The Valley of the Ancients

by David Alric

  To her relief, the torch seemed much more powerful inside than out in the bright sunlight. They were walking along a narrow natural corridor, effectively a cleft in the rock, and she soon became aware of a disgusting smell which got progressively stronger as she went deeper into the tunnel. Soon the monkey stopped and Clare shone the torch beam ahead on to the ground where it illuminated a snake. The monkey glanced at the snake and then continued, simply stepping over the reptile, and as Clare came up to it she saw that it was engrossed in swallowing a rat. The rat was twice the diameter of the snake which had its jaws wide open around the half-engulfed rodent and it took not the slightest interest in either the monkey or Clare. Soon she realized why the snake came here for a guaranteed meal, for as she walked further, one or two rats scuttled past her, all passing along on one side of the tunnel. The monkey ignored them and Clare kept close to the opposite wall on her right and tried to do the same. The rats seemed to have been running in a channel beside the wall and when Clare shone the torch on it she saw that there was indeed a groove, three or four inches deep, perfectly smooth. As she peered at it she remembered how Charles Darwin had been awed by the sight of a rocky path in the Galapagos islands which had been beaten by the tread of countless giant tortoises passing only infrequently along the same route for an unimaginably long period of time. It dawned on her that the rats had been running along this corridor for so long that she was seeing a groove worn in the solid rock by the wear and tear of untold numbers of rat paws. This sight, more than anything she had seen, or was yet to see, brought home to her the true magnitude of the time that had elapsed since this extraordinary crater had become isolated from the rest of the world. How many countless aeons did it take, she wondered, for tiny soft paws to wear a groove, inches deep, into the living rock? And, jerking her mind back to the present reality, just what was it that the rats were so interested in? That, she was about to discover.

  After about thirty yards there was a sharp bend in the passageway then, twenty yards further on, it widened a little and there was an opening off the corridor into another cave. Clare could now see that this was the place into which the rat run led. As she approached it the foetid odour that she had smelt since entering the tunnel was now accompanied by an increasingly strong smell of ammonia. There was a heap of something spilling out of the entrance to this cave into the corridor and, as she shone the torch in, the first light ever to reach into that place in the thousands of millennia it must have existed, an extraordinary and repulsive sight met her eyes. The cavern was very large – as large as the school hall at Clare’s old school, St Sapientia’s. The ceiling was at least thirty feet high and as Clare shone the light around she saw that it was covered in bats, thousands upon thousands of them.

  The room was filled with an immense pile of bat dung which rose almost to the ceiling at the far end of the great cave and sloped gradually down towards Clare; it was the end of this disgusting mound that spilt out into the passageway and was now at her very feet. The guano itself was surprisingly dry and she could feel its warmth through the soles of her trainers. She was now coughing and choking on the pungent smell of ammonia, and as she looked about with watering eyes she couldn’t believe that so many bats could possibly exist in one place. What filled her with revulsion, however, was not the bats. It was the other denizens of the cave; creatures of the everlasting night that fed upon the guano, the creatures that fed upon them, and the creatures that fed upon the dead bats and the bat pups that fell into that dungheap of no return. There were worms, cockroaches, centipedes, spiders and dermestid beetles; she realized now why the cave had been an irresistible magnet for generation upon generation of valley rats. There were countless numbers of beetle larvae and, as she moved her feet, her footprints in the soft dung immediately started to be erased by their continuous activity. The air was filled with flying beetles and soon her hair and arms and shirt were covered in them. To her horror something stirred on the wall between the dung and the ceiling and she saw it was a snake. The sinister cave racer was waiting patiently with its innumerable cousins to snatch the living bats from the air as they flew out to feed at night in the valley and returned at dawn to roost once again in their hidden lair.

  There was a flurry of activity among some of the dreadful creatures on the guano – those that were capable of detecting light – as they sensed the alien beam of the torch and, as a large and disgustingly pale centipede moved towards her foot, Clare moved hurriedly backwards. As she did so, Sophie darted forward and grabbed the loathsome creature and, to Clare’s disgust, gave it to the baby on her back which crunched it up with every sign of satisfaction.

  Soon the monkey turned and continued confidently along the corridor. Clare began to follow her and while the beam of the torch was, for a second, still pointing sideways into the cavern, she thought she could see a suggestion of light ahead. She switched off the torch, even though it was a daunting experience standing in the dark next to that frightful cave, and saw that she had been right. Ahead there was a faint glimmer of daylight. Greatly heartened by the thought that she must be almost through to the other side, but slightly surprised that the escarpment was much narrower than she had imagined it to be, she switched the torch on again and hurried after Sophie. Soon the corridor opened out again and then divided into two paths, dim light coming from the one on the right. The monkey stopped abruptly at the bifurcation and sniffed cautiously into each opening. Then she turned decisively to the left and started off, looking round to make sure that Clare was following her. But Clare wasn’t. Clare had seen something lying in the other path. Something quite extraordinary. Something that simply should not have been in that place. She went to get it. It was a gun and it was lying in a bed of what looked like cotton wool. Above it, criss-crossing the corridor and, in the dim light practically invisible until Clare shone the torch onto them, were strands of what looked like silken rope, about as thick as a pencil in diameter.

  As Clare bent to pick up the gun, Sophie pushed frantically past her to try and stop her going any further. Then she yelped in fear. Clare shone the torch and saw that one of the pale strands was entangled around her foreleg. As the monkey tried to bite at the tether it stuck to her cheek and as she grasped it with her other forepaw that got stuck to it as well.

  Her struggles did not pass undetected by the dreadful owner of the silken trap and suddenly Sophie shrieked in terror as she felt the ropes tauten and she looked into the cave. A few seconds later than Sophie, Clare saw what she was looking at. Backlit as a ghostly silhouette by the eerie light in the cave, and partially illuminated by the torch now lying on the ground, the largest spider Clare had ever imagined could exist was approaching. The creature moved in very rapid darts forward and then paused at intervals as if assessing the situation of its victim – just as Clare had seen its smaller cousins do when approaching a struggling fly caught in a web in the garden at home. As she watched in stupefied horror the frightful creature darted forward again and was now only about a yard from Sophie. Its body was the size of a television set and its legs as long and thick as a man’s, covered in bristles.

  Clare’s instinct was to pull Sophie back, but she had seen the monkey’s completely ineffectual attempts to rid herself of the strands of web and knew that once she touched it herself she would be inextricably trapped. Sophie’s only thought, in the face of what now seemed like certain death, was for her young one. She called frantic instructions to Kai and the little creature reluctantly clambered down from her back and hid behind Clare.

  Clare looked at the gun. It had a long, black, cylindrical attachment at the end of the barrel that she recognized from countless films as being a silencer. There was no obvious safety catch; if there was one, she prayed that the previous owner had slipped it off in his final moments. She held the gun in both hands as she had seen detectives do on the telly and, fighting to stop them trembling too much, pointed the gun at the foul beast facing her. She pulled the trigger just as the spider began i
ts final pounce on Sophie. Despite the silencer, the noise in that confined space was deafening. Clare had no idea that it could possibly be so loud, and the monkey cowered on the floor in petrified silence. The spider was thrown back several feet by the impact of the bullet and its crumpled remains dangled from the netting of the web where its corpse continued to bob up and down for a few seconds, as though suspended on some ghoulish trampoline.

  As her eyes adjusted to the dim light Clare, her ears still ringing from the report of the gun, now saw in the gloom a large bundle of web nearby; a second bundle was visible further in, close to the remains of the spider. The bundles were each about the size of a man, though one was larger than the other, and as a result of the recent disturbance in the web, were now slowly twisting and untwisting in the air. As Clare looked more closely she saw something faintly glinting in the one that was nearer to her. Putting the gun down and picking up the torch she shone it at the object that had caught her eye and saw, to her amazement, that it was the face of a Rolex watch. With a thrill of horror she realized that she was looking at a giant food cocoon; a nightmarish bundle of silk that almost certainly contained the previous owner of the gun that had just saved Sophie; the other, smaller bundle undoubtedly contained his diminutive companion.

  Suddenly, she saw a distant movement in the depths of the cave and the silken strands began to quiver with a new set of vibrations. She tore the rucksack off her back. Inside was a hunter’s knife. Clare had shuddered when she had first seen Helen packing it but now she knew that its sharp blade was all that could save Sophie. Careful not to touch the web with her hands she cut the tenacious strands binding the monkey. The large knife slid through the silken ropes with ease and soon Sophie was free. She called immediately to Kai who jumped up onto her back with a whimper of relief. With trembling hands Clare carefully put the knife and gun into the rucksack, snatched up the torch and hurried back to the main corridor. The monkey, still pulling and grimacing at the remnants of the web stuck to her fur tried once again to lead her into the other passageway, but Clare had had enough. She started to run back towards the valley. With Sophie’s help she could soon find Clive, who should, by now, be climbing the cliff. Then, as she burst out, blinking in the dazzling sunshine, she stopped dead.

  Sam was standing not twenty yards away looking straight at her, a revolver in his hand. As he had approached the escarpment looking for Barker and Shortshanks he had heard the muffled report of the gun inside the cave and assumed that it must be something to do with the pair. It was, of course, but not quite in the way he imagined.

  He saw immediately that Clive was not with her and gave a sneering laugh. ‘Looks as if my mates have taken a pop at your boyfriend,’ he said, moving towards Clare. As he did so his face abruptly became grim once again.

  ‘Well, I’d better go and see what they’re still up to in there. They may need some help and, as I see you’ve conveniently got a torch, you can show me the way.’

  As he approached Clare felt Sophie tugging hard at her shorts. She needed no second bidding – she and the monkey obviously had identical instincts about Sam; they turned and fled back into the passageway. At the bend in the tunnel Sophie glanced back. Sam was standing at the entrance, his massive frame almost filling the space and, without a torch, he was obviously uncertain as to whether to follow.

  Clare didn’t wait to see, and continued round the bend until he was out of sight. As they approached the point at which the passageway split Clare obediently followed Sophie into the passage that the monkey had tried to take her down previously, before she had been distracted by the sight of the gun. It was darker and narrower than the passage leading to the spiders’ den and soon they came to a black chasm across their path. It was only a yard wide but seemed to disappear down into the bowels of the earth and Clare could just discern the sound of running water far below, presumably an underground river. The monkey jumped over the cleft and looked back anxiously until she was sure Clare was also safely across. The path, which was damp beyond the cleft, then turned steeply upwards and as they climbed, Clare saw light ahead. Soon, after a sharp bend, they emerged on to a wide ledge running around the top of a giant cavern. The roof of the cavern was split by a giant cleft through which daylight poured and as Clare looked up she could see blue sky, far above. This was a giant crack down the very middle of the mountain and she could see a succession of ledges along which she could climb up to the top. Looking down she saw the floor of the cave, far below. It looked as though it were covered in snow, but then, as she saw black shadows moving across it from the dark edges of the cave, she realized that she was now at the top of the spiders’ den. Its entrance lay directly below her and was concealed from her view by the ledge upon which she stood and, as she strained forward for a better view she felt Sophie trying to restrain her from falling. She could just discern the shape of the dead spider below her, near one of the frightful cocoons. The spider looked larger than before, until the shape moved slightly and she realized that she was looking at two spiders; one of the dead creature’s cannibalistic companions was already enjoying an unexpected meal. Even as she watched the grisly scene she heard Sam’s boots thumping into the cave below. He, naturally, had followed what looked like the main passage, especially as it led to the cave that was partially lit by daylight.

  ‘Don’t!’ she screamed down. ‘Don’t go in there, it’s –’ But it was too late. A giant black shape, the stuff of nightmares, emerged from one of the far recesses of the cave – bigger by far than any spider that had appeared so far. It moved at an incredible speed across the patchwork of silk webbing and Clare, repulsed though she was at the sight, could not tear herself away from the unfolding drama below. She strained even further forward, the monkey feverishly trying to restrain her, as she heard a roar of rage from Sam who had now just come into view.

  There is a popular myth that all bullies are cowards, but all who know a true bully are aware that this is not always the case. Sam’s reaction to his dreadful plight was not one of fear; it was one of total, primitive, aggression and, as Clare gazed down in fearful fascination she saw him actually rip two legs off the hideous creature before its giant fangs sank deep into his face. Even then, he fought with the ghastly creature, until the lethal toxins it had injected spread in his bloodstream throughout his body and he succumbed, inexorably, to his fate.

  Clare’s knees felt like jelly. She stumbled to the back of the ledge and collapsed against it. Sophie, completely indifferent to the appalling events that had taken place below, was simply relieved to see Clare, at last, removed from danger. She crouched next to Clare, took her hand somewhat hesitantly, and gave it a consoling lick. Clare, who was sobbing at the sight she had just witnessed, gave a weak smile through her tears and caressed Sophie behind the ears.

  ‘You’ve been loyal and brave and kind,’ she said to the monkey. ‘And if I’d followed you in the first place none of this would have happened.’

  Sophie couldn’t understand the words that were spoken, but she perfectly understood the sentiment. She came closer and gave Clare a hug. As she did so Clare gently removed the remnants of web that still stuck to the monkey’s face. After a little while Sophie got up and tugged at her once again. Clare followed the monkey, who climbed confidently up ledge after ledge towards the light, Kai clinging to her back. The ledges were worn by grooves which were damp and obviously created by rainwater entering from the top. Clare now realized that they had climbed up a watercourse which took the rain entering at the top right down into the scary cleft she had crossed. It dawned on her that this was the reason that their route had not been colonized by the spiders. The climb was tiring but not difficult or dangerous, and eventually Clare scrambled out into the glorious sunshine. After breathing in the rank miasma below Clare gratefully sucked in lungfuls of the sweet, clean mountain air. She had survived the worst experience of her entire life and emerged unscathed.

  17

  More Monkey Mail

  Cl
are looked about her and gasped at the stupendous view. She was standing on a ridge running along the top of the escarpment that separated the two valleys. The monkey was carefully cleaning the dust and insects of the cave from her baby, both of them oblivious to the breathtaking panorama. Clare was cut and bruised but she was safe, and the exhilaration of standing on that escarpment temporarily displaced from her mind the gruesome scene she had just witnessed.

  On her right, as she stood facing east, was the Valley of the Mighty Ones that she had just left, now far below. For the first time she was truly aware of the immensity of its extent and the variety and number of animals that lived within it. Vast herds of herbivores roamed across its savannah-like plains looking just like the game herds she had seen in television documentaries about East Africa. She could just make out the detail of some of the herds and see that many were composed of animals like the one that had acted as a packhorse for her and Clive.

  There were packs of wild dogs and wolves, birds like ostriches with giant beaks strutting over the plains, and giant ground sloths. Not far away from the cliff was a group of sabre-tooths around a recent kill, jackals and other scavengers prowling around waiting for their chance.

  Turning her gaze away from the stunning vista she looked north into the Valley of the Ancients and her jaw dropped. The scene was like one from Jurassic Park with herds of long-necked sauropods browsing from trees and wallowing in marshes. Pterodactyls swooped across the waters of a lake and plunged for prey into waters that teemed with strange and wonderful lifeforms. Herds of predatory dinosaurs pursued their prey across the plains and, in a tree-studded gorge, two giant tyrannosaurus-like creatures were prowling around a dinosaur larger than any she had ever seen in a book or film.