by Justin Sloan
He sat up with a start, eyes to the door where the spirits were departing, carrying a man with them. Not the demon, but the one who had protected them out the jungle, only those eyes, they weren’t his eyes.
They were the eyes of Altemus.
“Thank you for your hard work,” Altemus said from the body. “It means so much to me.”
With a smile and a flash of gold, he was gone.
Chatper 12
Rohan and Nora ran from the temple as the dark spirits assaulted them. Each took turns shooting blasts of energy out for defense, but soon the walls of the city were falling down around them, and then the rocks from the earth above.
“We have to get out of here!” Nora said, dodging a large section of wall.
“That way!” Rohan said, having an idea. “Take my hand!”
Without question, she did, and then Rohan saw what he’d been looking for—the demon. It turned to him and snarled, but Rohan had no hopes of fighting it, only of using it. With all his power he focused on the demon, focused on pulling on it and pushing at the same time, and then the two he felt it the explosion of energy the whipped them around the demon like a whip and he and Nora were flying through the air.
“I shouldn’t have trusted you!” she said as they flew toward a rock wall.
“Always trust me,” he replied, and then pulled against the demon one more time, and it flung the two of them around a section of falling rock and onto the bridge they’d arrived on.
“Go!” Rohan said, stumbling to keep his balance. He was completely drained of energy, but he pushed on.
She started to run, but saw his condition and came back for him. Wrapping an arm around him, the two moved as fast they could for the exit.
A loud shout came from behind them, and then the whole place collapsed. Nora pulled at Rohan, and the two leaped into the area with the stairs, just past the bend, as rocks and other debris came flying out at them.
Somehow, they’d actually made it. But….
“We lost the orb,” Rohan said.
“It was all… pointless.” Nora held her face in her hands.
A coughing sound came from farther up the path. Could it be Altemus? Rohan picked himself up, feeling every muscle in his legs resist, his lungs burning. He was shivering, but wasn’t cold.
“Altemus!” he managed to yell. “ALTEMUS!”
“No,” a voice said with a heavy accent. “Not anymore.”
Nora was beside Rohan then, helping him to walk, and they found him—the man who Altemus had inhabited. His eyes showed no sign of Altemus, and when Rohan tried to tap into his powers to sense him, he got nothing. He gave Nora a nod, and she tried it too, then shook her head.
“He’s long gone,” the man said. “Him and his woman.”
“They’ve gone to Maccu Pichu,” Nora said, as the man’s eyes closed.
“Yes,” the man said. He coughed, then opened his eyes with what appeared to be great effort. “He thought it, while in me. He means to…” he coughed again, “do such horrible things.”
His eyes took on a cold stare, and it took Rohan a few seconds to realize he wasn’t glaring, but was dead. With his left hand, Rohan closed the man’s eyes and turned to assess Nora.
“Maccu Pichu,” he said with a sigh. “That’s not close.”
“We get back to Cusco, resupply, eat for the love of God, and maybe Piero can help us.”
Rohan nodded, and after several moments to recuperate, they began the trek back the way they had come.
The journey seemed to take twice as long, with Rohan’s injury and the fact that the excitement of earlier had turned into dread. Altemus had the orb and was already way ahead of them. For all they knew, he had a helicopter and was already there, doing whatever it was he planned to destroy the world as they knew it.
“Wait… here.” Nora said, leaning against a tree for support. “No water?”
“Lost everything back there,” Rohan said as he sat on a large stone beside her.
“If we just stopped right now,” she said, “would it be so bad? Just lay down here and waited for it all to be over.”
He looked at her to see if she was joking, but her face was pure exhaustion, not revealing any of her emotions.
“Let’s put it this way,” he said. “I’ve seen parts of the underworld, and letting Altemus win in any way means bad things for our world and that one. There’d be no escaping his evil.”
“Yeah, I was afraid you’d say that.” She sighed heavily and then pushed off.
“Thought you needed a rest?”
“We can rest after stopped that bastard.”
Rohan found himself smiling in spite of his exhaustion. He liked that attitude.
The group that had threatened their lives earlier were nowhere to be found. Either they had been scared off after getting their butts kicked by Altemus in the now dead man’s body, or they didn’t care to interfere with people leaving the forbidden city. Either way, Rohan was relieved. The last thing he wanted right now was to have to run or fight.
They passed a roaring waterfall, and Nora smiled.
“What?” he asked.
“Just, we’d gone in one or two circles back there, and now we’re back on track.”
“We were lost?” he said.
“Were is the key word,” she said. “The jeep won’t be much farther on.”
That sounded great, but when they finally did reach the jeep it was toppled over as if it had been rammed from the side. On top of that, the left-front tire had been removed and had a large knife sticking out of it.
“Well that’s just f-ed up,” Rohan said. His emotions were about to explode from his chest—the immediate drop from seeing the jeep to realizing they couldn’t use it led to anger, sorrow, and hopelessness. “So what, we’ve lost?”
“Could be the case,” Nora said. “But good news is, at least they didn’t take the jeep.”
Looking at the jeep on its side, Rohan said, “How’s that good news?”
She climbed up the side, and reached in, then a moment later came back with a bag of granola bars and two waters. He could’ve kissed her right there, but his instincts led him to the water and food instead.
When they had replenished their energy, Rohan felt like a new man.
“What if Altemus hasn’t figured it out?” he said. “I mean he may know he has to get to Maccu Pichu, but he’ll have to do it when there aren’t tourists around, right? So….” He looked up at the sun that was now moving past the center of the sky. “That should give us a little time.”
“You think he cares for tourist lives?” Nora said with a scoff.
“No, but he wouldn’t want the security guards on him, messing it up.”
She nodded at that, then added, “And he might not have even figured out what he’s supposed to do with the orb once he is there.”
“Anne wouldn’t be much help there,” Rohan said, starting to feel his confidence rise. “From what I’ve seen, she strikes me as more of the bully in the relationship, not the brains.”
“Then we might just have a chance.” She took another gulp of water, then turned to move on, but stumbled over a root.
Rohan stepped forward and caught her, holding on to her longer than was probably called for in a saved-you-from falling kind of way.
“Thanks,” she said, clearing her throat and standing on her own. Her cheeks reddened, and Rohan wanted to kick himself.
“I—”
“No.” She held up a hand. “Really, it’s okay.” She was about to keep walking, when she turned back to him, leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Maybe when all this is over, we can sit down and talk…. You know, in different circumstances and all.”
“I’d like that.”
She bit her lip and nodded, then led the way, following the jeeps tracks.
Chapter 13
By they time they reached Cusco, the sun was getting dangerously low in the sky. From the city, it took approximately t
hree or four hours to reach Maccu Pichu, Nora estimated, meaning they had to find Piero, and quick.
The first stop was his place, but not only was he not there, his door was kicked in and the place completely torn apart. That left them lost, considering plan B. The only problem was, they didn’t really have a plan B.
They found a small market at the edge of town and Nora was picking out fruit, while Rohan paced back and forth, eyes continuously glancing toward the position of the sun.
“It’s over,” he said, a horrible scratching sensation in his throat. “We’ve lost.”
Nora took the fruit from the vender, and Rohan noticed her hand shaking as bad as his.
“What next?” he asked, hoping she had something.
She glanced around the market, waiting, and then froze. “There.”
Sure enough, someone was hiding in the shadows, eyes staring right at them. Nora took a step closer, and the man backed up, but just enough so that a sliver of light found his face. It was Piero, but not as they’d left him. This man’s hair was sticking out in clumps, his skin covered in a thin layer of dirt, and his eyes darted about like he was crazy.
“Who sent you?” he asked when they approached. When they didn’t respond, he waved them over to the alley.
“How’d you know he would be here?” Rohan whispered as they approached.
“I didn’t, but it was a good guess,” Nora said. “It was where he used to take me, back… before. It was a stretch to hope he’d be there, but one that worked out for us.”
Rohan looked at this dirty, wild looking man. He had a hard time imagining this crazy person ever being with Nora. Putting him together with that suave man he’d first met was almost unthinkable.
“So, did you get it?” Piero asked, eyes darting between the two. “Show me.”
Nora shook her head. “We did, but….”
“Someone else took it from us,” Rohan finished.
The men’s eyes turned on him as if he’d just exploded. Then he turned around, stroking the stubble on his face.
“Yes, that would explain a lot,” he said. “The people from the jungle,, they have it.”
“Not exactly,” Rohan said. “Or, not at all actually.”
“What?! Who?”
“A very bad man.”
Piero backed up against the wall again, looking around frantically, as if he expected a bunch of very bad men to drop down on them.
“It’s going to be okay,” Nora said, putting a hand on Piero’s arm. “We just need you to help us get somewhere.
“Nora….” Rohan gave a nod toward the man. “Do you really think that’s doable?”
“Yes, yes,” Piero said. “Anywhere you want, you can count on me.” He stepped forward, eyes moving across the two of them. “I assume you still have the tablet?”
Nora patted her pack.
“Good, good.” Piero pulled out several papers from his pocket. They looked just as grimy as him, but Rohan leaned in, excited, because he saw images like the ones they’d found on the orb’s gold box.
“How do you…?” Nora started, but Piero held up a hand to stop her.
“Part of why I’ve been here so long, why I couldn’t leave to be with you….” He looked to her with intense longing. “An obsession, of sorts.”
Rohan shared a confused look with Nora. This was new.
“If you’d look here,” Piero said, pointing to the top paper, where a circle eclipsed another. “I believe this is the sun, rising. It has to be done at sunrise.”
“Meaning that if Altemus tries anything before sunrise, it won’t work,” Rohan said.
“Exactly.” Piero glanced around.
“Then we better get going,” Nora said, standing to leave. “Which way to the train station?”
A click sounded, and Piero had a gun to Nora’s head.
“You don’t want to do that,” Rohan said, putting up his hands to show he was unarmed.
“I’ll be taking the tablet,” Piero said. “The rest of the way, it’ll be me. Just me.”
“What, you’ll shoot us right here?” Nora asked.
“Only if you don’t hand over the tablet, like I said.”
“You’re one of them.....” It hit Rohan hard. Why hadn’t he seen it before. “This was all a setup.”
“Very quick, this one,” Piero said, rolling hi eyes. “In fact, I’d hoped you would’ve died on your way to Viilcabamba. That would’ve made this all so much easier.”
“And our past?” Nora asked, her voice shaky. “That means nothing to you?”
“Problem with the past is, you simple girl, it’s the past.”
Nora’s eyes flashed with anger and she looked like she was about to strike the man, but he clicked his tongue and raised the pistol to eye level.
“The tablet belongs to the society now, as it always has.”
Piero’s finger twitched, and Rohan knew it was time to act. He threw himself into the gun hand, pushing the gun up and away from Nora at the same time as he brought his free elbow into the man’s throat, to knock him off guard.
“Get out of here!” Rohan yelled to Nora as he struggled for the pistol. Piero was strong, however, and was able to keep his grip on it. Two more shots went off, exploding the plaster walls.
Somewhere in the distance, a baby cried and a woman started cursing.
“How long do you think you have before the police arrive?” Piero shouted, and followed it up with a knee to Rohan’s side.
Rohan winced but used the moment to slam the back of his head into Piero’s nose, and then slam the man’s arm against the doorway that led to the bathroom. The pistol dropped, clattering across black and white tiles.
“And we’ll tell them you tried to kill us!” Rohan said.
“Trust me,” Piero said. “They’re on my side.”
Whether he trusted that statement or not didn’t matter, because if there was even the slightest chance it was true, he had to be out of there before the police arrived. Seeing as this man had a pistol, even if it was on the floor behind Rohan now, and a whole secret-society or something on his side, Rohan’s best bet was to run.
So he did.
He plowed right into Piero, tackling him to the ground with a well-placed knee to the groin for good measure, and then scrambled fro the front door. He had it closed and was half-way down the steps before another gun shot rang out, but he knew it was a wild-shot.
“This way!” Nora said, and he saw her at the corner that went under an overhang of apartments. He followed her, only to look up and see a ledge above where two men had appeared. Piero’s voice came from behind, yelling something indistinguishable, and then the two men joined in the pursuit.
“There!” Rohan said, and they dove sideways into a small alley. An small iron gate stood in their way, but on solid kick sent it clattering down the alley and they were past.
He paused to hold his hands out and help Nora over a small wall into someone’s backyard, and then he was over it too, before the others saw where they’d gone.
They sat there, both breathing heavy, listening to the sound of foot echoing in the alley they’d just escaped from. When they thought it was clear, Rohan held up a hand to wait, then cautiously looked over the wall.
“Clear,” he said, sinking down next to her and wiping the sweat from his brow. The scent of mint and thyme hit him, and he realized they were in someone’s garden. There could be worse places to be stuck hiding.
“Bastard,” she sad, glaring at the dirt beneath her. “I never would’ve suspected—”
“It’s done,” Rohan said, a bit more snap to his voice than he’d anticipated.
“You blame me?”
His first thought was that, well, she had been the one to introduce Piero into this. But he said, “There’s no way you could’ve known. Love blinds….”
The last bit kind of slipped out, but he found himself looking out of the corner of his eyes to see how she’d react.
For a moment sh
e continued to glare at the dirt, then she picked some up and flicked at him and smiled.
“What was that for?” he asked.
“My history with him is none of your damn business, anyway,” she said. “But no, it wasn’t love or anything like that. I’m a professional, and was here on work.”
“You can’t say it was nothing.”
“I didn’t say that either,” she said with a blush. “But, again, not that it’s any of your business…. God. Why am I explaining my relationship with a guy who just tried to kill us? Whatever.”
Rohan waited, not saying a thing.
Finally, she said, “It was a work thing. Met him at an event for archeologists, we kinda hit it off… took a walk under the starlit sky, and kissed. That. Was. It.”
He was kind of happy she told him, but then felt his stomach clench up at the image of that jackass and her kissing.
“See, I told you it was too much information,” she said, smirking and watching the expression on his face.
More a second, it looked like she was going to lean and kiss him. Part of him, probably the part that was still surging with adrenaline from having just almost died, wanted it more than anything. The rest of him wondered if he was ready, emotionally.
Not that it mattered, because just then an elderly Peruvian lady walked out of her back door and saw these two sitting in her garden, and started yelling and throwing packets of seeds at them.
“Come on,” Nora said with a laugh, and they ran past the lady and into her house for the front door.
And then Nora paused at a set of keys. The woman was still yelling at them, and then a pounding of footsteps sounded upstairs.
“We can’t,” Rohan said, looking form Nora to the keys, but she reached out and snagged them and broke for the beat up red truck parked just outside, half-way on the curb.
More screaming from the woman, and then a huge dude in a tank top appeared at the top of the stairs. Only a tank top, that is—he was nude from the waste down.
“Sorry,” Rohan said, and ran to hop in the truck that Nora had already started.
They sped away as the man came chasing after them. It was only then, with a glance behind to make sure they’d escaped without hurting anyone, that he saw the man racing after them in the streets, full nudity swinging in the wind.
