In Situ

by Frazier, David Samuel

  Carefully, slowly, she raised her head and the pain in it intensified. The creature twitched. She immediately stopped.

  “Ew, ew, Zatan. Zatan.” The creature said, lifting its arms.

  The hair raised on the back of Alex’s neck. This thing, whatever it was, had language! Amazing. It seemed to be telling her it was OK to get up, in fact, encouraging her to do so.

  “Zatan, zatan.” The tone was light, not menacing. It waved its arms, but stayed seated.

  Alex carefully pushed herself up, her head on the verge of exploding. She raised her hand and felt for a wound but was relieved to find that there was only a large knot where she had hit the stone. She was extremely hot and the heavy jacket made her feel as if she were in a sauna.

  “En tew abba?” the creature asked.

  Suddenly she realized that the lizard was actually asking her if she was alright.

  Alex shook her head and pointed at her groin.

  “Ew, zatan.” The creature rose and started towards her. He was seven feet tall and several hundred pounds of scary reptile. Might as well have been a raptor. Alex’s bladder let go.

  Mot hesitated. It was clear to him now that he had frightened the Smooth Skin. In Mot’s world, the side-to-side movement of Alex’s head was a positive. It meant ‘yes’ to him, so he hadn’t meant to scare her, he was just trying to get her to move. They needed to go. Suddenly, the most intoxicating smell Mot had ever experienced filled his nostrils and caused him to involuntarily flick his tongue. He stood there, mid-way across the floor, in absolute shock, trying desperately to suppress his almost overwhelming desire to flick again. Mot stayed motionless, embarrassed about his wayward tongue, bad manners for an Arzat.

  Alex could do nothing but look at the beast and continue to pee. It was a mixed blessing. She was so scared on the one hand that she was about to be eaten, and on the other, so glad to finally relieve herself, that she no longer cared that she had done it in her pants.

  Then, there was a loud crack somewhere in the distant rock above them, and the warm water that had been slowly creeping into the cave began to rush in. Mot turned just in time to snatch the flashlight from the floor before it was washed away. He rushed up towards the stairs. Water was flooding down them and came to Mot’s knees, almost sweeping him away. There was no way to get out that direction. He ran to the back areas of the chamber and looked upward, searching for another exit. He was not panicked yet. While he had only been in this part of the cave once, his overall experience having lived and played in the caves since his childhood told him that there were usually always several ways out of any large chamber.

  Mot quickly reached out and pulled himself up the wall and found an opening. It was about three sticks above the ledge the female was on, and he felt like he could easily carry the creature up to it if he had to. There was only one problem. The passage was too small for either of them to squeeze through. Have to try something else, he thought. He looked down at Smooth Skin and thought that he saw her shiver even though the cave was now warm from the vapors of the rising hot water.

  Mot crawled back down the wall and stood directly in front of the female. “I have to find a way out” he said, trying to send the message directly to the Smooth Skin’s mind. He listened for an answer and looked for some comprehension, but he neither heard nor saw any. “En ma obba,” he told her, pointing to the vent. “Ez emu soo abu.” There is no exit. I must find another way.

  Alex tried desperately to understand, any fear of the creature now replaced by her fear of the rapidly rising water as it began to swirl up to the ledge. Then, just as soon as she heard him speak in his incomprehensible language, the creature dove into the water and disappeared. Alex sat, suddenly alone, looking into the dark, and watched as the beam of her flashlight went completely out of view. She was left in pitch black. I am going to die here, she resolved.

  Mot swam. He knew he would have only one chance to save the female. He wasn’t worried about himself as much. Mot was an excellent swimmer and could hold his breath for almost a torch of time if necessary. So, despite the dire circumstances, he was still confident he would find a way out for himself. His eyes had a second lid that allowed him to see just as clearly under water as he could on land, and with the magic light he had no problem swimming along looking for an exit. Mot, he told himself, you must find a way out. He swam with the ease of a fish, looking and probing. There must be another exit, he kept telling himself.

  Finally, he spotted flat water above. When he broke through, he saw it immediately—a stone staircase. Mot had found the second exit, or perhaps the very same path he had taken with his mother and the others. Where were the others? Mot thought for a minute about simply leaving and searching for the clan, but something drew him back to the female. Yes, he thought, I will try to save her. What if she is all there is? Mot drew in a large breath and plunged back into the water.

  Alex was shaking despite her heavy coat and the warm water that was now up to her waist. It was pitch black, so even though she knew there were ledges higher up, she could not see well enough to try to reach them. “There is a tremendous difference between fear and panic Alex,” she could hear her father saying. “Fear will keep you alive. Panic will kill you.” Alex ran her fingers over the rock wall, looking for a handhold but felt nothing but greasy stone. “Easy for you to say, Simon!” she called out into the black.

  Alex tried one side and then moved to another, slipping off the ledge in the process. She went under, then came back into the dark, her feet managing to find part of the ledge. She stood back up and stripped off the soaking jacket. The water was almost to her neck, and she felt herself starting to cry. Oh yeah, and quitting Alex, that will also kill you. But she still felt herself about to give up. Then below her, through the dark water, she spotted the beam of her flashlight.

  The reptile emerged, holding the light to her face.

  “You must come with me now,” Mot once again tried to communicate directly. “you must come with me now! I have found a way out!” He looked into the female’s eyes. She was calm, but in a vacant sort of way. Mot had seen this many times before. It was the look of someone who had resigned themselves to death. “Tew toa tato eva!” he told her forcefully. Mot had no idea if the creature could swim or even hold her breath, but there was no option. He pushed the light into the female’s hands and pointed the beam at his face. Mot held his nose with one hand and gestured down towards the water with the other. “You must come with me now,” he thought as strongly as he knew how. “Tew toa tato eva!” he repeated aloud, and slapped the female as gently as he could, afraid of breaking her.

  The water was at Alex’s chin, and she had been so close to surrender that she had a hard time snapping out of it, even with the sudden jolt. Did you just slap me? What the…? Suddenly, Alex totally understood. She looked at the reptile and tried to tell him with her eyes. “OK. OK! I got it!”

  Mot took the cue. “Uda?”

  “Uda,” Alex felt herself answer, intuitively knowing what the creature had said.

  Mot drew in a deep breath and observed Smooth Skin doing the same. There wasn’t a moment to lose. He snatched the light back from her, grabbed her hand, plunged into the water, and began to swim for both of their lives. He felt her try to kick, as if she were trying to help. “No,” he told her with his mind, “just hold on.” With one arm in front of him holding the light, and one arm trailing, holding onto the female, Mot began to kick rhythmically with both of his feet together, using them like the tail of a large fish. He did his best to remain focused on retracing his way to the exit, making his way as quickly as he could through a lava tube, but he felt the female growing more and more desperate for air. “We are almost there,” he tried to pass to her, not sure she was receiving his message.

  For the second time in just a few minutes, Alex felt she was about to give up. She was terrified and totally at the end of her breath. The fact that she hadn’t had to swim had helped, but she had no idea where t
hey were going or how long it was going to take. Her lungs were trying to defy her mind and draw a breath. She made a vague attempt to rally and shake it off, but it was no use.

  Mot knew he was almost to the top. He had been surprised that the female was so short of air. Any Arzat he knew could easily have held their breath many times longer than this trip was going to require. He could sense that Smooth Skin was about give in. When he was close, he sent another message. “Blow. Blow slowly.”

  Alex blew, she had no idea why, but she began to exhale, and did her best to do it slowly. She knew at the end of it, her body would overcome her and inhale on its own, water or air, it didn’t matter. She blew and blew, but near the end, she still found herself submerged.

  Mot rounded a corner, knowing the flat water was above them. He lunged for the surface and did his best to pull the female up and in front so she would be the first to the top. He pushed up so quickly that he almost launched her out of the water.

  She was choking when she emerged, having just begun to fully experience drowning, but there was air and Alex knew she had made it, if she could just get her lungs clear.

  Mot rolled her on her side and, as forcefully as he dared, he began slapping the creature on her back. The female coughed and spit water, then finally seemed to get a breath. He kept slapping her until he was sure she was OK, then took the flashlight and gently set it on a one of the stone steps so he could see her. Mot lowered himself, crouching, and watched.

  Alex continued to cough. When she was finally breathing normally, she rolled over only to find the reptile once again staring at her.

  “En tew abba?” he asked, his eyes glowing red and pupils wide.

  Alex hesitated a moment, and then began to laugh.

  Chapter 11

  It Speaks

  Alex laughed, and then laughed some more. Perhaps it was the totally impossible nature of her situation. Perhaps it was because she knew she had just narrowly escaped death for the millionth time in her life. Perhaps she was really going nuts, because as she laughed, she thought she could distinctly hear the—whatever-in-the-hell-it-was-creature beside her, laughing as well. It was a deep otherworldly sound that defied description.

  She was lying on the remnants of an ancient stone staircase. The opening around her was at least ten feet in diameter, part of some other long lava tube that rose up into the dark until she could no longer see the end of it. Alex reasoned that there must have been at least two entrances to the chamber, and that her scaly companion had found this second one. She looked at the water level on the steps below her and could not detect it rising. Even so, she knew it would be prudent to get to an area higher in the cave. Maybe there is even a way out of this hell hole, she thought. Alex looked back at the creature. His eyes were glowing just from the dim beam that was still emanating from the flashlight. She couldn’t imagine how they might react to the full light of day, but they were no longer so intimidating. The reptile was crouching, patiently watching her.

  He’s every bit of seven feet tall, Alex thought, some weird evolutionary variation of a Theropod, a distant descendant of some line of two legged dinosaur to be sure, but proportioned very much like a human. She guessed his weight at three hundred—maybe even four hundred pounds—without an inch of fat on him. His arms were massive exhibits of muscle, but nothing compared to the musculature in his legs. Alex imagined she could fit her entire body into just one of them if it were hollow. His feet were large, but in balance and proportion to the size of his legs. He had three toes with long curving nails and one shorter opposed toe trailing behind like a bird’s. Alex thought that if she was to look closely, she would also find that the creature’s feet were at least partially webbed, which would explain how he could swim so well. His hands—yes hands—she again pondered, consisted of four fingers each, one of which was definitely opposed to the other three. But the most extraordinary feature of this beast was his head. It exhibited the largest prefrontal cortex bulge she had ever seen in a dinosaur. If “dinosaur” were even the right classification, she pondered.

  Hell, I keep thinking this thing is a “he,” but I don’t really know if it is male or female. She then noticed something she hadn’t seen before, perhaps because it was hard to see, perhaps because she hadn’t looked. The creature was wearing some sort of loincloth made of material that totally blended in with his own skin. He, oh yes-that is definitely a ‘he,’ she thought as she looked directly in the area of his genitalia and blushed—he is wearing clothes! Not much, just a loincloth made of some kind of skin, but clothes nonetheless. Impossible, she thought to herself once again, vaguely wondering how any kind of material like that could have survived.

  Mot grunted, suddenly uncomfortable and even embarrassed by the female’s obvious interest in him, although he had been sizing the female up, as well. In all his short life, he had never seen such a creature. She had skin smoother than the finest animal pelts and she was tiny, as small as a three-or four-seasoned Arzat, yet she seemed more mature. She definitely smelled more mature, no question about that. From the moment he had first approached her, Mot had never wondered about her sex. But it was her obvious intelligence that confounded him. Other than Arzats, he had never known or heard of any creature that had any real ability to communicate much beyond their own species, and certainly none of them had actual language.

  “Uu ta nedo,” he said quietly, we need to go. Mot grabbed the flashlight and stood.

  Alex heard him, but there was something else she finally and suddenly realized about the creature. She understood him as well. It was not just interpretation from the context of the moment-she had totally understood what he had just said! No Alex, only vampires and certain other weird fictional characters telepath, she admonished herself. She thought that she must be dreaming again, and if she was, she was ready for it to be over.

  Mot looked at her one last time, turned, and started up the tunnel.

  “Wait!” Alex was suddenly worried that the creature would desert her, leaving her alone in the dark. She fought to get to her feet, her head still throbbing.

  Mot paused. He hadn’t exactly understood the word, but he had understood the meaning. This female could apparently communicate like any Arzat; sometimes with words only, sometimes with words and mind, and sometimes with the mind only. This was all very interesting but what he now needed was something to eat and to find his family and the others of his clan.

  Ez ta maga, he thought. I need to eat. “Ez ta maga,” he said aloud, glancing back at Alex, but he thought to himself, and if you do not hurry up little one, I am going to eat you! Mot was tense and irritable and, despite what even he now understood must have been a rather long sleep, he was tired. Something was not right. He was in a hurry to get to the Great Chamber and find out exactly what had happened, but in his heart he doubted if anything of his past would be there. Mot could sense that something had dramatically changed, and he could feel no presence of the other Arzats. He especially searched for the presence of Ara, but did not find it. It saddened him. The female creature and the magic light he held were clues that were hard to ignore. Still….

  “Teo,” he said to Alex. Hurry.

  She got the “I am hungry” part and “hurry” but also something about the creature having her for a meal. Careful, Alex, she thought as she got up to follow, this thing could still rip you from limb from limb.

  The two of them climbed up a series of long paths combined with intermittent flights of stairs, Mot leading the way. He stopped several times, still trying to discern any evidence of Arzats. There was a low rumble he detected, far away under the ground, but nothing of his people. He flicked his tongue. They were definitely getting closer to the surface—he could sense a slight freshness in the air.

  The going from here would be simple. These parts of the caves felt very familiar to Mot, and he quickened his pace, despite the fact that the female was struggling to keep up, her breathing stressed from the climb. Mot glanced back at her as the ca
ve took a sharp turn to the left. As he stepped around the corner he barely caught himself before falling into a deep crevasse. In the process, he lost his grip on the magic light. He watched helplessly as it fell, bouncing from one side wall to another, finally reaching the bottom. Mot looked over the edge watched as the light flickered and went out. Now the two of them were in total darkness.

  Alex had been doing her best to keep up, mindful that the only real chance she had to escape the caves was her unlikely guide with the reptilian skin. When the light disappeared, she first thought that the creature had moved too far up the cave for her to see him, so she sped up, suddenly panicked that she would lose all sight of him. She found herself practically running in pitch black, her mind trying to remember the dimly lit path she had just seen disappear.

  “Ne!” she heard the creature say in the dark. He was so close that her heart crept into her throat. This is where I get it, she thought. He is going to eat me. She tried to move away and immediately felt his hand on her holding her back. She almost pissed her pants again from surprise.

  “Ne.” Stop, he said again more quietly. His voice was otherworldly, guttural, commanding.

  Alex was panicked. I am not going to just stand here and let this thing eat me. She moved again but the creature grabbed her with both of its arms. The power behind them was overwhelming.

  Mot was confused. Why was this small creature struggling with him? Did it want to die? He used his mind to reach into hers further than would be polite, and then understood. “Ah, I am not trying to eat you little female. There is a huge hole in the floor, which will kill you if you fall into it. Do you understand me?”

  Alex stopped fighting. She felt light headed, it was the same sensation she had felt earlier. Her mind, and suddenly, his, had become completely intertwined.

  “There is a big hole,” the creature said again.