Dudu Ya Poidini, Hunter of Souls
Selina leaned against the bole of the tree as she stood guard duty, and wondered how she had
hooked up with this group of unscrupulous thugs. Even though she was the only woman in the entire
camp, she had remained unmolested after one of the younger thugs had tried to have his way with her
and ended with his balls knocked into his upper abdominal cavity. Selina decided to change position,
and lay down, still straddling the branch where she had been sitting for the last four hours. Looking
down, she smiled tightly at the fact that the next person who was on guard duty was going to have
a heart attack when she appeared.
*I really should go to ground level before the next person shows up, but I'm comfy right
here.* Selina grimaced slightly, then closed her eyes and let the rest of her senses take over the
sudden deficiency in her abilities. Soon, she heard her little alarm system make some noise, and
opened her eyes. Looking down the twenty or so feet to the dried grass she had scattered around the
tree, she saw the person who was going to take over the watch for her so she could get some sleep.
She waited until the man had sat down under the tree and let him unhook his two-way radio
so he could complain to base camp about finding an empty post when she dropped from the branch
she had been lying on to a lower one, barely five feet above his head. Selina let the man actually start
to complain, then stage whispered "Y'know, I've been watching a very large and hungry tiger that's
lying in wait under those bushes for someone to get in its reach. I'm surprised you missed it, but then
again, incompetence seems to be your forte." The man jumped, and looked up at the blank facade of
Selina's body armour.
"Dammit! Why do you keep doing that?" Selina shrugged, then turned upside down and
grabbed him by the collar. Pulling him up, she swivelled around the branch again, and planted him on
a second one nearby, just in time to save him from being savaged by the tiger's long claws. "I told
you about the tiger. That's why I prefer the treetops. Now, your duty, in addition to keep watch, is
to stay in this tree until someone else relieves you in four hours." Selina then let go of the man's shirt,
dropped down to the ground, and when the tiger attacked, she kicked the creature in the head hard
enough to stun it. "Down fluffy! I told you earlier about trying to hurt me, and that's what you get."
Selina walked back to the camp, temporarily shutting off the armour and allowing her bare
skin to be cooled off by the occasional jungle breeze. When she got to the camp however, she saw
that the entire place had acted like an anthill that had suffered from an M-80 being dropped on it.
Walking to the main tent, she ducked through the low entrance, involuntarily allowing every male to
raise their blood pressure by letting them get a look at her butt. Looking through the small structure,
she saw her mission commander looking at a map sitting on a low table. "Well, it seems I arrived in
time to catch the final briefing. So, what's up?" Her commander looked up and sighed. "Joy, you're
here. I thought that tiger you've made friends with finally gave up and ate you. Well, because you're
here, you may as well get your other equipment out of that box you call a home."
Selina eloquently shot him the middle finger, then took her twin magnums out of a fairly
smallish steel box along with a leather gun-belt and six magazines, loaded with what appeared to be
Spartan bullets. Putting the magazines in several pouches on the belt, she then strapped it around her
waist, letting the leather ride low on her hips. Putting the two magnums in their holsters, Selina then
turned back to the commander as she kicked the box closed and nodded to him. "Okay Knife, here's
the mission. We're going into the jungle here, here, and here." As she watched, he pointed at the
three points, about ten miles apart, and evenly spaced along the north edge of the deep forest.
"Okay, so what do I have to do, other than shoot at the more hostile wildlife? I really am
beginning to get annoyed at my losses in ammunition this time, Jim." Selina folded her arms over her
chest, then pointed at a small area coded with a danger flag. "Lemme guess. You and the other sex-
obsessed boneheads want me to go in there, clear everything out, and come back with a few hundred
kilograms of ivory? Well, guess what? Fuck that idea. The next time you want something cleared out,
send one of those neanderthals who guard the slave pens. Hell, they'd love the chance to find a village
full of native women to violate.
"Now, before you say anything else, I'll say this to you: this is the last time. I don't care how
often you make noises about this, but I've never skipped a contract yet." Selina sat down on the chair
on the opposite end of the table, and looked at the map. Jim also pointed at the same red spot, rubbed
it with his index finger, and frowned. "Okay. Now, before you decide to skip this place, you should
know that the next supply plane comes in six days. So, this one is not a shoot anything that moves.
It's actually kinda simple this time. Go in, see if anything is in there, and then tell us if there's anything
to be acquired. If so, we go in and capture what's worthy, then firebomb the rest."
Selina stood up at the last statement and walked out of the room before she would say
anything that could have repercussions. She walked over to the motor pool at the far side of the
camp, and climbed into one of the jeeps there. She drove the jeep to where she was supposed to be,
and had an interesting conversation with Jim through the two-way, mainly describing his genetic
heritage in several dozen very insulting ways. (she especially liked the term "I believe your mother
was crossbred with an orangutang, two buffalo, and a dead horse.") After she had vented, Selina
booted up the GPS and found the area she should be exploring.
She eventually drove to the correct co-ordinates, and after hopping out of the jeep she looked
around. Selina saw almost nothing that even appeared to be threatening, and heard only the ping of
cooling metal and the occasional bird singing. She walked into the forest, still keeping her senses on
high alert, but was totally unprepared when a heavily woven net landed on her from the trees above
her. "What the bloody FUCK!?!" Selina fought her way out of the net, but even when she managed
to get out of the tangled mass, she was forced to surrender as at least seven almost-naked tribesmen
pointing sharpened spears at her throat surrounded her.
*Dammit* Selina thought, right before something slammed into the back of her head,
knocking her into unconsciousness.
Several Hours Later
Selina woke up, and noticing that her armour had been active for more than four hours,
allowing the bio-feedback systems to wreak havoc inside her head. Sara deactivated her armour,
allowing it to revert to its normal form of a sleeveless and legless leotard. She tried to sit up and feel
the lump on the back of her head, but her hands were tied behind her back. *Oh great. I'm really up
shit creek on this one, and I definitely want to kick Jim's ass from here to Nairobi when I get out of
it.* She looked around the small room she was in, and trying her best to focus her vision on
something on the opposite side of the room, she didn't hear the person creeping up behind her until
his foot brushed her back.
She instantly arched her back, allowing the muscular tension to flip her over into the opposite
direction. Looking up, she saw an old man, covered in beads and wearing a headdress made of several
wild animal skins. He crouched down beside her, and poked at her abdomen, then at her face.
"Hmmph. Dudu ya gkinmara. Yautja kcit-pa deg kainde amedha.*"
* "Hmmph. Hunter of Men. The spirits wonder about your hard meat."
Selina shook her head, then frowned as she tried to gesture that she was thirsty. Giving up
on the gesture-based route, she just cursed under her breath for a few seconds, then spoke loudly
enough to be heard. "Hey, do you speak English?" As a response, she got another line from the man,
who she recognised as a witch doctor. "Dudu ya gkinmara, thin-de lehsaun fu thwei mugah ltou-de
kalei.*" She tried again, this time trying the other languages she knew, failing each time. After almost
twenty minutes of speaking, she just sighed in resignation and closed her eyes.
* "Hunter of Men, where have the others taken our trophies and bearers of children?"
Ten minutes after she had closed her eyes, she heard another person walk into the dark room.
Then, hearing the muted conversation, made entirely in the muted gabble that had been spoken earlier,
then felt the ropes tying her arms loosen. *What the? Weird.* Selina flexed her arms slightly, then
opened her eyes, allowed the ropes to slide from her arms, and stood up. Looking at the witch doctor,
and the other person who was standing beside him, she smiled faintly and activated her armour. Both
men jumped back as the metallic plating covered her arms and legs before surrounding and concealing
her face. The other man, recovering his courage quickly, touched her face with his hand and recoiled
at the almost ice-like feel.
He jabbered something at the witch doctor, who replied by gesturing with his left hand in
some odd way. The man subsided, then turned back to Selina. "We need know. You demon or
person?" Selina replied simply. "A person." The man translated to the doctor as Selina paced in front
of them, he spoke again, asking Selina another question. "What your name?" "The Knife." He turned
to the doctor, and said 'Dahdtoudhi' before running off on another long explanation to the doctor
before he left the room. The doctor gestured for her to follow him, so she walked behind him into the
light outside the building.
Selina glanced around the small village, and saw only men, most girded for battle with spears,
bows and arrows, and the occasional club. She noticed that there were two heads on spears stuck in
the ground, so she walked over and saw that one of them was of the person she had set on guard
duty. Feeling a pang of sympathy, she reached up to his still-open eyes and slowly closed them, then
walked over to the second head. Looking up, she saw the person who had tried to molest her when
she had first arrived at the camp. *Now, why would they kill those two, but spare me? They could've
cut my head off any time while I was unconscious, even with my armour active. Well, there are no
women here, and I haven't seen any children either. Oh god. Now I understand. This village is one
that had been cleaned out by those slavers, but they didn't kill me because I've stayed out of the
actual operations.*
Selina sat down on the ground in front of the two spears, staring upwards onto the dead eyes
of the rapist and noticing the swarms of flies that had already laid eggs in his mouth. *They killed the
slavers, but kept me alive because of... what? My armour isn't that impressive, but they show great
fear towards it. Maybe it's because I only used my skills to scout an area, and didn't kill anyone. That
means that these 'savages' are a hell of a lot more civilized than those thugs signing my paychecks.
Maybe I should throw my lot in with these people. But that would mean breaking a contract, and the
last time I did that was because the bastard who had employed me was a child pornographer who I
subsequently assassinated.
*Well, what's the difference between kiddie pornographers and slavers? After all, that one
tried to molest me, and I saw what he did to one of the younger people he had captured.* Selina
shuddered at the memory of the small body she had found a few weeks ago, lying face down in the
mud outside of the camp. *Now, I don't know why I started to work with those... things... that call
themselves people, but that's going to end. These people are inherently more human that those
bastards out in that camp there, and I should try to redeem myself by helping them.* Selina got up,
and she walked over to the witch doctor as he started to produce an odd concoction in a pot half-full
of some boiling liquid.
She sat down beside the doctor, and watched as several men sat down opposite her, mirroring
almost every move she made for ten minutes. She watched intently as the doctor threw several dozen
pieces of plants and some dried chunks of what appeared to be meat into the pot, then started
chanting in an utterly incomprehensible language. She watched as he then dipped his left arm into the
liquid and withdrew a hideously ugly dagger from the pot. The blade was easily a foot long, jagged,
and a dull black. Selina noticed that the hilt looked like it was made of onyx, and had what appeared
to be knuckle guards covered with small spines, two of which were pointing towards the tip of the
blade, and a third one pointing straight out.
The dagger, still dripping from its bath, suddenly glowed a faint blue along several lines etched
into the blade, then went to its natural shade of greyish-black. The doctor pointed to each of the men
in turn, pointed at the dagger, and then pointed at an empty hut. The men nodded and walked into
the forest. Selina was studying the dagger in the doctor's hand as the men left, then turned to the
person that had spoken to her earlier when she sensed him behind her. "So, what's with the dagger?"
The man squatted near her and traced the butt of his spear through the dusty ground. "It powerful
tool of demons. Called 'Dudu ya Poidini'. Men try to prove worthiness by hunting evil ones. Maybe
they die, maybe they rescue child-bearers."
Selina raised an eyebrow, despite the fact that it wouldn't register on her armour. "I think I'll
be able to rescue almost all of your women, retrieve most of your ivory, and remove many of the 'evil
ones'. So, do you want to assign a guard so I don't betray you?" The man smiled, revealing yellowish
teeth in an uneven grimace, then stood up. "Me your guard. Name is M'timkulu. Me follow and
learn." She nodded, then gestured for him to follow her. Selina ran into the forest, and as she reached
the nearest tree, she jumped into the lower branches. M'timkulu followed quickly, then looked up at
her as the armour rippled and shifted into its chameleonic form.
Soon, she was almost invisible, and as he searched the tree for her, a long snake-like object
wrapped around his waist and yanked him into the tree. He stifled a shout of terror as he ended up
almost face-to face with Selina, then grimaced as she jumped to the next tree. She leaped from tree
to tree, heading roughly North, still holding to M'timkulu with a metallic whip that had extended from
her right wrist. In less than half an hour, she had landed on another branch, looking down towards
the camp less than two kilometres away. Selina waited as the sun slowly crept downwards, but felt
the sudden stabbing pain in the back of her head that heralded neural feedback and the total shutdown
of her armour.
She dropped to the ground quickly, setting her guard down smoothly before shutting down
her armour and leaning against the tree. M'timkulu looked at her nearly-naked form and quickly
averted his eyes when she glared at him. "Okay, we're going to stay here until night has fallen. Then,
follow me into that place." M'timkulu looked at Selina for a few seconds, then asked the question
she had been dreading. "Why you help us? You one of them." Selina shook her head. "I'm nothing
like those animals out there. It just took me a bit of thinking to understand that. Besides, trying to do
the right thing is in my blood. Not to mention small pieces of bone and metal." M'timkulu looked
surprised for a few seconds, as if he had never expected someone like her to crack a joke. He nodded,
then hunkered down, looking at the camp intently. Selina closed her eyes, and rested for a while,
allowing her system to heal from the bump on the back of her head and an overload of neural
feedback from when she was captured.
She woke up suddenly, and feeling slightly disoriented, she looked around in time to see the
last rays of sunlight fade to nothingness in the west. Looking at her guard, she noticed that he
apparently hadn't moved from when she had dropped off. That was until she tried to move and felt
a sharp pain in her stomach. *Aaaggghhh! What the hell happened while I was asleep? Ow, ow, ow!
Dammit, I may have to abort.* Looking down at where she felt the worst pain, she saw a relatively
large amount of blood, glowing faintly silver in the waxing moonlight.
*Oh shit. With that much blood loss, and me not feeling anything, I must have been really out
of it.* Selina stood up, swaying weakly, then activated her armour before walking over to her guard.
"Boo. So what happened?" He jumped slightly, then looked at her. "You wounded by deadly thing.
Me cut it out." He showed Selina a leaf folded over something, then unwrapped the object, revealing
a two-inch long grub with many sharp little fangs at one end. *Gross. Well, my own abilities might
have killed it, but I'm still grateful.* "I am grateful. I should not have fallen asleep. Let's go."
M'timkulu nodded, acknowledging the fact that he had saved her life from a very nasty way to die.
Selina had already covered four hundred yards by the time her guard had caught up with her,
and he followed her example of staying low to the ground and trying to blend in as much as possible.
Selina actually had the greater advantage, especially because her armour had shifted to its chameleon
mode. The two people snuck through the perimeter, undetected because Selina spent the time to find
the lone guard and knock him out by throttling him. They wandered into the maze of tents,
incapacitating lone people, hiding their bodies, and avoiding groups like the plague.
Soon, they had worked their way to the motor pool, and after disabling the two guards and
piling them into a jeep, Selina started to shove around the still-full fuel barrels into a nice line,
staggered between the ten or so jeeps, and the armoured half-track used to transport the captured
natives. She checked the track for any people hiding in it, but found something almost as useful: a
fully stocked medkit. She took that, and after hiding it near where her escape route had been planned,
she then went to the slave pens. Instead of shooting the locks off, she just ripped them off the chains
with her armour's assistance, or slashed through the doors with the three-foot long spike that she
extruded from her left wrist.
The slaves were too shocked to flee instantly, especially because many had seen the ghost-like
form around their villages before the evil ones had attacked. However, when some saw the ghost's
companion, who was gesturing for them to remain quiet and follow him, they simply poured out of
the cages and followed the silent person. Soon, all the slaves had been liberated, and the women
followed M'timkulu into the forest. He actually didn't want to leave, but Selina had promised that
she'd return to the village when she was finished. After everyone had left, she heard someone raise
the alarm after discovering either the unconscious people or the empty pens.
She then made her move. Pulling one of her magnums, Selina fired all nine rounds into seven
of the fuel barrels, igniting two of them. She then ran towards the nearest cover as the first barrel
literally blew its top off, blasting a massive ball of flame skywards. The blast scattered chunks of hot
shrapnel around, and the inevitable occurred as several pieces hammered into the jeeps on either side
of what remained of the barrel. Both jeeps exploded as their fuel tanks were punctured by the
shrapnel, flipping the burning wreckage end over end in random directions. One of the wrecks landed
on the stockpile of fuel barrels in the back of the motor pool, and Selina instantly dove for cover as
the entire pile went up in a blast that could be seen from orbit.
All the vehicles, and the remaining barrels went up in several dozen subsidiary blasts, sending
shrapnel, burning gasoline and diesel fuel, and the shattered hulks of almost every jeep flying through
the air, turning the once-orderly camp into a war zone. Where the motor pool had once been, there
was only a shallow crater and flames climbing to more than fifty feet in height. Selina got up, thankful
that she hadn't been squashed by any vehicles, then looked up and was forced to roll out of the way
before what was left of one of the jeeps landed on the spot where she had been.
*Well, I've just put a major divot in their profits. Time to make sure that they can't tell their
superiors.* Turning towards the tent filled with communication devices, she reloaded her empty gun,
retrieving the magazine from the ground, then opened up a pocket on the back of the gunbelt. She
felt two cards slip into her grasp between three fingers, and pulled them out. Both cards glowed a
faint red, pulsing randomly, and in time to her heartbeat. Selina didn't even hesitate, but threw one
card at the communication antennas, and rolling to the side to get a better angle into the entrance of
the tent, she threw the second one at the table covered with all the important equipment.
Both cards blew less than a second apart, shredding the antennae on top right before a louder
blast turned all the equipment into expensive scrap. Selina then went to the main tent, grabbed the
locker that held her stuff, and simply walked out of the building, having hoisted the locker onto her
left shoulder. As she walked out into the night, she snagged the medkit with her whip, and
disappeared from anyone's sight as the base's ammunition began to cook off, forcing the survivors
to keep their heads down as they tried to fight the myriad fires that had broken out.
Several hours later
Selina walked back into the village, just as dawn began to peep over the forest canopy.
M'timkulu was waiting at the threshold, and when he heard a faint whistle, he looked up just in time
to avoid being crushed by Selina's locker. The loud thud and his yelp of surprise gathered the
attention of everyone in the village, so they all saw Selina drop from a tree onto the ground right
behind the metal locker. Some people shrunk back at the apparition of something about the size of
a person, that, instead of remaining motionless, blurred and shifted like it wasn't totally on this plane
of existence.
Eventually, the people became stopped trying to run away, but only because Selina shifted out
of her stealthy phase and allowed her armour to revert back to its usual shade of deep purplish-black.
As she walked around to the witch doctor's hut, she flipped the medkit into her left hand and used
the still-exposed whip to collect the locker. When she entered the hut, Selina instantly dropped the
medkit to one side, the locker to the other, and sat down heavily. *Whew. Well, I don't want to do
that again. At least we rescued the women from a fate worse than death. Now for part two of my
little mission. Retrieve the ivory. Too bad I don't know where it is hidden.*
After checking for any observers, she shut down her armour, and examined the wound in her
stomach, which was still seeping. Selina opened up the medkit, and used a gauze wrap to staunch the
wound, after disinfecting the ugly-looking gash with some alcohol wipes and sterile water. *Well, I'm
probably going to get a scar. Oh well.* Selina heard a noise behind her, and instead of activating her
armour, she just wrapped her twenty-five foot long cape around her body before turning around.
Looking at the entrance, she saw several small children looking at her with what appeared to be awe,
but may have been fear.
Selina smiled, looking at the smallest child in the little cluster. She raised her hand and wiggled
her fingers, allowing enough time for the child to mimic the action. Some of the children were
cautious, but soon they were almost climbing over her in enthusiasm. Despite the primitive conditions
and professional difficulties niggling at the back of her mind, she was happy while playing with the
children. Some children tried to open her locker, but failed. Eventually however, the witch doctor and
M'timkulu reappeared, and sent the children somewhere else.
The doctor, quite happy, gave Selina the dagger that he had used in the ritual the previous day
and said, "Dudu ya gkinmara, ne pyode amedha dug Dudu ya Poidini" Selina glanced at M'timkulu,
and he supplied the translation. "Hunter of Men, for defeating evil meat, Hunter of Souls now yours."
Selina nodded, then pointed to the outside. "I will leave soon, after my wounds have healed. The
ivory is somewhere in the place I torched. M'timkulu knows the area, and the ones who stole it are
most likely dead." M'timkulu translated for the doctor, then both men left.
Soon, the children returned, but not before Selina had changed to her more casual clothes of
jungle shorts, and a white tank top, allowing the scars on her arms and legs to be visible, especially
because of the light tan she had acquired during her stay in the country. Selina stayed for two days,
celebrating with the rest of the village at the return of the womenfolk and the eventual retrieval of the
ivory. Selina left early in the morning with her locker, the medkit, and the knife. She walked to the
jeep that she had originally driven to the general area in, put her stuff in quickly, and drove north to
the nearest airfield.
The closer she got to the field, the more random wreckage she saw along the dirt track. Soon,
she had run out of gas, barely three kilometres from the field, and she swore for a few minutes when
she saw that the gas can was empty. Instead of dwelling on the fact that she had blown up the last
useable fuel supply a few days ago, she just activated her armour, grabbed the stuff she had taken,
and walked down the road. Several hot, sweaty, and very aggravating hours later, Selina arrived at
the airport and was instantly surrounded by several heavily armed slavers.
The largest one pointed at her locker, then at her. "So, where the hell were you for the last
several days? We thought you had been killed in that covert attack on our base." Selina smiled,
looked at the man, and put the locker down. "Guess what? I was that covert attack." Before the man
could respond, Selina had pulled both magnums from their holsters and plugged four bullets into his
chest. The other six men opened fire as Selina's armour rippled into its defensive form, allowing the
bullets to bounce off her chest and head. She allocated two bullets to each man, double-tapping the
poor slavers in the heads or throats. She fired the last two bullets at the reinforcements charging at
her with AK47s blazing, then ducked behind the locker. As she reloaded, she heard some bullets
ricochet off of the metal box, and she hoped that nothing was damaged.
She popped back up, glanced at the reinforcements and pulled out a blue card from another
belt pouch. The men noticed the card, and they gave a creditable account of trying to scatter, but
Selina threw the card anyway, and the small projectile landed right in the middle of the group. The
subsequent electro-magnetic pulse fried the nervous systems of most of the slavers that were in the
group, and she shot the ones who had avoided the blast. After seeing that nobody else was trying to
kill her, she grabbed the locker, picked it up, and used one of the stunned slavers as a shield by
wrapping her left arm through the person's own arms after breaking both his elbows with
hammerlocks.
She walked to the plane that had the most activity, and threw the slaver into the next person
she saw. Throwing the locker into the cargo bay of the twin-engine plane, she then walked into the
machine. To an outside observer, the entire plane started to rock and bounce on its shocks, and loud
shouting mingled with the occasional thud was heard from the open door. Soon, the eight slavers that
had been in the plane were dumped out through the door, seconds before the door was closed from
the inside. The plane started its engines, nearly taking the head off of another slaver (a la Indiana
Jones) before roaring off into the sky.
Selina leaned against the bole of the tree as she stood guard duty, and wondered how she had
hooked up with this group of unscrupulous thugs. Even though she was the only woman in the entire
camp, she had remained unmolested after one of the younger thugs had tried to have his way with her
and ended with his balls knocked into his upper abdominal cavity. Selina decided to change position,
and lay down, still straddling the branch where she had been sitting for the last four hours. Looking
down, she smiled tightly at the fact that the next person who was on guard duty was going to have
a heart attack when she appeared.
*I really should go to ground level before the next person shows up, but I'm comfy right
here.* Selina grimaced slightly, then closed her eyes and let the rest of her senses take over the
sudden deficiency in her abilities. Soon, she heard her little alarm system make some noise, and
opened her eyes. Looking down the twenty or so feet to the dried grass she had scattered around the
tree, she saw the person who was going to take over the watch for her so she could get some sleep.
She waited until the man had sat down under the tree and let him unhook his two-way radio
so he could complain to base camp about finding an empty post when she dropped from the branch
she had been lying on to a lower one, barely five feet above his head. Selina let the man actually start
to complain, then stage whispered "Y'know, I've been watching a very large and hungry tiger that's
lying in wait under those bushes for someone to get in its reach. I'm surprised you missed it, but then
again, incompetence seems to be your forte." The man jumped, and looked up at the blank facade of
Selina's body armour.
"Dammit! Why do you keep doing that?" Selina shrugged, then turned upside down and
grabbed him by the collar. Pulling him up, she swivelled around the branch again, and planted him on
a second one nearby, just in time to save him from being savaged by the tiger's long claws. "I told
you about the tiger. That's why I prefer the treetops. Now, your duty, in addition to keep watch, is
to stay in this tree until someone else relieves you in four hours." Selina then let go of the man's shirt,
dropped down to the ground, and when the tiger attacked, she kicked the creature in the head hard
enough to stun it. "Down fluffy! I told you earlier about trying to hurt me, and that's what you get."
Selina walked back to the camp, temporarily shutting off the armour and allowing her bare
skin to be cooled off by the occasional jungle breeze. When she got to the camp however, she saw
that the entire place had acted like an anthill that had suffered from an M-80 being dropped on it.
Walking to the main tent, she ducked through the low entrance, involuntarily allowing every male to
raise their blood pressure by letting them get a look at her butt. Looking through the small structure,
she saw her mission commander looking at a map sitting on a low table. "Well, it seems I arrived in
time to catch the final briefing. So, what's up?" Her commander looked up and sighed. "Joy, you're
here. I thought that tiger you've made friends with finally gave up and ate you. Well, because you're
here, you may as well get your other equipment out of that box you call a home."
Selina eloquently shot him the middle finger, then took her twin magnums out of a fairly
smallish steel box along with a leather gun-belt and six magazines, loaded with what appeared to be
Spartan bullets. Putting the magazines in several pouches on the belt, she then strapped it around her
waist, letting the leather ride low on her hips. Putting the two magnums in their holsters, Selina then
turned back to the commander as she kicked the box closed and nodded to him. "Okay Knife, here's
the mission. We're going into the jungle here, here, and here." As she watched, he pointed at the
three points, about ten miles apart, and evenly spaced along the north edge of the deep forest.
"Okay, so what do I have to do, other than shoot at the more hostile wildlife? I really am
beginning to get annoyed at my losses in ammunition this time, Jim." Selina folded her arms over her
chest, then pointed at a small area coded with a danger flag. "Lemme guess. You and the other sex-
obsessed boneheads want me to go in there, clear everything out, and come back with a few hundred
kilograms of ivory? Well, guess what? Fuck that idea. The next time you want something cleared out,
send one of those neanderthals who guard the slave pens. Hell, they'd love the chance to find a village
full of native women to violate.
"Now, before you say anything else, I'll say this to you: this is the last time. I don't care how
often you make noises about this, but I've never skipped a contract yet." Selina sat down on the chair
on the opposite end of the table, and looked at the map. Jim also pointed at the same red spot, rubbed
it with his index finger, and frowned. "Okay. Now, before you decide to skip this place, you should
know that the next supply plane comes in six days. So, this one is not a shoot anything that moves.
It's actually kinda simple this time. Go in, see if anything is in there, and then tell us if there's anything
to be acquired. If so, we go in and capture what's worthy, then firebomb the rest."
Selina stood up at the last statement and walked out of the room before she would say
anything that could have repercussions. She walked over to the motor pool at the far side of the
camp, and climbed into one of the jeeps there. She drove the jeep to where she was supposed to be,
and had an interesting conversation with Jim through the two-way, mainly describing his genetic
heritage in several dozen very insulting ways. (she especially liked the term "I believe your mother
was crossbred with an orangutang, two buffalo, and a dead horse.") After she had vented, Selina
booted up the GPS and found the area she should be exploring.
She eventually drove to the correct co-ordinates, and after hopping out of the jeep she looked
around. Selina saw almost nothing that even appeared to be threatening, and heard only the ping of
cooling metal and the occasional bird singing. She walked into the forest, still keeping her senses on
high alert, but was totally unprepared when a heavily woven net landed on her from the trees above
her. "What the bloody FUCK!?!" Selina fought her way out of the net, but even when she managed
to get out of the tangled mass, she was forced to surrender as at least seven almost-naked tribesmen
pointing sharpened spears at her throat surrounded her.
*Dammit* Selina thought, right before something slammed into the back of her head,
knocking her into unconsciousness.
Several Hours Later
Selina woke up, and noticing that her armour had been active for more than four hours,
allowing the bio-feedback systems to wreak havoc inside her head. Sara deactivated her armour,
allowing it to revert to its normal form of a sleeveless and legless leotard. She tried to sit up and feel
the lump on the back of her head, but her hands were tied behind her back. *Oh great. I'm really up
shit creek on this one, and I definitely want to kick Jim's ass from here to Nairobi when I get out of
it.* She looked around the small room she was in, and trying her best to focus her vision on
something on the opposite side of the room, she didn't hear the person creeping up behind her until
his foot brushed her back.
She instantly arched her back, allowing the muscular tension to flip her over into the opposite
direction. Looking up, she saw an old man, covered in beads and wearing a headdress made of several
wild animal skins. He crouched down beside her, and poked at her abdomen, then at her face.
"Hmmph. Dudu ya gkinmara. Yautja kcit-pa deg kainde amedha.*"
* "Hmmph. Hunter of Men. The spirits wonder about your hard meat."
Selina shook her head, then frowned as she tried to gesture that she was thirsty. Giving up
on the gesture-based route, she just cursed under her breath for a few seconds, then spoke loudly
enough to be heard. "Hey, do you speak English?" As a response, she got another line from the man,
who she recognised as a witch doctor. "Dudu ya gkinmara, thin-de lehsaun fu thwei mugah ltou-de
kalei.*" She tried again, this time trying the other languages she knew, failing each time. After almost
twenty minutes of speaking, she just sighed in resignation and closed her eyes.
* "Hunter of Men, where have the others taken our trophies and bearers of children?"
Ten minutes after she had closed her eyes, she heard another person walk into the dark room.
Then, hearing the muted conversation, made entirely in the muted gabble that had been spoken earlier,
then felt the ropes tying her arms loosen. *What the? Weird.* Selina flexed her arms slightly, then
opened her eyes, allowed the ropes to slide from her arms, and stood up. Looking at the witch doctor,
and the other person who was standing beside him, she smiled faintly and activated her armour. Both
men jumped back as the metallic plating covered her arms and legs before surrounding and concealing
her face. The other man, recovering his courage quickly, touched her face with his hand and recoiled
at the almost ice-like feel.
He jabbered something at the witch doctor, who replied by gesturing with his left hand in
some odd way. The man subsided, then turned back to Selina. "We need know. You demon or
person?" Selina replied simply. "A person." The man translated to the doctor as Selina paced in front
of them, he spoke again, asking Selina another question. "What your name?" "The Knife." He turned
to the doctor, and said 'Dahdtoudhi' before running off on another long explanation to the doctor
before he left the room. The doctor gestured for her to follow him, so she walked behind him into the
light outside the building.
Selina glanced around the small village, and saw only men, most girded for battle with spears,
bows and arrows, and the occasional club. She noticed that there were two heads on spears stuck in
the ground, so she walked over and saw that one of them was of the person she had set on guard
duty. Feeling a pang of sympathy, she reached up to his still-open eyes and slowly closed them, then
walked over to the second head. Looking up, she saw the person who had tried to molest her when
she had first arrived at the camp. *Now, why would they kill those two, but spare me? They could've
cut my head off any time while I was unconscious, even with my armour active. Well, there are no
women here, and I haven't seen any children either. Oh god. Now I understand. This village is one
that had been cleaned out by those slavers, but they didn't kill me because I've stayed out of the
actual operations.*
Selina sat down on the ground in front of the two spears, staring upwards onto the dead eyes
of the rapist and noticing the swarms of flies that had already laid eggs in his mouth. *They killed the
slavers, but kept me alive because of... what? My armour isn't that impressive, but they show great
fear towards it. Maybe it's because I only used my skills to scout an area, and didn't kill anyone. That
means that these 'savages' are a hell of a lot more civilized than those thugs signing my paychecks.
Maybe I should throw my lot in with these people. But that would mean breaking a contract, and the
last time I did that was because the bastard who had employed me was a child pornographer who I
subsequently assassinated.
*Well, what's the difference between kiddie pornographers and slavers? After all, that one
tried to molest me, and I saw what he did to one of the younger people he had captured.* Selina
shuddered at the memory of the small body she had found a few weeks ago, lying face down in the
mud outside of the camp. *Now, I don't know why I started to work with those... things... that call
themselves people, but that's going to end. These people are inherently more human that those
bastards out in that camp there, and I should try to redeem myself by helping them.* Selina got up,
and she walked over to the witch doctor as he started to produce an odd concoction in a pot half-full
of some boiling liquid.
She sat down beside the doctor, and watched as several men sat down opposite her, mirroring
almost every move she made for ten minutes. She watched intently as the doctor threw several dozen
pieces of plants and some dried chunks of what appeared to be meat into the pot, then started
chanting in an utterly incomprehensible language. She watched as he then dipped his left arm into the
liquid and withdrew a hideously ugly dagger from the pot. The blade was easily a foot long, jagged,
and a dull black. Selina noticed that the hilt looked like it was made of onyx, and had what appeared
to be knuckle guards covered with small spines, two of which were pointing towards the tip of the
blade, and a third one pointing straight out.
The dagger, still dripping from its bath, suddenly glowed a faint blue along several lines etched
into the blade, then went to its natural shade of greyish-black. The doctor pointed to each of the men
in turn, pointed at the dagger, and then pointed at an empty hut. The men nodded and walked into
the forest. Selina was studying the dagger in the doctor's hand as the men left, then turned to the
person that had spoken to her earlier when she sensed him behind her. "So, what's with the dagger?"
The man squatted near her and traced the butt of his spear through the dusty ground. "It powerful
tool of demons. Called 'Dudu ya Poidini'. Men try to prove worthiness by hunting evil ones. Maybe
they die, maybe they rescue child-bearers."
Selina raised an eyebrow, despite the fact that it wouldn't register on her armour. "I think I'll
be able to rescue almost all of your women, retrieve most of your ivory, and remove many of the 'evil
ones'. So, do you want to assign a guard so I don't betray you?" The man smiled, revealing yellowish
teeth in an uneven grimace, then stood up. "Me your guard. Name is M'timkulu. Me follow and
learn." She nodded, then gestured for him to follow her. Selina ran into the forest, and as she reached
the nearest tree, she jumped into the lower branches. M'timkulu followed quickly, then looked up at
her as the armour rippled and shifted into its chameleonic form.
Soon, she was almost invisible, and as he searched the tree for her, a long snake-like object
wrapped around his waist and yanked him into the tree. He stifled a shout of terror as he ended up
almost face-to face with Selina, then grimaced as she jumped to the next tree. She leaped from tree
to tree, heading roughly North, still holding to M'timkulu with a metallic whip that had extended from
her right wrist. In less than half an hour, she had landed on another branch, looking down towards
the camp less than two kilometres away. Selina waited as the sun slowly crept downwards, but felt
the sudden stabbing pain in the back of her head that heralded neural feedback and the total shutdown
of her armour.
She dropped to the ground quickly, setting her guard down smoothly before shutting down
her armour and leaning against the tree. M'timkulu looked at her nearly-naked form and quickly
averted his eyes when she glared at him. "Okay, we're going to stay here until night has fallen. Then,
follow me into that place." M'timkulu looked at Selina for a few seconds, then asked the question
she had been dreading. "Why you help us? You one of them." Selina shook her head. "I'm nothing
like those animals out there. It just took me a bit of thinking to understand that. Besides, trying to do
the right thing is in my blood. Not to mention small pieces of bone and metal." M'timkulu looked
surprised for a few seconds, as if he had never expected someone like her to crack a joke. He nodded,
then hunkered down, looking at the camp intently. Selina closed her eyes, and rested for a while,
allowing her system to heal from the bump on the back of her head and an overload of neural
feedback from when she was captured.
She woke up suddenly, and feeling slightly disoriented, she looked around in time to see the
last rays of sunlight fade to nothingness in the west. Looking at her guard, she noticed that he
apparently hadn't moved from when she had dropped off. That was until she tried to move and felt
a sharp pain in her stomach. *Aaaggghhh! What the hell happened while I was asleep? Ow, ow, ow!
Dammit, I may have to abort.* Looking down at where she felt the worst pain, she saw a relatively
large amount of blood, glowing faintly silver in the waxing moonlight.
*Oh shit. With that much blood loss, and me not feeling anything, I must have been really out
of it.* Selina stood up, swaying weakly, then activated her armour before walking over to her guard.
"Boo. So what happened?" He jumped slightly, then looked at her. "You wounded by deadly thing.
Me cut it out." He showed Selina a leaf folded over something, then unwrapped the object, revealing
a two-inch long grub with many sharp little fangs at one end. *Gross. Well, my own abilities might
have killed it, but I'm still grateful.* "I am grateful. I should not have fallen asleep. Let's go."
M'timkulu nodded, acknowledging the fact that he had saved her life from a very nasty way to die.
Selina had already covered four hundred yards by the time her guard had caught up with her,
and he followed her example of staying low to the ground and trying to blend in as much as possible.
Selina actually had the greater advantage, especially because her armour had shifted to its chameleon
mode. The two people snuck through the perimeter, undetected because Selina spent the time to find
the lone guard and knock him out by throttling him. They wandered into the maze of tents,
incapacitating lone people, hiding their bodies, and avoiding groups like the plague.
Soon, they had worked their way to the motor pool, and after disabling the two guards and
piling them into a jeep, Selina started to shove around the still-full fuel barrels into a nice line,
staggered between the ten or so jeeps, and the armoured half-track used to transport the captured
natives. She checked the track for any people hiding in it, but found something almost as useful: a
fully stocked medkit. She took that, and after hiding it near where her escape route had been planned,
she then went to the slave pens. Instead of shooting the locks off, she just ripped them off the chains
with her armour's assistance, or slashed through the doors with the three-foot long spike that she
extruded from her left wrist.
The slaves were too shocked to flee instantly, especially because many had seen the ghost-like
form around their villages before the evil ones had attacked. However, when some saw the ghost's
companion, who was gesturing for them to remain quiet and follow him, they simply poured out of
the cages and followed the silent person. Soon, all the slaves had been liberated, and the women
followed M'timkulu into the forest. He actually didn't want to leave, but Selina had promised that
she'd return to the village when she was finished. After everyone had left, she heard someone raise
the alarm after discovering either the unconscious people or the empty pens.
She then made her move. Pulling one of her magnums, Selina fired all nine rounds into seven
of the fuel barrels, igniting two of them. She then ran towards the nearest cover as the first barrel
literally blew its top off, blasting a massive ball of flame skywards. The blast scattered chunks of hot
shrapnel around, and the inevitable occurred as several pieces hammered into the jeeps on either side
of what remained of the barrel. Both jeeps exploded as their fuel tanks were punctured by the
shrapnel, flipping the burning wreckage end over end in random directions. One of the wrecks landed
on the stockpile of fuel barrels in the back of the motor pool, and Selina instantly dove for cover as
the entire pile went up in a blast that could be seen from orbit.
All the vehicles, and the remaining barrels went up in several dozen subsidiary blasts, sending
shrapnel, burning gasoline and diesel fuel, and the shattered hulks of almost every jeep flying through
the air, turning the once-orderly camp into a war zone. Where the motor pool had once been, there
was only a shallow crater and flames climbing to more than fifty feet in height. Selina got up, thankful
that she hadn't been squashed by any vehicles, then looked up and was forced to roll out of the way
before what was left of one of the jeeps landed on the spot where she had been.
*Well, I've just put a major divot in their profits. Time to make sure that they can't tell their
superiors.* Turning towards the tent filled with communication devices, she reloaded her empty gun,
retrieving the magazine from the ground, then opened up a pocket on the back of the gunbelt. She
felt two cards slip into her grasp between three fingers, and pulled them out. Both cards glowed a
faint red, pulsing randomly, and in time to her heartbeat. Selina didn't even hesitate, but threw one
card at the communication antennas, and rolling to the side to get a better angle into the entrance of
the tent, she threw the second one at the table covered with all the important equipment.
Both cards blew less than a second apart, shredding the antennae on top right before a louder
blast turned all the equipment into expensive scrap. Selina then went to the main tent, grabbed the
locker that held her stuff, and simply walked out of the building, having hoisted the locker onto her
left shoulder. As she walked out into the night, she snagged the medkit with her whip, and
disappeared from anyone's sight as the base's ammunition began to cook off, forcing the survivors
to keep their heads down as they tried to fight the myriad fires that had broken out.
Several hours later
Selina walked back into the village, just as dawn began to peep over the forest canopy.
M'timkulu was waiting at the threshold, and when he heard a faint whistle, he looked up just in time
to avoid being crushed by Selina's locker. The loud thud and his yelp of surprise gathered the
attention of everyone in the village, so they all saw Selina drop from a tree onto the ground right
behind the metal locker. Some people shrunk back at the apparition of something about the size of
a person, that, instead of remaining motionless, blurred and shifted like it wasn't totally on this plane
of existence.
Eventually, the people became stopped trying to run away, but only because Selina shifted out
of her stealthy phase and allowed her armour to revert back to its usual shade of deep purplish-black.
As she walked around to the witch doctor's hut, she flipped the medkit into her left hand and used
the still-exposed whip to collect the locker. When she entered the hut, Selina instantly dropped the
medkit to one side, the locker to the other, and sat down heavily. *Whew. Well, I don't want to do
that again. At least we rescued the women from a fate worse than death. Now for part two of my
little mission. Retrieve the ivory. Too bad I don't know where it is hidden.*
After checking for any observers, she shut down her armour, and examined the wound in her
stomach, which was still seeping. Selina opened up the medkit, and used a gauze wrap to staunch the
wound, after disinfecting the ugly-looking gash with some alcohol wipes and sterile water. *Well, I'm
probably going to get a scar. Oh well.* Selina heard a noise behind her, and instead of activating her
armour, she just wrapped her twenty-five foot long cape around her body before turning around.
Looking at the entrance, she saw several small children looking at her with what appeared to be awe,
but may have been fear.
Selina smiled, looking at the smallest child in the little cluster. She raised her hand and wiggled
her fingers, allowing enough time for the child to mimic the action. Some of the children were
cautious, but soon they were almost climbing over her in enthusiasm. Despite the primitive conditions
and professional difficulties niggling at the back of her mind, she was happy while playing with the
children. Some children tried to open her locker, but failed. Eventually however, the witch doctor and
M'timkulu reappeared, and sent the children somewhere else.
The doctor, quite happy, gave Selina the dagger that he had used in the ritual the previous day
and said, "Dudu ya gkinmara, ne pyode amedha dug Dudu ya Poidini" Selina glanced at M'timkulu,
and he supplied the translation. "Hunter of Men, for defeating evil meat, Hunter of Souls now yours."
Selina nodded, then pointed to the outside. "I will leave soon, after my wounds have healed. The
ivory is somewhere in the place I torched. M'timkulu knows the area, and the ones who stole it are
most likely dead." M'timkulu translated for the doctor, then both men left.
Soon, the children returned, but not before Selina had changed to her more casual clothes of
jungle shorts, and a white tank top, allowing the scars on her arms and legs to be visible, especially
because of the light tan she had acquired during her stay in the country. Selina stayed for two days,
celebrating with the rest of the village at the return of the womenfolk and the eventual retrieval of the
ivory. Selina left early in the morning with her locker, the medkit, and the knife. She walked to the
jeep that she had originally driven to the general area in, put her stuff in quickly, and drove north to
the nearest airfield.
The closer she got to the field, the more random wreckage she saw along the dirt track. Soon,
she had run out of gas, barely three kilometres from the field, and she swore for a few minutes when
she saw that the gas can was empty. Instead of dwelling on the fact that she had blown up the last
useable fuel supply a few days ago, she just activated her armour, grabbed the stuff she had taken,
and walked down the road. Several hot, sweaty, and very aggravating hours later, Selina arrived at
the airport and was instantly surrounded by several heavily armed slavers.
The largest one pointed at her locker, then at her. "So, where the hell were you for the last
several days? We thought you had been killed in that covert attack on our base." Selina smiled,
looked at the man, and put the locker down. "Guess what? I was that covert attack." Before the man
could respond, Selina had pulled both magnums from their holsters and plugged four bullets into his
chest. The other six men opened fire as Selina's armour rippled into its defensive form, allowing the
bullets to bounce off her chest and head. She allocated two bullets to each man, double-tapping the
poor slavers in the heads or throats. She fired the last two bullets at the reinforcements charging at
her with AK47s blazing, then ducked behind the locker. As she reloaded, she heard some bullets
ricochet off of the metal box, and she hoped that nothing was damaged.
She popped back up, glanced at the reinforcements and pulled out a blue card from another
belt pouch. The men noticed the card, and they gave a creditable account of trying to scatter, but
Selina threw the card anyway, and the small projectile landed right in the middle of the group. The
subsequent electro-magnetic pulse fried the nervous systems of most of the slavers that were in the
group, and she shot the ones who had avoided the blast. After seeing that nobody else was trying to
kill her, she grabbed the locker, picked it up, and used one of the stunned slavers as a shield by
wrapping her left arm through the person's own arms after breaking both his elbows with
hammerlocks.
She walked to the plane that had the most activity, and threw the slaver into the next person
she saw. Throwing the locker into the cargo bay of the twin-engine plane, she then walked into the
machine. To an outside observer, the entire plane started to rock and bounce on its shocks, and loud
shouting mingled with the occasional thud was heard from the open door. Soon, the eight slavers that
had been in the plane were dumped out through the door, seconds before the door was closed from
the inside. The plane started its engines, nearly taking the head off of another slaver (a la Indiana
Jones) before roaring off into the sky.
