Lucilla--NaNoWriMo2014

Chapter Nine

Mark and Lucliia moved east in the direction of Algiers while the bombardment near Carthage was continuing.  Once the danger to the Germans was over, they would begin searching for those who had transmitted their coordinates and messages to Allied Headquarters.

For the moment Mark and Lucilla were safe to look for shelter for the rest of the day and to wait for nightfall to begin their travels back into friendly territory.

At length they found piles of drift wood and took out their folding shovels in order to dig out a shelter from the winds and deep enough to protect them from enemy fire.  Althought they were well armed with submachine guns, pistols, and commando knives, they wanted to avoid a fight at all costs.

So Mark looked at his water-proof watch while Lucilla gave him a lustful smile.

"Mark, you do not want to sleep with me one last time--in event it could be my last chance to make love to you again?"

"Oh, you're lovely, but our survival depends on our being able to move at a moment's notice.  If we are joyfully loined together when someone finds, it will indeed be our last earthy act."

Lucilla did not see what the fuss was about, but she accepted Mark's wisdom.  After all, he had saved her life in more ways than one.

"Mark, when my father Marcus Aurelius ruled, things were peaceful in this part of the world."  She sat back but still pressed him for an answer.  "As I looked around at the sheer numbers of soldiers and military equipment, they are far more than the numbers of Legions that my father or even Caesar needed in order to bring about peace in this part of the world.  What happened, Mark?"

"Are you familiar with what we call the Balance of Power, Lucy?"

"Is it a way of keeping peace, like our Pax Romana?"

"Yes, Lucy.  For years one nation in Europe would become build up a strong military.  What do you think if they were to become so strong that they became a threat to other peoples?"

"I think that your kings and emperors would join together, exchange hostages, give their princely daughters in marriage, make treaties?"

"That is what happened for centuries.  There were wars in the areas of the world that were not orgnized into strong kingdoms.  Then something happened in 1914, almost thirty years ago."

"A horrific war, worse than Spartucus's Slave Rebellion two hundred years before I was born?"

"Something like that.  I have studied the Roman Legions in battle.  Caesar's War Commentaries, Lucilla."

"So have I," she said.

"We had a war between the Gauls and Britons, and against the Germans.  When you add soldiers from our countiy, there were more soldiers killed in battles than the entire nine years that Caesar's Legions put to the sword in Gaul.  The war lasted for years."

"Mark, did the Gauls, French, and others become too afraid of war?"

"Yes, but they so humiliated the Germans that they vowed revenge.  When the Germans began to build up their forces, they did nothing to stop them.  The war had killed millions of young men.  So many that nobody almost wanted to fight another war."

"So the Germans and Italians got stronger, but nobody wanted to stand up to them?"

"By the time they realized what was going on, they were too weak for the Germans."

"My father would never have allowed an enemy to become too strong.  Once he heard that an enemy was threatening our empire, he would send his Legions to put an end to their dreams of conquest."

"So for three years the Germans and Italians in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific have had things their way until the rest of the world was catching its breath."

"So now you are beginning to win?  It's a Pyrric Victory, isn't it, Mark?"

"Wow, Lucilla, you really do know your history.  There is more I would like to share with you, but there is not time now."  Mark leaned back.  "I suggest that we take turns sleeping during the rest of the day because we will need our strength.  I will eat my K-Rations while you sleep for a while."

An hour later Mark woke Lucilla.

"Germans are coming! Be ready to fight."

Their tracked vehicle slowed as they looked toward their shelter and back toward the sea.  But instead of contniue their search, they stopped their vehicle.  They then took out bottles of Schnops and Salami Sandwiches so strong that Mark and Lucilla could smell them.  They joked and turned on a broadcast radio.  They switched to America's Armed Forces Radio Network.  It was playing Swing Music, which apparently was popular among the Germans.

Then the Germans tossed their expended bottles and trash in the sand and continued to drive West.

Once rested, Mark and Lucilla proceeded to a fishing village along the shore.  it was late at night, when they came among some fishing boats equipped with sails.  Finding one secured with a steel cable, Mark took out wire cutters and worked until he was able to free the boat.

Once they were out into the harbor, Lucilla said, "Mark, the wind is blowing east, not west.  How can you manage this boat because we have no rowers to make it travel west?"

"That is one thing I forgot to tell you, Lucy.  Since your galleys traveled back and forth from Iberia to Byzantium, we have learned to sail ships against the wind.  We call it tacking."

"Amazing, Mark."

"We will have to zig zag along the coast, but we can make enough miles to get us into friendly territory."

So Lucilla leaned against Mark for part of the night as he switched the boats boom to the left and then the right.  For hours they went until there was a hint of daylight on the horizon. After a plane flew overhead they tnen put to shore.

Waiting for them on the beach were mounted riders.

"Numidians?" Lucila asked.

"Bedouins."  Mark held his breath. "I can't be sure whose side they are on."  he looked up at the sky. "it's either them or risk getting strafed by German planes or our own."

Mark could not spea Bedouin, but Lucilla stepped up and began to speak.  The longer she spoke, the more friendly they became.

"What did they say?"

"Mark, these are not Bedouin.  They are descendants of tribes friendly to Rome. My father brought me here in the past,  We enjoyed the hospitality of their tents.  Somehow they have passed stories of those times in their campfires over the centuries."

"You're amazing."

"One thing, Mark. We must give up our weapons while they feed us, and we have to tell stories all night."

The tribesmen were so friendly, and Mark and Lucilla struggled to keep up with the food that their hosts brought to them.

Lucilla began to tell stories from Ancient Rome about Rimulus and Remis and the Mother Wolf who raised them.  Mark picked up the stories, telling them about Robin Hood and Prince Charles.  Then he continued the thrilling stories of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.

They continued well into the night until they were exhausted.  Strong drink and food had at last closed their eyes.  Mark slept with his arm around Lucilla on a bed piled with goat skins.

Early the next day, the tibesmen put Mark and Lucilla on horses and covered them with their tribal robes and escorted them to the American Forces.

After Mark and Lucilla turned in their mission report to higher headquarters, they provided them sleeping quarters for twenty-four hours.