(Chapter 3: Division)
The boots of Belgian troops crushed the dead vines and leaves beneath them as they marched through the jungle, going on a hunting trip for some food. Tagging along with the troops was Jacob Dupont, Professor Porter, and Jane Porter.
The troops watched out for tracks of potential herbivores on the ground as well as checking for other signs such as feces and markings.
"Remember where the wind is blowing, they will detect your scent and run off if it goes downwind from their direction." Dupont reminded the troops, who remained silent and followed his instructions, shifting the way they walked to a different direction when the breeze blew a certain way.
Suddenly the troops stopped when one of them noticed something moving within the brush ahead.
"Did you see that?" The male troop asked, pointing his rifle towards where he seen a streak of brown moving through the shrubbery, thinking it to be a gazelle.
"No…wait a minute." Another troop spoke, moving into a better position to see the target clearly through an opening in the brush.
"That's no animal, that's a person."
The troops all moved in, with Jacob at the front to investigate, having a suspicion on who this 'person' was. Judging by his muscular body and his loincloth, this person was Tarzan.
There he is… Jacob thought to himself as he didn't see Jane moving to the front of the group as well. The leader of the Belgian forces stationed within the Congo River Basin took aim at Tarzan with his rifle, squinting his eyes to look through the scope.
He's going to kill him Jane thought to herself as she noticed that the person was indeed Tarzan, infuriated at his determination to end the life of the man who saved her, she would swat her hand into the underside of the rifle right when Jacob squeezed the trigger, the barrel burst with a round that went into the air instead of rushing towards Tarzan!
The ape man would flee into the jungle after hearing the rifle fire off, wanting to get to cover in case he was being hunted down by troops of the enemy army outside of the jungle.
"Jane, what the hell are you doing!?" Jacob snapped at the woman, getting right in her face and shoving his pointer finger between her eyes, Jane responded to this by shoving him back forcefully, the heart within her father's chest began to beat faster as confrontation seemed inevitable at this point.
"Why must you take him out!? He poses no threat to us!" Jane screamed in response.
"He's been taking out our forces for months on end now! Tarzan is the reason why I requested backup from Percy Isaacs! Don't you remember a damn thing that has happened!?" Jacob fired back, his hand curling up into a tightly clenched fist.
"Killing isn't the answer to our problems, we played our part here, I think it is time for us to take our leave!" Jane replied aggressively.
Jacob wasn't going to hear anymore of this nonsense from her and with a hateful growl, he would deliver a savage backhanded slap to the woman that would knock her out cold in one blow! Showing no respect or care at all.
Professor Porter's heart leapt into his throat at the sight of his daughter getting smacked by this cruel man, even though he was in his retiring years, he still had to take up for his only child.
"You disrespectful son of a bitch!" The professor snapped as he marched towards Dupont angrily, only to be immediately held back by troops that wasted no time in restraining him, holding his arms behind his back forcefully to the point where it made Porter bare his teeth in discomfort and slight pain.
"It's the price she pays for not paying attention, maybe that hit scrambled her brain in the right place so she will fall to command!" Jacob Dupont boomed with authority burning in his voice.
Two more troops came in and held Professor Porter's legs up, being carried by four men, the man struggled but it was of no use against the strong Belgian soldiers.
"Take him away, I'll continue my hunting with the others." Jacob instructed, the four troops nodded their heads, acknowledging the orders of their superior before hauling the struggling Porter away towards the campgrounds.
The troops that stood with Jacob were behind him, and the three of them all gave each other questionable looks. With the way Jacob treats women, and how angry he is all the time, they started to see something in him that they didn't like, they wanted to be away from him, but they knew they had no choice.
"Ms. Porter…if that Tarzan really has an interest in you…he will save you from the scavenging dogs and vultures that plague this region." Dupont growled under his breath as he looked down at the unconscious woman that he had knocked out cold.
As for Tarzan, he happened to be scavenging around for his morning meal. Holding a spear in one hand, and staying on high alert, his eyes scanned the area. He heard a nearby river flowing gently, a good water source. He investigated the trees for fruit and his sharp eyes eventually noticed a mango, it's colors sticking out from all of the lush green surrounding him as well as the brown jungle floor that was littered by dead leaves and shrubbery.
The ape man lodged the spear into the ground and scaled a tree with ease, walking out on a heavy limb that could support his bulky body before leaping off, grabbing hold of a vine, and swinging across a ravine before landing on another tree limb that supported him. He reached up and took the mango from the stem, taking a bite out of it, enjoying the juiciness of the fruit as his face shifted in satisfaction, licking his lips and the corners of his mouth for any excess that gushed out when he took the first bite.
After savoring his first bite, Tarzan took another bite, followed by another, and soon the entire mango had been devoured, with the ape man spitting out the seed as he found that it served no use for him. After finishing the fruit off, he leapt from the tree and swung on a vine back to the ground, where he approached the nearby river and kneeled at the bank. His watchful eyes noticed a crocodile within the distance, wanting to be fast, the ape man cupped his hands together and dipped them into the water, scooping a handful into his mouth and gulping it down, he glanced up again to see that the crocodile was approaching him, but it was a safe distance away and currently not a threat.
Tarzan took two more gulps of water before leaving the river, heading deeper into the Congo jungle, holding his spear tightly as he looked for sources of meat to feast upon, eventually his eyes laid themselves upon a grazing antelope. He hid himself within the brush and aimed for the heart of the herbivore, but something came across his senses that confused him. The ape man could smell fear, but it wasn't coming from this grazing animal which looked calm and collected as it feasted upon the tall grass and vegetation. Shaking that strange feeling off, Tarzan cocked his muscular arm back and launched the spear, but his throw was inaccurate due to a blood curdling scream!
The fear intensified tenfold, and now Tarzan went searching for the source of the scream, darting through the brush and swinging from vine to vine when they were available for his hands to grab hold of. Another scream rang out, and Tarzan intensified his efforts as he ran faster and bared his teeth. The scream belonged to a female, the tone of her voice being something he had heard before, not that long ago.
Approaching a hill, he rounded a corner as the scream reached its loudest pitch yet and when he looked down from his position, he noticed that it was Jane! The same woman he had saved from a crocodile, was now wrapped in the coils of an African rock python and it was starting to put a squeeze on her as her legs kicked frantically.
"Get this thing off me!" She screamed in terror, and the ape man went right to work.
"Umgawa!" He cried out as he jumped up and landed on his feet next to the damsel in distress, the constrictor turned its attention to Tarzan and when he reached for it, it struck out and locked its jaws around his meaty forearm, he used his other hand to grab the back of the snake's neck and forcefully tugged on it, the serpent started to unwind the coils from Jane until she was completely freed, the woman began to frantically inch backwards as she watched her savior wrestle against the powerful snake.
The weight of the serpent, coupled with Tarzan's awkward leaned over hunch made it difficult for him to get into a proper standing position, the backwards facing fangs of the python made it somewhat a struggle to pry the jaws away from his arm without risking being sliced up. He bared his teeth as he was solely focused on freeing his arm from the snake's jaws, but this distracted him as the serpent thrown a coil or two around his waist-midsection area of his torso. The ape man started to feel a great force compress around his muscular body, the coils starting to constrict him, he growled in fierce determination mixed with slight amounts of pain and discomfort as he gave one vicious tug on his arm, finally, the pressure forcefully dislodged it, but left a few streaks of blood on it as he tumbled back, the snake flopped to the jungle floor, but the coils remained wrapped.
The two were wrestling on a hill, and when Tarzan had pulled back that final time with full force, he accidentally had the two of them tumble down it towards the river, finally stopping near the bank. During the stumble down the hill, Tarzan's head smashed against a decent sized rock, stunning him as their bodies laid near the water.
Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs and regain his bearings, he noticed that the coils were still wrapped around him and were only tightening further, forcing a grunt of pain from the ape man as he noticed that it was about to wind some more around his body. When he felt soft, smooth, yet heavy force compresses around his head and neck, he realized that a coil had been thrown around his upper body as well, his eyes widened as he seemed to be fighting a losing battle against the serpent. As it went to coil two more loops around his body, he tucked his knees into his body and planted his feet onto the thick coils soon to be around him, his body thrashed around from side to side, but wasn't going anywhere, and during all of this hectic movement, his feet slipped, allowing the two thick coils to clasp around his body and squeeze with a deathgrip, the coils around his head and neck also started to crush away, causing him to rear his head back and groan in agony.
He reached down with one arm, trying to push the coils off his body and he only got so far before his hand slipped and they crushed down harder on his body almost as a form of punishment for trying to escape the grasp of the rock snake, his other hand tried to pry away the coils around his head and neck but to no avail. The squeeze was starting to become a bit much as he found that it was getting difficult to breathe as his mouth sucked in air, the python looked down into the eyes of the ape man and opened its jaws, a cruel hissing noise coming from the reptile. As the python struck forth, Tarzan used the arm closest to the head of the snake to grab it by the neck and squeeze hard for a stranglehold of his own, he felt the squeeze loosen, but it was still incredibly uncomfortable, however, he was able to roll over onto his stomach, where he eventually worked his way to his knees.
A devastating squeeze crushed his whole torso and head, causing him to groan in extreme pain again and soon enough he was frantically sucking in air once again, not getting much of it. His face started to turn red, and Tarzan began to feel fuzzy headed, the hand that wasn't around the throat of the snake curled into a fist and he grinded it into the ground, his body was telling him to give in to the power of the python and allow himself to be squeezed to death, but his willpower was stronger. With a growl of unmatched grit, he sent his hand into the throat of the snake while its mouth was still open. Finally, the coils started to flop off his body and loads of relief filled his mind as proper airflow had been restored after he freed himself from his coil prison.
Tarzan then stood all the way up to two feet and hoisted the rock python over his head before slamming it down directly at his front where a crocodile had shown up, jaws gaping wide to prepare to take a bite, the weight of the snake slammed the jaws shut and allowed Tarzan to stumble away while sucking in much needed air.
Jane had been watching the entire wrestling match against the constrictor and a look of awe was displayed on her face, Tarzan's body was coated in a slight amount of sweat and he turned his head up to face her.
The woman approached him with a look of happiness on her face, examining his muscles which caught the sun, putting them on a glorious display.
"Tarzan…you…you saved me again." Jane said, struggling to find the words in which she wanted to say, this brought a smile to his face.
"Who are you?" He asked, this took Jane aback but before she could respond, Tarzan had another word to say.
"Name." Is all that Tarzan said.
"Oh, Jane Porter. Just call me Jane." She said, revealing her name to the ape man.
"Jane meet Tarzan, Tarzan meet Jane." The wild man replied, Jane couldn't help but notice how strange his words sounded, it seemed as though he couldn't speak English properly at all, this intrigued her and made her want to know more of her newfound ally.
"Come Jane, I will show you my home." He said, extending a hand for hers.
Jane was hesitant at first, not wanting to go on this trek into the jungle alone. She would reject it at first, but desired to come back. Even though Tarzan had saved her twice, he was still at most a stranger, and she wanted the protection of her father, who was entering his elder years, to be by her side with a gun in case things go horribly wrong.
"I will, but…not right now." She replied, pulling her hand away from his, Tarzan nodded his head in understanding before entering the jungle again, prompting Jane to flee back towards the encampment where the others were.
At the encampment, Percy Isaacs was relaxing in his chair, feet propped up on his desk as he smoked away on a cigar. It was still early in the morning, and the hunting party had just arrived, but for some reason, they were empty handed. However, that wasn't the reason why he left his tent to investigate. The Englishman had overheard Professor Porter having a screaming argument with a Belgian troop.
"You can't just let your superior do that to my daughter!" Porter screamed furiously.
"Your daughter brought all of this upon herself when she sympathized with an uncivilized dog such as Tarzan!" The Belgian fired back.
"You never put your hands on a woman in ANY circumstance!" Porter snapped, getting right into the face of this Belgian troop, at the same time, Jacob Dupont stepped into view and was seen heading towards his tent with a disgruntled look on his face, shaking his head in frustration.
"I've been working with him for five years as of this year, and he does as he damn well pleases!" The Belgian growled before he shoved Professor Porter to the ground, igniting a fight as the older man scrambled back to his feet and rushed towards his enemy, several troops both British and Belgian rushed in and separated the men from each other, the two men fought to escape their restraints but they were pulled further and further away as they yelled obscenities towards each other as Percy Isaacs approached.
"What the blazes is going on!?" Isaacs boomed.
"Ask Dupont that question, he's the one that slapped my daughter across the face and knocked her unconscious!" Porter screamed as he was dragged out of sight, this blew Percy away and he stood in silence for a moment before storming towards Dupont's tent.
"Mr. Dupont, what the hell have you done!?" Percy screamed furiously, Jacob immediately stood up, not backing down.
"Resting, we couldn't find anything in that damn jungle to eat for our morning meal, and I'm just frustrated." Dupont growled, but in the back of his mind he knew that Percy had somehow figured out what went down.
"That doesn't mean you can hit a woman and leave her to die in that jungle, Lord knows what could be lurking in there waiting to tear her to shreds!" Percy fired back, defending Jane.
"She brought it all on herself, that whore has now pledged her allegiance to Tarzan, she idolizes that savage bastard! She must be set straight somehow and realize the error of her ways, maybe getting knocked out can do her a favor! It's a form of tough love!" Dupont snapped, getting snarky and defending his cruel side of this story.
"How DARE you hit a lady!?" Percy screamed as he gave Dupont a shove.
"It's tough love!" Dupont screamed as he launched a stiff punch right to the bridge of Percy's nose, the hit staggered the British soldier and caused him to stumble back, some blood started to trickle out of his nose as troops swarmed inside of the tent pulling their respective leaders away from each other.
"You brought me and my entire battalion here to help you with Tarzan, DO NOT make me regret coming here, because I can sure as hell leave and have you deal with him all by yourself!" Percy yelled as he was removed from Dupont's tent.
Percy hadn't been here that long, and division was already starting to split the British forces and Belgian forces away from each other. If their plans were to capture or take out the ape man, they couldn't allow themselves to fall to quarrel, or the consequences could find them…