Infinity's Gateway, page 26
“What can be used for good, can also be used for evil,” said Garrett. “I get it.”
“So far everything they’ve done has been to help and protect us,” said Colton. “Or they kept us from killing the dinosaurs. How great would it be for policemen if they could make crowds relax at will? This is a psy-op wet dream.”
“Knowing that this ability to influence how we feel does have its limitations is good to know. My guess is that once we’re back on the Eclipse, if we meet on the lower decks, shielding ourselves with the steel walls, we’ll be able to escape their influence.”
“We’ll share this with the rest of the men before we depart. Hopefully, the storm will have run its course by tomorrow morning,” said Garrett.
“Agreed,” said Colton. Neither he, nor Garrett, was going to verbalize their reasoning, but it was important that all the men were aware of this. It would act as an insurance policy if only a few of them make it back to the ship. Colton and Garrett recognized the importance of this information and the need for it to be shared with MacKay and the rest of the crew.
“You said that knowing this is the good news,” said Corporal Lee. “What’s the downside?”
“We now know that there are limitations to their reach,” said Colton. “If they can no longer control how we’re feeling by being this far back in the cave, then it stands to reason that they can’t influence anything else that might be back here. To put it more bluntly, their protection doesn’t reach this far into the cave. Whatever may or may not be down there, we’re on our own.”
“Commander, unfortunately, I think you may be right,” said Diaz.
“Why is that?” asked Colton.
Diaz nodded towards the pit. “Listen. I think we have company.”
CHAPTER 19
It had been quite a few years, but MacKay vividly remembered having gone through some violently rough storms in the North Atlantic, storms in which he knew he was going to die. The storm they were caught in now wasn’t as bad as those had been, but it was awfully close. Although they were getting tossed around pretty good, the Eclipse and its crew were doing a fine job of holding their own against the storm.
Mercer reentered the bridge and removed his rain gear. “Much more of this and I’m going to put in for a transfer.”
“How’s everyone holding up?” asked MacKay.
“Most of the crew is doing fairly well,” answered Mercer. “Dr. Severin did a preemptive strike before we sailed into this cyclone. Between the pressure bracelets he’s got them wearing on their wrists, and the copious amounts of Dramamine he handed out, we don’t have too many seasick sufferers.”
“I didn’t know we still use Dramamine,” said MacKay.
Mercer smiled at this. “I don’t think we do, but that’s what I call it. Severin told me the real name of the stuff, a name that I can’t pronounce, so I’m sticking with Dramamine. Now, all that said, in regard to our civilian guests, they’re not handling the storm nearly as well as the crew.”
“Not surprised,” said MacKay. Smiling, he looked at Mercer and said, “How’s Meinhard holding up?”
“Poorly, very poorly indeed,” said Mercer. “Poseidon’s Karma, I guess. He was so bad off that Severin decided to sedate him. Be nice if we could keep him that way for a while.”
“Now, now, Mr. Mercer,” scolded MacKay in a mocking tone, “we must treat our guests with the utmost respect and kindness.”
“I’ll try to remember that,” laughed Mercer. “Still, I may hit Severin up for one or two of those syringes. I mean, should Dr. Meinhard ever start to ‘suffer’ again, I’d be only too happy to relieve him of his misery.”
“Be careful,” cautioned MacKay, “too many overt acts of kindness like that and Father Ryan may start to feel that he isn’t needed anymore.”
“Sahir and I talked,” said Mercer, changing the subject. “As soon as this storm breaks, his team will relaunch the drones.”
“Good,” said MacKay, “hopefully this time we’ll be able to get a better look at things.”
“Do you also want me to launch the attack drones?”
“No, you can have them on standby, but we’ll keep them grounded for now. We still don’t have any answers as to where we are, and I don’t want to accidently provoke anything,” said MacKay.
“You may not want to hear this, but, as it turns out, Argos agrees with you,” said Mercer. Mercer knew only too well how MacKay felt about Argos. The idea that the captain and Argos were seeing eye to eye on any subject made him laugh, and he knew this would really get under MacKay’s skin. “Argos ran some kind of atmospheric model and determined that the mist that hangs over that jungle, thanks to this storm, will have been blown away, at least for a few hours.”
“Not the endorsement of my orders that I was after, but under the circumstances, I’ll take all the support I can get. Who knows? Maybe I can teach that bucket of bolts a few things.”
“I’ll be sure to have Sahir schedule some one-on-one time for you with Argos,” laughed Mercer.
“You do that. In the meantime, make sure that Sahir has those things equipped with heat sensors,” said MacKay. “I want Colton and his team found. Once we’ve done that, we’ll affect a rescue.”
“I’m not a pessimist,” said Mercer as he moved over next to MacKay so that he wouldn’t be overheard. “You know that, but we didn’t pick up one heat signature the last time we sent those drones out. I’m afraid that I share Lieutenant Tanner’s opinion. When you think of the creatures that might be roaming through that jungle, assuming they’re anything like that sea monster that attacked us, I just can’t see how our people could have survived.”
“I’m not disagreeing with you,” said MacKay. “The odds of them having made it through all of this are pretty slim. But before we left port, I read everything I could find on Colton, in addition to what the admiral sent me. He’s walked out of some bad situations in the past, situations where they’d written him off as dead. So, I’m not giving up. Let’s just say I have faith.”
“You have been talking with Father Ryan.”
“You bet I have,” said MacKay. “He said that if we work on proclaiming positive thoughts out loud, that it can help to influence the outcome of events. So, for better or worse, I’m not going to leave any stone unturned.”
“Sir, here’s the latest weather update,” said Lieutenant Gallo, handing the captain a printout. “Looks like this storm will have run its course in a couple of hours.”
“Good news, Lieutenant,” said MacKay. “Get the word out so that the crew knows there’s light at the end of this tunnel. Once the drones are launched, we’ll head back to our previous position.”
At first the sounds were so faint that Colton thought Diaz might have been imagining things. It didn’t take long, however, for those sounds to grow in volume. Trying not to let his imagination run wild, Colton tried to rationally figure out what they were hearing. Although he couldn’t be sure, it sounded like hundreds of little claws slowly working their way up the side of the shaft.
“What do you think that is?” asked Corporal Lee.
“Hard to say,” said Colton. “If I had to guess, I’d say cave rats.” But in truth, Colton didn’t believe that. Rats wouldn’t be able to scale the sheer sides of this pit, and he also couldn’t see them living in something that, apparently, every so often filled up with acid. At this point their flashlights were of no help. Whatever was headed their way, it was still too far down to be seen.
“What do you suggest we do, sir?” said Private Diaz, his hand resting on his pistol.
“For the moment, nothing,” answered Colton. “Once we see what we’re dealing with, then we’ll figure out our next step.”
Waiting is always tough, but in this case, it was pure misery. Adding to the tension was the fact that they were stuck in a cave with only one way out if they needed to escape. Every few seconds the sounds of the claws grew in volume from hard to hear to the sound of a gentle rain on a tin roof. Additionally, with every passing minute, the acid smell increased, sulfuric mixed with mercaptan. Every living thing they’d seen so far that day had come straight out of their nightmares. Something old and deep in mankind knows that death is waiting in caves, in the dark. The tribal heroes must battle it. Many must die.
“There it is,” said Garrett. Something could now be seen moving its way up the walls of the pit, but it was too far down to make out what it was. On first glance, it appeared to be liquid. It was shiny, black, and it seemed to quiver with each little movement.
“If it weren’t for the scratching sounds, I’d say that was oil, if oil climbed up walls and chittered,” said Colton. Whatever it was, it continued to make steady progress up the sides of the shaft. It finally made its way around the last ledge that had been blocking their view. This thing, this unknown creature, was now in plain sight. They all gagged.
“Well,” said Corporal Lee, “I guess we don’t have to wonder where that odor’s been coming from anymore. That thing reeks of it.”
The creature was very large, stretching out across the entire circumference of the pit. It was close enough now that their flashlights gave them fleeting glimpses of small, white teeth, or claws, all around the edge of the creature, digging into the walls and pulling itself upwards. In the very center of the creature was an oblong bulge. There were no visible facial features, but Colton guessed that he was looking at the thing’s head, assuming, of course, that it even had a head. The lump looked like someone had dropped black oilcloth over a very large pumpkin.
“That thing looks like an oily octopus, minus the arms,” said Garrett, her face pale in the dim light. Colton looked over at the other two marines. Their features could have been set in stone. Whatever form the fight was going to take on, they were ready.
Corporal Lee and Private Diaz pulled their pistols and started to take aim down at the creature. “Hold your fire,” said Garrett. “I don’t have that much experience, or knowledge, regarding caves, but I don’t want the blast from those pistols to test the structural integrity of the ceiling, especially while I’m standing under it.”
“Captain Garrett’s right,” said Colton. “The shots from those things could bring down some loose rocks. Plus, we can’t forget about our friends hovering around out front. They’ll most certainly pick up the sound of the shots, and frankly, I’m not sure how they’ll respond to something like that. If we can avoid it, we don’t want to appear as the aggressors. That said, I do have another idea.”
Colton quickly backtracked down the passageway they’d followed to the pit and picked up a large, heavy stone lying on the cave floor. Garrett, Lee, and Diaz followed suit, each of them picking up some hefty stones. They quickly moved back to the edge of the pit and were shocked to see how close the creature was getting to them; it was now only about fifty feet away.
“Okay, on three, we aim for that lump in the center,” directed Colton. “One, two, three!” All four rocks plummeted down, two of them making direct hits on the lump, the other two hitting just to the left of it.
The impact of the rocks striking the creature sounded like they’d smacked into wet cement. The rocks quickly disappeared into the back flesh of the creature as if they’d been swallowed. Although the rocks hadn’t knocked the creature back down the shaft liked Colton had hoped they would, they did stop its ascent. On closer inspection, Colton noticed that the creature had dropped back down the shaft by about a foot, so the rocks had been somewhat effective.
They’d started to turn away to get more rocks when Private Diaz said, “Look at that! I don’t believe this!”
The rocks, or what was left of them, reemerged from the creature’s flesh. They had been reduced to nothing more than sand and gravel. The creature then started to push the small stones across its body by undulations in the creature’s skin. It looked as if the stones were drifting across a pool of black oil, being pushed along by large ripples, moving them closer and closer towards the walls of the shaft. They could also see traces of what looked like steam coming off the small stones.
“Look at that! What happened to those rocks?” asked Corporal Lee. The acidic odor had grown significantly stronger. It now filled the cavern in which they stood, causing their eyes to water even more, so thick that it was making it harder for them to breathe.
“That thing must be coated in acid,” said Garrett. “Those rocks are melting!”
As the rocks approached the walls of the pit, the creature’s claws released their grip, opening a space big enough for the rocks to simply fall through. They could hear them crashing into things as they plummeted towards the bottom of the shaft.
“We may have slowed it down,” said Colton, “but I’m not sure we hurt it. Let’s hope we discouraged it from getting any closer to us.” The words had no sooner left his mouth when the creature resumed its vertical ascent. It appeared to be moving at the same pace that it had been moving before. “We need a new plan and we need it fast. There are only so many rocks, and this thing seems to just shrug them off.”
“I’ll be right back,” said Garrett. “We can’t risk an explosive device, but I just thought of something that might work. Those rocks do slow it down. Keep showering it with as many of them as you can. I’ll hurry.” With that she took off running down the passageway.
“You gotta love this,” said Colton, bending over to pick up another stone. “ ‘You hold off the monster, while I go for help.’ I think I saw that in a really bad movie one time.”
“How’d the movie turn out?” grunted Corporal Lee, as he hurled a large, jagged-edge rock down toward the creature.
“You don’t want to know.”
The shower of rocks raining down on the creature began to have an impact. The creature was being hit so many times that it was starting to slip down the shaft more and more, and its recovery seemed to be slowing down. Probably just the added weight. Just as Colton and Diaz were about to hit it with two more rocks, half of the creature released its grip on the walls of the pit. This caused its body to swing down and onto the opposite side of the pit where it still held tight. Now, rather than covering the whole shaft, wall to wall, the creature clung to just one side.
Everything suddenly came to a standstill. The creature didn’t move, and Colton and the other two men stopped their attack. Completely spread out across the wall, Colton could clearly see that the creature was circular in shape and had to have been at least twenty to twenty-five feet in width.
“When you think about it, we got lucky,” said Private Diaz. “I mean, what if that thing had already been up the shaft and was just sitting back here waiting for its next meal to come along? We would have walked right into it thinking it was just a bunch of wet rocks.”
“That paints a very disturbing picture,” said Colton.
“Wonder if we could outrun that thing?” asked Diaz. “It moved up that shaft at a pretty good clip. You have to wonder how fast it can go on a flat surface.”
“You may get your chance to find out,” said Corporal Lee. “Here it comes.”
The creature continued its crawl up the wall of the pit at the same measured pace. The men started their assault again, but this time the effect was, at best, negligible. The rocks that hit the creature didn’t sink in as deeply as before and seemed to just fall harmlessly away into the pit. The creature was now only ten or twelve feet away from crawling out of the shaft.
“It really stinks back here,” said a voice from behind them. Garrett stood there, holding a very full and very heavy backpack. Setting it down on the floor, she opened it up and began handing out bottles of rubbing alcohol. “Alright, let’s soak this thing with alcohol.”
“If you’re trying to get it drunk, I doubt it’s going to have much of an effect,” said Colton. “The slimy thing sweats acid.”
“Don’t criticize the recipe until you’ve tasted the cake,” said Garrett. The creature shuddered as the alcohol poured down on it, washing over most of its body. It stopped moving, shuddered again, and let loose with a loud, shrill, hissing sound.
“Oh good,” said Colton, “we pissed it off.”
Once again, the creature started its persistent climb up the wall. With it being only four or five feet away from reaching the top of the pit, the idea of making a strategic withdrawal to the rear flashed through Colton’s mind.
Garrett then reached back into the backpack and brought out two flare guns. Handing one to Colton, she said, “Lee, Diaz, give us some light on that thing. We’re only going to get one shot at this and I want to see what I’m aiming at.”
The two men trained their lights on the creature just as it reached the top of the pit. They could see the small, curved, white claws they’d spotted earlier digging into the rock, pulling the creature up at an alarming rate. Garrett and Colton took aim. As they were at pointblank range, it would be hard for them to miss.
“Right after we shoot this thing, run,” said Garrett. “You ready?”
“It’s your idea. Waiting for your command,” said Colton.
“Fire!”
Both flares were targeted in on the head area of the creature. Both hit the target and started to burn into the creature’s flesh. The shrill hissing sound once again filled the small room, far louder than it had been before, hurting their ears. Garrett’s warning to run had been a good one. They’d only gotten a few steps away from the thing when it burst into a ball of blue flame, the rubbing alcohol catching fire with a whooshing sound.
The horrible fumes from the burning creature made all of them start to cough and gag. They could hear its flesh sizzling and popping as it burnt. The creature made a loud, gurgling cry, then released its grip and fell back into the pit. Colton rushed to the edge and watched, as the creature seemed to fold up on its boneless self, bouncing off the walls as it fell. He stood there and watched until it was out of sight.
