Page 75 of The Voice of Wild Places
“Cornelius!”Watt cried in alarm.
Maggie yelped and turned ‘round in an effort to bite him, but Watt caught her by the snout just in time.
Cornelius brought the knife down, striking behind the snake’s head.Bone and flesh were severed in one clean motion.
The headless body twitched and writhed in Cornelius’ hand, wracked with death defying nerves.Warm blood splattered across his hand, his arm, his clothes.A fleck landed near his eye.Cornelius nearly threw the corpse but had enough sense of mind to simply drop it.The fangs, and head still attached to them, were embedded into Maggie’s back leg, the upper thigh.The eyes rolled in the snake's head, and Cornelius thought he could still hear it hissing.Or maybe that was the air rushing in and out of his own lungs.He couldn’t tell how much was post-mortem movement and how much was Maggie moving around.She was crying, quivering in pain and drooling all over Watt’s thigh.
Watt stood doubled over and held her head against him, whispering frantically to her.“Maggie, oh Maggie.It’s alright, girl.Shh, it’s alright.”His wide, terrified eyes flicked to Cornelius, as if he could stop Watt’s heart from breaking.Tears streamed down Watt’s flushed face, cutting through the dirt on his cheeks.
Cornelius cleared his throat, which did nothing to shake off his nerves.He said, “I—I’m going to try and pull it out now.”
Watt nodded furiously.“Okay.I’ve got her.”
Cornelius reached for the snake’s head, fingers trembling.
“Be careful,” Watt added.
Cornelius said nothing, because despite all the blood and its lack of a body, he was quite sure the thing was going to turn ‘round and bite him.His fingers brushed against the snake’s scales and he shivered, revulsion coursing through him.But the snake did not move, at least not to bite him.Those eyes still rolled, furious and indignant.
Keeping in mind the way the snake masters had milked snakes, he pulled the upper jaw in an upwards and back motion in an effort to unhinge the fangs.Maggie protested against the pull on her flesh, and Watt soothed her with a string of soft praise.With great care, Cornelius removed the whole affair from her leg.He gingerly tossed the head onto the path back the way they’d come, then stood and located his bag.He must’ve shucked it in the place he’d been standing before.
“What’re you doing?”Watt asked, his voice strident.
“See if you can get her to lay down,” Cornelius said, rifling through his supplies.“We need to treat it.”It only took him a moment to locate the first aid kit he’d made, complete with the antivenin.By the time he returned, Watt was sat down in the dirt with Maggie pulled into the space between his legs, her head tucked against his ribs.She was twitching.
'Fuck,' Cornelius thought.
“Do you think—wait, is that—Cornelius?”
“It’s a bushmaster,” Cornelius said and knelt in the space between Watt’s spread legs, laying out the antivenin kit and necessary cleaning supplies.He wiped off the blade of his knife with the corner of his shirt, then squinted at Watt.“Can you hold her still?I’ll need to shave the fur in order to get a good look at the bite, then douse it in the iodine and administer the antivenin.”
“But that’s for—”
“Do you want me to save her or not?”Cornelius barked.
“Yes,” Watt croaked, arms tightening around Maggie.“Yes.”
Cornelius took a deep breath.“Then hold her.”
He worked as quickly as he could without making mistakes.He wasn’t able to shave her as close as he would’ve liked, but it would do for now.The punctures were deep, and the holes jagged.He poured iodine perhaps far too liberally than he should’ve, but alas.Maggie whimpered, and Cornelius did his best to ignore her.To ignore everything in this situation that wasn’t the wound itself.
He prepared the second to last bothropic ampule they had, then the enormous needle.His stomach rolled and he inhaled slowly, doing his best to steady his trembling fingers.Finally, Cornelius locked eyes with Watt.“Are you ready?”
“Yes.Do it.”
Cornelius steadied Maggie’s shaking leg and injected her with the antivenin.He prayed to the universe, to Watt’s God, to anyone who was listening, that it worked.She whimpered beneath his ministrations, but not once did she try to bite him again or pull against Watt’s hold.She gasped for air, and by the time Cornelius withdrew the needle from her flesh, he was too.
He secured the used ampule and needle into a separate case, then sat back on his heels and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.Watt had his face buried in the scruff of Maggie’s neck, his spine bent at a painful angle.Cornelius felt like the moment was too big to break with words, so he set to work once more in silence.
He placed a clean gauze pad over the puncture wounds, then wrapped the bandage around her leg.He did so in an X-shaped motion, covering probably far more than he needed to of her thigh.Even if the antivenin worked, they would still have to contend with infection in a place where it festered so easily.The humidity and the mud, the bugs and travel.The best course of action would be to go back to the site.They’d have a better chance of finding their way back rather than the unknown.Their supplies were low, Maggie was hurt, and the idea that they might find Fawcett in this place had long since withered and died.
And when did that happen, exactly?
“She bit me,” Watt said, muffled by Maggie’s fur.He lifted his head, eyes swollen and mouth twisted downwards.Cornelius had never seen him look so miserable, but he didn't see a bite.
“Where?”Cornelius asked, a bit dazed.
Watt's eyes were a bit glazed too, like he was somewhere else.“The fence.I was bleeding, find home, find a way home.Stuck in a fence, scared.She didn't mean to, she was just scared.She's scared.”He began panting, breathing in short bursts.“It hurt.I screamed.But she didn't eat it.Took me home instead.”
