Upworld

by Ian Woodhead

  “They’re too big for croc eggs,” said Bradley “What are they, ostriches?”

  Dane shook his head. “Wrong continent. Besides, an ostrich would likely split herself in two trying to lay these eggs.”

  “We need to go,” murmured Nelson. “Like now.” He started to back away. “Come on, we have to get out of here!”

  Dane stood. He’d never seen the man looking more frightened. “What’s wrong, man?” He gritted his teeth when he realised that, once again, Nelson hadn’t given out all the information. He marched up to the scared man and gripped his shoulders. “What the hell have you gotten us into, Nelson?”

  “I think I can hear something.” Benedict walked a little further down the narrow corridor. “Yes,” he announced. “We are definitely not alone in here. Perhaps it’s the girl?”

  “Amongst the other artefacts that ended up in our possession were a couple of claws and a single bone.” He gazed into Dane’s eyes. “They were from an animal recently dead.”

  “So what?” said Bradley. “What’s the big deal?”

  “What species were they from?” Dane’s stomach had knotted up. He already guessed what the answer was going to be.

  “They were from a terror bird, Bradley. A group of animals thought to be extinct for about a million years. The Trust could not find an exact match within the fossil record. The closest they found was a species called Gastonis, a nine-foot predator with a beak powerful enough to snap through a thick tree branch.” The older man nodded over at Benedict. “Or cut through a man’s thigh.”

  “Oh hell,” he muttered, spinning around and running over to the older archaeologist. “Time to go.” Dane grabbed the man’s upper arm and dragged him back to the group. As he ran, the scratch of unseen feet running through the dirt reached his ears. All doubts that Nelson could have been mistaken about the egg’s owner was extinguished when a terrible high-pitched shrieking echoed along the corridor.

  “Back the way we came!”

  “What the hell was that?”

  Dane pointed at the eggs. “They are terror bird young.”

  Benedict skidded to a halt. “You’re kidding! This is marvellous. Have you any idea how much they would be worth if we took one back with us?”

  He couldn’t believe the older man was serious, until Benedict pushed passed Dane. “Come back here, you fool!”

  “I only need one egg.”

  The others were already out of sight, and as tempting as it was, he couldn’t leave the older man behind, not after what had happened to the other man. Dane ran after him. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “Not at all, young man.” Benedict bent over and scooped up the smallest egg. He cradled it against his stomach. “Come on then, Dane. It’s time to move.”

  “Not until you put that back. Not until you…” His remaining sentence dissolved at the sight of the single feathered monster slowly turning around the corner. Dane found himself trying to flatten his body against the side of the corridor in the vain hope that the creature wouldn’t notice him.

  From claw to head, the thing must have easily been ten feet high. Dane’s scientific mind detached itself from his screaming subconscious and analysed the specimen.

  He could understand why the white coats working in The Trust’s labs believed they were looking at a Gastonis relative. The height was about right, so was the body thickness. The terror bird took one step forward. It lowered its neck and gently moved the remaining eggs around with its huge beak. Dane tried not to even breathe.

  Gastonis has recently been re-classified as an herbivore, due to the shape of the beak. All bird species, extinct of otherwise, have hooked beaks. Gastonis didn’t. This specimen’s beak opened and closed, showing both Benedict and Dane the hook on the end of its beak. This thing was indeed a killer!

  The older archaeologist backed away, stepping past Dane. He looked at the giant bird, then at the egg, still nestled against his stomach. “You’re right,” he hissed. “We need to move!” The man then turned around and raced away.

  The terror bird let out a single screech of rage. Before it could move, Dane ran after Benedict, urging his legs to move faster than they’ve ever moved in his life. He heard the animal right behind him, and he knew that at any second now, he’d feel that wickedly sharp beak punch into the back of his head. He took no satisfaction in the fact that at least his death would be quick.

  The older man was just in front of him. Dane now saw the others at the end of the corridor. Why had they stopped? Oh no, the door must have shut behind them. They were trapped!

  Dane savagely pushed Benedict forward. The man slammed into the back of Bradley, dropping the egg. Dane dived forward and caught it before it could smash on the ground. He rolled onto his back then jumped onto his feet, holding the egg in the air. “Bradley, get that bloody door open!”

  He watched the giant bird stop dead in its tracks. “Yeah, that’s right, bitch. One more step and your precious baby becomes an omelette.” If wasn’t a Gastonis, then what the hell was it? Dane listened to Benedict mutter to himself as he tried to open the door. It did occur to Dane that it might not be possible to open the door from this direction, but he kept that information to himself. The giant bird lowered its head and squawked at him while ruffling its dark feathers. Its foul breath made Dane choke. That thing was certainly not an herbivore. He walked forward a couple of steps, watching the bird back off. “How are you doing with that door?”

  “Almost there.”

  “Hurry up!” The terror bird suddenly turned its head to face the other direction. It let out another squawk; this time, it wasn’t so loud. It then turned back to face Dane and cocked its head to one side. The bird then took one large stride towards him.

  The egg in his hands no longer felt like the only thing stopping this huge animal from tearing Dane into flesh confetti. The bird lowered its head again and took one more step. It was just a couple of feet away from him now. Dane backed away, only stopping when his back smacked into someone else. “Hurry up with that bloody door!” he urged. The animal was about to pounce on them, he was sure of it.

  “No way!” uttered a voice behind him. “Not another one!”

  Dane then saw the unmistakable outline of one more terror bird quietly creeping along the corridor. This one was truly huge. It had to duck its menacing head in order to stop hitting the ceiling. It stopped by the clutch of eggs and released an ear-piercing squawk before it ran towards the other bird.

  “I’ve got it. Come on!”

  The smaller bird swivelled its head and let out a screech of its own before turning back around. Dane realised at the last minute that this animal wasn’t the mother at all! He launched the egg at the bird before spinning around and following the others through the open triangular door. “Get it closed, Benedict! Hurry up.”

  The other man’s fingers frantically danced across the stone surface, but no matter what he did, the door refused the close.

  “We’re going to die,” said Nelson.

  Dane backed away, keeping his gaze on the two huge birds, who were now almost at the doorway. “Come on, man. Get it closed!”

  “It won’t budge,” he replied.

  The two other men had retreated under the hole in the ceiling. The failing light made it difficult for Dane to make out the older archaeologist, Benedict. “Leave the door and get back here. Make sure you go around the cavern. Don’t let the birds see you.”

  “I can’t. I have to shut this door.”

  “Leave it. They won’t come in here.”

  “How the bloody hell can you be sure of that?” demanded Bradley.

  He kept his eyes on the birds while pointing at the ceiling. Already, he could hear the spiders getting reading to leave their webs. “Because those birds aren’t as stupid as we are. I think the door will shut on its own accord.”

  Dane turned around, hoping that he was right about this. He ran over to the circle and pointed his torch before him. “There,” he said.
Dane shone the torch on the floor, illuminating the last markers before raising the beam of light until it reached the wall. “Go on, Benedict, repeat your magic.”

  The other man nodded then ran over to the wall, closely followed by Nelson. Bradley looked over at the two birds, still watching them.

  “God, I wish they’d go away. Even better, the door shuts.”

  “Don’t wish for that, Bradley.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because, my guess is that once that door does shut, the spiders will drop. Come on.” Dane ran over to the other two men, keeping his torch beam pointing to the floor. He wasn’t sure how he’d react if he pointed it upwards just in time to see those eight-footed monsters descending.

  While Benedict was getting to grips with the mechanism for the door, Dane took a moment to recover his breath and to attempt to control the adrenaline rushing through his body. It was also an effort to stop himself from grinning. Despite the horror of watching that poor man being killed by those spiders and knowing that the possibility of him meeting the same fate was very real, Dane couldn’t stop the feeling of wanting more excitement.

  “I think I can hear something,” whispered Nelson.

  “It’s the spiders. I think they want their supper.” Bradley grinned at Nelson. “If that noisy oaf doesn’t hurry up with that door, the four of us will find ourselves in tiny little bits.”

  “Bradley,” warned Dane. “Hush up.”

  Nelson pushed past him and pressed both his hands against the stone. “Hurry it up, Benedict. Get this damn thing open!”

  The bodyguard stood right behind the man. “Listen, Nelson. Listen to them rubbing their hairy legs together.”

  “Enough, man!” Dane strode forward, ready to grab Bradley, just as the rectangular door slid open. Nelson fell through it, closely followed by the bodyguard.

  Before Dane recovered, the door began to close. “Benedict, what the hell are you playing at?”

  “It’s none of my doing!” he shouted.

  Dane grabbed the older man and dragged him towards the closing door. “Is there anything on the floor to stop it from shutting?” He reached the door and saw the narrowing gap, the other two watching helplessly on the other side. “Help us!” he shouted. “Find something to wedge it open.”

  Dane pushed his arm through the hole, only for the older archaeologist to pull him back. The pair of them fell to the floor. Dane watched both the doors, their only routes of escape slam shut, leaving the two men in darkness with only the sound of the thousands of waking spiders above their heads for company.

  “What are we going to do now? We’re trapped in here. None of the doors will open.”

  Dane got to his feet and pulled the other man over to the patterns in the floor. He used the torch light to find the remaining door, the one used by the girl. Dane then shined the light on the wall, moaning in horror at the sight of several large spiders crawling across the surface. He didn’t need to point the light anywhere else to know that the rest of the walls would now be crawling with the oversized monsters.

  He took off his jacket, turned it inside out, then ripped off one of the arms.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  Dane passed the torch to Benedict. “Shine the light over there.”

  “Why? The door’s on the opposite side.”

  “Just do it.”

  The other man sighed heavily.

  He waited until the beam of light picking out the one item he needed before racing across the floor, avoiding three spiders falling from the ceiling. Dane snatched up the pole, wrapped the ripped material around one of the ends, then took out his lighter and set it alight. “Right, one last time,” he hissed. Dane waved the blazing torch from side to side, thankful to see the spiders scuttle out of the light.

  “What happens if this doesn’t work? You said it yourself. These doors must shut when the light fails, to stop the spiders from infecting the rest of this place. Oh, you think this one is different, a master door.”

  “Will you just get that bloody door open? As for what happens if you don’t? Well, I thought that would be obvious. We stay alive until we run out of clothing to burn.” Dane glared at Benedict. “So unless you want to die screaming while those hairy bastards crawl over your naked body, I suggest you stop talking and do as you’re told.”

  Chapter Six

  As per usual, the stupid bitch spilled most of his grape juice down her flimsy top. Instead of berating her, as his standard mode of approach to the idiot, Marlon gave her a lazy smile, then tapped the pine table three times with his index finger, then once with his forefinger.

  She mumbled a grovelling apology before backing away.

  “I don’t want to hear those pathetic words ever again. Do you understand?”

  The Dionysian slave nodded solemnly. Marlon repeated the motion with his fingers upon the table once more. “That will be the second to last time you see me do that. That next time I do it, I will scoop out one of your eyeballs, then push my arm through the hole, and squeeze your stupid brain in my fingers.” He straightened his back. “Now, stop nodding your head and get me another drink.”

  Marlon waited until the slave had left his control room. He turned around and saw the girl he’d left with the captured group glaring at him. Normally, Marlon would have had anybody daring to look at him in that disrespectful way whipped. After what he had just witnessed via the camera, his mood was considerably better than most days, so he left the glower slip. “What’s the matter, Itzel? You look,” he paused and slowly licked his lips, “you look a little upset, my dear.” He pushed back his high-backed chair and stood. “Are you put out because she gets more attention than you?”

  Two of his fellow staff sniggered.

  “One of these days, that woman is going to snap. I so want to be there when that happens, you evil little man. She’ll tear off your arms before you can blink.”

  Marlon gave her an impatient flick of his hand. “I’m sure that would be totally possible, in an alternate universe.” He gave her a withering smile. “But not this one. Now, if you’ve finished being annoying, perhaps you could make yourself useful and bugger off?”

  “Wait, what about our agreement?”

  “What about it? The goods I desire are still not in my grasp, young lady. Until that happens, your children stay where they are.”

  Marlon enjoyed watching the cauldron of volatile emotions swirling around her face. He almost made a wager with himself to see which one came out on top. He wanted her to say something very naughty, something that would guarantee her demise, closely followed by her two little brats. Instead, she sighed to herself before spinning around and storming out of the room. He gave her a little wave before sitting back down upon his chair in order to survey his new kingdom.

  His stupid slave reappeared with another drink. Marlon waited patiently for her to finish, resisting the urge to flick her ear, just to see how she’d react. She finished pouring the drink and retreated to safe distance, keeping her head bowed at all times.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Now that wasn’t too difficult. You may go.”

  He watched the giant slave take her pathetic form out of the room before re-positioning himself back on his chair. The sounds of keyboard tapping, coupled with the occasional cough, reached his ears. Now that the focus of his annoyance and amusement had left, the remaining four males in there with him would not dare to look away from their monitors for fear of him lashing out.

  Marlon sighed to himself before turning around to continue his observation of his guests. It pained him to admit that he would miss the verbal battling, which he performed on a daily basis with Itzel. Despite the hold he had on her, she had never been shy to speak what was on her mind. It didn’t seem to matter to her that her outburst was likely to cause him to reply in kind.

  His staff were all too aware that he wasn’t exactly the most stable of employer. Marlon flicked a couple of switches on the control panel which activate
d the cameras within the area, which the two archaeologists had found themselves in. As the area wasn’t lit, he had to alter the spectrum to infrared in order to make out their forms.

  As he followed their progress, Marlon recalled Itzel’s warning regarding the slave. She was spot on about the giant. Standing at just under ten feet and weighing at almost six hundred pounds, she certainly was capable of killing any one of them without breaking into a sweat. He operated the joystick and moved the camera forward, smiling slightly as Dane wrapped one of his remaining scraps of jacket material around the charred pole and lit it. Marlon quickly switched to normal vision.

  He watched the pair of them stop to examine a collection of geometric shapes etched into the wall beside Benedict. Judging from their facial expressions, they were having some kind of heated debate. He so wished he could hear their voices. Marlon would have killed to hear their conversations.

  Still, the audio didn’t really matter, as long as his maze rats led him to his goal of finding more giants like the idiot child presently in his service. Marlon leaned back and closed his eyes, allowing his fantasy of a huge army of captured giants rampaging across the land. Marlon chuckled to himself. To think that his father always believed that Marlon Dale would never amount to anything. Well, he’d already showed that loser who was the winner in this game.

  “Sir, I think we’ve found the others.”

  He snapped open his eyes and turned his head. Young Adam Lumley stood in front of Marlon’s desk, his head bowed and his posture submissive. His large brown eyes blinked once. God, what a sad individual. He was desperately waiting for his master to say that he was a good boy and give him a treat.

  “Good man. Patch their location onto the main screen. Let’s see where they are.” In moments, he discovered that the sidekicks were doing significantly better than their masters. He watched, his jaw wide open as the pair of them wandered around several black monoliths. Each stone towered over the two men. The bodyguard ran his hands over the smooth stone. Marlon leaned a little closer to the wall-screen, secretly hoping that his interaction with the stone would somehow activate some kind of defence mechanism which would severely incapacitate the big-headed fool. Marlon found himself instantly hating that man from the moment he set eyes on him.