Plague of Coins (The Judas Chronicles #1)

by Aiden James

  Luckily, as I grew older, my oversensitive ears improved to where I could function almost as well as anyone else. As an immortal, the pitch of a noise no longer sends me through the roof. But I do hear a lot of things that most human beings can’t, and I’ve caught myself noticing the same pitches that cause your poodles and German shepherds to perk their ears up.

  So, it wasn’t until Amy started to hear the noise too that she urged my boy to keep up with her while we sprinted to the gate.

  “Keep up with me, Ali—please!” she cried, yanking on his arm while looking fearfully at me.

  Just then a pair of Russian helicopters suddenly appeared in the valley where the village sat. Once the pilots spotted us, they veered the choppers hard toward us, sending a spray of bullets that just barely missed Alistair’s and Amy’s feet. As I feared, Mr. Stanislav didn’t take kindly to our escape, and probably received some kind of ‘heads up’ that we were on our way back to his illegal operation. Sending a pair of military helicopters after us further confirmed the notion that he was no longer interested in capturing us alive. His mercenaries could’ve waited and ambushed us if that were the case.

  “They’re turning around to make another pass!” I called back to Amy and Alistair, slowing down just long enough for them to catch up to me. At this point, I hoped my personal enemy from long ago, Viktor Kaslow, was more interested in killing me than them. If so, I planned to be the one who got shot—knowing I may never see Alistair or Beatrice ever again. My boy’s immediate survival overrode all else. “We’re going to have to make a run for the gate right now! Come on!!”

  The look of abhorrence on Alistair’s face would’ve been comical had it happened at any other time. I could almost see the images of scorpions and snakes slithering beneath the thick brush surrounding the gate’s marble pillars in his panicked mind. Meanwhile, one of the choppers moved ahead of the other, launching a rocket that whizzed above our heads and crashed into the mountainside a hundred feet beyond the gate.

  “Get your asses moving, damn it!!” I shouted, fighting to keep my own rising panic at bay.

  We were running out of time to find someplace safe. The helicopters sped after us flying parallel and hovering less than ten feet above the ground. We would never survive the ensuing gunfire. I used every ounce of physical energy and skill I had in order to save my boy, and the beautiful girl who had become a royal pain in my ass for bringing us back to this deadly place. Too late to retrieve our weapons, there was absolutely no chance of effectively defending ourselves against these frigging bastards.

  With bullets tearing up the dirt behind us, I grabbed them both and shoved them forcefully into the brush—deadly vipers and any other critters be damned!

  I heard Alistair’s scream first, followed by a cry of unwelcome surprise from Amy. Desperate to save them, I immediately combed my hands through the prickly bushes and weeds, flicking off another scorpion whose rock-covered lair had been disturbed by either Amy or Alistair. But they were nowhere to be found. They had vanished, leaving behind not a single clue as to where they went.

  I called out frantically for them—crying their names as a volley of bullets hit my arms and my legs. Staggering through the brush, the sandy soil around my feet suddenly gave way. I felt something metallic beneath my shoes...some kind of metal sheet. Or, maybe it was a trapdoor? Before I could look behind me to see if a kill shot was on its way, it slid open. I was dropped down into a deep dark shaft. Screaming.

  Chapter 17

  The drop could’ve been much worse, despite slamming into a slick rock surface that propelled me down into deep coolness. I heard Alistair’s and Amy’s panicked cries from somewhere below me.

  Well, at least they’re alive....

  I continued my descent for what I believe was two to three hundred feet, speeding down a stone chute and scared shitless I would slam into one or both of them, possibly crushing either one to death.

  Suddenly, the primitive slide veered around a corner and I began to see light...light that was soft and barely discernable. More like a greenish haze. Soon the light grew brighter and wider, forming a line on the horizon before me. At the same time, I heard the sound of trickling water and a louder swishing noise just ahead of me.

  Then all at once, I was thrown off this crazy ride into a glowing pool of water. Water that was cold as hell, I might add.

  I hate surprises like this one—even worse than being shot at by hostile helicopters. Nothing bothers me more than frying my ass in 100 degree weather one moment and then being dumped into frigid coolness the next. Hell, maybe that’s an ingredient from the one effective recipe to kill me, and my cells know it.

  Fortunately, I could see my environment well enough. I was in a fairly large cave, and literally thousands of glowworms covered the bottom of the chilly pool I had been dropped into. A nearby spring that bled into a sheer waterfall was the pool’s source. As I looked around me, there were other glowing critters crawling upon the walls of the cave. A fairly large effervescent purple and amber spotted serpent of some kind crawled back and forth behind the waterfall, as if guarding the area.

  I also noticed other reptilian creatures that were smaller than the serpent. Each one was almost transparent except for blue and purple outlines along their bodies, like some kind of subterranean jellyfish that had gone amphibian at some point in time.

  “Owww….” My son moaned from somewhere nearby. To my left? That’s where his voice emanated from. “It looks like m-my...my father h-has g-gr-graciously d-decided to j-j-join us.”

  Alistair laughed at his own joke, though weakly. He was shivering terribly. I felt a surge of panic, as his wheezing alone told me that he had sustained some sort of injury from the sudden fall into this place. When I looked in the direction of his voice, I saw the dark outlines of two silhouettes sitting on a ledge near me, eerily illuminated by the myriad organisms surrounding them. I recognized Amy’s full, long locks that had been drenched in the water.

  “You need to get out of there, William!” Her voice was cracking, filled with fear. Unlike Alistair, she wasn’t shivering. “There’s something in the water that bites! It nicked me, but latched onto Ali’s abdomen before I could free him!!”

  Her dim figure moved toward me, offering a hand to help me out of the pond. I had been treading water, leery of letting my feet land on the host of squirming iridescent worms below me. I swam over to her and scrambled to get out of the water—far more worried about Alistair’s welfare than the fact I sensed something moving rapidly toward me from my right just beneath the pool’s surface. Here we were, a few hundred feet below the planet’s terra firma, and if my son had endured a bite from a poisonous creature there would be little I could do for him. I pushed away the terrible thought that I might watch him die on this trip after all.

  Suddenly, something huge exploded out of the water, snapping at my feet with near-invisible jaws before it disappeared in the pool again. I say near-invisible, as once my eyes adjusted to the unusual colorful living lights around us, I discerned the outline of a twelve-foot translucent eel with long, sharp teeth in its snapping jaws. It came up again, snapping madly at the air where just moments earlier my legs had dangled while I finished pulling myself out of the water.

  “Are you all right?”

  I posed the question to Amy, though it was intended for both of them. I kept a watchful eye on the thing lurking in the water until I was confident it wouldn’t try to follow us out of the pool.

  “I think so...but Ali’s really hurt!” She moved aside to allow me access to him. “He landed hard in the water and then that thing bit him! I’m really scared for him!!”

  “Me, too,” I said weakly.

  I felt my mind start to go numb. I could see the bloody wounds seeping through Alistair’s shirt...two deep gashes from the thing’s teeth. I prayed fervently in silence that the creature wasn’t poisonous, and that the wheezing I heard was from a non-immediate, life-threatening wound to the base of his left
lung. Regardless, I had to get him out of there.... I had to find some way to get him back to the village. Maybe Zoran or one of his buddies could save my boy. But how to make that happen? After all, the only way back up to the surface I could immediately see was the open shaft that dropped us down into the water...at least fifteen feet above our heads.

  “Ali, hold on for me, son!” I was struggling to keep my voice smooth and calm. The last thing he needed was his old man debilitated by stark fear. “I’ll carry you, but you’ve got to hang on!

  “I’m t-t-trying, Pops...I f-feel so tired...just let me r-rest....”

  His words trailed off. I could tell from the eye movements under his closed eyelids that his eyeballs were dancing wildly...like they might roll up into this head while his body gave into a terrible seizure.

  I could no longer control my rising panic! He might die anyway, but I had to do whatever I could to save the only offspring I’ve ever bonded with. A huge part of me felt as if it was dying right alongside Alistair.

  I desperately scanned the room, praying for an opening that might lead us back to the earth’s surface. But it was almost impossible to determine a promising exit from a dead end. The few tunnels I saw were filled with one form of fluorescent creature or another.

  Then I glimpsed a brighter light emanating from behind the waterfall. Could a passageway exist on the waterfall’s other side, and would it lead to some place promising? We had no choice but to find out.

  “Help me stand Ali up, so I can carry him over my shoulder!” I urged Amy. “We’ve got to move now!”

  “Move where?” Her voice was shrill, and such distress could easily become another hindrance to Alistair’s rescue. “There’s nowhere to go!”

  “There is someplace to go! Just trust me and follow my lead, damn it!!”

  Suddenly, the serpent hissed loudly from behind the waterfall, as if it sensed my intent to shoo it out of its lair. It slithered closer to us, and I saw the brighter light again in the bottom right corner of the small cove it guarded.

  “We need to reach the passageway behind the waterfall,” I said, assuming Amy could see it. The serpent eyed me intently. Perhaps it sought a weakness to exploit in the same manner as I did. “If you follow my directions precisely, we might still get out of here in time to save Ali!”

  I’m not sure that she fully comprehended what I said. Her gaze was locked onto the hissing critter as it opened its mouth filled with needle-like sharp teeth and two prominent fangs. It wasn’t until I nudged her shoulder that she even looked over at me, nervously. Meanwhile, Alistair’s pained groans grew more plaintive. Motivated by that, she lifted his left shoulder while I raised his right side. It was almost impossible to ignore the much smaller worms wiggling across the ledge surface beneath our feet. I prayed she didn’t become squeamish, and lose her grip on him when the little critters exploded into slimy green goo with each labored footstep toward the waterfall.

  The serpent prepared for our advance, its tail producing a barbed tip that throbbed like an angry rattle.

  “Keep moving, Amy, no matter what happens!”

  She simply nodded. Her wide-eyed expression announced she was too damned scared to say anything. The ornery critter slithered back and forth while it awaited our arrival. Its orange eyes were ignited, as if the sucker received a sudden boost from the very fires of Hell.

  I often experience some apprehension when encountering a new menace. Despite my unique healing abilities, facing unknown sensations brought on by a novel combination of bite and venom injection is something I dread. If this serpent, which I could tell was more of a hefty snake than a lizard, hit an artery with a powerful injection of neurotoxins, I might black out. I’d lose the race to save my son.

  A delicate operation at best, it was made worse by the pile of human remains I had just noticed near one corner of the bastard’s lair. At least the pile was on the opposite side of where I wanted Amy to focus. It looked like a handful of skulls and femurs along with a broken ribcage.

  Little shithead likes the way we taste...this keeps getting better and better!

  I made a sudden lunge at the waterfall to draw the menace out, loosening my grip on Alistair long enough to throw a misdirection juke at the serpent, snake, or whatever term would correctly describe this glowing monster. As I hoped, it attacked empty air where my right leg had been for an instant. I grabbed its throat with my left hand, just below the fangs and high enough to keep it from jabbing them into my wrist and arm.

  “Oh my God—be careful William!!!” Amy cried out, as she struggled to keep my son from falling to the ground while I sought to subdue the angered reptile.

  Another loud splash drew her frightened eyes back to the pool behind us. The eel had leapt onto the ledge, its tail thrashing in the water behind it. Obviously, it intended to come after us. My own distraction from this allowed the slippery critter I battled to slip slightly from my grasp. I fell down on top of it, praying mightily that it couldn’t somehow bite me or pierce my midsection with its barbed tail.

  The eel’s eerie screeches were followed by another bigger splash. Along with Amy’s panicked shriek, I knew it had managed to climb onto the ledge and heard its initial movements. I had only a few seconds to resolve my current battle before these two predators created a formidable team.

  I relied solely on my instincts. I secured my grip on the ornery bastard beneath me and tossed him at the eel. I didn’t bother to see if I scored a direct hit or not, since all hoped for was a slight head start. No doubt the malicious pair would pursue us together—as ridiculous as that mental image seemed to me.

  Adding to our woes, the tunnel’s opening was much smaller than I had assumed originally. We’d be damned lucky if any one of us squeezed through without a hitch—much less all three.

  “Come on, Amy!! You need to go first!”

  I grabbed her arm to pull her up to the passageway’s entrance. Her initial response was surprise at being jerked so harshly by me. But, the hostile noises behind us got her moving...at least for a moment. Then she noticed a myriad of the shimmering critters covering the walls just inside the narrow tunnel.

  “I-I can’t go in there!” She anxiously looked back and forth from the passageway to the serpent-snake thing and eel creeping toward us. “I can’t go—”

  “Yes you can, and you must! Otherwise, we all will die here!!”

  Out of the corner of my eye, the predatory pair had slithered to within ten feet of us. Still, she didn’t move.

  “You’ve got to go first, so I can push Ali through the passageway behind you. Then, I’ll bring up the rear,” I told her, lowering my voice and changing my tone to that of a trusted confidante. “But, if you don’t get your gorgeous ass in gear, little lady, I’m going to drag him through there myself! You can fend for yourself against our latest friends any way you can. So, which do you prefer?”

  She didn’t answer, and remained frozen by fear. I couldn’t wait any longer. My son was on the verge of losing consciousness, and I grabbed his shirt by the neck as I prepared to drag him through the tunnel.

  “No, wait—wait! William, I’ll do it!” She stopped me, scooting as close as she could while the snakelike monster weaved its way toward her...less than three feet away. “I’ll go first. Just get out of the way!”

  Like it was my fault that her luscious legs were about to make a meal for one of our two pursuers! Before I could send a snide remark back at her, she grabbed my son’s shirt collar from me and crawled into the tunnel. I moved quickly to lift Alistair’s near-limp body and pushed him into the passageway, praying to God Almighty for forgiveness and protection if this turned out not to be such a brilliant idea. I heard Amy gag and wretch just beyond my view, cursing about the stench when the glowworms exploded against her hands, body, and head. But at least she kept moving.

  I glanced behind me as I dropped to my knees, noticing that the eel had caught up with the other critter. They both bore down on me and soon were within inches
of my left foot. I shoved Alistair’s feet forcefully enough to send him several feet into the glowing shaft. The gruesome bug popping continued. But, at least the glowing slime served as a lubricant to help his body move through the tight squeeze.

  That left me just a second or two to get my ass in there with them. I scampered into the tunnel, pulling up my legs in a fetal position to try and avoid the pair of angry snapping jaws barely missing my feet. I prepared for the excruciating discomfort of having my toes or an entire foot severed. But, miraculously, the pair remained outside the tunnel’s mouth, writhing in anger as if forbidden to follow us inside. I took full advantage of their limited vigil, pushing on my son’s ass and urging Amy to keep moving.

  “Can you see anything yet?” I called to her, once we got far enough from the tunnel’s entrance to be reasonably safe from an unprotected attack from the rear.

  “Oh, my God...Oh My GOD!!” she cried out. Unlike earlier, her shrill voice bore the distinct sound of awe and wonder.

  “What?! What do you see up there?” I tried focusing all of my senses on her and what she was experiencing.

  “Oh, my God...William, hurry! I just reached the end of the tunnel, and this is so incredible! You’ll never believe what I’m looking at unless you see it with your own eyes!!”

  What in the hell?

  Suddenly, I heard slithering noises behind me...coming up fast! I had seriously underestimated the ill-will I had caused the two apparent guardians of the pond and this passageway. If anything, the smeared guts from the destroyed glowworms would speed their arrival.

  Thankfully, it sounded as if Amy had crawled out of the tunnel. With one last powerful shove, Alistair soon joined her. I uttered another quick prayer for his safety since I realized he fell out of the damned tunnel with no way to protect himself. I started to call out to them, but my words dissolved before they left my throat. It started with an extremely bright light entering the tunnel from where Amy and Alistair had exited. That alone would’ve supported Amy’s excited reaction moments earlier. But, what I saw next with my own eyes far exceeded that wonder.