God Stones: Books 1 - 3

by Otto Schafer

  Gabi dusted more, making sure to only apply enough pressure to remove the layer of sediment while trying to make the brush dance like her mother’s. Below the long tube something else was coming into focus – something huge.

  Finally, her mother announced, “Look here!”

  María and Gabi stepped back again to take it in.

  “This shows a single giant coming to this land and tormenting the indigenous people. See here, this looks like women were being dragged off into the jungle… Stolen!” Then she pointed. “This area depicts smaller giants. Two, then – see here? – four, then eight. They are multiplying!” She circled a different area with her brush. “Then, here we see them building this pyramid.”

  “Stealing the women to breed with them? María Purísima, Itzel!” María pointed now further down the wall. “Then later there was a war. I see now, we started at the end, not at the beginning. These skulls are the result of the giants that were defeated. They were placed here,” Itzel said. “But see here, many escaped, retreating, but where to?”

  “Yes, and why put the skulls here at all?” Itzel asked.

  Finally, Gabi spoke up, pointing below the pyramid. “Mamá, look! I think they are here to warn people away from that.”

  They stared at the images below the pyramid.

  “That can’t be real!” María said.

  “No, María? But like you said, neither can these skulls,” Itzel said quietly.

  “Mamá, we need to get Sarah.”

  “Ay, María Purísima… Sarah!”

  23

  Rusty Bite

  Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1

  Petersburg, Illinois

  “Paul!” Garrett shouted as he ran forward.

  “Garrett, wait! Stop, there could be more traps!” Pete warned.

  Garrett didn’t stop, not until he got to Paul. Lenny and Breanne were right on his heels. Garrett knelt beside him, noticing right away several of the bear trap’s teeth bit deeply into Paul’s leg just above his ankle bone. He sat yanking at the trap trying helplessly to pull it apart. “It’s going to be okay, Paul,” Garrett said unconvincingly.

  “Get it… off me!” Paul groaned, blood flowing freely from the punctures on both sides of his leg, soaking his pant leg.

  Lenny and Garrett nodded at each other, each grabbing one side of the trap.

  “Keep him still, Bre. This is going to hurt like hell!” Garrett said.

  “It’s going to be okay, Paul. You’re going to be okay,” Bre said, her voice trembling.

  “Just do it,” Paul grunted through clenched teeth.

  They pulled. It took all their strength to pry apart the trap and for a second Garrett thought the blood-slicked metal might slip from his grasp.

  Paul growled, sounding more like the animal the trap was meant for as he pulled his foot clear of the steel jaws.

  Pete wedged a chunk of the trap’s chain in between the teeth to allow Lenny and Garrett to free their fingers as they eased the trap closed.

  As soon as Paul’s foot was clear, he began giving instruction. “Lenny, you still have my knife?”

  “Yeah, sure,” he said, producing Paul’s Ka-Bar.

  “Open it… quick.”

  Lenny flipped the tactical knife open with a nudge from his thumb.

  “Good. Now… cut my pant leg… off… above the wound,” he said in short breaths.

  Lenny quickly cut Paul’s pants. The wound was horrible. It looked like he had been attacked by a shark or something equally toothy.

  Garrett’s stomach turned.

  “Oh Jesus, Paul!” Breanne said.

  “Just stay calm. We need… to get this bleeding… under control, before I pass out,” Paul said shakily.

  Garrett wished they had saved some of their black belts, but what they didn’t use they discarded back at the pit. Thinking quickly, he took off his dobok top and tossed it to Lenny. “Use this.”

  “It’s not exactly warm down here, man,” Lenny said.

  “Yeah, so I’ll be cold,” Garrett said, throwing up his hands. “Look, man, the dobok is made of thick material, so it should work, right?”

  “Yeah… it’ll work fine… but hurry… I’m getting really dizzy here, guys.” Paul looked grey as the blood drained from his face. “Lenny, cut the sleeves off and give… back the rest… keep his core warm… Besides…” – he winked weakly at Bre – “I think my sis… likes the show… too much.”

  “How in the hell can you make jokes at a time like this?!” Breanne tried to scold.

  Paul chuckled in response.

  “And how can you be laughing?” she asked.

  Garrett felt a renewed urgency. It had been there all along, but now it was spurring him forward. Everyone else must have been feeling it too because they kept looking back the way they came, as if waiting for Apep to burst forth from the darkness.

  “Pete, take the staff and make sure there are no more traps.” Garrett nodded toward the temple entrance. Turning back to David, he said, “David keep a look out for Apep.”

  Garrett and Lenny wrapped Paul’s ankle as tightly as they could.

  Paul’s eyes rolled back then snapped back into focus. “Okay, now see that keychain looking thing hanging from my pack? It’s a short length of paracord. Uncoil it and cinch it tight around my leg.”

  Garrett uncoiled the tiny cord, wrapped Paul’s ankle, and yanked.

  Paul grunted, “Tighter!”

  Garrett and Lenny each took an end of the knot and pulled together… hard.

  “Ah!” Paul shouted. “That’s good. Help me up! Let’s move!”

  Around the doorway were scattered bones. But these bones looked different from the ones in and around the traps. “We got human bones over here, guys!” Pete announced. “Breanne, can you have a look at these?”

  Paul nodded. “Go on, sis, I’m right behind you.”

  Breanne approached and began examining the bones, entryway, and exposed wall. “These are human for sure and look at the angle of this exposed wall. Interesting.”

  “What are you thinking?” Pete asked.

  “I’m thinking, the pitch of this wall screams pyramid,” she said, running her hand along it. “The entryway too, the way it’s built into the wall.”

  “Are there any more traps, Pete?” Breanne asked, hesitating before walking into the opening.

  “No, well, according to Lincoln’s journal anyway.”

  “Yeah, but it didn’t mention the one outside the gap either, right?” Lenny said.

  “True, but it’s likely after all those years, he simply forgot he had placed one outside the crevice.”

  “Simply forgot? That thing nearly hacked off Paul’s foot! What else did he simply forget?” Lenny asked in annoyance.

  Paul climbed to his feet. “Lenny, it’s not that bad. Let’s finish this, then I’ll get to a hospital and get it all fixed up,” he said thickly, forcing a smile. “You mind if I hang on to your staff a little longer? It makes a good crutch.”

  “No, of course not, bro.”

  Pete stepped hesitantly beside Breanne. “I doubt he would forget a whole other series of traps. I think this was just a one-off but, yeah, we should proceed with caution.”

  “Yeah, then you go first, Pete,” Lenny said.

  Garrett drew his sword. “I’ll go first.”

  Pete nodded and fell in behind Garrett; Breanne and Janis fell in behind Pete, David behind the girls, and finally a hobbling Paul with assistance from Lenny fell in behind the rest. They moved from the cave into the opening. Their shuffling feet echoed off the walls.

  Finally, they were in the temple or pyramid or whatever this place was. The evening had seemed so surreal, but it was all really happening. This place really did exist.

  Garrett’s thoughts were heavy with the tasks the coming moments would require. He let the flashlight beam move across the blade of his sword. He was about to cut off the head of a space alien.

  24

&nb
sp; Temples and Tombs

  Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1

  Petersburg, Illinois

  Pete broke the soft scuffle of feet with a whisper. “According to Lincoln, we should be really close to the main chamber. In the journal, he mentions a tunnel lined with racks of bones right before the main chamber.”

  “Racks of bones? That’s very strange,” Breanne said.

  “Yeah, well no, not bones, skulls. Racks of skulls,” Pete corrected.

  Breanne flipped her light from the floor to the back of Pete’s head. “Guys, on my Dad’s dig site in Mexico, just before the site collapsed, we found what has to be one of the largest sets of skull racks ever discovered!” Sarah, oh, I wish we could talk, she thought.

  “So, that’s cool. I guess, right? You might find some more here,” Pete said.

  “No, Pete, that’s not what I mean – the site in Mexico has tzompantli, Aztec skull racks. There shouldn’t be any Aztec skull racks here, in central Illinois. The indigenous peoples in this area didn’t make skull racks out of human heads.”

  “Well, maybe that’s not what they are,” Pete offered.

  “Maybe. Yeah, I’m sure it couldn’t be.” She let the subject drop. They were fully inside the opening. As in a pyramid, the corridor was constructed of perfectly cut and stacked stone. The ceiling was high above their heads, and there was plenty of room to walk three wide. “If there are any seams in the stone, I sure can’t see them,” she said, running her hand down a wall.

  They turned a corner into yet another corridor. And just as Lincoln had written, so it was. Along the walls on both sides were racks of skulls.

  “No, this can’t be – there’s no way!” Breanne said, stopping to appraise the racks. Some had fallen apart over time but most still stood, dust-covered and fragile. It was too incredible, too impossible, too… coincidental? “This can’t be here, you guys. Jesus, this can’t be here! There must be dozens? Maybe hundreds?” If the circumstances were different, she would be content to spend hours – no, days – examining, measuring, and cataloging the skull racks.

  What would her father say if he were here right now? Something like, This will change everything we thought we knew about America’s history, baby girl! But her father wasn’t here. She didn’t even know if he was okay. And there was no time to investigate, no time to waste.

  “Well, I guess we don’t know what is possible – it isn’t like any of us have ever been in the temple of a Native American god before,” Pete said.

  Garrett glanced back. “Native American god? This is a tomb.”

  Ahead the corridor appeared to end, showing only darkness beyond.

  “Okay, tomb,” Pete conceded. “But tomb or temple, what’s inside is a Native American god. An evil god, but a god nonetheless.”

  “Pete. There’s a space alien in there. One of the old ones. I thought you said you knew what was inside?” Garrett asked.

  “Yeah, well, that makes sense, man. You can understand why the natives would think this thing was a god,” Pete said.

  They reached the end of the corridor, where a large room stretched out before them. Breanne could feel the vastness of the space in the depths of the darkness, but she couldn’t see more than a dozen feet in front of her face, even with the flashlight. The chamber smelled of centuries-old musk, and the air was cold. “A god, sure, because of its magic powers or whatever.”

  “Powers? I don’t know, maybe. But I’m talking appearance,” Pete said.

  “Look, at the walls,” Breanne said, pointing her headlamp to both sides of the doorway they had come through. There was a ledge about shoulder high, standing a few inches off the wall, like a shelf, but it wasn’t a shelf. It was more like a really long window planter box that stretched away into obscurity in both directions. “Those held a flammable fuel used to light the chamber.”

  “Oh, wait guys,” Garrett said, retrieving James’s Zippo from his pocket. He flicked the flint, and the Zippo sparked to life, a tiny flame burning steadily. “I doubt after all these years it will still light, but here goes.” Garrett reached over and touched the flame to the ledge.

  Instinctively Breanne shielded her eyes as the flame sprung to life, racing across the wall to stretch several feet in a flash of brilliant orange. The dancing flames continued into the depths of the chamber to circle around the entire vast room, before completing the loop all the way around to the opposite side of the door.

  They had been in the dark with nothing more than flashlights for over an hour. Breanne squinted and blinked, her eyes adjusting. Suddenly she realized why she hadn’t been able to see very far into the chamber with her flashlight.

  “Holy shit balls!” Lenny said.

  25

  Lever

  Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1

  Rural Chiapas State, Mexico

  At first the lever only moved a little. Sarah pulled harder, but still it wouldn’t budge farther than a few millimeters.

  She figured there were two possible outcomes after the lever finally broke loose and flipped and, truth be told, she didn’t like either one. Either the bottom of this damn shaft was going to fall away, and she was going to go plummeting down into unknown depths, or this thing was a trap and would start filling with water. Why water? She didn’t know, it was just a feeling. She supposed it could be anything, but water seemed simple and effective enough. She checked her figure-eight knot again with a nervous tug. “Fredy, prepare for my rope to go taut,” she said through the two-way. Clicking the button again, she added, “And prepare to pull like hell on my signal.”

  “Okay… we’re ready,” Fredy answered, his voice crackling over the radio with obvious concern. Then Fredy’s voice returned a moment later, mixed in with other voices. “But Sarah, why would your rope go taut when you are about to climb up?”

  In the background Sarah thought she heard Itzel’s voice and she sounded excited. Normally they spoke in English around her. She never asked them to. They just always did. She knew it was a gesture of respect, so that she would always understand what was being said. But through the radio it sounded like Itzel was yelling in Spanish. They must be freaking out with worry, she thought.

  Sarah let the radio fall back against her vest, where it was clipped, then bent over and wrapped her fingers firmly around the lever between her legs. She heaved with all her strength, using her legs and back.

  Slowly, slowly she felt the lever yielding.

  And then, all at once, it lifted free and locked into place.

  She waited, frozen like the giant stone statue a hundred feet up, her chest pinned up tight as she dared not breathe. The lid stayed below her. There was no sign of water gushing in. So, what’s this thing do?

  Suddenly, she got her answer when her whole world began to shake as the stone lid under her rotated a quarter of a turn, knocking her off balance before stopping abruptly. A loud clunk sounded, vibrating up Sarah’s legs.

  She looked down, searching for one of the strange notches – the ones that disappeared below the floor. There! She located one. The notch was no longer an open hole. Some sort of mechanism now protruded outward from the lid, locking into the groove. Shit! Shit, shit, shit! she thought, I triggered a trap!

  26

  Stoneclad and Thunderbird

  Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1

  Petersburg, Illinois

  The chamber stretched upward, its four walls narrowing into darkness as black as obsidian. Somewhere up there, deep in the shadows above, out of sight for untold centuries, the four walls met in a perfect apex. The distance across the chamber from front to back must have been a hundred feet or more and the same side to side. The walls were painted with strange symbols. Pottery, remnants of pelts, hoards of shields, armor, and weapons were piled along a wall.

  But Garrett, like everyone else, had no attention left for the size of the place or its incredible adornments. All his focus was directed toward the massive stone slab at the center of
the chamber – and to the thing that lay atop it. “My god… it’s huge,” Garrett said.

  “This can’t be real!” Lenny said.

  “Well, yeah, of course it’s huge. It’s a giant,” Pete said, as if he had seen dozens of them.

  Garrett struggled to find words. “But…”

  “I mean, what did you expect? I thought you said you knew what was in here?” Pete said with a shrug, but the quaver in his voice betrayed the nonchalance he was trying to put up.

  “I… I thought I did,” Garrett said. “I mean I do. This must be the old one, right? The one I’m supposed to destroy. The one from another planet. I just didn’t expect it to be so… so goddamn big! I mean this is a giant, an actual giant!”

  “Well, when Lincoln said giant, he meant it,” Pete said. “Maybe the world should have listened to the clues?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Lenny asked.

  Pete cleared his throat. The eyes of that species of extinct giants, whose bones fill the mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Old Abe said that all the way back in eighteen forty-eight.”

  Lenny shook his head. “There is something wrong with you. You know that, right? Something very wrong.”

  “For sure,” David said.

  They approached cautiously.

  The giant lay only a couple dozen feet away, face up across the stone slab, which rose several feet off the floor, obstructing their view of the rest of the chamber. The giant wasn’t mummified or bones, as one would expect of something that had been there for so long. No, it was flesh and blood, fully intact. It looked as if it were asleep; its one oversized eye centered in the middle of its head was closed.