Kamchatka Wilderness
Soviet Union
1960
"Where's my daughter?" Indy demanded furiously to the apkallu hoard.
They grinned menacingly, encircling him, Shorty and Lizavet. "You can only choose one of them to keep safe. And we are being generous." The hoard of apkallu seemed to answer as one. Their echoing voices rattled Indy's body like his memories of World War I artillery.
"Dammit," he muttered. "That's infrasound."
Shorty looked at Indy remembering the Temple of Doom. "Indy! Cover your heart!"
He winced, lifting his injured arm and shoulder, covering his chest.
Lizavet screeched, her body convulsing. She dropped the swords.
"What are you doing to her?" Indy glanced from the apkallu to Lizavet, lying on the ground, convulsing. "Let her go!"
The apkallu laughed.
Indy backed up, trying to stand guard and shelter Lizavet. He was struggling to fight because he couldn't strike without endangering everyone more... and he only had one arm that he could defend himself with. He needed Emily. He wanted his daughter back. And he wanted his family safe. All of his family... blood kin and adopted by choice.
The apkallu seemed to sense his thoughts as the fear in his heart grew.
"You can't have my daughters. You can't steal my family!" Indy snarled, trying to threaten the apkallu and gain some form of control.
Shorty knelt beside Lizavet, shielding her as best he could.
"We can do anything we want to, Dr. Jones," the apkallu taunted as one.
Lizavet convulsed and contorted, making a strange inhumane half choking scream.
Shorty looked at Indy. Both men realized their fear and powerlessness. And how much they all had to lose if they couldn't survive.
"We ate his crew," the apkallu taunted. "They were fine human sacrifices. The best we have had in a long time."
Lizavet screamed. Then her jaw locked, her body contorted and she started trembling.
Indy shuddered, watching Lizavet, daring to turn away from the apkallu. "Shorty - are they possessing her?"
Shorty picked up the swords, moving them aside. "This isn't them, Dad. Its a seizure. This is what Lizavet does when she's scared. Its the reason she wasn't sent to the front lines during World War II."
The apkallu drew closer. One tried to grab the swords.
Indy kicked it away.
Shorty ignored the apkallu. He stabbed the swords into the ground, then sat down beside Lizavet. "I've sat with her through these before, Dad. And if these bastards run off fear... and love makes 'em shrink... then this is the best thing Lizavet could have done." He touched her forehead, brushing hair out of her locked open mouth.
Her fingers dug into the ash, her entire body braced, rocking and convulsing. Her eyes stared at the sky, the pupils rolled back into her head.
"By doing this... she's forcing me to be fearless and tender," Shorty explained. "Not that she had a choice in any of this."
Lizavet's body loosened.
The apkallu leaned in. "I will take her."
Indy stood guard, glancing back at Shorty and Lizavet. "No one is going to hurt my kids."
"I can... and I will." The apkallu moved closer, leaning on the sword. "I dare you to cut me open, Dr. Jones."
Indy stared into the creature's eyes, remembering Emily's words about challenges and heroism. "I dare you to make a father pissed."
It recoiled, backing off. "You've been near the Ark of the Covenant?"
"Yeah. I saw what was inside it. And I know that's what's going to destroy you." Indy took his sword and drew a line in the ash.
The hoard fell into stunned silence.
YOU ARE READING
The Seven Swords of Diya: An Indiana Jones Fan Fiction - Part 2
FanfictionPart 2: Indiana Jones and his daughter Emily Ravenwood Jones continue their adventure in the frozen Soviet peninsula of Kamchatka, searching for seven mystical swords. With them is Indy's bodyguard from 1935 India - Short Round, grown up! And his re...
