by Geoff North
They moved to the trees and watched for movement above the fire. Another rock landed in the flames but neither one had seen it fall from the mountain. A third rock flew between their heads and thudded down to the ground in front of the fire. Abe spun around and the next one smashed squarely into his chest. A spear followed it, burying into his stomach.
Something emerged from the trees and yelled at the top of its lungs.
It was a man. Of this there could be no doubt, since he stood screaming in front of the two teenagers from twenty feet away completely naked. He continued to yell, as if sheer volume would scare them away where the rocks and spear had failed.
Abe was still on his feet, the spear shaft clenched tightly in his hands, its stone point less than an inch from his abdomen. He looked at Becky with a dumbfounded expression. “I saw it coming at the last second.”
A second human stepped out of the shadows. He was smaller and older than the first. He cuffed spear-thrower violently across the back of his head and the yelling stopped. Four more crept tentatively out of the dark and stood in a loose huddle around the older man. He must be the leader, Becky thought. He was the only one with a loin cloth covering his privates.
She looked at Abe uncomfortably and whispered. “What now?”
He took a step backwards. “Get back towards the fire. If it doesn’t scare them off at least we’ll have a better look what we’re up against.”
“I’ve had a good enough look. I don’t want to see anymore.” She followed him back into the light, her eyes glued to her worn running shoes. The strangers moved in with them.
The old leader remained where he was. The other five split off slowly, two one way, three the other. They formed a half circle around the teenagers, the mountain wall behind closing them off completely. Their bodies were smeared in color depicting crude images of horned animals and screaming beasts. The red and orange pictures were surrounded by swirls of black, patterns of connecting circles and lines which may have been geographical landmarks—rivers, mountains, forests, and prehistoric encampments. Their bodies were living maps of hunting expeditions and bloody slaughters. And there was plenty of body to paint history. They all stood close to six feet tall, their thick chests and long limbs rippling with muscle.
“I don’t think the fire’s going to scare them off,” Becky whispered. These were modern men, and as terrifying as it was to behold them this way in the dancing light of the fire, she now knew they couldn’t have traveled back further than a hundred thousand years. Each of them carried weapons—vicious spears, crude hammers with heavy stones tied to the end, and knives made from black rock that appeared as sharp along the edges than any steel blade.
One of them stepped in closer, the biggest and most terrifying to behold. He clawed at the smoky air with his hands and moved towards Abe.
“Give him his spear back,” Becky said.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Abe pulled it against his chest protectively. “If we give in, they’ll kill us where we stand.”
“They have more weapons. They’ll kill us anyway.”
He snarled at Abe, revealing a healthy set of white teeth, the incisors and canines had been filed down to sharp points. Abe held the spear in front of him with two hands and judged its weight between fifteen and twenty pounds. It was as long as he was tall, and as thick as his forearm towards the middle. Give it back, and he’ll kill us… Fight and they’ll kill us anyway.
Abe went with a third option.
He gripped the shaft tightly, his hands spaced two feet apart, and drove his forehead into the wood. There was a loud snap as it broke in two. Its owner backed away. The others stepped away as well. Abe took the two pieces together and broke them over his knee a second time creating four sticks. He threw them in the fire and watched as all six gathered back into their original huddle over twenty feet away.
Becky mumbled at his side. “You’re going to have a splitting headache in the morning.”
“I doubt it.”
“You’ve gained their respect at least.”
“It bought us some time… that’s all. Unless we show them something more, they’ll move in on us during the night.”
Becky could still feel the ground rumbling beneath her feet. It had grown stronger. The leader had noticed as well. He squatted down and felt the dirt with his fingertips. We need something more, Becky thought. Something to scare them off for good.
She jumped through the air and landed in front of the stunned primitives on all fours. And then she screamed—louder than the caveman with his missing spear. It pierced through the night and echoed off from the mountains and forests. Abe covered his ears. He had heard his sister scream in the past, and he knew how loud his mother could yell when she was good and mad. But this level of volume was unprecedented. It seemed there was even more their bodies were capable of than he had suspected. The band of painted warriors fled into the trees.
Abe and Becky built the fire up and collected enough dry wood to keep it roaring through the night. And though neither needed sleep, they decided it best to recharge anyway. Abe took the first watch. The naked hunters never returned, but he kept busy through that first half of the long night gathering a pile of throwing rocks and fashioning some of the longer sticks they’d found into spears. Becky woke and made him lie down. Abe didn’t think sleep was possible. He could still hear the distant rumble and the ground vibrated under his back. It wasn’t a pleasant way to drift off but sleep finally claimed him. And Abe dreamed.
He was back in the woods. Not the forested jungles of Africa, but back home amongst the poplar trees behind his house. Abe wasn’t alone. The grey thing with the black slit mouth was there with him. It was no longer holding a soccer ball against its chest. Between its wormy fingers was the decapitated head of his twin sister.
She tried to kill us. She wanted to bash our head in and watch us die.
Abe listened to the voice in his head and watched as the black receptors on two of its fingers crept out and slithered along Sheila’s white cheek.
You are not like your sister, are you Abraham? You are not a lying bitch.
The black filaments disappeared between the closed lids of Sheila’s eyes. More followed, twisting around her lashes, pulling the dead flesh open and revealing even deader eyes behind.
She doesn’t lie anymore. She is ours and she obeys. Will you obey us, Abraham?
Abe looked away and saw Allan hanging by his neck from a tree branch. The sky was grey and a wind that smelled of rot began to rock his body back and forth. He could hear the breeze sifting through the brown leaves. It was autumn. The branch holding up his dead friend creaked and moaned and the body swayed. The leaves blew away and Abe was struck in the forehead by a large wet flake. It started to snow. It was winter. His skin burned as more flakes drifted lazily through the branches and landed on his face. They melted and ran into his eyes. The sting it caused was agonizing, but Abe was unable to move his hands to wipe it away. He couldn’t close his eyes.
Pay attention, Abraham. Listen to us and obey.
He couldn’t nod his head. He couldn’t open his mouth to speak. Abe couldn’t even form the thoughts in his mind he knew the thing wanted to hear. And Abe would say anything to make the pain stop. He would think anything as long as the stench went away and the hum in his teeth subsided.
Very good. You are much more cooperative than the others. We want you to travel, Abraham. We need you to seek out your ancient ancestors and… mingle.
He felt something pop in his jaw. Abe opened his mouth and answered. “Where… where do we travel to?”
North, west… to the left and to the right. All directions. Meet as many humans as you can.
Abe looked away from Allan’s body and back at the grey being. His sister’s head was a soccer ball again. The burning snow had stopped and the sky was blue. It’s a dream, he thought. I can say and agree with anything. It’s all just a dream. He nodded and scratched at an itch on his cheekbon
e. The hum in his teeth wasn’t getting any better.
Do not lie to us. Never try to deceive. We will know.
Abe closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. He nodded again slowly. “I won’t lie.”
He opened his eyes and Sheila and Allan were standing in front of him. The skin on their faces was white and mottled with grey patches, their eyes were glistening black. They spoke in unison. Do as it says. He could see inside their mouths. The teeth were green and wet, their breath smelled like urine and stale spice. Do as it says. Do as it says. Do as it says Do as it—
Abe awoke with a start and winced as a waft of smoke from the fire drifted into his eyes. He sat up and rubbed the sting away. His cheek was numb where it had rested against the hard ground. Becky threw a few handfuls of dirt on the almost dead fire. “Rough sleep?” The sun was rising up behind her.
“I’ve had better.”
“I guess you could say our first contact with the ancient relatives didn’t go so well.”
It took Abe a few seconds to realize she was talking about the cavemen and not the rotting images of Sheila and Allan from his dream. “No kidding.” He sat up and busied himself by tearing fabric away from a hole in one of his shoes. They wouldn’t last much longer. Soon they would have to abandon their worn runners and clothes and make new ones. Or they could go around naked like the men from last night. Abe didn’t much like that idea.
“You’ve barely said a thing since last night,” Becky sat next to him. “Did my little performance scare you?”
“Jumping at them and screaming like a banshee? It was… unexpected.”
“That’s why it worked.”
Her hand rested on the ground between them. Abe placed his fingers between hers. “Can you feel it?—the vibration… it’s still there. Maybe it’s some energy source, something man-made. We need to find it.”
Becky didn’t think it wasn’t man-made. “I’ll go wherever you want, Abe… you know I will.”
“But?”
“But we’re living tens of thousands years in the past… maybe farther back than that. Whatever that is we can feel, whatever’s causing that sound—it isn’t caused by people.”
“Then let’s find out what it is.” He stood and pulled her up at the same time.
“Which way?”
That was a good question. The constant rumble and sound was everywhere. He pointed north. It was the only way open to them not blocked by mountain and forest. Becky squeezed his hand and nodded. There was nothing to pack up. All they had was each other.
As they walked from thicker forest and into rolling hills of green, Abe listened to Becky talk. She did that a lot, especially when they were on the move. She talked about the weather. She talked about how many miles they could cover in a day. She talked about the weight she’d lost, and how she wanted to lose more. She talked about her parents and friends. She was now talking about the far away sound and what might have been causing it—a slow constant shift of continental plates. A massive forest fire. A giant volcano. The theories went on and on. Abe listened and nodded every so often even though he wasn’t absorbing much. It was enough to hear her voice and keep moving. The horrible images from his dream stayed—his sister’s decapitated head… The black tendrils twisting and forcing her eyes open… Allan’s body swaying in the breeze, his face swollen and purple.
Do as it says.
Becky caught him looking back over his shoulder for about the tenth time. “What’s bugging you? You think we’re being followed?”
They had traveled over ten miles from the forest at the base of Kilimanjaro. The great mountain still consumed the majority of horizon to the southeast. It wouldn’t have a name for thousands of years, Abe thought. This wasn’t Africa yet. It was a wild land with no name. He sniffed the air. Something else nagged at him. “Are you sure you put the fire out completely?”
Becky sniffed the air as well and scanned the jungle line the way they’d come. She could smell smoke.
“There!” Abe was pointing back to the north, towards a hilltop directly in front of them where a trail of white curled up into the sky. He broke into a run for the hill’s summit and Becky struggled to catch up.
She caught his arm and forced him to a stop before they could see over to the other side. “What are you doing? Those gorillas we ran into last night are probably down there.”
He tugged his arm free and tried for the top again. Meet as many humans as you can.
She pulled back on his arm with more force. “Are you crazy?”
Mingle.
Something in his eyes frightened her—a vacant, distant look—like he was looking straight through her. “Please, Abe…Think it through for a second. Wouldn’t it be safer to watch from a distance… to see what they’re like?”
He bit at his lower lip and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. When he looked at her again she was relieved to see Abe staring back. He smiled. “Wow… look at me. Usually I’m the cautious one.”
“We’ve been alone for three weeks, it’s understandable.”
They snuck closer to the top and crawled the last few feet on their hands and knees. Spread below them was a valley of dead forest. In a clearing by the edge of a small stream two dozen people milled about a large fire. The flames reached six to eight feet into the air and continued to grow as four men—as naked as those from the night before—fed more dry wood to it from the surrounding deadfall.
Becky was watching a woman chase some children away as they approached too close to the flames. There were no stone houses, no primitive huts made of dried mud, not a single tent. They had mastered fire and developed primitive weapons—so why hadn’t they set up something more permanent? The remaining children and adolescents sat at a safe distance encircling the flames. Older men and women sat amongst them. There was order, and that got Becky thinking further.
“Are they performing some kind of rite?”
Abe shook his head and pointed to the far side of the clearing. “Look over there, through the smoke.”
She could see a group of men dragging an unconscious body behind them. When they were close to the fire they dropped it to the ground. There was some yelling and shaking of heads. An older man got up from his seat between two children and shouted further instructions. Four younger men took over, shoving the others away. They each took hold of a limb and lifted the man up from the dirt. They moved close to the fire and started to swing the body back and forth.
“They’re going to throw him in!” Becky thought she might be sick. She took in all the others again, gathered expectantly around the fire, like a family seated before a meal. “Oh God, I think they’re going to cook him.”
“No… they’re not.” Abe started down the hill. He made as much noise as he could, yelling and whooping, clapping his hands together and waving his arms above his head. Children ran behind their mothers, younger men stood in front of the elders, and the four men about to toss a fifth into the flames dropped their load to the dirt. Abe walked purposefully towards them showing no fear or hesitation. There were weapons strewn all over the ground and tools that could’ve been used as weapons, but the camp’s inhabitants didn’t make a move. Abe recognized one of the elders. He was the leader from the night before. Becky caught up a few moments later and watched as Abe grabbed a handful of the old man’s stringy grey hair and pulled him to the body lying face down next to the fire.
“You’re not going to burn this man,” he shouted. Abe realized none of them would understand a word he said but he hoped his actions would get the point across. For emphasis he shook his head and pointed to the writhing figure at their feet. At least he was still alive. With his free hand Abe reached down and pulled the man back, dragging the elder along with him. “You’re not throwing him in the fire.”
As Abe attempted to shake sense into the elder, Becky squatted down and turned the man over onto his back. She gasped at the sight and gagged. His face was covered with clusters of leaking pustules. She c
ould feel the heat rising from his fevered body—she could smell the decay of diseased skin as she backed away. Abe released the leader and pulled her even further back. Larger plum-sized growths had formed under his armpits and burst before their eyes as his body twisted in agony. His lips curled back, cracking and bleeding, and he tried to moan. A whistling rasp escaped his throat. Abe looked closer and saw the sharpened points of his teeth. “He’s the one that threw the spear at me.”
“What happened to him? How could he have gotten so sick in less than a day?”
He’d rolled back onto his stomach and started to drag his way to the fire. Children darted in and threw stones at the tortured figure. Adults yanked them back fearfully. Becky and Abe finally turned away when the man’s hair burst into flame. Now he was able to scream. He continued to pull his body into the inferno. He crawled and clawed his way until finally his charred body collapsed halfway in. The screams ended.
Becky covered her mouth and nose, unable to tolerate the stench of cooking flesh another second. The old leader stood in front of them. His hand buried in the grey mat of hair where Abe had taken a good hold. He pulled it out and showed the teens his fingers. They were coated in blood.
Abe studied his own fingers. They too were streaked in red. Becky stepped forward for a better look at the old man. She could see light pink patches developing on his sweaty forehead. An angry red rash ran down one side of his face and had spread across his wrinkled neck and upper chest. Small pustules had started to grow on his boney shoulders and disappeared beneath his armpits.
Becky and Abe had made first contact with their prehistoric ancestors—a tribe stricken with plague.
Chapter 8
Sheila would miss her parents. Not as much as she missed losing her brother and best friend, but she would still be sorry to see them go. Maybe the pain wasn’t as bad this time because Sheila was in control. She was sending them off. It was better this way, safer for everyone involved. And she could always bring them back with a single phone call—an email or letter sent through the post wouldn’t work—they would have to hear her voice. But deep down she worried that wouldn’t happen. Her mom and dad were likely going for good.