by Eric Johnson
One by one they swam into the darkness, touching the crystal lined tube to light the way. Strange fish darted in and out of pockets in the rock where clusters of sickening algae grew. The tube shifted upward and they pushed through a tangle of cave coral, surfacing into a small chamber.
“How far did we swim?” Winston’s voice echoed.
Tom spit water. “400 feet.”
“I didn’t think I could swim that far, but it was easy,” Winston said. “I felt like I barely had to hold my breath.”
“We are on Mars and almost 100% lizard,” Tom said, swishing his tail to tread water.
Anidea held onto a rock that jutted out from the wall, her voice shook. “There’s a lizardman up there on the ledge.”
In the dim light of the crystals they could just make out the silhouette.
“Hello?” Tom said.
Winston splashed water at the figure, but it didn’t move.
Tom said to Emmett, “Keep an eye on it while I climb up. Let me know if he moves.”
He pulled himself out of the water onto the ledge, and crawled cautiously toward the shape. Emmett was right behind him.
“Look, glow sticks.” Tom cracked one and shook it, “Hey, it works.”
In the light they looked over the man. “He looks mummified.” Emmett reached out to touch the man and accidentally snapped off a piece of the finger. “No, take that back. This body is desiccated.”
“What’s a human doing here?” Anidea asked.
“He’s holding something. A map,” Tom pulled it free. “It has Space Force logo on it?”
“It means he’s been here for a long time,” Emmett examined the body, “If I remember correctly, they used these at the beginning of this century. It’s like the junk you find in antique stores. There was no holo-tech back then.”
Anidea pushed her way to the body. “He doesn’t look like he was taken for food. See here, he’s got a gun. And look in this pouch. Is that a grenade?”
Emmett blocked Anidea’s hand. “This means that humans have been to Mars before.”
“I’ll hold that,” Winston said, appearing from behind. He took the grenade from Emmett.
“My hands are transformed, I can’t open it.” Tom held it out. “Here Emmett, take a look.”
“Nothing doing. See that? It must be where we are and these lines must be passageways.”
“But how did he get here?” Anidea asked.
“I think we should follow this tunnel to where he came from,” Tom said. “Maybe we can find out and use it to get home.”
The tunnels twisted and turned as they followed the dimly lit passages. They came upon an opening that spread out into another small cave. It contained folding chairs, crates and cots, plus a table with equipment on it.
“There’s another mummy,” Winston said.
Anidea sucked in a ragged breath. “Where’s it’s head?”
“Behind the chair.” Emmett said.
“Beds. There are beds. Glorious beds.” Anidea couldn’t be happier. The bed and blankets were stiff with ancient dust. They were also brittle and cracked when touched but Anidea didn’t care. She lay down and settled in, waving her arm and beckoning to Winston. “Servant, bring me a bag of crunchy cheese monkeys to snack upon this instant.”
“This is no time to play around, Anidea,” Tom said.
The cot collapsed sending Anidea crashing to the ground. “Damn it.”
Winston and Emmett laughed.
Tom grabbed a knife off the desiccated body. “Let’s see what’s in these crates.”
The locks clicked open and Emmett’s eyes opened wide. “I think they called that a laptop.”
Anidea clawed through a box. “This is a bunch of, well I don’t know what, but I’m sure it’s useless.”
“First aid kit here.” Winston held up a box. “This is useful.”
“No power,” Tom grunted.
“There’s a hand crank field generator over here,” Emmett said. “It looks like my grandpa’s.”
“A power generator?” Tom looked up, “If it still works, we can power this computer and access the data.”
“I doubt it’s going to work,” Anidea said, “How long’s it been here for?”
“Let me try.” Emmett plugged the laptop in. “Winston, start cranking.”
The generator’s crank arms were stiff and Winston strained. “Anidea, help me.”
“Me? You can’t be serious.”
“Do it.” Tom shot her a look.
The laptop beeped and the screen turned on.
“Really Anidea, help me here.”
“Don’t stop cranking Winston,” Tom said.
“All of it’s encrypted,” Emmett said.
Tom turned the screen. “Emmett, can you get in?”
“Wow, this kit is really old. Lucky for us, it is only quantum encrypted. Give me a second.”
“How do you know all this stuff?” Anidea looked over Emmett’s shoulder at the screen.
“Because I do. The reason why they stopped using quantum encryption was that it was so complex, only the mind of a child could crack the code. It was supposed to be foolproof, but it was soon discovered that kids could crack it, even when adults couldn't. It's the definition of child's play really. They soon abandoned the idea.”
“They don’t teach this stuff in school,” Tom said. “I agree with Anidea. You shouldn’t know this.”
“I just do.” Emmett went to work.
Anidea held up a silver bag. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in forever and look, dehydrated tahini and spam.” She threw the package on the cave floor. “Why would anyone eat this? And none of this food is even good anymore. Expired 2015, that’s forever ago.”
“You should have eaten when you had the chance,” Emmett said. “Like, I when I offered you that food.”
“I’m still not eating anything from here.” Her gaze bored into the back of Emmett’s head and she vaguely thought of hitting him with a rock.
“My dad was like two years old then,” Tom said. “Anidea, try and do something to keep your mind off delicious mouth-watering food.”
A silver package flew across the cave and Tom ducked. “Hey,” he said, but she was already back to searching the cave.
She looked at the desiccated body. “Don’t you think we should at least find out who he was?” She peeled back the brittle cloth that covered him. “Look, here’s his wallet.”
“Probably has money,” Emmett said, “They used it before the implant chip.”
“My arms are getting tired,” Winston panted.
“It’s okay, you can stop. The battery says it’s 15% charged.”
“What’s this? It’s got an Eagle on it. 1933?” Anidea brought it over to Tom. “That’s even older than the computer thing.”
“That’s a coin, stupid,” Emmett said without taking his eyes off the computer screen, “That guy wasn’t so lucky after all.”
“I’m confused by this equipment, and the clothes on that mummy. Where is he from?”
“Earth, dummy,” Emmett said. “Not where, but when.”
“We need a plan.” Tom held up the map. “This must show us were to go to find another ship.”
“Here we go, again,” Anidea said.
“I’m in,” Emmett announced.
Tom, Winston and Anidea stood behind him watching him work. Anidea elbowed Winston in the side. “Stop licking your eyeballs.”
Emmett pointed to the screen. “It says here that the lizardmen tried to start a colony on Earth. They killed the lizardmen, captured their ship and sent this team to investigate and destroy them. It was a one-way trip for these people. The log says that they discovered strange ancient machinery that they thought was older than the lizardmen. The lizardmen might even be from another dimension.”
“Then what happened to them?” Anidea asked. “They obviously didn’t complete their mission.”
“He lost his head,” Tom pointed, “and the other one we fo
und. Emmett, does it say how many were on the mission?”
“No, that’s it. If there was more, they never added it to the log.”
“I don’t get it,” Anidea shook her head, “if they flew a spaceship here, how did they get down into these tunnels? I mean like duh; wouldn’t you stay on the ship instead of crawling into a cave to carry out your mission of destruction?”
Tom ran his finger along the screen. "The map says that we go this way down through the cave.”
“How were they going to destroy the lizardmen?” Winston asked.
“There’s still more cases to check. Must be something they brought,” Tom said.
“This yellow sticker says danger radiation,” Anidea said. “Is this what I think it is?”
“I think we should open it.” Winston stepped forward and picked it up. His smile could be seen from the back of his head.
“A nuke?” Tom moved toward the crate.
“Winston,” Emmett said, “put the nuclear bomb down. We’re not going to blow it up in a cave when we have no chance ever of getting far enough away to survive.”
“But?”
“Put it down,” Emmett said.
“We need this,” Tom said. “Anidea and Winston go look for the way out of here. Emmett, I hope you can figure out how to work the bomb.”
“All I need is the key and the code. At least that’s what they need in the movies.”
Tom activated a glow stick and held it up the green light cast eerie shadows across the desiccated corpse. “I’ll search the body.”
“Look for secret hiding spots, right,” Anidea said. “Why doesn’t dufus use his super brain power. We wouldn’t have come this far without it, since he can’t help but know stuff.”
Emmett closed his eyelids and rubbed his temples. “I deduce things based upon available evidence, and conclude that I have no evidence for right now. Go look in the other chamber.”
“Jerk!” Anidea went in search with Winston.
Moments later Tom dangled a key in front of him. “Would this help? It was around this body’s neck.”
“That was way too easy,” Emmett snapped the latches open on the case. “Hand me the key. All I have to do is put the key there and then type in the code.”
“Emmett, the room is getting lighter.” Tom gazed at the walls of the cavern. “The crystals are glowing. What’s making them do that?”
The crystals glowed even brighter and started to hum. “How should I know? This can’t be good.”
Reflexively they covered their eyes. Like glass shattering, the crystals around the room burst into a thousand million pieces, sending splinters flying through the air in a big flash of blinding light.
Tom groaned; splinters of crystal had pierced the scales on his back. “I can’t see anything except for floating dots. Where are you, Emmett?”
“Right next to you.”
“What made the walls explode?”
“We opened the case and they exploded.”
“Could it be radiation?”
“Possibly,” Emmett stated. “Then that means it’s leaking radiation. Radiation can be measured in heat. If the it makes the crystals explode, we can use them to defend ourselves. I want to test it out. We need to collect crystals.”
Tom pulled crystal fragments from his rear. “That’s a bad idea. It’s too risky.”
“We need something, don’t we?”
They fumbled in the dark and found a few crystals that hadn’t exploded just outside of the cave. Emmett held one up to the case and it glowed faintly. He pulled it away from the case and the glow slowly faded. “We don’t have to open the case to charge them. This is good.”
“But it didn’t explode.”
Emmett held the crystal up to the case and let it charge. It grew brighter and brighter. “It’s getting hot in my hand.”
“Throw it,” Tom said.
“Wait.” The crystal became so bright the light hurt his eyes. He tossed it across the cave and it exploded in a blinding flash.
“That won’t hurt anything,” Tom said.
“No, but it looks impressive. It might easily distract or disorient.”
“I’ll crank the generator and you check the computer for the activation code.”
“Tom, bad news. The computer was destroyed during the blast What are we going to do?”
Tom’s scaly brow crinkled. “Ever play poker?”
Anidea and Winston returned, running into the cave.
“What was that explosion?” Winston asked. “I’m nearly deaf from the echo.”
Anidea, motioned for them to go. “We found the way but it’s going to be tight.”
Their path became torturous as the rocks closed in around them. It was like crawling underneath furniture, squeezing in and out through chair legs to continue on. Every inch forward was a test of flexibility and patience.
“Anidea, your tail is too big to fit,” Emmett said. “Try to squeeze a little harder.”
“Tom, tell him to shut up!”
Tom pulled the nuke along behind him. “Keep calm and use your head. Think it through.”
“Emmett, give her a push,” Winston said.
“Well, okay I admit it, I’m stuck.”
“I told you,” Emmett strained. “Your tail is too big.”
Anidea squirmed to free herself from an elbow-shaped siphon channel. “I’m not really panicking, but there is this feeling of pressure on my chest that makes me want to freak out before one of those horrible cave critters comes to eat me.”
“The only ones who are going to eat you are us. If we don’t get you out, we will need something to eat. Now be quiet and let us push,” Tom said.
“Did you just say ‘I love you Anidea’,” she asked. “Because, that’s what I thought I heard.”
Winston pulled and Emmett put his shoulder into it. Anidea popped out of the elbow with a sigh of relief.
“I’m off the menu.” She breathed deeply with anger and relief.
Once they were through the maze of tubes, they found themselves in yet another small cave. Tom cracked another glow stick and held it up. The light sparkled off a spiraling mineral structure that grew from the wall.
“Whoa!” Tom gaped at the sight.
“That’s helictite,” Emmett said. “They grow like that due to the fluctuations in a planet’s gravity field. It’s called capillary action.”
Anidea thumped his cranial protrusions with her claw. “Stop pretending to be so smart.”
“I’m not. I feel like I know it, all of it.”
“Now what?” Winston stomped his foot. He stood by the far wall. “There’s no way out.”
“At least there is a breeze coming through, feel here,” Anidea said. “Fresh air is just what I need with your stink.”
“We have to dig if we want to go any farther.” Tom patted Winston on the shoulder. “Our hands are almost completely covered in scales, they will protect us.”
“We could blast it open with the grenade.”
“Bad idea. Dig.”
“My hands are still squishy human flesh. I’m out,” Emmett said.
Dust rose up, irritating their throats as they piled rocks behind them.
“The cave tube turns down,” Anidea said. “We’re wasting our time.”
Tom threw a rock to the side. “This is definitely where the air is coming from. Keep digging.”
“Listen, it’s coming from under that flat rock,” Winston scooped the sand away from around it and the sound of syphoned air whistled. “Pull, help me move this.”
The rock slid away with a great effort, Tom cracked another glow stick and dropped it down the hole. It disappeared into the blackness. They waited and listened for it to hit. Silence. “We can climb down.”
“That’s dumb, climb into a bottomless pit?”
Tom dropped another glow stick. “No Anidea, look there’s a ledge down there.”
Their lizard claws proved to be very useful. Not for just digg
ing, but climbing too. Scraping and clawing their way down, loose rocks broke away and fell into the abyss. On the ledge below, they found another tube splitting off from the vertical shaft. It was large enough for them to stand in.
“That could go on forever,” she said.
“We can’t go back, so we have to find another way out,” Tom said. His face looked strange from the glow of the map. “This is the way it says to go.”
Winston pressed against the tube wall. “Watch out, there’s more of that slime stuff dripping from the ceiling.”
“Don’t touch it, remember,” Anidea said. They moved carefully around the acidic slime drool.
After some distance, blue green tinted light appeared ahead; they moved quicker.
“It looks like daylight,” Tom said.
The tube opened out onto a rock terrace, which didn’t look like it was ever used. It was overgrown with alien plants and mounds of rotting vegetation squished under their feet. Before them a giant cathedral opened up, revealing Pyramids, domes, monorails, and waterfalls spreading out before them.
In the center of the ceiling was a giant glowing orb. The light was a bright as a sunny day on Earth. Tom shielded his eyes from the light as they adjusted. “It’s a city. It must be bigger than Chicago. There must be thousands, millions of lizardmen here.”
“If we could ask the man back in the cave, he could probably tell us,” Winston said.
Anidea raised both hands in mock surrender. “Another dumb thing to say, Winston. If we could ask him, we wouldn’t be here. We’d be home already.”
“Will you knock it off? Leave me alone. What’s wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with you?” Anidea mocked him. “I’m sick of you saying dumb things. That’s what.”
Tom rolled his eyes. “I’m sick of you two bickering.”
Anidea flipped him off.
“I saw that,” Tom said.
“How?”
“The transformation has moved his eye sockets to the sides of his head, that’s how,” Emmett said, “It won’t be long before we are completely lizard and have almost 360 vision. Well, 280 to be exact.”
“Hold it right there,” a voice barked from behind. Emmett froze. Tom turned to run. A lizardman bounded forward and grabbed them both by their tails. Emmett dug into the dirt and Tom held tightly onto the bomb.
Anidea and Winston ran back into the cave.
