by Greig Beck
Emma held a hand up to her eyes, squinting. The wind was getting stronger, whipping the hair madly across her face. She had to plant her legs wide to keep her balance. Thunder exploded around them, but it remained dry.
“What the hell is going on? Is this a storm brewing?” She looked up.
Ben followed her gaze; the clouds above them looked ominous, but were now swirling and somehow pulling up at the center.
“That’s all we goddamn need.” He tucked the old gun into his belt.
“What do we do?” Emma stood with her legs braced. “Find shelter?”
“No, I think we’re outta time.” Ben gritted his teeth. “Benjamin was here, right here, over a hundred years ago, and something important happened. Let’s look around; there might be some clue as to what he did next, or where he went.”
Ben squinted as the wind became like a living thing, picking up debris and hurling it at the pair. There was a howling all around them, which masked the noise they made, but also hid the sound of the jungle behind them.
Emma headed to the plateau edge, and Ben walked closer to the jungle. He was looking for anything that might indicate a cave opening, a passage, some carved notes, or any sign or signal from his ancestor.
A big arrow carved into a rock would be good, Benjamin old boy. He snorted at the thought, but kept sweeping the ground with his gaze. There were many rocky outcrops here, and the vine-covered ground hid multiple lumps, bumps, and depressions in the tepui’s skin, but so far, nothing that dropped below a few feet.
Emma got to the plateau’s edge, and stood with her legs braced staring down for a moment. He watched her as she crouched down and started to pull on something on the cliff edge. Then she got right down on her belly and edged forward, looking over the precipice.
“What’re you doing?” he yelled over the top of the wind. She didn’t hear, so he cupped his mouth. “Hey, what’re you doing?”
She half rolled. “I thin…cave dow…there.”
Many of her words were lost to the wind but he got the gist. He grinned and gave her a thumbs up. “How far down?”
She smiled back. “I’m a climber…for me…not far…all…but y…” She shrugged and turned back over.
The wind screamed around them, and the temperature began to drop. He had to throw an arm up as a vicious spray of sand and gravel whipped his face. When Ben lowered it, for some reason the hair on his neck began to prickle.
He slowly turned.
*****
The massive Titanoboa snake flowed towards the plateau edge. Small animals screamed away from its path, recognizing one of the alpha predators of the land, probably hoping that they weren’t in its sights as a meal that day.
The reptile slowed as it came to the jungle edge, just before the open ground. Its tongue flickered as it spotted the two small creatures it had been pursuing. Their body heat made them flare red and it tasted the air, catching their scent.
It edged forward some more, this time right up to a line of heavy fern fronds that created a border between the dense jungle and open ground. It rose up, its massive diamond-shaped head now over a dozen feet from the jungle floor. The snake was a muddy brown with a slight green tiger stripe and when it remained motionless, its camouflage rendered it almost invisible.
Two glass-like lidless eyes focused on the pair, and an arm-thick forked tongue flickered out – the taste of blood came from the one closer to the edge – it chose that one first.
The Titanoboa’s massively muscled body coiled, readying itself for the ambush attack.
*****
The swirling air, the flying grit and debris, and the roar of the wind, all of them seemed to fall into a void as Ben straightened.
He’d had the sensation before in the deserts of Syria; he’d led a mission in to get in behind enemy lines and find and destroy an ammunition store. On that night, there was no moon, and they had their quad night-vision goggles in place, the eerie four lenses and their armor making the Special Forces operatives look robotic and inhuman.
The advantage of night vision technology was it used any available light by amplifying it but turning everything a ghoulish green. That night, the desert had been flat and still, and Ben had that same feeling then as he did now.
Back then, he’d waved everyone down, and switched to thermal – and then he saw them – the spider holes, all around them, and in the slit of each of the trapdoors the tiny flare of body heat.
And they had walked right in amongst them.
Of the eight mission team members he walked in with, only four of them walked out. Instincts and overwhelming firepower had saved their lives that night.
But now Ben had the same gut feeling as that fateful night. And this time, all he had was a knife and a 100-year old Colt revolver.
Ben turned slowly, carefully scanning the jungle edge. Even though the wind howled around him, he felt like he was in a vacuum as he stared hard into the jungle. He was trained to pick out even the most inconspicuous discrepancies, furtive movements, and even myriad forms of camouflage. But they were all built around the human form.
It was the tiny flickering of the tongue he saw first – not coming from something near the ground, but over a dozen feet in the air. He traced the movement back to its source, and only when he concentrated could he pick out the enormous snake. Its camouflage was so perfect that even if it were only a few feet from them he still would have missed it.
Horrifyingly, he saw that it wasn’t watching him, but its unblinking gaze was riveted, arrow-like, on Emma who was forty feet from him and still crouching at the plateau’s edge.
“Emma.” Ben gripped the blade so hard his knuckles popped. He gritted his teeth, wanting to keep his movements to a minimum and also keep watch on the snake, but he knew she’d never hear him.
Fuck it, he thought, and yelled: “Emma!”
“What…?” She half turned, holding a thick vine in her hand. “Hey…think… found…something.” Her words were still being blown away as she rose to her feet, dragging some of the vine with her. “… goes all the way…edge…like rope.” She straightened hanging on to it. “… I bet…used it to climb down…cave…”
Like liquid, the monster snake glided forward a few feet. Ben could see that it had singled Emma out and its focus was intense. This close, its size scared the shit out of him – it seemed made of solid muscle, inevitable and unstoppable. The thing was more a force of nature than an adversary.
How fast could it move? he wondered. Snakes were fast, but not as fast as a running person. But that was a normal-sized snake; this thing could potentially outpace them in seconds.
Ben looked from one side to the other, seeking options. From the corner of his eye, he saw Emma finally turn to him, and her expression fell away as she must have seen his intense stare and then followed his gaze. She dropped the vine and froze.
“Oh Jesus, no.” Her shoulders hiked and her hands came up in front of her as if pushing it away. “B… B… Ben?”
He quickly looked towards her. She had the cliff edge behind her, and the snake in front of her. He bet if she ran left or right, the monster would run her down in a blink.
Emma started to back up.
You sonofabitch, he thought. I’m bigger; why aren’t you focusing on me?
“Hey!” he yelled at it. “Hey-hey!” He waved his arms.
The snake’s head swung towards him.
“Stop that!” Emma screamed.
Her yell brought the thing’s head back to her. This time, it began to shoot towards her, far too fast for something of its size. Even from where Ben stood, he saw Emma’s eyes go wide.
“Ru-uuun!” she screamed to him as she turned to the cliff edge, got down on her belly, and started to back herself over the lip. The monstrous snake flowed towards her.
Ben could feel the grind of gravel beneath his feet as the thousands of pounds of reptile bore down on Emma.
“Hey, you sonofabitch.” Ben ran at it, scooping up a f
ist-sized rock and launching it at the draft-horse thick body. It struck the metallic looking scales, hard, and simply bounced away.
Ben felt his stomach flip as he watched Emma struggle on the cliff edge. The thought of what she was trying to do made him feel giddy. She was a good climber, but the wind now brutally sucked up over the cliff edge, and her hair whipped around her face, making her eyes useless.
The snake was only a few dozen feet from her when Ben got to its tail, raised a boot, and stomped down hard – nothing. He chased it for a moment, and then grabbed on – it was like trying to stop a runaway Mack truck and his feet slid on the ground with the snake not even noticing his efforts.
Emma looked up. There was just her head, shoulders, and fingertips above the lip. For a brief moment, her eyes met Bens, and then she grabbed one of the vines and dropped from sight.
The snake’s head lunged forward, slamming down hard on the cliff edge, and continuing on, beginning to follow her over the edge. Its massively heavy, 70-foot-long body slid across the cliff edge, grinding and severing the vines.
“No-ooo!” Ben picked up a huge rock with both hands, strained every muscle in his body to raise it above his head, and then he slammed it down on the tail, hoping to stop the snake picking Emma off the cliff wall, or wherever she was perched.
The rock crunched down on the tail tip, denting the armored scales. He finally got its attention – the snake’s head jerked around to him.
Good, he thought.
And then: Oh, fuck no.
He started to run.
CHAPTER 35
Emma had seen the cave mouth about fifty feet down when she had leaned out over the plateau edge. The vines hanging down were thick, strong, and fibrous enough to provide good handholds – as a climber, she could do it easily. She bet Ben wouldn’t have any trouble either.
She bet her last dollar that if Ben’s ancestor went anywhere, it was into that damn cave.
She had to shut her eyes as a tornado of debris was now spinning around them. With her eyes pressed to slits, she looked down towards the jungle floor – it was blurred as though there was a veil of gauze hanging in front of it.
Emma went back to examining the cliff face – not just sheer, but leaning outwards, without even a handhold – even as an experienced climber, she knew that she’d only be able to scale down with the vine.
Over the screaming howl of the wind, she could just make out Ben yelling to her. She rolled over and got to her feet. Ben looked funny, weird, and his body was all hiked in agitation. She followed his gaze and felt the shock run from her toes to her scalp.
The snake was only fifty feet from her, and its head was pointed at her with that horrifying unblinking glare with an intensity that was almost hypnotizing.
“Ben?”
She gulped. Out in the open, there was nothing to hide the full horror of the beast – it towered over them, and its brown and green body emanated raw power. To the creature, they were like mice to a normal-sized snake. Emma remembered what had happened to Steve – the monstrous snake had grabbed him in its mouth and took off with the struggling man like he was nothing but a rag doll.
She heard Ben yell again, and from the corner of her eye saw him jumping up and down waving his arms. She knew exactly what he was trying to do.
“Stop that,” she screamed.
What was it Ben had told her only hours before? That it was attracted by movement – okay then, you big asshole, see if you can follow me.
“Ru-uuun!” She spun to the cliff edge and started to slide over. The effect was instantaneous – the snake came for her.
Seconds mattered, and instincts took over she dropped down on the vine hand-over-hand. She ended up about five feet out from the cliff and cave mouth, and she started to swing her legs back and forth, creating a pendulum effect. She realised she needed a few more swings to be able to launch herself into the cave just as a huge shadow loomed over her.
Time was up; one last swing and then she let go. She landed just on the very lip of the cave mouth – her arms pin-wheeled for a second or two, and she went into a crouch, rolling forward, just as the snake slammed against the cave entrance.
She turned, ripped out her pathetic-looking blade, and held it up. Emma backed further into the depths of the cave. If the snake decided to follow her, she was as good as dead.
The shadow passed over, but then the vines from out front all fell away as if they’d been cut.
“No.”
She ran to the cave mouth but skidded to a stop. She couldn’t bring herself to peer out in case the huge head was right there, waiting to snap her up. Her eyes began to fill up as she realised she was trapped inside, and Ben out.
Emma knelt and said a silent prayer, hoping he was safe. Outside the cave the wind became like a living thing, and it forced her backwards. She waited for many minutes, and then an hour, but the cave mouth now looked like a thick curtain had been thrown over it. Mist began to fill the cave, and everything outside became oily looking and distorted.
She was torn; with the vines gone, not even she could make it back up now. Should she wait and see if Ben returned? Or should she try and climb down, make it back to try and get help?
Emma struggled towards the mouth of the cave but had to hang onto the wall and claw her way to the edge. The maelstrom battered at her and threatened to pull her from her place of safety and fling her into the void. She held an arm up to her face and looked upwards – there seemed nothing there. Everything was now cloaked in a thick mist and it was like the entire world had gone away.
The sky, air, and ground boiled and spun and even the fillings in her teeth hurt. What the hell is going on? she wondered.
A battering gust blew her off her feet and ten feet back into the cave. It was then she knew she’d never be able to climb up, or Ben down to her. She could only pray that he could hold on until she returned with help. If anyone could survive, it was her Ben Cartwright.
She turned to the dark cave. It was full of fog, and at the back, a dark hole in its floor dropped into its belly. She stood at its edge and peered down; she had no light, no rope, and no choice. But she did have one driving thought: I’ll save you, Ben, she demanded of herself.
Emma eased herself over the edge.
CHAPTER 36
End of Apparition
Primordia was gone from the 3rd planet. It was now on its way to the middle star where it would be grabbed by its gravitational forces and then flung back to begin its decade-long elliptical voyage around our solar system all over again.
The magnetic distortion on the eastern jungles of Venezuela had ceased, doorways closed and pathways erased. On the surface of the tabletop mountain, silence and stillness settled over the sparse grasses and fissured landscape.
The monsoon-like rains dried, and the clouds parted, then cleared. The wettest season was at an end, and once again, there would be 10 years of calm over a single jungle mountaintop in the depths of the Venezuelan Amazon jungle.
CHAPTER 37
Venezuelan National Institute of Meteorological Services
Mateo snorted. “Well, seems you were right.”
“Hmm, of course, I usually am.” Santiago looked up from his screen. “About what?”
Mateo pointed. “The cloud has dissipated over the eastern jungle and the satellite can see the ground again. It was only temporary, just like you said.”
Santiago reached up to pull the battered notebook from his shelf once again. He leaned back and tossed it onto the young meteorologist’s desk.
“Make a note, sign it, and then in ten years’ time, it might be you telling a younger version of yourself that the effects are limited, temporary, and nothing to be concerned about.”
Mateo smiled and grabbed the book, flipping open its pages. “Weird though.”
“Yes it is, was. We haven’t solved all of our world’s mysteries just yet.” Santiago smiled. “It’s what makes the place so interesting.”
CHAPT
ER 38
It was three weeks later that Emmaline Jane Wilson was carried out of the Amazon jungle – alone, near death, and fevered. It made worldwide headlines; the mystery of the missing Cartwright party had been solved, they had said.
Emma’s initial version of events was dismissed as nothing but hallucinations brought on by jungle fever, dehydration, and perhaps an impact to her head – she had certainly been in a terrible physical state when she was found.
All other members of the team were presumed dead. Ben’s mother, Cynthia, flew down to meet her, and had listened intently to every word. Instead of dismissing her story, Cynthia had used her considerable wealth to hire a team of soldiers and a helicopter, and formulated a plan to head back in to find her lost son.
Cynthia had remarked that the jungle had consumed one Cartwright over a hundred years ago, and she wouldn’t let it take another.
Emma was still weak, but wouldn’t let the older woman go without her. She had the location and an idea of where they needed to go. It took a full day of flying before they even found the original river, and then more navigating at a low altitude, literally on the treetops, so they could follow the glimmer of the hidden river to where it sunk into the ground.
Then they slowed as she pointed out their long climb up to the massive tabletop mountain. Oddly, there was no cloud, and the sun shone bright, warm, and clear – it all seemed so different.
“There.” She pointed, leaning from the helicopter door so far one of the soldiers had to grab her arm and hang on. The chopper started to lift towards the plateau top, higher and higher.
Emma felt her heart galloping like a horse in her chest and her hands curled into fists. Please be there, please be there, she silently repeated, just her lips moving.
The helicopter came abreast of the plateau top and she put a hand to cup her ear, and then moved the small microphone bead at her mouth. “Not too close; there are giant…”