They spelled out—HELL.
Catalina read it and said, “Well, I guess we’ve officially arrived.”
#
Queen Caveira and her remaining pirates followed Javier’s cloth markers through the rainforest. The trail ended at the top of a rise. Standing at the peak, she signaled the men to stop then studied the marsh below. She could hear the stream babbling but no frogs croaking or birds singing—just an unearthly silence.
She gestured one of the pirates forward. “Paulo, come with me. The rest of you wait here.”
Keeping to the brush, she crept down the incline, Paulo at her heels. The thick canopy of trees blocked out the sun, turning late afternoon to night. Up ahead she recognized the white plumage of a king vulture. It was perched atop a partially eaten human body. The cadaver was mutilated beyond recognition, but the weapon lying beside it was from her arsenal.
Paulo took aim at the vulture.
The queen pushed the gun barrel down, whispering, “Never shoot a vulture. He’ll take his revenge by feasting on you in the afterlife.” She pointed a few yards away. “Look there.”
To their right, a chestnut-colored jaguarundi gnawed at another, equally mangled corpse. Her three kittens trailed behind her, playfully batting around brass bullet shells.
The vulture raised its bald head, a chunk of meat dangling from its orange beak. It croaked once before lethargically spreading its six-foot wings and soaring off.
The startled jaguarundi family slipped into the brush.
Queen Caveira knelt over the first body, noting the spent bullet casings on the ground. “They went down fighting.”
The area was littered with long brown shapes she initially mistook for logs. Using the barrel of her rifle, she lifted one up. It was a dead centipede, five times larger than anything she’d seen before.
Paulo stared at it, stammering out, “What the hell is that?”
The queen tossed it aside, calmly stating, “It’s exactly what it looks like.” But despite her calm demeanor, the discovery had rattled her.
Paulo asked, “But what happened?”
Ignoring him, the queen walked on until she spotted something in the marsh water. A shredded cadaver lay sprawled atop a floating Queen Victoria lily, dead centipedes drifting around it. The body was mutilated, but she recognized Javier’s clothes.
Turning to Paulo, Queen Caveira said, “Javier is dead, so you’re my new executive officer,” then continued walking.
The newly promoted Paulo tagged along, silently pondering the fate of her last two executive officers.
The queen spotted three sets of human footprints, all grouped together. One of them had been walking backwards. She followed the prints to the stream and abruptly stopped, transfixed by what she saw. Mounds of dead centipedes bobbed in the water. She estimated at least fifty, all clumped together in some lemming-like mass suicide.
Using his rifle barrel, Paulo prodded one of the dead creatures, asking, “What killed ’em?”
“The water. Centipedes can’t swim.”
“Then why’d they jump in?”
“They were spirit entities, manifested for one purpose. They died trying to fulfill it.”
“What purpose?”
“To kill the American of course.”
“Did they get him?”
The queen scooped up a dead centipede and hurled it at Paulo, shouting, “Do you see his body or the body of the child?”
Paulo stepped back, electing to keep his mouth shut.
Queen Caveira gradually pieced the evidence together. The American had escaped into the stream and the dutiful centipedes had waded in after him. When their first wave drowned, the second crawled over them, meeting the same fate, until all were dead.
Using a stick, she carved a Quimbanda symbol in the mud while whispering incantations. Then, in an almost maternal tone, she explained, “The American is a trickster, touched by the Exus.”
The Exus were the spirits of the Quimbanda faith. Most were benevolent, but she was devoted to the demonic ones.
Hoping to redeem himself, Paulo blurted out, “He can’t be as powerful as you.”
“Of course not. But he stole energy from me during fodor. When I was taking his seed, he was siphoning magic from my cona. The buceta of a Quimbanda priestess holds enormous spiritual power. Letting him chupar my cona gave him the power to kill Boiúna.”
The hardened pirate lowered his eyes in embarrassment at the queen’s pornographic description.
She let out an ear-piercing whistle, summoning the other pirates. They clamored down the rise, eager for a fight, but that fervor died at the water’s edge. The pirates stared down at the floating centipedes, whispering to each other.
Queen Caveira shouted, “Quiet!” silencing the men. “Soon it will be too dark to follow, so we’ll stay here. I want you to gather up all the dead centipedes. Boiúna wills that we cremate these noble creatures.”
A soft rain began to fall. The queen looked up into the sky then pointed to Paulo, saying, “I need you to follow the stream until you find their trail.”
“Me? Shouldn’t we all—”
She cut him off. “The rain will wash away their trail. So follow it until dark then wait for us. Now go!”
Picking his way through the dead centipedes, Paulo reluctantly waded into the stream, trudging against the current.
Watching him go, she shouted, “Have no fear, Paulo, I will perform a sacrifice to weaken the American’s magic.”
The mention of a sacrifice sent the remaining pirates into another wave of anxious muttering.
Studying their faces, the queen asked, “So, which one of you doesn’t have syphilis?”
#
Faye stared up at the giant block letters spelling out HELL.
Micah felt her squeezing his hand and said, “Relax, honey.”
Catalina asked, “I thought this area was uncharted?”
Micah said, “This is amazing. In the olden days, American petroleum companies bought up huge chunks of land along the Amazon to build rubber plantations. I never imagined any of them came out this far.”
“Not a roaring success I take it?”
“It was a fiasco. This place must have been abandoned for seventy years.” He pointed at the lettering on the tower. “That tower used to say SHELL.”
Catalina said, “Well, they really built things to last back then. I mean this stuff should have rusted out decades ago.”
“The metal’s rustproof ’cause it’s chock-full of lead.”
“I guess they didn’t know that lead would poison everybody.”
“Oh, they knew, they just didn’t give a shit about the people here.”
Catalina laughed. “Capitalism at its finest.”
Lightning flashed across the orange-hued sky. The rain gradually slackened from downpour to light drizzle.
Catalina said, “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m soaked inside and out.”
Faye eyed the ruins apprehensively then asked Catalina, “Do you—”
“Ever get scared? Yeah, it’s normal, but we’re going to get out of this.”
“No, I was asking do you have to pee? I really need to go.”
“Oh. Hey boss, Faye and I need to find a gas station.” She pointed to a concrete foundation. “That might work.”
Approaching the broken foundation, Micah said, “Let me take a look around first.”
Catalina sat down on a low section of concrete, tapped the spot next to her and said, “Come here for a second.”
Faye sat down next to her, leaning in close.
Catalina put her arm around her and asked, “You’ve seen a lot of really terrible things in the last few days, haven’t you?”
Faye nodded.
“Trust me; I know how scary that can be.”
Faye looked at her with an expression of disbelief and said, “Really?”
“Yeah, really. Can I tell you a little story?” Faye nodded. “I was born in a place c
alled Equatorial Guinea. Ever heard of it?” Faye shook her head. “Don’t feel bad, most people haven’t. Anyway, it’s in Africa. I lived there till I was seven. That country’s run by a really evil guy, and one day he decided that people like me and my parents were undesirable.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s what people who are full of hate do. So, one night, soldiers came and burned our village, our home, everything. They killed a lot of people and we barely escaped. My parents and I spent months hiding during the day and traveling at night, trying to get away from the soldiers. We had barely any food or water and walked the whole way. And every day those soldiers killed more people.”
“What happened?”
“Eventually we made it to a refugee camp, but along the way I saw things that still give me nightmares. But you know the one thing that kept me going?”
“Being brave?”
“Brave? Not by a long shot. I used to cry myself to sleep every night.”
“Then what was it?”
Catalina pointed at Micah in the distance and said, “My father. He kept us alive, even when … well, even when we didn’t want to go on anymore.”
“Was he a tough guy like a cop or something?”
“Nope. He taught math at a school. But he never gave up and always protected us.”
Faye gazed over at her own father.
Catalina added, “Your dad’s never going to give up either. He’s a smart, courageous guy who’ll get us home somehow.”
Faye smiled and said, “You’re pretty smart too.”
“Well, yeah, I’m totally awesome, but so are you.”
Catalina gave her a hug and was relieved to hear the little girl laugh.
#
Micah picked through the broken foundations, cautiously tapping a stick against any likely hiding places. Peering around a concrete pillar, he came face-to-face with a four-foot coral snake. A twitching scorpion dangled from its mouth.
Micah waved the stick at it a few times, saying, “Shoo, you knucklehead, get lost. Go finish dinner someplace else.”
The snake swallowed its prey and slithered off.
In a half whisper, Catalina asked, “All clear?”
After checking the ground for scorpions, Micah waved them over, saying, “Nothing here to worry about,” without mentioning the snake. There was no point in adding to the day’s cavalcade of terrors. He walked away, allowing them some privacy.
After finishing, Faye and Catalina rejoined him.
Pointing to the warehouse-sized building, Micah said, “I wanna take a look in there before we lose the light.”
“Yell if you need me.”
Peering into the dark building, Micah said, “Don’t worry, I will.”
The building’s frame was three stories tall. Its bottom floor was still covered in leaded tin siding. In its heyday the upper levels must have had glass windows all around. The glass was long gone, but, thanks to the lead content, the structure survived. Micah cautiously stepped inside, his boots sinking into the mushy ground. He sniffed the air and froze. The building’s upper levels were open to the elements, yet the air inside was acrid. His mind flashed back to the formic acid smell, but this was a distinctly different, ammonia tinged odor. After a few sniffs he recognized it. Urine—a lot of urine. He heard a chorus of soft, semi-melodic squeals emanating from above—like hundreds of tiny voices. After piecing together the clues, he backed out slowly.
Once outside, he said, “Don’t go in there under any circumstances.”
Drawing the Glock, Catalina asked, “Is it dangerous?”
“Only if you go inside. And please don’t fire that gun, you won’t like what happens.”
Faye literally hopped up and down with excitement, declaring, “I know, I know; it’s bats, right?”
Mussing her hair, Micah said, “The little lady wins a prize.”
“What kind?”
“Of prize? I don’t know.”
“No silly, what kind of bats?”
“I think they’re bulldog bats. Like a gazilion of ’em.”
“Cool.” Faye turned to Catalina and, beaming with pride, said, “Bulldog bats are ground feeders. They can find anything on the ground and even catch fish right out of the water. A group like this is called a cauldron.”
Catalina said, “That’s an appropriately spooky name.”
Faye said, “They’re not spooky,” while trying to poke her head into the building. “Bats are awesome! They have sonar and can track anything.”
Micah gently led her away from the building, adding, “They also have rabies, SARS and lice.”
“Still cool though.”
“Well, the sun’ll be down in a few minutes, so you’ll be seeing plenty of ’em.”
Catalina muttered, “Can’t hardly wait.”
#
Paulo came to a break in the trees and crawled out of the stream, physically spent from walking against the current. Then he spotted a large Queen Victoria lily wedged in the reeds up ahead. It looked very out of place.
Once on the riverbank he hacked open a vine, greedily sucking down the sweet water inside. The relentless downpour had slackened to a drizzle. He took a moment to try to get his bearings, but a mix of hundred-foot kapoks and shaggy rubber trees blocked the sun, leaving him in near darkness.
Wiping down his rifle, he muttered, “Why’s it always midnight and raining out here?” Then he saw water-filled footprints on the bank—three sets, leading into the rainforest.
“Got ya!”
After tying a marker rag around a tree trunk, he switched on his flashlight and followed the prints. The viscous mud sucked at his boots, making every step laborious.
“If I’m the executive officer, how come I’m stuck wandering around out here in the rain?”
After thirty minutes of hiking he came to some broken slabs of cement and more footprints.
A dead toad covered in ants lay next to one of the footprints.
Unzipping his pants, he said, “Drink up, assholes,” and urinated on the scrambling insects. He was humming to himself when a distant sound caught his attention. After fumbling with his zipper, he hunkered down, listening intently. He heard it again—it was a child laughing.
He crept through the brush until he spotted them about a hundred yards out. The three Americans were sitting in front of an old plantation building. It looked like they were having a picnic.
“The bastards ain’t even trying to hide.”
#
Micah leaned back against a chunk of cement and said, “You know, one thing doesn’t make sense to me.”
Catalina said, “Really? ’Cause I’ve been hunting for one thing that does make sense to me. So far, zippo.”
“Very funny, but hear me out. The first thing that attacked us was the ants back at the fuel depot. Then the snake attacked the boats. But the second time a snake appeared it wasn’t interested in the boats at all. It seemed obsessed with you. I had to throw a grenade just to get its attention.”
“Well, I did blow away its twin brother with a machine gun. Maybe it was a Sicilian Boa.”
Faye looked at her quizzically, asking, “A what?”
“A Sicilian Boa. They’re super into vendettas.”
Faye rolled her eyes theatrically.
Growing frustrated, Micah said, “Please guys, I’m being serious here. The next thing was the centipedes, and they were clearly gunning for us. If these things are trying to protect the Anomaly, why didn’t they go after Batista?”
Catalina shrugged. “Maybe they did. For all you know Batista’s being digested by some big-ass monster right now.”
Faye was unwrapping the last of the salvaged nutrition bars when something clicked in her mind. She asked, “Dad, if I did something kinda bad, would you get freaked out about it?”
“What am I gonna do, ground you? What’s eating you?”
Catalina said, “Poor choice of words.”
Faye dug into her pants pocket,
saying, “I kind of stole something from the boat, but I honestly forgot all about it till we got here.”
As she spoke, Faye felt the fragment in her pocket start to vibrate.
And lightning flashed across the dark sky.
#
Paulo put the AK-47 to his shoulder and squinted down the sights. Then he remembered that the queen wanted most of them alive. He crawled forward, careful to remain silent.
A bolt of lightning struck a treetop above him, followed by a sharp crack of thunder. Smoking branches fell to the ground a few feet away.
Paulo yelled, “Fuck!” then covered his mouth. Looking out he saw them still sitting there, totally oblivious. He started crawling again. Only a few more yards and he’d have the drop on them. Then he felt the ground beneath him shudder in short rolling tremors. To his left, tiny blue and violet lights danced across the sodden ground like fireflies.
He thought, Ghost lights? He’d heard about them but never actually seen any.
The dancing lights receded into the soil and the tremors ceased. A patch of ground in front of him puckered, as if something was clawing its way out. Worried it might be a burrowing coral snake, he wriggled back a few feet. More of the weird dimples appeared in the ground to his left and right.
“What the fu—”
A searing pain shot through his arm. Raising it up, he found a six-inch writhing insect dangling from his forearm. He felt a stabbing pain in his ankle and rolled onto his side. Another insect was clamped to his boot, its mandibles biting clean through the leather. Dozens of the red insects crawled to the surface around him. He grabbed the one on his forearm and yanked, feeling his flesh ripping away. He jumped up, swatting at the creatures, but they held on. His legs were now covered in vicious, biting monsters. The ground around him pulsed then burst open, alive with hundreds of the things.
He ran, screaming, tearing at the huge insects, a crimson wave of ants right on his tail.
Chapter Twenty-Two
A piercing scream echoed through the rainforest. Faye threw her arms around Micah. Lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating a man charging towards them, his body a squirming red mass.
Primeval Waters Page 19
