Infinity's Gateway, page 24
“Stay where you are,” ordered Colton.
Corporal Lee had moved up and now stood beside them. “What’s going on?”
“Not sure, but we’re about to find out,” said Colton. Borrowing Hill’s machete, he moved over to a tree and cut off a thick branch. He then proceeded to cut all the small stems off it, creating a staff about ten feet long.
Colton carefully approached the huge elephant-ear leaves the creature had crawled under. Using the long staff, he started to move them aside. Not knowing what to expect, he did this one leaf at a time. With each leaf, he half expected something to charge out at him. Glancing behind him, he saw that Lee and Hill had their sidearms out and pointed in his direction, ready to cover him if attacked.
“We find something?” asked Garrett. She’d been with the rear guard and came up to see why they’d stopped. “The storm just took out another giant tree, but it was quite a way behind us.”
“I know we need to keep moving,” said Colton, “but something just crawled under these leaves, something too big to ignore. At first, I thought this clearing would give us a few feet of easy going. Now I’m afraid it might be too good to be true,” said Colton.
“What did it look like?” asked Garrett.
“We didn’t get too good of a look, sir,” said Private Hill. “It scurried under those leaves and we only saw its tail. Whatever it was, the tail had a huge claw on the end of it.”
Colton kept removing the leaves as he said, “Not that it matters, but I’m not so sure that was a claw. Looked more like a stinger.”
Garret pulled her weapon to cover Colton as Lee and Hill moved off, fashioning their own staffs, and pitched in to help Colton move the leaves aside. The ground beneath the leaves soon started to steeply taper off. Once they’d moved about half of the leaves out of the way, they found a large hole with smooth sides that had been hidden by the leaves.
“Somebody or something went to a great deal of trouble to hide this,” said Corporal Lee. The funnel-shaped hole was at least fourteen to fifteen feet across, dropping dramatically downward.
“Look in the center,” said Colton. “There’s another hole there. Looks like that one drops straight down.” The hole at the bottom of the funnel was a little bigger than a manhole cover, but they had no way of telling how far down it dropped into the ground.
“This thing is a trap,” said Garrett. “Any animal walking through here wouldn’t have seen this coming. Heaven knows those leaves certainly wouldn’t support much weight, nor was that the intent. Drop into this and you couldn’t help but to slide right down into that hole.”
Colton felt a chill run down his back and it wasn’t due to the heavy rain. The tail they’d seen was connected to something big and strong. It had to be to have built something like this. Whatever it was that they’d seen, it was waiting down in that hole for its next victim. If any of them had fallen into this, they wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Private Hill was close to reaching the end of his rope, his anger beginning to surface. “This whole stinking jungle is nothing but a death trap,” he said, pulling a grenade from is belt. “Stand back, Commander. I’m going to kill the beast that built this so that it doesn’t ever trap anything again.”
“Private,” commanded Garrett, “put that grenade away. That’s an order. We’ll defend ourselves with as much force as is necessary, but we will not take any aggressive action on our own.”
“Sir, this was meant to kill us,” said Hill, pointing to the hole in front of them, “or anything else that happened to wander through here.”
“Private Hill, you are not in the army, you are a marine! When you get an order, you obey it. Do you understand me?” shouted Garrett, advancing on the private. Hill was a tall, well-built man with nine years of experience and significant special ops training. He was not the kind to back away from trouble, or anything else, and he was especially the wrong man to challenge when angry.
Fortunately, Garrett’s words carried the necessary weight, and Hill managed to keep himself in check. He tried to shake off the anger, but it wouldn’t let go. Although he would never have admitted this to anyone, he knew the anger stemmed from the raw fear coursing through him. For Hill, fear was an emotion he rarely dealt with. Fear was nothing more than a weakness, and he was anything but weak. What Hill had no way of knowing was that every single one of his comrades was struggling with the same emotions.
“Sir, yes sir!” said Hill. “It won’t happen again, sir.”
“We don’t know who our new benefactors are,” said Colton, nodding at the craft above them. “But I think they may have just saved us again.”
“How’s that?” asked Corporal Lee.
“Just as Private Hill and I were about to step on those leaves, I saw something move. At the same time, the craft changed its position, coming to a stop where you see it now. The light that normally radiates from it became even brighter, stronger, which is what I think made that thing scuttle off. Had it not done that, one of us would most probably be laying in the bottom of that pit.”
“I don’t know whose guardian angel to thank,” said Corporal Lee, “but I’m grateful they decided to join us.”
“Whatever brought them to us,” said Colton, “we don’t want to do anything to send them away, or worse, turn them against us. If we dropped a grenade down there, and believe me, I want to do that as much as you do, that might change the way they feel about us. We’d be killing something that wasn’t attacking us. It would not be a defensive act. Think about it. When they first arrived, they stopped the dinosaurs from killing us, but they did it by peaceful means. They drove the dinosaurs off, but they didn’t kill or injure them in any way.”
Private Hill nodded, and Corporal Lee said, “What do we do now?”
Colton turned and studied the clearing once again with a fresh eye. “We’ll continue across. I’ll lead and use this staff to make sure we don’t inadvertently step into one of these things.”
“If you don’t mind, sir, I’d like to help you with that.”
Colton smiled at Private Hill. “I’d welcome the help.”
“Very good,” said Captain Garrett. “Let’s keep moving. We’ve got to find some place to take cover in soon. We are in desperate need of rest and shelter.”
Colton knew Garrett was right. The day had started early, and they’d been at it too hard for too long. They had to find some place safe. Not to just get out of the weather, but some place where they could rest, eat, and prepare for whatever they might face on the rest of their journey back to the ship. Based on everything they’d already been through, Colton didn’t even want to think about what other horrors might be lurking in this nightmare of a jungle.
CHAPTER 18
No other hidden dangers awaited them as they crossed the clearing, but it took far longer than they wanted. The trees and foliage they now entered were as thick as before, and the ground began to sharply angle upwards. Although the trees did provide some shelter from the rain, the storm continued to increase in strength, the treetops whipping back and forth. Their situation continued to deteriorate. All of them knew that they had to find shelter soon. Man’s desire to seek shelter in caves is quite old.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they reached the base of the cliff. Boulders of all sizes lay strewn across the ground, but none of them were situated to provide any protection from the elements. Using some branches they found lying on the ground, they quickly erected a makeshift tent out of rain ponchos for Lockridge. He was still unconscious, but the corpsmen remained optimistic.
Scouts were sent out in both directions to see what they could find. There did appear to be caves in the rock face, but disappointingly, they were too high up for them to use. Even though they were still being battered by the storm, it felt good to be able to sit down while they waited for the scouts to return. The men were tired, their nerves stretched to the limit, some going in and out of shock. Everyone kept a careful watch, but they didn’t see any kind of wildlife, big or small. On occasion, when a strong gust of wind would hit the trees just right, they would catch a fleeting glimpse of their protector’s craft, hovering high above the trees.
Garrett made her way over to Colton and sat down on a small rock near him. “Thought I’d take advantage of our little rest period to talk with you. There are some things I want to go over and I’d like to keep this between the two of us.”
“Fire away,” said Colton. “In this storm, no one’s going to overhear anything we have to say.”
“When that beam of light descended on you, what actually happened? Did you see the people you were talking to? Did they have accents? Was there anything that might be of use to help us identify them?”
Colton thought back, going over the experience. Truth is, he hadn’t been able to get it out of his mind. As they’d made their way through the jungle, he kept replaying it, trying to understand exactly what had happened. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been very successful. At this point, he couldn’t even answer his own questions.
Whoever they are, their benefactors had completely controlled the situation. Therefore, he really didn’t have a great deal to report. While it was true that he had communicated with their new friends, the communication itself had been very different. It had been so much more than just mere words. At the time, it had affected the way he was feeling. Overall, the experience seemed to have strengthened him, giving him a sense of relief from his burdens, even if only temporarily.
“The short answer is no. There isn’t one thing that I can remember that we can use to identify who these people are. But as impossible as that may sound, it’s only the tip of the iceberg,” said Colton. Giving as much detail as he could, Colton walked her through the entire experience. Garrett listened intently and didn’t interrupt his narrative. When he finished, she sat there in silence, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.
Adjusting her position on the rock, she looked Colton in the eye and said,” What you’ve just told me is the truth, right?”
Not breaking eye contact with her, he said, “Yes, the absolute truth.”
“And there’s nothing you left out? Nothing you’re holding back to protect us?”
“No, Captain,” said Colton, giving her a small smile, “that’s all there is.”
Garrett looked down, slightly nodding her head as if in affirmation of her own thoughts. “Then I believe we are in serious trouble.”
Colton managed not to laugh.
“Captain, as crazy as all of this has been, we both know there has to be a reasonable explanation.”
“An explanation, yes; reasonable, I have my doubts. First, we lose all contact with the outside world. Then find what’s left of an airplane that disappeared under mysterious circumstances over seventy years ago. We then get to see a giant plant, which none of us can identify, devour a huge lizard. And the icing on the cake was being attacked by dinosaurs, no less, and then being saved by people with technology that neither one of us can even guess at,” said Garrett. “Don’t laugh at this Commander, but I’m not even sure we’re still on Earth.”
“Where do you think we are?”
“I have no idea, but whoever is controlling that thing up there communicated with you telepathically. It did the same thing with the corpsman,” said Garrett.
“He told you that?” asked Colton, a little incredulous despite his own experience.
“He didn’t want to, but I finally got it out of him. He was certain if he told me I’d accuse him of using some of the drugs he’s carrying. He said it was the blond Jesus that was in his Sunday school class when he was a kid, brought to life, as it were.”
“I’d planned to talk to him myself, but haven’t gotten the opportunity,” said Colton. “Did he say how he felt while it was happening?”
“ ‘As happy as being at home on Thanksgiving.’ And that’s a direct quote. I must ask you a question and it’s going to sound a little crazy, but at this point, I don’t care. The people controlling that thing, the ones that communicated with you telepathically, do you think they’re human?”
The thought of these people being anything but human had never entered Colton’s mind. Of course they’re human. What else would they be? he thought to himself. “Where are you going with all this, Captain? Are we talking alien abduction? Is that really the path you’re taking with this?”
“I don’t know, but if you think about it, at least alien intervention is one of the few things that even comes close to explaining all this,” said Garrett. “Don’t misunderstand me, Commander. I’m not losing it. I just need to prepare myself so that I can do the best I can for the men under my command.”
Colton smiled at her. No, he didn’t think she was losing it. He’d gotten to witness how she handled herself under fire, steadily directing her men in the face of several terrifying creatures that would have sent most people running for the hills. She was not just one gutsy lady; she was a marine, through and through. “I’ll have to give that idea some thought, but I have to be honest with you. Normally, I would have laughed at the whole concept of aliens. However, all things considered, it’s just as crazy as everything else has been, so why not?”
“I’m not joking,” said Garrett. “You told me that the ‘person’ you saw when you were talking with them was not real, that it was an animated figure, an AI construct or a mental image.”
“That’s right,” said Colton. “I figure they did that to keep their identity hidden.”
“Maybe, but there’s also another possibility. They may have used an animated figure to keep from scaring the crap out of you. For all we know, they look so bad that by comparison those dinosaurs back there look like snuggly puppies.”
Colton could no longer help himself, and he laughed, he had to, if for no other reason than to break the tension. “Well, if that turns out to be true, then we are dealing with some butt-ugly aliens.”
Even Garrett was smiling now. “If you tell anyone about our little talk, even your buddy Father Ryan, I’ll feed you to that flower we passed by earlier today.”
“With a threat like that hanging over my head, I have no choice but to keep my mouth shut.”
At that moment Privates Logan and Diaz returned from their scouting mission. “Captain, we may have found what we’re looking for,” reported Private Logan.
Garrett turned around to face the two men. “Tell me about it.”
“It’s only about a hundred yards or so away from us, but it’s rough going, broken rock and shale everywhere,” said Private Diaz. “Roughly twenty feet up we found a cave, and it’s pretty big.”
“You looked inside?” asked Colton.
“I did, sir,” answered Private Logan. “I didn’t go too far back, but there didn’t appear to be anyone living there. I did find some tracks on the floor of the cave, but I couldn’t determine how long they’d been there. It’s cold, like a cave, but it’s dry.”
Garrett looked at Colton and he nodded his agreement. “Alright, tell the corpsman to get Lockridge ready to move. As soon as Corporal Lee and Private Hill return, we head to this cave,” directed Garrett.
“From a special ops perspective, I don’t like caves,” said Colton. “They’re death traps. On the other hand, at this point, the idea of getting to dry out, as well as being able to sit down and relax, is just too appealing.”
Keeping a constant vigilance on their surroundings, the marines prepared to move out. About twenty minutes later Corporal Lee and Private Hill returned. They too had found some caves, but they were either too small or too high up on the cliff face to be of use. With Privates Logan and Diaz leading the way, they headed out. Colton’s earlier statement was spot-on; caves were not the best place to retreat to, especially if you are being pursued by an enemy. Typically, there’s only one way in and out. A determined enemy will wait until you’ve run out of food and water.
The terrain turned out to be as hard to navigate as advertised. Many of the men slipped and fell, or had a rock slide out from under them, taking them down. Fortunately, the men carrying Lockridge kept their footing, although there were a couple of close calls.
About halfway there, a giant tree, hit by lightning, crashed to the ground, crushing several smaller trees a few scant yards away from them. Due to the intensity of the storm, at first they didn’t realize that it had been a lightning strike that brought the tree down. Their first thought was that the dinosaurs that had attacked them earlier were returning, knocking down several trees as they moved in to attack.
Other than this one small scare, the trip to the cave was uneventful. It took longer than any of them wanted, but they made it safely with only a few minor bumps and scrapes. As soon as they got there, three of the marines scrambled up the steep rock face and into the cave. Along with Corporal Lee, a more thorough search of the cave was carried out.
“How’s it look?” asked Garrett.
“The cave itself opens up into a pretty big room, then tapers back down and heads deeper into the mountain. To be safe, we followed the passage back into the mountain to see if it led to anything. The good news is that we didn’t see any branches leading away from the main corridor. The passageway doesn’t go too far and ends in a room about half as big as the one up front. Much of that room is taken up by a very deep pit, which eats up most of the floor space,” reported Corporal Lee.
“In my college days, I did a little spelunking,” said Colton. “Let’s get everyone inside, then I’ll look at that pit. Hopefully, it won’t prove to be problematic. I’ll feel better once we make sure we’re not intruding on someone’s home, so to speak.”
“Does the idea that there’s a vertical cavern at the back of the cave suggest something to you?” asked Garrett.
“No, not at all,” said Colton. “It’s just an unknown and we need to check it out as thoroughly as we can. If something does live down there, and it’s a nocturnal predator, it’s going to be happy to find its dinner waiting for it at the mouth of the cave. I hate to think of myself as part of an entrée, delivered by room service.”
