Talitha Koum

Chapter 15

TALITHA KOUM

CHAPTER 15

.

They darted out of the tent and flattened themselves against a wall of flesh. They bounced off to one side and to the ground.

It was the three hundred pound ox-man with no neck.

Julie sat up where she was, shaking her head to clear it. She glanced over at Tom. His eyes were half-open and he blinked, but he just lay there, in the dirt, on his side, not getting up.

The guard plucked her up by the back of the corset. He held her completely off the ground, so her feet swung back and forth. Julie reached and grabbed at the man’s hand on her back, tugging at the fingers, but that just made him laugh.

She dug her nails in and gouged him.

The man yowled in pain. He tossed her to the ground.

Julie landed and slid a few feet. There was a long, wooden rod by her side.

She seized it. Charging at the ox while he tended to his hand, she leaped into the air and whacked a home run off his head.

The rod shattered into a thousand pieces.

The man barely noticed.

Julie hefted a rock from nearby. She raced in and whacked him over the head with that.

It too shattered into gravel. But again with no effect.

“Oh, for the love of…”

The man shrugged and shook the debris off his shoulders. He turned so he faced her squarely.

The big man pulled back his hand, and then swatted Julie with the back of it.

She was launched into the air, caught up in the wind and flew for a good two seconds. She hit ground and rolled. She lay there for a moment, unable to move. She reached up to her jaw. There was that walrus again…

Sneering, the man wiped away at his hand, which had since stopped bleeding. He stomped over to her, one rumbling step at a time. He stood over her.

Julie crawled back a step. She peered out toward Tom. “Tom!”

The man looked at Tom too. He threw his head back and laughed.

Meanwhile, the camp was on fire everywhere. People were dashing madly about. Some rushed in to help fight it, others sped away from the heat with small children in their arms. Through all the corridors, smoke wafted through and filled them and smaller fires, bits of tent material, burning, were scattered all through the settlement, even as close as within reach of the two who struggled here and the third one lying in the sand over there.

The big man stopped laughing. He made to approach Julie, on the ground, still retreating.

Rats scurried by.

A whole clan of them, perhaps frightened by the fire and were seeking shelter away from the noise and the heat.

The man shrieked like a schoolgirl.

He jerked away from the rats, even though he was nowhere near them and jumped up and down, as he made his way over to the nearest tent on his tippy-toes.

Julie’s mouth hung open.

The ox-man continued to scream. He noticed another band of the rascals racing by behind him. He scrunched his eyes together and screeched some more.

Julie got up. She dusted herself off. She approached the giant.

The man had found a bigger rock nearby and rushed to the top of it. He now wrung his hands together, as his lips pouted and trembled.