“Nobody is going to believe what just happened to us,” Mandy shouted. She was full of adrenaline and couldn’t help the outburst.
“I think it would be a really good idea to not tell Colt,” Loni said in agreement. “He already thinks we both are loose cannons and will think we did it for the thrill.”
Mandy now became serious. “Thanks for saving my life Loni,” she said.
“You’re my friend. I had no choice,” Loni responded.
“So we’re friends now?” Mandy asked.
“We’re friends as long as you keep your hands off of Colton Banyon,” Loni replied with a laugh.
“And we now have secrets about each other too,” Mandy pointed out.
“Come on let’s get back to camp before they miss us and think we’ve done something stupid.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The two women could smell food cooking before they reached the campsite. As they stepped out of the jungle, the rest of the team looked up from their food plates.
“Where’ve you two been?” Steve asked while showing a little anger in his voice. “We were worried that we would have to rescue you.”
“We found a way across the stream,” Loni quickly noted. “But, Colt, it is very dangerous in the jungle. I don’t want to go back there tonight, by myself.”
Banyon studied his little partner knowing she never backed down from danger. “So you want someone to go with you? Is that it?”
“Yes,” Loni replied. “I want Mandy to go with me tonight.”
“But, she is our best sniper,” Steve argued. “We’ll need her here.”
“I know how to use a sniper rifle,” Carol quickly said. “I used to date a sniper from the embassy here in Ecuador.”
“Are you sure you want Mandy to go with you?” Banyon asked Loni.
“Absolutely,” Loni responded. “What could go wrong?”
Chapter Thirty
It was already late at night as two columns of military type men made their way down the road towards the Banyon campsite. They had parked their vehicles a mile from their destination and trekked into the black rainforest night. The first man in one column wore night vision goggles which Colonel Walther had liberated from the army arsenal. The colonel walked next to him carrying the detailed hand-drawn map that Father Bartholomew had given him. He periodically checked it with a small penlight to make sure they were on course.
He held up his arm to stop everyone, but no one could see it.
“Stop,” he uttered in a semi-whisper. “Gather around me,” he then ordered.
“Listen men,” he started. “We are getting very close. If you try, you can hear the flow of the stream in the distance.”
“Okay, so let’s run down there and shoot them,” one of his men blustered.
“No,” the colonel responded strongly. “We are not going into their camp at night. We are going to set up a wall of firepower across the stream and use the mortars and the grenades to flush them out in the daylight.”
“Why wait?” another man exclaimed.
“I don’t want any of them to get away. If we charge in at night some of them might slip into the jungle,” the colonel responded.
“But you told us there were only seven of them. Why wait?” the man argued.
“Don’t you want some target practice?” the colonel replied in a sinister voice. “It’ll give us real-life fighting experience which we can use during the upcoming revolution.”
“Makes sense to me,” the man replied.
Chapter Thirty-One
Steve slithered into Banyon’s tent on his belly. Banyon and Loni were instantly awake.
“They’re here,” he said anxiously. “They have set up a firing range across the stream, just as you predicted.”
“How many men?” Loni asked.
“It looks like about thirty,” Steve replied nervously. “I think we are in for a firestorm.”
“Wake the others and tell them to get into position,” Banyon ordered. “Make sure Carol has a clear view of the bridge. We don’t want any of them to get across.”
“Will do,” Steve answered and crawled back out of the tent.
Banyon turned to Loni. “Are you up for this?” he asked.
“Mandy and I will make everything work,” she answered seriously, but her eyes were wide with concern.
“Do you want to take one of the guns?”
“No, we’ll have the Orion ring to protect us if we need it,” Loni explained. “The guns will do more good with you.”
Within seconds, Mandy entered the tent on her hands and knees. She quickly made her way to Banyon and gave him a big hug.
“You take care of yourself Colton Banyon,” she uttered.
“And you take care of Loni for me, okay,” Banyon responded carefully.
“Do you have the weapons?” Mandy asked as she turned to Loni. She was all business now.
“Right here,” Loni replied as she showed her the talisman hanging from her neck and the Orion ring on her wrist.
“What about your earpiece?” Banyon asked. Without the earpieces they could not communicate.
Both women pulled back their hair to show him the devices. He showed them his.
“Then let’s go,” Mandy said with excitement. Loni hugged Banyon and the two women left through the back of the tent.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The unnamed stream flowed from the West to the East, so as soon as the sun began to peek over the horizon, both banks of the stream were quickly bathed in light. The sky above turned a bright blue, but no one noticed as everybody on both sides of the stream were getting ready to do battle and watched the other bank.
Colton Banyon slid into the trench just as it became light enough to see clearly. The trench was about twenty feet long and deep enough to kneel in. Steve and Kenny had lined the top with as many rocks as they could find. In front of the rocks were many bushes to block the view. They had opted to dig a trench instead of individual fox holes because Steve reasoned that if they stayed in one place it would be too easy for the Germans to locate them and shoot them.
“Is everybody ready?” Banyon asked.
“Yes,” the fighters replied.
Banyon pressed his ear piece. “Loni are you in position?”
“We’re in a tree behind them,” she whispered back.
Banyon then addressed his fighters. “Now remember, don’t shoot until you have a target. We have a limited supply of bullets. And let them shoot first.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Colonel Carl Walther stood behind his men in his camouflaged fatigues. He believed no one could see him because of the dense jungle behind him. He believed he blended in.
He had dispersed his men in a long line facing the camp. It stretched out for forty feet. He set up the two mortars back from the front line in the middle near him. He knew he had devastating firepower. He was just waiting for someone from the camp to show their head.
He glanced at his watch and saw it was already after seven in the morning and wondered why no one was up yet. He rocked back and forth on his feet as his patience began to erode away. He had more important things to do like find treasure and take over a country. He began to consider not killing some of the people right away so his men could practice some torture techniques, especially on the women.
“Alright,” he finally said sadly. “I’m done waiting.”
“Should we start shooting?” one of his men asked hopefully.
“We are going to lob some mortars into the camp first,” the colonel responded. “Shoot your guns as soon as you see someone come out of the tents.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Banyon’s team heard the mortars shoot off before they noticed the two small chimneys of white smoke from the cylinders bellow out on the opposite bank. They now knew the battle had started. Only one side could survive.
“Get your heads down,” he screamed. The people in the trench went flat on the ground as they waited
for the ordinance to explode somewhere in the distance. Steve had explained that mortars were notoriously inaccurate on their first shot, but the men manning the mortars could adjust the angle and walk their shots into the middle of the camp. He said they had about five minutes until the shots would do real damage.
Banyon’s team scrambled to their initial positions as soon as they heard the explosion far off in the rainforest.
“Colt,” Carol screamed. “There are two men attempting to cross the bridge.”
“Okay, open fire,” he roared. “Take them out.”
Her first shot hit one man in the leg. He staggered and fell off of the bridge. The water under the structure suddenly turned to froth as several Caimans went after their dinner. The screams from the man only lasted a few seconds. Everyone was horrified, but had no time to dwell on the man. They were all in the fight of their lives as bullets began flying everywhere.
Carol didn’t take another shot as the second man dived for cover back into the jungle.
***
“Where the hell are they?” the colonel roared. So far no one had come out of the tents. “Shoot the tents. Shoot the tents,” he ordered as spittle came out of his mouth.
Thirty guns began to fire at the three tents in the middle of the camp. One man stood up to get a better shot. He was suddenly peppered with machine gun fire which tossed him backwards. The colonel immediately ducked down.
“Where did those shots come from?” He screamed.
“I think they are hiding along the river bank,” one of his men responded.
“Shoot at the bank. Shoot the bank,” the colonel yelled out with a touch of panic. He immediately wondered if he had walked into an ambush. He quickly looked right and left to see if he could see anyone sneaking up their flank. He saw only empty jungle.
The colonel’s men couldn’t see anyone to shoot at so they shot randomly at the entire shore line. Every few seconds another man suddenly got hit. The colonel now realized his men were too close together, the enemy was getting off lucky shots.
“How long before you can drop some mortar shells on the other bank?” He asked as he crab walked over to the lead mortar gunner.
“It’s going to take a while,” the man replied seriously. “These mortars are old and temperamental. I may never be able to zero in on the bank.
“Somebody toss a grenade onto the other bank, please” the colonel screamed in frustration. This ambush was supposed to be quick and easy, but was turning out to be a fight for survival which he had not planned for.
A man moved far enough away from the firing line so that no one from Banyon’s team had a clear shot. He pulled the pin on a grenade and was pulling his arm back to throw it. It looked like the end for the Banyon team.
He then tossed it across the stream.
Banyon screamed, “Now Loni.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Loni and Mandy sat comfortably on a tree branch behind the Germans’ line as they watched the battle unfold. They were anxious to get into the fighting, but their instructions were to wait until Banyon told them to get involved. When she heard Banyon in her ear piece, she immediately reacted.
She grabbed the talisman around her neck and blew into it while thinking about what she wanted to have done. Mandy watched her with trepidation as she wondered how Loni could stop a grenade from being tossed into the trench where Banyon and the rest of the team were hiding.
Suddenly a huge buzzing filled the jungle and millions of insects emerged from the bushes and jungle on Banyon’s side of the stream. They leaped into the air and formed an undulating black cloud. It blocked the trajectory of the airborne bomb. The grenade hit the swarm and dropped straight down into the water. The explosion blew water twenty feet into the air.
The swarm then turned towards Colonel Walther and his men. Millions of additional insects raced out of the jungle behind them. The swarm looked like a fog as it slammed into the Germans, one by one.
A German went to scream, but hundreds of insects jetted into his mouth and caused him to choke. The man panicked and stood up. Steve cut him down with a four shot burst from his machine gun.
***
“Loni, this is amazing,” Mandy gushed from the tree branch. “You are controlling insects.”
“Wait until you see who I’m sending next,” she replied and blew into the talisman again.
The sound of croaking now filled the jungle. Mandy looked down and saw a carpet of brightly colored frogs flow from the jungle. It took them only a few seconds to reach the insect infested men. As the frogs approached, the insects dissipated into the warming air. But the frogs were not helping the Germans. They were there to do damage.
“They are poisonous,” Loni explained to Mandy. “I read about them in the travel brochure.”
Cries of agony soon came from the firing line. The small frogs were hopping all over the men and placing little bites on their exposed flesh. All the Germans including Colonel Walther began to feel the pain of the poison. Their bodies became puffy where the frogs had bitten them.
Two more men got up to run, but only made it two steps before someone from the other side of the stream cut them down with machine gun fire.
Colonel Walther fought back against the frogs, batting them away at a ferocious pace, but there were just too many of them. He finally realized that neither he nor his men would leave the jungle alive.
“Let’s send in our friends now,” Loni said like she was planning a cocktail party. She blew into the whistle.
The water in front of the German line erupted. Ten huge Caimans crawled out onto the small beach. They opened their gigantic mouths and headed towards the remaining men. Many of the men screamed in terror and turned to run, but Loni had blown the whistle again.
The sound of forty cats snarling, growling, and roaring now filled the jungle as panthers, pumas and ocelots formed a line and stepped out of the rainforest.
The Germans were completely trapped now. Caiman were on their left and killer cats were on their right. And if they stood up they were shot.
“Shoot the cats and run,” Colonel Carl Walther roared. It was the last order he ever gave as three cats leaped at him before he could pull his gun. They began tearing at his flesh and soon Colonel Walther, leader of the white supremacy movement in Ecuador, was a pile of raw meat.
***
Mandy and Loni watched in horrified fascination as the animals ripped apart the Germans. Some men were dragged into the water by the Caiman and their screams echoed throughout the valley as they went under the water. Some of the cats settled down to eat and some looked around for more men to kill. The entire fight was a lesson in jungle brutality. The jungle was indeed a dangerous place, Loni thought. It had taken less than five minutes for the complete carnage.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Mandy. “What should we do now?”
“We wait,” Loni replied. “If we get down from this tree, some of the animals may attack us.”
“How long?” Mandy asked worriedly.
“Until the animals leave,” Loni explained. “I can call them, but I have no way to make them go away. Colt and the others will stay hidden as well. They don’t want to shoot these animals. We killed enough animals for today.”
“Uh-oh!” Mandy suddenly exclaimed as she nudged Loni and pointed.
Loni looked down and saw a huge panther looking straight up at them. His large yellow eyes were riveted on them as he sniffed the air. His lips peeled back exposing lethal-looking teeth. He began to snarl.
“I think he has found our scent,” Loni said nervously as she watched the cat effortlessly strut to the base of tree.
“Can a panther climb?” Mandy whined.
“Better than you and me,” Loni said in a worried tone.
The big cat leaped from the ground. His long claws gripped the tree trunk and he began to climb. His eyes held steady on the two cowering women and his snarls became louder. He was on the hunt for new prey.
“
What should we do? We don’t have a gun to shoot him,” Mandy wailed.
“Stand up,” Loni ordered.
“Why?”
“Because if I activate the shield while we are sitting on this branch, it will be cut off and we’ll fall to the ground,” Loni explained.
They both quickly stood up and grabbed each other in a hug. Loni turned the ring on her wrist just as the panther reached their branch. Her mistake was that she didn’t know the shield had actual weight. The extra weight along with the heavy panther on the branch was too much strain for the limb. It broke and the shield and the panther plunged twenty feet to the ground.
For Loni and Mandy the feeling was surreal. They felt like they were watching a movie as they had no sensation of falling and felt no impact when they hit the ground in a prone position. The panther landed on top of the shield on all four legs, but could not get a grip and slid off.
Mandy was on top and Loni was on the bottom, but she could not feel the weight of Mandy on top of her. In fact she could not feel anything. She turned her head and noticed there were now several cats pawing and biting at the clear shield. None were making a scratch. Now this is a mess, she thought.
Mandy suddenly waved and caught her attention. She pointed at something. Loni lifted her head up and saw what looked like a dull computer screen hovering just above their heads. They had not noticed it before.
Mandy reached out and swiped the screen with one finger. It darkened and several symbols in different colors appeared. They looked very alien to Loni. The two women stared at each other in disbelief. Outside, there was chaos as many cats joined in the attack on the shield, but inside, it was completely quiet and comfortable.
Both women were impulsive and curious by nature, but Mandy beat Loni to the punch this time. She reached out and pressed one of the symbols before Loni could stop her. Nothing seemed to happen. Frustrated, Mandy pressed another symbol.
The Society of Orion: The Orion Codex Page 8
