To the left of the two men was the dying insect that they had pushed out of the cave. Henry and Gordon walked carefully around the quickly freezing millipede as it tried in vain to make its way through the ice and snow. When they reached the bottom of the hill, Dana ran over and hugged Gordon. Rodgers laughed, but a quick look from the muscular Gordon quickly quieted the portly hunter.
Henry took a quick count of how many people had made it out of the cave alive. Aside from himself, Gordon, Dana, Rodgers, and Jun-Tuk, only five members of the original team were still alive. Henry didn’t waste any more time. He simply started shouting out orders, “Gordon, we now have plenty of gasoline.” He pointed to two snowmobiles to his left. “Siphon what you can from those two snowmobiles. Then fill up the other snowmobiles as much as you can. When the snowmobiles that you are siphoning from are empty, flip them on their sides.” Henry pointed to two more snowmobiles to the right. “Leave those three vehicles up right. If we are in a hurry when we are coming back this way, at least we will know that all we need to do is make it to those vehicles. If we need to switch snowmobiles, we will have enough gas to make it back home.” He walked over closer to Gordon. “Remember, two days from now, blow that valley pass and make sure that the Yeti and none of these other dammed monsters ever get out of this valley again.”
Gordon simply nodded then he started setting up the siphon to fill up the gas tanks. Henry next walked over to Rodgers. “Make sure that each group has plenty of ammunition and flares. We already know that the Yeti will stop into the caves from the tracks that we followed here. There is a good chance that we will not only run into Yeti in those caves, but the millipedes as well. If we do, having the flares around may be even a better solution than the using the rifles.”
Chapter 13
Wen-Ku was carrying the now awake and cooing Thu-ca in her arms as she led Gina back to the mouth of the cave. When the women reached the cave opening, they found that Yukon was wide awake. The Yeti was staring out at the snow and snarling at something. Gina had taken her time to put her winter clothing back on and she approached the Yeti while Wen-Ku stayed farther back in the warmer recesses of the cave. Gina walked up next to the Yeti and she looked out to see two gigantic birds of prey tearing apart the remains of the cave bear that Yukon had slain earlier.
From the look of the huge birds, Gina guessed that they were some form of teratorn. As an anthropologist, Gina was well aware that teratorns had fed on man and other primates when our ancestors first made their way out of the trees. From the way that Yukon was acting, she guessed that the Yeti still saw the birds as an annoyance if not an outright threat. The teratorns were large but not nearly as tall as Yukon. Gina guessed that the birds would have weighed less than a quarter of what the Yeti did. Most birds of prey did not attack prey larger than themselves, and even though she doubted it, Gina could not say for sure that the teratorns would not attempt to prey on Yukon. Gina also considered the fact that these animals did live in a polar environment. It was entirely possible that the normal fear of attacking something larger and heavier than oneself may be negated by the overall scarcity of food. It then dawned on Gina, that aside from being a threat to Yukon himself, the teratorns may have been a threat to infant Yeti’s or to the women and human infants that Yukon tried to surround himself with.
Gina walked to the edge of the cave, and the transmitter in her pocket blinked. A rush of hope coursed through Gina’s body. The transmitter was working and it would be able to lead a rescue team to her. When Gina thought that her life was the only one in danger, she didn’t want anyone else risking their lives to save her. Now that she knew she was going to be mother her entire perspective had changed. She felt the need to do anything that she could to protect her unborn child. The people who yesterday she did not want risking their lives for her she now prayed would challenge the dangers of the valley to rescue her baby.
Gina was still thinking of her saving her unborn child when Yukon suddenly growled and stood. Gina looked out of the cave to see the two teratorns squawking. The two birds looked to the left of the cave and then they took the air. Yukon walked to edge of the cave and Gina followed closely behind the Yeti. Yukon took a step out of the cave and Gina peered around the huge Yeti to see what she at first thought was another cave bear lumbering along the side of the mountain. The movements of the animal seemed much more labored and clumsy than the way the bear moved. As Gina looked slightly closer at the approaching beast, she could see that the creature was not a bear. The creature stopped along the mountain side and started digging into the snow. A second later, Gina saw a long thin tongue reach out and lick the area that the beast had just dug up. When she saw the long tongue, it reminded Gina of the sloths that she had seen at various zoos. Gina decided that the large animal must have been a giant ground sloth. She also deduced that most of the vegetation found in the valley must have grown along the slopes of the mountains where the heat from the volcano below could keep mosses and short grasses from totally freezing to death.
There was a loud squawk and Gina looked above the giant sloth to see the two teratorns circling the animal. One of the horrible birds swooped down and attacked the giant sloth. The other teratorn followed the lead of its partner and attacked the sloth as well. Gina shrugged and spoke to herself, “Well, I guess that answers my question if the teratorns would attack something larger than themselves or not.”
Gina watched as the giant sloth stood on its hind legs and started rolling its huge paws in front of itself like a heavyweight boxer. The teratorns continued to fly around the beast while using their beaks and claws to attack it. Spurts of blood flew into the air as the teratorns scratched and pecked at the giant sloth. The sloth continued to try and defend himself by striking the teratorns with its huge paws. Gina was impressed that the sloth continued to step forward as he threw his punches. Gina’s MMA training had taught her that stepping forward when you punched helped to put your weight behind a blow. In the case of a giant sloth that weighed over a ton, putting his weight into a blow gave him a lot of punching power.
The two teratorns continued to circle the sloth and attack it for several seconds before the sloth was able to land a blow on one of the wretched birds. When the sloth’s blow connected with the bird’s chest, its entire body bent in half. Gina was sure that the sloth’s blow had shattered the teratorn’s ribcage and crushed its heart. Despite the death of its partner, the first teratorn continued to try and attack the sloth. The teratorn continued to circle the sloth and it was obvious to Gina that the raptor was trying to attack the creature’s face and eyes. While attacking the sloth’s vulnerable face was the only chance of success that the teratorn had, it also placed the bird directly in the range of the sloth’s paws. The teratorn continued to attack in a blur of feathers until the sloth punched the bird in its chest and crushed its skeleton just as it had the other teratorn. With his attackers defeated, the sloth slumped back down onto all fours and started digging in the snow again.
The poor animal thought that it was safe until Yukon leapt out of the cave and sprinted toward the sloth. Gina stepped farther out of the cave to watch Yukon’s attack on the giant sloth. She was still trying to learn as much about the Yeti as possible, not only for posterities’ sake, but also to increase her own chances of escaping the monster. When the giant sloth saw Yukon running toward it, the beast’s eyes grew wide with fear. Gina could almost feel the sloth’s terror at the sight of the Yeti. From the look on the animal’s face, Gina could see that the sloth saw Yukon as death incarnate. The giant sloth once again stood up on its hind legs and began rolling its massive paws in front of itself.
When the sloth stood up, Yukon stopped running and he began to walk toward his prey. When Yukon was just out of the reach of the sloth’s paws, he stopped walking and stared at the animal. Gina could already see how this encounter was going to play itself out. Aside from training in mixed martial arts, Gina was an avid fan of the UFC. She remembered a highly publicized fight
in which multiple time heavyweight boxing champion James Toney had taken on several time UFC champion Randy Couture. When the match had started, Toney and Couture were sizing each other up in exactly the same fashion that the giant sloth and Yukon were now. When she was watching the fight on television, she knew that Toney only had one chance of winning the fight. Toney had undeniable knockout power and all he had to do was hit Couture once to knockout the MMA fighter. The danger for Toney was that if he missed with his first punch, Couture’s superior speed and grappling techniques would allow him to get inside of Toney’s defenses and then tear the boxer apart.
Gina knew that just like James Toney the giant sloth had one shot. Yukon was a powerful beast but from what she had read about giant sloths and from what she had seen in his battle with teratorns Gina was sure that one well-placed punch from the sloth could crush Yukon’s skull. When Yukon had battled the saber-toothed cats and the cave bear, Gina had prayed the Yeti would defeat the beasts and save her from being devoured. Now that she knew Yukon intended to keep her and her child captive for the rest of their lives, she prayed that the giant sloth would kill the Yeti. With Yukon dead, she thought that there was a chance that she could just wait in the cave until a heavily armed rescue team made its way to her and took her out of this hellish valley.
Gina watched with baited breath, as Yukon slowly started to circle to the sloth’s left hand side. The clumsy sloth tried to turn with Yukon but it was obvious that the awkward creature was not designed to have much mobility when it was standing on two feet. Yukon continued to slowly circle the sloth until the sloth’s feet slid slightly off balance. With the sloth off balance, Yukon charged. The sloth threw a wild blow. Then, in what looked like a replay of the Toney-Couture fight, the nimble Yukon ducked under the blown. The Yeti wrapped his arms around the sloth’s waste then he drove the sloth into the ground. The sloth’s entire body was jarred by the impact, and while it was still stunned, Yukon mounted the beast’s chest. In a flash, Yukon lifted his claw into the air and slashed open the giant sloth’s throat. The dying animal shook its head from side to side in agony until Yukon sank his jaws into what was left of the sloth’s neck. With one pull, Yukon tore out the sloth’s windpipe. The sloth’s body shook violently for a few seconds and then the huge animal died. Yukon roared then the blood-soaked Yeti started to devour his kill.
Gina was so enthralled by the battle that she had not noticed Wen-Ku standing next to her at the cave mouth. The native woman smiled when she saw Yukon tearing apart his kill. “The Yeti god has provided us with a sloth. We shall eat well tonight and his body shall provide much for us. His skin will make fine clothing and blankets, his insides shall provide us with fire, and we can turn his bones into many torches.” Wen-Ku nodded. “Yes, soon we shall eat well and then we will have much work to do.” The native woman turned and walked back into the cave. Gina watched her briefly to see where she had put the baby. Gina watched as Wen-Ku walked over to another unseen crevice that she pulled the baby out of.
Gina took a moment to consider all that she had learned in the past several minutes. First and foremost, she had learned that it looked like most of the vegetation in the valley grew on the mountain slopes. This also meant that most of the animals probably stayed close to the slopes because herbivores stayed near vegetation and carnivores stayed near herbivores. That meant that if Gina tried to escape that it would be safer for her to head for the center of the valley and away from the slopes because she would be less likely to run into any animals. Still, she knew that trying to escape was a futile effort unless Yukon was dead or otherwise engaged.
She had also learned what the primary materials were that Wen-Ku had used to create fire. She would soon also have the opportunity to watch the process through which Wen-Ku obtained these materials from the dead sloth. Lastly, she had learned that cave system seemed to have numerous crevices that were capable of hiding and infant. Gina looked at the cave wall and she wondered if there were crevices along it that were capable of hiding a full-grown woman.
Wen-Ku had said that the crawling demons lived deeper within the tunnel system and that they would be drawn to dead meat. Gina took one more look outside of the cave at Yukon tearing apart the dead sloth. She stared at the dead sloth because in it she saw the key to enacting her desperate escape plan.
Gina waited patiently at the mouth of the cave, as Yukon devoured most of the remains from the dead sloth. While Yukon was eating, Gina had tried to use her radio to contact Dana or anyone else on the radio. She tried multiple channels but all that she could get was static. Gina guessed that the cave and the mountains around her were wreaking havoc on the radio signal and bouncing it all over the place. She put the radio back into her pocket and looked over at the transmitter that she had left just outside of the cave entrance. She was glad to see that beacon on it was still blinking red. She hoped that the blinking light meant that the signal being bounced off the satellite was still reaching the receiver back at camp.
A few feet behind Gina, Wen-Ku was building a fire. Gina watched as the native woman first placed the sleeping Thu-Ca into a cave crevice then gathered dung that Yukon had left around the cave to fuel the fire with. When she had enough dung piled together, Wen-Ku went over to one of the torches that was burning low. She pulled the bone torch out of the crevice that it had been wedged into then she walked over and set the dung pile on fire.
Wen-Ku held the torch out in front of her as it flickered out. She pointed to the torch. “The fat of the last animal that I used to light the torches has nearly all burned away. The lights will begin to dim soon. As soon as we finish eating, we must remove the sloth’s fat in order relight the torches lest the crawling demons should return.” Wen-Ku grabbed one of the long pelts that she had left sitting near the cave entrance. She threw it on her shoulders then she looked at Gina. “When the Yeti god has finished eating, he will bring a large portion of meat to the cave for us. You watch over the infant and cook the meat; I shall go over to the carcass and remove as much fat from it as I can.”
Gina shook her head. “No, I do not know how to cook sloth but I do know the difference between lean meat and fat. You should cook the meat. I shall cut the fat from the dead sloth.”
Wen-Ku shrugged. “As you wish.” She then looked around the cave floor for a moment, picked up a jagged rock, and handed it to Gina. “Use this to cut the fat from the carcass but be quick about. It will not be long before more of the flying black demons return to feast upon the kill. If they came across you outside of the cave, they shall attack you as well.”
Gina nodded in reply and then she took the jagged rock from Wen-Ku just as Yukon had finished his meal. She looked out into the valley to see the blood-soaked form of Yukon walking back toward the cave entrance with a large chunk of sloth meat in his hand. Blood dripped from the chunk of sloth as Yukon made his way into the cave. The Yeti threw the meat down by the fire. He then walked away from the burning flames and over to the crevice where Thu-Ca was sleeping. The blood-soaked monster looked in at the sleeping infant, and as he did so, Gina could see a genuine look of caring on Yukon’s face. While Gina was surprised that a monster who could be so brutal could also appear as loving as the Yeti now did, the sight also disgusted her even more as she thought about the monster staring into a crevice at her child.
Yukon lay down next to the crevice and Gina was actually thankful that the Yeti had done so. She was about to put her plan into action and she was afraid that when her plan came together that she would be placing the innocent child in danger. The only thing that she could do to keep the infant safe was to have him as close Yukon as possible. To have Yukon sleeping in front of the baby was about as close to the infant as he could get.
Gina walked out in the subzero temperatures of the valley. She ran over to the dead sloth then she began cutting large strips of fat off of the carcass. Gina had not had to dissect anything since her days in college. She had almost forgotten how horrible the insides of a recently dea
d creature could smell. She thought Han Solo cutting up the Taun-Taun in The Empire Strikes Back, and for the first time since she had entered the valley, she laughed.
After she had cut off several strips of fat, she also cut off several hunks of meat and stuffed them into her pockets. The meat was wet and Gina had to push it deep into her pocket to prevent Wen-Ku from seeing it when she walked back into the cave. With her task complete, Gina turned and walked back up to the cave. When she entered the cave, she saw that Wen-Ku had placed two large stones on either side of the fire. There was a long flat stone that was balanced on the two large stones over the fire.
Wen-Ku was holding two ribs over the flames and she pointed at the flat stone. “Place the fat on the stone over the flames. The heat will melt the fat and make it like water.” Gina threw the strips of fat on the fire. She then looked into the cavern at the dying torches. “I will take a look the torches and see what ones we need to replace first. “
Wen-Ku nodded. “Yes, that would be wise. Be careful, though; as the light dies, the crawling demons will make their way closer to the cave opening.”
Gina nodded then she began walking deeper into the cave. As she walked through the endless cave, the dying torches flickered and cast ominous shadows onto the wall. As Gina looked at the dancing shadows, her heart began to pound so fast that it hurt her chest. Gina still didn’t know what exactly the crawling demons that Wen-Ku had described were. All that she knew about the crawling demons was that they had killed all of Yukon’s other brides, they shied away from light, they were drawn in by the smell of dead animals, and that Yukon was the only thing capable of protecting her from them. As she walked farther away from Yukon and deeper into the dying light of the inner cave with pockets full of dead sloth meat, she knew that she had all but turned on a neon sign calling for the crawling demons to attack her.
Polar Yeti And The Beasts Of Prehistory Page 11