IBO - Brian R. Lundin (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📗

mosquitoes which buzzed around their bodies. Bayou people over the years had built up immunity to the deadly virus the mosquito carried and they were more of an annoyance than anything else was. They went around a midden a mound made of shells, bones, pottery and other refuge probably left by Native Americans centuries ago and was over 30 feet high. The mosses, vines, air and water plants, along with fungi, lichens, algae and fern enveloped the flooded forest, so it seemed that every inch was alive and growing. Tiny floating plants covered the small ponds. A giant rat darted between the trees, anxious to avoid becoming lunch for a larger predator rustling through the underbrush. A tree squirrel perched on a limb, gave them a sound scolding as they disturbed his home and birds hooted and cawed at the intruders. They climbed over large dead trees and waded small streams. It was slow going. They moved quickly and silently, scanning the environment all around mindful that they were getting close to the Dupree compound.
The trees begin to thin out as they broke free of the forestland and moving into the higher reaches of the bayou. They stopped and looked around. Cinque sniffed the air and could smell the foul odor coming from the compound. Up ahead, through the thinning forest, they could see the outline of the compound. Tall thick trees surrounded the compound. They had arranged to meet Uncle Claude and the others just outside the compound in a thickly wooded area. The bright stars had faded behind a sky of dark blue velvet. As dawn broke, the forest emerged from the night, sharp and distinct. It would be a clear, crisp morning. With the early light of day they arrived at the Dupree’s compound just before sunrise. The early morning air was fresh and clean, the sun was slowly making its journey towards the west, and the fetid smells of the bayou was being carried away by the stiff north breeze coming from the Gulf of Mexico.
The compound was deep into the swamp and only accessible by water because there were no roads. There were ten unkempt wood shacks spread over the compound. The Dupree clan consisted of twenty men and eight women. One of the women was Lemont’s wife, Evette, who was the mother of his four sons. Evette was thin to the point of appearing haggard and had the dark darting, watchful eyes of a hunted animal. Lemont had met Evette when she was thirteen, twenty years his junior. Her father Ramone owed Lemont ten dollars that he had borrowed to buy seeds for his crops. When Ramone was unable to repay the debt, he gave Evette to Lamont as payment. Evette was a plain girl who had grown into a plain woman, not ugly but plain. As the years passed, Lemont came to love Evette and strangely enough, Evette loved Lemont. Lemont watched over her like a doting father and lover, he even intimidated one Creoles school teachers into teaching Evette her letters. She would keep track of the money the clan extorted from their neighbors and read the Bible to her husband, sons and other clan members. The rest of the men in the clan shared the other younger women even though they were all blood relatives. Rumors among the people who lived in the bayou were that the Dupree were so mean and hateful because of in-breeding. Most of the time, the clan members mainly slept and ate outside. If the weather were bad they would retreat into their corrugated tin roof shacks, which had no electricity or running water. The clan members relieved themselves in two six-foot deep holes dug in the ground, thirty-feet from the compound, but on hot days and depending on the way the wind was blowing, the stench could be overpowering.
In the Louisiana bayou, sunrise comes early and there is a low-lying fog that stretches across the swampland like a thin blanket. Visibility is limited and it brings a cool sensation when it touches the skin. The sun was straining through the overhead canopy of lush tropical growth. In the fog, the Binnwa’s waited for the signal from Claude. Claude, Cinque and the other clan members had situated themselves behind the large bug-eaten Cypress trees that shaded the area. They were all dressed in camouflage and their green and brown coveralls blended in with the surrounding and left no discernable outline. Mosquitoes and gnats buzzed around their face, but they all remained still. Cinque had learned from hunting alligators with Uncle Claude that the success of any ambush was stillness.
The sky was a bright orange as the sun continued its westward journey, but had not yet burned through the fog. Cinque knew that that the sun would soon make its presence felt, the time was getting close as he watched and waited. The night before there was a heavy rain and a thunderstorm and the ground had turned muddy. When the sun first broke through, the entire sky was grey with dark clouds slowing moving across it. Cinque reveled in the feeling of the adrenaline gushing through his body and the rage building in his throat. His manhood started to rise. He had waited a long time for his revenge as he squeezed one hand into a fist, the other he put on his skinning knife.
Uncle Claude knew that the day before was Lemont Dupree birthday and by now they would all be sleeping off the homemade moonshine and celebration. He heard the loud snoring, grunting and farting of the group as they slept on the wet ground.
Cinque had already strung his bow and picked out his targets, the four Lamont’s sons who had raped and killed his family. Leon, was in a fetal position, Jon, had his butt in the air, Jacque was lying naked on top of a woman with his limp penis laying at an odd angle next to her exposed vagina, and the last one, Ralph was starting to stir in his sleep. Lemont was snoring heavily as he lay naked next to his wife. Cinque watched in amusement as a fly landed on Lemont exposed penis and he twisted and started unconsciously swatting at the fly.
Cinque waited and listened to the crickets and the sleepy whisper of the wind as it stole it way thought the forest and the mild clapping of the leaves overhead. His palms were wet with sweat, and a drop trickled down his forehead and burned one eye, but he did not move. The muddy water slid quietly but quickly over the rocks and here and there, water rippled and splashed around a boulder. A limb snapped somewhere across the river and there was a trashing in the brushes. Cinque waited and listened as he quietly pushed aside tree limbs and slowly looked around the big tree. Cinque kept his eyes on his targets, scanning slowly from one to the other. He was anxious but now the hunter in him was in charge and he had to wait. Finally, after about an hour when Cinque’s boredom and anxiety threshold was at its limit, Cinque heard Uncle Claude give out a quiet owl hoot.
It was getting warm and sweat streaked Cinque's coveralls. He stepping from behind the tree and let go his first arrow, which found Jon, and lodged in his rear, his howls of pain awaken the others, who jumped to their feet, but not before another of Cinque arrows lodged in Jon’s neck, he tried scream but there was no sound. His next target was Leon, the arrow lodged in his right eye and blood shot out covering his face, another arrow struck him in his left eye, he felled to the ground, his silent mouth moving. Cinque next arrow struck Ralph in his crouch and he let out a blood-curling scream as he fell to the ground holding his crouch.
The next arrow lodged in his chest, Cinque wanted to save Jacque, he remembered him as the one who had raped and skinned his mother and sisters. The other Binnwa’s led by Claude rushed into the compound screaming and yelling and before any of the Dupree’s could react the Binnwa’s were on them. Cinque watched with glee as Claude and the others slashed and stabbed the men with their skinning knives and struck them with rocks, clubs and axes. He saw Uncle Claude hit Lemont in the head with his ax knocking him to the ground.
As Uncle Claude straddled Lemont and pulled out his skinning knife, Evette screaming ran towards him. One of Cinque’s arrows that lodged in her back stopped her. Uncle Claude began skinning Lamont while the other men were raping the women. Jacque was trying to reach for his coveralls when Cinque hit him in the head with a large rock knocking him unconscious. When Jacque came to, fear was in his eyes. He tried to get up, but he saw that he was staked-out, spread eagle on the wet ground. Jacque watched as the men ravage his woman. He looked at his mother lying on the ground staring at him with lifeless eyes and an arrow in her back. He slightly was able to turn his head as he heard the screams coming from his father. He saw Claude Binnwa skinning him.
Flocks of colorful birds flew out of the swamps a contrast to the gory scene in the compound, Lamont’s screams had scared them. His screams became louder as Claude slowly cut away his skin, than he was quiet, his blank eyes were bloodshot and saw nothing.
Jacque struggle to get free, but the hemp ropes held him tight. When Jacque turned his head from the carnage, he saw Cinque slowly walking towards him with the big knife. As Cinque got closer he put the big knife into its sheath, Jacque let out a momentary sigh of relief, but the terror in his eyes returned when Cinque pulled out the smaller skinning knife he had sheathed on his ankle. Cinque stopped at Jacque’s head and he could smell Jacque’s fear, it was a foul odor, pungent, musky and sour. Cinque straddled Jacque and the images of his family flashed through his mind like a nightmare. With a quick flick of his wrist, he sliced off a large chuck of flesh from Jacque’s nose. His warm sticky blood splattered on Cinque’s arms, hands and face. The red blood oozed out of Jacque’s wound and ran into his mouth causing him to gag.
Jacque struggled and twisted trying to loosen the ropes that held him.
“Please let me up, take whatever you want, please,” Jacque cried out.”
It amazed Cinque how the powerless tried to bargain with the powerful. What good was a deal when only one side has the power? Roughly, Cinque pushed Jacque’s face into the bloody, muddy ground and pressed the left side of his face into the ground as the man screamed and thrashed about, Cinque slowly cut off an ear. The ground below Jacque’s face quickly absorbed the free-flowing blood while Jacque screamed hysterically and thrashed around like a fish out of water. Cinque made a slight incision from Jacque’s throat to his belly button. Jacque’s screams rose in volume, matched only by the animal and bird sounds of the bayou as they fluttered away, startled by Jacques’s shrieks of pain. With a snap, Cinque turned Jacque’s head over and carved off the other ear.
Cinque slowly moved down Jacque’s body and starting at one ankle, carefully slashing open the veins just above where the hemp