Main Page: Indiana Jones and the Monkey King
Previous: Chapter Eleven
Previous: Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Indiana Jones, armed with a shield, sword, and pistol, led his troops forward.
Oberleutnant Werner von Mephisto rode in the front Jeep, which was mounted with a large recoilless machine gun. The entire Nazi army was behind him. Mephisto’s Jeep began to cross the drawbridge, moving toward Indy and the others. The machine gun opened fire on them.
Bullets bounced from Indy’s shield. Several pygmies were hit. An angry pygmy threw his spear through the machine gunner’s heart.
The Jeep continued forward, straight for Indy, who leaped onto its hood. His troops split into groups and dashed around the speeding vehicle to battle the oncoming Nazis.
Indy crawled along the Jeep hood as bullets from Mephisto’s gun zipped through the windshield and past his head. He grabbed the Nazi and pulled him over the windshield. They tumbled along the hood, struggling for the gun.
The Jeep directly behind Mephisto’s was filled with several crates of dynamite. Gutterbuhg, back in uniform, rode with three other Nazi soldiers. As the pygmy troops came forward, he extended his mechanical arm and killed several of them with large jolts of electricity.
Mephisto attempted to shoot Indy, but Indy pushed away his arm. The gun fired and hit the Jeep driver, who slumped over the wheel. The Jeep spun out of control and flipped over, sending Indy and Mephisto flying through the air. They tumbled to the ground as it crashed into a wall and burst into flame.
A shaken Indy got to his feet. Mephisto lay a few feet away, out cold. Suddenly, a blast of electricity sparked the ground between them. Indy turned and saw Gutterbuhg, now on foot, aiming his new mechanical arm. Another electrical shock ejected from his finger. Indy dove and the shock tore a smoldering hole through the building behind him, inches above his head.
Meanwhile, the Nazis unloaded the dynamite from Gutterbuhg’s Jeep. They unwrapped a long section of fuse from a large coil and placed it along the ground.
Indy ran for his life with Gutterbuhg in hot pursuit. The Nazi fired one electrical shot after another, thin lines whizzing by Indy’s head, arms, and legs.
***
Tyki and several of the pygmies had taken positions atop the city wall, showering arrows, spears, and poisonous darts down on the approaching Nazis, who fired back with machine guns and rifles. Scraggy and his crew members protected the gate with a large wooden catapult, which they hurriedly loaded with a huge ball of hay. A crew member torched the hay. Scraggy cried, “Fire!”
His men launched the fireball over the city wall. It landed directly on a speeding Nazi Jeep, which lost control and crashed into the side of a mountain.
A Nazi tank as large and monstrous as the first rolled up the ravine toward the city, its gun barrel aimed at the wall. On the mountain top, above the path, Clare stood with four gorillas, each tightly holding individual sections of a hanging vine. She looked to the opposite side of the ravine, where Betsy stood with another four gorillas.
The tank passed directly between them. Clare turned to her gorillas and made a series of grunts, moans, and hand motions. She hadn’t had much time to brush up, but she was confident the obvious context would help her get her point across. On the other side, Betsy sheepishly copied her.
The gorillas nodded. When the tank was directly below them, they swung onto it from their vines.
Hearing the thumping and scraping outside, the Nazi gunner looked into his periscope. He was greeted by the reflection of a snarling gorilla’s face. He screamed and jumped back.
With a sound of ripping metal, the tank’s top hatch was peeled away. Sunlight streamed inside, followed by the gorillas. They overpowered the Nazis in moments.
Betsy swung across the ravine go Clare. They exchanged a congratulatory handshake. Betsy’s face suddenly went white.
A group of Nazis had climbed to the mountain top and spotted them. Betsy and Clare dashed off, into the thick of the jungle, with the soldiers in hot pursuit.
***
Two large canvas trucks barreled along the mountain path. Kezure leaped between them and climbed onto the rear bumper of the first one. The driver of the second one leaned out the window and fired several shots, trying to hit him without running into the mountain. As bullets whizzed by him, Kezure hastily removed a thick metal chain from around his neck and connected the two trucks’ bumpers with it.
In the back of the second truck, Nazi troops were started as first one sword, then another and another pierced through the canvas and several soldiers. At least two dozen pirates leaped inside. They fought back with bayonets and daggers.
At the same time, two pirates burst into the first truck’s cabin and stabbed the driver before he could cry out. Cackling, they steered toward the steep edge of the mountain path. It plummeted into the shark-infested moat, dragging the attached second truck along with it.
***
The Nazis had planted an enormous pile of dynamite on the palace stairs, enough to destroy the entire city. It was attached to a long fuse that stretched hundreds of feet over various sections of the city. One of them lit the end. It sparked and ignited. They turned and fled.
Gutterbuhg continued to chase Indy, blasts of electricity shooting from his arm. Indy ducked and dodged, avoiding the jolts. He spun around a building corner and spotted the burning fuse moving up over a wooden fence. He dove and stomped it out. But Gutterbuhg, directly behind him, relit it with a shot of electricity. Before Indy could stop it again, he had to leap over the fence as Gutterbuhg took aim at him again. The fence splintered behind him.
Indy ran into a small alleyway. The burning fuse stretched up along the alley wall, moving to the rooftop. He climbed the ancient gold bricks that protruded from the wall, then avoided another blast from Gutterbuhg by leaping onto the roof. Gutterbuhg climbed after him, slowed a little by his mechanical arm.
When Gutterbuhg reached the rooftop, there was no sign of Indy, but the fuse had been put out. He relit it. At that moment, Indy emerged from the stone smokestack and jumped him. They tumbled and fell off the edge.
Indy and Gutterbuhg hit the ground and continued to struggle as the fuse burned in front of them, speeding toward the pile of dynamite less than fifty feet ahead. Indy rolled toward it and put it out with his hand, but just as fast, Gutterbuhg relit it.
Indy suddenly leapt to his feet and ran off in a different direction altogether. Gutterbuhg followed. They ran to a cluster of trees and Indy came to an abrupt stop between two of them. The Nazi paused a few feet away and smiled. He had the American trapped like a baby deer.
Gutterbuhg fired. Moving like lightning, Indy ducked and rolled out of the way, revealing a large lake behind him. The electrical current hit the water. The Nazi’s body surged with electricity. He shivered and shook, frozen as the powerful current flowed through his veins. Smoke billowed from every orifice. His mechanical arm exploded, and his charred body fell face down.
Indy jumped to his feet, suddenly remembering. The fuse had only inches left and he couldn’t get to it in time. He grabbed his whip and snapped it forward, slicing the remaining fuse in two. It fizzled and went out. Indy sighed and tried to catch his breath.
“Very smooth, Dr. Jones.”
Indy spun around to see Mephisto, bruised and bloodied from the Jeep accident, standing several feet away and pointing a Luger at him.
The Nazi eyed Gutterbuhg’s corpse with no more emotion than a motorist picking a bug off the windshield. “Good help is so hard to find these days,” he said. “A pity about my wasted investment, but you saved me the trouble of disposing of him myself.”
While he looked away, Indy pulled out his own revolver and fired, but the Nazi dashed away. Indy followed.
***
Tyki fought off the Nazis hard and fast with his sword, defeating many of them. But the sword was suddenly knocked from his hand. A troop advanced toward him, their eyes murderous.
“Fire!” Scraggy yelled. Another fireball flew over the city wall and landed directly on the advancing soldiers. Many of them caught fire while the others scattered. Tyki picked up his sword and rejoined his friends in the battle.
Clare and Betsy ran through the jungle, breathless and frightened, Nazis a few feet behind them and closing fast. The women turned a corner, scrambled through a section of bushes, and found themselves face to face with another troop of Nazis.
They stopped, surrounded. The soldiers made no move for their weapons. Instead they closed in on all sides with lecherous, hungry eyes.
Clare whispered to a trembling Betsy, “Do exactly what I do.”
Betsy nodded.
Clare looked to the sky and made a bizarre, high-pitched, undulating noise. Confused, Betsy cleared her throat and did her best to copy it. The Nazis paused and looked at each other in puzzlement. A few chuckled.
Then the exact same sound echoed back from the sky, louder and louder, from a hundred voices. The Nazis looked up and screamed.
A splattering of large green and yellow birds attacked from above, pecking, scratching, and biting. As Clare and Betsy continued to make the sounds, the birds ignored them. The Nazis dropped their weapons and fell to their knees as they were torn to shreds, clearing the way for the women to flee into the jungle, screams fading behind them.
“I made the sound of a baby Swandola bird, crying for help,” Clare explained. “The mother birds immediately respond to the cries and, well, you saw it.”
“I’m glad you got friends in high places,” Betsy said.
The two linked canvas trucks now resembled two sinking pirate ships as they floated crookedly along the shark-infested moat waters. Kezure and the pirates were in their element as they ran along the truck frames and fought off the Nazis with their swords. Every soldier who fell into the water quickly became a meal.
For a moment Kezure fell in himself, and the sharks closed on him. A few of his men froze and stared. Then he leaped from the water, holding a live shark in his hands, and landed back on a truck with enough force to crumple its frame and nearly submerge it altogether. He took a bite from the shark’s fin and tossed it back into the water. Blood spilled down his chin as he swallowed the raw meat.
Inside the tank, the crew was sprawled on the floor, unconscious and undressed. The gorillas had dressed themselves in the Nazi uniforms and commandeered the tank. Working together, they only took a few minutes to figure out the controls. With a lurch, they brought it into a tight U-turn and headed straight toward a second tank. The crew of this tank had only a few moments to be confused before a direct shot blew them to smithereens.
The gorillas broke into a cheer, jumping and screaming.
***
Indiana Jones walked across the coliseum floor, revolver in hand, looking for a sign of his adversary. But now the massive building was silent, deserted, and somehow more unnerving than when he’d been facing execution in front of a crowd an hour ago.
Mephisto snuck along the top wall, hiding behind the row of surrounding bells. He unlatched the chain that held them all in place. They fell and thundered down the coliseum stairs.
Indy clutched his ears against the nearly deafening sound of clanging bells echoing through the cavernous space. He turned to see them rolling toward him, like the world’s noisiest boulders, from all directions. He twisted, turned, and leaped to avoid them.
Mephisto watched from above, smiling.
As one bell drew much too close, Indy had no choice but to leap into the tiger pit. The bell rolled directly overhead as he fell five inches to land on the overhead metal bars. A few tigers looked up and licked their lips; most ignored him. They looked as though the bells had just awakened them from a nap.
Then silence once more as all the bells finished rolling. Above, one still teetered on the coliseum stairs, having not quite rolled off.
Indy started to climb out of the pit when another gunshot rang out. Indy felt a sharp pain in his chest and staggered backward, teetering on the bars, ready to fall into the waiting tigers who suddenly took a greater interest in him.
Mephisto walked down the stairs, his Luger smoking. Indy removed his gun and aimed, but his vision was blurring and his hand trembled. The bullet zipped past the Nazi and struck a section of wood below the teetering bell. Now the bell started its slow roll forward.
Mephisto paused at the edge of the tiger pit. Then, instead of shooting Indy, he lowered the Luger and delivered a swift kick to the archaeologist’s ribs. Indy fell through the bars, but his arm shot out and grabbed onto one. Now on full alert, the tigers growled and snapped at his dangling legs.
With a huge smile, Mephisto stepped on his fingers. Indy cried out.
Mephisto paused at the clanging sound growing louder behind him. He turned to see the giant bell coming straight at him and had no time to move before it rolled over him and knocked him into the pit, through the bars, into the midst of the hungry tigers. Within seconds, his screams were a memory.
Very weak, but taking advantage of the tigers’ distraction, Indy managed to grab the bar with his other hand and boost himself out of the pit. He took a few wobbling steps, then stumbled to his knees. He reached up to his chest and found more blood than he’d expected. I have to get out of here, have to help the others, have to save... to save...
Now darkness closed in at the edges of his vision, and the center grew brighter by contrast, until his surroundings gave way to white light. His eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the sand.
Next: Chapter Thirteen
Oberleutnant Werner von Mephisto rode in the front Jeep, which was mounted with a large recoilless machine gun. The entire Nazi army was behind him. Mephisto’s Jeep began to cross the drawbridge, moving toward Indy and the others. The machine gun opened fire on them.
Bullets bounced from Indy’s shield. Several pygmies were hit. An angry pygmy threw his spear through the machine gunner’s heart.
The Jeep continued forward, straight for Indy, who leaped onto its hood. His troops split into groups and dashed around the speeding vehicle to battle the oncoming Nazis.
Indy crawled along the Jeep hood as bullets from Mephisto’s gun zipped through the windshield and past his head. He grabbed the Nazi and pulled him over the windshield. They tumbled along the hood, struggling for the gun.
The Jeep directly behind Mephisto’s was filled with several crates of dynamite. Gutterbuhg, back in uniform, rode with three other Nazi soldiers. As the pygmy troops came forward, he extended his mechanical arm and killed several of them with large jolts of electricity.
Mephisto attempted to shoot Indy, but Indy pushed away his arm. The gun fired and hit the Jeep driver, who slumped over the wheel. The Jeep spun out of control and flipped over, sending Indy and Mephisto flying through the air. They tumbled to the ground as it crashed into a wall and burst into flame.
A shaken Indy got to his feet. Mephisto lay a few feet away, out cold. Suddenly, a blast of electricity sparked the ground between them. Indy turned and saw Gutterbuhg, now on foot, aiming his new mechanical arm. Another electrical shock ejected from his finger. Indy dove and the shock tore a smoldering hole through the building behind him, inches above his head.
Meanwhile, the Nazis unloaded the dynamite from Gutterbuhg’s Jeep. They unwrapped a long section of fuse from a large coil and placed it along the ground.
Indy ran for his life with Gutterbuhg in hot pursuit. The Nazi fired one electrical shot after another, thin lines whizzing by Indy’s head, arms, and legs.
***
Tyki and several of the pygmies had taken positions atop the city wall, showering arrows, spears, and poisonous darts down on the approaching Nazis, who fired back with machine guns and rifles. Scraggy and his crew members protected the gate with a large wooden catapult, which they hurriedly loaded with a huge ball of hay. A crew member torched the hay. Scraggy cried, “Fire!”
His men launched the fireball over the city wall. It landed directly on a speeding Nazi Jeep, which lost control and crashed into the side of a mountain.
A Nazi tank as large and monstrous as the first rolled up the ravine toward the city, its gun barrel aimed at the wall. On the mountain top, above the path, Clare stood with four gorillas, each tightly holding individual sections of a hanging vine. She looked to the opposite side of the ravine, where Betsy stood with another four gorillas.
The tank passed directly between them. Clare turned to her gorillas and made a series of grunts, moans, and hand motions. She hadn’t had much time to brush up, but she was confident the obvious context would help her get her point across. On the other side, Betsy sheepishly copied her.
The gorillas nodded. When the tank was directly below them, they swung onto it from their vines.
Hearing the thumping and scraping outside, the Nazi gunner looked into his periscope. He was greeted by the reflection of a snarling gorilla’s face. He screamed and jumped back.
With a sound of ripping metal, the tank’s top hatch was peeled away. Sunlight streamed inside, followed by the gorillas. They overpowered the Nazis in moments.
Betsy swung across the ravine go Clare. They exchanged a congratulatory handshake. Betsy’s face suddenly went white.
A group of Nazis had climbed to the mountain top and spotted them. Betsy and Clare dashed off, into the thick of the jungle, with the soldiers in hot pursuit.
***
Two large canvas trucks barreled along the mountain path. Kezure leaped between them and climbed onto the rear bumper of the first one. The driver of the second one leaned out the window and fired several shots, trying to hit him without running into the mountain. As bullets whizzed by him, Kezure hastily removed a thick metal chain from around his neck and connected the two trucks’ bumpers with it.
In the back of the second truck, Nazi troops were started as first one sword, then another and another pierced through the canvas and several soldiers. At least two dozen pirates leaped inside. They fought back with bayonets and daggers.
At the same time, two pirates burst into the first truck’s cabin and stabbed the driver before he could cry out. Cackling, they steered toward the steep edge of the mountain path. It plummeted into the shark-infested moat, dragging the attached second truck along with it.
***
The Nazis had planted an enormous pile of dynamite on the palace stairs, enough to destroy the entire city. It was attached to a long fuse that stretched hundreds of feet over various sections of the city. One of them lit the end. It sparked and ignited. They turned and fled.
Gutterbuhg continued to chase Indy, blasts of electricity shooting from his arm. Indy ducked and dodged, avoiding the jolts. He spun around a building corner and spotted the burning fuse moving up over a wooden fence. He dove and stomped it out. But Gutterbuhg, directly behind him, relit it with a shot of electricity. Before Indy could stop it again, he had to leap over the fence as Gutterbuhg took aim at him again. The fence splintered behind him.
Indy ran into a small alleyway. The burning fuse stretched up along the alley wall, moving to the rooftop. He climbed the ancient gold bricks that protruded from the wall, then avoided another blast from Gutterbuhg by leaping onto the roof. Gutterbuhg climbed after him, slowed a little by his mechanical arm.
When Gutterbuhg reached the rooftop, there was no sign of Indy, but the fuse had been put out. He relit it. At that moment, Indy emerged from the stone smokestack and jumped him. They tumbled and fell off the edge.
Indy and Gutterbuhg hit the ground and continued to struggle as the fuse burned in front of them, speeding toward the pile of dynamite less than fifty feet ahead. Indy rolled toward it and put it out with his hand, but just as fast, Gutterbuhg relit it.
Indy suddenly leapt to his feet and ran off in a different direction altogether. Gutterbuhg followed. They ran to a cluster of trees and Indy came to an abrupt stop between two of them. The Nazi paused a few feet away and smiled. He had the American trapped like a baby deer.
Gutterbuhg fired. Moving like lightning, Indy ducked and rolled out of the way, revealing a large lake behind him. The electrical current hit the water. The Nazi’s body surged with electricity. He shivered and shook, frozen as the powerful current flowed through his veins. Smoke billowed from every orifice. His mechanical arm exploded, and his charred body fell face down.
Indy jumped to his feet, suddenly remembering. The fuse had only inches left and he couldn’t get to it in time. He grabbed his whip and snapped it forward, slicing the remaining fuse in two. It fizzled and went out. Indy sighed and tried to catch his breath.
“Very smooth, Dr. Jones.”
Indy spun around to see Mephisto, bruised and bloodied from the Jeep accident, standing several feet away and pointing a Luger at him.
The Nazi eyed Gutterbuhg’s corpse with no more emotion than a motorist picking a bug off the windshield. “Good help is so hard to find these days,” he said. “A pity about my wasted investment, but you saved me the trouble of disposing of him myself.”
While he looked away, Indy pulled out his own revolver and fired, but the Nazi dashed away. Indy followed.
***
Tyki fought off the Nazis hard and fast with his sword, defeating many of them. But the sword was suddenly knocked from his hand. A troop advanced toward him, their eyes murderous.
“Fire!” Scraggy yelled. Another fireball flew over the city wall and landed directly on the advancing soldiers. Many of them caught fire while the others scattered. Tyki picked up his sword and rejoined his friends in the battle.
Clare and Betsy ran through the jungle, breathless and frightened, Nazis a few feet behind them and closing fast. The women turned a corner, scrambled through a section of bushes, and found themselves face to face with another troop of Nazis.
They stopped, surrounded. The soldiers made no move for their weapons. Instead they closed in on all sides with lecherous, hungry eyes.
Clare whispered to a trembling Betsy, “Do exactly what I do.”
Betsy nodded.
Clare looked to the sky and made a bizarre, high-pitched, undulating noise. Confused, Betsy cleared her throat and did her best to copy it. The Nazis paused and looked at each other in puzzlement. A few chuckled.
Then the exact same sound echoed back from the sky, louder and louder, from a hundred voices. The Nazis looked up and screamed.
A splattering of large green and yellow birds attacked from above, pecking, scratching, and biting. As Clare and Betsy continued to make the sounds, the birds ignored them. The Nazis dropped their weapons and fell to their knees as they were torn to shreds, clearing the way for the women to flee into the jungle, screams fading behind them.
“I made the sound of a baby Swandola bird, crying for help,” Clare explained. “The mother birds immediately respond to the cries and, well, you saw it.”
“I’m glad you got friends in high places,” Betsy said.
The two linked canvas trucks now resembled two sinking pirate ships as they floated crookedly along the shark-infested moat waters. Kezure and the pirates were in their element as they ran along the truck frames and fought off the Nazis with their swords. Every soldier who fell into the water quickly became a meal.
For a moment Kezure fell in himself, and the sharks closed on him. A few of his men froze and stared. Then he leaped from the water, holding a live shark in his hands, and landed back on a truck with enough force to crumple its frame and nearly submerge it altogether. He took a bite from the shark’s fin and tossed it back into the water. Blood spilled down his chin as he swallowed the raw meat.
Inside the tank, the crew was sprawled on the floor, unconscious and undressed. The gorillas had dressed themselves in the Nazi uniforms and commandeered the tank. Working together, they only took a few minutes to figure out the controls. With a lurch, they brought it into a tight U-turn and headed straight toward a second tank. The crew of this tank had only a few moments to be confused before a direct shot blew them to smithereens.
The gorillas broke into a cheer, jumping and screaming.
***
Indiana Jones walked across the coliseum floor, revolver in hand, looking for a sign of his adversary. But now the massive building was silent, deserted, and somehow more unnerving than when he’d been facing execution in front of a crowd an hour ago.
Mephisto snuck along the top wall, hiding behind the row of surrounding bells. He unlatched the chain that held them all in place. They fell and thundered down the coliseum stairs.
Indy clutched his ears against the nearly deafening sound of clanging bells echoing through the cavernous space. He turned to see them rolling toward him, like the world’s noisiest boulders, from all directions. He twisted, turned, and leaped to avoid them.
Mephisto watched from above, smiling.
As one bell drew much too close, Indy had no choice but to leap into the tiger pit. The bell rolled directly overhead as he fell five inches to land on the overhead metal bars. A few tigers looked up and licked their lips; most ignored him. They looked as though the bells had just awakened them from a nap.
Then silence once more as all the bells finished rolling. Above, one still teetered on the coliseum stairs, having not quite rolled off.
Indy started to climb out of the pit when another gunshot rang out. Indy felt a sharp pain in his chest and staggered backward, teetering on the bars, ready to fall into the waiting tigers who suddenly took a greater interest in him.
Mephisto walked down the stairs, his Luger smoking. Indy removed his gun and aimed, but his vision was blurring and his hand trembled. The bullet zipped past the Nazi and struck a section of wood below the teetering bell. Now the bell started its slow roll forward.
Mephisto paused at the edge of the tiger pit. Then, instead of shooting Indy, he lowered the Luger and delivered a swift kick to the archaeologist’s ribs. Indy fell through the bars, but his arm shot out and grabbed onto one. Now on full alert, the tigers growled and snapped at his dangling legs.
With a huge smile, Mephisto stepped on his fingers. Indy cried out.
Mephisto paused at the clanging sound growing louder behind him. He turned to see the giant bell coming straight at him and had no time to move before it rolled over him and knocked him into the pit, through the bars, into the midst of the hungry tigers. Within seconds, his screams were a memory.
Very weak, but taking advantage of the tigers’ distraction, Indy managed to grab the bar with his other hand and boost himself out of the pit. He took a few wobbling steps, then stumbled to his knees. He reached up to his chest and found more blood than he’d expected. I have to get out of here, have to help the others, have to save... to save...
Now darkness closed in at the edges of his vision, and the center grew brighter by contrast, until his surroundings gave way to white light. His eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the sand.
Next: Chapter Thirteen
