Author's Note:
Hi. I'll finish Nightmare Hunters when I feel more inspired. This story has features from other stories of mine, but still different. I hope you enjoy.
Rate M for violence.
Self-described heiress turned Tomb Raider Jade is exploring a cave on an island in Papua New Guinea when she stumbles upon human sacrifice ritual. Upon rescuing him, she discovers he has no memory of his identity and they must work together to discover who he is.
Sacrifice
"You should see this place Ken," Jade said into her satellite phone. "This place is amazing."
"Let me guess, a bunch of handprints on walls," he said sounding bored.
"It can't all be animal hunting," she said. "There are also some interesting shell carvings and jewelry."
"Just be careful," he said. "I don't want you to get into trouble."
"Yes, dad. I checked in with capital. I have a flag and a permit."
"You can never be too careful," he warned.
"I have been at this for three years, Ken," she said. "I have yet to encounter anything resembling something out of Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider."
"You sound slightly disappointed about the last one."
"That's because I played too many video games as kid," she said and traveled deeper into the cave. "I think I'm about to lose you. I'll call in the morning, your time."
"Okay Jade," Ken said. "Be careful and submit lots of photos."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Jade hung up and heard some noise in the distance. It was probably bats or just wind. She continued to take pictures as she walked carefully through the cave. Then the sound started to resemble a rhythm. Almost like chanting.
She had always been careful about approaching indigenous people. Her understanding of local languages was minimal despite her extensive research. The idea of testing it now didn't seem like a bright idea, yet still, she was curious.
Turning off her lighting equipment, she crept into a larger chamber where she saw torches lit. What she saw in the center of the bowl-shaped room, stopped her cold.
A man with blond hair was naked and tied to a table. His body was painted in ceremonial symbols she couldn't identify. The leader of the group of about a dozen men were chanting as he raised his knife high, preparing to plunge it into the man's chest.
Jade thought quickly and pulled out her flare gun. She shot it out of the cave and then hid in a crevice.
It had the effect she was hoping for. The men ran out of the chamber and followed the sound. No one noticed her as she dived into the chamber.
What she saw made no sense. There hadn't been a human sacrifice ritual in this part of the world in at least centuries. She shook that thought away briefly and looked to the man.
She pulled out a knife quickly worked on the ropes. The man moaned something that sounded like Hiri Motu:
"No hurt me. No hurt me."
"I won't hurt you," she said back and cut the knots on his right wrist.
He didn't look convinced. His green eyes were glazed over, like he was drugged.
Ash she shredded the ropes on his left wrist she noticed his hair was brown at the roots.
"Do you speak English?" she asked as she worked on his ankles.
"Yes," he said.
"My name is Jade," she said. "What is yours?"
"I don't know," he said. "I don't know."
For the first time, she noticed how malnourished he was. His ribs could be counted. Combined with drugs, it was understandable that he wasn't entirely lucid.
There was the rumbling of feet. With surprisingly little difficulty, she pulled him off the table. She half-carried him in the opposite direction of the noise. The voices grew loud with anger. They didn't have much time to get to the surface.
Her companion was trying to move quickly but his bare feet kept tripping over rocks in the dark. She had done her homework on the cave and knew there was a second exit. Within a few minutes they made it to the entrance just as the men burst through. They hid under some bushes until the men passed. Then went in the opposite direction and ran (or Jade ran while partially carrying the man).
Jade let him sit on a rock as she pulled out a motorized raft hidden in the bushes.
She pulled him into the raft and turned on the motor. The water was too shallow to anchor her boat in so it was in the distance.
"Jade!" the man said as loudly as he could.
She turned back briefly to see that the men had spotted them leaving.
"Get down!" she shouted as they both knelt.
A spear hit the side of the raft and punctured it.
The raft was gaining water fast by the time they reached the boat.
"Quite a boat," he muttered.
"More like a miniature Yacht, but I like to call it a boat," she said.
She and the man stumbled onto the boat just as the raft sank.
Jade threw him a life vest and raced to the front of the boat. She put the keys in and pushed it full-throttle.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"Anywhere but here," she said and they raced to the slowly setting sun.