by Greig Beck
I’m losing it, he thought.
“Mayday, mayday,” he yelled again into the mic. Carter gritted his teeth and wrestled with the controls. He was thankful to be low enough to bring it in, but he needed somewhere to put it down. He pushed all flaps up, trying to compensate for the heavy nose of the machine.
There—in the distance, he saw the clearing, close to a cliff edge, and he prayed as he headed toward it. At the last instant, something lifted from the treetops—a head on a neck that must have raised five stories into the air. It turned to glance at him with large liquid eyes, and he yelled his fear and jerked the stick, trying to bank away.
But time was up, and speed and gravity won. Carter came down hard and fast, shearing the tops of trees and then coming down on the gravel-covered clearing. The corsair’s nose was too low, and instead of sliding, it dug in, stopping way too fast for a soft human body to take. The initial jerk slammed him, his face, and his forehead, into the instrument panel.
Hope they find me, was his last thought before darkness took him.
CHAPTER 06
University of California, Digital Collection Library
Emma sat at a desk and scrolled through the historical newspapers. The files the university had available were from its own stocks and from obtained collections that stretched back hundreds of years. Now, thankfully, all digitized, so no more squinting into huge microfiche machines and slowly inching along at a single page at a time.
The digital files meant she could set clear search parameters, and to begin with, she confined her search to anything after the 1700s, in both North and South America, and in any year ending in 8.
That was her magic number, as the comet, Primordia, was on its elliptical orbit in a periodic recurrence of every 10 years, and it arrived every decade in a year ending in 8. Even though it only lasted a few days, to the locals, this had always been known as the wettest season.
During the last one, Emma was in the Amazon, and she had personally seen the coma streak in the sky looking like a silver eyebrow. But then, when it was at the closest point to Earth, in what was called its perihelion or maximum observable focus, this particular comet did something unprecedented, something unbelievable; it distorted the time and space directly over a vast tabletop mountain in Venezuela. No one would believe her, but she knew it was true. She’d seen it herself.
It was then that strange distortions occurred on the mountaintop—time and space became rearranged, reordered; pathways were created and doorways opened. It was only observable for a few days, but in that time, a gateway to a little piece of Hell opened upon the Earth.
Emma sat as if in a trance as her mind took her back to the tepui and their expedition of December 2018. She and her friends had been transported back 100 million years, or perhaps that primordial timeline had been transported here.
In the past, she had tried to obtain answers from physicists, theorists, and even science-fiction authors; and trying to get her head around quantum realities, spatial time distortions, and past-life theories, had only left her more confused than ever. But whichever it was, that hellish place had killed all her friends in little over a day, and she’d been the only one to escape.
She’d given up trying to convince people that she was telling the truth, or that she wasn’t mad. Only Ben’s mother, Cynthia had stuck by her, but Emma soon realized it was up to her and her alone to rescue Ben who gave up his freedom so she could have hers. When the doorway closed, Ben had been trapped behind it with all those primordial horrors, and she prayed daily that he somehow survived.
She shook her head to clear it and looked at the results that had been returned from her historical search of news events. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking for, but she now had over 200 entries, going back to the late 1700s. She organized them by story headline and began to sort through them, discarding anything mundane about trade, armed conflicts, or politics, and after 30 minutes had narrowed it down to several dozen that spoke of strange weather, disappearances, or sightings of inexplicable things in the jungle.
She even found an article about the naming of a new comet in the late 1700s. Primordia. She whispered the name, now even hating the sound if it.
She opened an article from the NY Times from 1908, titled: ‘President Roosevelt Offers Reward for Giant Snake.’
She read on: Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States, and also an explorer, soldier, and naturalist. He’d heard tales of a monstrous snake in the Amazon, and offered a $1,000 reward to anyone who could catch it. Amazingly, the reward was only withdrawn in 2002 and had stood at $50,000 when it ended.
She remembered she and Ben had talked about the possibility of one of the prehistoric animals from the plateau somehow escaping into today’s jungle. It would be an oddity, but also it would become a thing of legend—and all jungles had them.
Next, there was a 1928 column about an expedition to find missing explorer, Percy Fawcett, who vanished in the Amazon. It caught her attention as Fawcett claimed to have shot a giant anaconda over 60 feet in length. He also claimed to have found giant footprints that he believed came from a creature from the dawn of time.
The dawn of time. Emma felt a tingle of excitement. She believed him, but she bet no one else did.
Her mouth quirked up at one corner at the next story from 1948—Airman John Carter from the USS Bennington went missing in a Corsair Fighter. She sighed, remembering. You’re not missing to me; I know where you are, she thought as she smiled sadly. Thank you for the loan of your plane, Airman Carter. We tried.
Emma leaned her head back on her neck, shutting her eyes. She reached up to rub at them. “What am I looking for?” she said to the ceiling.
Something, anything, she knew, that indicated a way up or down the tepui, or that where she had been transported to could be accessed sooner than the decade-long wait. Or even some sort of concrete proof anywhere, anytime.
But there was nothing.
She guessed something that was there for a little over a single day once every 10 years was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it event; especially when that event took place in one of the most remote, inaccessible, and inhospitable places on Earth.
She opened another window on her computer and searched for South America, 100 million years ago. One of the results was an app that ran a tectonic plate movement simulation. She ran it.
It showed the formation of the last great supercontinent called Pangaea. It started to break apart about 175 million years ago, and 100 million years ago, South America was still the basic shape it was today, except it was ringed by a shallow coastal sea, and interestingly, was only separated from the west coast of Africa by a few hundred miles.
She leaned in closer to look at the 100-million-year-ago tropical green mass of a primordial jungle that was still the impenetrable Amazon of today. That’s where you are, Ben, in there somewhere, she thought.
She was a rock climber, and those skills are what gave her the edge getting on and off the plateau. But she needed a way in and out for a team that didn’t necessarily require those skills this time. She steepled her fingers at her chin, thinking.
“We can’t risk climbing again.” She rubbed her chin and stared into space, letting her mind work. And no one will fly over it, or even could, as instruments don’t work. There’s got to be another way, she mused.
Emma drummed her fingers on the tabletop for a few moments, and then quickly grabbed her things, pushed her chair back, and headed for the doorway. She suddenly had a whole bunch of new things to investigate and now only a few months to get it all together. Time mattered; and the comet was already on its way again.
CHAPTER 07
Ben slowly lifted his head from the mud and opened one eye. Predators homed in on identifiable shapes, and two eyes, especially ones with white sclera, were like neon lights in the dark.
To survive, he used all his Special Forces training of concealment and stealth, but he knew that the adv
ersaries he faced here had senses hundreds or even thousands of times greater than any human foe he had ever faced.
He opened his other eye and scanned the ground, then looked back along the tree trunks and bracken stems, then once more overhead, looking up into a strange tangled canopy in this area that was heavy with giant cycad branches, palm fronds, and massive ferns like cascading waterfalls of green.
Finally, he allowed his eyes to drop back down to three turkey-sized creatures that picked at fallen berries. They were beaked, like a bird, but squat and pebble-skinned, and their four stubby legs ended in blunt, three-toed clawed feet. Their dull eyes constantly swiveled, like some sort of chameleon, always moving and keeping a lookout for predators.
Ben ran through his plan: get a little closer, spear one of them, then snatch it up, and get back to his shelter, pronto. His stomach grumbled; he needed food, and though he’d found some berries and tubers he could digest, he needed protein for energy and also to preserve his muscle mass. In this place, it was only the strong that survived.
He began to squirm forward—slide, stop, slide, stop—until he was as close as he could get. He drew his spear forward, and then began to ease to one knee. He brought one foot forward to plant it in the mud, the ooze squelching up between his toes. He braced the muscles in his arm, his gaze unwavering as he exhaled, then…
Something burst through the ferns and screeched so loudly that Ben literally felt himself blanch from shock. He threw himself down into the mud.
The thing stood about seven feet in height and seemed all box-like head, serrated teeth, and a green and brown camouflage tiger stripe that would have rendered it invisible in the twilight jungle.
It was some sort of theropod and its jaws clamped down on one of the turkey things with a wet, bone-breaking crunch. It then shook it quickly from side to side, much like a dog that had caught a rabbit.
The other plant-eaters fled, one straight at Ben, and he only had to flick an arm out to grab its neck and twist sharply.
With the hunter occupied and the sounds of ripping flesh loud enough to mask him, Ben began to back into the brush. He made sure to drag his dead prize through the mud, coating the creature to also conceal its scent. One of the many things he had learned in his long years here: to stay alive, you needed to be able to vanish—no scent, no sound, and no movement.
He began to squirm into one of the tunnels he had carved out through the roots, stems, and branches of the ground bracken, straining his body to fit inside.
He couldn’t help farting, and he froze, grimacing. He waited to hear if there was any sound of pursuit. After a few minutes, he exhaled.
Idiot; can’t take you anywhere, Cartwright, he thought, and pushed on. In another few minutes, Ben was well away.
*****
The largest theropod, the leader, was joined by several others of its pack, and after it had its share of the small animal, he allowed them to tear at the remains to finish off even the skin and bones. The small creature was barely enough to take the edge off the pack’s appetite—they needed more, always more.
The leader sniffed the air, catching the scent of the methane. Its sensitive snout was able to analyze the tiny airborne particles in the gas and understand everything about the animal it came from; the food it had eaten, that it was warm-blooded, its health, its sex, and finally, the direction it went.
It grunted once, calling the pack in, and they began to follow the scent.
CHAPTER 08
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC
Emma was on a mission, and she headed for the Smithsonian’s special exhibits gallery. She was rapidly ticking off her list of things she’d need. Her plans were coming together, and she tried to think of everything that caused their downfall last time—sure, there was the gross underestimation of everything they’d all walked into. But there were resources they could have made use of to improve their chances.
Her jaws clenched when she thought of how naïve they all were when they sat around in Ricky’s Rib Bar and high-fived at the launch of a grand adventure—they were all dumb kids who thought that money, enthusiasm, youth, and a spirit of adventure was enough. It wasn’t, and it killed nearly all of them.
Her teeth were grinding so hard they ached as she entered the special exhibits hall and slowed as she came to the display she was looking for.
At the sight of it, her brain yelled a warning and her heart began racing in her chest. But her legs kept moving her closer.
The Titanoboa exhibit showed a reconstruction of the massive snake. It was as wide as a car and muddy brown. It was frozen in the act of devouring some sort of antelope. The back end of the animal was disappearing down the huge fang-toothed maw—it made Emma feel a sudden wave of nausea.
In the exhibit with the model were two people, a young man and woman, who crawled over the snake’s body, touched-up paintwork, and cleaned the display site as they chatted to each other. Emma just stared, and eventually, the young man noticed her, smiled, and wandered closer.
“Pretty awesome, huh?” He turned back to the snake and stuck his hands in his pockets. “It was around at the time of the dinosaurs and probably ate them for dinner.” He turned to her and grinned. “Wanna know why we think that?”
Emma shrugged. “Sure.”
“Regurgitation debris.” His eyebrows went up.
“Vomit?” She tilted her head.
“Exactly. We found crushed dino bones that were pulverized before they were fossilized. The fragmentation size led us to believe that a snake crushed them, ate them, and then regurgitated them.” He chuckled. “The big guys do that sometimes.”
“Don’t we all?” Emma returned the smile.
“Yep.” Andy laughed. “Weird thing is though, the Titanoboa outlived the dinosaurs by millions of years. We still don’t know how.”
Emma’s eyes slid to the model. “It’s too small,” she said, her gaze trance-like.
“What is?” he asked, frowning.
“It’s too small, and the body was striped, like a tiger, except green and brown.” She licked lips suddenly gone dry. “And it was far more muscular, sinuous, and powerful-looking.” She shrugged and nodded. “But it’s close, given I understand you only had a few vertebrae to work with.”
He turned to stare and his female colleague had stopped what she was doing to listen. Her eyes narrowed. She wiped her hands on a rag and wandered over.
“You’re Emma Wilson, aren’t you?”
Emma nodded and blinked, her name snapping her out of her trance. “Yes, I am.”
The woman shook her head and turned to her colleague. “This is the woman who said her friends were attacked by a giant snake in the Amazon ten years ago.” Her lip curled a little.
Emma folded her arms. “And you two must be Andy and Helen Martin, brother and sister paleontologists who are also specialists in herpetology.” She smiled at the young man. “You did good work on the Borealopelta markmitchelli fossil find.”
Andy grinned. “Thank you. It was a relative of the Ankylosaurus, and undoubtedly the best-preserved specimen in the world. You can actually see all the plating. Fantastic to—”
Helen nudged him and turned back to Emma. “What can we do for you, Ms. Wilson? We’re a little busy right now.”
“I understand,” Emma replied. She tilted her head. “But I see your eyes light up when you talk about your fieldwork and making such magnificent discoveries. And I know funding is hard to come by. After all, it’s not every day you get to find something truly magnificent.”
Helen’s jaw tightened, but Andy nodded.
“I don’t know what you’ve read about me, but I can guess.” Emma looked from one to the other. “The fact is, my friends and I mounted an expedition to the Amazon, and we discovered something there that was as magnificent as it was deadly. We failed because we underestimated everything about the place, the animals there, and the jungle.”
Emma looked from one scientist�
��s eyes to the other. “We’re going back, and this expedition, I’ll be taking everything I need. This time, we won’t be underestimating anything.”
The pair looked at Emma for a moment before their eyes slid to each other. Helen lifted her chin. “I’m guessing you want us to go, as part of that taking everything you need speech.”
Emma hiked her shoulders. “You’re the first specialists I’ve asked. This is a great opportunity. And consider this: I’ll fully fund your research for a year, and any discoveries we make there are yours.”
Andy’s eyebrows rose, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help twitching up. Helen’s face remained implacable.
“And what’s in it for you?”
Emma met her gaze. “Fulfilling a promise I made to someone a long time ago. I left someone behind, and I intend to find them.”
“After ten years? I think you mean what’s left of them.” Helen tilted her head. “So, a waste of time.”
Andy sighed, and then looked up at his sister. “It’s probably a hoax, or all a big mistake. But if there’s even the sliver of a chance…” He lowered his voice. “Sis, come on, we gotta think about this.”
“And if there is a sliver of a chance its true, it’ll be beyond dangerous.” Helen’s brows were still drawn together.
Emma’s jaw set. “I won’t sweet-talk you; it will be damned dangerous, and deadly. That, hidden place, killed all my friends in a little over a day. But we weren’t ready then.”
“And you are now?” Helen’s eyes were half-lidded. “Who else is going?”
“I’m bringing some firepower this time. Four ex-Special Forces soldiers with jungle experience, all kitted up. Then there’s you two, and me. And that’s it.”
“All kitted up? You can’t be shooting up a foreign country. You’d get everyone locked up,” Andy scoffed.