by Ian W Taylor
*
SATURDAY MORNING- THE LOST TEMPLE
The aboriginal warriors danced in a circle around the fire, their white painted bodies gleaming in the firelight. They cast huge shadows around the cave as they chanted their songs and raised their weapons in the ancient war dance. Suddenly, they stopped their dance and with blood-curdling shrieks thrust their spears into the terrified white man lying in the middle of the circle.
Jake woke up with a start, in a cold sweat from his nightmare. The early morning light filtered into the cave. He looked out from his viewpoint from the cave, hoping that the Chinese had given up their quest. He was soon proved wrong as he heard a twig snap not far away. He could just see one of the Chinese moving towards their cave. He was armed with a semi-automatic pistol. Jake hurried back to the main cave where Koshi was sleeping and shook him awake. As he got unsteadily to his feet, Jake could see he was still suffering from the blow to his head and various cuts and bruises. His ankle was badly swollen but he was able to limp along. Jake motioned to Koshi to move towards the exit at the back of the cave.
Jake saw the beam of a high powered torch sweep the first cave expecting that the Chinese would find the main cave any moment. He urged Koshi to climb up a pile of rocks to the exit and pulled him through the small hole that led them out onto the hillside. He pulled some loose branches over the hole. They lay waiting at the top hoping the Chinese hadn’t heard their scrambling up the rocks. It wasn’t long before they saw the beam from the torch flickering across the main cave. They held their breath for several minutes as they could hear footsteps coming from the cave. Then the light disappeared and the footsteps retreated.
From their position on the hillside they could see the Lost Temple in silhouette against the sunrise, looking like an ancient Inca ruin, some 200 metres to the east of them. They spied one of the Chinese searching the temple pillar by pillar while another was searching the stony ground to the west. Counting the one in the cave below them, that just left one other and Blakey.
Jake was thinking desperately what their best options would be. They could go back into the cave and hope the Chinese wouldn’t look there again which seemed unlikely. They could try to outrun them but Koshi’s strained ankle would slow them down. They could stay put and hope that they would be rescued, if Bill had got Jake’s message. Or they could try to sneak back to the Toyota and make a getaway - but presumably the Chinese would have left someone behind to guard the vehicles.
In the event, Jake’s mind was made up for him. A sudden noise behind him startled him and he looked around into the barrel of a gun. One of the Chinese was just pulling himself out of the exit from the cave with his gun pointing at Jake. Jake put his hands up in surrender as the Chinese motioned for him to stand up.
“Where is Koshi?” shouted the Chinese in broken English.
Jake could see a movement behind the Chinese but pointed down the hill.
“He’s just down there.”
Jake watched in amazement as the Chinese’s face suddenly transformed into an horrific grimace and he slowly toppled backwards into the cave. Standing directly behind where the Chinese had just been was Koshi with a huge rock in his hand and a look of satisfaction on his face.
They quickly peered into the cave to see the Chinese’s body lying face down on the rocks. They scrambled back down the opening and carefully rolled him over. He was completely lifeless and after checking his breathing and pulse Jake realised with a shock that he was dead.
“Shit, you’ve saved us Koshi but we’re really in deep trouble now. They’ll come looking for him soon. We’ll hide the body under rocks and hope they don’t find him for a while.” They pulled the body into a corner of the cave and packed rocks over the corpse.
“Now we’ve got to get out of here quickly,” said Jake picking up the dead man’s pistol. They discussed which direction to take.
“They’ll be expecting us to head further west away from the road so why don’t we go north at first and then circle back towards the road.” Koshi grunted in agreement.
Keeping low to the ground they moved as quickly as they could northwards. So far they had been able to keep behind bushes and trees of the woodland to screen them from the Chinese but before them now was only open ground.
