Part Six
There was a breeze, ever so slight, that creeped in from the ocean and pressed, unhindered, across the African plain and into the Zulu village where the three doctors and the pilot were emerging into the darkness of early morning. Wordlessly, they left Sisho's hut and trotted in a single file line to the far side of the village where the two trucks were parked along with the old, dirty bus. The quartet crouched behind the first truck they came to and listened. No sound disturbed the village except for the occasional flapping of skins used as doors or shutters on the huts. Using hand signals, Indy told Bruce to take the second truck while he , Henry and Elise took the first one.
"Nobody wants to ride with me?" Bruce asked in a raspy whisper.
"Are you kidding?" Indy whispered back, allowing himself a smile now that their goal was in sight. "Then we might SMELL like you, too."
Bruce smiled back. "Nice pants," he said, referring to Indy's shredded garments, even though he couldn't see them.
"Shouldn't we stay quiet?" Elise whispered. Suddenly, a low, mournful howl swelled from the village.
"Tarana's dogs..." whispered Bruce.
"Dammit! C'mon!" said Indy as he raced for the truck door. Everyone followed suit, with Bruce heading for the second truck.
"That doesn't sound like an alarm to me," Elise said as Henry opened the passenger door for her. "It sounds sad."
"It's still going to wake everybody up," Indy said, climbing into the driver's seat and using the orange light of pre-dawn to look around for the keys. He saw Bruce doing the same. Bruce looked over at him and shrugged. Indy checked the visor - nothing. He reached past Henry and Elise to check the glovebox - nothing. Finally, he found them under the seat. With a relieved grin, he held them up for Bruce to see, but Bruce had found his already and was holding his up for Indy... ony he wasn't looking at Indy. He was looking straight ahead. So was Henry... so was Elise. Slowly, expecting the villagers to be holding the machine guns on them, Indy turned to look out the front of the truck.
Another long, low howl weaved through the huts as the sun broke the horizon and lit the pile of carcasses in their path. Zebras, lions, wildebeasts and other plains animals both large and small - even an elephant - were just lying in the road. Indy looked around for another way out of the village and shivered through a moment of queaziness when he realized that the whole settlement was completely surrounded by dead animals. Scores of bodies lay on their sides and backs... piled on top of one another, forming a barrier five to eight feet high. A wall of death.
Henry opened his door and got out.
"Dad!" Indy whispered.
"Well you aren't just going to drive through them, are you?" was Henry's response. Elise followed him out of the truck. Indy glanced over at Bruce, who shrugged and got out as well. Indy joined them at the wall.
The animals were all the bony, starved creatures from the nearby plains. They did not leak blood, they did not yet smell... it was as if they had all gathered around the huts in the middle of the night, formed a perfect circle and then drifted off to sleep- permanently.
A twin huffing turned Indy's attention to the dogs walking up behind him. Their heads were low, their tails tucked under. Tarana followed them with an angry, wide- eyed stare at the spectacle. No one said anything for many moments as the dogs snuffled among the dead, whining. They made a rough, non- thorough circuit of the wall and returned to lay down at Tarana's feet. The breeze had picked up slightly and was fondling the ends of her wild, slept- on hair.
"Shaka," she said. It was what they were all thinking. Indy fought for an argument- something along the line of a veterinary coroner's report. Then, an explanation presented itself.
"Taranaaaaaaaaaaa!" called an ancient, booming voice. Henry looked up. Elise looked behind them. Bruce looked to Tarana, who was looking in the same direction as Indy, for both of them had heard this voice before.
Standing in his beat up Jeep, several hundred yards down the road from the village, was L' Araan Swakaywe, his long gray beard catching the breeze. He boomed in Zulu to Tarana, who appeared genuinely frightened. Although he couldn't translate, Indy knew what the basic jist was. Swakaywe was telling her this carnage was Shaka's doing. Indy felt sure that Swakaywe and his men, wherever they were now, had killed all these animals in the night... somehow.
A bleary- eyed Sisho appeared with several other villagers just then. They solemnly gazed at the animals and cast furtive glances to Swakaywe. Sisho confirmed Indy's suspicions about the wizard's allegations and translated Tarana's retorting that this was all his fault for trying to control Shaka in the first place. Swakaywe was to stay away from the village until after the rain fell.
"Shaka will not be bound by you!" Swakaywe called back. "He has bound you instead! You will not ever leave the village! Your arrogance will kill you! Give me the Spear of Zulu! I will save you!"
"No!" Tarana yelled. Her dogs growled their support. "You seek to make Shaka your slave and he will destroy you. Our ancestors will drag him back to the spirit world and refresh our own. This does not concern you. The spear will stay here and you will be gone!" With that, Tarana turned and marched back to her hut, her dogs trailing her. Swakaywe stared after her for a moment, then dropped down behind the Jeep's steering wheel and drove away.
"This is very bad," Sisho said. "Shaka has marked the entire village for death."
"Come on," Indy said. "Swakaywe and his men did this."
"As I recall," Sisho said, "Swakaywe's men were being subdued by lions the last we saw of them. And these... corpses... did not die by any natural means. Look, there is no blood."
"Good," said Indy, still focused on getting away. "I don't need anymore on me anyway. Help me move some of these so we can leave already."
"No!" Sisho stepped in front of Indy. "These bodies are cursed! Do not touch them!"
Indy sneered. He looked back at his father and Elise, who only looked back at him, worried. Bruce, however, was pulling on a pair of gloves and looking at Indy. Indy pulled his own gloves out of his hip- pack and put them on. "I'll just wear my curse- proof gloves, then."
"You will believe, Doctor Jones, when the ancestors reclaim Shaka and bring us rain."
"Sisho, it's going to rain anyway. That breeze is coming in off the ocean. These animals- look at them- they're dehydrated! They were no match for Swakaywe and his men last night, whatever they did to them." With that, Indy and Bruce grabbed a cheetah by the legs and tossed it to the side of the road.
"They were quite a match for you last night," Sisho said.
"That's what wore them out." Indy kept his back to Sisho as he and Bruce prepared to drag a zebra away.
Soshi watched them in silence for a moment before speaking. "The power of your denial is great and terrible," he said. "I hope you live long enough to disown it." The former concierge calmly walked away.
Henry watched him go with a growing uneasiness in his chest. Even if they left, what was going to happen here? The boy could be right. That breeze may well bring rain, but it may die out just as easily. He couldn't possibly be right about the old man and some servants bloodlessly killing all these animals and bringing them here in silence in the middle of the night, though...
"Dad, you wanna give us a hand?" Indy asked, having dislodged the zebra.
"I think you should listen to him," he said.
"What?" Indy stopped, letting the zebra's legs drop. Bruce held onto his pair.
"I think we should wait until after it rains," Elise said.
"But it's not goin-" Indy's hat lifted off on the increasingly strong wind before he could finish his retort. He caught it and shoved it down on his head. He looked at Bruce, who was willing to do whatever Indy wanted. He looked at Henry and Elise, holding hands and both a little frightened.
"Look," Indy said finally. "Why don't you two go back to Soshi's hut and Bruce and I will clear a path. We'll come and get you when we're ready to go." Henry wrapped his arm around Elise and complied.
Almost an hour later, Indy and Bruce stared at the prone elephant, trying to think of a plan. Indy was just remembering what he liked so much about Bruce, his silent, amiable agreement, when the pilot jumped on the bandwagon.
"I don't pretend to know one way or the other, Indy," he said. "But I've been around. Not as much as you, granted, but I've been around... and I have never... NEVER seen anything like this."
"There ARE stranger things," Indy said.
"Like what?"
Indy's mind ran through numerous things- the Ark, the Grail, the Sankara Stones... all manner of treasures he'd hunted only to find that their legendary powers were true. All sorts of things that certainly WERE stranger than dead animals, but none of which would point AWAY from Shaka Zulu coming back from the dead to wreak havoc on his impoverished descendants. He decided to change the subject.
"Maybe we can clear some more of these smaller animals away and just drive around the elephant."
Just then, a Jeep appeared on the horizon. Surely, Swakaywe wasn't coming back to threaten them some more. No, this Jeep was reflecting the sun with a fine wax job and there were at least two people inside that Indy could see.
Sisho walked up to stand beside Indy. "King Bonatom," he said ominously. "Tarana will start the ritual now. Which means, of course, that you'll have to join us, Doctor Jones."
Indy sighed into the strengthening wind. "Of course," he said. It was going to rain anyway, so why fight it anymore? The sooner it rained, the sooner he could go. Fine.
Near the northern end of the village was a wooden shelter with a thatch roof that was used primarily as a gathering place for the residents. In the middle stood Tarana, wearing a huge mask like the one Swakaywe had been wearing in his office. This one was a little different in form and decoration, however, and the fading colors told of the many years it had served as a decoration in Tarana's hut. The crest of Nkulunkulu rode the top of the mask and spilled back over Tarana's head. In her right hand, she held a staff topped with the stone spearhead Indy had brought her. This was now the Spear of Zulu. Her dogs lay nearby, still unnerved by the death around them. Beside her, King Bonatom, a rotund man very obviously not living the same life as his subjects, wore a mask like Tarana's. Again, the design was only slightly different. Near them, two men sat with their legs crossed, keeping a soft, steady beat on the skin and wood drums in front of them. The villagers circled their witch, their king and the drummers, silently praying along with them. Indy stood right in front of Tarana, studying the masks and the villager's reaction to the ceremony as the two masks mumbled, danced around, chanted and occasionally shouted to the sky.
"Those are M'pande and Dingaan," Henry said. He had worked his way through the crowd to stand beside his son.
"Shaka's half brothers?" Indy asked, looking around and spotting Elise and Bruce where he'd last seen them at the back.
"Yes," Henry continued in a low voice. "The ceremony is wonderfully complex. Apparently, the idea is that Tarana and King Bonatom become M'pande and Dingaan. Those two actually speak to Zulu and ask him to take Shaka back to the spirit world. Then, the king asks Zulu to ask Nkulunkulu for rain."
"Complex is right. Where did you learn this?"
"Some of us have managed to remember that we're scientists and educate ourselves during our time here."
"...well, congratulations," Indy sneered. He couldn't believe his father was going to lecture him now, but he could hear that haughty, scholastic rise in his voice that signalled intellectual reprimand. What an ingrate.
"You know, you will never be too old to learn something new, Junior."
Here it comes... Indy looked away from the ritual to keep from having Henry even in his peripheral vision during the rest of this. He let the wind push his jacket collar up on his neck and looked out over the ring of people praying for life, over the ring of dead animals, to the two Jeeps just beyond.
"For instance," continued Henry. "Did you know that out here..."
"There are two Jeeps..." Indy said.
"Er, what?"
"There are two Jeeps, Dad." Henry followed Indy's gaze. Sure enough, Swakaywe's dirty, battered Jeep was parked next to the King's. The driver of the King's Jeep was in the crowd here, somewhere. But where was Swakaywe? The drum tempo picked up suddenly and the daylight dimmed noticably. Clouds born gray blotted out the sun as they sprouted out of nothing and blossomed over the village and the surrounding land.
Then, that voice again. Swakaywe's booming invaded the chanting and, as Indy and Henry turned to the Zulu leaders, a third mask joined them. This was Swakaywe, wearing the (now repaired) mask from his office, and shouting to be heard above Tarana, King Bonatom and the howling wind. The former two were lost in their prayers and seemed not to notice the invasion. The villagers were frozen, not wanting to challenge the wizard. The dogs scampered away, whining.
Indy considered grabbing Swakaywe, but should he? Swakaywe seemed to simply be posturing and praying like the other two, but his cadence was more urgent, his tone more demanding. Then, he yanked the spear from Tarana's hand and held it up. The witch froze. The wind ceased immedately. The drummers stopped playing.
Sisho pushed between Indy and Henry with an inarticulate yell and rushed Swakaywe. He grabbed the spear and pulled, but the wizard held fast and continued his chanting. The two of them twisted the spear around- each trying to foil the other's grasp. Then, the spearhead burst through Sisho's back. A woman screamed. Indy and Henry ran forward and caught him as he crumpled to the ground. They started to drag him back towards the villagers, but Sisho grabbed Indy by his shirt and pulled him close. Blood ran in a steady stream out of his mouth as he fought for breath.
"Get... the spear... to Tarana," he said. Indy looked back at Swakaywe, holding the bloody spear like some kind of tyrant. Power seemed to surge through him. His old muscles bulged with renewed youth... in fact, he didn't look much like an old wizard at all.
"Dad, get him out of here."
Several villagers were already moving to help Henry, bringing cloth compresses and herbs. Indy turned back to the ceremony to see Tarana looking around wildly and swatting at things that weren't there. King Bonatom was looking to the petrified villagers for help. As the King, stopping this was his duty, but, as a man, he cowered before the wizard's power. Realizing he was now in total control, Swakaywe removed his mask.
"Shaka!" went up a unanimous cry. Villagers fell to their knees or turned and ran at the sight of the legendary King Shaka, warrior king of the old Zulu nation. His muscles rippled with power, straining the small ceremonial shift of the wizard who had worn it only seconds before. His nostrils flared with his first physical breaths in over a century and his gaze burned with scorn and hatred. He held the spear of Zulu next to himself like a flag- a symbol of his return to his kingdom.
Indy's jaw dropped. Sisho had said to get the spear to Tarana. He hadn't said anything about having to fight Shaka Zulu for it.
Shaka turned his scowl to King Bonatom, who was backing away. Indy reached down and yanked his whip free of it's strap. As Shaka pulled the spear back and jabbed it at Bonatom's belly, the whip wrapped around his wrist and pulled, sending the spear across Bonatom's shoulder. The King shrieked and staggered backwards. Shaka quickly grabbed the whip in his opposite hand and looked at it. He looked down its length to find Indiana Jones planting his feet and yanking again. The curator, however, was no match for the warrior king and Shaka held his ground with out moving. A snap of his powerful arm pulled Indy into the air and sent him crunching to the ground at Shaka's feet, one of which, promptly sank into the base of Indy's spine. Shaka whirled the spear to point it at Indy's back. Indy grabbed Shaka's other foot with both hands and sank his teeth into Shaka's ankle.
An unearthly roar escaped Shaka and Indy let go as the spear drove into the ground next to the dead king's foot, where Indy had been just a second before. Shaka, needing to take the weight off his foot, stood up on Indy's back, cracking it. Indy twisted, throwing Shaka off balance and sending him crashing into Tarana, who screamed and started to run away, but froze and looked around again, as if surrounded by things only she could see.
Bonatom, meanwhile, was ignoring his bleeding shoulder. He had resumed praying with several of the villagers and the wind was picking up again. Henry and Elise were helping the villagers attending Sisho, but were having a hard time not watching the spectacle in the shelter. Bruce had pulled his pistol out and was trying to line up a shot on Shaka.
"Don't!" yelled Henry. "Shaka took over the wizard's body. You may kill the wizard, too." Bruce pulled his gun back and ran towards the fray.
Indy and Shaka were on equal footing now, circling each other. Shaka jabbed the spear at Indy, but the doctor was staying just beyond strike range. Indy pulled his revolver out and pointed it at Shaka.
"NO!" Bruce yelled as Indy put two bullets into Shaka's belly. The crashes quieted everything but the wind. Shaka's expression was one of shock that faded gradually as the two slugs reappeared at the mouth of the holes they'd made and fell to the ground. Shaka smiled. Indy gulped. Shaka jumped at Indy, aiming the spear for his heart. Indy dodged to the right, hooked his left arm over the spear shaft and twisted left, pulling himself to the ground. Shaka had to let go of the spear and jump over Indy to keep his balance and did so with the grace of a cat, landing on his hands and feet. Indy stood quickly and grabbed Tarana's hand, causing her to scream in his face. He quickly closed her fist around the shaft and turned his own fists back to Shaka in time to see a handfull of dirt flying at his eyes. Indy dropped his head and let most of it bounce off his hat brim. He looked back up in time to catch a neck- snapping fist in his jaw. He was suddenly dizzy. He tried to focus on keeping his feet, but his eyes shut, he staggered and fell to his back.
His swimming vision slowly solidified as he watched the sky darken through the smoke-hole in the center of the shelter roof. The drums and the chanting had started again. He rolled his head to the side and could see Shaka stalking Tarana as she got her wits about her and fended him off with the spear. She began her chanting prayer and Shaka charged her. She swiped at him, drawing a bright red gash across his chest... which did not heal. Shaka looked at it incredulously and Tarana laughed and taunted him in Zulu. He said something back to her and calmly circled her. Indy lay where he had fallen and waited. Tarana was going to have slip back into her trance to finish her part of the ceremony and she was going to have to be safe from Shaka while she did it. As Shaka passed by him, Indy rolled up to his knees and forced his fist into the man's genitals. Again, all fell silent. Several villagers moaned in sympathy. Bruce mumbled "Damn..." from the back of the remaining crowd. Shaka, frozen at the moment of impact, grunted long and low and looked down at Indy, who scrambled to his feet and jumped between the witch and the warrior. Without wasting time, he socked Shaka in the face with a right/left combo, both of which Shaka took like a lead punching bag. Indy winced as pain shot through his hands. Shaka only became angrier as the drums and chanting resumed.
With a cry of rage, the Zulu warlord fired another fist at the doctor, but Indy dodged. Shaka began a rapid succession of swings, forcing Indy to maneuver away from Tarana. When, at last, he felt he had a clear shot, he reached for the spear. Indy grabbed his arm with both hands, keeping him back as Tarana lapsed into her trance. Shaka used his free hand to punch Indy in the ribs with enough force to crack them. Indy yelped. Again, Shaka pounded his ribs. Again. Again. Indy gritted his teeth, planted his feet and hoped Tarana was almost done.
Suddenly, Shaka's onslaught ceased. Someone else was holding his other arm. Indy and Shaka both looked at the secured arm to find it bound by another powerful Zulu warrior. This one was wearing King Bonatom's silk clothes, sans mask. Behind him, the villagers who had been praying with Bonatom, kept up their chanting, watching the spectacle with wide eyes.
"M'pande!" Shaka said in horror. He shook Indy off his arm and swung at his half- brother. Indy crumpled to the ground, clutching his ribs. Behind him, he heard Tarana's voice deepen and, a second later, another man, Dingaan, no doubt, stepped past him, wearing Tarana's shift and tossing her mask aside. As Shaka pounded his knee into M'pande's midsection in the dwindling light, Dingaan approached them and thrust the spear into Shaka's back.
Lightning flashed, splashing harsh white light on Shaka's startled, pained face as he fell to his knees. The drum cadence and chanting was at a fever pitch. Dingaan removed the spear and handed it to his brother. As the last ray of sunlight, floating down through the smoke- hole, faded out, M'pande flipped the spear point-down and drove it through Shaka's heart.
Everything fell into pitch black silence...
The wind moaned through the village, sending sheets of dust and pebbles rattling against the wooden structures. Indy lay where he was and lowered his head. His left side throbbed, but it wasn't so bad if he didn't breathe. A hissing came to his ears and for just a second, panic flashed through him. But it was not a reptilian hiss. It was the sound of water falling lightly on the thatch roof of the shelter. The villagers began to call out in surprise, in shock and in thankfulness. Some laughed. Then, as though the Zulu ancestors had tipped over a bucket, rain roared down on the village. It beat on the roof of the shelter with such force, that it ripped holes in the thatch, soaking Indy in a matter of seconds.
A woman's voice cut through the dark downpour with a triumphant, sustained note. Other voices joined hers in measure and the village rose in song. The drummers found their instruments and provided them with a beat. Soon, the whole village was singing a humble, happy song of thanks into the dark rain.
"Indy?"
"Over here, Bruce."
The pilot shuffled slowly through the shelter and found Indy when he stepped on his foot. Indy could only muster enough strength to whimper.
"Sorry."
The initial downpour slacked off to steady sheets and sunlight began to seep back through the clouds. Bruce helped Indy to his feet as the trio in the middle of the shelter became visible. Tarana was herself again, but her hair was stark white. King Bonatom, appeared to be the same again, standing reverently over the prone body of Swakaywe, with the Spear of Zulu still buried in his chest.
Tarana turned to Indy, revealing deep creases around her mouth and eyes... and she smiled.
