Chapter Six
Hard Times
Blinking I stared upward for a moment. The harness apparatus had departed and I was free to move, but I wasn’t sure that I could.
My finger twitched and mentally I urged further movement. My arm lifted.
Trembling I brought my hand to my face to feel at my nose and find out why it was hard to breathe. My nose and face was caked with dried blood from the nosebleeds of all nosebleeds.
Everything came back to me as I tried to clear my nasal passageway. We’d been attacked. The fleet had been destroyed and then I had landed.
With alarm I gripped at my seat and pulled myself upward. Groaning with the effort required of lifting my body that felt dead to me I felt myself break a sweat.
The panic of laying here paralyzed helped drive enough feeling to my extremities so that I could lift and with my last bit of will I turned myself over. Slumped over my seat I rested for a moment.
Not really wanting to I lifted my head and looked about. The section of the vessel I was upon was afloat upon a sea of deep blue color. Not too far from me lay the shoreline of a landmass, which had the tropical outline of a jungle just past the white sands of the beach.
Looking about at the piece of floating debris I was upon I made the grim discovery that I was the only one left alive. Even being alive I didn’t feel quite that lucky actually.
Death almost seemed a better alternative as at least then I’d be in no threat of continued danger or the feeling of pain. I shook my head as I sought to get positive thought restored. I was alive and I needed to be grateful for that.
Looking about I saw other pieces of debris like mine further adrift out to sea. Towards the land mass smoke rose up from what looked like a crash site on the island.
I heard a distinct cry for mercy and glancing back out to sea at one of the other floating pieces of debris I was in time to see the pulsed discharge of what seemed like a hand-held laser go off. Eyes open with alarm I quickly reasoned that the defenders of this realm were cleaning house and that was enough to drive me into action.
Standing unsteadily I reached for my backpack beneath my seat and then crawling over my seat I secured a grip on the briefcase. The seafloor was rather shallow here as even 100 yards out to sea or so I could see that it was still only about 2 feet deep.
I slipped down over the torn carcass of the machine that had brought me here to land in the warm water with a small splash. Breathing hard and in general overall pain I slogged my way toward the shore.
I had no wish to be lasered to death. To say subsurface relations were hostile was putting it mildly.
Almost as shocking as my survival was the knowledge that despite the strength of our numbers and gadgetry of equipment that I now only had myself to look at as a remnant of this descent through paradigms. I didn’t know what the purpose of it all was, but right now I just wanted to get away from this beach and survive.
Getting close to the beach I started to run for it. The surf crashing about me was deafening.
My foot landed in a hole halfway up the beach and I went tumbling forward into the sand. Suddenly there was crashing beyond that of the surf and looking up I saw trees falling every which way as bolts of laser intensity crisscrossed back and forth across the upper plain of the beach that I was upon.
With a scream of fright I crawled forward out of the crashing down path of a severed behemoth of the forest. The ground shook and I fairly bounced up to my feet from the impact of the large tree with the sand beneath me.
I ran straight into the jungle then for all I was worth. The pack on my back hampered my flight, and I was on the verge of throwing it aside when in my hysteria I became aware of the fact that there were no signs of disturbance taking place around me.
Breathing hard I looked about my lush surroundings and tried to listen for anything out of place. By all accounts it seemed that I was the only thing out of place.
Slowly reason took hold again. I could not afford to be out of place or I would stand out even more than I already did and my chance at survival would be practically nothing.
To survive I needed to become as unnoticeable as possible. Kneeling down to the damp forest floor I ran my hands through a puddle of damp mud. For the first time I realized that I no longer held the briefcase.
Looking back over my shoulder towards the beach I debated over the merits of going back to get the case. Shaking my head I turned back to the puddle and brought my muddy fingers up to my face to wipe across the exposed skin of my neck and arms. Whatever the case had contained it was beyond the reach of sanity right now and what was more was that there was no expedition left to sabotage anyway.
The muted color of my clothes and backpack didn’t stand out overly and now without my white face glowing in the darkness of this jungle environment I felt far more comfortable at not being detected. I moved on then deeper into the jungle as quietly as I could.
An hour later I thought I heard the faint sound of surf again and so I made an abrupt turn and headed in the opposing direction. I wanted nothing to do with the coast and the flashing lasers of its denizens.
*****
Out of breath from a hard climb upwards I bent over at the waist to take the pressure off my lungs. As my breathing stilled I heard sounds over my breaths for air and without hesitation I fell to my face and did my best to disappear.
Reaching my arm out I pulled the large leaves of a plant close by even closer in the hopes that it would better conceal my head and backpack. Seconds went by and then feet tromped so close that I could feel the vibrations of them off the ground beneath my cheek.
Soldiers, but whose?
Daring a glance I confirmed that they were indeed soldiers, but they weren’t American soldiers. The best that I could make out was that they were Indian.
The sudden crunch of a foot landing beside me and my concealing vegetation being pushed away from me confirmed for me that my days of freedom were over. Slowly I got to my feet and turned to face the Israeli soldiers who held their guns leveled off at my midsection.
Their faces reflected a seriousness that was only to intent to shoot me if they saw the need for it. I didn’t move a muscle for fear of one of them being trigger-happy.
A voice rang out behind me in heavily accented English, “An American. One of the few left alive I wager. Shoot her.”
My panic increased to a fever’s pitch as I subconsciously felt the pain of soon to be felt hot lead as it ripped through me.
“No, delay that. She might prove useful. Cuff her and bring her along.” Came another voice that I attributed to an Israeli officer.
“Useful for an evening’s diversion maybe!” Rang out the Indian commander’s voice in broken English as both he and the men at his back laughed.
The Israeli soldiers did not laugh however and perhaps for good reason as several of their number were female. Female soldiers who looked more interested in the moment in pulling the trigger on their allies than they did on me.
One such female soldier pulled my hands behind my back and then I felt the metallic feel of cuffs close over them. Her action brought me into view of the Israeli officer who had in effect saved my life.
Not sure it would do me any good I mouthed out, “Thank you.”
He gave no indication that he’d seen the acknowledgment of me thanking him though and abruptly he turned away. I was pushed forward even as the straps of my pack were sliced and the pack itself thrown off to the side.
I hesitated to move forward as I took in the sight of my carefully prepared pack laying discarded to the wayside as if but so much trash. I was rewarded for my hesitancy by being pushed harshly forward by the muzzle of a gun barrel pressed into my back.
I got the picture of things pretty quick. Keep moving or get bruised.
*****
I leaned my head against the tree trunk before me. It was hard to say what time it was as it seemed that time was forever the same down here as there appeared to be no change in the orangish glow of the clouds hovering overhead.
One look however at the surrounding soldiers confirmed that at least for them it was time to sleep. I was tired, but my clock had me thinking it to be midafternoon on the surface and so sleep evaded me now.
I kept my gaze focused on the waves of the sea I could see crashing in the distance. We were a good distance off and far higher in elevation, but it seemed that if I listened hard enough I could hear the steady crash of water on rock. In fact the repercussion of the waves’ constant action upon the shoreline seemed to echo through the ground that my bottom was sitting on.
I shook my head to distill the imaginations of a tired mind, as logically there was no way that I would ever be able to feel the action of the waves from so great a distance. I shook futilely at my cuffs. There was no escape from them or the tree they had my arms looped around.
Things were only made marginally better by the fact that my arms were at least held in front of my body now instead of having been secured behind my back. It had been hard walking for hours on end like that.
I’m not a vain creature, but something inside of me cringed at the sight of the messed up skin of my wrists, which had bled quite a bit and now looked scabbed and awful to behold. Any mercy I had at first attributed to the Israeli half of this contingent had undoubtedly been misplaced.
It was very clear to me that to them I was something less than human in terms of value. Even the women looked at me with hard eyes and when I had fallen at times earlier in the day they along with the men had been right in there pushing and shoving at me to get me back up on my feet.
Over and over I was simply left with the impression that everyone who I had made this descent into Paradise with was some form of a soulless reprobate of an individual. It made me so mad to be treated like this and in frustrated helplessness I rattled my chains against the trunk of the tree once more.
Willing myself to rest I leaned my head against the tree. As I quieted down in inner thought it was hard not to notice the continual shaking of the ground beneath my bottom.
How could water, no matter how powerful, echo so much vibration through solid rock over such a distance as I was from the waves of the beach?
Glancing up I watched a white capped wave form and mentally I prepared to feel the aftereffect of its contact with the land. The wave spilled over and crashed against the rocks. Expectantly I waited for it, but nothing happened.
I lifted my head away from the tree as I then watched wave after wave come in to shore. Why didn’t I feel the action taking place on the distant beach as I had before?
Maybe I hadn’t been feeling the power of the sea upon the land all along. The ground shook and in sudden disquietness of spirit my mind leaped to the conclusion that whatever was causing the vibrations must be rather large and moving this way.
In a jungle like paradise like this that spelled just about one thing and one thing only. I felt in the need to scream as I continued to feel the echo of footsteps through the ground I sat upon.
Looking around at the sprawled out soldiers I took in the heavy armament that each of them was packing and I was about to call out to them, when I got the distinct impression that I was not supposed to do that.
“Then what do I do God?” I whispered, as I craned my neck around to see if what I felt was in any part visible yet.
“Climb.”
The thought within my consciousness was sure as it rang with the authority of the Master of my heart and rising to my feet I did my best to accomplish the command. Far from being an impediment the cuffs actually helped my ascent up the tree.
There were no low-lying branches and with the aid of the chain I formed a walking grapple anchor with the other side of the tree, as I shimmied up it, being very grateful all along for the heavy treaded hiking boots that I had bought.
Finally at about twenty feet off the ground and spent of all breath and energy I reached the branches of the tree that halted any further ascent. I hung there in an exhausted stupor as I willed myself to not let go of the tree and fall back to the ground.
It was hard, but even the tree trunk pressed against my face was shaking repetitively now. Something very big was coming closer and closer.
Then something touched me and I about let loose of the tree altogether. Somehow I managed to mostly keep from screaming and what sound that did escape was partially muffled by the small brown hand that was quickly pressed against my lips.
I stared into the dark eyes of a beautiful raven haired little Polynesian girl. Willing myself to tamp down the sudden terror her unexpected touch had evoked, I worked on reclaiming a better hold on the tree and getting my breath back under control.
The little girl held a finger up to her lips of the hand that had just been pressed against mine and made the universal sound to be silent. I nodded quickly as all throughout this startled moment the tree had never stopped the repetitive vibration that signaled the approach of a monster.
The little girl beckoned to me to move upward into the concealing leafy fronds of the tree, but I stared hopelessly at her as it occurred to me how I was still in plain view from the ground below. Wordlessly I shook my chained together hands and nodded to the branches between me and her.
Far from being put back the girl began folding the fronds of the tree that seemed in some ways reminiscent of a giant fern upward until she hugged a good many of them flat to the tree’s trunk. Gaining some footing on the leftover stubs of bygone branches I moved upward.
My chained together hands passed over the little girl’s body. She let go of her grip and one by one the fronds bent back down and offered us a faint shielding from those below.
From my perspective it seemed that we had attracted the notice of no one below including the sentries who seemed to have drifted off to sleep with the rest of the contingent of foreign expeditionary forces.
I noticed something then. The tree wasn’t shaking anymore. My gaze met the girls and all the warning I needed was to see the way her eyes had widened in fear to know that things were about to get very bad!
A roar let loose that had even the loudest thunderclap beat in terms of intimidation. I crammed my eyes shut and reflexively grasped ahold of the little girl’s body as if to protect her somehow.
It was really hard to keep from screaming as the jungle shook and ear shattering shrieks of soldiers completely overwhelmed sounded out from below. What was worse though was the sudden clack of teeth clamping together through something soft and squishy sounding.
In horror I shuddered against the tree as a bloody carnage ensued below the likes of which no horror movie could ever equal in terms of gore. The soldiers hadn’t even fired their guns.
I heard them screaming from all corners in a maddened way that said they’d lost it entirely. The screams became distant and all I was left with were the sounds of a beast’s feast on the flesh of those caught napping.
Eventually even those sounds drew to a close and scarcely being able to bring myself to take a breath I heard the lumbering gait of the super predator of this patch of forest move off, perhaps in pursuit of more two legged meals. I couldn’t help but think what fools those above were to even dare to venture forth into this subterranean paradise of hidden dangers.
Opening my eyes it was only to marvel at such an innocent looking child, as crouched with me in this tree, could be born and survive in such a place as this. I needed to get her away from this place of death!
Something of my intentions must’ve shown to the girl as she suddenly shook her head violently in protest of any movement on my part. With bated breath I saw her walk the fingers of both hands out through the air between us as if replicating imaginary figures.
I didn’t understand what she was trying to convey to me at all. Understanding however was suddenly made very clear when almost without warning a swarm of fleet footed creatures swept into the shattered campsite below and commenced to tear it even more part than it already was.
Looking down I watched in grim fascination as nature’s garbage disposal unit swung into full action.
The swarm of dangerous looking creatures didn’t stay for long. They tacked off after where the large beast had lumbered off to and were soon out of sight.
The little girl moved then and started to urge me to continue climbing up the increasingly spindly fern like tree, until with a groaning creak it bent over and toppled both me and the girl into the understory vegetation of the jungle. The landing hadn’t been without pain, but at least I was free of the tree!
Standing up I looked around. Except for torn up vegetation and blood splattered leaves here and there it was hard to tell that 60 some soldiers had just been here but a half-hour before. Give it a few days and this patch of jungle would be the same as it had been before.
The little girl’s hand tugged on one of mine and I followed along trustingly. It began to rain and the crimson speckled leaves of the jungle understory vegetation were soon washed clean.