The Lost Level, page 14
It is hard for me to say how far we ran. I estimate we’d gone at least two or three miles when we heard the gunshot—just a single blast and muffled by distance, but still unmistakable. That brought us both to a halt. We stood there, panting, and waited for the sound to be repeated, but no more shots were forthcoming. After a minute, Bloop started off again, and I followed, hoping he’d been able to determine which direction the shot had come from. I wondered what it had meant. Could Kasheena have managed to escape her captors and fired off a round with my pistol, or perhaps her own? It didn’t seem likely. The Anunnaki would almost have certainly bound her as before, and I had to assume our weapons would have been safely stored on their person. My mind then turned to the possibility that it had been the snake men shooting at Kasheena, perhaps as she attempted to escape. There was also the possibility that the gunshot had nothing to do with her and was simply leading us astray.
Minutes ticked by. Maybe more than minutes. I was still musing over the origin of the pistol shot, however, when we stumbled across it for ourselves.
There was a man ahead of us with his back against a tree trunk and his legs sprawled out on the ground before him. He wore dirty, torn dungarees tucked into scuffed boots and the frayed remains of a shirt. His short brown hair was slick with sweat, and he was breathing heavy, mouth hanging open. He was obviously injured, with deep puncture marks all over his chest and abdomen, along with an even more grievous gash in his right forearm. Judging by the sheer number of wounds, I guessed his injuries to be fatal.
He didn’t seem to be aware of us until we were almost upon him. When he finally saw us, the wounded man was visibly startled. I saw fear flash across his face, but he was obviously too weak to flee.
“My Lord,” he gasped.
“It’s okay,” I said, stepping in front of Bloop. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
“Did….” He paused, shuddering as he drew breath. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. His accent marked him as not only an American, but a southerner. “Did y’all come through the canyon, too? Don’t know how you…how you got past them things, but you’d better be careful. Their younger cousins are about.”
“We came from that way.” I pointed. “My name is Aaron Pace. This is my friend, Bloop.”
“He ain’t from around here,” the man said. “Reckon I’m right about that.”
“No,” I replied. “None of us are.”
The man tried to grin, but it looked more like a grimace. He licked his lips and then spoke again.
“You ain’t hallucinations, are you?”
“No, friend. We’re real enough.”
“Figured as much. Can smell you both. Just thought maybe you might be, on account of your friend there.”
“Sorry. And again, he may look scary, but I assure you, he means you no harm.”
“Y’all got any water?”
I shook my head.
“Just my luck,” he moaned. “I should have just let them lizards eat me when they got Terry and the Reverend back at the watering hole. At least then I’d have died in the water. Had me a last drink.”
I knelt beside him and studied his wounds more closely. The punctures in his chest and stomach appeared to have been made by spears or pikes, but the two in his forearm were neater and more symmetrical, like a bite. The skin around those two holes was puffy and pale, and thin red lines ran out from the punctures, creeping up and down his arm.
“Snake bite,” he muttered. “I would have beaten the sons of bitches if not for that.”
My breath caught in my throat. “What kind of snake?”
“The kind that…walks on two legs. Big as a full–grown man. Never seen anything like them in my life. Course, I reckon that’s been par for the course, last few days, what with the dead walking around eating folks and such.”
I ignored this for a moment and focused on my more pressing concern. “This snake man? There was more than one?”
He nodded, then coughed. A bubble of blood burst from his lips.
“Did they have a girl with them?”
He nodded again, and my heart began to hammer.
“Yeah,” he said. “They did. It was on account of her that I got bit in the first place. Bunch of them come marching through here just a bit ago. Had a girl with them.”
“How many?”
“Just the one girl. Pretty little thing, but fierce, I reckon.”
“No, how many snake men?”
“I make it nine. Took a shot at one, but I missed. I was down to my last bullet. Reckon if I’d had more, I could have killed them all real quick.”
I looked up at Bloop, and he tilted his head, his expression quizzical. I nodded in affirmation and held up nine fingers. Then, I turned back to the injured man.
“Which way did they go?”
He tried to raise his hand and point, but then he groaned in pain and simply nodded instead.
“That way. I reckon you know the girl. Might ease your mind to know she didn’t look hurt or nothing, least when I saw her. If anything, she looked mad enough to spit.”
“That bite on your arm looks infected,” I said. “I’m guessing poison.”
“I reckon so. They got me during the fight. I got bit by a copperhead once, a long time ago, and it felt the same way. Except this might be worse. I reckon it has to be, on account of they left me alive. Why do that, unless they knew I was poisoned and would die anyway? Just wish I wasn’t so thirsty.”
“I’m sorry. I wish we had something for you to drink.”
“That’s okay, friend. And I don’t figure either one of you for a doctor.”
“We can’t do anything for you,” I admitted. “I’d tie a tourniquet around your arm, but I’ve nothing to use. And our friend, the girl that’s with them….”
“I understand. She’s still alive. I ain’t, at least for much longer. But would you…could you stay with me until…?”
I hesitated. He was beyond our aid, and every moment we delayed meant Kasheena and the Anunnaki were farther away from us. The fact that they’d left him here to die slowly, rather than simply finishing him off indicated that they were moving quickly. If we lost their trail, we may never find her again. I couldn’t leave her resigned to that fate. But the cowboy was dying and scared and alone. I remembered the fear I’d felt upon my arrival in the Lost Level, and then, against my better judgment, I agreed to stay. I simply did not have it in me to deny companionship to someone who was dying.
“Okay. We’ll sit with you awhile.”
He must have seen something in my expression or heard the regret in my voice.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Like I said…I don’t reckon it’ll be much longer. I can feel that…stuff burning in my veins, getting closer…to my heart. If it don’t get me, the spears they stuck between my ribs surely will. Pretty sure something’s grinding together inside of me.”
“No worries.”
“Tell you what…if I take too long, y’all can finish me yourselves. Deal?”
Bloop grunted, impatient, and then swatted at a mosquito.
“Where are you from, friend?” I asked. “And what’s your name? We’ll do our best to leave a marker behind for you.”
I had already decided not to ask him when he was from. Judging by the things he’d said so far, it didn’t appear that the man knew the full extent of our circumstances or location, and I didn’t see any sense in confusing him with explanations of time travel and inter–dimensional journeys.
“My name’s Deke,” he said. “I’m originally from a little town back in West Virginia, name of Brinkley Springs. But Hogan and I…Hogan’s my partner…he and I come out here to Red Creek a little over a month ago. We’d pooled our money and bought quite a stand of timber. Planned on opening ourselves up a sawmill. But then that disease come along.”
“Disease?” It occurred to me that perhaps Deke’s coughing and wheezing had less to do with his wounds and more to do with some illness. I then became aware of just how closely I was crouched next to him.
“Hamelin’s Revenge,” he said. “You know? That disease from the Indian reservation back east?”
I shook my head.
“Well, if that don’t beat all.” Deke sighed, and more blood bubbled up from between his lips. “I must be farther from Red Creek and the canyon entrance than I thought. News travels slow out here.”
“This disease,” I gently prodded. “Is it contagious?”
“Only if you get bit by one of them dead things or get their blood or spit and such on you. Don’t you worry none, Mister Pace. I ain’t sick.”
“Tell me more about this disease.”
“Well…they say it started with rats. They overran an Indian reservation back east, but they weren’t no ordinary rats. They were dead.”
“You mean zombies?”
“I mean dead. But they still moved and bit like they were alive. They attacked the Indians, and those who got bit became sick and died. Then, just like the rats, they came back, too. And they came back hungry. Fella came straggling into Red Creek, sick from the disease. He told the town doctor all about it before he died. The Doc got some of the town bigwigs together, and while they were having a meeting about it in the back of his office, the dead man got back up and ate them. Then they came back, too. It spread through town, quick. The dead attacked the living—and not just dead people, either. No, sir. I saw dead horses, dogs, cats, coyotes and such.”
Bloop grumbled, once more signaling his impatience and confusion over our delay. I motioned at him to be patient. I don’t know if he understood me or not, but he wandered over to a nearby tree and relieved himself all over the base of the trunk. The pungent reek of urine was strong enough that both Deke and I winced.
“What is he?” Deke asked. “He like your pet or something?”
“He’s a friend. I’m not sure what his origin is, or where he comes from, but I know that I can count on him.”
“That’s…” Deke broke off into a fit of coughing. I tried to sit him up, but he waved me away. When he was finished, he resumed talking.
“That’s a good kind of friend to have. Hogan and me were like that. I didn’t know any of the other folks in our party until we escaped town together. It was me, Hogan, Leppo, the Reverend, Jorge, Terry, and Janelle. We rode off into the desert…Leppo knew the terrain, so we were letting him lead us, but he died of heatstroke on the second day. By then, the dead had picked up our trail and started chasing after us. We got tired and thirsty, but they didn’t. After a few days, they caught up to us. We rode for some hills, trying to escape a flock of dead birds. What we found was a canyon…I’ll never forget that, to be sure. The mouth of it looked just like an archway. It was the damnedest thing. Almost like somebody had made it…. We headed in and come out in the middle of a huge valley that seemed much bigger than the canyon itself. The terrain was different, too. Instead of desert or scrubland, it was a forest. And not forests like they got out here in this part of the country. No, sir. Hogan said it reminded him of the ones back in Virginia…. At first I thought it might all be a mirage, but even the air smelled different, and the trees were real enough to touch. We didn’t…think too much of it at the time, on account of we found that watering hole I mentioned earlier.”
Bloop wandered back over to us and crouched on his haunches. Deke stared at him for a moment, clearly uneasy, but then he relaxed and continued. I noticed that his voice was getting weaker.
“So, we’re in this oasis…and there’s a stream running along the valley floor. We headed on down to the watering hole, and everything was fine until they showed up.”
“The dead?”
Deke shook his head. “The lizards. Not like them snake men…these were different. Hogan said men of science call them…dinosaurs. I reckon you’ve seen them around.”
I nodded, noticing as I did that the blood flow from the wound in his arm had slowed to a trickle.
“There was four of them…ambushed us. Killed the horses and then moved on to Terry and the Reverend. That was when…the dead showed up. Coyotes…infected with Hamelin’s Revenge. They must have…followed us from the desert into the canyon. They…fought with the dinosaurs, and the lizards ate them. We got away and huddled up for the night. In the morning…we tried to find our way back to the canyon mouth, but my compass wasn’t working. Damned thing…just spun round and round, like it couldn’t find north. We headed out on foot…trying to find our way back…and then…”
He broke off again in a fit of coughing, spraying blood all over himself. I pulled away, making sure none of it had landed on me. When he leaned back against the tree again, his breathing was harsh and ragged.
“Dead dinosaur found us…ate Jorge…me and Hogan and…Janelle climbed the ridge…figured we were lost…. Hogan said we weren’t where we were supposed to be…another time…back before there were humans…said the disease must be what killed off the dinosaurs…. I didn’t…believe…went looking for the archway…found another one…looked like a door…ended up here…couldn’t find…way back….”
He stopped breathing, and I was sure he was dead. Blood flowed from his mouth and nose. Then, suddenly, he gasped, arms flailing weakly.
“Hogan and Janelle still back there…in the other place…. Somebody got to find them…. I ain’t infected…no dead here…just want to go home…find the door…home…. I…the door back….”
His breath hitched in his chest. He shuddered once and then lay still, eyes open and staring at nothing. This time, I was sure he was dead.
Bloop staggered to his feet and said, “Bloop.”
I picked up two leaves. Using them to protect my fingertips, I reached out and closed Deke’s eyes, holding them shut with my fingers until they stayed that way. Then I glanced up at my companion.
“I know you’re anxious to go. I am, too. But there’s something we need to do first. I don’t know how much you understand of what I say, but this is important. We can’t just leave him lying out to rot. First of all, he deserves better than that, and I promised him. Secondly, the place where he came from—there was a disease. He might be infected with it. He might not. But if he is, we can’t risk it getting loose here in the Lost Level.”
Bloop grunted softly, inferring some understanding from my tone if not my words. He watched as I grasped the hilt of my sword with both hands and pressed the tip of the blade against Deke’s forehead. Grimacing, I pressed with all my might, driving the sword through his skull and brain until I felt it strike the tree trunk behind him. The sounds this elicited were gruesome. Trying to ignore them, I wrenched the sword free. The blade was covered in gore. Deke’s corpse slumped to one side. Using leaves, I cleaned the blade as best I could, being careful not to get any of his blood on me.
“There,” I panted. “If he is infected, according to everything I’ve always heard about zombies, then that should keep him from coming back. Now, give me a hand.”
Moving as quickly as possible, I stretched Deke out flat on the ground and then began to fashion a cairn overtop his corpse with rocks and tree limbs. The Anunnaki had stripped him of his belongings, except for his tattered, bloodstained clothing. Bloop watched me for a moment, and then, realizing what I was doing, began to assist me. Between the two of us, we’d soon completed a decent burial. It wouldn’t protect him from a hungry Tyrannosaurus, but I was confident our efforts would deter smaller predators and scavengers. It would have to suffice, in any case. I hurriedly scratched his first name onto one of the rocks, and then I nodded at Bloop.
“Let’s go.”
“Bloop!”
We started off into the forest again in pursuit of Kasheena and her reptilian captors. It was slow going at first, until Bloop picked up their trail once more, and then we increased our speed. The brief rest we’d had while delayed by Deke had been beneficial, as we both seemed to have renewed stores of energy. My injuries from the fight with the robot still pained me, but they were more manageable now.
I ran on autopilot, trusting Bloop’s tracking abilities, and mulled over everything Deke had told us. His story fascinated me. Obviously, he’d come from not only an alternate reality, but from the past—a level where a zombie apocalypse had occurred during the days of the Old West. At some point, he and his party had wandered out of that reality and into another. He’d mentioned a rock formation that had reminded him of a doorway. A passage into the Labyrinth, most likely, but the question was where had that doorway taken them? Deke had mistakenly thought he was still in that place when Bloop and I had first found him. He’d described it as forested and populated with dinosaurs, so it was reasonable to assume that it had looked similar to the landscape here in the Lost Level. But then, at some point, he had discovered yet another doorway and gone through that alone, presumably arriving here.
My mind swam with the myriad possibilities this presented. If the zombies had followed Deke from his time to the time of the dinosaurs, could they have also followed him from there into the Lost Level? If so, what did that mean for all of us here? If there was supposedly no escape from the Lost Level, and it was a closed ecosystem, then the effect a virus such as a zombie plague would have on this environment was too terrible to consider. Every living thing here would eventually be decimated.
The thought reminded me of what I’d read in my occult studies about the Siqqusim, Elilum, and Teraphim—three races of entities led by creatures named Ob, Ab, and Api. All three groups moved from planet to planet, level to level, working in waves and completely exterminating every living thing until nothing was left. Then, after reducing that planet to a cinder, they moved on to the next world. Luckily, all three races had been confined to a realm known as the Void for millennia. But the damage they could do if they were ever freed was remarkably similar to what something like a zombie virus could do to a self–contained ecosystem like the Lost Level. I shuddered, hoping that my preparations during Deke’s makeshift burial had been enough and that nothing else infected had followed him here.
