Throwback

by Edward J. McFadden III

  Insects buzzed and chirped, animals scampered through the underbrush, reptiles bleated, and a large monkey-like beast with short arms and long legs bounced around the tree canopy, staring at them and yelling, as if the creature was trying to tell the dragon where they were.

  “This way,” Svet said.

  The party snuck back into the jungle, taking care not to make noise. The pterosaurs were on guard now, and Hawk doubted daddy would be leaving anytime soon. He scratched at his ant bites, and seeing this, Svet reached into her bag and dug out her special aloe cream.

  “Here, rub this on. Stop swelling and itching.”

  “Thank you,” Hawk said. He did as he was told and felt better.

  The forest was tight, and it took two hours to get to the cliff face. Several hundred feet above the ground two large cave mouths looked over the valley like giant eyes.

  “How’re we going to get up there?” Max asked.

  “Da,” Svet said. “Which one?”

  Hawk sat on a stone and took a long pull of water. The cave entrances looked very similar, and without a closer look it was impossible to tell if the tunnels turned upward, or if they dove deeper. “We have to get up there and take a closer look.”

  Svet harrumphed. “How we do that? Things will see, nyet?”

  “Ja,” Max said.

  The sun passed noon and the gray of dusk settled over the valley like a coverlet. “I think we wait until it gets a bit darker, then we climb up there. Hopefully in the failing light the things won’t see us.”

  “Climb that face? In dark?” Svet said.

  “We’ll do most of it at dusk, but yeah, unless you’ve got a better way?”

  “Sure would be nice to have some rope,” Max said.

  They rested then foraged for food and found brown nuts that looked like almonds but tasted like rotten meat. Their explorations revealed an easier way to ascend to the caves—not a path, but a gradual face that had few impediments. At Max’s direction, the party found as many creepers as they could, and weaving them together made thirty feet of cordage.

  They needed it. The climb proved sketchy, as there was a layer of sand beneath the lava pebbles, and they constantly fell and slipped backward. Svet had gotten good at climbing as hard as she could and as soon as she hit a loose patch and started to slip, she’d dodge to the side and prop herself against a stone. Twice the stones hadn’t been large enough to support her weight and she’d rolled down the mountainside. She wasn’t hurt, but didn’t appreciate Hawk humming Like A Rolling Stone when she managed to climb back to where he and Max waited.

  The darkness was tunnel-like in the hollow. Moonlight seeped through the hole in the stone ceiling, casting errant rays that fell upon jungle scenes like spotlights on a Broadway stage. Small pterosaurs flew circles around the columns of light, and clouds of insects darkened the sky.

  After an hour of hard climbing they reached a vertical section that required Svet’s skill. The lithe Russian worked her way up the rock face like a spider, and when she reached the top she dropped down one end of the vine rope. She tethered the other end to a stone, and helped the boys up.

  When they finally reached the cave entrances darkness had overtaken the world, and the companions entered one of the cave mouths and started a fire. They’d agreed to spend the night, and make their decision as to which tunnel to follow under the light of day.

  Hawk couldn’t sleep. The buzz of insects and the scuttling of animals echoed off the rounded valley walls, causing a maddening stereo effect. Hawk passed around some dino-jerky and pulled free the vodka they’d saved. Hawk took a long pull, and passed the bottle to Max, who eyed it warily.

  “What if something happens tonight?” he said.

  Hawk laughed a little too loudly, and he covered his mouth. The party sat in silence for several minutes, waiting to see if the outburst had woken the dragons. If it had, they showed no sign and Hawk said, “Drink up, Max. What the hell else can happen to us?”

  “If you no drink, pass,” Svet said.

  Max took a pull from the bottle and passed to it Svet, who drank deeply. The bottle got passed around, and the three spacefarers who had become family drank the last few drops of Russian vodka, the likes of which wouldn’t be seen in these parts again for millions of years.

  Svet had fallen asleep when Hawk held the bottle up to the fire and tilted it. “One mouthful left. You want it, Max. I want you to have it.” Hawk burped.

  Max cackled. “Don’t lie, commander, it doesn’t suit you.”

  Hawk upended the bottle and his mouth filled with the sharp bite of alcohol. He rolled the vodka around his mouth, letting his mouth go numb. The hint of wheat and potato was refreshing. The burn as the vodka slid down his throat made Hawk smile. He capped the empty bottle and put it in his bag. It could be used to carry water, and perhaps one day he’d make a primitive liquor or beer.

  Max said, “So, what do you think? Which one?”

  “Not sure. I need more light, but based on what I’ve seen so far, this one we’re in. It looks to head upward, while the other passage bends down. That could change, however, fifty feet in, so we’ll want to reconnoiter both tomorrow as far as we dare. Also, this one smells much less foul than the other.”

  “Indeed. For me, that’s the biggest indicator,” Max said.

  “Nyet, Vladimir. Nyet,” Svet was arguing with her husband in her dreams.

  Hawk leaned back against the tunnel wall. Dreams. That was all they had of their families now, random synapses in their brains conjuring images and memories that might not be true. Hawk didn’t care. He loved dreaming of Andrea. It made him feel like she was still with him somehow, even though she hadn’t been born.

  “Do you dream of your wife?” Hawk asked.

  Max looked pensive, and said, “Hawk, I don’t think I remember what she looks like. It’s been so long she’s slipping from my mind, as if she never was. Scares the hell out of me.”

  “I understand,” Hawk said. “When I start to feel that way I picture Andrea in mind for a long time. I take a mental snapshot, and look at the picture every day. When we’re hiking, preparing for sleep. That way she’s always fresh in my mind.”

  “I wish I had a real picture,” Max said. Svet was the only one lucky enough to have a picture of her husband. Max’s family picture was lost on the space station and Hawk’s had been chewed into tiny pieces when their first shelter was ransacked.

  “Better get some sleep. We’ve got a long one tomorrow.”

  “Ja,” Max said.

  “Visualize the dream you want to have as you fall asleep, and sometimes you’re rewarded with a facsimile of your fantasy. Might help,” Hawk said.

  “Ja, I try,” Max said. He laid down atop his spacesuit, and was asleep in moments.

  Hawk was up all night thinking about the past, his family, and Michel. He still saw his friend’s dead face in his mind’s eye every night, those haunting gray eyes asking Hawk why? Hawk didn’t have any answer, and wasn’t sure why Michel would be asking. Hawk fingered the plastic vile in his pocket that held his suicide pill. He hadn’t thought about taking it in a long time, but thinking of his family, and Michel, made him want to end it all and join them. What were they doing? Their quest was a joke, and deep down he knew it.

  When the basin filled with light he woke his companions. As was the plan, they delved into both lava tubes and confirmed what Hawk had deduced in the dark: the left tunnel smelled better, and twisted upward.

  Svet kindled a fire by throwing sparks into dried moss with her knife. Once the fire was smoldering, they lit their torches and plunged into the darkness.

  White bugs of all sizes and shapes fled into the blackness. The party kicked-up dust as they went, making it hard to see inside the tunnel, even with two blazing torches. Hawk had the feeling there were always bigger, more dangerous creatures just beyond the circle of torchlight, watching, waiting for the flames to go out. That wouldn’t happen anytime soon, because Max had prepa
red fourteen fire brands in total, and if they weren’t out of the caves by the time they were used up that would be the least of their problems.

  After walking for almost three hours the tunnel turned sharply up, so much so that Hawk slipped and fell twice on the incline. Max went down five times. The striations of the cave walls were much different here than in the first section of tunnel. Here there were veins of a different color lava.

  The party came to a halt across from two branch tunnels, but both were narrower and plunged downward, so the party stayed the course. The air got hotter as they walked and their burdens heavier. They stopped briefly to drink some water and rest then pushed on. They’d been walking for two hours when a bright oblong patch of light marked the end of the lava tube.

  “Hurrah,” Svet said.

  They started to run, laughing as they went, their cares forgotten for a time, the euphoria of having beaten the odds filling them with ignorant hope. The cave mouth exited onto a vast plateau, and Hawk skidded to a stop. The blue sky was clear, and a gentle breeze pushed warm air from the volcano over the mountains.

  “We’re over. We made it,” Hawk said.

  “Da,” Svet said.

  Max sat on the ground and let his head fall into his hands. It was hot, and sweat inched down Hawk’s back and across his forehead.

  Below, stretching to the horizon, was a vast sea of blue water; beyond lay a massive twisted jungle.

  18

  Hawk decided it was best for them to make camp on the precipice and spend the night. Up with the clouds, away from the hazards that roamed the ground, the party would await nightfall, and hopefully they’d see the beacon light and their path would be verified and their quest validated.

  “What do you make of the sea below?” Hawk asked Max.

  “It’s shallow, and we should be able to cross it. See that patch of water reeds in the center? I don’t think the sea is more than five feet deep there, and judging by the coloration of the water from up here, that appears to be the deepest section.”

  The inland sea stretched as far as the eye could see to the south, and terminated in jungle to the north and west. A thin ribbon of beach marked the shoreline below, and the thick forest to the west and north encroached into the sea.

  “Is it still growing?” Hawk muttered.

  Max said, “As the landmass Pangaea pulled apart scientists believed great rents in the land would have been exposed to the sea, and they believed many shallow seas covered land that will be above sea level in our time. The fossil records support the hypothesis in many locations.”

  “We go around?” Svet asked. She knelt on the ground making a fire ring of stones in the cave mouth.

  Hawk sighed. The inland sea was large, and going around to the north would take them way out their way, and expose them to all the dangers that lurked in the woods. Hawk said, “Let’s see what night brings. If we see the beacon light, we’ll know exactly where we need to go. If the light is to the north, then perhaps going around might make sense.”

  “Ja,” Max said. “But do you think we can cross that?” He pointed at the blue shimmering sea. “I think we can.”

  “Me too.”

  With that settled the companions fell into their normal routine. Max collected wood while Svet busied herself making a fire. Hawk moved all their belongings into the cave, as the lava tube would be their quarters for the evening. Then he went hunting with a bow and arrow, but came back an hour later with nothing. Svet and Max sat by the fire, drinking water and talking.

  When Hawk arrived, Svet took her hand off Max’s leg. “No luck?” she said.

  “Nothing. Didn’t even see anything.” If either of them noticed Hawk’s double entendre

  they didn’t let on.

  “We’ve got two pieces of jerky left and some of those nasty nuts we found,” Max said.

  “That’ll have to do. Tomorrow we can see about getting some fish,” Hawk said.

  “It should be easy enough to make a pole, but what of hooks?” said Max.

  “We shall see.”

  They ate and drank in silence, and each snuck off to a private area to go to the bathroom and prepare for sleep. Hawk hid behind a bush, where he managed to pee and squeeze out a thin little piece of shit which smelled like a dead body. Most likely the remnants of the nuts. He wiped himself with a leaf, then used some precious water to rinse his face. Refreshed, he returned to camp to find Svet and Max hard at work.

  Max used Svet’s knife to whittle a branch into a fishing pole. He’d gotten the wood from a bush that could be found everywhere in this prehistoric time, and it reminded Hawk of a forsythia bush, with its small yellow flowers and thin, flexible branches. Except these specimens were three times the size of the plants Hawk had known.

  Svet worked on something less critical. She was making string from animal sinew, and next to her lay a body for a ukulele she’d made from the shell of the large bulbous fruit they’d found, and over it she’d mounted a deck made of thick bark, a knothole serving as the sound hole. Once she carved a neck and mounted the strings, she would have a relative of the guitar and mandolin. She’d been working on it for weeks, and Hawk and Max were looking forward to her first concert.

  The instrument was a constant reminder to Hawk of what they’d lost. He and his companions spent so much time surviving, trying to reach the beacon, that they no longer lived. There was no leisure, no fun, and Hawk resolved to change that.

  “Either of you play chess, or checkers?” Hawk asked.

  “Da,” Svet said. “I was a chess champion in school. What is checkers?”

  “A weak version of chess,” Max said. “I’ll make the board when I’m done here and then we can carve pieces from wood, and use pebbles as pawns.”

  “Excellent. Look out for material as we go,” Hawk said. It felt good to make plans that didn’t involve finding food, water, and shelter. It would be a welcome diversion from their situation, which constantly reminded them how screwed they were.

  The sun slipped below the horizon, leaving only a bruised sky. In the half-light of dusk the three friends sat motionless, not speaking, staring at the western horizon as if everything in their lives depended on seeing the beacon. To some extent it did. They hadn’t discussed what they’d do if the western sky remained dark and forlorn and they didn’t see the light.

  A nervous energy ran through camp as the darkness deepened. Hawk busied himself cleaning the guns and counting the ammunition. There were fourteen rounds left for the Viking, and thirty-two for the Ash 12s. Still a decent amount, but they’d used more than half their supply since crash landing. They’d have to be more careful, or the guns would become nothing more than metal clubs.

  As the stars appeared so did a glow to the west.

  “There!” Max shouted, and Svet and Hawk leapt to their feet, following the scientist’s finger as he pointed southwest.

  A pulsing pillar of light cut through the darkness, ascending into the sky like a rocket trail, its odd rhythm blinking and shuddering. It was far off, much farther than Hawk had imagined, and though seeing the beacon brought comfort and hope, the fact that they were so far from their goal tempered the excitement.

  “Further south than we thought,” Svet said.

  “Ja.”

  “At least it’s there,” Hawk said. They had a long way to go, but at least they knew they were going in the right direction. In the distance the column of flickering white light rose to the heavens, its presence a validation of every decision Hawk had made since the day of the cloud's passage. He felt vindicated, from what he didn’t know, but a weight had been lifted from him. A weight that defined him. With the beacon visible, there was only one thing left to do, and it would seal their fate.

  The next morning, they packed up and scaled the cliff that led down to a steep incline, terminating at a large pile of boulders. Beyond, stretched a flat section of rock that sloped gently down to a jagged crag where they hoped to descend the rest of the way to the
seashore. The sound of small waves breaking on the beach below, and the salty-shit scent of sea air was a welcomed change from the wet nastiness of the caves. The breeze was fresh and temperate, and Hawk and Max took off their shirts.

  Svet whistled. “Beef cake, eh?”

  Max laughed nervously, and looked at the ground.

  Hawk smiled. He was aware that Svet and Max had developed a close relationship, and perhaps even a romantic one. They went to great lengths to keep this from him. Why, he wasn’t sure, but Hawk knew the simple math. Two men, one woman, and unless they got funky, either he or Max was guaranteed a lifetime of self-gratification. That idea dredged up another thought: what if Svet were to become pregnant? If they were having sex, were they using protection? He didn’t see how they could be, beyond the ineffective pullout method, which worked about as often as a coin landing on heads.

  “You with us?” Max asked.

  “Yeah, just…”

  They’d almost reached the base of the mountains.

  “Screeeeeeeeee. Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

  “Hide. Hurry.” Hawk darted behind a large stone, followed by Max and Svet.

  A dark shadow slid over the land, blotting out the sun.

  “Screeeeeeee.”

  A dragon with yellow and black skin flew overhead, its giant canvas wings outstretched as it glided on an air current. It was their friend from the caves, his markings unmistakable. The beast didn’t see them, and banked hard to the north, heading for the jungle. The party stayed hidden for several minutes until the dragon was nothing more than a speck on the northern horizon.

  They reached seaside by midday, and gentle fifteen-inch waves broke on a rock beach. There was a series of large boulders and the party hunkered down between two of the huge stones and drank some water and rested.

  “Do you think we should head north now? Get under the cover of the forest? Build a platform?” Hawk thought going to the jungle was best, but he was committed to making this a group effort here on out. Their escape from the caves and volcano had given him a new perspective. One of acceptance. As if some God protested his moment of Zen, an explosion sounded off as the volcano erupted. The ground shook and rocks tumbled toward the sea.