by Greig Beck
He soon made it to the outer reef, and then waited in his boat and just watched. He could see plenty of small sea pterosaurs just like Gluck, and his small friend seemed to become excited and answered their strange clucking and clicking with his own songs of the sky and sea.
Andy guessed the island was only about a mile around and had breakwaters circling it, creating small pools in close rather than sandy beaches, some small and some larger than swimming pools. The flora to the center of the island were mainly upright trees with few branches on the trunks that had initially looked like palm trees from a distance but were more likely a form of spiky cycad on a large fibrous stem that grew 40 feet in the air. Fast-growing palms and ferns made up the rest of the ground cover.
The more he watched, the more he became convinced there was nothing living on the island but the flying reptiles.
“Just like New Zealand,” he whispered.
Andy had visited the island nation off the east coast of Australia once on holiday, and he found it an amazing Petri dish for scientists due to it being an entire biosphere built around one animal form—birds. When it had broken away from Gondwanaland some 400 million years ago, much of it sank, but then several hundred million years later, it was finally pushed back to the surface. But following the mass extinction that ended the age of the dinosaurs, the new rulers came from the sky.
There were the predators and prey, from the herbivores such as giant Moa that stood 12 feet tall, plus a dozen other species of giant parrot, ground dwellers such as the kiwi with fur-like feathers, long-legged wading birds, and also fearsome raptors, such as the Haast, the largest eagle to have ever existed on the planet and weighed in at well over 500 pounds. They could have easily carried off a full-grown man if they had survived.
But thankfully, the tiny island Andy watched seemed home to little more than nesting pterosaurs no larger than seagulls.
“I think it’s safe,” he whispered and pushed a still-excited Gluck down into the bottom of the boat.
Andy carefully guided his vessel in through rocky corridors of the outer reef, and soon entered calm water that was warm, crystal clear, and only a few feet deep. The first thing he noticed was that the inner pools were teeming with fish, probably trapped by the tides, and he grinned, knowing that food wasn’t going to be the problem here.
He pulled his boat up on the rocks. In one hand, he held his spear, while he pulled out his empty water bottles for refilling with the other. He also drew his bag onto his shoulder to carry Gluck to the shore.
“Let’s explore.”
He put Gluck down and his little friend waddled after him as he crossed the tide-line. Andy noted where the surf had come to, and he surmised that it was close to high tide right now, so his boat drifting away wasn’t going to be a problem. Also, the reef barrier should keep out anything larger than a salmon-sized fish, so the large marine predators shouldn’t bother him. Though he knew that the sea crocodiles could cross the reef if they wanted to, it was far too shallow for them to conceal themselves.
He entered the thicket and immediately encountered the pterosaur nesting sites. In among the squabbling and furiously scolding flying reptiles, he managed to steal several eggs without losing too much skin from his hands. He did have to rescue Gluck who obviously seemed to think of himself as part of Andy’s gang or flock now and went to attack several of the creatures that tried to peck at his big friend.
The one thing that Andy noticed was that the nesting sites weren’t built upon one another as he expected from a species coming to the same area over and over. He started to have an inkling of why there were no other terrestrial animals living here.
His next discovery confirmed his suspicions.
Toward the center of the island, piled up against two stout-looking tree trunks, were the remains of a huge animal. Great curving ribs rose high above his head, each as thick as his thigh. A massive skull, 10 feet long, lay on the sandy soil, and on its surface were patches of sun-dried leathery skin.
He saw that it had no arms and legs, but the remains of flippers. Andy went and ran a hand along the skull, and then exhaled.
“You didn’t crawl in here, did you?”
He looked around, seeing everything with a clearer eye—this was why the pterosaur nests only looked to be a dozen or so years old, and not hundreds: a huge wave had deposited the massive sea beast’s carcass here. More than likely, the area was subjected to huge storms and might be totally submerged from time to time. If Andy were caught here during one, then not being able to fly away like the pterosaurs meant he’d be drowned.
“Short visit only then, I guess.”
Andy crossed back to the rocky beach. It was already late when he arrived, and he decided he had time to wade out and grab some fish, shells, or anything else he could catch for dinner. Accommodation was easy, as he had learned that sometimes simply turning his boat over and sleeping underneath was the safest option and cut off his sounds and smells from interested predators.
He waded out into the bath-warm water and as he went, he grabbed one of the pterosaur eggs from his bag, put it to his mouth, and used his teeth to bite through the leathery covering. He ripped it away and sucked most of the fluid out. It was fishy tasting, rich, and oily. If he was back in his own time, his stomach might have rebelled at the strong flavors, but he had trained himself to eat all manner of things to survive, and hunger meant any food was good food.
The contents also contained the beginning of a small pterosaur, and rather than eat this, he lowered it into the bag for Gluck to greedily gobble down.
“You know that’s cannibalism, right?” He grinned and then tossed the shell fragments into the water before him where they created a milky cloud as their remaining fluid leaked out.
Fish almost immediately began to dart through it. On the bottom were numerous almost perfectly circular rocks or growths that looked like flat plates about a foot around or perhaps were some sort of scallop, and as Andy lifted his spear over the silver torpedoes, one of the discs opened and something that looked like a stubby, sandy-colored eel shot out.
“Holy shit.” He backed up, but then swung his arms, not wanting to set foot on any of the discs behind him.
The thing had been all mouth and teeth, and had grabbed one of the fish and drew back into its lair with an amazing speed. It seemed to be some sort of stonefish species, but obviously something that never made it into the fossil record.
As Andy watched, more and more of the jack-in-a-box ambushes took place due to the feeding frenzy he had created. The ambush-eels didn’t seem that large, more double-football sized, but looked more frightening than they were due to their front half being all mouth that was full of needle teeth.
Thankfully, big two-legged land creatures weren’t that interesting to them, and as he backed up to the shore, he still managed to spear a few fish on the way. It looked like there was going to be plenty for everyone.
That evening after he and Gluck had eaten their fill, he sat close to the shoreline with his back against a tree and looked up at the night sky. The stars were enormously bright, and the moon so close he felt he could almost reach out and touch it. In fact, it really was closer, and the constellations of stars were very different at this time.
Andy inhaled, drawing in the warm scents of the ocean, dry beach, plants, and even the fishy odor of the pterosaur nests. The flying reptiles had quietened down for the night and there was just the soft shushing of the surf out against the far reef. The evening’s warmth, combined with the isolation of his little island, made him feel safer than he had in years.
“I love everything about this place.” He smiled contentedly as Gluck climbed up onto his lap and nestled down. “Helen will too.”
He stroked the pterosaur, and it made a small noise like cooing. Andy sighed and felt a little down knowing he had to set off again next morning. But they weren’t far from home now, and the thought of seeing his sister again rallied his spirits.
“Y
eah, she’ll love this place as much as I do. I know she will.” Andy leaned his head back against the tree and began to doze.
CHAPTER 35
“A doorway to Hell beginning to open.”
“There it is.” Ben held up a hand and stopped the group.
The rain fell in large drops that felt like warm oil but its curtains still couldn’t hide the sight that met their eyes.
Through the mad tangle of green vines and creepers, there was the outline of the monolithic plateau’s cliff wall, rising to vanish into the dark clouds over 1,000 feet above it.
“We made it.” Nicolás tried to push past him but Ben grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back.
Nicolás shrugged him free. “The abnormal effects—the clouds, wind, and rain, all just over the plateau, exactly as we thought.” He turned. “Technically, I know how this happens. But physically seeing it, I still can’t believe it.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Helen said from Drake’s shoulder.
An eerie bellow rang out, followed by an unearthly shriek that was suddenly cut off. The group looked from one to the other and finally Nicolás swallowed hard and spoke.
“What…was that?”
“A doorway to Hell beginning to open.” Ben continued to stare up at the plateau.
“We told you.” Drake turned to Nicolás. “It’s not just the weather that gets all screwy.”
“Whoa.” Nicolás blew air between his lips.
Ben checked his watch. The rubberized analog-casing watch still worked as he hoped. “Okay, we’ve got four hours until Primordia is right over us and the doorway opens. An hour’s trek, give or take, until we’re at its base where we’ll make camp and grab a last coffee. Then I estimate another hour to make it to the summit using the winches. That should put us right on the money.”
Ben had pulled free a small pair of binoculars and scanned the jungle ahead. “We can’t be there too soon, and need to time it so we are right there when the anomaly is underway—from then, we’ll have about 20 hours to find Andy.”
He glanced at Helen. “And bring him back.”
Another scream boomed out from overhead but was lost amid a rolling peal of thunder.
“Shit, a doorway to Hell, you said?” Shawna looked up toward the top of the plateau where the purple-black clouds were spinning like the center of a small hurricane.
“Consider it an echo,” Ben said. “From a long, long time ago.” He turned to her. “What, you thought I was making it all up?”
Shawna hiked her shoulders and then turned back to the plateau.
“Okay, let’s go.” Ben led them on.
The ground now sloped upward, and the jungle opened out a little. The trees began to look more alien, exactly as Ben remembered—possibly hybridized from the seed drift from above, or for all he knew now, entire new species that had evolved through their messing around in the past.
Several more times, the light had blinked out, and each time it stayed dark for a little longer. After one of the times, Chess had yanked him harshly back, and Ben spun to find the lead mercenary putting a finger to his lips and then pointing to a place just up ahead of them.
“Cryptis,” he whispered. “Bad news.”
What? Ben mouthed as Drake and Helen bunched up behind him. He spotted movement and squinted to see through the falling rain. Some sort of creature fossicked on the ground, sinuous and many-legged. It was covered in chitinous scales, and looked like a three-foot centipede, but had long back legs like a grasshopper. But it was out front that the nightmare really began—pincers longer than his fingers and blood red.
“Poisonous,” Chess said softly. “And very fucking aggressive.” He tugged on Ben again. “And there’s usually more in the nest. We go around.”
Ben nodded and backed up, thankful the falling rain was masking their retreat.
After another half hour, they reached the base of the plateau and Ben finally pointed to a small open space.
“We do an equipment check. Anything we don’t need we leave here. From now on, we travel fast and light.”
The group set to dropping packs and arming up—weapons were slung on bodies and placed in sheaths, holsters, and pouches. Food was only a single canteen and a few protein bars.
Drake, Ben, and the mercenaries were like drilled machines as they went over their gear. Helen carefully added and removed items, and Nicolás frowned as he checked much of his equipment pile.
“It’s dead.” Nicolás held out a small black box. “This ionization meter; it was fully charged when I left, but it’s telling me that the battery is now fully drained.”
“You heard that bit about magnetic interference, right?” Drake kept reloading his now lighter pack. “Like an EMP wave—knocks everything out and will stay out for the next 24 hours.”
“He’s right,” Ben said. “So leave it here, as it won’t miraculously start working if you lug it all the way to the top.”
“But…” Nicolás shook his head. “I need it.”
Ben stopped what he was doing. “No, you need working equipment. You don’t need dead weight. I cannot impress on you the need to be able to travel fast, silently, and lightly as can be.” He stared. “Doing otherwise will get you dead.”
“Or worse, maybe get us dead,” Drake added.
Ben sat with his back to a tree and pushed his hat forward to give him some cover from the warm rain. “And now, smoke ‘em if you got em.” He pulled out one of his protein bars and ripped open the foil cover.
High above them came a long bellow that continued on for several seconds before being abruptly cut off. Ben chewed mechanically, knowing exactly what it was: the world of tooth and claw was waking up—and it was hungry.
CHAPTER 36
Emma froze, coffee cup gripped in one hand, as the lights went out, leaving her in a blackness that was deeper than the void of space. She wasn’t even sure if she breathed, but this one seemed to go on and on, and by the time she tried to bring her senses to bear on it, it was over.
When the light came back, the first thing she did was race to the window. The sun was getting ready to go down and evening’s dusk was only about an hour away when the blackout had occurred. Nothing had changed about the sunset. But that was about all that was the same.
Her back straightened as she stared. The rolling, dry plains and weird herds of savannah-like beasts that were there only minutes ago were now gone. In their place were colossal trees that each spread over hundreds of feet. They could have been fig trees except for the massive branches hung with basketball-sized fruits like blaring red melons.
Birds swooped from branch to branch; and further in, she could just make out movement at their bases and in their canopies. But the twilight shadows were too deep for her to see clearly what was in there.
The one thing she had learned was that with every change, there came potential new dangers. It was like evolution was trying out different things, showing them all the paths it could have taken with minuscule adjustments along the way. And because she was outside of the changes, she had no idea, no education, nor life experience on how to deal with them.
She picked up the phone. Her neighbors Frank and Allie were good sources of information, so she called them.
The phone rang out, which was strange given the time. They were a few years older than she and Ben and given it was midweek, she doubted they had a dinner date.
She hung up and dialed them again—same result. Emma put the phone down slowly as she continued to stare out the large window toward the massive tree forest. Should she go visit them? She’d been meaning to try and patch things up ever since Ben had been over there demanding their dog back—that she now knew never existed.
She’d spoken to them a few times, but though cordial, there had been strain between their households now. Might be a good idea to get Zach and herself out of the house for an hour or two anyway. She had been going crazy being stuck at home doing nothing but worrying about Ben, and eve
ry minute now seemed an eternity. She craved activity, and she knew that Zach needed it as well.
“Zach,” she called. “We’re going for a drive.”
“Aww, why?” From somewhere deeper in the house.
She smiled. Here we go again, she thought and grabbed her coat and the car keys and headed for the door, pausing at the bottom of the steps.
“Come on, Zachy, we’re just going to visit Frank and Allie next door.”
The groan managed to contain every atom of indignation a six-year-old boy could muster, and she smiled as she put her coffee cup down on the edge of the table and went to pull open the front door. She was immediately assailed by the new odors of spoiling fruit, plant sap, and rich forest soil.
She exhaled long and slow as she stared—rolling English countryside green hills, to Serengeti plains, and now some sort of giant tree forest. The evolutionary changes are rolling forward faster and faster, she thought. It reminded her of those multiple drawings done on the edge of paper, each one slightly different, and when you flicked through them, it made them move faster and faster. It seemed that evolution was in a hurry and speeding to catch up. But to what?
She heard Zach rumble on the steps—but from down in the basement, not from his room upstairs.
“Mum, are you mad?” he asked, his features twisted. “Shut the door.”
“What?” Emma frowned.
He pointed past her, his eyes wide. “Shut the door, shut the door.”
Emma was confused to the point of inaction, and her son ran to her, grabbed her arm, dragging her back inside, and then gently closed the door.
“We shouldn’t even be up here now. You know that.” He pointed to the window. “Aw, Mom, you haven’t even closed the shutters.”
Emma saw real fear on her boy’s face. She suddenly felt rising panic in the pit of her stomach.
“Zach, please, help me understand. I, um, had another of my memory blackouts. Tell me what’s happening?” She stopped him and stared down into his face that seemed drained of color.
