Sink: The Lost World

by Perrin Briar

  And then Rosetta’s breath caught. Her hand covered her mouth. Even the pilot, known for his unflusterability, sat up taller in his seat to look down at the huge crater spread out before them.

  Hundreds of felled trees lay scattered like dominoes, the trunks and boughs bent over at an unnatural angle. The earth had been tossed up like a hastily-made salad, the brown of the soil overturned. It looked like a large bomb had gone off, except there were no burnt trees, no cinders or evidence of fire. Anyone walking along the ground would have thought it had been a landslide.

  But from the air it was clear it could not possibly have been a landslide. The land did not slope down to this location, but was actually on a slight rise. It was a sinkhole. Bryan Angelo had sunk.

  51

  ROOOARRRRR!

  The violent cry burst out over the jungle, made all the more terrifying by the fact it wasn’t far away. Birds took flight from a dozen locations and cawed and hacked at something too large to attack.

  Bryan grabbed Aaron and pulled him behind the shelter of a rock. He peered over it, eyes moving left to right. Then he ducked back down again.

  “Is it there?” Aaron said.

  “No,” Bryan said. “But it’s close.”

  “Where did they go?” Aaron said.

  “I don’t know,” Bryan said.

  His stomach twisted.

  “Come on,” he said. “We have to find them.”

  They retraced their steps, heading back the way they had come, both sets of eyes swiveling in their sockets. Their breaths and footsteps seemed loud in their ears. With the knowledge of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in the jungle, the place took on a sinister edge. It was no longer a land of wonder, but of fear.

  “What if we don’t find them?” Aaron said.

  “We will,” Bryan said.

  “What if we don’t?” Aaron said.

  “We will,” Bryan said.

  But he hoped to God they were still in one piece when they did find them.

  52

  Even standing on Zoe’s shoulders Cassie couldn’t reach the top. The trap had been made for creatures far larger than themselves. The walls of the pit were sheer, dug by hand. Cassie could make out the shovel marks from the tools that had been used. There would have been no escape for them if it hadn’t been for one fortunate twist of fate.

  As the T-Rex had chased them it had knocked aside the trees, making them lean precariously over to one side. They hadn’t been so courteous as to fall into the hole for them, but the vines in their upper reaches hung low, down through the middle of the pit. They were in reach, should Cassie and Zoe be able to perform a trick worthy of a circus act. Currently, Zoe and Cassie stood facing the wall.

  “I’m going to turn around now,” Zoe said.

  She did so very slowly, making tiny shuffling movements. Cassie wobbled, waving her arms to keep balance. She leaned back against the dirt wall, focusing on the hanging vines. They were an imposing distance away. She reached out with one hand, keeping the other firmly on the wall, but she was nowhere near them.

  “I’m going to take a step forward,” Zoe said.

  “No,” Cassie said. “Don’t. I can’t do it.”

  “You can do it,” Zoe said.

  Sweat was already pouring down Zoe’s face, her body shaking under Cassie’s weight.

  “I can’t,” Cassie said. “My balance isn’t good.”

  “We’ll take it slow,” Zoe said. “Hey, relax. I’ll catch you if you fall. And we can try again.”

  Cassie let out a deep breath.

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Ready?” Zoe said. “Here we go.”

  She edged one foot forward, and then the other.

  Cassie’s shoulders were still touching the dirt wall. She pushed herself off it onto her elbows, but standing up straight on the shoulders of a moving person was an impossible task.

  “No!” Cassie said, leaning back. “I can’t! I’m never going to make it.”

  “You can do this,” Zoe said. “You have to do it, otherwise we’re never going to get out of here.”

  Cassie mumbled something to herself, something that sounded like a desperate plea.

  “Wait,” she said. “I just had an idea. What if I kind of fall forward?”

  “What?” Zoe said.

  “You take a few steps forward,” Cassie said. “Then I’ll jump and grab the vine. You would only need to take a few steps.”

  “You could fall and hurt yourself,” Zoe said.

  “If I try and do it this way, by balancing, I’ll definitely hurt myself,” Cassie said.

  “Your father wouldn’t be happy with this,” Zoe said.

  “Well, he’s not here, is he?” Cassie said. “Please. Let’s try it. It’s our only chance.”

  “Okay,” Zoe said uncertainly. “Ready?”

  “Go,” Cassie said.

  Zoe took a deep breath, Cassie’s weight forcing the air from her lungs. She took a step. She could already feel Cassie leaning forward, faster than Zoe was going. Zoe took two more hesitant steps and then felt Cassie bend her knees, preparing to spring. Zoe began to fall, lacking the strength to hold Cassie any longer. Cassie’s shoes pushed against her, forcing her to the ground.

  Cassie sailed through the air. It wasn’t an impressive jump, but it was an accurate one. Her fingers snared the vines. They wrapped around her forearm and then tightened, drawing taut. They caught her weight and swung her up in an arc.

  “Yes!” Zoe said.

  Cassie swung toward the edge of the pit. She reached for it with her foot, but didn’t quite swing far enough. The vines swung in the opposite direction and this time she reached for the opposite side, but was even farther from making it.

  “Swing!” Zoe said. “Swing back and forth! Build momentum!”

  Cassie leaned back and forced her weight down, pushing the swing toward its apex. The tree leaned over dangerously, the trunk creaking under Cassie’s swaying weight. No matter how hard she swung, Cassie couldn’t seem to make the vines swing all the way to the other side. They were too short.

  “I can’t do it,” Cassie said.

  “It’s okay,” Zoe said. “How about you try to climb up the tree instead?”

  Cassie looked up. It was a long climb, and climbing had never been her strong suit. Instead, she concentrated on swinging. She swung back and forth two more times. The branch groaned ominously, and at the apex of the swing, Cassie threw herself from the vines, and toward the edge of the pit. There was a snap behind her as the tree branch broke.

  She had mistimed her jump, leaping too soon. Her stomach hit the pit’s edge. She bounced off it. She began to slide back into the hole. Her hands scrabbled at the grass, twigs, and roots. Anything! She twisted her wrist, locking it tight. The roots caught, and she jolted to a stop. She waited a moment, catching her breath. Her legs dangled inside the pit.

  She pulled herself up, one arm after the other, shaking. Her arms were burning, feeling like they were going to fall off.

  “Are you all right up there?” Zoe said.

  “I’m… I’m fine,” Cassie said, regaining her breath.

  When she was able, she got to her feet. She wrapped one end of a vine around a tree and tossed the other into the pit. Zoe climbed up and joined her.

  “Well done,” Zoe said, slapping her on the shoulder. “Now we just have to find Aaron and your father. I say we head back the way we came. I’m sure that’s what your father will be doing. If we don’t find them, we should head for the cliff face on the other side of the jungle like we originally planned. We’ll meet your father and Aaron there.”

  But Cassie wasn’t paying attention.

  “Uh, Zoe,” she said. “We’ve got company.”

  Zoe turned to find a group of short human-like figures. They had downy hair from head to foot, matching their dark eyes. Their arms were long and muscular, meant for climbing. Their legs were bandy and bow-legged, more ape than man. But there was an
unmistakable intelligence in their eyes.

  “They must have made this trap,” Zoe said in a low voice.

  “Do you think they’re friendly?” Cassie said, not taking her eyes off them.

  “If they’re capable of advanced forethought like making traps they must be intelligent,” Zoe said. “They might be able to help us.”

  One of the apemen approached them. He had a shard of metal protruding from his head. It was embedded at an angle, catching the light and winking at them, like a feather behind an ear of a Native American Indian. He had intelligent eyes, Zoe thought. They were a deep chestnut brown and ran over Zoe and Cassie with curiosity. In her mind, Zoe associated him as the leader.

  The leader sniffed them, cautiously, and then prodded them with his long fingers. His skin was thick, dark and creased, like an ape’s, his fur dirty and tangled with leaves and twigs.

  “Hello,” Zoe said.

  The leader grunted. He took Zoe’s hand and ran a thick sausage-like finger over it. He pulled on Cassie’s arm to bring her down to his level. He looked closely at her face and eyes, fingers investigating her soft skin and long hair.

  “Zoe…” Cassie said.

  “It’s okay,” Zoe said. “Just let him explore you. It’s his way of saying hello.”

  The leader did the same to Zoe, probing her. Then he turned to the other apemen and grunted at them. They stepped forward and poked and probed. Zoe smiled. She was interacting with their ancient ancestors, a dream amongst anthropologists.

  Then the creatures grabbed their arms and legs, and lifted them off their feet. Zoe and Cassie lost their smiles.

  “I thought you said they were friendly?” Cassie said.

  “I’m new here too,” Zoe said. “How should I know?”

  Zoe and Cassie screamed as the apemen carried them up a tree.

  53

  A scream. A pair of them. Bryan and Aaron’s ears pricked up. They ran toward them, vaulting over hedges and ducking under low boughs.

  “Woah!” Bryan said, skidding to a halt.

  He was perched on the edge of a deep square hole. He waved his arms to keep himself from falling in. Aaron came barreling through the undergrowth. He didn’t seem to notice the trap. Bryan grabbed Aaron’s T-shirt. He hung over the side, looking down into the pit. Bryan pulled him back. Aaron landed on his backside.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “You’re welcome,” Bryan said.

  “Do you think they fell into the trap?” Aaron said.

  “I don’t know,” Bryan said. “Maybe.”

  “They screamed,” Aaron said. “Where are they now?”

  Bryan squinted at something on the other side of the trap.

  “What’s that?” he said.

  He headed around the trap and knelt down. There were footprints in the shape of shoe soles, clearly Zoe and Cassie’s boots. And surrounding them, dozens of bare feet.

  “There must be a human tribe here somewhere,” Aaron said.

  “A tribe?” Bryan said.

  He thought back to the footprint he and Zoe had discovered beside the lake.

  “You would have thought we’d have seen something of them though, wouldn’t you?” Aaron said.

  Bryan wet his lips.

  “Well, actually, we have,” he said. “Your mother and I didn’t want to worry you and Cassie, but at the lake we washed in yesterday we found a human-like footprint.”

  Aaron came to a stop.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” he said.

  “We didn’t want to scare you,” Bryan said.

  Aaron frowned, shaking his head with obvious annoyance. Then he shrugged his shoulders. He smiled.

  “You didn’t want to scare us, and we didn’t want to scare you about the dinosaurs,” he said. “I suppose we’re all just a bunch of scaredy cats.”

  Bryan chuckled.

  “I suppose we are,” he said. “But with dinosaurs running around, and acid lakes to contend with, I suppose we’ve got good reason to be.”

  “Are these like the footprints you saw around the lake?” Aaron said.

  “I think so,” Bryan said. “They must be. How many types of human could be here?”

  They followed the prints, but they only led to a nearby tree.

  “Where did they go?” Aaron said.

  “I’d say they went up this tree,” Bryan said.

  They both peered up it, expecting a treehouse or some other abode, but nothing was there.

  “Now what?” Bryan said.

  Aaron crouched down to poke at some fallen leaves and broken twigs.

  “I think they carried them away,” he said.

  “Carried them?” Bryan said. “Carried them where?”

  “That’s what we have to go figure out,” Aaron said. “Come on.”

  54

  They took off at a jog, following the trail of falling leaves. They stopped and went back on themselves several times until Aaron was certain they were heading in the right direction. To Bryan it looked like a random collection of foliage, but to Aaron they told a story.

  There was a honk from their right, and when they went to look what it was, found a herd of grazing dinosaurs. Maybe it was the same group as before. They had their heads down, munching.

  They pressed on, the jungle unspooling before them, winding around giant trees and brightly colored flowers. Just when Bryan was about to give up and say they should head back to the trap, Aaron pulled a bush apart.

  Before them was a settlement, a large village of furry inhabitants. The caves were ordered in a geometric pattern. Small mouse-like holes ran along the bottom of the cliff, and above them, approximately ten feet higher, were more holes. It looked like a block of Swiss cheese. Figures moved in and out of the caves like ants on an anthill.

  A good number of the females carried babies, more like chimps, in their arms, playing with them, feeding them. A group of males hammered at flint, making it sharp and pointy. Others affixed them to long straight shafts of wood that other apemen were shaving from tree trunks. Bryan recognized what he was looking at. A factory processing line. They were making weapons.

  There was hooting and growling as a group of apemen entered the village.

  Bryan’s heart rose into his throat. He recognized two of the figures immediately. They were being pushed along and cajoled by the village population. Bryan stood up, exposing himself to the apemen if they were to turn in his direction.

  “Get down!” Aaron hissed.

  “Your mother and Cassie need our help,” Bryan said.

  “We’re not going to help them by getting ourselves captured!” Aaron said.

  Bryan hesitated before sitting back down. Aaron peered out at the village. No one appeared to have noticed Bryan.

  The apemen tossed Zoe and Cassie into one of the caves. A grated door slid down and slammed into place.

  “We need to come up with an idea of how to rescue them,” Bryan said. “Some way of springing them free from the village without any of the apemen knowing.”

  “My dad would know what to do,” Aaron said.

  “Unfortunately he’s not here,” Bryan said. “It’s just you and me. We could cause a distraction, then run in and break them free. But it would need to be something big to keep them all busy.”

  The words froze on his tongue, his eyes glazing over with thought.

  “You’ve got an idea?” Aaron said.

  “Part of one,” Bryan said. “But we’ll have to wait until nightfall before we can execute it effectively.”

  “What do we do until then?” Aaron said.

  “We wait,” Bryan said.

  55

  Their cold leathery hands gripped tight and made red marks on Cassie and Zoe’s soft skin. Their rough fur made them itch. The foliage slapped them across the face, leaving dark welts. Disorientated and out of breath, they were tossed to the ground before a large gang of apemen. They screamed and yelled, flashing out and smacking Zoe and Cassie across the body and
legs. Their escorts halfheartedly kept the aggressors at bay before tossing Zoe and Cassie into a cell. The grated door slammed into place.

  The apemen and women became quiet almost immediately, and returned to their previous chores, hobbling on awkward bowed legs.

  Zoe hugged Cassie close.

  “Are you all right?” she said.

  “I’ve been better,” Cassie said.

  She smiled, causing her to flinch. She had a cut across one cheek. Zoe unshouldered her backpack and took out some water. She began to clean Cassie’s face.

  “I’m sorry for all this,” Zoe said. “If I hadn’t been determined to take photos, the stampede wouldn’t have happened, we wouldn’t have gotten split up, and we wouldn’t be here.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Cassie said.

  She hissed between her teeth as Zoe dabbed at her face.

  “During all this we never really got to talk, did we?” Cassie said.

  “With your face swollen like this, I don’t think you’ll be able to,” Zoe said.

  “I’ll be all right,” Cassie said. “How did you and Dad meet?”

  “Are you sure you’re going to listen to me this time?” Zoe said. “Last time you asked me that question you were busy painting your face with food.”

  “Sorry about that,” Cassie said.

  “I can understand why it’s difficult for you to see your father getting close to another woman,” Zoe said. “I get it. But you should get to know me a little. I’m not so bad.”

  Cassie shrugged.

  “We met at work,” Zoe said. “Your father needed research done on a series of potential new fracking sites. I was called in.”

  “Did you get on well right away?” Cassie said.

  “No,” Zoe said. “He represented the Man. I was determined for us not to get on well. It was a business relationship.”

  “When did you start liking him?” Cassie said.

  “When he started opening up to me,” Zoe said. “When he dropped his persona and showed me who he really was.”