Burial Ground

II

10:50 a.m.

Dahlia could tell something interesting was transpiring in the clearing ahead. She and Jay had been trailing in the rear with the freckled farmboy Morton, the dark-skinned Webber with the sun-bleached hair, and their youthful guide, Kemen, allowing the others to forge a path through the jungle while she and her cameraman waited like vultures for anything intriguing to pop up. They were definitely going to need it. So far, all they had was some boring footage of the town, the river, and a bunch of trees and animals.

She skirted around Morton and Webber, who carried the large crate containing the ground-penetrating radar and magnetometer units between them on long wooden poles that rested on their shoulders, to get a better view of the gathering at the far end of the light gap. The way everyone had rushed through the opening reinforced her belief that there was something out there worthy of documentation.

"Jay," she said, turning to her cameraman. He had paled significantly and was soggy with sweat and the last of the rain, which apparently had abated sometime while they were beneath the dripping canopy. "Start filming as you exit the path. I want to record everything as if we're walking into the clearing and seeing whatever's out there for the first time."

"Isn't that exactly what we're doing?"

"Don't be a smartass. Just get that camera rolling."

She stepped to the side of the beaten path and waited for Jay to pass her. He held the digital recorder in front of him and studied the four-inch monitor. Somehow, he managed to mind his feet and the image at the same time. She had to give him credit. The automatic stabilization system would prevent the recording from bouncing violently with each step Blair Witch-style, but it would be useless if he tripped and fell.

Dahlia watched over his shoulder as he traversed the path, ascended the toppled trunk, and dropped again to the ground. The crowd ahead had begun to disperse, and was now spread over a span of roughly twenty feet, at the end of which several crouched amid the ferns, inspecting something on the ground. Whatever they had found held them enrapt. Her heart raced. It took every last ounce of restraint to keep from commanding Jay to run ahead. This was the perfect opportunity to build dramatic tension. If the viewer felt even half of the anticipation that she currently experienced, their film would truly be something special.

"I want to see it like they did when they discovered whatever's down there," she said. "Stick to the path until you can clearly tell what's going on, then go over to where those guys are kneeling."

Jay followed her direction perfectly. By the time he broke off to the right, she had an unobstructed view of what had attracted so much attention. Between the roaring buzz of the swirling flies, the curls of desiccated skin and fur, and the wash of blood and broken bones, it reminded her more of news footage from Serbia than anything she had expected to find in the jungle. The sheer ferocity with which the animal had been slaughtered was frightening, beyond even the aftermath of the attack of a great white shark. What could possibly be responsible for such carnage?

"Are you getting this?" she asked. Her voice trembled with excitement.

"Hard to miss."

Jay slowed his pace and angled the camera in such a way that if she craned her neck, she could see the monitor too. Part of her had expected the scene not to translate through the lens, but if anything, the camera and the level of the zoom served to amplify the atrocity.

When they finally caught up with the others, Merritt was holding up a fractured section of the cranium.

"Give me a tight zoom on that part of the skull. Make sure to get the hole."

Merritt noticed the camera in his face, dropped the bone, and backed hurriedly away.

Camera shy, Dahlia thought. Now that she truly pondered it, she didn't have any footage of the man's face at all. Only his back and shoulders as he rode in the boat ahead of theirs or hacked through the jungle. Interesting. She made a mental note to test his reaction to the lens the next chance she got. There was definitely something strange about his response, but not nearly as strange as what had happened here. The jaguar hadn't simply been killed. It had been obliterated.

"Cut," Dahlia said. Jay stretched his back and rolled his head on his neck. "Let's get one more shot looking straight down this mess from the edge of the tree line. Zoom in past the remains, and then zoom out as fast as you can. It looks like the animal was torn apart while it was running. I want to see if we can replicate the effect on film."

She turned and headed toward the wall of foliage, listening to the crackle of Jay's tread on the detritus to ensure he was following, the only sound other than the muffled voices and the static buzz of black flies. She paused. That in itself was noteworthy. Where was the dissonance of the calling birds, the screeching monkeys, and the croaking frogs? It was as though nearly all other life had vacated this region of the rainforest.

After just a few short minutes in the blazing tropical sun, she felt the cold emanating from the shadows beyond the trees. Hackles stippled her triceps and crept up her spine as she turned her back on the watchful jungle.

"Stay right there," Jay said. He had nearly reached her, but now stood in place, ever-so-slowly raising the camera in her direction. "Don't move."

The way he said it made her want to scream and run back to join the others, yet the sudden onset of fear rooted her to the ground.

"What is it?" she whispered. Every muscle in her body grew taut. Her heartbeat thumped in her ears.

"Just don't move. You're going to have to see this to believe it."

Jay approached her slowly, but without trepidation. She noted he focused the camera past her and above her left shoulder. Her stale breath finally escaped and she started to relax.

"For the love of God, Jay, tell me what you---"

"Shh! Hold still. Just another few seconds and...aw, man."

He lowered the camera and walked toward her, grinning.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She punched him in the shoulder. "You scared me half to death."

"Believe me. You'll thank me when you see this."

He stood at her side and positioned the camera's screen so they could both see it. Sensing she was still wound as tight as a spring, he offered a crooked smile and nudged her with his hip. "Relax already." He rewound the scene and played it back at normal speed.

Dahlia saw herself against the gnarled green backdrop of the forest. The pastel blossoms of bromeliads poked out from where they were rooted to the branches and trunks. She heard the scuffle of feet and then Jay spoke. On the small screen, her body tensed and the blood drained from her face.

Jay chuckled, and she pinched his arm.

"Ow! Just watch, would you?"

Over her smaller self's shoulder, Dahlia saw twin dots of an almost turquoise color, and below them, a jagged slash of white. It looked like the face of some terrible predator: slanted eyes and a savage snarl against an olive-green face.

And then the face collapsed in upon itself.

The camera zoomed past her shoulder and focused on it. When the face folded open again, she recognized it for what it truly was. One turquoise eye encircled by a black ring dominated each forewing, while each hindwing featured half of the sharp-toothed mouth. Thin ebon veins mottled the wings in such a way as to create the impression of scales.

The massive butterfly closed its wings together to reveal its gray thorax and legs against a plant that reminded her of aloe, then opened them again and took to the air, flapping away into the shadows.

"You could have told me it was just a damn butterfly."

"Your reaction was far more entertaining," Jay said. "And it wasn't just a damn butterfly. Didn't you see it? That thing had a freaking face on its wings. Have you ever seen anything like it? How cool would it be if we just recorded it on film for the first time ever?"

She had to admit he had a point.

Jay started to pull the camera away. She noticed movement on the monitor and grabbed his wrist.

"Wait."

"What?"

"Rewind that last bit."

He held up the screen and rewound to the point where the butterfly fluttered back out of the jungle.

"Now play it back at half speed," she said.

The wings opened and closed, flashing the face of evolution and then nothing, face and then nothing. There was a moment when the forest was perfectly still, and then she saw it. A silhouette shifting through the shadows.

"Pause it."

The image was slightly pixellated, but she could still clearly see the distinct outline of a man with the faint reflection of the sunlight on his eyes and on teeth that had been filed to points.

Jay allowed the film to run, and the man vanished into the darkness again.