Chapter 17
A horrific scream rang through the darkness! Rapu and the Indians leapt to their feet pointing weapons at the black jungle. It was now two days since the caiman attack. Jack and fat Charlie’s men had come upon the large swath cut through the jungle by the Nazis to accommodate the trucks.
“What was that?” Rapu asked Jack excited and terrified.
“It sounded like a man.” Jack answered.
Rapu, his eyes wide with fear and seemingly incandescent against his dark skin, hurriedly threw more wood on the campfire ordering the men to keep the fire large and bright.
Dawn did not break in the jungle, instead the sun filtered down through the canopy seventy feet above causing an effulgent glow that illuminated the green, misty world. The morning brought color back to that world and, composure back to the men. Rapu rallied them and urged Jack to take his place at the front of the procession.
They had been walking for almost two hours when Jack came to a sudden stop and lowered himself to the ground. Rapu signaled the others to get out of site and then moved to Jack’s side. Up ahead, in a small manmade clearance, wisps of smoke rose from a dying campfire. Jack could clearly see German soldiers lying on the ground around its perimeter. Rapu motioned for his men to, quietly, move in.
The men moved forward cautiously, approaching the sleeping Germans while watching the surrounding trees for signs of an ambush. Standing over the nearest soldier, an Indian kicked an exposed foot and shouted at him to get up. The soldier did not move. Pulling back the blanket with the barrel of his rifle, they could see that the man was dead. Five other bodies lay where they had been left to die by Schmidt and the others, all showing signs of advanced infections or yellow fever.
As Jack and Rapu approached, one of the Indians shouted an alarm. Moving to his side at the edge of the clearing they saw the mutilated remains of a seventh man, throat ripped open and internal organs spilled out on the ground. It appeared the cat had attacked him near the fire dragging him to the jungle before disemboweling him. A long blood trail led back to where the other bodies lay.
“Well, that would explain the scream we heard last night.” Jack said. “He was probably the only one still alive and therefore the freshest meat. Funny though, she only ate his liver.”
This proved too much for several of Rapu’s men. Trembling, they raised their voices calling out to the spirit that had killed the man, asking for forgiveness and pity, begging the jaguar god to allow them to return to their wives and children.
“They believe that Titlicauan has come to take them.” Rapu explained to Jack. Jack looked at him inquisitively.
“Titlicauan created the first world of Sun and Wind. His rival, Quetzalcoatl, appeared before Titlicauan as a feeble old man seeking food and shelter. Quetzalcoatl then struck down Titlicauan and formed the Second World of Earth and Water. Titlicauan, was transformed into a jaguar, and now, lives in a world of darkness and shadow. He enslaves men’s soul’s” he pointed to the dead men “waiting for the day that he will lead them in war against Quetzalcoatl and rebuild his world of light and air.”
Jack moved to where the other bodies lay around the remains of the campfire where he found Terry Gunn and Tommy Ferguson. Tommy apparently died of sickness. Terry loosely clutched a small revolver in his right hand, a bullet wound to his right temple.
Ferguson was a sot, always drunk and looking for trouble but Tommy was a good man. Not much more than a kid, he had often worked with Jolly and Jack.
“You were a brave boy Tommy.” Jack said quietly. It was a brave thing the boy had done. With no hope of survival, no hope of getting medical care a dying man became a burden to his expedition, a burden that could get everyone else killed. The right thing to do was to ease that burden by eliminating the problem and it was not fair to ask your friends or comrades to take on such a grisly task. This was the way of the explorer, the way of the Amazon.
The following day Jack and his companions came upon the remains of a second encampment, and four more bodies, one of them was Will Tucker. Jack found him about a hundred feet away from the camp, inch long ants hollowing out his eyes. Tucker had evidently attempted to follow the Germans after being left behind to die.
“Dammit boy’s!” Jack cursed as he brushed the ants from the face of his dead friend. Jack wrapped the body of the man in his blanket placing his hat over his face just as he had done with the others.
Walking away Jack began to wonder about Quaid Grissop. What would he do when Jack finally caught up with the Germans? They were in Xingu country now. Would Quaid protect Sophie and the Professor if the mysterious Indians attacked? The thought of Sophie in the midst of a battle between the Germans and the Xingu made Jack’s mouth dry.
Making camp that night Jack felt uneasy. Something was amiss in the jungle. He had been on the lookout for the leopard that had killed the soldier, wary of the fact that the big cat may have acquired a taste for human flesh. Foregoing his usual hammock he opted to sleep on the ground close to the fire.
The attack came just after midnight. Bright lights burst forth from the jungle flooding the camp and exposing Charlie’s men who instinctively jumped to their feet. Automatic gunfire erupted from behind the lights. The Indians howled in fear as bullets ripped through their ranks. Men ran in every direction looking for an escape route only to be cut down by the roaring guns.
Jack hugged the ground where he had lain sleeping. As he belly crawled into the jungle he caught sight of a half dozen of Rapu’s men doing the same. He was clear of the lights in a matter of seconds. Jumping to his feet he ran, head low, into the relative safety of the dark, beguiling, Amazon jungle.
The gunfire stopped. As Jack took cover behind a Corozo Palm he could hear the Indians that had escaped crashing through the jungle. A branch snapped directly behind him, turning he saw Rapu. A powerful flashlight swung in the direction of Jacks hiding place chasing away the protection of the shadows. Discovered, he had no choice but to run. Bullets whizzed past him striking the trees and bushes sending thousands of fragments into the air in a frenzy of splinters and pulp. Rapu fired back as the two made their escape. Having no weapon Jack could only duck and dodge hoping to not stumble or trip in the darkness.
As the two ran the onslaught from the camp faded behind them. They ran for ten minutes before risking a stop only to realize that no one had pursued them. Out of breath and sweating profusely, Jack found a place to sit.
Rapu raised his rifle pointing it at Jack’s chest, his arms trembling from the effort to hold the weight of the gun. He moved toward Jack with faltering steps.
“You have tricked me… white man!” He said in a weak voice. “You have… tricked me… and killed me!”
Rapu could not complete a sentence without gasping for air. Each time the Indian inhaled Jack could hear a strange wet, gurgling, sucking sound. As the Indian struggled to breath, his eyes would roll back into his head exposing the porcelain white backs of the orbs, his chin drifting toward his chest. Rapu’s head would snap back suddenly as he attempted to fight off unconsciousness and focus on Jack who could see bright red blood soaking the Indians left breast.
“You’re shot, let me help you.” Jack pleaded.
Rapu pitched forward onto his knees, his rifle falling to the ground. Jack moved forward cautiously, picked up the weapon, and knelt down before the dying man.
“Titlicauan”, a broad toothy grin spread across the dying man’s face, his eyes focused on some adrenalin induced hallucination, “he comes for me…” Looking into Jack’s eyes the man whispered with his last breath, “He come’s soon for you!”
Rapu slumped forward against Jack’s chest, the gruesome noises from his pierced lung falling silent. Jack pushed the body away unceremoniously.
Jack felt no remorse for leading this man to his death. Rapu, Tari and the others were men that, for whatever reason, whether it was lust, or greed, or simply the misfortune of being born in the wrong place at the wrong ti
me, had chosen a life of violence, and debauchery. Jack was familiar with the circumstances that might lead a man to choose such a life. Looking down at Rapu he recalled the men who had left him bloodied and broken in the alley outside of Mr. G’s Deli so many years ago. That night Jack, forced to choose either, a similar life or, face death at the hands of those monsters, had chosen better. Jack never considered himself superior, either in character or in station, to any other man, but that night he had realized what kind of man he wanted to be. What those beasts were offering him, life as a thief, a thug, an assassin, was not it.
Leaving Chicago had been the hardest choice he had ever made however it had been the right choice. Jack never considered himself a good man but he knew that he was a decent man. He never took advantage of the weak and he always respected justice. Jack had killed men, but it had always been to protect those who could not protect themselves or to exact punishment upon those who had caused harm to the innocent. Jack could not know why Rapu, Tari and the rest of Fat Charlie’s men had chosen a life of corruption. He did know however, that it was their choice.
Jack took the rifle and a pistol from the dead man then retrieved the hunting knife Rapu had taken from him. Without looking back Jack cautiously moved off into the darkness. He reckoned that those of Rapu’s men that escaped the attack, having their fill of this little adventure, would high-tail it back to Planaltina and he doubted very much that the Germans would venture out into the menacing jungle to look for them, but, he would not take that chance. He needed to find a place to hide, from the Germans and the Indians that had escaped, until daylight.
He walked for over an hour when he stumbled, slid down a short muddy embankment coming to a sudden and violent stop against a large, fallen tree trunk. He decided he had better stop walking before he got himself hurt again or ran into a hungry leopard. Getting to his feet he discovered that the tree he hit was a large, rotted out, hollow trunk. Tired and sore he crawled inside.
“Well, it’s no Hotel Gloria but it will do.” Jack fell asleep almost instantly.
In the night he dreamt of Sophie. A man dressed all in black stood over her holding a long, wicked looking knife. The man was about to strike when a great, brilliant orange bird of prey swooped in, seized the man in its talons, flew high in the air and pitched the man into a deep, black, chasm.
Chasing El Dorado Page 17