by J. T. Cross
He pulled out his binoculars and focused on the structure. It was a cabin of some type but he was still too far away to see it in detail.
“It’s definitely a cabin. It’s probably deserted like the others, but we might be able to spend the night in it if we need to,” Luc said.
He put the binoculars back and pulled out the satellite phone.
“They’re getting pretty far ahead of us. We should get moving if we don’t want them to lose us,” he said and began following the mammoths.
As they walked, he turned on the satellite phone. Please work this time, he thought. After a few seconds, he saw a message displayed on the phone’s LCD screen:
Weak signal.
Please take phone outdoors.
“It’s displaying a different message now,” he said handing the phone to Chuck.
Chuck looked at it, squinted his eyes as if in deep thought. “I think we’re on the right track. Last time, it couldn’t even find a signal. This time it says it’s weak. I think we just need to get a little higher.”
He handed the satellite phone to Kate and she put it back in his backpack as they continued toward the structure.
When they reached the cabin, they could see it was constructed differently than the one they had been in earlier in the day. Instead of using horizontal logs for the walls, the cabin’s sides were built out of stacks of stones mortared together with what appeared to be mud.
Medium-sized logs had been laid across its top, spanning the walls, to create a simple framework upon which the builders had placed overlapping pieces of thick bark to act as shingles. Luc assumed it had been built many years ago because the structure appeared extremely weathered.
Fifty yards behind the cabin, a wide vertical rock wall climbed out of the plateau for several hundred feet, transitioning into a mountain range that extended north. In the middle of the wall, Luc saw a mass of vines. They appeared to be covering some sort of opening.
They watched as the mammoth approached the wall and pushed through the vines, walking into the shadows. Its calf followed it inside and disappeared.
Luc’s curiosity almost demanded that he follow the mammoth and its calf into the cave, but he held himself back. It was more important to find shelter for the night before it got dark.
“I’d like to go over to the eastern side of the plateau and hike up into the mountains to the north. If I can get high enough, I might be able to get a call out. It could take me a couple hours to get up there, so we should probably check out the cabin first and see if we can use it as a safe place to sleep tonight,” Luc said.
“I think we’d all feel better if we knew we had some protection against the wolves,” Kate said.
Luc led the way to the cabin. He was surprised that the door still remained hung on its frame. He pushed on it and found it didn’t budge. There was a wooden handle on the outside. He pushed down on the handle and felt a latch on the other side being released. He tried the door again and it swung inward.
Luc entered first and examined the interior. The one room cabin had a dirt floor. There were what appeared to be wooden beds along one side of the cabin. One was still covered by an animal fur. Luc lifted it up and saw that someone had stuffed a heavy grass-like material between the fur and the inch-thick saplings from which the beds were constructed.
On the other side of the cabin were some clay pots and several tripod style chairs with seats made from animal hides. In the middle of the cabin was a crude table woven together from a number of small-diameter tree branches.
He went over to one of the tripod seats and sat down on it. He heard a creak as the three legs shifted to carry his weight. The chair held him perfectly. A testament to the builder, he guessed.
He walked back out of the cabin and joined the others outside the entry. “It’s not bad. I think we can definitely spend the night here. We should go in and try to set it up for sleeping before evening comes,” he said.
Christie and Kate began cleaning off the wooden beds.
“There are some pine trees on the eastern side of the plateau. We should be able to make use of the pine needles to make the beds more comfortable for the night,” Luc said.
Luc took his satellite phone out of his backpack and set it on the table. He pulled his survival knife out of its sheath.
“I’m going to go out to the pine trees and cut some branches and make something for Chuck and me to sleep on tonight,” he said and walked out of the cabin.
He stood in front of the cabin alone for a moment, gazing south across the top of the plateau. He wondered if it was such a good idea for them to be spending the night in such an obvious place.
Chapter 18
Victor pushed himself hard. The thought of finding Moon drove him on with a zeal he hadn’t felt in months. After an hour of slow jogging through the barren landscape, they came to the rocky base of a mountain. His two men took off their backpacks and sat down on the ground, exhausted.
Victor looked up at the almost-vertical mountainside, trying to determine if there was a way to get to the top. The atmosphere, which had turned even mistier during the last hour, prevented him from seeing very far up the mountain.
As Victor examined the trail, he realized it had forked into three separate paths. And worse yet, the surrounding landscape had become rocky and hard, preventing any footprints from being left behind by Moon’s group. He could not have thought of a worse place to lose their tracks.
“Damn!” he yelled as he rubbed his forehead and waited to catch his breath.
“What’s wrong?” asked Turner.
“The trail splits and heads off in three different directions.”
Victor examined the trails carefully. One appeared to head to the west and curve around the mountains they were standing in front of. Another went east. The middle one went straight for a short distance and then disappeared behind a rocky outcropping.
He wondered where the middle trail went and decided to follow it for a little way. He walked along the trail and found it curved to the left, leading into a gash in the face of the mountain and almost immediately began climbing in elevation. He was surprised to find the trail appeared to traverse across the mountain’s southern face.
Victor jogged back down the trail to his men and found them leaning against their backpacks, smoking cigarettes. He walked up to Turner and grabbed the cigarette out of his mouth and did the same to Russell.
Throwing the cigarettes down, he ground them into the rocky soil with his boot. “If Moon’s people are anywhere downwind, they will smell your cigarettes. That would give us away. There’ll be no more smoking until we have them,” he said.
He couldn’t believe how stupid these men were. Had they never had any training?
“So what’s the plan?” asked Turner.
“We’re going to split up and each hike down a different trail. They must’ve taken one of these.”
“I’ll go to the east,” Turner said.
Victor turned to the larger man. “Russell, see where the trail that climbs the mountain takes you. I’ll take the one that heads west.”
“Then what?” Turner asked.
“We meet back here in ninety minutes, unless you’ve found them.”
“What do you want us to do if we find them?” Russell asked.
“Hold them and wait for the other two of us to arrive. You can intimidate them with your firearm, but don’t shoot them. We need their bodies to be found at the crash site.”
He watched the two men take off on their assigned trails. He pulled out a bottle of water, drank it down, and then started out on his trail. He set his watch alarm to go off in forty-five minutes.
* * *
Christie and Kate had worked hard cleaning out the inside of the cabin while Luc and Chuck gathered pine needles and branches.
The pine needles they had collected helped soften the primitive wooden beds along the wall. The wide pine tree branches that Luc had cut were laid on the floor near the
corner of the cabin.
A few minutes earlier, Chuck had lain down on one section to test it and had turned on his side and fallen asleep. Luc guessed that meant the makeshift bed was pretty good.
He picked up his pistol and walked over to Kate, who was sitting on one of the wooden beds on the other wall.
“What do you say we see what’s behind those vines?” he asked her.
“We should,” she said.
Luc opened the cabin door and began to step out but stopped as he saw the mammoth and her calf walking past the cabin. He stopped moving, not wanting to appear as a threat to the giant animal. Kate peeked around the door.
Instead of walking back to the trail that led down the mountain, the mammoth and calf headed east toward the pine trees.
“Where do you think they’re going?” Kate asked.
“I have no idea. Maybe they live up in the mountains to the north.”
They stood quietly by the cabin door and watched the mammoths leave then left the cabin and walked back to the vine-covered opening.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
She nodded.
He grabbed the vines and pulled them apart. They both gazed into the dark interior.
“It’s a cavern,” Luc said and slowly walked into the dark cavern with Kate following him.
He walked to the center of the large area and gazed around the inside as his eyes adjusted to the dim interior. It was much larger than he had thought it would be. The sound of the rushing water filled the cavern and was caused by a waterfall that poured out of a fissure near the top of the northern cavern wall and fell into a small lake.
On the eastern side of the cavern was a second opening where the lake emptied out. Looking out the exit, Luc saw only blue sky.
He turned to Kate who had a look of disbelief on her face as she looked around the interior of the large cavern.
“Pretty incredible, huh?” he said.
“That’s an understatement,” she said, as she walked to the edge of the lake and put her hand into the water. “It’s as warm as bathwater,” she said with a big smile. “Where do you think all the water comes from?”
“Maybe the black ore heats the water up and pushes it up through underground channels. Probably happens under the mountain range and flows downward and empties here into the lake.”
“That would explain why it’s so warm. It makes me just want to jump into it and take a bath.”
“Maybe later. Right now I need to go out and try the satellite phone again.”
Luc walked back to the opening then turned and looked at Kate. “Are you coming?”
“Yeah. I want to get our water bottles and fill them up,” she said and ran after him.
They walked back to the cabin. Inside Christie was lying on one of the wooden beds with Kelly next to her. Stuart was on another bed, asleep. Chuck was still sleeping in the corner on the bed of pine branches.
Luc picked the satellite phone up off the table and then dug through his backpack for the operator’s manual. He pulled it out along with two empty water bottles. He handed the bottles to Kate and they hurried back out and walked toward the cavern.
Luc stopped at the cavern entrance. “I’ll meet you inside as soon as I try the phone again,” he said then watched her slide between the vines and disappear.
He took a few steps back from the entrance and squatted down. He placed the phone on the ground and then opened up the manual. After a few moments of searching, he came to the conclusion that the sensitivity of the phone was automatic and there was no manual override.
He picked up the phone and heard a soft crunching sound from behind. He didn’t think it could be Chuck as he had just been sound asleep and he was sure Christie wouldn’t leave the children alone while they were sleeping.
Every nerve in his body screamed for him to turn but instead he took the satellite phone and turned it until its LCD display showed the reflection of someone coming up behind him. It looked like they had something in their hand and were ready to strike him. He didn’t move or give any indication that something was wrong.
He waited for the person to get one step closer, then spun around. He looked up just in time to see a large man bringing the butt of his gun down straight at him.
The man’s face showed surprise but it was too late for him to stop. He had committed and brought the gun down hard. Luc kicked up at the man’s arm hard and the gun went flying over his head toward the cavern entrance.
The man kneed Luc in the face, knocking him backward and then ran to get the pistol.
Luc rolled, sprang to his feet, and went after the stranger, colliding with him and pushing him through the vines into the cavern.
“What’s going on?” Kate yelled out as he struggled to wrestle the man to the ground.
He grabbed the man’s wrists and felt him pull back hard trying to get free. He pushed him backward, trying to make him lose his balance and fall. The man didn’t fall and instead spun Luc around and pushed him even harder.
Suddenly, there was nothing under his feet, and he felt himself falling backward. He looked to the side and realized the man had pushed him into the lake. Water rushed over his head and he gasped for breath as the man pushed him deeper under the water.
Luc rammed the palm of his hand into the man’s nose. He let go. Luc pushed the man away with his feet and shot to the surface. He sucked in several mouthfuls of air as the man grabbed him, pulling him under the water again.
He felt the man grab his hair and pull his face down. His time in the Navy told him what was coming next. He brought his arms up and covered his face just in time to block the man’s knee from crashing into his face.
Luc punched up as hard as he could and connected with the man’s chin. The man released his hair and Luc swam back to the surface, taking in several more gulps of air.
He looked around for the man but didn’t see him and was surprised to find he was almost in the middle of the lake. How had he gotten so far out? He tried to swim back to the shore but realized he was still moving toward the far wall.
“Luc, watch out, the falls. You’re getting too close to the falls,” Kate yelled.
He looked to his left and saw the man swimming for all he was worth. The falls were right behind him, and the current was pulling him closer to the outlet.
Luc swam hard, but he could not get any closer to the shore. The current had him and was pulling him quickly toward the opening. He could see the cloudy sky through the opening and could feel himself picking up speed.
The current was too strong. There was nothing he could do to prevent himself from being pulled out of the cavern wall, he realized. He looked out the opening and saw nothing but a gray cloudy sky.
He turned back and locked eyes with Kate for a brief moment. He yelled, “I love you, Kate.”
He was desperate and as his last act, he yelled out, “Take care of my kids.”
For a brief moment, he saw an expression of abject terror on her face then he felt the current pulling him out the side of the cavern wall. Suddenly, he was outside the cavern and falling.
His mind raced. He felt as if time had slowed down. Below him, he saw a lake, still high up on the eastern side of the mountain. To the north, other falls exited the mountainside and fell into the lake that emptied into a fast-running river that rushed downhill to the northeast.
Navy training took over. He prepared for the water, looping his legs together at the ankles. He raised his arms up, covering up his nose with the crook of his elbow. He sucked in as many quick breaths as he could as he fell.
He hit the water hard and felt the overwhelming force of the falls pushing him deep into the churning maelstrom of water. He opened his eyes and found himself blinded by a world of turbulent bubbles.
He felt himself slammed against the bottom and his head hit something hard and sharp. Pain shot through his body and he fought the urge to exhale and yell out in pain. Wild currents formed a vortex that tumbled him over and
over, holding him to the bottom.
He struggled to gain control and swim out of the revolving currents, but he was so blinded by the swirling bubbles he couldn’t see which way was up. No matter which way he swam, the currents always seemed to pull him back to the rocky bottom. He needed air. If he didn’t get air soon, he knew he would drown.
Suddenly, the currents changed direction and he felt them drag him across the bottom and push him between two rocks.
He planted his feet firmly against one of the rocks and pushed as hard as he could away from the turbulence. He felt himself break free and begin rising toward the surface. He fought the uncontrollable urge to suck in air as his lungs felt like they were ready to burst.
With the last of his strength, he swam up and broke through the surface and began sucking in lungs full of air.
* * *
Kate was in a state of confused panic as she ran for the cabin. Who was the man that had attacked Luc? Where did the water go that exited the lake? Did it fall a hundred feet or a thousand feet? Were there rocks at the bottom that would instantly kill him?
Feelings of dread coursed through her chest as she approached the cabin. He couldn’t be dead. Please don’t let him be dead, she begged. It couldn’t end this way. She would find him if it was the last thing she did, she told herself.
She burst through the door and everyone turned and stared at her. “Somebody attacked Luc and pushed him in the lake. The currents pulled him out of the opening in the side of the cavern. I don’t know where he is, or if he’s even alive,” she said in an almost uncontrollable panic.
Christie and Chuck stared at Kate in horror.
“Luc got pulled out of the cavern?” Chuck asked.
“Yes. I have to go back down the plateau and try to find him,” she said.
“I’ll go with you,” Chuck said, standing.
