Loving the Safari Guide

The Cub

We ended up tracking the leopards into the early hours in the truck, not in a traditional sense. Just with the glow stick flowed Jackson had dumped onto one of them. "Hey, right up there. Up ahead, on the right. We're on the right track." Jackson directs Abe as best he can.

"Maybe somebody should say something about him. Ray. I mean nobody should die without words being spoken, right?" Mitch looks to Jamie and I, who are in the back of the truck with him.

I sigh softly, "Ray was obnoxious, loud, and stubborn, but he was passionate. And he cared more about animals on this Earth than any man I've ever met."

I hear Jackson sigh from the front seat, "Looks like the trail's run out. We lost them."

"Okay, team. What now?" Mitch looks up to Abe and Jackson.

"Let's make camp. We can pick up the trail when it gets light out." Jackson glances around the truck. I'm not sure that we really make camp up, we rest for about thirty minutes before the sun comes up. When it does we start out again.

"We lost the tranq gun." Jamie comments, worriedly.

"So we'll make our own. It's not quite ketamine, but it should do the trick. The locals have used the root for hundreds of years to get drunk, so hopefully, it's enough to knock out a leopard." Abe comments as Mitch mixes the compound of roots together.

As smell assaults our noses Jamie covers her, "That's the most disgusting thing I ever smelled in my life."

I shake my head and place my hand over my mouth and nose, as Mitch takes a dropper and holds it over his mouth, "Are you serious?"

"It's for science." Mitch shrugs before dropping some of the mixture into his mouth and immediately realizing it was a bad idea and the root tastes nasty. He shakes his head and licks his lips, "Hm...tingles."

"I hope it does more than that to the leopards." I lean back as much as I can in the small back area.

"Stop the Truck!" Jackson shouts, "Right up there. You see those trees with the rocks? The rocks along the base. Looks like their den."

Abe nods, "If we can isolate one leopard, we may have a chance."

I lean forward and poke my head between them, "What if you can't?" Jackson and Abe almost flat out ignore me and jump out of the car, heading to the back to grab the spare Jamie and I had made out of a syringe and a stick. "Jackson?"

"Kat, we'll be fine. I promise." Jackson smiles his reassuring smile at me, before turning to Abe. "You ready?"

"After you," Abe nods, gesturing ahead.

The two of them head into the tall grass and the wood line around the den. I sit back down, next to Jamie and put my hands on either side of my head. Jamie places her hand on my back, "Hey, it's okay. They're gonna be fine."

"Yeah, but if they get a leopard, how are we going to transport it, and where are we gonna go?"

Mitch shakes his head, "We won't need to transport it, we'd just need a tooth from it and I can do the rest from in the back of the truck."

I nod and sigh again. We wait for what feels like hours before Abe and Jackson come back. When they do they came back with a cub. "Did you two kidnap a baby leopard."

"Maybe. Let's go make a cure." Jackson hands me the baby leopard. Jamie and I wrap the cub in a thin blanket we have in the back of the cab. Taking turns holding it as we drive down the dirt road. When we get to a bridge to head back to the airfield the bridge is down and we get out of the truck. I head over to the post and look at the rope, it's been chewed through.