It was getting dark now; the horizon behind which the red dwarf sun had set, was ablaze with the colors painted upon swiftly advancing clouds, the bottoms of which were black and ominous looking. Inside the cavity, it was dark, totally dark. All six had already adjusted their eyes and were looking over the edge of the cliff.
Dave was the first to turn around. Behind them, the interior wall of the cavity was still crumbling. Dave watched as a dark spot began to appear in the shadows on the wall like the opening of a great dark eye.
"Excuse me," Dave said loud enough to get everyone's attention. Everyone looked back at him and followed his line of sight to the aperture that was growing in the wall.
Ultimately, a hole almost a meter in diameter yawned before them. Dave peered in, alternating his vision through several wave lengths. In passive mode, he could see as far as the remaining light from the outside shown in. Beyond that, all was darkness. What he could see was a large tunnel, rather smooth and round, it had no doubt been cut by centuries of quickly flowing water. The tunnel was not dry, but it had obviously not seen water roar through it recently.
"Let's go," Dave ordered.
"In there?" Cassie asked.
"Hon, we haven't much choice," Mitch pointed out.
Dave stepped into the opening and advanced a few meters. Turning around, he came to a better understanding. He was standing inside a natural drain, perhaps the result of some sinkhole above. From where he entered the tunnel, it went directly into the cliff from a descending angle of about eight degrees. Looking back at the opening in the wall, he could see that, originally, this was where the water exited the cliff. But at some point, the boulder, which had fallen from the ceiling, blocked the exit and redirected the water. The water cut a new channel, which headed off to his right and down at a much steeper angle.
With everyone inside, Dave pointed these facts out. Kathy instantly pointed to the shaft that descended. "That way."
"Ma'am, won't that make our trip back to New Roanoke a lot longer?" Zolna asked.
"It would, were we going there."
"Ma'am?" Zolna was puzzled. "I thought you were sent to rescue us? I'm done with these woods and the weird things that live in them. I want to go home to New Roanoke."
She glanced back and forth between Dave and Zolna as she explained. "My mission is to make contact with the Indigs and establish negotiations in an effort to prevent open war. The general suggested that should I stumble across you, it would be icing on the cake if I could bring you back." She then looked at Dave alone. "I wasn’t gonna go back without you. Ah…either of you. So, I hope you understand, but we're going down to the valley floor to find…what did you call them, Dave, the E'meset?"
They turned and slowly made their way down the damp and often slippery slope. Dave filled Kathy in on his and Zolna's time at Le'ha's cave. "They want peace as badly as we do, but they don't believe anything we, the Ukse, tell them anymore. Le'ha told me they will no longer submit to treatment at the clinic where they believe we are drinking their blood. I think she trusted me because I showed her I'm a SUB and don't require blood; perhaps she doesn't even think I'm human."
"Drinking their blood? What do you think is going on in there that makes them believe we're vampires?"
"I wish I knew," Dave mumbled.
Everyone walked in silence a few minutes then Cassie bemoaned, "It's so dark in here. I can't see a thing. Infrared doesn't work…everything is the same temp."
“With our night vision capability,” Mitch lamented, “we never considered bringing a flashlight.”
“Who could have foreseen such total darkness?” Kathy responded.
“Everyone, if you turned your identifiers off, turn them back on, at least we’ll know where each of us is located.” Dave instructed.
As quickly as was prudent in this darkness, they picked their way down the tunnel. They had descended about a hundred and fifty meters when Kathy called, "Stop!"
"What is it?" Dave whispered.
"Dave…up ahead, do you see that?"
Dave had been in the infrared mode and was seeing nothing. He switched to passive, and there it was…a dim light some distance ahead. "Hold it! Dave almost shouted. Everyone, wait here," Dave then moved forward alone.
"Dave, wait!" Kathy demanded but Dave went on. As he got closer to the light, he could see that it was coming from around a sharp left turn. He rounded the corner, cautiously, his weapon at the ready, and there between two layers of stone on the wall to his left shone a ten-meter-long vein of glowing stone.
Dave called out, "It's okay, come on down!"
Before long they had all joined Dave around the corner and were standing in awe before the glowing layer of rock.
"What is it?" Cassie asked.
"It's called Volessa Eya'Etee Ki Kee, mother's light; it's what the E'meset use to illuminate their cave," Dave explained.
Dave and the others picked up loose stones from the floor and attacked the wall. Soon, each was carrying a softball-sized chunk of Volessa and their way became illuminated.
Now they were making much better time as they descended toward what they hoped would be the valley below.
After nearly forty-five minutes of trekking down this very serpentine tunnel, Dave noted that each footstep was now making a splashing noise. He slowed and examined the floor. The puddles were much larger and tiny streamlets of water criss-crossed the floor like a liquid spider's web. He was about to say something when Mitch, who was bringing up the rear said, "Hey, does everyone hear that?"
There was a very distant sound, like some large engine running at full speed. Or perhaps the sound of a stampeding herd of those mammoth T'Pu Iya like Zolna had killed. The realization struck Dave like a hard fist. He turned and shouted, "Run! As fast as you can, run!"
Chapter 12
Spiders in the Woods
"What is it?" Kathy shouted as they ran down the tunnel.
"That roar is the sound of millions of liters of water rushing down the tunnel toward us!"
"Water, where did that much water come from?"
"It must be raining up there. Remember those clouds?"
Kathy glanced over her shoulder to see the tunnel fill with a raging wall of white water. There wasn't the remotest chance they were going to outrun that juggernaut.
The torrent picked them up like tiny corks and they began to hurtle along with the water spinning, bobbing, rotating. From within the tumult of water, stones and other debris struck them, and all around, the walls of the cave threatened to crush them as they were hurtled forward.
Through his COMde, Dave told them all to swim into the center of the channel and stay together. Staying together, even swimming, was a challenge too great to meet. Dave, for one, never underestimated the power of water. Hydraulics generated power to run cities, move mountains, and sculpt planets.
○O○
Through the murky water, Kathy could just see Dave's glowing stone which revealed Dave as a shadow, and of course, his identifier. She watched helplessly as from his right, the tunnel wall came out of the cloudy liquid and he slammed hard into it. He dropped his Volessa stone and the current whisked it away. Simultaneously, his identifier blinked out. Over her COMde, she shouted. "Dave, are you all right?"
"Yeah, you?" Dave's communication was weak and broken.
"Damn it, Major, I want a status report, now!"
"Ma'am. I hit the wall. I've lost control of my right arm," Kathy could hardly hear him as he spoke; his transmission seemed to be fading out.
"I'm coming for you Dave. Do you see me?"
"I think so."
"Then guide me to you!"
Despite her best effort, she knew she would not be able to reach him.
○O○
The first sensation was the release of pressure on his body followed by the feeling of falling. The water had burst out of the cliff face about fourteen meters above the now swollen river.
During the fall, Dave tried to count his comp
anions as they fell from the cliff. He saw three before he hit the river.
The river, too, was surging, roiling its way toward the south. Dave had no control. Being a SUB, he did not need to fight for air so he just went with the flow, trying not to impact anything else.
Eventually, Dave floated into an eddy and then into a still pool. Slowly, with his left arm, he swam toward the bank. Through his passive sight, he could see the bank was steep, so he'd have to look for another way out.
Dave reached the bank and was following it to his right, hoping to find a limb or tree trunk, perhaps a low spot, some place where he could pull himself out of the water. Just then, something grabbed him, jerked him out of the water, and dropped him onto the ground.
○O○
Kathy was straining hard to see with her infrared vision through the dark water within the tunnel, she thought she could see Dave; he appeared to be upside down. In a fraction of a second, she felt herself thrown into the air and falling. She impacted the water of the river hard and arched down to the bottom. She was about to kick off of a slime-covered boulder when she saw Cassie, who was stuck on the bottom, her foot wedged between some rocks. Kathy swam over to help just as Sergeant Webster arrived to assist. Shortly, they had Cassie's foot freed and all three of them came to the surface.
With her infrared vision, Kathy could see two other persons swimming toward them, away from the mighty cataract that brought them here. Their identifiers told her it was Mitch and Zolna, both were stroking the water hard, fighting the current. She looked around further, but saw no sign of Dave.
Mitch and Zolna arrived, and immediately Mitch asked, "Where's Dave?" Cassie swam to him and embraced him.
"He was hurt, right arm." Kathy responded. "He's not responding to his COMde. I've been flipping through all visual wavelengths and I don't see a sign of him."
The fast moving river was taking them quickly away from where they had fallen into the water. Kathy worried that Dave might be stuck on the bottom, as Cassie had been, back where they had plunged into the river.
"Follow me," Kathy ordered, and swam hard for the shore. They exited the river on the east bank, leaving the cliff face on the other side of the river, and placing the dark forest to their backs.
"What equipment are we missing?" Kathy asked.
"I've lost my rifle, but I have the ammo," Cassie reported.
"My survival suit has lost power," Mitch observed. "When I dry off, I'll present a thermal signature. Otherwise, I'm okay."
Sergeant Webster responded, "I'm good to go, ma'am."
"Me, too," Zolna replied.
Kathy checked her weapon, then looked up. "Okay, it's dark, so the big stuff will be out hunting. Let's all stay close and remain alert. This rain will mask our movement a little. We're going back to look for Dave where we first entered the river, then we'll follow the current."
○O○
Dave lay quite still on his stomach on the edge of the pool long enough to determine that infrared would be the best wavelength by which to see in this darkness. Whatever had pulled him from the water wasn't tearing him apart in an attempt to eat him, so he turned to take a look, and there in the trees at the edge of the forest something warm vanished into the dark, cool vegetation. The rain prevented him from recognizing the creature. It was headed up river along the bank. Dave had lost his weapon and ammo. His survival suit was torn and the power pack was missing altogether.
As Dave stripped out of the now useless over garment, he rationalized, This damn thing will only slow me down. I have to find Kathy…and, everyone.
Dave tried to call Kathy on his COMde, but received a loss of connectivity signal. It was the injury to his right shoulder. He had a good idea what the problem was, but he didn't have time or the equipment to attend to it. Whatever jerked him from the river must have determined that he was dead, or perhaps not edible; after all, he did not smell like a creature of flesh and blood. Now, it was headed upstream. If Kathy and the others got out of the river at or near where they fell in, then this thing was headed right for them. He did not hesitate, but began to pursue the creature.
Dave stomped loudly and shouted hoping to get the thing's attention and simultaneously alert Kathy and the others. Dave had gone less than fifty meters into the woods along the bank of the river when from the corner of his eye, he detected a flash of color that dropped from above and landed behind him.
Before he could turn around, strong long arms grabbed him and a hand with long, thin fingers covered his mouth. In his ear, an unfamiliar voice with a familiar accent, whispered, "Silence, Ukse. We are being hunted," the E'meset man released Dave and pointed into the forest to his right.
At first, Dave didn't see anything but the shadows of the trees through the rain in the dark forest. Then, something moved. It looked as if tall, thin saplings were slowly creeping through the forest. Amplifying his infrared vision, he was just able to discern a slight derivation in temperature contrasts. Then there was more movement. Two gigantic spiders were in the woods a hundred meters in front of him. Their bodies were spherical and perhaps three meters in diameter. Each was possessed of eight long, thin legs about ten centimeters in diameter and reached nine to ten meters almost straight up where there existed a joint, and then the leg came back down. The spiders moved with great stealth, their bodies were low to the ground and looked like wet moss-covered stones. Four of their legs they used for locomotion. The other four were held up vertically and were no doubt the weapons these animals intended to use.
The E'meset man whispered again into his ear, "They are Top'Aya Pueitana. They see us in the night. Two only do we see. They hunt with many, so more there are."
"Kathy!" Dave uttered. Then, to the E'meset man, he said, "My friends are up there."
"I know. Come." Dave followed the E'meset and they both went to the water's edge. The E'meset looked about and quickly found a pool of stagnant water. Using his hands, he dredged the slime, mud, and wet moss from the pool and began to smear it over his body. When he was finished, he started handing great heaps of the nauseating mixture to Dave. Before long, they were both covered with it.
"This will mask both your warmth and your scent."
"I don't doubt it," Dave replied.
Dave and the E'meset man continued on. The native moved with great stealth. Dave's movements were quiet as well, but he could not match the silence and speed of the E'meset.
As they followed the edge of the river, Dave watched the two Top'Aya Pueitana. They were still moving toward the last place where they had seen Dave and his companion.
At last, the E'meset stopped and whispered to Dave, "Call out to your friends."
"What?"
"Do as I say to you, do it now, call them to run to us!"
Dave stood, cupped his left hand at his mouth, adjusted his voice modulator and shouted, "Kathy, get everyone and run toward my voice, and hurry!"
○O○
Sergeant First Class Webster heard Dave's voice, as did all the others. Kathy shouted, "This way, let's go!" and everyone took off running. Webster hesitated for just a moment; she'd heard something behind her.
She turned around, bringing up the muzzle of her machine gun. Just as the weapon became horizontal, she heard a sound like a saber cutting through the air. Something flashed out of the darkness like black lighting. It appeared to be a long dark shaft the last few meters of which were apparently as sharp as a diamond razor. It struck her weapon, and without pausing, sliced the barrel and front of the receiver off as if it were made of pudding. She could not see who or what was wielding the instrument; nevertheless, she dropped the now- useless weapon and starting backing away, fast. Again, she heard the sound of the swinging saber. She dropped to the ground just in time to hear the deadly blade slice through the air just centimeters above her. She quickly adjusted her vision and was shocked to see that the weapon was the end of a very long leg attached to a huge spider. She could see its eight eyes appraising her hungrily. She leapt up a
nd started to run, all the while trying to remove her pistol from its holster.
"Webster, don't shoot at it!" It was Dave's voice again; he was quite near, now. Four more seconds, and she ran right into Zolna—and they both fell to the ground.
"Mitch," Dave whispered, "Get in the water quick, the rest of you throw your weapons in the river, ammo and anything metal."
"Dave, what's happening?" Kathy asked, as she tossed her weapon and equipment into the river. Everyone could hear Dave's voice, but none could see him.
○O○
Dave could see Kathy looking around for him, so he reached out and touched her forearm. As she drew back, startled, Dave grabbed her hand. "We are being hunted by what I can only describe as giant spiders. Their eyes are extremely sensitive to variations in temperature. Mitch's suit has failed him and he lights up in the dark like a Christmas tree. And the weapons have a lot of metal in them, and so are colder than the air around them. So, toss away everything metal."
"How do you know all this?" Kathy asked.
"Meet our new friend." The E'meset man had been standing quite still, and with everyone's vision in infrared, none had seen him in his covering of river slime. However, when he stepped forward, everyone detected the movement and were all startled to vaguely see the outline of a man over two meters tall.
Dave pointed to Kathy and started introductions. "This is Kathy, and this is—"
"We know your names. There is not time, now. We must put much running under us. Come." He then turned, pulled Mitch out of the water, and started running back the way he and Dave had come.
Dave heard Zolna say to Webster, "Oh, man, this sucks, monster spiders now?"
Webster increased the length of her stride and pulled away from Zolna with the words, "Just shut up and run, Private."
○O○
Dave and Kathy were following behind the tall E'meset. Kathy looked over at Dave and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good, thanks."
"Sure, that's why your COMde is offline and you're carrying your arm like that?"
Dave understood the tone in her voice. "My COMde is down because of a general loss of connectivity as a result of my arm being out of socket," he replied.
The Vampires of Antyllus Page 17
