No Man's Land

Synopsis

The gator floated soundlessly to the surface, with barely a ripple, and its filmy lids transformed into hard, gleaming black eyes.

Pap's eyes gleamed hard and black as the gator's. With his spear, he pierced the gator's side where the tough armor turned to soft belly. The gator hissed and slapped its head. Its tail lashed. Its jaw snapped, and it bellowed.

Thrasher pulled his knife from its sheath and raised it over his head. But before the knife could fall, another roar sounded from the rushes. Out charged a female gator. The she-gator hissed, and interest flickered in Pap's eyes, a sort of amusement that now they'd have two gators to reckon with.

Thrasher gripped his knife tighter, ready to kill the gator, to hack through its spine, to be a man, but his feet wouldn't move. He stood transfixed, his feet planted as if mired in mud.

Then the she-gator rammed Pap, pushing him into the water.