Team Seven of Heroes II Chapter 30 & 31

30.

The so named Vault was actually a lost temple with under growths. There were tales that the rich placed their treasures inside the temples. The other name for these temples was therefore the place of treasures. On the island, there was such a fabled temple that was named Shabdkosh in the local language of Malayalam. The temple was built for the worshippers of the island. It was in the earlier era before the first Raj arrived there. There were peace then and all the tribes were living in harmony. The warring began and the temple was soon forgotten until the jungle reclaimed it. It was then known only as the Shabdkosh. The path to the temple was tedious with no defined walk trail but one made with machetes and men trampling on the roots. Nina had shown the direction by the noise at the distance. 

“That is the sound of the waterfall.” Nina explained. “It was a fable told to us when we were kids that the Gods slept in the huge cavern behind the waterway and then they emerged to ride the water to their chariot. They will ride their chariot to the skies.” 

“Maybe their chariot taken off.” Mycroft imitated the sound of the iron horse snorting its coal fired smoke into the clouds and scared away all the living creatures that used to enjoy serene on the plains. 

“Oh, shut up.” Sherlock was bored with Mycroft antics. “If you got nothing nice to say, stay behind the banyan tree. The exotic smell might trigger off your immortality.” 

“Oh! Does it?” Mycroft sneered back. “I know….”

“Never mind, Mycroft. You just stepped on a plush monkey dropping.” Watson cut in before he side stepped Mycroft. The later was lost for words on his shoe condition but no one cares. They have not shopped at Saville unless you considered the flea market in London where Sherlock buys his carpet slippers as a peer.

Then Van Helsing raised the pertinent issue.

“Why are we not attacked by the ….enemies that we have not identified?” 

“Interesting that you brought it up now. “ Sherlock was to add in his deductive questions when Nina called out. 

“We are there.” 

There wasn’t what Lord Greystoke had in mind when he woke up. He was still on the floor and both his wrists hurt. He pushed himself up and then turned to look for his lover. His mind flashed back and it worked him up to stand up. His standing was wobbly and he needed the wall to lean on. 

“Hey, let us loose.” Lord Greystoke looked to the voices and saw two ladies in shackles. His animal instinct was to reach for the shackles but his human senses told him to know what needed then were get help. He fought against his mind but the weakness in him then was more than physical. He can’t do it alone if he was to save anyone. He staggered back on his legs and then went for the open exit. 

“Hey, you can’t leave us here…” Lord Greystoke ignored it all. He limped out and then found himself in the corridor. It was a wide and tall one with some doorways on the sides. He ignored them all and continued on his walk ahead. He was getting out and he will return. 

To find his love. 

For John, their son.

It was the very same thoughts then of Lay Greystoke when her mind woke her. She flipped her eye lids to get a better focus on the surrounding area. She was lying on a metallic platform with straps on her limbs and she was nude. The last time she was in that state was with a handsome man; requisite for that will be the virility that came with the body. 

“Darn! The bedding then was softer.” Lady Greystoke muttered out. She stopped then when she realised that she was not alone. Being naked with strangers ain’t her favourite pastime but it turned out her companion was a metallic rounded unit. The unit slide over to her side and then it emitted a series of beeps. Over Lady Greystoke a platform hovered over her with a number of needles protruding beneath it. 

“Darn you! I dislike needles.” Lady Greystoke screamed. 

Those screams caught the attention of the Irish hunter. Sean was searching for a way out of his confined unit for he was not shackled. There was the shackle there but he was not attached to it. The unit was just plain walls and flooring with the doorway hidden which was what he was searching for. He doubted he was dropped in or worse, he was already dead and that was his unit in Hell. That was all until he heard the screams. 

“It’s not Hell, well at least not yet.” Sean leaned onto the wall to listen for the sound again. One scream normally leads to more. He knew it from the dying creatures.

Sean did not find the doorway but it opened by the pressure of the other person outside who opened the door by leaning on it. Lord Greystoke fell in. There were no wise cracks between the two rivals but the human affinity to assist then. Sean held the man in his arms before pulling him out. He was not keen to lock in one more time. He saw the wound on the wrists and bandaged it with torn strips from his shirt. He then held up the other by the shoulder and then they staggered on. 

“Don’t you give up on me, savage.” Sean grunted out on the weight of the man laid on his left shoulder. 

It was a huge place. 

So was the waterfall. The biggest waterfall is the Victoria Falls at about a thousand seven hundred metres wide and varies in height from eighty to a hundred metres with a six hundred twenty five million litres of water flow over the edge per minute. The water spray reached up to a thousand six hundred and fifty feet into the air. Well that was the Victoria Falls; the Queen of all falls but the one that faced the group was smaller in dimension but its drop was deep into the deep sink hole there formed in the centre of the pond. The noise was the result of the extra deeper drop. 

“Shabdkosh”. The son of the mother stepped up to hold her arm. “Yes, son. That is Shabdkosh. The one you hear from your tutors. This is the place.”

“I was expecting something huge like…. a temple but not the waterfall. It’s like a drop to Hades.”

“Well, nothing is the same.” The mother smiled. “Wait till you….”

“Look the lions are here.” Watson was the one who alerted them. A pack of six lions appeared at the falls growling and then roaring. 

“Six? I thought there would be more but I guessed we reduce their number drastically.” 

“I wondered if there are any kitties.” Mycroft cannot stay silent and the lions could not stay away before they charged. The group raised their rifles and fired. 

31.

Sean stopped at every corner and then peeked over before he moved on. He was being cautious and with a wounded man next to him, extra caution was required if he wants to live. He half carried the man and moved on till he saw the wall in front slid open. He tried to turn back but it was too late. Then luck was on him. The metallic contraption with the rounded top turned and rolled on. 

Sean froze for a while before he pulled his wounded friend along to the open chamber. He sighed in relief when he saw their weapons there. He lowered the wounded man down and then started looking through the weapons. He rummaged through the ammo belts and the rifles before he saw the clothes. It belonged to Lady Greystoke. There was not much time so he went for the blouse. He tore strips of it and then bandaged the wound on the other. Once he was done, he took up his own weapons. The Enfield felt uncomfortable in his hand. He has always used heavier guns for the prey he hunts. He lowered the Enfield and picked up the Mauser Sporter Magnum Action with the .404 cartridges. It felt better in his hands. 

“Dam you!” Sean levelled the rifle to his eyes and watched it through the scope there. He saw the face of the savage that he had faced in conflicts before. 

“You scared me…” Sean lowered the rifle. He stared at the savage then with the wrists bandaged. “They are your wife’s and I …”

“That’s her’ too.” Lord Greystoke made his point. He then picked up her clothes before he reached for his batons and the dagger. “She is here.” 

“Good point. So let us find her now. I am ready.” Sean held onto the Mauser rifle while he slung the Enfield over his shoulder. The other had then moved to the door and then stepped out. Sean followed close behind. The savage took on a running search with his face close to the walls or the flooring. He was trying to get her scent. He found her trail. She was behind the wall there. He was like his alter ego, slammed the wall but Sean have a better idea. He searched for the switch and found it. The wall slide back and they were in the room where Lady Greystoke was still strapped to the platform and she was nude. The male lover went for the straps to release his lover. Once she was free, he held her close to him. 

“John, they took our baby.” 

Three of the six lions had survived the volley and they were soon tearing at the group of shooters. It was mayhem trying to shoot at close range with so many targets; men and lions. The lions had a better chance for they were fierce and wounded which make them deadly. Their claws tore at the flesh and their canine fangs bit off chunks of flesh 

“Shoot them in the head!” Mycroft then was holding the Webley when his Enfield was reduced to two pieces of scrap. He pointed the gun at the lion’s head and pulled the trigger. When a foreign object like a bullet impacted inside the head, it was like the fangs that tore off the flesh except the brain was more fragile. It collapsed when the bullet fragment hits it. The brain controlled the body functions and then with the brain dead the body dies with it. The lion fell down lifeless. 

“Viola! It worked.” Sherlock concluded Mycroft action. The other two lions were brought down about the same way and every one till breathing stayed on their feet with the rifle as the pillar. Their numbers have dwindled to only a few. 

Mycroft, Sherlock, Van Helsing, Watson, Nina, Junior and Nemo with Herr Gunter. All were armed with Enfields and even Mycroft who had taken one off the others. Nemo held also scimitar that he had brought from the Nautilus. 

The others were dead or near to it 

It was a tough fight but the victors get to walk away. 

“John, I can fight.” Sean had sacrificed his shirt to cover the lady body while Lord Greystoke handed over his pants. He told them he felt more comfortable without it. 

“We need to get out.” Sean told the other two but their choice was made for them when the metal contraption rolled in. Sean was to shoot it but he held back when he saw the savage grabbed the metal contraption. The unit must have weighed heavy but to the savage with his anger. His strength then was augmented by the years of conditioning with the muscles bursting at its tendon, the savage managed to topple the unit and then pried open the cover before he reached in to pull the circuits out. The force of his attack was repelled by the sudden burst of energy from inside the unit. The savage was thrown backwards but he was an savage and unleashed they are unstoppable. He jumped back and did more damage.

“John, it’s done. We can go now.” Lady Greystoke pulled at her lover. “It’s done.”

It would have been done if not for another unit that stepped in. It was different in design and it was tall. The unit stood at over the heads of most men and it held four pairs of upper limbs and it lower limbs were a set of six tentacles. Its design for the head was a diamond shaped inverted. There were no signs of ears or eyes. 

“Kreegah!” The savage man jumped onto the newly arrived metallic being and holding the baton in his hands, he thrust the end into the diamond-head but the metallic figure did not flinch. It emitted a blast of light that shoved the savage to the far wall. Sean had raised his rifle and fired at the tall figure but the bullet literally bounced off the metallic frame. The tall figure then reached out its four upper limbs to grab the Irish Hunter and rifle before tossing the man across the room. It was the lady who sprang into action with the Enfield rifle thrust into the open cavity between the lower tentacles and the middle frame. 

“Eats this, you metallic filth.” The lady emptied four shots in the metallic man. The six tentacles wobbled and then the tall figure slumped to the floor in a heap of tentacles. The lady then dropped her rifle and then used her hands to wring the diamond-head. If diamonds could drive a lady to wring heads, then the lady was an exemplary model. 

“Arghh…” The lady did not yank it off but dislodged the head to the right with exposed cables. Lord Greystoke had then pulled his love off the unmoving figure. 

“Keep away. I want to kill the ….bastard.” Lady Jane was still in anger but she soon broke down. “They took my baby……. Our baby.”

Babies were the furthest thing from Watson’ mind but he cannot see beyond the cubs that appeared on the side. There appeared soon after the lions died. It was always the case when the guardians were not seen, the kids run out to play. 

“Doctor Watson, we are wasting time here.” Captain Nemo called out to the Doctor. “Do you know the Vault?” 

Doctor Watson looked at the seafaring Captain. He then pulled out the paper from his shirt pocket. It was time to face the truth. 

The truth how far men will go for hidden treasures even though it may not be there.