THE MARVEL KNIGHTS GROUP
PROUDLY PRESENTS...

BOOK ONE; CHAPTER #1 written by Derrick Ferguson

"So Savage, This Land..."

The relentless tropical heat of the midday sun beat down on the impossibly lush and green plain that appeared to stretch on for miles and miles and miles with no end. Somewhere off in the far distance there was a trumpeting that sounded as if it could be elephants but there was a far more primeval pitch to the trumpeting. A gorgeous green and gold dragonfly lazily flew low over the green plain. It was on no particular business and like most life forms of Earth it spent most of its days and night in the pursuit of sustenance. Its compound eyes spied a large form sprawled on a group of flat rocks in the middle of the green plain. Thinking that this might be food, the dragonfly swooped down for a closer look.

The huge tawny body that was sunning itself on the warm flat rock stirred, disturbed by the annoyingly loud buzzing of the dragonfly. The tawny form lifted a monstrous paw that was as wide as a New York City manhole cover and lazily swung it at the dragonfly to warn it off. Since the dragonfly was twice the size of an American bald eagle, it did not worry overmuch about the paw and easily dodged out of the way. But this was obviously not food and so the dragonfly continued on its way.

Zabu rolled over and slothfully got to his four feet, shaking all over. His nap interrupted he was now listening to the grumbling in his belly that urged him to find a nice fat wild boar or giant deer for lunch. Zabu was a magnificent specimen of saber-tooth tiger. Twice the size of a lion he was five hundred pounds of pure muscle unmatched in speed and power. The curving fangs protruding from his upper jaw were seven inches long and devastating in combat. His sleek body was covered with silky golden brown fur and his large green eyes sparkled with an unusual intelligence. Even here in The Savage Land where prehistoric dinosaurs and many forms of life that were extinct on the rest of the planet roamed freely, Zabu was exceptional. For he was the last of his kind. He shared kinship with only one other being...a human that Zabu thought of as a two-legged brother.

Zabu leaped from the flat rock and began his hunting pattern when something caught the attention of his sensitive hearing. The huge head of the saber-tooth tiger lifted and his ears twitched, twisting this way and that like radar dishes until locating the source of the sound. Zabu had lived in The Savage Land since he was a cub and all of the sounds of the prehistoric world were intimately familiar to him. This was a sound he associated with the strange and baffling world he sometimes journeyed to with his human brother. A world of steel and oil and concrete. This was the sound of technology.

Zabu was a blur of motion as his powerful legs propelled him over the lush grasses, eating up distance with a frightening swiftness. When he ran flat out there was virtually no living thing in the whole of The Savage Land that could keep up with him and Zabu was able to cover an amazing amount of ground in no time at all. Using his ears he pinpointed where the sound was coming from. And now he was hearing other sounds; the terrified shrieks of animals and dinosaurs as the denizens of The Savage Land were trying to escape from whatever was making that noise. Zabu increased his speed, a dangerous growl bubbling in his throat. Zabu and his human brother were the protectors of The Savage Land. Any danger to the inhabitants of this lost world must be investigated swiftly.

Zabu galloped up the crest of a steep hill and suddenly stopped so quickly that his three-inch long claws ripped up huge clods of grass. Coming over the top of the hill and thundering right down at him was a frightened herd of parasaurolopus. An eerie whistling noise emanating from the horn shaped crests on top of their narrow heads. But that wasn’t the sound that had caught Zabu’s attention. He knew that particular sound made by the parasaurolopus. It was the sound they made when they wanted to warn the other members of the herd to flee. And so they were. Two hundred of them were stampeding right at Zabu. They were titanic beasts, so large and heavy that any one of them could have taken the charge of a mad bull elephant without so much as a quiver. And there were more than enough of them turn Zabu into paste with their mad charge.

With no hesitation, Zabu leaped upwards, arcing high over the herd of parasaurolopus. He touched on the broad back of one of them and almost immediately sprang upwards again, leaping from one back to another. The shrill whistling of the panicked beasts, the rhythmic thumping of their feet and the clouds of choking dust filled Zabu’s senses as he unerringly leaped from back to back until he cleared the herd and with a final bound, landed on the top of the hill. He turned his head to watch the herd continue their stampede. So frightened were they that they had taken no notice of Zabu whatsoever.

Zabu turned his head in the direction from which they had come and his green eyes opened wide and a roar of surprise burst from his mouth.

A shimmering curtain of green energy, shot through with yellow sparkles roughly four hundred feet wide was slowly making its way across the field on the other side of the hill. And as it moved, everything in its path simply disappeared. Zabu roared again. Yes, this was the technology of that other world. And that meant that Zabu needed to alert his human brother. The huge tiger turned and ran back down the hill as the shimmering curtain continued on. It left nothing in its wake except bare brown earth. Every insect, every blade of grass, everything in its path vanished. It moved upwards to the top of the hill.

And then it abruptly faded from existence.

But Zabu did not see this. So quickly did he run that the saber-tooth tiger was already a quarter of a mile away when the shimmering curtain of light disappeared. Zabu had already cleared the plain and had plunged into the dense forest that covered much of The Savage Land. To anyone from the outside world the forest would have appeared to be almost a solid wall of foliage with no way to get in, much less navigate with ease. But Zabu knew The Savage Land as few of its inhabitants did and he ran through the forest at top speed, twisting and turning with unnerving agility. He burst into a clearing in which three wide trails extended. The trails were dirt roads but they seemed as if they had been deliberately cut through the jungle. Which indeed they had.

Zabu took the middle trail and continued on his way. Tantalizing scents of fresh game were stuffing his nostrils with wonderful odors but the tiger was on a mission now and his belly would have to wait. Zabu rounded a sharp curve in the trail and stopped suddenly. Another predator of The Savage Land was also using the trail to more easily navigate his way through the jungle as he looked for his noonday meal. This one was fifteen feet tall, possessing a hideously full set of needle sharp teeth in the wide mouth of its massive skull. It stood on tremendously strong hind legs and even though it weighed seven or eight tons it was plainly built for speed. The Tyrannosaurus Rex looked down at the saber tooth tiger and its eyes glittered with expectation. Here was a snack the Tyrannosaurus Rex hadn’t expected to encounter.

Warily the two animals circled each other. Both were supremely designed for hunting and killing. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was drooling in anticipation of hot cat meat sliding down his throat. The thunder lizard took one booming step forward.

And Zabu roared.

Long-armed homunculus gibbered and swung away as fast as they could through the trees. Titan hawks took flight from their roosts in huge swarms that filled the sky with the rustle of their wings that drowned out the crashing of triceratops herds as they speedily made their way out of the vicinity. They all knew that particular roar. It was the roar Zabu gave voice to when he intended to kill.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex knew that roar as well. He’d heard it many times. His brain was small but not that small. He’d lived long enough to know that roar and he dimly remembered coming across the carcasses of his brothers and sisters who had been foolish enough to ignore that roar.

The tail of the Tyrannosaurus Rex whipped around so quickly and violently that it ruffled Zabu’s fur as the thunder lizard turned and stomped off. There was other, safer game to hunt this day.

Zabu continued on his way.

Zabu burst from the jungle into a tremendous clearing and spied his objective directly ahead. Although he had been running flat out for at least thirty minutes he showed no signs of fatigue. Zabu could keep running much longer if he had to. The structure before him would have seemed surrealistic to a human being: a magnificent English castle in the middle of nearly four hundred acres of carefully cleared and cultivated land. There were actually two fully staffed and working farms flanking the castle. In back of the castle was a beautiful park complete with gardens and beautiful avenues of gorgeously lush imported trees. There was even a cricket field but that was more for show than anything else since the inhabitants of the castle rarely had much free time to indulge in the sport. The castle was an exact replica of Plunder Hall, the ancestral home of The Plunder family. The current holder of the title of Lord Plunder had not wished to have the original brought over and reconstructed here, as had been suggested. The bones of generations of Plunders were interred in basement tombs and he did not want them disturbed.

As Zabu approached, sophisticated sensors detected and identified him. The defensive systems were among the most sophisticated in the world, having been developed and installed by Wakandan technologists. They identified Zabu as a friend and as the tiger galloped up the wide stone steps to the main entrance, the massive door swung open on it’s own to admit him.

Zabu tore through the entrance hall, startling several members of the house staff who should really have been used to this sort of thing by now, seeing as how they had worked here for several months. Zabu bounded up the gothic stone staircase and paused at the top of the stairs, turning his head this way and that to locate the most recent trail of his human brother. He growled softly as he locked onto the scent and trotted down a long hallway decorated with weapons and armor, including the legendary armor that Rupert Plunder had worn when he fought at the side of Richard The Lionheart.

Zabu made his way to The South Wing that held, among other things, a secure communications room by which the master of the castle could contact virtually any spot on the globe in seconds. Zabu nudged the door open and quietly walked inside. He came up behind the tall man who stood in front of a 100 inch wide holographic communication screen and gently wormed his massive head under the arm of the tall man.

Ka-Zar looked down and smiled lovingly at the saber-tooth tiger. “Hey, boy! Where you been hiding all day? I missed you.” He affectionately scratched Zabu behind his ears. And Zabu responded as all cats do…even cats who are five hundred pounds and can kill an army of lions without working up a sweat: he purred.

Ka-Zar was as impressive a human as Zabu was a tiger. Six foot two of bronzed muscle with a wild shock of golden hair that was as wild and unruly as anything else in The Savage Land. In recent years he had traded in the simple tiger skin loincloth for black spandex trunks and calf-high hunting boots with thick traction soles. The fingerless black skintight gloves that covered his hands and forearms were more of an affectation than anything else since he thought they looked pretty cool.

The gorgeous red-headed woman on the screen smiled as she said; “How’s our kitty doing, Kevin?”

“Probably out chasing gazelles, if I know him.” Ka-Zar continued to scratch as he got back down to business. It was slightly more risky than Ka-Zar’s off-hand remark implied, considering that in The Savage Land the gazelles were fourteen feet tall with razor sharp horns and hooves that could easily pulverize bone with a single kick. “So you were saying that your meetings at The United Nations weren’t going so well?”

Shanna O’Hara Plunder, the wife of Ka-Zar who sometimes went by the name of Shanna The She-Devil shook her head in aggravation. “I’ve never seen such a bureaucratic mess, Kevin. The General Assembly is split down the middle as far as recognizing The Savage Land: half wants nothing to do with it while the other half are more interested in negotiating mining and agricultural rights with you more than anything else.”

“But they will recognize my sovereignty of The Savage Land, won’t they?”

“They don’t dispute that you own The Savage Land. Your dad was either a genius in international real estate law or he had a superbly kickass team of lawyers. And The Savage Land has been recognized as a sovereign kingdom for some time now. But as for you actually being recognized as its sovereign monarch…well, that’s a whole other kettle of coelacanth.”

“I don’t see what the problem is.”

“The problem is that the outside world is desperate for resources and The Savage Land is virtually untapped. Current projections indicate that in 40 years world oil supplies will be exhausted. The Savage Land has vast petroleum deposits that would greatly alleviate that problem. And let’s not talk about the mineral resources as well…conventional ones like coal, uranium, magnesium, tin, iron ore and unconventional ones like-“

“-Vibranium.”

“You got that right. It hasn’t been said outright but some word has gotten back to me that many members of The General Assembly think that the resources of The Savage Land are too vast and too valuable to be under the rule of one man. If The UN recognizes your sole sovereignty then that complicates the situation. Right now you’re little more than a glorified land baron. Recognizing you as a head of state…that’s something else entirely.”

“I betcha Namor doesn’t have to go through this bull,” Ka-Zar grumbled.

“That’s because whenever The UN does something Namor doesn’t like he just invades New York and scares the shit out of them until they give in. Get yourself an armada, baby, and follow his example.”

Ka-Zar laughed uproariously. “I think I’ll let my money and my lawyers do the fighting for me.”

“Kevin, you really should have someone here who’s an expert in diplomacy handling this. I was a vet before I started hanging out in the trees. These are waters I’m most definitely not familiar with.”

“But I trust you more than I trust anybody else, Shanna. You’re doing a fine job. Much better than I ever did when I tried talking to The Secretary General or The Assembly. You just keep on doing what you’re doing.”

Shanna leaned forward and her voice dropped slightly as she said; “You know…you could take Doom’s advice and-“

“Taking advice from Victor Von Doom is worse than taking advice from Satan himself. No, I’ll solve my problems in my own way.” Ka-Zar looked around at Zabu who was now by the door, growling impatiently. The two of them had been together for so long that Ka-Zar could interpret the tiger’s body language and vocal inflections as well as if the animal spoke English. “What’s wrong, Zabu?”

Zabu tossed his head. A gesture that clearly and plainly said: Let’s go and I’ll show you.

Shanna was waving a hand. “Go on ahead and play with your cat, big boy. I’ve got a lunch date with Sue Richards and Janet Van Dyne anyway. I’ll call you tonight. Love you.”

“Love you, too. Give Matt a kiss for me and tell him I’ll see him soon.” The communications screen went black and Ka-Zar gave his full attention to the tiger. “You’ve been doing something interesting today, haven’t you? Something you want to show me? C’mon, then!” Ka-Zar paused only long enough to grab up a belt made from T-Rex skin from which hung a scabbard also made from T-Rex hide. The hunting knife sheathed in the scabbard had been especially made for Ka-Zar. The blade alone was a foot in length with the handle constructed of laminated hardwood with stainless steel guards. A small amount of vibranium had been added to the steel of the blade which gave the whole knife an unusual resiliency and strength. A shepherd’s sling and a length of nylon rope also hung from the belt that went around his waist as he followed Zabu out of the room and down the staircase. But where Zabu charged down the steps, Ka-Zar slid down the wide banister, his unruly hair flying and a bubbling laugh filling the hall.

He leaped from the banister, over the heads of several of the house staff, shouting down to them; “Tell the cook to keep my dinner warm!” And then he was out the door, easily keeping pace with Zabu as the two crossed the clearing in record time and disappeared into the dense jungle.

“This is not good at all,” Ka-Zar muttered. He bent down and picked up the gray ashy earth and rubbed it between his sensitive fingertips, brought it up close to his nose.

Zabu had brought him back to the vast plain that had been scoured by the energy curtain. Ka-Zar had bent down and for the past five minutes had just picked up the earth, feeling and smelling it. It looked like he was doing nothing but playing with the dirt. The truth of the matter was that his nose, eyes and fingers were telling him far more than one of Reed Richards’ micromolecular analyzers could have.

To most ordinary Joe and Jane Punchclocks, dirt was…well, dirt. But farmers, gardeners and anybody else who made their living or derived pleasure from working with the ground knew different. In a single handful of rich black earth there was an entire universe of life. Indeed, even the actual earth itself was alive. It had to be to sustain microorganisms, worms, insects, spores, bacteria and the other billion forms of life that existed in the ground.

But this earth…all life had been completely sucked out of it. Even the ground was lifeless. Every iota of life had been withdrawn with a callous ease that terrified Ka-Zar. He brushed off his hands and stood up. Zabu was some five hundred feet away, sniffing around, trying to pick up the scent of the energy curtain. Of course he had no way to tell Ka-Zar what had caused this but he was intelligent enough to reason that if the strange thing had a scent he could lead his human brother to it.

Ka-Zar wondered what or more importantly who could have done this? Sauron? No…he was still in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. They would have alerted Ka-Zar at once if he had escaped. Garokk? The Petrified Man had demonstrated the ability to manipulate matter on the sub-atomic level. And even though Ka-Zar had seen him die that meant nothing. Garokk had died and come back to life more times than Ka-Zar liked to think about. Zaladane? No…this wasn’t her style at all. Magneto? No…Magneto had so many secret bases and laboratories in The Savage Land he was almost as much of a resident there as Ka-Zar himself. In fact, if Magneto had been in The Savage Land he himself would be after whoever had done this. But The Master of Magnetism hadn’t been seen in The Savage Land for some time now.

The heads of both man and tiger whipped up and around at the same time. They had both heard the faint screams coming from the south at almost the same time. And almost as one they began running. Zabu, of course was faster and easily pulling out in the lead. But astoundingly, Ka-Zar was not that far behind. He ran low to the ground, so low that to an observer it would have appeared that he was almost sliding on the ground.

The screams were getting louder…Ka-Zar identified them as male and female…three…no…six separate voices...three men and three women. And there were other sounds as well. Sounds that Ka-Zar recognized with a horrified realization that no matter how swiftly he and Zabu ran, they would probably still be too late.

They ran into a small camp that was now a scene of outright terror. Several bodies were on the ground, being torn to bloody, ragged ribbons by the eager beaks of velociraptor. A small hunting pack of young raptors, yes. But they had made swift work of the humans who were obviously unprepared for the hideously aggressive beasts. One Asian man was still on his feet, desperately swinging a length of wood in his hand at a raptor, half his scalp torn from his head and he was trying to see through the torrent of blood poring down his face. One woman was running at top speed away from the camp, two raptors in hot pursuit. Her back had been slashed so badly that Ka-Zar could plainly see the white of her bones. God alone only knew where she was finding the strength to run.

Ka-Zar drew his hunting knife and years of acquired civilization fell away just like that and what was left in its place was a creature of The Savage Land, as dangerous and as deadly a killer as the raptors themselves. A cry of challenge burst from Ka-Zar’s lips as he sprang across the clearing, one brawny arm wrapping around the long neck of the raptor attacking the Asian man. The raptor squawked in surprise. So lost in a primal orgasm of blood lust that it had no idea of what was happening to it. Ka-Zar buried his knife up to the hilt in the raptor’s brain and by the time they both hit the ground, the raptor was dead.

Zabu charged after the two raptors chasing the woman. They had caught her and arterial blood was misting the hot air in a fine crimson spray that glittered in the rays of the bright afternoon sun as the raptors greedily ripped her to bits. Zabu slammed into the two raptors with such force that one of them died instantly, it’s internal organs pulped. The other lived long enough to see two gleaming fangs descending upon its head.

Ka-Zar rolled out of the way as a raptor broke off from tearing at the bodies on the ground and came at him, the vicious two-inch long bone spurs on it’s clawed feet whistling through the air as it sought to disembowel Ka-Zar.

Ka-Zar whipped backwards, getting his torso out of the way of the first slashing attack and as the raptor’s other leg came around to try and slice his throat, Ka-Zar’s hunting knife sliced cleanly through the leg, taking off the foot. The raptor squealed in pain and toppled over on its side. Ka-Zar brought the raptor’s own foot down, slamming the bone spur into it’s former owner’s eye.

The Asian man was staggering toward the bodies of his companions. He couldn’t have known which way he was going due to the amount of blood pouring down his face. But he caught the attention of one of the two remaining raptors who was crazed with the smell of so much fresh blood and covered an amazing twenty feet in one spectacular bound and came right down on the back of the Asian man. Bones snapped and popped like breadsticks. The sounds were nothing compared to the shriek that burst from the lips of the Asian as the raptor drove his beak like a dagger right into the man’s back. There was a ripping and rending of muscle and sinew and the raptor’s head came up with the Asian’s still beating heart in its beak.

Then Zabu hit the raptor in a near full speed charge and the creature literally came apart from the incredible impact. The final raptor was in full flight, rapidly running away to the north. Zabu started after it but Ka-Zar growled a negative. The raptor had only followed the dictates of its nature. If it was willing to call it a day then so was Ka-Zar. He took a deep breath and allowed the bloodlust to subside. Even after all these years it took him a few seconds to close the door on that part of his soul that was so much a child of this Savage Land. For many years he’d lived here, killing as freely and as ruthlessly as the raptors had. In many ways he understood the raptors more than he ever would understand the humans of the outside world. It had been many years since he’d come into his inheritance as Lord Kevin Plunder and become ‘civilized’. But Ka-Zar knew that his civilized veneer was just as much a mask as his friends Spider-Man or Daredevil wore. Underneath the civilized mask of Lord Kevin Plunder he was truly Ka-Zar, Lord of The Savage Land.

Ka-Zar turned to inspect the shambles of the camp as the air was filled with the crunching of velociraptor bones as Zabu finally had lunch. As a rule, the saber-tooth tiger didn’t like raptor meat. But he was too hungry to be choosy. Ka-Zar’s practiced eye swept over the shattered remains of the dome tents, complete with air-conditioning units, sophisticated communications setups, GPS locator arrays…whoever these people had been; they had been here for some time. Five days or more. And they had deep pockets. He could see state of the art surveying equipment, the latest in digital cameras and recording devices.

Ka-Zar heard a rustling and whirled around, his knife at the ready. But it was not a raptor. Something was stirring under the nylon fabric of one of the tents lying on the ground. Ka-Zar walked over, Zabu at his side. The tiger had left his lunch as soon as he heard the noise and joined Ka-Zar.

Ka-Zar yanked the fabric back to reveal a girl, black, in her early to mid-twenties. Her brown eyes were rather small and a mean person would have gone so far as to call them beady. Her hair was very curly and very short. She had a good height and narrow build on her. She looked up at the tall, blood-spattered man with the huge hunting knife in his hand. Her eyes opened wide at seeing the knife was crushed with drying blood from tip to hilt. Her eyes went to the saber-tooth tiger licking blood from his curving fangs.

“I am Ka-Zar. And I sincerely hope you have a damn good explanation for what you and your friends were doing here.”

The girl fainted.

Ka-Zar sighed. “Oh, nice.”

Ka-Zar’s sensitive hearing noticed the change in the girl’s breathing that meant that she was waking up. He finished what he was doing and walked over to where she was lying in the shade. Ka-Zar sat down cross-legged next to her. But not too close as he didn’t want her to think he was going to pounce on her as soon as she moved. Her eyes slowly opened. She seemed as if she was awakening from a pleasant dream. And then she remembered where she was and she sat straight up. She stared at Ka-Zar in horror and screamed: “Abby! Donald! HELP ME!”

Ka-Zar pointed. A row of bodies, neatly wrapped in nylon met the girl’s horrified gaze. “Your friends were all killed by the raptors. I’m sorry.”

The girl shook her head as if trying to clear it. “That’s right…I was in the tent…I was looking through a box of data chips when they attacked. I heard the screams…peeked through the flap and saw Donald and the others….they were being ripped apart…Smitty yelled at me to stay inside the tent and not to come out…but I had to watch. And then, one of the raptors ran right over the tent, knocking it down…it fell in on me…” the girl looked at Ka-Zar as if really seeing him for the first time. “You’re Ka-Zar!”

“And you are…?”

“Rosalind Ratliff. I’m studying Environmental Management at Miskatonic University.”

“Miss Ratliff, just exactly what were you and your friends doing here?”

“We’re members of an environmental activist group called E.A.R.T.H. It stands for Environmental Advocacy Response Team.”

Ka-Zar looked puzzled. “So what does the H stand for?”

Rosalind Ratliff suddenly looked uncomfortable and muttered something under her breath. Something Ka-Zar couldn’t quite make out.

“What was that? What did you say?”

“The H doesn’t stand for anything.”

“Then why name your group E.A.R.T.H. when only four of the letters stand for something?”

“Because Gregory said that the symbolism of the name was more important than anything else!” Rosalind snapped. “And he’s right!”

Ka-Zar passed over a bottle of water. “I see. And Gregory is…?”

Rosalind accepted it gratefully and guzzled half the contents before answering. “Gregory Dunville The III. He’s the founder and leader of E.A.R.T.H. He’s a great man who has a vision for environmental activism.”

Ka-Zar gestured at the row of bodies. “Which one of those is his?”

“None. Gregory never comes out into the field. He’s got too much work to do in New York.”

“So he sends you to The Savage Land to get chomped on by raptors while he stays in New York safe and sound?”

“It’s not like that at all! Gregory has important work he’s doing!” Rosalind’s eyes were fiery with righteous indignation. “Such as speaking at the United Nations, trying to make sure that you don’t betray the last untouched paradise on the planet!”

Ka-Zar’s puzzled look was becoming even more puzzled. “What are you talking about?”

“That we know what’s going on! About your secret deal with The U.N.! They’re going to recognize you as being king of The Savage Land and in return you’re going to give over mining and oil drilling rights to three of the biggest rapists of the Earth in existence!”

Ka-Zar smiled. The poor girl was working herself into more of a frenzy over this than over the death of her friends. “And where did you hear about this ‘deal’ of mine?”

“You don’t dare deny it!”

“Of course I do. Miss Ratliff, I don’t know whether you’re aware of this fact or not, but I already own The Savage Land and much of Pangea, the continent surrounding it. The only man on Earth who can lay claim to more real estate than me is The Sub-Mariner. I can sell as much of my land as I please and I could have done it years ago. I don’t need The U.N.’s recognition of my right to rule for that.”

Rosalind looked both confused and suspicious. “Ka-Zar-“

“Suppose you try ‘Lord Plunder’ instead. It may help to remind you to whom you’re talking to.”

“I see. Now is the time for you to drag out your title and wave it in front of my face to show how you’re better than me. I suppose you’ll be telling me to call you “massa” or “bwana” next.”

“Where did you buy your set, miss? You and your friends come traipsing around on my land without my invitation. A land that has more ways to kill a human being per square foot than any other place else on the planet and then you sling around unfounded accusations and treat me with disrespect I wouldn’t take from anybody up to and including Thanos.” Ka-Zar got to his feet, his anger rising as he stabbed a finger at the row of bodies. “Not to mention that now I’M responsible for seeing that these bodies are properly returned to their loved ones and restitution on some level is made.”

“Money can’t fix everything, ‘Lord’ Plunder.”

“Don’t I know it.”

A far off roar that Ka-Zar reacted to with such urgency interrupted them and Rosalind scrambled to her feet in alarm. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s Zabu. There’s something he wants me to come see right away. You feel up to traveling?”

“Why? Where are we going?”

“To see what he wants me to see of course. But I can’t leave you here by yourself. My staff is coming to pick up the bodies but it’ll be another hour or so before they get here.”

“But won’t animals try to get at the bodies?”

“I’ve taken precautions against that,” Ka-Zar insisted and left it at that. He didn’t think she would appreciate hearing that Ka-Zar had had Zabu urinate on the nylon wrappings around the corpses. The scent of Zabu’s spoor was more than enough to warn off 95% of the predators and scavengers inhabiting The Savage Land.

He motioned for Rosalind to climb on board his broad, muscular back. “Hop on.”

“Aren’t we going to walk there?”

“Zabu’s about three miles away. We’ve got to move quickly and fast and I can do it better this way. Now, c’mon and get on!”

Rosalind scrambled on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

“Now whatever happens, hang ON.” Ka-Zar ordered.

He scrambled up the nearest tree so quickly that tears streamed from Rosalind’s eyes. He held onto to no branches or vines but shimmied up the thick bole of the tree like a monkey. Once in the upper levels of the tree, Ka-Zar ran along branches that were barely wider than his booted feet. Rosalind couldn’t even scream but her heart was thumbing so hard she felt it was trying to burst out of her rib cage.

Ka-Zar flung himself out into thin air, tumbling through the air over and over and now Rosalind did scream. Amazingly, Ka-Zar was laughing. He landed on a thick branch that bent like rubber and then firmly bounced back, flinging The Lord of The Savage Land and his passenger back up into the air in a soaring arc. It looked to Rosalind as if they were heading right into a sold tangle of leaves, branches and vines but Ka-Zar was twisting his body in such a way that they sailed through the tangle as if it weren’t there.

He reached out his gloves hands and seized hold of a vine and then swung in a dizzying curve. Rosalind made the mistake of looking down and her bowels turned to cold mud. She couldn’t even see the jungle floor anymore.

Ka-Zar let go of the vine and was whizzing through the air as if he could fly. There was nothing but the rustle of the leaves and the humming of the wind and a shaft of bright sunlight that haloed Ka-Zar and his passenger.

Ka-Zar reached the end of his arc and was plummeting toward the jungle floor, arms outstretched as they picked up speed rapidly. His arms went out and he seized a branch, twirled around it twice like an Olympic gymnast on a high bar and came to rest on top of the branch. He paused a few seconds to get his bearings and then dropped forty feet to a thicker branch, one big enough for Rosalind to sit down after she shakily slid from his back. She was trembling and sweating all over and she retched miserably as the contents of her stomach came up and out.

Ka-Zar didn’t have much sympathy for her. There was going to be hell of Biblical proportions to pay behind this business. Civilians being killed in The Savage Land was going to have repercussions that Ka-Zar could ill afford at this critical time during the negotiations between himself and The United Nations. Shanna was going to have be notified of this as soon as possible and start the legal machine going. As much as he hated to even think about it, Ka-Zar had to admit that perhaps it would be worth it to quietly contact the families and simply hand them blank checks in return for signed and notarized non-disclosure statements.

Zabu was running toward the tree Ka-Zar and Rosalind perched in. Spying his human brother he again let out with a tremendous roar. This one of warning. Ka-Zar looked in the direction Zabu had come from.

A shimmering, sparkling curtain of emerald energy highlighted with swirling yellow cascades was cutting a path through the jungle. It swallowed the thigh high grass, the magnificently huge trees and anything in its path too slow to get out of the way. It was some five hundred feet wide and high and it was moving damn fast. Anything and everything in it’s way simply disappeared.

“Lying bastard!” Rosalind banged both her fists on Ka-Zar’s broad back. She might as well have been beating on a concrete wall for all the effect she was having but Ka-Zar didn’t want her to slip and fall off the branch so he reached out a hand and gripped her by her left wrist. She continued to struggle and punch at him with the other hand.

“Have you gone totally crazy? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“No mining in The Savage Land, right? Then what the hell do you call that?” Rosalind’s free hand pointed at the shimmering green curtain that was coming right for them.

“Are you really this stupid? Does that look like any kind of mining technique you’ve ever seen or heard of?”

“You’re a lying sack of shit!” Rosalind suddenly thrust against Ka-Zar, taking him by surprise and they both tumbled off of the branch, falling to the jungle floor. Ka-Zar rolled over and saw to his dismay that there was simply no time.

The green curtain of energy engulfed Ka-Zar and Rosalind Ratliff. And then they were gone.

Zabu roared in frustrated rage at seeing his human brother swallowed up. Without hesitation the saber tooth tiger ran and leaped right into the green energy curtain. And then he was gone as well.

The green curtain of energy vanished.

And the hot humid air of The Savage Land was unnaturally quiet and still.

To Be Continued…???