Valley of Lost Time.

by Robert Turnbull Jr.

  Once the men were low enough, they simply repelled down to the ground. After a careful check around, they carefully proceeded. What they had found at ground level could be deadly to them.

  This morning had brought slightly cooler temperatures and a nasty fog that stopped them from seeing more than a few feet in any direction. Spider warned Jim to be prepared to climb or hide rather than run if something found them.

  Carefully they slid between the varied foliage and branches that blocked their path, ever aware of the silence of the jungle that surrounded them. In the dense fog, only the crushing brush and plodding steps of the giant carnivores could occasionally be heard. The crashing would stop as the giants would stop and listen for any sounds of movement, then they’d move on hoping to scare something into moving and then the chase was on. The fog worsened and the two men slowly moved along the path Spider was leading using his old manual compass his father had given him.

  Spider stopped, leaned into Jim’s ear, and softly whispered.

  “The ground is warmer ahead; I think I can see the fog lifting slightly. We might have to walk stooped for a while until it lifts all the way.” He no sooner finished and off he went with Jim close behind... Jim did not want to get separated.

  Spider carefully pushed through the dew soaked foliage. Jim was holding onto the tip of Spider’s machete scabbard that the girls had made. Fearing he might be separated, Jim kept his eyes on Spider’s feet rather than ahead of them...which he couldn’t see very far anyway. At least watching his guide’s boots, he knew he wouldn’t get lost if he lost his grip on Spider.

  Spider suddenly stopped and Jim ran into him so hard, he would have fallen if Spider hadn’t turned and caught him.

  Holding Jim with one hand, he covered Jim’s mouth with the other. He nodded to a tree barely three feet in front of him.

  Jim nodded and Spider uncovered his mouth. Jim looked at the tree as he strained to see. Fog covered several feet of ground. There was a three-foot high clearer level, then a heavy denser fog, that must have been a good twenty feet higher. Trying his best to grasp Spider’s caution, Jim took a second look in the clear area between the fog layers. In his mind he was confused; the tree was obviously very wide, and seemed to be on a slight hill, but it was far too scaly to climb and... “Scaly?”

  Jims eyes shot upward as a gentle breeze wafted through the jungle temporarily causing the fog to rise many more feet and blew away the lower ground fog. The ‘hill’ was actually the foot of a T-rex!

  Jim choked off a gasp in his throat as Spider now was pointing beyond the foot and lower leg of the T-rex. As the fog lifted a bit more, not only did Jim see the other leg, but several more legs. Jim leaned into Spider’s ear and whispered as softly as he could.

  “A herd of Rex’s? We need to get out of here, not freeze.”

  Spider leaned in and grasped Jim’s arm as he began to carefully pull Jim toward the Rex.

  “We need to get to the other side of this herd Jim. Look the fog is rising and there is the other side of the clearing... We can make it... the fog should cover most of our sounds.” Spider took Jim’s hand and placed it on his scabbard and squeezed it hard around the material.

  “Just in case the fog drops before we get to the other side...” and with that he spun and pulled Jim along as they moved at a much quicker pace. Still stooped so they could see, Spider led them through several pairs of giant feet.

  After several seconds one foot moved, then another. Soon one of the Rex’s began to pace around the clearing and Jim let go of the scabbard. The next thing Spider saw was Jim running along next to him... Jim leaned as close as he could with them both running and whispered loudly... “Look behind us.”

  Spider did to see two of the smaller T-rex feet walking in their direction. Several other pairs of feet turned toward the direction of the two men.

  “Do you think they hear us?” Jim panted as they neared the half way mark to the fire they had spotted the night before.

  “No... They are just moving around to...” Spider stopped as one giant foot landed out of the fog and so close, he barely stopped before running into it.

  Jim darted around behind the heel, as Spider quickly followed and the other foot fell next to the first. The two men darted and zigzagged around the huge pacing feet...and once, even between the giant pairs of feet. At times, they barely escaped the huge claws as the beasts stepped over head of the men without seeing them. Several times they had to dive for their lives as one T-rex would quickly change direction. There was an ear-splitting roar and a head pierced the fog and smashed into the ground as one T-rex knocked another over. The men froze...the fallen Rex blinked at the tiny beings in front of his face. On the side of his head was a scar where he had cut his face on the jagged aluminum remains of flight 1181.

  The men looked at each other and shouted in unison... “It’s Rex!” They dashed past his snapping jaws as the behemoth struggled to its feet. It thrashed around and finally got its footing. It roared and soon many heads began poking downward through the dense fog. By now the men had reached the edge of the jungle once more and with the clearing behind, slowed so they could part the varied plants without making a sound. They gave one final look back to see Rex looking directly at them. The T-rex snorted and made a strange sound as its head looked around, and once again it found the tiny creatures that had invaded his jungle. Then men both shouted...

  “RUN!”

  The Rex’s head vanished into the fog, but his feet were rapidly heading in their direction. Spider and Jim were running almost blindly at full speed, when Spider’s hand reached out and pulled Jim ninety degrees to the right. They ran ten yards and stopped...

  Behind them they could hear their old nemesis crashing through the jungle in the direction they had been heading.

  Both men were gasping for air as quietly as they could.

  “Good thing Rex is stupid and didn’t stop to look under the fog again.”

  “I’m beginning to think that mother really hates us.” Jim muttered between deep breaths.

  “Si, Rex’s are territorial... I think he gave us the cave and creek, but now we’re invading his jungle.”

  In the distance they could hear Rex crashing through the jungle. At times it was louder and then the sounds would move away in the other direction.

  “I think you’re right my friend.” Jim tried to grin, but failed. “We’ve always been too small...even for a snack.”

  There was a sudden roar and the crashing became louder. Not only louder, but closer and closer. Not chancing it had picked up their scent, the two men took one last huge breath and ran back in their original direction. If Rex had indeed got a whiff of them, hopefully it would keep on going westward until they could put some distance between them... And it worked as Rex’s sounds became more distant, the duo slowed their pace. Even in the cooler fog, it was hard to breathe and they were sweating profusely.

  After another hour the fog lifted completely and the two found themselves only a half mile from the cloud high cliffs southwest of where they had hoped Rex was not at. They found the valley took a slight curve to the southwest and realized this ‘upper’ jungle actually went much farther south than the ‘lower’ swampy areas to the west... and it widened!

  “Jim... My God this valley must go south for another fifty miles.” Spider said as he took a compass heading. The jungle that lay before them was much lower and had a downward slope to it as it lay between the mountains to either side. The one consistent thing was the clouds that covered the mountain peaks. The mountains at the barely visible far end of the valley appeared to be much steeper and in this hostile environment, impossible to chance exploring for a way out. Spider turned to say something to Jim, but instead pointed to the cliffs behind them. About a mile behind and about fifty feet up, was a wide ledge and cave. Spider pointed and saw what appeared to be a sloped path up to the ledge that was nearly a quarter mile long to where the cave was.

  “We can climb up there
and get to the cave. It’ll take us most of the day, but it looks like a good camp they’ve found.”

  “Yeah... except it’s about fifty feet off the ground and high enough for a T-rex to poke his nose in.” Jim snorted with a grin, “Damned if I want to wake up with that thing’s nose snortin’ snot down the back of my neck.” He shrugged and the two headed toward the more easily climbed jagged part of the cliff that made up the west side of this valley. Jim slowly shook his head in dismay.

  “I was hoping maybe this cave was a way down. But as this set of cliffs just separates the two valleys, I doubt it.” Spider nodded silently in agreement.

  Easily moving along the mostly clear areas at the base of the cliffs, they made good time and two hours later stood on the narrow part of the long ledge as it slightly curved around the cliff face.

  Jim sat and wiped his brow and looked at the trees that were less than fifty yards from the ledge. “Ya know old Rex could easily pop out anywhere along here...then what?”

  The long time guide and hunter grinned, “Then my friend, you’d better run faster than I do.”

  Jim laughed, “Oh the old, ‘it’ll get the slowest’ bit eh?” The color drained from Jim’s face and the smile vanished as Jim looked to the north, along the direction the ledge went. Spider slowly turned fearing Rex or some other beast had found them. To his surprise, Jim was staring at smoke! A campfire, it had to be. It was far too small to be anything else and there had been no rain, so it couldn’t be a smoldering lightning strike. That cold stare took over Jim’s face once again as he slowly got to his feet.

  “I never asked if they took any weapons.”

  “I asked Sam before he let me down.” Spider grasped Jim’s arm. “One crossbow and one machete... I don’t know how many bolts. So be careful!”

  Jim pulled away from Spider’s grip and began to walk toward the cave.

  “Doesn’t really matter.”

  As the two neared the cave, the ledge arched around at a slow curve, so they could see the opening and the shadows within. On the ledge was a small fire that was putting out smoke rather than flame.

  “Now why the hell would they do that?” Spider muttered. Jim never slowed his pace.

  After a few more steps a bolt zipped by Jim’s right arm and Spider muttered, “Now I know why the smoke.”

  “The fire doesn’t make sense; we came up after they did Spider. If they’ve been here most of the morning, they couldn’t have heard us and tried to put the fire out.” another bolt zipped by Jim’s foot and ricocheted off the ledge toward the jungle, but Jim never broke pace.

  “Christ...I can’t see in to the dark cave and the smoke...maybe they’re using the fire to draw us in?”

  “How’d they know anyone was coming? They had no way of knowing if any of us had returned from exploring the western swamp.” Spider hurried along behind Jim as they neared the cave and the ledge leveled out.

  One of the miners stepped from the shadows. He pulled back on the lever to cock the crossbow and Jim broke into a run. The miner raised the bow and dropped a bolt into the slot and with Jim still ten feet away aimed at his chest. Spider knew he had to distract the miner somehow or Jim would die.

  Spider’s machete flew by Jim’s ear and ricocheted off the stone cliff face barely a foot from the miner’s head. He flinched and the bolt shot off into the jungle as Jim lunged toward the frightened miner. Tumbling backward Jim and the miner rolled nearly to the other wall of the cave’s entrance. Jim’s fists flew and the miner covered his head in defense. The second miner sprinted out with his machete raised over his head and aimed directly at Jim’s back as he straddled and pummeled the first screaming miner.

  Just as the second miner was about to strike, he was greeted by Spider flying through the air in a tackle that would have made a football defenseman proud. He slammed into the second miner and they hit the wall of the cave and tumbled into the darkness.

  Outside, Jim and his now badly beaten opponent rolled on the wide ledge. Over the smoldering fire they fought and scattered it to the rocky ground below. Repeatedly they rolled, one moment nearly going over the ledge, the next slamming against the cliff. Jim beat the large miner, his face badly swollen and bleeding struggled to his knees and pleaded for mercy.

  “I cannot see senor...” he pleaded. Jim looked at his completely shut, purple and black, swollen eyes.

  Spider came running out of the cave.

  “I got the other one...” he stopped and stared in horror as Jim stood in front of the kneeling, badly beaten man.

  Jim turned to look at Spider and Spider’s blood ran cold. He knew what was about to happen and that he could not...would not prevent it.

  Jim turned back toward the miner, pulled his machete, and then swung it downward with so much might that when it hit the miner on his left shoulder, the machete cut downward through the man’s flesh and bone with a sickening sound. The miner went limp as the machete had completely severed his spine just below his neck and stopped mid-chest.

  Jim grasped the miner, pulled his corpse upward, and with a scream-like growl, threw it over the cliff... machete, and all. Jim turned to face Spider.

  Jim just looked at his friend expecting a strong reprimand about his murderous actions.

  “Well... there went a perfectly good machete.” Spider snorted with a dry grin.

  Jim walked toward the cave and as he passed Spider, snorted, “Now for the other mother f...”

  There was that familiar earsplitting roar and the guys turned to see good old Rex, scars and all, bursting through the trees directly across from the cave and as Jim has suspected...they were mouth high.

  Quickly they ran to the rear of the cave where the second cowering miner knelt. He looked up at the men and shouted above Rex’s sounds,

  “You fucking idiots killed the fire...the smoke... We made the smoke to keep that thing away. You fuc...”

  With one smooth swoop, Jim grasped the smaller miner’s shirt collar with one hand and the waistband of his jeans with the other and hefted him to his feet. Screaming all the way, Jim ran with the miner in his hands directly at the huge scaly face at the cave entrance.

  Rex roared at the approaching men and damned near choked as Jim threw the screaming miner into Rex’s gaping mouth.

  Rex stopped in mid-roar, chomped down and swallowed. It leaned in as far as the wide ledge would allow and cocked its head. Jim stood there a foot away from Rex’s face, its unblinking yellow eye staring at Jim. For nearly two minutes the two species stared at one another. The deadly silence broken only by the slow raspy breathing of the behemoth.

  Rex blinked, swallowed again, and removed its head from the cave. With a quick turn it lumbered off back the way it came as Jim stood there until the sounds could no longer be heard.

  Jim didn’t even flinch when Spider laid his hand on his shoulder. Spider laughed.

  “Looks like you made a friend, Jim.”

  Without looking at Spider Jim just snorted.

  “Yeah, well he’d better not come back... I’m all out of dino treats....”

  Spider squeezed Jim’s shoulder. He knew what Jim had just done to the miners, was not his nature, and soon that very same realization would hit him. Not knowing how Jim would accept what he had done, worried Spider. So he was tossed... Should they stay there for the night? Or should they begin their journey back and stay in the tree, they had camped in the night before?

  Spider looked at the position of the shadows and made up his mind... This was to be their camp for the night...regardless if Rex returned or not. The cave was deep enough to keep them from Rex’s snapping jaws...barely!

  Chapter 15.

  Darkness fell quickly as the men huddled in the rear of the cave. Jim leaned back against the cave wall and stared out into the blackness. Now and then a roar blasted through the night that caused the dauntless men to awaken with a start.

  There was no light in the shallow cave in the least, it was pitch black. No glow from the star
s, nothing. The men couldn’t tell where the cave ended and outside began.

  Sitting a scant few feet apart, neither man could see the other as Spider muttered softly. “Sounds like old Rex is looking for a mid-night snack.”

  There was only silence. Spider could hear Jim shift his weight and then he softly replied.

  “I murdered those two men Spider, murdered them in cold blood.”

  “You just did what we all wanted to do my friend.”

  Jim half chuckled, half snorted, “Chief pilot, college grad, civilized man. Hell, toss me into a wild untamed environment and I become what it took us hundreds of thousands of years to over come... the caveman that hides in all of us.” Jim shifted restlessly. There was the sound of his head bumping the cave wall behind him as he sat, and then a soft curse.

  “Christ it sure didn’t take very many weeks for me to go caveman did it?” This time Jim’s tone was a bit lighter.

  “Ahh, Jim my friend, it seems to have gotten us all. Just don’t blame yourself... Those bastards had to be taken care of...” Spider could be heard sitting up, his clothes gently scrapping the rocky wall.

  “...if you couldn’t have done it...” Spider sighed, “...I would have. Jim...they could have decided at some point in time to sneak back and kill us for the supplies.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Jim chuckled softly. “Did you see Javier’s face when he landed on Rex’s tongue?”

  Spider laughed softly as a distant roar echoed in the steamy night air.

  “Si... I think that maybe he is why Rex is screaming... Javier always did have a sour disposition.”

  There was a snort and Jim covered his mouth to muffle it. “I can’t believe that you just said that...”

  Jim was cut short by the sound of heavy footsteps that came near. Big heavy plodding steps that got louder and louder. The men could feel the vibrations in the cave walls and from outside, the sounds of rocks being crushed under heavy weight. Then there was that horrible smell of rotting flesh. A loud snort echoed throughout the cave, and then as quickly as they came, the footsteps began to diminish.