I recognize the voice too.
Dad!
I launch myself forward down the half broken path as a burst of gunfire erupts all around me and the others. I turn and find Kane and Nicole hot on my heels, covering their heads with their hands as they run.
Nicole lifts both her guns and turns backwards, fires a few volleys of her own, and in one motion spins back forward, never losing her stride or any speed. Wow. If I tried that I’d be flat on my back with motion sickness and a concussion from the fall. I wonder if she’s a good ice skater with moves like that.
POP. POP. POP.
ROAR!
We hear gun fire and another scream, but this one doesn’t belong to Dad. It almost sounds feral, animal-like, or like an angry, wild beast in excruciating pain. That must be what Dad was yelling about, I think. Whatever it is, he’s under attack up ahead, maybe another 500 yards away.
We put the pedal to the metal and rush to save my father from an unimaginable horror.
32
Well, one good thing finally happens to us. Kane’s explosive ambush rings out through the space. The concussive blast echoes around the cavern following the detonation of the Claymore, killing some of the incoming soldiers. Anguished filled screams of the survivors can be heard before a quick round of gunshots silences them, putting them out of their misery. We continue moving forward, towards the last location where we heard Dad, the stone forest thinning as we advance.
“Well, that worked out better than expected,” Kane says looking back towards the spot where he laid his trap.
“Better than expected?” Nicole asks in revulsion. “We are now responsible for at least four men’s deaths—maybe more!”
“Better them than us,” he replies with little remorse. “If they catch us we’re dead.” He ejects his magazine and replaces it with a new one. “Your jobs are to figure out where the hell we are. Mine is to keep you guys alive.”
“Oh, damn…”
They both spin around twin guns drawn, searching for a target, but find none.
My face must look like I saw a ghost, because I get the same question in unison.
“You okay?”
We have entered the courtyard in my dream. Everything is the same. The dark gray and black color, the pillars, the empty pedestals and the pyramid…
Wait a second…empty pedestals? I run over to the closest one and stop. “They’re empty?” I say confused. “They weren’t empty in my dream.”
ROAR!
I snap towards the familiar sound and stumble away. One of the Minotaur creatures that should have been frozen in time on a stone base, steps out from behind a pillar and reveals its full height and girth and…its breed.
ROAR!
“What the…?” Nicole says stammering, taking a step back.
The half human, half rhinoceros slowly rounds the large column, advancing towards us. I’m guessing it stands about nine feet tall and weighs nearly half a ton, and like a person, walks on two legs. Its legs are that of a rhino, strong and powerful. Its body is humanoid and built like a Mr. Universe competitor. The Minotaur’s arms are mostly rhino, like its legs, except for the hands. They are most definitely human…and huge…with claws. Perfect for tearing us apart, I think.
Its head is the most terrifying feature. The skull is all rhinoceros and so is the snout and foot-long horn. But, the eyes…they are 100% human, and they are watching us, studying our every move. Which isn’t much right now since we are unmoving, gripped by fear.
It stops and lets out a snort and growl so low it sounds like the late Michael Clark Duncan is wearing Darth Vader’s helmet. The monsters eyes focus on me and never waver.
Dang.
Then I see something in the creature that I didn’t notice before.
“Its stone—obsidian I think,” I say surprised. “But alive?” The jet-black exterior of the stone giant glistens in the low light, like moonlight reflecting off the surface of an oil slick in water.
“You said the sculptures in your nightmare were stone too, right?” Nicole asks never taking her eyes off of the thing.
“Yes, they were, but they weren’t alive and ready to kill us.”
“Look at the chest,” Kane directs.
Nicole and I finally take our focus off the face and look down at its chest and abdomen. What we see is strange, but recognizable.
“Are those bullet wounds?” I ask. They pock the monster’s body like tiny meteor craters.
“From your father, I’d guess.” Nicole replies. “I doubt Omar had the where-with-all to even draw his gun let alone go one-on-one with rhino-boy.”
Hearing the mention of my father sends me into a panic and I scan the area quickly, but happily find no blood or bodies.
“Looks like they got away,” Kane says noticing my frantic search.
I look back to the brute and see something odd. It twitches its head a few times, like it has a nervous tick or like it has a kink in its neck.
ROAR!
The creature charges, horn down.
We react the only way we can…we open fire.
“Aim for the knees and try to slow it down! I’ll try for its head!” Kane yells as he dives right and brings up both Eagles, opening up with a cacophony of cannon blasts. Thankfully, he is still wearing his arm braces or he’d be running around like Gumby, arms flapping about.
He lands on his back, just feet from the rhino, and fires off two more rounds, striking it in the shoulder. The monster swings a beefy fist in a downward arc, like an oversized sledge. The hammer blow smashes into the ground, pulverizing the spot were Kane had just been. If creature had found its mark, the big-man from Montana would have just turned into a big red smear of blood and guts, forever a stain on the rock hard flooring.
But Kane had seen the killing blow coming, diving away again, this time instantly rolling to his feet, weapons again blazing.
The giant blocks most of the projectiles with its forearm, sending chunks of obsidian shrapnel everywhere, and roars again. Kane is actually frustrating the thing. No surprise there, I think. The man could probably infuriate a brick wall.
Nicole and I circle around the thing’s right flank, gawking at the golem-like beast’s tenacity and its apparent thirst for making Kane into his own brand of ketchup. We stop and let loose a healthy bombardment of lead, unloading as fast as our fingers can twitch.
“If we concentrate our fire on its knee…” I yell over the rapid fire thunder clap produced by our weapons. “…we should be able to at least hobble it and slow it—”
ROAR!
THUMP!
BANG!
As we reload, a crashing sound and a grunt echoes through the courtyard. We look up and see the beast knock Kane off his feet, swatting him away like a pesky fly at a barbeque. He slams into one of the empty pedestals and flips up and over it crashing hard on the other side.
33
“Kane!” Nicole and I scream in perfect harmony, fear gripping our bodies. We know he can take a licking, but that was beyond a brutal blow.
Luckily, we hear him mumbling expletives on the other side of the pedestal, not sounding at all pleased with being tossed like a rag doll in a clothes dryer. But at least he’s alive. If he was hit in the face and not the chest, the outcome would have been a lot worse for sure.
“Now what?” I ask rhetorically, a little too loud.
The rhino-man halts its attack on Kane and slowly turns around to face us.
Pfffff!
It snorts a cloud of dust and grime, once again locking its gaze onto me.
Shit.
But then a really stupid idea pops into my head. I wonder…
I whisper so only Nicole can hear me, “I’m going to lead it away. Do NOT move until I have its attention. Go help Kane and wait for my signal.” I don’t have time to explain my plan, but she sees the creature’s unnatural obsession with me and backs down. She’s about to holster both her weapons, but balks at the idea, just in case. She stops, standin
g as still as a statue and waits for me to make the first move.
I step forward, towards the monster, trying to think of something to say. What do you say to a rhino-man, death machine?
Hi. How’s your day going? Sleeping well?
As I move, Nicole slowly makes her way around the rhino, giving it a wide berth.
A cold shiver tingles its way up my back and a thought seemingly random thought enters my mind. The same feeling I had before in the tunnels.
“Nannot?” I ask in confusion. The word just slips out of my mouth. I’m not sure what it means, but it feels like the right thing to say. And it must be, because the beast’s eyes start to glow a crimson red and begin to bleed. Gross.
The second the blood starts to flow—the rhino starts to thrash his head back and forth, like it’s writhing in pain.
ROAR!
“You!”
Did it just speak? Can the others hear this?
“How dare you use my name!”
Yep, it spoke. Its lips moved and everything, annunciating the words. I look beyond the speaking manimal to Nicole and see her eyes go wide. Yep, they can hear it too.
An even colder chill races up and down my body, and not in a good way, this one makes my blood run cold. I recognize the voice. I do everything I can not to let it hear the fear in my voice.
“The End, you’re here?”
The Minotaur again shakes violently like it’s trying to fight the evil presence in its head. It even bashes itself in the temple as if attempting to slaughter the mental intruder…or possibly to kill itself.
“Yes, slave. I am always here.”
“How?”
“Once I splinter your mind I will always have dominion over you, unless you die in the process of the breaking, that is.”
“So you control this thing?”
The rhino-morph stands at attention and grunts, but this time it looks strong and focused.
Nannot must have full control now. The thrashing was the pain of him reentering the creature’s mind.
“Rhonar was a worthy challenger once, but sadly for him, he was not strong enough to resist me.”
So the rhino’s name is Rhonar? Okay then.
“Very few have been able to deny me.”
Deny. There’s that word again.
The will of the chosen to deny, I think to myself, reciting the cryptic message again.
Rhonar’s body shudders again, clenching its manhole-cover sized hands. Its eyes are bleeding more too. The pain its enduring must be excruciating.
Nicole finally reaches Kane and helps him up to his knees. He has a knot on his head, but doesn’t look as bad as I expected.
Tough dude.
He then notices me standing alone with the monster that clubbed him away and draws his weapon—but before he can fire and ruin my plan, Nicole grabs his arm and shakes her head mouthing the word, “Wait.”
“Hold on, back up. Challenger?” I ask, finally paying attention to what Nannot—The End—had said.
“Yes, all those who oppose me and fail, but do not perish, become my…decorations, or as I call them, my Nightmares, my…experiments. I created these for my own amusement. I guess there was some good in what our tyrant taught us after all.”
Rhonar smiles, a hint of resistance etched in its face.
Tyrant? I think. Who’s he talking about?
I glance over at the other seven empty stands and gasp. All of these things are now alive and roaming this place.
I peak over and see Kane up on his feet, gun in hand, ready to go. Let’s hope this works. Hopefully he’ll get what I’m about to do and understand his role in it.
“You shall be my next trophy and—“
I don’t let Nannot finish. I charge weapon blazing, intending to blind it. Can you blind stone? Let’s hope you can.
The nightmare opens its clenched fists, revealing its talons and swipes at me. I slide under its legs with ease, still firing. As I exit behind it, my gun runs dry. Not having time to reload, I toss my Glock aside and stand, ready for anything.
ROAR!
The monster roars in anger and turns to face me. I back up, matching its pace until I reach the stand I was aiming for. I stop and take a non-threatening posture. I prop up my elbow on the large stone slab and whistle a tune. For some reason, the first thing that comes to mind is the theme to ‘The Addams Family’. I guess it seems appropriate considering my current setting.
Would Morticia Addams have Rhonar as a pet? Probably. Just for my own amusement I add in the finger snaps too. I know, I know…I’m an idiot.
But it gets the desired effect out of my opponent. Confusion.
“You know the biggest problem with gloating and showboating, Nannot you—”
He—it—or whatever the hell this thing is, roars at my casual use of the name, interrupting me.
I continue, “You become unaware of your surroundings and the others in it.”
BOOM!
A massive .50 caliber round slams into Rhonar’s face, sending stone and horn flying.
Its head snaps back and it screams.
ROAR!
BOOM!
Another round hits home and spins the massive stone monster around.
A shadow passes over my head. I look up just in time to see Kane land on the giant’s back, and hold on for dear life. He must have climbed the stand and jumped off, I think in amazement.
Rhonar tries to toss him, but Kane digs a large knife into a fold of rock, keeping him on board, for better or worse. He then places his weapon up to the back of the rhino’s skull and pulls the trigger.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Two ear splitting blasts pound my ear drums, forcing me to cover my ears like the ‘Hear No Evil’ monkey. Through the gong-like ringing now filling my head, I see Rhonar fall, head missing. Destroyed.
But Dead?
Can they be killed?
Kane dizzily climbs off the now seven-and-a-half foot headless monster and tumbles to the ground, alive, but exhausted.
Nicole goes to him and helps him sit up.
I go to…Rhonar. I now know that it wasn’t it trying to kill us, but The End, which had infiltrated its mind. The pain it suffered was its attempt to deny him and expel the evil.
I kneel down beside the unmoving mass, close my eyes and pray. I pray for the brute’s forgiveness. Rhonar can finally rest in peace after what could only have been centuries of torment. These creatures are not Nightmares—their treatment and slavery is the real nightmare.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and look up through blurry, tear filled eyes. Kane and Nicole are standing over me. Nicole looks saddened, but just Kane looks confused.
“Um, it did just try to kill us?” He says not understanding my emotions.
I give the fallen creature’s shoulder a final pat, wipe my eyes and stand, joining the others by a vacant stand. I lift myself up on the now forever-empty pedestal and sit, telling them what happened, the conversation I just had, Nicole not hearing much of it.
“So, The End, is really an ancient elder named, Na-noot?” Kane asks looking over to the stone body, eyebrow raised.
“Nannot,” I correct.
“Bless you,” He says, without skipping a beat. “And this person, Nuh-Not,” he continues, carefully annunciating the name, mocking me. “Can take over your mind once he’s allowed in, forever supplying him a backdoor in causing pain and suffering that could cripple the average man.” He takes a breath. “Sound about right?”
I nod.
“Well then,” He says reloading his gun with a smile. “We’re just going to have to fix that.”
34
After retrieving my gun, we head deeper into the, patio of pain, as Kane has come to call it, continuing our search for Omar and my father. If this was any other ancient palace’s courtyard it would be a beautiful sight.
The manicured grass—yes I said grass—is perfectly cut and well…grey. I bend down and run my hand through it, feeli
ng its soft texture. It reminds me of the grass you’d find up north in Michigan, or maybe on a local golf course.
The rest of the grounds are decorated with more statues, but these haven’t come to life…yet. Upon closer inspection, these particular effigies are fully human in design and ring around the outer perimeter of the clearing. I step up to the closest one, inspecting it. There’s a name plate attached to the front of the sculptures stand, identifying the person immortalized there. Unfortunately it’s in a language none of us can understand. We inspect a few more of the statues and find the same thing. The one constant is that they are wearing what looks like different types of crowns. It seems this was some sort of mausoleum to the kings of old, the ancient rulers of this land.
“Come on guys, let’s go,” I say waving them on.
We continue on our quest, towards the foreboding black pyramid. We only get interrupted one more time, too. Fortunately, she wasn’t as tough as Rhonar was.
The second Nightmare was another humanoid, this one mixed with a snake—a cobra to be exact. Her body was pure homosapien except covered in stone scales, sort of looking like Mystique from the X-Men series. Only this wasn’t nearly as head-turning as the movies portrayed it to be, probably because this was real and not some expensive Halloween costume filled with the body of a supermodel. The woman’s head was something else altogether.
First off, she sported a four foot long neck that fanned out like a cobra’s did. Secondly, the she-snake also had a set of nasty fangs imbedded in her fully human face, complete with some type of venom or other form of crippling toxin. The human quality threw us off a little…until she tried to bite me.
Avoiding the spitting cobra’s assault was easy enough. We just kept out of striking distance and attacked from a distance, focusing on her neck. I’m not exactly thrilled that we’ve decapitated two heads in the last 30 minutes, but it’s damn effective.
“They stay dead with no head,” as Kane would explain.
Nicole tried to comfort me, knowing that the slaying of the two beasts bothered me by summarizing that we severed the connection to Nannot and released the suffering victim from his grasp. She then went on to add that each one of these things is filled with the same pain and anguish as Rhonar was, and at least we can do some good by liberating them from their physical bondage and psychological torture.
Blood and Sand Page 13
