(AUTHOR'S NOTE) Hello again, and welcome to the tenth chapter of my story. And now things are really starting to kick off. Strange technology in the village, which can only be used by one person, the Venture stuck in a containment field, how are they going to escape? Who knows - I'm too busy to worry about it right now, as the builders are coming round to do my extension and need to knock through my bedroom. And a Vampyr has ordered me to make lots of notes by next week, and there's a report that needs to be written out as well. So right now, I'll have to plough straight on with the story. Fasten your acceleration straps, and arrange your legs, tentacles or pseudopodia in the upright position – the bumpy ride is just beginning! (END NOTE, SOMEWHAT ODDLY)
CHAPTER TEN
"Mr Hayes? Mr Hayes?"
Hayes groaned as the voice floated into his consciousness, and shapes began to blur into existence around him. He groaned again as Lumpy's face swam into view above him.
"Take it easy," the chef said, pouring a little water into Hayes' mouth from a flask.
It was a few minutes before Hayes could sit up, and he found they were all locked in a bamboo cage inside one of the pyramids.
"Where's Jimmy?" he whispered.
"Elsewhere, I'm afraid," the Doctor said, kneeling next to Hayes, "And I can tell you're angry with him, despite the fact that what happened might just have saved our lives."
"It didn't save Sam," Hayes said.
"Unfortunately," the Doctor replied, sadness filtering into his eyes, "We can't save everyone."
Something about the way he said it made Hayes stop, made him unable to question it. He just sighed, and rested his back on the cage bars, "Is there any way we can get out of here and find Jimmy?" he asked.
"And Ann," Jack added.
"Of course," the Doctor said, "When we get out of here we should try to find both of them, and maybe find out what's so special about Jimmy that lets him switch on that device."
"I'm afraid this talk is all academic until we actually get out," Bruce said, "Assuming we can actually get out."
"Don't you worry," the Doctor assured him, I've got Peri working on something right now."
"Have you indeed?" Bruce said, turning to see Peri and Preston crouched at the other end of the cage, holding a device by the bamboo. It was emitting a beam of light, which was burning through bamboo at a painfully slow rate.
"What is that thing?" Denham asked.
"A laser scalpel," the Doctor said, looking quite pleased with himself, "Every home should have one. Or will have one," he added.
"How'd you get that in here?" Lumpy asked, "They took my guns."
"Well, luckily for us the native peoples have no concept of pockets," the Doctor said with a smile.
Hayes groaned as pain thudded inside his head, "How long was I out?" he asked.
"Hard to tell," Jack said, "They knocked us out as well, but you were out longest."
"So they could have already sacrificed Jimmy or something?" Hayes asked, rubbing his temples.
"Not sure," the Doctor replied, "but-"
He was interrupted by the sound of drums from outside the pyramid. Evidently, some form of ceremony was about to take place.
"Oh dear," the Doctor said.
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Ann was dragged along the stone streets by two burly native men, through a path between two lines of native warriors chanting, waving weapons, and behind them was perhaps every native on the island. Above them, a drumming boomed out across the island, making itself heard even above the sound of the wind, pouring rain and thunder of the night storm.
"KONG! KONG! KONG!" the natives chanted as Ann was dragged onto the plaza, to the altar stone where the Gift had been earlier that day. The Gift had been removed, and standing by the altar was the old woman, accompanied by a group of other native women, clad in ceremonial garb of bones, hair and a few rags. The girl was there too, wailing with the rest of them.
Ann was forced to her knees before the old woman, who began to chant in her language, as the other women moved to surround her, wailing, shaking their bodies to make the bones in their clothing rattle. The light of the torches reflected off the water on their skin, making the old hag's red eyes seem to glow. Ann looked around, and realised that the other women around her all had white eyes, devoid of iris or pupil. The hag's chants rose, her thin voice high above the storm in drug-induced euphoria.
Something splattered Ann's face, stinging and reeking of rotting flesh. Ann glanced away from the hag, and her gaze fell upon another woman. She was completely naked, her body covered in bamboo piercings and scars. She was wailing, and holding a bone knife, which she would strike herself with, and allow the blood to run. A child scurried around her, splashing some form of liquid onto the woman's wounds.
Then the hag placed a hand on Ann's head, screaming something aloud. Then the men dragged Ann to her feet, pulling her towards the steps leading to the top of the wall, whilst the hag screamed to the crowd.
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Peri pushed the laser scalpel in close, the beam slicing through the last of the bamboo poles.
"Okay," she called to the others, "Time to get out of this place."
Carefully, everyone climbed trough the hole she and Preston had cut in the cage, the Doctor coming last to help Hayes, who was moving a little awkwardly. Lumpy took care of the guard, moving with surprising stealth and knocking the guard out cold. This was easier because the guard was staring towards the plaza, rapt with delight like all the others, although Lumpy failed to recognise the significance of it.
They found their equipment in the ziggurat opposite them, and, suitably re-armed, they set off in search of Ann and Jimmy.
They reached the central plaza to see all the natives clustered around the altar, where the old woman was standing. She was holding a pot out to a number of warriors, allowing them to slit their wrists as they passed, letting a few drops of blood fall into the pot.
"Is Ann there?" Jack hissed from his hiding place, to the Doctor, who had a clear view.
"No," the Doctor whispered back, "and neither is Jimmy, or the Gift."
"Why don't we just shoot them all?" Lumpy said, sliding back the bolt on his rifle to check the chambered round.
"You remember how easily they took us down the last time?" Peri muttered.
"And besides," the Doctor said, "It'll be safer if we wait until we've got Ann and Jimmy back, then make a quiet exit."
"It'll be easier if we just kill them," Lumpy said, pressing his point.
"This is their way of life," the Doctor hissed, anger flashing across his features which made Lumpy quail before him, "They know no better. And their deaths would be needless. They're all distracted, so we can get what we want without harming them!"
The Doctor returned his gaze to the old woman, who blessed the full pot of blood with a few wailed words. Then she raised a finger and hissed something, sending a young warrior scurrying off down a side-street.
"Come on," the Doctor whispered, moving to follow the young warrior, "She could be sending for Jimmy and Ann."
Hayes ordered the sailors to stay here, and to use force on the natives only if completely necessary, and followed the Doctor, Peri and Jack. Meanwhile, the old sha-woman stood and, supported by the girl who had bitten Denham, climbed the stairs to the top of the Wall.
Peri followed the young warrior to a ziggurat close to the plaza, where the warrior entered. She, Hayes and the Doctor followed him in, where Hayes charged him, sending him flying against the wall. He slid to the floor, blood running from his head. The Doctor checked him, before pronouncing "Unconscious, mild concussion. He'll be fine, but will sleep for a few hours." He stood up, and moved to a door composed of bamboo and tied together with human hair, which evidently sealed some sort of inner sanctum.
The Doctor pulled the door open, and stepped through, followed by the others. Jimmy was sitting on the floor, his back resting against a stone pillar, his wrists tied together on its opposite side. His head hung down over his chest, unconscious. The blood had been washed from his face, leaving three jagged lines in his cheek. He was shirtless, and more lines had been cut in his flesh, extending the scar on his shoulder into a complex glyph. Hayes went straight to the boy, and began gently tapping his cheek to try and wake him up.
The Doctor picked up a knife, which had some dry blood on the blade, and noticed that there was a second bamboo door in the wall. He pushed open the door and found himself staring at the Gift.
He approached it, and spent a few minutes examining it whilst Hayes and Peri helped Jimmy regain consciousness.
"Mr Hayes…" Jimmy croaked as awareness returned.
"It's okay, boy," Hayes said, relieved.
"I'm sorry," Jimmy whispered, "About coming here, when you told me not to."
"Hey," Hayes, said, "If you hadn't gotten that thing to work, they'd have killed us all. But for some reason they kept us alive," he paused, "Just don't make me regret it."
"What was that thing anyway?" Jimmy asked, trying to stand up.
"I'm not sure," the Doctor said, exiting the inner sanctum, "But I think I may have seen something like it before, if only I could remember precisely where…"
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The top of the Wall, out of range of the sailors or Denham's camera below, was twenty feet wide, lined with bamboo spikes. Positioned on the walkway over the gate was a stone altar, positioned between two upright hollow logs of a species that would make botanists (like Peri) drool with fascination. Protruding from the logs were several platforms, upon which stood native men, beating the logs with bones as if to summon something from the deep forest beyond the ancient stone ramparts.
There was a bamboo platform over the gate, facing the forest, with two channels cut into it over a sheer hundred-foot drop. Rising from these channels were two pillars, to which Ann's wrists had been tied.
Once she was secured, two native men had ripped at her clothes, until all she was wearing was her slip. The old woman, a mere silhouette in the light of the fires fuelled by some kind of oil, lifted a hideous necklace of small skulls and sharpened rib bones bound together with human hair, and forced it over her head, the sharp ends scratching against her neck.
She stepped back, and cried out in her harsh voice. Then Ann felt the pillars jerk, and begin to slide through the channels, dragging her with them. She struggled to resist their pull, but it was fruitless, and they dragged her to the edge of the platform, and over, into the air.
She was suspended above a deep chasm on the direct opposite side of the Wall, hanging from the end of a drawbridge, descending towards a small rock promontory directly opposite the gate. Pain stabbed in her shoulders, but she gritted her teeth, forcing herself to bear it. After what seemed like forever, she landed on the promontory, and the native chant abruptly ceased.
About two hundred metres from Ann, directly towards the sea, having no idea she was there, the sailors glanced at each other, uneasily.
Ann struggled, trying to pull herself from the vines binding her to the bridge. The tight bonds, secured using a complex series of knots around two bamboo rods, one in each binding, had no give in them whatsoever. She shivered, standing on the promontory, a lone figure, illuminated by the fires on the Wall, which was just visible in the smog from the oil fires at its base.
Then there was a loud thump from deep within the jungle in front of Ann, followed by a deep, harsh grunting as something moved in the fog. Coming closer. Coming for her.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE) I am sorry to say that this isn't the best cliff-hanger I've ever written, as you can probably guess a) who's going to show up in the next chapter, and b) what's going to happen to Ann. Nonetheless, I may have problems with updating over the next month or so, as my free time is going to be drastically cut short. Whether or not I spend that free time writing stories, or searching for a new betareader for Jumper: Continuum, or just doing random non-writing things can be worked out with the following formula: R +tF=M=U; Where is many/much, R is reviews, tF is free time, M is motivation, and U is updates. See you later, when I've sorted out the precise details of the plot… Ciao! (END NOTE)