Infinity's Gateway, page 27
All four of them dropped to the floor, still coughing, their eyes burning. “Let’s move away from here,” said Colton. Struggling to their feet, they moved on down the passageway, coming to a stop once the air had cleared.
Dropping down on the rocky floor, they all drank some water and got their breathing back under control. Colton and Corporal Lee had positioned their flashlights back down the cavern, just as a precaution.
Colton looked at Garrett and said, “Nicely done, Captain. Don’t know what made you think of that, but I’m glad you did.”
“Knowing we couldn’t use our guns, or worse, a grenade, I was trying to think of something we could use to set that thing on fire. A couple of years ago I saw a video about rubbing alcohol and how intensely it can burn. Figured it was worth a shot.”
“Can’t imagine the corpsman was too happy to give you all of his rubbing alcohol,” said Colton.
Garrett laughed at that. “He really didn’t get to vote on it. He still has some of the miracle drug though.”
Colton stood up. “Corporal Lee and I will go back and make sure that thing is gone and doesn’t have any vengeful relatives. Somehow, though, I doubt there’s more than one of those creatures, at least in this cave. Then we’ll head back to the front and get some rest.”
“I’m still going to post a guard,” said Garrett, “but back up front where this passage begins. Should another one of those creatures turn up, we still have some rubbing alcohol.”
“Let’s hope not,” said Colton. “I just exhausted my monster quota for the day.”
CHAPTER 20
The night passed without incident, giving every one of them the rest they so desperately needed. Other than their “little incident,” as Colton referred to it, with the creature back at the pit, the cave had served them well as a place of refuge, a true port in a very dangerous storm. Considering all they’d been through, and the weakened condition of the team, Colton knew that the cave had probably saved several lives by giving them the chance to dry out, eat, and rest.
The storm raged on most of the night, but just before dawn, its intensity dropped off dramatically. Now, although the skies were still overcast and filled with heavy, gray clouds, the rain had diminished to nothing more than a light drizzle. Garrett had her marines breaking camp and preparing to head out.
Colton sat and watched as Garrett moved around the camp, encouraging her men, making a point to speak with each one of them, giving them her complete focus. Although he wouldn’t admit it, not even to himself, his feelings for her continued to grow. Now when they talked, he often found himself gazing into her soft, brown eyes. They were eyes a man could get lost in. Oh great, he thought, I’m skipping ahead to Adam and Eve. One heck of a garden. Maybe the trees will be commanded not to eat them.
Colton saw that Garrett was heading over to where the corpsman had set up shop to check on Lockridge. Leaving his pack and rifle behind, he walked over and joined them.
“How’s our patient doing?” asked Garrett.
“Frankly, sir, I didn’t have too much hope that he’d make it through the night,” said the young medic. For the first time Colton noticed the name on his uniform, Z. Payne. “It’s been my experience that, for whatever reason, people with serious injuries tend to get worse as the night drags on. In Lockridge’s case, it appears to be the exact opposite. I’d say he may have actually improved a little.”
“That’s really good to hear,” said Colton. “How do you account for that?”
“The only explanation I can offer for any of this is that gel,” said the corpsman. “I’m not saying I believe in magic, but that stuff is as borderline magical as I’ve ever seen. The way it relieves pain, the way it seems to keep infection from setting in, and the remarkable healing qualities it has are simply off the charts.”
“How often have you been putting it on his wounds?” asked Captain Garrett.
“I’ve put it on four times so far,” said Payne. “The first time was back at where those creatures attacked us, then again when we got to the cave, and then once more last night just before I went to sleep.”
“Corpsman, I think that only adds up to three times,” said Colton.
“Yes sir, my mistake. I just reapplied the gel to his wounds, getting him as ready as he can before we head out. It’s just amazing. His wounds are healing at a pace that just isn’t possible.”
“Has he regained consciousness?” asked Garrett.
“No, but that’s probably a good thing,” answered Payne. “Dr. Severin knows that my plan is to go back to school and get my medical degree. I want to work with critically injured patients, and he’s been teaching me a great deal. He’s even given me a couple of his medical books to read. Because of Dr. Severin, I learned that doctors will sometimes induce a coma to critically injured patients to stabilize them. I think Lockridge has slipped into a coma, and I think the gel is what did it.”
“I’m as impressed with that gel as you are,” said Colton. “I’ve had my own firsthand experience with it and you’re right, it is amazing stuff. But for it to be able to make the decision, on its own, to induce a comatose state is giving it intellectual capabilities. I find that a little hard to believe. Many of us have used the gel, and no one, other than Lockridge, has slipped into a coma. How did the gel determine that that’s what he needed? If it’s a smart drug, we’re dealing with ideas that are at least a hundred years ahead of us.”
Payne shrugged his shoulders and looked back at Lockridge. “I don’t know what to tell you, Commander. When you consider how seriously he was injured, by all rights, this man should have died. Instead, his vitals are improving, and his wounds seem to be healing. Other than the gel, there is no other explanation that I can think of.”
Colton smiled at the young medic and patted him on the shoulder. “Corpsman, I’m not arguing with you. You’re doing a good job. I’m just doing my best to keep a rational mind about things. The problem is that nothing we’ve experienced so far has even come close to being rational, yet I keep trying to impose rational thought. Be sure to keep that gel safe. When we get back to the ship I want to see if Argos will be able to reverse engineer it. That stuff is absolutely priceless.”
“Corpsman, if you need me for anything, come get me,” said Garrett.
“Yes sir,” he replied. “Will do.”
As Garrett and Colton walked away, Garrett asked, “Could that gel be the wonder drug that Payne believes it to be? I mean, I know it works. I saw what it did for you. But here we are, stuck in a dirty, bacterially infested swamp of a jungle. Most, if not all my men, have been cut, gouged, or had their skin scraped off by something or other. And yet, under these conditions, that gel has been able to heal them, all of them! Think about it. So far not one of their wounds has gotten infected. That defies some serious odds.”
Colton smiled at her as he picked up his rifle. “Captain, at this point, I’m not even sure that two plus two still adds up to four. I’m glad Lockridge is doing better, but I don’t’ understand any of this. Right now, my one primary goal is to get us back to that ship. Hopefully Argos, or somebody, has been able to determine where we are and what the hell is going on.”
“Where are you off to?”
“I’m going to take Private Diaz and go take one last look at that pit,” said Colton.
“You don’t think that there’s any chance that that thing is back, do you?”
“No, I’m pretty sure it didn’t survive,” answered Colton. “I just want to make sure our back door, so to speak, is shut. Once we leave this cave, I’d hate to have a creature like that coming up behind me.”
“Lovely thought,” said Garrett. “We should be ready to go in about fifteen minutes. Try not to linger.”
Colton and Diaz carefully made their way back to the pit. Fortunately, they didn’t hear or see anything along the way. After waiting and listening for about five minutes, they turned and headed back to the front of the cave. True to her word, the team was ready to move out.
Two of the marines climbed down out of the cave and took up positions to cover everyone else. Under Corporal Lee’s guidance, Lockridge was gently lowered to the ground. Just before climbing down, Colton looked to the sky and was not surprised to find the craft still hovering well above the trees. In truth, he was glad to see it. He was reasonably certain that their only chance of making it back was to have that craft as an escort. The team was now back down on the jungle floor, ready to move out.
“Private Bannister,” said Colton, “I’d like a word with you.”
Corporal Lee and Captain Garrett joined them. “When we get back to that stream, I want you to try and raise the ship. If you can’t get through, once we cross, keep trying every five minutes. If you can get through, hand the radio to me as quickly as possible.”
“We get that close, Commander, the radio should work just fine,” said Bannister.
“Agreed,” said Colton, “but my concern is that our friends up there might be blocking our radio. If you haven’t noticed, that cloying mist that blanketed everything yesterday seems to have been blown away by the storm. Don’t know how fast it’ll return, but my guess is that MacKay will send up drones looking for us. When they spot that craft up there, I don’t know how the Eclipse is going to respond, or our friends to them.”
“I seriously doubt that MacKay would just open fire on it,” said Garrett.
“He won’t, unless he perceives the Eclipse to be in danger,” said Colton. “But MacKay’s not the one I’m worried about. Argos is the wild card. If it determines that letting that craft near the Eclipse will pose any kind of threat, then they’ll have to take some kind of action. I want to let them know that we’re coming in, with wounded, and that we have a friend escorting us.”
Corporal Lee laughed a little. “We are going to look pretty bizarre, limping out of the jungle with, for all intents and purposes, a UFO hovering over us. I sure hope someone thinks to takes pictures.”
“Very well,” said Garrett. “Corporal Lee, you and Private Hill will take the point. Let’s try and backtrack as best as we can to get to that game trail. We are all aware of the hidden dangers in that clearing we passed through, so watch your step.”
The team headed out, and for the first hour or so, it was tough going as they made their way back over the loose rocks that they’d crossed yesterday evening, looking for the cave. Private Hill found where they’d left the jungle, and Garrett ordered a ten-minute break. The drizzle had stopped, but had been replaced by humidity so thick that it made breathing difficult.
Corporal Lee and Private Hill were trying to keep them on the path they’d hacked out of the jungle the day before. It wasn’t long before they came upon the clearing Garrett had been talking about. Rather than risk any accidents crossing the clearing, they chose to keep to its edge, staying close to the trees. It added time to their journey, but was time well spent.
Garrett was walking next to Colton as they left the clearing behind. “I don’t know what kind of creature it was that dug out those holes, and then covered them up so that its prey would fall into them, but it’ll be giving me nightmares for a while.”
“The thought of that is pretty unnerving, and to be completely honest, for me it was a close vote,” said Colton, “but my nightmares will be filled with that thing we left back in the cave. We’ll never know, but I’d be willing to bet that ounce for ounce, that thing was the most lethal creature we’ve faced.”
The team continued to trudge along. Despite many of the trees that had been knocked down by the storm, and now blocked their path, they were able to maintain a pretty good pace. When they finally got to the game trail, Garrett ordered another rest. The trail, unfortunately, was now mostly mud and water, and it too was covered here and there by fallen trees. Private Hill spent his rest break looking around, and couldn’t believe the diversity of the tracks he was seeing.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” he told Colton. “Animals of all sizes have passed through here. Some, like those over there, as small as chickens, whereas those next to those rocks were made by something I’d rather we didn’t meet up with. Judging by their length, and how deep they sunk down into the mud, they look like they could be connected to something even bigger than those monsters that attacked us. While this may not be all that unusual in this jungle, my concern is that most of these tracks were made by animals that don’t have retractable claws.”
“So, you’re telling me that that’s a bad thing,” said Colton.
“Yes sir, I believe it is. I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that the animals that made these tracks, big and small alike, are all predators. And I’m real sure that in this jungle, we are not the top of the food chain.”
The team moved out along the trail. They knew that the next obstacle waiting for them was to cross the stream. While they didn’t share their fears with each other, all of them vividly remembered one terrifying, carnivorous creature that lived there. In addition to that, with all the rain from the storm, they weren’t sure what they’d be facing.
With the mist having cleared, they were able to see the strange craft hovering above them far more clearly than before. It was as bright as it had been since it’d first arrived and stayed just a little in front of them as they moved along. Garrett warned her team not to let down their guard. While it appeared that the craft was still protecting them from the animals that lived here, they could not afford to take anything for granted.
Corporal Lee brought them to a halt and let Colton and Garrett know that the stream was just around the next bend. “The good news is that it hasn’t overrun its banks, but the current is considerably stronger.”
“Is that flower, or plant, or whatever it is still there?” asked Garrett.
“Yes sir, downstream from us, exactly where it was when we came through yesterday.”
“It goes without saying that we’ll need to make sure none of us get swept downstream into that thing. I can’t even guess how you’d fight something like that,” said Colton. “I doubt that a plant can be calmed down like the dinosaurs or us.”
“We’ll send a couple of men across and put up some secure lines for the rest of the team to hang on to,” said Garrett. “With our friend up there watching over us, there’ll be no need to hurry, so we’ll take our time and get it right.”
The men gathered around the bank of the stream. Corporal Lee positioned two men as a rear guard while Privates Hill and Logan securely tied off two ropes that they’d be carrying across the stream with them. Garrett stood next to Colton, studying the fast-moving water. They could see that the water was still gradually rising with all kinds of logs and debris rushing by.
“If it weren’t for our escort and our need to act like we’re a bunch of weak, little kittens,” said Garrett, “I’d take that lizard-eating flower out without a second thought.”
“You’ve been reading my mind,” said Colton. “That flower has me worried, as well as wondering what other kinds of creatures may be waiting for us beneath the surface. I’ll never admit this to anyone else, but I’ve been dreading this.”
“What if we took a couple of grenades, packed them in mud, and placed them in backpacks. We’d fill the bottom of the backpacks with enough rocks so that they’d sink quickly. The explosions would go off at roughly the same time and they wouldn’t make too much noise. Two of them should take care of any bottom dwellers that are lurking in the area.”
“As much as I like the idea, I’m afraid they would most certainly pick up on what we’d done,” said Colton.
“Excuse me, sir,” said Private Bannister. “I’ve been trying to reach the ship, but I’m not getting through. All I’m picking up is some light static, so I’m beginning to think you may be right. As far as I can tell, the equipment is okay, so it would have to be them blocking our signal. Or . . . ” his voice trailed off.
“Or what, Private?” asked Colton.
“Or the ship has left us,” said Bannister.
“That’s the last thing you need to worry about,” said Colton. “I was afraid we’d have trouble reaching them. Okay, once we get across . . .”
Garrett grabbed his arm and motioned upwards with her head towards the craft. “Here they come.” Her voice had dropped to a whisper.
All eyes watched as the glowing mystery descended rapidly, with a slight hum, coming to a halt about a hundred feet above the stream. The light, already blindingly bright, became even brighter, and they all experienced the same rippling effect through the air that they’d experienced when the craft had saved them from the dinosaurs.
Turning to her men, she said,” Stand down! Be ready, but do not fire on that craft unless I give the order to do so!”
Colton felt a love spasm. Her voice hadn’t climbed a note. This was the woman he had looked for in Beirut, in Afghanistan, in times when brains and luck kept him alive.
The surface of the stream convulsed with movement as if several small pebbles had been dropped into it all at the same time. The small waves that normally played out in concentric circles raced across the stream but were in parallel lines. Colton wasn’t sure what was happening, but he had a pretty good guess.
He glanced downstream at the large plant they’d been worried about and was glad he did. He watched as the large blossom that was used to attract its prey closed and rapidly drew in its long, leaf-like appendages. For at least the time being, it no longer posed a threat. So, you do have nerves?
Private Johnson shouted out and pointed upstream from where they were standing. A huge, orange, alligator-looking creature emerged from the depths of the stream and quickly swam away, disappearing into the bushes on the opposite shore. Maybe twenty feet long, it had spikes on its tail, because a twenty-foot-long alligator isn’t scary enough.
Apparently, the force from the craft that had kept them calm was busy with other targets. The deep fear returned like swallows to Capistrano. Privates Hill and Logan looked at each other apprehensively. The plan had been that they would be the first to enter the water, with their job being to secure the ropes on the other side, giving the rest of the team something to hold on to as they crossed. Garrett saw the look on their faces and acted quickly.
