“If it did,” Gabriel thought, “It would think me a coward for turning back now, and I am no coward. Gabriel glanced from the blackness within the mysterious hole to the other two men who were with him. “Let’s go in,” he said in a reassuring voice. The two other men hesitantly agreed as their minds turned from the horror that could be within the cave to a hope that their fears were exaggerated. “Did you guys bring climbing rope?” he asked.
“Yeah, we have two hundred feet in the back of the trunk. Are you going to do some climbing?” one prospector replied.
“Maybe,” Gabriel answered. “Give me the keys,” he demanded smoothly.
The other prospector produced a set of keys from his pocket and handed it to Gabriel. He and his cohort’s face told the story of two men completely out of their element embarking on a journey they never expected. This was supposed to be a simple scouting trip, not a life-changing experience. Gabriel’s face told a much different story. He was ready for anything. In less than five minutes he had scaled back up to the truck, retrieved the rope, and was back at the entrance.
Gabriel resumed his previous position gazing into the unknown of the cavern. As he had always done for as long as he could remember and as his father had continually shown him throughout his childhood, he took a deep breath. He imagined himself as a cave filling with air. As he exhaled, his body relaxed and his mind became still. “It’s time,” he thought to himself. Then, he entered.
Every cave has its own character, a history all to itself. It is a universe within a universe. This one was different. Although the terrain surrounding it was dry, the inside of the cave was moist. While most caves grow colder the farther one ventures inside, this one seemed to get slightly warmer.
“Bats,” Gabriel thought to himself not wanting to frighten the two men cautiously yet clumsily following behind him.
One of the men trailing the scout pointed his flashlight at the floor, examined his boots, and wondered, “What is this stuff?”
Gabriel quickly replied as if expecting the commotion, “Bat guano.”
As he did, the other man doing his best to keep up despite the already slow pace nearly slipped while maneuvering to get a better look at the cave floor.
“Try walking on your toes,” Gabriel suggested. “Don’t walk flat-footed,” he added.
Gabriel gracefully executed a three-point jump down a small and sudden drop carefully yet confidently finding one rock with his right foot, a tiny groove in the opposite wall with his left, and finally landing back on the right five feet below the place he started. The two clods behind him focused their flashlight on him as he nearly vanished from their sight.
“We can’t do that,” one exclaimed.
“I’ll help you,” Gabriel reassured them.
“Spider!” the other prospector shrieked with flashlight steady on the wall.
Gabriel never once grew impatient with the men and said, “It’s not poisonous. It won’t hurt you.” His charisma and confidence would have to suffice for all three of them. Turning his attention to the first man, Gabriel carefully directed him to turn around, hold onto the ledge, and slide down. When both men had descended, Gabriel swiftly turned to proceed. Filth and sweat now clung to all three men.
One of the prospectors turned back to the ledge, and protested, “How are we going to get back?”
Without flinching, Gabriel murmured determinedly, “We’ll get back.” The two prospectors hesitated, growing tired of the adventure. After not hearing any footsteps behind him, Gabriel looked back at the two unwilling men, and said, “Don’t you want your samples?”
Reluctantly, the two began to follow. The farther they went into the cave, the more they felt committed to it. The prospectors were consumed by their desire for promotion and glory, but Gabriel was driven by something else. Even he couldn’t entirely understand it. He felt compelled to finish what he started, although he didn’t truly understand what that meant, yet. The work had evolved into more than a simple job to better the lives of his wife and son. He was on a quest.
The men carved a path deep into the Earth. At one point they were forced to repel the rope nearly twenty feet into an open area of unknown size. The sound of bats overhead was accompanied by the dripping of spring water from ancient stalactites.
One of the prospectors finally came to his senses and offered gasping for breath, “This is good, Gabriel. Let’s just take something here. I’m getting claustrophobic.” He looked back at the ledge some twenty feet overhead and added, “Hell, I don’t even know if we can make it back.”
“You’ll make it back. I know the way,” Gabriel assured them half not knowing why he was persisting.
“Al’s right, Gabe. We gotta turn back. Who knows what’s down there,” the other motioned on ahead into the blackness. “It isn’t safe.”
Gabriel replied, “Then I’ll go on without you.” And, he swiveled to continue. The scout walked a short while before he was out of sight around another corner.
The two quickly found themselves without much of a plan for climbing back up without Gabriel, and decided to forge ahead, but it was too late. Gabriel had vanished. As the two men hastened forward, a second tunnel evaded them. They walk past the path Gabriel had taken and down another dark and musty corridor.
“Gabriel!” they began to call, their voices reverberating maddeningly all around them. “Gabriel! Gabriel!” they continued, “Where’d he go?” The prospectors were getting desperate. “How could we have lost him?” “Gabriel!”
Down the other path, Gabriel heard their frantic cries for help. He doubled back quietly so as not to confuse the lost prospectors even more. In a cave like this one, once someone is out of sight, they could be in any direction judging by the sound of their voice. While Gabriel was not an avid spelunker, he knew enough about exploration to understand that the most important tactic for staying alive is to remain calm. As he got closer, another sound echoed around the men. It was a human scream. There was a distant cry of pain somewhere ahead of the prospectors.
“What the hell was that?” one prospector exclaimed.
Gabriel froze when he heard the wail and turned his light off. All of his senses gave way to his ears. Even his eyes seemed to fade from his awareness. The next sounds he heard terrified him. More screams. It was his two companions. There were horrific echoes that filled the cavern as the men sounded like they were involved in an altercation somewhere close by. Rocks tore loose. Then nothing. Only the faint sound of something large that was being dragged slowly and continuously.
“There’s something out there,” Gabriel thought to himself. “Those men may be dead, but I have to make sure,” he concluded. He wanted to escape, but his feet were already making their way toward the dragging sound. He could hear a rapid exhale as if a horse were before him. He crept carefully along the wall to the intersection where the prospectors lost his trail. There were no more sounds coming from beyond the corner behind which Gabriel hid cautiously in the dark. Gabriel felt a heavy breath on his face. Something had found him. He could feel a thin wet flicker upon his lips. Gabriel turned on his light.
Only inches from his face was the head of a giant lizard resembling the komodo dragons he had read about in books. The beast was covered in large, shiny scales of brilliant color. It rose to stand upright and revealed itself to have the body of an extremely powerful man with the exception that it only had four claws on its hands. Skin around its head appeared to open like a cobra’s cape. Its eyes had golden, circular corneas that peered back at Gabriel with an intense understanding. In an instant, it placed its giant paw over Gabriel’s face and pulled him along toward where the prospectors lay. During the ordeal Gabriel could hear the beast’s thoughts in his mind. The thoughts invaded in rapid succession.
“You are different. We’ve got you now. There is no escape from this place, Gabriel. You are a fool to have come here...”
Gabriel tried to scream in pain as he held onto the beast’s forearm with both
hands to keep it from ripping his entire face off as he was dragged into the den. The beast lifted Gabriel with one quick movement and placed him on a stone alter in the center of a dimly lit room. The walls of the room were smooth as if they were carved or melted into the stone. Large tiles were submerged into the walls that appeared to glow in slowly alternating blue, red, and yellow florescent hues. Two more beasts were waiting at the plain stone alter to subdue the fresh meat. One was slightly different from the first, with a dark red protruding gullet. The other was smaller than the others, but just as strong. They beamed projections into his head.
“If you move, we will kill you.”
He could tell they meant it. He could feel the blood running down his face from the puncture wounds. He didn’t dare move his body now held in place by the lizard men, but glanced with only eyes toward the beast that had brought him there. That one had his back turned to Gabriel, but he could tell it was eating something. “The men,” he thought. With quick jerky movements, it ripped flesh from bone and spewed blood on the walls.
The other large beast was pinning Gabriel to the stone slab with its powerful talons. It positioned its face before the man’s. “You’re next,” it projected. Both creatures appeared to be fascinated and pleased with Gabriel’s sense of terror. They enjoyed watching him squirm.
“They’re reading my thoughts,” Gabriel concluded.
“Good,” one remarked without moving his mouth. “You are different. Perhaps we may have some use for you.”
The two reptilian guards gazed at each other apparently communicating something in secret. The beast’s grip had lessened. Gabriel saw what might be his only chance to escape. His mind slowed, and his inner voice quickly developed a simple plan. With the beasts preoccupied, he brought his hand up into the beast’s forearm giving him just enough room to roll his body off the stone slab. In what was one long and smooth movement, Gabriel found his feet and rushed through the doorway from where he had arrived. His body and mind were filled with clarity and power. It was a sudden rush he was not expecting, but truly needed to survive the ordeal if that was at all possible. All fear exited him, and he had found the steep assent to the path out of the cave so quickly that he even impressed himself. All the while he could hear movement behind him. Exhales. Rocks moving about in the darkness. Claws reaching for his ascending feet.
Another voice entered his perception. “Climb!” it demanded. And he did. Gabriel had climbed small mountains before but never in the dark, and never under circumstances like these. Astoundingly, his hands and feet felt like they remembered where to go. In a less than ten seconds, he had ascended the twenty-foot rock face. From behind him, he could hear the beasts attempting to climb the wall. The size of their bodies and shape of their claws made it nearly impossible, though. Gabriel heard large chunks of rock falling under him.
He felt the beasts’ disappointment with loosing their catch. They projected again into his mind, “You cannot escape us, Gabriel. We know who you are. We know everything. You are doomed.”
At the top of the vertical rock wall, Gabriel suddenly felt the muscles in his arms and hands begin to burn from the climb. He gasped for breath, but didn’t dare stop his rush toward the exit. Although his eyes couldn’t see, his mind remembered the way. It was as though his memory was unlocked somehow. Without time to question how this could happen, he moved like he was a cave beast himself. It did not take him long to reach the light.
Once outside, he finally rested. The sun was fading fast. He had been beneath the earth for more than twelve hours. Now covered in filth, dried, and still fresh blood and sweat, it took all his remaining strength to reach the place where the truck was parked. The truck, however, was gone. Gabriel searched the dirt for answers to its disappearance, and he found another set of tire tracks.
“Someone towed it?” he concluded. “But, why would anyone tow a car in the middle of the wilderness? How did they even find it?” His mind was again racing. Perhaps he was not yet safe after all.
“You cannot escape us,” a thought came uninvited into his brain. It was the beast. He recognized it.
“They can reach me even here,” he thought.
“There is no where you can hide from us,” it continued. “You are stupid. You are a coward. You think you’re special? You should have accepted your fate, but now you’re doomed…”
“No!” Gabriel protested his hands now holding his bruised and pain-filled face. The beasts were not only projecting thoughts into his mind, but also feelings. He was overcome with remorse for leaving the other two men behind. “It’s my fault,” he suddenly believed. “I killed them.”
Gabriel fell back against large rock resigning himself to his fate. He was exhausted. As the sun set on the North Dakota scenery, so too was the sun setting on his life. It would all be over soon. He exhaled and looked up at the now visible moon in the center of the sky.
“No,” he thought. Another voice soothed him. “It is not your fault,” he understood. “Those men followed you out of their own freewill, and you could not have known what was down there.”
Gabriel felt a sense of calm return to him. He was invigorated. In gratitude for the relief from the beasts’ interference, tears rolled down his cheek.
“Now, get up,” he thought. “You can do this”.
With his legs still shaking and his hands now numb with pain, he managed to stand. It was nearly dark now, and the crickets were beginning to share their voices with the world. Every step brought new pain to the young man as the adrenalin wore off. His mind was now an objective observer to the alternating thoughts that would come and go in his head. He kept his eyes fixed on the setting sun. His home was to the west.
Chapter 4: A New Way of Thinking
“You made it. You’re alive,” he thought.
“Good for you,” it continued. “Now you can go and ruin more lives.”
“It’s not true. You are a good person,” his thoughts conflicted with themselves.
Eventually, he was something beyond his thoughts, and the contradictory tones and feelings were only strangers that came and went. What the truth was now, he couldn’t tell with absolute certainty. All that kept him from giving in to the torture was the memory of the beasts. Now that he knew their tactics, he could differentiate between them and himself. After walking for almost five hours, he saw the lights of a diner on the highway. Gabriel had ventured inside more than once for a glass of water or cup of coffee. He only tried the food once, and it made it him sick. He preferred wild game and homegrown fruits and vegetables to processed ingredients.
The diner had its typical evening guests spread throughout the confined, neon-lit space: the waitress of twenty years, Wendy, a table of three truckers pretending to enjoy a flavorless meal, a few travelers who had happened upon the place as they passed through to somewhere better. Gabriel appeared a disgusting mess to them all. Everyone made a point of acting shocked to see such a sight. Wendy’s jaw dropped, and she was unable to continue pouring coffee.
“Hi, hon,” she exclaimed, “What happened to you? You get in a fight or somethin?”
“Something like that,” Gabriel replied as he limped inside. “Can I have some water, Wendy?” he requested.
“Sure, sweetie,” she reassured him.
Gabriel made it to the safety of the bar seat before allowing his body to relax. Wendy poured a glass of cold ice water into a small, plastic cup and set it in front of Gabriel.
“Gabriel,” she thought as she chewed her tasteless gum. She was impressed with herself that she remembered his name. It just popped into her head. Normally, she calls everyone “sweetie” to make her life easier. It was a tactic to make better tips while remaining distant at the same time. She believed it was her job to make people feel special, and until that night, she had been sleep walking through her life. She had been only a persona she had created for herself unable to remember the person beneath the costume. In this moment, however, she felt different. She felt purpos
e in her life.
Although it was difficult to drink ice water quickly, Gabriel forced himself to ingest most of the second glass before he put the cup down. “Thank you, Wendy,” he offered his new friend. Noticing her worried expression as she looked around the room, Gabriel turned his attention to the three truckers at the table by the window. All three were glaring menacingly at the new arrival. He could tell they had some disturbing thoughts bothering them, and he felt it had everything to do with him.
“They’re gonna kick your ass,” he thought. It was the beast. He could clearly identify its frequency.
“Get out of there,” was his next inclination.
Without looking back to Wendy, Gabriel followed his instinct, and left the diner as subtly as he could despite the unwelcomed attention he was attracting. As he slipped through the door, his eyes met the travelers sitting on the other side of the diner. Both were staring at him with contempt. He had never met any of these people. “What is going on?” he wondered.
“Keep moving,” a new thought guided him, “To the other side of the highway.”
By the time he had carried his bruised and aching body to the other side of the road, the three truckers had reached the door. Gabriel could only watch in disbelief as they appeared to be tracking him with ill intent. He looked up at the sky. “What now?” he thought. A voice in his head returned an answer, “Just wait.”
Over a hill in the distance, the lights of a vehicle suddenly appeared. Before the truckers could cross to Gabriel, a van stopped right in front of him. The sliding door opened abruptly revealing a passenger in his early fifties with a disheveled beard and long natty hair that hadn’t brushed for a very long time. His tiny glasses hung down around the tip of his thin nose. He sported a sweatband around his forehead.
Anunnaki Volume One: Rise of the Warrior Page 2
