Return To The Center Of The Earth

by Return To The Center Of The Earth (epub)

  Beside it, more of the pack joined in. Together they started upward.

  CHAPTER 07

  Forty hours later the group arrived at an unmapped staging area that was an offshoot on the V5 cave system. This particular system was not the deepest cave by any means but its labyrinthine side caves ran for dozens of miles, and many were still unexplored.

  Jane knew that to their west the cave continued on down to its traditional known basement, just another five hundred feet below them. But what they sought was a secondary passage. One Jane, Mike and their team had discovered by accident over a year ago, and one that allowed them access out onto the face of the towering rift wall.

  Harris tilted his helmet back and wiped his brow. “We’re now at five thousand, two hundred and twenty feet.” He looked one last time around the broad cave and then turned to Jane and Mike. “I think this is where experience needs to take the lead. Ladies and gentlemen, over to you.” He waited.

  Mike lifted his light and panned it around. The cave was bone dry and filled with dust that was like silky powder coating every surface.

  Jane turned slowly and then found what she sought. “Here, this way.”

  She turned side-on and slid into an almost invisible crack in the rock wall. The team followed with some of the larger members having trouble sliding through and to exhale and push their packs ahead of them as they wriggled after her.

  When they emerged, Jane was waiting for them. She pointed. “There.”

  Under a lip of stone was a small hole near floor level that was no more than eighteen inches wide and high.

  “Got it,” Mike said and crossed to the hole, getting down low, holding his light before him and sweeping it back and forth. He stopped dead.

  “Hold it.”

  Jane pushed in beside him, and the rest closed in but stayed a few feet behind the pair.

  “What is it?” Jane asked.

  He kept his light on the cave floor. “Remember when we emerged? It was me that came last from the hole.” He pulled back a little and shone his light over the cave floor in front of them.

  “Yes, that’s right, we waited on you.” She watched his face.

  “Then the cave floor here should have been undisturbed since we crawled out and the only thing showing was our boot marks, or what was left of them.” Mike exhaled through his nose. “But look now.”

  Jane turned her beam of light to the cave floor. “Oh.”

  Over the year-old boot marks and all around them was what looked like stretched naked prints.

  “It followed us up,” Jane said softly.

  “We didn’t seal the cave. So of course it followed us,” Mike replied. He moved his light around. “I also think there was more than one of them.”

  Harris crouched beside Mike. “Your cave dogs?”

  Mike stood. “They’re not dogs.” He turned to face the soldier. “I think they’re what happens when hominids get trapped in caves for tens of thousands of years and need to adapt.”

  “Hominids, huh? You don’t know that,” Harris said. “And you don’t know if the creatures, the humanoids you referred to, that once lived down below were even human beings. That DNA evidence of yours was inconclusive, remember?” He turned away. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re animals.”

  Harris turned to wave over the female soldier. “Ally, get in there and check it out.”

  “You got it, boss.” With zero hesitation, the woman immediately got down on her belly, shone her light into the small hole, and then in the next second wriggled in.

  Harris rested on his haunches and faced Mike. “Bottom line, whatever those things are, if they don’t bother us, I won’t bother them. Maybe.” He smiled flatly and then turned to his team. “Everyone stay alert, and get skinny. It’s gonna be a squeeze.”

  Jane looked up at Mike. “I think we’ve gone far enough. They can find their way to the well.”

  Mike winced. “Not easy. Even though I created a map, it’s still a tough and winding descent. A single wrong turn and they’d be lost.”

  “Mike, please, I don’t feel good about this,” Jane whispered.

  “I understand your fear, Jane.” Harris, overhearing, nodded sagely. “You underwent a terrifying experience and now you’ve bravely come back down. But look at my team…” He waved an arm out to the men and woman behind him.

  Jane and Mike looked along their faces, all sweat-streaked with dust and cave grime. They were all chisel-chinned and steely-eyed, only Alistair and Penny looked like kids amongst them and the female doctor gave Jane a small wave.

  Harris continued. “Think about it: are they going to be safer if you came with us or not?”

  Jane rolled her eyes. “Cut the emotional blackmail, will you?”

  “No, I won’t apologize, but you know we have a better chance for a successful mission with you guys with us. That’s way I wanted you here.” Harris hiked his shoulders. “C’mon, get us to the gravity well. Like you said you would.” He reached out a hand to gently lay his fingers on her elbow.

  Mike noticed she didn’t shrug Harris off like she did to him.

  Jane looked away, but Mike slowly nodded. He looked down at Jane. “Just to the well, okay?”

  Jane tilted her head back on her neck and shut her eyes. She then exhaled loudly and seemed to think about it for a moment more. “Just to the well, if…” she pointed at Harris, “you give us one of your men to accompany us back up. If those creatures are roaming around in the upper caves, I don’t want to have to sleep with one eye open.”

  Harris rubbed her arm and nodded. “Fair request; at this point I can’t see a problem with that.”

  Ally came sliding back out of the hole and got to her feet. She dusted herself down. “No sign of life and all clear, but there’s an almighty cliff wall up and down and well beyond the range of the scanners.”

  “The rift wall,” Mike added.

  “Down is where we want to go,” Harris replied. He turned to the group. “Think thin, people, we’re going in.”

  *****

  Harris watched as the group squeezed into the hole one after the other. He knew he needed one or both of Mike and Jane. He also knew that if one of them agreed to guide them all the way to the center, then the other would follow.

  Harris smiled confidently. Now who’s the weakest link? he wondered.

  CHAPTER 08

  Mike stood on the ledge, the toe of one boot right on the lip and first looked upward, holding the beam of his light straight up and slowly moving it over the sheer rock face. Then he angled it down.

  Jane came and stood beside him, also one foot on the edge and sucked in a deep breath. “And here we are again.”

  “Yep.” He smiled. “Guess that’s something else we have in common: we’re both mad.”

  Harris came up beside Jane, snapped a glow stick and dropped it. Mike leaned forward to watch the glowing ball of light as it traveled down into the black void.

  It continued on for many seconds before the dot vanished into oblivion. As it traveled, Mike watched like a hawk, not the light but the cave wall. He was looking for any trace of the pale, skinless-looking figures clinging there. Thankfully he saw none.

  “How long to the next pitch?” Harris asked.

  “Took us three-quarters of a day to scale up,” Jane said. “But that was free climbing.”

  Harris turned to her and whistled softly. “That’s some badass stuff.”

  Jane smiled crookedly. “You’d be surprised what you can do when your feet are to the fire.”

  “Ain’t it the truth?” He stared back down. “But going down is faster, and by rope, three to four times as fast. So, I’m thinking about an hour, one and a half, tops. Sound about right?”

  Mike nodded. “I think so. Then if we can find the right passage, maybe another six hours to the gravity well.”

  “Good.” Harris turned.

  The rock shelf they were on got crowded once their group came out onto it, and Harris looke
d them over for a moment.

  “Okay everyone, grab a coffee and take five. Then we go over the edge.” He looked back to Mike and Jane. “You too; we’re getting to the sharp end now.”

  Mike and Jane sunk down with their backs to the wall and sipped from their canteens. Penny stepped over people and brought the young entomologist with her.

  “Knock knock.” She even pretended to knock on a wall as an introduction.

  Mike grinned up at her. “Who’s there?”

  Penny dragged the young guy forward. “Penny and Alistair.”

  “The annoying bug guy you mentioned?” Mike grinned.

  “Guilty.”

  He looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties and probably right out of university, and even through his sweat-slicked and greasy complexion he looked to be blushing.

  He put a hand on his chest. “I’m Alistair Peterson, Dr Alistair Peterson.” He remained standing, eyes wide. “I was wondering…?”

  “Yes of course, sit down and ask away.” Jane chuckled. “And you too, Penny.”

  Alistair sat close, legs crossed. “I read your report, Mr. Monroe; three times.” Alistair’s eyebrows went up. “Terrifying, but also very exciting. For a bug guy, I mean.”

  “I’ll go with terrifying,” Mike replied. “And call me Mike.”

  “Thank you, and Alistair.” He nodded. “But as an entomologist, the description of the realization of Ms Baxter’s evolutionary suggestion is the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard. We’ve always wondered what a world would have been like if the arthropods won the race to colonize the land.”

  “Race?” Penny asked. “What race?”

  Alistair beamed. “Probably the first and most important race on the planet. Especially as far as human beings are concerned.” He turned to her. “Back when life was young on our primeval world, say around 400 million years ago, amphibians were the first to leave the water. In effect, they were in a race because the arthropods were also evolving to the land, and getting real big. At that time, the amphibians only won because they were quicker at developing efficient lungs and also creating egg cases that didn’t need to be laid in water. But it was so close, only a few million years in it.”

  “So the shrimp lost?” Penny said.

  “Shrimp, yeah.” Alistair chuckled. “It was a time when evolution was in overdrive and our primitive planet had things creeping around like the giant sea scorpion nine feet long. Also, Arthropleura, a centipede nearly ten feet long, plus carnivorous dragonflies the size of crows. The amphibians won, just, and thank god they did because they eventually became us.”

  “It must have been a-mazing.” Penny grinned, open-mouthed.

  “I can’t wait to see it.” Alistair closed his eyes for a moment as though conjuring the images into his mind.

  “Did you not read the report?” Mike asked. “It was a damn nightmare. And if there were only ten-foot long centipedes then most of our team would not have got killed, and quite horribly.”

  Alistair nodded vigorously. “I know, I know, I didn’t mean it was going to be a paradise, just that from a scientific perspective it would be an extraordinary experience.”

  “Don’t be in such a hurry to get there,” Jane added. “It might be the last thing you ever see.”

  Alistair sighed. “I think the first Europeans to enter the Congo or the Amazon would have found a place that was deadly as well. But you can’t hide from reality.”

  “Why are you here, Alistair?” Jane asked. “I mean I understand the requirement for having your skillset, but why did they bring you given we’re supposed to be looking out for Russians?”

  The young scientist held up a finger. “Because of something I do.” He sat forward. “Let me explain. All arthropods have a basic design: exoskeleton, bulb or compound eye, segmentation, and simple brain and stem. Even though they come in thousands of different shapes, sizes, and forms, they all have the same characteristics, and therefore have primarily the same strengths and weaknesses.”

  “Makes sense,” Mike agreed.

  Alistair smiled. “I’m a bug expert. But I also work with primitive languages.” He shrugged. “Something I studied prior to specializing in entomology.”

  “Okay.” Mike half-smiled. “And, how does that fit?”

  Alistair’s grin widened. “Well, over the past decade there have been significant advancements in communicating with insect species. And I…”

  “Say what?” Jane’s laugh was like a bark. “You’re going to try and talk to them? You’re insane. There are some arthropods down there that have intelligence, and they don’t see us as their intellectual peers, but instead as walking food parcels.”

  “I didn’t say talk as in actually use a spoken language, although that is the end goal. But rather communicate via scent, sound, mimicry, and visual cues.” Alistair shrugged at their expressions. “If you click your fingers just the right way, you can fool a male cicada into thinking you are a female cicada ready to mate. If you have a small flashlight and blink it on and off, you can pretend to be fireflies of either gender without much trouble. And if you have a test tube full of different ant pheromones you could theoretically make a group of ants do whatever you want.”

  Alistair sat forward, his eyes shining. “You see, our brains, human brains, are uniquely wired for what I call, symbolic communication, and the majority of our language skills are acquired through learning. However, insects communicate through a form of language that is totally inherent. It’s like an inbuilt code they’re born with and all we need to do is find a way to decipher it.”

  “Wow.” Jane glanced at Mike.

  “How the hell does someone end up in that field?” Mike asked.

  Alistair shrugged. “Language, communication in all forms, has always interested me. I started out as a linguist, but then my love of bugs meant working with the human tongue stopped interesting me.” He grinned. “And then hey presto! Here I am.”

  Penny looked a little sceptical. “Well, from a medical perspective, I can tell you that the human tongue and voice box is not really geared up for making the range of sounds an insect can.”

  “My professor always said to ‘think outside the box.’” Alistair hiked skinny shoulders. “But what if there is no box? What if the insects had true intelligence? Like Mike just said. Then they may want to communicate as well. What I’ve found with first meetings with primitive cultures is that if both parties want to communicate, it’ll happen.”

  Mike clicked his tongue in his cheek. “Yeah, good luck with that buddy.”

  ****

  Mike lowered his canteen and took a moment to look along the team that Harris had brought with him. He had met Penny and Alistair, and also two of the soldiers on the ride in. There was Russ Hitch, who was large, taciturn, and with a goodsized biker’s beard going on. Also Ally Bennet, the black female who caught him looking at her and returned a half-smile and wink.

  Then there was Ray Harris, who seemed more like some sort of cross between a CIA operative and a Special Forces squad leader, and was the oldest by a good ten years. However, he had proven to be one of the most athletic and experienced of all of them. There was also something about him that hinted at danger, and he definitely didn’t like the way he looked at Jane. Or for that matter, she back at him.

  Pete Andreas was the youngest and Mike wasn’t sure he had ever heard him say a word. But the other guy, Brice ‘Bull’ Vincent, was planting another LED and signal booster on the cave wall, and he was loud, jovial, had large hands, lantern jaw, and prominent tomahawk-like nose, and would have been right at home on the deck of a fishing trawler, hauling up hundred-pound tuna one after the other.

  They seemed a good bunch, and the upside was they could all climb, even Alistair and Penny. On balance, he was pretty happy with the team Harris had brought with him.

  His only nagging worry was he wondered how many of them really believed what they read in his manuscript, or if they had even read it all the way through.
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  Time will tell, he knew. He also knew that those that were prepared might just make it back home.

  If he didn’t descend all the way again, Mike initially wondered whether he and Jane would wait for them at the entrance to the gravity well. But given the team could be gone for weeks, months, or forever, that’d be a stupid idea. Besides, he knew there was no way that Jane would descend all the way again or wait in the cave depths, and he didn’t blame her. To even get here he knew she was pushing back hard against her own fears.

  Mike snuck a glance at her. He admired her a lot. And for the life of him he couldn’t work out why he had shut her out. He had her, and let her go. Dumb, he thought, but that’s been me all my life. He sighed and turned away.

  In minutes they were ready to descend into the rift, and Harris came and waited beside Mike and Jane as they stood on the lip.

  Harris stared down into the nothingness for a moment and spoke without turning his head. “This is where you said you had your encounter, right?”

  “That’s right,” Michael said. “With one of the creatures. Damn things can basically crawl up the walls.”

  “They were blind, but have extraordinary hearing, smell, and also had sensory hairs. Plus they had a highly muscled but sinuous, long-form body,” Jane added. “They’ve totally adapted for living in places that require wriggling, squeezing, and climbing.”

  “Just like in caves.” Harris grunted, and then turned. “Well, like I said, if they leave us be, we’ll let ‘em live.” He slapped Mike’s shoulder. “So let’s get this party started.”

  In minutes more they had several bolts fired into the rock wall, and then Harris sent Bull Vincent and Russ Hitch over the edge first. Maybe sending his two biggest guys was like a warning to whatever was down there: here come some real predators.

  Mike noticed that both men had their rifles over their backs, side arms plus multiple blades strapped to their waists and thighs, and grenades on their belts. No one could accuse them of going in underprepared, he guessed.