Upon hitting the ground, Lizzie Jane saw the huge head of the tyrannosaurus rex coming toward her very fast, mouth open with sharp 13 inch teeth. This was the king of the dinosaurs, which, with one bite from his massive four-foot jaws, could snap any backbone. She didn’t have time to get up and run. Even if she could, a T-rex could run 40 miles per hour.

Lizzie Jane had no idea what she was going to do. All she knew was — one of her best friends was in trouble and she had to rescue her. But how? That was the question.

She was ten years old, planning to go against giant savages, probably ten feet tall or larger — and, on top of that, going into an area with huge creatures, possibly dinosaurs. A year ago, she had been scared beyond description in that part of the jungle, but now a little braver because of her self-training; she knew that was going to have to be very cautious.

At her secret hiding place, she retrieved her hunting knife, and the archery set with a good strong bow and about a dozen arrows. She decided against her homemade spear. There was no way for her to know what lay ahead and she may have to make quick exits through the trees and she could not do that carrying something in her hand.

The knife had a leather sheath on a belt and there was a back quiver for the arrows, so no problem there except the quiver getting caught, but she thought she could handle that problem if the situation arose.

She had learned to be a very fast runner, so she thought she might catch up with the savages in the narrow valley, which divided the mountain chain. It had been a couple of hours since Christie had disappeared and the savages’ progress with a prisoner would probably be slow, so Christie started down a jungle path in that direction at a very fast pace.

She was correct. She saw them ahead about half way through the valley. Looking up toward the slope above the creek, she decided that might be the best place to make the attack. She eased down the hill above them until she came to a large rock she thought might cause some confusion if it rolled down the slope. The thought was to push the boulder toward them with her feet and, in all the excitement, maybe slip down and grab Christie by the hand and run. It did not occur to Lizzie Jane that Christie could not run as fast as she could.

Thinking the childish idea would work, she pushed with all her might against the boulder like she had in the cave when she rescued George. The boulder started rolling and the unthinkable happened. It caused an avalanche. Most of the savages saw what was happening, turned and ran in the opposite direction. The avalanche was successful in separating the savages, just missing the two savages in front with Christie.

When Lizzie Jane saw the confusion of the savages in charge of Christie, she screamed, “Run, Christie!” -- thinking Christie would run up the slope toward her. Christie ran, but forward — the wrong way --toward the big valley of the huge creatures.

One of the savages quickly recovered and pulled his arm back to throw a spear at Christie. Lizzie Jane, hoping her practice paid off, quickly pulled out an arrow from the quiver, aimed at the savage, hitting him in the shoulder and causing him to drop the spear. The next arrow hit the other savage in the upper leg. Both fell with shock and surprise. That is what Lizzie Jane intended.

She ran and partially slid down the slope, quickly grabbing both spears while both savages were rolling in pain. She did not want them to get up and throw a spear at her.

Her next thought was Christie, running the wrong way. Lizzie Jane ran after her, only to come out of the narrow valley into the much larger valley. As she started to throw the spears away, she glanced at one.

The savages had constructed a spear that came apart in the middle that would make it easy to carry in her quiver, so she took both spears apart to carry with her. She thought how smart the savages had become — to invent a spear that could be easily carried elsewhere besides the hand.

Trying to determine which way Christie would go, she heard a scream. Running quickly to the source, she saw the problem.

Christie was frozen with fright. Lizzie Jane saw the reason. A huge tyrannosaurus rex was headed toward Christie. Lizzie Jane quickly ran between Christie and the T-rex and screamed again, “Run, Christie, run!” She began to throw rocks at the T-rex to get his undivided attention.

The T-Rex decided that Lizzie Jane was an easier target, so its attention was turned toward her. Lizzie Jane looked for the tallest tree and scampered up the tree without any problem to a height above the reach of the 14-foot giant.

The T-rex, not to be denied, began to shake the tree with its head. The tree, being slender, began to rock and become uprooted. Lizzie Jane looked for another tree to jump to, but quickly discovered that she was in the tallest tree. The others were too far for her to jump or swing to the limbs. All she could do was ride the tree to the ground.

Upon hitting the ground, Lizzie Jane saw the huge head of the tyrannosaurus rex coming toward her very fast, mouth open with sharp 13 inch teeth. This was the king of the dinosaurs, which, with one bite from his massive four-foot jaws, could snap any backbone. She didn’t have time to get up and run. Even if she could, a T-rex could run 40 miles per hour.

She rolled, attempting to dodge the monster’s attack and rolled into a hollow place under a boulder. The T-rex tried to get his mouth under the rock, but she was barely out of reach. Not to be defeated, the T-rex began to move the boulder with his head. Now, Lizzie Jane was truly trapped. The only thing to do now was to brace for the end. Lizzie Jane prayed and asked God to receive her into Heaven.

She had lost her bow and could see it on the ground. However, she still had her quiver and happened to remember the two-piece spears she had picked up. She quickly grabbed one, put it together and, as the dinosaur raised its head in its effort to move the boulder, she thrust the spear into the only soft spot of the monster -- in the neck near the throat, hitting an artery. Blood began to gush out when the creature’s heart pumped. When the head came back down, she thrust it into an eye which caused the dinosaur to jerk its head back and away from the boulder.

Lizzie Jane watched from her temporary safe spot as the T-rex turned around and around and finally stumbled and fell with a hard thump. Waiting a few minutes, she finally got the nerve to slowly walk up to the dinosaur. She saw that he was dead.

She walked around the body of her huge attacker, nervously, looking at the skin. It dawned on her that she had hit the only two vital parts, the soft part of the neck and the eye. Every other part was too tough for anything to penetrate. She did not know, neither did the science books she had read reveal that a T-rex had a soft spot anywhere.

No one could have been more shocked and surprised than Lizzie Jane. She, a mere ten-year-old girl, had killed the most ferocious and feared animal that ever lived.

She had killed a tyrannosaurus rex!

She thought about David and Goliath in the Bible. David’s stone had hit the only soft spot — the unprotected spot — of Goliath. Maybe God directed her spear.

With tears of joy, she fell to her knees, looked up to Heaven, and said, “Thank you, God.” It was evident that God was not ready for her to go to Heaven yet.

Lizzie Jane began to consider — David’s victory was recorded in the Bible, Daniel Boone recorded killing a bear on a tree — Lizzie Jane needed to record her victory someway. No one would read it anyway, but it would not be any harm to write her victory on something.

She removed a flat aluminum box from her belt. She never figured out what it could be used for anyway. With her knife, she opened it and scratched very deeply these words: “Killed by Lizzie Jane, Date Unknown.” Now, what should she do with it? Well, the T-rex’s mouth was open, so she pitched it in there. It will never be seen, but it seemed like the thing to do at the moment.

Time enough for rejoicing over such a victory — now Lizzie Jane must find Christie again.

She picked up her bow, put it over her neck, and holding one of the spears in her hand, she trotted through the jungle with more confidence than she ever had. The valley was large and she had no idea where to find Christie, but she felt that she needed to find her friend fast before something else happened. Maybe she had been re-captured by the savages.

As she trotted, Lizzie Jane’s mind wandered just a little — the main thought and attention was to find Christie, but she tried to remember how the savages looked. They looked a little human, but also similar to the gorilla. They wore what looked like aprons made from animal skins around their waist and hairy all over. She thought, “They were in bad need of a deodorant.”

She remembered pictures of cavemen. Yes -- that is what they were, the famous cavemen of ancient history. So, if she could not find Christie, she would begin looking for caves.

Occasionally, Lizzie Jane would stop and call, “Christie! Christie!” She was disappointed each time when there wasn’t any answer. The fifth time she did that, she had some visitors shortly thereafter — the savages.

They tried to grab her, but she was watchful and too quick for them and, before they knew it, she was up a tree and swinging from limb to limb and vine to vine when she could find one. Sometimes the vine had attached it self to a tree and she had to cut into it with her hunting knife. Unlike all the stories, very few were hanging loosely. She had heard them called grapevines, but she never saw any grapes. But, swinging through the trees was fun. She enjoyed it as much now as she did when she swung through the trees with George.

The important thing was that it kept the savages confused. Who was this girl who was able to swing through the trees like the monkeys?

However, it seemed to provide a clue in finding Christie. They had tried to grab Lizzie Jane, so they must have been able to grab Christie. She began to ease around in the trees until she again spotted some of the savages. Trying to keep from being seen, she slowly followed them from above. They might lead her to Christie.

Finally, they came to a series of caves in the mountain. Lizzie Jane, still having not set foot on the ground, surveyed the area for Christie. Finally, she saw her. In a cage constructed with cane stalks, Christie sat in a corner. It looked like she had been crying, but the tears had dried up. The cage was in an offset of the mountain, so it would be difficult for a large dinosaur to reach her, although a smaller one could.

“Now, what should I do?” thought Lizzie Jane. With all her skills, Lizzie Jane was not a fighter and only planned to use her weapons if necessary to defend herself — or to defend Christie. She decided that maybe the savages were not hungry enough for Christie or wanted to fatten her up for later. Hopefully, that was the reason she was still alive, so Lizzie Jane decided to make herself comfortable in a tree and wait until nightfall in hopes that they would not move Christie.

Night came and Christie had not been moved. It became late in the evening and finally the savages went to sleep, but Lizzie Jane assumed that they were light sleepers. The assumption was reasonable for self-preservation. They had to be ready to fight — or run at any time, even at night.

From a tree, Lizzie Jane positioned herself so that she could be seen by Christie. She had gathered some nuts from some of the trees and, one by one, tossed them toward Christie, hitting her in different areas of the body. Christie was awaken by the falling nuts and looked up.

Upon being seen, Lizzie Jane put a finger to her lips for Christie to remain quiet. She put her quiver and bow on a limb, propped up so it would not fall because Lizzie Jane’s plan could not be completed with anything on her back.

Lizzie Jane swung down on a vine to the top of the cage and notice that it was tied together with green vines. She very quietly began to saw at the vines with her knife. When all the vines were cut loose except one, Lizzie Jane eased the side of the cage down slowly by holding to the vine — just enough for Christie to get out.

There was not enough slack in the vines to let it down completely without dropping it and that might wake the savages. She quickly tied the vine in place, so she could reach down with both hands and pull Christie up to her. Although Lizzie Jane had gained some strength by her daily exercise, she still had some of the weakness of a young girl, but with determination, she was able to pull Christie up to the top of the cage with her.

Christie was instructed to put her arms around Lizzie Jane’s neck and “to hold on”. Lizzie Jane swung by the vine to a tree close to the cage. The weight on Lizzie Jane’s back almost caused her to lose balance, but she quickly grabbed a limb to steady herself. The procedure was accomplished with much difficulty and Lizzie Jane was not anxious to try it again, except in a dangerous situation. After all, Lizzie Jane was not strong like the fictional hero in jungle stories.

“I wish I could swing through the trees with you, but I almost lost you back there, so I had better not try,” Lizzie Jane whispered to Christie. “So, we will run together. I am a pretty good shot with a bow and arrow and I have two spears — here, you take one. If things get too rough, I will help you get up a tree and we will work this thing out together.”

Unlike the first time a year before, the girls ran down animal paths toward the valley. Luckily (or God was with them), they made it to the narrow valley without any attacks from huge monsters. Lizzie Jane was not sure if the nighttime had anything to do with their safety. The moon was full, so there was sufficient light.

As the day began to dawn, Shirley was on the ledge looking for a miracle — that Lizzie Jane and Christie would return together. When she saw them, her heart leaped with joy. Lizzie Jane had come through!

Shirley ran to meet them and just had to hug their necks. It was difficult to believe that Lizzie Jane was smart enough for the rescue without confronting the savages and that she had the ability to swing through the trees. “Just the masterful instructions of George,” said Lizzie Jane. They all laughed.

The most unbelievable news was when Lizzie Jane reported what happened to the dinosaur that had attacked her.

“When I last saw you, you were facing a dinosaur — from pictures I have seen, it was a T-rex. How did you escape?” asked Christie.

“I killed it”, replied Lizzie Jane.

“Don’t tell me that! Please tell me how you escaped,” pleaded Christie.

I killed it!” proclaimed Lizzie Jane.

“But how?” both girls asked almost simultaneously.

“With a spear — to the throat and eye”, stated Lizzie Jane, somewhat proudly.

“Well, I’ll be..”said Shirley, “Imagine! A ten year old girl killing a T-rex!”

“But now, we have something else to think about. The savages will probably come looking for us,” mentioned Lizzie Jane as they walked back to the cave.

Upon the ledge, they saw George. He seemed overjoyed that Lizzie Jane was back — and safe. It seemed that even Momma Gorilla smiled a little.

Since it was very early morning, the girls discussed a probable attack from the savages. They knew that there were people around.

“Well, we have Momma Gorilla,” mentioned Shirley.

“But, the savages will have weapons — spears and things. I am sure they have killed some huge animals where they live. They can do a lot of thing when their group work together. We would not want to risk the lives of Momma Gorilla and George,” mentioned Lizzie Jane.

“Yes,” agreed Christie. “I have seen the fingers of gorillas that must have been as large as Momma that the savages had.”

So, how could three girls fight against a small army of savages?

--To be continued

Copyright 2007 by Starla Anne Lowry
Under the pen name of Billie Sue