by Perrin Briar
Zoe kept her fist clenched. They had pulled half a dozen fireworks apart and extracted the gunpowder. There was little inside it, but a handful was enough for what they needed. The rest of the fireworks were kept in their original packaging.
The apemen led the prisoners to a huge pile of wood. Shard sat before it, working hard at something. Zoe couldn’t quite see what it was. Then, when he moved aside, she saw a spark. It caught and spread across the wood. It was a pyre. She doubted it was for a funeral. The apemen stood around them in a circle, faces lit up like grotesque masks.
Shard stood before the roaring fire, the light glinting off his metal crown. He grunted and moaned, directing himself at a wall behind Zoe. She looked over her shoulder. The wall had a large tarpaulin draped over it and showed a handsome man with chiseled features on his knees with an apeman standing over him with a gun. The picture was torn across the top and bottom. Zoe recognized it for what it was: a poster for a Planet of the Apes film. In the current setting it worked as a piece of propaganda. Zoe would have burst out laughing if the situation wasn’t so tragic.
Looking at the two species now, Zoe was struck by how different they appeared. The apemen had thick hair over their whole bodies, the Indians, hairless. The apeman walked with an awkward bowlegged gait that looked forced, the Indians’ legs were long and strong, good for running.
The apemen bared their large canine teeth and hissed and growled at their captives. Strength was the sign of power here, not intelligence. Zoe wondered how they’d managed to emerge from such beginnings.
The female apemen came forward, their fur covered with a white powder. They danced around the fire.
Zoe’s heart beat loud in her ears. Cassie’s body shook too, but there was a confident cast to her eyes that Zoe admired.
Shard marched up and down, jutting out his muscular chest and hammering the ground with his powerful forearms. The other apemen screamed.
Zoe clenched her fist tight and prepared to toss the powder into the fire, sensing the moment approaching. Cassie slipped the fireworks down her sleeve and prepared to do likewise.
Then the rocks on the ground jittered, hopping up and down across the surface. The apemen stopped screaming and watched them. They shared confused expressions. They hooted and roared and whimpered, not knowing what was happening.
The trees that ran up to the rocky outcrop shivered and shook, bending and buckling like a wrecking ball was knocking through them. Then came the moans and roars of huge beasts.
A few apemen exploded from the foliage, running hell for leather for the caves in their lumbering gait. They screamed in fear. The apes closer to the caves turned and ran for the safety of their homes.
“Get behind me!” Cawing Crow said.
“What?” Zoe said. “What is it?”
The foliage exploded like a tin can, huge monsters spilling forth. They were dinosaurs, eyes wide and broad and white with fear. They ran toward the wall, their footing uncertain on the hard slippery rocky surface. They slammed into the wall, bouncing off it, sliding along it, leaving a streak of blood against its rough surface, before taking off along the barren path and sinking back into the jungle. Some of the less fortunate apemen were crushed underfoot by the giant beasts.
Zoe heard a voice:
“Zoe! Cass! Come here! Quick!”
Bryan and Aaron waved from the edge of the jungle.
Zoe turned to the Natives.
“Come on!” she said.
They ran down the incline, as fast as their legs could carry them. Zoe swept Aaron up in her arms, forgetting how heavy he was, and smothered him with kisses. Bryan did the same with Cassie.
“How did you do this?” Zoe said.
“Just a little wrangling,” Bryan said. “I did it all the time on a farm when I was young. With bulls, of course, not dinosaurs.”
The Natives looked at Bryan, and then averted their gaze.
“Who are they?” Bryan said.
“Friends,” Zoe said. “They were going to help us get away before you rudely interrupted.”
“Sorry!” Bryan said.
The apemen emerged from their caves, the dinosaur stampede having vacated. Shard was not amused. He grunted and raised his arm. The apemen bolted forward, picking up spears without breaking step, and tore down the incline.
“I think that’s our cue to leave,” Bryan said.
“Agreed,” Zoe said.
They turned and ran.
59
THE NATIVES’ SPEED was astonishing. They ran, leapt and hurdled over the obstacles as if they were a playground. Cawing Crow slowed when he noticed Zoe and the others falling behind. He made a whooping sound and the other Natives drew alongside them. Then Cawing Crow made a gesture with his hands and two Natives slowed further and disappeared into the jungle behind him.
Zoe wanted to tell them not to risk their lives, but she couldn’t spare the breath.
The jungle was alive with the cries of the beasts of the night, howling and growling and flashing white eyes. Zoe tripped and landed flat on her face. A black snake rose and pulled its head back to bite. A Native seized the snake under its jaw, spun it around, and threw it high into the tree canopy. Zoe’s heart thumped like the beating of a war drum.
There were growls and screams from the treetops, like animals provoked in a zoo.
Cawing Crow looked at two more Natives and, never breaking stride, made a sharp movement with his hand. The two warriors broke off and peeled away.
After a moment there were loud howls and roars, shouts and bellows. But the roars quickly absorbed the howls, and the sounds grew silent. The jungle ended and their feet came to soft sand. They were at the side of a large lake.
“Great!” Bryan said. “Now we’re trapped!”
Cawing Crow and the other Natives ran to a thick clutch of reeds and pulled out a pair of canoes.
The roars and grunts grew louder from the jungle, the darkness and its hidden dangers mawing open. The apemen threw themselves from the treetops and rolled into running positions on the sand.
Cassie’s eyes widened and she pointed at something behind Zoe.
“Zoe, look out!” she said.
A shape moved in Zoe’s peripheral vision.
Zoe dived aside as a giant snake snapped at her heels. It missed and struck the ground instead. The snake shook its head, dazed. Zoe backed away and picked up a stick, keeping her eyes firmly on the snake. The snake snapped at her again, but Zoe brought the stick across and smacked the snake aside the head.
The snake shot forward again, this time seizing the stick. It wrenched it from Zoe, tensed its muscles, and snapped the stick in half, jutting out like vampire fangs. It spat the stick remnants out and drew itself up taller, its slit of a mouth seeming to smile at Zoe. She knew she was done for. Its tongue, as thick as her arm, lolled out of its mouth and quivered in the air. The snake peeled back its thick lips and its six-inch fangs protruded.
The Natives hooted and threw themselves at the snake.
“Get in the boat!” Cawing Crow said. “Quick!”
The family did, hopping on board. Most of the Natives escaped the snake. One had his foot ensnared in a snake’s coil. The snake wrapped another coil around the Native, watching him with its dead black eyes. The warrior beat at the snake’s huge muscles, to no use.
The Natives pushed away from the bank and paddled away.
“Wait!” Zoe said. “The warrior! We have to save him!”
“He’s already dead,” Cawing Crow said.
The canoes pulled further across the lake. The apemen hurled spears at the canoes, a couple connecting, but none doing permanent damage. The metal in Shard’s head glinted with glow bug moonlight. They stood there watching as the canoes pulled away.
“Stab the warrior, please,” Zoe said under her breath. “Show mercy.”
But Shard and the other apemen only watched as the snake enveloped the warrior with its thick muscular coils, and then tensed its body. There were
a series of pops as the man’s bones were snapped in two dozen places.
None of the Natives reacted.
Zoe shivered. It had nothing to do with the cold.
60
“IT’S POSSIBLE they might still be alive,” a seismologist from the fracking site said. “They could be trapped in a pocket of air beneath the surface.”
“How long do you think they have?” Rosetta said.
“Two days,” the seismologist said. “At the most.”
Rosetta had reassigned all staff from the fracking site to digging duty. She had also sent for as many Angelo Industries employees as she could find. They turned up by car and bus, each ready for a day of hard digging. They got to work straight away, hacking at the earth and piling it up to one side. There were two dozen diggers. Nowhere near enough, but it was a start.
They dug by hand with shovels and picks, otherwise risking chopping the family members in half. Rosetta only knew too well what it was like to lose a limb and she wished it upon no one.
When word got out that the CEO of Angelo Industries had been buried by a sinkhole, the locals from Lakota went into their garden sheds for their own digging equipment and asked where they should dig. Bryan Angelo had brought stability to the area, an area that usually relied mainly on tourism for income.
A shout went up from the far side of the sinkhole. Rosetta held her breath. Murmurings from the other diggers as they paused to see what was happening. The digger, caked in mud, brought Rosetta what he’d found. It was a few items of clothing, still in perfect condition, if a little dirty. They were smaller than an adult’s clothes, and though Rosetta didn’t know Aaron Tate’s wardrobe, she would have bet good money it belonged to him.
“Thank you,” Rosetta said.
The worker nodded and returned to digging. Some of the other diggers left their plots and joined the man who had made the discovery. The sinkhole had shifted the earth, twirling it around, and there was no reason to suspect the family would be in the same place this clothing was found, but they continued to dig there anyway.
Simeon, the local baker, discovered a body, but it had been decomposing for at least a dozen years. The police were called in to remove it. Hopefully it would be the only death to come from this site.
When darkness came they installed lamps. Those in town who could not dig brought food for the diggers. They were all united by this one goal. They were owed a happy ending.
By morning, and a whole night of digging, the locals climbed out of the pit. They were covered head to foot in dirt, their fingernails black. Rosetta thanked them, despite having found nothing. The locals went home to sleep the rest of the day. Those from the city still had a long drive back.
There had been a dozen minor injuries and twice as many blackouts. And for all their effort they had found nothing. Nothing but a few pieces of clothing and camping equipment.
The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon when they switched off the lamps. There was a chill, and one hundred plumes of mist billowed from the diggers’ mouths and evaporated. There was just the hollow sound of pickaxes smacking against hard rock, and shovels crunching into the earth.
Bryan, where are you?
61
THE GENTLE SWAYING of the canoe had lulled Zoe to the fringes of a deep sleep. She still had the gunpowder clenched tight in her hand – now a hard ball of condensed powder. She tucked it in her pocket. On the seat opposite her, Cassie and Aaron leaned against one another, fast asleep. A smile came to Zoe’s lips before she too fell asleep.
62
ZOE STARTED AWAKE, prodded by Cawing Crow. She yawned and stretched, and joined Bryan and the others as they were led into the jungle. The last thing she needed right then was another trek. Her eyes were heavy, and she could barely keep them open. She lost track of time, and after what felt like ten minutes, but could have been much longer, they came to a stop. Zoe leaned against a tree and felt herself falling asleep again.
Again, Cawing Crow prodded her, and she wanted to shout at him, to tell him to leave her alone and let her get some sleep, but she didn’t have the energy. Cawing Crow led the family up the tree using crude handholds nailed into the bark. Zoe’s muscles ached with the effort, but she was barely even aware of it.
They entered a room. Cawing Crow gestured to a bowl and a cloth that Zoe supposed was meant to be a towel, and then at the large square of blankets on the floor in the corner. A bed. A real bed. It was the most beautiful thing Zoe had ever seen. She and the others stumbled toward it and fell on top of it, not bothered that it wasn’t big enough for all four of them. They lay atop one another, and just slept.
63
SUNLIGHT FILTERED through the gaps in the walls and made constellations on the floor. The sounds of the jungle were especially loud here, the birds singing jubilantly.
Zoe sat up, her muscles aching, her bones popping. Her body felt lethargic and tired like she’d run a marathon. She got to her feet, hobbling toward the wash basin and splashing herself with cold water, letting it soak into her consciousness. She dried herself with the towel.
She turned to the others, still fast asleep. Zoe poked Bryan in the ribs. He grunted, snuffled, and then opened his eyes. He sat up and stretched.
“What time is it?” Bryan said.
“I don’t know,” Zoe said. “Late morning, I guess. Or afternoon.”
Bryan peered around at their room with heavy lidded eyes.
“Where are we?” he said.
“No idea,” Zoe said. “I remember climbing a tree last night, but that’s about it.”
Bryan shook his head. He didn’t remember a thing.
“Do you remember rescuing Cassie and me?” Zoe said.
“It rings a bell,” Bryan said.
“Thank you for coming to rescue us – so heroically too,” Zoe said.
Bryan shrugged.
“Someone had to save the maidens in distress,” he said.
“We had a plan, but I don’t know if it would have worked out,” Zoe said.
Bryan put his hands on her shoulders. They were strong, but gentle. Zoe had never noticed how big his hands were before.
“Don’t think about it,” Bryan said. “You’re safe now, and we’re going to keep it that way.”
“How did you manage to herd that many dinosaurs at the apeman village?” Zoe said.
“I used to work on a farm remember,” Bryan said. “I spent my summers wrangling large bulls. If you can jump out at an animal, especially when its sleeping and at rest, it’ll react without even thinking. They run in the opposite direction to wherever they were scared. Luckily they were grazing nearby.”
“My hero,” Zoe said.
There were more groans and grunts from the bed as Cassie and Aaron sat up, and then flopped back down.
There was a tentative rapping on the door. Bryan stiffened. No one came in.
“Hello?” Zoe said.
Cawing Crow poked his head inside.
“Ah,” he said. “You’re awake. I knocked earlier, but you were still asleep.”
Cawing Crow was more handsome than Cassie had realized. He had bronzed skin, a twinkle in his eye, and a kind smile that no doubt made him popular with the ladies.
“Are you hungry?” Cawing Crow said.
Zoe’s stomach grumbled in response. She was so hungry she’d forgotten she was starving.
Cawing Crow stepped outside and said something in a foreign language, and then came back inside. He took out a wrapped leaf, tied together with a root. He handed it to Zoe.
“For your pains,” he said, pointing to Zoe’s arm where she had purple bruises.
“Thank you,” Zoe said.
She took the bottle and moved to Cassie. She began applying the poultice to Cassie’s arm first. The apemen had left dark marks on both their arms. Zoe touched them tenderly, but Cassie still flinched.
Bryan clearly felt awkward in the young man’s presence. He turned to Cawing Crow.
“What’
s going on around here?” he said. “Why did the apemen want to kill you?”
“It’s a long story,” Cawing Crow said. “We have been fighting many years. They killed many of us.”
“How many of you are there?” Bryan said.
“Not many,” Cawing Crow said. “A few hundred.”
There had been thousands of apemen the night they were to be sacrificed. No wonder the Natives feared for their lives.
Someone stopped at the door and spoke to Cawing Crow. He turned to the family.
“They are ready for you now,” he said.
“‘They’ who?” Bryan said.
“The village,” Cawing Crow said with a smile.
64
CAWING CROW stepped out first, onto a narrow walkway that wrapped around the tree. On a level par with them, nestled in the branches of other trees, were dozens of small huts like the one they had just emerged out of. They were quaint, with straw rooves and mud walls. The family wrapped their hands around the railing and noticed hundreds of black-haired people on the ground in front of them. The Natives raised one hand and beamed with big smiles.
“They certainly look happy to see us,” Bryan said.
“Er, Mom,” Aaron said. “What’s going on?”
“I have no idea,” Zoe said.
An old man with a deeply creased face approached them. He wore a big headdress of feathers and dinosaur teeth. He hugged each of them in turn. He said something they couldn’t understand.
“Welcome,” Cawing Crow said, translating for him.
“We thank you for coming to us today,” the Chief said. “It has been over two and a half thousand suns since you were last here.”