FicWad

Fuzzy images floated around Julius. As he woke, he felt weak and groggy. He took a few long blinks. Then everything came back into focus. He was bound to a stake, in-between Delilah and Al, who were already awake.

"Oooh ..." he moaned. "What ... what happened?"

"They used their freaky-deaky knock-out arrows on us, man." Al explained quietly. "And now we're, like, sacrifices to their god, Ojawa Nima. This happened to me before, man. I barely escaped."

Julius closed his eyes and sighed. "Great ..."

He must have spoken too loud, for on of the native guards jabbed him in the gut with the butt of his spear. The wind was knocked out of him and he felt like vomiting, but didn't. Delilah's jaw dropped in anger.

"Hey! You can't do that!"

The islander said something in his own dialect, then spat at her feet. He thrust the spear he was holding into the stake, only a few inches from Delilah's neck. She didn't even flinch.

He smirked. "You think you brave. See how brave you be when we give you to Ojawa Nima."

"When's that?" Delilah questioned.

"When great gold ball disappear." he replied, nodding towards the sun.

The guard yanked his spear out of the stake and walked off. Delilah turned to her friends. "So we've got until sundown to escape or it's off to Onima Jawa or whatever."

Julius had an idea. "Can either of you slide down the poles? I can't, I'm tied too tight."

Al caught on. "I getcha! We need a sharp rock." He tried to lower himself, but to no avail. "Sorry, man, the old back won't allow it."

The two men looked to Delilah. She was already down as far as possible, groping around for a rock. Her fingers rested on one that was made for the moment (i.e. sharp). She stood up just as a native looked her way. She then set to working, rubbing the sharp edge against her bonds.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Night had fallen. The islanders were dancing around a huge bonfire, preparing to make three sacrifices to their god. Delilah let out a gasp.

"I'm out!" she whispered.

A few seconds later, Julius felt his ropes slacken off, then drop to the ground. Al was freed moments later. The three captives slunk off into the forest, knowing it was only a matter of time before the natives noticed they were were missing. Only seconds later, howls of rage echoed through the forest.

"Double time!" Al ordered.

He, Julius and Delilah scurried through the trees, with the islanders hot on their heels. All of a sudden, the trees were gone and they were running on sand. Delilah picked up a stick half the length of her arm as their pursuers crashed onto the beach. They were upon them in seconds.

Delilah lashed out with her stick. She disarmed someone and tossed their spear to Julius. Al had already relived an islander of his club. The spies struck their enemies as hard as possible, laying anyone who got too close senseless. All the time they were fighting, they were moving backwards, towards the heliplane. Delilah finally risked a glance over her shoulders. The were about 50 feet from the aircraft.

"Run for it!" she hollered.

As the trio broke into a sprint, Julius noticed an archer step forward, his drawstring drawn as far as it could. He was aiming at Al. Time seemed to stand still. There was no way that the rescue mission would end with Al lying dead in the sand. As the archer fired his arrow, Julius made him move.

Delilah screamed as her partner cannoned into Al, knocking him to the ground and taking the arrow in the lower back. Julius fell onto the beach and did not move. Al hauled the agent to his feet and carried him to the heliplane. Delilah took the controls and entered their destination into auto-pilot. A few arrows bounced harmlessly off the aircraft as it took off.

Julius groaned quietly. Delilah was instantly at his side. His eyes flickered open.

"Did we do it?" he asked weakly.

Delilah glanced at Al as he carefully removed the arrow from Julius' back. "Yeah, Jules, we did it."