Previous part of Stokes, Sanders and the Lost Tribe of Samartia.

***

ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH


Men who seek the She never return, Morela had warned them.

They packed silently, not meeting each other's eyes. If Nick was determined to go forward, Greg would have to go too. Greg had a very bad feeling about this, but there was no way he could allow Nick to beat him to the Samartian Diadem, Ecklie would brook no excuse, not even fear of death. He was supposed to be fearless, dammit!

Nick merely wondered how he was going to get both himself and Greg home in one piece with the crown, not worrying for the moment about the competition between them.

Despite Morela's advice, Nick and Greg were ready to start their journey once more, with their bags now full of enough fresh food to last them until they either reached the She - or heeded the dire warning to turn back. Out in the village centre it seemed as if the entire population had congregated in order to say their farewells.

Morela emerged from amongst them, in all her finery. "Goodbye, new friends," she said grandly. "Travel safe, but before you leave, I wish you take Xanti." She pushed forward a young man.

Finally Nick and Greg looked at each other.

"For food?" Greg grinned.

Nick rolled his eyes.

"He will guide you where the She live, and then he come home. I will not have him made escravo de sexo."

The phrase was lost on Nick. Xanti, however, was grinning perversely, as if he wouldn't mind becoming an escravo de sexo at all… whatever that was.

"Thank you, that will be helpful," Nick said.

"Does he know any English?" Greg asked.

Morela spoke to Xanti, who turned to Greg and said with a heavy accent, "Do you have the time, please? I am Xanti. Piss off."

Nick snorted, and Greg nodded slowly. "Great. All the essentials."

Xanti looked pleased with himself.

"I guess we better get going," Nick said, still trying to restrain his laughter. "Thank you once again, for everything, Morela. I hope we meet again."

She nodded at him. "Likewise, I am sure. I, especially, hope we shall meet again."

Greg bowed to her, and she whispered, "Olhe após seu homem."

He nodded, although he didn't understand, and Nick was glad for it.

With a final wave goodbye, they set off into the jungle with Xanti leading them, Greg asked Nick, "What was Morela saying to me?"

"I'm not sure," Nick lied. "I didn't catch all of it. Something about looking."

"I hope it wasn't a vital clue," Greg mused. "It sounded a bit like what she said to you in the hut earlier."

It was, Nick thought to himself. Morela, you crafty old witch.

Xanti proved to be an excellent guide, and although he didn't talk much Greg kept trying to make him say "piss off" again with limited success.

"He's not the evening's entertainment," Nick told him after the fifth attempt.

Greg sighed. "Stick in the mud again, Stokes?"

"Let the native people keep their dignity, Greg. How would you like it if Xanti taught you a phrase and you went around parroting it and then later you found it meant something embarrassing like pull down my pants?"

"Then I would make sure I said it a lot around you."

Nick rolled his eyes, but a smirk appeared on his lips.

"Fine." Greg threw his hands up in defeat. "Point taken." But he was also pleased by Nick's reaction to his quip.

After a few hours they paused for lunch. Their journey had been relatively easy so far, especially in light of the danger they'd survived to this point. Xanti disappeared up a tree to eat his meal, leaving Nick and Greg sitting at its base.

"So, we may have to stop the whole drinking-till-we-pass-out thing," Greg said suddenly.

Puzzled, Nick looked up from his fruit. "Why?"

"Because it's prevented us from doing… anything."

Nick looked above them to see if Xanti was in earshot. The man was staring into the sky, the least bit interested about anything that may have been happening below him. "Well, quite a few things have prevented us from doing ‘anything'. And, what if I'm a take-it-slow guy?"

Greg snorted. "I've seen you go after the things you want, Stokes. You don't waste time."

"That's work, Sanders. Maybe I'm less insistent in my personal life."

"In that case, I feel sorry for anybody you're with."

"Excuse me?"

"Why wait? If you both know what you want, why take it slow? Life's too fucking short. There are caimans in the water."

Nick stared at him. "Was that meant to be a metaphor?"

"Yeah," Greg grinned. "A bad one."

"In case you haven't noticed, Greg, events keep conspiring against us. It doesn't mean I don't want you."

"Really?"

"I did go into a fucking sinking ship looking for you!"

Greg shrugged. "Maybe you're just that desperate."

Nick restrained himself from throwing the remains of his meal at the other man. "Are you bored? Jungle adventures not enough for you, that you have to create drama?"

"No," Greg relented. "Sorry. Just a bad trait, I guess. I like seeing you flustered."

"That's slightly insane, Greg."

"I feel crazy at the moment."

"Why?"

"Because of us."

"Us?"

"I'm happy, really happy. But I'm fucking frustrated. I'm getting to the point where I don't even care about the Samartian Diadem any more, because all I want is to hole up with you somewhere and fuck your brains out. And then lie in bed with you for hours and talk about everything and nothing. And then fuck some more. And talk some more. And…"

Nick held up his hand as if to ward off the flood of erotic feelings that swamped him. "Okay, I get it." Knowing that his back would shield him from Xanti's view, Nick snaked his hand up Greg's trouser leg and cupped the back of his calf. His flesh was hot to the touch, as if Greg's frustration was setting his skin aflame. "I want that, too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Greg cleared his throat uncomfortably. "You still want the Diadem though."

Nick's hand dropped away, and Greg briefly closed his eyes in frustration.

"Well, yeah," Nick admitted. "And I bet you do as well."

"I'm starting to think maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

Nick was chilled by the change in his tone. "What?"

Greg threw his hands up, taking in their surroundings. "This! We're meant to be competitors, Nick. And now we're muddying the water. What's going to happen when we find the Diadem? One of us will lose, that's what. And that's going to affect whatever almost started here!"

"Almost?"

"Maybe it's best nothing more happens between us," Greg said softly.

Despite the fact that he wanted to strangle him with it, Nick laid his hand gently upon Greg's shoulder.

Greg jerked away from it. "Don't, Nick."

He hated the sound of Nick's voice as it turned cold on him. "Fine, Sanders. You started this as business, it will stay as business. It's all about the Diadem, right?"

Greg couldn't answer him.

So Nick did it for them both. "Right, that's the end then," he said, with a note of finality.

He sprang to his feet, and disappeared off the path, seeking sanctuary out in the jungle around them.

"Wait!" Greg called out anxiously, but there was no answer.




REUNION


Greg savagely kicked at the dirt beneath his feet; wondering why he allowed his big fat mouth to get away from him again as it always did, and always to his detriment. He finally had Nick Stokes, and he was pushing him away! Greg Sanders, always the willing victim of his own yo-yoing emotions.

He jumped to his feet and took off after Nick, but it wasn't long before he realized that he was nowhere to be seen through the impenetrable growth of the forest. He cupped his hands to his mouth and recklessly called Nick's name, not really expecting an answer and not getting one.

He cursed himself for the hundredth time that hour, and headed back to the main path in the vain hope that Nick had returned.

No such luck, but Xanti had finally come down from his branch. He looked relieved to see Greg again, having been under strict orders from Morela to protect the white men until they reached the lair of the She; he wouldn't have liked to have gone home and told her that he had lost them after lunch on the very first day.

So when he saw Greg emerging from the thick growth of the jungle, he ran toward him excitedly, jumping up and down, telling him how glad he was to see him, and where was the other man?

Greg, of course, had no idea what Xanti was saying. He stared dumbfounded, wishing Nick were there to translate. Was Nick going to come back? Of course he was going to come back, where else was he going to go? Nick wouldn't abandon him here, no matter how much he hated him at the moment. But what if he was currently being devoured by an anaconda? Stranger things had happened.

He tried to shush the overexcited Xanti, but it only drove him into further paroxysms, and Greg began to feel the whole situation was becoming impossible. He wished he had never opened his big, damn, fat mouth to Nick and undone everything good that had started to happen. He wished he could reach back in time and physically clap his hand over his mouth to keep himself from speaking. Or that he had enough sense to know when to shut his mouth now. Either one would do.

Meanwhile, when Nick paused in his headlong flight, he realized that he was lost. He hadn't meant to get himself lost, but lost he was. It hadn't taken him long to hit dense jungle growth, and when he looked back for the path they had been traveling on, it was nowhere to be seen.

"Goddamn it!" he cursed, trying to peer above him to see exactly where the sun was, hoping it might give him some sense of direction. But the canopy of tree branches above him killed that forlorn hope.

Feeling desperate, he began yelling for Greg.

There was no answer.

Knowing Sanders, he was probably sitting right where he left him, trying to amuse himself by getting Xanti to inadvertently swear again.

Greg.

He really didn't want to think about Greg, because he was torn between wanting to kiss and fuck him senseless, or strangle him into submission. What the hell kind of game was Sanders playing? One minute he was all over Nick, and the next he was saying that they should pretend nothing had ever happened!

No, wait a minute. He had been focusing upon the Diadem.

Since The Bloody Mary had sunk, Nick hadn't really given too much thought to what would happen once they found the Diadem as he'd been too busy living moment to moment and trying to survive until the next.

Greg obviously had been thinking about it. Everything had changed between them. No matter what hidden feelings had existed between them before, had they not been revealed, they would have been able to go on as planned and let the best man win in the race to retrieve the treasure. But now everything was up in the air between them. The revelation of their passion for each other made everything topsy-turvy.

Could a burgeoning relationship survive one of them losing out on this quest when they were both so damn competitive? When deeper emotions were involved, could they really turn on each other and succumb to the axiom of ‘every man for himself' once fortune became involved? And what would it mean if one of them betrayed the other just to come out on top?

And suddenly Nick understood what Greg was saying, and finally had an insight into how his mind worked. He didn't like it or agree with it, but he could empathize. Greg was going on the defense before he could get hurt - he had given Nick an out, and Nick had stupidly taken it, falling right into the trap.

He was still angry with Greg for not talking to him honestly about his fears, but all he wanted to do was find the trail again so he could put things right. He didn't have any answers for how they might be able to solve the issue of ownership of the Diadem, but he needed to clear the air with Greg right now. If he could just find him.

He yelled out Greg's name again, listening to it reverberate off the trees and undergrowth surrounding him.

Silence, except for the slight breeze coming through the trees.

Nick started to have the uneasy feeling that he wasn't alone! And Greg should have answered him by now - if he was going to.

He slipped a hand beneath his shirt and unbuckled his pistol from his holster. The click of the safety sounded like the crack of doom in the sudden silence of the jungle.

A twig snapped beneath the tread of something heavy. Nick turned toward the source of the sound, leveling his pistol sight into the brush. This time he wasn't going to alert whatever was tracking him to his presence by yelling and providing a direct line of attack.

He could see the brush thrash about as something crashed through it, coming closer. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his finger started to press upon the trigger, feeling its deadly pressure beneath his skin.

Still, he managed to reserve better judgment than he had in the tree two nights ago, waiting until he saw the whites of their eyes before he let loose with a hail of lead.

David Hodges crashed into his vision; bruised, battered, bloody.

His eyes widened as he took in the miraculous vision of Nick Stokes before him, even if he did have a gun aimed at him. "Nick!"

Nick was dumbfounded. "Hodges!" He started to lower his pistol.

Hodges threw himself at Nick, and grabbed the other man in a crushing bear hug. "Oh Nick, you've come to rescue me!"

Nick was starting to think he shouldn't have lowered his pistol so soon.




LOST


Finding himself with his arms full of Hodges, Nick pushed him away exasperatedly. "Hodges! Get off!"

"I'm so happy to see you!" Hodges sobbed against his chest, making it wetter than it already was.

"The feeling's not mutual," Nick said, although truth be told, seeing another human being when he had thought he was lost and may never see civilization again wasn't all bad.

"Don't say that, Stokes," Hodges sniffed. "I've been stumbling around alone for days and nights on end, not knowing where I was or where I was going."

"It's been two nights, Hodges," Nick pushed him away. "And technically, one of them was the actual night the ship sank."

"Really?" Hodges wiped his nose along his bedraggled sleeve - not that it was noticeable, it was so grubby. "It feels longer, but I have been alone all this time. I thought I was going crazy!"

"How would you be able to tell the difference?" Nick muttered.

Hodges laughed along with the joke, even though it was as his expense. And then as if suddenly realizing they were alone, he asked, "Where's Sanders?"

Nick shifted uncomfortably. "We accidentally got… separated."

"How?" Hodges asked.

"It just happened," Nick said evasively.

"But how?"

"It just did."

"But what were the circumstances?"

Nick decided to swing the spotlight in the opposite direction. "Did you leave those men to die in the water, Hodges?"

Hodges paled. "What?"

"Most of your crew ended up as food for caimans, Hodges!"

"No!" Hodges shook his head vehemently. "No!"

"Then how come you escaped, and the majority of the crew didn't make it?"

Hodges regained a bit of his normal steel. "I told you on the deck, Stokes, that it was every man for himself at some point. And once we were in the water, it was fight or flight."

"And I bet you were the first to get to shore. And you never looked back," Nick said disgustedly.

"What more could I have done? Don't you think Lot would have preferred it if his wife had just picked up her skirts and ran to live another day?"

Nick shook his head. "Well, Greg and I managed to pick off some off the caimans with rifle fire before we had to abandon ship."

"But you still had to stop at some point, didn't you?" Hodges wheedled. "And then it became every man for himself."

"At least we tried!"

"How many survived?" Hodges asked.

Nick shrugged. "I'm not sure. I saw about four or five make it to shore."

"I suppose they'll be looking for hazard pay," Hodges sighed.

Nick's hand curled into a fist.

Hodges' eyes widened, and he scampered to hide behind a tree. He peered out from around the trunk. "You can't keep hitting me, Stokes! We need each other!"

Nick snorted. "Boy, do you have that wrong." He holstered his pistol, and started walking away, secretly wondering which way to go.

"Nick!" Hodges whined. "You can't just leave me here!"

"Sure I can, every man for himself, remember?" Nick called over his shoulder.

"But you don't work like that, Stokes!" Hodges yelled triumphantly. "You wouldn't leave anyone behind!"

Nick cursed under his breath, but knew that Hodges had his number. "Hurry up, before I change my mind."

Hodges gleefully emerged from behind his tree and ran up to join him. "So-"

"This doesn't mean we're friends," Nick warned. "Keep your trap shut."

They walked back in the general direction from which Nick thought he had traveled. Luckily it was in the opposite direction from whence Hodges had stumbled into his path, so hopefully they were on their way back to where Greg and Xanti were.

Hodges' silence didn't last long. "So, where is Sanders?"

"Hodges," Nick warned.

Hodges ignored him. "I mean, you two were as thick as thieves on the boat. I would have ventured to guess that you two were becoming very close." His voice dripped with the salaciousness of his insinuation.

Nick whirled around and grabbed Hodges by the throat, ramming him until his back was against a tree. "And so what if we were?"

Having nowhere to go now that Nick wasn't being coy any longer, Hodges shrugged. "Don't be so pissy," he rasped.

"Then don't push me, Hodges. Because I will leave you behind! I really don't give a fuck anymore!"

The fire in his eyes made Hodges realize that Nick was speaking the truth, and he shouldn't push it any further. He swallowed heavily, his beady eyes acknowledging defeat. "Sure. Sure thing, Stokes."

Nick nodded, and gave Hodges one last hard shove before walking away. Hodges glared at his back with barely-contained hatred before scuttling after him.

Nick was determined not to let Hodges needle him, but he knew the time would come when Hodges would realize the incontrovertible fact that neither of then knew where the hell they were.

And Hodges wasn't stupid. He seemed to smell it on Nick, the way he paused when deciding their direction, the subtle hesitancy he displayed.

"You're lost," Hodges said matter-of-factly.

"No, I'm not."

"Uh, yeah… you are."

"I'm just… misplaced. For the moment."

Hodges bent over and slapped his knees with uncontained delight. "Oh, that's rich! You've been lording it over me, Stokes, but you're just as lost as I am!"

Nick fumed, and remained silent.

Hodges knew that he could push it now. "So stop playing dumb about Sanders, I know you wouldn't have left him behind. Where is he?"

Exasperated, Nick threw his arms out to the jungle. "I don't know! Out there, somewhere!"

Hodges began to laugh again. "Did you two have a little lover's tiff?"

"I'm warning you, Hodges-"

"And I'm sick of you warning me, Stokes! You've got nothing on me, nothing! Like it or not, we're stuck with each other."

"I definitely don't like it." Nick felt he just had to point that out, for the record.

"Believe me, it's no picnic for me either," Hodges grimaced.

"That's not what you were saying earlier when you were weeping in my arms like a damsel in distress."

"I was not! I was merely… relieved!"

Irked beyond comprehension, Nick mocked him with a falsetto. "Oh, save me, Mr. Stokes! I am so helpless!"

Hodges shoved him hard with the flat of his palm. "You have no idea what I've been through the past couple of days! And I didn't call you Mr. Stokes!"

Nick shoved him back. "I don't care what the fuck you've been through!"

Hodges let loose a howl of frustration, and charged at Nick. Nick found himself driven back, but he quickly overpowered the other man and managed to reverse their positions so that he was driving Hodges across the jungle floor. They crashed through the heavy brush, and Nick's eyes widened as he realized the brush concealed the edge of a small cliff. Hodges' feet scrambled at the edge, losing traction.

"Stokes!" he pleaded. "Don't let me fall!"

Nick could feel his balance go off-kilter. He dug his heels in as best as he could and threw them back.

The wind was knocked out of him as his back hit the dirt, but before he could catch his breath Hodges landed on him heavily, babbling in gratitude. Nick was too busy trying to breathe to hear anything he said.

Stars dancing before his eyes, Nick groaned and turned his head to see a pair of boots. He looked up, to find Greg standing over him with Xanti peering over his shoulder, smiling brightly.

"Greg," he wheezed, with Hodges still wallowing all over him.

"So," Greg said placidly, his face as blank as he could make it. "There you are."

Hodges grinned, remaining just where he had landed, and knowing how their current position looked he decided to capitalize upon it. "Why, it's Sanders. How nice of you to join us!"

***

ON THE ROAD AGAIN


"Get off me!" Nick spat, rolling Hodges away and scrambling to his feet. He snuck a look at Greg, who wasn't looking too impressed as he stood impassively with his arms crossed against his chest.

"Now, now, Nick." Hodges stood, and carefully dusted himself off. "No need to be embarrassed, nothing that Sanders here hasn't seen before."

"There is nothing to be embarrassed about," Nick yelled. "Other than the fact that I got caught out rescuing your ass when I should have let you plunge to your death!"

"No need to put on the innocent act." Hodges was quite enjoying himself, and he turned back to Greg to rub it in a bit more. "Come on, Sanders. No celebratory hug?"

"No," Greg said stonily. "No hug."

"But this is a reunion! The gang's together again!" Hodges raised an eyebrow at Xanti. "Except for him. I don't think I recognize him. But then, all the guides kind of look alike."

Nick and Greg both opened their mouths to argue the point, but realized it was a waste of time.

Greg gritted his teeth. "Yeah, the gang's together again, Hodges. Oh, except for all the guides you obviously left in the water to become giant fish food."

"I didn't sink the ship!" Hodges protested. "Act of God!"

"And yet, somehow you survived," Nick murmured.

"If God exists, they must have a sense of humor," Greg agreed. He tried to catch Nick's eyes, but the man continued staring at the ground.

This, of course, wasn't lost on Hodges. "Oh dear, has there been trouble in paradise?"

"Don't know what you mean, Hodges," Greg said.

"Well, Nick here wouldn't tell me where you were. I thought that was strange the way you two follow each other about. Have you two had a little lover's quarrel?"

"Hodges, get it together!" Greg snapped. "We're in the middle of the Amazon jungle, with no way back home as of yet! Get your mind back on thoughts of how to get out of this!"

Sending up a red flag only further hungered Hodges and he couldn't resist gloating. "So, a touchy subject, then. I quite understand."

Greg turned his back on them. "Let's go."

Nick wanted nothing more than to explain… things to him, but the sudden reappearance of Hodges was going to prevent that. He shot a glare back at Hodges as he started to follow Greg and Xanti back to where they had camped for lunch. Hodges grinned, his spirits rejuvenated, and he practically skipped along behind them.

Nick was mortified even further when he realized that they actually hadn't been that far from where they'd stopped for lunch. But to be fair, as he looked back behind them the surroundings looked repetitive and monotonous - there were no distinguishing features to pick out that would help someone unfamiliar with the forest. He gained a new appreciation of how obviously different it must look through Xanti's expert eyes.

Hodges of course, delved greedily into the food Greg offered him. He sat cross-legged, slurping and half-growling as he ravenously swallowed without chewing.

"Take it easy, Hodges," Greg warned him. "You'll be sick, especially if you haven't eaten much in the past two days."

"I'm starving, I've eaten nothing!" Hodges mumbled through a mouthful of food. "Nothing!"

"Not even humble pie," Nick said, mainly to try and get a reaction out of Greg.

There wasn't any. Hodges once again cackled gleefully to himself.

Nick fumed silently - he was the one who should be allowed to get away with being pissy, not Greg! After all, Greg was the one who had put the kibosh on everything and he was the one who'd hired Hodges in the first place, so clearly this was all his fault. Before he lost his temper, or even worse, his dignity, Nick went to seek out Xanti and ask him about their plans for the afternoon.

Hodges watched him go with interest, and straight away launched an attack upon Greg. "So what happened to spoil things between you and Mr. Perfect?"

Greg scowled. "What are you insinuating, Hodges?"

Hodges failed completely at trying to look innocent. "You could barely tear your gaze off each other on The Bloody Mary. But now you can't even look at one another. So what gives?"

"None of your business," Greg replied, although he was secretly dying to be able to talk to someone about it - but was he desperate enough to talk to Hodges?

He couldn't believe he was even asking himself that. He was being ridiculous. Instead of acting like a child, he should be speaking to the actual person involved. He stomped off after Nick, leaving Hodges to gorge himself on the rest of the meal. Hodges slyly watched Greg disappearing further down the path, and took the opportunity to delve into the contents of Greg and Nick's bags to refill his plate with the food which had been carefully rationed for only three travelers and not four.

Greg rounded a corner of the path, only to collide with Nick. They both stumbled back from each other, trying to catch their breaths.

"Sorry," Greg wheezed.

"My fault," Nick panted in reply.

"Both of our faults, then," Greg said graciously.

They sized each other up warily, as if they were in a boxing ring. Greg had so much he wanted to say, but once again in Nick's presence he was struck dumb. It didn't help that he knew he had been a jerk and naturally he found it difficult to bring the subject up.

Nick sighed. "Look, Greg, how you found us - there was nothing going on, believe me."

Greg smiled, for the first time in hours. "I know."

Nick was obviously astounded by his reaction. "You knew? But how?"

Greg sat down on a fallen log, and patted the space next to him for Nick to join him. "We found you because we could hear the two of you bickering from miles away. Good thing I didn't want to shoot you. So when we saw Hodges lying on top of you the last thing on my mind was the thought that we had caught you in the throes of passion."

"Only me?"

"I may shoot Hodges before nightfall."

Nick chuckled, and sat beside him. "You continue to surprise me, Sanders."

"Come on," Greg gave him an affectionate shove with his shoulder. "This is Hodges for Chrissakes."

They both began to laugh, and the atmosphere between them started to clear; Greg knew now was the right time to talk.

"About earlier," he said hesitantly. "I'm sorry. I just-"

Nick waited patiently for his explanation, not ready to chance filling in the blanks.

"-went crazy," Greg said, for lack of a better term. "I tend to overthink things too much. I don't know what's going to happen when we find the Diadem, but I do know this… whoever gets it, I don't want it to affect whatever is beginning between us."

"So you're still happy with the idea of something beginning between us?" Nick asked softly.

"Fuck, yes!" Greg said without hesitation.

"We can be in competition, Greg, when it comes to our work. But we don't have to let it come between us. It may be hard to try and do it that way, but let's just see what happens."

"I'm always going to overthink things, though."

"Thanks for the heads up," Nick said, leaning into him.

"I really hope this works," Greg said.

"You're overthinking again," Nick laughed, and kissed him before he could add anything else.

They were glad to be sharing a kiss again, when things had looked a lot bleaker only hours before, to the point where Nick doubted that they'd even be sharing the march to the She.

Greg pulled away. "Don't run off into the jungle again, no matter how stupid I am."

Nick nodded solemnly. "I swear."

"I mean it! I was having visions of you being eaten by an anaconda!"

Nick burst into laughter.

"It's not funny! It could happen!"

"Okay," Nick said. "No more running. Unless it's for our lives."

"And you do know you've just jinxed us, right?"

Nick didn't answer, because he was kissing Greg again.

And that was when Hodges started yelling, panic sounding in his voice. "Where did everybody go? Hey!"

Nick grimaced. "Since when did our job include babysitting?"

Greg looked horrified. "I'm asking for extra hazard pay when we get home."

"You won't get it, not if your boss has met Hodges."

Nick jumped up, and offered his hand to pull Greg up. Greg grinned at him, and took it. Standing facing each other, they solemnly shook hands before they made their way back to Hodges, dreading every step that brought him closer.




ENTERING THE TERRITORY OF THE SHE


"We're what?" Hodges asked, anger coloring his features.

"We're continuing the search for the Diadem," Greg told him, calmly.

"No fucking way!" Hodges said.

"I don't think you have much choice, Hodges," Nick butted in. "Unless you want to take your chances alone out in the jungle again."

Hodges paled. It hadn't taken him long to reach the brink of insanity out there before, there was no way he was going to willingly take that chance again. He liked himself far too well to lose himself that way.

"So, your decision is?" Greg asked. "Snap it up, we're on a schedule!"

Hodges kicked viciously at a tree root near his foot.

"Was that a yes?" Nick asked Greg.

"You're the linguist," Greg said. "What does kicking a tree mean in Hodges-speak?"

"Thankfully Hodges-speak is one language I'm not fluent in, but at a guess it means I'm following the food," Nick shrugged.

Hodges turned on them, his body held rigidly stiff and his hands shaking by his sides as he tried to control himself. "You two think you're so damn funny! I only signed on to take a boat up a goddamned river! I didn't count on being shipwrecked and then forced to trek through the jungle so the two of you can find some costume jewelry! I wasn't paid enough for this! I want to get back to civilization!"

"Don't be such a baby, Hodges. We're saving your life, that should sweeten the pot a little," Greg said as calmly as he could manage. "This is just a little detour on the way to civilization."

"Yeah, tell him about the She," Nick prodded him helpfully.

"The what?" Hodges asked immediately.

"Thanks, Nick," Greg muttered.

"No problem," Nick replied, enjoying watching Hodges get even more flustered.

"What is the She?" Hodges asked again.

"Well…" Greg trailed off, not really wanting to tell him.

Nick leapt in eagerly. "A very dangerous native tribe. We'll have to pass through their territory before where we can find the Diadem."

Hodges shook his head. "Then we're not going!"

"Once again, Hodges," Greg said. "This isn't a democracy. We've made our decision."

"Actually," Nick muttered to him. "It is a democracy, but we won as it's two against one."

"Whatever." Greg rolled his eyes. Religion and politics, and they hadn't even been to bed yet. Were there no limits to the hurdles to be placed in their way?

"I didn't even get the chance to vote," Hodges grumbled.

"Fine," Nick said. "Let's vote again. Show of hands, who doesn't want to continue on to find the Diadem?"

Hodges' hand shot up in the air.

"One," Nick tallied. "Okay, hands up those who vote to finish what we started?"

Nick and Greg's hands raised. Xanti, delighted to follow the actions of those he now regarded as friends, also raised his.

"Well, what do you know? I make that three," Nick grinned. "Three to one. We're going to find the Diadem."

"There you go, Hodges," Greg slapped him on the back. "Democracy in action."

"I suppose there's no use asking for a recount?" Hodges asked.

Nick and Greg shook their heads in unison, smiling to see how uncomfortable it made Hodges.

"Democracy, my sweet Aunt Fanny," Hodges muttered.

"Time to hit the road again," Greg announced cheerfully. "Lead on, Xanti!"

They swung their bags over their shoulders. Hodges had the lightest load, seeing as he actually had nothing, and both Nick and Greg didn't want to deal with the inevitable argument that would arise if they tried to make Hodges carry a share.

"You taking the rear, Hodges?" Nick asked, noticing that the other man was loathe to take up the journey again.

"No, Stokes," Hodges spat, "I'm pretty sure that's your position."

Now that Nick knew Hodges better, he found himself amused by the man's desperate attempts to wound even though his little poisoned arrow didn't leave a scratch. "Maybe it would be best if I did." He gestured for Hodges to take the path ahead of him.

Hodges shoved past him. Annoyed, Nick stuck out his foot. Hodges fell flat on his face, cursing as he crashed down on the jungle floor.

Alerted by the cry, Greg turned back. "Nick!"

Nick shrugged, trying to look innocent. "It was an accident!"

Greg gave him a you've-got-to-be-shitting-me-if-you-think-I'm-gonna-fall-for-that look. "Help him up, Nick."

"Fine," Nick grimaced, and offered Hodges his hand.

"Don't you touch me again!" Hodges spat, scrambling to his feet by himself.

"Hey, only trying to help," Nick shrugged. "And that's not what you said before."

Hodges pushed past Greg, to catch up with Xanti. "I'll leave you two to walk together. I hope a jaguar gets you both!"

"Then you'll really be screwed!" Nick yelled after him.

"Nick!" Greg admonished him.

"What?"

Greg grinned. "Nothing. Just saying your name."

Nick laughed. "You're an idiot."

"And you're catching on, come on."

They began walking together, Hodges and Xanti further up the path ahead of them.

"Besides," Greg pondered, "If we died, Hodges would probably go back to Xanti's village and try to become their king."

Nick scoffed at this. "Are you kidding? Morela would kill him within two hours and use his skull as a torch-bracket."

Greg smiled dreamily. "You always say the right thing."

The next few hours were relatively uneventful as they covered miles of jungle, the steamy humidity lulling them as they plodded along. Long silences were broken only by Hodges, complaining at length, either about hunger or exhaustion. Then Greg would have to endure Nick complaining about Hodges in little asides between the two of them.

Luckily Greg possessed the talent of being able to tune people out when he wanted to, simply by playing the gramophone in his head. He methodically worked his way through his record collection, singing the songs silently. If Nick spoke to him he managed to maintain the imaginary orchestra while making appropriate noises of assent. Even though this talent had gotten him into trouble in the past, when he found out at a later time that he had agreed to something he never would have done had he been fully cognizant, it was still a good fallback.

"So you will wear the dress to the royal ball?" he heard Nick asking.

"Uh huh," Greg said, and then shook his head. "Wait, what?"

"You tuned me out a while back," Nick said with a grin. "So far I've gotten you to agree to cooking me a four course meal when we get back home, enacting King Kong for a local elementary school in Pittsburgh, trying out for the female lead dancer in a Broadway musical, and escorting me to a royal ball in drag."

"Which royal ball?" Greg asked, interested despite his new predicament.

"I don't know, I'm sure I can find one and score an invite," Nick shrugged.

Greg was astounded. Nobody had ever caught him out before, or at least called him out on it. Just another surprising thing about Nick Stokes.

"Didn't think you had a drag kink, Stokes. I'm sure you would rather I went in a tux," Greg said persuasively. "My legs aren't that shapely."

Nick smirked. "I don't know, they looked pretty good to me in the past."

He laughed at the sudden flush reddening Greg's cheeks. It was good to see the other man at a loss for words every now and again. His attention was distracted just then by Hodges and Xanti, who had stopped walking and were waiting for them to catch up. Hodges held his finger against his lips as if shushing them for talking in a library.

"What is it?" Greg called out.

Hodges verbally shushed them this time. "Cram the chatter!" he hissed, beckoning them to hurry. They began to jog up the path until they were in whispering range.

"What's going on?" Nick asked.

Hodges fearfully pointed into the brush ahead of him, and Nick and Greg strained to see just what it was that made him look like he had foreseen his own death.

Nailed to a large tree was a human skull and pelvis. They were decorated with what seemed to be aged, dried blood. Nick couldn't stop the involuntary shiver that ran through him, and Xanti spoke to him in a hurried murmur.

"What did he say?" Greg asked, desperate for a translation.

Nick stared at the remains that were obviously placed on the tree as a warning to whoever came along this path with dread in his eyes. "He said we're now in the territory of the She!"




ANOTHER GOODBYE


"Do you think they're trying to tell us something?" Nick asked dryly, to camouflage his own uneasiness.

"This isn't a joking matter, Stokes!" Hodges spat. "I told you this was a bad idea! We should turn back! Now!"

Greg reached out towards the totem, and Nick and Hodges visibly jumped.

"Greg!" Nick hissed. "Don't touch it."

"You don't strike me as the superstitious type, Nick," Greg mused, running his finger along the pelvis.

"What are you doing, Sanders, you freak?" Hodges demanded. "Are you that desperate for action?"

Nick glared at him and smacked him on the back of the head. "Give it a rest, Hodges."

Even Xanti seemed to be uncomfortable with Greg's movements.

"It's a male pelvis," Greg observed. "It's longer and narrower. I guess it's a warning to men especially."

"Of which there are four of us!" Hodges gestured wildly.

"Well, technically only three of us," Nick said, with a stony glance.

"Oh, thanks, Stokes!" Hodges moaned. "Casting aspersions on my masculinity."

"That's assuming you had any to start off with," Nick shot back.

"Hey!" Greg snapped. "Shut up, both of you! The floor show is getting really boring, really quick."

Nick and Hodges both stared at their feet, although they cast sly looks at one another that could have killed if they had the power.

But of course, Hodges persisted. "I told you! I said that we should turn back, and forget about going on! Maybe if we had waited on the banks for another cargo ship to pass by, we could have hitched a ride to the ruins, and bypassed this area all together! But, no! You had to drag us all along on this crazy, idiotic, foolhardy-"

Greg clamped his hand over Hodges' mouth, and then yelped and jerked it away.

"Bitch bit me!" he told Nick. He examined his palm, and sighed at the sight of blood. He didn't want to put his mouth where Hodges' mouth had been, but he had to suck out the poison.

Nick advanced on Hodges threateningly, but Greg held him back. "Hodges," he said, as coolly as he could manage. "By all means, make your own way to the river banks if that's what you want to do. We didn't force you to follow us. But we're here now, and we intend to go on." He turned to look at the new friend they had made on their journey. "Except for Xanti. Morela told him he was only to bring us this far, and then to turn back."

"Then I'm going with him," Hodges said defiantly.

"Thank you!" Nick said to the heavens.

Hodges scowled at him. "Ordinarily that might hurt my feelings, Stokes, but at this point I really don't care anymore. I'm out of here, and you two can skip merrily to your inevitable deaths."

"Sweet fucking relief, more like, if it's away from you," Nick countered.

Greg pressed his fingers together to squeeze the last drops of blood free so the wound could begin healing, and shook his head. "What the fuck do you sharpen your teeth on, Hodges?"

"All the better to bite you with," Hodges shrugged.

Nick decided to take Xanti aside and speak with him so he wouldn't be tempted to deck Hodges yet again. Greg listened to them speak while unzipping his bag to look for some sort of bandage. What he found made him stop short. "What the hell?"

Nick turned to him. "What?"

"Half our food is missing!"

"How can that be!" Nick said.

"Check your bag!"

Nick crouched by it and unzipped it. It only took him a second to verify, and when he looked up again it was straight at Hodges.

"What?" Hodges said defiantly, standing his ground.

"Don't play stupid, Hodges, although you raise it to a fine art," Nick retorted. "There's only one person who would be selfish and stupid enough to devour that much of the rations."

Faltering under the three sets of angry glares aimed at him, Hodges trembled. "I was starving! I hadn't eaten in two days! I needed more!"

"You could have asked!" Greg said.

"You wouldn't have given me any!"

"We may have surprised you," Nick said. "But now you've fucked it up for everybody."

"So we'll find food along the way!" Hodges said desperately. "That's what the fucking native is for!"

"Xanti's going home," Greg said. "And as far as I'm concerned, you're going with him and I hope he leaves you to find your own food. That's it, Hodges. We're done."

"Actually," Nick said, "Xanti won't go home."

"What?" Greg and Hodges asked in unison.

"He says he wants to take us a little further, to make sure we get onto the right path that will lead us to the ruins and away from the lands of the She. He won't take no for an answer, no matter how much I've stressed that Morela wants him to go no further."

"Great!" Hodges yelled. "That selfish little shit, only thinking of himself!"

"Pull yourself together, Hodges," Greg hissed. "Now get moving!"

Xanti nodded at Nick and Greg, and began to lead the way again. Hodges stared after the two men with complete and utter hatred, and then followed Xanti into the jungle.

Greg sighed. "Maybe we should turn back."

"We've come this far already, it seems a pity to turn back now," Nick replied.

"It just seems like everything's gone wrong, and maybe we should take our losses and run while we still can."

"I don't know about that," Nick said, reaching out and running his finger along Greg's bare forearm. "I can think of one thing that's gone right."

Greg laughed at the deliberately corny line. "You are such a fucking sweet talker."

Nick pulled Greg in towards him, and kissed him hungrily. Greg responded in kind, his hand cupping Nick's ass and slamming their bodies together.

"I need to have you," Greg gasped. "When the fuck is this going to happen?"

"I don't know," Nick panted, gently nibbling his ear lobe. "But if we're not careful, Hodges and Xanti are going to come back and find us fucking on the ground."

Greg pulled away. "Hodges would enjoy that too much."

Nick pulled him back. "I'm starting to think even that would be worth it." He kissed him again, parting Greg's lips with his tongue, not caring about the jungle breath that seemed to be affecting them both, just caught up in the moment.

Hodges' screams sliced through the hot jungle air!

Nick and Greg jumped apart. They might have thought that it was just another of Hodges' elaborate japes to keep them apart, but the terror in his voice was far too real.

Without a word, they ran down the path, only to be brought up short by a horrendous sight. Hodges was standing by the edge of a pond, frozen in fear. In the water, Xanti struggled in the grip of an anaconda, with several coils of strong snake muscle already wrapped around his chest and lower body. He was gasping for breath, one arm outstretched, in a silent plea for help as the snake continued to move, exerting increasing pressure to squeeze the life out of its victim.

Nick and Greg knew immediately that even their combined strength was not enough to wrestle the snake away from Xanti, and it would probably lead to death or injury. They pulled their guns from their holsters, and began shooting, aiming for the anaconda's body whilst avoiding hitting Xanti. They could see Xanti's eyes roll back in his head as he began slipping into unconsciousness.

"Prenda um!" Nick yelled urgently, taking aim. Hold on!

Xanti's eyes closed.

The bullets found their mark, and the snake slowly recoiled as parts of its flesh exploded from its body.

Xanti's arm dropped limply.

A chunk of snake meat splatted against Hodges' face; he abruptly turned and vomited.

The smoke from the gunpowder cleared to reveal the bloodied and bullet-ridden corpse of the snake still covering the young native. Neither of them were moving. Nick and Greg ran forward, and began pulling Xanti free.

As soon as they lowered the man gently to the ground, they knew it was too late. His ribs were crushed, his waist looked shrunken and unnatural. There was no pulse.

Nick and Greg couldn't speak, as they internalized their anguish and inwardly berated themselves for being unable to save Xanti. Hodges began to babble, smearing blood and other matter from his face.

"We were just walking… I didn't even realize until I heard him yell, and he was in the water and it was already all around him-"

"It's okay, Hodges," Greg said exhaustedly.

Nick nodded. "This is the one thing we can't blame you for."

They stood over the body of their fallen comrade, wondering where they should go from here?

***

FIRST CONTACT


"That's it," Nick said finally. He crouched down, and gently ran his fingers over Xanti's eyes in order to close them. "I'm sorry," he whispered to their fallen comrade.

Hodges was hugging his arms close to his chest. "What's it?"

"It," Nick said shortly. "This. We're calling it quits."

"Finally!" Hodges threw his hands up in the air.

Nick looked at Greg, who gave him a tiny nod of assent, his lips pressed grimly together.

But Hodges couldn't resist rubbing it in. "Of course, if you had made that decision a while back, that kid wouldn't be dead now."

"Hodges," Greg warned.

Nick shook his head, defeated. "You're right, Hodges."

"What?" Hodges asked, astounded at the response he was hoping for but never expected.

"Nick," Greg said helplessly. "You can't take the blame for this on yourself."

Nick stood and dusted the dirt off his knees. He realized some of the soil had fallen onto Xanti's body, and he knelt down again and gently brushed him clean. "We have to take his body back to Morela. It's the least we can do. And then let's get the hell out of here."

"Wait, what? Carry the body back?" Hodges spat.

"Don't start, Hodges," Nick threatened.

"Seriously, Stokes! The guy's dead. I'm all for a decent burial, but dragging a stinking corpse across the countryside? No way."

"I wouldn't worry if I were you, Hodges. I'm sure Greg and I will be doing all the work… why should this situation be any different from before?"

Hodges gave a short bark of derision.

"What's the best way to carry him?" Greg asked softly, his low tone letting Nick know that he discounted Hodges from any future discussion on the matter.

As they considered the task facing them, neither noticed Hodges surreptitiously moving away from them, carrying Greg's bag. They probably would have dismissed it as unimportant anyway, as they were more shaken by Xanti's horrible end rather than the possibility of Hodges stuffing his face with rations again.

But this time Hodges wasn't preoccupied with food. It was the spare guns he had spotted earlier, lying in the bottom of in Greg's bag. While he was stuffing himself, he had considered taking one of the pistols, but stupidly decided against it. He wasn't going to make that mistake again. Nick and Greg were obviously a team, and they weren't going to care that much about protecting him in the long run. So Hodges had a right to protect himself. And if it came to the point where he had to take them out to save himself, so be it. David Hodges was a survivor.

The pistol felt heavy, comforting, in his hand. For a brief moment he imagined turning around and putting a bullet right between Nick Stokes' eyes. He gloated to himself, now that it lay within his power to do so, but not yet. Not now, it wasn't the right time. At some point, should he and Greg unglue themselves from each other's side, it would be easy to get rid of Stokes and pretend he had fallen prey to the native wildlife. After all, look what had happened to that stupid native.

Actually Hodges did truly feel a little bit of pity for Xanti. After all, the boy had never done anything to him. Unlike Stokes. Stokes should have been the one crushed between the coils of the anaconda. Everything would surely improve if Stokes was out of the picture.

With the feel of the cool metal in his hand, Hodges found himself the most confident since this whole catastrophic journey had begun. His time alone in the jungle, no matter how short Stokes had claimed it had been, had affected him more than he really admitted. The nights spent in the hollow of a tree, fearful that every movement of creatures moving through the brush signified his imminent doom and the thought that nobody back home would know of his fate weighed heavily upon him. As did the slow realization that there would not be many people back home who would care.

So Hodges let his slow burn of resentment fester into a full blown hatred of his personal scapegoat. After all, he couldn't blame Sanders. So it had to be Stokes.

Hodges dropped the gun into the pocket of his pants, and sighed with relief as it weighed against his thigh.

And then he looked up and saw them and forgot how to breathe.

A small army of women, spread out in every direction, moving stealthily through the jungle. Coming for them, weapons at the ready. Bows were drawn and ready to fire, spears were at an angle, and their expressions were pure steel. Faces of war.

Hodges opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He began to stumble backwards, seeking out the company of the men whose downfall he had been plotting only seconds before.

Back at the mouth of the pond, Greg and Nick had also become aware of the presence of the She. They stood shoulder to shoulder, trying to form a protective shield before Xanti's body.

"What do we do?" Greg hissed.

"No sudden movements," Nick murmured. "Don't do anything that can be construed as aggression."

And that was when Hodges crashed towards them, wildy waving a gun!

"Hodges!" Greg's eyes widened. "What the fuck?"

"Where did you get that gun?" Nick yelled in disbelief. "Put it down!"

"I've told you before, Stokes!" Hodges screamed. "You don't get to tell me what to do!"

"Hodges! Put it down for crissakes!"

"Shut up, Sanders! Do you think they're here to invite us to tea and crumpets?"

"He's going to get us killed," Nick hissed to Greg.

Hodges pointed the gun in trembling hands, as if he was trying to lock onto one of the women as a target.

A bullet fired, and Nick watched in horror to see where it would hit. Luckily Hodges was so hysterical and his aim so bad that it missed the woman he had chosen. Even at this short distance from the women, Nick could see their warriors exchange silent looks, asking for the next course of action from whoever their leader was.

Before Hodges could fire again, Greg launched himself at the other man. Hodges screamed as he was tackled, and they fell to the floor. He scrabbled wildly, trying to reach his gun where it landed, but Greg punched him in the jaw. Hodges sobbed in frustrated defeat, and Greg grabbed him by both wrists so he couldn't pick up the gun again.

Nick was running to help him when an arrow flew past him, fired by one of the She. In horror, he saw it was headed straight for Greg. Before he could even scream a warning, Greg spotted it and threw himself off Hodges, rolling in the dirt. The arrow splintered a tree trunk just beyond them.

Now freed, Hodges grabbed the gun again. More arrows were flying around the three men. Nick and Greg could have made it to safety individually, but neither would leave the other man in danger. Hodges stood, crazed with fear and fury, but instead of focusing on the women attacking him, he aimed the gun at Nick.

"This is all your fault, Stokes!" he laughed maniacally.

Greg heard himself screaming, as he staggered to his feet. Nick found himself staring down the barrel of a gun, but before he could even process this sudden danger from an unexpected source, an arrow whistled past him and buried itself in Hodges' shoulder with a sickening thud.

Hodges screamed in agony! His gun went flying, and his hand grabbed the arrow as he tried to pull it free.

Greg felt relief course through his body, and not heeding the arrows, he ran to Nick, who was standing still in shock. He grabbed Nick's hand, and yelled, "Run!"

It was the only thing they could do. As another volley of arrows started raining around them, they blindly crashed through the jungle, trying to leave the chaos behind them!




THE DIRE FATE OF HODGES


Hodges yanked at the arrow, tearing his own flesh away as it came free.

He was on his knees, still grasping at the arrow. Strangely, he didn't feel any pain. He was too focused on the fact that he missed his chance to kill Stokes, if not for this shaft of wood and metal skewering him.

And then the pain hit him; extreme, searing, agonizing pain, radiating out from the center of his body. 'I'm injured!' he thought indignantly, as if anyone would know better than to shoot him.

Hodges howled, and collapsed onto the ground. His tears mixed with sweat, grime, and blood; his unraveled mind suddenly seemed to snap back into place, and he became aware of the severity of his situation.

"Sanders!" he bellowed, a last cry for aid that he knew wouldn't come. Not when he had just tried to kill Stokes.

He sprawled out in the mud, murmuring Greg's name.

A pair of feminine feet stepped into his line of sight. Hodges moaned, and rolled onto his back. The Amazonian warrior towered over him, looking even larger from his current perspective.

"Please," Hodges cried. "Please…"

There was no mercy. As the machete was unsheathed, the sun hit the blade and made it gleam. The sliver of light fell towards Hodges with blazing speed; he only had time for one final agonized scream!




Nick and Greg froze as the scream echoed through the growth of the jungle.

"Hodges," Greg breathed.

They both strangely were saddened by what was obviously the death-rattle of the man who only moments before had turned on them in the midst of enemy fire. No matter what their opinion of the man, they didn't wish death upon him.

But they didn't wish death upon themselves either, so without a word they began to run again. They had no idea where they were going, they were just trying to get as far away as possible.

Nick could taste copper at the back of his throat; he knew his lungs were straining, and he was having trouble catching his breath. Greg was also looking labored, although he wasn't wheezing as much. They had managed to get off the trail, and were lost in a no-man's land of dense jungle growth. Nick spotted a large tree root system hung over with vines and moss. Unable to speak, he pulled Greg down with him, and they fell into a small cave that hid them from plain view.

They leaned against each other, sprawled against each other in the dimly lit cave, wheezing and fighting to catch their breath.

Greg suddenly threw himself upon Nick, his hands running all over Nick's chest to check for wounds. Relieved, he wiped hurriedly at his eyes.

"I just wanted to make sure," he said hoarsely. "I thought he got you."

"No, luckily I was saved by our friends," Nick said with more than a hint of irony.

He had to fight for his breath again as Greg grabbed him in an anxious bear hug. Nick allowed himself to be held, knowing Greg needed the comfort of the embrace. He had been scared, although not for his own peril, but by thinking that Nick had been injured. And that was strangely soothing for Nick, to know that Greg cared that much.

"Greg," he murmured.

Greg's finger pressed against his lips, and Nick looked up to see Greg's eyes widened in worry as he looked above them and through the canopy of roots.

A shadow fell across them as pair of bare feet stepped over their roof. A light sifting of dirt fell upon them, but they remained still.

Greg was sure that the combined beating of their hearts would give them away, especially when they increased exponentially when a second pair of feet crossed over and paused for a moment. They could feel the change in temperature as the warrior's shadow blocked the sunlight. Greg closed his eyes as Nick's hand covered his and squeezed it comfortingly.

They could breathe again only when the shadow disappeared. How long they lay there for they couldn't make a guess at, but they knew it was best that they stay in their hole while the warriors of the She searched for them. They lay in silence, holding each other. Greg gently traced the line of Nick's jaw, and leaned in to kiss the worry from his face.

It didn't take long for them to get caught up in each other, and forget that the world above was extremely hostile towards them at the moment. A low moan escaped from one of them - they couldn't even tell who it was - recalling them to the danger of their situation before they managed to pull away from each other, flushed, sweating, painfully hard. Fear overtook them again, and they stared up, wondering if they had given themselves away.

No silent army descended upon them; fear helped the bulges in their pants slowly dissipate.

"Should we move on?" Greg asked in such a low whisper that Nick had to strain to hear him.

"Let's hope we can find our way," Nick nodded.

They parted the curtain of foliage, and climbed out of their hiding place. The jungle was silent around them, alarmingly so. There wasn't even the note of a single bird.

"I don't like this," Nick breathed.

"Yeah, I have a bad feeling about this," Greg agreed.

"Let's just get out of here."

"Good idea."

They surveyed the area, wondering which way to go.

"Follow the sun," Greg decided. "That will take us back to the river."

Nick nodded. "Glad one of us is thinking clearly."

Greg gave him a wry smile, and in doing so, missed a tree root and almost went flying over it. Nick's hand shot out and steadied him, but the sound of something else falling made them freeze.

They turned around to come face to face with something vaguely reminiscent of a human falling out of the branches of the next tree. They both jumped back, and the full horror came into focus for them.

Brilliantly gleaming red in a shaft of sunlight, it took them a few seconds to realize it was meat. From head to toe, bloody, raw meat. But the blood wasn't coming from a wound, because the whole body was an exposed wound, blood glistening along naked tendon and bone. The skin was missing.

"Oh, God," Greg whispered in horror. "It's Hodges!"

Nick felt his stomach twist.

"He's been flayed! Oh, fuck, Nick, they flayed him. Why?"

Dispassionate self-defense mechanisms kicking in, Nick asked, "Because they met him?"

Greg shot him an angry glance, and Nick immediately felt chastened. Nobody deserved this fate. Not even Hodges.

"Do you think he was alive when they did it?" Greg asked, needing reassurance that they hadn't.

Nick shook his head. "The screaming would have gone on for a lot longer."

Greg slowly nodded, knowing he was right. "Let's get going. Hurry!"

Both men yelled in horror as the barely recognizable lump of meat shook violently, when an arrow whistled between them and thudded into the body dead center.

"They're here!" Greg yelled.

They immediately broke into a run, not even bothering to try to figure out where the women were hidden. The longer they stayed in one spot, the easier they were to target.

The chase was on again!




LAST CHANCE FOR INTIMACY


An arrow passed so close to his cheek that Nick could almost feel his skin blister from the heat of the energy it produced.

He yanked Greg to the left, and they crashed deeper into the surrounding tangled growth. Greg pulled him to his knees, and they huddled together, completely hidden from view. They hoped.

"This cover won't hide us for long," Greg panted, "we need to get going again."

Nick was still focused upon the dreadful sight they'd seen only moments before. "They killed Hodges."

"They didn't just kill him, Nick. They flayed him. Why would they do that?"

Before he could stop himself, Nick said, "He shot at them, Greg. It was his punishment."

Greg's expression of dismay at his bluntness shamed him into muttering a quick apology. "Some Mayan tribes used to skin their victims," Nick said, desperate to fill the awkward silence. "They used the skin to make ceremonial drums."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Greg asked incredulously. "Shame about Hodges being flayed, but hey, at least he'll be put to good use!"

"That's not what I meant," Nick protested. "Just… you did ask for a possible explanation."

"Is that the kind of stuff you teach in your classes?"

"Come in and sit in on one, and find out."

Greg shook his head sorrowfully. "I'd love to, but I don't think we're going to get out of this one, Nick."

Nick stared him down. "Stop that, Sanders! In all the time I've known you, you've never given up. Why now?"

Greg couldn't look him in the eyes, so he concentrated on the dirt at his feet. "Maybe because it was all about the thrill of adventure before. I didn't have anything that I really wanted outside of that. And now I'm scared that I won't live long enough to get it."

"Hey!" Nick cupped his chin, raising it so their eyes could meet. "We will. But if we're going to, we've got to keep moving."

Greg nodded. "Okay, then, let's go."

"And Sanders?"

"Yeah?"

"I've got something I really want outside the adventure as well," Nick admitted.

Greg lit up. "You better be talking about me, or it won't be the She you'll have to worry about."

Glad to see the spark ignite in Greg's eyes again, and the smirk returning to his lips, Nick grinned. "Well, you'll just have to live to find out, right?"

"What are we waiting for?" Greg gave him a quick, hard kiss on the lips and began to shimmy through the foliage again. Nick smiled, and followed.

They didn't take it for granted that they had lost the Amazonians.

"They're obviously excellent trackers," Greg said, when they took another much-needed break about an hour later. "We thought we'd lost them before, but not only did they have us in their sights the whole time, they also managed to skin Hodges and string him up to scare the crap out of us. They're smart."

"At least we're not underestimating them; that's the mistake most people make with other cultures," Nick mused. "They think just because indigenous peoples don't speak English that they must be unintelligent and primitive. We're on their turf, and they've had the upper hand in every case."

"Except for guns," Greg said, shivering slightly. Although he never went in the field without one, and still mourned the loss of Papa Olaf's relic, he wasn't a huge fan of them.

"Guns haven't done much for us in this situation," Nick pointed out.

"I guess not."

Nick froze, one foot poised to take a step, when Greg's fingers suddenly clamped painfully around his bicep. Sheer adrenaline helped him maintain his precarious balance as his ears, quickened by fear, picked up the almost imperceptible sound of foliage brushing against skin. Not fur, not hide, skin.

Both men caught a flicker of movement out of the corners of their eyes, but did not turn their heads to track it. They knew that a direct gaze would inevitably attract attention their way, so they resisted the impulse to stare. Greg was dying to see what the She looked like, but wasn't willing to risk Hodges' fate as the price for satisfying his curiosity.

The sounds died away and Nick eased his foot silently onto a bed of moss, avoiding any sticks or leaves that might crackle underfoot.

"That was too close for comfort," Greg whispered, his hot breath sending a shiver through Nick, a shiver of arousal and fear.

"They've split up into several small parties, hunting for us," Nick returned, his lips barely moving. "Don't move."

Terror crawled up his spine, every muscle and sinew tensed as he strained to hear. The veneer of civilization was very thin shell, he realized, when he felt the hairs at the back of his neck lie down. The danger was past; he didn't know how he knew, but he did.

They had had a couple of close calls, but so far they had managed to hide well and escape detection.

By the time the sun started to set, they were exhausted, they knew they were going in circles, and they seemed nowhere nearer the river. If anything, they feared that they might possibly have strayed deeper into the territory of the She, although neither man wanted to say so out loud. Their spirits were at an all-time low, and their belief earlier in the day that they were going to get out of this relatively unscathed was all but eviscerated.

"We can't walk through the night," Greg said. "We'll lose our bearings."

"That's saying that we had any in the first place," Nick grumped. He hated feeling useless, so he scouted for an area in which they could spend the night. He found a tree similar to the one they had hidden in earlier. It could have even been the same tree, that was how hopelessly lost they were. He hoped to hell it wasn't the same tree.

They crawled in beneath the protective screen of low-hanging roots and foliage wearily, and stretched out on the cold dirt floor. Greg invitingly stretched out his arms, and instantly Nick rolled into them. They took comfort in each other's warmth, grateful for the fact that they were both still alive and together after everything that had happened to them.

They crashed their mouths together immediately. Each kiss became more desperate, as if they were breathing for one another. Nick rolled onto his back, bringing Greg on top of him. Greg was already unbuttoning Nick's shirt, wanting to claim Nick's body as his property. He'd had to wait too long already.

Nick arched up as Greg sucked greedily at the junction between neck and shoulder, marking him. Greg's hungry lips trailed down to Nick's left nipple, and he moaned with pleasure as he felt the heat of Greg's mouth upon it. Greg delighted in the way it hardened beneath his tongue, and licked a stripe across Nick's chest until he reached the other nipple and gave it the attention it deserved. Nick's hands ran through Greg's hair, and yanked him back up in order to kiss him again.

"Should we be doing this?" Greg panted, pulling away from Nick only long enough to speak and then diving back in for another kiss.

His hands stroking Greg's cheeks, Nick looked into his eyes and wondered once more how he could have been so blind to the heat brewing between them. "I can't go on without this." He left unsaid the fear that they might not make it out alive, and Greg nodded, only too aware of the danger of their situation himself.

With surprising strength, Greg hauled him upright so he could pull his shirt free. "I've always wanted you." With the shirt thrown aside, he gently lay Nick down and traced the taut lines of his abdomen. "Why do you think I asked you along in the first place?"

Nick's hand slipped underneath Greg's shirt and caressed the small of his back. "Why do you think I agreed?" He pulled Greg down against him, and claimed another kiss.

Greg accepted it readily, his tongue clumsily forcing its way past Nick's teeth. His hands scrabbled at Nick's belt, unbuckling it and moving to remove the barrier that stood between him and his goal. Nick's obvious arousal was straining against his zipper, and Greg laid his palm against it. Nick bucked into him, and Greg grinned.

"Easy there, cowboy."

He suddenly found himself flat on his back, a laughing Nick sprawling on top of him. His shirt was ruthlessly dragged over his head; there was no time for buttons. Greg shivered as Nick ran his warm hands all over his chest, rolling his nipples between his thumb and forefinger, teasing them into stiffening peaks. Nick came in for a kiss, rocking his lower body against Greg's, grinding their cocks together. Greg gasped into Nick's mouth, and his hands dug into the cheeks of Nick's ass, keeping him in place. Nick tried to pull away, but Greg's grip was strong.

"Not… coming in my pants again," he managed to gasp.

Greg's eyes widened with that admission, and there it was, finally out in the open between them. He laughed, and motioned for Nick to check his pockets. "I've got some stuff."

"Stuff?" Nick was amused by Greg's sudden coyness.

Greg rolled his eyes in embarrassment and impatience.

Nick shifted further down Greg's body, giving one last pat to the straining bulge of the groin.

Greg groaned. "You're a fucking tease, Stokes."

Nick laughed to himself, and began investigating Greg's pockets. Like his own field pants, there were many pockets to be explored, and he grew more and more amused as objects emerged from within. Notebooks, grease pencils, waterproof matches, his hipflask, and then finally, a small tube of Vaseline. Nick held it up reprovingly.

"Were you expecting to get lucky?"

"Not expecting," Greg replied with a cocky grin. "Just hoping. Good thing I left it in my pants, and not my bag, huh?"

"The one thing that's gone right all day," Nick agreed.

Greg sat up, and kissed him. "One of them, anyway."

Nick lay him back down, and unzipped his pants. Greg lay there compliantly, watching him avidly. Nick pulled off their boots, and worked Greg's pants off him, leaving him in his drawers for a moment, the one piece of clothing remaining that prevented Nick from seeing him in all his glory. Nick sat back and admired him for a moment, but couldn't take it anymore as his own cock was crying for release.

He slowly drew Greg's shorts down, and his cock arose, freed from its prison. Nick sighed with contentment, and ran his finger along the vein on the bottom of the hard shaft. Greg moaned as Nick's thumb ran over the slit in the head, still finding it hard to believe that this was Nick touching him. Nick gave his cock an appreciative tug, and Greg had to bite his lip to stop from crying out and giving away their hiding place as Nick took him in his mouth, his tongue sliding where his thumb had been only moments before. Greg bucked under him, trying not to fuck Nick's mouth with total abandon as Nick continued his ministrations, his hand at the base of Greg's cock giving it a small pump every now and again.

Greg could feel his release building. "I'm-" he tried to warn Nick, but the other man ignored him, swallowing as Greg came, crying Nick's name. Greg's head rolled to one side, sweat running down his cheek like a tear, as Nick's flushed face floated above his, and Greg took him in for a kiss, tasting himself on Nick's tongue.

"Fuck," was all Greg could say, and Nick kissed him again. Greg lay there for another moment in sated bliss before realizing that Nick had done all the work, and it was time to return the favor. He sat up, his hands wandering down to unzip Nick's pants. He shucked them down, and Nick's cock burst out to slap against his belly. It was time for Greg to stare in admiration now that he had Nick naked in reality and could dismiss the fantasy he had had earlier. The real thing was much better.

He cupped Nick's balls, rolling them gently, as Nick threw his head back, his cock unable to get any harder but feeling as if he could explode with excitement. Greg's lithe fingers stroked his shaft, and a small drop of pre-cum collected on Greg's thumb. Nick watched Greg run his tongue along his thumb and taste it, shuddering with pleasure. Greg lowered his head and tasted Nick fully. Nick stroked Greg's hair as his head bobbed slowly up and down Nick's cock. He could feel his thighs trembling as he struggled to remain still, and Greg's hand crept up to hold him in place. Greg gave one last lick to the head of his cock as he pulled away, and lay back. His arm stretched above his head as his hand scrabbled in the dirt for the tube of Vaseline.

Nick sat there, sweating and trying to stop himself from shaking. His cock was painfully erect, and only getting more so as he watched Greg coat his fingers with a liberal amount of the gel. and inch them inside his entrance. Greg exhaled heavily as he began preparing himself. Nick reached for the tube and coated his own fingers.

"Here, let me."

Greg nodded, and opened his legs wider so Nick could position himself between them. He moaned as Nick's fingers entered him, seeking depth and withdrawing before plunging back in. He stroked the inner walls gently, adding a second finger, and Greg rocked himself back, his eyes widening as Nick brushed against the small bundle of nerves that set his whole body aflame.

"Fuck, Nick, I want you in me," he whispered hoarsely.

Nick applied more lubrication to his cock, and lined himself up with Greg. He rested his palms upon Greg's knees, trying not to apply too much pressure as he felt the head of his cock seek Greg's ass. Greg felt the blunt head brush against his entrance, and he ached to have it buried within him there and then, but Nick was gentle, pushing through the tight guardian muscle a little bit at a time, a fresh coating of sweat breaking out all over him as he felt Greg accepting him. Greg gasped as he was penetrated, but dug his heels into the dirt to get traction to help Nick along. The first minute was always a balancing act between pain and pleasure but already the feeling of having Nick inside him at last flooded him with a wave of ecstasy.

Nick pulled out slightly, trembling as he waited for Greg to signal he was ready. When Greg moaned, Nick grasped his calf, pulling his leg over his waist. This time when he slid fully inside again the angle was enough to bring Greg to the edge. Nick shivered once his cock was enveloped within the blazing fire that raged inside Greg. He wondered how long he had denied himself this exquisite pleasure and why.

Greg was hard again, and when his hand moved towards his cock, Nick knocked it away and began stroking it himself. Satisfied, Nick began a steady motion, thrusting deeply, his balls tightening as with each urgent drive he was brought closer. Biting his lip to keep silent, Greg marveled at the look of pleasure on Nick's face, the only sounds a slight exhalation as their flesh slapped against each other, echoing through the small space they were in.

Feeling Nick move inside him, watching his muscles strain as he held himself up, Greg moaned one more time and his climax surged through him, spurting hot over Nick's hand. He watched, panting, as Nick raised his hand to lick his cum from his fingers, closing his eyes with pleasure at the taste.

There was something that felt so right about their frantic coupling. Maybe it was being so far from civilization, maybe the intensity of running for their lives, the fear that they might not make it out of this alive, but Nick knew it had all been worth it to be able to make love to Greg, even if they only had this once.

He couldn't hold back a low groan as the tight passage clenched around him, sucking him ever more deeply within. As much as he wanted to prolong this experience, Nick couldn't hold back any longer. His balls drew up as he came, pleased to feel Greg's arms tighten around him, as if he too didn't want this to end.

"Oh, holy fuck," Greg whimpered.

Nick wanted to stay buried within Greg, but as he softened he inevitably withdrew. Greg lowered his leg, and lay panting, splayed limply on the cave floor. Nick reached down and brushed the hair out of his eyes, before running his finger down Greg's chest to his stomach, where his seed was illuminated by the shadowy light filtering through the canopy above them. Nick lazily traced an ‘N', marking Greg as he had been marked earlier with Greg's love bite. He brought his finger to his lips, sucking on it, teasing Greg as he had been teased before. Greg sat up slowly, his gaze fixed on Nick's tongue.

"Don't start just yet, Stokes, I don't think I can go again so soon."

Nick reached down and cupped Greg's cock, which was still slightly hard, and began swelling again beneath his touch. "Oh, really?"

Greg was putty in his hands. "Oh, shit, Nick… I'm going to be so sore… it'll be like being a teenager and jacking off six times a day when I found out I could."

Nick's only reaction was to keep rubbing.

Greg's eyes rolled back in his head. "Oh fuck…" He fell back upon the ground, and Nick willingly rolled on top of him, his own cock just as hard and just as sore, yet equally insatiable. He ground into Greg, their cocks against each other's bare skin for the first time. Greg emitted a guttural moan as he came hard and fast, producing only a dribble of cum, and Nick followed soon afterwards.

"No more," Greg butted his head against Nick's shoulder. "Oh fuck, no more, not just yet."

Nick was beginning to think he might have a point, but he kissed him anyway. Greg responded eagerly, and then pushed Nick off him.

Nick laughed as he hit the dirt. "Okay, I promise. No more, not just yet."

Greg snuggled in closer to him. "Believe me, as soon as I'm recovered-"

"Yeah, what?" Nick asked.

"Well, I hoped that if we ever got to do this, I would let you do me first, and then I would get to return the favor."

Nick let loose a hearty laugh, and tenderly kissed him. "I'm looking forward to it."

Greg returned the kiss with interest, making sure to breach the defenses of Nick's teeth to touch his tongue with his own. He pulled away, the taste of Nick pleasantly satisfying him. "It's the best reason to get through this, huh?"

"Definitely." Now that he could do so, Nick couldn't take his hands off Greg. He ran his hands over the taut globes of his ass, and hooked his leg around Greg's to bring him in closer. He stroked Greg's foot with his toe, and realized Greg was hard again when his boner started digging into his ribs. "And you said I was insatiable?"

"Believe me, it wants to play, but I know it can't," Greg said unhappily. "But maybe we could get into some kind of regular, mutual benefit deal where we keep swapping favors."

"I'd like that," Nick breathed, arching himself slightly so he could rub his cock along Greg's side. "I like that a lot."

"Jesus, Nick, are you ready for favor number two already?" Greg reached between them, and took Nick's hardening dick in his hand. "I think you are."

"This is what you do to me, Sanders."

"Then I should have planned all of this ages ago."

"I agree." Nick yawned, which immediately made Greg follow suit. "Sleep, then favor number two."

"Deal," Greg offered him his hand.

Nick chuckled, and shook it.

After their exertions, sleep came quickly, entwined in each other's arms. But it wasn't to last long.

While they slept, the roof of their cave collapsed in on them, and as they awoke amidst the chaos that resulted, they were a tangle of naked limbs and dust that choked and blinded them. Light from cane torches burned their vision, blinding them except for the sight of bare feminine legs surrounding them, and sharp spearheads pointed inches from their faces.

This is it, thought Greg, trying to feel around for Nick. This is really it. Nick-

And that was his last coherent thought before everything went black.

***

Next part of Stokes, Sanders and the Lost Tribe of Samartia.