LOST AND FORGOTTEN: BOOK THREE - ENIGMA

by Maurice Barkley

  Amy was lagging behind just a bit. “Do we have a plan here? We seem to be bewitched.”

  “She’s right, folks,” M1 said. “We need a quick meeting. Behind us is the building that might have a portal to Nexus—theirs or ours. I think we should go there first.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Alice said. “This place is disturbing. Let’s get this done.”

  “Hold on,” M1 said, while dropping his back pack and opening a flap. He held up a small package and yanked on a ribbon hanging from one end. We heard a hissing noise and the object began to inflate. “It’s a weather balloon. It will carry this radio relay unit up to about five hundred feet. Once there we should be able to talk to Fran.”

  “Will it not float away?” Bebe asked.

  M1 held up a spool for her inspection. “This is fishing line I’ll tie off to that bush over there as soon as it unwinds.”

  In all, it took him less than five minutes to launch and let the balloon rise to altitude.

  As he was tying the line to a nearby shrub, Bebe said, “I hope you turned the radio on before you launched it.”

  “Apparently he did.” I heard Fran’s voice in my ear bud. “We have a good solid signal. Just a word of caution, you guys. I’m recording everything.”

  “Thanks for the heads-up, Fran,” M1 said. “We’ll try to give you a running commentary. This place is very grim and seems deserted. Right now we’re outside a building that’s the positional equivalent of the Antarctica station back at Manheim. We want to see if there are portals here similar to what we have in Manheim.”

  The station layout was similar to Manheim. We hurried up the staircase in the building behind the station, found a chamber door in its proper place and in we went.

  M1 closed the door and used his probe. “The readings are encouraging. Bebe, touch the circle.” It responded properly. “What say M2 and I duck through for a quick look?”

  “Do so with due caution,” Bebe told him. “Oh, oh,” she said, “the vandals have been busy here as well.”

  She was reacting to the surface of the now active portal. It displayed the same cracked surface as the Ganymede to Nexus portal, except that the cracks were more numerous. Not even Amy could squeeze through this one.

  “Whoever did this,” I said, “clearly didn’t want this place to be accessible from Nexus.” I felt my pulse rising. “Maybe we’re getting close to the black boots.”

  M2 pulled out his camera. “I’ll stick this through and take a short video.” Moments later we gathered around him and watched the small screen display rubble and a bit of orange sky. “It’s somewhere on Nexus, but it’s useless. The hut is really blasted.”

  “Shazam!” Alice exclaimed. “If this place works like the other, we’ll have access to a planet other than Earth and maybe one more if there is a glen like the Omaha portal. Amy, can you add this place to your list of names?”

  “How about for now,” Amy said, “we just call it Purgatory.”

  “Okay, gang,” M1 said, “let us trek over to the opposite wall where I see an alcove.”

  It was the same basic object, but there was just a single vertical rod rising from the dome. A single Z or stair step symbol was fixed to the rod’s top at a forty-five degree angle. It looked something like a very crooked propeller.

  “Just that single Z,” Alice said. “Maybe one has to give it a spin. James, take a peek.”

  I bent over for a closer look. “There is a center pivot.” I gave the thing a gentle push in both directions, but it didn’t move. Looking closer I saw a fine line running along the entire middle of the object. It was as though someone had started at one end and sliced the whole thing through the center. “This entire shape is split in two,” I said. “Maybe just one part moves.”

  I inserted my index finger nail in the crack and pulled to my right. The front part moved and kept moving for ninety degrees. There it stopped and the alcove door eased open a bit.

  “Oh, oh, kids,” Harry said, while pointing at the two backwards Zs, which now formed a perfect swastika. “Damn, I hate this, but we do need to know.”

  “I agree,”M1 said. “It’s both good and bad news. Right now we move cautiously and on tiptoes.”

  “The solid clues ended as we left Paradise,” Alice said. “It looks like they went to Duula on Omaha, then to Manheim in Tiberius, then here. They probably just passed through Manheim. Not positive, but most likely. I don’t see anything Abraham might have dropped.”

  After some discussion, Alice and the boys decided to take a quick peek at the other side.

  M2 pushed the alcove door open.

  “Oh, oh,” M2 said, “look there on the floor.” He bent over and picked up a scrap of red cloth. “Did they get careless and leave a clue or is this fish bait to divert our attention?”

  “Either way,” Alice said, “we have to move on this. Just watch for tripwires and stuff.”

  The new portal and its console were the same as all the others. M1 used his probe which revealed a planet more similar to Earth.

  “Bebe,” he said, “Time for you to activate the portal, but keep your hand close to the circle—just in case.”

  M2 closed the alcove door and we all stood silent and attentive as she touched the circle. Its barrier parted with a minor transfer of our air to the unknown place.

  “How about a quick picture?” M1 said to M2.

  Three seconds later we were looking at the image.

  “Looks sort of like the dome at the glen,” Alice murmured. “Lots of jungle pushing up against the windows and it’s daytime there.”

  “I’ll take a quick look.” M1 said. He stepped through and was back in seconds. “The dome is empty—no other portal. No smells or sounds.” He looked around. “I’m inclined to go through and take a quick survey. What think you all?”

  We agreed and M2 stepped out to tell Fran what we were about to do.

  CHAPTER 30

  The new dome, as M1 had said, was odor free, but When we opened the outer door we were hit by an overwhelming, putrid smell.

  Bebe held her hand over her nose. “Never have I experienced such a big stink.”

  “Gahhh!” Amy said. “I don’t mind cow poop or compost piles, but this place smells like rotten meat. Blah!”

  “Should have brought our gas masks,” Harry said. “Do we have gas masks?”

  “We had them at first,” M1 said, “but they got set aside along the way. Jo, is this air okay to breathe?”

  “Yes,” she said, “you smell the molecules of gas created by decomposition.”

  “Life signs?” M1 asked.

  “There is animal life,” Jo replied, “but no technology that I can detect. I’ll keep a sharp watch.”

  We entered the jungle, closing the door as a precaution. Once outside we saw that the dome was positioned just inside the mouth of a large cavern. Sheer cliffs rose up on both sides and giant slabs of broken rock created a narrow pathway to the jungle. Creeping vines were everywhere, climbing up and over anything above ground. The leaves of the vines were puckered, distorted and colored a vile dark green as though harboring some terrible plague. We carefully avoided them as we picked our way deeper into the dense foliage. The leaves of the trees, sprouting from twisted and scabby trunks, were distorted and ugly.

  “Godawful,” Amy said. “This place looks like a science fiction movie where everything has been poisoned by atomic radiation—and the stink is getting worse.”

  “There is nothing other than background radiation,” Alice told her. “My little beeper has remained quiet. I’m just glad we all took the blue and yellow pill to guard us against the nasty spores and stuff that must be floating around here. Jesus and Blue don’t seem to mind. Bob—you okay?”

  “This is fascinating,” Bob said. “I do not like this place, but it is a new experience.”

  We walked on, carefully avoiding contact with the vegetation.

  “After a while,” Amy said, “will we get used to the smell and ig
nore it?”

  “Dream on, kiddo,” Harry said, “maybe in ten years or so.”

  After penetrating several yards of jungle, we came upon a strange sight.

  “I think this is what creates this awful odor,” Shan said. “The horrible smell is getting worse.”

  To our front was a wide strip of blackened vegetation. As wide as a country road, it bisected our path left and right as far as we could see. Even mature trees were reduced to low piles of rotted matter that bubbled and heaved in rapid putrefaction.

  “It appears,” Bebe said, “that in this place decomposition is much more rapid than in our world. To the right the lumps rapidly disappear as I look further out. To the left the shapes of things that are rotting are more pronounced. I think that if we follow this black highway to the left we may find that which is causing the decay.”

  Our curiosity overcame the foul smell and we followed that slimy black trail, staying well back from the road’s edge. As we walked, the piles of decay increased in size and smell. The things under the slime became more recognizable.

  “I hear sounds ahead,” Jo said. “They seem to be sucking and bubbling.”

  In thirty yards the rest of us began to hear the sounds and in less than one hundred yards we came upon the appalling source. The thing we saw was a series of about six progressively collapsing domes.

  “Yuck!” Amy exclaimed, “It looks like a giant caterpillar that’s rotting from the front to the back. If the smell gets any worse I’ll puke my guts out.”

  M2 got busy with his camera while M1 furnished the audio. “This thing is like a giant segmented worm, about fifteen feet wide and maybe twelve feet tall. The first segment is semi-transparent and seems to be doing all the work. There is a dark central mass that could be what passes for its brain. The segment directly behind looks sickly, like it is dying. The next segment and those following are progressively worse until they lose cohesion and become lumps of rotting stuff. Apparently the stuff it feeds on is anything organic that is in its path. Even in the short time we’ve been here, we can see it creep forward.”

  “Look there,” Shan said, “There is a bulge in the front of the first part. The black thing seems to be moving into it. Oh, Daddy, this is weird.”

  As we watched, the bulge rapidly expanded to form a new segment that engulfed a small tree and several bush-like plants. The black mass settled into its new home and the old segment began to decay.

  “Man,” Harry said, “talk about fast. The life cycle of one segment can’t be more than an hour or so. What a way to exist. Your hind end is constantly dying.”

  “I have studied this being,” Jo said, “and could find no brain as such. It seems to be a complex plant that exists by engulfing that which it encounters and digesting what it needs.”

  “Okay,” Amy said, “but how does it know which way to go? What if it bumps up against a cliff or a lake or something? There has to be a steering mechanism.”

  Just as we decided to move on, we heard a pop from the new segment. A small blob shot out from its surface, trailing an almost invisible filament. It shot out about twenty yards and landed on a bare rock where it stuck. Soon we heard several more random pops and watched as new blobs fanned out in an arc in front of the big worm.

  “I have determined,” Jo said, “that these things serve as antenna for the creature. These adhesive blobs land and send signals back to the main body, appraising it of what it finds. The main body then extends its next segment in the most promising direction.”

  “Well, that’s interesting,” Alice said, “but I don’t think it’s relevant to us. Perhaps we should circle around this thing and...”

  While Alice was talking, we heard a quick explosion of pops. Before we could react, we were all hit by one of the blobs which resulted in instant paralysis. I could think, breathe, move my eyes and maintain my balance, but other than that I was frozen in place. Oh, boy, I thought, this thing wants to turn us into piles of manure. There was no pain, but I began to feel as though I was melting. I searched furiously of some mental solution like I was able to use in Pinocchio, but this was not mental—just chemical. My knees became wobbly and I fought to maintain my balance.

  With no warning I felt a strong hand grip my arm where the blob had landed and the blob was painfully yanked free. My recovery was rapid enough to let me watch Jo move swiftly among my companions to throw off the blobs.

  “A blob hit me,” she said, “but it had no effect. It is fortunate that I chose a soft metal outer surface.”

  “It is also fortunate,” Alice said, “that you came with us. Thank you, Jo.”

  The rest of us expressed our gratitude. Jesus and Blue recovered with no obvious after effects.

  M1 moved us back for a chat. “Here’s how I see it. This is proving to be a primitive planet. It may be best to leave it to Special Forces and the scientists. Although we’re pumped up right this minute, we have been awake for quite a while and that takes the edge off. It should be daylight now in Purgatory, so I think we should poke around there for a while and then head back. If our Nazis came here, they either ended up in the belly of that thing or got the hell out of here. No way did they stay.”

  “Okay, Harry,” Alice said, “You’re always estimating the money to be made from the places we discover. How would you make a buck here?”

  “Stink bombs,” he replied. “Build them here and export them all over the galaxy.”

  It was easy to retrace our steps, but we were in for a nasty surprise when we approached the portal dome. One of the great slabs of rock had somehow dropped over the entrance.

  “Oh, dingleberries,” Amy said, “we are super screwed.”

  M2 examined the stone. “This is a booby trap with a delayed trigger. This thing was balanced on that rock ridge. All it took was a nudge and it dropped into place. This baby weighs at least fifty tons. We are indeed—screwed.”

  “Did you forget Carl Manheim and the ground penetrating radar unit?” M1 asked. He shrugged his pack off and pulled out a small object. “Remember the bar of soap.”

  Some of us did, but it required a demonstration for Shan and Bob.

  “Luckily,” M1 said, “This big rock is resting on boulders on either side. We can’t reach the dome door, but there is space underneath. I can slide under there and put the lifter to work.”

  He worked his way under on the left side. Moments later the big slab rose on its pivot and returned to its original position. M1 was dangling several feet in the air, clinging to the hook on the bar of soap. After M2 wedged a stone into the hinge point to keep it there, M1 turned off the lifter and dropped to the ground. We didn’t breathe easy until we went through the portal

  CHAPTER 31

  Back in Purgatory we got busy pumping the foul air out of our lungs, but the smell clung to our clothing.

  “Wow,” Amy said, “that was quite a to-do. That worm was one thing, but the big rock was a deliberate trap.”

  Harry was unusually quiet. I started to talk to him, but he put up a restraining hand. We all watched him as he walked slowly to the nearest barracks-like building. He looked at the doorway and then went to the doorway of the next building, He went on to do the same at the third building, then he performed an excellent military about face and smacked his palm with his fist.

  “My friends,” he said, while marching toward us, “I’ve had a revelation that requires that I kick myself in the butt for not having it earlier, but this puts a cap on it. Gather around, please. I think the fur is about to fly.” We moved closer. “I just checked the first three buildings in that row. They are identical. I don’t mean they were built from the same plans; they are exact duplicates, down to some irregular scratches on the doors. Remember our experience at Eden? I’m sure that all of those many barracks are phony—not really there. This whole place is a setup—a diversion.” He paused to let that sink in. “That stinky planet is nothing more than a one way trap for the unwary. I’ll bet that any other portals here will
be the same.”

  While Harry was talking, Jo went over to the first building and placed her hand flat on the siding for a moment, then returned. “Harry is correct,” she said, “That building is not there. It is a duplicate.”

  “Any idea how it’s done?” Alice asked.

  “Not a clue, but I can tell that the wood is a surface pattern over a uniform magnetic structure.” Jo replied.

  “Hoo, boy,” M2 moaned. “If true it brings us back to square one or thereabout.”

  “Not so,” Harry said with a sly smile. “Here’s why I’m kicking myself.” He leaned forward. “I believe I’ve said before that I’m a bit of a schemer from way back. I know most of the questionable tactics used by scoundrels to achieve their goals. What I haven’t done—what I should have done from the start is to put my mind in the mind of those Nazis. So I did, and in light of present circumstances, it didn’t take me long to see that light.” He straightened up with a satisfied look.

  “Well, for God’s sake, Harry,” Alice said, “don’t stand there looking all smug. Spit it out.”

  “Just savoring the moment, Alice,” he said, “I’ll now give you a big clue. Let’s see if you can solve it. Say that you are a big time crook—maybe a spy. You live in a grand hotel on Times Square—that’s in a city on Earth, Bob. Okay, you steal some vital documents from the UN—that’s the United Nations, Bob. You know that an army of police will be hunting for you all over the world. They know who you are and where you have been living.” He looked at us with raised eyebrows. “Got that?” We nodded. “Okay, keeping in mind what we have been through, where does he go to hide?”