Adventures
in the Lost World
Episode 1
Atawna and the Lost World
Email:
Lespion@msn.com
Chapter
17 Rescue
Lin Yao looked down on the
camp. Her eyes were wide with
horror. It appeared to be almost
deserted except for the two women who were being
tortured. “Mummy,”
she gasped. “Oh
Mummy.” She had never seen
anything more horrible. Beside
her James cursed. He had his
heavy pistol in his hand, but held his
fire. He was a good hundred yards
away. Any shot might hit one
of the helpless women instead of the thugs who were torturing
them.
“Where are Atawna and
Chara?” Lin Yao asked. The
two jungle girls had helped them into the tree when Chara had reported that
there seemed to be “bad people” in the
camp. They hadn’t realized
what she meant until they had seen the horrific scene in front of
them. Now the two jungle girls
had disappeared and both James and Lin Yao feared that they might get into
serious difficulty. Neither of
the two young women was familiar with firearms and the men below were heavily
armed.
“Dammit,” James
cried. “I’m going
in.” He started to clamber
down the tree. At that point
one of the men below then pointed to the tree they were in and raised his
rifle. Without waiting he opened
fire.
Lisha waited for the rock to
crush her skull. The Russian
she had bitten was almost foaming at the
mouth. She stared into his eyes
and waited for death. Suddenly
the Russian’s chest sprouted
feathers. The Russian’s
face opened stupidly and his hands opened, dropping the
rock. Behind her the thug raping
her backside let out a stream of curses in
Russian. He pulled out of her
and jerked up his pants.
Frantically he scrambled over to his rifle and picked it
up. His eyes darted around the
boulder strewn shore of the river attempting to penetrate the
forest. Where had the arrow come
from?
He had forgotten completely
about Lisha, actually turning his back on her as he searched for the assailant
who had killed his partner. It
was his last mistake.
Even with her hands tied, Lisha
was still dangerous. She swiveled
her body on the rock where she had been raped and drove her powerful legs
into the small of his back. The
blow snapped Vadim’s spine and hurled him face first into a large standing
stone. If his shattered vertebrae
had not killed him, the blow to his head would have come very
close.
Lisha jumped to her feet, breathing
heavily. Her attack on Vadim
had used up almost all of her last reserves of
energy. She stood panting, wondering
who had fired the arrow that had killed
Filipp. The killer was still
out there, and she had no way of knowing whether she was friend or
foe. Killing Filipp might have
been an attempt at rescue or he might have been just the first victim in
an all out attack that might include her.
She crouched down among the
boulders. Her hands were still
bound behind her and her attack on Filipp had left her
exhausted. She felt terribly
exposed and needed a better place to
hide. Someplace where she could
work free of her bonds.
Suddenly a movement in the
branches of the tree caught her eye.
She watched in amazement as a bronze-skinned dark-haired figure dropped
out of the trees just thirty feet from
her. The girl who strode toward
her was a fantastic figure. She
was almost nude except for a strip of cloth that covered her loins and another
that controlled her swaying breasts.
A quiver of arrows was slung over her left shoulder and she wore a
short recurved bow across her chest.
Her ebony hair was neatly contained in a long braid that was wound
around her forehead to keep it under
control. But it was her right
hand that caught Lisha’s full
attention. She was carrying a
gleaming Bowie knife. Lisha saw
at once that it was the one Larra had given to
James. How had the girl obtained
it and what did she intend to do with it?
Lisha backed away, giving herself
room to fight as the wild-looking girl closed with
her. The girl slowed and
spoke.
“Friend. Atawna
friend.” At that moment
a second girl dropped out of the trees.
She was dressed and equipped almost identically to the first, but
her hair was blonde and she appeared several years
younger.
“Where did you get the
knife?” Lisha asked. She
stood in an open space close to the
water. Her hands still tied,
she prepared to defend and attack with her feet.
The girl seemed to
understand. Her face lit up with
a smile. “James
give. James Atawna’s
mate.” She stepped closer
to Lisha. “Atawna
help.”
Lisha took another step
backward. What was the girl talking
about? James was her
mate? It didn’t make any
sense. And where was
James? What were the two white
girls doing in the middle of the forest?
She was a little concerned.
The two girls looked too much like the mortal enemies of the Ullabomba,
the
Ansmara, and
the Ansmara ate their enemies.
The two girls stopped moving
toward her. A look of understanding
swept across both their faces. The
dark-haired girl spoke again.
“Atawna no hurt.”
She pointed to the arrow sticking out of Filipp’s
chest.
“Save you from
bad men.” She hefted the
Lisha flexed her bonds once
again. There was still little
give. She was at the mercy of
the two young women in front of her, but she had to trust
them. Somehow they had a connection
with James and possibly Lin Yao.
Also if they had wanted to kill her they could easily have done so
in the same way that they had killed the
Russian. Taking a deep breath
she turned her back. “Cut
the ropes then.”
To her immense relief she felt
her hands become free as the sharp edge of the
The strange girls looked at
her and readied their bows. From
the looks on their faces they were apparently completely ignorant of the
weapon she carried. The dark-haired
girl confirmed it by offering her the
knife. “Take,” she
said. “Need
weapon.”
“Thanks,” Lisha replied
with a smile. She hefted the
assault rifle. “But I think
this will do.”
The two girls looked at her
strangely, but shrugged and headed toward the
camp. It seemed obvious that
they had no concept of firearms.
Lisha was
impressed. The two young women
moved even more quietly than she did.
They ghosted through the camp using what small amounts of cover were
available and Lisha followed behind them.
Suddenly the sound of automatic weapons fire sounded from in front
of them. Lisha immediately went
to ground, directing her own weapon toward the
sound. The two girls froze, seemingly
unsure of how to react, and then seeing Lisha’s reaction emulated
her.
The dark-haired girl was right
next to Lisha. And expression
of fear crossed her face.
“Thunder weapon,” she said.
Lisha
nodded. The girl seemed to have
heard a gun being fired before. She
wondered if that had something to do with
James.
The shots were
repeated. Realizing that she
was not being fired upon, Lisha get to her
feet. She moved quickly fearing
that her friends were being fired upon.
Reaching the edge of the camp she saw several of the Russians firing
into the treetops. At about the
same time one of the Russians spotted her and shouted a warning to his
comrades. Immediately they turned
their attention from the trees and swung their weapons toward
her.
Lisha opened up, emptying her
magazine. Her first burst caught
two of the Russians even as they turned toward her, but the rest of her shots
were wasted, flying over the heads of the Russians as they hit the
ground.
She was now in a firefight
with the remaining four men and hopelessly
outgunned. She was also badly
exposed, having very little in the way of
cover. Bullets struck the ground
all around her kicking up dirt and
stones. Lisha huddled, trying
to make herself as small as possible.
Where had the strange two girls
gone? No doubt they had fled,
frightened by the thunder weapons.
“Time to get out of
here,” Lisha thought. She
began to edge away from the scene of the
skirmish. She needed to find
a better defensive position. Out
of the corner of her eye she caught movement to her
right. One of the Russians had
already anticipated her retreat and was moving to outflank
her.
Lisha didn’t panic, but
she knew that she was in trouble.
She couldn’t fire at her adversaries without risking having her
head blown off, but they were slowly encircling
her. Soon they would come at
her from all sides and she would be
doomed. Desperately she looked
for a way out, but her eagerness to rush toward the sound of the shots had
her trapped. There was no where
to go. She prepared to go down
fighting.
A scream off to her right caused
her to jerk her head in that direction.
The Russian who had attempted to get behind her was standing in full
view, but he was clutching at his throat attempting to pull out the feathered
shaft that pierced it. Then there
was another scream, this time from her
left. Quite suddenly the Russian
firing stopped.
Lisha waited a minute or
so. Then hearing voices, got
slowly to her feet. In front
of her was the area where she had encountered the
Russians. To her amazement the
two strange girls were there and even more astonishing, James and Lin Yao
were there as well.
Quickly she strode toward them,
ignoring the fact that she was still completely
nude. As she got closer she saw
something that she had not seen before, and her blood began to
boil.
Larra and Melissa were just
being cut down. They had been
brutally tortured and their breasts were horribly swollen and
distorted. Lisha rushed forward
cursing in her native language. It
was difficult to translate exactly, but if her words had been translated
into reality the Russian torturers would have been eaten by ants over a period
of several weeks.
James turned as Lisha
appeared. She was completely
nude and quite oblivious of her
condition. He knew that the tall,
extraordinarily beautiful African was not at all bothered by nudity, but
he still found it a bit disconcerting.
Right now, however, he was more focused on the naked and brutalized
body of his mother.
Lin Yao was in tears as she
knelt beside her mother. James,
however, was of a more practical nature.
Once he had determined that neither his mother nor Melissa was likely
to die, he headed for the tents. He
was back in a few minutes carrying several blankets. He draped these over
both his mother and Melissa and then went to fetch some water while Lisha
and Lin Yao cradled the two battered women in their arms.
Larra tried to smile as her
daughter held her. Her breasts
hurt like blazes, but she bit back the desire to
whimper. She had her daughter
and son back and her enemies were dead or had
fled. Everything seemed to be
returning to normal. There were
just a few nagging details to be dealt
with. Who were the two wild-looking
young white women and what were they doing with James and Lin
Yao? There was also another
concern. “Where is
Ayashe?” she asked.
Ayashe tried to scream, but
she was tightly gagged. The best
she could manage was a low grunt as Featherstone and Antonov pushed her down
the forest path. She was still
half naked and more than conscious of the way Featherstone had eyed her naked
breasts when he had dragged her from the
tent.
She wondered what had
happened. There had been the
sounds of shots and then Featherstone and Antonov had shown up outside the
tent where she was held prisoner.
They had quickly gagged her and then hustled her out of the
tent. She supposed that somehow
her friends had managed to escape.
Larra and Melissa were good at things like
that. It was the only explanation
that made any sense. Why else
would Featherstone and Antonov be so obviously
afraid? The two men kept on staring
over their shoulders as if they might be being
pursued. Ayashe felt hope rise
within her. Perhaps there was
still a chance of rescue. She
swallowed in fear. It was her
only hope. If not there was no
telling what the two Russians might do to her.
Vishinsky cursed as he ran
through the heavy rainforest vegetation.
He had lost his way shortly after fleeing the
camp. What the hell was going
on? He had thought himself in
control and then everything had fallen
apart. Somehow that tall nigger
had gotten free and launched an attack.
And then there were the arrows flying out of the
forest. It was
terrifying. He vividly remembered
the gurgling sound that Chomsky had made as he tried desperately to pull
the arrow from his throat just before he had
died. It was incredibly
unnerving.
He glanced behind him and smiled
a little. Things could be
worse. Stumbling through the
undergrowth behind him were the two young girls,
Sonia Gurov and
Yalena
Belenki.
He wasn’t so unhappy that they had been brought on the expedition
now. If he was going to be lost
in the forest at least he would have some tasty
company. He hoped that they were
willing. If they weren’t
he had ways of changing their minds.
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