Tales from Adventureland the Doomsday Device

by Jason Lethcoe

  Andy had just shakily risen to his knees when a deafening noise rang through the air. It was so loud that it sent the treetops trembling as if they’d been buffeted by a strong wind, and Andy staggered and retched again—not from the seawater this time, but from the sudden feeling of nausea that had come from nowhere.

  The sound wasn’t thunder.

  It was a single chime.

  It was the same sound a clock makes when striking the time, only much, much louder.

  And Andy knew, with a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, what it was. His instinct was confirmed when a second later there was a high-pitched whine, a whistle of such high frequency that it felt like his head would explode.

  And then, worst of all, a feminine voice…low and commanding, it seemed to speak directly inside his head.

  Attention, Jungle Explorers’ Society! Give me the location of your hidden artifacts and you will be spared torments that you cannot imagine. For every hour that you resist, you will be subjected to pain such as you’ve never felt before. All I ask is that you speak the words I hear and obey, and you will immediately join the ranks of the Collective. All discomfort will cease. This is your only warning.…

  And then the voice in Andy’s head went silent, as did the painful ringing. His hands were white and they trembled. He was sure that if he were to look in a mirror, his face would look very much like the first one carved into the Doomsday Device…a face filled with fear.

  But in spite of the fear he felt, Andy didn’t speak the words that the Potentate had told him to.

  Never that!

  But even as he resisted her command to speak his obedience to her, he worried about the painful tortures that would be sure to come next. If all that had happened so far was the terrible ringing in his ears, just how bad would the other things be?

  “Well, at least I have an hour before the first plague comes,” he said, trying to comfort himself. He gazed again at the overgrown path in front of him and then glanced back out over the ocean behind him. There was no sign of the Chinese junk anywhere…just a flat line of ocean.

  He was alone.

  And although he was soaked to the skin and feeling weak, he decided that he’d best go forward, because there wasn’t any time to lose.

  The Doomsday Device had been activated.

  And he had to find out what had happened to the others.

  After crossing the threshold of overhanging branches, Andy discovered that everything growing around him was so thick that it nearly blocked out all sunlight.

  There could be all kinds of man-eating snakes and who knows what else in here, he thought.

  As he fought his way forward down the path, brushing elephant ear leaves aside, he wondered if the path he was on was anywhere near the tree they sought. Had Crumb been telling the truth about this being where the tree was supposed to be located? The odds didn’t seem good. After all, Crumb had stolen his keys and planned to sell them to their enemies.

  After a very sweaty twenty minutes of tearing through the brush with his bare hands, Andy was relieved to find that he’d emerged into a clearing.

  While catching his breath, Andy noticed an unusual type of tree at the edge of the clearing. It seemed to be nothing more than a tangle of roots and vines.

  I wonder.…

  Feeling curious, Andy cautiously moved toward it. It didn’t look like a legendary tree that had been around since the beginning of time. But it did look unlike any tree he’d ever seen. He was surprised to see fruit growing among the tree’s roots.

  Oranges? he thought. Growing by the roots? How strange!

  The roots and vines seemed to be the bottom of an orange tree, with the majority of what would normally have been the branches submerged below the earth; only a few poked out, allowing the anemic oranges to ripen. Overall, the effect was uncanny. It just didn’t make sense that the familiar tree was growing upside down.

  It made Andy feel ill at ease. What was this place? It certainly was like no jungle that he’d ever been in so far. The plants were varied and different, with an assortment of species he’d never encountered during his time with the J.E.S. So strange, Andy mused.

  A sudden high-pitched scream nearly startled him out of his boots. Andy whipped around and saw, to his dismay, that he recognized the person who had screamed—and could see in an instant why she’d done so!

  Abigail Awol was wrapped in vines that writhed around her arms, torso, and neck as if they were hungry pythons.

  A carnivorous plant!

  “Hang on, Abigail! I’m coming!” shouted Andy. He reached for his Zoomwriter as he ran, filled with a mixture of fear and relief at seeing his friend. Abigail was fighting like a trapped animal, clawing and biting at the relentless vines, but for every one that she injured, a new one seemed to take its place.

  Andy scanned the base of the plant, looking for a vulnerable spot. Seeing a patch of trunk that was unprotected, he uncapped his Zoomwriter and activated the atomic pulse emitter.

  BOOOOOM!

  The shock wave that left the fountain pen sounded like a thunderclap. The plant, having never met such powerful resistance, immediately loosened its hold on Abigail and emitted a prolonged screech of pain from somewhere in its inhuman mass.

  As soon as Abigail dropped to the ground, she scuttled backward, crab-like, as fast as she could away from the terrifying plant.

  Breathing hard, she turned to Andy and gave him a fierce embrace. “I thought I was alone and everyone was dead!” she said.

  Andy hugged her back and chuckled mirthlessly. “Well, I’m not. At least not yet,” he added with a rueful grin. “Between that horrible thing and the plagues that are coming, I’m grateful for every minute I’m still breathing.”

  “Did you hear the chime?” Abigail asked.

  Andy nodded.

  “It was horrible,” she said and suppressed a shudder.

  “I know,” said Andy.

  Abigail wiped her sweaty forehead. “Have you seen any of the others since the shipwreck?”

  Andy shook his head. “When I woke up I was alone.”

  “Venomade,” said Abigail.

  “What?” asked Andy.

  “The drink Zeus gave us. I’ve been thinking about it ever since and finally recognized it. It’s a potion my father taught me to make, often used by witch doctors to subdue their patients. Powerful stuff.”

  “I’ll say,” replied Andy.

  It felt good to talk after being so anxious and alone.

  “Can you walk okay?” Andy asked, helping Abigail to her feet.

  She stood, a little wobbly at first. “I’m fine,” she replied. “But I wouldn’t be if you hadn’t come along when you did. Thanks for saving me back there.”

  “You’ve rescued me more times than I can count,” said Andy. “Come on…as much as I don’t want to, we’d better keep moving. The sooner we can find Patrick Begorra, the better!”

  Both Andy and Abigail were caught off guard when the second chime of the Doomsday Device rang. They had been walking for about an hour and had discovered a stream. When the chime sounded, they were following the trickle of fetid black water deeper into the forest. The air was thick with mosquitoes, and their incessant buzzing and biting had been so distracting that Andy had momentarily lost track of time.

  But he was jolted back into reality by the thunderous peal of the clock. It struck two times before echoing into silence.

  Andy and Abigail exchanged worried glances. Once again, the painful, high-pitched noise filled their ears as the Potentate, her voice magically transmitted via the dark artifact, echoed in their minds.

  Give me the artifacts or bear the consequences.

  The voice abruptly faded along with the terrible noise. Andy looked over at Abigail and saw that she, like himself, had been holding her hands over her ears. But because the voice was magically transmitted inside their heads, it hadn’t made a bit of difference; it was simply a reflexive action.

  Then t
he pain came.

  The first of the Doomsday Device’s curses was a searing, white-hot pain that started behind the eyes and then spread to all their extremities. Andy and Abigail screamed and fell to their knees. It felt like fire was shooting through every nerve, and Andy realized that he’d never truly felt pain before that moment.

  And as if that weren’t bad enough, it turned out that it was those very screams that attracted the predators.

  As soon as the first jolt of pain faded and Andy gasped for breath, he heard a loud rustling from somewhere behind him. Still shaking from the terrible clock’s torture, he turned and saw the biggest Bengal tiger he’d ever seen emerge from behind a large fern. It plodded toward them, its eyes an unnaturally burning crimson. To Andy, who had encountered several evil things summoned by cursed artifacts during his J.E.S. adventures, it seemed that the creature must have been created from dark magic.

  The air practically crackled with evil energy.

  “C-careful,” said Abigail in a shaky voice. “It looks hungry.”

  “Let’s back up slowly,” said Andy weakly. “Don’t stare at it directly. Cats take that as a challenge.”

  Not really knowing what else to do, they stepped slowly backward, trying as hard as they could to not let their anxiety show. The gigantic animal let out a low, threatening growl.

  “Get your pen,” said Abigail.

  “It needs to recharge. It’s not ready.”

  “We have to do something!”

  Andy felt a sinking feeling in his chest. The situation looked dire. But then, just as things looked as if they couldn’t get any worse, a great clamor arose from the trees. Glancing upward, Andy immediately wished he hadn’t.

  Dozens of gigantic apes with the same glowing red eyes leapt from the branches. Their fangs were bared and they roared a challenge as they dropped to the ground. The earth shook where they landed, and Andy and Abigail instantly knew that they were surrounded.

  So this is how we’ll die, thought Andy. Not by the Doomsday Device, but at the hands of vicious animals the size of which I’d never imagined possible!

  The circle around them began to close. Andy’s heart nearly thudded out of his chest. What do I do? What do I do?

  But it was Abigail who did something. A high note split the air, not a terrible, painful sound, but something light and wonderfully sweet. The animals stopped their advance with puzzled expressions. Andy glanced over and saw that Abigail had the birdcall juju—the parrot-shaped necklace charm that Zeus had given her—next to her ruby lips, raised high as she blew it like a whistle.

  Now we’ll find out whether it really works or not, thought Andy.

  He didn’t have to wait long. Suddenly, the air around them filled with the sound of flapping wings. Then there were voices, uniquely parroty voices, calling among them.

  “There they are, lads!” said one in an Irish accent.

  “Here, kitty, kitty!” said another in a German accent. “Nice kitty!”

  And then, flocks and flocks of multicolored tropical birds streaked from the sky, carrying tiny objects carved in the shape of pineapples in their talons.

  Andy felt his heart leap with recognition.

  “They’re from the Tiki Room!” he said excitedly. “Madame Wiki must have sent them! How did they find us… ?”

  He didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence. Soon, the ground all around them was exploding wherever the parrots dropped their pineapple-shaped cargo, the tiny artifacts detonating on impact against the soft terrain.

  Even though the apes and tiger were magically summoned creatures, the concussive explosions knocked them back on their haunches and sent them screaming back into the jungle.

  Andy and Abigail were thrown off their feet as well, but recovered quickly as the birds flew down to roost in the trees all around them.

  One particular bird, a white cockatiel, flew directly over to Andy and landed on his shoulder.

  “Hoku!” Andy said, surprised. “Am I glad to see you!”

  The bird, one Andy had met during his first adventure, nuzzled Andy’s cheek affectionately.

  “Andy needed help and Hoku came, she did. Hoku came when Andy needed help. Hoku heard the call, the special call, and Madame Wiki gave us weapons for helping, yes, she did!” The bird prattled on in her excited singsong voice. Then she spotted the birdcall juju hanging around Abigail’s neck.

  “Abigail’s juju? Not Andy’s? Abigail’s, not Andy’s?” she asked, sounding puzzled.

  Abigail grinned at her. “Yes, and I had no idea what it would do,” she confessed. She glanced down at the carved pendant with affection mixed with a little sadness. “I only wish it had more than one use.”

  “Oui!” said Pierre, a beautifully plumed parrot. “Eet eez very special—mageek! Where did you get eet?”

  “From Zeus,” replied Andy.

  “Hoku knows Zeus, Hoku knows Zeus!” the bird chirped happily. “Zeus is brother to Madame Wiki. Zeus knows many things!”

  Andy’s question was finally answered. His instincts had been right…Zeus had been on their side after all. He suddenly wondered if he’d been able to swim to safety, and if so, would he be able to make his way to Madame Wiki?

  If it hadn’t been for the juju, they would most certainly have been eaten or worse by now. Andy wished he could thank the giant for helping them.

  “Please tell Madame Wiki thank you for us,” said Andy. “You saved our lives!”

  “Hoku will!

  She nuzzled Andy’s cheek with her beak. Then, with a great rushing of wings, all the birds took off back into the air. Andy couldn’t help calling after them, shouting, “Stay! We could use your help!”

  But even as he shouted, he knew it was no good. Zeus’s words came back to him, echoing in his thoughts.

  One use!

  Except unlike when he’d spoken them before, in context the words made sense.

  Andy and Abigail set off down the trail immediately, following the winding black creek deeper into the jungle. It was the closest thing to a path that either of them could see. They were both still weak from the last attack of the Doomsday Device, but Andy could feel that he was growing steadily stronger as time ticked by.

  At least until the next chime, he thought anxiously.

  He tried to remember what he could from his scouting manual about reading the time from the position of the sun. Unfortunately, the trees were so thick that only a little weak sunlight leaked in from time to time. On the few occasions when it did, Andy glanced skyward and tried to estimate how much time they had until the next strike of the clock, but he really couldn’t tell.

  Under the circumstances, it was impossible not to feel completely on edge.

  But fortunately, for the next several minutes, they didn’t run into any more magically summoned animals. Once, they heard a loud rustle off in the distance and quickened their pace in response to it, moving as fast as they could while trying not to make a sound.

  The stream, which had been barely a trickle, eventually grew into a sluggish river. Andy and Abigail paused to look at the murky water and catch their breath.

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” said Andy.

  “I was just thinking that, too,” said Abigail. “Unfortunately for us, all our supplies went down with the ship.”

  Andy glanced around. “I wonder if there’s any fruit? There’s no shortage of trees around here.”

  “Yeah, did you notice how many different kinds there are?” said Abigail, brightening. “It’s uncanny!”

  She pointed at a large-leafed plant nearby. “Cyperus alternifolius. An umbrella plant. And there’s a Syagrus romanzoffiana, commonly known as a queen palm. Oh! And there’s a Distictis buccinatoria…a Mexican blood flower!”

  “Mexico? Seems like this jungle has plants from all over the place. Why are they all here?”

  Abigail shrugged. “Beats me. I still have no idea where we are. I’ve never seen a jungle like this on any map, an
d believe me, my father made me study my fair share of them.” She brushed a stray hair from her forehead.

  Andy was about to start looking for fruit when an earsplitting cry sounded from across the riverbank. Andy and Abigail wheeled around in time to see a big man, tattered and bloody, come hurtling out of the jungle and plunge into the river.

  “Rusty!” they both shouted in alarm, recognizing the bush pilot. The pilot spotted them, and with eyes wide as wagon wheels, he screamed two words as he swam toward them.

  “Run! Dingonek!”

  To anyone else, the word Dingonek wouldn’t have made much sense. But Andy remembered the terrible legendary creature they’d encountered before, a horrible crocodile-like thing that had been summoned with a dark magic artifact and had teeth like razors.

  And it had taken Rusty’s hand with a single bite!

  At the time, Andy had believed that it was the only one, a single creature from myth and legend. But when he saw the thing following close behind Rusty Bucketts, twice as big as he remembered, he didn’t take time to wonder how it had gotten there.

  He ran. And so did Abigail.

  Rusty splashed and spluttered to shore and quickly caught up with them, propelled by the horror of his worst nightmare. The Dingonek had taken one body part, and he certainly didn’t want it to take anything else!

  The leaves and branches slapped at Andy’s face and arms, drawing deep scratches and cuts, but he paid them no heed. He ran like hell itself was on his heels, and even still, he could hear the loud crashing behind the three of them getting louder.

  “It’s…gaining…on…us!” Abigail shouted between breaths.

  What am I doing? Andy suddenly thought. He wheeled around, stopping dead in his tracks. Abigail shot him a panicked glance.

  “Andy!”

  But he’d suddenly come to his senses. He didn’t need to run…he could fight back! He whipped his Zoomwriter from his pocket and aimed at the huge prehistoric-looking amphibious lizard that crashed through the bushes behind them. When it saw him, the Dingonek let out a ferocious roar.

  BOOOOM!

  The pen had had time to recharge, and the blast from the barrel did its work. The Dingonek hurtled backward almost fifty yards. The others stopped running and turned to watch as the great beast landed with a splash back in the river.