I stuck my hand out to William, this time without a pistol in it. He took it slowly, and we shook. “Welcome aboard, Dr. Dyer. Tonight, catch up with your daughter. Tomorrow morning, I would like to pick your brain on what you’ve been through. Everything.” The geologist noticeably blanched when I said the last word.
He had seen the worst that the other worlds had to offer our own and it was too much to hope that he would be as interested in tackling that world again as I was. William Dyer was a victim that I intended to use. I hoped that he was up for it.
The next day, I pumped every bit of information about the city out of William that I could. Unfortunately, he had been very thorough in his manuscript to the press. Doubly unfortunate was his time away from the city. In an effort to rebuild his broken reputation that had only been saved by tenure within the university, he had taken on other jobs and expeditions across the globe, including the one that he previously had mentioned to me that had taken place in Australia. Whatever had happened there, though, had not been important enough to share with me. Yet, anyway.
On that note, I asked Nancy and Leo to refrain from sharing with William the fact that a future version of himself had pushed through to our timeline. I doubted that telling him would cause any undue stress, but not telling him definitely wasn’t causing any undue stress. The decision was easy, and if the need arose for him to know about his exploits in the world of H. G. Wells, then I would share that information immediately.
We left Samoa a few days after William returned to us. During that time, aside from interviewing him about what he knew, I left him to translate the journal with his daughter. While I truly thought the work would mean the difference between the failure and success of this mission, I also was hoping that he would get some much needed time to relearn his daughter.
I spent the time with Leo. Without the journal to fill my time, I joined him in his studies on the ship. Samoa gave us time to restock some of our supplies before the last big resupply in Hobart, Tasmania. It also gave Leo and I a chance to take stock of our weapon situation. I purchased more bullets and went with Leo to find more guns. He was well armed, but having an extra rifle or two couldn’t hurt.
The evenings after William was awake were fun, to say the least. Leo brought out some of his hidden bottles and we sat with the crew drinking and laughing and getting to know each other better. This was when we learned the truth about the Australian expedition.
William had been brought along as a colleague of his, a Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee. As it would turn out, Peaslee had been pulled forcefully from his body to live among an alien species for five years. The expedition revealed even more. It was a species that had lived on Earth for a period of time and as they died out, they preferred to live on in the bodies of other beings, allowing them to die in their place. Peaslee had been sent to the past without his consent.
Time travel.
The mirrors to what had happened to William were not lost on me, and I did my best to find out how exactly he had learned the secret of moving his mind.
“How,” I asked as I passed the bottle of brandy to Nancy, “did you escape the torture of the Blasted Heath?”
He nodded, eyeing his daughter as she swigged from the bottle. “Dean Smythe was begging me to meet with some of his colleagues. He wanted me to tell them everything that I could recall about those damned mountains...” He began to drift, keeping his eyes on the bottle as it passed from hand to hand. “Smythe said that we would be saving the world. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, it was that I did not want to revisit that horrible place. Not even in the words of an interview.” William shook his head, trying to bring himself back to the here and now. “I know Arkham and that dreaded book, so it wasn’t hard for me to figure out that the Blasted Heath would keep me hidden well. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that the same forces that keep people out, would stop me from leaving.”
The bottle made its way back to William and he took a deep pull before passing it to Leo. “Peaslee taught me a neat trick when we were voyaging back to the campus. He taught me how to leave my body behind and traverse the waves of space...and time.” He shuddered again. “I figured that if my mind was not in my body, than the Blasted Heath couldn’t steal it from me. So, I left.”
It all was exactly as I had suspected. This led me to believe that, with William knowing that during a specific period of time his body would not be occupied by his consciousness, he was able to reach back to that time and easily re-habitate his body. Time travel within his own form.
Hobart was our last stop before we would be making shore on the Antarctica continent. We were very specific in checking the numbers on all of our supplies. Once the boat was completely stocked and any sort of issues had been dealt with, Sebastian and I agreed that everyone could have a night to themselves on land. Even with the strong seafaring history of the Sebastian’s people of Innsmouth, they were generations removed from actual sea travel.
All of our homes were on land, and we missed it. The night was necessary.
The next morning, we took back to the seas. We had begun dressing warmer as we came into Hobart, and dressed even warmer once we left.
At eight weeks of travel, we finally started seeing land. Vast and lofty, snow-clad mountains stretched across the horizon and I immediately began to recall the beautiful descriptions that William had used in his reference to the press. More and more we saw him on the deck, staring out over that mountain chain. His face was blank, but his eyes spoke of the dread that he saw there.
I walked to him one of those times and he began to mumble to me. I stepped closer to hear him over the wind and found him saying, “The Admiralty Range, originally discovered by Ross. So dreadfully beautiful...” I left him to it, but told Nancy that she should collect her father and bring him in for the night before he froze. She knew I meant more than that. She knew that I worried that her father may not have fully returned to us. His sanity had been tested more than any one man’s ever should.
We enjoyed the sites the next several days as we rounded Cape Adare and sailed down the east coast of Victoria Island. William continued to narrate the journey to us, but I had read his words enough times that he didn’t need to narrate at all. I could have described it all for him with my eyes closed.
Following the coast we came upon the shore of McMurdo Sound, at the base of the volcano Erebus. The wind was tearing out our sails and our bodies. We were so cold that we began lighting fires at every chance that we could.
Unlike in Dyer’s words, Erebus wasn’t smoking, but behind it I could still make out the extinct volcano Mount Terror.
The shore of McMurdo was exactly where we needed to be and I could tell that William wasn’t happy with it at all. He had stopped talking all together in the last day. At least that was the case with us. I asked Nancy about it and she said that he was speaking when he had something important to speak but he was hurting.
“He lost many friends and colleagues here. He isn’t only visiting a terrifying city among the mountains, he is also visiting the graves of men that he was forced to leave behind.”
I understood the guilt that he felt. I had felt it whenever someone I knew or traveled with had passed on. It made little sense to me how I had managed to survive so long while so many who had chosen to fight my war had died. I was regularly surprised that Leo was still alive and willing to fight the good fight.
By the time that we began launching the small boats toward the shore, we had been traveling for nine weeks and five days. It had been a long trip and while were dreading the cold journey ahead, we were excited to be loading into the boats. We rowed to shore and brought cables with each boat. Each cable led back to the ship to breeches-buoy supplies from the boat to the shore.
A breeches-buoy is a means of using cables and pulleys to shuttle supplies over the water and to the shore. It’s a very convenient means of moving some of our heavier equipment without having to load it into each boat and row back and forth betwe
en the ship and the shore. It also minimized the chances that we would be losing any of the supplies into the water. They had used a similar system on the first voyage, and I had made certain that the Arkatonic was outfitted with the same equipment. The dogs hated it, so we took them over in the boats.
Sebastian and his crew stayed aboard the Arkatonic. We wouldn’t need them from this point out unless it would be as support from the boat or during some necessarily quick getaway. Besides, I could tell that most of the crew would rather stay on the much warmer boat. Once the supplies had been moved to the shore, they took all of the boats and returned to the ship.
On the shore of McMurdo Sound stood myself, Leo, Nancy, and William. That was my entire entourage, and I was happier for it.
We began by setting up our tents. I left that tent-work to Nancy and William while Leo and I set about piecing together the small aircraft.
A crack, like thunder, made us drop everything. Leo and I spun, pistols drawn, while Nancy and her father dropped to their knees, hands over their heads.
More than thirty Germans, in Nazi winter gear and with their own sleds and dogs surrounded our soon-to-be camp. How they had managed to sneak up on us, I had no idea. There were so many of them that I had no idea where to aim my pistol. For good measure, I drew my sword as well.
Leo had only the one pistol up and aimed, his other armaments were in a crate by the tents.
From somewhere in the middle of the pack of Nazis came a smaller and much older man. Without fear he walked all the way to me and Leo. We kept our guns on him, but I recognized him, and the confusion brought on by my recognition halted any sort of attack that I might have mounted.
Similarly, Leo was halted by his common sense. You never shoot at a man with an army directly behind him. It’s an easy way to get yourself killed.
“Captain James Sterling?” I asked. “From the train in Utah.”
Without a German accent, and a hint of southern charm, the much older gentleman nodded and said, “My real name is Befehlsleiter Erich Strobel.”
Befehlsleiter was the high ranking title of Command Leader. It was impressive.
Strobel stood straighter than he had on the train. Straighter and stronger. Captain James Sterling had been an act.
His next words were in his natively born accent. “I have been using the identity of the good Captain to keep tabs on you. It allowed me to properly position my men as well. Captain Sterling was able to recruit your American-styled cultists and zealots.” He smiled and it seemed a genuinely nice smile. “We had to keep an eye on you, and I preferred not to trust such important details to lesser staff.”
I tightened my grip on my weapons. “What happens now?” I felt bile rising in my throat. No matter how pleasant this aggressor was, he was still the enemy. He had stalked me and played me at every turn and now that I was finally a step ahead, he was showing me that I was actually two steps behind.
“Now, you lower your weapons. Then I will take your companions with me. We will infiltrate the city, take what we came for, and leave.”
I smirked. “You failed to mention what part I would play in all of that.”
“Dr. Doran, you have more than earned my respect through your past exploits. I would not do you the disservice of bringing you along with your companions. You will die here and not plague me in the future.”
He saw my grip tighten and a contingent of no less than ten soldiers stepped forward and aimed their weapons at the Dyer family.
“There is no need for this to play out. I have no intention of killing your companions once we are done with them. I shall return them to this spot, giving them a chance to survive.”
Strobel directed several of his men to collect Leo’s weapons, which they did, and to tie up the hands of Leo, Nancy, and William. They left me untouched and standing completely still as they worked around me.
I was not surprised that they had left me with my weapons. Guns have no value to a dead man.
Once my companions were well-secured, Strobel said in German, “Send the message. Tell them to destroy the ship.”
One of his men withdrew a radio set and began cranking it.
Shouting, “No!” I drew my pistol and fired twice into the radio.
More than thirty guns were drawn on me. Before they could shoot, I dropped my gun onto my boot so that it wouldn’t sink into the snow. I threw my hands over my head.
Strobel walked over to me, anger flashed across his face. “You have only cost us a radio. If our ship does not hear from us within the hour, they will destroy the ship anyway.”
I smirked, “Than I have bought myself some time.”
Erich Strobel strode a few feet away from me. “I told you Dr. Doran, my respect for you means that I will not be giving you so many chances as you have received in the past.”
He spun in the snow and smoothly drew a pistol.
The explosion from the gun didn’t register nearly as loudly to me as the punch to my chest as the bullet hit me.
I sunk enough into the snow to see the bright red getting absorbed by it. I could hear them screaming. Leo and Nancy were hollering. I looked to the right and could only see William. Terror was across his face, and instead of screaming, he was struggling against his bonds.
Fight, old man. I thought. Fight every chance that you can.
The cold was replaced by the dark.
Chapter 8: The Ice
While the blackness that consumed me had done so quickly, returning to the waking world seemed to take much longer. My chest hurt near my heart and the pain radiated out and toward my shoulder. It was a dull ache that made my entire upper torso stiff.
I opened my eyes slowly, allowing them to adjust for the light. I was in a wooden room, boards lining the ceiling. I attempted to sit up, but the pain turned from dull to sharp as I did so and threatened to engulf me in darkness again.
A hand touched my right shoulder and lowered me back down to wherever I was lying. I turned my head slowly and saw Sebastian looking down at me.
“Andrew, you have been shot. I need you to relax and tell me what happened.” He asked.
“Where am I?” I asked, suddenly very concerned.
Sebastian frowned in confusion, but answered. “We heard a gunshot and assumed something had gone wrong. I sent a man through the breeches-buoy to check on you. Everyone was gone and you had been shot near your shoulder, so I had you brought back to the Arkatonic.”
I started shaking my head and tried to get up, but Sebastian pushed me back onto the cot again. “We need to leave now!” I shouted. The effort of yelling sent another wave of pain through my body, but I ignored it and continued to struggle against him.
“Why?” He returned.
“How long?” I demanded. “How long has it been since you heard the gunshot?”
Sebastian shook his head, surrendering and allowing me to sit up. “About an hour. Andrew, why does it matter?”
I jumped to my feet and did my best to ignore the dizziness that attempted to claim me. “Germans were waiting for us. Nazis, a lot of Nazis.” I found where Sebastian had put my weapons and winter clothing. I began putting them on. “They were going to sink the boat. I shot their radio before they could call in the order, but if their ship doesn’t receive communication from them in an hour they have orders to sink the Arkatonic anyway!”
Sebastian was at a loss for words and could only mumble, “What?”
I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him, wincing as the pain shot up my left arm. I growled through the pain. “Get to the boats!”
The boat rocked with an explosion. No alarm had gone up before the explosion, which led me to believe that the Germans were traveling by submarine.
The explosion rocked the boat wildly enough to send me and Sebastian sprawling to the deck. I used my good arm to help Sebastian to his feet as I got to my own. Together we ran for the edge of the boat. The explosion had thrown some of the crew from the ship while others were scrambling to ma
n their stations. Sebastian had to yell at them to get to the boats to snap them out of their own confusion.
The Arkatonic listed heavily forward as it began to sink. The sudden tipping of the ship lifted many of us into the air before gravity caught us and brought us back down. We all slid across the deck, even more of the Innsmouth folk went over and into the icy waters.
Another explosion tipped the ship even further, and the housing for the small row boats couldn’t take the strain. The housing snapped and the boats fell into the water.
“Damn!” I shouted. Sebastian mouthed the words as we both grabbed onto the nearest mast to stay above the water. My chest was screaming in pain as the deck pitched. My grip threatened to break.
“If we hit the water then we might as well say goodbye to your companions.” Sebastian shouted.
He was right of course. The freezing waters might not kill us, but if we made it to the shore and the campsite it would take too long to dry ourselves and our clothes. By the time that we would finally catch up with Strobel and his ilk, we would have lost too much time. We had already lost an hour to my damned bullet wound, we couldn’t afford to lose too much more. The more time that the Nazis were in the city, the more likely that our planet was doomed.
Holding onto that mast, an idea struck me hard enough to almost dislodge me. A thick rope whipped back from the edge of the Arkatonic and struck my leg, I grunted and looked at where it had come from.
The breeches-buoy.
“Sebastian!” I shouted. “The buoy!”
He caught on immediately. “How will we get there?”
The question was valid, the ship was already at least standing at 45 degrees. I reached out to the void, touching that dreadful magic that had become my calling. Using my will-power and the rules of physics that came from beyond the veil, I anchored both of our feet to the deck. I let go of the mast and looked to Sebastian.
The Adventures of Andrew Doran: Box Set Page 36