Quala - Escape From Headhunter Island, Page 3
Mark Richmond
contesting each other as to who can throw it the highest. Finally, one kid throws him so high, all the kids step away and Quala bounces several times on the ground. Just then, his eyes turn on an light up, the kids notice and slowly step closer but do not dare touch it. Quala’s fingers start to wiggle, he sits up, shakes his head, then stands up and dusts himself off. All the kids stop in there tracks, jaws dropping, and stepping backward without losing any eye contact with Quala. Then…
Quala speaks firmly: “Where’s Kimi?”
The kids run off in a thousand directions, screaming the whole way, finally meeting up with their parents on the other side of the bonfire, Quala follows them. As he appears around the bonfire, Quala runs into the tribes party area, stops, facing the rest of the tribe, and repeats his question.
Q: “WHERE…IIIIZZZZ…KKKIIMMMEEEEE!!!”
The drumming stops, so does the dancing, and everyone stays motionless. No one says a thing, all that can be heard is the crackling of the bonfire next to them.
[back to current time, and Kimi’s loud scream]
The chief, after plugging his ears, notices that the drums had stopped, he stops his advance on Kimi, puts his clothes back on and heads outside.
Chief: “Why have the drums stopped?” He asks one of his lead warriors.
At the same time, Quala studies their dialect and begins to decipher what they are saying by tapping into a linguistic database wirelessly. He has found something close, that he can speak so they can understand. The tribesmen point over to Quala to the surprise of the chief, he sees him standing there, facing him, with his head slightly tilted forward and a very mean upwardly look on his face.
Q: Activates a plume of white smoke from his left paw held upward, and starts a projection out of his right eye of Kimi running, and he starts to speak in their near dialect. “Everyone listen, Kimi must be brought back to me, we mean you no harm, we are not from another invading tribe, but there is danger that we must warn you about, and we must help each other to survive.”
The tribal crowd now stunned, turn to the chief, with a sorrowful look upon his face, motions to a warrior to carefully escort Kimi out to her talking deity.
Chief: Talking to Quala. “We thought you were from another tribe, we too mean you no harm, only our respect.” Even more humbly now. “Are you gods, sent to us from the stars?”
Q: “We are not gods, well, maybe she is, but I’m not, but anyways…” shaking his head. “Kimi is a very special human, and I am her protector built by other humans, somewhere in there I think there may be some hand of god stuff, but I’m still trying to figure that part out.” Stepping closer, and acting more humble himself. “ I am going to show your tribe images and video of what has taken place in the outside world.” He activates recordings of the mass killings in the favela made by other plush toys. “There has been a devastating massive takeover, wiping out what I calculate as being 99% of the humans in our hometown, and seems like many others too. We have escaped, but there is much to do from here, you, the people of the rainforest, are safe here, hidden deep, they have not discovered that you are here.” “We need your help, we must leave here, but first Kimi needs food.”
Kimi: – Running out of the bungalow, “QUALA!”. Tears running down her face. “You’re okay, I missed you so much, they want to do bad things, we must go!”
Quala: Hugging Kimi and not letting go, speaks. “ Stay with me, I will explain what I’m saying to them in just a minute.” Kimi nods, then whispers in Quala’s ear.
Kimi: “They have a Jaguar captive, I think they intend to eat it, Quala, it protected me, like it knew me, and I sort of read it’s thoughts.”
Quala: “My friends of the forest, can you help us with some food and means to get off of this island?” He knows they are on some sort of un mapped island, but he gets a gps reading on there whereabouts.
Chief: “Done! Tonight we shall feast! Tomorrow we will show you the great bird. And Kimi, we do not eat the Jaguar, we worship her, we wanted to study it as to why it protected you young queen, I think I know now why. You two will join me for this feast and I wish to hear more about this recent war.”
–people scatter to start the feast, and rhythmic drumming commences once again –
[Meanwhile]
BRISTOL BENNINGTONS PRIVATE ISLAND
A computer screen displays an alert with red flashes, Quala’s I.D. and GPS location pops up. A technician notices and makes a text to let Bristol know and any attack forces within that area. Strange, it looks as if it is in the ocean, just outside the Amazon basin.
TRIBAL FEAST
The male warriors perform a hunting dance for the chief, Kimi, and Quala, followed by the female’s dancing with a harvesting theme. They all feast and talk, Quala tells the chief all about the takeover that just took place back at their home, along with some rough looking video playback that Quala captured during their escape. Kimi told the chief about needing to find a place called Ha-va-na, and that there may be humans still there.
Tribal Chief: “We can help you in the morning, we’ll take a half days walk to the other side of the island where there is a great bird that can take you to where you need to go. People were brought here by this same bird before, they were taking our trees, burning our land and killing our animals, treating us like savages. They now reside near our ancient ruins with their heads shrunken to warn off any other outsiders. They thought that since we take our wives at a young age, that we must be savage, when in fact, ever since the Spanish ships came and killed most of our people off, we needed to keep our numbers strong and diseases low, so we reproduced quickly. We now have a large tribe, and no diseases or sickness. We know it is not to be condoned forever, but as a survival tactic only when there aren’t many of us left. Now, you must excuse me, it is time…” Kimi and Quala look at each other in question…
The tribal chief closes his eyes, points his head up into the air and yells out (in his own language), “Enough drumming, release the Jaguar!”
He explains to Kimi, who the Jaguar chooses among us is a most respected occurrence, we feel the Jaguar picks a spirit for it’s next offspring and we have done the same for hundreds of years.
A large woven door raises and the glow of the panther’s eyes glow as they move forward out of the dark cage. In strong, confident steps, the big cat walks around the fire, without hesitation walks directly towards Kimi. Quala starts to move in front of her, but the chief stops him quickly. “Let him be”, the chief said.
Kimi : “I feel him, his heart beating, the strength in his legs and paws.” The Black Jaguar moves right in front of Kimi, eye to eye, he moves closer to sniff her hair and face. Everyone is now silent, with the exception of a shaking rattling sound coming from Quala. The Jaguar moves in between Kimi and the chief as it continues to sniff Kimi. At the same time the big cat’s tail slaps the chief in the face and shoulders, then as quickly as it had appeared in the forest, it crouches down and takes a giant leap out into the dense forest behind them.
Tribal Chief: “You have been chosen Kimi, to not have your spirit go with him means he leaves you some of his, very powerful he is. You will take this spiritual energy with you on your journey. I do not know what powers you have over that animal, but nothing I have ever seen can shake the concentration and decisions of a full grown male Jaguar.
December 29th – The Next Morning
THE GREAT BIRD
It’s been half a day, chopping and slicing through dense rain forest, and they finally arrive at their destination, but where is this great bird? Kimi thinks to herself.
The painted tribesmen remove a stack of palm frongs revealing an old distressed twin engine sea plane.
Quala: “Oh it’s a Vought-Sikorsky VS-44 Sea Plane, from the 1940’s! The last ones flew in the 60’s, this one looks to be in pretty bad shape.” Quala hops in it to take a look in the cockpit. “There seems to be enough fuel, whoever flew here before made sure there’s enough to get back to where they came from, and judging by the looks of this flag, Cuba was it’s origin. Kimi, we’re going to Havana! Just hope it starts, and is not too rusted.” Quala then starts calculating the GPS location they’re in with where they are heading, then suddenly Quala gasps, WAIT!” “If I know where we are by GPS, whoever is after us probably does too, in fact ever since I came back on. Kimi, Chief, we’ve got to get out of here quickly.”
They load up bananas, coconuts, fruits, a few parting gifts from the tribe, necklaces, blow darts and blow guns, poison from tree frogs, bows, arrows, and finally, the shrunken heads of the people who arrived on this bird, so their spirits can travel back to their homeland in peace.
Quala downloads the instruction manual to the plane, and maps to Havana, while he checks over the plane for anything wrong.
Quala switches the power on, lights flicker and pop on with a slight burning dusty smoke in the cockpit, he flashes a thumbs up to the tribesmen to turn the propellers and move out of the way. Then, with two great clouds of black heavy smoke, the propellers turn on, spitting fire quickly out the back and with a loud whiiiiiirrrrrrrrr noise, the plane starts up. Quala moves the rudders with the control stick, as the tribesmen help turn the plane towards a downward ramp that leads to the water’s edge. Down they slide, giving the plane some movement to start speeding
Quala speaks firmly: “Where’s Kimi?”
The kids run off in a thousand directions, screaming the whole way, finally meeting up with their parents on the other side of the bonfire, Quala follows them. As he appears around the bonfire, Quala runs into the tribes party area, stops, facing the rest of the tribe, and repeats his question.
Q: “WHERE…IIIIZZZZ…KKKIIMMMEEEEE!!!”
The drumming stops, so does the dancing, and everyone stays motionless. No one says a thing, all that can be heard is the crackling of the bonfire next to them.
[back to current time, and Kimi’s loud scream]
The chief, after plugging his ears, notices that the drums had stopped, he stops his advance on Kimi, puts his clothes back on and heads outside.
Chief: “Why have the drums stopped?” He asks one of his lead warriors.
At the same time, Quala studies their dialect and begins to decipher what they are saying by tapping into a linguistic database wirelessly. He has found something close, that he can speak so they can understand. The tribesmen point over to Quala to the surprise of the chief, he sees him standing there, facing him, with his head slightly tilted forward and a very mean upwardly look on his face.
Q: Activates a plume of white smoke from his left paw held upward, and starts a projection out of his right eye of Kimi running, and he starts to speak in their near dialect. “Everyone listen, Kimi must be brought back to me, we mean you no harm, we are not from another invading tribe, but there is danger that we must warn you about, and we must help each other to survive.”
The tribal crowd now stunned, turn to the chief, with a sorrowful look upon his face, motions to a warrior to carefully escort Kimi out to her talking deity.
Chief: Talking to Quala. “We thought you were from another tribe, we too mean you no harm, only our respect.” Even more humbly now. “Are you gods, sent to us from the stars?”
Q: “We are not gods, well, maybe she is, but I’m not, but anyways…” shaking his head. “Kimi is a very special human, and I am her protector built by other humans, somewhere in there I think there may be some hand of god stuff, but I’m still trying to figure that part out.” Stepping closer, and acting more humble himself. “ I am going to show your tribe images and video of what has taken place in the outside world.” He activates recordings of the mass killings in the favela made by other plush toys. “There has been a devastating massive takeover, wiping out what I calculate as being 99% of the humans in our hometown, and seems like many others too. We have escaped, but there is much to do from here, you, the people of the rainforest, are safe here, hidden deep, they have not discovered that you are here.” “We need your help, we must leave here, but first Kimi needs food.”
Kimi: – Running out of the bungalow, “QUALA!”. Tears running down her face. “You’re okay, I missed you so much, they want to do bad things, we must go!”
Quala: Hugging Kimi and not letting go, speaks. “ Stay with me, I will explain what I’m saying to them in just a minute.” Kimi nods, then whispers in Quala’s ear.
Kimi: “They have a Jaguar captive, I think they intend to eat it, Quala, it protected me, like it knew me, and I sort of read it’s thoughts.”
Quala: “My friends of the forest, can you help us with some food and means to get off of this island?” He knows they are on some sort of un mapped island, but he gets a gps reading on there whereabouts.
Chief: “Done! Tonight we shall feast! Tomorrow we will show you the great bird. And Kimi, we do not eat the Jaguar, we worship her, we wanted to study it as to why it protected you young queen, I think I know now why. You two will join me for this feast and I wish to hear more about this recent war.”
–people scatter to start the feast, and rhythmic drumming commences once again –
[Meanwhile]
BRISTOL BENNINGTONS PRIVATE ISLAND
A computer screen displays an alert with red flashes, Quala’s I.D. and GPS location pops up. A technician notices and makes a text to let Bristol know and any attack forces within that area. Strange, it looks as if it is in the ocean, just outside the Amazon basin.
TRIBAL FEAST
The male warriors perform a hunting dance for the chief, Kimi, and Quala, followed by the female’s dancing with a harvesting theme. They all feast and talk, Quala tells the chief all about the takeover that just took place back at their home, along with some rough looking video playback that Quala captured during their escape. Kimi told the chief about needing to find a place called Ha-va-na, and that there may be humans still there.
Tribal Chief: “We can help you in the morning, we’ll take a half days walk to the other side of the island where there is a great bird that can take you to where you need to go. People were brought here by this same bird before, they were taking our trees, burning our land and killing our animals, treating us like savages. They now reside near our ancient ruins with their heads shrunken to warn off any other outsiders. They thought that since we take our wives at a young age, that we must be savage, when in fact, ever since the Spanish ships came and killed most of our people off, we needed to keep our numbers strong and diseases low, so we reproduced quickly. We now have a large tribe, and no diseases or sickness. We know it is not to be condoned forever, but as a survival tactic only when there aren’t many of us left. Now, you must excuse me, it is time…” Kimi and Quala look at each other in question…
The tribal chief closes his eyes, points his head up into the air and yells out (in his own language), “Enough drumming, release the Jaguar!”
He explains to Kimi, who the Jaguar chooses among us is a most respected occurrence, we feel the Jaguar picks a spirit for it’s next offspring and we have done the same for hundreds of years.
A large woven door raises and the glow of the panther’s eyes glow as they move forward out of the dark cage. In strong, confident steps, the big cat walks around the fire, without hesitation walks directly towards Kimi. Quala starts to move in front of her, but the chief stops him quickly. “Let him be”, the chief said.
Kimi : “I feel him, his heart beating, the strength in his legs and paws.” The Black Jaguar moves right in front of Kimi, eye to eye, he moves closer to sniff her hair and face. Everyone is now silent, with the exception of a shaking rattling sound coming from Quala. The Jaguar moves in between Kimi and the chief as it continues to sniff Kimi. At the same time the big cat’s tail slaps the chief in the face and shoulders, then as quickly as it had appeared in the forest, it crouches down and takes a giant leap out into the dense forest behind them.
Tribal Chief: “You have been chosen Kimi, to not have your spirit go with him means he leaves you some of his, very powerful he is. You will take this spiritual energy with you on your journey. I do not know what powers you have over that animal, but nothing I have ever seen can shake the concentration and decisions of a full grown male Jaguar.
December 29th – The Next Morning
THE GREAT BIRD
It’s been half a day, chopping and slicing through dense rain forest, and they finally arrive at their destination, but where is this great bird? Kimi thinks to herself.
The painted tribesmen remove a stack of palm frongs revealing an old distressed twin engine sea plane.
Quala: “Oh it’s a Vought-Sikorsky VS-44 Sea Plane, from the 1940’s! The last ones flew in the 60’s, this one looks to be in pretty bad shape.” Quala hops in it to take a look in the cockpit. “There seems to be enough fuel, whoever flew here before made sure there’s enough to get back to where they came from, and judging by the looks of this flag, Cuba was it’s origin. Kimi, we’re going to Havana! Just hope it starts, and is not too rusted.” Quala then starts calculating the GPS location they’re in with where they are heading, then suddenly Quala gasps, WAIT!” “If I know where we are by GPS, whoever is after us probably does too, in fact ever since I came back on. Kimi, Chief, we’ve got to get out of here quickly.”
They load up bananas, coconuts, fruits, a few parting gifts from the tribe, necklaces, blow darts and blow guns, poison from tree frogs, bows, arrows, and finally, the shrunken heads of the people who arrived on this bird, so their spirits can travel back to their homeland in peace.
Quala downloads the instruction manual to the plane, and maps to Havana, while he checks over the plane for anything wrong.
Quala switches the power on, lights flicker and pop on with a slight burning dusty smoke in the cockpit, he flashes a thumbs up to the tribesmen to turn the propellers and move out of the way. Then, with two great clouds of black heavy smoke, the propellers turn on, spitting fire quickly out the back and with a loud whiiiiiirrrrrrrrr noise, the plane starts up. Quala moves the rudders with the control stick, as the tribesmen help turn the plane towards a downward ramp that leads to the water’s edge. Down they slide, giving the plane some movement to start speeding
