Vic Fast

By Jerry Gill

Vic Challenger visits Australia with friend Lin Li. She is there to meet a Great Aunt and her family,  Then a band of wannabe bushrangers steals a map to a mysterious family treasure.  Vic and Lin go after them.  Along the way, they must deal with the bushrangers, multiple deadly cryptids, harsh nature, and unfriendly wildlif

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ann Darrow Co
• Release date: Feb 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781889823720

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Title Page

The Incredible Adventures of Vic Challenger #5

The Reincarnated Cave Girl

Vic

Fast

by Jerry Gill

Edited by

Keeley Monroy

Ann Darrow Co

Kaneohe, Hawaii

Chapter 1 You Don’t Get Over Being Dead!

As they charged through the high grass toward a stand of trees, Vic shouted to her friend Lin Li. The creature took your sister! If we don’t get to her quick, she’s gone! They jumped the scattered patches of snow where they could, and icy moisture crunched crisply at each footfall.

They breathed hoarsely, and great puffs of steam blew out at every other step. The temperature was below freezing, but both were wet with the sweat of effort for each was weighted with easily 60 pounds in her pack, and they began to lope at 4 a.m. It was now 7 a.m. Yet when Vic yelled the warning, both put on a burst of speed that likely could be matched by no more than a handful of the most elite athletes of their time. Purpose drove them. Cramped muscles, blistered feet, pounding heart, and lungs which screamed out for more air, must all be ignored. When the stakes are life and death, trivial matters like exhaustion and pain cannot - must not - matter!

Just beyond a stand of trees which was now only a collection of cold weather skeletal branches, they caught sight of a body of water which looked to be about forty feet across.

Lin was in the lead and headed directly for the water. Ice lizards! Vic called out. The water is full of ice lizards - but we’ve gotta get across fast!

Her face proclaimed her intense calculation as Lin took a fraction of a second to do a visual survey.

The leather gloves that each wore were stretched taut over their clenched fists, but aside from the sweat, neither showed visible physical strain.

Lin saw what she needed and bolted.

A giant cottonwood stood near the bank, and its main body arched out over the water. The cold weather-bare limbs made it easy to see a rope which dangled from higher branches. Lin lunged up the angled trunk at top speed, and when she was level with the rope, she jumped, stretched, and reached.

The rope was a body length from where Lin launched. She caught it, and the impact and her weight swung her toward the far side of the water. At the same time, she loosened her grip to slide down the rope, but the moves did not take her near enough the shore, so she twisted and hoisted both legs up forcefully. When the pendulous swing brought her back toward that far bank, she again used her legs to reinforce her thrust, and at just the right moment she let go and flew toward the opposite shore.

As Lin splashed down in six inches of water, she heard an ominous growl in the trees! She took one step onto the bank and went down on one knee. A Bowie knife was strapped to the side of her pack and Lin reached over her shoulder for it. She hurled the heavy blade, and it sank deep into the heart of the monster!

Wahoo! yelled Vic as she let go the rope. Vic splashed down just an arm’s reach away and splattered Lin with mud and icy water. As Lin wiped the cold splash from her face, Vic said, Looks like you didn’t need any help on this!

I even managed to stay relatively clean until you dropped in, said Lin. They laughed and helped each other up just as another growl came from the trees.

Vic’s dad, the creator of sound effects for this exercise, came from behind a thick stand of gray, leafless bushes and headed to retrieve the knife. The defeated monster was an odd two-headed creature drawn by Mai and Yana Li on newspaper sheets taped together and tacked to the tree.

John Custer was not a weak man, but he needed to put a foot against the tree and pull with both hands to dislodge the Bowie. Holy smokes! he said as Vic and Lin came over. I hope you never throw one of those at me, girl!

Lin’s eyes got wide, and she shook her head as she replaced the knife in its scabbard. Not likely, Mr. Custer.

Twice a month Vic and Lin did a major drill which incorporated several skills. They would lope or hike or both, do a full out run, scale trees or boulders, employ one or more weapons, swim or wade in waist-deep water and all within a play-like scenario. To make it even tougher, they alternated who would orchestrate the exercise. To the other, it was a surprise. The intention was to condition them to think on their feet and to think fast and to act even faster whether in the heat of a battle or some other dangerous situation they might confront.

Vic planned this day, and for most of the morning, Lin knew only that a monster was reported. Next time Lin would lead and prepare a scenario to push Vic both physically and mentally.

Aren’t you girls tired and sore? You still going to work in the hothouse? Their clothing was soaked with sweat and muddy water. Their hair hung in dripping matted strings. With the pseudo-mission accomplished, even the negligible wind caused them to shiver.

Yeah, Dad, tired and sore, but if it was a real situation, we probably couldn’t just take a bath and nap. Experience has taught us that we can’t predict what we might run into in our travels. So we train as realistically as we can. You can get over tired and sore, but you don’t get over dead.

They drove by Lin’s to pick up her two youngest sisters, Mai and Yana, who were happy to hear their monster served its purpose. Then they went to Vic’s, and they just parked when their friend Emma pulled behind them.

The day was planned. Mai and Yana would help Emma repaint her Lizzy. Every Model T came from the factory black, but Emma liked green so painted her Lizzy half green and every now and then it needed a new coat.

When they returned from their last trip three months earlier, Vic enlarged her hothouse to accommodate more of her hobbies, and so Lin could use a section. While Emma and the girls painted the Lizzy, Vic and Lin would be planting.

Even though they personally endured the bizarre and perilous story behind those plantings, it was sometimes difficult to perceive it as real. At home, life was so filled with recognizable activities that their adventures possessed an almost dream-like quality.

Three days after they arrived back home, they voted for the first time. They were in Mongolia the previous year, the first year women were allowed to vote. This year they voted and felt awed by the experience even though the elections were for local officials only. They were both proud to have that privilege and responsibility. Each promised the other - stay home November 1924, and vote for the president!

They also learned on return that the Mad Baron was gone. That crazed warlord who killed so many in Mongolia and Russia was caught by the Russians. He was tried and hanged on September 21, 1921.

On Christmas Eve, Vic and her dad joined Lin’s family and about fifty others of their congregation to sing carols on the church lawn. A couple hundred people from nearby homes came to listen and enjoy hot apple cider. Christmas Day Vic and her dad enjoyed a time-honored tradition with Lin’s family - they ate too much.

Vic was also forced to deal with the unusual psychological trauma of what Mr. Eddy did to her home while she was away – Vic now owned an indoor toilet. She didn’t go inside it for two weeks, and the outhouse was still intact and used. Slowly, however, Vic was adapting to what she termed dubious progress.

Her sentiment was, if it eases your life, it must inevitably make you soft and weak. She felt a little the same about automobiles, but it was fun to ride in an open Lizzy, and it was a treat to drive Lin’s, so she conceded she would eventually buy one.

Phones were another matter. Vic was sure they would become an intrusion on life and once prophesied to Lin, Someday every kitchen in all 48 states will have a phone on the wall!

On return from the Amazon Vic took a brief trip. Her friend Oliver, O, who headed a secret military unit, provided an address and she took a train to a little town in Ohio to visit a Mrs. Egan. Betty Egan was the widow of Elias, who Vic met in the South American jungles. She informed the woman of her husband’s death, returned his war medals, and presented her with a diamond and emerald which she brought back from that trip. Vic suggested she take her children to visit Europe, saying Elias reclaimed his memory and fought for the stones precisely for that purpose. Vic felt comfortable saying so for Egan took to calling her Miss Channing, his wife’s maiden name, and as he was dying, he wrote the words I’m sorry Betty on a newspaper clipping. Vic knew the value of the two stones would provide a comfortable life and even pay for the children’s university.

Other news elated Vic on return and kept a constant grin on Lin’s face for a good week. Adoption papers were approved and Yana, the little Dine’ girl whom the two rescued from slavers, was officially Yanaha Li, Lin’s new little sister.

The big formal event after their return was the wedding. They were last-minute bridesmaid inductees for the Emma Baker and Clyde Randolph ceremony. Emma accepted responsibility for earlier poor choices, and rather than wait to be fired, she planned to resign her teaching position and find another way to provide for herself and her baby. It didn’t happen, however. After a get-together at Mrs. Baker’s home, Clyde asked Emma to the movies every Friday night and sat with her at church every Sunday morning. It turned out he had a crush on Emma since seventh grade. Not all, but some chapters end well.

In late January, a news piece came into the Sun which sent Vic to her office for reflection. Vic passed through New York many times in recent years and now wondered why, in so many visits, she never took time to at least attempt to meet one of her living heroes. Now she couldn’t. The New York Times headline was succinct. Nellie Bly Dead. Nellie died January 27, 1922.

Vic notified Lin and Emma, and that evening they met other friends at Mortimer’s Drug for root beer floats and to remember Nellie. Vic summed up sentiments when she offered a toast. "To Nellie! An adventurous soul who demonstrated there are no realities as done by men and done by women. All ambitions, all pursuits, are possible for whoever is prepared to take them on."

A topic discussed by Vic and Lin occasionally was whether they most enjoyed travel or home. Their trips were filled with exotic foods, beautiful scenery, and delightful people. Though never sought, thrills and oddities always seemed waiting. Friends and strangers alike were forever eager to learn what did you do. Except for times when death tapped them on the shoulder, they had no complaints. Life in Beatrice, a polar opposite of their travels, was also enjoyable.

Lin often worked ten or twelve hours at the drug store and was never without a smile as she mixed concoctions and talked with customers and still she frequently squeezed in time for her siblings.

Vic’s great pleasures were to share recipes from travels, tend her pepper plants and coffee trees or help her dad feed the pigs like her mother once did, or hunt for rabbits or coyotes with her great wolfhound Terkoz. At the Sun, she still spent time daily in the morgue, browsing world papers, looking for news of Stu James or anything which might send her up another trail if that artist wasn’t Nu.

Vic and Lin agreed about trips and home. Journeys are instructive and enjoyable for life and help you better understand both yourself and the world. Journeys, however, come to an end. Journeys are left in the past. They never wanted to refer to home as once upon a time.

Except for their training, their lives in Beatrice were comparable to other residents. So, with training wrapped up, it was time for chores. While the girls and Emma painted the car in the cold, Vic and Lin worked in the hothouse which was kept comfortable by the sun and smudge pots.

After nearly two hours, Emma, Mai, and Yana came in and stood near a smudge pot to get warm. How’s it going? Lin asked.

Almost done, answered Mai.

Auntie Emma is going to give us a dollar for helping, Yana excitedly added before Mai could stop her.

What? Lin asked.

Sshhhh, Mai nudged Yana.

That’s fifty cents each for two hours, and you’re just kids! Lin said.

No! Yana laughed and ignored Mai’s shooshing. We each get a whole dollar!

Mai rolled her eyes and shook her head, and Lin began, A dollar each…

They are worth it, Emma nodded at the girls. The job is going three times faster, and they follow instructions perfectly. My Lizzy looks like she was painted at the factory.

Lin finally went back to work, and she and Vic and Emma talked about their lives while Yana and Mai talked about school and how to spend their dollar. Somewhere in the conversation, one mentioned a girl named Joanie, and they both moaned. For a couple of minutes, they made derogatory assertions about the girl and said how they hoped she wouldn’t be at church tomorrow.

Lin finally threw down her trowel and stormed over to them. Who are you talking about? Are you hanging out with a bad person?

The two little ones assured Lin they were not. Then why are you talking about her like that? How old is she? How do you know her? What did she do? The questions came so fast the girls couldn’t answer immediately. Mai finally replied that Joanie was in first grade with Yana and her family recently moved in a few houses down the street. Both girls swore to Lin they didn’t do anything bad. They just avoided Joanie and told her they were busy when she asked to play with them.

Lin was already furious, but it doubled when she questioned why they didn’t want to play with Joanie. Mai answered, They came from Ireland, and she is just sort of odd, and just talks funny and her hair is really red, and she has lots of freckles. We just don’t like her.

No! Lin snapped. That is wrong!

The girls clung to one another and looked about ready to cry. If she isn’t bad and just wants to play… Lin looked like she might explode. At age seven, she began to help watch over siblings, and she took the responsibility seriously. Vic was witness to how upset Lin could become if she disapproved of a younger sibling’s behavior, and just now recalled a time from years past and thought it might help.

So Vic butted in.

Maybe it would be useful if they hear a story, said Vic. You never heard how Lin and I met, have you?

Vic, You don’t need to tell that.

I don’t mind. It might be good. Do you girls want to hear how Lin and Emma and I met?

Yeah! They both shouted and sat down on a bench near Vic, probably more eager to avoid the wrath of their sister than to hear a story.

Until then, Emma stood quietly, but now said, illustrating the impeccable timing that helped make her an excellent teacher, You have chocolate, don’t you Vic? I’ll make us all some hot chocolate while you tell the story.

Vic halted a moment and just looked