Indy and the Amazonian Shroud (Part 6)

"Why the hell wouldn't I have told myself about this?" Indy was thinking as he got pushed down the jungle path. It didn't make any sense to him why a future version of himself wouldn't have let him know about this ambush or not to trust Serone. His doubts about this future version of himself were starting to really take over, maybe it was some mind trick this Rufus guy had played on him, making him think that he had come back to talk to himself because Rufus knew he wouldn't trust anyone but himself. Damn, why had he trusted that weirdo in the phone booth, why had he gone on this stupid fool's mission. After a life of adventures with narrow escapes, he couldn't just leave well enough alone and live out his last days in peace, he had to go back out, just one more time. He was like an addict for this shit, he was furious with himself.

The ropes around Indy's hands were old and rough, they had been tied as tightly as possible with his hands behind his back, but it seemed like they couldn't really cinch them up without them tearing. They were irritating his wrists, scratching, and whenever he tried to work his hands out, they were cutting into his skin. His wrists were red and bleeding a little. Flies and mosquitos were taking advantage of the free buffet. Indy thought that even if he lived through this, he'd probably end up with some new rare jungle disease that he was too old and frail to fight off. Just a few hours ago he felt young and virile, like the adventure had made him feel 30 years younger. Now he felt 30 years older, weak and sore. Sweating under the sun, the humidity and the grueling pace of the jungle march.

Rick wasn't fairing much better. He was feeling much worse, he had drank more than Indy the night before, putting back a couple beers for every one Indy drank, not heeding Indy's encouragement to drink some water, shouting nonsense about how he's "not as young as I once was, but as young once as I ever was!" to which Indy laughed at his foolhardy logic, but didn't force the issue. Rick was an adult, he could decide he wanted to deal with a hangover the next day if he wanted. Rick knew he would feel like shit when he woke up, but he didn't care, he was living for the moment, he couldn't have known he was going to spend the day being marched through the jungle as a prisoner to a native tribe. He thought, "honestly, I probably would have drank twice as much had I known!" He was also out of shape, the march was wearing on them both, but being overweight and living a mostly sedentary life behind a cash register did not prepare Rick for this heat, this pace and the oppression of this humidity. He kept stumbling as they pushed him along. If he fell, they'd yank him up the ropes. His wrists were in bad shape too.

The men were being herded through a very narrow, rough trail, made without the assistance of chainsaws or tractors, the trail took lots of ducking and stepping over and climbing on branches and exposed rock. The 4 tribesmen that had taken them could maneuver the trail deftly, as if they had taken it 100s of times, as surely they had, but their expectation of Rick and Indy to keep up was unrealistic. They realized this and tried to slow to a pace that would keep Rick on his feet, but they clearly wanted to get wherever they were going with great haste. Indy was realizing that they hadn't been taken simply as trespassers, they were going somewhere with a purpose, and he wasn't excited to find out where or for what purpose.

Rick fell again. He was breathing heavily, sweating even more. The natives poked him with their spears. "Hey fellas, I need some water and I need to take a piss, let's be reasonable here!" They poked him again, harder this time, and yelled something at him that neither he nor Indy understood the specifics of, but based on the situation it was probably something like, "get up, you fat fuck, we've gotta hurry!"

Rick got up on his knees, and stuck out his tongue, like he was panting, hoping to indicate that he needed water. They seemed to understand that, and provided a skin of water. They gave some to Rick, he drank up what he could greedily. They gave some to Indy, he was happy to have some as well, but didn't want to show how thirsty he was. He thought Rick was foolish, showing his cards so flippantly.

Then Rick pushed his pelvis forward, swinging back and forth, like a kid peeing in the snow with no hands. "I still gotta pee, guys, unless you want me to piss myself and stink up the joint!" They didn't understand his words, but they did get the gesture. They walked him to the side of trail, and one of them held a spear to Rick's back while the other untied his hands. Rick knew it would be stupid to try and escape, he'd be stabbed immediately. He unzipped his pants, took a leak, and then zipped up. Then he replaced his hands behind his back and they tied him back up. Indy noticed when they were tying him that they went a little too tight and it started to rip the rope, so they loosened it a bit.

Wherever they were going, they weren't going to make it that night. The natives set up camp. They gave Rick and Indy some more water and some plantain mash. The plantains were not as good as the ones they had enjoyed the day before, but both men were starving and devoured them greedily. The natives set up a fire, and night set in. Indy woke in the middle of the night, he nudged Rick. "Hey Rick", he whispered. "What, what is it!?" Rick woke with a startle.

"Rick, quiet!" Indy whisper yelled back. None of their captors stirred. That was a good sign. "I think I can get us out of here, turn around so I can get to your ropes."

"Indy, the more I try to work out of them, the more they dig into my wrists, they're already like hamburger, there's no way I'm squeezing out of these ropes."

"That's not what I'm doing, I'm going to tighten the ropes."

"What?! Why would you do that?"

"I noticed when they took them off earlier for you to pee, that when they put them back on, the ropes started ripping when they were too tight."

"Oh, nice! yeah, go ahead!"

"Alright, here goes." Indy said as he got his fingers around Rick's ropes, and then tried to lean forward.

Rick wanted to scream out, with his wrists all torn up, tightening these rough ropes into them was excruciating, but he held in the scream that wanted to escape. Indy leaned forward as hard as he could, but he couldn't get enough leverage. Rick realized and he started to lean the opposite direction. The Ropes dug into his wrists deeper. He felt like they were going to dig right through the bone. Finally, when he thought he couldn't take anymore, it snapped. and he was free. Nobody stirred. The sounds of the jungle at night were masking Rick and Indy's escape attempt. Rick shook the rope from his wrists and then he untied Indy.

"Ok, now what do we do?" He asked Indy.

"The river is right down there, I think it's our best bet. We'll grab a couple logs and try to float on them down the river until we get to some civilization." Indy replied.

It wasn't a great plan, but staying with these natives until they did whatever they were going to do to them was also not a good plan.

"Alright, lead the way." Rick said.

They got down to the river and found an old log on the shore, they pushed the log in and then with their upper bodies hung over the log, they pushed off and started kicking down the river. They were free.

"Hey Indy, look, an alligator!" Rick commented.

"It's a black caiman" Indy replied passively. Then he realized what Rick said, "Rick, where did you see the caiman?!"

"It's over there, but it's probably sleeping, right?" Rick asked, starting to feel a little concerned based on Indy's tone and question.

The Black Caiman was probably 50 yards ahead of them near the shore. It looked like a log floating down the river, like the one they were floating on, but you could see the armor plates on it's back. It was probably 12ft  long. "No Rick, caimans are nocturnal, and the black caiman is an apex predator. Here's the deal, we're not going to move, we'll let the river carry us past him. If we aren't moving he'll have no idea we're there, they can only sense movement, he'll think we're just a log going down the river."

"Alright Indy, I hope this works."

"Me too." Indy thought to himself.

The distance between them was closing, Indy and Rick were probably 20 yards out from the caiman at this point, but the caiman was starting to float away from shore, toward them.

"Indy, you seeing this?" Rick asked.

"Yes, just stay totally still, it won't attack if we just stay still."

They were about 10 yards out. The caiman was in their path. They would be lucky no to brush up against it, but even if they did, it shouldn't bother them, as long as they didn't move.

They were 5 yards out, they were likely going to run up on it.

They slid beside the black caiman. Their log rubbed up against the side of the animal. It didn't even register, after years in this river, it was probably used to being run into by logs and other debris floating down the river. Rick and Indy were still as statues. As the slow current slid them past the caiman, Indy looked right into it's eye, it looked right back at him, blinked it's third eyelid, the one that goes from front to back, leaving it looking at Indy with a cloudy eye, almost like a zombie. They kept going down the river, past the caiman, they seemed to be out of trouble.

Just then Rick screamed, "Oh shit, something is biting me!"

"Rick, stop, it's going to see us!"

"I can't stop, I'm being bit!"

The black caiman had turned back toward shore, but at the sound of Rick's flailing it whipped back around, it was headed right for them. "Swim, Rick!"

Indy kicked as hard and fast as he could. Whatever had been biting Rick had been scared away by the oncoming caiman, Rick realized what was going on and started kicking frantically himself. The caiman was closing in on them, it was probably 10 yards away, its tail whipping back and forth. Rick and indy kept kicking, but the caiman was advancing on them. It hissed and opened its mouth. It was less than 5 yards away. it lunged forward, and snapped its jaw shut. Indy had kicked his leg at just the right moment or else it would have been inside the caiman's giant jaw. he wouldn't be so lucky with the next bite, he was sure. The caiman opened again and again it lunged, this time it was going to come down on Indy's arm, but in the middle of its lunge forward, it just fell flat. Its jaw fell shut, and it fell behind Indy and Rick. As Indy and Rick looked back to see what had happened, they felt their log try to yank away from them, they both tightened their hold to not be thrown off. They turned back forward to see what had happened. The natives had fashioned a hook, grabbed the log with it and were hauling them back to shore. Indy and Rick looked at each other. Both men were thinking the same thing, they weren't any safer lost in the Amazon then they were with their native captors, and so they didn't try to get away. The men got them to shore and tied ropes around their wrists. They didn't even seem angry, just amused. They were laughing at Indy and Rick.

One of them walked over to Rick and Indy, He reached for Rick's shoulder, to which Rick tried to duck away, but the man wasn't trying to hurt Rick, he just grabbed a fish that was suctioned onto Rick's shoulder and threw it back in the water while laughing. The fish was orange with yellow fins.

"Rick, you idiot. Was that what was 'biting' you?"

"Yeah, there were a bunch of them, they were ferocious, probably piranhas!"

"Rick, that's a magicarp! They can't even bite until they evolve into a Gyradose! It was probably just practicing!" Indy started to laugh himself, he knew it didn't matter, they were caught whether the incident with the caiman happened or not, but the fact that they almost died because Rick was "attacked" by a school of magicarp was just too perfect!

Rick laughed too, kinda embarrassed, but fully willing to laugh at himself, something he had learned as he got older, "Well, shit, it freaked me out!"

The natives got them back on the trail, they were going to carry on by starlight since everyone was wide awake at this point. Where they were going Indy had no idea, but he'd find out soon, and then the laughing would be over.