The Red Clay: Part Four ©

Thunder shook the air and he turned to look out of the window, the wind had picked up but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
Two Harleys pulled up to the front and next to his car.
Two bikers walked in like they owned the place and told the bartender they wanted two beers and a couple of Jacks then sat at the table closest to the door at the window.
He just sat there at the bar drinking his beer paying them no mind but checked to see that his gun was still there just in case.

His plan was to get to Vegas ditch the car then get a flight to L.A. and onto Buenos Aries and freedom.
There was enough money in the satchel for him to live well there, very well.
When he was a kid he heard stories of his great, great grandfather who lived in Brazil for a while after he gave up pirating or was it because the American navy was cracking down on the pirates in the Caribbean after the Civil War?

Thilivhali’s feet dug deep into the sand as he charged for the white man, the same man that killed his father, the same man responsible for his mentor’s death, the one who destroyed his village…….the one who stole Ada from him.
He was going to die for all these sins but the last one will be the one he suffers for the most.
He could hear shouting behind him and the thunder from the weapons of the slavers but he paid it no mind as he had what he wanted in his sight.
Revenge was pushing him on with a passion for killing he had never felt before.

Somehow the slaves had gotten loose and were trying to escape.
Jonas ran back to the cart to get his guns and go try to help stop them and save all the work he had put in to getting this cargo for the last three months.
Just then he saw the tall warrior in the distance running towards him.
Grabbing the brace of pistols he tuck them into his waste band and grabbed the woman whom was tied to the cart.
If anything he could use her for a shield if worse came to worse.

Ada fought back against the white man’s grasp but was no match for this brutal beast of a man.
He dragged her away from the cart and started pulling her into the open.
In the distance she saw someone coming towards them in a dead run.
He looked like, Thilivhali.
It was Thilivhali; he was coming to save her from this savage.
She broke free and ran towards Thilivhali but the man caught her by the arm once more and held her there.
Two guards had turned to face him but Thilivhali killed then without breaking stride and was now but twenty paces from them.

Thilivhali was close now, no more than thirty paces and closing in fast.
The white man grabbed for his weapon and brought it up pointing it at Thilivhali but Ada grabbed his arm and a burst of thunder rang out, the ground before Thilivhali exploded, spraying sand harmlessly at his legs but not slowing him down at all.
He was no more than ten paces away now as he drew back his arm to take aim with his spear.

Jonas pulled out his pistol and took aim at the warrior’s chest when the woman jumped up at him knocking his aim off, missing his target.
He back handed her to the ground and grabbed for his other pistol and brought it up to take aim again as the warrior sent his spear sailing towards him.
Jonas had no time to move as the spear tore through the top of his shoulder sending him staggering back but he held onto the pistol raising it one more time then fired.

Thilivhali sent his spear to its target and saw it strike him high up staggering the white man.
His spirits rose with a euphoric joy when he saw the white man was hit and raced on to finish him off once and for all when the white man lifted his hand a flamed blossomed from it.

Thilivhali stood there frozen in time as he looked at the puff of smoke lingering where the flame had erupted.
He stood there wondering why he had stopped so abruptly when he had but a few steps left to reach the man.
He looked down to his chest at the blood pouring from the centre of it.
He looked up once more and could see Ada screaming, fighting to get free of two guards that had rushed up and grabbed her.
He could see all this but couldn’t hear a sound or help her as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t will his body to move.
The ground rushed up behind him with a violent force but he hardly felt it.
As he lay there he noticed the sky was getting darker with the sunset in the distant jungle, his home.

Jonas looked at his shoulder, the spear had gone through the top of his shoulder cutting an ugly gash but he would be ok as soon as it was bandaged up.
He then looked at the fallen warrior, bending down he picked up the spear and started walking towards him.
Jonas was mad and in pain but he was triumphant as well, all he had left to do was finish him off then it will be complete.

He walked up to him and looked down at the man he had shot.
He was a fine specimen and would have brought a nice price.
Placing the spear to Thilivhali’s throat he smiled down at him, Ada started screaming at that moment and trying to break free of the guards holding her to run to this man.

Jonas turned and looked at her then looked back down at the warrior.
Thinking for a bit he looked at her and asked if this was her man.
She said nothing to him, so Jonas went to push in the spear when she scream out again Jonas stopped and turned to face her once more.
He asked her if this was her man.
On her knees crying into her hands she begged him not to kill Thilivhali, her husband.
Jonas stood there looking at the crying woman, a woman he had been abusing for the last four days.

Jonas turned and walked back to the man on the ground, he stood above him staring down at his still body, smiled then plunged the spear through Thilivhali’s heart.
If anyone had thought that Jonas had a heart was sadly mistaken.
He turned to walk away when he noticed something tied around Thilivhali’s waist.
Bending down he tore it off; it was a pouch with something in it.

Opening the pouch he found a red statue, worthless clay, probably a lucky charm that didn’t help the warrior any.
He went to throw it away but found that he didn’t want to, even though he wanted too.
Maybe it was his lucky charm not the warrior’s?
He slipped it in his pocket and ordered his men to take the woman back to the cart.
Ada had collapsed on the ground after witnessing what Jonas had done to Thilivhali.
It was as if it was her that had been stabbed through the heart and the life was pouring out from her heart as she lay on the sand before the stars in the sky as the guards dragged her limply off back to the cart.

Thilivhali lay there on the sand, life spilling out of him with every beat of his heart.
He was watching Ada fighting to come to him and just then his father came to him instead followed by his mentor and they took him by the arms then lifted him up to lead him to meet his forefathers as they stood there waiting with the lion in the open plain, to run free with the wind.
He looked back once more to see the beautiful face of Ada for one last time before darkness turned to light.

About an hour after the escape had started the guards had control of the situation once more and were tying up the prisoners again.
They had lost a third of the prisoners, many were dead but many others had escaped into the jungle but the way Jonas saw it was that enough guards had been killed so that he wouldn’t have to give them their shares so it all balanced out in the end.

The longboats came on shore with men to load them and take their cargo back to the ship.
Jonas went back with the first load where Smith was waiting for him as soon as he got onboard.
He told Smith to take the woman to his cabin and she was not to be put with the rest of the cargo, she was his and not for sale.

The boats went back and forth for most of the night until they had everything and everyone loaded.
While Jonas was on board figuring out what he was going to get for his cargo and what he would have to pay out he started regretting the loss of some of the prisoners and the profits, that’s when an idea came to him.

When the last of the prisoners were put into the hold he gave the signal and the sailors pulled out muskets and swords capturing the slavers that Jonas had hired and placed them with the slaves to be sold.
This way he didn’t have to pay them and would make up for the losses of the escaped or killed prisoners.
When they ship was secured they sailed off for Lagos and payment for the slaves and ivory they had acquired.

As the ship became a dot in the distant horizon people walked out from the jungle and reclaimed their downed saviour.
Thilivhali’s brother held his fallen brother, oldest son of his father as high as his arms could reach the sky and stars and asked the gods to treat his brother with the kindness that he showed others when he was alive.
They turned and carried Thilivhali back to the jungle, back home.

It took them the better part of three weeks to get everything sold and the ship stocked before they left for America.
Jonas had purchased this beautiful hand tooled satchel he kept his gold and jewels he had accepted in payment of the slaves and ivory.
Diamonds took up less space than gold and wasn’t as heavy.
With the satchel in his left hand he walked down to the docks and his ship, the woman had been on board locked up in the hold while he had been conducting his affairs.
He still hadn’t decided what he would do with her after he got to Charlotte.
Smith met him at the top of the gangplank and ordered him to weigh anchor and to set sail for South Carolina.

Jonas sat in his cabin pouring over maps of South Carolina and Georgia trying to figure out the best place for him to establish himself.
Atlanta was growing now and he would be better off going there so he could get some cheap land and build himself the life he has been wanting for so long and become as respectable as those who he had sold his services out to in the past.

About two months out of Lagos a storm crept up on them and started hammering the two-master all over the Atlantic.
Jonas was in his cabin when the first waves hit and he went on deck to see what needed to be done to keep the ship afloat.
The waves spilled over the deck rushing into everywhere that was open and taking anything not tied down overboard.
The crew was running around trying to lash things down and to get the ship turned into the crashing waves before the were smashed and sunk.

Ada was in the cabin but when Jonas had left she slowly crawled to the cabin door looking for a way out.
She had been sick for most of the trip so far, from the nightmare she now lived and probably from the fact that she was pregnant.
Crawling outside and onto the deck, her heart started racing as she witnessed the fury that was coming down on them.
A man was washed overboard when one large wave swept over the front of the ship taking one of the masts with it.

She saw Jonas standing in the center of the deck firing orders from left to right.
Slowly she crept along the side of the ship until she was within 20 feet of Jonas and that’s when the moon reflected off the shiny blade in her hand.
While Jonas had his back to her she stood up then started walking fast towards him and as she got within five feet of her goal Jonas turned around.

Jonas needed to get the sails down and to head the ship into the waves and ride this storm out.
Many a ship has been lost in this part of the Caribbean without a trace or survivor to tell the tale.
He turned to call out for Smith and all of a sudden the woman was there with a knife gleaming in the moonlight ready to stab him in the chest just as a wave came by and she was gone.
Wiped of the ship and out of his world.
This took care of the problem of what he was going to do with her he thought.

The ship turned into the wind and held its course as the waves were split harmlessly to its sides.
Now gone into the night, no evidence of it’s passing was evident other than the few timbers the floated where the ship had once passed.
A full moon shone down on this turbulent night, a night filled with pain, tears and unspeakable horrors.

The moon shone down on the water, the debris and a small hand reached up to grab hold of a floating timber.

Walker