Sweat dripped down his forehead, Bertus was way too old for this, but adrenaline had him going, he didn't know it was going to be this kind of expedition.

'Why are you running?' The ghost like voice echoed through the forest again, Bertus stopped and leaned against a tree, looking back he saw nothing, just trees, rocks and snow.

'Dont run, you don't have to'

"Shutup!" He yelled and stepped forward but tripped, he found himself rolling down a gorge, and as he hit the bottom wolves came from nowhere and started taring at him, he screamed hysterically fighting them off but then one had his throat.

Bertus flew up, it was a nightmare, he looked around and found himself still in the forest. He was breathless, it really felt like he did run, but was asleep. When pushing himself around onto his hands and knees he looked up, his body shook as he looked right into the eyes of a large black wolf. It opened its jaws and slammed them shut over his head, he screamed again, but awoke from another nightmare.

'It could end, i can make it end' That voice spoke again. Bertus jumped up and ran, he was totally and utterly lost. His GPS was grabbed by a wolf a few days ago, a real wolf, and from there on it was ghost after ghost, nightmare after nightmare. The cold set in now, as his clothes were also torn apart by wolves, Bertus could feel these wolves were out to make him suffer, otherwise he'd be dead already, but why? How!? How would a wolf know about a GPS?

'I told him'

"Who are you!?" He desperately called heaving for breath.

'I am, the one who will release you from this nightmare'

"Youre just a voice!"

'Am i?' Bertus swung around, the voice now had an origin, but that black wolf was the one he saw, close enough to start scaring him, far enough to make him consider running again, so he did. His old body letting him down now, he heard the huffs and grunts gaining with him, he started screaming, already bracing for the impact, but nothing could prepare him fot the actual blow that took his wind out, he went down hard, snow and dirt was in his mouth and eyes, he felt the fangs sink into the back of his neck, the claws taring at his back, Bertus had no breath to scream, only gasp at the pain. But again he awoke from his nightmare screaming with real noise. This time it felt real, darkness has set, and only the moon gave light. The surrounding snow now a purple colour, the only real thing he could see, as the brown trees and dark foliage was black, unseeable by his old eyes.

'How long are you going to attempt to escape me' The voice was female, echoey, chilly like the air.

'Just say, and ill end it'

"Please stop!" He cried standing up and backing to a tree "I cant take it anymore!"

'Are you willing to submit yourself to me?'

"What ever it takes!"

Bertus saw a set of green glowing eyes appear in the dark ahead of him, then another, then another. Soon he found himself surrounded by eyes, standing so that they dont come in line with the luminated snow. Bertus felt his breathing pick up, a fog started rolling in from all directions, untill the wolf eyes disappeared behind it. Somehow it gave him relief, untill the eyes appeared again, this time closer, in the mist, but still they made no noise, he trembled uncontrollably looking around as to see a way out but there was none.

'You can calm down now Bertus' the voice came from the front, he saw between the green eyes a set of violet purple eyes appear, and come up to him, as they approached, the white mist inverted, turning black, the trees turned white, he could see the wolves now but they looked like corpses, half bone, flesh rotten and intestines missing. Some were only an embodied ball of sagging, rotting flesh, the bones not present. Fear gripped Bertus but then a hand took his cheek and brought his face forward to meet the purple eyes again, it was a woman she looked native American, but her eyes seemed lifeless, hollow, violet smoke emitted from her irises, making it hard to see how her eyes really looked. Bertus backed but only his head could move and it hit the tree. He looked down and saw she was infact naked, but black smoke covered her in such a way that one could only barely make out her nudity.

'Sssh' she said, he saw fangs in her mouth, black ears on her head tucked into her black hair.

'I will take the nightmare away now' She leaned in and kissed him. Bertus felt her cold lips, then in through his mouth he felt warmth, almost like drinking soup, it went down into his stomach and finally it made his whole body twitch. Pain took him over, he screamed and fell to the ground it felt like his body was being torn from the inside out, then as the hunger and bloodlust set in, his vision blacked out.

'You will never be human again, you will never die aswell, but you will always seek blood, and always want more'

***

When a lion attacks a human, there usually isn't any competition, its quick, especially when the guy didn't expect te attack. A lion has full advantage over a human in all ways, it has claws, fangs, strength and a weight on its side. When a two hundred kilogram male lion tackles a man from behind, it will most certainly be a spinal injury, even a broken neck.

Detective Phillip Cronje lit up a cigarette and blew the smoke slowly into the air, then looked down at the dark patch in the dust, a waist thick line of blood was seen leading from this main spot and disappears into the bush. Phillip flipped a ranger boot upright, inside the foot of Doctor Clarkson still remained, eaten off by the lion.

He shook his head, Clarkson was a veteran wildlife vet, and his death could have been avoided. To Phillip's right stood Dan, an American boy who studied wildlife and decided to become a game ranger here in the Kruger national park. Phillip chuckled, when overseas people hear the word 'Africa' the first thing they see is golden grass, the big five, and fantastic Serengeti sunsets, but the tall dry grass only hides the carcasses of the dead all too well.

"So Danny boy, what you think happened here boet?" He asked seeing the twenty year old summing the situation up in his head.

"Well sir, what i think happened is, mister Clarkson climbed out of his Land cruiser, saw the lion and made a B for the chalet, but the lion was too fast and caught him here by the steps"

Phillip dragged his cigarette and looked at the Land cruiser.

"Tell me whats wrong with this scene, or, tel me what you think Clarkson did wrong?"

"Uh, well he didn't look out the pickup, making sure its safe?"

Phillip shrugged "He could have done that and missed the lion, remember a lion hides itself from its prey"

The young man touched his chin again thinking, scanning the area, then shrugged aswell.

"No sir, maybe i need a lesson in this"

Phillip slapped his shoulder "Good boy, look at the Land cruiser, what do you see in its dash?"

"Mr Clarkson's revolver?"

"Bingo, firstly the firearm law states that fokkin thing must be on you, or in a safe at all times, if he had the thing with him, maybe he could have saved himself. Now, another mistake, look closely boet, I've shown you the type of things to look at, now seen if you can figure out the next Fokop he made?"

Dan squinted, he really wanted to get atleast one question partially right, he was standing with a very well known Detective after all. He glanced at the chalet, then at the pickup.

"He... Parked too far from the chalet?" He tried his luck.

"Bingo! Now you're getting it boet! And for what? A dom fokkin patch of shade! He wanted his land cruiser cool, before he thought about how quick a lion can cover fifty meters"

Dan had a proud smile on his face.

"Now, you said he ran to the chalet after seeing the lion right?" Phillip said not taking the half smoked cigarette out of his mouth.

"Yes?"

"Look at the spoor boet, tell me what Clarkson's actions were by looking at the nature of his tracks in the sand"

Dan nodded and bent down, he saw Clarkson's boot tracks, and he saw the lion spoor coming in from a diffrent angle, he looked hard, but didn't figure it out, he shook his head.

"Seriously boet? You did go for tracker school didn't you?"

"Yes i did sir"

"Then this should be easy! Look at Clarkson's tracks, was he running or walking?"

Dan looked closer now, a running print usually had the tip of the boot dugged in, but there were only clear, full foot down prints "He... Was walking?"

"There we go" Phillip dropped his cigarette but and killed.

"But why?"

"The chances are, good ol Clarkson never knew the lion was there, never even heard it coming"

Dan swallowed hard, thinking of how easily a lion can really take you down if you're not alert.

"Go, about..." Phillip pointed into the bush where the line of blood trailed to "A hundred and fifty meters or so, in that direction, there you will find the body of mister Clarkson, or what's left of it, and be sure to put the lion down aswell boet, dont want a man eater running around"

"Man eater!?" Dan unshouldered his rifle uneasily.

"Yep, problem with lions are, once it kills a human, it will do it again"

"Why!?"

"Because it realised its easy, think about it boet, no hooves, no horns, no tusks, were practically defenceless without a firearm, so a lion would think to itself 'holy shit!? These pink things are eadable!? And easy to kill!? Im not gonna bother risking injury with other things, im just gonna kill these things instead' Phillip smiled at the boy who looked at him bewildered.

"Get a Koi-san tracker and a few men, find the lion boet, ill see you around" Phillip turned to his Land cruiser.

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"Wait, where are you going sir?"

"Home, i came here to see if there was no foulplay, but it only turned out to be dumb stupid negligence from Clarkson's side"

"But what if the lion comes back!?"

"Watch the vultures boet!" He called out of his window "if they're still circling, that means the lion is at the carcass, if they start to descend, it means the lion has left the carcass"

Phillip drove of laughing, poor soul, got alittle first hand experience from a lion killing a man, it will be a good lesson for him. Phillip was only there to check if the lion wasn't used as a 'murder weapon' its easy to say 'the lion killed him' but what were the circumstances that lead up to the kill? Was he like Clarkson just negligent, or was it like that one time a man planned the whole thing? As tthe couple made their way to the Kruger park he showed his girlfriend that one documentary about the man who brought the lions up since cub age, and now plays with the full grown lions like pets. He made her beleive all the lions in the Kruger were brought up that way. So as they found a pride of lions, he told her to get out and go take a close up picture, whilst he takes a picture of her with the lions... As the lions charged, naturally, she ran back to the car and found her door locked. Phillip shook his head chuckling, idiot, if a car has central locking, don't fokkin lock only her door, lock all of them, thats how they figured out he did it on purpouse and the case turned into manslaughter, and second degree murder.

He hastily drove back to his chalet, thinking of the time he nearly got killed by his own negligence, one afternoon after having a few beers his house was a bit too far for his bladder to hold, so he checked around him, then quickly jumped out to take a leak, yes, he saw the hyena standing one side but thought nothing of it, it was only one and one hyena is a coward, but Phillip forgot to check if he didn't bring his buddies with and soon he found himself, naked dick and all fighting off seven of the fokkers. Luckily he managed to get into a tree in time, but the bliksems still stole his bag of biltong out of the bakkie, fokkers! Just like fokkin baboons.

Phillip stopped at his gate and pressed the remote button. Unlike Clarkson he had his chalet fenced up when he bought it, knowing you can never be too sure about how sneaky a predator can be. He drove in and waited for the gate to close, making sure nothing follows him in, then only did he climb out. That ice cold beer in the fridge called him, it was fourty nine degrees celcius out today and a beer would go down brilliantly. As he got to the fridge he rang up his station commander.

"Yes captain Voorhees, its Croné"

"Ah, yes the dead vet, whats the feedback?"

"Neglect he wasn't paying attention, ill be sending the report in an email now in the next fifteen minuites

"Good, fok, theres been two other such insedents and im still waiting for those feedbacks aswell" Voorhees said.

"Enjoy, im having a beer now" Phillip teased.

"Bliksem! Thanks alot hey! Oh and another thing, The Palaborwa gate reported a strange military vehicle crashing throug the booms the one evening late, and then back out the next morning, no one could identify it so im sending the photos and CCTV footage to your computer aswell, maybe you can recognise it"

"When was this?"

"About five years ago, i know its a little late but no one could explain it so they're trying all their options at this moment"

"Ok, ill chek it out" Phillip said and the both dropped the phone. He took a long drink of the beer as he walked to the laptop and opened it, booting up.

As he got ready to type his phone rang again.

"Croné" He answered pinning the phone to his ear.

"Hey Phil, its Suzette"

Phillip's heart skipped as he heard her voice.

"This is a surprise how are you?" He asked.

"Im fine, i heard wat happened to Clarkson, poor bastard"

"No, poor lion, fuck Clarkson"

Suzette started laughing "oh? Poor lion hey?"

"If Clarkson followed the rules, both he and the lion would still be alive, but thanks to his dead hide we have to put the lion down aswell"

Suzette kept laughing, she already understood Phillip well enough not to take his bouldering protests seriously.

"Oh, Phill, you treehugger" She teased.

"Treehugger?"

"Yes, i mean who chooses a lion's life over a Human's? Only you ne?"

He chuckled at her.

"Anayway, im in your area for a while, there's an elephant with an infected tusk which im keeping an eye on"

"Ah! And youre obviously coming here"

"Duh" She giggled.

"Im already done with my first beer" He knew how she loved the beverage.

"No fair Phillip! Wait for me!"

"Well problem is i only have a sixpack in my fridge"

"Thats ok, im bringing two cases" she said.

"Fuck yea"

Suzette laughed "Ill see you soon"

"Good, love you" He said and put the phone down. Now excited to see Suzette he quickly typed his report and sent it. as he wanted to stand uo he saw the e-mail Voorhees sent him. Curiosity made him open it, he sae the large beast of a mashine that looked like a Ratel, but was bigger, and with two turrets. Phillip had no idea what it was, but he knew of someone who would know.