Chapter 7
Slightly later than planned, they set off into the thick under-growth at 7.50am, everything they needed on their backs.
They hacked and slashed their way through densely grown vines and trees for four hours, saw a slight clearing ahead, and Spike had to stop.
“Too much sunlight for me Kitten…”
“We’ll go round…can we rest up for five, I’m thirsty”
Sitting on a stump, Buffy reached for her canteen, opened it and took three large swallows, and fastened it back up.
Wiping her forehead on the towelling wrist-bands she sported, she asked
“How far do you reckon we’ve come?”
Spike looked at his compass/mileometer
“According to this…a little over three miles”
“WHAT – you’re joking! Feels like we’ve walked twenty at least, I’m knackered, and SO HOT!”
“It’s this 100% humidity love…you okay?”
Buffy nodded blew out her cheeks
“We should reach the co-ordinations where the soldiers went missing by night-fall…”
“I hope we get the chance of a breather before we have to fight whatever it is we’ve got to fight………I’m getting a blister, look”
Buffy held out her hand, Spike could see an angry pink swelling across her palm and the inside of her thumb.
“It’s the machete handle rubbing you…here, wrap this around your palm, it’ll help mop up some of the sweat…”
Spike handed her a handkerchief.
“See, I told you there was nobody else I’d rather have with me than you…shall we get on?”
“If you’re sure you’re ready, pet”
They trudged on, slashing their way though, stopping to rest every hour for a few minutes for water and a breather.
It was getting darker, and Spike reckoned that they were less than half a mile from the co-ordinates, Buffy bought her machete swishing through a thick vine and was just about to walk forward, when all of a sudden she was confronted by a HUGE loop of snake body dangling down…this body part was rapidly followed by it’s head, tongue lashing out smelling the air barely inches from her face
“DON’T MOVE A MUSCLE!” Spike hissed, and Buffy froze.
The one loop of snake body was soon joined by another, and another…this was one huge snake all right, it’s body as thick as a good-sized tree trunk!
“It’s an anaconda………”
Without moving, Buffy whispered,
“They aren’t poisonous, right?”
“Right…they just eat you whole after crushing you – this bugger looks like he could eat an elephant, sideways………right, when I say, you slowly sink to your knees, and crawl away fast as you can”
“But what about –
“Now – go on, do it!”
Buffy dropped and crawled, Spike, never taking his eyes off the snake’s head rapidly limboed under it and they didn’t stop crawling for a good twenty yards
Buffy hauled herself against a tree, heaving for breath, Spike joined her
“Phew…that was close…god that thing was HUGE!”
Spike looked round, saw that where they were, was quite suitable to set up camp for the night.
A howler monkey came bounding past them, and Spike quickly set about building a fire to keep any nosy animals away. Buffy set the radio up and contacted base-camp.
“Base-camp 1, Base-camp 1, this is Laser-Blazers, come in please, over” Buffy waited for the reply, but there was none.
She reset the co-ordinates, made sure the small satellite dish was completely open, and tried again
“Base-camp 1, Base-camp 1, this is Laser-Blazers, come in please, over”
She let the communication switch go and the radio crackled into life
“Laser-Blazers this is base-camp 1, we read you loud and clear, over”
“We’re holing up for the night, no major incidents, well, except for the fact that I disturbed the biggest anaconda in the world…we make it about 500 yards from ground zero co-ordinates, over”
“Laser-Blazers, that’s a positive, you are right on target, get some rest, good luck – oh, you’re um, boss wants to speak with you, over”
Buffy frowned and mouthed ‘boss?’ to Spike, but they both smiled when they heard Giles being told how to use the radio…
“Okay, got that, um Buffy – I mean Laser-Blazer…you be careful - we’re all here thinking of you…b-both of you, okay?…Buffy, are you there?”
“Yes, you’re supposed to say over when you’ve finished speaking, over!”
“Oh, right sorry. Over”
“We’ll be fine Giles ……tell ‘em at HQ to get some pineapple for my pizza for when I get back, okay, over”
“Will do…well goodnight…over”
“Night Giles, over”
“Laser-Blazers this is base-camp 1 signing off, Sgt Tucker is on first watch, goodnight both, over and out”
“Thankyou base-camp 1, goodnight, over and out”
When Buffy stood, she was impressed to see that Spike had set up a hammock, covered in mosquito net and tarpaulin, and was now crouching over the fire stirring a pot that smelt delicious.
“Hmm…something smells good!”
“Beef curry this time…there was lamb casserole or chicken curry – not much variety, sorry”
“Hey, s’ great… can’t exactly expect Domino Pizza to deliver out here, can we!”
“This’ll be ready in a few minutes”
After they had eaten, they sat by the fire for a while, Spike made sure to build it up well so it would last until morning.
Buffy tumbled into the hammock, Spike right behind her, and they both fell asleep instantly – the ravages of the day taking it’s toll.
They’d been asleep roughly two hours when Buffy was startled awake by a terrific noise.
Spike raised his head
“What is it babe?”
“Nothing…thunder that’s all” She slowly lay back down, trying to get comfortable again…
They both went back to sleep. About an hour and a half later, it was Spike’s turn to wake with a jolt, and when Buffy woke and saw Spike game-faced, she waited and watched him, then there was this huge loud noise, this time it wasn’t thunder – it sounded like a pride of lions all roaring and a heard of elephants all trumpeting at the same time…
“What the hell was…?” Buffy began
Spike let his demon melt away and he said,
“I don’t know pet…but it wasn’t thunder that time”
*****************
“What’s the ti – oh! – Oh my god – look, Spike, LOOK!”
“Fuckin’ Hell – did you feel THAT!”
“Feel it - Did you SEE it’s foot? Must have been six foot long at least…oh god, just how big is this thing?”
“I thought there was an earthquake the ground was shaking so much…come on kitten, best get to it – with any luck, it’ll have spent the night feeding and hopefully it’s going home to rest now!”
“I better radio in, tell base-camp what we’ve seen”
“Okay pet, I’ll pack our stuff away”
*****************
“Ready?”
“Yeah, um, can you help my hoist the backpack up a bit………thanks” Spike grabbed the shoulder straps and pulled up so it was a little higher on her back.
“So what did they say at base when you told them what we’d seen?”
“Told us to take care, and for me to take a good aim”
“Amen to that…ready then kitten?”
Buffy picked up her machete from where she’d stuck it upright at the ready in the ground, weighted it in her hand and nodded
“As I’ll ever be – lets go waste this beastie”
About 400 yards in, Buffy became aware of a horrible stench
“Ew gods, I’m gonna be sick – what IS that god-awful SMELL?”
Spike looked around and then he frowned at what he saw, a maggot-ridden lump of flesh, it looked like the remains of a wild pig, he could see the tusks
“Just don’t look down pet…”
“That’s better………oh look!”
Buffy swished her machete and as the vines came tumbling down in front of her she could see a small clearing up ahead – although there was still plenty of canopy cover luckily.
“Shh…can you hear that?” Spike whispered
“What is it do you think?”
“I think………(he turned game-face, as his senses were heightened as a vampire)………yes, (he shook his demon away) it’s it breathing”
“What we need to do, is to try and see it without it seeing us, set up the laser and fire” Buffy whispered, and Spike nodded in agreement.
Leaving everything but their machete’s and the laser behind, they made their way towards the sound of the noise as quietly as they could.
Seemed nothing else in the jungle wanted to be quiet, howler monkeys howled, birds called and everything else seemed to want in on the act as regards noise.
Trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, Buffy and Spike forged their way nearer and nearer to the source of the noise that was getting louder
Spike cut another vine blocking their way, and when it fell, clearing the path for them, he half turned and stayed Buffy with an outstretched arm. She looked up and saw what appeared to be a gigantic lizard like creature, dark greenish with scaly skin and huge back legs, if she hadn’t known they were extinct, she would have said it was a dinosaur – a brontosaurus, but without the long neck and a bigger head.
Spike wafted his hand towards the right, and both he and Buffy as quietly as they could started to move to the right to get the perfect shot to the head.
After taking a dozen steps to the right, Buffy stopped and Spike looked at her, then the creature, nodding his approval.
Buffy silently knelt and drew the weapon, setting up the stand and switching it on – she knew the laser would make a little beeping noise so she tried to time it to when there was a loud bird call. The laser was ready, and the creature didn’t stir
Spike backed away and came and crouched by her side
Buffy took a deep breath, lined her eye up with the site, got her finger ready on the firing button
She pressed and Spike watched a white beam shoot out in a perfect straight line, straight into the centre of the lizard’s skull, for a full ten seconds.
It’s eyes opened terrifyingly wide, it’s huge legs paddled the air and it let out an agonised roar, it’s tail thrashing around, just missing them, and then it was still and silent
Buffy shifted the site and trained it on the heart part of the chest, and fired again for five seconds, but the creature was dead.
She put the gun down and they hugged
“You did it babe!”
“Yeah…shall we take a closer look?”
Carefully they crept towards the creature – there was a funny burnt smell about, so Buffy didn’t want to hang around.
Spike took some photographs, and hacked off a small piece of tail for analysis, putting it in a jar an slipping it in his backpack.
“What the hell was it do you think?” Buffy asked, kicking the dead creature with her boot.
“No idea pet…I’ve got a bit of it for them to – oh look…”
“What?”
“Army dog-tag…must have come from one of the soldiers”
“Here’s another one…and there’s something else…a watch”
“Lets take them back with us, something to give the families or whatever – can you see anything else?” Buffy shifted dirt with the toe of her boot, looked around and shook her head. Spike had a quick glance around and then he said,
“Well pet, mission accomplished, shall we be making tracks?”
“Yes, I’ll radio ahead and tell them that the mission was successful, and we’ll press on for base-camp”
Spike tidied up their ‘camp’ while Buffy radioed base-camp, he could hear the joyous whoops and hollering of everyone back at base over the radio and grinned.
Buffy packed up the radio, slid it into it’s holder at her waist and declared herself ready, they moved off, trying as much as they could to taking the same path as they’d used coming, for two reasons, one, it was already cleared, and two, they knew they were going in the right direction without having to keep stopping and checking with the compass.
It began to get dark, and they could hear rumbles of thunder above them, then they were caught in a tropical monsoon, and had to veer off track to take shelter, as the heaviness of the rain bought all sorts of things crashing down from the jungle canopy – tree limbs, coconuts – size of basketballs they were, in their spongy green outer shell, and could knock you out if they fell on your head.
The downpour lasted twenty minutes, then everything just dripped, including Buffy and Spike!
“Shall we press on pet?”
“Yeah…come on” She picked up her backpack, and hoisted it on her back, Spike helped her to adjust it and reached for his own, not seeing the small red and yellow snake winding it’s way around one of the straps.
“Sooner we get –OW - what the FUCK was – Buffy – don’t move!” Spike flung his arm out and she saw the small snake drop from his hand.
“SPIKE! Oh god, that’s a deadly poisonous one, isn’t it – let me think, what did Sgt thingy say…red and yellow, kill a fellow, red and black, venom lack…
She looked terrified until Spike bought his machete down and severed the snake in half where it writhed and curled up on itself
“Bastard thing got me – I didn’t see it!” Spike examined his hand
“Let me look” Spike showed her. Between the base of his thumb and index finger Buffy could see two small puncture holes.
“Will you be alright?”
“Should be, lets press on”
“But, your hand?”
“I’ve no circulation pet, the poison won’t go anywhere – lets get going”
Buffy looked worried until Spike reassured her giving her hand a little squeeze.
“Okay, if you’re sure, but tell me if you feel funny and we’ll” – BANG (sound of a gunshot) and Buffy disappeared down a fern covered hole
“ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!”
Spike looked at a bush and saw a still smoking gun, obviously an old booby-trap, and cried out frantically,
“BBBBBBBUUUUUUUFFFFFFFFYYYYYYYYYYYYY!” He heard a swishing noise, and turned to see a large tree-trunk tied in the middle swishing in an arc towards him. Before he could react, it caught him straight between the shoulder blades and knocked him down the hole too……………
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