by Tom Hunter
Twenty
“Yeah, I see them,” replied Alexia in a tense voice. With a quick glance in the rearview mirror, she gauged the distance. The armored vehicle was gaining on them. “Shit!” she spit out through clenched teeth. She turned the wheel hard to the right, throwing dust behind them, and her passengers against the side.
“Hey!” someone shouted.
“Hey, yourself,” she said starkly. “You wanna get away, you’re gonna have to get a little bruised. Sorry, boys.” She’d been the only female in a male-dominated family and industry. A little car chase wasn’t about to scare her off. Her brothers and her father had taught her well. As the car took another sharp turn, she risked a glance at Thomas Knight. She raised an eyebrow. He looked like he was enjoying himself! Albeit with a sense of dread at the vehicle so quickly catching up to them. What the hell did they do? Add nitrous to an armored car?
She laughed at the thought. A loud ping and the hover vehicle Alexia drove swerved. Gunshots! They were being fired on. Her focus concentrated on the flat desert surface and making sure the armored vehicle and the bullets missed them. They were a target. But, at least they were a moving target. She risked another look at Thomas. He was looking over his shoulder.
“They’re gaining, Alexia,” he informed her.
“Ya think?” she retorted as glass shattered. They both ducked. “Why do you think I’ve been driving like a bat out of hell?” she yelled over screaming engines and gunfire. “Uh oh…”
“What’s….uh oh?” He asked the question, though he realized with a sinking sensation, he knew the answer already.
“Well, to quote the movie Poltergeist,” she began, “they’re back,” she finished in an eery sing-song voice.
Thomas looked back, but said nothing. His mind had gone blank. He could think of nothing to do. Then Alexia’s voice cut through the haze. “Do something. I’m out of options!” She took a hand off the wheel to gesture to the expanse before them. “And there’s nowhere to hide.”
Thomas shook the fog from his mind. Of their own accord, his fingers found his beard comb in his breast pocket.
“Really!” exclaimed Alexia. “You’re going to do that now?”
“It helps me think!” Thomas volleyed as he brushed his beard clean of the dirt and sweat from their adventure in Noah’s camp. Alexia shook her head.
“Unbelievable,” she muttered.
Thomas turned to look behind them, slowly brushing his perfectly coiffed beard. His own guards offered the cover of gunfire. He leaned out the back window, across the shards of broken glass which littered the back dash, and made a few mental notes. Ramon was at the front of the armored vehicle, but he wasn’t driving. He was the general in command of the army.
The two gauged each other like a matador and a bull. If they’d been standing still, they might have circled each other in a slow dance toward death.
Ramon squinted and held his hand over his eye like a visor against the sun. Thomas offered a questioning look and held his hands palms up as if to say, “What?” A strange look overshadowed Ramon’s rough demeanor and Thomas could have sworn the Brazilian felt a sense of…guilt?
Good, he thought to himself. We saved his ass and how does he repay us? Let’s Howard die and steals the journal. Damn, should have let him drop. It had been a recurring mantra of Thomas Knight’s ever since that day in the caves and he wondered if the anger would ever leave him.
Thomas shook his head and mumbled, “I doubt it,” to no one in particular.
He watched Ramon open his mouth wide. What was the man saying? Was he shouting at him? And then it didn’t matter. As Ramon raised his weapon, Thomas lowered his beard comb. Then, without warning, the predicted aim of the gun turned and Ramon fired wildly into the ether.
Thomas cocked his head and furrowed his brow. What’s going on here?
With a start, he realized Ramon’s vehicle was slowing down. Thinking it was a trick, Thomas pulled his own gun and shattered Ramon’s windshield. Then, in a fluid motion, aimed lower and shot at the tires. He didn’t like to use guns, but he’d never said he didn’t know how to use a gun, he explained as Alexia and the guards looked at him quizzically.
Between the shattered windshield and shredded tire, Ramon’s vehicle was grounded. Thomas looked at Alexia. “What? You said ‘think of something,’” he reminded her. “So, I thought of something.” Alexia looked first in her rearview mirror, then over her shoulder to confirm Ramon’s vehicle was stopped.
Someone laughed. “Well, they’re not gaining ground anymore, are they?” Then to Thomas, “Nice shot, sir!”
“Thank you,” he replied with a flourish. He slumped back in his seat.
Alexia drove more steadily now and could focus on her passengers. Amidst hails now of “Great job!” and “We did it!” she noticed Thomas had grown quiet.
“What is it, Thomas?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”
He offered her a wan smile and snorted, “What’s wrong, she asks? Ha! Where should I begin?” Alexia shot him a glance and shrugged. The others waited quietly.
Thomas took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. His heart was still racing. He thought briefly of reaching for his beard comb, just to have something to hold in his hand, but thought better of it.
“Well, let’s see,” Thomas held up his fingers and began to tick them off. “First, I’ve lost the drum. Twice!” He pinched his lips together, shook his head, and mentally berated himself for stupidity.
“Stop that,” Alexia said, gently. “I know you’re kicking yourself. But, that won’t get us anywhere.” She put a hand on his knee and he breathed easier.
“Second, because I’ve lost the drum. Again. It puts the full weight of responsibility of getting Abby back squarely on Robbie’s shoulders.”
Alexia answered him again, assuredly, “Robbie’s got this.” Thomas raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. I think he’s a cocksure kid who skates by on his looks and charm, but he’s there for you when it counts. Know what I mean?”
Thomas nodded. “Yeah, I do,” he replied, as he recalled Robbie coming to check on him after his night in the infirmary. He also remembered the lengths Robbie had gone to to distract the traitorous guard, Peter.
“Third,” Thomas continued, “I don’t know where the drum is. We got it out of Noah’s camp. But, does he have it back or has it vanished?” he asked. Then, before she could answer, he added, “Plus, not only did he have the drum, Noah had something else, too.”
Thomas paused. He suddenly didn’t want to reveal the Rosetta stone tablet he’d left behind. He didn’t know why, and he couldn’t shake the feeling he ought to keep it to himself.
“Well,” encouraged Alexia, “What else did you find?”
“It’s not important…” his voice trailed off, as he slowly steepled his fingers. “What’s more important is that Ramon let us go. He and everyone on that vehicle is an expert marksman. So why?”
“Why what?” one of the guards asked as his colleague shushed him.
“Why did he let us go?” Thomas wondered aloud.
As the vehicle raced back toward camp, the passengers were quiet. No one had realized it until Thomas spoke. Nearing the camp, Alexia broke the silence, “We need a plan.”
A chorus of “Yeahs” and “who and what do we need” greeted her. Before Thomas could chime in, Alexia continued, “We need a coordinated effort, once we get back, to work with the rest of the park rangers.” She looked at the guards in her rearview mirror. “I know some of you were rangers once, but we need soldiers. Otherwise, we’re peasants with axes against a trained army with muskets.”
Every man nodded. “We understand,” confirmed one guard. “For now, let’s just fill in Dr. Cunningham. I know a few more rangers who were born to be soldiers. They’ll be up to the task. The rest… will have to be trained.”
There would be no time to rest and collect themselves. They all knew it. Alexia and Thomas shared a look
and answered in unison. “Do it.”
Twenty-One
Robbie and the others watched as the Kisgar rampaged through the Woidnuk village, destroying anything and anyone in their path. If he hadn’t been witnessing it first hand, Robbie thought he might have been watching a movie or something out of Jurassic Park. But, this was no YouTube original. He had to keep reminding himself that this was real.
The rumbling that had started the Kisgar’s change in behavior had grown louder. And as it did so the creatures went wilder and more feral. Stomping on whatever was in their path, their tails sweeping down stone doors, it was when they caught Woidnuk that Robbie and the others were forced to look away. Robbie hadn’t looked away fast enough the first time and had watched a Kisgar tear a Woidnuk apart like a wishbone.
“I may have to become a vegetarian,” mumbled Robbie softly.
“I know what you mean,” whispered Pediah.
“Sh!” exclaimed Lt. Whipkey in a stage whisper. Then, “be quiet, you two. Do you really want to attract their attention?”
Both men clamped their mouths shut and shook their heads vehemently.
In their race for cover, they’d dropped their flashlights and had turned off their headlamps. Without thinking, and still half blind from the sudden darkness, Robbie remembered he had flares in his pocket. He pulled them free. The flare sticks didn’t give off much light. But a sharp gasp from Pediah and the Whipkeys made him realize with a start that if he could see further, the Kisgar could see them, too.
Shit! Wait what’s that in the distance? It looked like a passageway leading up toward the surface. It seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, but he wasn’t about to question it.
Robbie nudged Abby and Pediah on his right, and mouthed, “Go!” as he pointed up the incline. To his left, stood the Whipkeys. He nudged Mochni, who nudged Lt. Whipkey, and following Robbie’s finger, they saw the passageway. It was too late. They were trapped.
Lt. Whipkey motioned for Abby, Robbie, and Pediah to go on. “You go,” he rasped. “We’ll…” he searched for the right word. “We’ll hold the fort.” Robbie shook his head and grasped Mochni as if to pull him along with them. Mochni smiled and shook his head.
“Our village is lost, Robbie,” explained Lt. Whipkey. “We are the only defense left.”
“But, they’ll –“about to argue, Robbie stopped himself, as a thought occurred to him. “Wait, you guys managed to contain these things once, didn’t you?” he asked, remembering the cave paintings and the story Lt. Whipkey had told.
“A very long time ago, young man. Yes, the ancients did contain them,” intoned the older man.
“Then, why -?” asked Robbie, the rest of the question left unasked.
“Why can’t we contain them now?” ventured Lt. Whipkey. “Is that what you are asking?”
“Well, yeah.”
“What’s going on, Robbie?” Abby asked, Pediah right behind her, a worried expression permanently etched on his brow.
“We don’t have time for another history lesson,” Pediah muttered between clenched teeth.
“I know that, Pediah,” the young man replied. “What we need is a plan and I think they have one. They’ve just…forgotten.”
“No, we have not forgotten,” began Lt. Whipkey. “We simply do not have the tools,” he explained, spreading his hands in supplication. He looked at the three of them, their hands on their hips; stoic, brave, and foolhardy.
He took a deep breath and felt a cool hand take his. It was his Woidnuk wife. “I was like you, once,” he told Abby, Robbie, and Pediah. He squeezed his wife’s hand and let go. With a look toward his son, Mochni, he smiled. The rumblings hadn’t ceased and the Kisgar still bucked and bashed, but somehow, he felt… detached. “There is an ancient Woidnuk legend,” he intoned, and as he looked around, he felt as if time had stopped. “The legend says we were able to contain the Kisgar only by sealing them into a passageway beyond where the sounds could reach them.”
Robbie eyed the passageway that had seemingly appeared out of thin air and wondered. Then, he turned back to Lt. Whipkey sharply as the man finished with a shrug. “We do not have any way to cause a cave in just now. Not here, hiding. Not here, with no weapons. You carry a flare, but do you carry dynamite?”
“No…but…dynamite?” Robbie asked surprised. “I thought you said “ancient” legend.”
“Ancient is subjective,” replied Lt. Whipkey. “We have been around a long time and yet, you have only just now ‘discovered’ us. Perhaps it was we who discovered you,” suggested the old man.
“Regardless, the fact remains, we have no way of stopping these guys,” Robbie replied with a flourish at the quickly approaching Kisgar. “Those stone spears are like throwing toothpicks at a brick wall.”
“Yeah, if a brick wall could shake them off and break you in two!” exclaimed Pediah.
“I fully understand the term ‘berserk,’ said Abby, as if having another conversation with someone else.
“Abby!” Robbie and Mochni reached out to pull her back, as a Kisgar leapt toward them.
“Look out!” bellowed Lt. Whipkey, as he pushed Mochni, Robbie, and Abby out of harm’s way. The three rolled to the side, and watched in horror as the Kisgar tumbled forward straight into Lt. Whipkey. It caught the old man up in its claws. The Kisgar and its prey rolled away from the trio, and disappeared into the ground.
Mochni scrambled up and raced to the edge of the black, gaping hole in the earth and fell to his knees. “DAAAAD!” the lad cried and reached out as if to pluck from the air. Robbie slid into Mochni and grabbed a hold of him, pulling him back from the edge.
“He’s gone, Mochni! I’m sorry.” Robbie held the giant as he sobbed.
Abby had already taken her place at Whipkey’s wife’s side and comforted her in the little she’d learned of the Woidnuk language during her stay. The woman nodded her thanks and smiled. Abby let go of her.
To everyone’s horror, Mrs. Whipkey jumped into the abyss after her husband. “Noooo!” Mochni screamed.
Rooted to the spot where she’d comforted Mrs. Whipkey, Abby shook her head at the stark, awful turn of events. But, the anguish she heard in Mochni’s cries, echoed those she and Robbie had shed for their families.
“Mochni,” Abby said gently, wrapping an arm around him. He looked at her, and said simply, “Gone.”
“Yes,” replied Robbie with a nod. “And we must go, too.” He pointed toward the passageway. “We cannot seal them in, but we can escape,” explained Robbie.
“Last wish,” blubbered Mochni.
“That’s right,” encouraged Abby, as she and Robbie pulled the large youth to a standing position. He took one last longing look into the abyss that had carried away his father and mother, and at his village, now a charred and broken battle ground.
“I go,” Mochni said, as he followed Robbie and the others up the passageway and toward the surface.
Twenty-Two
He hadn’t expected Knight to shoot back. But, then again, he hadn’t expected to let him live either. Ramon, having been thrown forward violently when Thomas Knight shot at him and took out out his tires, shook his head in wonder. Surrounded by his men, and his two closest confidantes, Pedro and Gunter, Ramon waved them off. “I’m fine,” he said with a flip of his hand.
“You are NOT fine,” chastised Pedro. “A. You let Thomas Knight go free and that’s not like you and B. there’s something… off. Your eyes; they look different.”
“My eyes? What are you? My wife? Get real!” barked Ramon. He’d been unusually sharp, but Pedro was right about one thing. Something was different. Ramon held up a hand and signaled for his soldiers to listen. Voices crackled over static.
“Minimal damage to the camp,” said one voice. “No casualties, here,” reported another.
Ramon touched his earpiece and spoke sharply into it. “The drum. Is it secure?”
“Yes, sir,” came the reply. “We, uh, caught it before it rolled too far away.”
A smattering of laughter as the young cadets recalled chasing a drum that seemed to have a mind of its own.
“Good. Now, turn off that…what is that? Music?” Ramon demanded.
There was a long pause, and someone cleared their throat. “Uh, Ramon, sir.”
“Yeah,” he barked.
“We’re not playing…music. Cadet, out,” said the tinny voice.
Ramon turned to the men in the vehicle. “You hear that?” he asked, then held a finger to his lips to signal quiet.
After a long pause, Gunter spoke, “Really? You are… okay?”
Gunter listened for a long moment. “I hear it. It sounds like… a drum.”
“What the hell are those kids playing at!” the big Brazilian exploded. “I don’t know what that thing does, but it isn’t good whatever it is. Shit!” He slumped back in his seat, then took a deep breath, and opened the car door.
“Gotta check the damage. Then, back to camp.” He started to step out when the truck rocked slightly. “What was that? Earthquake tremors?”
“Not like any I’ve ever felt,” replied Pedro. “And I’m a born and raised Californian.”
As if having two conversations, Ramon suddenly turned to a junior officer, “Tell camp we have no casualties –“
“Except this truck,” someone joked, and wished they hadn’t at the look Ramon gave them.
“It’s done, sir,” replied the soldier, having reported in to camp.
Ramon turned his head slowly behind them, a foreboding he’d thought only his grandmother had boasted. A spine-tingling sensation crept up his back as he listened and watched the earth move. What was causing it?
Then, he remembered. He’d heard this sound before. It had thrown him over a ledge and with his innate instinct for survival and Thomas Knight’s quick actions, he’d lived to see another day. But, they’d been in the caves then. This was above ground.
