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Larra’s
Mayan Adventure
Larra and Katie found that there were so few
Germans remaining in the camp that they were able to move easily from tent
to tent without fear of discovery.
Larra was even able to enter her own deserted tent and dress herself
properly in her own clothes. Katie
was able to do the same. Somehow
the simple act of being properly dressed seemed to revitalize both of the
battered women. It also helped
that they were both motivated by a sense of determination to be avenged on
their attackers.
The next stop for the women was to properly
equip themselves to go up against the
Germans. Again, they found that
task relatively easy. The tent
containing the German expedition’s military supplies was not
guarded. It was a simple matter
of helping themselves to what was there.
Larra even found her own Browning .45 and her belt and holster neatly
stored with the other gear. There
were also boxes of hand grenades, rifles, and submachine
guns. “Good Lord,”
exclaimed Larra, “what is all this stuff
for? It looks like they came
to start a war.”
“Your guess is as good as mine,”
answered Katie. “Let’s
load up and then get out of here.”
“Yes,” agreed Larra, “it’s
just a matter of choosing what we can comfortably
carry.”
Within a few minutes, they were on their
way. Larra had strapped on her
Browning, and had taken a submachine gun and a few grenades as
well. Katie chose similar equipment,
but chose a Mauser rifle instead.
In a neighboring tent they found some military
rations. They were not particularly
tasty, but they were light and easy to
carry. They stuffed their packs
with as much as they thought they needed and then sneaked out of the
camp.
Less than an hour later both women had crossed
the unattended bridge and were moving down the
canyon. They moved as quickly
as they could, which was not as fast as normal, considering their
injuries. Larra realized that
she and Katie would probably not catch up with the Germans tonight, they
were simply not in good enough condition to overtake
them. But, at least they were
out of the camp. They would spend
the night somewhere in the canyon and then move on in the
morning.
Two hours of tramping down the canyon brought
them past the log bridge the Germans had created and on to the
rockfall. It seemed like a good
place to stop. Both women were
feeling the results of their separate ordeals and were totally
exhausted. Larra sought out the
place where she had been trapped.
It was large enough to hold both of them and relatively secure from
discovery. Unless someone knew
exactly where it was, they would not be likely to be
discovered. It was a bit of a
squeeze, but both women managed to crowd into Larra’s former
prison. Now it offered security
instead of entrapment. They were
forced to sit against one another, but that was all to the
good. It would help to keep them
warm during the remainder of the night.
They wolfed down a few rations, and then cuddling up to one another,
fell asleep.
The next morning, Larra awoke before the sun
rose. It was cool in their shelter,
but Katie’s body heat had helped keep her
warm. Gently, Larra shook Katie
awake. The two adventurers crawled
out of their hiding place, attended to bodily functions, and then moved off,
chewing on some tough crackers and
sausage.
It was not hard to follow the Germans, they
had cut a great swath through the canyon, trampling down everything in their
path as they marched. They had
even made passage across the rockfall easy by blasting a great hole in
it.
The two women made better progress
now. Their injuries still caused
them considerable pain, but they were able to endure them
better. Katie was thankful for
the vigorous exercise regime that Larra had insisted she and Amy participate
in. It had greatly increased
her recuperative powers.
An hour’s steady walking brought them
to an area where the Germans seemed to have marched straight into the canyon
wall. They followed, nevertheless,
and soon discovered the tunnel entrance into the hidden
valley. Both women were proceeding
cautiously now, as it was obvious that the Germans were much
closer. It was pitch black in
the tunnel. Larra put down her
pack. “Time to use my
torch,” she said.
“I think I will use a flashlight
instead,” replied Katie smiling.
Larra smiled
back. “Yes,” she
said. “There is a language
barrier between Americans and the rest of the
world.” She took out her
torch or “flashlight” as Katie called it, replaced her pack, and
crept carefully into the cave. The
passageway seemed deserted, but both women moved
stealthily. When the light at
the end of the tunnel showed up, they turned off their lights and moved slowly
forward. Near the cave exit they
could hear voices speaking in German.
Motioning Katie to stay back, Larra crept
ever so slowly toward the sound.
Just outside the cave were two armed men, lounging in the sunlight
and puffing on cigarettes. They
were both facing away from the cave
opening. Drawing her knife from
her belt, Larra moved out into the light.
The knife Larra held was a murderous
instrument. Modeled on the original
American Bowie knife, its blade was a full ten inches long and was sharpened
to a razor edge.
Katie watched in fascinated
horror. Surely Larra was not
going to use the knife on the two men!
But she soon saw that she was.
With a movement so quick and unexpected that Katie had a hard time
following it, Larra leaped between the two men, who were standing about three
feet apart. The knife flashed
left and right, and then Larra leaped
back. Almost simultaneously both
Germans clutched at their throats, blood spurting through their fingers from
their severed carotid arteries and then with a gurgle of frothy blood trickling
from their mouths each man collapsed, kicking
convulsively. Without a word,
Larra stepped forward, and wiped the blood from the knife on the body of
one of the dying Germans. Katie
saw that when she turned toward her Larra’s face was white as
chalk.
Suppressing an urge to be sick
Katie, stepped out of the
cave. She was shaking with horror
at what she had just witnessed. She
had not expected such violence from Larra even though she knew that it was
probably the only way.
Larra was breathing heavily, her full bosom
straining against her shirt. A
thin sheen of sweat covered her face.
Raising her right hand, she swept the droplets of perspiration from
her eyes. She had not been sure
that she would be able to take out the two
guards. She had killed before,
but never in quite that way. It
left her a little shaken. However,
she was faced with a ruthless and brutal enemy and was forced to fight at
their level.
She swallowed and turned to the trembling
Katie. Seeing her consternation,
Larra put her hand on her companion’s
shoulder. “Are you
alright?” she asked. Katie
nodded, dumbly, unable to reply. In
a choked voice Larra continued, “Some things just have to be done,
Katie. Would you like to wait
here while I go ahead?”
Katie took a deep
breath. “No,” she murmured,
“I’m alright. Let’s
go on.”
Larra gave Katie a grateful look and then
moved off. She had not wanted
to use such savagery against the Germans, but shooting them would have been
out of the question due to the noise.
She had done what she had to.
Larra and Katie began to head down the trail,
and then stopped, completely dumbfounded.
They had been concentrating on the German guards so strongly that
it was the first time either of them had looked over the valley containing
the lost Mayan city. “My
God,” Larra whispered.
“It’s a complete Mayan
city. Who would have thought
that such a place could hide for 400 years?”
For a few minutes both women simply stared
at the spectacular sight. Then
reality intruded on them. From
somewhere in the city came the sound of
gunfire. They had to get
going. More quickly now they
resumed moving down the trail. A
few minutes later they came upon a second group of
Germans. This time there were
five of them, and they were operating a mortar, firing round after round
into the city.
“Bastards,” said Katie.
“They find a marvel of the world and then go about destroying
it.”
“Yes,” said Larra, “but at
least we don’t have to worry about being
quiet. Just time your shooting
for the explosion of the next mortar
round.”
Larra moved in on the Germans, making use
of cover until she and Katie were within about 50 feet of
them. Katie readied her rifle,
and Larra flipped the safety off her submachine
gun.
“Whoomp!” Another
mortar round exploded in the city.
Larra and Katie opened up
simultaneously. The five Germans
operating the mortar were caught in a hail of
lead. At this range neither Katie
nor Larra could miss. A couple
of the men standing by the mortar had a second or so to begin turning around,
and then they died. Larra stepped
among the dead and dying men. A
quick look told her that it was not necessary to finish them
off. This time she felt completely
calm. She was getting used to
this sort of thing. She motioned
to Katie and continued toward the city.
Katie followed, strangely exhilarated by the
action but still shocked. This
was a side of Larra she had never seen.
The woman was a ruthless killing
machine. It was hard to believe
that she was the same person that Katie had flown thousands of miles to join
after reading of her exploits in
The two women used the various buildings as
cover. They were still heavily
outnumbered, and there seemed to be more Germans in the city than Katie
remembered. It became apparent
that Katie had only observed a portion of the total numbers of the German
expedition. Rounding a corner
Larra and Katie came upon a scene that disgusted and horrified both of
them. In a treed, park-like area
of the city they stumbled upon six
Germans. They were engaged in
the rape of three Mayan women. Two
of the women had been stripped naked and were being held down by one man
while a second thrust into her helpless
body. Since none of the captives
was taller than about five feet, they could offer no resistance to their
brutal treatment. The third victim
was a young girl, probably no older than eleven or
twelve. Her immature breasts
attested to her youth. She must
have been captured last, because her rape had not yet begun, but she was
already stripped and being held down by one of the Germans, while the other
removed his pants.
The Germans were so intent on what they were
doing that they did not notice Larra and Katie peering at them from the edge
of the park. Larra had not intended
to tackle each group of Germans that she encountered, there simply seemed
to be too many of them. But this
was different. After the ordeal
that Katie and Larra had been put through there was no way that they could
ignore what was going on. The
problem was that there were other Germans close
by. Using the tactics they had
used to take out the mortar team would attract too much
attention.
Larra motioned Katie to cover
her. Katie readied her rifle
ready to take out any threat that Larra could not
handle. Larra moved into the
open, directly behind the two Germans who were assaulting the young
girl. From a pouch in her belt
Larra had removed several small objects.
Katie recognized them as throwing stars, although she had never seen
them used before. Larra’s
right hand pulled back and then whipped
forward. She was standing only
about twenty feet behind the two Germans.
The German struggling out of his pants suddenly straightened, his
hands clutching at the back of his head.
Katie saw with fascination and horror that the throwing star was fully
imbedded in the back of the man’s
skull. Soundlessly, the stricken
German turned in a complete circle and then collapsed in a
heap. The man holding the young
girl leaped to his feet, his mouth opening to shout a warning, but Larra’s
arm had already moved again, and a second throwing star caught him in the
forehead. His shout became a
scream as his hands tore at the object buried in his brain, and then he too
collapsed.
By now all
of the other rapists were alerted,
but it was difficult for the men actually engaged in the rape to disentangled
themselves from their victims. The
two men holding them, however, jumped to their feet, shouting warnings to
one another, and grabbed for their
weapons. They were too
slow. Several more throwing stars
were already on their way, moving faster than the eye could
follow. None of the Germans thought
to duck, or perhaps they did not even see the objects that were coming at
them. In any case, they shared
the same fate as the first two men.
By now the last two men had gotten up from the women they had raped,
but with their pants down around their ankles they made absurdly easy
targets. One of them raised his
hands to protect himself, and got his hand punctured for his
efforts. Screaming he grabbed
his injured hand and received a second throwing star between the
eyes. He dropped without a
sound. In less than ten seconds
Larra had taken out six men. Katie
had not had to fire a shot.
Katie was getting used to the
carnage. She suppressed her emotions
and instead looked around for any other possible
enemies. There were
none. The action had occurred
so quickly that there had not been enough noise to attract anyone
else. But sooner or later these
continual contacts with the enemy were bound to lead to their
discovery. Now, however, Larra
changed tactics. She and Katie
were right next to one of the smaller temples, a pyramid-like building about
100 feet high. A steep flight
of steps ran to the ceremonial platform on top of the
building. Because these steps
were on the opposite side of the building from most of the Germans Larra
took a chance and charged up the steps.
In the intense heat and humidity of
The top of the temple featured a
chac
mool altar at the center of the
platform. Behind it was a tall
wedged-shaped structure supported by four
columns. Its inner recesses were
draped with cotton hangings and a variety of ceremonial
objects. It was deserted of
people. Cautiously, Larra and
Katie crawled to the opposite side of the temple platform, and peered over
the edge. From here they could
see all but the top of the tallest
temple. It would help them to
plan what to do next.
Most of the fighting that was going on between
the Germans and the Maya seemed to be on the edge of the city farthest away
from them. It appeared that most of the people of
Waca Chan had fled the city as the Germans
advanced. From the rather sporadic
sounds of the shooting, it seemed that the battle was almost
over. The Maya, unable to cope
with modern weapons, had been cut to pieces by the Germans and had fled the
city. “It was very much
like the conquest of the Aztecs by Cortes and the Spanish army,” Larra
thought. Only the Germans had
considerably more firepower than the Conquistadors
had.
Larra did a quick
count. There seemed to be about
70 or 80 Germans in total. It
was difficult to be sure due to the numerous buildings that interfered with
her line of sight. Larra pulled
out a small pair of binoculars and scanned the troops she could see, looking
for Schroeder. “He was the
key,” she thought. “If
he could be taken out, German resolve might
weaken.”
She picked him up near what appeared to be
a palace. It was a large one-story
building right next to the tallest
temple. Larra guessed that it
was probably a palace for the ruler of the
city. Schroeder and the soldiers
gathered there appeared to be making a final
assault. While Larra and Katie
watched, the Germans charged in.
For about ten minutes there was the sound of intense
firing. Then everything went
quiet. A few soldiers came out
of the building, but most of those who had gone in remained
hidden. Either they had been
killed, or they were still inside the complex
somewhere.
One of the Germans who came out began blowing
a whistle. From the various parts
of the now almost deserted city Schroeder’s men began to come in,
congregating on the palace. Larra
began to formulate a plan. She
and Katie waited for about half an hour and then slipped down the temple
by the same stairs they had come up.
Then moving from building to building they closed in on the blind
side of the palace. With the
solid construction of the building between them and the Germans, it was not
difficult to avoid being seen and they arrived at the base of the building
undetected. Larra was thankful
that the Maya had not mastered the art of the
window. Every building had at
least one blind side.
Sheltering at the base of the building, Larra
removed her trusty rope from her pack. The top of the building was surrounded
by a frieze that featured several raised
figures. It was only a short
toss of the rope to snag one of the figures, and only the work of a few minutes
to clamber to the roof of the palace.
Once on the roof, Larra helped Katie climb up beside
her.
Crawling on their bellies to keep their silhouettes as low as possible, Larra and Katie slid toward the edge of the roof overlooking the inner courtyard. As they neared the edge, they could distinctly hear the sound of a woman shrieking in agony. The two women looked at each other. Despite the distortions created by the screams, they knew that voice. “Amy!” they mouthed to one another.
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