Reef of Death (The Zone Unknown)

by Paul Zindel

  “He’ll think about my poor, irregular freighter with the strange sounds you brought to his attention. It was a bit of an accident that I stumbled onto the effect a high-pitched frequency has on that large, ugly fish. Yes, something will make Lt. Roessler snoop further. He’ll stop by your mooring platform. There will be no one there. He’ll come back looking for me and my freighter. This is what officers in the services do. They’re trained to inspect. To hover. To lurk about like a pestilence knowing someone, somewhere, is outsmarting them.…”

  “READY!” a foreman high on the scaffolding called down to the doctor. He held a radiophone to his ear.

  The doctor turned from PC and waved up to him. “Tell them on the ship we want an hour and a half,” Dr. Ecenbarger said. “Ninety minutes before we blow the wall.” She reached her hand to her digital watch and turned to look up at one of the surveillance cameras mounted on a wall. She pressed the timer.

  PC tried to work his wrists loose. He managed to cross his right hand over his left wrist. He found the timer button on his dive watch and pressed it.

  He struggled to speak.

  “What is it?” Dr. Ecenbarger asked. “You wonder what I’m going to do with you? An opal wall with its prehistoric paintings intact would have been priceless. Thanks to you, I will have to be satisfied with mere millions upon millions of dollars’ worth of smaller clusters. That’s all that will be left after the explosion.” Suddenly, she slapped him across the face hard—then harder still.

  It took her a moment before she could manage her smile again. She moved the cold metal end of the stethoscope back onto his chest.

  “You have a fine, strong heart,” she said. She signaled the guards. They closed in on him, ripped the tape off his mouth, and forced a tube from a rebreather into his mouth.

  “We have time for a couple of final experiments involving the toxicity of mutant sea life on this reef,” Dr. Ecenbarger said. “I find it always exciting to discover new poisons. For the old man, I’ve picked a rather simple creature. Something pedestrian.” Dr. Ecenbarger laughed. “For you—well, for you, I’ve picked the Catch of the Day.”

  Maruul watched from her cage across the cavern. She saw the guards lift PC into the tank and strap him underwater in the torture chair next to Wally’s chair. She had managed to slide one of her thin shoulders through the bars. She reached down and stretched to touch one of the stones on the floor of the tunnel. She flicked the rock toward her, trying to get a grip on it.

  Ko Ko slapped her hand.

  “Help me, you monkey,” Maruul said, glaring.

  The baboon cocked his head.

  For a moment, Maruul thought he understood.

  Ko Ko reached out, traced his fingers down her arm.

  His arm was longer, his hairy strong fingers able to play with the stone. He managed to make it roll farther away.

  PC shivered in the cold water. He turned and looked at Wally Wallygong. Wally’s eyes were bloodshot. They were saying, “I apologize. Please forgive me. Sorry to you.”

  CLANK.

  The guards strapped a pair of long cages onto the prisoners’ faces. PC stared down the length of his cage. He saw Dr. Ecenbarger and the shaman looking back at him. The doctor’s smile had faded. PC tried to talk to her, to make himself understood through the rebreather. She laughed and climbed onto the platform bordering the tank.

  An assistant walked up to her with a bucket. The doctor threw open the top of the cage strapped to Wally’s face, scooped a fish from the bucket, and dropped it in.

  Wally believed it was perhaps one of the most beautiful fish he had ever seen, small and narrow, with photophores on its belly. Its mouth was like a straw, and the sides of its body were covered in bright orange and red stripes. It’s lovely like an angel, he thought. The fish paused for a moment, as though shy. Then it saw Wally and swam quickly toward his face.

  The fish stopped below his chin and rubbed its long nose on his neck. It felt nice, a little tickly. Wally managed to move his head a little and frightened the fish away. The fish stopped three feet from his face, then turned back to confront him. Wally noticed the fish was breathing much faster now. Suddenly it became huge, puffed like a blowfish, with great needle spikes sticking out from all around its body.

  What the devil are you, eh? Wally wondered. A burst of bubbles from his rebreather rose over his face. Suddenly, the fish raced toward him.

  Wally thrust his head back, trying to get away, but the fish smacked into him at the base of his neck. Swimming to the surface, it dragged its spikes upward. It was as if a dentist had driven a dozen injections of burning poison up high into the left side of Wally’s face. The rebreather stayed strapped tight to his mouth.

  Dr. Ecenbarger permitted the fish another moment of violent thrusting before she drove a spear through its body. Then she flipped the fish back into the bucket.

  PC fought against his bindings. He shouted and cried out as the fish’s venom hit Wally’s nervous system.

  Wally’s body convulsed and strained against the restraints of the chair. As the convulsion passed, he thought only of the opal wall. He remembered the painted barramundi and the python. The ocher beasts and white spirits of smiling children. He had glimpsed his people’s Genesis, and it had been glorious.

  Finally, Wally’s eyes closed and his body fell limp.

  This time Maruul managed to push her shoulder farther through the bars of her cage. She felt her skin tearing, the tendons of her arm stretched painfully. Ko Ko watched her. He grunted, pressed his drooling lips on her shoulder. With one of his long, dangling arms, the baboon easily rolled a stone closer.

  Closer.

  Dr. Ecenbarger smiled at the look of terror on PC’s face. “Don’t worry, I’ll give the old man a proper burial. In fact, I’ve already planned his epitaph—‘Something fishy.’ ”

  She moved closer to him, staring deep into his eyes. “Your headstone will need quite a different inscription. Perhaps ‘He loved to play games.’ ” She laughed and called for another bucket, and dropped its contents into the cage strapped to PC’s face.

  The bubbles cleared, and PC saw something move. He looked up to see a large snail about a foot long, with a black-and-white-encrusted shell. It looked like one of those large shells tourists buy in airports, thinking they’ll look nice in their bathrooms when they get home.

  The snail glided gracefully along the floor of the cage toward PC, leaving a shiny mucus trail behind it. The snail stopped for a moment, as if to take a closer look, before it came forward and climbed slowly up onto his head. PC could feel the muscles of the slimy creature rippling on his skin. It traveled leisurely across his forehead and back down to his neck.

  PC tried to shake the snail off, but its grip only got stronger. He watched the head of the snail appear over his chin. He froze. The rest of its fleshy, amorphous body extended far out of its shell and began to slip beneath the rebreather. Soon its slime entered PC’s mouth and began to inch down his throat.

  PC tried to bite it, but the snail’s grip tightened like steel around his chin and jaw. He watched as a long, thin piece of the snail’s skin moved out from the shell to reveal a small mouth lined with tiny teeth. The rebreather fell loose from PC’s face, and his nose filled with the mucus of the snail. In the short time he could hold his breath, he felt his cheeks bulge as the snail’s mouth shot forward inside his own and bit the back of his throat.

  The snail hung on ferociously while PC choked uncontrollably as his lungs screamed for oxygen. Then PC felt the first effects of the snail’s venom. A dull pain started in his stomach. It crawled upward like a burning acid until he felt a lightness snaking into his brain.

  Before he could drown, he experienced a calm. A peace spreading quickly through his body.

  His pulse slowed.

  A moment later, he felt his heart stop in death.

  10

  THE DARKNESS

  Maruul cried as she watched the guards lift PC’s body from the tort
ure tank. Dr. Ecenbarger placed her stethoscope against his chest. She smiled at the shaman and her assistants. “What a talented little sea snail,” she said. “One bite from it, and he’s dead.”

  The doctor motioned guards to unstrap Wally’s body. They lifted it out of the tank and held it for the doctor’s examination. She put her stethoscope on his throat and pressed it on an artery.

  “This one’s still alive,” she said disappointedly. She gave a nod toward PC’s corpse. “Get rid of them both. Fish food.”

  The guards tossed the bodies into the grotto pool. Dr. Ecenbarger checked her watch. She gave a signal to the assistant on the control console. He flicked a switch.

  EEEEEEE. EEEEE.

  Dr. Ecenbarger laughed at the sight of the bodies as they slipped beneath the surface. She turned and, with the shaman and dingo-headed guards, walked down the main passageway. The men from the scaffolds had finished loading their gear onto wheelbarrows and started pushing them back down the tunnel. Other men grabbed the harnesses of the cartful of monkey cages.

  The baboons shrieked. Ko Ko watched Maruul making a last reach for a stone. Finally, as if he knew he’d teased her long enough, he rolled a stone into her hands.

  Maruul grabbed the stone and began smashing the lock on her cage.

  Hard.

  Harder.

  The wailing animals and the racket of the wheelbarrows and carts masked the sound of her blows. On the third smash, the lock sprang open. Maruul leaped off the moving cart and ran into the deep shadows along the wall. She raced back to the grotto pool. She saw the two bodies slowly drifting downward toward the darkness at the bottom of the pool. Grabbing PC’s abandoned rebreather, she dove into the pool. The salt burned her eyes.

  EEEEEEEE.

  Maruul sucked air from the mouthpiece.

  EEEEE. EEEE.

  Down.

  Down until she reached PC. His face was frozen, his eyes open and startled in death. She trembled as she took the air tube from her mouth and brought the stream of bubbles to his lips. Your heart didn’t stop. Please! Wake up. Wake up.

  PC didn’t take any air. She yanked the tube back to her own mouth, took a deep breath, and slid her hand under PC’s chin. She locked, thrust upward as hard as she could. It was not enough. They still fell toward the darkness below.

  Wally’s body had drifted to the side of the grotto pool. A ribbon of plants and rocks slowed its descent. Pulling PC along with her, Maruul swam toward Wally She got a footing on a ridge. She tried again to make PC breathe some air.

  What would you do, PC? she wondered. You’d probably turn on your computer, Ratboy to find something for a heart that had stopped.

  Something.

  She put the air tube back into her mouth and beat at his chest. The water weakened her blows.

  Seaweed undulated beneath her feet. Clownfish stared. Amazed. Disturbed. Near them, Maruul saw a cluster of speckled eels.

  Electric eels.

  Maruul pushed PC’s body toward the rock wall. His skin bruised and tore against a strip of coral. The eels turned in warning. Maruul pushed PC closer until his body touched them.

  A tremendous flash was discharged from the tail of one of the eels, a sparking shaft of light passing from the fish into PC’s body. Maruul tried to pull her hand away, but the charge radiated through PC’s body. She felt the jolt thrusting her backward. She recovered quickly and pulled PC toward her. Her eyes searched his face. A small bubble formed at his lips. A single bubble.

  Then others.

  Suddenly, PC’s body shuddered.

  A burst of air shot from his mouth; then he began to choke. She jammed the air tube into his mouth. His chest heaved, his eyes opened. She saw life rushing back into his body, watched consciousness crawl into his eyes.

  He came back from death and saw her.

  The tube.

  He understood.

  PC began to kick.

  Then he looked around and saw Wally, slowly sliding deeper.

  EEEEEEE. EEEEEEEE.

  PC heard the sound. He saw something huge rising from the blackness beneath them. He pushed the air tube toward Maruul’s mouth and pointed up. She understood. She took a deep breath, gave him back the rebreather, then kicked for all she was worth toward the surface.

  PC stuck the rebreather tube in his mouth and swam for Wally He slid his hands down Wally’s limp, unconscious body, found a firm grip, and started to swim with him up toward the light.

  The monstrous fish was rising fast into the light. For a moment, it seemed confused by all the kicking and splashing in the pool. By the time it had locked onto its prey, PC had hit the surface. Maruul was waiting, her hand outstretched. She pulled PC out of the water onto the ledge, then together they lifted Wally out of the pool. The fish swam in circles for a moment, churning the water violently, then dove back to the cover of the deep.

  “Wally!” Maruul cried. “Wally!”

  PC rolled him onto his back and pressed hard on his lower chest. Water and spittle poured out of Wally’s mouth. PC held Wally’s nose, put his mouth over the old man’s mouth, and breathed air into his lungs.

  Again.

  And again.

  Wally began to cough.

  “The poison’s wearing off,” PC said. “It’s wearing off.”

  Wally opened his eyes. He looked at PC and then at Maruul. Slowly, a smile crept onto his face. “Lungs like a crocodile, I told you,” he said hoarsely “Lungs like a crocodile… eh.”

  For a while, the three of them just sat gasping and holding on to each other. They looked at the slab of fire opal that towered above them. A mass of crimson and gold creatures and spirits. The painted wisdom of a people’s dreams. PC thought of Cliff and Arnhem and wished they could have seen it.

  The high-pitched sound had stopped. The clamor of animals and men brought them to their feet.

  Maruul saw a shining crumple of plastic. The guards had left the shoot bag! She ran to it. Ratboy and the clusters of opals were still inside. She brought the bag to PC and helped him strap it on his back.

  “What are we going to do?” Maruul asked.

  PC checked his dive watch. “They’re blowing the wall in forty minutes. We’ve got to get out of here.”

  Wally was still shaky on his feet. He turned slowly to take a last look at the blazing sacred wall. PC led the way into a narrow tunnel. Ahead they saw the gang of workmen unloading their gear and carts. Others had already suited up and plunged into the interface pool to return to the ship. The baboons still howled and shrieked in their cages.

  PC signaled Maruul and Wally to stay in the shadows against the wall of the tunnel. “There’s got to be more than one way out of here,” PC said. “A VIP way Dr. Ecenbarger and her head honchos use. Did you see her heels?”

  Somehow, Ko Ko spotted Maruul and began to whimper and bang on the door of his cage. Wally sniffed at the air and put his hand up to feel which way the wind was blowing. “Baboons must know a way out of here. They cannot come by the water tube. This lava tunnel has wind. It is open to air somewhere on an island, eh.”

  “Set them loose,” Maruul said. “If we don’t let them out, they’ll end up in one of the doctor’s pickle jars. Besides, maybe they’ll help us.”

  “Baboons are crazy. Very strong and very nuts,” Wally said. “I have one rule—never depend on a monkey, eh.”

  PC spied the iron head of a pickax. He picked it up and crept alongside the baboon cart, keeping out of sight of the workers. He broke the lock on a chain that had been threaded through the cage doors. Maruul and Wally pulled the chain free and threw open the cages. Ko Ko leaped onto the floor of the tunnel. The rest of the baboons followed.

  Workmen tried to stop the escaping baboons, but the baboons were faster. They screamed, bared their teeth, and climbed up the scaffolding. Soon heavy boards and pipes rained down on the men’s heads.

  PC ran ahead, leading Maruul and Wally past the chaos.

  “Look! There’s something down he
re!” Maruul and Wally caught up to PC. He stood in front of a transparent plastic wall.

  Below them, a small portable crane lifted a heavy steel cylinder ten feet into the air, then dropped it like the weight on a pile driver.

  “What is it?” Maruul asked.

  PC said, “The machine crushes the big chunks of magnesium, then conveys the magnesium shards up into the ship.” The steel cylinder was lifted again, dropped, and hammered another load of the silvery metal. A blizzard of shredded, pulverized magnesium whirled, filled the transparent enclosure, then was drawn up toward the belly of the freighter.

  “Like a big blender, eh,” Wally said.

  Suddenly, there was a swirl of black dingo skin rushing out from the shadows of the tunnel. Maruul screamed. PC and Wally spun around. The eyes of the laughing shaman blazed down from his canine shroud. He was flanked by two of his dog-headed henchmen.

  The shaman knocked Maruul aside and charged PC. PC aimed a kick at the shaman’s stomach, but he swatted PC’s leg away as if it was a stick. Maruul and Wally crashed into the dingo guards and broke past them out into the main tunnel.

  A foot taller and twice PC’s weight, the shaman roared, grabbed PC, and tried to bend him over backward. Pain stabbed PC’s spine as he punched at the dog-faced maniac. He thrust his head into the shaman’s head. The shaman cried out, grabbed PC by his shoulders, and hurled him against the railing of the crusher.

  One of the dingo guards took out after Maruul. She dodged around stalagmites and drill equipment. He caught her, yanked her around, and backhanded her across her face.

  Maruul cried out in pain. She turned to run again, then spotted a shovel leaning against the wall. She grabbed it and swung it with all her strength into the guard’s groin. The guard staggered backward. She brought the shovel back up and cracked him on his head. He dropped in his tracks.