The Lost Level, page 15
It occurred to me that, although our time together had been brief, I hadn’t asked Deke for the location of the doorway which had led him from that primordial world to here. The thought had never even crossed my mind. My concerns were focused solely on rescuing Kasheena, rather than any effort to return home. Of course, even if I’d known where to find Deke’s second doorway, there was no guarantee it would still be there, nor would stepping into an alternate–reality infested with undead dinosaurs be a more preferable alternative to the world I currently inhabited.
Life in the Lost Level was terrifying and difficult, but I could tolerate the dangers and discomfort as long as Kasheena was with me. It was time to get her back, and I vowed to myself that once we’d rescued her, I would never be far from her side again.
Had I only known then what I know now.
11
SLAUGHTER ON THE SHORELINE
EVENTUALLY, WE HEARD THE SOUND of rushing water ahead of us and to the left. The Anunnaki’s trail must have gone in the same direction as the noise, because that was where Bloop led us. We emerged on the banks of a wide, fast–moving stream. The water appeared to be fairly deep. Bloop didn’t pause to sniff it, so I assumed it was normal water and not something like that strange amoeba we’d encountered before. In the middle of the stream, I saw the occasional ring left behind by fish striking at insects on the surface. A small brown snake slithered away from us, clearly frightened. Clouds of mosquitos and gnats hovered around us, buzzing incessantly, but I barely noticed. The vegetation thinned along the rocky banks, allowing us to increase our speed. We ran downstream, still moving single–file. Bloop paused less often, seemingly certain now of which direction Kasheena and her captors had gone.
Further proof that we were on the right trail occurred when we found the dead Anunnaki. The snake man lay partially on the stream bank with his legs in the water. It was clear from the position of his head that someone had broken the creature’s neck. The corpse’s armor, weapons, and gear were still attached, and its scaly skin, although cool, was still pliant and soft to the touch. Clearly, its death had been recent. It had only been armed with a short spear and a club. I left the weapons where they were, preferring my sword and dagger.
Scattered footprints in the creek mud added to the tale. One set, obviously belonging to Kasheena, headed off into the forest. Other tracks, belonging to her captors, clustered around the dead snake man before following her into the woods. I surmised that she had somehow managed to kill one of the Anunnaki and break free long enough to escape. The others had gone after her. Whether she had been recaptured or was still on the loose remained to be seen.
We were about to start off after her when a new sound rang out—the clang of steel clashing against steel. This was followed by a gunshot. While Kasheena’s trail led to our right, away from the water, the noise of battle was coming from further downstream. Bloop and I glanced at each other, and I pointed ahead of us. We ran toward the sounds, and after a short distance, emerged onto the shore of a vast, mist–enshrouded lake. The shoreline was thick with boulders, ferns, and reeds, and the water gently lapped at our feet, but we barely noticed it, gaping instead at the battle taking place a few hundred yards away from us.
We had journeyed hard, consumed with saving the princess, but as it turned out, Kasheena didn’t need saving after all. Clutching a sword with both hands, she stood facing four snake men. Four others lay dead, scattered along the shore. Anunnaki blood dripped from her blade, glistening in the sunlight. More gore was splattered across the rocks and running in rivulets from the corpses into the water. Her shoulders and breasts heaved as she took a deep breath, and the fury in her eyes was both terrible and beautiful to behold. Two of her attackers were armed with stone–tipped spears. A third had a handgun. I recognized the weapon as the .45 I’d found in John LeMay’s Jeep. The fourth snake man was unarmed. The latter ducked low, trying to charge her from the side, but Kasheena pivoted out of its way and let the creature charge past her. Amidst the confusion, she slashed at the Anunnaki armed with the pistol, severing its hand at the wrist. Both the weapon and the hand that had been holding it fell to the ground. The wounded snake man hissed, tongue protruding grotesquely, but otherwise made no sound. I had time to wonder if they screamed telepathically, as well.
“Hey,” I shouted, “how about we even the odds a bit?”
“Bloop!” my furry companion agreed.
The unarmed Anunnaki and one of the spear carriers turned in our direction. The third jabbed his weapon at Kasheena, aiming the jagged point at her abdomen. She deflected the attack with her sword and then kicked the snake man in the stomach, knocking the offender backward.
I grinned. “Serves him right for stealing my gun.”
Snarling, Bloop charged forward. I did the same, bellowing my own battle cry and hoping to distract and disorient them just a moment longer. My plan worked. Kasheena took advantage of the confusion and skewered her opponent, thrusting her sword through his chest until the tip of the blade protruded from the creature’s back. Then, before Bloop or I could reach her, she’d lopped the head off the unarmed Anunnaki.
The lone surviving Reptilian turned tail and fled, running straight for the water. Kasheena gave pursuit, and Bloop and I changed course, trying to head it off. It beat us to the water and plunged into the surf with a tremendous splash. The snake man waded out a few yards and then abruptly stopped. Waves crashed against its waist as it stood there, trembling. Instead of facing us, it stared at something in the swirling mists.
“No mercy,” Kasheena yelled. “The lake will turn red with its blood!”
Realizing there was something wrong, I skidded to a halt and tried to grab Bloop’s arm. I realized that at some point during the battle he’d recovered another sword and was now armed with two of them again. Growling, he yanked away from me. Both he and Kasheena continued running toward the lake. The snake man continued to tremble in place, seemingly paying no attention to us.
“Kasheena,” I shouted. “The waves….”
Just moments before, the water’s surface had been calm, with only small currents gently lapping at the shore. Now, it was turbulent and churning with foam, as something rose from the depths further out from shore. With a great splash, the massive form breached the surface, and Kasheena and Bloop halted. The Anunnaki dropped its spear into the water, gaping at this new terror.
The creature looked like a cross between a crab, a lobster, and a scorpion, but it was nearly the size of a full–grown elephant. Two black, beady eyes glared at us from atop reed–like stalks on its head. The monster was armed with two serrated pincers. Each of the claws were nearly six feet in length, and tinted with a red and magenta crisscross pattern, which deepened to black at the razored tips. Additional smaller legs stuck out from beneath its carapace. I noticed that its long tail was equipped with a bulbous stinger. As it surged forward, propelling its monstrous bulk through the surf, the beast’s claws rasped together, making a terrible racket.
CLICK–CLICK…CLICK–CLICK…
More of the creature’s body emerged from the lake. It reared up on its segmented back legs and swayed back and forth, studying us. Water streamed off its blood–red shell. The monster emitted a warbling sort of hiss from its beak–like mouth and then rushed forward, splashing toward the terrified Anunnaki. The serpent man turned away. Maybe he meant to retrieve his spear, or perhaps he’d simply intended to flee. Whatever the case, the lake monster was faster. It caught the snake man just as he reached the shoreline. Looming over its prey, the creature plunged that horrific stinger into the Anunnaki’s back. We watched in revulsion as the tail pulsed and throbbed, pumping some type of venom into the hapless victim. The Anunnaki thrashed helplessly, writhing in pain. His lidless, serpentine eyes rolled back into his head.
The monster clacked its claws together again, making that deafening CLICK–CLICK…CLICK–CLICK…sound. Its eye–tipped stalks tracked Kasheena as she hurried over to where Bloop and I stood, but the creature didn’t pursue us. Instead, the beast kept its prey pinned on the shore, pumping more venom into his thrashing form.
I heard a hissing sound. Seconds later, the Anunnaki’s scaly skin began to bubble and blister as if he were being microwaved from the inside. The snake man screamed soundlessly as the pustules swelled and then burst. Thrashing in agony, the Anunnaki’s forked tongue lolled as it vomited a grisly mix of blood, bile, and steaming chunks of what appeared to be its own dissolving internal organs.
“My God,” I whispered. “He’s melting.”
The wind shifted as the Anunnaki vomited again. The stench was atrocious, and my eyes watered.
Bloop closed his eyes and turned away from the horror.
Kasheena clutched my shoulder. “We should go, Aaron. It is still distracted.”
I nodded, but made no effort to follow. Instead, I merely gaped as the beast yanked its tail free from the victim’s back. Gore stained the creature’s stinger. The Anunnaki’s squirming grew weaker and spasmodic, and then ceased altogether. The snake man’s flesh smoked and sizzled, sloughing from his bones in a wet, soupy mess as the acidic venom continued to liquefy his body. Using its claws, the lake monster shoveled the glistening, still–steaming pool into its mouth with greedy, slurping sounds.
“Aaron,” Kasheena repeated, her tone more insistent. “Bloop. We need to flee! Come along.”
The monster stopped feeding at the sound of her voice and turned its attention back to us. Hissing, it slowly clambered over the rocks and waded further onto shore. I quickly surmised that despite its ponderous bulk, it was fast and calculated that we would be in reach of that deadly stinger and those snapping claws before we could hope to escape.
Bloop must have reached the same conclusion. With a savage roar, he brandished both swords and charged headlong at our attacker. He swung one of the weapons in a powerful arc, but the monster seized the blade in one claw and ripped it from Bloop’s grasp. Steel buckled and bent as it squeezed the sword. It tossed the useless weapon aside and jabbed at Bloop with its tail, but Bloop dodged the attack and slid beneath the behemoth, slashing at its insect–like legs. It seemed to have no effect on the beast.
I ran over to the corpses of the Anunnaki that Kasheena had killed and grabbed the fallen pistol, still clutched in one severed reptilian hand. Freeing the weapon, I turned back to face the monster. Bloop was no longer in sight, lost somewhere beneath its underside. Kasheena had moved to the creature’s right side and was jabbing at it with her sword. Each time it scuttled toward her, she backed up out of striking distance of its stinger and claws. The beast raised its pincers and clacked them together in frustration.
CLICK–CLICK…CLICK–CLICK…
“Kasheena,” I shouted. “Stay back!”
Standing with my feet shoulder–width apart, I extended my arms, took aim at the creature’s neck, and squeezed the trigger. The gun kicked in my hands, and my aim was true, but the bullet, like Bloop’s sword, had no effect on the armor–like carapace. The monster turned to face me, hissed, and then clicked its claws together again.
CLICK–CLICK…CLICK–CLICK….
I lined up my second shot, aiming this time for its mouth, but when I squeezed the trigger, the pistol clicked. I pulled the trigger four more times in rapid succession, but the gun was empty. Cursing the Anunnaki, I tossed the pistol aside and moved to recover my sword as the monster charged me.
“Aaron,” Kasheena screamed. “Run!”
I did just that, seizing the hilt and scurrying backward, unable to take my eyes off the doom rushing toward me. I held my sword out in front of me as if to ward the creature away, but I had little doubt it would do any good. It was like trying to fight a tank with a toothpick. The beast swiped at me with one giant claw, attempting to knock me off my feet, but I managed to avoid the blow. Seconds later, I accomplished the task for myself by tripping over a large stone jutting up from the mud behind me. I fell to the ground, and my sword slipped from my hands and clattered on the rocks. I lay there sprawled on my back as the crab–thing reared above me. A bead of noxious–looking venom dripped from the tip of its stinger. Its pincers clacked together with a maddening racket.
CLICK–CLICK…CLICK–CLICK…CLICK–CLICK…CLICK–CLICK…
I shuddered, expecting that terrible cacophony to be the last sound I ever heard.
Suddenly, the creature flailed, waving its claws as if in pain. It shrieked—a high–pitched, liquid sort of sound that made me wince. As it reared up higher on its back legs, I saw the source of its obvious distress. Bloop clung to the underside of the monster’s belly, using his hands and feet to hold tight. His tail wielded his remaining sword, which was buried up to the hilt in a groove between the shells protecting the beast’s abdomen. Bloop sawed the blade back and forth, working it deeper into the soft tissue. Black blood welled around the sword handle, and when Bloop yanked it free, the trickle became a gush.
Furious, the crab–thing dropped to the ground, trying to crush Bloop beneath its bulk. As it did, Kasheena jumped onto a boulder and then leaped atop its back. She wobbled unsteadily, desperately trying to maintain her balance on the slippery carapace as our foe thrashed and shook. Then, she sat astride it, wrapping her legs around its neck as best she could and swiping at the antennae–like eye stalks with her sword. Unlike the rest of the creature, this part of its anatomy wasn’t armored. The sword cleaved the appendages like a scythe cutting wheat. The effect was instantaneous. The beast screamed, a sound so loathsome and horrid that to this day, I still occasionally hear it in my sleep. Its frenzied and violent thrashing increased. Kasheena struggled to hang on, but the monster shook her off, throwing her as a wild bronco tosses its rider. She landed nearby, close enough to be trampled beneath its feet should it turn toward her.
Unable to tell if she was conscious or not, I screamed her name. There was no response. I grabbed my sword and sprang to my feet. As I ran toward her, I heard a cracking sound from beneath the creature. The beast gave one last squeal and then toppled to the ground—dead.
I ran to Kasheena’s side, shouting her name, certain that she was dead. My relief was overwhelming when she sat up and pushed me aside, assuring me that she was okay.
“Bloop?” she asked. “Did he—?”
From beneath the creature, we heard a muffled response. “Bloop….”
“He’s alive,” I said. “Hurry. Let’s get this thing off him.”
The two of us placed our hands beneath the creature’s carapace and tried to lift it with all our might, but the dead thing wouldn’t budge. We tried again, panting and straining until the tendons stood out in our necks and shoulders. Still, we couldn’t move the carcass.
“Bloop,” Kasheena called. “Can you hear us? Are you okay?”
There was no response.
“We need a wedge,” I gasped, wiping the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. “The tree line. Help me find a limb we can use!”
We started toward the forest, but before we’d gone three steps, we heard a cracking sound behind us. I turned, apprehensive, expecting to find the monster moving again, and indeed, it was. However, the movements were tiny, a quivering that seemed to come from the center of its mass. That was also where the noises were emanating from.
“Inside,” Kasheena whispered. “A parasite, perhaps?”
I nodded, envisioning a monstrous tapeworm bursting from the thing’s back, or perhaps a brood of young hatchlings erupting from their dead mother. The carapace began to splinter and crack. Kasheena and I stepped back, weapons at the ready. The hole widened, and a moment later, the tip of a sword blade poked through the carapace. The hole grew larger still, and something furry and covered in gore thrust its head from the wound. It was our companion, so matted with the creature’s innards that we didn’t recognize him until he spoke.
“Bloop.”
Kasheena and I rushed to the carcass while Bloop struggled to free himself. He spat and sputtered, grunting as he managed to squeeze more of his bulk through the crack in the shell. The stench wafting from inside the creature was horrific, and unfortunately, Bloop stank of it, as well. Every inch of his body was slick with gore, and his fur, normally full–bodied and luxuriant, was now greasy and stiff and pressed flat against his body. He glistened in the sunlight, wet and sticky and reeking like a slaughterhouse. Laughing, we helped him free. I’m sure all three of us were a terrible sight. Bloop plunged into the water and bathed himself as best he could, shaking like a dog when he was done. Kasheena and I washed the gore from our hands and then cleaned our wounds.
When we’d finished, I suggested we leave the area with some haste, lest another lake monster emerge. The others agreed with me. We gathered what weapons and gear we could. We were unable to find and recover any of the items they’d taken from our campsite, but we did find Kasheena’s pistol. In the end, we were each armed with a sword. Plus, I had my dagger, and Kasheena had her handgun, which contained three unfired rounds.
Exhausted, we limped into the forest, retracing our steps. I risked one glance back at the lake, but its surface was calm. Already, a few scavenger birds circled the creature’s carcass from high above. I wondered how long it would take them to strip the flesh from the lake monster and the Anunnaki, and felt a great sense of relief when the lake faded from view.
“We are not far from my village,” Kasheena promised. “The worst is behind us now.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am.”
But she was wrong.
12
THE OCTOPHANT
“SO, TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED?” I asked Kasheena as we renewed our hike. “How did they manage to capture you again?”
