He told them of the old ones and the tall beasts with leather skins, but the Spaniards went anyway. By the time they reached the top, only seventy something were left, the numbers were too faded to read.”
Spider nodded, “Si, the book said they spent the night near a huge arch of carved stone that was built out of a cliff and overlooked the city of stone from a distance...”
Jesus looked at the guys excitedly, “...The book says it was surrounded by huge carved blocks of stone, but they could look down on the old one’s city using telescopes.
Senors, that means there could be another stonewall of some kind next to the eastern cliff on our way back.”
“Si, less that a day’s march, according to the Captain’s book.” Spider gleefully related.
They marched almost a day and attacked the city and after a three day battle, they broke through the gates and sacked the city... and found nothing.”
“The book also said they had come up from the jungle along a path that led them under a waterfall...” Jesus frowned, “It sounded like our waterfall, and that means the way down has long been gone... Maybe an avalanche.”
Will snorted, “Well that’s pretty much how our luck has been going.”
Jesus sadly frowned, “We couldn’t make out much from then on, but some of the priests called the ‘razor beasts’ as they hid in a stone temple... This temple guys, the one with the giant unbreakable door. He didn’t say how the beasts were called, but they came and ate the remaining invaders.”
“Si...” Spider added, “The Captain and two of his men managed to survive in one of the stronger houses. He wrote he didn’t think they would ever see their ships again. His two men were sick and he was beginning to feel ill himself and cursed the fact that his whole fleet had perished coming here to find there was no gold in the city. One of the native captors was tortured and told the Captain, the gold was given back to the gods. Of course the captive died before telling the Captain where this place of the gods was at.”
“The last few pages were written with a shaky hand.” Jesus muttered, “He was probably dying. Could have been wounded or had some illness...but there wasn’t any more written.”
Bill sat back and all he could manage was a loud, “WOW!” He looked around the room and frowned, “Such a waste of life... all in the name of greed.”
“Or conquest.” Will snorted. “Looks like we haven’t been the only ones with bad luck.”
The men finished eating and with the torches burning low decided to explore this ‘temple’. Perhaps more pitch could be found or perhaps some sort of oil to keep the torch fires burning. Jim looked down at the dusty old native skeleton.
“The cradle of the Americas civilization... destroyed for nothing... for greed. I know it’s a bit late old guy, but we’re sorry.”
Will nodded slowly, “That poor old guy probably went out once the Raptors had gone and found the dead Captain and his men, took the book, and was contaminated by whatever killed the Captain. The Captain finished his deadly conquest by letting go of a plague that killed off the rest of the old ones... That prick!”
Spider nodded, “The priest probably went mad in here and locked himself in thinking it would keep whatever was killing his people out...and died locked away in here alone!”
Jim snorted loudly, “Hell of a way to end the story of the dawn of the Americas civilization isn’t it?” He walked over to the heavy wooden door and lifted the large wooden plank that had it barred. With a little help from Bill, the men stepped into a large hallway of stone. The entire temple appeared to be made of stone and with hardly no wood visible.
All along the stone corridor there were rays of light that cut through the darkness. They burst through the many gaps that the leg sized vines and huge tree roots had created as they pushed the huge stones apart as they sought water.
“Imagine the power it took to push those stones aside, they have to weigh many tons each. And the ages it took to grow to that size.” Jim got a worried look.
“Guys... all these centuries and the stones pushed apart... Christ we could be walking to our deaths... This place could be dangerous.”
Will winked at the rest and snorted back, “And I suppose all we’ve gone through, hasn’t?”
Jim frowned and nodded, “Good point.”
There were several snickers as the small party treaded carefully through the narrow winding corridors. Everywhere they went there was beams of light which helped with their exploration. However, the downside was with bright light flooding their path, they could barely see into the murky darkness beyond the brilliant shafts of light. All the corridors appeared to be built along the outer walls of the structure, but there were no spaces large enough for the men to squeeze through to the outside.
After an hour they accomplished two major things. The first was a vast main chamber in the middle of the temple... and that was where the bats lived. Beyond was a small antechamber and that must have been the way the bats flew in and out, so the guys avoided that area!
The second thing was, Bill and Will climbed back out to the top of the temple and managed to get a radio signal from the weak walky-talkies and briefly told of what they had found. The radio’s batteries started to get weak again, so the transmission was cut short. Will talked to Marcy and told her how much he missed her and loved her as Bill made motions of sticking his finger down his throat and gagged. Bill’s acting performance was quickly acknowledged by Will’s one-fingered salute.
During this time the others with Jim in the lead managed to find a room with two large pottery casks filled with an oily, pitch-like substance. They had been sealed with a strange oil soaked hide over the top and tightly tied with lashings made from the same material the vines appeared to be. Along the walls of this storeroom were paintings. Most of them were faded but it showed figures of men and women dipping something out of the ground and putting it in large urns.
“Holy shit guys; this is the history of how they get this crap.” Jim exclaimed loudly as it hit him what he was looking at. “The paintings in the room we slept in showed men sitting and talking... Each room has paintings about its use...maybe some sort of bragging. Maybe some way to teach the young?”
Will and Bill entered just in time to hear Jim’s theory. Will laughed, “Well my new found friend, if you like that theory of yours...” he winked at Bill, “...well then, you’re gonna love what we just found.”
“Well as long as it’s not in the big room with the bats.” Jim teased back.
“Oh it’s a big room ok... No bats, but still a big room, down on the main floor.” Bill laughed.
Will smiled and slapped Jim on the back and then teased, “It’s the big fuckin’ things in it that’ll make ya tingle.”
The two with Jim looked at the two that had joined them, shrugged, and quickly followed the pair as they led them down the sloping corridors to the main level. Will grinned, “Its right around the corner and it’s a safe room. It was sealed until we opened it looking for you all.
The rest walked past Will and Bill, turned the corner and walked into the brightly sunlit room... and froze in their tracks!
Chapter 11.
There in the middle of the room on giant racks were strange looking wooden and vine apparatuses. They were huge... so immense the racks that held them filled the huge room! There were row upon row of identical objects and the farther back they went, some got smaller... and at the end of the room was the giant, heavy wooden door they couldn’t get into from the outside.
Sunlight poured into the room from a series of well-designed light holes. And in the light Jim saw more pictures, huge pictures of... He gasped!
There on the walls before them were wall paintings that had mostly remained intact, though faded. Protected from the elements for tens of centuries was a partial history of the old ones city.
Paintings of men putting huge vine and wood yokes over the necks of the long necked dinosaurs, pictures of these natives riding upon the yoke
s as the behemoths pulled huge carved boulders behind them. Of the old ones carving the huge stones from the cliff walls, of stubby four legged dinosaurs pulling vine ropes as they lifted these huge stones using what looked like ramps and primitive pulleys. There were paintings of what appeared to be great battles between the plant eaters and the carnivores with men riding the plant eaters that had some sort of long lance like devices attached to the yokes to attack the flesh-eating beasts. Some of the faded pictograms showed multi-rowed, spiked neck protectors for the longnecks.
“Funny...” Will muttered.
“What?” Amal asked.
“Well guys, look how nicely preserved the pictographs are. Then look at the areas scattered in between some of them...”
Bill looked closer, “Humph...damned if it doesn’t look like...like some of them have been erased. I can see faint traces of paint. Strange...”
On for over an hour the men read the great walls, when suddenly Jim thrust his hand into his pocket. “Dammit!”
With puzzled looks from the others, Jim’s hand reached into his pants pocket and he pulled out his smart phone. With a sheepish grin he muttered. “I brought this along.”
Bill laughed, “If you make a call from here, I want the name of your service!”
Jim aimed at the wall and a flash lit the wall. Jim continued to shoot as he mumbled.
“I figured I’d bring this if we found a new species of critter, and kept forgetting to shoot. Never could use it up here...” he laughed, “...I know Marcy and I tried the night we crashed. Anyhow, as I couldn’t use it, the battery should have enough juice in it to document this entire room. Not to mention these ruins.” Jim looked at his wrist and frowned.
“Anyone know about what time it is?”
The guys looked at their wrists forgetting all their watches had stopped within days of the crash. Marti had figured that it might have something to do with magnetism. Bill’s electronic watch had stopped a few days earlier and now Jim wished he had worried a bit more about making sure his smart phone was correct. He sighed as he looked at the time and date, he sighed.
“Man this sucks. I’m showing one in the morning on December the twelfth...” he sighed again, “Its July... Isn’t it?”
There were many chuckles...right up to the point, where Spider pointed to the many light holes. All the holes on the eastern side were without light.
“It must be past afternoon, Senor Jim.”
Jim nodded. “And guys...please stop with the Senor, Senorita stuff. I know that you’re polite, but geez ...fellas, come on. With all we’ve been through...just plain old Jim’s fine, ok?” The miners nodded with a smile as Jim continued.
“Look men, before long those nasty bats are going to be looking for food. Now I’d like to preserve all this for science, but if this is the only place these things live, we might be able to destroy them and make life a tad easier at the same time. Now granted there could be other colonies, but we haven’t seen many of them... Hopefully this colony is the only one.”
Will nodded, “What’s your plan?”
“Well we know they sleep in the main chamber of this temple. We could try to block the main ways out...” Jim hesitated. “...and hope they don’t find another way out...”
“Or?” Spider asked.
Jim sighed, “Or we can go into the chamber while they are sleeping, douse the moss, and vines with that oily pitch we found and set fire to the entire inner chamber of this place and burn them up. Kill them once and for all.”
Will looked at Jim, then the rest. “Jim... Shit! I know I’m going to hate myself for this, but a couple of us are going to have to cross that main chamber and try to close up the way through the antechamber to where ever they’re flying out through. There were no other holes big enough to get through in the bat chamber itself. If we set fire to this place, then they’ll just fly away... even in the light.”
Jim nodded, “Damn it Will, when you’re right...you’re right. We’ve been through this place and that has to be the way those bats are leaving. There is no other way into that antechamber other than through the bat room. I’ll go and...”
Bill grinned, “Naw, Marti would kill me if anything happened to you...or Will. Christ I’d rather face those fucking killer bats, than Marcy’s wrath if Will bought the biggy.” He grinned widely. “Besides, you know there is a possibility there could be a door on the other side... That chamber was far too big and dark to see other than those few beams of light coming from the antechamber walls high overhead. We just assumed there was an opening where that big assed shadow was.”
Amal nodded. “We’ll go. I’m good in the dark.” He laughed, “I was the second blaster. I always went in after the explosion to look for undetonated charges. I see well in dark and dust.”
Bill nodded, “Yeah and we can carry one of the casks with us and soak everything on our side as we go.”
“Well we have a plan guys... Just be careful... K?” Jim paused and then he nodded. The men gave the vast room one last glance. Jim checked his pictures and once sure he had gotten them all, put his phone in his pocket and followed the guys out.
The men went and retrieved the two large casks of oil and slowly struggled their way to the main chamber door. Remembering that it squeaked upon opening and closing it the first time they had found it, this time they slowly pulled it open... It still squeaked loudly.
After making sure all was quiet, Bill, Jesus, and Amal picked up the one heavy cask and proceeded to the far side of the vast chamber. Then Jim, Spider, and Will picked up their cask and carefully began working their way around their side of the chamber.
They carefully grasped the hanging moss and dipped it into the oil and let it hang. Using a gourd ladle they had found in the same room the casks were in. Jim began pouring the oil over the huge dry vines and mosses that were on the walls and floor. When they had worked their way around the walls to the center of the room, they began pouring the oil on the floor. If nothing else, the burning oil would create plenty of dense black smoke.
Now and then, the other three could be heard moving about dousing their side of the chamber. At times, they would freeze as a flapping sound could be heard overhead as some bat changed its sleeping position.
As the three poured the last of their oil, Jim looked up and realized they were almost to the door they had entered by. He motioned Will and Spider out and strained to see how the others were coming along. Now and then he could see movement that caused the light from the passageway on the other side to flicker. There was a series of heavy terracotta scraping on the floor and Jim knew they had completed the oiling part of the plan. Sounds of squeaking, a few muffled grunts, and with a moderately loud ‘thud’ the sound of a wooden door closing echoed throughout the chamber and the light on the other side vanished.
Jim smiled as he could hear the scuffling of feet, but they weren’t coming toward him. He glanced back behind him and noticed it was nearly dark. The sun had moved out of range of the cracks in the hall behind him and there was no longer any light coming from his door to guide the other three back to him.
Jim pulled out his flashlight and blinked it a few times to get the guys attention. Jim held his hand over the top of his flashlight to partially shield it from the bats high above. He flicked it on steady to give the three a direction to aim for.
There was the sound of a much softer ‘thud’ and muttered cursing. From about mid way in the chamber Jim saw Jesus walk into the light, covered in oil, nearly all over. Jesus grinned and whispered... “That oil is really very slipp...”
Something flashed by Jesus’s head and blood gushed from his jugular as he slapped his hand to it in a feeble attempt to stem the flow. He dropped to his knees and before Jim could take the first step, four huge bats swooped down and were upon Jesus.
There was a scream somewhere behind Jesus and Bill’s anguished voice shouted...
“Shut the door and run...” there was a momentary pause and then Bill’s screamed
again... “Jim...do it!”
“NO! I don’t know where Amal is...” Jim shouted back.
A painful voice came back from the other side. “I didn’t think so...” Another pause then a bright red flash which Jim instantly recognized as the flare gun from the plane. The entire side of the chamber lit up and in the brief moment before Bill became engulfed in flames, Jim saw him standing there struggling with two bats latched onto him, flare gun in hand... and Amal’s body at his feet with three more bats frantically feasting on him.
Then with a horrible scream the flames closed in on Bill. They almost instantly closed on Jesus’s now silent remains and the bats that were still feeding upon him.
The now roaring flames of the fireball shot quickly across the room as Jim turned and in the same motion leapt from the chamber. He grasped onto Will as he stood petrified in the doorway. As the two men tumbled to the floor flames exploded over their heads and just when Jim thought he was about to burst into flames, Spider slammed the heavy wooden door closed.
From within, horrible screeching could be heard as Spider helped the two men to their feet. He looked at Jim.
“Jim... I am sorry about your friends, but we have to go.” Spider nodded to the many holes in the walls between the chamber and corridor erupted with heavy black smoke as flames blasted through the smaller holes like a blowtorch.
“I think this whole place is in danger.”
Will and Jim staggered to their feet and in a second the three remaining men were now sprinting to the corridor up to the second floor of the temple. By the time they had gone up the stairs to the second floor and headed back to the small room where they had spent the night, smoke and flames were popping throughout cracks between the stones nearly everywhere. They were now forced to run in a crouching position as the smoke filled the halls from the ceiling down.
With the smoke filling the halls Jim finally found the door using his flashlight, and they rushed in slamming the heavy wooden door behind them.
Valley of Lost Time. Page 11
