Ch 2: Into the Jungle

[Priest]

Baxter watches the shennanigans with amazement, holding his fire for fear of hitting the mad Englishman, "Ride him cowboy!!" he yells his excitement growing.

[Mr. Handy]

Percy, his rifle once again in his hands, takes aim at the crocodile. He's close enough and confident enough in his abilities that he can hit the crocodile without risking his companions' safety. He is correct, as the crocodile makes a big target. The bullet barely penetrates its scales, however.

[Priest]

With a shrug of resignation, Baxter fires for a fourth time. However the insane Englishman, Burton, in his desperation to hold tight to the thrashing target, atttracts the bullet. "Whoops, sorry old boy"

[Tabs]

"God damn you to hell, Baxter!" screams Burton.

[Supercape]

"Master!" gasped Singh, emboldened by Burtons bravery and injury. He gritted his teeth, and jumped at the Crocodile, knife in hand, stabbing furiously. The beast twisted at the wrong moment, and Singh was brushed away by the tail of the beast, cursing as he tumbled into the jungle.

Emelia fired her gun in a panic, just grazing the beasts hide. The bullet appeared to rebound, flying upwards and splintering the end of the branch that Baxter lay on; in an ironic and poetic riposte to his own friendly fire.

The poor girls luck was out; the Crocodile jammed forward and closed its jaws around her Torso. Her piercing scream soon died as she passed out. Her blood hit the trees and seeped to the ground, and the Crocodile entered a blood-driven new height of frenzy.

[Mr. Handy]

"NO!" cries Percy, horrified. He levels his rifle at the beast and shoots it again, but the bullet fails to penetrate its scaly hide.

[Tabs]

Burton suffered a gaping wound to one buttock. "You bastard!" he yelled, and if he dared let go of the crocodile would shake his fist at Baxter. "I've got a second arsehole now." His blood pumped out. And then Emilia was snapped, virtually in two; Burton is drenched in her blood, like a clown had thrown a bucket of red paint over him. In fury, he lunged at the beasts eye, striking home and hammering at his knife butt with the palm of his hand.

[Supercape]

The Jungle drenched red and the Crocodile shook in pain as Burton plunged the knife into its brain. This was a brutal business! The beast was dying, but not yet dead...

[Priest]

With a savage roar and a gout of acrid smoke Baxters pistol spits death toward the crocodile. However this time he aims more carefully unwilling to chance another hit on the brave Englishman. Yet it seems that in his effort to make certain of missing Burton, Baxter also misses the crocodile.

"Damn and blast!" he yells in frustration as his fith bullet careers off into the jungle.

[Tabs]

"I can't hang on much longer!" cries Burton weakly.

[Supercape]

The beast was lost to whatever dim reason it had, in a blood lust, its last day on earth bathed in fury.

Snap.

Emelia stumbled back, convulsing and collapsing, blood shooting from her neck. Her body was without head, said organ jammed in the teeth and maw of the beast...the sheer brutality of the sudden death hung in the air for a moment, as the horror of it seeped into consciousness.

[Mr. Handy]

Percy is too furious for his mind to process what he has just witnessed. Filled with rage, he fires his last bullet into the croc, but the blasted thing doesn't even notice.

[Tabs]

Burton stabbed again. He wondered how one applied a tourniquet to one's arse?

[Priest]

Burton watches in horror as the crocodile beheads Emilia, "Emilia no!!!" Then as Carstairs' bullet seems to make little impact, and Burton, still gripping the beast for dear life, plunges the knife towards the scaly creature he springs tiger like into action.
Taking carefull aim, using a two handed grip, realising that this will be his last bullet, he yells, "Hold the damned thing still man, and Singh stop loitering and finish the bloody creature or move aside. I've already potted Burton and I have no wish to make a pair"

[Priest]

Despite the apparent inability of Burton to steady his mount, and the fierce Singh to assault the beast with his sword, Baxter, his lip curled in a savage curse, pulls the trigger on his pistol.

Once again the scene is momentarilly obscured by smoke from the pistol's barrel, and for a brief moment Baxter awaits a blood curdling scream from the explorer announcing another hit on his nether regions. Yet this time it seems his aim is true and the final bullet in the pistols chamber strikes home on the creature...

[Supercape]

And so it ended, not with the bang of Baxter's pistol, but with a whimper.

It was already dying, and now, the pace of death had quickened. It chocked, rolling left and right, a head lodged in its mouth. Its limbs and tails fell underneath it, the tail twitching horribly.

Its one baleful remaining eye gave Burton a look of malice, a look of agonising pain, and then, it started to fade, not like a switch, but like a slow horribly red sunset. Blood oozed into the ground.

Singh lost it, screaming at the unconscious beast, and started to hack it to pieces with his sword, his muscles twitching and sweating with seemingly unending exertion, the Jungle silenced by the screams of Punjabi curses.

[Priest]

Baxter calmly breaks open his pistol and proceeds to reload it.
"I say Singh old boy, I think the creature is dead. Perhaps you might want to save a little of that energy for aiding Burton"

Showing very little concern for the headless body of his ladyfriend, he stares off in the direction where the old witchdoctor had taken, "Its okay you can come out now the nasty thing is dead"

[Tabs]

"It's alright, Munshi," gasped Burton to the frenzied Sikh, "it's DEAD, man!" he yelled, and then collapsed--swooned ?--sliding off the crocodile's back, and did he mutter, "I hate you Baxter"?

[Supercape]

Singh collapsed from exhaustion, panting and sweating, his sword stuck in the spine of the beast. Tears in his eyes.

"Beast! It killed her...it killed her! was it worth it?"

The naked and crinkled witchdoctor, Riverturn, slowly climbed down from his perch. Whilst slow and spindly, he was completely at home in the trees, and the jungle.

A brave kill" he explained in Bantu. "She was without fear, and the loss was not due to lack of courage, nor of strength. You are all, even the dead, blessed by the great crocodile spirit" he said, bowing to the slowly flowing waters of the Nile.

"And now we consign her body to the waters, that it may feed the Crocodiles. I have not the strength..." he asked, looking around to see who would throw the womans headless body to the Nile.

[Mr. Handy]

Percy numbly climbs down from the tree and reloads his rifle, going through the motions without thinking about it. "We never should have brought her here," he says, shaking his head. "Mr. Baxter, you were closest to her. Would you like to do the honours?"