AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURES

Chapter 11: Battle in the Simpson

He pressed her to himself as the waters sprayed over them,soaking them both completely. "Oh," she said, her hands feeling his cape.  "Your fur drape is getting wet!"  

He laughed, gathering handfuls of her dripping pale hair.  "Sometimes wet can be a good thing."  He had no idea of the fullness of what he said.
*****************
Due west of the southern tip of Mumbleberry, across the Simpson Desert, lay the Henbury Meteorite Craters.  Himself headed towards them as though he were the setting sun, not minding in the least that not a single road, nor even a small track, went that way.  Aussies were like that.
       

"Why?" Marti had moaned when she'd realized his intent.  

 

 

"It will be...interesting," he had replied, then added, "Besides, why not?"  

 

 

"Um, you have to have Desert Parks Passes to go in there?" she tried.  

 

 

"True!" he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out a stack of 50 of them, dashing her hopes he had been happy to see her.

They had loaded everything that could contain water with supplies from the artesian well. The fact that hundreds upon hundreds of miles of trackless desert lay between them and his destination only made him grin all the more. He knew there were a couple of tracks across Simpson, but they lay further to the south and he didn't want to go out of his way to encounter them. Besides, they were only barely tracks anyway...just ruts and wheel marks in the sand, never graded or groomed.  As long as they were as far north as Mumbleberry, why not head due west, right?  I mean, how much could it MATTER that the first successful motorized crossing of the Simpson hadn't come until 1962?  Why in 1973 it had even been crossed on FOOT with the use of ski sticks and had only taken a mere 32 days! This should be a piece of cake!  

 

 

Ah, but the question that should probably have been asked of the desert gods was...are you serving Angel Food cake or Devil's Food? Himself refrained from pointing out to Marti that in the middle of the vast wasteland grew a famous tree, a box eucalypt of the Coolibah family. He didn't think she needed to know it was so famous because it was the ONLY tree in the whole blasted place and, thereby, derived its fame from being "The Lone Gum Tree." People went miles out of their way just to see it.  It, howsomever, did not lie on the route Himself had chosen, it not actually BEING a route and all.   

"OK, guys!" he announced just before they set out.  "Time to let some air out of the tires (or, as he would spell it, tyres)."  

 

 

"Um, don't we need air...lots of air...to, um, cross... THIS?"  Hando wondered.  Being a cityboy, he was not acquainted with the ways of vehicles traveling uponst sand and that low tire pressure was a must.  

 

With a wave of his arm toward what lay before them, Himself encouraged their hearts. "We will have AMPLE views of bare wind-swept red dunes!"
     

 

Marti was not, somehow, terribly, terribly encouraged.  Thank goodness he refrained as well from mentioning that the number one inhabitant of the Simpson was the dune fly. She gulped, looking westward into the 170,000 square kilometers of the driest region in all of Australia. Perhaps...perhaps if she sat down and very, very quickly typed out a script for 'Eucalyptus' that did not involve any, um, untoward exposure to young queens....perhaps then he would change his mind?  Alas, Himself was already behind the wheel of the lead SUV, heading off into the blinding glare of the early afternoon sun. She turned, following Jeff into the back of their car, glad at least that he was again wearing his jogging shorts.

Once in a while as they rode along, Joimus would open her eyes, testing her vision. "I still see only rust," she sighed after several hours.  

 

 

"Me, too," Maximus replied. "There IS only rust to see," he explained as the red, sandy soil stretched in every direction to the horizon.  

 

 

Turning her head toward him, she could make out the faintest blur of the flesh tones of his skin, but not his features.  She traced the line of his nose with her fingers, slowly letting them continue down across his moustache, lingering on his lips.  She felt them stretch into a smile at her touch.
      

Just then, Sid, who seemed to be enjoying himself rather much behind the wheel, hit a deep rut, sending a sudden jolt through everyone in the car.  

 

 

"You did that deliberately," Bunny accused, cocking one eyebrow at the man beside her.  

 

 

"Did not," he replied, then steered directly into another.

Biebe, driving the SUV behind Sid, shook his head.  "He's hitting every bump and rock," he remarked to Buggie.
            

Jack leaned over from the back seat, watching  with a frown. He had not been pleased that Sid was driving Maximus and Joimus in the first place and observing the manner of that driving only added to his displeasure.   This wolf in sheep's clothing thing was continuing way, way too long.  

By late afternoon they were deep into the desert.  Suddenly Himself stopped his SUV and, leaping onto its hood, er, bonnet,  hollered, "Circle the wagons!!!"
                                 

"Um," Susan asked Zack, "what does he mean by THAT?"  

 

 

"Circle them NOW!" Himself hollered again, even more urgently.  

 

 

Soon all the SUVs had formed a fairly circular circle, though not up to Nash's standards, with their front grills all pointing inwards.  As the cast gathered in the open center, Himself pointed toward a low ridge to the south where a dust cloud was being kicked up.  "Mongolian gun runners," he said, his voice all low and serious.  

 

 

"In...AUSTRALIA?" Marti scoffed scoffingly.  

 

 

He looked at her, his eyebrows arranged all menacingly.  "I see there is much you have yet to learn about my homeland, Miss Koeppe."

                

Not to be outdone in eyebrow menacing, the Queen arranged her own, hair by careful hair. "Does Frommer know of this?" she quizzed.  

 

 

His lip curled.  "Do you think we put such matters in our tour guides?"  

"Probably not," she replied, smirking broadly.  

 

 

"Nonetheless," he continued, pointing again toward the dust cloud wherein dark mounted shapes had now become visible, "here they come."
                   

"Why?" she asked as was her wont.  "Why would they attack US?"  

 

 

"We shall know soon enough," he replied Maximally.  

 

 

"You need a dialog-removal button," she commented, lowering her lids a bit.
  

Those of them with weapons, drew them.  Those without, did not.  Rose, momentarily distracted by the way the Captain tied his hair back with the leather thong in that way that made her all weak in the knees, was a bit concerned, truth be told, about the effectiveness of the Captain's cutlass against several dozen Mongolianly-run guns.  He flashed a gallant smile toward Maximus, who dipped his head in acknowledgement of the Captain and made a slight gesture with his sword.

     

A bit before, the General had taken off his cape, handing it to Joimus, whom he had asked to stay low inside their car with Kim and Arthur on either side of her.  "If anything happens to her," he had growled, "I don't expect to find either of you still alive."  He didn't like leaving her with them, but they were the only two without ladies and all that were available.

Sid jumped onto the roof of a SUV, crouching, his bare hands clenching and unclenching, as he grinned in the direction of the approaching riders.  

Himself had opened the boot of his car, handing out rifles to whomever wanted one.   Bud hesitated, his tongue tracking around his upper then lower lips.Himself nodded encouragingly and Bud reached out, taking the rifle into his hands, just looking at it a long moment.
                                   

 

Berti walked up beside him, rested her hand on his arm, saying, "You can do it." Then she took a rifle herself.  She was, after all, a Southern woman and, therefore, capable in every way.

"Damn blunt equipment!" Terry snapped, almost tripping over it.
         

 

Annsmac, rifle in hand, said quietly, "I've got your back."  

 

 

He grinned at her.  "Could probably use you more in the front."

"Later," she promised.  

Lachlan, Corbett, Johnny, East, Egan, Zack, Alex, Cort, Biebe were all used to handling guns. Hando preferred his switchblade and a chain he produced from one of his compartments Ando had not yet discovered. Laura had chosen her rifle carefully then climbed onto the roof of an SUV lying flat, studying her target through a scope.  

 

 

"You...you...know how to use that?" Steve asked, looking up at her.  

 

 

"Captain...Army Reserves," she replied, not turning her head.

          

"Ok...Ok!" Marti said to Himself.  "I get it.  Aren't we supposed to be strapped to the wings of the Phoenix right about now and take off just before the gun runners get to us?"  

 

 

"Do you see...aircraft?" Himself replied, raising one eyebrow.  She shook her head. "Then I'd get under one of the SUVs were I you."  A bullet zinged past her head, lopping off the tip of one of her curls.  

"Don't fire 'til you see the whites of their eyes!" Himself hollered.

                                     

"That didn't sound all that Australian to me," Wanda remarked. Besides, Mongolian gun runners were well known for going out of their way to make sure their eyes were completely bloodshot before attacking innocent epifolk. It had been their way for centuries.

 

 

"Perhaps he's never personally engaged a Mongolian gun runner in battle

before?" Lachlan offered.
        

 

"Well, it's about time, then," Wanda added, tipping her darts with toad juice.  

"Except for being circular rather than squared, I feel quite like a scene from 'The Four Feathers'," Ute remarked, remembering being Uthne in The Village not all that long ago. (Journey Into Jeopardy)

"Weren't they wiped out almost to the last man in that scene?" Jeffrey gulped.  

 

 

"Yes," she replied, "but we have an advantage they didn't have."  She turned, smiling at him. "We have women."
                              

Laura snapped off the first shot, sending the leading rider tumbling.
 

 

"See what I mean," Ute nodded.  

 

 

"Do...do...you think she saw eye-whites?" he wondered.

"I doubt it," Ute continued.  "Women watch for...other...things."  

 

 

As much as he truly wanted her to explain that, he was distracted by the robed form leaping toward him. Down he went, flat on his back, stiffening his arms to keep the curved dagger from his throat.  *Whack* and the attacker rolled to the side, felled by a blow from Ute's jug of soy sauce.  

Bullets whizzed fast and thick around Sid as he stood atop the SUV.

 

"SID!" Maximus shouted, "Get DOWN!"  

 

 

But Sid just grinned and called back, "They are like flies to me!"  Just then one impacted him full in his chest and he flew backwards off the roof, landing with a heavy thud at Bunny's feet.
                                

"No!" she  cried, dropping to her knees beside him, pushing back the folds of his purple suitcoat.  She found a flattened bullet with a bit of blue oozing around its edges.
                                 

 

He blinked a few times then smiled.  "I'm fine," he said, sitting up. "We'll talk glass later." He sprang to his feet, firing at a gun runner who had sailed his horse over the hood of the SUV.

 

 

Maximus and Jack stood back to back, blades flashing as each engaged two of the runners.  Rose had never seen Aubrey use his cutlass in person.  He moved, a blur of white and ecru, across the red sands, Maximus somehow always managing to stay at his back.  It was... amazing...the two of them, and she would have been in heaven were she not in Australia and worried for his safety.  Maximus' rust-colored and brown blended more with the terrain and she cast her eyes back to the SUV where Joimus was, knowing how much she would have wanted to see this.
                      

"Do you see the General?"  Joimus asked Kim, biting her lip.  She could tell from the sounds all around that a full-blown battle had been engaged.  

 

 

"Yes," he answered, "he and Jack are fighting off two of the gun runners."  

 

 

"Oh, good," she sighed, relieved, until he added, "each."  

Good it was that Cort had renounced his renouncement of violence as his quickness and expertise with guns was coming in handy at the moment. Hando had swung his long chain wrapping it about the ankles of a particularly large and hairy runner who then toppled towards the Melbourner, a long knife in his hand.  Whirling, Cort blasted the blade, turned on his heel and using his famous crossed-arms X-shot, got both the one atop Joimus' car and the one diving under Marti's.  He grinned very, very slightly, sending Sue's heart beating wildly. How she loved a dusty man, gunsmoke wafting up about his face, who could grin.
       

Within minutes it was over.  Maximus looked at Jack.  "There is no one left to fight," he said familiarly.  

 

 

"There's always someone left to fight," the Captain corrected,  drawing his pistol and plugging a runner who burst out between two of the vehicles.
                                   

Then, sprinting rapidly, the General headed toward the SUV with Joimus inside. He flung open the rear door, standing there backlit by the late afternoon sun. Joimus turned toward him, blinking twice as she saw the outline of his form. There were no details as yet, but a tear trickled down her cheek at what she could see.  

 

 

Seeing the tear, he said quickly, "Are you injured?"  

 

 

"No," she replied, her voice cracking with emotion.  "I see the shape of you."  

 

 

Quietly Kim and Arthur slipped out the far door as Maximus entered. She had his cape folded on her lap, her fingers twined in its fur.  He lay his own hands over hers.  "You...you are all right?" she asked.  

 

 

"I am fine," he said, not mentioning the cut across one cheek.  

Steve walked beside Laura as she took her rifle back to Himself's SUV. "You were amazing...again," he said, looking at her, his eyes filled with admiration. "Is there no end to what you can do?"  

 

She smiled, not answering.  

 

 

"You know," he continued, "I've always lived in the city, I've never met anyone who... who...."  She turned her face toward his, leaned forward, and kissed him lightly on the lips. Then she covered the last several steps to the car to replace her gun as he stood where he was, completely unable to move or speak.

It was coming on dusk when they arrived at the Henbury Craters. Parking to one side of the desolate area with the dozen craters formed by the break up of a large meteorite at low altitude. "I didn't get here on my long bike ride a few years ago," Himself explained. "Always sorta wanted to see 'em, though."
                                    

He guided them over to craters 3 and 4, explaining, "These two are of particular interest as they are the only terrestrial craters to show analogues to lunar rays in their ejecta patterns."
 

"Know it all," Marti mumbled, though she was secretly proud of his brain. She actually smiled. He may not have the paper trail to prove it, but she'd back him up against just about anybody in the smarts department.  

 

 

Nash seemed very intrigued by them, staring down into the largest elliptical crater, a good 720 feet long.   Sid had hung back, staying near the cars.

"Are you afraid of crypt-m-night?" Bunny asked, remembering the deadly affect on his person by that substance back in The Village.  He nodded silently. He was, indeed, feeling somewhat strange.  

 

 

Bunny walked quickly over to Himself.  "Any chance of crypt-m-night?" she wanted to know.  

 

 

"Iron," he replied.  

 

 

"Hmmmm?" she hmmmed, going back to Sid.  "Himself says they were made by an iron meteorite," she explained, noting, in addition, the strewn field of iron meteorite fragments as she spoke.  

 

 

"Is there some problem?" Maximus asked, guiding Joimus' arm as he joined them.
                                 

 

"I'm not sure yet," Bunny said, studying Sid's strange expression.  "All the iron around here seems to be affecting him somehow."  

 

 

"Ayers is made of iron, too," Joimus added, knowing that was their next stop.  

 

 

Sid suddenly walked away into the gathering darkness.  He was not ready to explain to anyone that his entire system of inner balances was controlled magnetically.

"I'm worried about him," Bunny commented, watching his back.  "This could be a...bad...thing."