Indy and the Amazonian Shroud (Part 13)

The three men walked through the center door. It led down a long corridor. Fully on their guard, they proceeded. Indy in the front with a torch, Short Round in the middle, and Rick taking up the rear with the other torch. Indy strained his eyes to see what dangers were ahead. He was nervous. He had told himself to take the center door, but the guard who helped him through had seemed to be convinced that he should take any door but that one. How his future self knew which door he should take, he couldn't quite wrap his head around, whether he had tried the other doors and failed in the past or whether the loop of him going back to tell himself created new knowledge from thin air, he couldn't really quite determine, but it hurt his head to try and work through it. Assuming they lived, he'd have plenty of time to get to the bottom of it, and if they didn't live, it wouldn't really matter anyway.

As he was thinking about these things and trying to see through the darkness, the three men came to an opening.

He stopped and put his arm out to stop the other two. "Ok, hold up, let me look around before we move forward." He poked his head out, looking around. This tunnel had led them to a big open room probably deep under ground. but it looked mostly abandoned. He held his torch to the left and saw torches lining the walls, he figured he might as well try to light them, since anything in here would be at an advantage anyway if he was holding the only light in the room, so it seemed worth the risk of making their presence fully known, since they were probably heard coming down the tunnel by anything that might be down here anyway. he lit the torches, they were in a series, and each torch lit the torch next to it until there was a ring of light around the whole room. indy looked around the room, he didn't see anything. He stepped into the room and turned around to tell Rick and Short Round to come out. "Everything looks ok, come..."

Just then a giant anaconda swung down from some hidden corner in the room and wrapped Indy up. The anaconda began squeezing the life out of Indy. "No Dr Jones!" Short Round shouted as he ran out of the tunnel and jumped on the snake. The anaconda whipped it's head around to try and bite Short Round. In the tussle Short Round went flying just before the snake could land it's teeth into him. This distraction was just enough for the snake to loosen it's grip on Indy, not totally letting him go, but enough that indy caught his breath and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small pocket knife. he got his hands free just as the snake turned it's attention back to him. It squeezed again. Indy didn't think he could handle much more, his ribs would crack before long and then a lung would get punctured and he'd be snake food. he spent his whole life afraid of snakes, and in a very morbid way, his fears were finally totally vindicated, but of course he wouldn't have the chance to live to say "I told you so!" to anybody!

As Indy was beginning to feel lightheaded from lack of air, the snake loosened again. Rick had come into the room, and found a broken piece of rock that he chucked at the goliath snake. It hit the anaconda right in the head, distracting it from the meal it was trying to make of Indy. Trying to regain his bearing, Indy knew that if the snake put its attention back on him, this would likely be the last time, his body could not take another constriction, he knew that his ribs would crack for sure this time. So, he opened the small blade on the knife, and knowing full well that such a small poke wouldn't be fatal, or really anything more than an annoyance to the beast, plunged it into the black scales as hard as he could. His blade was sharp and the attack was true, plunging the entire 2.5 inches of the blade into the snake, then with a quick twist, let the snake know that something was there. It was enough, the snake didn't know what had happened, but it didn't like it, it flung Indy against the wall. He hit his head against the rock and laid there.

"Dr Jones!" Short Round yelled.

Indy didn't respond.

Short Round started to run toward Indy, the anaconda whipped its tail around and connected with Short Round, throwing him to the floor. As its attention was focused on Short Round, Rick went in for another hit with the boulder. He was quick, surprising even himself. In what couldn't have been more than a couple seconds he had retrieved the boulder and picked it up to swing at the giant snake, but just then the snake turned it's head back to Rick, lunging in for a bite, Rick fell back trying to avoid its teeth but in so doing dropped the boulder on his own head. He was bleeding from a cut on his head and struggling to stay conscious. The anaconda turned back to Indy, clearly having its heart set on eating its original prey. Indy lay there, still totally unconscious. Short Round got up and ran over to Rick.

"What are we going to do?! We have to stop that monster from eating Dr Jones!?"

Rick looked around. His vision was a little hazy, but years of being drunk most of the time had gotten him used to thinking through the haze.

"Ok, I've got an idea kid."

What is it, tell me Mr O'Connell!"

This was the first time that Short Round had addressed Rick by name. Rick noted it. He smiled a little. "Ok, I've got a small bottle in my pocket." Rick handed the bottle to Short Round.

Short Round took the bottle. How it hadn't broken before now was anybody's guess, but it stood to reason with Rick's passion for spirits that he was probably guarding this bottle with his life.

Rick ripped a strip of cloth off his sleeve. It wasn't too difficult, the shirt was pretty tattered from all the action it had seen in the last couple days. "Ok kid, take the cover off that bottle and then stick this cloth in it. Leave some sticking out."

Short Round complied. In the meantime the snake had made it's way over to Indy. For whatever reason, maybe because indy was out, it had picked him up, but was not squeezing him too tightly. It looked about ready to come down on Indy's head to start the process of working Indy down its gullet, Rick threw some small rocks at it. It didn't drop Indy, but it moved away from Rick. That was ok, Rick was just trying to buy time.

"Ok, go light that on one of the torches, and throw it at that big bastard, and get the hell out of the way, that's 150 proof liquor, it's gonna go up quick!"

"But it could hit Dr Jones!"

"Well, hopefully you've got good aim!"

Short Round went over to a torch on the wall. He stood there, he knew once he lit it, he had to throw it, but he was terrified of hitting Indy.

The snake was fully focused on Indy, it was totally unaware of everything else in the room. It lifted it's giant head, it was hauling back to bite down on Indy, it was now or never.

"Kid, it's now or never!"

Short Round lit the cloth and chucked the bottle at the snake. Just as it was about to hit, the alcohol exploded and the snake got covered in burning alcohol and glass shrapnel! It hissed and immediately dropped Indy. It had no idea what was going on and it coiled and then sprung up. Indy, laying on the floor, began to open his eyes. He couldn't really see clearly, but it looked like he saw a giant black snake flying through the air, and then smash through the ceiling and then light was flooding in. He thought he must be dreaming. Maybe he was dead. He had heard that when you died, you saw a bright light. This was bright alright. It seemed the more his vision cleared, the brighter it got. His eyes hurt. Were your eyes supposed to hurt when you were dead? That didn't seem right. And then there was something blocking the light, or actually two somethings, and they were making noise. At first the sound was as blurry as his vision, but it slowly started to take shape and form words

"Indy, buddy, are you ok?"

"Dr Jones, Dr Jones, please don't be dead, we need you!"

"Short Round? It looks like you've saved my ass again."

Indy sat up.

"Oh Dr Jones, I'm so glad you're ok! I would love to take all the credit, but Mr O'Connell actually came up with the idea."

Rick smiled at Short Round. "Thanks kid, but you did all the heavy lifting."

"Hey, I'm glad you guys are buddies now. Glad my near death experience brought you together, but what the hell is going on?" Indy asked as he picked a piece of glass out of his cheek. "Did I just see a flying snake? I don't want to live in a world with flying snakes!"

"I don't know if it was flying, but it definitely wasn't trying to stick around!" Rick laughed. "And, hey, it looks like it provided us a way out of this place."

When the anaconda had sprung away from them, it had broken through the ceiling of the room, and left an opening that Indy, Rick and Short Round could escape through. Indy looked around. There was no other exit. It looked like it was good the snake had broken through, or they'd be trapped in here.

"Ok, well, let's get out of here, and if I run into my future self again, I'm gonna bust me in the chops for leading us into that snake den! What the hell was I thinking?!"