Brian

This is the on going story of Brian and his family stranded on an island in the Pacific. Roger, his future son-in-law, has finally pushed his oldest daughter over the edge by nearly raping her and talking of the youngest daughter.

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The rest of the night was uneventful. Beth and Brooke slept huddled together under the watchful eyes of Brian. Brian was now scanning the horizon as well as the surrounding area on shore. Brian was tossed between what was his most concern, the fact that Roger had tried to rape Brooke or the fact that Roger had mentioned something about a light seen on the horizon. The light could have been anything but the hackles on the back of his neck were up. They only came up when he was in a situation he was not sure what to do with. He knew what he had to do but was just not sure how to do it.

Brian began to scan the horizon. He figured that the worst of their troubles would come from that direction. He figure Roger was an issue but if all three of them were watching each other's back that they could handle it. It was the hope of rescue and the fear of the operating pirates that held most concern to Brian.

Brian was scanning the horizon and he turned almost completely around when he spotted a boat coming from the north side of the island. He could not have seen it approach any sooner because the extinct volcano blocked the view. He focused the binoculars as best he could to see if it was their best hope, a rescue party. Brian watched as the boat got closer and then started to watch the deck of the boat. It wasn't going to be a rescue party after all.

Brian started making mental notes of the boat and how best to defeat this new threat. He looked at that boat and then lowered the glasses to look at his sleeping daughters. His first concern was their safety. He knew what the pirates would do to him. What they would do to his children and the loves of his life caused him to shiver. This was a shiver of fear on one part and a shiver of anger on the other. They would get his girls over his dead body first, but he was going to take a lot of them with him if it came to that.

He brought the binos back to his face and studied the boat. Then he thought to himself, "Okay, I see six mean topside. That means probably four below in the engine room or in the pilothouse. Can't get much view from here on that. Let's see, two machine guns on the port and starboard sides, M-60s from the looks of them. The foredeck has a 37mm anti-tank gun or something like it on the front. The gun looks like it is for shooting forward, not much traversing. That means to use it they have to be coming straight at me. The M-60s are what scares me. They can rake this spot and just about anywhere except way up the island. The guys on the boats are all armed, pistols and automatic weapons. There are a few M-16s and AKs. Small boat on the stern of the boat. That means only 4-5 at a time can come aboard. Not good."

He dropped the binos down and turned to the girls. "Brooke, Beth, wake up. We got company."

The girls came instantly awake and started to look around. Brooke stated, "Daddy, are we going home?"

"Daddy is it a rescue party?" Beth said.

"No, girls. I am afraid it isn't. I think the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' you hoped would attack us are here. Except it is no Jimmy Deep or whatever his name is and it sure ain't a ride at Disneyland. These are real bad guys."

"Daddy, it is Johnny Depp not Jimmy Deep," Beth told him.

"Honey, right now I don't care. We have bad guys coming and I have got to get you two to safety. So get up, I want you to go as deep into the jungle as you can and hide. Girls, if they catch you, you do not want to know what is going to happen to you. It will not be pretty. The best thing to happen if they get you is that they kill you on the spot. I know that sound harsh, but it would be the best. They will turn you over to white slavers, after they have had their turns at you. So get up. I want to show you where to go and what to do," he told them as he started to gather his spear and their blanket. "Follow me girls, let's move and move quick."

Brian started to move inland as quickly as he could. The girls were fully awake now and adrenalin was helping them move quicker. Brian figured it would be another hour or so before they could put bad guys on shore. Maybe longer depending on the draft of the boat and the tides. Unfortunately the tides were high right now that meant they could get the boat in closer to shore. But they would have to go slow or rip out the bottom on the reef. That meant an hour to get in the lagoon and then half hour to put people on shore in the dingy. Give it two hours and they would be up to their asses in alligators.

Brian moved them in deeper in the woods until he reached the final defensive spot he had found days before. His military training had always taught him to have a primary defensive position, an alternate and supplemental. All he had to time to do was find an alternate and this was going to have to do. It was well concealed and provided a good view of what needed to be done. The cave had been used once before, probably during the war. This area was known to have had naval battles and pilots wash up on shore. He found writing on the wall and dates but couldn't tell by whose sides. Whoever did it didn't do a good job, only barely scratching the surface of the rock but enough to leave some marks.

"Ok, kids, here is the deal. You are to stay here. You are not to leave under any circumstances. I placed some spears I made in the back. There is a spear thrower in there also. I am just sorry I never taught you how to use it. I am going to go down and take care of the pirates. I have some nasty little tricks for them. I have been planning this since we got here. Don't worry about me. I did this for a living, remember." Brain was talking fast. He had to get them settled before he went and did the settling with the pirates. Somewhere along the line, Roger was going to have to be dealt with too. He really didn't like the twerp, but he had to protect him also.

"Daddy, we want to come with you. We can help," it was Brooke to first step up.

"Absolutely not!" Brian stated.

"But daddy, we can take care of ourselves. We know what you and Dylan taught us. We can kick ass," Beth responded.

"NO! And that is final. Taking a self-defense class is one thing, sparring in a controlled environment is another. These guys would just as soon kill you as look at you. No, you will stay in the cave, out of site and with your mouths shut. Is that clear?" Brian looked both girls in the eyes. When the girls nodded, Brian said, "good, now kiss me good bye. I will be back in a while."

Both the girls came to Brian and wrapped their arms around him. Beth kissed him hard on the lips, her tongue reaching out and into his mouth. Brooke did the same when it was her turn.

"Daddy, pleeeeaaaase be careful. Come back to us we need you, more than you know," Beth stated.

"I will, don't worry. Now stay here and stay out of sight," he told them.

Brian turned and left the opening of the cave and then turned back to make sure it was properly concealed. As he turned and started to walk down the hill, he broke into a slight trot. The cave was on the side of a slight hill that was strewn with small round rocks. Brian had not gone ten feet down the hill when his foot stepped on one of them and the rock rolled under his shoe. As the rock rolled, Brian's foot rolled to its side and his ankle gave a loud pop. Brian flew forward and landed on his chest and face.

"Oh, fuck. Not now, not fucking now," he cried out.

The girls heard what happened and left the cave, running to their fallen father. "Daddy, are you okay?" Brooke stated.

Beth grabbed his foot to look at it. "Daddy, this is your bad ankle isn't it?" she stated after looking it over gently.

"Yeah it is. But I don't think it is broken. I think I just twisted it slightly. Rather clumsy of me, would you think," he said.

Beth ran track and played lots of sports and cheerleading. She knew if something was broken and what was sprained. She wanted to be a nurse so her interest in anatomy was pretty good. "Daddy, I think it is just twisted, a day or two of rest and you will be fine."

"I don't have a day or two. I don't have an hour or two. Now get back in the cave and be quiet. I will just go slow. Now get back in the cave," he told them.

When he saw that they were in the cave and the entrance was concealed, he stood and tried his weight on the ankle. It hurt but he had worse. This was going to slow him down but he knew his life and most importantly, his daughters' lives were at stake. He began a light trot down the hill, being more careful of his step. He had to reach their old camp to prepare a few nasty surprises for his friends.

Twenty minutes later he was at the waterfall. He could tell the boat was about to drop anchor and the men in the back were starting to push the dingy over the back to get ready to come ashore. It looks like only four of them were coming ashore. "Four of them and one of me," he thought, "odds are a little uneven. Wonder if they want to go get some more help." Brian broke into an evil grin. A grin none of his family had ever seen before. This was the grin of a killer; a grin of a man who was going back to the primeval days of when it was kill or be killed.

Brian thought back to another time that he had to do this. It was right before Christmas when the kids were young. He had been on a training mission that turned to shit. He and his team were involved in a running gun battle for days. Each time they were about to get to an extraction site, the bad guys would shut it down. The team was about out of ammo and had to resort to some unconventional tactics. They ended up being the hunter and not the hunted. When the dust had settled and the smoke cleared, the walked out of the jungle to their extraction site. They were cut, bloody, and had a look in them that scared the helicopter pilots picking them up. However, they were alive. Not so with the people they left in the jungle behind them. Those that lived told of a story that would make a great horror movie in Hollywood. A superior force disseminated by a few warriors using crude weapons. It was not that spears and bows took them out; it was what was done to the bodies afterwards that frightened the locals. Even today the local villagers talk of the devil that walks the night. They tell the stories to frighten their children.

Today, the devil walks the island.

"I don't know about you, Book, but I can't sit here and do nothing. I am going to help daddy," Beth stated getting to her feet.

"I wondered which of us was going to be the first to say it, you just beat me to it." Brooke stood and looked around for the spears.

"We work as a team, covering each other. They will have to come at us both. I have your back and you have mine. Got it," Beth stated.

"Yeah, we will kick their asses!" Brooke stated.

The girls gave each other a high five and then picked up their spears. The scene had all the drama of a B-grade high school football movie. It never crossed their minds that what they were getting themselves into. They just knew they had to cover their backs and their dad's.

But dad was a hunter and setting up his prey. Brian had already torn down the covering to the toilet area. He had placed some sharpened sticks inside the pit and covered the tips with human waste. He had to wipe some of it off his hands in the sand, thinking it was a small price to pay for what was about to happen. He threw leaves over it to cover it and when he was satisfied that it couldn't be seen he moved off slowly. His ankle was still hurting. He carried a few more of the shit-dipped sticks with him for a few other nasty surprises.

He watched from a hidden spot as the dingy move not directly to shore but to the boat. The men pulled along side the boat and two of them jumped aboard and went below. When they came out, the moved to the front and cut the lines anchoring it to the shore. The two remaining in the dingy through them a line and they fastened it to stanchions on the front. Then the two on board got back in the boat and the dingy headed back out to the larger boat.

Brian watched and figured out what they were doing. They were securing the boat first and then would probably come on shore. And that is what they did. Once the dingy pulled along side the larger boat, the men tossed the line aboard. Brian saw two men catch the line and hook it up to some sort of wench system. Brian watched as the line went taunt and popped out of the water. Then he watched as their boat began to turn around and nose its bow toward the open water. It must have been twenty minutes before the boat was along side the other and tied off securely.

While this was going on, Brian was making to spring traps and lashing the shit sticks to it. Then he rigged a trip line across the trail and then pulled back the bamboo and hooked into the release stick. He had just finished the second one when he saw the dingy head toward shore but now with six men in it not just four. "Ok," he thought, "this changes things."

The men from the boat landed and executed a smooth military type movement to the jungle fringe. Brian thought that some of them must have had some military training and things just kept getting worse. He wasn't sure what else could go wrong. Then fortune smiled in his favor, the party broke up into two groups of three each. Now he could handle three on one, but six on one was not very good odds. Especially when it was bamboo spears against automatic weapons. The Ethiopians kicked ass against the Italians with only spears before World War II, but there was whole more Ethiopians than there were of him.

He watched from a distance as the one group moved off towards the far side of the island while the other group hung around for a few minutes. Brian could tell from the actions of one of the men on shore that he had to be in charge. He is the one who pointed at the other group and told them which way to go and was clearly giving the signals to the group remaining behind. Then he picked up a radio from his belt and turned to face the boat and spoke. After that, two of the men began to move toward the jungle.

"Show time," Brian thought and silently moved out to kill. The odds were getting better each time.

The men from the first party let out a yell just as the second group entered the jungle. The second group dropped to their knees and turned to see four men know walking down the beach. They stood and walked back to where the captain was standing. Then three men walked up pushing a young man in shorts.

"Shit!" Brian thought, "They got Roger."

Brian was too far away to hear what the men were saying and couldn't have understood their language if he could. But he could understand the hand gestures. The men on shore were waving their hands and pointing at the part of the island they had just returned from and pointed at Roger, and then at the boat and then back at the island. The captain said something to Roger, and when he either got the answer he didn't like or no answer at all, his fist came up and hit Roger in the face. Roger fell back into the surf where he was quickly brought to his feet by two of the men.

Again there was questions and with the answer came another attack. This time from one of the men holding a weapon. The man sharply hit Roger in the stomach. Roger doubled over and fell to his knees. The captain got in his face again and asked another question. This round of questions was followed by the captain giving Roger a hard slap to his face and followed by a vicious backhand. Brian could see the blood running down Roger's face as the captain continued to question him.

Brian had to do something. His blood was boiling at the attack on the kid. He didn't deserve that treatment and Brian knew he had to something. He picked up a spear and stepped back to throw it. He took a running start and just as he went to release the spear his foot step on a hidden stick under some brush. Brian's ankle twanged enough to cause him to lose his balance and offset his through.

The spear sailed through the air and due to the misstep landed a few feet away from one of the men on the beach. Had he not have miss thrown the spear, it would have embedded itself in the man's back. But it did what it was supposed to, they stopped hitting Roger. Of course, it had the undesirable affect of Brian. The guards dropped to one knee and all of them turned and fired into the jungle. Brian dove behind a fallen palm tree just as the bullets hit wildly in his general vicinity.

He was up and moving quickly to head deeper into the jungle, hopefully drawing them to his preset traps. The pirates had some training but failed to use it. They broke into two teams of two and split up, heading into the jungle. They were trying to get Brian into a pincher movement. Brian had to lead them to the traps but his ankle was going to slow him down. His angle and the amount of noise he was creating caused the pirates to focus on the sound and not pay attention to where they were going.

Brian soon had them heading to where he wanted the first group to go. The first pirate had made it past the toilet area but the second one was heading toward it. Then at the last moment the trail pirate step away from the pit. Brian grabbed a rock and threw it at the first guard. Brian's aim was good, hitting the first pirate in the shoulder. The struck pirate fired off a quick volley of fire in the general direction but not at Brian. The second pirate saw what happened and headed for his partner.

The second pirate step onto the covering and felt his body begin to fall. He dropped his weapon and threw his hand forward to stop his forward momentum. His hands caught his fall but then felt severe pain in his foot. The sandals he was wearing did not stop the sharp pointed bamboo and the sharpened end pierced his foot, coming out the top between the bones of his big toe and second toe. He was screaming as he pulled his foot out of the hole with the bamboo still in his foot. He screamed for his partner to held and when his partner went to grab the bamboo he reeled his hand back in disgust. An exchange of conversation went on until the first pirate used some leaves to hold in his hand to grab the shit coated stick and pull it out. The second pirate screamed, and Brian laughed. "One down, five to go", Brian thought. The pirates hobbled their way back to the beach leaving only the other two to deal with for the time being.

The girls had just reached the lookout point when they heard the first set of gunfire on the beach. They immediately dropped to the ground. Brooke looked up and saw the men on the beach and could tell that one of the men was Roger. She could also see that the front of his t-shirt was red. She let out a gasp and told Beth to look. The both stared in shock as the captain reared back and hit him in the stomach when there was the second burst of machine gun fire. Roger was just getting to his feet when two men came staggering back to where Roger was standing, one of the men being helped by the other. The captain hit Roger again in the face after asking him a question. They left Roger lying on the sand as they turned to look back at the jungle.

Beth nudged Brooke silently and pointed off to their side. They could see two men moving in the jungle below. Beth said, "Book, they are going after dad. We got to do something. I have an idea, are you up for it?"

Brooke nodded and Beth explained her idea. After some quiet banter, they moved out in the general direction of the other advancing pirates. As luck would have it, they began to separate as the girls were getting into position. The girls waited patiently as the pirates moved their way. One of the pirates angled further away from the other due to the thick foliage and the found himself quite alone in the thick jungle.