The Cursed Ruins of Pōmaikaʻi

Chapter 5

Though he and Julie fought and made up about the ruins in a matter of seconds, he was still worried about them. Lying naked in bed, like he always sleeps, later that night, he stared up through the mosquito net at the ceiling, memories of the ruins. Still, when he awoke on a lovely, post-rain morning a week later and after donning his loincloth, he stepped out onto the porch of the treehouse to look out over the jungle to think about the ruins.

He had... bad memories of the place. It wasn't PTSD, but he still had bad memories of that.

He heard the padding of bare feet on the wood and turned around. There stood Julie, topless but donning her top, in all her wild glory. He smiled at her, remembering why he loved her so much before turning around and letting her snake her arms around his body. "How'd you sleep?" he asked.

"Wonderfully," she replied, nuzzling into his bare back. "Are you alright, honey?"

"I'm alright," he said.

"You're still worried about the ruins."

She felt him squeeze her tighter, and she knew he must've tensed up. "You're serious?"

"What happened?" she asked.

She looked up at him to see him gazing forlornly into the distance. The early-morning mist, haze, and fog hung over the trees, lit by the rising sun. Though one can't find Greystoke on a map or by satellite, that doesn't mean it's in its little plane of existence where the laws of time and space have—SHOT.

Sorry, we were supposed to be describing early morning in the jungle.

Kainak's bare soles were already wet from the little droplets of rain that fell the previous day. It's not called a "rainforest" for no reason, after all. That name's gotta come from somewhere. And judging by how deep the water was in the collection bucket, they had plenty of (filtered) rainwater to drink for several days. Cha-CHING!

"Kainak?" she asked softly.

"What? Oh, sorry," he said. He took a deep breath and sighed. "It happened when I was younger," he said. "I was just starting out as a jungle boy when I heard some strange sounds. I went to investigate and found those ruins. So, I stepped onto that thing, and the next thing I knew, I had woken up in front of the village."

Julie was taken aback. "What?" she asked. "What happened?"

Kainak shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "Kame did say that I was acting strange, and I must have been fighting it. He and Manti told me the place was cursed."

"Probably to protect you," she said. "Pretty bad way of doing it, if you ask me."

"You think so?" he asked.

"Yeah, and I'll give Kame a piece of my mind for that," she said, making him laugh. "So, are you ready to face your fears?"

"There's only one way to find out," he said. "I'll go and see if anything will happen at the ruins. What about you?"

"I think I'll stay here and train with the sword," she said.

He turned around and held his mate tightly while grunting like an ape. She smiled and grunted back before kissing him. He then proceeded to walk out and grab a vine before swinging off. He landed on the tree branch in a three-point primal stance and jumped along the branches quickly, but carefully.

Though he still had that nervous knot in his throat, he breathed deeply through his nose each time that memory of the incident popped back into his head. He didn't want to suppress it, but he wanted to get past it. Suppressing his fear wasn't going to help, especially since he's been avoiding the place for at least five years.

It took a half-hour, even though he was pretty quick through the trees, to reach the ruins. He landed in one of the trees, crouched down, and surveyed the ruins from the branch. His grip tightened on the tree branch, and his lips pursed and tightened. But there was no going back now. He'd come all this way to get over his discomfort with the ruins, and he wasn't about to back away just yet.

He jumped and landed in a primal stance. By now it was habit, after trying so many times before to do it, it was practically second nature to him. And then he stood, stretching himself out and psyching himself up to enter the ruins.

But his apprehensiveness stopped him before he set foot on the steps. He cursed himself for cowardice and then took another breath. He was fine. He could do this! You're a modern-day Tarzan, what are you afraid of!?

He closed his eyes, clenched his fists, stomped his foot on the stone steps and—

Nothing happened.

He opened his eye. He took his foot off the step and did it again. Once again, nothing.

He took his foot off the step and squatted down, scratching his head. This was strange. Last time he did this, he instantly blacked out.

Obviously, the situation was different now. And he had no answer for it. But hey! Nothing was happening!

He shrugged and jumped onto the ruins.

He was fine! "What the hell was I afraid of?" he asked himself.

With no problems, he decided to explore the ruins as well.

The ruins were covered in moss and other bits of debris. Some of the rocks had crumbled and were littered all over the street if he could call it that. It may not exactly be a city, but the equivalent of a small town or village, at least that's what he was thinking.

What he wasn't thinking about much was how this place was abandoned. Julie, being an archaeologist/anthropologist, enlightened him on the ways a city or town may be abandoned, or civilizations collapse. Usually, it was mundane reasons, like a lack of resources, climate change or the economic backbone drying up.

But according to the rubbings Julie made, that wasn't the case. And once he found the rock in question, he squatted down to examine it.

It still hadn't changed, and it told the same story Julie had told him about. The Jungle Dude brushed the moss that had grown since Julie came off of the rock. There was that dark messianic figure Julie seemed to notice, and just like with her, he could feel a chill down his spine when he got a look at the guy. Yeah, he didn't think this was a good person, what with all the worshipping those folks were doing in the carvings.

Okay, he could handle the ruins. But the carvings sent chills down his spine like one of Kame's horror stories. He decided he didn't want to spend any more time here. Yes, he'd gotten over his fear, but something was creeping him out—

NO!

He was going to stay. He still had more to explore.

He did get away from the rock and kept exploring. There wasn't a whole lot to see, ruins are, well, ruined. Whatever evidence of who lived here there was, was probably gone, either buried under the dirt or taken away by scavengers. Not human scavengers, unless there were some grave-robbers around here, but actual animal scavengers.

He came across another stone carving, this time like a statue. It resembled some old Southeast Asian carving he'd seen in some of Julie's archaeology books at places like Angor Wat or other locations. But this one was of a human, not an animal. And just like that other stone carving, it had a creepy smile spread across its face.

And Kainak again felt a chill to the bone.

He began to realize that there was probably a reason this place was abandoned. Just what it was should remain a mystery, although he guessed correctly that Julie would probably disagree, and she'd probably try to unravel its mystery.

Curiosity killed the cat, but it was why Kainak loved Julie.

He stood up straight and turned away from the creepy statue. He wasn't going to let his fear rule him. He was Tarzan's real-life successor for crying out loud! It's one thing to be scared (which is understandable), but it's another to let fear control him.

He pushed the statue on its side, and it broke into itty-bitty pieces.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

It's pretty safe and correct to assume that Julie, despite wanting a sword, was pretty unfamiliar with one. Sure, she'd used a machete before, and those technically aren't much different from swords, but when you consider that swords have a completely different weight and whatnot. Anyone can use a sword, but they need practice. You don't just pick one up and become a master only by swinging it around for two or three minutes; it takes years, sometimes decades before one can be proficient with a sword.

But it never hurts to practice, and she'd been practicing for a while now. She already had some machete experience, so she used some of those hacks. It was through this that she got the hang of using the sword. It turns out the machete and this particular sword weren't so different, after all.

Her swinging was wild at first, but once she got the hang of it, those swings became more precise. Well, about as precise as they could get for a newbie, once she started using two hands. Then it became easier. The researcher who made it did provide her with a handy book that she could use as reference.

Her bare feet gave her good grip on the wood and helped her get used to the stances and footwork, developing the muscles she would need. She also did this while studying her martial arts back in the day. And the author, who took karate for four years, did so as well.

Eventually, those old martial arts habits began to creep into her footwork and made it a bit easier to do. There was still the swinging and striking part, but she was getting used to it.

She couldn't wait to use it.

The HAM radio, which was just steps from her, squelched, making her jump a little bit. She didn't appreciate that one bit.

"SciTeam, calling Jungle Girl, SciTeam calling Jungle Girl," came the voice on the other end of the radio. Julie jumped to the HAM radio, right next to a pair of bows and an M14 rifle. She picked up the receiver and said,

"SciTeam, this is Jungle Girl, go ahead, over."

"How are you today, Jungle Girl? Over," the voice of Gina Robinson, the Kiwi leader of the expedition asked.

"Doing good," said Julie. "What about you, over?"

"Doing good as well," said Gina. "Unfortunately, we have a bad situation here, over."

"What kind of situation, over?"

"One of our guards by the name of Tim went out on a trek a week ago," said Gina. "He hasn't come back. We haven't heard from him at all. It's like he just disappeared, over."

"Have you looked for him, over?"

"We tried," said Gina. "We couldn't find him, over."

This was strange. "Are you sure?"

"Admittedly, this is a big island," said Gina. "We didn't think it was going to be easy, to begin with." Good point. Searches for missing persons are never easy. Some can go on for years. "We don't really know where his last coordinates are."

"So you're flying blind," Julie said.

"Bingo," said Gina. Julie wasn't asking. She was confirming. All the team knew was that they had a missing guard and no way of figuring out where he might have gone.

This was a mighty fine situation.

"Do you know where he last was?" she asked.

"We suspect he may be at least three clicks from your treehouse," said Gina. "We can't pinpoint his location other than that. Something must be interfering with his GPS."

Julie sighed. She wondered how they could have such difficulty finding him. "However, we've got word from the Teo, who got word from the Paea," Gina said. "Apparently, there's a group or cult out there following a haole into the jungle. They say they're at some stone ruins."

"Kainak already went to the ruins," said Julie.

"Not those ruins," said Gina.

"What?"

"We sent a drone over the canopy," said Gina. "We found two ruins from the air. The ruins you told us about are half a kilometer from your location. The other is a full kilometer."

NOW we were getting somewhere! "What's the location?" Julie asked.

She could hear discussions on the other end. Gina and another team member could be heard on the other end discussing something. "Alright Julie, listen carefully," said Gina. "This is what the drone's GPS locator said."

Gina slowly gave Julie the coordinates, and Julie jotted them down on rice paper. When they were done, she smacked the pencil down on the page. "Got it!"

"Go get 'em, Jungle Girl," said Gina. "SciTeam out."

"Jungle girl out," said Julie.

With the coordinates, she looked on the map and found it was indeed a bit farther from the ruins Kainak went to. She would have to visit.

Knowing Kainak might come back before she does, she wrote a note down, telling him that she was headed out for those other ruins and place it in the front entrance for Kainak to see. Also, anticipating a long trek and watch, she took a utility belt that she filled with a bottle of filtered rainwater, some nuts she and Kainak gathered, cheese, fish jerky, light binoculars, a mini-camera, a compass, and a GPS device. She also donned some sunscreen, tied her hair back into a ponytail and grabbed a machete, just in case. She also looked in the mirror, smirking to herself at how good, prepped, and badass she looked.

She ran out of the treehouse, grabbed a vine and swung away towards the other ruins.

Along the way, she passed by Kainak, the two high-fiving each other as they passed each other on the vines. Other than that, her journey was solitary and saw her landing on a couple tree limbs now and then to rest and get a drink or bite. She also checked her bearings on occasion, making sure she was going in the right direction.

When she found out she wasn't at one point, she altered her course and jumped along the branches—the thick branches, that is, the ones that could hold a jungle girl and a jungle dude. This turned out to be a good decision, as she saw that her trip was not only faster, but she was getting closer to the destination. It would only be a matter of time until she reached it.

And when the grey-stone color of the ruins came into view, she smiled. She found a branch with a great view of the ruins and settled in out of sight of the people there and chewed on some nuts.

The place was crawling with people. They were rebuilding the site, adding wooden steaks to the stone buildings. A smell of cooking meat and nuts wafted from the site, and it made Julie want to eat her jerky. A few people walked in and out. They looked like guards. Just the fact that they were armed with spears was enough of a sign.

She took her binoculars out from her utility belt. She scanned left and right, seeing people planting crops and raising livestock. From the outside they were living ordinary lives. Of course, appearances can be deceiving. She couldn't reach a conclusion until she saw all the evidence and analyzed it. For now, she would take a couple pictures with the spycam.

She squatted in a two-point primal stance on the branch and waited, watching like a sniper for what seemed like hours. A good predator or sniper waits until their prey has dropped their guard to strike. Running in right now would be rash and a bad idea in so many ways. She was fine with munching on fish jerky, nuts, and cheese. Also, that water bottle that she clipped to her belt was pretty refreshing.

After a while, she noticed some more people coming out of the ruins. They were armed. Their apparent commander shouted orders, and they started going through training exercises. She put the fish jerky strip she'd just pulled out back in the utility belt and snapped a couple photos.

She detected a pattern with the guards. They would change every ten minutes, and that usually meant at least one entrance was left unguarded and blind. She would wait until she could sneak in through the closest entrance—which was right across from her—and let her jungle girl hiding skills do the rest.

MAN, she loved being a jungle girl!

The sun peeked through the clouds as it got closer to mid-day. She watched the pattern: The entrance guards would change in a clockwise formation, and indeed, it was every 10 minutes. After nearly two hours of waiting, the guard changed at the entrance just to her right.

By now, she had shifted her position so that she was sitting upright on the branch and still munching on her rations of nuts, cheese, and fish jerky. She did have to take care of her... business (and because bodily functions, while still vital, are gross and thus not relevant to the plot) earlier.

She licked her lips in anticipation, waiting until she could jump. When the guard finally left, she instantly jumped out of the tree, landed in a four-point primal stance and dashed into the ruins, hiding in a little crook/nanny right as the guard took his post.

She was in!

The Mission: Impossible theme played in her head while she crept through the ruins. Whenever someone came close, she ducked into the crooks to wait. She carefully made her way through, nearing the center of the ruins where she was sure she would find her target. She almost got caught a couple times, but this is almost we're talking about.

And once she did, she settled into a little space to watch what was going on.

Someone was erecting a statue of a man with a creepy, toothy grin on his face. Even in stone, it gave her the creeps. This guy must've been seriously scary if he could do that. Biting her lips, she looked around. People were crawling up to and revering the statue. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were worshipping it. Whoever this guy was, he was definitely a cult leader.

A murmur began to spread through the crowd. Again, you don't need to be a Sherlock-level genius to figure out that the big boss was on his way.

Two naked white guys (Really? she thought) stepped up to the podium. If there was ever some jackass taking advantage of the shitty "Mighty Whitey" trope it might as well be the guy with the toothy grin whom everyone was worshipping.

And the one to his right (her left) made her blood boil.

It was the poacher she shot a week ago. How was he still alive? Her question would be answered when she saw the toothy-grinning dude touching some man and... healing him?

Definitely going with some Antichrist thingamabob here. Even if the islanders, who were sadly hypnotized by this obvious con man, probably didn't know who the hell Jesus was. And judging by the looks of them, they came from the Village of Exiles. Sadly, prime targets for any would-be cult leader.

But she wouldn't get to watch for much longer.

She'd been so focused on her objective that she forgot to find another hiding spot. Two men wearing Paea tattoos spotted her and snuck up behind her. Before Julie realized it, one of them clamped his hand over her mouth, and the other grabbed her.

But she fought back, elbowing the man behind her, right in the nose, judging by how her blow felt. She whacked the other one in the face, and, letting instincts take over, leaped up onto the roof of an intact building.

And she was spotted.

"Fuck," she groaned.

"It's that jungle bitch who shot me! GET HER!" the should-be-dead poacher shouted.

"SAY CHEESE!" Julie said as she snapped a picture of the apparent leader. She immediately turned and ran, jumping over the rooftops like a newbie parkour practitioner. Several warriors gave chase, throwing spears and shooting arrows. But they could not get a lock on her.

She maneuvered through the ruins until she reached the exit. The two guards pointed their spears at her. They shouted at her. She drew her machete and chopped the spear points off, then pushed them out of the way before she made into the trees.

Now she had the advantage.

"HOW COULD YOU FUCKING LET HER ESCAPE!?" Phillip screamed. "Forget it! AFTER HER!" more warriors gave chase as Phillip grabbed his bald head and tried to rip out whatever tiny little strands he had left. He could still remember the agony of those arrows in his back and chest; he removed the back one, but the one in his chest was the worst. And it was because of RF that he was still alive.

And now she'd gotten to him again.

"What's this about, Phillip?" RF asked as he walked up to him.

"THAT'S THE BITCH WHO SHOT ME!" Phillip screamed.

"Oh, right," said RF. "Think you can catch her?"

Julie ran through the trees as the warriors gave chase. She climbed up and up, reaching the taller branches that could still support her weight while chopping leaves off that—

"FUCK ME!" she growled. She realized that whacking them with her machete was only going to give her a trail. So she sheathed her machete and—"Oh, FUCK!" She mishandled the machete and helplessly watched it plummet to the ground.

She didn't have time to mourn its loss. Instead, she reached for her water bottle and took a sip, because the heat, humidity, and exertion were taking a toll on her. Good thing she ate all that protein!

As she reached a thin section of trees, she could hear the warriors closing in. But the area also had a few vines. She climbed up onto a branch, ran forward, jumped and grabbed one of the vines. Yelling like Tarzan, she swung through the clearing as arrows and spears whizzed past her. She finally landed on another branch and pushed on.

By now, the enemy warriors were losing her, but that didn't matter. She was sure they were not going to stop looking for her.

So she stopped and waited for some of the warriors to come by. And when they did, she cupped her ear so she could hear them.

"I can't find any trace of her," said one of her pursuers.

"Are you sure?"

"She ran into the trees, how am I supposed to track her?"

"LOOK FOR HER!"

"HOW!?"

The warrior groaned in frustration. The poacher followed soon after, along with the apparent leader, as the two warriors knelt before him. "Did you let her get away?" the poacher asked.

"She got away, but we didn't let her," said the warrior.

"She knows too much," said the poacher. "We need to catch her!"

"What does she know?" the apparent leader asked. Julie snapped a couple more pictures.

"I don't know," said Phillip. "We do have her machete, though."

The poacher handed Julie's machete to the apparent leader, which made her groan. The leader just touched the machete and said, "I know where she lives. That way." He pointed in the direction Julie was headed. She felt a jolt shoot through her skin as the poacher nodded. "Get them ready. We attack in an hour."

That was enough for Julie, and she took off back towards the treehouse.

She was tired, hyperventilating, and soaked with sweat when she finally reached the treehouse as she barged in and hugged Kainak tightly. "Julie, what's going on!?" he said.

Julie quickly and frantically explained what had happened. "And then, they chased me, and I had to run, and they're coming in an hour!"