Chapter XV

CHAPTER XV
The Return of Commander Dantu

“Nah. I’m fresh out of last words. However, a nice filet mignon would be nice right about now,” Judas replied back as he shuffled around trying to prevent the inevitable.
“Are you aware of my legacy?” Dantu pointed out.
“Besides being a prick?” Judas shot back. “I could care less about your legacy, or for that matter anything else you stand for.”
“Release him,” Dantu ordered.
The soldier threw Judas to the soil with a brute force. Gasping for air, Judas felt himself losing control of the situation. Mentally, the malaria had given him a new edge. Judas had nothing really to fear, for either the malaria, the virus, or this military dick would serve as Judas’s personal grim reaper.
“From where I stand, you’re the one that needs to re-evaluate his situation,” Judas always had to add sarcasm to his replies.
“I shot Quentin on the spot for defying my authority, what makes you think I won’t do that again with you?”
“It’s my lucky day.” Judas gripped the soil and peeled away fistfuls of mud from its place. “I’m not letting you take my journal.”
“I really don’t think you’re in a position to bargain with me,” Dantu said as he pulled out his gun and lowered in Judas’s immediate direction. “Let me illustrate to you what I mean by putting a bullet into every joint you own, and then watch as you try to crawl away. Then, and only then, after watching you for about an hour, will I put a bullet directly into your belly, watching you slowly bled out.”
“That’s so gay.” Judas withdrew his arm and launched a handful of mud into Dantu’s face, momentarily blinding him.
Dantu staggered about, losing his iron-fist grip on the situation at hand. Judas sprang and knocked over the daunting Commander, sending the journal sailing through the air. The two men rolled around until Judas wisely gained the upper hand and wrestled the gun away from Dantu.
“Get up, you pig,” Judas seethed. He waved the gun in the air. “Everyone back the fuck off, otherwise your fearless leader here gets one in between those sinister eyes of his.”
Dantu nodded his head in agreement for his men to back off on their positions. “I have this under control, retreat back to camp, I’ll meet you there shortly.”
The soldiers scattered back into the hot jungle, leaving the two fighters atop the dangerous cliff.
“Shortly?” mused Judas. “I don’t plan on going down that quickly.
Dantu found a weak spot and sent a hard punch into Judas’s stomach. Judas groaned as he hunched over in significant pain, losing his advantage. Dantu then alertly sent his foot sailing into his attacker’s face, watching in pleasure as Judas spat blood into the air, before belly-flopping upon the muddy terrain. “Now, tell me wiseass. Whose in charge, now?” Dantu bellowed.
Judas rolled over and found a lightning quick Dantu rapidly approaching. Judas taxingly raised the gun and bided his time. Dantu, not to be upstaged, kicked the gun away from Judas’s weakened grasp and lowered himself down and violently grabbed Judas by the neck.
“Listen to me, you little punk.” Dantu jerked Judas around like a puppet on a string. “I own you, I own that journal, and most of all, I own the colony.”
“I see you’re a bit territorial,” Judas cracked wisely.
“Fuck you.” Dantu spit into Judas’s sweaty mug. Dantu slammed him back into the ground and backed away.
Dantu turned his back and stared at the jungle. “This jungle will either consume you entirely, or you will die trying to escape it’s wrath.”
“Is that your story?”
“My story? My story Judas, is one that will be told for ages.”
“Has the jungle consumed you Commander?” Judas raised himself from the ground.
“I like your spunk. I want to offer you a deal.”
“A deal?”
“Yes. You show great courage and determination. Those are two traits that are hard to find in a solider.”
“I will never join your cause.”
“I look at this way,” Dantu replied as he continued to stare into the jungle’s darkness. “We can overtake the colony together. I will take what I want, mostly the antidote and any supplies, and you can tend to the dying and needy.”
“How does that benefit me?” Judas questioned Dantu’s logic.
“I always have an inside man working for me. They supply me with technology, medicine, a hospital for my injured men, food, water, and a place to crash every now and again.”
“And what do I get?”
“Your life.”
“That’s it?” Judas’s tone was vicious. “That sounds like a shitty deal.”
“You could be dead.” Dantu cracked his knuckles. “I’ve been in a terrible fight where I barely survived with my life.”
“Yeah, tell me about that.” Judas searched for the missing gun, trying to locate it before Dantu attempted another attack.
“That stubborn bastard, Quentin blew up my base camp and almost succeeded in taking my life,” Dantu told the story. “My body was badly burned, however, here I stand.”
“Quentin fought hard for what he strongly believed in.”
“Then why Judas, did you kill him.” Dantu’s eyes surveyed the scenery, taking in its unheralded power.
“It’s complicated.”
“How so? He had something you wanted. The journal.”
“Partly, yes.” Judas couldn’t find the gun.
“Don’t make a foolish attempt at finding the weapon,” Dantu responded with a keen sense of awareness.
“Why not?”
Dantu raised his left hand high above his head. Clutched tightly within his grasp was the mud-caked pistol that Judas had dropped during the fight.
“Shit.”
“I like your strength and will. You killed your fellow friend, colleague, and mentor. And for what? A collection of papers.”
“It’s more complicated than that.” Judas offered an explanation.
“Life is not that complicated,” Dantu offered his take. “You breathe, take a shit, eat some food and set out to dominate the world.”
“That’s a unique way of putting it.”
“Well, I’m a unique type of guy.” Dantu turned around and raised the pistol directly at Judas’s chest. “My men also have this area secured, so don’t plan on escaping or running away, for they are instructed to shoot on sight.”
“After all this philosophical discussion, you’re just going to shoot me?”
“I truly did enjoy our engaging conversation. But, when it comes down to getting results, you’re either on my side, or against me.” Dantu licked his salty upper lip.
“You’re just a pussy that kills people with your neat little pop-gun.” Judas mocked him. “Be a man, and use your fists. A fight to the death. If I win, you give back my journal and I’ll set your men free. If the great Commander Dantu somehow manages to win, then I’m dead, and you will have a clear path to the colony.”
Dantu’s eyes glowered as his blood started to boil. “Okay, Mr. Judas we will play it your way. I haven’t been challenged in quite some time. This will serve as the perfect exercise when I’m ravaging the colony again and punishing the men, women, children, with ease.”
Dantu chucked the gun off into the jungle’s mucky confines and planted his feet into the ground. “Come and get me you son-of-a-bitch!” he taunted Judas.
Judas balled his fists and swayed from side to side, mentally preparing himself for the fight. His right foot planted behind him, he led with his left. His body lurched forward, headed straight for the unfazed Commander.
Dantu sidestepped the charge, and countered with an elbow to Judas’s face. Dantu watched in glory as his attacker landed hard on the ground. “Have enough yet?”
Judas gingerly touched the side of his face, tracing over the fresh bruise. “That sure does sting. However, you’re going to need more than a bitch-slap to bring me down.” Judas arose and charged again. He aimed low and planned to take out Dantu’s feet from underneath.
Dantu’s quick and wily nature had prevented Judas from adhering to any planned course of strategy. “I’m like a Bengal tiger.” Dantu grinned.
Judas made another maddening dash for the Commander. Judas stretched out his fingers and managed to drag his nails across the side of Dantu’s scarred face, drawing a stream of blood in its wake.
Dantu spun around in slow-motion fashion, twirling around eventually regaining his balance from the surprise attack. “You’ll pay for that.”
Judas kept his feet moving at a fleeting pace, just like his father had taught him many years ago when Judas was just a kid. His father’s hobby was boxing, in fact, his dad was a Golden Glove boxer, and taught Judas the tricks of the trade. Judas finally had a situation besides the bully at school, to shine his brightest. His mind was now completely drenched in malaria, offering him no chance of recovery.
“The way I look at it,” Judas said as he let off a vicious jab to Dantu’s mid-section, causing the Commander to double over in pain. “You’re going to pay.”
Dantu staggered about trying to regain his menacing composure. His quickened hands had unleashed a fixture of punishing hits to Judas’s face. One of his shots broke Judas’s nose wide open, spilling its contents all over the place. “Are you still feeling like a cock-fighter now?” Dantu taunted him.
Judas cupped his nose for a brief moment to pressurize the bleeding. He was ill-prepared for Dantu’s continued barrage, which spun Judas around like a nickel on a table.
The steamy atmosphere swelled with inevitable precipitation, threatening the two fighters’ surroundings. A powerful, yet brief cloud storm rollicked through the area, dispatching the mesmerizing, continuous onslaught of rain.
Both men were completely drenched to the bone from the powerful watershed, but neither would give up their position.
Judas caught sight of Dantu’s pistol, resting in the earth just a few yards off to his right side. If Judas could only make a break for it, he could regain the upper hand. Judas lowered his eyes, now tainted with a yellowish haze. “You want me, then you’re going to have to work for it.” He prepared for the fight, clenching his cocked fists, planted his feet and sprinted towards Dantu.
Dantu danced back and forth like a prized fighter awaiting his challenger. He wasn’t threatened one bit by this joke. Dantu had savagely killed men weaker than Judas, he only toyed around with Judas for his own personal pleasure. His men had the area comfortably surrounded, for Dantu was protected on all sides of the proverbial fence.
Judas lowered his shoulder and slammed into the mighty Commander. Dantu absorbed the blow and collapsed backwards with Judas landing on top of him. Judas rammed his left knee directly into Dantu’s testicles and grinned as the fearsome leader groaned in pain. “Are you still feeling like a cocky fighter now?” Judas questioned the jarred Commander.
Dantu curled his lips and spit directly into Judas’s eyeballs. “Fuck you.”
Judas unloaded with a hard, crushing head-butt to Dantu’s right temple, extracting a steam of blood, which trickled along the Commander’s uniquely scarred skin, almost like a pinball inside a contorted maze.
Dantu writhed from the crushing hit, but countered with an uppercut, stunning his attacker momentarily. “You’re going to die here today.” Dantu sat up and wiped away the blood from his face with the back of his wet hand. A cavalcade of rain droplets coursed over his bruised body, briefly endorsing his vitality a little while longer.
Judas managed to balance himself nicely from Dantu’s stunning punch and through the sticky mud, regained his footing and jumped at Dantu again. Judas timed his attacked perfectly, tackling the rising Commander right below the knees.
“I’m not going to let some snot nosed Commander kill me off in this hellish place. I will live to the colony, you my friend, will not.” Judas brimmed with a slick, devilish confidence, a sure sign that the malaria had completely washed away any lingering fabric of his deep-rooted moral code.
Dantu countered with a smattering of defensive moves, but Judas had elusively managed to perform a wrestler’s dream move: a full-nelson on the wily Commander, thus limiting his mobility.
Judas tightened his grip until the Commander had no choice but to succumb to his overpowering attacker. “What’s this?” Judas felt a large bump against his ribs. “You were hiding a knife?” He quickly withdrew it and plunged the weapon into Dantu’s rib cage, twisting it with every snap of his fingers. Dantu seethed with anger, as the pain raced through his body like a tornado galloping over a valley of homes and crops. “Speechless?” Judas wily asked of his dying challenger.
Dantu doubled over and withdrew the knife from his left-side. He expertly twirled the bloody knife between his fingers and let off a wry grin. He kicked out his feet and tripped Judas. “This is not over.” Dantu sliced Judas across the shins, and attempted to escape, heading towards the cliff’s edge, seeking refuge.
Judas again dashed for the ailing Commander. He forcefully grabbed the fleeing Dantu by his shoulder and jerked him backwards through the muck.
Dantu expertly interlocked Judas’s legs with his and rolled him over and over again, until both men came inches away from the cliff’s dangerous edge.
“We’re both going to die together Judas. Embrace your fate.” Dantu powerfully let off one more pivotal twist of his hip and sent both men careening off the edge of the cliff, caught in a deadly spiral towards the raging river below.
*****
The fire licked the sky, sending one last flume of smoke high into the air. Logan pivoted upon his aching heels and grinded his breakneck pace to a complete stop. “John,”
Logan addressed his right-hand man.
“What’s up buttercup?” Garrison shot back.
“I suggest we use our masks, just in case,” Logan said. He slipped off his backpack and unloaded the precautionary items. “Who knows who or what we will come in contact with. I would think this virus could possibly be air borne.” Logan didn’t want to be right about that particular scenario.
Logan and Garrison carefully approached the perimeter of the colony. The fire had died down considerably leaving only a thin veil of smoke behind.
“Hand me the binoculars,” Logan whispered to John.
“Yeah, hold on a sec,” John responded as he fished through Logan’s backpack. “Here.” John handed the Captain the necessary hardware.
Logan firmly pressed the binoculars against his keenly adept eyes and scoured the singed remains of the colony. His attention was drawn to two women standing in the center of eroding establishment, just looking into fiery wreckage of the medical tent.
“I count two women who seem to be searching for something, or possibly someone.” Logan could easily identify every single facial hair, skin blemish, or other intricate detail, simply by gazing through the latest state-of-the-art eyepiece. “The medical area has been completely comprised, allowing us no access to treat or cure any of the infected colonists.”
Logan grimaced. “And, I don’t recognize another building, or area inside the colony that would serve as a secondary medical facility.”
“So, we’re screwed?” John strained to witness what Logan was looking at.
“I do see a decimated stone church over in the northern quadrant. That seems to be void of any human contact right now. I suggest we set up base camp there and try to find out what exactly the hell is going on around here.” Logan passed the binoculars to John. “Here, take a peek.”
John slid them up to his eyes and peered through the looking glass. “What a complete disaster area.”
“Yeah. I also noticed that the crop area along with some kind of irrigation system has also been comprised. Our supply of fresh water and food will have to sustain us as long as possible. There’s no telling what kind of shit these people are innocently infecting themselves with from the tainted water and poor crop system.” Logan again surveyed the area, trying to secure the safest route to the church.
“Do we make contact with the women?” John whirled around with the binoculars.
“We’re going to have to. They’re standing right in the middle of the whole colony.” Logan shook his head in a bemused sort of way. “Do you always make it your goal to test my patience?”
“I try. What can I say? I’m extremely gifted.” John grinned as he returned the binoculars to Logan.
“Well, you are indeed ‘gifted’ in the truest sense of the word.” Logan tapped his old friend on the shoulder and headed straight ahead into the belly of the beast.