The Reluctant Warrior

by Pete B Jenkins

  “Get what?”

  “We’re not in Antarctica anymore, Rex.”

  Rex stared blankly at him. “Then where in the dickens are we?”

  “We’re inside the earth.”

  It took a while for the comment to sink in. “What are you on about? How can we be inside the earth?”

  “Do you remember that book we read years ago about Byrd’s flight over the South Pole?”

  Rex cast his mind back. “You mean the one by that crazy kook who claimed Byrd had seen a mammoth…?” he trailed off. “Only, it wasn’t crazy was it?” he said quietly.

  “No.”

  “So Byrd saw what we’re seeing now?”

  “It appears so.” Jed handed something to Rex to look at.

  “Peri Rei’s map,” Rex said, studying it with interest.

  Jed was still rummaging around in the drawer. “Yes, the ancient map that shows Antarctica free of ice. Up until now I had always thought it was nonsense. But now I know better.”

  Rex abandoned his perusal of the map. “When Antarctica, or whatever it was called back then started to freeze over the animals migrated here.”

  Jed nodded. “Here inside the earth it was free of the harsh conditions that were rapidly invading the surface of the planet.”

  Rex noisily puffed the air out from between his cheeks. “This is like something straight out of Jules Verne. I can hardly get my head around it.”

  “You’re not alone there.” Jed yanked open the second drawer, and pulling out a battered journal scanned its contents.

  Rex looked up from the old map. “What have you found there?”

  “Just from memory I seem to remember a story about the army sending fourteen hundred men to Antarctica to set up a base. Nothing more was heard from them.”

  “And you think that this is the base?”

  “I’m sure of it. This journal contains instructions on what they were to do once here, scientific experiments, mapping the terrain etcetera.”

  Rex looked around the office. “What happened to them all?”

  “I’ve no idea. But there’s something that puzzles me even more. That dead soldier told us to beware of Montrose. But Montrose was the colonel in charge of this expedition.”

  Rex’s eyes widened. “And the expedition was way back when?”

  “1947.”

  “And it’s now 2014. So Montrose couldn’t be alive anymore.”

  “Not unless he’s lived well into his nineties, and therefore hardly a threat to anyone,” Jed pointed out.

  “Could be his son,” Rex suggested.

  “I think you must be right. That dead soldier was no older than his early thirties, so it’s certain he is second or even third generation.”

  “But where can this… Montrose, be? Why would he and the others leave the base?”

  “That’s something we may never know,” Jed said. “But what we do know is he’s dangerous, as is anyone who’s with him.”

  Rex’s face had lost all expression, and Jed knew him well enough to know he was struggling with something. “What’s on your mind?”

  “I was just thinking if we’re inside the earth how can we still see the sun?”

  “I believe what we’re seeing is a central sun as opposed to the one we’re used to seeing on the planet’s surface.”

  “You mean a sun actually inside the earth? Is that even possible?”

  “It can be the only explanation. Have you noticed the difference in light intensity since we’ve been here?”

  Rex thought about it. “Now you mention it the light has been more subdued than usual, kinda mellow in fact.”

  “That’s because we’re dealing with a sun that’s thousands of times smaller than the one that shines on the surface. It doesn’t have the same harsh intensity.”

  “It’s a dull red color which I just put down to atmospheric conditions.”

  “You’re partly right,” Jed agreed. “I’ve noticed it’s surrounded by a grayish vapor which I think gives it its dull red appearance.”

  “But it’s not our sun?”

  “No.”

  “This whole business just gets stranger by the hour.”

  Jed smiled. “We’re explorers of the old school you and me. What we’ve stumbled on is a dream come true, it’s all our expeditions rolled into one.”

  “But no way of telling the outside world about it,” Rex said, morosely.

  “I guess we can’t have it both ways,” Jed said, hastily stuffing the contents of the drawers into his backpack. “Let’s see what Jonathon’s up to.”

  Jonathon emerged from a building just as they reached the centre of the compound. “Found anything of interest?” Jed called out.

  “A few cooking pots, some rifles with ammunition, and two grenades.” He stepped off the verandah. “Underneath the hangar roof there’s what’s left of two helicopters and four airplanes.”

  “It’s as if they left in a hurry,” Rex noted.

  “I think they may have been attacked,” Jonathon said. “The compound’s littered with arrowheads, and some of the outer buildings have been burned down.”

  “Arrows wouldn’t have been any defense against guns,” Rex said skeptically. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Jonathon shrugged his shoulders. “The place is deserted, so whoever attacked them must have been successful, primitive or not.”

  “It also means Montrose and his men aren’t the only ones here.” Jed bent down and picked up an arrowhead. “It’s metal,” he pronounced. “So they’re not as primitive as we first thought.”

  “Well, they’re dangerous whatever they are,” Rex stated bluntly. “We’ll have to be on our guard against them just as much as we’ll need to be against Montrose.”

  “At least now we’ve got firearms,” Jonathon said.

  Jed let the arrowhead drop from his hand. “Thank the Lord for small mercies.”

  That night they camped beneath the biggest trees that Jed had ever laid eyes on. They made the sequoia he had seen in California look like mere saplings. But then everything here looked to be bigger than on the earth’s surface. The climate seemed to be perfect, and with that central sun he suspected that it never changed all year round. With no cold or overly hot periods to check the growth of animals and vegetation it was no wonder they were so large.

  Jed remembered reading a book by a paleontologist a few years back who had discovered that the earth’s fauna and flora had been much larger than they are now. But some cataclysmic event had changed all that, and now everything up there on the surface was much smaller. He had also read in the same book that the atmosphere on the surface was once different as well. It didn’t rain; rather springs bubbled up through the earth’s surface and watered everything. The planet was shielded from the sun’s harsh rays by a thick barrier of water vapor, which no doubt created a type of greenhouse effect that caused everything to thrive. After the disaster had struck however, it had all turned to custard and the vapor barrier disappeared, allowing the sun to shine through hot and strong, upsetting the delicate balance of nature forever.

  Jed peered up at this world’s sun and noticed that it still had its vapor barrier in place. The balance of nature had not been disrupted here. Things would be different here and he must learn to expect the unexpected.

  He had to admit to himself that he had been more than a little surprised when they had discovered there were a primitive people living here. Montrose and his entourage he could understand, they had flown in. But how had the primitives got here? They couldn’t have walked in over the ice. They wouldn’t have had the modern equipment necessary to survive such a harsh trek. As it was, he and his friends had only made it here by a series of small miracles.

  Montrose was yet another puzzle. If the original Montrose and his fourteen hundred men had been given an assignment here and completed it then he could understand why the base now lay in ruins. They would have abandoned it to return back to America. But that didn’t app
ear to be the case. The base had certainly been attacked and then abandoned.

  Jed did a little mental arithmetic in his head. Judging by the decayed state of the compound and its buildings the conflict had taken place over sixty years ago, maybe longer. There was no way that the original Montrose, the one with the name plaque could still be alive, let alone active. Assuming he was at least thirty years old when he arrived here that would place him at around 97 years old. There was no doubt in Jed’s mind that it was not this Montrose that the dying soldier had warned them about. Perhaps the original Montrose had been a good man but his son or even grandson had turned bad, a renegade in a land without laws, or at least a land without the ability to enforce any laws.

  Jed had so many questions, but no way of finding the answers. Not at the moment at least anyway. But he figured the longer they were forced to exist in this land inside the earth the more of its secrets they would learn. He only hoped they would live long enough to tell the tale.

  Chapter Six

  The forest went on interminably, the trees getting bigger the deeper they went. Keeping the river just to the right of them they travelled for three days before emerging into a cleared area along the river bank. As Rex silently motioned to them to stop Jed immediately spied why. Four human bodies lay scattered on the grass of the clearing, and judging by the smell they had been dead for several days, it was with the greatest of reluctance that he walked over to investigate.

  Slipping the rifle they had salvaged from the base off his shoulder and pulling back the bolt he scanned the area in imitation of his friends. “Caucasians’,” he said, glancing down at a bloated body, “but not army personal.”

  Rex joined him while Jonathon kept an eye on the surrounding woods. “They’ve all been shot in the back of the head,” he noted, “execution style.”

  “It’ll be Montrose, no doubt.”

  “I’d say so. The trouble is I’m no longer sure whether the direction we’re travelling in is taking us away from Montrose or towards him.”

  Rex was right. Montrose could just as easily be up ahead of them as behind them. It created a dilemma. Should they press on or turn back?

  “There’s a canoe down by the river.” Jonathon had just spotted it. “It’d be easier and quicker than walking.”

  “Put’s us out in the open,” Jed pointed out.

  “Rather that than this endless forest. Our rations are low, so the sooner we can get back out in the open where we can hunt more easily the better.”

  “He’s making sense,” Rex said, uncharacteristically. It was unlike him to agree with anything Jonathon said.

  Jed looked down at the bodies. “What about them?”

  “All we can do is pile rocks over them like we did for the soldier.” Rex glanced down at the river. “There’s plenty down there.”

  Later, as they paddled down river Jed had to confess that although he hadn’t liked the idea of using the canoe they had made good time. With the current pushing them along swiftly he sensed it wouldn’t be long before they left the forest. He had no idea what was waiting for them once they did, but he was resigned to the fact that their deaths might be the ultimate outcome.

  Two days later as they emerged from the cover of the forest and paddled cautiously through the open prairie land Jed felt compelled to make a suggestion. “We’re sitting ducks out here like this. I’m for pulling into the bank and checking out the lay of the land.”

  Rex pulled his paddle out of the water and rested it across the canoe. “I’m okay with that,” he glanced over his shoulder at Jonathon, “how about you?”

  “Sounds good to me, I’ve done enough paddling these past two days to last me a lifetime.”

  Scrambling up the bank they took their first good look at the land this side of the forest. Not more than 300 yards away lay a ruined stone farmhouse with an equally dilapidated barn crumbling away beside it. Breaching the top of the bank the three men carefully made their way towards it.

  “Been abandoned as long as the airbase,” Rex said. “Maybe they had some sort of war going on that forced both sides to abandon their homes.”

  “67 years is a long time for a war to be carried on.” Jed bent down and picked up a spent cartridge. “It’s Montrose who drove these people out.”

  Rex gazed out across the fields. “I can see other buildings further ahead. But I’m willing to bet they’ll all be in a similar state.”

  Jed walked over to where he was and followed his line of sight. “Shall we keep moving?”

  “We might as well there’s nothing to keep us here, and we need to go where the game is plentiful.”

  “If we keep to the farmhouses I think we’ll be all right,” Jed said. “They’ve been derelict for so long I doubt anyone will be patrolling them.”

  Rex slung his rifle across his shoulder. “Let’s take our chances amongst the farmhouses then.”

  Every building they came to told the same story. Long deserted the decades since had worked their decaying fingers into the stone and timber dwellings, and once cultivated fields lay silently succumbing to the brush and weeds, which would eventually reclaim them for the forest that they had once been carved from. If it had not been for his gratitude for not having died a bitter death back on the ice then Jed could have wished himself not in this place. The very desolation filled him with sorrow, a sorrow he couldn’t fully understand but felt acutely nonetheless.

  Something puzzled him about these abandoned farms. There were no animals. Not even wild ones. Where were they? From what he had read, when people moved out of an area the wild creatures gradually reclaimed it for themselves. Six or more decades had passed in this place and yet not as much as a wild deer or a pig had he seen. The contrast between here and the prairie they had traversed when they first crossed over into the interior was immense. The prairie back there had been teeming with wildlife. It was certainly a mystery.

  Without them realizing, the river had meandered back towards the farmland and was snaking its way stealthily towards the path they were on. They were just breaking out of the cover of a small grove of trees when Rex who had been scouting on ahead signaled for them to take cover. Jed and Jonathon went straight to ground and wriggled through the long grass to join Rex who was peering intently at a spot down by the river.

  “Montrose’s men,” he whispered. “There’s another canoe down there and it looks like they’ve captured a couple of the natives.”

  Jed took the situation in. Two men in army uniforms were rough-handling a young woman while three others had forced a young man onto his knees. A fourth, obviously the one in charge, was shouting something at him that Jed couldn’t quite make out. Whatever it was, he obviously wasn’t getting the response from the native that he desired and so pulled a pistol from his hip holster and placed it against the man’s head.

  Jed didn’t stop to think; swinging his rifle up and pulling back the bolt he took aim and fired. The savage kick of the stock against his shoulder surprised him almost as much as the fact that the bullet found its mark. Rex and Jonathon immediately followed his lead, and three more men lay dead on the shingle bank beside the river.

  The woman’s two captors tossed her savagely aside and took cover in a group of bushes. The slightest movement attracted Jed’s attention and so firing without hesitation at it was gratified to see a khaki clad figure pitch forward and slide to a halt on the gravel. He feverishly jerked at the jammed bolt as a second figure broke cover and made a run for it. “Drop him,” he yelled, “or he’ll let Montrose know we’re here.”

  Rex didn’t need any encouragement, he took careful aim and fired, and Jed was relieved to see the fellow spin suddenly around and crash heavily to the ground. By the time the three friends had got to their feet and made their way down to the river to the native the female had joined him.

  “It’s all right,” Jed said softly, approaching the pair slowly. “We won’t harm you.”

  “They’re not likely to speak English,” R
ex warned. “So keep your eye on them, they may be armed.”

  The male looked them up and down, and Jed could tell he was intrigued by their thermal clothing. “Friends,” Jed said, “we are friends.”

  The male was tall. Jed estimated him to be around 6 foot 7, and his female companion would have been all of 6 foot 2. Jed himself at 6 foot 4 had always been considered tall, but he had the feeling that in this world where everything was big he would be lucky to be average height.

  “Are you Sky-Gods too?” the male asked.

  Jed hadn’t expected to hear himself addressed in his native tongue and so was momentarily lost for words. “No, we’re not,” he said, when he had recovered enough to find his voice.

  “You are not Noragin, nor Yakros. You must be Sky-Gods.” He hesitated. “And yet,” he cast his eyes over the bodies of his captors, “you kill the Sky-Gods.”

  “We are not Sky-Gods,” Jed repeated.

  “Then where do you come from?”

  Jed thought quickly. How could he explain to this primitive where he came from? “I…we… come from another world, a world beyond the ice.”

  “That is where our people came from,” he answered excitedly. “Have you come to take us home?”

  “No,” Jed said quickly. “We came here by accident.”

  The fellows face dropped. “So you cannot return to the place of your ancestors either.”

  “No, we can’t,” Jed confessed. “We are looking for somewhere to live where we’ll be safe from the Sky-Gods.”

  “Ah,” he nodded his head solemnly. “They are everywhere, and so are their Yakros pigs.” He had spat the name out between clenched teeth, so Jed guessed the Yakros must be in cahoots with Montrose. “You come with us, we will keep you safe.”

  Rex stepped forward. “We must bury them first.”

  The big man looked at him with disgust. “Sky-Gods don’t deserve to be buried. They are filth.”

  “We don’t want Montrose to know we’re here,” Rex explained. “So we need to hide the bodies.”