River of the Damned Read online

  He shook his head worriedly, and there wasn’t a need to spell out what would likely take place if we got caught trying to escape and rescuing one of Shuratu’s prized hostages. As with any child, the little girl would likely start screaming the minute she found herself being carried away by three strangers. It wouldn’t matter how big a head start we had, but it would be most perilous if that happened while we sought to find the back way out of this hellhole.

  “We can’t leave her!” Mayta had crawled over to us, urging Ishi and me to quit debating what needed to be done. Namely, it would be my job to reach up and try to pull Dr. Pierce’s youngster down without disturbing her—or worse, causing her to fall to the cave’s unforgiving stone floor. “The longer you take, the more danger we’ll be in, Nick. Your puny knife won’t last long against the Jivaro’s better weapons.”

  She pointed to the trio that appeared to have stopped talking amongst themselves. Not on our account, as it appeared someone was approaching from the main entrance. My gut predicted we had less than a minute to make a decision.

  “Mayta’s right… sorry, Ishi, you’re outvoted this time.”

  I stood up and quietly scurried back to where the child lay suspended. Shuratu’s overconfidence we would never escape our bonds and become a nuisance meant that only our obvious weapons—the machetes—had been confiscated, along with our cell phones. The small flashlight I carried would now prove to be a necessity to ensure I didn’t startle the child while figuring out how to remove her from a shaman’s sleeping prison.

  “Hold this, Ishi, while I pull her down.” I handed him the flashlight while motioning for Mayta to prepare to receive our first rescue. In the light’s glow the little girl squinted with a slight grimace, as if she were halfway between waking and dreaming and the halogen brightness irritated her closed eyes. I braced myself for an unpredictable response from the kid, thankful I didn’t have to perform the same maneuver in full darkness. “Once we’ve got her, we’ll need to leave immediately. You’ll need to watch our backs, Ishi, while Mayta leads the way…. You got that?”

  He didn’t reply right away, focused on keeping the light steady to ensure I had a clear view above. Dr. Pierce, his wife, and the lovely Sandra surrounded the youngster, and I needed to take extra care in not disturbing them. Bumping into any of them could prove disastrous.

  “What if she gets to be too heavy, and they catch up?” whispered Ishi.

  He glanced anxiously toward our cave’s entrance. It sounded like more voices had joined the other three guys, and all had moved into the treasure room…. Damn it, they’re on the way back here!

  “A sleeping child can be a dead weight,” he warned.

  “Just leave that sort of worry to me, Ishi—I can carry her.”

  I pulled gently on her knees. To my surprise, she floated down into my arms, light as a feather until she breached whatever energy field suspended her weight. Then she became a sixty-pound kid, heavy enough to prevent running more than a mile with her in my arms. She might as well be a hundred pound bag of coal at that point.

  “Time to go!” I announced, once I had her secured against my chest. For the moment, her eyes were barely open and I prayed she would believe this experience was part of a dream and just relax and roll with it. That fantasy lasted all of fifteen seconds, when her eyes shot wide open, revealing her terrified surprise.

  “Shhh, it’s okay, sweetie—we’re rescuing you from the bad men,” I said sweetly, determined to assure and comfort her. “We’re going to come back for your mommy and daddy in just a moment.”

  The child studied me with a sullen frown in the dimness, as we moved beyond the other victims still drifting in the air. In our flashlights’ collective glow, I could tell this kid was destined to be a beauty when she grew up, with the same blonde hair and blue eyes as her older sister. I’m sure she could charm an angry viper if she wanted to… just not right then. Her lips were pursed as if she suppressed tears or a scream.

  Unfortunately for us, it was the latter—despite my brightest smile that tested the elasticity of my cheek muscles. And when she opened her mouth, it wasn’t simply to express a frightened screech and be done with it. No, what escaped her lungs as a shrill shriek would undoubtedly send the devil into hiding, and I thought for sure my eardrums would burst from such close proximity to this angel-turned-banshee in my arms.

  “Damn it, Nick! See? I told you this was a bad idea!” lamented Ishi.

  We immediately picked up our pace to reach the path taken by the warrior from earlier.

  “Can’t you shut her up?” chided Mayta.

  “What?! Maybe you’d like to trade places right about now!” I shot back. “Shuratu is probably on his way by now, with this kid sounding a damned alarm!”

  “Then don’t look back and try to keep up!” she urged, as we exited the cavern and stepped onto the path. “Whoa—be careful, guys! Watch out for the chasm to my left!”

  Ishi directed the flashlight’s glow briefly over the edge, where the murky darkness below the path seemed impenetrable. Though impossible to say for certain, there wasn’t time to toss a rock into the pit and wait for a reply. And, once the little girl saw it, she screamed even louder.

  There remained no doubt in my weary mind that we would be recaptured and then readied to join Shuratu’s belt as his latest ornaments. I glanced beyond Ishi into the thick blackness behind him, waiting for the glow of a torch to immerge in pursuit. Meanwhile, I continued to plead with the little girl to stop screaming—even stooping to the shameful tactic of telling her that the temper tantrum was going to likely get her and everyone else killed. Of course, that approach failed miserably. Nothing worked, and finally in frustration Mayta stopped and turned to hand me the flashlight she carried in exchange for our sobbing child.

  “Men!” she huffed, and spoke to the little girl in a soothing tone that momentarily mesmerized me, as I hadn’t expected this much of a soft side from our no-nonsense guide. But the little girl’s cries fell to a whimper.

  I felt a moment of hope—especially since no one was coming up fast from behind. Daylight appeared less than a hundred meters ahead… we were almost to freedom.

  “Ah, damn it—this just figures!”

  A warrior stood ahead of us, less than twenty meters away, armed with a machete and spear. Perhaps it was the same guy from earlier, but he wasn’t alone. Several other Jivaro warriors stood to either side, and the tallest one approached us.

  “You are a bigger fool than I assumed, Nick Caine,” rumbled a deep voice—one familiar and much angrier than before. “Did you really believe we would leave you an easy opportunity for escape?”

  Holding a lighted torch, Shuratu stepped toward us with a regal gait while the hollow clicks from the row of miniature human heads knocked against one another from the witch doctor’s waist. Ishi shrunk beside me as if hoping for protection. Even Mayta drew closer; the little girl standing by her side suddenly buried her head into Mayta’s stomach.

  “Well, dawn has arrived and you four are still alive… but not for long,” Shuratu advised, grinning in amusement as he studied us. His gaze finally rested upon me, sending a series of prickly chills up and down my spine. “We are ready to begin.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Standing at death’s door wasn’t a new thing for Ishi and me. Admittedly, encounters that define the fragility of life can lend themselves to a broader perspective about human existence, as well as the nobility of accepting one’s fate when the cards have been counted and a hand dealt has come up short. However, none of that ethereal hogwash meant a damned thing that morning.

  Perhaps it was Sharatu’s unnatural eyes, fiercely aglow as if he were some hellish demon. Or, the fact that several of his warriors were loading fresh darts into their long bamboo shafts, intending to either paralyze us while we waited turns in getting decapitated, or delivering a slower death by suffocation from neurotoxins shutting down our bodies.

  Most likely it wasn’t any of the
reasons mentioned above. I prefer to believe it was merely the continual and unsettling noise of previous victims’ heads knocking against one another along the shaman’s waistline, and knowing that Jeb from Dallas, Texas was about to get some new friends.

  It only took a moment for me to decide what ‘noble’ meant that day….

  “Run!” I shouted, shoving Mayta and the little girl back toward the cave we came from and urging Ishi to not look behind him while keeping up with the rest of us.

  “What about the other guys we heard in the treasure room?” worried Mayta, glancing back at me.

  “They’ll probably be waiting for us where the others are floating,” added Ishi, just as worriedly.

  “Would you rather take your chances with the assholes behind us, with their darts and machetes?” Neither one replied. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’, so lift those knees and pump your arms like you mean business! If we go down, better to do it kicking and screaming!”

  I picked up my speed, prompting Mayta and Ishi to do the same. The little girl proved to be quite a runner, and as much as she detested me earlier she took my advice seriously now, running in socks with her knees high and pumping her arms like an Olympian.

  As for Shuratu, he stayed hot on our tails, shouting for us to stop with profanity-laden threats. I couldn’t help but laugh at what his out-of sync tirade might look like in his native tongue turned English. But I had no doubt he would try to fillet us—surely me first—if he got close enough.

  Frankly, I was surprised the dart guys hadn’t shot us yet. Perhaps it had something to do with the deep chasm to our right. Shoot us with poison and we might fall to our deaths… something that might’ve appealed to some of the warriors. But Shuratu wanted his trophies.

  “Everyone stay focused and head for Dr. Pierce and the others!” I urged my companions, as we reached the cave where the Pierce party had hovered in the air when we last left them. “It’s gonna sound insane, but we need to try and wake them all up!”

  Something in my gut suggested this crazy idea could prove to be a game changer. At worst, it would throw off Shuratu’s focus if he had to consider twenty prisoners instead of just four. And at best? …Well, I wasn’t sure about that part yet.

  “How can we do that? We’re not as tall as you!” worried Ishi.

  “Take a running leap, my friend,” I said. “Run and pull them down—”

  “And, if they get slaughtered in their comatose state, what then?” Mayta’s fearful expression, when she looked back at me, confirmed what the heat meant near the back of my head. Shuratu had closed within a few feet and was no longer shouting at us to stop. One Machete swing or a torch tap to my fedora would jeopardize my noggin’s usefulness... to me, anyway.

  “They’re going to die regardless if it’s now or later, if we fail to save them,” I said. “Hell, all of us might die this day… just don’t make it easy for ‘em!”

  “It will be easy, and I will win!” Shuratu boasted from behind.

  I instinctively ducked, feeling a breeze from a blade’s whirr as it sliced through the air where my head had been seconds before. I sprinted toward our targets, praying my companions had the good sense to get out of the way while I set out for Dr. Pierce with Shuratu determined to stop me first. For the moment, the Pierce clan and friends remained unharmed as they drifted in the air. But the warriors we had seen earlier had gathered with their buddies, hovering protectively near each captive, as if these individuals belonged to them, like children or personal slaves.

  Ishi and Mayta ducked out of the path of Shuratu as he slung his machete wildly, but the little girl ran to her mother, seemingly ignoring the witch doctor’s antics as well as the menacing warrior set to defend her mother as his prize.

  I don’t know what came over me, but instead of going for Dr. Pierce I ran after his young daughter instead, pushing her out of the way in order to do battle with her mom’s guardian in her place. Dodging another blow from Shuratu, I reached up and pulled Mrs. Pierce’s foot. My attempt to bring her down was interrupted by the warrior coming at me with his gleaming machete. I was surprised to see the professor’s wife drifting to the floor without my help, like a helium balloon that had lost its buoyancy. As soon as her foot touched the cave floor, she let out a gasp.

  She’s awake? That could be good, or….

  The warrior’s enraged expression grew dark with fury and he lunged at me, just barely missing my face with the blade that came close enough to my nose to smell the blood-soiled metal. Not waiting for him to take a second shot at me while expecting Shuratu to join in at any moment, I dove into the warrior’s torso before he could react. We both fell to the ground… at least that’s what I first believed had happened.

  “What in the….?!”

  The sucker had disappeared beneath me, and my knuckles cracked against the unforgiving rock floor. I whirled around, thinking he might’ve eluded my grasp and now prepared to finish me off from behind, but he was gone. Vanished into thin air. Meanwhile, Mrs. Pierce sat on the floor, clinging to her daughter and sharing the little girl’s wide-eyed expression as she looked up at the other fifteen members of her husband’s exploration team.

  “Kill them all!” shrieked Shuratu in raging anger, as if I had just murdered his only begotten son. He turned his focus back to me, the torch and machete held before him as if he intended to use both on me. At the same time, the other Jivaro bastards positioned their weapons near the bellies of the sleeping fifteen. Yet, despite Shuratu’s command, they didn’t make a move to harm anyone. Seemingly reluctant to lay a finger on a single victim, Shuratu’s escalated threats had no effect. It was as if the warriors could no longer hear him, or had unanimously chosen to ignore his commands.

  The hodge-podge craziness of what I had witnessed began to take root in my mind, connecting dots that would’ve made me sound like a blubbering imbecile had I tried to explain the images in my head to Ishi and Mayta. Shuratu chased me around the cavern, where we repeatedly splashed up water from the small stream. I dodged the drawn weapons of each of the warriors guarding their precious prisoners—surprised that they weren’t just protecting them from me, but from their leader as well.

  “Stop him!” Shuratu shouted, when I reached up and pulled down the feet of two of the burlier members of the Pierce exploration team. This time, Sharatu’s weapon grazed my left arm, drawing a thin line of blood. But I eluded his pursuit long enough to pull down Dr. Pierce, his son, and his oldest daughter.

  “Look!” shouted Ishi, pointing to the bigger guys that had landed on their feet, shaking their heads as if clearing the fog that had hijacked their conscious minds for the past week and likely even longer. Their awakening coincided with the disintegration of their Jivaro guardians. I looked over at Mrs. Pierce and she was huddled, still wide-eyed, with the younger daughter near Dr. Pierce, whose spear-wielding sentinel had already vanished. The same bizarre phenomenon was happening to the pair of warriors guarding the Pierce’s other two kids.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered, smiling in amazement at what had seemed like a fanciful wish inside my head. My half-baked plan was working! Despite the strange absurdities going on around us, here was the antidote provided by true reality… Shuratu’s army wasn’t real, destined soon to be no more.

  While glorying in this thought I was suddenly pummeled to the ground, as Shuratu bowled me over and was on top of me before I could fend him off. He could’ve filleted me from behind, and watched me die that way—perhaps chiding me for the moment of fascination that distracted me long enough for him to gain the upper hand. However, instead of a quick and merciful end to my existence, he seemed to desire the pleasure of watching my life ebb away as his powerful fingers constricted around my throat.

  “How’s this for ‘reality’, Nick Caine?” he taunted. “You think this is all sorcery and not real? The magic of the ancients will still win… and you and your friends shall die just the same!”

  He laughed wickedly, and a fiery mist bega
n to emanate from his back, quickly spreading in all directions. Something inside the radiant haze slashed about violently as the haze spread throughout the cave. Meanwhile, Mayta dodged past the remaining Jivaro warriors to leap up and pull down the last few members of the Pierce team.

  Good for them, I thought to myself. I began to black out and quit struggling to breathe. Shuratu was too strong for me to fight off, despite my size advantage, and what I had assumed would be a strength advantage as well. I couldn’t resist him physically, but I hoped to soon elude the terrifying voices and faces fighting to escape the confines of the haze. I worried this might be the enslavement of a soul that the shaman spoke of earlier, in regard to the unfortunate Texan named Jeb. I had assumed it was just superstitious mumbo-jumbo, but recent experiences elsewhere in the world had shown me that almost anything imaginable was possible. Unfortunately.

  Shuratu’s laughter filled my head, along with his gloating that he wouldn’t need to cut off and shrink my physical head to accomplish what he had done countless times—I would be his servant forevermore… I would be a slave to do his bidding until the end of time… I would be….”

  “Get off him!” shrieked a familiar voice, one that quickened my heart for fear of further retribution.

  Ishi? I need to save him… save him doing something that’s going to get him killed!

  Shuratu’s fingers eased up on my throat, and I sucked in as much air as I could, but it felt like my throat’s passage had been narrowed. I could barely breathe and would need more air, but my arms were too weak to be raised and my vision hadn’t returned.

  There was no way for me to fight him off… no way to ward off the deepening darkness and the ringing in my ears that was getting progressively louder. I quit struggling as a sensation of peace washed over me….