Asura

by R P L Johnson

  They walked in silence. After the initial elation of finding themselves back on familiar territory, the mood had quickly darkened again. They were close to a way out, but not so close that the chance of escape could not still be snatched away from them. Now, she realised, after many days of fighting they finally had something to lose.

  They entered the forest. The spectacular view was steadily eclipsed by the soaring blades of black glass until only the lake’s central spire was visible in half caught glimpses through the swirling mist. They worked their way through the alien landscape, following the narrow valleys between the bigger structures and smashing their way through the smaller, but still razor sharp, knee-high glass stalactites. Every time McCarthy heard the crunch of glass under Campbell’s boots she winced with the knowledge that they had found a true wonder of the natural world and were bulldozing their way through it. Despite herself she couldn’t tell him to stop. Her animal urge to survive overrode any pangs of guilt. This was survival.

  The ever-present vapour condensed on the smooth, smoky surfaces of the glass blades running down to the floor in rivulets or standing out on the glass like a cold sweat. Despite the expanse of open air above, McCarthy began to feel claustrophobic. The swirling mist didn’t allow her to see any farther than Campbell’s back as he led the way through the forest. Behind her, Yvonne was visible as a pale wraith in the mist, but the others were obscured. It would be easy to get lost here, she thought.

  The condensation running down the glass around her was staring to pool at her feet. Within another dozen steps she was walking in an ankle-deep stream. Is it going to be like this all the way to the lake, she wondered. Would the glass blades march on into the water until the miniature valleys between them became tributaries and they were forced to swim? The cold water began to seep through her boots and as she looked down she almost walked straight into Campbell as the big man’s bulk loomed out of the mist in front of her.

  ‘That way,’ he said pointing between a series of particularly tall and sharp-looking curtains of glass. ‘There’s a clearing about twenty metres in.’

  McCarthy waited at the corner and directed the others along Campbell’s path. By the time she made it to the clearing, they were deep in discussion.

  ‘Well I’m not going,’ Garret protested. ‘After those things in the caves, who knows what’s in that bloody water!’

  ‘Nothing bothered us last time,’ Marinucci said.

  ‘Fine! Then you go.’

  ‘I will. And maybe I’ll just forget to come back for you.’

  McCarthy looked across the lake. Campbell had found a clearing all right. A huge slab of volcanic glass about the size of a tennis court sloped gently into the water’s edge. It was a ready-made slipway, only they had no boat. She watched Campbell strip down to his woollen thermal underwear. He was obviously planning to swim for it.

  ‘We should all go,’ she said and began to take off her torn and tattered pilot’s jacket.

  Marinucci shook his head. ‘Once we get out we still have to get across the glacier to the choppers. Walking around out there with wet drawers is a good way for us all to die of hypothermia. It’s best if only a couple go and bring the boat back.’

  Marinucci gave her his rifle. ‘Keep your eyes peeled,’ he warned. ‘If any of those things appear, take as many down as you can and then swim for it.’

  McCarthy nodded. ‘Be quick,’ she said.

  ‘Don’t you worry, Missy. We’ll be back for you. You’re the only one who can fly a chopper.’

  Campbell eased himself into the steaming water. ‘Just like a Jacuzzi!’ he said and struck out powerfully for the far shore. Marinucci followed him and McCarthy watched as the two men disappeared into the mist.

  Muhammad Khamas stood beside her. ‘You look worried,’ he said. ‘I am sure they will return in good time. This place feels good to me. We have little to fear here.’

  McCarthy looked at him. Out of all of the survivors, Khamas had the most to lose. Not only did he have his own life to worry about, but also that of his daughter. And yet he looked calm.

  ‘What do you think, Khamas? Do you think this place was once a temple?’

  ‘A temple, no. But it is certainly a place of wonder. An example of the divine beauty that can be found in nature. It is not a temple, but I feel tranquil here nonetheless. It should be treated with reverence.’

  McCarthy looked across the mist to the central spire. She followed its slope up to the open roof and the brilliant blue sky above. ‘It certainly is beautiful. I can imagine why men would want to write stories about a place like this.’

  ‘Be careful what you say, Miss McCarthy. The tales from the Rig Veda are more than just stories. How would you feel if someone made light of the book of Genesis? Or Christ’s miracles from the New Testament.’

  ‘I am an atheist. The Bible’s a crock if you ask me. No-one believes the book of Genesis now, not even the clergy.’

  ‘But it still has meaning,’ Khamas continued. ‘If not as a chronicle of the past, then it still contains lessons for the future. I wouldn’t be so quick to discount the old stories, Miss McCarthy. There is much we can learn from them.’

  McCarthy shrugged. ‘What about you, Tej? Do you believe the old stories?’

  ‘I am not a religious man. I learned the stories of the Devas and the Asuras from my grandmother when I was a child and I enjoyed them for what they were.’

  ‘And do you think those things we saw were the creatures from those stories?’

  ‘Who cares what they are,’ Garrett interjected. ‘They could be in-laws of the abominable snowman for all I care. The only thing that matters is to get as far away from them as possible.’

  ‘You know,’ McCarthy said, ‘—for someone so interested in getting out of here, you were in no hurry to help get the boat.’

  ‘Don’t try and score cheap points off me, Miss McCarthy. You heard Campbell; there was no need for all of us to go. Those two were just the best men for the job, that’s all.’

  ‘Funny how the best men for the job are always someone else, eh Garrett?’

  ‘When the job requires mindless force and a thick skull—no, not really.’

  McCarthy gave up. Garrett was a typical politician: all too eager to send other people’s sons into battle while he reaped the rewards of their sacrifice. She gazed out into the mist.

  ‘Why do you think they stopped chasing us?’

  ‘Who knows,’ replied Tej. ‘They stopped when they saw the Captain go over the cliff.’

  McCarthy fought back a wave of guilty grief. The loss of Captain Rose was a high price to pay for their escape.

  ‘Why would they only be interested in Rose?’ Yvonne asked. ‘There were scores of those things. They could have easily run us all down.’

  McCarthy didn’t know. Neither, it seemed, did any of the others. ‘Just be thankful for small mercies.’

  Suddenly a screech echoed across the cavern. McCarthy looked back across the forest of knives and up the cavern wall to the shattered barrier through which they had come. A single creature climbed through the opening and along the cavern wall like an ant coming out of its nest. It clung to the wall and screeched again. Just like an ant, there would be more to follow. It seemed that the time for small mercies was over.

  CHAPTER 28

  Campbell and Marinucci heard the screech. It echoed across the lake cavern, a harsh and grating sound above the peaceful tranquillity of the mist shrouded lake.

  ‘Fuck it,’ Marinucci swore. They had reached the far bank and found the Supacat sled where they had left it, pushed up on the shore of gently sloping gravel that ringed the eastern edge of the lake. Along with the sled was all the equipment Marinucci had left behind. He grabbed a pair of high-powered binoculars and looked back across the lake. He could see the creature clinging to the wall. As he watched, another of the six-legged monsters skittered through the tunnel, clinging to the wall like a roach. Another followed it... Then another. From
a distance they could almost be mistaken for insects rather than the man-sized killing machines that Marinucci knew they were.

  ‘Campbell!’ Marinucci shouted. ‘We need to get a move on.’ He threw an extra couple of shovels into the boat and started to heave it towards the water’s edge.

  Campbell was busy searching through the pile of equipment left behind. Eventually he found what he was looking for. A heavy-bladed knife in a moulded plastic sheath. That knife had got him out of some tight scrapes before, and now it was needed again. ‘You little beauty.’ He exclaimed ‘OK, let’s go,’ Campbell shouted and galloped down to the beach. He all but crash-tackled the Supacat’s sled-turned-boat and jumped in as the impact drove it crunching through the last few feet of gravel and out onto the water. Marinucci handed him a paddle and they started to drive the slab-prowed boat across the lake.

  Marinucci didn’t need the binoculars to see the creatures now. They swarmed down the wall in a black tide. The first of them had reached the forest of knives and he could see them leaping through the tall spires of glass like fleas through a dog’s coat, impervious to their razor sharp edges.

  ‘Paddle faster!’ Marinucci shouted although he knew that they were both going as fast as they could. Every sweep of Campbell’s paddle hauled them metres across the lake. It was all Marinucci could do to keep up with him and keep their craft on a steady heading.

  A volley of shots rang out.

  ‘Shit!’ Campbell swore and stepped up his efforts with the paddle, switching sides to keep them straight and surging through the mist-shrouded water.

  ‘I can see them,’ Marinucci exclaimed. ‘They’re in the water.’

  Campbell had seen them too. Tej, Khamas, McCarthy and Garrett were up to their waists in water. They had backed down the black glass slipway as far as they could and were defending the tennis-court-sized clearing in front of them with some success. The bodies of half a dozen creatures littered the floor, but more kept coming.

  A creature leapt from one of the tallest blades of glass, aiming to land right in the middle of the clearing. A burst of automatic fire from Tej stopped it dead in mid air as every round slammed home. The creature fell short, landing amongst the shorter blades that ringed the clearing. It impaled itself, black blood spurting in a gory fountain as one of the volcanic spear points burst through its body, almost cutting the creature in half. It lay there, still alive and screaming but unable to free itself, clawing desperately at the razor sharp stalactite protruding from its abdomen.

  Hadeeqa and Yvonne Gibbons sheltered behind the gunmen. Hadeeqa barely had her chin above the water as she clung to her father’s jacket.

  ‘Get closer!’ Marinucci shouted and churned the water with his paddle. Together he and Marinucci churned the water as they closed in on the desperate party of ragged survivors.

  McCarthy saw them approaching.

  ‘Go, go!’ she shouted and Hadeeqa started to swim for the boat quickly followed by Yvonne.

  Seeing their quarry about to escape, the Nagas surged forward. The forest of knives dripped with flitting black shapes as numerous and fleeting as shadows through the valleys between the blades.

  ‘Fall back!’ Tej shouted and they all started to swim. Garrett was the first to reach the boat. He flung his rifle over the gunwale and almost tipped the boat over in his eagerness to get out of the stinking water and away from the hordes of creatures that surged towards the bank.

  Campbell steadied the boat by placing one foot on the gunwale and standing astride the craft like a colossus. He shifted his weight as Garret flopped into the boat like a landed fish. Grabbing Garrett’s weapon he gave covering fire for the others as they all struck out from the shore.

  In desperation the creatures tried to follow, but they were poor swimmers. Their tough, spindly bodies were not suited to swimming and in their voracious desire to capture their prey they splashed and scythed at the water with little coordination. Steadily the swimmers started to pull away into safety.

  Then one of the creatures bolted along the glass slipway. Just before reaching the water it sprang with all the force of its four powerful hind legs, easily clearing the thrashing mass of it brothers floundering in the shallows. Campbell saw it and tracked it like a clay pigeon shooter. His rifle roared in his hands and the creature screamed as the supersonic rounds tore through its body. But its momentum carried it into the pack of swimmers and it fell like a screeching alien cannonball on top of Yvonne Gibbons!

  Yvonne screamed as the creature landed on her, driving her down under the water. When they rose to the surface they were a single mass of twisted flailing limbs.

  ‘Shoot it, Man!’ Marinucci shouted as Campbell hesitated, faced with the two tangled, half-submerged bodies. He looked for a shot but it was impossible. He couldn’t hit the creature without killing Yvonne in the process.

  Tej ploughed through the water with his kukri in hand. He grabbed the mane of wet hair that ran down the creature’s long neck and wrenched its head back. It screamed and scratched at him with its fore legs while still clinging onto its prize, now limp in its claws. Tej drew his kukri across its exposed throat and black blood spurted, mixing with the ruby red of his victim’s, turning the water cloudy.

  It sank, dead, taking its victim with it.

  Tej dived down and the mist closed over his head, hiding the blood-clouded water as if the fight had never taken place. He burst to the surface a few seconds later, metres away but empty-handed.

  ‘I can’t see her!’ he shouted.

  Hadeeqa screamed as another creature leapt from the bank, landing just short of her. In her panic she lost momentum and floundered through the water hardly any faster than the mass of clawed limbs that flailed behind her. Marinucci reached out with his oar and the little girl grabbed onto its blade. He hauled her to the boat and her pursuer’s claws raked the water where she had been just an instant before. Marinucci grabbed the back of her coat and hauled her into the boat.

  Campbell pumped rounds into the swimming creature until it disappeared under the mist, but they were drifting closer to the bank. More creatures started to gallop along the slipway ready to launch themselves at the boat. Campbell fired low and rounds tore into a score of thundering legs breaking their momentum and leaving them floundering in the shallows.

  First Khamas, then McCarthy hauled themselves into the boat and added their guns to the barrage the Campbell was laying down. Marinucci gently back-paddled: taking them out of the range of the jumpers from the shore.

  ‘What are you waiting for?’ Garret shouted. ‘Get us out of here.’ He grabbed a spade and dug into the water, pulling them a little farther away from the shore. McCarthy shoved him back against the gunwale. ‘Not without the others,’ she hissed.

  Tej surfaced again. The thrashing mass behind him were making progress, their single minded bloodlust driving them forward. In seconds they would be on him.

  ‘She’s gone,’ Garret shouted. ‘Leave her.’

  McCarthy glared at him, she could have tipped him over the side there and then, just to slow the creatures down, but inside a part of her knew that he was right. She grabbed the makeshift oar from Garrett’s hands and she and Marinucci powered the small boat towards Tej.

  Campbell had to reach down and physically haul the Ghurkha into the craft. With four people working the oars, they pulled away from the shore and the howling creatures that lined the water’s edge and struck out through the mist towards the way out.

  ◆◆◆

  The creature was dead. Rose swung the narrow beam of light up and down the river and along the bank of black gravel on which he found himself. He counted two more creatures and the white-smocked corpse of an Indian soldier. It seemed that it hadn’t been any skill on his part that had brought him to that shore. He had just been washed up with all the river’s other victims.

  Rose shut off the torch and crawled a few yards along the river in case any watching creatures had drawn a bead on his light source. He f
orced himself to sit in the darkness and listen for any signs that he was not alone. He counted off the seconds and strained to hear any noise that might warn him of creatures stalking him in the darkness.

  After reaching three hundred without hearing anything other than the sound of the river he switched on his torch, shielding its light with his hand and allowing only a dim, blood-pink glow to light his way. He made his way as quietly as he could to the washed-up body of the Indian. Holding his torch between his teeth and wishing that he had a filter to dim the powerful little beam, he quickly searched the body. His rifle was missing, but his sidearm was still in its holster, secured by a Velcro flap. Rose flipped the man over to get at the ammo pouches on his chest; his face was a staved-in ruin. If the commando had been wearing night-vision goggles, they had been lost in the river. Rose stripped what he could from the body: spare ammunition, two hand grenades, another torch and a bayonet. Finally he pulled off the man’s sodden parka and lay it over his ruined head. They may have been adversaries, but in death he owed the man no disrespect.

  Rose was sweating profusely by the time he finished this final act. He unzipped his own parka, rolled it up and strapped it to his pack. His hand knocked against something hard and solid under the tough nylon. It was the aluminium case: Carver’s prize and, Rose suspected, the reason for the entire fake, screwed-up rescue mission.

  He risked another quick search of his surroundings with the flashlight. He was alone. If any of those monsters had survived the fall, they must have been swept farther downstream. Either that or they had managed to scale the wall of the ravine and rejoin their comrades above.

  Either way, he figured he had some time. He took the case out of his pack and examined it. It looked like a high-end camera case, about eighteen inches long, a foot wide and four inches deep. It had a briefcase-style handle as well as D-rings for a shoulder strap and two latches each with a three cylindered combination lock. He laid the case flat on the black gravel and pushed outwards on the latch release buttons. They flicked open with a spring-loaded shudder. He eased the lid open.