Chapter 106 Cruel Motivation
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Harry, the pilot, screams back: "These gorges are too narrow, Captain! It will be impossible to land here!"
"We will lower them in pairs with the cable!"
"That sexy little lady must go first and then her dogs with harnesses."
Dexter speaks while standing up: "Okay, remember to come again in seven days. We will let you know by radio whether you must hoist us or come back later."
Emilie and Rene informed Hunter and Dexter and they decided to rather use the helicopter to look for the best place to start the search. They first should find the road blockade and follow the bush path to the log cabin. Hopefully, they will then find the wreck of the helicopter.
They found the helicopter wreck and followed the nearest stream and eventually the blind gorge. Over a few pools and further on up to this branch. They also investigated two other branches and even found more branches and decided to go back and start the search at the first split. They all hoped to see some trace of the children in the gorges but lady luck was against them.
They are going to start from here. This is the best place and the best way to be transported. With the helicopter, they can evade the dangerous forests. They suppose the woods are full of cannibals. They are all thankful that they were spared a trip through the dangerous woods.
Eventually, they have all been lowered and grab the last load coming down. Dexter's men gathered quite a lot of tractor wheel tubes and hand pumps from the barn. They plan to inflate them and bind them together with rope to navigate the deep pools. The search party now comprises Dexter and his best officers, Wilkens and Casey. Also the three troops, Daniel, Ryan, and William, who helped to free Emilie and Rene, and then Emilie, Rene, and Chloe.
The helicopter leaves and eventually its noise subsides in the distance. Sudden silence overwhelms them. The dogs enjoy the new surroundings and investigate each hole and bush excitedly. They lick up the fresh mountain water clearly in their element.
Hunter warns Chloe: "This place is full of snake nests with many trees and lightning-quick boomslange or tree snakes. Calm your dogs, Chloe, so that they stop sniffing in those bushes. If they meet a snake, it is tickets with them."
Chloe blows a code through her whistle that only the dogs can hear and they come and each sit down on one of the big, round, boulders next to her.
Hunter stares with his binoculars and scrutinizes every inch of the crest of the cliffs above and around them. Dexter divides the carry load evenly under the soldiers. Emilie and Rene stare in wonder at the beautiful, green, and lush surroundings. The quiet and tranquility are beyond spectacular were it not for their missing children. Now it feels overwhelming and ominous.
Hunter touches Dexter on the shoulder and gestures to something far above them when he passes the binoculars. Something there is too small to identify with the naked eye. Dexter looks and his heart jumps in his chest. From the shade of a dense clump of shrubs, three heads are peeping at them. Dexter returns Hunter's binoculars, takes off his rifle, and searches through his telescope. Eventually, he finds the faces and sees the dirty bloodiness around their eyes and mouths.
Cannibals!
Extremely worried he speaks: "It is cannibals! They probably heard the noise of the helicopter and became inquisitive. They now know we are here."
Hunter shrugs his shoulders. "I have the feeling the vertical cliffs and deep pools we saw from the helicopter, all the cliffs, and deep pools and the open spaces where the sun will torture them is key to our safety. I can bet you this part of the gorges is inaccessible for them."
"I hope you are correct, Major. I suppose we are encircled by monsters in the surrounding woods because they discovered us very quickly."
Chloe, Emilie, and Rene have, in the meantime, joined them and curiously Emilie asks: "What do you see and what are you discussing, Hunter?"
"We see cannibals who might have heard the helicopter and now peep at us from above. We suppose the cliffs, the deep, and the scalding sun in the open patches deter them. It is a good thing we can come and depart by helicopter."
Rene despondently shakes her head. "Where are we going to start? We have seen so many branches from the air."
"We are going to take this rightmost branch up to where the narrow slit in between the cliffs is hiding and that deep pool on both sides is the gate to the cave where Michael saw Billy and Kadin in his dream. They should be there or there would be signs that they were there."
Emilie and Rene's eyes twinkle ...
***
Joss glares menacingly at the vulnerable, half-naked troops on their knees. "How did the captain and major's journey start with all your vehicles stored in the barn?"
Dead silence. "Who is the pilot?"
Harry, a middle-aged man, slowly rises. "Where did they get off?"
"We took them with the Casspir. The captain wanted to save the helicopter's fuel for the flight back to the camp."
"Bullshit! Rambo, chose the strongest guy here amongst them."
Rambo points at a muscled soldier at the end of the row. "You, get up!"
The soldier looks like a top fit boxer. Marks on his eyebrows and nose tell of many hours spent in a boxing ring.
Joss grins: "Harry spun me a fairy tale. I'm now going to give you a chance one by one. I promise if I get licked by one of you, you will be free to go. Either you fight for your freedom or I will hurt you one by one until the brave Harry sings a true song."
Joss walks up to the muscled soldier and slaps him violently through the face. "Come, defend yourself. It is me and you now!"
The soldier staggers back before he slowly recovers. He looks at Leo and Rambo: "They will stop me."
Joss shakes his head from side to side and then looks at Rambo and Leo: "You know the drill. If he beats me up, they can go."
They nod in confirmation to the soldier.
The guy tries to surprise Joss by hitting an unsuspected, quick hook that hits Joss's chin with a thump but his head scarcely moves. It is securely anchored by massive neck muscles.
He grins: "Shame, is this your best?"
Amazed the troop looks at him but then plants a lightning-quick blow in Joss's midriff. He plucks his shoulders and uses his hips and uses the brute force of a well-trained boxer. The hit bangs when he strikes his target but he could just as well have punched a brick wall. Joss stands motionless like a pillar.
He grins at Harry: "His fate is in your hands. Your last chance or I'm going to hurt him badly."
Harry utters no word and only sees how the troop shoots out a straight right to Joss's chin but Joss moves like lightning out of the way, grabs his wrist, plucks his elbow straight, and with the palm of his other hand he breaks the elbow in a flash. Then he breaks the poor guy's knee with a Wing Chung kick. His joints dislodge with a snapping sound and then he yells because of excruciating pain.
Harry feels nauseous when he sees how the eyes of the healthy, strong man of a moment ago, evert to white as he loses consciousness.
Joss grabs the young, timid cry-baby, Ross. "This fucker is next. Where did you drop them and when are you going to fetch them?"
"No, wait! Just leave him. There is no landing place. I dropped them with a long cable. We arranged that I should get to them in seven days. They will let me know by radio whether they want to be hoisted or continue their search."
"How many are they?"
"Thirteen, with four dogs."
Rambo grins: "It is easy, Joss, they are doing the dirty work and we will detain them one by one when we hoist them up."
