Within the Dead Space

by Hutchens, Gary

  “Get up,” Jorge pushed Chaco on the shoulder, “we don’t have all day.”

  At the end of the field Chaco took a trail that wound its way along a dried up creek bed for another hundred yards before the trail began climbing. Effortlessly, Chaco led the way with the others rapidly losing strength and becoming somewhat dizzy.

  “Slow down,” screamed Ortiz in a hoarse voice, “wait for us.”

  Chaco slowed down and looked back at the struggling men. They won’t last long, he thought.

  A few minutes later Ortiz hollered out with what little air he had in his lungs, “Stop, we need a break.” Chaco stopped immediately.

  “How much further?” asked Ortiz.

  “Oh, about a mile and a half.”

  “How long?” Ortiz’s sentences were getting shorter.

  “About an hour, maybe a little bit longer. There is a small Inca village with several stone structures ahead.”

  “Oh man, my head hurts,” cried out Sanchez.

  “God, I feel terrible,” said Jorge.

  “You just keep the gun on Chaco, you hear me?” said Ortiz. Gold fever was running through his mind and it gave him a brief moment of strength.

  Fifteen minutes later they continued on. Chaco picked up a solid walking stick and slowly led the men up the mountain. The three men followed, losing clarity in their minds with each step. The pain was coming in waves now. The pressure on the forehead had become unbearable.

  “I can’t go any further,” cried out Jorge. “I feel sick.”

  “It is only another hundred yards,” said Chaco.

  The men dragged forward. They came around a small hill on the mountain and a short distance ahead were several of the large stones carved by the Inca.

  “We are there,” exclaimed Chaco. All three men were dizzy and Chaco could see their discomfort. He waited for the men to catch up and with the swiftness of a cat swung the stick and plucked the gun from Jorge’s hands. His second swing caught Sanchez across the knee and he tumbled to the ground. Ortiz stood there dumbfound until he felt the blow between his legs completely disabling him. Chaco turned back to Jorge who was reaching to pick up his gun and hooked his legs with the stick and sent him sprawling. One hard blow to Jorge’s back and he was crippled. Sanchez had his hand in his pack and was pulling something out when Chaco let loose of a large stone that hit Sanchez in the forehead and he fell backward. Quickly, Chaco grabbed the packs and Jorge’s gun and tossed them to the side. He searched each man while they were still immobile making sure they had no more weapons. He cleaned their pockets out, and took their coats and shoes. He rifled through their packs taking the food and then sat down and waited for them to get their bearings.

  A few minutes later, Sanchez yelled out, “You son of a bitch. When I get my energy back I am going to break you in half.”

  The men seemed to be coming around. They began slowly climbing to their feet. Chaco had piled all of their belongings fifty feet away near a cliff. All three were on their feet and slowly moving toward him. Chaco just sat there and watched.

  When they were ten feet away he stood up with his stick in his hand. The men continued to approach, slower now. Chaco waited.

  When they could finally reach out and touch him, Chaco exploded in a swirl of spins and thrusts and left all three men on the ground in pain. He intentionally didn’t hit them in the head. He wanted them alert.

  He began laughing as he looked at the three men lying there. He started throwing all of their belongings off the cliff. All that was left at the end were their shoes. He threw each shoe from the cliff as far as he could. He turned back to them after the last shoe went sailing over the cliff and said, “Can’t you guys take a joke?” and he laughed uncontrollably. “Where’s your sense of humor?” He gave each man another whack with his stick and went walking up the trail laughing.

  Chapter 22

  Chaco stopped after a couple of miles to review a road map that he had taken from Dr. Ortiz. He knew exactly where he was in relation to the Inca trail he was on but he had no memory of where the road leading back to Lima might be. He was pretty sure that the roadway probably followed an old Inca road that was built hundreds of years ago. He only had five days to get back to the school in order to make the flight to America. His mind didn’t want to deal with the thought that Dr. Manuel might be involved in this.

  There it is…..Albancay, about twelve miles away. I was right, he thought, we used to travel to the coast on that road. It was the shortest route. First though, I’m going to head toward Machu Pichu. Several miles from there is a tambo and it should still have a large quantity of gold.

  Usually the tambo was filled with supplies and used as a shelter when the Sapa and his entourage traveled. This tambo had a large amount of gold that was moved there for safekeeping. Hopefully no one has found it, thought Chaco, as if it was just yesterday.

  Chaco was amazed at his endurance. He had stopped earlier in one of the valleys where he had found a coca plant and had been chewing the leaves since then. He knew that his Chasqui, messengers chewed the coca leaves for extra energy as they ran throughout the empire delivering messages.

  I remember running with Ronpa for three hundred miles once to deliver an important message for the military. I was still very young but I stayed with him. It might be one of my best memories.

  Chaco broke into a slow run. His Inca heritage of living at high altitudes had given him the advantage of greater lung capacity than other men. His heart rate was slower and he had double the amount of hemoglobin in his blood which transfers oxygen from his lungs to the rest of his body. After a couple of miles he stopped and sat down beside the trail.

  How is this possible? I am running like an Inca could have run five hundred years ago. I haven’t been living high up in the Andes. I shouldn’t be able to do this. I have all the memories of the Sapa and it appears that I also have his physical abilities. Chaco took off running again. He planned to stay overnight at the tambo.

  It was an hour before dark when he arrived at the split in the road. Everything looked very different. He had to break trail for about a hundred feet to reach the exact location of the tambo. He knew he was in the right location and started a thorough investigation of the area. Chaco wasn’t having much luck at first and took a step back to get a broader picture of the area. His eyes picked up on a visual disturbance in the air that no one else would have understood. It led him to the door. It wasn’t long before Chaco had his hand in the perfect location and the door vanished.

  Light filled the cave as he entered. To his surprise he saw where a fellow Inca had laid down and died. Chaco gathered his bones and buried him with a proper Inca burial. He positioned the bones as best as he could, facing the rising sun, a symbol of rebirth.

  The cave was designed similar to the one he had found a few weeks earlier. He quickly surveyed the cave. He still hadn’t found the gold. He sat down and cleared his mind and remembered back to many centuries before.

  We needed the gold in a safe place where the Spanish couldn’t find it. We doubted that they would ever discover the secret to the Inca door. They were a sorrowful bunch with vicious fighters but not real smart. To them gold was everything. Now I remember…..

  The light in the cave was still very bright when Chaco went to a far corner. There was nothing in the corner and nobody else would have even thought to search there. It had been forever since he had done this. He took his hand and ran it over the entire wall and floor of the corner of the room. There was nothing to be found. He stepped back and stared toward the corner. A few seconds later he saw it. The light and space together created a naturally invisible hiding place. When he was Supa five hundred years earlier he had discovered this fluke of physics. There were invisible pockets of space everywhere. The eye couldn’t naturally see them. He had been lucky to find one in the first place and from then on he had trained his mind to see them wherever they might occur. The memory was clear now and he wouldn’t forget it.

/>   Chaco found the weak spot in the distortion and was able to pull several boxes out. They were full of gold items such as amulets, jewelry, vessels, figures, masks, knives, coins, ceremonial objects and many other gold pieces from the royal family.

  Memories came flooding back to Chaco. The Supa lives…and lives through these memories…..and he was awakening.

  Chaco ate some of the food he had taken from Dr.Ortiz and his men and then fell asleep in the Inca chamber.

  Chapter 23

  In the morning Chaco returned the gold to its hiding place except for a few gold coins he was taking with him. He reset the door and left for Albancay and then on to Lima. The weather was rainy the whole way and the mountainous trail was slick. He made good time anyway and by late afternoon he was on the outskirts of Albancay. He found the bus station in the small town. It was posted that the bus wouldn’t leave until the next morning. He slept in a doorway that night and was disturbed only once. He just had to throw a rock at a bum and then he was left alone. The bus arrived early the next morning.

  Chaco paid with some of the nuevo sol that he had taken from Dr. Ortiz. The bus was jam-packed and the scenery was spectacular. It arrived in Lima at four in the morning. He was leery about walking the streets, instead he ran without stopping all the way back to the International School. The gate was closed so Chaco crawled into the bushes and hid until the school opened in the morning.

  The guard admitted him at first light and he hurried to his small room. He was so happy to be back. He was leaving tomorrow night for America and hoped that Professor Manuel wasn’t involved with Dr. Ortiz.

  Chaco had just stretched out on his bed when in walked Professor Manuel.

  “There you are young man. Where have you been? Nobody has seen you for several days. Do you still want to go to America tomorrow?”

  “I’m sorry Professor Manuel for being gone so long.” Chaco quickly thought about whether to tell the truth or not and decided against it. “I went to Cuzco for a couple of days and between the weather and the buses it took me forever to get back home. Please take me to America. It is all that I have been thinking about.”

  The professor placed his hand on his chin for a second. “Alright, I’ll take you but it is imperative that you keep me informed of where you are at all times.”

  “Thank you, sir. I’ll do exactly as you say.”

  “Do you think that you can get yourself to the airport tomorrow? I have several meetings to attend all over Lima and will be going straight to the airport after my last meeting.”

  “Yes I can.”

  “Do you have money for the bus or a taxi?”

  “Yes sir, I do.”

  “Good enough then, I’ll see you at the airport at Peruvian Airlines ticket gate at five tomorrow afternoon. Don’t be late. I’ll have your ticket and passport with me.”

  “Yes Professor, I’ll be there.”

  “Now make sure that you wear the new clothes that we bought and clean yourself up, you look a mess. It’ll take forty minutes to get to the airport so allow enough time.” The professor turned and left the room.

  Chaco was relieved. It seemed that Professor Manuel wasn’t aware of what had transpired the last few days. He fell back on his bed exhausted.

  Chapter 24

  Dr. Ortiz and his men spent two miserable days getting back to Cuzco. Between almost freezing to death the first night and walking without shoes they were a wretched bunch. Luckily, a tour bus was near their car and they were able to get a ride down the mountain. Their wallets, cell phones and everything else had been thrown off the cliff. Dr. Ortiz was known in Cuzco and was able to get immediate help when he arrived at the hospital. They all spent two days in the hospital before flying back to Lima.

  “No more screwing around with this kid,” Dr. Ortiz stated. “We’ll beat the information out of him and leave him up there tied to a tree and see how he likes it.”

  They pulled up in front of the school and Dr. Ortiz and his men went to see Professor Manuel.

  “I’m sorry, Dr. Ortiz, Professor Manuel isn’t here. He is leaving later today for Boston. You can reach him on his cell phone,” said the professor’s assistant.

  “I’ll call him later. Could you tell me where Chaco might be? I need to talk to him.”

  “He should still be in his room. I’ll take you there.”

  “Oh, that’s fine. I know where it is.”

  Dr. Ortiz went through the lobby with his two men following. They still weren’t sure how to get Chaco out of the school.

  Chaco was on the way back to his room when he saw them. He couldn’t believe that they were back already. He had thought about killing them and maybe he should have. He stepped back around the corner and peeked out. They were heading toward his room. His stuff was in his room and he had to have it for his flight later that day. Chaco hurried back to the library where he thought he would be safe. He found a table in the back of the library where he could see anyone that came into the room. His mind drifted for a few minutes. During this time his eyes caught a glimmer of a disturbance in the light near the water fountain. He stared at it for a minute. One moment it seemed different and then the next he could see nothing. Chaco hurried across the room. No one was nearby, so he took his hand and touched the wall. Everything seemed normal and then he saw the shadow created by the variance between the light and the dead space it was concealing.

  Wow, I can’t believe this. I’ve found another hiding place just like the one near Machu Pichu. I wonder if I can get in there, and then he stopped. I hope there is enough air to breathe. He took a deep breath, turned sideways and slipped into the shadow. The entrance was tight. He could feel pressure against his chest and legs. He found that he had to bend down in order to get his head through. He took a deep breath and held it until he was sure there was plenty of air. As soon as he went through the opening he could stand up. It was totally dark. Chaco kept his hand at the edge of the shadow where he had entered. He wanted to be sure that he could get back out. This really is dead space.

  Chaco jumped when he heard, “Nobody in here Ortiz. I’ve searched the whole room.”

  I can hear them. Can I see them? Chaco moved his head forward until his face pushed against a hard surface. He strained to see into the room. He could make out three shapes but couldn’t see who they were. They were talking about him.

  Are they ever going to leave, thought Chaco? It had been about five minutes and they had finally decided to go back to his room. Right then, Chaco could see them.

  “What was that?” Sanchez pointed toward Chaco.

  Chaco pulled back quickly.

  Sanchez rushed over toward him. “I would have sworn I saw Chaco standing here.”

  He was a foot away from Chaco.

  “That’s weird. I’ve never seen anything like that before.” All Sanchez could see was the wall. “I wonder if I saw a reflection or something.”

  “You’re crazy, Sanchez. Let’s go,” said Ortiz.

  Sanchez kept looking over his shoulder toward Chaco as he crossed the room.

  When they got in the hallway Sanchez stopped and said, “I’m going to wait here. I think he’s in there.”

  The other two gave him a strange look, shook their heads and left for Chaco’s room.

  Chapter 25

  Chaco waited a few minutes longer to be sure they were gone. A couple of times he would move closer to the exterior of the dead space to see and then back away quickly. He had already learned that he should never get too close. He could see that there were only a few people in the room and no one nearby.

  He stepped through the shadow seam back into the room. Everything looked ok. Chaco hurried across the room to the door. He looked through the door window into the hall and could see two students. He pushed the door open and stepped out.

  Two powerful arms encircled his body with punishing strength. Chaco was helpless.

  “HELP,” Chaco screamed at the top of his voice.

  The two
students down the hall looked toward the scream and then ran into the nearest doorway. Sanchez pulled Chaco down the hall but was confronted in seconds by one of the professors, as well as a security guard running toward them.

  “Let go of that young man!” demanded the professor.

  Sanchez didn’t know what to do.

  The security guard arrived. He had already called for backup.

  Sanchez released his grip. Chaco stepped behind the security guard.

  “What are you doing in the school?” demanded the security guard. Two more guards were quickly approaching.

  “I’m with Dr. Ortiz.” Sanchez turned to walk away but the other guards had come up behind him.

  “What’s going on?” Dr. Ortiz asked one of the kids running by Chaco’s room.

  They got some big guy who was beating up on a student.

  Dr. Ortiz stepped into the hall and could hear the commotion. He ran toward it with Jorge following.

  Things were getting pretty nasty as Dr. Ortiz approached.

  “Let go of my employee,” demanded Dr. Ortiz. “I’ll discipline him for his behavior.”

  “Well his behavior is unacceptable. He will not be allowed on campus again.”

  “I understand. Sanchez, go to the car.” The guard followed Sanchez from the building.

  “I can’t tell you how sorry I am for his behavior. He has always been an exemplary employee.” Ortiz’s eyes searched the crowd that had formed in the hall. He saw Chaco on the fringe slipping away. Their eyes met briefly and then Chaco was gone.

  Chaco hid in the library for an hour before he came out. He carefully approached his room and peeked in. No one was there. Ortiz had trashed his room. He quickly gathered his stuff and put it in his backpack. He retrieved the remaining gold coins hidden in the end of the bedpost and left the room. He was going to the airport earlier than he had expected.