Indy and the Amazonian Shroud (Part 7)

The remainder of the night and early morning went by uneventfully. Indy and Rick had resigned themselves to their current situation until HOPEFULLY something presented itself. They had tried to run but ended up in more immediate danger on their own in the Amazon then they were with their captors. It seemed their captors recognized their resignation as well, and had eased up on the them, feeling confident that they had no plans of attempting another escape. Indy and Rick were given some more food and water and, unfortunately, some fresh ropes. The natives were at least fair enough to wrap some cloth around the men's wrists before tying them back up to help relieve some of the pain and irritation from the ropes.

They marched through the rain forest, along the river, well into the day, stopping periodically for water or to give Rick a chance to get back to his feet. At some point, around mid-morning, they stopped. They were in front of a stone pyramid structure, covered in vines and moss, and dilapidated from what looked to Indy like centuries of being given over to the wild. Indy knew immediately where they were and why his future self had not warned him about being captured. This temple had never been discovered, or else it would have been cleaned up and there would be archeologists and explorers here, not natives. They were at the hidden temple, this was the destination they were looking for. Whether Serone had ever been here or knew anything about this place still seemed unlikely, but they had to go with Serone and get captured by the natives to get here, and had they known, it might not have gone down the same way, butterfly effect and all that shit.

"Hey Indy," Rick interrupted still trying to catch his breath from their march, "You seeing this? This temple doesn't look like it's ever been discovered. You think this could be the temple we're looking for?"

"Yeah, Rick, I think it is."

"Maybe that's why your future self didn't tell you about us getting kidnapped, like if we knew, maybe that would have messed it up, ya know, butterfly effect and all that shit."

"Yeah, Rick, I think you're probably right."

They were there, but what now? How would they get in, how would they get away? It wasn't important at the moment, and before he could think much more about it, they were greeted by two natives that stepped out of the temple. These men were dressed in what looked like some kind of ceremonial garb. Their faces and bare chests were painted with white and red stripes, they were each wearing a headdress of red feathers and white flowers with similar feathers and flowers around the waste of their loin cloths. Their ankles and wrists were wrapped in copper bells. They each carried a spear decorated with red and white paint and adorned with feathers and flowers the same as the men wielding them. Indy knew this gear and knew what they were in for.

"Rick, this is a funeral."

"Hopefully, not a funeral for us, Indy!"

"No, they wouldn't have a ceremony like this for us, it's a leader, someone important to their tribe."

"Oh, well then why did they invite us to the party? I didn't even know the guy."

Indy was worried that he knew the answer, and the answer meant they were in deep shit.

They were lifted up and the men led them inside with the point of their spears in Indy and Rick's backs. They were led inside the temple through a small opening in the side. They had to duck their heads to get through the opening, but once they had gone through, the space opened into a very large room. There were torches along the walls, and more natives inside, standing guard, holding torches. In the middle of the room was a stack of wood that Indy immediately recognized.

"Indy," Rick whispered, "is that a..."

"Yes Rick, it's a funeral pyre."

They were stood alongside the pyre, and then they heard a drumbeat start. The people in the room started dancing around the pyre as the music got louder and faster, the energy in the room was reaching manic levels, the natives were dancing fast to the point that they seemed to simply be convulsing, and the drumbeat was very rapid and very loud. And then it all stopped. Four men emerged from an opening in the other side of the room. They were carrying a body, it was covered in an ornate sheet. They laid the body in the middle of the pyre on a flat area clearly reserved for the body.

Indy understood what was going on. This was some high ranking member of their society and his body was going to be burned according to the tribe's tradition. This would usher his body into the next life.

"oh shit, Rick, we gotta get outta here!" Indy yelled to Rick.

"I know Indy, but we already tried, we go back out there and we're getting eaten by a friggin amazon crocodile!"

Indy didn't feel the need to correct Rick that it was a black caiman, he was too distracted by the very near events that he knew were about to happen.

"Rick, it doesn't matter, we've gotta take our chance. You see that pyre?"

"Yeah."

"Well, next to the kings body, on either side, what do you see?"

"Two poles with ropes."

"Yeah Rick, those are to tie us to! They're going to sacrifice us with their king to be his guards to usher him into his kingdom in the next life!"

"Oh shit, Indy, we gotta get outta here!"

"Exactly my point!" Indy replied now that Rick finally got the gravity of the situation.

Indy knew that the shroud was in this temple. It was the only thing that made sense of why his future self hadn't warned him about all this. He also knew that a very long time ago Amerigo Vaspuci had used the shroud to save his own skin in a very similar situation which is how the damn thing had ended up here in the first place.

He began to yell, "Don't do this! We can save him! Don't kill us! We can bring your king back to life!" He was hit in the back of the head and knocked unconscious.

He awoke with his body hanging from ropes tied to his hands above his head. He looked to his right and there was the king's body, and there was Rick.

"No guys, you don't get it, we can save this dude! You kill us and he dies, you don't want that, do you? Come on, let's be reasonable here." Rick's tone was more friendly and less frantic than Indy, so he didn't get knocked out, but he was ignored and tied up none-the-less.

The natives were done tying up the two men so they moved to prepare the king's body. They removed the sheet from the body, and there it was, the Shroud of Turin, only maybe 5 feet away from Indy, but he had no way of getting it or getting out of this situation, so close but it looked like he might come up short on this last adventure. Still, at this point he had made peace with it. He understood that he would never be happy settled down, he needed the thrill of the adventure, and if he was going to die, it was better to do so in the middle of the Amazon, being sacrificed on a funeral pyre for a tribal king then it was to die in a hospital bed alone, bored and just waiting.

Rick had not quite accepted the inevitable yet and was still trying to reason with the tribesmen. "Guys, look, you've got the hanky on the guy's face, just let us say the magic words and in a couple days he'll pop right up, good as new! If the boss finds out you let him die when we could have brought him back, he's gonna be so pissed, he'll probably haunt you, or come back to life in 500 years and terrorize your kids, that shit happens all the time, trust me!"

It seemed like maybe Rick's pleas were working, two of the men were whispering to each other and then one walked up to each of them, Rick and Indy, with a knife. They were going to cut them loose and let them save the king, thank God!

"What the hell!" Rick yelled out and at the same time Indy was cut by the man who had walked over to him. They had both been cut on the side of their chests. It wasn't deep but it hurt like hell. "You guys are about to set us on fire, why add insult to injury by cutting us open first?!"

The men, knelt in front of Rick and Indy and cupped their hands, they collected the blood that was flowing from their wounds. After they had collected enough for their purposes, they walked over to their dead king and rubbed the blood on his chest. They removed a chain of gold from his neck, the chain had a talisman on it, it was the image of an anaconda. Then, with what was left of the blood, they walked up to a younger man, put the chain around his neck, and rubbed the blood on his face. Indy should have seen this coming, it was part of the ritual. The blood tied Indy and Rick to the king, so he would know they were his guards in the afterlife, sorta like a really gross and painful airport sign. The young man that received the remaining blood and the anaconda talisman was the new king, this was his right of passage to the thrown. Their blood being in them, and on the dead king, and now on the new king, tied them to this new king, to protect him in the spirit realm from the enemies in the afterlife that might try to attack him. Rick and Indy were, in a way being sacrificed for him as well.

Indy was getting lightheaded. he was concerned he would lose consciousness and likely never wake up. "Rick, don't pass out!"

Rick was lolling back and forth with his entire weight on the ropes around his wrists. "Ok Indy, but I'm not feeling so hot. What's the plan?"

Indy couldn't think clearly, he was getting dizzy, and it was hard to hold weight off his wrists that were still incredibly raw and painful from their trip to the temple. Then he realized. "Rick, focus on the pain in your wrists, don't fight it, it'll wake you up, make you more alert!" He leaned forward, it was excruciating, but it worked, his adrenaline and awareness spiked, he was very much alert. He knew he was about out of time, but he didn't really know what else to do, it seemed they were delaying the inevitable.

Four of the tribesmen went to the sides of the great room. They each took an unlit torch from against the wall. They each went to a small fire beside the pyre. They lit their torches in unison. They walked around the pyre. One of them stood at each directional point with their torches. The drums began again. the dancing began again. Indy was feeling woozy, his adrenaline wasn't holding him as well. Well, this is certainly going to be an epic end to an amazing life of adventure, here's to that last great journey." he thought to himself. The men on with the torches began to lower them to the pyre.

"STOP!!!" someone yelled from the back of the room. It was near the entrance that Rick and Indy had been brought in from. The torches were raised, four men with spears moved to the young man who had burst in to their ceremony, exhausted and bent over trying to catch his breath. "Please.... don't..... kill..... Dr Jones.... we can..... save...... your king....." the young man got out between breaths. he raised his head. The man was not from here, he was probably in his mid 20s and he looked to be of asian heritage. Indy looked up, through the haze of exhaustion and blood loss he squinted and thought "no, it can't be..." and then he whispered, "Short Round, is that you?" and then everything went black for Indy.

Short Round stood up, spears all pointing to him. He finished catching his breath and then began to speak the language of the natives. "please don't kill Dr Jones and his friend. They can use that cloth to save your king!" He looked over at Indy and saw he was unconscious. "Oh no, I'm too late!" He said to himself in English. The spears were brought closer to his chest and face. He went back to the native's language. "Please, let me help my friend! He's dying and he's the only one who can save your king."

"Why should we believe you?" One of the men replied.

"You have no reason. I have no proof, but this." He went to reach in his pocket. The men poked their spears into his chest, Short Round stopped reaching and put his hands out. "Please, just let me show you what I have!" The man who had been talking to him told the men to lower their spears. They looked at him for a moment as if to say "Are you seriously listening to this guy?!" and then lowered their spears.

Short Round reached into his pocket and held out a small gold chain with a talisman. It was the image of an anaconda. The new king clutched the same talisman as it hung around his own neck. He wondered how this could be possible? He nodded to the men surrounding Short Round. They stepped back. He walked over to Short Round. "I don't know what kind of magic you possess, but it is strong and it seems to be good magic, the kind that saves friends and saves lives, not the dark magic of deception and death. We will help you save your friends, and you will help us save our king, but any tricks and you all die."

"Please hurry! Bring me some water and clean cloths!" Short Round replied. They brought him the things he requested, he instructed them what to do and they went to work.

Two men cut Rick down. and lowered him gently to the floor. They tried to get him to drink some water. He coughed and spit it up, but it woke him. They wrapped a cloth around his wound to stop the bleeding.

Two other men did the same for Indy, Short Round was with them. They lowered him, and gave him water. He did not respond. "Don't, you fools, you're going to drown Dr Jones!" Short Round tipped Indy over and dumped the water out of his mouth. He cupped his hands and instructed the men to pour some water into them. They did and then he splashed it on Indy's face. Indy didn't respond. "No, no no! I'm too late!" He started slapping Indy's face and crying, between sobs he yelled out, "Wake up! You're my best friend! Wake up, Indy!" He stopped hitting Indy and simply laid his head on Indy's chest. He kept crying, saying how sorry he was for not getting there sooner.

"Calm down kid, I'm not dead yet." Indy said with a smirk. Short Round looked up at Indy's face in shock. "Now, you wanna tell me how you got all the way out here and talked these fine gentlemen into letting us live?"