The woman shook her head again. “No, the crawling demons from deep inside the mountain. The crawling demons move like water and eat the living and the dead. They are attracted by dead things, and if they come as a large group, even the Yeti god would not be able to fight them off. The crawling demons from the cave cannot stand the cold. They will not venture out there to retrieve the dead beast.” The women then pointed to Yukon. “Also, he does not like the taste of cave bear. I find the cave bear’s meat too difficult for my stomach to digest. I suspect that the Yeti god has had a similar experience with bear meant when he has tried to eat it. He will leave the cave bear outside for the black flying demons. They can eat anything and they will remove the remains of the bear.” Gina was about to ask the woman more questions about the crawling demons from within the cave when the sound of a baby screaming started to echo through cave.
The women motioned for Gina to follower her. “Come, the Yeti god will rest after his battle. We must attend to our child.”
Gina was taken aback by the woman’s comment. She repeated the woman’s troubling words in English, “Our child?””
Chapter 10
After escaping the wooly rhino, the rescue team continued to follow the tracks of the Yeti. They had continued to head south until they saw three huge dark black shapes in the snow ahead of them. The dark figures were standing over a large red and brown mass lying in the snow. Gordon signaled for the team to come to a stop behind him. He turned around to Dana and she was so close to him that had they not had scarves wrapped around their faces, their lips would have touched. Dana was thankful that her scarf and dark snow goggles prevented Gordon from seeing her blushing.
The young hunter quickly apologized. “I am sorry, Doctor Summers.” He was quiet for a moment and then he finally managed to say, “I was hoping that you could hand me my binoculars.”
Dana reached into the carrying case strapped to the back of the snowmobile and handed the binoculars to Gordon. “Here you go, and you can call me Dana.”
Gordon nodded. “Thank you, Dana.”
Henry and Jun-Tuk pulled up next to Gordon, and Rodgers pulled his snowmobile to a stop a few feet behind them. Henry could hear the disgruntled Rodgers mumbling under his breath. Henry pushed any thoughts of the self-centered Rodgers aside and brought his own binoculars to his eyes. Henry was able to make out three huge birds of prey each standing nearly ten feet tall. The birds looked like some kind of cross-breed between a condor and a crow. Henry removed his binoculars form his eyes and directed his attention to Gordon. “If I had to guess, I would say that those things are teratorns. Again, I am no paleontologist, but giant birds that were similar in size to those things hunted our earliest human ancestors. They have a wingspan of about eighteen feet long. Skulls of early humans have been found all over the world with three huge holes poked into them. The prevailing belief is that the holes were caused from teratorns using their claws to crush the heads of their prey. They appear to be feeding on the remains of one of the mammoths that we saw earlier.” He put his binoculars back into his carrying case as he sighed. “How do you think we should handle this situation?”
Gordon continued to look through his binoculars at the teratorns and the dead mammoth. “The Yeti tracks look like they lead to the cave up there and then back out again long after the snow storm had ended. The tracks coming out of the cave are much deeper and clearer than the first set of prints leading into the cave. From the look of the surrounding area, I would say that the Yeti killed that mammoth and then after eating a large portion of it, looks like he went back to the cave.” Gordon stopped for a moment and then turned to Henry. “I can’t say for sure, but if the monster went back to the cave after making the kill then he went back in there for something. It could be a sign that he went back to get Doctor Murella.”
Henry’s felt a wave of hope run through his body at the mere idea that his wife was alive and possibly in this area only a short time ago. Gordon looked back to the teratorns. “After exiting the cave, the Yeti tracks continue right past that dead mammoth and those teratorns. They are clearly scavenging off the remains of the mammoth. If they behave like modern birds of prey, they could very well attack a potential meal, especially if humans were once a part of their diet.” Gordon motioned to Jun-Tuk. “Could you please ask Jun-Tuk if he or his people know anything about those birds and how they might react to humans?”
Henry asked Jun-Tuk if he knew anything about the birds. Jun-Tuk nodded and then he told Henry about his encounter with the flying death birds as he referred to them. “When I entered the valley to find my daughter, I tracked the Yeti for several hours before the flying death birds spotted me. The birds swooped down at me in an attempt to slay me. I hit one of the birds with my spear but the weapon was unable to inflict much damage on the creature. I managed to run from cave to cave until the birds lost interest in me. Without my spear, I returned to the valley entrance, and as I was leaving the valley, another of the flying death birds attempted to attack me. When I entered the valley pass, the creature flew straight up and away from me. I think that the mountain winds somehow keep the creatures from exiting the valley.”
Henry repeated what Jun-Tuk had told him to Gordon. Gordon nodded. “We don’t have any choice but to go past the teratorns. If we don’t continue to follow the tracks, we may never find Doctor Murella. We will try to make a wide arch around the birds and then loop back to tracks. Let’s hope that the birds are more interested in the dead mammoth than they are in us.”
Gordon leaned back to his fellow passenger. “Dana, I want you to put my rifle in my lap in case I need to use it. Then keep a tight hold around my waist and keep your head low.” He paused for a moment. “Don’t worry, no matter what happens I will make sure that you are safe.”
Dana squeezed Gordon hard, and at that moment, she wished that they were in some tropical setting where she wasn’t wearing a scarf because it was the perfect opportunity to have kissed him.
A few feet away from them, Jun-Tuk spoke to Henry, “Keep your weapon ready. The flying death birds are ravenous. I suspect that we will not be able to give them a wide enough birth to prevent them from attacking.” Henry nodded in reply then he revved his engine and started to arch around the teratorns. He knew that Gordon would gladly have led the team past the massive birds, but Henry felt the young hunter had already more than done his part. They had already lost two people in the attempt to rescue his wife. Henry was determined to do whatever he could to prevent any more of the brave volunteers from dying in the valley. Henry felt that if he could make himself the primary target for the teratorns that if they decided to attack then he would at least be keeping the birds’ attention off the other rescue team members.
Henry rode his snowmobile at least two hundred yards wide to the left of the teratorns before he turned his vehicle back toward the mountain range and the Yeti tracks. Henry was no tracker, but he figured that once they were clear of the teratorns, Gordon could retake the lead position. Henry had his snowmobile moving at top speed as he moved parallel to the teratorns. He kept whispering to himself, “Please, please let the sound of the snowmobiles keep them at bay.” Henry saw the teratorns looking up from the carrion before them to watch the snowmobiles. Henry continued to hope that the teratorns would just let them pass by. Henry had almost cleared the massive birds when he saw one of them take flight. The other two birds quickly joined the first bird as they took to the air as well.
Henry cursed as he tightened his grip on his rifle. Henry was astounded at the speed of the birds. They had managed to overtake the snowmobiles in a matter of seconds. Henry’s thoughts switched from praying the teratorns would leave them alone to hoping that the birds were only curious about the strange new objects moving through their valley. Henry’s hope quickly changed to horror when he heard a high-pitched scream from behind him. He turned his head around to see one of the snowmobiles fall to the ground as a team member was tossed from the back of it. The team membe
r that was tossed from the snowmobile bounced off the frozen terrain like a tennis ball. Even to Henry, it was obvious that the young woman had died when she was thrown into the tundra. The scream of the team member who had been driving the snowmobile was cut short as the teratorn used its claw to puncture the young man’s skull and slice his brain in half.
Henry heard gunshots from behind him. He turned his head around again briefly to see Gordon holding his rifle with one hand and firing at a teratorn as it was swooping down at another team member. Gordon had dropped to the back of the group. He had positioned himself there so that he could try to protect the other team members from the horrors above them. It seemed as if Gordon’s bullets were slowing the teratorns down but they were not causing enough damage to kill any of the three birds. Henry cursed himself at first, thinking that if he wanted to protect people, he should have been the one in the back of the party. Then he remembered that Gordon was a much better shot that he was and that he had put Gordon in charge of the rescue operation for a reason. The stoic Gordon had probably wanted Henry to lead the group so that he could protect the team members from behind if he needed to.
Another gun shot was followed by a scream as a Gordon tried in vain to keep the giant birds from grabbing another team member. This time it was the young man riding on the back of a snowmobile who the bird had taken. The young man’s skull was immediately crushed as the person who he had shared a snowmobile with a moment ago continued to drive his vehicle forward as quickly as he could. The rider moved up next to Henry. The anthropologist looked over at the young student just in time to see a teratorn grabbed the man off his snowmobile and carry him into the air. Henry thought to himself that at least that was the fourth person to die in the teratorn attack. Each of the horrible birds had killed at least one team member. Henry had thought that since all three of the horrible creatures now had something else to eat that the attack was over.
Henry realized that he was wrong about the attack being over when a huge bird-shaped shadow covered his snowmobile. Henry quickly shifted his snowmobile to the right and when the vehicle shifted over from its path the teratorn’s claws clamped shut directly where Henry’s head would have been. It dawned on Henry that the teratorns would kill the entire team. They would crush each of the team members’ skulls and when everyone was dead only then would the teratorns feed on their bodies. Jun-Tuk arm shot past Henry’s face and pointed back to the mountains. The old man screamed, “Head for one of the caves!”
Henry shifted his snowmobile back in the direction of the mountains, but instead of driving directly for them, he moved his vehicle in a zigzag pattern. He looked behind him to see the other team members following his lead. Henry had seen numerous movies where people moved in such a pattern in order to make it more difficult for a sniper to shoot them. He hoped that the same premise would apply to giant birds diving at him from overhead.
The teratorns continued to dive at the fleeing team members, but the erratic movements of the snowmobiles prevented the carnivorous birds from claiming any more of the rescue team. Henry pulled his snowmobile to a stop at the base of the cave. He directed Jun-Tuk to run up into the cave. Jun-Tuk ran toward the cave and Henry started firing at the huge birds as they continued to menace his friends and students. Henry could tell that he had hit one or the birds when it squawked and briefly increased its altitude. The effect was only temporary as after a brief second the teratorn was back in pursuit of the remaining team members. As people pulled their snowmobiles alongside Henry, he screamed for them to run up and into the cave.
Most of the remaining team members had made it to the base of the mountain and were making their way up to the cave when Rodgers pulled up alongside Henry. Only the snowmobile with Gordon and Dana and one other vehicle carrying two people on it were still trying to make their way to the base of the mountain. Seeing that four people were still in danger, Rodgers dismounted and began firing at the teratorns. Henry took aim at one of the birds, but when he pulled his trigger, all that he heard was a hollow click.
Rodgers yelled at Henry, “You are out of ammo! Grab the supply bag on the back of my snowmobile; it’s got some extra bullets in it! Run up to the cave. I will cover Gordon and the others! When you get up there, quickly reload and then cover us as we make our way up there!” Rodgers continued to fire at the huge birds as Henry grabbed the supply bag and ran up to the cave. As Henry heard Rodgers continue to fire at the teratorns, he thought to himself that Rogers may have been self-centered and arrogant but no one could call the man a coward. Rodgers knew that by carelessly running during the wooly rhino attack that he had cost four people their lives. It seemed that he was now determined to try and rectify that mistake by saving four people.
Henry raced to the cave entrance. When he was just outside of the cave, he tried to reload his rifle. He quickly realized that he was not experienced enough with the rifle to reload it with his gloves on. Henry cursed then he tore his cloves off. He could feel the cold sting his hands the instant that his gloves came off. He knew that in the sub-zero temperatures he was in that he had less than a minute before frostbite started claiming his fingers. He worked as quickly as he could and he managed to load several bullets into the rifle before he couldn’t stand the cold any longer.
With his gun reloaded and his gloves back on, Henry looked down at the base of the mountain. He saw Rodgers and Gordon maintaining a cover fire as Dana and the last two graduate students made their way up to the cave. When reached they mouth of the cave, Henry ran into the cave with them. As he entered the cave, Henry was immediately surprised at how warm the cave was. Henry guessed that there had to be at least a thirty degree difference in the cave entrance alone and the outside temperature. He was angry at himself for not entering the cave before trying to reload his rifle and nearly costing himself several fingers. Henry’s thoughts were focused back on the teratorns when Dana yelled at him, “Cover them! They are going to be killed out there!”
Henry dropped to one knee and aimed his rifle at an approaching teratorn. He pulled the trigger and he was pretty sure that he had hit the bird in the wing when it made a sharp turn to its left. When the two hunters heard the shot ring out from above them, they started running for the cave entrance. Another bird swooped down at Gordon and Rodgers. Henry didn’t take time to aim his weapon; he simply fired it as quickly as he could. Henry wasn’t sure if he had hit a vital area on the monster or if an accumulation of bullet wounds had finally caught up to the teratorn, but whatever the cause, the raptor quickly crashed into the snow. To make sure that the monster was dead, Henry fired one more shot at the downed bird. The teratorn lifted its head and screeched one final time before dying. Rodgers and Gordon climbed into the cave and Rodgers turned to Henry. “Good shot, Henry! I didn’t think that there was a hunter in you, but you just bagged yourself one hell of a trophy!”
Henry was about to scream at Rodgers that he didn’t give a damn about trophies but his attention was quickly called back to the front of the cave. One of the remaining teratorns flew directly up to the cave entrance. The bird flew into the huge cave and then it started flapping its wings and jabbing at Henry with its beak. The bird’s talon moved quicker than Henry’s eyes were able to see. He felt a pressure across his mid-section as he was pushed backward. Henry found himself looking at a blur of talons, beak, and feathers as the teratorn continued to move frantically as it tried to makes it way deeper into the cave.
Henry quickly reached his hand down to his mid-section and he felt a deep tear in his insulated coat. He continued to push his hand further into his stomach until he felt his T-shirt. Henry briefed a sigh of relief when he found that his T-shirt, and thankfully his stomach, were intact. Henry realized that if it were not for his heavy winter gear that the bird’s claw would have eviscerated him. His mind was brought back to the terror at hand when the massive teratorn jumped forward a few more feet toward him.
Gordon yelled, “Henry, shoot! Gordon and I are still reloading!” H
enry quickly pointed his rifle and fired at the teratorn at point blank range. The bird screeched in pain and hopped backward toward the opening to the cave. Gordon and Rodgers knelt down next to Henry. Gordon lifted Henry up to one knee. Gordon then immediately took control of the situation. He yelled to Henry and Rodgers, “On my mark, fire at the center of its chest! Three, two, one, fire!” The three rifles sounded off as one and their combined power caused the teratorn to tumble away from cave entrance.
The three men rushed to the front of the cave to see the last teratorn make a wide circle overhead and then dive toward the cave entrance. Gordon screamed again, “On my mark, aim for its head! Three, two, one, fire!” The three men fired in unison at the teratorn. The horrifying bird screeched and convulsed in midair before crashing into the mountain on the left side of the cave.
Henry was breathing hard as the adrenaline rush that had surged through his body started to wear off. He turned around to see the terrified students who had followed him on this expedition to rescue his wife. Several of his students, brilliant young men and women who had put themselves in his care, were now dead. Henry told himself that they had volunteered to go into the valley but they didn’t know what they getting into and honestly neither did Henry. Henry knew that the deaths of those students were on his head. He would carry that burden with him for the rest of his life. He had been desperate to save his wife and in doing so he had put these people in danger.
Henry knew what he had to do. He took a deep breath and then he addressed the rescue team. “The deaths that have occurred here today are my fault. The words don’t exist for me to tell you how sorry I am for bringing you into this valley. I can’t rectify my mistake, but I can keep it from getting any worse. Tomorrow, Gordon will lead you back to the campsite outside of the valley. You will wait there for two more days. If by that time neither I nor Gina returns, you are to head home.”
Polar Yeti And The Beasts Of Prehistory Page 8
