Page 32 of Wild Life (STEAM-y #2)

First to Walk Away

Maris

“When you said a decent walk, you didn’t mention that we’d be hiking Mt. Everest!” I huffed out.

We had been walking for what felt like hours in the dark, aiming to reach the caves before dawn. If we camped outside, we could catch the bats returning home to sleep during the day. However, if none showed up, we’d know they definitely weren’t roosting there.

“It would have been an easier trip if we weren’t carrying everything we own,” Aleki replied as he led the way.

I was struggling to lug my two baskets, one on my hip and the other on my shoulder. Meanwhile, Aleki had four stacked on top of each other with the ease of a fancy waiter serving a tray of petit fours at high tea.

He glanced back to check that I was keeping up, but caught my wide grin instead.

“What’s the smile for?” he asked.

“You said we .”

Confusion marked his face in the light of the lantern he had fashioned out of an old jar with a candle stuffed inside and a wire handle wrapped around the opening. “We, what?”

“‘Everything we own.’ I like the sound of it.”

He laughed. “I didn’t realize I said it, but I like the sound of it, too.”

“Good. Now carry me.”

His eyes bounced from me to his full arms. “With which hand?”

I stomped my feet in a pouty tantrum. “You promised you’d carry me if I couldn’t make the whole way.”

“That was before you decided to pack like we were moving out of the hut.”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll walk. You know, of all the random things you’ve collected over the years, you would think there’d be a pair of shoes…or at least one shoe.” One covered foot up a thorny hill would’ve been good enough. At least I could have switched off every so often.

“Walking on different types of terrain will strengthen your feet. Give it time. You’ll develop calluses soon for protection.”

“Ugh, gross. I had pretty feet once, you know.” My feet had turned into a cesspool of blisters. Every day, something random would lodge itself in one of my soles and I’d have to dig it out with blunt rocks. Somewhere back home, a pedicurist in a fancy spa was crying at my shoddy work.

“You still have pretty feet.” Aleki’s voice carried a lustful tone. The man worshipped every part of me, including my ugly feet. “I would spend the whole night kissing them if we weren’t pretending to be bat hunters.”

“We’re not hunting them!” I scolded. I wasn’t a vegan or a vegetarian, but I didn’t like harming animals unnecessarily. Though I had joked about cooking Poaka on occasion, I never meant it. It did bother me that Aleki had to hunt and fish for us, but it was how we managed to feed ourselves. It was part of the circle of life. As long as we didn’t waste any of it, I could support hunting.

“No, we’re stalking the bats.”

“For their own good, of course,” I added.

“Something tells me that’s what all stalkers say.” I could tell he was snickering without having a clear view of his face.

“What do you know about stalking, anyway? You live on an island with a population of one.”

“Not anymore. It’s at a population of two now.” He dropped the baskets and planted a harsh kiss on my lips. His tongue dipped into my mouth, and I melted into a puddle. He was a damn good kisser, and it was the only thing that could effectively quiet my busy brain. The American Psychological Association could stand to add it to their clinical practice guidelines for anxiety disorders.

I broke away, panting to catch the breath he had stolen. “We need to keep moving before the sun rises.”

He pressed his lips to mine again, this time briefly, but still with the promise of dirtier things to come with his tongue later. “We’re already here.” He held the lantern up.

Around the curve, there was a small entrance in a patch of stone hidden between a pocket of trees.

“Only one cave?” I had anticipated there would have been many more based on the landscape.

“No, it leads to a network of them,” he said.

“Have you ever seen bats inside of them before?”

“I haven’t been up here in a while. The last time was a couple of years after the catamaran accident, when I was too young to understand where I was. It was far from any drinkable source of water to warrant staying, so I never came back.”

“You hiked this when you were a kid?!” Jesus, I was out of shape. I did this kind of thing for a living, yet this place was seriously testing my physical health with its topography.

“Come on, let’s go inside.” He started moving, and I grabbed his arm just in time.

“We can’t just waltz in there. If it’s home to the bats, we could introduce disease into their colony.”

He glanced down at his body. “I’m not sick.”

“That you know of. We carry lots of bacteria, viruses, and fungi without realizing. Some of these can hurt the fragile organisms, especially if they’re endangered.”

“So then, we’re not going in?” I loved the effort he put in to understand my madness.

“Only after first verifying that they use this space for roosting. Then we suit up.”

“Suit up?”

I pulled out two large tarps.

“You’re kidding,” he said incredulously.

I shook the white sheeting gently, making a swishing sound. “I’d never joke about plastic.”

The material was thick enough to serve as a barrier between us and our surroundings. I assumed that Aleki wasn’t vaccinated against any pathogens the bats may carry, and it was important that he remained safe.

“How am I supposed to wear a plastic sheet?” he asked.

“Like a rain poncho!”

“A what?”

“Look, I cut out parts for our heads. And I even made booties to match out of old plastic bags.”

It was dark, but I could hear his displeasure. “Okay, it just got worse.” Aleki held his head in his hands.

“Babe, come on. You haven’t been vaccinated against rabies or Ebola, so this is also for your safety. I’ll be wearing one, too. Do it for me?” I begged.

“Say it again,” he crooned.

“Say what again?” I asked.

“You called me babe .”

“I did?” I hadn’t realized it.

“You did.”

“Oh.” He was calling us we , and I was calling him babe , and neither of us was aware of the words coming out of our mouths.

“Say it again,” he urged.

“Give me a minute. I’m trying to recollect what provoked me to say it.”

“Don’t think. You’ll strip the magic,” he teased.

“Babe,” I said slowly, tone dripping with honey.

“Now say, ‘Babe, I love you.’”

I rolled my eyes. “What are you, a ventriloquist?”

“Speak, sexy little puppet. Speak,” he ordered. He had been hanging out with me too much because I could clearly hear my smart remarks on his lips.

“Babe, I love you.” Surprisingly, I didn’t cringe. I didn’t hold my breath. No words had ever felt more natural to me.

“I love you, too, babe.” He pressed into me for a soft kiss.

“You’re so cheesy.” I pushed my palms against his firm chest. “Oh my God, look!”

A shadow fluttered by, resembling a black orb. It was fleeting and moved through the cave’s entrance. We’d found the roost!

I jumped up and down, clapping as quietly as I could, not wanting to spook the bats with my excitement.

“Should we go in?” Aleki asked.

“No, let’s give them a chance to settle. It’ll be easier to see the whole colony when they’re asleep.”

One by one, we watched the little creatures return. I couldn’t decipher the species since we waited off to the side, too far to see them close up, especially in the low predawn light.

It was like waiting for the popping of popcorn kernels to slow in the microwave. After a few minutes had passed without another animal returning, I pulled out the ponchos. I slipped on my outfit first to show Aleki how to wear it. He wasn’t a fan of the cloth masks I’d made to cover our mouths and noses, but at least everything had been sterilized. I wore the rubber gloves, and I had made some plastic “mittens” for Aleki out of two clear food storage bags.

I took the lantern from him, since my hand coverings weren’t capable of melting as easily as his, and we entered quietly. The entrance was longer and darker than I’d anticipated. Aleki followed along behind me.

We moved without speaking, yet our garb was rather noisy. I slipped on the ground from the bags on my feet, and thankfully, Aleki was quick to catch me before I fell on my ass.

We traveled through the maze of stone. The entrance was tight but sturdy. The air was thicker inside, and our coverings added to the claustrophobia. I reminded myself it was a good sign that the air was warm enough to keep the bats comfortable through the day as they slept.

The entrance narrowed to the point that I didn’t think we could go deeper. I could’ve squeezed through, but Aleki was too broad to fit.

I glanced back at him, silently asking how to proceed. He motioned for me to go alone.

It was impossible to know what lay ahead, but I trusted that Aleki wouldn’t urge me if he believed it was dangerous.

I crouched down so as not to hit my head and advanced slowly.

The atmosphere condensed so much that I knew I was going to pass out. It’s all in my mind. If I slowed my breathing, I could avoid the risk of fainting. Hyperventilating would make matters worse, and if I couldn’t regain control, Aleki couldn’t get to me.

Loose debris shuffled under my steps, and I lost balance and slid onto my back. My hand shot up, saving the lantern. I visually followed the upward bounce of my voice from the yelp that had escaped.

My eyes widened as I took in the sight. Tiny furry bodies. There must’ve been over a hundred of them snuggled together.

All Pacific sheath-tails!

A warm hand rested on my shoulder, and I jumped. Aleki. He had shoved his way through the narrow entrance.

His covered hands roamed my body, checking me for injury. I shook him off and gave him a thumbs up that I was okay.

I tapped his chest and pointed, drawing his attention upward.

There were so many bats, and the scientific community had no idea they were here.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed a fuzzy body huddling at the edge of the resting colony. It was smaller than the others. A baby? No, the wings were too developed to be a pup. Its face was hidden. I angled my light slightly, not enough to disturb it but so I could get a better view.

I gasped, my heart seizing painfully in my chest.

White. Its delicate muzzle was white .

His neighbor’s muzzle was white, too.

Fuck. I counted about twenty individuals with white patches, each cuddled closely in such tight quarters. It was only a matter of time before the fungus spread to them all.

Aleki noticed my panic and quickly took the lantern from me. He led me back out, shoving through the tiny hole and pulling me along. I was in a daze the entire way.

As soon as we had cleared the entrance, he ripped off his mask and body covering. “What’s wrong?”

I undressed slowly, still stunned. “They’re infected. They have white-nose syndrome.”

He didn’t understand my diagnosis, but he knew it was serious from my tone. “All of them?”

“No, I counted twenty, but soon it’ll deplete the entire colony unless they’re treated.” I wanted to help them right immediately.

“Medicine? What type of medicine?”

“We’re not really sure. We use different therapies based on the species profile. We’ve never had a case documented in a Pacific sheath-tail before.”

Aleki wanted to help, too. I could hear it in his voice. “How do you get this medication?”

“We have them in my lab back at the university, but I’d have to—"

I stopped, unable to finish the rest of my sentence, except Aleki already knew what I had been about to say.

“You’d have to go home to get them.”

There it was, the inevitable end of our relationship. The culmination of our two different destinies placed on opposite poles.

I was a scientist who had devoted my life to caring for the welfare of animals with the help of the modern world, integrating science and technology to help the ecosystem. And Aleki was a man so intertwined with his ecosystem that he couldn’t exist if he was removed from it.

Could I be happy here, knowing that I was unable to access tools from my old life to help these organisms?

I knew the answer.

And Aleki knew it, too, as he did what I had always feared a partner would do to me if I ever entered a relationship. He walked away first.