The Artifact: Natasha Burrows Series Book One

by Phillips, Michelle

  “What apart from the man-eating ants and killer bees? That’s not what I mean, I meant, you know, unfriendly tribes.”

  “Who says they aren’t friendly?” he asked with a quirked eyebrow. “Trust me if they wanted rid of us, they could have easily done it by now. They use spear guns, blow darts and arrows that are tipped with either snake venom or scrapings from the poison dart frog. They are just watching us, probably curious and if we pass through their territory without causing anything any harm, we should be fine.”

  “I don’t like the words should be fine, and poison darts used together in the same sentence” she said, brushing her hair away from her face. “I’m kind of picky that way.”

  “Good, because I’m pretty sure there was a full stop in there somewhere.” She eyed him with a withering look that could melt wax.

  “Well if it's any comfort, you are probably the reason why they are so interested, with that curly blonde hair of yours.”

  “Darn it” she growled “I should have worn a cap.”

  “They have probably never seen anything like you before” he said, and under his breath he added inaudibly and neither have I.

  They continued on through the jungle making good time. The rain had stopped and as predicted the humidity set in again.

  “How much further?” she moaned grabbing her water bottle and taking a sip. She was starting to sound like a disgruntled child on a road trip. “Are we still being followed?”

  “I don’t think so, and we are almost there” he continued plowing his way through the jungle like a tank. She groaned and rushed to keep up with him. They had been trekking now for almost seven hours and she was starting to chafe in places on her body that she never knew existed.

  “Banana’s” he called out to her, using his machete to chop some down. “Here” he said, throwing one to her “try one.”

  “Are you sure I’m not going to be attacked by a wild banana eating monkey for it?” she asked jokingly.

  “Just shut up and eat it,” he chuffed. The banana practically melted in her mouth, it was sweeter than she expected.

  “This is just, simply delicious” she said looking at him with surprise.

  “You haven’t lived until you have tried a fresh banana” he said biting into one with the ferocity of someone who hadn’t eaten for a week.

  She looked at him solemnly “how do you do this?”

  “Do what?

  “I don’t know. Put your life at risk like this, I mean with those natives? leaving it the hands of fate? And yet….” she looked at him with a form of admiration “still seeming to enjoy every moment with the innocence of a child.”

  “Ahh” he said smiling, his eyes glinting “that would require having a little bit of faith. Remember when we met at the club?” She blushed slightly remembering how clueless she had been. “If I went purely by fact like a scientist, I would never have taken this adventure with you. It was clear you weren’t ready…. And yet” he said staring at her intently “I saw something in you, a will, that made me believe you could do it, and… here we are now” he said putting his hands out either side of him and looking around at the jungle like he was the master of his domain. “On our best adventure yet.”

  He turned back to look at her and she put her head down quickly, avoiding his eyes in case she blushed again. She really didn’t know what to make of him. She felt like he was a completely different person now to the one she had met in the club that night. Being around him was actually quite fun, apart from the constant death threats the jungle kept issuing them, the banter between them was entertaining, and he really knew a lot. He wasn’t completely the dense egotistical male she originally thought he was, she was willing to accept that he had layers.

  “Come on, I think we are really close now.” He pulled out his Garmin GPS and tried to get a reading. It had been pretty much useless since they entered the extremely dense canopy overhead. He really needed to get an unobstructed view of the sky for it to work, but if it did it would give him their precise co-ordinates.”

  “Anything?” she asked.

  “No, but I’ll keep trying.”

  She pulled out her dad's compass “we are still on the correct heading” she said reflecting on the first time she had used the compass with her father. They had gone on an adventure, a small treasure hunt of sorts. She never realised at the time he had cleverly taught her to use a compass and map coordinates whilst making it fun at the same time. “Thankyou dad” she spoke quietly to herself, looking heavenward, losing herself in a moment of brief revere for the father she had loved so much.

  “Look” he said pointing up ahead. They continued walking to what seemed like a small clearing. They broke through the jungles confusion of trees, bushes and climbing creepers.

  Tasha looked at Xavier “Is this man made?”

  He shook his head. “No. It's just one of those things. Sometimes massive emergent trees come crashing down, like the one we heard before. Normally it's a majestic Kapok or Ceiba tree, they can grow to 150 feet or more. When one of these giants, laden with lianas connected to neighboring trees falls, it takes out a sizeable portion of the canopy. The hole it produces in the canopy is called a ‘light gap’ and it's going to work in our favour today” he said producing his GPS.

  She felt a small wind, and breathed a sigh of relief. There was not the slightest hint of wind in the rainforest, it was dank and humid. All of a sudden they were back in the open, the sun peaking through clouds, like they had infiltrated another universe and were free of the chaotic constriction of spiky vines and the constant scrutiny of the flickering dark shadows that lurked behind multitudes of trees. She pulled her handkerchief loose, relieving the constriction around her neck and wiped away the heavy beads of perspiration off her face and neck.

  “Is that a mango?” she eyed the bounteously ripe hanging amber fruit greedily.

  “Yes, and it looks like there are some oranges over there.” Delighted she gathered some mangos, smelling their sweet amber skin as he checked the GPS. “Best not to take too many” he advised seeing her loading up on nature's plump oval jewels. “Fruit rots quickly in the jungle, just take what you need.” She nodded taking a bite out of a big juicy mango, the juice ran down her face, sticky and sweet, it was like heaven.

  “We are almost there” he said looking at his GPS signal. We are approximately four hundred meters away - that way” he said pointing back to the dark dense jungle. She stopped eating and looked ahead apprehensive.

  “Come on then, let’s go.” He waved for her to follow him. She wished she could echo his enthusiasm, but at the risk of seeming negative, she could not imagine what they would do if they got there, and there was literally nothing there.

  He looked back at her “you don’t want to spend too much time here. An abundance of fruit means herbivorous animals, and an abundance of herbivorous animals are often followed by the carnivorous type.” He did not need to say it twice, she picked herself back up with the speed of an Olympic sprinter and started following him again, as he pushed his way through the new growth that had sprung up in the clearing

  They continued on four hundred metres into the forest until they reached the point indicated on the map. He stopped abruptly in front of her.

  “What is it?” she exclaimed “what can you see.” She tried to move alongside him, but he held his hand out in front of her preventing her from going any further. She looked down and gasped. Right in front of them was a hole in the earth, approximately four metres wide. Without him there, she would have walked straight into it.

  She looked down into what looked like an almost perfectly symmetrical hole and saw what looked like a crystal-clear lake below. It was like an open well, only with exuberant vegetation growing all down the sides and long roots handing over the edge reaching thirstily to the water below. They were standing on a large rock overhang, rich in flora and fauna, hiding the cenote from above and it’s not until you were right on top of it that it’s exis
tence was revealed.

  Timed perfectly, the sun had just started on its daily afternoon descent, shining beams of light through the lofty palapa tree’s and onto the cenote waters. Dancing over the surface, the waters glistened to life, and a crystal clear aquatic portal opened up underneath her feet.

  The water in this subterranean hole was crystal clear, a vibrant turquoise color. Sunlight filtered through the hole in the ceiling, giving the scene a magical feeling, the crystalline waters sparkling with a stunning kaleidoscope of natural light, dragonflies fluttering above the water’s surface and birds swooping overhead singing, feeding on the small killifish and insects darting around the water's surface.

  “It’s a cave” she exclaimed. “It’s just breathtakingly beautiful. I didn’t think there were caves in the rainforest?”

  He looked at her quizzically. “Really?” he looked at her astonished “Ok, I guess so” he said “most people don’t associate the rainforest with caves. But I can tell you underneath this canopy is a vast network of caves. The technical term for this is a Cenote or sinkhole. They believe they were formed over sixty-five million years ago, and now climate change is starting to fill them with water.”

  “Look” she said leaning closer to the edge, astonished “there's a ledge down there, with a staircase leading downwards to the water. I can’t see where it goes.” He squatted down, removing a small, lightweight Bachar ladder from his backpack. He secured one end to a solid tree and threw the ladder down the hole. It almost made it to the platform.

  She looked at him one eyebrow raised. “I’m not climbing on that” she said.

  “Would you prefer to rappel down?” he asked “I have a harness.”

  “No, I definitely would not. But don’t you have some kind of safety rope for this thing?”

  He scoffed “The total distance down is only around three to four metres. I’m sure you will be ok.” She still hesitated. “Ok then” he said pulling a small waist harness out of his backpack and a pulley and some rope. “I’ll go down first and spot you on the way down.” He grabbed her waist with both hands, drawing her closer to him as he encircled her waist with the harness. She felt her heartbeat pound erratically at his touch, and she flushed as he cinched the harness tighter around her waist. He took a couple of caving headlamps out of his bad and handed her one.

  “One question” she asked a little nervously “are there… you know .. bats, Vampire Bats?”

  He chuckled “scared?”

  “Seriously? Of course I’m scared of a blood sucking bat.”

  “Don’t worry, they don’t drink much, I’d be more worried about rabies.”

  “Rabies? Just great.”

  “Don’t worry, you have up to fourteen days to be treated afterwards.”

  “Comforting.”

  “You know, the male vampire bats are polygynous, and have many mates. The dominant adult males form harems of females, the lucky bastards.”

  “You know” she said seriously “I could see you as a bat, you have the right head shape for it.”

  He burst out laughing “only you could get jealous of a vampire bat harem joke. But seriously they do defend their harem vigorously. I can’t see any down there, but let’s keep it our noise to a minimum until we know for sure.”

  She watched him as he climbed down the ladder like a rock climber, using his arms only. His biceps bulged under the strain as he took the ladder, rung by rung and made his way down to the ledge. She took a deep breath, preparing to follow him. He gave her the thumbs up, indicating he was ready for her and he took up the slack on her safety rope.

  She started down hesitantly, trying to use only her arms but she wasn’t strong enough. She tried to place her foot in one of the ladder's rungs, but it kept moving from underneath her, swaying back and forth. She struggled wildly with it, until she managed to get a foothold. Breathing a sigh of relief, she continued slowly down the ladder which seemed to have a life of its own.

  Halfway down she lost her footing on the ladder again, and panicking she caused the ladder to sway furiously.

  “I’ve got you” said Xavier, bracing himself. She hung by her arms her legs flailing in the air, until her hands started to become sore and her fingers lost their grip. She cried out in panic, her yell echoing through the cenote, as she fell away from the ladder, only to be slowly lowered to the floor by Xavier.

  She looked at him sheepishly. “Sorry” she said, wiping some sweat from her brow, “I panicked a bit and lost my grip.”

  He looked down at her, and for the first time she could detect a gentle kindness in his eyes “It’s ok. I shouldn’t have fought you on the safety.” He extended his hand helping her up. “And as a small plus, you cawing like a Galah means we now know for certain there are no bats down here.” She brushed the dirt off her pants and stood up to have a good look around.

  What she saw amazed her even more. The sun that tangoed on the water above now illuminated everything below. As if thousands of Swarovski crystals had been dropped into the water, every angle of vision filled with sparkles and light, the surface of the water shimmering like a mirror.

  Further inside the cenote it was like a natural cathedral, with stalactites and Alamo tree roots forming an impressive display, hanging from the high vaulted ceiling down to the surface of water.

  “It’s like an underground fairyland,” she said as she looked at the dragonflies lilting in the air around her and brightly coloured fish darting across the water's surface. She could see the cenote extended much further underground, the further it went, the darker it got. The stairs they had seen leading from the limestone platform, lead to a small pathway that followed the edge of the cavern, leading off into darkness, it was like going from heaven into hell.

  It was a two-cycle solution type cave, indicating that there had been an earlier period of ground water saturation, causing the excavation of the cave through dissolution of the limestone rock below.

  This was followed by another period, thousands of years in fact, when the cave was partially filled by dripstone and flowstone. She had read somewhere that it took stalactites grew at an average of 0.13mm per year, which judging from the size of some the dripstones in this cave, dated it at least three thousand years older or more by her calculations. She raised her head, looking up and twirling like a child in a candy store awe inspired, not knowing what to look at first. She involuntarily shivered realising she was in a primordial place, of great beauty and equal significance.

  Xavier switched on his light and she followed suit.

  “Let’s see where this thing goes” he said. She followed him carefully down the staircase, realising the lower they went the damper and danker it smelt. They continued along the path, following the underground lake into velvety black darkness. She looked out across the water next to them, the inky ripples sparkled somewhat ominously under the light of her headlamp. Xavier stopped short in front of her, causing her to bump into him.

  “What is it?” she whispered, not quite sure why she was whispering. He pointed ahead of them. She looked directly ahead and saw the pathway ahead was strewn with bones.

  He looked back at her “human” he said “and some animal.”

  She shuddered “recent or old?” she asked. She didn’t get an answer because at that instant there appeared a dark green triangular horned head and several feet of colossal undulating body. It was a giant anaconda.

  Xavier turned, pushing her backwards out of the path of the giant snake. The anaconda lunged at him from its vantage point in the water. It grabbed him viciously on the upper arm with it's large mouth full of backward slanting teeth. The behemoth them started the process of heaving its massive body out of the water, winding its mammoth circumference around him, engulfing him, coil upon coil, each coil getting tighter and tighter trying to suffocate him.

  In that instant Xavier found himself acting on instinct alone. Every sinew, every nerve, muscle and fibre firing into immediate action. He managed to pull his t
actical Gerber Ghostrike fixed blade knife out of the low profile modular sheath system that allowed him to carry the knife discreetly concealed in his belt. He had another concealed on his ankle, but he couldn’t get to it in time.

  It was a fine edge drop point blade measuring in at a smidgen over 3 inches, crafted from 420HC steel. He managed to loosen the snake a little by sticking the knife between his body and the snake. It had continued to tighten every time he exhaled, just like a ratchet, compressing his lungs. But now as it tightened itself, it was tightening onto the point of the knife, and confused it started to relax its grip around his lungs.

  Tasha stood for what felt like a minute, but what was in reality a millisecond and lunged at his machete which was once hanging from his bag but now encased in the undulating scales of the snake's asphyxiating coils. She managed to slide it out from under the snake as it started to release its pressure on his body.

  Without thinking twice, she raised the kukri machete and started hacking at it. She aimed the blows at its spine a few feet below the wicked head. She lopped at its head like a person obsessed, blood splashing up onto her face until she cleaved its head from its body, and the body fell free quivering and winding like it was still alive.

  It was out of action, but shivers ran up and down its body like puffs of wind on a mountain tarn. The beast was dead, but Xavier was by no means free of the head. She tried to pull it off but he cried out in pain begging for her to stop. If an anaconda gets its teeth into your arm, you'll have to push your arm into its mouth to free it from the backward teeth, then pull it out. If you just pull, the viciously sharp teeth will go in deeper. Luckily Xavier knew this, and he pushed his arm further into the snake's mouth as Tasha looked on in horror, successfully extracting it from the slimy grip and razor-sharp teeth. Its macabre head rolled to the floor, as large as a basketball, it's glazed over eyes frozen in a wicked stare.

  She looked at the monstrous leviathan, it was at least thirty feet long. A penetrating fetid odor emanated from the snake. She covered her nose and mouth in disgust.