The whole sky had swiftly altered to a dark cold empty night sky over the island, with an extremely fast world rotation, with the outside world altering to somewhere else. The cold atmosphere and snow clouds had surrounded them in hours and had altered the island to its winter season, and an amazing star had emerged on the horizon in such a large size that it had created forms of sunlight, which beamed and accelerated through the trees like an immense spotlight, creating shifting surreal shadows and ghost shapes, and had soon vanished beneath the horizon.
He was sure that it was an alien world without a proper sun, which had to be at the other side, and he wondered if they could freeze to death there! Yet most of the others thought that there was a proper sun as there would be a far lower temperature.
When they had entered the jungle all they had seen had been the absence of life, and a strange faint mist surrounding regions, and their group of fifteen members from the airplane (including him, Merton, Mortimer, and Parker), had investigated everything, even when the dangers had increased, and they still never found a way to renew their food supplies properly.
The group had mainly been put together by Mortimer and Parker and were mainly made up of scientists and Exploration Association members, who were either the most engrossed and experienced, and scientists, archaeologists, ex-military like Parker, or explorers and treasure seekers, who had experience in searching, examining, documenting, and detecting what they might miss, or there to help or defend them.
Bryson could hardly believe what was happening and anything that had occurred, and how luckily they had been! All the facts and fantasies of the whole affair of the Exploration Association and recent occurrences were muddled up together and he could hardly believe that they were on the trail of another lost treasure.
When they had been back at the airplane they had discovered that before the equipment had stopped working and they had shut it down that it had left a recorded image of what looked like a strange form of a large artificial structure, buried away in the island, and they believed that it was the ultimate time traveler and his lost treasures.
They had entered there all studying their amazing surroundings everywhere trying to explain why the massive immense thick jungle closely resembled an immense prehistoric jungle, and how it could grow to the height that it did.
The whole sky had altered right before their eyes and the outside world vanished away, and the Earth went as if it had been never there, and they were positive that the whole island had been transported somewhere, and to where it could have come from.
The world it was now on was far too cold, and with the same gravity as the Earth, and he could not imagine the trees growing there, and he wondered how many worlds it had appeared on.
The jungle started to look more different and deadly as they entered further, and he considered their search for the structure in what must be the most desolate and deadly region. They had not seen anything alive anywhere, and never even had insects.
The whole event was incredible now and Bryson could hardly believe this was the outcome of the trip that he had predicted he would ruin his reputation over, and thought of as being wrong with his assumptions and theories, with false ideas at what would occur. The events of the past day were astounding and he could hardly believe that they were on the treasure quest, and still alive, and was in perhaps an even worse situation.
The last shreds of proper starlight seemed to be vanishing beneath the trees behind them, and going into the horizon, with the deep black alien winter night engulfing them, and Bryson studied his close surroundings over trying to explain why they had thought that the jungle had even resembled a normal jungle.
All the action was bringing him back to life and putting more life into him, after a long length of inactivity and lack of interest.
At times he could not believe that there was a structure there, and that anything existed there! Yet he had thought the same about the last castle!
It had surprised him again that after the castle exploration, after all the findings and evidence they had collected, in the end still seemed to add up to little! He and the two paranormal scientists had made many discoveries about the paranormal and yet it still had not proven that any of the real stuff existed, and classic stuff like vampires and werewolves, and what they had proven to exist had not just been something else!
What was also shocking was how easily they could get lost there, and nobody knew if they even knew accurately where they were going, as there was nothing like compasses.
They knew where they had come from but they knew nothing of what was in front of them. They had no satellites to search, but if they could find some elevated region they could check the whole region. Yet he could not recall seeing anything from the airplane, and could not recall any real features of anything there. It had been strange and different and he had never seen anything visible, and the others seemed to have done the same.
There was nothing to recognize anywhere, and the strange jungle seemed to cover everything with its colossal trees, and the other areas were mainly just things like high rocky hills and mountains and empty areas of sand and rock.
He watched one of the men keep attempting to use a communications device to the airplane to give and get updates on what was happening without picking up anything.
The snow suddenly came rushing down more than he had ever seen it do, and affected their sight, and they all started getting exhausted wading through deep snow areas, and too exhausted to recognize anything significant, and he noticed a distant hum, like a distant machine sound, came from somewhere and haunted him.
Their legs sank deep through snow and got stuck in deep bogs of stinking vegetation buried below, and Bryson thought it were quicksand a few times. When it increased in depth Bryson started to wonder if they could even find somewhere to shelter. Their lights illuminated what was definitely a swamp emerging about them everywhere!
A long flat mist cloud floated and edged its way across their path and crept around the undergrowth and they started slowing when they reached it, and allowing themselves to rest.
The place was nothing like anything that he had seen elsewhere, and things about him started to look strange and as though there were hidden life forms there! What had actually brought the airplane down, and with such force and unknown energies?
He could not get what the strange environment about him held and if something strange existed there or if there was just a combination of things that created different reactions and effects, which tricked his senses, combined with his tiredness.
Strange vapor clouds shifted together about their sides, and when they moved at an angle to avoid going through it, it shadowed them, at about the same distances about their sides, as if it were probing them and analyzing them for some purpose, and they showed surprise when they saw it floating forward about their sides, and Merton and Mortimer watched with surprise.
There was no real wind there and it all slightly moved in the opposite direction from it, and there was nothing that could account for its strange movements.
They stopped and watched it stop and start mimicking them, as though playing with them, and he wondered if it had ever even seen animals, humans, or life forms before, and he wondered if it was an actual first contact situation, and wondered how the scientists would react and handle such a scenario with such a thing?
Nobody said anything though and most looked like they were wondering what form of intelligence it had, and at times pondered vaguely watching it linger over deep pools of slime in the mind-bending landscape. How could they keep such a thing without it dispersing or being destroyed? What did it live on, and could it survive in a confined space?
Bryson and the others stopped to discuss it, and took a jar over to it and attempted to get a sample of it, but every time they tried to it would disperse away from them at the same speed as they moved forward, and they eventually gave up.
Many questions remained unanswered! Like what did it use to exi
st, and what was it doing?
Bryson still wished they could get some samples, but he was unsure how they could do it and they still did not know if it was dangerous!
Heavy wind blew at it and it withdrew simultaneously in the opposite direction.
It was blowing and sucking, pushing and pulling, and giving him the feeling that something far larger was there and invisible and nearby, and was breathing over there! Something supernatural or of an alien nature, like a beast breathing over its prey, and the environment seemed to react to its presence and its powers!
Merton and Mortimer seemed to love it, and seemed to come to life more, and the later it became, as they always seemed to do in such situations.
He recalled his last thoughts of their paranormal scientist celebrity fame and all the media coverage that they had received at one point, and more recently when their technology had vastly improved, and he had been waiting anxiously for them to find something that they would use to bring in all their new equipment to investigate everything.
Since their investigations of the castles some of the proven details had been released, and some of what they had experienced there, and people’s thoughts on the events had been little and had seemed to alter more in the direction of there not being enough evidence to support there being what they had claimed, and no proper evidence had been properly shown and he believed that the military had made it confidential and had persuaded the scientists not to disclose anything of the findings and film footage.
He never did get why Merton and Mortimer had not become conventional scientists like him! Surely they were good enough to become wealthier and lead the way in another field?
Many scientists were working on what the islands had originally been at one point, and again they all returned to their original thoughts.
Even though he wished to investigate everything there, as they were sure to experience many things, going by all the facts given. Yet all the dangers were overwhelming and it seemed at times that they would not live or be able to return to give their findings!
The two paranormal scientists so far had not properly proven any paranormal disturbances could be there, and had withheld their research from them, and especially when they had found out that some did not accept anything of that nature, and they now did as they mostly did and avoided giving any details of anything as much as they could, including to Parker, who could be of great use to them in the future, and they might have an opportunity someday to prove something to.
They had only given vague findings and thoughts of paranormal activity and strange occurrences and Parker had given them his thoughts about it and that he was not fully sure what to make of it as nothing had been proven.
Nobody, not even paranormal scientists, could explain what was there on the island and they withdrew saying anything, even though most thought the ultimate time traveler was there, and whatever it was, which they knew little of!
As they journeyed on Bryson observed the mist that followed them thicken and it start to surround them more when deep snow and swamp pools increased and impeded their movements.
As they lurched onwards behind Parker they became far more determined to achieve something! They knew nothing of the vague region of the island or if they were lost, trapped out in the most nowhere and in the deadliest zone that they had ever entered.
Bryson’s legs became so stuck in deep bogs of freezing water he knew that they would have to do something soon and he carefully watched the others and them holding back complaining!
It was when they slowed that he properly looked outwards and about him, and realized that the fog formed a perfect halo circle right around them, perfectly positioned all the way round, and was intensifying, and he wondered what they were trapped in.
“What are we doing?” one of Parker’s scientists spluttered, fighting for air, furious that Parker had put him in such a situation!
Parker instantly showed how annoyed he was at the way things were going, and walked back towards him.
“We better agree to something!” he moaned bitterly, giving glances about at things and the mess of the expedition.
“Where can we go?” Merton intervened, wondering what they would do. Barely able to realize what the outcome would be!
They all waited for the outcome and a solution and Parker just stood staggered, sleepy and weary, and asked the scientist and everyone, “What do you want to do then?”
At the same time one of his men shrieked out from behind them, and they immediately turned to see him!
At that point one of the archeologists removed a gun and he swiftly fired it at something hidden in the trees, like a gunfighter, and the bullet smashed into a tree, and the loud explosion temporarily shocked and deafened them in the deep silence there, sending piles of snow falling everywhere from the trees all through the jungle.
Bryson was not sure what to think! Where had he found the gun? Why had he used it? Surely it would not be at the cloud?
For one thing it was not where he fired it, and it was much further out, and he was sure by his reactions that he would not have wasted it on nothing!
All the men stood ready to be attacked and to attempt to defend themselves from the unknown assassin.
“What’s there?” Parker whispered, eventually asking him, confused, not seeing anything but the surrounding mist getting in the way again.
“You never saw that thing?” the man moaned, satisfied by his dramatic display and the deadliness of his weapon.
They stood confused by what he meant by thing!
Suddenly, a black humanoid figure rushed out and into the jungle from behind a distant tree, and they stood considering if it was what he had seen and if it was something new, and if it was as harmful as the man had described it, and if it was an inhabitant of the island?
As they discussed it a radiance emerged out of the jungle and pulsated like a living thing, magically illuminating and intensifying until it was incredibly almost blinding light, stretching shadows from everything around it across its front, with shifting reactions, and Bryson watched the circle of mist around them disperse and shift away from the region, and he wondered how dangerous the new intruder was and if it was what had made the airplane land.
While they were silently observing it something of colossal weight rushed out and attacked them, causing them to rush away from the location.
Chapter 18
The Jungle Monsters
The radiance viciously pulsated through the jungle behind them as they hurried away, magically illuminating everything about them, except what was behind them.
Bryson was fascinated with everything, and wondered how surprising the structure would be if they managed to reach there.
The archeologist with the gun was their best defense against it, and they allowed him to get to a key position that he could use to kill anything that charged out of the dark regions.
Bryson watched two archeologists beside the archeologist with the gun and realized that they also had hidden guns, and were waiting to remove them when something appeared. It surprised him that out of all the people there that only the archeologists had brought the weapons and were prepared to defend them.
While they silently listened to its deep pounds they started to see the black shape of some form of creature/beast with immense height and weight moving along through an area that was the most hidden from view from them, where the trees were tightly together and the light was blocked, and trees covered any proper view.
When it started to look dangerous and able top rush out at them the three archeologists started shooting, ripping chunks off the sides of trees it was behind, and they watched it hide, and Bryson stood stunned by the magnitude of the blasts and explosions, and they scurried away.
Bryson’s legs became weak driving them through bogs, shifting away to alternative regions to cover their movements, even though they still left a clear trail.
The three archeologists and the others were left in confusion and
unable fully discover all the results of their actions and what they were up against!
They ran almost blindly through high vegetation, over rough ground, rushing around gigantic prehistoric-like trees, as thick as large vehicles, while silent heavy beast sounds gave away the thing’s presence somewhere behind them, and they occasionally heard smashing branches.
It frequently resembled something out of a strange nightmare!
They were almost breathless at times and had to stop to control themselves and move on at a speed that fast enough without exhausting themselves, and a thing stayed away at a distance, and they saw it observing them trying to recognize what they were, with some astonishment.
One of three archeologists shouted, “Can you see something up ahead?”
They all looked at where he pointed and they examined everything tiredly, but did not see anything, and Bryson spotted an immense amount of rock in a small gap between two distant trees.
“There’s something!” Parker confirmed. “Quick over there! There’s something for us ...”
After intense rushing they came to a region where they got a proper view through the trees and saw a large solid rock hill and they made their way there, sure that there could be somewhere there where they could shelter.
When closer it was clearer that the hill reached far higher than the height of the trees, with its length going away into the distance somewhere, and as they approached there they saw a gap/canyon running straight through it.
Their lights radiated the canyon rock through the wood and they forced their legs to go faster to it, and Bryson and some of the others scientists started to see how perfectly formed it was and that it even looked cut through the hill. It resembled a pathway going straight through the hill, from the ground to the top of the hill, and when they reached it they all started ignoring what had been behind them and examined the strange pathway trying to give a natural explanation to its exact perfect shape.
The Lost Treasure Map Series Page 46
