Arnold quickly moved the morses off the trail to shelter between two giant trunks. We were well back from the tracks, but would still be able to see what was coming.
The throbbing rumble became a battleground roar. M1 and M2 had their guns at the ready, but the rest of us were frozen in place.
“It is the great howling beast,” Shan screamed.
We sat, wide-eyed, looking at the edge of the trunk, hiding this terror from view. I’m sure I stopped breathing as the encompassing shockwave shook and hammered the ground. Still I saw only empty tracks and a background of giant trees.
The whole world vibrated madly as this invisible giant stomped ever closer, while a powerful light threw everything into sharp focus.
A monster howl, the agony of a great beast, blasted through the forest, but just as quickly it faded, as did the light and sounds of the train. I didn’t know if it was just the after effects bouncing around my skull or echo chasing echo between the mighty trees.
All was silent again, but the memory of the last few moments rocketed around my skull like a ricocheting bullet.
Shan was hunched over—her arms wrapped around her body. M2 slid from his mount and vaulted up to wrap the trembling girl in a protective embrace.
“Arnold,” M1 said, “what exactly does the old tale say about the great howling beast of smoke?”
“Only that and nothing more,” Arnold replied. “Among my people it is more a superstition.”
M1 turned to Bob. “Do you know what that was?”
“I have heard the tales told by the few that experienced what we have endured, but no one has ever had the courage to remain on the rails to observe the monster.”
Alice, meanwhile had dismounted and walked out to stand on the tracks. “All clear,” she said. “Don’t know what the hell that was, but it’s gone. Hey, YDRII, our morses didn’t react at all to the commotion. Do you know why?”
“I am not sure,” he replied. “It is as though they saw or heard nothing—most unusual.”
“Did you see any more than we saw?”
“No, there was only the noise and the bright light.”
Following Arnold’s lead, the morses left our shelter and turned south. We constantly looked for any sign of the beast, but all we saw was more forest except that the tracks we now traveled were clear of litter and rust. With our transports hoofing it about sixteen hours out of every twenty-six that this planet provided, we only spent three more uneventful days in the forest. I don’t know if Moses sensed our reserved behavior. I wished there were some way to prove or disprove our vague suspicions.
CHAPTER 31
It was early in the day when the forest ended and we rode out to overgrown, semi-open land. The much smaller trees here looked a lot like pine. Here and there we saw the remnants of stone fences, but little more. YDRII went aloft for an aerial view. He reported that he saw a few isolated farms, but they looked abandoned. This was not a prosperous area, but it should have looked much better. YDRII reported that soil and climate conditions were ideal for agriculture. He also guessed, based on the topography, that there were rich mineral reserves as well as hydrocarbon deposits. Someone abandoned this land for reasons other than lack of natural resources.
Day after day, things got worse. Instead of simple abandonment, we saw more and more destruction. The number of farms increased, but some violent explosion ripped many apart. An evil smell would signal our approach to deep craters filled with greenish, stagnant water. Our alien friend, Bob, was very quiet. He did not like this and perhaps doubted the wisdom of joining our group.
“Looks like an aerial bombardment,” Harry said.
Those of us who had looked at the plans, immediately thought of the ghostly Horten wing in its floating tomb. Harry hadn’t been with us on our first visit to the Hollow Mountain, but he was up to speed on all that we had seen. By the second day, the land we traveled through looked tumbled and ripped savagely, even though the mother nature of this world was busy reclaiming what was destroyed with new and determined growth.
We rode on for another day before we found anything different. We didn’t know that the place we were approaching would provide us with the answer—with one of the answers.
“Well,” Alice said, “at last, something other than Armageddon.”
“Not too promising,” M1 said, “but very interesting.”
A switched siding on our left went to a large, apparently abandoned, industrial complex, while the main line continued. The siding tracks ran tight to the side of the loading docks of a large, partially collapsed structure. The moldering buildings surrounding us were mostly a single story of greenish brick. A network of overhead wires, pipes and open metal frameworks hung nervously in the spaces between the buildings. Everything sagged—ready to collapse. Beyond the warehouse, we saw a classification yard filled with rail cars and two very old and rusty steam engines.
“Funny,” M2 said, these structures don’t look very alien, except for the warehouse. I’ve seen old buildings like this on Earth. At Seuss, the houses were that forever-plastic stuff. Same thing with Bob’s Provider building. These structures, like those on the farms, must be more recent, built after or during whatever bad thing happened on this world, but built to a different design.”
“We should take a quick look,” M1 said, “All those interested are invited to join me.”
Other than Arnold, we all went to check the buildings. The interiors raised many more questions than answers. We finally determined that raw materials could enter at one end of the complex and a finished product would exit the other. However, the tools and machinery was very crude. Those unknown beings that created this place lacked training in the necessary skills. In one building, we saw the forms and wood working tools necessary to build the Horten wing.
“These people were desperate to manufacture this stuff,” M2 said, on seeing the miserable foundry, “but they obviously lacked most of the skills needed.”
We found no plans or other paperwork, but we didn’t need a swastika on the wall to tell who built all of this. M2 took his pictures and we went back to our morses. No more than five minutes later we came to a large, two-story building on the right. This was headquarters. The large building was also barren, but more interesting. The front half looked like business offices while the back half had what might have been workrooms and a big kitchen based on the remains of a stone oven. The second floor had a central hallway with doorways to several empty rooms.
A large doorway in the back gave access to a long extension, divided into small rooms for about fifty people. There were some fragments of tables, chairs and bed frames. This again told us nothing.
Just as we were about to leave, Harry called to us from a doorway at the end of the extension. “Hey, people, there’s a good sized cemetery back here. I count forty-six graves. It looks like those folks were planted at about the same time.”
We gathered at an opening of the low stone wall surrounding the plot.
“Someone cheaped out, Alice said. “The headstones are just boulders—no marks or engraving.”
At the rear of the enclosure was a stone building, a little bigger than a phone booth and twice as deep. It was the most substantial of all the structures. There was no door. The builder had offset the entrance, so that we had to enter before we could see the interior. It was a tight fit.
“Oh, God,” Alice exclaimed, which reflected the reactions of the Terrans.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” M2 said, through clenched teeth. He stepped forward and pulled the scrap of red cloth from his pocket. He held it at the frayed bottom of the Nazi flag, hanging against the wall. “These little pieces came from this flag.”
“This is the missing flag from the map room,” Alice said. “They ripped off an entire strip. This means they have a few more little pieces of cloth. One wonders where they are.”
M2 pushed the flag to one side to reveal a crudely carved ‘Die zukünftige Rasse’.
“That means
the coming Race,” Harry said, “but I don’t think they were referring to the Indianapolis 500.”
I glanced at Moses. He looked stricken. His bronze face went pale. I didn’t think he could fake that reaction.
“Enough of this,” M1 said, “I think, Moses, you owe us an explanation.”
Moses was silent. His mouth was half-open. He looked paralyzed.
“I believe I can provide the answers.” It was YDRII. “Now that I see this place, the reality fits with things I know from the past.”
“We should step outside,” Alice said. “It’s getting stuffy in here.”
Outside, we gathered around Moses and his extension. “It is my wish,” YDRII began, “that you believe what I am about to tell you. Moses and I have never lied to you. Delaying our request for assistance in the search for Mary was deception by omission, but Moses confessed to it at the time. He told you about severing his relationship with the Nazis and this is true, but some things he did not mention. There are times that revealing a mistake is uncomfortable and embarrassing.”
Moses interrupted YDRII. “Allow me to continue. I have my wits about me now.” His skin had returned to its natural color. “During the Earth years of nineteen forty-four and forty-five I worked closely with a group of forty-six Germans. There were thirty-seven men and nine women—all scientists and military. I showed them many things, but refrained from teaching them the details. I thought I was safe. They behaved well. I took them, more than once, to Ganymede, my ship and the immigrant planet. At one time I let them out of the dome to experience the reality of the new planet. Yes, I gave them the blue and yellow pill.
“Eventually, YDRII became suspicious when he caught a group in the Ganymede hut. They had a plausible excuse, but YDRII secretly monitored their movements from that point and discovered that they continued their unauthorized exploring. We thought it had all to do with the immigrant planet, but now I know that they gained access to Nexus. Up to that time the portal was working, although I had never used it.
“I soon closed the portal to Earth—thinking I left them in the Hollow Mountain, but obviously I was wrong. I cannot imagine what their plans might have been or even how they managed to get this far.”
Moses paused and looked at each of us with solemn eyes. While he was talking, YDRII elevated and opened his center panel. The hologram he projected was life size and startlingly realistic. We saw a man in a black uniform.
“Could this be Die zukünftige Rasse?” Harry asked.
“Look at his face,” Amy said. “It reeks of superior, dismissive arrogance, and yes, he certainly thinks he is. But why black, I wonder. The SS used a variety of uniforms and colors, especially during the war.”
“Black was the most notorious,” Harry said.
We all agreed.
“Okay, but why,” M1 asked, “would they leave those pieces of red cloth? Why mark the trail at all?”
“Maybe,” M2 said, “for some reason they had to leave in two small groups. The first group could have somehow had a map and left the red cloths to guide the second. Then perhaps the second group deliberately damaged the Nexus portal.”
“That sounds logical, but I have no answer,” Moses said.
“Here’s another thing,” Amy said. “If that first group had a map, why did they go to Seuss? It’s in the opposite direction.”
“I suppose,” M1 said, “they could have made a wrong turn or misinterpreted the map. If that’s the case, maybe they took out their frustration inside that church.”
“Wow,” Harry said, “it’s a relief and a letdown. Looks like maybe they settled here, then died of old age. Could be they used some local slave labor.”
“Something’s not right,” Amy said. “Why here? Why didn’t they move on? This is not a vacation spot. Why did they savage the countryside to kill or drive away the population? And why did they all die about the same time and who buried them?”
“Very strange,” I said, “but I guess we’ll never know.”
“This is such a shock,” Alice said, “that we’re not thinking clearly. First, if these Nazis were middle age or younger and having had the pill, they would be old, but not all dead. I’m thinking of Sergeant Gunter Weis. He was from that era. He was without the pill and alive until last year when Roy Kilbourne strangled him. Some of these people here should still be alive unless there was a suicide pact or a disease.
“Plus, look at these graves—they can’t have been here more than a decade, yet they’re sunken like some I’ve seen that are over a century old.”
“You get today’s gold star,” M1 said.
“Two gold stars,” M2 said. “Now that you’ve said it, it makes sense.”
YDRII had floated to hover over the cemetery. “I have enough penetrating radar to learn that this is not a grave. The ground below has not been disturbed.” He moved to another spot. “It is the same here. Someone just dug a shallow depression. This is not a burial ground.”
He checked the remaining graves with the same results.
“Add that fact to the list of things that are a puzzle,” Harry said, “like the lifter, the portals, YDRII, the Nazis, how the hell did we get here and where the hell are we going? I take back my relief and letdown, but at least we know what to look out for.”
We talked about it while we walked back to our morses. Moses sent YDRII aloft to scan the area. The extension reported that the only exception to what we had been seeing was a very small deserted city about three miles to the east. The road of rails continued on to the south.
“Wait a minute, folks.” We turned and saw Amy scuffing the ground with her boot heal. “This is beginning to come together and I think I’ve got it.”
“That’s swell,” Alice said. “We’re listening.”
“First, why did they stop here and second, why did they leave? Now, I was a small town girl and I know about dirt.” M2 started to reply, but Alice clamped her hand over his mouth. “Perhaps I should have said, soil—different kinds of soil. Back at Shenandoah, the soil is sandy loam. It’s loose and good for growing carrots and stuff. We are now standing on a rather dense clay—clay with a greenish tinge, like the bricks in those buildings. I’m thinking of that phony factory that disguised the entrance to the Hollow Mountain. This place could be a cover up for some other nefarious Nazi scheme. Better yet a distraction if someone, like us, should be on their trail.”
“But this is so elaborate,” M-1 said.
“True,” Amy replied, “but think again of the phony factory in Germany. Those people went to extremes to hide things and I think this is no exception. If their destination is super-important to them, then this place becomes logical.
“I’m sure they chose this spot for a reason other than the clay. The clay was here and they took advantage of it. I think they found something here, enslaved the population to build what we see, then went to war with them to drive them from this area. Until now, they seemed to have succeeded.”
“Wait a minute, Amy,” I said. “Based on your last sentence, I think you’re about to make a great revelation.”
“Right you are, James,” she said with a smile. “I remember well, the bricked up entrance to the Hollow Mountain because it was so clever. The Nazis, I’m sure, also thought it clever—so clever that they used the same trick here.”
“If true,” Harry said, “you get my next ration of grog.”
“Deal, Harry,” she said. “Look at the collapsed front of that big building with the loading docks. Everything is a ruin except for a portion of wall on the left. There we see a doorway plugged with a tumble of bricks.”
“Amy, I love you,” M1 blurted.
It was time for another awkward silence as we watched the color rise from Amy’s neck to turn her face a delightful pink. M1 meanwhile, tried desperately but unsuccessfully for a follow up. Instead, he invited us to join him at the blocked doorway. Alice, with her best deadpan look, just took it all in, while the rest of us pretended we didn’t notice.
YDRII had some new news. “You may recall that in your first exploration of the Hollow Mountain, Alice observed that the background radiation level dropped off when close to the train. I had my doubts about the accuracy of her Geiger counter, however I experienced the same phenomena when we came level with the edge of this loading platform. This should not happen, but I have no explanation.”
By that time we had arrived at the plugged doorway.
“Look here,” M2 said, “there’s the dark brick at just the right height.”
This time we didn’t retreat while he turned the little block. The door swung out as expected, but inside was another iron door—the opposite of the Hollow Mountain entrance. The big difference was that this one had a corroded padlock hanging from the handle. M2 dug a climbing hammer out of his backpack, gave it a whack and in we went. Arnold stayed with the herd.
CHAPTER 32
“Who could ask for anything more?” Alice sang as we looked at five intact portal chambers lined up against the back wall.
The interior was dim, but some milky skylights provided enough illumination for us to see five big chamber doors, much larger than any we had seen so far, and nothing else. We simply stood and looked for a short time. I was experiencing the same sensation I had when we located the Hollow Mountain and the Egyptian tomb. These could be our way to the home worlds.
“Hold on,” Harry said. “How could the tax collectors access these portals with their goods? I don’t think they would haul them in through the doorway we used.”
I walked over to the collapsed front wall. “See here,” I said, “there are giant hinges. The rubble out in front is fake. This whole wall swings out like the gates on a canal lock.”
That settled, Moses walked along, reading the wavy lines above the doors. We stayed put—somewhat overwhelmed by our discovery. When he reached the last door, I saw him extract his probe and enter to take a reading. As he walked back, he repeated the process on the remaining four and then gave us a very earthlike thumbs up.
LOST AND FORGOTTEN: Book 2 The Secret Path Page 22