Primordia 3: The Lost World—Re-Evolution

by Greig Beck

  At the first huge hairy tree trunk, he stopped to look back and get his bearings. He tried to slow his breathing and the nausea he felt from fatigue.

  Andy could see the broken vines over the hole in the ground and for a moment something started to breach, but perhaps the sunlight made it change its mind, and nothing eventually emerged.

  He exhaled, and then doubled over and vomited. Nothing came up but yellow bile.

  “Gluck?”

  Andy opened the bag and smiled in at the tiny pterosaur.

  “Yeah, you’re right, we were nearly bug food. But we’re okay now.”

  He wiped his mouth on his forearm and turned toward the east, the direction of the plateau.

  “I damn well hope this is worth it.”

  Andy got to his feet and continued on.

  CHAPTER 38

  Full Comet Apparition

  “This is fucking madness.” Chess’ eyes were slits as he hung onto his rope as the wind exploded around them, making him twist and bounce.

  Ben checked his watch—the time distortion should happen any minute now, according to his calculations. They had started their climb half an hour ago and were all suspended at different levels of between 500 and 600 feet up from the jungle floor.

  Above them, the sky on top of the plateau was purple-black and boiling like a witch’s cauldron. Heavy rain fell, but the wind was so erratic that the drops lifted and seemed to be coming from everywhere at once and then heading upward as though being sucked up into a vacuum.

  Ben knew that the comet Primordia was reaching what was termed its perigee or maximum observable focus, as it had reached its closest point to Earth. They must continue on, and must do it now.

  “Hang on!” Ben yelled back. “It’ll soon…”

  The magnetic distortion reached its peak, and with it was generated a form of stability. The hurricane-like winds that had been roaring above the top of the plateau ceased, and the boiling clouds dropped to become a mist that moved through a primordial forest.

  “…stop,” Ben finished.

  Torrential rain still fell around them, but high above, Ben could now see an oasis of light forming. He knew that on the plateau the sunlight would be breaking through.

  But the anomaly was that it wasn’t breaking through on their world, or in their time. Where they were going was somewhere far older and far away. But only in time.

  “Climb, now!” he yelled and engaged his winch that began to drag him higher.

  Now was the time, now the season of Primordia had begun.

  PART 3—Pellucidar is but a realm of your imagination.

  “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life” ― Charles Darwin

  CHAPTER 39

  South America, Amazon, 100 Million Years Ago

  Andy had scaled to the top of a tree and lifted his head above the hair-like fronds to stare up at the plateau.

  Even though he had lived, or rather, survived, for 10 years in this time, and seen creatures living that were long just fossilized bones in a museum, it still amazed him when he saw evidence of time passing—the monolithic flat-topped mountain, or tepui, was only just beginning to have the surrounding jungle weathered down around it. Over the millions and millions of years to come, the jungle would sink, while the harder granite ‘plug’ would erode more slowly, making it seem to rise like an island into the sky. But now, it was just a slightly raised area in a vast primordial world.

  Rain had started to fall an hour or so back, but that was nothing compared to what was happening over the plateau—surrounding it was a curtain of rain, almost like a shield. It reminded him of some sort of titan’s shower stall with the splash curtain pulled around it. Overhead, the clouds were boiling and turning slowly like they were being stirred, and the constant sheets of rain made it indistinct.

  Andy grinned. “Behold the return of the great God, Primordia,” he whispered.

  Andy looked up, but there was nothing to see above, as the clouds were too thick. But he knew they wouldn’t be for much longer. Soon, when the vortex stabilized, the maelstrom would dissolve and sunshine would rule on the plateau once again.

  He smiled, wondering if someone was already on their way coming to look for him. He wondered when they arrived, what would it look like? Would they beam down and materialize from the future like they did in a Star Trek teleporter?

  His grin widened, remembering that it wasn’t that special, and in fact, it had been as simple as walking through a gossamer sheet, that had made him feel slightly flippy in the stomach for a second or two, and then he was there.

  As he watched, the cloud started to drop, creating a misted atmosphere on the plateau. It would still be dripping with humidity but he knew now that at its center, the cloudbank would break and rise.

  The oily curtain remained, but beams of light began to shine down like beacons. Andy eased back down in his treetop perch and watched for another few moments. His hand was half-mutilated, his skin was covered in scars, and his body that was once slightly pudgy was now whip thin and nothing but stringy, sunburned muscle. Hell, even his teeth hurt, not from any sort of sugary diet, but from having to, at times, eat food that was bordering on being tougher than boot leather.

  He opened his bag to let the small flying reptile out. Gluck immediately set to hopping around and chasing down bugs for a quick meal.

  “Save some for me.” He grinned and then turned about, looking back along the valley. Things hooted, squealed, and screamed out of a green world. Things that looked like thick tree trunks rose from the green ocean and at their top were explosions of spiky leaves. Medium-sized pterosaurs glided from tree to tree, some chasing insects as long as his arm that glittered on membrane wings.

  There were other massive trees that climbed into the clouds, some primitive pines, gingkoes, and redwoods, with smoke-like mist curling in and around the canopies, and he knew below them the forest highways created by eons-old animal tracks would also be shrouded in mist—perfect for an ambush, he knew from experience.

  Andy cupped his fingers into a box and brought them to his lips. He filled his lungs with the humid scent-rich air of the Late Cretaceous and blew long and carefully into his hands. It produced a long mournful bellow that traveled along the valley floor.

  He finished and waited. Sure enough, heads the size of small cars lifted on tree-trunk-thick necks from the endless green, and as he hoped, responded. They called back to him, the sauropods, the largest creatures to have ever lived on land. 120 feet from nose to tail and around 80 tons, the creatures were walking mountains.

  Andy blew into his cupped hands again, and once again, they responded. But this time, they looked toward him. He waved. What would they make of a tiny creature like me? he wondered. He was nothing to them, a bug, an anomaly out of place and out of time. And where mankind ruled for a few thousand years, these things ruled for many millions.

  He smiled as he watched them, and his chest swelled and eyes watered. This was his land, and his alone. And it was as magnificent as he imagined and hoped it to be.

  He turned back toward the plateau. Right now as the comet Primordia was overhead, everything was thrown into chaos—the atmosphere, the weather, the magnetic orientation of the Earth, and even time and space itself, as a portal or doorway to another reality was thrown open.

  He had a little over 24 hours. And at the end of that period, when the comet pulled away and the time distortion ended, the two realities went back to being ordered once again, the two worlds separated by a distance so vast it was hard to even comprehend.

  He remembered that Ben Cartwright had seen himself as being marooned here in the Late Cretaceous. But Andy never saw it that way. If his sister came to find him and try to take him home, what would he do or say to her?

  He smiled; she couldn’t take him home, because this was his home now, wasn’t it?

  Andy was torn. He had so much more to do and see in this world. It had taken him a decade, b
ut he learned how to survive in this place. He peeked over the edge of the tree canopy, looking at the growth below him.

  He made a plan: she would try and convince him to come with her. But instead, he would convince her to stay here with him. He had so much to show her. She’d love it.

  He looked down from his perch—there were broad and fleshy leaves, bulbous hanging fruits, and a mad tangle of vines, some with hooked barbs that tore at the flesh, cycads, and tongue-like ferns. And on the trunks of those titanic trees, there were brilliant red and orange fungi, like flatbread growing out from their bark, and their lower branches had what looked like strings of green pearls hanging from them.

  It was a wonderland, except in among that wildness there were the predators—big or small, they all spelled death for a soft-bodied mammal. But he knew how to avoid them. He had something the other creatures didn’t: a giant brain.

  He looked back once again at the plateau—there was another reason to go no further, turn around, and just head back into the jungle. Up on that plateau were monsters, but not just massive two-legged theropods, or flying reptiles the size of airplanes, or waterways filled with carnivores that made sharks and alligators seem like goldfish.

  Andy felt the tremble in his stomach at the memory—the monstrous snakes known as Titanoboa were creatures that were like some sort of elemental force. The entire plateau was where they thrived, and it was like a pit of vipers on a monstrous scale.

  “Gluck.” The tiny reptile hopped up on his leg, obviously now having had his fill of insects and fruit. “Don’t go there, Andy.”

  Andy smiled flatly. “I don’t really want to go.”

  “Gluck.” It cocked its pointed head. “And Helen?”

  He sighed. “I know if there’s a chance my sister is going to be there, then I should at least meet her. After all, it’d be rude not to, if she’s just come a few thousand miles and 100 million years to see me.” He pulled at his lip. “Be also good to get some supplies. Even a new knife would do.”

  He looked down at his emaciated frame. He was covered in scars, missing a couple of fingers, his skin covered in dirt and a deep tan, and he bet his long hair was filled with twigs, seeds, and all manner of debris. Andy smiled; he was a prehistoric Robinson Crusoe. Yeah, he needed some supplies. But that was all.

  “Gluck.” The tiny flying reptile turned one suspicious eye on him.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t leave you. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Gluck climbed up his leg, and then used his sharp beak to open the bag and burrow in. Andy grinned.

  “What, so I’m a kangaroo with a pouch now?”

  He looked in at the tiny bird-like thing.

  “We’ll just take a look, a quick one.” He went to close the bag but paused. “And no snoring in there—silence is the key up where we’re going.”

  Andy began to ease down the tree and felt more vulnerable every foot of the way.

  CHAPTER 40

  Still several hundred feet from the top of the plateau, Ben was the first to find and then enter the cave mouth. There had been several caves he had bypassed, but what attracted him to this one was it had dappled light falling at its rear.

  As he scrambled in, he stayed pressed in tight to one side, gun up, as the others came in behind him. He motioned to his eyes and then to the cave interior, and Chess and the mercs, plus Drake spread out. Ben waved Helen and Nicolás in behind him.

  He sniffed—there was no smell of the acrid ammonia that he remembered from the previous massive snake pits he had encountered up here, so he hoped it was a place they weren’t using for nesting.

  “Clear,” Drake said, and the word was repeated along the line by the mercenaries.

  Ben kept his gun at the ready and eased in toward the bars of light being thrown down into the cave. When further in, he took one last glance about then tilted his head to follow the beams up to the cave ceiling. He couldn’t see the sky, but at about 100 feet above them, the cave ceiling curved away to a shelf, and he bet that was the start of a chute that led to the surface.

  He squinted, and then pulled his small scope which he held to his eye—it looked weird, oily, as though underwater. There was definitely some sort of hanging layer of distortion in front of the cave shelf mouth, like two different liquid densities, one upon the other.

  Ben knew what it was—during the comet’s apparition, it threw open a doorway, and either grabbed the top of the plateau, sending it back in time, or it allowed the distant past to be brought forward to now. But though the area that the anomaly covered was the entire mountaintop, it only penetrated down 100 feet or so. Anything below that wasn’t affected.

  They’d need to pass through this veil that indicated the doorway between one time and the next.

  Drake appeared at his side and nudged his arm. “Looks like our ride—and we’ve all got tickets.”

  “Yep, so up we go,” Ben replied as he fixed another rope to the caving dart, aimed, and fired toward the jutting lip of the rock shelf over 100 feet above them. The dart sped away, taking the rope with it, and embedded with an audible clunk into the hard stone about six feet from the opening. He tested it once, before attaching it to his power winch.

  Ben turned to his friend. “Looks like the fun’s about to start.”

  Drake grinned and saluted. “After you.”

  Ben nodded, hit the retraction button, and he lifted off. He sailed upward as the group watched from below. He took it a little slow, cautious of every nook and cranny that could be used for an ambush, and then in a couple of minutes, he was at the ceiling.

  Ben hung there for a moment, just looking along the rock shelf. There was definitely light streaming in from a good-sized opening. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any of the football-sized packages that were the monstrous snake droppings.

  He looked down at all the upturned faces. “Looks okay. I’m going in.” He kicked off the wall and swung the rope to the right, picking up momentum, and then swinging back to the left, and when at full extension, reaching out to grab a horn of rock. There were good hand and foot holds, and he was able to disengage the rope and clamber up onto the lip of rock.

  Below him, Drake grabbed Ben’s rope and attached it to his winch and started to come up behind him. The others assembled, waiting their turn.

  Ben entered the cave, and then passed through the oily distortion layer. He got the familiar weird sensation in his gut, as if he was falling, and he became slightly dizzy for a few seconds. Sand grain-sized particles hung in the air as if there was no gravity, and there was also the absence of sound—he felt like he was between time and space for a moment, and he pushed on, feeling the dense air acting like a liquid, sucking at his body and slowing him down. But then he passed through it into the new cave.

  He felt his senses rush back in at him, as though he was waking from a deep sleep and as the light grew stronger, he slowed, becoming more cautious. Ben now crouch-walked holding his gun before him; the cave wasn’t huge, but more than big enough for human beings. The problem was, he knew that the massive snakes didn’t need much room, just enough to get their heads in and then it was all over for anything in front of them.

  The air was moving now, rising up and gently pulling past him. He didn’t like it as it meant his scent preceded him, and he didn’t get the return favor—anything outside the cave would know he was coming long before he could hear or smell it.

  In another few minutes, the cave angled slightly upward, and Ben climbed a narrow chimney all the way to the top, and then the light exploded before him, and with it came all the sights, sounds, and smells of the primordial world.

  Ben felt both sick to the stomach and entranced. “Pellucidar is but a realm of your imagination,” he whispered, the words of an author long gone. Edgar Rice Burroughs was a writer similar to Arthur Conan Doyle in that they both wrote of fantastic places, people, and animals, and in doing so, displayed magnificent imaginations.

  But Burroughs’ strange
world, Pellucidar, was at the center of the Earth, and given he personally had proven that Conan Doyle’s Lost World on the plateau was real, would someone one day find that hidden place far beneath the dark ice and snow of the Antarctic? He did wonder.

  Ben rested on his forearms. “Nice to see you again. Do you mind if I just visit for a while?” He half smiled. “I don’t want any trouble this time.”

  He then heard Drake talking softly to the mercs as Helen slid in beside him. Nicolás crawled up next to her, and the three of them stared out.

  “See anything?” she asked.

  “Nothing yet. And that’s the way I want it to stay.” Ben put the telescopic scope of his gun to his eye and moved it along the foliage. “Nope, nothing.”

  “We should scan some more,” she said.

  “Yeah, we should. We should scan a lot. But we need to balance caution with haste. We need to be out there, find your bother, get back, and then all get the hell out of here before the doorway closes. I am not, repeat not, staying in this place again.” He meant it.

  “I get it.” She looked out at the jungle. “It’s been 10 years; we might not even recognize him.”

  Ben chuckled. “Here’s a tip; if we see another human and it’s not one of us, odds are it’s going to be your brother.”

  “Oh yeah.” She grinned back.

  Drake and the mercs finally belly-slid up to them.

  “Holy shit.” Shawna’s mouth dropped open. “That is one weird-ass jungle.”

  Drake grunted. “You have no idea.”

  Through the curtains of mist that swirled through the underbrush, there were huge tree trunks, rod straight, and growing 150 feet into the air. At their top, just becoming visible now that the mist had fully fallen, were pompom type bunches of fronds. At their base were heavy-leafed palms with massive tongue-like leaves, a dozen feet long and five across, and ropey vines tangled everything.