Tarik chose his smallest man to go up first to test the strength of the vines covering the side of the wreckage. The man grabbed a thick vine and began scaling the ivy like a Marine working his way up a rope climb on an obstacle course. Tarik watched the pirate get halfway up then turned to signal another man to follow.
“Aaargh!”
Jack gazed up at the man twenty feet above his head. Green serpents—big around as garden hoses—were wrapping around the man’s torso and legs. He struggled to pull back his arm but his wrist was seized, flipping him around onto his back.
“Snakes?” Tarik yelled at Jack and Miguel. “Is this one of your tricks?”
“They’re not snakes,” Jack said. “Those are strangler vines.”
A vine coiled around the man’s neck like a hangman’s noose. His face turned from beet-red to a dark purple as his windpipe was crushed. The vines cinched tightly around his body holding him against the side of the ship like a crucifixion. More vines crisscrossed his body until he was completely concealed under the leaves.
“What is this place?” Miguel asked Jack.
“Jesus, why the hell would she send us here?”
Tarik glared at Jack and Miguel. “You led us into a trap.”
“If it was, we didn’t know about it.”
“We had no idea,” Miguel said, raising his hands in his defense.
The rain came down harder, the heavy pellets ricocheting off the rocks. A leeward wind howled over the turbulent sea sending waves crashing onto the shore. Jack knew it would be impossible to row back to the ship against the strong current. Their only hope of shelter was the island. He looked across the water, spotting the other launch beached on the shore.
There was no sign of Laney, Butros or any of his men.
“Back to the boat,” Tarik yelled.
They climbed cautiously down the wet rocks in the buffeting wind.
The man in the launch was using an oar to keep the pitching boat from dashing against the boulders by the raging waves. A huge swell lifted the stern ten feet up, spilling the man over the side. The man came to the surface just as the keel came crashing down on the top of his head.
Two men shimmied down the rocks to grab hold of the boat. A sidelong wave pushed the launch beyond their reach. The dory continued to drift farther away. A powerful comber rolled over the boat, capsizing the vessel.
Jack watched the next set of waves pour over the launch, sinking their one chance of returning to the Dark Horizon.
Tarik cursed their misfortune. He began leading the group over the rocks toward the beach. Two pirates followed right behind, the other two taking up the rear with their guns trained on Jack and Miguel.
With the torrential rain beating down on them and the chilling wind cutting them to the bone, Jack wished they’d had the foresight to bring foul weather gear. It was like standing under a bathroom shower, fully dressed.
Hunched over, they stumbled through the deluge. Once they reached the beach, the rainforest was only a hundred feet away. Jack was amazed how tall the trees had grown in such a short period of time. The canopy sloping up the mountain had to be a hundred feet up from the jungle floor.
Their boots crunched across the pebbly basalt rock.
Jack caught a white, thin flash out of the corner of his eye. At first, he thought it was the wind slanting the rain, but then he saw another similar image a few feet away in the other direction. A pirate walking in front of him saw it as well. He let out a cry of alarm, frightened by the strange sight.
Soon, swift-moving objects were zipping all around them like fluorescent dive-bombers.
“The island is possessed,” a pirate yelled.
Tarik pulled his machete from the sheath on his belt. He swung at a passing sliver of light, missing it entirely as it zipped in another direction. “What are these things?”
“My guess,” Jack said. “They’re air rods.”
An air rod landed on a pirate’s wrist. He glanced down at the winged centipede; its six-inch long body translucent like a ghost. It raced up his arm onto his shoulder and burrowed into his ear. The man screamed, attracting scores of air rods to light upon him like iron filings drawn to a magnet. The specters slithered up the man’s nostrils and into his wailing mouth, scrabbling into every orifice.
“We have to get off this beach.” Jack and Miguel ran toward the edge of the jungle. Tarik and the three remaining freebooters dashed after them in the torrential rain.
Jack turned to Miguel. “Those air rods must have scared off Butros and his men.”
“Could be these pirates spook easy.”
“Something we could use to our advantage.”
They darted between the thick fronds into the jungle.
30
PELUDA
As they ran through the dense vegetation, Jack couldn’t help noticing the plants and trees were unlike any he had ever seen. Giant twenty-foot tall ferns in the shrub layer stretched up into the palms below the evergreen treetops shrouded in misty clouds. The high canopy served as an umbrella shielding them from the fierce downpour as the rainwater funneled down the leaves and epiphytes sprouting earthward on tree trunks tapering to the forest floor when they should have been narrowing skyward.
Jack spotted creeper plants clinging to tree branches with exposed roots moving about like tiny octopi tentacles snatching windblown food particles out of thin air. He passed humongous flowers with petals three-feet in diameter, ripe with pollen.
“Stop!” Tarik yelled.
Jack and Miguel came to a crashing halt in a small clearing. Tarik and the three men caught up and staggered around them. Standing under the luxuriant foliage, they took a moment to catch their breath having run nearly half a mile inland without stopping. The rain and wind had eased up so it was much quieter—like being in the eye of a hurricane—than when they were on the beach being assaulted by the storm.
Jack looked back in the direction they had come from. It was impossible to tell where they rudely blazed a path. The trampled plants and broken branches had re-established to their original shapes.
At least they had outrun the dreadful air rods.
Everyone turned to a soft fluttering sound coming from one of the enormous flowers. A pirate raised his machete.
“Don’t kill it. It’s harmless,” Jack shouted at the man.
“My God it’s huge,” Miguel said.
Jack took a couple of steps toward the massive flower. “It’s a mega moth.” He watched the giant moth unfurl its 18-inch long proboscis down the throat of the plant to gather up nectar. The large insect must have sensed Jack’s encroaching presence as it took flight and disappeared into the trees.
A figure pushed aside a huge rattan palm leaf to step into the clearing. It was Butros. He pulled Laney in with him. Seven pirates came in as well.
“Where are your other men?” Butros asked Tarik.
“Three are dead.”
“As is one of mine. By those strange creatures on the beach.”
“Air rods,” Jack said, thinking the corsair might be curious what killed his men and made them run for their lives like frightened rabbits.
Butros nodded like he already knew.
A huge beast the size of a water buffalo charged into the clearing. It looked like a dragon with a slender neck, short reptilian legs, a long tail, and a back carpeted with tightly woven green hairs.
“Kill the monster,” Tarik yelled.
The pirates with automatic rifles aimed their weapons.
Jack recognized the creature from their cryptozoology chart.
It was a peluda.
When threatened, those hairs on its back became deadly projectile stingers like the quills on a porcupine.
“Hit the dirt!” Jack and the others dove onto the ground to the sound of a hundred archers releasing their arrows. The deadly spines ripped through the palms, imbedding into tree trunks. Jack saw a man impaled in the face and chest fall to the ground. He looked like an unfortunat
e patient from an acupuncture session gone terribly wrong.
Three men fired their machineguns at the creature, riddling its body and head with a steady barrage. The peluda bellowed with pain before slamming onto the wet earth.
Everyone got up.
Butros and Tarik looked around at the remaining men still alive. Laney stepped away from Butros to get closer to Jack while Miguel went over to examine the slain cryptid.
Jack noticed the dead man on the ground was wearing his gun belt. He walked over and knelt beside the body. He began to unbuckle the belt strap.
“What are you doing?” Tarik growled.
“Getting my gun.”
Tarik removed the pistol from his waistband. “You do and you die.”
Jack looked at Butros. “If you haven’t noticed your men are dropping like flies. You’re going to need all the guns you can get if you want to get out of here alive.”
“And why should I trust you?”
“Because Miguel and I are your only chance of surviving this place. I don’t know what Laney told you but we’re not treasure hunters. We’re cryptid hunters.”
Butros stared at Laney. “You lied to me.”
“Not exactly,” Laney said. “A rare animal could bring a fortune.”
“So you have seen these monsters before?” Butros asked Jack, motioning to the dead creature.
“To be honest, this is our first peluda. But we’re familiar with other species.”
Miguel waved his arm. “Jack, come here. You have to see this.”
Jack stood, not bothering with the gun belt on the dead body. He walked over and stood next to his friend. “What the hell?”
The others milled around the bizarre beast.
“Oh my God,” Laney gasped.
The peluda’s body was deflating like a balloon animal with a fast leak. As the neck and legs flattened, thousands of threadlike filaments emerged from the scaly skin to root into the soil. Gradually, the cellular structure of the animal became twining wisps of vegetation. In less than a minute’s time, the massive creature was transformed into a large clump of ferns clustered with liverworts.
“I do believe we have just witnessed the Cycle of Life,” Jack said.
31
NANDI BEARS
After some haggling, Jack finally convinced Butros to give him and Miguel back their weapons. The pirate with Miguel’s Desert Eagle was reluctant to surrender the handgun but was more afraid of what Butros might do to him if he chose to disobey his boss. Jack was grateful there was no argument from the man that wore his gun.
As no one had a compass and it was impossible to get a reading on the position of the sun blocked by the canopy of trees, they found themselves completely lost in the jungle.
“It’s an island for God’s sake,” Miguel said. “Pick a direction. Sooner or later we’re going to end up reaching the shore.”
“I wish it were that easy.” Jack pointed straight ahead at a tunnel in the dense foliage that looked like it had been bored through to forge a trail. No sooner were they a few feet away, the vegetation closed off the path. Another passage opened up inviting them to turn in a different direction.
“This place has us going in circles,” Tarik groaned.
Jack had to agree. It was like the island was manipulating their every move; guiding them purposely to a predetermined destination. He saw a break in the trees. The pathway opened up into a small meadow surrounded by marshland. Large shellfish clung to the nearby rocks at the edge of the swamp.
“What are those?” Butros asked.
Jack recalled the cryptozoology chart. “Giant trilobites.” The marine arthropods looked like flattened footballs with a series of ridged plates along their backs. Sensing danger, a few skittered into the bog on short jointed legs while others stayed perfectly still to avoid detection though they were out in the open.
“We can use them for food,” Tarik instructed the men. The pirates snuck across the short grass. The trilobites must have felt the vibrations of their footsteps because every creature scampered away. The scallywags gave chase even though the trilobites were evasively quicker.
Something swooped down from the trees. Jack ducked thinking it was a bird of prey. When it buzzed over his head he realized it was a giant dragonfly with a five-foot wide wingspan. “Miguel, get a look at that.”
“Where are these creatures coming from?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t you think it’s strange how this island evolved in such a short period of time? What’s causing it?”
Laney approached Jack. She made sure Butros and Tarik were preoccupied watching the men chase after the creatures. “I know. It’s why I brought us here.”
“Care to explain?” Jack asked.
“I believe my husband created all of this.”
“Your husband? But how?”
Before Laney could answer, a loud roar interrupted her.
Jack saw the men racing back. Behind them were three beasts that looked like massive hyenas with long front legs and shorter hind legs. They had brown fur over most of their bodies with white on their chests down to their bellies. Their heads were conical-shaped with moose-like ears. “Oh my God. It’s a sleuth of Nandi bears.”
The creatures charged after the fleeing men. With a powerful swipe of its front leg, a Nandi bear cuffed a man with its claws, ripping open the side of his face. As soon as the man fell to the ground, the beast was on top of him. It cracked open the top of the man’s skull with its mighty jaws and tore out the brain between its clenched teeth.
Laney stood behind Jack and Miguel as they opened fire on a Nandi bear running towards them. It took six rounds to bring the creature down.
A man screamed as he was being attacked. He rolled on the ground to escape the cryptid, crawling away on his hands and knees. A fierce chomp severed his head from his shoulders. Automatic gunfire took down the beast. The lone Nandi bear turned tail and galloped across the meadow into the far jungle. Butros and Tarik went over to make sure the two animals were dead, shooting each one in the head.
Jack glanced over at Laney. “So, are you saying your husband is on this island?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
32
DEATH FLOWER
As nightfall approached, Butros told his men to set up camp. Jack, Miguel, and Laney went around collecting anything that might fuel a campfire. They had trouble finding combustible material at first, as everything was either too wet or too green to burn. Eventually they gathered up enough kindling to start a small fire.
The pirates discovered a grove of bamboo nearby. They set to work and came back with armloads of chopped stalks. Soon everyone was sitting around two raging campfires.
Butros, Tarik, and some of the pirates grouped around one campfire, while Jack, Miguel, Laney and a couple of Butros’ men warmed themselves by the other fire. The two pirates on the other side of the flames were playing a variation of mumblety-peg with pocketknives. Instead of seeing how close they could come without striking their toes, they were flipping their blades at leaves arranged on the dirt like a game board. They didn’t look in Jack’s direction, as they were too busy with their game.
“So what did you mean when you said your husband is everywhere?” Jack asked Laney.
“I meant he could be anywhere.”
Miguel threw a bamboo stalk into the fire causing the flames to spike with a loud crackling noise. “Can he get us off this island?”
“I doubt it. He’s as stranded as we are. I am thirsty.”
“Come on, I’ll fix you right up.” Jack and Laney stood. Jack grabbed a machete lying next to a small pile of bamboo stalks. They walked over to a cluster of long-stemmed vines hanging from a tree. Jack held a liana with one hand and whacked off the end with the machete.
Laney got underneath and let the captured rainwater flow into her mouth. “Hmm, that’s good.”
Jack pulled the
vine toward him. He stood like a kid drinking out of the garden hose. He heard three pirates returning from a hunt. They had managed to find a variety of creatures to cook over the fire, none of which looked especially appetizing.
“Oh my God, we’re going to eat that?” Laney groaned.
One man was dragging a giant six-foot long skink along the ground by its right front leg. The tail was missing on the black salamander. Jack figured the man must have tried to grab it by the tail and the appendage broke off; a defense mechanism that might have enabled the reptile to escape if it hadn’t been caught.
A pirate carried an enormous snail the size of a basketball. The third man had pieces of what looked like parts of a large insect but it was impossible to tell what it was, only that it looked revolting.
An hour later everyone was through eating. The picked bones of the skink were thrown into the campfires.
Jack tossed his leaf he had used as a plate into the flames. “You know, I was never much for escargot but I have to say that wasn’t bad.”
“You’ll eat anything if you’re hungry enough,” Miguel said.
Laney made a face. She tossed her untouched piece of snail into the fire. “I think I’m going to hold out for something a little tastier.”
“Did you try the salamander?”
“Lizard, yuk.”
“Try it. I have a little left over.”
Laney looked at the morsel being offered by Jack.
“Is it gamy?”
“Not at all. Sort of tastes like chicken.”
“Hell, to you Jack, everything tastes like chicken,” Miguel quipped.
Laney took a nibble. “You’re right. It does taste like chicken.” She gobbled it down.
Tarik walked over. “Three men will guard the camp while we sleep.”
“Miguel and I will take turns,” Jack told him.
“Butros wants the woman with him.”
“Tell Butros she would prefer to stay with us.”
Tarik stared at Jack. It was obvious he wasn’t going to budge, not until Laney accompanied him.
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