Jungle Fever

Chapter 5: The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Two on one. The final battle had begun.

I landed on the far side of the fallen tree stump to a sight that made my hopes surge. Winded from the surprise attack, The Stranger lay sprawled in the dirt, Boi straddling him, powerful hands gripped tightly around The Stranger's throat.

It was the first move, only seconds following Boi's courageous lunge at him and I knew it wouldn't be last long before The Stranger began to fight back. But it only took a moment to take in the scene. I dove to the ground, grabbing The Stranger's wrists and hauling them back above his head. My bare, muddy feet, dug into The Stranger's shoulders, allowing me to pull his arms back tightly, stretching him out as rigidly as I could.

Jolted back to the here and now, The Stranger's eyes widened in horror as he took in his plight, the same instant gagging as his oxygen ran out.

"How does it feel?" Boi screamed at him, a true wildman now, jungle born and bred. Show now mercy.

The Stranger thrashed beneath him, unable to break free of my grip. Legs thrashing madly, he bucked like a bull beneath its Spanish rider. Violent with desperation, The Stranger bucked again, unable to remove Boi from on top of him. Then, with a flexibility which I didn't think possible, The Stranger swung his legs upwards and over, hooking them around Boi's neck, wrenching him backwards.

Boi cried out in surprise and The Stranger's move slammed him back, headfirst into the moist ground. Holding Boi heartlessly in the leglock, The Stranger twisted around, face down now, my feet sliding free from his shoulders. Without the brace of his body, I was yanked forward and over, landing face first in the mud as The Stranger hauled me towards him.

I felt his sturdy arms wrapped tightly around my waist and heave me up. The Stranger was kneeling now, hanging me upside down in his crushing embrace. Boi, still pinned by the devastating leg lock around his throat, could do nothing to help me as the full weight of both The Stranger and now myself, bore down upon him.

Reaching out to press my hands against the ground lest he should drop me on my head, my mind raced to understand how our advantage had been so quickly lost. The Stranger was a monster, capable of overwhelming brutality and passion and right now, it was his darker side that was sure to reek its most sadistic revenge against our impetuous retaliation.

I could feel the bulging muscles in his arms crushing my ribcage, his clenched fists pressing into my stomach. His heavy breath blew down on my arse as my feet dangled over his head.

Suddenly, he released me and as I toppled to the ground, he grabbed my arm, adjusting my fall to land by his knees. As I hit the ground, the world was blackened by the blinding pain of his fist crashing into my stomach. I doubled over, convulsing with agony, unable to catch my breath.

Immobilised, it was Boi's turn to really feel his wrath. Releasing the leg lock, The Stranger spun around on his knees, his feet swiping my head in the process. Boi was retching, trying to regain his own breath as The Stranger pulled him to his knees with a handful of hair. Reaching up to try to ease The Stranger's painful grip on his locks, Boi left himself dangerously exposed. With a quick twist of his hands, The Stranger released Boi's hair and grabbed his nipples in another tight squeeze.

Boi cried out, the vicious hold smarting like sharp knifes coursing through his body. Rising now, The Stranger forced Boi to rise to unsteady feet, never loosening his pinch on Boi's nipples.

Tears streamed down Boi's face as the overwhelming sting prevented him from even trying to break free. His arms were frozen in an outstretched position, locked there as if held by invisible hands.

The Stranger shoved him back, slamming him against the mighty fallen tree trunk, corkscrewing Boi's nipples to create even further pain. Boi screamed, a torturous scream that begged for mercy, knowing that there was none forthcoming.

Pulling him forward, The Stranger slammed him back into the tree trunk once again. Boi's knees had buckled completely now as he remained upright only through the hold of his subjugator.

Releasing the grip at last, The Stranger swapped one torture for another, backhanding Boi across the face and grabbing his throat with the other hand to keep him upright. Crushing Boi's windpipe with all his might, The Stranger's free hand curled into a fist which struck again and again against Boi's exposed stomach, each blow bringing Boi closer to oblivion.

Boi's feet were no longer touching the ground, The Stranger having lifted him up over the tree trunk. From my winded position on the ground behind them, I watched, blurry eyed, as the powerless Boi began to loose consciousness.

I struggled to my feet, desperate to help, staggering over to the dueling couple. Clasping my hands together, I raised them above my head and struck The Stranger on the base of his neck. I may as well have been a kamikaze blowfly. The Stranger didn't even flinch at my pathetic efforts.

Still holding tight to Boi's throat, The Stranger whirled around and locked his free hand around my own, hauling me back against the tree trunk beside Boi. I gagged, trying to loosen his grip, only to feel it tighten even more. Already winded, I saw stars almost immediately and felt the universe spinning around me. I could no longer think straight, simply reacting, desperate to cling to life.

It was luck that saved the moment, my foot striking out randomly, kicking The Stranger hard in the nether regions. It was a move no man would ever contemplate against another, no matter how desperate the situation, but in my half-conscious state, I didn't even know I had done it.

I felt his grip release, heard the ear-piercing cry of a wounded animal, and saw him disappear below my line of vision. I couldn't move, fighting to steady the world as I rolled over onto my stomach and slid down the tree trunk to my feet. I rubbed my bruised throat, gasping for air as I tried to stop the tremors that invaded my body. Above me, Boi lay where he was, unconscious, perhaps dead. I didn't know. I couldn't know - not yet. First I had to free us of The Stranger.

I looked down at him, the Almighty Adonis of whom wet dreams should have been made of. He was lying on his side, doubled over, hands holding his wounded balls. It was only then that I realised what had happened and a twinge of guilt-ridden sympathy tweaked at me. But I knew that guilt would not keep me alive. I had to survive, even if poor Boi hadn't.

Every muscle in my body ached. I knew I couldn't face The Stranger alone, particularly now, so I looked around for anything that could help me win. A rock - big, solid, rough - lay half buried in the mud nearby.

I staggered over to it, prying it free from its mooring and carried it over to The Stranger's rocking body. One strike on the head, as hard and as merciless as he'd been to us, would end it all.

But I couldn't. A killer I wasn't, and looking down on him, weakened and defenceless at last, I felt the voice of humanity reverberating inside my head. Slowly I lowered the rock and let it drop to the ground.

The Stranger slowly rolled over, his eyes beseeching me for clemency as I towered above him. He was like a discarded, broken toy, covered in dirt, hair matted, pleading to be loved once again.

Gently, he reached up a hand, silently begging me to take it. My heart ached with confusion, the battle between lust and terror raging inside. Without knowing it, I reach out, taking his hand in mine, accepting The Stranger's plea.

But suddenly he tugged hard, pulling me down on top of him and rolling us over so his body once more pressed down on me, his thick coat of chest hair tickling my torso. He grabbed me under the chin, squeezing my cheeks as his face hovered only millimetres above my own.

"You're going to pay for that," he growled. "You should never have stopped when you did. Now you're going to find out what happens when weak minded fools like you give in to their emotions!"

I winced, one arm pinned beneath his body, the other caught under his elbow uselessly. I should have struck him with the rock when I had the chance!

"But first," The Stranger continued, "one last kiss goodbye."

Squeezing my cheeks harder, forcing my mouth open, The Stranger pressed in, snogging me passionately with the roughness of our first meeting. It was him and I again, alone and together, Master and slave with no outside influence. The passion of his kiss held an urgency like no other, as if on a time limit before his fatal blow. If he wasn't so damn sexy, I would have fought again to my dying breath. But I was too drained now and the lust in his eyes matched my own desire for him. I responded with equal passion, his wildman look like an older, more heavenly ascendant of Boi.

He shifted his position, moving further on top of me and I found ourselves rolling around in a lovers' embrace, locked in each other's arms, locked in the moment knowing there was no tomorrow. For me, I would be dead soon, murdered by the Widows' Spider I currently embraced. For him, as surely as he'd come to kidnap me, he would be killed by his superiors for abusing his mission. And as for Boi, my own impending demise told me it was already too late.

So we rolled, back and forth, over each other's glistening bodies, in one last embrace, our lips never parting from the succulent kiss. We ended, surprisingly, with The Stranger beneath me and I leaned back curiously to see him looking up at me lovingly.

"I don't understand you," I said simply.

"You don't have to," came the reply. He pulled my face down to his again. Beneath his head, a flash of light caught my attention. It was the rock, bright against the surrounding mud, now acting as a pillow for The Stranger's head. I sat up, the sight of it startling me.

"What is it?" The Stranger asked, frowning at my sudden action.

"It's you." I touched his cheek gently, almost sympathetically. "I can't."

And grabbing his ears, I lifted his head and slammed it back down against the rock. One blow. Not enough to kill him but hard enough to make a dark unconsciousness race to meet him. Out cold, The Stranger's head slid off the rock to the side, a faint trail of blood marking the path.

Perhaps a minute, perhaps two, I sat there on top of him, my hands resting on his dark matted chest, looking down on him, lost in my own thoughts. I was alone now, alone in the jungle. Back where I had begun, a long way from civilisation, but it wasn't the same. Two still bodies accompanied me now. One lying limp between my legs, the other....

Boi!

I staggered to my feet, and ran to Boi's side, carefully pulling him down from atop the mammoth fallen tree. Lowering him to the ground, I leaned over his still form pressing my ear to his chest, listening for any sound of life. A heartbeat. Faint but sure, I could hear it all the same.

I laughed, relieved to hear the sound of life within in, and hovered my cheek over his mouth, feeling for breath. It was there. Boi was alive, though the extent of his condition I couldn't tell. I could only hope he would come around soon.

Kissing Boi on the forehead, I stood and looked around me, hands on hips like the opening to an episode of superman - though granted, he wasn't naked and dirty on TV.

I looked at my fallen companions, one to the other. Friend and foe. Both more beautiful than the other. The smooth, teenage jungle boy with the lithe, sinewy form of a panther, muscles rippling even in his slumber; and The Stranger, a solid, hairy boulder of a man, with a V-Shaped frame and a dark, twisted mind that had brought me unexpected ecstasy and frightening discoveries of pure delight.

I wanted both of them. I wanted them to belong to me just as I wanted to belong to them. The reserved sexual being I once was had vanished forever and my intellect was sending postcards from some other realm. Should I take them both? Tie them up and force each to be my sex slave like they have been forced onto me? Should I run away, back to the nearest town only several hours away and find help and salvation? Perhaps I should take Boi to some safe haven and nurse him back to health, leaving The Stranger behind to fend for himself in the face of his own consequences?

The endless possibilities floated through my mind. Master, mate or mouse. What should I do? I didn't know.

To be continued...