The Jungle of Fear, Part 3: The Mystery Revealed!
The night was lost in a blur. Navigating by fear and instinct we pressed on, hoping to outdistance any persuer. In our imaginations, every crack & howl of the jungle were the sounds of death catching up with us.
By morning we were ragged, haunted men. After crossing another stream, we all collapsed on a rock face, each man beaten with exhaustion.
Beyond the ravage to my body, there was the agony in my mind - how reckless had I been in agreeing to the raid? How could we complete my mission? Had I failed the Brigadier?
Slugging from his canteen, Arnold-Ambrose saw my state.
'Cheer up sunshine! Your thing is just over the range there'. All our running through the night had been... towards my destination?
Revitalised by the promise, i scampered up the hillside. Reaching its crest i was stopped in my tracks.
Impossible.
Incredible.
Terrifying.
Awestruck and horrified, my eyes tumbled to take it all in: a giant pyramid structure, of alien architecture, towering into the sky. A whole city of the creatures I had fought previously in Tomerton!
At its base i noted patrols by the vile simian subordinates known as Ogrons:
Through windows, i saw the murderous pepperpot robots. Never in Tomerton had we encountered them in such numbers; ours materialised only in groups of threes - those being enough to cause death and chaos. Here, lay an entire dormant army - good god!
And at the crest - a half-man-half-monster, perhaps their leader? He worked in a laboratory, performing what godless travesty of science i could only dread.
Shaking my shoulder, Mike pointed the Ogrons:
'They're not men, you hear me? Shoot em, and they don't die'
I nodded my head consolingly. They do have a weak spot, but i thought i'd best explain that later*.
'Your line of thing Yates?' Jeff asked.
'Yes, very much my line of thing'
'You can see why we didn't report it all.'
I laughed. Yes, imaginging poor Jeff and Mike trying to explain ape men, pepperpot robots and pyramids to their commanding officer.
'What did you tell them?'
'Just the building. They thought we'd gone nuts saying that.'
So they filed away your report, and some bright spark called UNIT.
'Well gentlemen, what we have here is a very very nasty infestation - i need you to get me back in contact with the Brigadier as soon as we can'.
Transfixed as we were by the sight of the pyramid, none had thought to watch the trail behind us. Only a branch cracking turned our heads - a scout from the communist man hunt!
Rolling with a cowboy quick draw, Mike shot him right between the eyes.
The shot echoed across the valley, sending flocks of birds squawking from the trees, alerting both the communists, and the Ogrons. Cresting the hill, the communists gave a culturally confused battle cry of 'Banzai!' and charged up towards us!
Hearing the battle cry and thinking themselves under attack, the Ogrons returned fire. Making us the meat in a gunfire sandwich! It was time to run...
We sprinted over the hill, into a valley, to the bank of a stream. Here, the Aussies did something most strange. Halting, they kicked down a rotten tree,
then began fervently stripping its bark. With the bark and other branches, Jeff fashioned a rudimentary canoe:
'Not my finest effort, but she'll have to do'
Skipping champagne on the slipway, we launched into the river.
+++++++
Compared to the hike in, our river journey out of South Aviana was almost serene. With constant bailing and wet trousers, we drifted downstream, to the fascination of wild beasts and natives along the river.
Days of exhaustion took their toll, and the lapping rhythm of the river soon became hypnotic. Closing my eyes just for a moment, i found myself back in Tomerton, with beautiful Brigitte and Stephanie on my arms, as the Vicar intoned '...take these women to be your lawfully wedded wives, to have and to hold often, minding occasional dalliances with their friend Antonia' to which i solemnly replied 'I d...'
'MIKE! YATES! THE FALLS!'
Roaring ahead of us, a giant tumultuous plain of rock, where rapids terminated in a colossal junction of waterfalls. Tipping the canoe and straining for a handle on debris from the shore, we half drowned trying to reel each other onto the rocks.
The Aviana falls. You may know them from the postcards - generally photographed from the other side looking up. From stood on the rocks, i could see the cliff face was never ending, a giant chasm carved out the side of the mountains.
I knew that this exactly was the border between North and South.
To have survived this journey, to find ourselves stuck on a cliff face looking down at our destination. I cursed bitterly 'I don't suppose you jokers have any bright ideas for getting us down?'.
I found my companions unravelling a large nylon sheet, with aluminium braces, from a pack Mike had kept close all the journey. 'Told you Yatesy, this man is the wingnut!'
'You cannot be serious?'
And with three long steps to the cliff edge, we rode the air! Swooping gloriously up and along the cliff face, tacking back for exilhirating passes across the falls, till a gentle descent to land along the river bank - back in North Aviana.
+++++++
What more shocking surprises await in the jungle? Can UNIT tackle the terror of the Daleks? The Jungle of Fear - part 4, bumper edition, at newstands soon
By morning we were ragged, haunted men. After crossing another stream, we all collapsed on a rock face, each man beaten with exhaustion.
Beyond the ravage to my body, there was the agony in my mind - how reckless had I been in agreeing to the raid? How could we complete my mission? Had I failed the Brigadier?
Slugging from his canteen, Arnold-Ambrose saw my state.
'Cheer up sunshine! Your thing is just over the range there'. All our running through the night had been... towards my destination?
Revitalised by the promise, i scampered up the hillside. Reaching its crest i was stopped in my tracks.
Impossible.
Incredible.
Terrifying.
Awestruck and horrified, my eyes tumbled to take it all in: a giant pyramid structure, of alien architecture, towering into the sky. A whole city of the creatures I had fought previously in Tomerton!
At its base i noted patrols by the vile simian subordinates known as Ogrons:
Through windows, i saw the murderous pepperpot robots. Never in Tomerton had we encountered them in such numbers; ours materialised only in groups of threes - those being enough to cause death and chaos. Here, lay an entire dormant army - good god!
And at the crest - a half-man-half-monster, perhaps their leader? He worked in a laboratory, performing what godless travesty of science i could only dread.
Shaking my shoulder, Mike pointed the Ogrons:
'They're not men, you hear me? Shoot em, and they don't die'
I nodded my head consolingly. They do have a weak spot, but i thought i'd best explain that later*.
'Your line of thing Yates?' Jeff asked.
'Yes, very much my line of thing'
'You can see why we didn't report it all.'
I laughed. Yes, imaginging poor Jeff and Mike trying to explain ape men, pepperpot robots and pyramids to their commanding officer.
'What did you tell them?'
'Just the building. They thought we'd gone nuts saying that.'
So they filed away your report, and some bright spark called UNIT.
'Well gentlemen, what we have here is a very very nasty infestation - i need you to get me back in contact with the Brigadier as soon as we can'.
Transfixed as we were by the sight of the pyramid, none had thought to watch the trail behind us. Only a branch cracking turned our heads - a scout from the communist man hunt!
Rolling with a cowboy quick draw, Mike shot him right between the eyes.
The shot echoed across the valley, sending flocks of birds squawking from the trees, alerting both the communists, and the Ogrons. Cresting the hill, the communists gave a culturally confused battle cry of 'Banzai!' and charged up towards us!
Hearing the battle cry and thinking themselves under attack, the Ogrons returned fire. Making us the meat in a gunfire sandwich! It was time to run...
We sprinted over the hill, into a valley, to the bank of a stream. Here, the Aussies did something most strange. Halting, they kicked down a rotten tree,
then began fervently stripping its bark. With the bark and other branches, Jeff fashioned a rudimentary canoe:
'Not my finest effort, but she'll have to do'
Skipping champagne on the slipway, we launched into the river.
+++++++
Compared to the hike in, our river journey out of South Aviana was almost serene. With constant bailing and wet trousers, we drifted downstream, to the fascination of wild beasts and natives along the river.
Days of exhaustion took their toll, and the lapping rhythm of the river soon became hypnotic. Closing my eyes just for a moment, i found myself back in Tomerton, with beautiful Brigitte and Stephanie on my arms, as the Vicar intoned '...take these women to be your lawfully wedded wives, to have and to hold often, minding occasional dalliances with their friend Antonia' to which i solemnly replied 'I d...'
'MIKE! YATES! THE FALLS!'
Roaring ahead of us, a giant tumultuous plain of rock, where rapids terminated in a colossal junction of waterfalls. Tipping the canoe and straining for a handle on debris from the shore, we half drowned trying to reel each other onto the rocks.
The Aviana falls. You may know them from the postcards - generally photographed from the other side looking up. From stood on the rocks, i could see the cliff face was never ending, a giant chasm carved out the side of the mountains.
I knew that this exactly was the border between North and South.
To have survived this journey, to find ourselves stuck on a cliff face looking down at our destination. I cursed bitterly 'I don't suppose you jokers have any bright ideas for getting us down?'.
I found my companions unravelling a large nylon sheet, with aluminium braces, from a pack Mike had kept close all the journey. 'Told you Yatesy, this man is the wingnut!'
'You cannot be serious?'
And with three long steps to the cliff edge, we rode the air! Swooping gloriously up and along the cliff face, tacking back for exilhirating passes across the falls, till a gentle descent to land along the river bank - back in North Aviana.
+++++++
What more shocking surprises await in the jungle? Can UNIT tackle the terror of the Daleks? The Jungle of Fear - part 4, bumper edition, at newstands soon
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