Free The Killer Koala by Kenneth Cook Page B

The
shape was disappearing. Jack began to fire. The two civilians joined
him and twenty or so shots were fired at the slowly fading shape.
    'No
good,' said Jack, 'the bullets won't carry through water.'
    'Christ,
he's a big bastard,' said one of the civilians. 'Twenty foot at
least.' Which since I have at last been converted to the metric
system, translated at around six metres.
    'Bloody
hide's worth a fortune.'
    'Was
he alive?' I asked.
    'Wouldn't
have thought so,' said Jack. 'Not after that lot of geli. But he
shouldn't have sunk. He must be nearly dead anyway. Some of
those shots might have got him, too.'
    'What
are you going to do, blast again?'
    'Would
if I had any more geli ... but I shoved the last of it into that one.
Stupid, really, but I thought he was probably there and wanted to
make sure of him.'
    'Think
those shots would have buggered the hide?' one civilian asked the
other.
    'Mine
didn't — I aimed at the
head.'
    'Me,
too. That soft-nosed slug of his wouldn't have hurt it much,' he
nodded at Jack. The conversation took place as though Jack and I were
either not there or couldn't hear it.
    'Well,
if he's not dead, he could stay down there for a hell of a long time
and he might wedge himself into some roots or something and just die
and never come up,' mused Jack. 'I'd better get back to Weipa and get
some more geli.'
    'No
point in waiting around for a while to see if he comes up?' I asked.
    'He
might, of course,' said Jack thoughtfully. 'But then he might not. We
could wait here all night, but I can get to Weipa and back in a
couple or three hours, and we'll certainly get him up with more geli.
No,' he said decisively, 'I'll go back.'
    He
turned to the two civilians.
    'Now
listen, you two, I'm going back to Weipa to get some more geli.' Just
as they had talked to each other as though he didn't exist, he was
now assuming they hadn't understood the words just spoken virtually
in their ears. They nodded as though it was new intelligence. 'I want
you to wait here and if he comes up, haul him onto the bank. Shoot
him if you think he might be alive. Got it?'
    'Sure,'
said one civilian.
    'And
listen,' said Jack grimly, 'don't open him up. If your mate's inside
him I've got to be here when he's opened up. Do you understand?'
    'Sure.'
    'Well,
make sure you are sure,' said Jack, slightly
threateningly. 'If that croc comes up, don't open him till I get
back, or there'll be hell to pay.'
    'Sure.'
    Jack
nodded to me and we set off back along the creek. I thought it was
sensitive of him to suppose that I would rather go with him than wait
for a couple of hours with the civilians. He was right, too.
    I
stopped off at my camp and waited until Jack reappeared in the middle
of the afternoon.
    'I
got a double load,' he said, 'to make sure. You wouldn't mind
carrying a pack in?'
    'Not
at all.'
    At
the civilians' camp we loaded ourselves with the packs of gelignite,
which weren't particularly heavy, and then Jack took from the back of
the truck a large, heavy plastic bag and draped it over his
shoulders. I didn't ask what it was for. He took up his rifle and we
marched briskly into the bush, knowing exactly where we were going
now.
    My
writer's instinct was definitely on the wane now. I still wanted to
see the crocodile, but nothing more. My troubled imagination was
causing me enough discomfort, but it did not anticipate the peculiar
horror of the shock awaiting us in the clearing around the pool.
    The
crocodile was on the bank with its skin off.
    The
enormous, evil, ancient head was intact, with the grinning teeth and
half-shut malicious eyes, but the rest of its six-metre length was
naked white and glistening fat. Half the tail was missing, lost years
before in some reptilian battle. The creature would have been
grotesque if it had been intact. Stripped of its armour, it was
obscene. The greatest obscenity was the spreading white bulge of its
belly. The skin was pegged out on the ground nearby, looking twice as
large as the body