Wrath of the Volcano God Part Six

 

 

WRATH OF THE VOLCANO GOD

A Pulp Adventure

Part Six

The Witch Doctor stepped between the native warrior and the woman prisoner.  He spoke in a commanding tone and swept his hands wide as though pushing the two apart.  The warrior, Nyfu, frowned as he returned angry words with a wave of his fist.

Bethany threw her hands up in a placating gesture.  "All right, all right!  Let's do this!"  Then she plucked her dagger from the ground and adopted a ready stance.

Nyfu's frown vanished in a moment of wide-eyed surprise as he drew his own primitive blade.  Hokumba, the Witch Doctor, gasped and backstepped out of the fray.  The rest of the tribe whooped and hollered at the sudden sport. 

With a primal growl, Bethany lunged forward and the battle began.  The two circled one another, a cloud of slashes and stabs, a dangerous dance as they dodged one another's blows.  They grunted and yelped, and issued sudden shouts meant to disarm the other.  There were clangs and the shrill scraping of stone on steel as they dueled and blocked with their knives.  Whenever Bethany wandered near the circle of surrounding natives, they would block any possible escape with the business-end of their spears, urging her back toward the middle of the impromptu battlefield.

*  *  *

As the tribe was distracted by this spectacle, Lewis swung out of the jungle on a vine.  He dropped effortlessly a few feet from the stake, and was only noticed by the two natives who stood nearby.  Without hesitation he dealt out a one-two punch that dropped one native, and a roundhouse which felled the second.

"Mr. Clark!" Sarah gasped, the relief plain in her voice.

He pulled a knife from his belt and started sawing at her bonds.  "Have you down in a jiffy, Miss Turnbull!" 

"What about Miss Gale?" Sarah asked.  "That warrior will kill her!"                                             

Lewis shot his gaze toward the fight in the ring of natives.  "She seems to be doing alright, so far.  But the distraction won't last long, and she'll need some help."  The vines that had held Sarah firmly to the stake fell to the grassy ground.  "Where's Johnson?"

"Locked in a cage on the side of the Kazooli camp!" she replied.  "I'll show you!"

As the duel raged on amid the cheers and jeers of the native tribe, Lewis and Sarah skirted the encampment until they came upon a bamboo cage not far from the edge of the jungle.   Wayne Johnson stood by the bars, leaning this way and that in an attempt to look past the throng of natives and watch the fight.  He jabbed at the air as he rooted for Bethany, almost as though it would cause her to mimic his actions.  He saw her lunge forward and he hooted in approval, but when he saw the native dance away, he threw his hat to the ground in disgust. 

Grumbling, he bent down to retrieve his hat, when he looked up he found Lewis and Sarah cutting open the door to the cage.  "About time you showed up, where ya been?"

"No time for that now," Lewis said as he pulled the cage door open.  "We've got to get out of here!"

"Not so fast," Wayne said as he stepped out of the cage, "They took my gear and stowed it away in that hut.  I ain't leaving without my guns."

"Hurry!" Sarah pleaded.

The trio rushed into a nearby hut, where they found a half dozen pistols and a pair of gun belts, still sporting spare bullets, as well as Sarah's camera, and a few other bits of gear that were weird and foreign to the Kazooli. 

Wayne was surprised at the find.  "What's all this?" He overcome the shock and retrieved his own gun belt and pistols.

"Perhaps scavenged from the crew of the Josephine's Joy?" Lewis suggested as he grabbed a belt and a couple of guns. 

"What difference does it make?" Sarah snapped.  "It's not enough to fight off the whole tribe, and we still have to find a way to help Miss Gale! 

Wayne found the red sticks he'd taken from the derelict's hull and smiled.  "I think we come up with something suitable."

*  *  *

Bethany swung around, her blade slammed against Nyfu's sharpened stone.  Fueled by anger, the native warrior swung again with all his strength.  Bethany lifted her own knife to block his blow, and his stone blade sent it spinning from her hand.  Wide-eyed, Bethany watched the dagger fly from her hand.  She turned her wide eyes toward her adversary and realized he was just as surprised as she was.

Nyfu recovered from the shock, raised his stone blade for the death blow.

Unseen a moment before, a red stick was tossed into the fire at the center of the encampment.  The campfire exploded, spitting fire onto the nearby huts and sending the natives in a panic.

"Whoa!" Bethany cried as she and all the natives watched in fearful wonder.  Recovering from this new shock, Nyfu turned back to his prey.  She slugged him with a haymaker, knocking him off his feet once more.  By then, natives ran screaming in all directions, and she bolted for the stake.  Her steps faltered for a moment when she saw that Sarah was no longer tied there.  But amid the din of the surrounding panic she heard  her own name.

A quick look around and she found Lewis Clark waving her forward.  With him were Sarah Turnbull and Wayne Johnson.  She ran up to them.

"I guess the rescue was a success!" she exclaimed.

"It ain't over yet!" Wayne replied.  "We gotta get out of here!"

"The temple's this way!" Lewis shouted as he led the way.

Meanwhile, panic reigned in the native camp.  Frightened tribesmen ran in all directions, frightened by the omen given to them by the Volcano God.  Only Hokumba kept his head.  He stood in the center of the camp shouting orders to his followers.  After some minutes, he organized a bucket brigade to douse the fires consuming the huts. 

With that first order of business achieved, he organized the remainder of the tribe into a posse, and led them in the pursuit of interlopers who dared invade their island.

*   *  *

Lewis led his team on their charge through the jungle.  They emerged from the trees into a short field, before them stood a tall spire of rock, a bulbous outcropping of stone bore a series of caves that gave it a skull-like visage and crudely carved steps led up to the leering maw. 

The group paused and gaped at the weird monument as they caught their breath.  Then the rustling of fronds in the jungle behind them told them they were still being pursued. 

"Come on!" Lewis urged them, and waved for them to follow him up the stone stairs. 

The Kazoolis emerged from the jungle and looked up at the skull-face with revered terror in their eyes.  They saw the interlopers top the stone steps and vanish into the skull's dark mouth.

Hokumba screeched to a halt, spread his arms wide to stop the advance of his warriors.  He pointed at the temple entrance, and decreed the blasphemous trespassers were now at the dubious mercy of Tiki-Taki.  Behind him, the mob of warriors gasped at this terrible fate.

But one warrior pushed his way through the throng.  Nyfu stepped before the mob and argued with the Witch Doctor, he waved his stone knife toward the temple, pleading to continue the chase.  But the Witch Doctor was adamant, with a dour face he shook his heavy head, forbidding the young warrior's desires.

Disgusted with this decision, Nyfu spat some choice words back at the Witch Doctor, then turned and continued alone.  Ignoring the Witch Doctor's commands for him to return, he bounded up the steps to the Temple of the Volcano God.

*  *  *

Lewis led his team toward a dull red glow at the end of a long dark hall.  It was a wide room, riddled with pillars, with primitive totems lining the walls.  The floor ended in a precipice that stood only a foot above a pool of lava--the source of the eerie red glow--which covered the far end of the room.  A narrow rock bridge stood out like the plank of a pirate ship, and ended on a small island where a hand-carved pedestal proudly displayed the giant ruby that was the Heart of Tiki-Taki.

Mesmerized by the beauty of the historical find, our explorers gaped in awe.  They watched, dumbstruck, as the jewel twinkled and winked in the glow of the liquid rock.  With thoughtless, mechanical precision, Sarah grabbed the camera that hung from her neck and snapped a picture.

Before she could be proud of her automatic response, she was seized from behind.  With a scream, she suddenly found herself once again in the meaty embrace of Igor Klugman.  One thick arm wrapped around the lithe girl, his other pointed his pistol at Bethany and Wayne, as if daring them to make a move.

Lewis turned at the sound of her scream, and found himself facing the business end of Carlsbad's revolver.  "Well, well, well..." cooed the disgraced professor, "Fancy meeting you here..." 

To Be Continued...