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Keeping a closer eye on Zulu, we watched helplessly as his condition worsened. Nothing we tried broke his fever. His gums were swollen and pissed blood. His body was covered in blisters. On the parts of his body where the blisters had popped, skin flaked off, leaving behind bloody flesh and seeping puss. His eyes were yellow pools of jelly. When he wasn't groaning and trying to break the bonds we'd used to tie him down, he screamed. He sounded like a wild, angry animal ready to kill every single one of us. I didn't know how much longer we could keep him sedated and tied down. Neither the morphine nor the Ketamine were having much of an effect. Sooner or later he would break free and then it was anybody's guess what would happen. Wouldn’t it be more humane to put him out of his misery? There was nothing we could do for him.
As we moved further South, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being followed. Was I just being paranoid or could they sense that Zulu was turning into one of them? Were they following us for completely other reasons? What did they want? If they wanted to scare us, they'd succeeded. Our nightly stops were jaded by our fear of attack. We couldn't relax around the fires. We all kept watch and waited. Every sound made me hold my breath in expectation of a scream or gunshot. The nights were long and cold. The only thing that got me through the nights were the moments Wolf and I managed to steal away together. But the stolen moments never lasted long enough. A member of my family or one of the soldiers always interrupted us. Our sex life was becoming a running joke in the camp.
Wolf checked the perimeter as I watched in fascination, as a black scorpion crawled across the sand towards the campfire. Its large pincers and small stinger let me know it wasn't dangerous. It would give me a nasty sting but it wouldn't kill me. It was one of the few living creatures I'd seen since we climbed out of the bunker. There were no birds of prey, no laughing jackals, just silent creepy-crawlies like scorpions and cockroaches. Czar's ears were pricked and alert. A frown crinkled his brow as he watched the scorpion and followed it across the sand, his nose inches away from it. Watching the dog stalk the scorpion provided some amusement and a distraction from our fears. His excited barks echoed in the desert. When Czar was almost ready to pounce, James called him off. The scorpion couldn't kill him either, but we didn't need an injured dog on our hands. Laughing at the dog felt good. I almost felt normal for a few seconds, but then I realised that what had once been our norm had become abnormal. Our new normal, our new reality, was living in fear. I shivered at the thought and wondered if I'd ever feel safe again.
Staring into the flames, I didn't notice Wolf walk up or see him and James walk into the shadows together. It was Czar's frightened bark that pulled me out of my trance. Zulu stood next to the fire. Flames reflected in his black eyes as he stared at me. The last time I'd checked in on him his eyes had still been yellow, jaundiced due to liver failure or so James had told me. But now they were pitch black, almost demonic looking. I stood up slowly and put my hands up so that he could see them. I didn't want him to feel threatened. Czar stood next to me, the hackles on the back of his neck were up as he growled.
“It's okay boy,” I tried to soothe Czar and hoped that my voice might have the same effect on Zulu. Wolf and James emerged from the shadows behind Zulu. They exchanged a look I didn't understand. I wasn't sure I wanted to understand it. It all happened in slow motion. Zulu jumped over the fire towards me, his teeth were now sharp enough to slice and dice my body parts. Wolf and James took aim and fired. The bullets penetrated the back of Zulu’s skull and exploded out through his face. The only sound I heard was Czar's barking as I hit the ground. It was the first time I'd looked up at the sky in a long time. The stars were bright and the moon full. Czar’s head obscured my view as he licked my face. I couldn't move. I couldn't feel the rest of my body. My mother screamed somewhere in the distance.
“So this is what it's like to die,” I mumbled. “It's not so bad.” My vision blurred and then everything went black.