Chapter 25
Mount Naraka
Shaw struggled to catch his breath.
It took Shaw less than a minute of hard running to catch up with his compatriots. All three looked tired, disoriented, and afraid. He felt the same way and didn’t doubt that he looked as rough to them. .
“What happened back there?” asked Amrit as she also fought to get her ragged breathing under control.
“I don’t think we’re alone anymore,” replied Shaw. “By the sounds of it, Adler and his people blasted the hell out of them. Since I didn’t hear any screaming, I have to assume that they survived the attack.”
“They won’t stop. This mountain is sacred to the Rakshasas,” said Choling.
“That’s a cheery thought,” said Shaw as he looked over at Choling and Sangdrol.
He told them to take off their packs and see what they were carrying. Choling’s pack contained extra dynamite and fuses. Shaw pushed aside some food tins, empty metal boxes and a set of crampons inside Sangdrol’s sack. He let out a loud cheer when he found a flare pistol with several flares lying at the bottom of the rucksack. Shaw took the flare pistol and the flares and jammed them into a pocket in his jacket. Using Choling to translate for him, he told Sangdrol to leave his pack behind and carry Choling’s instead. He handed Choling the pistol he found at the destroyed German campsite. Shaw saw that between them, they had a pistol, a rifle, and two ice axes, not quite the arsenal he would have preferred to take into battle.
“Come on,” said Shaw. “We’ve got to stop Adler before he finds what he’s looking for.”
Amrit placed a hand on his arm and said, “James, how do you propose we do that? If he did survive the attack, he and the rest of his group undoubtedly took the other tunnel. We can’t go back the way we came. Those creatures are probably still back there.”
“I know,” replied Shaw. “That’s why we only have one option. We need to see where this tunnel leads. Ortega was having trouble deciding which tunnel to recommend to Adler. I think they both lead to the source of the radioactivity.”
“We’re wasting time. There’s only one way to find out,” said Choling as he started to walk down the dark tunnel, his flashlight lighting the way.
“In for a penny, in for a pound,” said Shaw taking Amrit by the arm. Together they fell in behind Sangdrol and Choling, praying that Shaw was right and that they would find the Vril device before Adler and his people.
After five minutes of walking down a gentle sloping tunnel, Adler was growing impatient. He had no doubt that the creatures would come after them. They had been bloodied during their attack; however, it was only a matter of time before they found a way to get close to them.
“The signal is getting stronger,” announced Ortega. “We must be getting close.”
“Excellent news,” said Adler, his body became electric with anticipation. He was on the verge of discovering a power that could propel the Third Reich to its rightful place as the master of all of Europe.
Up ahead, a strange white light lit up the end of the tunnel. A few seconds later, they walked out into a huge cavern that stretched for hundreds of yards. Adler was amazed that he could see without the use of his flashlight. He turned his head and looked up at the roof of the cave and saw it was covered by tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of tiny bright glowing lights.
Looking over at Ortega, he said, “What are those things?”
“Glow worms,” replied Ortega, just as amazed as Adler at the breathtaking sight before them. “I’ve read about them. They have only ever been found in one cave in New Zealand. This is a rare and truly amazing discovery.”
“Patrón, look,” said Silvas, pointing to a rocky pedestal one hundred yards away.
Adler grinned when he saw a tiny body swathed in cloth sitting atop a rocky pedestal. Neatly spread out in a circle around the platform were dozens of metal objects.
Adler beamed with pride. He had found the legendary resting place of the Vril power. His name would live on forever.
With her Geiger counter held out in front of her, Ortega moved carefully towards the remains. Her eyes were glued to the dial on her device. Slowly, Ortega moved along the outside of the debris, scanning each object for any sign of radioactivity.
Hidden behind a field of tall stalagmites, sixty yards from the pedestal, Shaw and Choling watched as Ortega scanned the metal objects at her feet.
“Damn,” said Choling. “We’re too late.”
“Not necessarily,” said Shaw. “Let’s let them find what they’re looking for, and then stop them when they try to take it out of here.”
Choling nodded his head.
“The problem is that we’ll never stop them from here,” said Shaw, looking about. “We need to get closer.”
Choling glanced over his shoulder and pointed towards a long line of tall rocks that bent at an angle towards the other tunnel entrance.
“Yeah, that’ll do,” said Shaw. Leaving Choling to keep an eye on the Germans, Shaw quietly made his way over to Amrit, who was still hidden inside the darkened tunnel and told her what was going on.
“What do you want me to do?” asked Amrit.
“I doubt they are going to surrender peacefully, so when the shooting starts, keep your head down and keep an eye out behind us. If just one of those creatures manages to sneak in unseen, we could be in for the fight of our lives.”
“Got it,” replied Amrit, wishing that she had something more than an ice axe to defend herself.
Shaw turned around and waved over at Choling.
With Adler and his people far too focused on what Ortega was doing, they never saw the people moving quietly in the shadows.
While Ortega scanned the debris for radiation, Adler stepped past her and walked over to the small child sitting cross-legged on the pedestal. Even through the layers of wrapped cloth encasing the small body, Adler could see its long, slender hands resting on its knees. What he found disturbing was the size and shape of the child’s head. To him, it seemed odd and malformed. It was very wide at the back of the skull. Perhaps a birth defect, thought Adler. Whatever was hidden under the rolls of cloth bothered Adler. He couldn’t put his finger on it; however, the more he was around the child the more he wanted to leave. As he stepped back, a shudder ran through his body.
A few feet away, Ortega moved along slowly checking each object for signs of radiation. Sweat was beginning to trickle down her face. She had undone her heavy woolen jacket, but was still burning up underneath the many layers of clothes she had on. Ortega brought up a hand and wiped the perspiration away from her eyes. She tried her best to ignore it while she carefully examined each metal object lying on the floor of the cavern. Ortega could tell that most of the pieces had been twisted and bent from the force of a tremendous impact. Suddenly, her Geiger counter sprang to life, buzzing noisily. She checked the screen on the device and saw that it had jumped all the way over to into the red band on the dial. Ortega turned the Geiger counter away from the small box at her feet. Immediately, the device went quiet. With a grin on her face, Ortega brought the Geiger counter back over the top the metal box. The device buzzed loudly.
Ortega looked over at Adler said, “I’ve found it.”
“Are you sure?” asked Adler, praying that Ortega was right.
“Look for yourself,” replied Ortega. “Whatever is inside that small metal box is highly radioactive.”
Adler was surprised how small the container was. It wasn’t much larger than an ammunition can. He walked over and turned on his flashlight to see the box better. He got down on one knee and examined the can. He could clearly see strange markings on the side of the container that looked like ancient hieroglyphics of some sort.
“Quickly, check the other pieces,” said Adler to Ortega. He had to be one hundred percent sure that they had found the device containing the Vril power.
Ortega nodded her head and moved along quickly, scanning the rest of the debris.
Ad
ler stood up, called Silvas to his side and told him to have the Afghan soldier drop his pack, come over, and pick up the metal box.
Silvas, not knowing a single word in Afghan, jammed his weapon in the scared man’s back. He pulled off the man’s pack and then took his weapon from his hands. Silvas swore at him, grabbed the Afghan by the collar and dragged him over to Adler’s side. Using hand gestures, Silvas showed the guard that he wanted him to pick up the box and then place into the lead box inside his pack.
The terrified man refused to pick it up.
Silvas flipped the safety off his weapon and thrust the barrel of his submachine gun hard into the Afghan’s ribs.
Wincing in pain, the Afghan knew he had no choice. The man shook all over as he bent down and reached for the box. When his hand was inches away from the top of the box, it hummed slightly and a light-blue light seeped from the box, quickly enveloping it. Surprised, the Afghan yanked his hand back.
“My God,” muttered Adler.
“It probably reacts to body heat,” said Ortega. “Once it is safely packed away in the lead container, it should be harmless.”
Silvas placed the barrel of his weapon against the Afghan’s head. Threateningly, he told him to pick up the box.
The terrified Afghan took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then hesitantly placed his hand on the container. Suddenly, an ear-piercing whistle filled the cavern. The light from the box turned from blue to a blinding white in an instant. A second later, a searing blast of heat surged from the box up through the unfortunate Afghan’s hand and then spread throughout the rest of his body. Howling in pain, the Afghan staggered back from the box, clutching his blistered and burned right hand. His face was black and roasted. Strips of burning flesh hung from his jaw. His eyes were burned to cinders.
Adler, his head reeling from the noise still stinging his ears, tried to look over at the screaming Afghan but found his eyes were filled with bright white spots that felt like red-hot needles poking deep into his brain.
Silvas dropped to his knees and placed his hands over his ears. Moaning in pain, he rocked back and forth.
Ortega had been looking away when the white light had flooded the cavern. Her head stung from the awful shrieking noise that still filled her ears, but at least she was still on her feet. She took a quick look at the Afghan and saw from the horrible burns on his skin that there was nothing she could do for him. He was going to die in the next couple of minutes.
She reached over, pulled Adler back from the box and told him to stand still. The spots in his eyes would pass quickly. She set her Geiger counter down, walked over to the open rucksack, and dug around inside until she pulled out a pair of thick, black, leather, lead-lined gloves. Quickly pulling the gloves on, she strode over to the metal box, bent down, took a deep breath and with a prayer on her lips, she set her hands on the container.
Nothing happened.
She carefully picked up the box, let out her breath and then stood up. Ortega was surprised at how light it was in her hands. She had expected it to weigh at least fifty or sixty pounds. Carefully, she walked back to the dying Afghan’s backpack and then placed the box inside a heavy lead-lined container. With a growing sense of relief, Ortega closed the lid to the box, pulled off her gloves and placed them back in the top of the pack.
“What the hell was that?” said Amrit, blinking her eyes to clear the spots filling her vision.
“I don’t know,” replied Shaw, feeling as if he had just been kicked in the side of the head by an angry mule. “Whatever it was, I hope that’s the last of it.”
Choling left Sangdrol lying on the ground writing in pain and made his way over beside Shaw. “I think I saw one of them touch something just before we heard that awful sound.”
“Could be some kind of warning device,” said Shaw.
“Whatever it was it hit them worse than us,” observed Choling.
Shaw crawled up behind a tall boulder and peered over at the pedestal. He could see Silvas on his knees with a look of pain etched across his face; Adler was standing just behind him rubbing his eyes.
“If we’re going to take them, now’s our best chance,” said Shaw to Choling.
“What about Miss York and Sangdrol?”
“They can stay here,” said Shaw firmly.
“Ok, I’ll let them know to keep out of sight,” replied Choling.
Shaw slipped down behind the rock and ejected the magazine from the rifle he had taken. He saw that aside from one in the chamber, he had only five bullets. He would have to make sure that they all counted when the time came. While he waited for Choling to return, he got back up on one knee and peered out from the boulder. He could see Ortega pointing at a pack lying on the ground. A second later, Shaw heard the sound of footsteps. He glanced back towards the tunnel Adler’s group had used and was stunned to see Zaro walk out of the passageway and into the cavern.
If Zaro was here, where was Bruce and how the hell had he gotten past the beasts in the last cave? An unsettling feeling in Shaw’s stomach told him that something was wrong.
“How are you feeling?” Ortega asked Adler.
“Much better now that that awful shriek has gone from my ears,” replied Adler.
“And you?” she asked Silvas.
“My guts are killing me. I feel like I’m going to throw up,” replied Silvas.
“It’ll pass; just take long deep breaths to clear your head.”
“What about the Afghan?” asked Adler.
Ortega shook her head and said, “He’s dead.”
His passing meant nothing to Adler. The man had served his purpose. Adler shook his head to clear the fog from his mind and looked down at the ground. His heart skipped a beat when he couldn’t see the box. “Where is the device?”
“I’ve already packed it away,” replied Ortega.
Relieved that it hadn’t somehow gone missing, Adler said, “Good work. Let’s get going.”
Silvas was about to throw the pack with the Vril device in it on his back, when he stopped what he was doing and stared straight ahead.
Adler saw the puzzled look on Silvas’ face. A second later, Zaro walked into the cavern and waved nonchalantly over at Adler.
His gut told him to be wary.
“What are you doing here?” asked Adler as he reached down and flipped off the safety on his submachine gun.
“We’re done,” replied Zaro. “I did as you said and shot the Scotsman after the last charge was set.”
“Then why did you bother to come down here?”
“I thought you could use an extra hand,” replied Zaro, getting closer by the second.
Ortega said, “How did you slip past those creatures in the last cavern?”
Zaro shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t see any. Perhaps they’re all gone.”
Something didn’t sit right with Adler. He didn’t notice it until it was too late that Zaro wasn’t carrying any weapons.
With a loud cry, Zaro dove straight at Silvas, knocking him off his feet. In the blink of an eye, Zaro transformed into one of the beasts. Pinning Silvas down, it opened its mouth. Jagged, sharp teeth instantly went to work in a frenzied attack, ripping and tearing pieces of flesh from Silvas’ face and neck.
“No!” screamed Ortega. Horrified, she froze in place, unable to run, unable to help Silvas.
Shaken from the shock of seeing a monster suddenly appear in front of his eyes Adler pulled back on the trigger of his submachine gun. A spray of bullets struck the beast in the side. Bloody chunks of fur and flesh flew from the creature’s body.
With blood foaming from its mouth, the beast looked over at Adler through large, glassy eyes. It growled angrily one last time and then fell to the ground, dead.
Adler knew it was only a matter of seconds before more beasts appeared. Running over, he pushed Ortega to one side, scooped up the heavy pack and then threw it onto his back just a loud monstrous howl erupted from the far tunnel entrance. A second later, running f
orward on all four limbs like apes, at least twenty beasts charged straight at Adler and Ortega.
Adler spun about on his heels, grabbed Ortega by the arm and ran for the safety of some nearby rocks.
“Jesus,” muttered Shaw. He took aim at the closest beast and pulled the trigger. Through his weapon’s sights, he saw it stumble and then fall down. Not wasting any time, he switched his aim and killed another one.
“Over here!” called out Amrit, waving her hands over her head. Her heart was racing wildly in her chest. As much as she hated and despised Adler and Ortega, the thought of anyone else being eaten alive by the creatures was horrifying to her.
Adler could see Amrit waving frantically to him. They were less than ten yards from safety when Adler spotted the other passageway entrance. He let go of Ortega and ran straight for the tunnel.
Shaw was too focused on the white wave of creatures surging towards them to even notice Adler deserting them all to their fate.
“Coward,” yelled Amrit at the fleeing Nazi
Ortega dove forward and landed on the rocky ground just in front Amrit. Before she could crawl her way to safety, a fur-covered hand reached out, grabbed her right foot and yanked her back. With a terrified scream on her lips, Ortega was pulled backwards. Desperate to escape, she struggled to find something she could grab hold of.
Amrit lunged out and grabbed hold of Ortega’s outstretched hands. She looked into Ortega’s eyes and saw nothing but fear.
“Please, don’t let go of me,” pleaded Ortega.
“James, help!” yelled Amrit.
Shaw pivoted on his heels and saw a beast pulling Ortega backwards. He took aim at the beast’s head and was about to pull the trigger when a creature leapt over the rocks and landed right beside Shaw, knocking him to the ground.
Amrit could feel Ortega’s hands slipping from hers.
“No!” wailed Ortega as her hands came free. Screaming, Ortega was pulled back into a throng of bloodthirsty creatures.
The Mountain Page 25
