He knew the drill. Never clean where you sleep. The better rule was never eat where you sleep, but they had abandoned that a long while ago. They had enough cat repellent to last them a couple of weeks. And they only used it when they cooked fish. One, it was good to keep the cats away. Two, it was actually quite delicious on fish. A little Olbas Oil, Black Pepper, Lemon, Eucalyptus, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Garlic and Lavender made a tasty concoction that did both things well. A strange list, but the most effective they had found, so they stuck with it.

Hezzy walked back down the path towards the river. When he could no longer see the fire, he got out his flashlight and went to work. Walking catfish almost tasted as good as Channel catfish, but they were easier to catch and easier to clean. Truth was, they walked right up to you around the river and you could hear them almost a mile away. The freaky little guys actually walked on land with their fins, if you believe it.

He got a Mega leaf as a work surface. Zip, zip, zip with the knife on the back and the head, break the neck and scoop out everything inside. He threw the head, dorsal fin and guts as far as he could back down towards the river and did the same to the other one. They weren’t large enough to cut the tail off to bleed, so he just wiped up as best as he could and with another Mega leaf, wrapped them up and bent to the task of cleaning his hands.

He usually peed on his hands to clean them, but he didn’t have to pee right now. That was a bad sign. He was dehydrated most probably and would need to fix that. He rubbed them into the dirt around him and scrubbed furiously. Then, with as much spit as he could muster he used the spit to clean off the mud. It would have to do. He picked up the Mega leaf parcel and headed back. Along the way he relit the cigarette that he had in his pocket. Not much there, but enough for a couple of puffs before it burned his fingers.

The fire was ready and they had already sprayed the repellent. It had come to be the delicious scent of safety, even though sometimes it burned their eyes. They cooked the fish and ate, burning the skin and the bones when they were done. It would have been foolish to try to walk it down the path, so burning it was the best solution.

The camp was quiet. Tugg, usually liked going over the next day’s plans so he was fidgeting with the camera, watching a small clip over and over.

“Whatcha got there?” Hezzy asked him, not moving from his spot.

“Hmmm… Just something I found on the bank. Tracks… Strange tracks.” Tugg said.

Hezzy was interested. He hopped up and walked over.

It was a footprint. It was huge alright, but it was nothing more than an ape or a big chimp. Hezzy didn’t care about gorilla attack so he dismissed the whole thing and curled up in his hammock and went to sleep, leaving Moise, Christian, and E-man to do whatever, and Tugg to obsess over the cameras.

It was pitch black when E-man woke him.

“Sssst!” He hissed in Hezzy’s ear and placed an arm on his shoulder. “Wake up but be still.” E-man said, his mouth so close that it tickled Hezzy’s ears.

Hezzy was up in a heartbeat.

“What is it? What happened?” He whispered, quiet but alert.

“There are voices in the dark. But I do not understand what they say.” E-man said.

This frightened Hezzy to the bone. Years ago, in the heart of Missouri, he had been a prisoner of strange creatures who had forced him to submit to their whims. They were creatures straight from the bowels of hell and they too had not spoken in languages that could be understood easily by men. He and Tugg and his friends had escaped with only their lives. The sick, nauseating creep that moved in his stomach and into his throat gagged him.

“I don’t-” Hezzy began, and then he heard them too.

Soft mutterings, maybe twenty feet away in the forest. One voice and then a second responding. It took every ounce of determination to slowly grab E-man’s arm and lower himself out of his hammock. He went to his pack which was among the pile and slowly unzipped the outer pocket. A loaded Smith and Wesson 1911 was in his hands. With the other hand, he unzipped a side pocket. Cat spray. Without moving, he started spraying all around him. As the mist worked its way into the bush, he slowly stood and spoke loudly in a very steady voice.

“I know you’re there and we don’t want any trouble! We are on a job from the government! We are charting this area for the survey group! Again, we don’t want any trouble!” He sprayed the spray again around him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tugg slowly getting out of his hammock and crawling toward the bag as well. Hezzy slowly bent down, grabbed Tugg’s bag and had it unzipped by the time that Tugg was there. Now they had two guns against whatever would happen.

Nothing moved.

Finally, after more than a hundred heartbeats, footsteps were heard in the bush slowly moving away from the camp.

No one slept the rest of the night.

Three hours later, the sun rose. Five feet away from camp there was a large pile of tiny red bananas and two more catfish.