Carnival of Time

by Alan MacRaffen

  Krezahu chuckled. “Not as much as that, no,” he said. “But I did know that the way would make itself clear to you.”

  Caleb shook his head in amazement. “I’ll say it has.”

  As the first of the newly freed slaves reached the balcony, Lucas turned to Bill with a look of raw exhilaration.

  “There’s no turning back now,” he said. “You sure you can take out the Reaver’s machine?”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll do it,” Bill said. “And I’ll have help.” He cast a look back at Caleb and his friends.

  “Then let’s go,” Lucas said, grinning. “We don’t have much time.”

  The train rattled and rocked as it rushed down the dark tunnels. Caleb glanced around at his fellow passengers, trying to gauge their chances of success.

  Chuck crouched low in the middle of the car, grunting and snorting nervously at the train’s lurching movements. On the other side of her sat Bill and three large, grim looking men from the factory chamber. The three men each carried a pair of Ne Shaazi machine guns, as well as a number of blades and other hand weapons. Bill sat silently between two of the men, clutching a gun of his own and staring out the darkened window.

  The old-bloods stood or sat on the floor on Caleb’s side of the train, each armed with a newly liberated machine gun. They listened intently as one of the men explained how to use the weapons, and helped them determine how best to hold them in their uniquely shaped hands.

  Caleb also held one of the guns, but he felt uneasy with it, and had trouble paying attention to the man’s instructions. He kept looking over at Krezahu, who had refused to take any weapons at all. The old Awaru looked back at Caleb out of the corner of his eye, occasionally eyeing the gun with a brief, skeptical glance.

  This isn’t what I need, Caleb thought to himself as he looked down at the weapon. This will only distract me from what I really need to be focusing on. He felt the mild, cool sensation of the World Tree’s presence in his mind, and lifted the weapon carefully.

  “Hey, Garner,” he said, leaning over toward the old-blood.

  “What’s wrong?” Garner asked, seeing the odd expression on Caleb’s face.

  “Nothing,” he answered. “Do you have these guns figured out now?”

  “Sure. They’re pretty simple.”

  “Good,” Caleb said, handing Garner his gun, “take mine. I won’t be needing it.”

  Garner simply stared back at Caleb for a moment, then reluctantly took the weapon and slung it over his shoulder.

  “You sure?” he asked.

  Caleb nodded, noting the alarmed look on Bill’s face as he watched the exchange.

  “It’s okay, Bill,” he said. “I have better tools to use.”

  Bill was about to protest, but the train began to slow. Lucas leaned out from the door to the driver’s compartment.

  “Here we go,” he said, sounding more excited than scared.

  Bill nodded to Lucas, then rose and addressed the rest of the passengers.

  “This is going to have to go down fast,” he said, eyeing everyone in turn. “If we don’t succeed here, everything else will be for nothing. Let’s stay focused and stick to the plan.”

  The three men near Bill nodded calmly. Caleb noticed that the old-bloods nodded as well, but not without a few nervous glances in Caleb’s direction. Krezahu simply clucked and chuckled softly to himself.

  As the train came to a stop, Caleb could see that the station was a large one, with a broad staircase extending up from one end. Lucas opened the doors, and Bill led them out onto the platform. They moved quickly, with Lucas and the three heavily armed men taking the lead as they jogged up the stairs. Caleb followed, urging Chuck along and trying to keep her from getting overly agitated or frightened. At the top, the staircase opened into a wide hall that turned sharply to the right. Lucas and the others quickly tucked their guns behind their backs and slowed to a casual walking speed.

  As he rounded the corner, Caleb could see a massive silhouette blocking the hallway. It was over seven-feet tall, with an irregular, asymmetrical form that blended human anatomy with that of countless species of dinosaurs. Caleb placed a hand on Chuck’s snout to stop her, unsure of what the others were planning.

  The Commander spun around at the sound of the footsteps, his gleaming eyes burning into the approaching men.

  “What is this?” he growled, resting a hand on his holstered gun. “What are you slaves doing here? Don’t you know there’s an emergency back in the factory section? Where is your keeper?”

  “J-just a m-minute,” Lucas stammered, cowering in terror and pretending to reach into a pocket as he tightened his grip on his gun. “I have a message from Clank.”

  “Give it to me, worm,” the Commander snarled, reaching out a taloned hand.

  “Certainly,” Lucas said.

  In a blur of sudden motion, he swung the gun up and fired a spray of bullets directly into the Commander’s abdomen. The beast toppled backward, screeching and clutching its shredded stomach.

  At the sound of the bullets and screeching, Chuck bellowed and shoved her way forward, nearly knocking Caleb into the wall. The others were about to fire another round of bullets as the wounded Commander tried to get up, but they were knocked aside by the charging ceratosaurus. The Commander shrieked once before Chuck reached him, his cries suddenly muffled to a dull gurgle as the dinosaur bit down on his head.

  The others stared at Chuck in shock. Caleb moved forward, stepping gingerly over the twitching but headless body of the Commander to pat the dinosaur on the flank.

  “Good girl, Chuck,” he said, smiling grimly at the others. “Now does everyone see why I never go anywhere without her?”

  Bill and the others nodded wordlessly, then moved along down the hallway.

  After another fifty feet, the hall ended in a large, sliding metal door. The smooth surface was broken only by a numbered keypad in its center. Bill moved forward and pulled a small, foil-capped vial from his pocket, then entered a lengthy string of numbers into the keypad. After a second, a small square panel opened on the bottom of the pad, revealing a strange, circular device. Bill held the vial up to the device, and Caleb could hear a soft click, followed by a mechanical whirring noise.

  Bill held the vial up for Caleb to see. A tiny drop of red marked a small puncture in the foil where the device had pricked it.

  “Numerical code and a blood scan,” Bill said. “Despite the fact that they never really trusted each other, Clank was one of the few people with automatic access to the Reaver’s chambers. He had to come here all the time to monitor the control systems and perform small repairs, and the Reaver knew that he was too cowardly to try anything while he was here.”

  With a soft beep and a low hum, the door slid open. Beyond was a huge hallway, more than twenty feet wide and thirty feet high. It extended about sixty feet before crossing through a similar intersecting hall, then continued another sixty feet, ending at a huge door. Caleb was surprised at the markedly different style of construction on the other side of the door.

  Instead of the drab concrete, chipped tiles and rusted steel he had seen in the rest of the complex, this hallway was extremely sleek and high-tech looking. The walls were smooth, polished white panels, with a dramatically arched ceiling and numerous bright lights. It wasn’t until he stepped into the hall that Caleb noticed signs of disrepair.

  The white walls seemed to be smudged in places, with thick drifts of dust and grit lying in the corners. Here and there along the ceiling’s length, lights had burnt out or started to flicker. The once glossy floor was covered in dust and scuff marks. Along its center, the floor was actually gouged in numerous places, as if heavy machinery had been roughly dragged up and down its length. As they proceeded down the hall, Caleb noted random cracks and furrows in the wall panels, and even a deep scrape-mark in the ceiling. As he passed the intersecting hallway, he saw that it was in similar condition.

  Behind Caleb, Garner sniffed and glanced aro
und nervously.

  “Something doesn’t smell right,” he whispered. Tess and the other old-bloods nodded, but said nothing.

  As they approached the huge door at the end of the hall, Caleb felt like a tiny child creeping around in a stranger’s house.

  “Why are these halls so big?” he asked softly.

  Bill looked back at him with wide eyes.

  “You’ll see soon enough,” he said ominously. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Caleb. I told you this would be different than going up against Pollard.”

  Caleb suppressed a shudder, turning his attention to the simple controls beside the door and trying not to notice that Bill had to reach over his head to press them. As with the first elevator they had ridden down into the depths, there were only simple “up” and “down” arrows. Bill pressed the “up” arrow.

  The entire group took an involuntary step back as the huge door hissed open, but the elevator was empty. Caleb noted with dismay that the circular lift was at least thirty-five feet across. Chuck and the old-bloods had no trouble joining the others inside, and soon they were rising rapidly.

  After only a brief ascent, they slowed to a stop and the doors hissed open again. The three branching halls outside were identical in design to the one below, but the signs of decay were much more pronounced. More than half of the lights were out, seemingly smashed from their sockets, leaving large sections of hallway cloaked in shadow. The walls and floors were also more scratched and pitted. Bits and pieces of wall panels and floor tiles lay scattered in the corners. In spots, the floor looked as though it had been polished with a jackhammer. Now even Caleb’s dull human nose could detect a strange, sinister odor in the air. It reminded him of a time before the Lights Went Out when Bill had taken him to the zoo, mixed with a whiff of sterile chemical vapors and a hint of ozone. Caleb laid a reassuring hand on Chuck’s flank as she growled and groaned nervously.

  Bill turned to Caleb and fixed him with an intense stare.

  “Are you sure you want to try to go after him?” he asked.

  Caleb stared back for a moment, gathering his courage, then answered.

  “I have to. Flooding this place will set him back, but it won’t stop him. Who else is going to do it?”

  “I was afraid you’d say something like that,” Bill said. “I have to go this way,” he continued, pointing down the left-hand passage. If you want to find the Reaver, you’ll need to head in that direction.” He pointed down a seemingly identical corridor heading the opposite direction. “The escape ship is down the middle hallway. I’m guessing it’ll take me at least fifteen minutes to do this right. After I’m done, I’m heading for the ship. If I don’t see you there, I’ll wait for you, but if I see the Reaver coming, I’m going to blast out of here as fast as I can. I know you think he would survive anyway, but I don’t want him getting out that easy.”

  Caleb nodded. “Okay,” he said. “If we get there first, we’ll wait for you…”

  “No,” Bill said. “Don’t wait. Give me twenty minutes, tops. If I’m not back by then, get the hell out of here or the ship could be damaged. Once it starts to flood, this whole place could collapse.”

  “But…” Caleb stammered.

  “No,” Bill said firmly. “Don’t wait any longer than twenty minutes. Promise me.”

  “Okay,” Caleb whispered, pulling Bill into a tight hug. “I promise. You just better not be late.”

  “Not if I can help it,” Bill answered. “Now get going, quick. Riley will show you the way.”

  One of the three men stepped forward. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s not waste time.”

  Caleb released Bill and turned to follow Riley down the dark, echoing hall.

  They traveled for several thousand feet, taking several turns and twists, but the halls remained relatively unchanged. Caleb was beginning to wonder how Riley knew he was going the right way, when a low rumbling sound reached his ears.

  The sound grew louder as they turned down another corridor. By the time they reached the large doorway at the end of the hall, the sound was loud enough to be felt through the floor. It was a whooshing, rumbling vibration, reminding Caleb of the sounds of huge amusement park rides he had seen as a child.

  Caleb put his hand to the metal door. For a second, he could clearly feel the vibration through the metal, then the door slid open.

  Caleb and the others jumped back in surprise, gawking at the dazzling sight in the chamber beyond. The room itself was huge—hundreds of feet across, with walls that curved upward into a great domed ceiling. In the center of the chamber, a tangled mass of plastic and rubber tubing emerged from the floor, rising up to form a great, towering column, like the roots and trunk of a massive tree. Mounted at the top of the column was the source of the thunderous rumbling sound.

  A huge framework of whirling and tilting structures sat atop a cluster of great motors and pistons that protruded from the core of the column. The whole assembly spun and whirled around itself in concentric orbits, like a giant model of an atom. All along its surface, the device was sheathed in a continuous aura of surging and flickering red lightning, bathing the chamber in a shifting wash of crimson light.

  Seeing no movement other than the great machine, Caleb took a few tentative steps inside. The others followed cautiously. Caleb scanned the walls for movement, noticing several other closed doors along the length of the walls.

  As minutes passed, the group grew more and more confident, until the last of them stepped inside the chamber. Suddenly the door they had entered through slid shut with an echoing clang. At the same time, a matching door on the far wall slid open.

  The group stood frozen, staring at the dark doorway in terror, though they couldn’t see what lay beyond. Caleb flinched as he heard a slow grating scrape, then a heavy thump. The pounding of his heart in his chest threatened to overwhelm the sound of the roaring machine as he waited for any further signs of movement.

  Suddenly, a voice echoed out of the doorway. It was a low, rumbling sound, like the grinding of rocks in a landslide, and it made every hair on Caleb’s body stand on end.

  “I have been waiting for you,” it groaned. “Let’s begin. I’ve been looking forward to this.”

  Caleb watched in frozen horror as a gigantic black shape moved out of the doorway. He was struck immediately by the creature’s size—larger even than a tyrannosaurus. It strode out on massive, muscular legs; a sinuous patchwork of claws, fangs, horns and armor plates. For a moment, Caleb thought that what he was seeing was some hideous pet of the Reaver’s; its monstrous form betrayed no hint of human ancestry. Then he met its withering gaze, and saw the horrifyingly mad intelligence lurking behind the beast’s glittering orange eyes. This was what the man once known as Dr. Reeve had become.

  As the monstrosity moved closer to the glowing machine, Caleb was able to see more of its terrible hybrid anatomy. Almost every lethal adaptation ever evolved during the reign of the dinosaurs made itself evident in the beast’s form. Huge, powerful legs propelled it swiftly across the floor, with giant hooked raptor claws poised in the air, waiting to rip and shred. Long, grasping arms hung from hulking shoulders, nearly scraping the floor with their scythe-like talons. The sweeping tail sliced the air with each step, displaying rows of razor-tipped spikes and a tremendous club of bone at the end. The spikes on the tail continued up the beast’s back, sprouting from massive armored plates that covered almost every inch of the creature’s fifty-foot-long body. Its curved neck bulged with powerful muscles, supporting a nightmarish skull. A great, horn-fringed crest spread out from the back of the monster’s head, with larger horns sprouting from its brows and snout and smaller knobs of bone jutting out everywhere else. Beneath that, a huge set of jaws gaped and drooled, with hundreds of titanic teeth gleaming wetly in the blood-red light of the machine.

  Caleb could only gape in horror as those colossal jaws and fangs opened to form barely human words.

  “Come, now,” it growled, “don’t j
ust stand there. You brave dragon slayers came here to kill me, yes? Let’s see what you’ve got. I’m sure it will be entertaining.”

  For a moment, they all just stood there, gaping and cringing. Even Chuck was trembling in fear, barely able to move. Then Caleb felt Krezahu’s light touch on his arm. The Awaru’s mental voice reached out, cutting through Caleb’s overwhelming panic.

  “Remember what Ksogiasu showed you—your vision of the past. You saw things as they were, moved forward through pain to the present. Pain will do nothing to this one—he has lived and breathed pain for countless ages. Pain has helped make him what he is today. You must bring him backward through healing into the past. Show him himself when he was whole.”

  The Reaver continued to stare at the fear-wracked group, its tail twitching with growing impatience. Suddenly, it let out a bellowing roar of rage, and the entire group cringed and jumped with terror.

  Gripped by unreasoning fear, Riley let out a bellowing scream of his own and charged toward the Reaver, firing madly with both machine guns. The Reaver reared up, catching the spray of bullets full in the belly, but they seemed to only bounce and ricochet off of its dense armor plates. Moving faster than Riley could react, the Reaver spun about on one foot and brought its spike-edged tail swinging around at high speed. The tail connected with Riley square in the chest, and the man flew across the chamber like a child’s toy, smashing against the wall with a crunch of bones.

  Before Riley’s body had even fallen back to the floor, Chuck and the old-bloods let out their own howls of rage and charged forward, firing a storm of bullets and flashing fangs, horns and claws. For a moment, Caleb felt a surge of uncontrollable fury wash over him as well, but Krezahu’s gentle touch on his arm roused him from it, and he realized that he was only reflecting the Reaver’s overpowering psychic wave of emotions.

  “Bring him back,” Krezahu cried, and Caleb could feel that even the wise Awaru was becoming deeply frightened.

  Caleb looked up to see his friends charging the raging monster. Eric had picked up one of the guns Riley had dropped and was firing madly at the monster’s hip, to no effect. Tess and Garner had actually jumped up on the beast’s back and were hacking away at its armor with fangs and claws, but they, too were ineffectual. Hank, Rebecca and Gabe were hammering at the Reaver’s legs and belly, but they had no more luck than the others.