began to point out details on the
body. "Look at the fur. For one, it's too grey to serve as camo in this green
jungle. Secondly, it's way to thick for this humid climate. We're looking at
something that may have migrated in from a cooler climate and began an immediate
feasting on the local animal population."
He stood up again and looked at Smegg, "An introduction of a new species into an
area can totally throw off the eco balance. Now, its food supply is low or
non-existant. It'll brave daylight attacks for food. There also seems to be
evidence of cannibalism." Some of the team grimmaced at the thought. But not
Harris or Dirk. "Probably eat the sick or lame that can't defend themselves any
longer. Considering what we've seen, I'll say they're pack animals. Large
groups of them working together to bring down prey."
"We better get moving, just in case there's more," Harris ordered, and they
complied.
A couple of miles further they came to a river. Smegg said that signals show
that it ran almost exactly to their target point. They could ride their JMC
inflatable rafts all the way up and could bring them there before sundown the
next day. They decided to camp there for the night and head out the next
morning.
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